Cultural bias in communication science: challenges of overcoming ethnocentric paradigms in Asia

Abstract

The Americentric biases evident in communication theories cannot be ignored. Many communication theories are hampered by cultural bias, which can ultimately negate their validity. Those theories are deemed empty theories divorced from social reality in Asia. These problems are now recognized and addressed as central, field-defining problems of communication theory. Adding to communication researchers’ difficulties, however, is that there is a lack of consensus on many issues. In countering Eurocentric thinking, some Asian scholars reject Western knowledge in toto and attempt to construct theories that are exclusively Asian. This position, however, may fall into the same trap of Eurocentrism which it criticizes. Other Asian scholars have argued against the development of Asiacentric communication theories and propose to modify and adapt existing theories to suit the Chinese (or any other) context. However, this position still falls into the working within the paradigm. To escape the conditioning of Western knowledge, this article highlights the practical relevance and utility of culture-relative theorizing as an alternative discourses in commu-nication research.