An Empirical Study On The Effects Of The Internet-Mediated Ethnography (IME) On Developing Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC)

Thanks to the development of communication technologies,approaches for the development of ICC have been evolving.One innovative possibility is to combine the ethnographic approach in culture learning with the Internet,which is termed in this paper as Internet-mediated ethnography(IME).This new methodology appears promising,but its effectiveness and applicability as a method for developing ICC are yet to be explored.Hence,this study aims to find out how the IME affects participants' ICC development and whether it is applicable as an ICC development approach through an empirical study.Drawing mainly from qualitative methodology framework and methods,ten pairs of participants(one Chinese,one international in each pair)were recruited to perform an Internet-mediated ethnography.Following its completion,the author collected data from the ten Chinese participants,including their reflective journals on their interaction,their final ethnographic reports,and a survey concerning their opinions on the IME,as well as conducting in-depth interviews with them.Under the guidance of ICC models by Byram,Chen and Starosta and Bennett,the author performed a content analysis on the afore-mentioned data and found out that the Internet-mediated ethnography(IME)has positive effects on participants ICC development in both cognitive and affective dimensions,and even can elicit critical awareness of the participants' own culture.The applicability of IME was proved by its effectiveness and its practical feasibility.Despite such challenges as language problem and time difference,IME is shown by this study to be both applicable and useful for the development of ICC.Intercultural scholars who are interested in the ethnographic approach and online intercultural communication should find this study useful for their future research on the intersection between online intercultural communication and development of ICC;Additionally,this study can stimulate future research on the application of the Internet-mediated ethnography(IME)in other areas.