Ch 13: Ghost of Thomas Jefferson

I found the part about the Jefferson affair very interesting. Why are the modern depictions of Jefferson distorted, what do we gain by hiding the affair? Bradford Vivian's view on the Jefferson affair, that it has been framed as a romance to satisfy our desire to humanize and cleanse his memory (cited in Trenholm, pg 377) was something to think about. Why is the affair kept in mystery, is this because Hemings was a slave? The media have portrayed a different Jefferson, a rhetorical act that has influenced what the public have come to believe.
In my opinion, the media have played on the public’s memory by twisting the story to their advantage. I think we need to look back at the time this happened and the context. It may have been the norm for a white slave owner to have affairs with the slaves he owned. Our fascination with such sensational stories is what keeps the media going in producing films, novels and documentaries!!

Moral Dilemmas Facing Ethnographers

A moral dilemma facing ethnographers is trying to be conscious not to affect the data by placing their values and assumptions on it. Since ethnographers observe behavior and practices in other people, they have to be careful about putting their prejudices on to the observations. It is human tendency to naturally judge and categorize people based on outward appearance and behavior. I think ethnographers need to become more mindful when processing information and be active listeners while conducting their research.

Another dilemma facing ethnographers is whether to conduct their research covertly or overtly. If they go “undercover” and observe subjects without their knowledge, ethnographers may feel that they are essentially deceiving their subjects. If they are found out then it raises the issue of trust. On the other hand, if they take on an overt role, subjects are aware of being observed and may alter their behavior accordingly and cause results to be biased. In my opinion, ethnographers need to decide which approach is best suited for the research and work accordingly.

Finally ethnographers face the dilemma of having to make sure that they make accurate observations. According to Trenholm, the key to resolving this is by taking accurate and insightful observations and recording everything in field notes. They need to write down their own feelings and interpretations too, so that it can be used in analyzing the data. I think ethnographers should gather results from a large sample pool to avoid errors and make sure these results can be repeated if conducted again.

The Most Interesting Research Method

Ethnography seemed to be the most interesting research method for me. Observing behavior in a natural setting without imposing our values or assumptions on the data is an appropriate method to conduct research, in my opinion. This type of research method makes you not only hone your observation skills, but also learn more about nonverbal communication. Unlike surveys that give you the answers, you have to come to conclusions based on observations, so it forces you to be involved. I also like the idea that as an ethnographer you can observe people covertly (undercover) or overtly (in the open), (Trenholm, pg 379).
In order to study some aspect of deception, you can use ethnography and observe unobtrusively to learn more. A research question I would frame is:
“How do infomercials using popular stars convince consumers to purchase their products?” I think at some point in our lives we have all purchased something that was promoted by a popular star, only to regret it later!!!
I would use ethnography to covertly and overtly study consumer’s behavior in purchasing a particular product that was promoted by a star. I could also use Rhetorical Criticism to see how deception in communication affects consumers, because it uses, "a systematic way of describing, analyzing, and evaluating a given act of communication" (Trenholm, pg 373). I can use content analysis to study how the content of infomercials and their frequency affects purchasing habits of consumers!!

Ch8: American Coffee-Break vs Japanese Tea-Break

The part I found interesting to read was how communication genres and the rules that define them are culture specific, pg 217. Trenholm compares the American coffee break which is considered informal to the Japanese tea-break (aisatsu) where tacit deals and unofficial paths are carved over green tea and sponge cakes. I found an interesting article this week on the BBC, that talked about how the White House welcomes world leaders and how they are treated in a certain way to build relationships or given the cold shoulder to show they are ‘foes.’
Every act is carefully staged and they make sure no photo opportunity is missed, if it makes the president look good or to show the world who is our new friend. An example of this is the picture of President Obama eating a cheeseburger at a local joint with President Medvedev of Russia. This goes to show that tacit deals are not only part of Japanese culture, but they take place everywhere, including the US and can be during a coffee-break, lunch or state dinner.

Here is the news article link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10470615

“Medium is the Message”

I agree with Marshall McLuhan that “the channel through which a message is transmitted is as important as the message itself and that the channel determines which message will be transmitted and which will be ignored,” (pg307). Today we have access to many different channels such as newspapers, radio, television and internet, so we need to choose the right one to send our messages. For example, an ad for a new chocolate bar would be noticed more in a newspaper or TV commercial than if announced on the radio. We also need to consider what age group is being targeted for the message and send it through the appropriate channel so we may reach them. McLuhan emphasizes that the medium influences how the message is perceived. His idea that television is a “cool medium,” means that the viewer has to put more effort to understand what they are watching. This is because the viewer is bombarded with information, which the viewer takes in sensorily and then has to sort them for meaning, decide which ones to pay attention to and fill in missing details to understand. The viewer has to judge whether what they are watching is the truth or fiction, since some messages are made to look so real!!!

Friendships in Cyberspace

I have never made friendships that existed exclusively in cyberspace. I personally prefer to see the person I am communicating with face to face, hear their voice and see their expressions. It is hard for me to form a friendship with someone I do not know in person, which means I cannot judge anything about the person’s personality. In my opinion, cyber people could claim to be anything so it is hard to trust someone online. As computers and internet access grow around the world, more and more people are communicating globally without ever meeting and some even end up marrying their cyber mate!!! There is a certain mystery about the person on the other end which can be very uncomfortable for some people to deal with. Another factor that makes cyber friendships seem scary is that it is accessible by strangers, so there is no sense of privacy. Face book and web chats are good examples of this.

I agree that it may be easier to communicate at times in writing rather than trying to find the right words to say in a face to face communication. I may be missing out on a good cyber friendship, but for now I prefer to make friends face to face. I will continue to correspond with my friends via email and blogs, since communication is becoming more and more electronic.

Ch 7: “Groupthink”

A topic that caught my interest in chapter 7 was the one on “combating groupthink,” pg 190. It talked about failures in group communication which lead to the space shuttle Challenger’s disaster in 1986. Irving Janis coined the term groupthink as “a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the member’s striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action,” (pg190). This can be applied to our government actions in the wake of 9/11, which has lead to two never ending wars and a financial melt down that is still going steady. Money which could be used to revive our economy and support our children’s education is being used for the wrong reasons. “Collective rationalizations” are used to explain away problems or failures, such as in the case of the BP oil spill mess. They use euphemisms like “friendly casualty” and “collateral damage” to describe errors in bombing innocent civilians. Members are encouraged to stick to a particular course of action, even when information to the contrary is received. Groupthink is very dangerous in the hands of people who are powerful, refuse censorship and share the same morals. In my opinion, a course in Communication should be a requirement for top jobs or positions in government.

Filters

I try not to judge people based on their outward appearance, however sometimes nonverbal cues tell more about a person than what they say. I am happily married and at the time may not have thought of the process I used as filters. The sociological cues (probability of contact), physical proximity, preinteraction cues, interaction cues and cognitive cues (same cultural values, beliefs and attitudes) all played a part in bringing us together. More than physical attraction, it is the compassion, the ability to easily carry a conversation with that person and for them to understand and love you for who you are, matters more to me. When forming friendships I may have used these filters. When we form friendships, I think our ability to carry on a conversation with ease probably decides if we are going to continue that friendship or not. We need to consciously give people a chance to show if they are worth our friendship or not, instead of judging them by their outward appearance. We may miss a rewarding relationship.

Rigid Complementarity

I think all relationships go through complementary and symmetrical patterns, depending on how long the relationship goes and the people involved. In my opinion, rigid complementarity would be most damaging to a relationship. In this relationship one person is dominant while the other is submissive. This type of relationship is common in some marriages (especially in the East, where the husband is dominant and the wife plays the submissive role), parent – child and in friendships. Marriages are a partnership and we must treat each other equally by sharing information, ideas and roles. If the husband always plays the dominant role in deciding everything, the submissive wife may resent this at some point and rebel against this. This is the same in a parent-child relationship, if we constantly decide and play a dominant role, children and teenagers begin to rebel against this control. Any interpersonal relationship has its limits and there needs to be a balance and an appreciation for the other person’s feelings and the context in a given situation.
A person who is always submissive may feel dominated and may or may not be in an abusive relationship; this individual’s self-esteem would likely be damaged the most. This is not to say that competitive symmetry (both fight for top spot) or submissive symmetry (both struggle to relinquish control) are any better. I’d like to end with this quote by Dale Carnegie:
“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.”

Ch12 Concept: Culture & Language Style

A concept that intrigued me was how culture affects the way we use language. The textbook mentions teasing, flattery and lying as forms of language that are influenced by culture (pg 355). In my opinion, they should have mentioned “jokes” too. Jokes are culturally based and are very difficult to be translated to another language, since meaning can be lost. What jokes mean, how they are said in that particular language, the underlying meaning, the way they are said, just cannot be translated. If jokes are translated, some people may consider them rude rather than funny. We need to be sensitive when cracking jokes where people from other cultures are around, since not everyone will share the same understanding as we do.
I also want to bring up the point of how English is spoken in many parts of the world, but how an American speaks it is very different from a British or Australian. At times we are left wondering what they said or meant. A dialect is not just another communication tool but it is part of our culture and heritage. Dialects link us to our roots.