week 10, post 3

The question of who sets the agenda in the agenda-settng theory is extremely pertinent. It is been determined that the work by the interest aggregation. The interest aggregations are clusters of people who demand center stage for their one, overriding concern, also considered to be pressure groups. The question that most of do not even consider when viewing or listening from information dispersed by mass media is why this? What one person or group of people decided that this information needed to be known by the general public. What about the information which is not shared by the general public, and why did that one person decide that the information not shared is less important or would sell less copies of the information. We must look at the motivations associated with mass media and the information which is relayed to the general public.

Week 10, post 2

The spiral of silence established by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann is the increasing pressure people feel to conceal their views when they think thy are in the minority. Imagine is you part of a group discussion, and you are the one person who does not agree with the other group members. Because of the expected pressure that would be felt by other group members to convert them to your point of view, you would be less likely to share your comments and simply conform to their beliefs. This still gives you an out if you are wrong, because you can say later, that you didn't agree but you wouldn't be able to convert the whole group so it would be a waste of time.

week 10, post 1

The agenda-setting hypothesis is the belief that mass media has the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda. The theory was set in place by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, and was used as an example during the watergate scandal of ex-president Richard Nixon's term. It is the desire of media assistance in determining political reality. What I find as being the most appealing in the agenda-setting theory is the idea of which came first, the media agenda determining voter's agenda, or voter's agenda determining media agenda. My guess would be a combination of both. If the media program has low ratings than it would align itself with the voter's agenda. If a voter is not apart of the norm, than he or she may align themselves with the media program.

Week #9, post #3

Economic determinism is the belief that human behavior and relationships are ultimately caused by differences in financial resources and the disparity in power that those gals create. Something about the topic that must be established is the ease of apparency in cultures with a high disparity. In countries, or cultures, which do not experience a high disparity in financial resources or disparity in power, it would obviously be a tough debate to say that culture our country is experiencing economic determinism. In America, we have an extreme case of economic determinism, because of the large disparities evident in our culture.

Week 9, post 2

Democratic pluralism is the myth that society is held together by common norms such as equal opportunity, respect for diversity, one person-one vote, individual rights, and rule of law. The ideal of American society is obviously that. If you were going to be selling America has a packaged product, that is how you would sell the product. However, that is exactly a myth. America is often held together by a lack of other options. For example, we often hear about the dissatisfaction of citizens regarding our politics, and the claim they will move to another country, but never do. America is all about the individual, and excitement, making a deal that will lead to either riches or rags, and that is how America was founded. Other countries may have been okay with being a colony, but America put it all on the line, and won their Independence.

Week#9, post#1 -

The invisibility of environments is an interesting topic in the Media Ecology chapter. It is extremely true that at times we do not even realize what we have created or the ramifications of such actions. As mentioned, a multitude of Hollywood movies describe possible events. Just imagine what was created with the implementation of computers, and the internet connectivity that we are now immersed in. However, no one can predict the future, and we do not know what may result from the implementation of our newest technological advances. Furthermore, the evolution of the world happened the same way. Species which could not adapt did not survive. Industries, the same, will face the same fate. Teleconferencing can destroy corporate travel, especially lodging and airline travel.

narrative cohesion, week #8, post#3

Narrative cohesion is extremely important to public speech and communication. I am sure that each of us have heard a poorly prepared speech, which was out of order, and didn't make sense. If the speech talks about items out of order, for example the conclusion before the argument, or an argument without an introduction, would cause the audience to become lost, and lose interest in the orators message. I think that the cohesion of a speech is sometimes even more important that the actual message. Similar to a student doing a paper last minute, and doing poor quality on the paper, at least it is turned in and the student will receive some credit. In a speech, if no one listens to the orator, then what does the message matter?

Week 8, post #2 - Victimage

Victimage is one of the best and worse means of communicaiton, especially organizational or industrial. Sometimes things will not work the way they are supposed to regardless of how much effort was put into ensuring smooth operations. Victimage is an extremely common practice in most successful and unsuccesful organizations. Victimage is the act of naming an external enemy as the source of all personal or public ills. This means that it is not the actual person who was supposed to perform the action, was at fault. That gives an out for that person, to not faced the reprocusions of a failed action. I believe that everyone has engaged in victimage at one point in their lives.

Week #8, post #1

The golden mean that was illustrated by Aristotle is similar to other concepts introduced throughout history, most notably Benjamin Franklin's temperance ideology. The extremes of communication involve lies, secrecy, and cowardice. The opposite extreme involves brutal honesty, soul-baring, and recklessness. The golden mean, or balance of communication, is characterized by truthful statements, self-disclosure, and courage. This well struck balance respects the boundaries of others, and keeps relationships balanced. If you have ever experienced one of the mentioned extremes from above, you know how this type of communication can lead to unstable relationships.

corporate colonization

I believe that one of the greatest catastrophes that arised out of the capitalism of this century, was the developement of Big Business CEO's. In this organizational system, much of the work is delegated down the line, to standard workers, and the CEO is simply providing a yes or no. However, the person who is actually performing the duties is highly underpaid for the duties performed, as compared to the CEO. The was an occasion in which my boss, had to pick up the CEO of our company, and he said something very profound. My boss has a BMW, but said he wanted to pick them up in a bad car, so they don't think he makes as much, and won't think he is expendable.

organizational

One concept that stuck out to me was the article regarding responsible communication in a business setting. This included voicemail, email, conference calls, and other means of communication. I have called some of my employees, or even perspective interviews and have listen to different musical tones, some of which contained swearing and other inappropriate things. This did not produce quality assumptions of the character of these employees, or perspective interviews. It almost shows immaturity by those persons. I would absolutely suggest that we all adopt a business practice when it comes to our voicemails.

Week#6, post#3

Chapter 18: Production of change, reproduction or stability

The group dynamic is ever present when interested in the group dynamic. This would include crafting the decision, duality of structure, stability, and change. Production is the use of rules and resources to create a new structure. Reproduction is the use of rules and resources to reinforce structures already in place. The duality of structure is the idea that rules and resources are both the means and the ends of group interaction. Lastly, the interpenetration of structures are unnoticed change over time as reproduced structures affect each other. All of these concepts combine to describe the group product.

Week 6, Post #2 - Chapter 18 - Phasing out

In chapter 18, the history of small group communication is explained throught the Phase model. In this model, which was accepted for much of the 20th century, it was thought that there was a universal pattern of communication that all groups use when they make a decision. These phases included, orientation, conflict, coalescence, development, and integration. However, with the work of Poole, he was able to uncover that only about one quarter of small decision making groups actually followed this pattern. There was obviously more, as an approach must be flexible, and recognize that some situations may not fit their model, but more than half not fitting, shows it is not a good model. Thus Poole began looking at the affect of social structures present in the group dynamic.

Week 6 #1 - From the tiny pond to the big ocean

I particularly enjoy this concept, from the tiny pond to the big ocean, presented by Hirokawa. He mentioned the obvious difficulty present with translating the results from controlled lab experiments to that of real world, seemingly unpredictable interactions. He presents that quality and not quantity in the group decision making process, is the key to the final decision. I definitely believe that statement, as when I am in a group, I would tend to side more with someone who does try to think out their thoughts while, speaking, but someone who has visualized what they wanted to say, the best coarse of action, and then contributed to the group in a well-mannered, non-rambling way.