Double Swing: Intercultural Communication Core: Theories, Issues, and Concepts

There are two main streams of understanding intercultural communication. The “classic” transmission models include the basic elements of communication involved in sending messages from a sender to a receiver. These models enable analysis of all communication elements and effects by focusing on sameness in communication. In contrast, Muneo Jay Yoshikawa's “double-swing” model of intercultural communication between the East and West is based on an eastern understanding of dialogue, collaborative communication, and co-creation of meaning. The double-swing model enables an understanding of communication as an ongoing encounter where both sender and receiver have mutual respect. It has four modes of communication: the ethnocentric, the dialectic, the control, and the dialogic. Both models have something to offer intercultural communication, but the double-swing model enables a worldview that is heterogeneous, pluralistic, and dynamic.