Chapter 2 Blog 3 Contexts for Observing Communication

One are we didn't cover in Chapter 2 that i really enjoyed was ethnography of communication. There are four distinct contexts for observing communication in our text. The first, Speech Community, is a group of people with a common attitude toward speech. I thought of my time in the Air Force in a flying squadron. We were our own community, even apart from the Air Force. The next context is Speech Situations, or certain occasions that call for speech. This made me think of formal Commanders Calls, Thirsty Thursdays, Booster Club events, Pre-Mission crew meetings, and Tactics and Intelligence Briefings. Each of these, even though among our small squadron, required very different forms of communication. Some communication would be very formal, and others very professional. The best would be the casual "war story" time with a beer on a Thirsty Thursday where rank went out the window and everyone sat around and bonded. Another context is Speech Events, i related this to different portions of a Commanders Call. We would be addressed by our Commander, different section officers, weather, tactics, safety, and booster club personnel. The final context is Speech Acts which is individual and purposeful acts of communication, usually broken down within a Speech Event. This might be just my Commander's portion of the meeting, and he might have expressed anger for something we failed on as a squadron, or maybe it would have been an expression of pride for a mission well done. This is just one of 5 models of communication that we have covered in chapters 1 and 2.

Chapter 2 Blog 2 Pragmatic perspective

I think it absolutely makes sense to think of communication as pattern of interactions. Communication is very much like a game: it requires more than one person to be involved, and often our choices are influenced by the other players. What i like about the pragmatic perspective is that this model says you can't NOT communicate. Even a lack of communication can be counted as communicating with another person. If I'm in a disagreement with my husband, his silent treatment speaks volumes. I know that through a pattern of communication or interacts that we have gone through over the years. When he stops talking, that is when he is the most angry. He knows that he might say something out of anger that he regrets, so he waits until he cools off and can have a two sided conversation. Since I'm having a baby any day now, i can't help but think about how the text refers to crying as a communication game. Even babies can communicate using the pragmatic model. They cry to have their needs met, and their cries are different. As parents, we respond to the cries and that is our interact. As patterns develop, both babies and parents learn to communicate using this game. The baby knows that if they cry, the parent will come to them. If the parent chooses not to go to the child, for example at bedtime, then that to speaks volumes to the child. That new pattern may teach them that there are certain times which the crying game will not work, and therefore they stop using it and just go to sleep.

Chapter 2 Blog 1 Social Constructions

I prefer the psychological model over the social constructionist model. The social constructionist model of "world building" takes away the interpersonal aspect of communication because according to this model, communication does not take place between individuals, but around them. There are some parts of the social constructionist model that makes sense to me. The fact that customs, traditions, and rules guide our interactions is largely true. As a society we construct our world when it comes to colors, foods, symbols, and gestures. We even have constructions regarding gender. As an example, we as a culture agree that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. We would associate pancakes and eggs as breakfast foods. The dollar bill is only worth $1, and everyone agrees on that, so it would do us no good to just decide one day that the dollar in our wallet is worth $100. Social construction is powerful because once our culture widely accepts a construction it would be nearly impossible to ever change. It is also interesting that in this model, good communication is defined as socially appropriate communication. I agree with the texts criticism of this model putting too much emphasis on the social self and not enough emphasis on the individual self. There are so many social constructions to abide by, and many people can communicate successfully within those constructions. however, there are socially "awkward" people who are not successful because they are individuals that don't conform to this model and their "inappropriate" communication is noticeable.

Chapter 1 Blog 3 Love Languages

One aspect of the reading that i found really interesting was regarding how scholars of psychology, sociology, and anthropology apply science to understanding human behavior. I believe the social sciences are tied to the study of human communication because there are so many aspects that can be researched and measured in either a lab or in real world settings. One author that i love has studied in all three of the social science fields and has written some incredible books on human behavior. Anyone ever read The Five Love Languages? Its a fantastic book that really uses all of Dr. Gary Chapman's research and experience to define five key ways in which humans communicate love. It is not limited to romantic relationships either, the love languages apply to family and friend relationships as well. I'm currently reading The Five Love Languages of Children. It's very interesting, and i can absolutely see how it applies to my eight year old son. If any of you have not heard about or read any of The Five Love Languages books, i encourage you to do so! It's amazing the insight that such simple concepts can shed on our relationships with the important people in our lives. Check out http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/ to find out what your love language is. It's a quick 30 statements to read. If you take Interpersonal Communication with Dr. K at Sierra you will go over the 5 love languages as a part of the course. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Chapter 1 Blog 2

I partially agree with the Greek's theory about orators needing to be morally good. I say partially, because while i believe that orators SHOULD be morally good, i have known many that are not. The last squadron i worked in before being retired from the Air Force had a charismatic pilot who would speak at all of our events and acted as a liaison to the public. He was absolutely magnetic, and could talk his way into or out of just about any situation. His future plans include running for a major public office, preferably the Senate. I know he will be a Senator someday, and he will be very popular, but i can't say that he will be popular due to his high moral standards. While he is not an awful guy, his great speaking abilities do not stem from some deeper moral fiber. He is manipulative and knows how to get people to do whatever he requires. Is it a gift? Maybe. I'm sure there were some Greek orators that had everyone fooled too. I do think that there is some connection between goodness, truth, and public communication. Eventually the truth always comes out, so public speakers that communicate truthfully and morally all of the time will never see everything they have built crumble due to lies or moral corruption.