High Context vs. Low Context Political Messages and Audience Preference

Abstract

Research has shown that the differences in Eastern and Western communication styles may affect political messages and diplomatic relations. The difference in these communication styles includes the context, such as high context (Eastern style) where the burden of making the message understandable is placed on the person listening to the speaker(s), and low context (Western style) where this burden is placed on the speakers themselves and the way the communicator relates to others. To see if there is an audience preference as to which style is used in political messages, videos were created and were shown to participants in this research study. These videos contained examples of both Eastern and Western styles of communication. Two messages were recorded using an actor delivering the same message in each style and were then played to determine which style the audience(s) liked better. Because the Eastern style was more involved, it was the preferred style, however, because of this study’s limitations more research should be done.