Cross-Cultural Blog

I really enjoyed today’s conference with the students form Uppsala University in Sweden. I was very impressed with their knowledge on the presidential campaign and election and was excited to hear their point of view. When we talked about the rhetoric used in political cartoons in Sweden versus those in the United States I was very surprised to discover that Sweden is very liberal and most of their cartoons are one-sided while in the US we tend to criticize both sides. Emma and Joakim told us that Europe will lose hope with America if McCain is elected, they need a change in order to believe in America’s abilities as a nation.
I would love to discuss further why Sweden is so one-sided in their opinions on politics. Is it a cultural factor that there is no opposition or opponent voice on the matter? Who is not a liberal in Sweden? Is their voice even heard?
It is very clear that there's only one choice in Sweden and that was Obama, our fellow group members from Uppsala made that apparent by the cartoon they drew. Both the students had very similar ideas on the matter and it turns out that this was the exact same view of the majority of the country.
Some improvements would probably be to discuss our observations a little bit more with the entire group and make new conclusions from that.

Overall, I had a great time and can’t wait to do it again soon!

I really enjoyed my conversation this morning with Samara, Lotta, and Robert. As I have never seen any press/media regarding elections or politics in Sweden, it initially seemed strange that news of the US elections would cross over into Swedish political cartoons. However, as we discussed in our conference, the results of this election have global effects.
Samara and I chose the “It will all be over by Tuesday” cartoon while Lotta and Robert picked the “Who should I trust?” cartoon. It was really interesting to discuss the issues depicted, the primary message, the uses of ethos/pathos/logos, and how the image reflects political culture.
Samara and I talked about the irony of the candidates trying to win votes by bombarding/attacking Americans with propaganda. The cartoon we chose shows the home (a very personal space) of what we assumed was a retired couple in Florida (a possible swing state) being flooded with television ads, phone calls, newspaper ads, and door-by-door campaigners.
The cartoon that Lotta and Robert chose reflected Swedish political culture. They spoke about how, in Sweden, it is more about the political party than the actual candidate. Thus, the fact that only the arms of the candidates are shown is very telling of the culture. In comparison, the equivalent American cartoon would probably show the full figures of the candidates and portray caricatures of them.
Overall, I had a really good time and found our conversation very interesting. It would have been nice to talk about something having to do with Swedish news as I felt slightly guilty speaking only about American issues (although, yes, we did talk about Swedish culture). I look forward to the next video conference!

I throughly enjoyed our videoconferencing today with Peter, Asa, and Maria from Uppsala University in Sweden. Cross-culturally I was surprised at the knowledge of our peers surrounding our American election. It seems that everyone understands the global implications of the presidential election tomorrow. The most memorable part of our dialogue today was probably our discussion of the political cartoons in Sweden (we discussed one featuring Vladimir Putin), and how they often could be applicable to the entire Western World, whereas American political cartoons often depict issues relevant to only America. I wish we could have continued to discuss cultural values in the two countries, and if Sweden is feeling any affects of the globalization trend. For next time, I think we should put a greater emphasis on staying on schedule so we can have a little bit longer to share our discussions with the larger group in our virtual lounge. Over all, I have loved these conferences, and I look forward to the next one!

I throughly enjoyed our videoconferencing today with Peter, Asa, and Maria from Uppsala University in Sweden. Cross-culturally I was surprised at the knowledge of our peers surrounding our American election. It seems that everyone understands the global implications of the presidential election tomorrow. The most memorable part of our dialogue today was probably our discussion of the political cartoons in Sweden (we discussed one featuring Vladimir Putin), and how they often could be applicable to the entire Western World, whereas American political cartoons often depict issues relevant to only America. I wish we could have continued to discuss cultural values in the two countries, and if Sweden is feeling any affects of the globalization trend. For next time, I think we should put a greater emphasis on staying on schedule so we can have a little bit longer to share our discussions with the larger group in our virtual lounge. Over all, I have loved these conferences, and I look forward to the next one!

Talking to students from Uppsala really opened my eyes to how much we Americans believe everything revolves around us. After conversing with them for the first five minutes, I was amazed about how much they knew about our election. It seems as if they knew more about our election than they did about their home country politics. It is true that the results of this election shall have huge implications across the world, but I suppose this fact never struck me until I had this experience with foreigners. It was also interesting to discover the little rhetorical aspects of a political ad that suggest so much in Sweden. For example, in regards to side by side comparisons, it is common to associate with the object on the left as "evil." This fact became evident when the Uppsala students remarked on McCain being "evil" because he was placed on the left side of Barrack Obama in an Apple Macintosh/Election political cartoon. Overall, this was a very rewarding experience that made me become aware about the world around America. In a way, it has made me respect this country more than I have in the past.

Technology is amazing, what a great way to learn about the importance of cultural values, political rhetoric and humor as a medium for interpreting current events.

Here in Australia we have been following the presedential election closely, given our history of black and white Australians.

It's a great day for the Earth when the conceptual divides between groups of people are broken down.

Video conferencing with Sweden was fantastic. We learned that the rhetoric of Swedish cartoons was more dirent and blunt, without really explicity stating anything with words. They do not sugarcoat, and are not afraid to portray America in an unflattering light. The most memorable thing to me would have to be a political cartoon in which Uncle Sam is strung out, lying on the street, an oil addict. You would just not see that kind of thing in America. The video conference gave me insights as to how the rest of the world is following the
US election; for example, they said Sweden almost unanimously supports Obama, along with the rest of Europe. Furthermore, they said that if the U.S. were to "crash," the rest of the world would subsequently go along with it. I had not heard these ideas expressed before. I wish we could have continued to discuss the politics of Sweden; for example, they have multiple political parties and lean much more to the left (they would consider our liberals to be conservatives in their country). For next time, I think debating or discussing a point of contention between foreign policies would be beneficial, because in America we hear the praises of our political system quite often, yet we do not often hear about alternative modes of government.

I was in a group with Susan, Jason, Emma and Joakim. I really enjoyed talking to all of them about the election and like Susan, I was in awe by the fact that Emma and Joakim were so knowledgeable of the US election. I especially enjoyed watching Susan, Emma, and Joakim draw their own policital cartoons right on the computer screen... they were awesome! Now that the election is over, I'd like to get together with everyone to discuss the results and see how Sweden is portraying the results of the event through images and what Sweden's overall expectations of Obama and his presidency are.

The conversation I had with Katherine, Lotta, and Robert based on our two political cartoons highlighted interesting differences between Swedish and American politics. The most memorable of these differences was the way that our two countries view political parties. Here in the US, there is more of a focus on the individual leading the party while in Sweden the focus is on the party as a whole. Additionally, I learned that Sweden has a multiple party system based on a spectrum in which the more conservative and more liberal parties tend to group together.

Both of the cartoons relied mainly on ethos to depict the 2008 election: The American ad centered around the fear and feeling of being overwhelmed of those in swing states (Florida in particular) who are constantly bombarded with advertisements and propaganda encouraging them to support a particular party. The Swedish cartoon depicted fear to a greater extent, focusing on the fact that, regardless of who is elected, it is that candidate's duty to save the country from decline.

Although our conversation was comprehensive, I wish we could have further discussed political issues particularly relevant to Sweden.

We had a very interesting conversation with the students from Sweden. This time, it was more of a two-sided, engaged conversation, as opposed to answering separate questions of our own. I learned how involved students from around the world are with U.S. politics. It was interesting to compare the visual rhetoric of the U.S. to that of Sweden and analyze the similar issues that they addressed. I particularly enjoyed our conversation about the stereotypes of each country, and how true these might be.

I really enjoyed speaking with our Swedish peers yesterday! I was very impressed by their passion and knowledge regarding the U.S. election. It is interesting to see how ivolved the rest of the world is in this election...it really shows how the happenings in one country affect the rest of the world. One of the things that we focused on was how Swedish and American political cartoons portrayed the United States differently. It seems that the Swedish cartoons did not hesitate to view the U.S. in a negative light. The American cartoons, on the other hand, seemed to have all their messages and crtiticisms of the U.S. sugar coated. Another thing that was really fun for us was the "getting to know each other" portion. Cata, Kanoa, and I each learnt a little bit of Swedish!!

One thing that I can suggest is a shortened list of tasks. It is really easy to get carried away with one topic thus making it dificult to complete everything!!

Swedish students are the best!!

I really loved learning about how the visual rhetoric of the 2008 US election is informed by the unique political systems of the US and Sweden. The US cartoons portrayed definite personas for the candidates and used them to criticize the candidates while the Swedish cartoons did not really reflect personal qualities as much as political ones. Also, the US cartoon my group discussed depicted the faults of both candidates (albeit unequally)whereas the Swedish cartoon was focused on one candidate.

Thank you all for this wonderful experience! I definitely learned a lot about the differences in culture between the US and Sweden. I've learned that Swedish values tend to be more international. The most memorable thing for me was speaking to the Swedish students and analyzing the different visual rhetoric pieces we picked. I wish I could discuss more about the American election and how knowledgeable the Swedish are about it. For next time, there were some sound quality problems we were having when there were too many groups in the conference room. Also, there is a bug that you cannot make a new room after you leave your room.

I continue to be amazed at this technology that allows us to instantly communicate, via voice and picture, with people thousands of miles away.

We had an interesting discussion with our Swedish classmates, sharing our views about the U.S. presidential election and asking about theirs. A lot of them couldn't believe that our country would even consider people like Sarah Palin and John McCain for president. (And as liberal Californians, neither could Megan and I.) They said that Obama was "Europe's candidate", and the cartoons that we looked at confirmed that view.

The biggest difference that we noticed between Swedish cartoons about the U.S. election and U.S. cartoons about the U.S. election was their underlying views of the candidates. The U.S. ones presented the candidates with more subtlety and complexity, while the Swedish ones were more black-and-white (so to speak). The cartoons from the United States presented a more complicated picture of the candidates, and the cartoon that we chose (from Akron, OH) did not portray Obama in an entirely positive light. The cartoon that our Swedish peers found showed Obama in a much more positive light, and showed McCain (and Bush, and Palin) as raving lunatics. This may be a reflection on the different political climates in our countries, and how we see the candidates and issues versus how Europe perceives the situation. Our peers seemed surprised to hear that people here were skeptical of Obama, his about-face on the issue of campaign finance, and his alleged (or fabricated) ties to terrorism.

The cartoon that Megan and I chose was a spin-off on the Mac-vs-PC commercials that are so popular here in California. Our Swedish peers were completely unfamiliar with these ads and this cultural phenomenon, so we had to explain it to them. It was interesting to think about the fact that this commercial and concept, which has insinuated itself into U.S. culture to the point where spin-offs are generally understood and need no explanation to provide context, would be completely unknown in another country. The power of advertising, I guess.

I was a bit late to the video conference with the students of Uppsala University, so I was a bit out of the loop at first. The Uppsala students were forming an overarching theme of the current election and what it meant to them. They believed it was a battle of good vs. evil, heaven vs. hell. This surprised me a great deal because of the anti-Republican sentiment. Clearly based on election results Obama was the favorite of the two, but looking at the popular vote you see only 52% of the population supported Obama, while 48% supported McCain. Indeed elections fail to give the most accurate results, with the best vote=r turnout ever being only 66% percent. These results do show a great deal of Americans still support the Republican party while overseas it is very one-sided. When asked what a McCain win would mean to them, the Uppsala students agreed everyone in Europe would lose hope in our country. Here at home we fail to see the impact our election has on the entire world. When asked to configure a comic, the Uppsala students depicted Obama as an angel and McCain as a devil. After watching the election late last night and CNN kept showing international shots of people huddled around TV's I realize how relevant our news is to the entire world and how important our decisions are. I enjoyed being able to learn such a great deal about not only the Uppsala students, but also the entire world.

In my group, we discussed the candor with which the Swedish cartoons depicted America and American politics. I always thought that American political cartoons were very candid, but when I saw the Swedish ones, I realized how sugar-coated American media really is. I thought this coincided with the fact that conservatives in Sweden would be considered radical liberals in America. It seems that Swedish politics is much more liberal, and therefore their media is much more liberal in their approach.
It was also amazing how much the students knew about the elections and "American" terms (like donkey=democrat, elephant=republican). I was embarrassed when I tried to explain some cartoons to them, and they already knew the meaning better than me! Wow! I love these video conferences!

We learned that rhetoric theories don’t really change much across cultures, but that it is the perspective and use of it that varies. The most memorable was the interaction with the Stanford students, and our discussions about media, politics, political campaigning and differences between Sweden and the US.
The cartoons we looked at showed how Swedish media pictured Obama as the “good guy” entirely, while McCain was pictured as the “bad guy”. In the cartoons from the US, it wasn’t that easy: the candidates were presented with more complexity, with both good and bad sides. Why that was, we didn’t have the time to discuss properly, but we talked about it being a product of the very different political climates in our countries.
A way to improve the media conference process could be to make sure everyone knows how to use the whiteboard, to save and to post the documents. We also felt that the time for discussion in the smaller groups was too short. We are very satisfied with the Marratech session and look forward to next time.

I worked with group E and was intrigued by a certain similarity between the Swedish and American McDonald's websites: Both incorporated a nutritional focus. America does not strike me to be as health conscious as other countries.

A difference between the US and Sweden sites was that the US site seemed to be also promoting a lifestyle, as well as a consumer product: The images on the site depicted people eating McDonalds products while smiling and laughing.

From our discussion on Pepsi and Mountain Dew, we branched into another discussion about the popularity of bottled water. I learned a very interesting fact: in Sweden, there is a product that allows consumers to carbonate their own water!

What our group found interesting was that one of the hamburgers was named after California. The ad contained an image of the Golden Gate Bride in the background. We saw the bridge as the metaphoric bridge between Sweden and the U.S. Upon clicking on the image, we saw that McDonald's in Sweden had a series of hamburgers named after major American cities, showing the scope of America's influence on foreign countries.

Overall, the discussion was a great experience- I always enjoy hearing perspectives from other cultures.

i fond your perspective on cartoons to be refreshing. i wrote my rba on the changing trends of cartoons as well.

Nice site you have!