ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that technical communicators should be careful not to rely too heavily on culture to guide localization, since traditionally defined culture is often unstable and unreliable in online environments. It offers specific ways in which technical communicators may apply an understanding of these contexts to the localizing of online content. The chapter discusses a shift away from the traditional focus on culture is necessary because “culture” is an unreliable guide in dynamic, globalized online environments. It describes an approach to localization in which cultural and noncultural global contexts intersect online to shape a target audience’s constructed sense of locality. The chapter concludes by offering an analytical tool that may help technical communicators and Web designers identify and use these global contexts to localize their online content, including an example application of the tool to Philip Morris Inc.’s localized US and international sites. To effectively design international online content, technical communicators often localize materials for culturally diverse target audiences.
