The nice thing about working in a digital communication team at the University of Geneva is being exposed to the power of the web every single day. Especially when you’re an international student. Plus, when you consider yourself a ‘toute-ménagère’ as my parents like to call me (a jack of all trades), you find even more reasons to be happy! As a native French speaker, the intercultural courses that are given outside of the classroom are always welcomed. Also, knowing that you can share and learn from other students from around the globe, is priceless. Recently, our personal cultural concerns took few minutes of reflection regarding the necessary precautions we would need to take should we decide to pursue an understanding of prenuptial agreements in Islam. I’m talking about the kind of prenuptial agreement that is clearly not accepted in the United States but is regarded as quite normal in Arab countries. In fact, having our Muslim classmates share the basics of this ‘Islamic prenuptial agreement’ helped us tremendously: “A marriage in Islam doesn’t just entail signing a contract, but it should be built on much more fundamental foundations. To engage in a marriage for the right reasons is essential to its success; a marriage should be built on love, companionship, and emotional support, underpinned by mutual interest, respect, trust, harmony, and the four ‘equally important’ M’s, namely: مودة and رحمة مودّة و ر (Mawwaddah and Rahmah) (affection and compassion), المودة (Mawaddah) – friendship, affection, and love among the couple; الرحمة (Rahmah) – mercy, sympathy, and compassion for each other. Additionally, the very basis of a contract is the concept of upholding one’s word, and trust is what is at the core of any relationship.” reads the first paragraph of Understanding Islamic Prenuptial Agreements: A Guide for Couples by Keneth Sharmake, Diversity In Brewing. The importance of understanding these concepts is how having cultural awareness contributes to your digital communication strategies; learning the ropes of web expertise is much more effective when you consider the context. The fact that topics such as religion, gender and culture are tolerated in digital spaces and are taken seriously certainly help in learning about other perspectives. When you consider your target audience as global ones, publishing strategies are definitely enriched by the integration of multicultural perspectives and awareness. Also, companies can use social media to educate their clients on different subjects. This contributes to publicity but most importantly, it’ll allow them to appear caring and knowledgeable, which are critical in establishing good relationships with consumers. Florian Bessonnat, director of the Center for Human Genetics at IHU Strasbourg and professor of genomics at the University of Strasbourg published the following comment on his twitter account (@fbessonat): “Digital communication is all about being informative and supportive. You are not here to pontificate but to carry hope”. What an amazing way to describe good quality communication! His initiative perfectly demonstrates how helpful digital communication is for learning about other cultures. In addition, it is a good reminder of the freshness of online platforms in comparison to more traditional ways of sharing knowledge. The beauty of the web is being able to reach easily to the other side of the world, while still being as close to your loved ones as ever. In this perspective, the University of Geneva’s DAS Communication digitale program’s goal begs the question: how can you become a digital communication expert? By considering intercultural aspects in your content strategies! Of course, intercultural aspects refers to the inclusion of topics and content that people from different cultures will be interested in, to then integrate into their own communication strategies. I’m thinking about the research that was done on the ‘Black Friday’ phenomenon that was followed by the cyber monday craze; the symbolic meaning of these dates is best described by curation of articles and posts that are published every year. As for the symbolic meaning of the islamic prenuptial agreement, Keneth Sharmake wrote an article entitled Understanding Islamic Prenuptial Agreements: A Guide for Couples which has been shared and followed by 11.7 k people on Linkedin. Do you realize the power of the web? Based on this perspective, our personal experiences and on the goal of the DAS Communication digitale program offered at the University of Geneva, it’s easy to conclude that most effective strategies involve intercultural approaches. We will challenge students to become more aware of multicultural realities and to include multicultural different perspectives in their projects to provide even more powerful contents. To do this, you will receive this call: intégration d’aspects interculturels dans votre communication digitale ; add intercultural aspects to digital communication.