creator Gao, Jing advisor Otterbacher, Jahna Clare Online communities enable people from around the world to interact online. But having the opportunity to speak and being heard are two different issues. In most cases of intercultural communication online, people from different cultures interact in English. Are they still able to bring their own perspectives without using their native language? This study thus focuses on whether or not international voices are heard online and whether or not these voices that find audiences are really differ- ent, as compared to the local voice (i.e., dominant or majority voice). We question whether or not international voices are different, as previous studies on intercultural communication debate over whether or not voices are different by culture. Results of a content analysis show that international and U.S. participants tend to contribute similar content, which contrasts with the common assumption that people from dif- ferent cultures will write differently and resonates with previous studies that have proposed that culture, on its own, is not an effective predictor of online behavior. Submitted by Dana Lamparello (dlampare@iit.edu) on 2012-08-23T16:27:19Z No. of bitstreams: 2 jing-thesis.pdf: 585077 bytes, checksum: 5f066fd8245bb474cd550e8c375bdd21 (MD5) signed_title_page.pdf: 500510 bytes, checksum: 93f58c20cc6ad34fa0a20111429d15f5 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2012-08-23T16:27:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 jing-thesis.pdf: 585077 bytes, checksum: 5f066fd8245bb474cd550e8c375bdd21 (MD5) signed_title_page.pdf: 500510 bytes, checksum: 93f58c20cc6ad34fa0a20111429d15f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05 M.S. in Technical Communication and Information Design, May 2012 2012-04-21 2012-05 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/2839 en Thesis born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access HUM / Humanities Illinois Institute of Technology Affiliated department