134 Part 1 Basic Communication Processesthe difference between describing a military battle by saying “the river ran red
with the blood of the slaughtered” versus “there were a number of casualties.”
A particularly striking example of understatement comes from the United
Kingdom and Ireland—three decades of bombings and violence by paramili-
tary groups in Northern Ireland is a period referred to simply as “the Troubles”
(Allan, 2004).
We’ve seen that communication in different cultures varies along contin-
uums in seven key ways. Yet within these broadly defined cultures, we all vary
our communication in more specific ways based on the many groups to which
we belong or with which we identify, as we see in the next section on group
affiliation.Understanding Group Affiliations
Ellen DeGeneres is an American, a woman, and a baby boomer. She is white.
She is a Californian and also a Southerner. She is a lesbian, a vegan, an animal
rights activist, and an environmentalist. She is also a successful entertainer and
very wealthy. All of these characteristics—and many others—form DeGeneres’s
unique identity. These attributes also make her a member of various groups.
Some of these groups might be formal (as expressed by her affiliations with
various animal rights groups). However, most are informal, reflecting the more
general ways in which we all group ourselves and others based on particular
characteristics. Thus, Ellen is a member of the white community, the southern
community, the wealthy community, the entertainment community, and so on.
You too have multiple aspects to your identity, including the many groups
to which you belong. Of course, some of your group memberships may be more
important to you than others, and these group affiliations powerfully shape
your communication—and affect how others communicate with and about
you. In this section, we’ll consider these facts by examining co-cultural
communication as well as social identity theory and intergroup commu-
nication.Co-Cultural Communication
As we discussed in Chapter 1, co-cultures are groups whose members
share at least some of the general culture’s system of thought and behav-
ior but have distinct characteristics or attitudes that unify them and
distinguish them from the general culture. As you saw in our example
about Ellen and as Figure 5.3 shows, ethnic heritage, race (or races), gen-
der, religion, socioeconomic status, and age form just a few of these co-cultures.
Other factors come into play as well: some co-cultures are defined by interest,
activities, opinions, or by membership in particular organizations (for example,
“I am a Republican” or “I am a foodie”).
Our communication is intrinsically tied to our co-cultural experience. For
example, a generation is a group of people who were born during a specific time
frame and whose attitudes and behavior were shaped by that time frame’s events
and social changes. Generations develop different ideas about how relationshipsIN WHICH groups can
Ellen DeGeneres claim
membership? WENN/Newscom