Further descusion

I think that research methods are really important to studies of communication. I recently completed the quantitative research course at SJSU. This course required persistence, but was very interesting at the end of it all. One of the most fundamental research methods that I took as vital was the survey research method. I conducted a study on how the perception of reality television shows such as, flavor of love or the hills, alters the perception of reality on U.S. citizens compared to people who were raised outside of the U.S. This was fun to do because we were able to conduct a survey and then code it to where we were able to make sense of what people answered. In our research we found that people who watch reality television shows consistently felt that there partner should be very attractive sexually to them. This was cool to find out because we often read many research studies for our courses, but generally never have to conduct one.

Positives and Improvements

I have taken a couple of online courses in my current career at San Jose State University. This course had a lot of positives that could be said, but also had some areas that could be improved in my opinion. One thing that I liked about this course was the flexibility to construct blogs at your own time. I have been an extremely busy student over this semester and often struggled to finish certain assignments during the semester. Taking a full load in units and playing a sport for the university required me to have good time management. Because we were able to post blogs 12 hours apart instead of something like 24 hours, I was able to constantly have control over my assignments that were due. One area of the course that I thought could use some improvement was the quiz section. At times I felt extremely rushed to complete the quiz. I could read the chapters before taking the quiz and make notes in my book and still run out of time. Maybe if there was a larger allotted amount of time I would have enjoyed some of the quizzes more.

Dec6-8 Culture

There were many sections in the book that caught my attention. This text covered and briefed many different communication study aspects that were possible. Because there was such a wide range of possibilities it was hard to choose one subject that classified as my favorite. Although this became a bit tedious, one of my favorite sections was on how culture can create or not create limitations. In my previous blog I stated that there was no way I could deny the fact that culture helps shape the person who I am today. Meaning that we are definitely “creatures of our culture”. Ruth states that our culture directly affects our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities. Culture is not just defined as what race a person is, but rather the surroundings they encounter on a regular. Because of this it is important to keep an open mind when encountering other cultures or religions. Today’s world is based on a global standard where different cultures interact with each other constantly. It is necessary to become open and learn about one another as to become ethnocentric towards one another.

Using Media More Responsibly

In the media there are a mass of messages to be interpreted. It almost seems as if there is an overload of messages to people to often view the media. Because of this it is important for society to become more responsible with viewing the media. We learn that the media often contains messages that promote inequality with race, gender, and many other subjects. With these messages we have to be able to judge the truth and know what is reality and not be influenced by negative messages perceived by the media. It is known that many people fall into the traps of the media. For example girls see top models on television and want to look like them. As a result they fall under the perception that they have to extreme diet in order to be similar to watch the media says a women should be. Knowing the truth and being able to judge what is being viewed or hear will help society become more responsible towards the media.

Chapter 11- Medium and Messages

This was a very interesting topic to learn about. After reading through some of the examples of medium being the message, I came to the conclusion that I agree with McHluhan’s theory. It basically states that the frame through witch the message is conveyed is as important as the message. The main reason why I find this to be true is because too many companies spend an extreme amount of money on advertising or sending messages through TV. Messages need to be heard, so they need to be voiced through popular channels. As a result television serves as the prime example of the medium being important as the message. With out messages being able to be heard by many, there would be no message. Companies extremely rely on these mediums because they pay off. For example, the Superbowl shows the most expensive commercials. They can charge so much because it is the most watched event on television year after year. Which means companies are battling to show there message to most people possible at one time. He also brings up the point that television is a cool medium, which I find to be partly true. Overall messages need to be family safe on basic cable network stations because of the amount of television kids watch. Messages cannot be too vulgar or extreme for TV. Other networks that are less censored do cause for a more than cool medium because messages tend to be more adult directed or oriented.

Week 13- Cyberspace Freinds

I have had a number of relationships over the Internet. Although I have had relationships through cyberspace I have not had any that were exclusive to cyberspace. Most of the relationships that I deal with through the Internet usually consist of friends that I’ve already made, family, or classmates. I am not too sure why I have not had any sole cyber relationships. As I think about this, I believe that I just not comfortable with talking to complete strangers. Making friends that you only speak to over the Internet is like having a close friend, but never seeing them. You allow them to know so much information about yourself and them in return, but who know what they decide to do with that information. Of course there are exceptions to only having friends through cyberspace, for example the class we are all taking right now. Although we all attend the same university I may never see or speak with some of my peers outside of our communication through the blogs.

Chapter 6-Self Disclosure

For this blog I choose to discuss self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is described as the voluntary revealing of information that would normally be unobtainable. In most interpersonal situations people are reluctant to self-disclose about certain issues. When I think about how I self-disclose information, it usually occurs between family members or close friends. I do not feel comfortable letting random people or associates know information about my self that I would otherwise not want to tell people. This makes me realize that knowing who u can self disclose towards lets one know whom their real friends are. Sometimes it may be easy to talk to a certain friend or maybe you just have a lot of trust in one particular friend. Being able to tell valuable information about yourself is a balancing act because you do not want to end up getting stabbed in the back for it. Which I know for a fact has happened to many people in this course.

Chapter 6 - Cues

Unknowingly at times I have filtered people out from being potential romantic partners through a couple of different ways. Probably the first way that I disregard people is because of physical attraction. If I do not find the person to catch my eye, then I most likely will not be interested in them. Another way to filter someone from being a potential romantic partner is if the conversation does not flow. When things are not smooth in a conversation, it makes me think that we would never have anything in common.

After reading Duck’s theories I believe that most of them are valid. Like I voiced earlier, interaction cues are important to me. There have defiantly been times when I have used preinteraction cues to speak to someone. Only to find out that there is nothing to talk about. The person may have had attractable preinteraction cues, but lacked solid interaction cues.

Chapter 6- Rigid Role Relations

In this section of the chapter we learn about disfunctonal relationships. Some of the key ideas associated with this section is rigid complementarity, competitive symmetry, or submissive symmetry. Rigid complentarity is described as a dominant partner in a relationship becomes weary of always making decisions, or when submissive partners begin to resent always giving in. Competitive symetry is when, "both members fight for the one-up position". Submissive symmetry is described as when both partners can't take control of a situation. Out of all these patterns I believe the most damaging to a relationship is the submissive symmetry pattern. When both partners cannot find the common ground to come up with a position about a predicament can be hard to solve. This can waste a countless amount of time for things people have to do everyday. I feel that someone who is in a relationship with two passive people then no one would ever take control to help change their current stage. The most difficult pattern to change would be the rigid complementary pattern. When someone in a relationship is used to having all the power then that person may row accustom to it. I feel that is would be a hard role to give up. The most damaging for a persons self-esteem would be rigid complementary also. Someone who continues to stress himself or herself constantly is not good for someone’s self-esteem.

Post 3 Chapter 12- Culture and Goals

Finding out information about society and goals has always been an interesting subject to me. Our book informs us that our culture can affect us on what goals people “should” pursue. They gave an example of how Americans believe “hard work pays off”, and that this cultural norm is different from others. The American cultural norm was compared to the Hindu norm that God gives them what he wants them to receive instead of working even harder as many middle class Americans would. This subject leads me to think of how subculture highly affects one’s perception of achievable goals. For example, many years ago someone could ask a minority if they would or think there would be a president who resembled them. The majority answer would be no. So the American culture or societies sub race culture told them that they can attempt to become a president, but rater attempt something else. Having President Obama in office proves that we cannot always be subject to cultural norms and the goals associated with it. We should not let our culture hinder society from achieving any goal they can imagine!

Post 2-Week 12: Rationality, Perfectibility, Mutability

I feel as if I agree with most of the ideas behind rationality, perfectibility, and mutability. The rationality premise is described as the belief that most people are capable of discovering the truth through logical analysis. This should prove to be true because most kids are able to attend public school, which helps them to develop logical reasoning. As they grow older, they are capable of understanding more theories behind daily life. Society mostly witnesses the rationality premises in constitutions such as the courthouse. This is where rational is most highly put to the test because a jury has to decide whether or not one person is innocent through there own personal reasoning skills. People’s lives are at steak, which calls for the jury to be working at its highest level. I certainly believe in the perfectibility premise. This is described as sinful humans being capable of reaching goodness. A great example of this when criminals in the jail have to community service. Although helping others out may not be what they are known for, they are physiologically and physically capable of serving good deeds. Also the mutability premise has been proven true. There have been studies where, kids around the same age were put in two different rooms to watch two different videos. One group watched a mildly violent movie, while the other group watched a peaceful movie. After the movie they were put in another room where there was a knockout to hit. The group who watched the violent video acted more physical to the knockout doll compared to the group who watched the peaceful movie. Our surrounding can definitely help mold our behaviors. This may be true but we as humans to don’t have to be contained to this one premise.

chapter 12- Breaking Limitation

There is no way I can deny the fact that culture helps shape the person who I am today. Meaning that we are definitely “creatures of our culture”. Ruth states that our culture directly affects our habits, beliefs, and impossibilities. Culture is not just defined as what race a person is, but rather the surroundings they encounter on a regular. Many people confirm that in today’s world, we live in a global economy. Living in a global economy forces society to become accustom to other races or religions norms and beliefs, which in turn helps shape how we react to those situations. How we think, act, and communicate is all influenced by our culture. For example, some intermediate family culture defines them by barely making ends meet. As a result, the kids see how their parents struggle so they end up following in their footsteps. Although certain kids can fall victim to the culture they are brought up in, others can change the culture they live by as a result of witnessing the poor culture they grew up in. Seeing kids who break the mold of their family’s culture is a great example of how to break through limits of their culture. For example, in the coming spring their will many students who are first time college graduates in their families. As a result of their accomplishment they broke through the limitation and created a new part of their own culture.

week 7- territory

In this weeks discussion I would like to talk about territory and the Use of Space. Now if we admit it or not, we all have some comfort level compared with how much space we would like between people. Our explains that It is important to know how to manage territory and distance between one another. This is known as Proxemics. We have different territories or boundaries that we have with different people. I am sure that you would have different physical boundaries between someone like a girlfriend and your boss at work. Different relationships cause for different territory between one another. Learning this such as this in class really makes you analyze how this effects or plays a part in your life. For example I can start with my daily routine. i generally wake up and make my way to practice in the mourning where I have interaction territories. I am with my teamates for over three hours a day so there is a lot of close interaction going on between us all. Then I make my way to class where I have a lesser interaction territory. I am generally there to learn and participate. It is interesting to asset ones territory between people daily.

Week 7- Misinterpreting nonverbal messages

From reading chapter five, we all know that nonverbal communication is ambiguous. This means that nonverbal cues can contain multiple different meanings. Since nonverbal communication is not “black and white”, it is guaranteed to have some misinterpretations between the sender and receiver. One area of nonverbal misinterpretation can come from Kinesics or body movements. I have been involved in football for many years, and nonverbal cues are used constantly to relay information. If the cue is interpreted wrong many bad situations can come from it. For example on defense we use hand signals to send in the play call. A couple of weeks ago I thought I saw the sign for our us to play cover two when in fact the actual sign that was given was for us to play cover 4. As a result of me coving the wrong part of the field a pass was caught against us. This is frustrating to me because I pride my self on always doing the right thing, but because I misinterpreted the signal I was out of place. In this particular case I could have improved the nonverbal communication by paying more detailed attention to the sign that was given instead of assuming. I could have also possibly asked one of my teammates what play was called so we all could have been on the same page.

week 7- Nonverbal messages in different countries

As we all known communication is one the most important aspects of life today. Living in a global economy it is important to know when and how to communicate with others. Nonverbal communication is a great way to communicate with people of different cultures from our selves. Because this can be a practical tool it is important to know some of the differences in nonverbal communication because it is not the same in all countries. A good example of a discrete nonverbal message difference comes from India. If I were to cross my feet or have my feet resting on an object, that would be a sign of disrespect. This is disrespect in there culture because they signify viewing the bottom of someone’s foot as referring to them as trash. Another example comes from Asian culture. Often older people who are from and Asian culture do not like to have direct eye contact with someone. I also recall a story from my global communication professor of a soldier trying to save a young boy in another country from the line of fire. The soldier was waving to the kid to come towards him, but every time the soldier waved him in the kid would only go farther away. The kid thought when the soldier waved him in that he was telling him to back up. It is a good idea to look up some differences in nonverbal communication before traveling to a different country.

Week 6_Becoming more mindful

When it comes to communication it is important to become mindful in a converation. We often become "lazy organisms" as book claims, meaning that the words come in one ear and out the other. We have exieencedd this in a conversation or lecture. Classic examples come from parents who are dominatly verbal punishing a troubled teen and the words are jus tflowing through the teenagers mind. Many people, inclding my self, at times zone out during class lectures. This is not good for our minds. We may get into a certain routine and things just become verbatem. When daily actions become mindless that is when mistakes ocurre. But it is highly possible to be more mindful so mistakes are not made. People just need to have a desire to listen and be on "alert" mode when listening.

Week 6-Gender Language

When speaking about gender differences in language the book makes a statement referring to men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Though this is not true, it often seems as if it is true because of the many differences male and female’s use when speaking. Last year I was part of a study to test for differences in gender language. The study concluded that men generally use less descriptor when describing a situation. Men are more direct or straight to the point when speaking about a subject. The study also claimed that women generally use a lot of descriptive words when explaining a situation, meaing that women are more wordy in there spech. The people who often notice the difference in the way gender effects communication is often couples. Women may say a comment to her counter part and the message that he understood may be totally wrong to what she was trying to get across. But I feel as if there are defiantly ways around this problem. People should just become more active listeners. Active listeners eliminate assumptions by asking clarifying questions and finally can respond to the statement clearly.

Week 6- Judging/Categorizing

I believe that it is not possible to preserve someone with out judging or categorizing them in some way. It is very similar to have some pre-conceived notion about a research topic before going to study that topic. Categorizing people seems to be a natural human reaction wither it is a positive or negative thought. Although we as humans do this to each other there are defiantly ways we can negate the original perception of people we encounter. We can minimize the judgments we make by simply speaking and actively listening to the person. When we actively listen to someone, that means that our attention is focused on the new information that is flowing in our minds; simultaneously changing or reinforcing our pre conceived notions about the person or subject. I recall when I met one of my good friends we weren’t sure about each other. We both had some judgement about one another. When we finally spoke, those judgments for one another were vanished. He asked me long after we became friends, what was the first thought I had about him. I honestly could not answer him because I forgot my judgments of him. I only knew what I perceived from him when I first met him.

Week 3-Pragmatic Perspective

Being someone who is highly competitive and also motivated by relationships I agree with how the pragmatic perspective can be considered patterned interaction. Anyone can recall conversations that they have throughout the day. In most productive situations the conversation most likely consisted of people taking turns in explaining what the subject of matter. In this pattern certain rules are established or understood. For example, many people do not like being interrupted when speaking about a topic. Once the initiator is done speaking, the person who was listening then responds to what was said. Finding the correct balance or pattern between each other can decide weather the conversation is productive or not. It can also be thought of as a game in a sense of playing offense and defense in certain situations. Often people encounter daily life problems that cause of interaction. For example, today I had to contact my banking to settle a with drawl dispute. I played offense by explaining my situation and the banker decided to be on my side by agreeing with me and crediting my account. He could have chosen to play defense and defend the mistake of the bank because they took too much money out of my account. People’s perspective and position can greatly effect how the pragmatic sequence occurs.  

Introduction

Hello all!

 

My name is Dominique Hunsucker and I am glad to have been recently added to this course. I am a communication studies major and currently in my fourth year here at san jose state university. After taking mulitple courses here I have realized that communication is definatly the major that fits me best. I am a student-athlete here and look forward to getting to know everyone in the class.