Further explanation of a concept-prejudice

This textbook gave a lot of meaningful insight into the world of communication. Out of all the concepts that we covered, I feel like the idea of prejudice and stereotypes could have been elaborated on. In the chapters covering intercultural and multicultural communication, there was often a lack of explanation of where prejudice comes from. I would like to learn more about the stages of prejudice and ways to avoid it. I do, however, like that the book touched on culture so much I guess I was just looking for a bit more explanation or theory research. I know that a lot of prejudice and bias comes from the upbringing of a person. Maybe more examples would also be helpful in trying to understand cultural diversity. Coming from a multicultural background, I feel like this information would have appealed to me and caused me to learn more about this subject.

Interesting Concept-Cultivation Theory

I found the chapters on Mass Media the most interesting. I am very media-oriented person and I like connecting communication concepts to the media. This chapter explained many media effects and how the media can cultivate us. I really enjoyed learning more about cultivation theory. I am a strong believer that the media is a major influence for how we perceive the world. This theory makes complete sense to me because I can easily relate personal examples to how the media or a T.V show in particular has shaped a thought or belief in a person. Media effects research is a very special area to focus on-it explains many of the preconceived notions and bias that individuals hold. This is also a major contributor to acculturation. Acculturation is the idea of adapting yourself and submerging yourself into a new culture. When people watch American T.V shows, they receive a stereotypical idea of what our culture is like and therefore passes down prejudices.

Likes and Dislikes about Comm. 105P

Participating in an online class always has its positives and negatives. This class in particular was great in a few ways. First, we had the opportunity to experience a cultural event outside of the classroom. This was fun for me because I got to learn more about the German culture and I had a lot of fun while doing it. Another positive thing about this class was approachability of the Professor. She was always available to talk about questions or concerns, which makes things easier, especially in an online class. I did not like how we had to wait 12 hours in between blog posts. This is difficult for people with a constantly changing schedule. I think it would be much easier and effective to allow the blog posts at any time within the week. Overall, the class was a different experience, it was not terribly difficult although I think it could have been more mentally stimulating.

Cultivation Theory

I first learned of Cultivation Theory in my Quantitative communication research class. My professor described cultivation as the way heavy viewers of T.V see the “real world”. I began to do research on this theory and found that I could relate. I, myself, am a heavy viewer of T.V and movies. I especially enjoy watching crime drama shows. I noticed that if I would watch a show with a lot of murders or violence in it I would become uneasy at night. Cultivation shows that many heavy viewers of T.V start to believe the “real world” is how it appears on their favorite shows. For example, a person who is cultivated might think that seeing because most of the criminals on television are African-America or Latino, they should fear or stereotype them. I think it is important for people to detach from T.V and realize that it is not made for facts but it is made for entertainment.

Television..the "cool" medium

I do agree with Marshall McLuhan when he says that the medium is just as important as the message. When he explains the inner logic of the medium it reminds me if what I unknowingly do while listening to the radio or reading the newspaper; at times I will ignore certain factors in an ad or commercial because it is too ‘”slow for me”. I am more of a television person so I expect the information to be presented visually as well as quickly and directly. I also agree that the television is a “cool” medium. I believe this to be true because television not only gives you content visually but it also stimulates your auditory system as well. Television is simple and requires us to fill in the missing information and make judgments based on it. It also requires less from the audience while other mediums such as radio or newspapers require the reader or listener to participate more in order to gain information.

Cyber buddies

When I was in my pre teens Silicon Valley was in the midst of the dotcom boom. The Internet was growing rapidly and there were so many new ways to entertain yourself-one way being chat rooms. I can say that when I was younger I did chat in all sorts of chat rooms using AOL and teen chat websites. I did not form any lasting relationships online but I did have a “buddy list” that held any contacts that I had previously chatted with. These online relationships are different that face-to-face relationships because they allow for convenience. You are able to talk to these “buddies” when you are both available and willing to communicate. You can log on or off at your discretion. There is also opportunity to be friends with someone who lives across the world and even do business via chatting. When dealing with face-to-face relationships you tend to have a bit more intimacy with the other person; you can also see non-verbal cues, which make it easier to understand how the other person is feeling.

Self Disclosure

I chose to write about the topic of self-disclosure. This section of the text was particularly interesting because I have been around people in social settings who were very eager to divulge personal information to complete strangers. The text says that you should match up your level of disclosure with the level of the relationship. It is not appropriate to divulge your intimate and personal information to strangers or even acquaintances. It is appropriate, however, to discuss that sort of information with romantic partner or close friends. The book also says that you should be careful when disclosing certain personal information because it can place an unwanted burden on others. I have had this experience; I have a friend who is extremely out spoken and she tends to tell anyone she can about her menstrual problems. To me, it is extremely embarrassing to be around her when she is speaking about her private parts in public! Overall, I think it is important to understand the content and the context before disclosing certain personal information. Especially because it might affect someone else other than yourself.

Filters

Steve Duck’s theory makes complete sense to me! I have seen examples of each type of relationship mentioned in the text. I believe that almost everyone uses pre-interaction cues in the decision to choose a romantic partner; I believe it is almost natural to look at physical attractiveness first and then move on to personality traits. I do not, however, think that physical attractiveness is the primary or most important factor in a romantic partner. I find many things other that physical attractiveness to be important in choosing a partner; I tend to look for a person who has goals, healthy friendships and proactive hobbies. I usually filter people out who have not or do not plan on pursuing a higher education. I have had times when I have judged a person based on their clothing or their appearance just to be proven wrong; I think it is important to get over bias and be open to interacting with others. In doing so, you never know who you will meet-a potential networking acquaintance or your future partner.

Patterns

I believe that the submissive symmetry would be the hardest characteristic to change. In the book it states that submissive symmetry is basically like both parties sitting back and wanting the other person to make the decision. I also find this interesting because it happens to me a lot! I notice that I do not always want to make the decisions in my interpersonal relationships so I allow the other person to make the decision; I am being submissive by also controlling. I think that the rigid complementary role would be the most damaging to a relationship. I feel this way because when there are clear dominant and submissive roles in a relationship it is hard to switch those roles and a person may feel stuck beneath their partner; they might also feel a lot of pressure due to being the dominant person. I feel like both submissive symmetry and rigid complementary roles would harm self-esteem the most because of the ‘less than” feeling a person could obtain.

Premises

I do believe in the rationality, perfectibility, and mutability premises to an extent. The rationality premise talks about a persons ability to make critical decisions by analyzing data and facts and although this can be true, I do not believe that it is always the case. A good example of this would be in a courtroom and with a jury. Even though there are a lot of preliminary efforts to weed out any bias or overdramatic jurors, there are still instances when people get placed on juries and make decisions based on emotions and not facts. With the perfectibility premise I can agree that everyone is born with sin-we do not know right vs. wrong until we have interacted with the outside world and learn how to control our behavior. I also agree with the mutability premise when it states that our behaviors are shaped by our environment a.k.a our various cultures.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is another barrier that many people encounter daily. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture is superior to all others and the tendency to judge all cultures by one’s own criteria. By looking at the definition of ethnocentrism one can see the biases that it holds towards other cultures. From this chapter alone we have learned that it is not right to have biases against other cultures. We cannot have these biases because it is naïve to think ones culture is superior just because they are used to one way of performing an act. Who are we o decide what is the norm for daily living. Some cultures perform what other cultures would think as weird acts because their act is concerned with the livelihood. For example, when the Muslim culture drops to their knees at a certain hour to give praise. We may find that weird or wrong in America, but to the Muslim culture it is important to their beliefs and how their afterlife will be conducted. Living in a global village we have to learn how to become more aware of the cultural differences so that we do not become judgmental. Most of all I feel that we should seek out the similarities between one another and try to become more cohesive in that manner. It is very easy to figure out why one is different than the other, but when cultures can have something in common it may bring greater relationships and communication amongst each other.

Creatures of our Culture

I would have to say that I definitely agree with the statement "we are creatures of our culture." Culture is what shapes our views and perceptions of the world. How we talk, what we eat, how we dress, how we interact with others and just about everything else is based off our culture. Many people will assume that Culture is directly related to Ethnicity or Race but its not. Culture is not just "White Culture" or "Black Culture"; culture is any group that we belong to. This can unclude: religious affiliations, gangs, school, clubs, sports, or hobbies. These are all cultures. When we are apart of a culture we tend to have a sense of belonging and therefore view others outside of the group as 'different' or weird or even 'less than' us. I believe that anyone who wants to break away from the cultural beliefs can do so by having an open mind and not being conformed by the 'norms' or the culture. Be open and willing to accept others for who they are and understand that everyone is apart of similar and very different cultures-we should respect that.

Time Orientations

I wanted to discuss the topic of Time Orientation because I really feel like it explains a major reason why people differ in understanding non-verbal cues. There are some people who enjoy talking and reminiscing about the past and some people who get annoyed by that and are continuously thinking about the future. When I read this part in the chapter it really made me realize that each and every person we interact with has a different perspective on the situation. We all have friends who love to live in the moment and not worry about things; there is also people who want things structured and with a ‘to do’ list for every occasion. I believe it is important to understand these viewpoints and embrace the difference in us all. I think many people are quick to judge, as we talked about in another blog this week, and don’t understand that everyone cant be like them. I am genuinely beginning to understand and accept each person for who they are; I think that is truly important.

Non-Verbal in Cultures

I have never moved out of the United States but I am aware of some cultural differences in non-verbal communication. A few semesters ago I took a Communication and Culture class here at San Jose State. In this class, we had to describe some cultural norms and differences and I was exposed to some new and interesting non-verbal signs that were different than our own. First, In Japan, it is considered disrespectful to place your chopsticks in your bowl of rice or noodles; it is a symbol of death in their culture. Here in the Unites States, it is extremely common to see people stabbing their chopsticks in their bowls when they are not using them. Another example of a non-verbal sign carrying a different meaning is in France. In France it is common to give flowers in odd numbers (1, 3, 5 flowers) but not the number 13 because it is assumed to be unlucky. In the U.S we tend to give roses by the dozen. These simple things can be tricky when dealing with cultures other than your own. I suggest embracing other cultures and learn more about customs other than your own.

Misunderstanding Non-Verbal Comm.

Non verbal messages can be extremely tricky because of the lack of explanation involved in the process. When someone is staring at you, you may feel like they are sending you a sexual message through their stare but they may just as well be looking at your funny hairstyle. The messages are send without saying anything and therefore they are interpreted. I have been in a situation when I have completely misunderstood the context of the non-verbal message. I have been dating my boyfriend Dominique for 5 years now and it isnt uncommon that we misunderstand each other at some point. He plays football for San Jose State and there are times when we try to communicate during the game and while he is on the field. During a football game sometime last season, I looked for Dom on the field and I started showing him our hand signal and he looked confused back at me. I was showing him the peace sign from a few rows back and he looked at me in confusion. After the game I went to meet up with him and asked him why he didnt wave or give me a signal back during the game. He explained to me that he thought I was putting up the number "2" sign and not "peace". It was such a silly misunderstanding but in the end I had to realize that you must be clear with your messages and show direct meaning especially with non-verbal ones because they are easily misunderstood.

Judging People

I feel like everybody makes judgments in almost every aspect of their life and not only with other people. The reason I say this is because if you could think back to a time when you traveled some place you have never been before, you imagine what it will be like; you assume it will look a certain way or be a certain way. It is simply your expectations and uncertainty about the situation or person, which causes your mind to assume they will be one way or another. This relates to Uncertainty Reduction Theory. This theory basically states that when you are uncertain about a person or place you tend to create a fabricated image within your mind. It’s a pretty cool theory because I can definitely see it happening around me and I know it happens to just about everyone. I don’t believe it is possible to view other people without judging them. When people look like they fit a stereotypical mold, it is hard to mentally switch them into a different category until you actually meet and speak with them. In my opinion, the individual people who are doing the judging can only make judgments fair. I would advise people to look past the physical appearance of others and get to know whom people are before being so quick to judge.

Men/Women communication

I definitely do think that men and women communicate differently. In my quantitative research class last semester we spent almost the entire semester working on a research project and our question was: Do men and women differ in the amount of adjectives used to describe a person/place/event? Well not surprisingly we found that the overwhelming answer was yes! Women tend to use more descriptive terms when describing something. Men are more general and don’t use many adjectives when speaking. I also find women to generally be more sympathetic and emotional during communication while men tend to be more direct while speaking. Men also tend to describe the opposite sex more by using their body image to describe them (i.e she was fat/skinny, short/tall, pretty/ugly etc.) I want to believe this is all stereotypical but after participating in the research study I can say that I do honestly believe women and men speak differently. It comes down to women being more indirect and formal and men being more direct and informal.

Social Construction

I can honestly say that when I started reading this model of communication I was somewhat confused. Culture is such a subjective term that can be applied to many different groups. I do feel that culture is what shapes our communication styles and gives us the 'tools' to communicate effectively. Peoples perception of reality dramatically differs depending on their culture. People in Japan view the world in a complete different way than we do here in the Unites States. Culture enables us to view the world through a filter or a lense. This shapes our perception of reality and our social norms. This perspective does lack in the area of placing much emphasis on the culture rather than the individual. I am apart of the Italian culture but I still have many other outside variables that help shape my communication style. I also feel that communication styles greatly differ depending on the context of the situation. 

Communication Game

I can agree with the pragmatic model of communication. There is a lot in the process of communication that happens within a persons head. Many times there are things that we think about and scenarios we re-play in our heads that happen during communication. At times we think of a message and try to simplify it for our audience or the receivers of our messages. I do think there is a process of encoding and decoding that has to go on when communicating verbally. I do feel like communication is like a game. We play back and forth with individuals and audiences. There can be as little as 2 players and even as many as 100+. There is generally a strategy to communication (just like a game). There can also be 'winners' and 'loosers' in communication. Communication is also like a game because of the way we are faced with challenges. While communicating we have blocks and players...sometimes even on teams! I can also argue that Communication is NOT like a game. We do not necessarily need others to communicate an idea or to express ourselves. If I had to choose a side though I would say that Communication is primarily used like a game and heavily relies on the individual. 

Elements of Communication

A concept that was discussed in the reading that I found really interesting was the Elements of Communication model that was developed by Dell Hymes. This model attempts to explain how different cultures communicate and in which context communication occurs. The model also talks about individual ‘speech communities’. When I started to think about it I realized that I belong to several speech communities. I am a student here at San Jose State so I have the speech community within my peers. I am also apart of a football speech community. Many of us adapt to different speech communities depending on the context of communication so I found that to be an interesting point. The Elements of Communication model was a good example of how to better understand communication by breaking it down in order to make it easier to understand where people come from-especially in an intercultural context. There is an acronym for this model and it is:

S ituations

P articipants

E nds

A ct sequences

K eyes

I unstrumentalities

N orms

G enres

 

This idea of breaking down such a massive process like communication makes understanding this phenomena less challenging for scholars like me. I like the way this model explains the specifics.

About me...

Hey guys I'm Jenelle!

 I am a Senior here at San Jose State. I am a Communication Studies major and I actually created my own minor (Media/Entertainment). This is my second year here at SJSU and I am really excited to be graduating in May. I plan to move out of the Bay Area and get my foot into the Entertainment industry. I love to plan events, travel, meet new people, go to the beach, be with my dog Marley, watch/go to football games... I'm pretty laid back. I am not too familiar with blogging so hopefully this class with help with that. I will say that I am apprehensive about this online class-the structure is different than any other online class that Ive had. I hope we all learn some valuble content in this class. Good luck everyone!