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Cross-cultural Communication and Aging in the United States

• Edited by Hana Noor Al-Deen

• Price: $36.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 280
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 1st August 1997
• ISBN: 978-0-8058-2295-3

About the Book

Recently, the communication discipline has devoted increasing energy toward the study of aging, yet most of the research has insufficiently addressed a crucial factor in communicative relationships--culture. Meanwhile, cross-cultural/intercultural communication has not adequately addressed the aging process. Combining three powerful elements--communication, aging, and culture--all of which have an increasingly profound impact on today's multicultural society, this book focuses on older Americans in various communicative contexts within the framework of their cultures.

Composed of original research by experts in their respective fields, the book combines communication, aging, and culture for a unique examination of those elements in American society. Section 1 deals with perspectives in cross-cultural communication and aging. These perspectives both illustrate the issues that greatly affect the lives of our elders and suggest ways to improve their status. Section 2 showcases three American co-cultures: Hawaiian, Arab, and Mormon illustrate how language, attitudes, and mentoring can serve as the links for maintaining cross-generational continuity in multicultural society. Section 3 demonstrates that many American organizations frequently contribute to the hardships that both internal elder customers (employees) and external elder customers (residents and patients) must endure. Section 4 incorporates popular culture and aging. It presents the role of selective popular media in portraying our elders. Because Americans rely heavily on the media, their mediated perceptions can have a profound impact on their attitudes toward the older population.

Designed as a reader or supplementary text for college students in communication, gerontology, anthropology, sociology, and other related fields, this text can also be used by professionals in gerontological service areas, by libraries, and as a personal reference. It offers extensive appendices, figures, and tables for additional reference.

Table of Contents

Contents: J. Bryant, Foreword. Acknowledgments. Preface. Part I:Perspectives in Cross-Cultural Communication and Aging. L.B. Hill, L.W. Long, W.R. Cupach, Aging and the Elders From a Cross-Cultural Communication Perspective. E.J. Portnoy, Older Females As Cultural Figures in Aging. N. Mundorf, J. Bryant, W. Brownell, Aging and Infotainment Technologies: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Part II:Cross-Generational Communication and Aging. D.M. Kimoto, Pidgin to Da Max: A Bridge Toward Satisfying Cross-Generational Communication by Older Hawaiians. H.S. Noor Al-Deen, Trends in Cross-Generational Communication Among Arab Americans. P.J. Kalbfleisch, A. Anderson, Mentoring Across Generations: Culture, Family, and Mentoring Relationships. Part III:Cross-Cultural Communication and Aging Within Organizational Settings. L.W. Long, D.A. DeJoy, M. Javidi, A. Javidi, A Cultural Approach to Communication and Aging in Organizations. C.L. Grooters, L.B. Hill, P.N. Long, The Nursing Home and Retirement Community: A Cross-Cultural Communication Perspective. L.D. Shaver, The Dilemma of Oklahoma Native American Women Elders: Women's Traditional Health Roles and Bureaucratic Health Care. Part IV:Popular Culture and Aging. C.E. Tallant, Images of Older Adults in Traditional Literature. T.J. Darwin, Searching for the Fountain: Rhetorics of Aging in Contemporary Self-Help Literature. M. Cassata, B.J. Irwin, Young by Day: The Elders on Daytime Serial Drama. W.J. Hajjar, The Image of Aging in Television Advertising: An Update for the 1990s.