ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the complexity of cultural identification and affiliation of online subjects, the pervasive uncertainty and unpredictability of intercultural encounters, and the influence of network cultures that frame people as products or commodities. Web-based multimodal communication adds voice, gesture, gaze, movement, and images of participants and their physical settings framed by a webcam. Personal relationships tend to rely on a mix of online and face-to-face communication. Many professional relationships begin and are maintained only through online communication. The goal of learning is to decanter learners from their pre-existing assumptions and practices and to develop an intercultural identity through engagement with an additional culture. The book shows how choice of decor, camera lenses, spatial arrangement, intimacy of topics, and levelling of hierarchy are used to project and negotiate an intercultural identity, positioning the subscriber to see French culture as simultaneously accessible and elusive.