Face, conflict, and adaptability in mediated intercultural invitations

Abstract In a world of increasing national and international mobility, people are progressively more engaged in communication over multiple types of media. This paper discusses the question of adaptability in mediated intercultural communication, considering the perspectives of a group of international graduate students and their peers in a graduate program in a North American university. The paper explores the relational aspects of technologically mediated “invitations” as potential face threatening acts made more complex by the unequal social positions of the participants regarding ethnicity, gender, nationality, and age. It also problematizes the nature of mediated communication and choices of communicative tools, the contradictory assessments by users as to the value of specific semiotic information, and the chronotopes of mediated invitations that intensify facework.