M Michael Prosser, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor,

1. Identity Theories, IdentityTheories; Intercultural Communication, and the Election of Barack Obama M Michael Prosser, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor, College of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University Webpage: www.michaelprosser.com Email: michaelhprosser@yahoo.com Phone: +86 21 6517 3655

2. “Mr. President”

3. Socrates’ self identification: “I am neither a citizen of Athens, nor of Greece, but of the world.”

4. Aristotle: Goal of persuasion: leading men to truth, justice, goodness, wisdom & happiness; “The good life”

5. Language is the soul of culture. • Conscious or unconscious use of verbal and nonverbal symbols to create identification and consubstantiality, • Overcoming estrangement and division, • Leading humans toward “The Good Life,” • Moving humans toward their critical role in developing culture as a means of unifying society. • Kenneth Burke

6. Marshall McLuhan’s “Global Village” vs. Rupert Murdock’s “Global City” • McLuhan: All the world has shrunk now to a global village. • Media create identification with the cultural messages. • Which media is best suited for leaders’ identification? • New media require new forms of civic discourse. • Murdock: All the world is now a global city. • More than half of the world’s population live in cities. • All major news is instaneous and global. • The world is divided between “haves” and “have nots.”

7. “The Universal Audience” • Rational men and women • Who know how to judge, critique, and test arguments through their own reasoned knowledge and lived experience, • Developing a motivated human community, • And moving toward multiculturality of purpose, • While removing incompatibilities between groups, • And identifying with one sort of rational argument over another less rational one. • Chaim Perelman, The New Rhetoric

8. Language, discourse and power • Thematic language and discourse: • Discursive formations, • The archeology of the mind and modes of inquiry, leading toward truth as relative within a culture. • The relation of power in language and discourse. • Historically, what language or discourse is allowed, banned, restricted, encouraged or discouraged? • How do people in a civil society identify or reject some concepts or ideas, as guided by their leaders or culture? • Michel Foucault

9. Emancipation and Creation of “The Good Life” • Universal model of communication required • to show how rational and irrational language and discourse • interact in creating, emancipating and identifying a “Good Life” for citizens, • And positive intercultural and multicultural discourse, • While rejecting “distorted communication” through corrupted language. • Jurgen Habermas

10. Contemporary Identity Theories • William B. Gudykunst notes and explains three intercultural theories related to identity: • identity management theory (IMT), • identity negotiation theory (INT), • and cultural identity theory (CIT).

11. The identity management theory • is based on the concept of interpersonal communication competence, • which naturally relates to intercultural communication competence (ICC). • Identity theories can provide expectations for behavior and motivate individuals’ behavior. • Cultural and relational identities can be seen as central to the identity management theory

12. Identity negotiation theory • individuals negotiate their concept of identity with their own perceptions of their multiple identities and those perceptions of others with whom they communicate. • Individuals’ resourcefulness in negotiating the identity or identities which they see for themselves and those which others see for them helps them to manage their own security-vulnerability and inclusion-differentiation. • The more secure the individuals’ positive self-identification , the greater is their own identity coherence and global self-esteem, • The greater their membership in collective esteem, the more resourceful they are when interacting with strangers, who may be positive or negative in their perceptions of the individuals under consideration.

13. The cultural identity theory • 1. the more that norms and meanings differ in discourse, the more intercultural the contact, • 2. the more individuals have intercultural communication competence, the better they are able to develop and maintain intercultural relationships, • 3. the more that cultural identities differ in the discourse, the more intercultural the contact, • 4. the more one person’s ascribed cultural identity for the other person matches the other person’s avowed cultural identity, the more the intercultural communication competence, • 5.linguistic references to cultural identity systematically have important contacts with sociocontextual factors such as participants, type of communication episodes, and topics.

14. Obama’s election strategy to create his own persona • As a self-proclaimed “very unlikely candidate” for the American presidency, with a white American mother and Kenyan father, he was forced constantly, • to create enduring and new identities for himself after charges by his opponents, • of being too inexperienced to become president, to “paling around with terrorists,” to being “other,” and therefore not a real American, to possibly being a Muslim, or an Arab, or a socialist, • of being a celebrity with no substance, • and implicitly, as an African-American and therefore a member of a co-cultural or inferior outgroup as untrustworthy to lead the United States as the first black [biracial] president.

15. McCain and Palin concede election

16. McCain changing his own identity • McCain kept trying to change his own identity from a war hero, • and living his life as a man of honor, • while promoting his “maverick” identity, • and denying his own identity as so closely linked to President Bush. • By selecting an inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate, • he muted his intended identification of Obama as too inexperienced.

17. Palin’s creation of her perceived self- and Obama’s identity unsuccessful • Selection by McCain of Palin successful with conservative base • But unsuccessful with many independents, women, minorities, and Democrats, • Who increasingly decided that she was too inexperienced to serve as Vice President, • And who disliked her negative identity attacks on Obama.

18. Obama’s minority status as identification with co-cultures • Obama remained calm, cool and unflappable, accommodating and adapting to all of the charges and changing circumstances that developed • And sucessfully used his co-cultural status to draw in large levels of electoral support by African-Americans,, white women, Latinos and Hispanics, • the young and often new voters, • and many independent and some Republican voters. • He was overwhelmingly endorsed in voting by most American minorities. • He developed also a near global self-esteem.

19. Colin Powell endorsement • The endorsement of former Secretary of State in the first Bush administration, • identifying Obama as a “transformational figure” • aided him in being conceived as a serious and outstanding candidate who was more likely to lead the US better than McCain could do.

20. Applying identity theories to Obama’s election • An eloquent speaker, expert use of language and metaphors, • nearly flawless campaign management • Positive self-identification • Creation of movement toward unity and not division • Creation and recreation of his own persona • Demonstration of high level intercultural competence • Charisma (celebrity status) • Identification with co-cultures • Reidentification of McCain as a third Bush administration • Rejection of attacks of Palin from a co-cultural group • Creation of a “universal audience”

21. Chinese papers announce Obama victory, November 5, 2008

22. Obama Victory Speech in Grant Park, Chicago to 200,000 people

23. TIME: 2008 Person of the Year • “In one of the craziest elections in American history, he overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States.”

24. President Bush dodges shoes in Iraq

25. References • Gudykunst, W.B. (2003). Intercultural communication theories. In W.B. Gudykunst, Ed. Cross-cultural and Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage • Kulich, S.J. & Prosser, M.H. (Eds.) (2007) Intercultural Perspectives on Chinese Communication. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press

26. Introduction • State the purpose of the discussion • Identify yourself

27. Topics of Discussion • State the main ideas you’ll be talking about

28. Topic One • Details about this topic • Supporting information and examples • How it relates to your audience

29. Topic Two • Details about this topic • Supporting information and examples • How it relates to your audience

30. Topic Three • Details about this topic • Supporting information and examples • How it relates to your audience

31. Real Life • Give an example or real life anecdote • Sympathize with the audience’s situation if appropriate

32. What This Means • Add a strong statement that summarizes how you feel or think about this topic • Summarize key points you want your audience to remember

33. Next Steps • Summarize any actions required of your audience • Summarize any follow up action items required of you