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Welcome to your first on line lecture in COM 110,
Introduction to Communication. I'm your instructor Traci Griggs.
As I hope you know by now, we'll be using the textbook, Understanding Human Communication, by Adler & Rodman.
I hope you have the Wake Tech edition of that text book.
If not you will be confused throughout the semester because page numbers don't match up with the regular book.
Look for Wake Technical Community College across the front of your book, and you're good.
If not you need to go get the official Wake Tech version.
It's important for you to know that I will not stay strictly with the text book. There will be quite a few concepts presented
in these recorded lectures that are not in your book.
AND it's also important to know that just because I don't address it in this lecture,
does not relieve you of the responsibility to know it from your book.
So anything in our book or in these lectures is fair game on quizzes and tests.
Let's tackle what is communication anyway?
First, let me say that for the duration of this class, communication will be defined as between humans. So any examples you give should be between people.
We all know we love our pets and definitely communicate with them and they communicate with us.
My daughter in California even Skypes with our dog, from California.
So we understand this is a legitimate form of communication.
A lot of things communicate, right? Signs communicate, the style of clothes you wear sends a message
Whether you shave or brush your teeth definitely communicates a message to people!
But since this class is entitled, Understanding HUMAN Communication, we're going to stick with that.
The official definition of communication
—of course there is no "official" definition, there are all kinds of different definitions of
of communication that scholars argue about, but this is our official
definition as the authors of your textbook define it. It is
"The process of creating meaning through symbolic interaction."
So we have a process, you are and the timing.
that means communication is always developing,
it's dependent on other experiences you've had with that person in the past,
and communication happens in context of where you are,
and, of course, the timing. Some comments are very funny in some settings and
and not so funny in others.
The goal of this process is to create meaning. There is a purpose.
We are trying to influence, inform, encourage, insult.
The process will convey meaning to someone else.
Interaction means it's between at least two people.
And communication is symbolic. These words we use, they stand for something, right? agree on what a word or a tone or a gesture, means. These are symbols of this meaning.
They're not just jibberish. They mean something. We, as a society,
and sometimes subcultures within our society,
computer people, or music people, we agree on what a word
or a tone or a gesture means. These are symbols.
That's what we mean and these symbols have meaning.
There are many types or communication.
How do we as humans communicate? There is
INTRApersonal is what you say to yourself.
We're not going to hit on this too much in this class, but I feel
this is a vital component of how we communicate with others around us,
how others view us, and how successful we are in life.
(Kinda deep.) But I would encourage you to pay attention to your own
self talk. What do say to yourself?
When you're facing a tough challenge? When it's late and you have homework that's undone
and your friends want you to go out? What to you say to yourself when you fail?
What do you say when you're faced with a situation where you might fail or are likely to fail?
These are often scripts that we replay in our brains
over and over again throughout our lives.
If we can become aware of those scripts and even consciously change those scripts,
we can often change the patterns in our lives.
Very important. Intrapersonal communication. We'll have a discussion board on this
a little bit later in the semester so give some thought into the kinds of things you say to yourself.
Next is interpersonal is communication
that is between two people.
Small group would include discussions in a Board room, conference room, team meetings, planning meetings,
even on line discussions as we'll do this semester in our forums.
Public communication is public speaking, giving a speech.
And Mass communication is mediated. That means there is some medium
that is transporting your message, television, radio, a blog, email, Facebook.
Any of those examples would suffice.
Models of communication. Again,
sometimes people find these models to be very boring. I find them to be very interesting.
because they're true, in many cases.
Your text outlines two very simple models of communication.
I'll touch briefly on these but you'll want to read about this in your book for a more thorough explanation.
Basically there are two models. One is linear,
which means we put the message out there and we are not looking for feedback.
Noise and Environment affect this and we'll talk about those in just a minute.
Transactional means the sender is looking for feedback.
We look for signs of whether our message is getting through—a look of confusion or nodding in agreement.
We might elaborate or change our message if it' appears we're not getting through. We might consider
who we are talking to and what they might be thinking.
If you're talking about illegal immigration, if that person is from a different ethnic background, you might consider
that they might know some illegal immigrants.
They might have relatives who are illegal immigrants.
When you're talking about homosexuality, you would likely talk about the issue differently to a person who is gay
or who you know has a sister who is gay.
Transactional means we care about how our message is being received
and whether it is having the desired effect. Very important part
of being an effective communicator.
Okay so we just mentioned "noise."
Noise is anything that interferes with your message.
It's lunch time. People are hungry. The room is hot.
There's a cute girl or guy behind you as you're speaking,
You're going too long. You have made unsubstantiated
claims. All of these and countless more can interfere with people listening,
like right now. If you're iChatting or IMing with your friend
while listening to this lecture, you're likely missing some very
witty and lifechanging statements. Possibly. It could happen! :-)
If you're sitting in the kitchen and TV is on, that's noise. If you're upset because your girlfriend or boyfriend hasn't called. That's noise.
It's anything that interferes or distracts from the message that you're trying to
put across.
So what is "environment." This is more the
background of the person or people you're talking with. It's the baggage they bring to your conversation or speech.
they bring to your conversation or speech.
They don't like athletic people because jocks made fun of them in high school.
They have stereotypes about your ethnicity. They love or hate your topic.
They are against it or love it before you even get started
and they have been required to attend.
Any of these things will influence how people hear your message.
Have you ever said something and been astounded that someone heard something completely different from what you thought you were saying?
You may have supposed your listener was operating from a similar background to yours, that you share
common assumptions about the world, that they like you.
All or one of these as suppositions may not be correct. That might be a good time
to ask some questions to find out why. Better yet, ask those
questions before you speak or give a speech.
If you know your audience better, you can do something about any hurdles that might throw up about your message.
Which brings up the question, what do you do if you discover there are problems with noise or
environment that are hindering your message from getting through?
The best thing is to meet it head on. Don't pretend it isn't happening.
Don't just hope it'll go away.
I just think it's important to meet it head on.
Be observant. Look around while you're speaking.
What is going on? Next, go on a fishing expedition.
Make comments to see if you can figure out what's going on.
Comments like, "It is hot in here." You see a bunch of people nodding.
"I'm starving." and you see a bunch of people going oh yeah.
Or "I hate these kind of events."
if it's a one-on-one conversation.
or maybe talk about the kinds of people that are there. Perhaps that's
distracting to the person.
Go on a fishing expedition. Make comments to see if you can figure out what's going on.
And then, just ask a question. IF we're in a group
even sometimes a public speaking session
and you can get away with this kind of thing, if it's informal.
Just ask a question. What's going on with you guys? Talk to me.
What do you think about what I'm saying? And you might be surprised
that they'll be very open and honest about what's going on.
I said there were going to be some things I was going to cover that are not in your textbook and this
is one of them. So I'll give you a little highlight here that
this is very important to me. One of the reasons that Grunig's models
are important to me is it has a very 'real world' application.
I do a lot of public relations. I think we see
a lot of communication in the news media, from organizations
and from our government. Grunig's models help us to
filter and decipher what those groups,
organizations, government entities are
doing. And I think that helps us to be more
critical in listening to the communication.
The first one is Press agentry.
This is linear. You put the message out there and it's all one sided.
You're not looking for feedback coming back the other way.
All you're doing is communicating a message. It has spin
and will only tell the good things and will probably be somewhat untruthful in making the message look good.
Very interesting story. I had the opportunity to visit the Paramount Studios recently and
we saw Lucille Ball's dressing room and
the area outside of where her husband was as well.
—his dressing room. And they told us a story about how she
got a lot of criticism because she worked all the time.
And she had little kids. So what she did is she had this garden
area out side of her dressing room made up to look exactly like
her backyard. She would bring her kids to work with her and she would
would bring photographer in to take pictures of her out there playing with her
kids while she was on a break and then send those pictures
out to make people think she was spending more time at home with her children.
Now that is exactly what I'm talking about about Press Agentry.
That is putting a story out there, it doesn't even have to be true.
All you're caring about is putting the message out there to influence people and to
put a spin on the story
Next, Public Information means the organization is, supposedly,
trying to NOT spin the information. They are simply imparting the facts
so you can make your own judgment on what it all means. Now this is still linear.
They are really not looking for feedback. Of course, this may include
a quote from a spokesperson who may try to spin the story. We will always assume there is some type of spin happening
when an organization releases information.
They are guarding their public image and even if they are admitting wrong-doing it's likely we're not getting all the story. So we know there's spin inherent
in any of these stories, but Public Information
tried to just give the facts and let people make judgements.
Next, One-way Asymmetrical means the organization or spokesperson
makes it sound as if they care about what their constituents think and feel,
but they have not done any research, they are not seeking any feedback,
and they are not willing to change.
And then finally, two-way symmetrical
This is a back and forth dialogue.
have been linear. This one is supposed to be transactiona
and really what it means is that this company is looking
for what is best for, not only the company,
but for the consumers as well.
They are looking for feedback. They're wanting to find a solution that works for everyone.
Kind of a pie in the sky concept, many people think.
Okay, so who cares? Who cares about
these models. Why is this an important concept for us
to study. There is a Texas State University professor (Jess Gainer) who has given a great quote,
He says, "A healthy and vibrant democracy requires an engaged citizenry who think critically..."
So if we know Grunig's models, if we know the different tactics that different organizations
may use when communicating with us and our government may use in communicating with us,
we can think critially. Okay, what are they trying to communicate? What are they
saying? What do they want me to think? Is there spin involved?
Are they really trying to meet the problem head on
or are they simply trying to make it go away?
It's important to learn to interpret the strategies employed by
officials who speak on behalf of large corporations and government
entities. We need to be somewhat criticial
Next, are you competent.