Communication and sociology: an integrated perspective

Communication and Sociology

The two countries that will be researched in this paper are USA and China. Technology industry is constantly changing and evolving in these two countries because their industries' workforce consists of highly skilled technical works and a much larger proportion of engineers. However, USA is a Constitution-based federal republic which is located in North America and the Carribean. The official language includes English, Spanish, Indo-European, Asian and Pacific Island.

China is a male dominated society; as a result, male chauvinism is the order of the daily operations in China though women hold various positions of power in business and government. Although many women work, they are as well expected to do other duties such as child rearing, cooking, and cleaning. However, in USA, the Americans tend to value equality and work opportunities for women, even though research shows that earnings are still lower than that of men.

Assertive behaviors are viewed different in both the two countries; that is China and USA. For instance, in United States raising the middle finger is seen as highly offensive and therefore people avoid using it especially when pointing to objects or scratching their faces. However, in China pointing with the index finger is considered bad form; hence people use their whole hand or palm when pointing at the object (Culture Crossing 2014). On the other hand, eye contact in United States is viewed as a sign of respect when listening to the speaker and it is only allowed during conversation as opposed to China where eye contact is allowed only when dealing with unfamiliar elder. In China, most Chinese speak in an indirect manner. There is usually a deeper meaning of their words and sometimes what they mean is relatively to what they say. In USA Americans tend to speak in a direct informal manner. They are usually polite and friendly. In both, verbal is the most preferred means of communication. Both tend to hold meetings because meetings do not tend to last that long as the focus is on accomplishing the task at hand and moving on to the next one (Culture Crossing 2014).

Discussion 2: Sociology

Racism continues to be an enormous problem that is still facing the United States. Research has shown that racism has recently reduced in U.S. since the days of Civil Right Movement; however it remains one of the biggest problems facing the Americans. For instance, many examples shows how racism remains today such as, the America calling President Obama as a "Kenyan." The racism seen today is seen to be much different with the racism that Du Bois witnessed a hundred years ago. Today, racism in society is fierce as it was many years ago, although the difference is that, people tend to hide it better. Most societies have become more tolerant of different races, and therefore this is an evidence to show that racism has not gone anywhere.