Blog #2 10.25.08

Chapter 24: Media Ecology
I really appreciated the analysis of Al Gore's inconvenient truth at the opening of chapter 24. I worked in Media Sales for a few years, and we analysed the movie An Inconvenient Truth and its effects on people.
It is so amazing to me how media can mold an entire generation. When I was growing up, everyone was scared of AIDS. While it is still important to protect yourself as much as possible from contracting AIDS, I don't see the same amount of media hype on it as when I was in elementary school.
Now that this generation is seeing its parents and grandparents stress out about the environment and our effects on it, I wonder how these children growing up might be scared that they wont have a planet to live on if everyone doesn't start doing their part.
In the diagram on page 315, it correlates the dominant sense receptor in humans based on the technological development of the time, I can help but wonder if post electronic age, a cartoon of stress and anxiety will be added to the diagram based on the medias effects on the general public.

Blog #1 10.25.08

Chapter 24: Media Ecology

When reading chapter 24 in "The Age of Literacy..." section, I was really impacted by the final sentence of the section. The statement says:

"When oppressed people learned to read, they became independent thinkers." (316)

I think this is so true. Initially I thought of women and African-Americans. There have been times where these groups could not read or were not allowed to be educated, but when they started to read and have an understanding, they were set free. Not entirely at first, but I truly believe it was a major step in achieving freedom.
It has obviously allowed these two groups, once looked upon as a lesser race or being, whom now make up 50% of our presidential candidates. I cant help but be excited for this election, because either way, the once minority group will be on a major political platform making decisions and representing our country whom finally finds comfort in a non-white male to be the president, and a female to be our vice-president.
These are exciting times, and I am so proud to be a part of them.

Blog #3 10.19.08

I have to be totally honest and say that I had a hard time grasping the concept in chapter 23 based on Narrative Paradigm.
From what I could understand, Fisher is saying that everyone is a storyteller, but how one views the story is the concept of Narrative Paradigm.
I would welcome anyone's comments on this blog just based on my struggle to understand the subject and theory in the chapter.

Blog #2 10.18.08

Chapter 22: Dramatism

What I found interesting in this chapter was the use of “god term” and “devil term.” I never used this in persuasion before.
When I attempt to persuade people I usually try and identify what is most important to them, and link what I am pitching them with what is most important and how the benefits are linked to my solution. I think if I am consciously using god and devil terms, I can see if this makes a difference in my persuasion.
I will also start paying attention to commercials based around the elections and voting coming up in November. I would like to see if I can spot devil and god terms in the ads.

Blog #1 10.18.08

Chapter 21: The Rhetoric

So much of this chapter applies to my work.
I am really glad I read this chapter and understood Logos, Ethos & Pathos. I have been struggling with sales and I really found it easy to blame the economy or the financial situation on Wall St.
By dissecting Dr. King’s speech, I was able to think about my presentations at work and compare the ability and thought I put into what I am trying to sell.
There are so many facets to what goes into a sale, and by understanding how to produce rhetoric in an intelligent form, I think I will have more success.
I know I will never compare to Dr. King, but by mirroring him and his effectiveness of speech and persuasion, I believe I will find success in sales.

Blog #2 10.10.08

Deetz interview:
What I found facinating about the Stanley Deetz interview was his concept of the 10% giving back for 90% more porductivity in corporations. Although it was mentioned at the very end of the interview and I wished that Em Griffin would have continued to probe Deetz with questions surrounding this idea, I still found it very interesting.
I also found it amazing that this theory is based around humility. It would be great to someday be a manager of a team at a large corporation, but I can see the pressure and responsability that it takes from an individual. I really can see that it takes a toll on some people, and others handle the pressure with easy (or so it appears.)
I like that Em Griffin talked about the argument that too many ideas would create chaos, and I think that the 10% concept explained by Deetz was a great rebuttle.

Blog #1 10.10.08

The thing I like most about Comm 101, is that I am able to read the book and in most cases know what the book is referring to. Chapter 19 is no exception. When the chapter starts out it discusses culture at work and how it can effect overall performance in employees.
I think that with my career, although it is short compaired to many people in the corporate world, the different companies I have worked with have all had very different ideas of culture. I think personally the companies with the stronger sense of culture and pride in excellence, I was a lot more motivated to work for.
Although every company wants to be profitable and successful, I think that many companies overlook the importance of culture and pride that chapter 19 discussed.

Blog #2 10.4.08

Chapter 18: Adaptive Structuation Theory

I really appreciated the interview with Scott Poole. I felt out of all of the interviews thus far, he did the best job of explaining his theory. After reading and watching the interview, the theory makes a lot of sense. At first, it was challenging to grasp, as Scott Poole explained in his interview, but after thinking about his examples, it clicked. I think back to high school initially regarding his examples of pecking orders… but that can apply to work, or church, or college also. I especially appreciated Scott Poole’s examples at how to approach situations in groups at the end of the interview. 1st he said to make small changes in your behavior in order to amend the situation with the group. 2nd he gave an example of undertaking a major intervention. He also made sure to not that we will never know the true outcome, but sometimes it is worth it to call someone out.

Blog #1 10.3.08

Chapter 17: Functional Perspective & Group Decision Making

In training at Wells Fargo, one of our days of class was dedicated to problem analysis and conflict resolution. One of the more interesting things the companies Learning & Development staff had us do was answer a series of questions about survival in the wild. Questions about what to do when we encounter a bear, were to find fresh water to drink in the desert, what color berries to eat, etc.
We first answered these 30 questions independently. After we were finished, all 30 bankers were divided equally and instructed to discuss what we chose for each question, and to come up with one answer as a group. This created CONFLICT! Everyone was so dead set on their answers and how they were going to survive in the wild. Some in the group were passive about what they said, claiming that they didn’t really know and they just guest. Others in the group started explaining their credentials, like: I lived in the wild for 3 years, or, I camped with my family every summer and this is what my dad said. It was very interesting to see everyone’s approach.
At they end of the exercise we evaluated how we handled the interaction and decision making process.
I felt my group did well because I tried to lead us in the Four Functions of Effective Decision Making process from p.223.
While we started to argue and bicker like the other groups we could hear, I spoke up and explained the problem and we analyzed it as a team. “We have to come up with an answer, so lets try to find a way to do this professionally.”
Next we set a goal: “Lets have each person read the question one by one and starting from the readers left, we each get an opportunity to explain our answer in 4 sentences or less.”
After a few rounds of this, we realized that this was going to favor the group member with the best persuasion skills instead of the group member that could keep us alive in the wild. So we reevaluated our approach, and came up with an alternative.
“Okay, we will each read the questions, but we will just have a raise of hands for a vote as to which letter we want to go with. If there is a tie, we flip a coin.” The coin toss was funny based on the subject of the questions… your ability to live in the wild. But this approach proved to have a better and more efficient process to handing conflict. Less arguing and more results.
When we evaluated, the last step of the 4 part process, our results, they proved to be someone positive. Out of the 30 questions, we would have survived for about 24 of the situations. I think it proved to be a great process and the Learning and Development staff took note because they had never seen a group take that approach before. I was pretty happy and my group really appreciated how nice it was to be able to communicate effectively with each other.