{"id":184,"date":"2025-11-26T21:53:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T02:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/?post_type=part&#038;p=184"},"modified":"2025-12-03T17:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T22:07:51","slug":"introduction","status":"publish","type":"part","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/part\/introduction\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction &amp; background","rendered":"Introduction &amp; background"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_557\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\"]<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-557\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-225x300.png\" alt=\"Image shows a human hand with light brown skin reaching toward a glowing digital wireframe globe with continents outlined and connected by nodes and lines, above a subtle stylized city skyline on the distant horizon. Everything is in shades of blue, conveying themes of digital, communication, connection, and global.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/> <em><strong>Image created using ChatGPT 5.1, November 29, 2025<\/strong><\/em>[\/caption]\r\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">What can research and theory tell us about culture and communication in digital spaces? What happens when people from different cultural backgrounds try to communicate using digital technologies? What challenges do they face? How do the special challenges of [pb_glossary id=\"413\"]intercultural communication[\/pb_glossary] in digital environments affect teaching and learning? Which theories of culture or of communication can help us understand communication dynamics in digital spaces? How might digital environments (and especially digital learning environments), be better designed to facilitate human communications? How is global digital communication driving social, political and cultural change? Do digital communication technologies represent opportunities or threats to human cultures?<\/p>\r\nThis review offers a roadmap and thematic analysis of literature from 2003-2023 presented at <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcultures.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/digitalcultures.ca<\/a>. In it, we consider what research is telling us about whether digital communication technologies represent new opportunities, new threats, or both, for human cultures.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_557\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-557\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-557\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-225x300.png\" alt=\"Image shows a human hand with light brown skin reaching toward a glowing digital wireframe globe with continents outlined and connected by nodes and lines, above a subtle stylized city skyline on the distant horizon. Everything is in shades of blue, conveying themes of digital, communication, connection, and global.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-225x300.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-768x1024.png 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-65x87.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29-350x467.png 350w, https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2555\/2025\/12\/New-cover-Nov-29.png 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-557\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Image created using ChatGPT 5.1, November 29, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"import-Normal\">What can research and theory tell us about culture and communication in digital spaces? What happens when people from different cultural backgrounds try to communicate using digital technologies? What challenges do they face? How do the special challenges of <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_184_413\">intercultural communication<\/a> in digital environments affect teaching and learning? Which theories of culture or of communication can help us understand communication dynamics in digital spaces? How might digital environments (and especially digital learning environments), be better designed to facilitate human communications? How is global digital communication driving social, political and cultural change? Do digital communication technologies represent opportunities or threats to human cultures?<\/p>\n<p>This review offers a roadmap and thematic analysis of literature from 2003-2023 presented at <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcultures.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/digitalcultures.ca<\/a>. In it, we consider what research is telling us about whether digital communication technologies represent new opportunities, new threats, or both, for human cultures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_184_413\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_184_413\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>Communication between people from different cultural backgrounds, where cultural differences may affect meaning.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"pb_part_invisible":false,"pb_part_invisible_string":""},"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-184","part","type-part","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/part"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":558,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/184\/revisions\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/ccdw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}