Abstract

From Computer-Mediated Colonization to Culturally Aware ICT Usage and Design 185
Tone Online?
We can note that even if countries and cultures use the same language, important
cultural differences, nonetheless, manifest themselves online as well. Mary Evans
and her colleagues sought to examine whether tone on Web sites might correlate
with specific cultural variables including the Hofstede dimension of power distance
(Evans, McBride, Queen, Thayer, & Spyridakis, 2004). Their analysis included 320
university Web sites from 20 countries divided into “inner” and “outer” circles in
terms of English use, that is, countries in which English is the first language or a
second language, respectively. They focused on tone, defining formal tone as including
an emphasis on passive voice rather than active voice, and informal tone as
marked by greater use of informal punctuation and personal pronouns. Interestingly
enough, their analysis indeed shows a strong correlation between power distance
and formality, that is, high power distance countries (such as India and the Philippines)
manifest higher formality online than low power distance countries such as
the UK, Australia, and the U.S.
Designing for China
My colleagues at Trier University, Karl-Heinz Pohl (Chinese Studies) and Hans-Jürgen
Bucher (Media Studies), have undertaken extensive cross-cultural comparisons
between German and Chinese Web sites over a number of years now, including
research involving eye-tracking devices and software that show how Chinese and
German students “read” Web sites in different ways. Many of their findings help
reinforce, but also point out the limits of, Hall’s distinction between high context/low
content and low context/high content cultures.
To begin with, the Chinese Web sites Pohl and Bucher have studied are generally
more complex and more oriented towards entertainment, in keeping with what we
would expect from a high context/low content society. Bucher explains that this
complexity derives in part from the guiding principle of Chinese Web site design:
to “give the people what they want at once”:
… clearness and transparency in Chinese (yi mu liaoran) not only means, to
‘get an overview’ but also means ‘to find quickly what one is looking for’. …
In contrast to western Web sites that are characterized by a deep hierarchy and
fewer elements on each level, Chinese Web sites have a flat hierarchy with as many
elements on each level as possible. (Pohl, 2004, p. 424)
As well, as Karl-Heinz Pohl has also demonstrated, Chinese Web sites appear more
complex because of a preference for the “aesthetics of abundance” characteristic
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