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.