1. High- and Low-context
cultures in electronic
communications and
websites
(Research based on websites in the tourism sector)
Jane Jovanov, M.A.

2. The Theory
 A few decades ago, the famous linguist Edward Hall proposed the theory of
"High and Low-context cultures"

3. Edward T. Hall
 Born in 1914, passed away in 2009
 American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher
 During the 1950s he worked for the United States State Department, at
the Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
 He teached inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service
personnel
 Developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context
culture“
 He is considered a founding father of intercultural communication as an
academic area of study
 Beyond Culture (1976)

4. Introduction
 Each communication process has unique characteristics in each society
 Those characteristics give every person a special "trace" in society, a specific
behavior and a specific kind of style in different situations
 Each person reflects his values during the communication process, as well as his
approach to building relationships with other people
 The character of each person determines the style of communication, i.e.
individual characteristics are determinant of whether the speech of a certain
man will be reserved, open, nervous, short or long
 The significance of the (style of) communication is quite simple - it is a necessary
tool to perform successful communicative acts, to create relationship with the
communicators, to choose different ways to solve problems

5. Introduction
 The effectiveness of cross-cultural communication in the modern world
depends on the level of utilization of all its components, the most
significant of which is the communication style
 Styles of communication differ in different cultures. The most commonly
distinguished four types of verbal communication styles are:
- Direct and indirect style;
- Correct, "tight";
- Personal and situational;
- High context vs. low context.

6. High- and low-context cultures
 Edward Hall believes that knowing the characteristics of
high- and low-context cultures is a key aspect for a
successful conduct of communicative acts
 The name of the theory itself tells that the most important
factor in his theory is the context
 The context is an extension of the background, the system
and circumstances in which there is an ongoing
communicative act

7. High-context cultures
 High-context cultures represent relational, collectivist, intuitive cultures, meaning
that people are part of these cultures have their primary focus on the
relationship between people
 Creating confidence is one of the most important steps to achieve any
successful communication, or to have a success in the case of the business
world
 High-context cultures, according to Hall, require group compliance
 Rationality plays a far smaller role.
 Context plays a dominant role, as opposed to words
 Facial expressions, behavior, the way you stand, sit, talk etc. are “saying” far
more in these cultures than many communicative acts with the representatives
of these cultures.
 Language is "decorated" with expressions that are considered redundant in
everyday speech, and apologies are often encountered.

8. Low-context cultures
 Low-context cultures give priority to individuality, readiness for action,
continuity and logics
 This means that representatives of these cultures prefer facts, logic and
directness
 Resolving problems in low-context cultures is done through exposure of
facts and evaluation. Decisions in these cultures are based on facts, not
on arbitrary piling of "facts"
 In low-context cultures all communicative interactions end with a
completed work and the participants in the conversation are direct and
precise, their discourse is not rich with linguistic redundancies
 Business circles prefer this kind of communication because documents
contain no excessive meaning and linguistic labyrinths that "blur" the
meaning of the content.

10. High-context cultures Low-context cultures
African states, Arab world,
Brazil, China, The Philippines,
Finland, Greece, Hungary,
India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin
America, Portugal, Russia,
Spain, Thailand, Turkey,
Macedonia...
USA, Australia, Canada,
Germany, Ireland, New
Zealand, Sweden, Norway

11.  According to the Hall’s theory, in the event of a conflict
between high-context and low-context cultures,
representatives of high-context cultures do not confront,
they use a vague language that is not direct, and it is
assumed that participants in the conversation should
understand the importance from context itself.
 On the other hand, representatives of low-context cultures
are direct; they use logics and rationality in the discussion, or
use objective truth as a way to get to the truth in a linear
way. In contrast, high-context cultures neglect rationality
and rely on non-linear processes in order to get to the truth.

12. Geert Hofstede’s theory
 Geert Hofstede in 1980 offered an alternative to the Hall’s theory of
high- and low-context cultures
 He proposed the theory of "collectivist and individualist cultures," which
is largely compatible with Hall’s theory
 The essence of this theory is this: high-context cultures are collectivist
cultures, while low-context cultures are individualistic
 The attitude towards people in high-context cultures is often determined
by societies’ opinion of the subject’s family, while personal
achievements play a smaller role
 Low-context cultures are individualistic, appreciate the achievements of
the individual, society expects them to be independent, to take care of
themselves and not depend on the help of others

13. Web pages, business and culture
 According to the abovementioned theory from Hall and Hofstede, we
can say that high-context cultures to a greater extent use tools aimed to
attract more visitors to websites
 Because high-context cultures deal mostly with context, we can say
that the use of images, sounds, animations will be represented to a
greater extent than in a low-context cultures
 Opposite from high-context cultures, low-context cultures are expected
to produce websites that contain more text and less animations,
pictures and effects, sites that puts greater emphasis on practical
delivering of any information.
 High-context cultures are expected to use aesthetics in the creation of
websites, while low-context cultures endorse practicality.

14. Web pages, business and culture
 Because high-context cultures direct their emphasis on
collectivistic values - family and morality, we can expect the
contents of web pages, which are created in these
countries, to have more images of families, children, groups
etc.
 On the other hand, low-context culture are individualistic by
nature, so we expect these cultures to create websites that
are simplified, sites that display situations that are
characteristic of the individual (the display of daily situations
that are not burdened by family groups or areas).

15. Web pages, business and culture
 In order to present the differences between the high-context and low-
context cultures and their impact on the creation of websites, we will
compare the websites of several countries, including USA, Germany,
Czech Republic, Macedonia and Russia
 The first two countries are classified as low-context, Czech is considered
a medium-context culture, while Macedonia and Russia are high-
context cultures
 The reason for choosing these five countries is simple - the first two
countries are classified as LC cultures, countries that do not need a
certain background and context in communication. The last two
(Macedonia and Russia) are taken as examples of countries whose
cultures are classified as HC.
 In the middle is the Czech Republic, which is considered a medium-
context culture

16. Web pages from USA

17. Web pages from USA

18. Web pages from USA
 Websites "Atlas Cruises & Tours" and "Liberty Travel" from the US are
beautiful examples that reflect the low-context culture of this country
 Their design is simple, they contain no animations, have a display of
photographs of the destinations they offer with almost no or some
people on them, which underlines the individualist nature of the LC
culture
 Most of the information on these two websites from USA is directly
contained on their main pages, and any additional links on them lead
to more detailed information about the offers provided on the main
website
 Another feature of these pages is "enjoyment" and "dream" - as the
main message of the websites. Comparing LC and HC cultures, LC
cultures are prone to show individual enjoyment and present the joys in
life. "Enjoy your dream vacation in Europe" and "Do not just dream it, live
it" is a classic example for that

19. Web pages from Germany

20. Web pages from Germany

21. Web pages from Germany
 Web pages from Germany present a similar approach as the web
pages in the United States
 Besides the simplicity of the messages and the offers, there is no
excessive graphic load, all information is contained in the boxes with
pictures and explanations for each destination, and clicking on any of
them leads to more detailed information on each destination.
 There is no noticeable presence of animations. The photos on the web
pages underline the individuality and hedonism, which are traits of low-
context cultures. The first example shows a girl resting in the pool, and
right next to her a suitcase is shown, which alludes to the journey that
offers vacation without additional stress and excess people

22. Web pages from the Czech Republic

23. Web pages fromthe Czech Republic

24. Web pages from the Czech Republic
 Unlike the websites of the previous two countries, the US and Germany,
the websites from the Czech Republic contain animations, although, not
too much as to create a "burdened experience"
 In addition, there is a greater presence of sliding windows that can be
used to search suitable travel arrangements. As with websites in
Germany and the United States, we can see only one or two people on
the pictures
 Czech Republic is classified as middle-context culture, and these
webpages beautifully illustrate that fact

25. Web pages from Russia

26. Web pages from Russia

27. Web pages from Russia
 Web pages of tour operators from Russia present a stark contrast from
the previous examples
 One can immediately notice that searching and simple orientation in
the contents of the web page is much more complicated; there is a
different approach in search of desired destinations and arrangements;
small amount of information is contained on the main page, there are
number of flash animations, and even online help in a different window.
 Russian pages have a number of fields for detailed search, which
hampers with the experience on the web page and increases the spent
time on them

28. Web pages from Macedonia

29. Web pages from Macedonia

30. Web paged from Macedonia
 Web pages of travel agencies from Macedonia show features that can
be found in high-context cultures
 Almost all web pages in Macedonia contain Flash animations and
numerous multimedia and photos
 Information is not always available on the main page – it is necessary to
click on the contents of the main page in order to get the required
information
 As it can be seen on the web pages, there are numerous examples
where a group of people is shown on the pictures (a feature of high-
context cultures).
 There is very little amounts of text on the main web pages, but that
rapidly changes once the web user goes deeper in the content.

31. Conclusion
 Through the displayed selection of web pages from five countries (USA,
Germany, Czech Republic, Russia and Macedonia) in the field of tourism, one
can notice the difference in the appearance, characteristic for high-context
and low-context cultures
 Theories of Edward Hall and Hofstede confirm the hypothesis that culture affects
the way certain countries use language and create web pages
 This study considered web pages that offer services only to citizens of the
respective countries; the number of languages in which a certain web page is
translated was not considered
 This review demonstrates that web pages from US and Germany have far
simpler structure, they are not burdened with multimedia effects, information is
generally visible on the main page; pages from the Czech Republic showed
increased presence of animations and windows with additional parameters,
while pages from Russia and Macedonia offer a completely different approach,
typical of high-context cultures (multimedia animations, groups of people and a
small amounts of text).

33. Thank you for
your attention