Revisiting Culture: A Review of a Neglected Dimension in Media Psychology

Culture is an important dimension to consider in media psychological scholarship, though to date little media psychological research exists that takes culture into account. This paper systematically reviews existing studies of the relationship between culture and media uses/processes/effects and identifies six fields of research: uses and gratifications, social identity, acculturation, diaspora communication, cross- and intercultural communication, and international media markets. The majority of this research is fragmented to the extent that separate approaches and findings of the two pillar disciplines of media psychology (psychology and communication) are not integrated: the social identity and acculturation literature approaches the relationship between culture, media uses/processes/effects from an exclusively psychological angle, using predominantly psychological theories and quantitative methods. Diaspora communication, inter-and cross-cultural communication, and international media markets research is dominated by communication theories and qualitative methods. A theoretical model is presented that integrates concepts of culture into media psychological scholarship on both a supra-individual macro-level (drawing on constructs such as individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance) and an individual micro-level (drawing on constructs such as social identity, self-construals, values, and beliefs).