CommunicationsSSS

A Final Go

2009-10-22T21:10:00.001+08:00

While all of us have been busy with our communications project, I reckoned I could do a miniature one for a closing entry as well. This would serve as a summary of what I have learned from all the lectures hitherto.

Since this is the last entry, I have decided to work on an all-time favourite movie of mine: The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The following is an extract from the movie which made use of numerous communication theories in its presentation.

It shows the creature, Gollum, talking to the dark side of himself (yes, he's developed split personality). Let's just name them Gollum A, for his normal self, and Gollum B for his other self.

Verbal/non-verbal communication

Producers made use of verbal communication between both Gollum A & B throughout the scene. It is the most direct way of conveying ideas, messages, opinions, emotions and feelings with the use of language and spoken words. In addition, with the help of non-verbal cues, it greatly enhanced the process of communication between Gollum A & B as well as communication with the audiences.

For instance, when Gollum A says "I hate you" to Gollum B, he says it with much agony on his face. From the diction, we know that A hated B; through affect display and facial expression(kinesics), we can tell how much he hated Gollum B.

Cues/Perception

Filmmakers also made use of massive amount of non-verbal cues to shape the audiences' perception on Gollum. Firstly, Gollum appears to look very unique physically; his looks epitomises unfriendliness, darkness, devilishly gunky; anything but positive. As first impressions are often persistent, audiences would typically see him as the anti-protagonist and loathe this character for the rest of the movie, regardless of what he does. Moreover, oculesics were also used to magnify the evilness of the character. Observe Gollum B's menacing glare when he was daunting Gollum A; it reinforce his character as a villain.

The Knapp Model

Let's try applying it to the relationship between the main character of the movie, Aragorn, and one of the female leads, Eowyn.

Initiating:
In this scene, Eowyn would swing her sword, throwing Aragorn's arm and knife to one side swiftly. Her face does not soften at his gaze.
(cautious and 'safe' feature of initiating stage)

Experimenting:

This scene would see them having a somewhat self-disclosing small talk.
Dialogue:

Eowyn: My uncle told me a strange thing. He
said that you rode to war with Thengel,
my grandfather. But he must be mistaken.
Aragorn: King Théoden has a good memory. He was only a small child at the time.

Eowyn: Then you must be at least 60? 70? But you cannot be 80!
Aragorn: 87.(self-disclosure)

Intensifying:
When Aragorn comes back from battle, Eowyn could no longer hide her feelings; she hugs him with delight and relieve.
(Disclosure of feelings; physical contact)

Terminating:
Their relationship never hit the next stage of integrating due to Aragorn's commitment to his girlfriend.
Dialogue:
Aragorn: Why have you come?
Eowyn: Do you not know?
Aragorn: It is but a shadow and a thought that you love.I cannot give you what you seek.

These stages hence reiterate the fact that the Knapp Model is not linear; the stages in reality do not necessarily follow that of the model.

Group Communication

The following is another extract of the movie, illustrating groupthink in group communication.

We see, in the video, that some of the characters agree on destroying the One Ring while some do not. Boromir (the one who insists not to destroy the ring) and his followers are so confident that with the Ring, they could oust evil altogether, once and for all. This is obviously untrue as told by the other veterans. The actions of Boromir illustrated the illusion of invulnerability, believing in the group's own morality as well as the collective rationalisation qualities of groupthink. Such actions, if not ceased by the wise, could probably lead to severe outcomes which would damage the entire population in the movie.

Intercultural Communication

I supposed we can say that intercultural communication do exist in the movie as well, with all the different races:

Men, hobbits, wizards, elves, dwarfs.

The video shows how people in different cultures are met with impediments due to the difference in languages. As the culture of the various races are inherently different, it goes without saying that it affects the way they receive and interpret cues from members of other cultural groups. Being affected by their long history of unhappiness with each other, it has become a norm to hold prejudices and discriminate one another for dwarvish and elvish cultures. Such cultures would inevitably affect the communication between the races, usually in a negative way.

The media

All directors will seek to use the most efficient methods to publicise their film across the globe. As internet and television are norms today and majority in the more developed countries have access to these services, producers emphasised their promotion through these mediums. For instance, before the actual screening of the film in theatres, the public will be able to see the trailers on TV very frequently. Producers also created a website specially for the movie. Making use of such media will ensure maximum awareness of the film and the quality(technology used etc.) of the trailer will determine how profound the impressions are imprinted on the audiences.

Finally, to end off, these are the official trailers of the trilogy. It is a truly fascinating movie.

For those who have not already watch it, please do. It is worth watching.
For those who had already watched it, might want to watch it again. :))

CULTURE & COMMUNICATION

2009-10-17T23:19:00.001+08:00

With globalisation on the rise, intercultural communication is becoming increasingly common and important in the world today. It is not as easy as it seems; communicating with people of different cultural backgrounds requires massive amount of understanding and compromising. We cannot be assuming that people of different cultural groups totally understand and accept our words and actions. This is so as different cultural environment impact differently on the various aspects of their communication.

For instance, culture often shape the perception of members of that cultural group.

Michelle Yeoh & Jean Todt

"We've talked about it. I've been married before. We'll stay together as long as we're happy. We don't necessarily have to get married. Marriage is a bonus. Being together is enough. I also like to be independent"
Michelle Yeoh was quoted as saying at a horse racing event in Hong Kong.

You may think that Asians are not as conservative after all; look at Michelle Yeoh. This is so untrue. Most Asians still believe that marriage is a sine qua non, especially among the older generation. The only reason to explain her being an exception is that she has had high exposure to western culture since young (she moved to London in her teenage years to study dancing at the Royal Academy). Hence, she sees that it does not really matter whether she and Jean Todt get married or not. The older generation may say that this is outrageous.

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie

No wedding plans for Brad and Angelina. Jolie said, "There is nothing in the air. The focus is the kids, and we are obviously extremely committed to the children and as parents together ... to have a ceremony on top of it is nothing."
Source:People.com

In the more liberal western society, having children and not getting married is deemed as alright. However, the more conservative eastern society would see it otherwise. Especially among the Chinese, shotgun marriage is alreadyl being considered a shameful act; having children and not getting married is worse. This is because of the differences in the cultural environment in both areas. People in the east are mostly brought up in a more traditional environment and are hence more conservative unlike in the west, where the societies are more open to new thinking.

So you see, culture affects our perception.

Another example would be how culture impacts on our role identity.

Muslim model's beer drinking issue in Malaysia.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced to 6 strokes of canes for beer-drinking. Religious roles in the Malaysian culture is vital and sacred, and do not allow any form of violation. However, if Kartika were to be drinking in a Singapore-based night club, the punishment, if there is any, might be much lighter. This is because the culture in Malaysia stresses a lot on religion, especially for the muslims. It has taught that as a muslim, it is compulsory for you to behave as one; it is wrong to drink in public. Hence, an act as that of Kartika is deviant as compared to the other law/religion abiding local muslims.

Culture therefore affects the way one act.

Furthermore, culture also affect the basic notions of human nature. 2 rather distinctive values are individualism and collectivism.

Moving out at legal age

Western culture has been seen as more individualistic most of the time. People are encouraged in self decision-making, to solve their own problems, and setting out from a self perspective. Take moving out for instance, teenagers in western societies tend to move out once they reach the legal age. From then on, they depend mostly on themselves, how they earn their pocket money, how they manage their expenses, how they go about achieving their goals. Besides their parents helping them out on their college tuition fees, they are virtually on their own in every other aspect.

On the contrary, in Asian families, it is common that children, married or not, stay with their parents regardless of their age. Most Asian parents, who often lose the sense of security as they age prefer to have their children at their side. As for the children, many of them will also honour their responsibility as a child to their parents by living with them.

During a poll on whether people prefer to move out after they get married in the October issue of the Elle magazine, 66% of those polled said they prefer to stay with their parents. One of such answers is as such:

"Eventually there will be a time when you will be without your parents so it's better to live with them as long as you can."
-Debbie Chia, Brand Manager

This is a result of the value of filial piety in the society, especially among the Chinese. They believe that it is morally due to stay at the side of their parents who have given so much to them. The children's personal goals/targets are secondary to repaying the relentless love their parents. Such is the trait of collectivist culture.

Thus, culture do affect the images of 'self' of members of the society.

All in all, culture impinges different aspects of communication such that the way people communicate with others will in turn be affected as well. Therefore, when we interact with each other cross-culturally, it is important that we be sensitive to their culture, even if we do not understand or agree with it. This will help us in avoiding unnecessary unhappiness or impairment on the relationship.

It says: 'TEAMWORK'

2009-10-09T23:33:00.004+08:00

There are many occupations and professions in the world that requires group communication.

Groups Features
A more familiar example is the soccer sport. Each team require vast amount of interaction among its members for maximum achievement. In groups, everyone's action is interdependent; no one can afford solo actions which may bring about mistakes that lead to failure of the entire team.

Legendary footballer Zinedine Zidane received a red card for headbutting fellow soccer player Marco Materazzi during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Zidane is extremely renowned and prestigious for his extraordinary skills and performance at the game. However, his actions during World Cup 2006, as the commentator suggested in the video, "leaves the team in big trouble". In a tournament setting like World Cup, losing such an outstanding player to a red card crippled the team badly.
No Zidane --> deteriorated morale --> poor performance from France --> France lost to Italy during that final match 3:5.
This hence shows that it is crucial that members of each group be responsible in his/her actions.

No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.
- H.E. Luccock

Group Synergy
It is indeed true to say that more ideas can be generated and explored in groups than individual work. An example will be the premier class motor racing (MotoGP). Although there is only one rider for each bike, there is actually an entire team working on that particular vehicle. The purpose of this team is to regulate the process of working on the bike (to enable best performance) and make it more efficient and effective. For instance, when MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi crashed at the Indianapolis Grand Prix in USA, he and the team would come together to examine on the reason and the resolution. Him alone will not be able to accomplish the task as efficiently and effectively as the team's efforts do, with more ideas/opinions.

Crashed during the Indianapolis Grand Prix in USA.
Ideas/opinions for optimum performance.
Group working to improve the bike.Rider's individual efforts and skills.
Entire team's and personal efforts that he was able to regain victory at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini.
Groups synergy is therefore an advantage of group communication which will eventually lead to massive achievements.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
-Helen Keller

Groupthink
The following video shows the 8 symptoms of groupthink:
-Illusion of invulnerability
-Believe in group's morality
-Shared stereotypes
-Collective rationalisation
-Self Censorship
-Illusion of unanimity
-Pressure on dissenters
-Mind-guards

Groupthink will result in poor decision-making most of the time which may in turn lead to catastrophic result like the Challenger explosion. Hence, it is important that members of a group seek to prevent this problem by being aware of such symptoms.

When we talk in company, we lose our unique tone of voice, and this leads us to make statements which in no way correspond to our real thoughts.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

To split? Or not to split?

2009-10-03T11:53:00.002+08:00

Everyday, there are people hitching up and splitting.

Why do people choose to get married in the first place? In olden days, male often get married for a next generation to carry on the family's name. Females do so as it is a norm for them once they reached a certain age. (there have to be mutual liking, of course) They will then stick together throughout their lives. However, as times change, people talk more about feelings rather than responsibilities.

This is an illustration of the Knapp Model of Relational Development. It shows the 10 stages in 2 phases in which Mark Knapp believe relational development can be classified into.

Personally, I agree that what he had included in the Model is highly relevant to relationships in the contemporary world today ESPECIALLY the intensifying, stagnating and terminating stages (just look at the phenomenal increase in divorce rate worldwide in recent years).

Look at LeAnn Rimes' marriage and the recent David Letterman scandal.

Both cheated on their partners, leading to the termination, or possible termination of their marriage.

However, the model does not apply to all relationship. They are not linear (it's only a theory after all); not all relations will follow the model strictly. They may lapse to earlier stages or skip a stage.

Let's take a look at this.

The video shows a family argument of the main characters (in order of appearance), Mutt, Indy and Marion, in the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It suggested that Marion and Indy split when Indy went away before their marriage.
If you had watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981), you will know that Indy and Marion ended up together at the end of the film. However, they were met with much challenges during the process.

(FYI: Mutt is their child.)

In Crystal Skull, Indy and Marion reunited and at the end of the film which saw the joining of them both in holy matrimony.

I tried applying the various stages to their relationship and I got this:
(It may be a little messy. But it should be okay if you had watched the films)

Initiating: She was his teacher's daughter.
Experimental: Not sure. But they probably went through that before dating each other.
Intensifying: Not sure. But they probably went through that before dating each other.
Integrating: When they dated each other.
Differentiating: Conflicting views; they argued a lot.
Avoiding: Difference in value; Marion was ready to get married, but Indy wasn't ready for the responsibilities. He went away eventually.
Stagnation: Absence of Indy (perhaps).
Terminating: Not totally. Both of them moved on. But Indy admitted that he was still in love with her in the Crystal Skull; relationship did not really cease. Moreover, they had Mutt! This kind of pulled their relation closer.
Initiating: When they met again after about 2 decades.
Intensifying: When Indy admitted that he still loves Marion.
Integrating: (Sort of) After he admitted his feelings.
Bonding: When they finally got hitched!

Notice how the stages are all jumbled up?
So you see, relationship may not necessarily follow the Model strictly. Not in this case.

In addition, not all relationships terminates; not all marriages end up with divorces. There are some that last. For instance:

American President Barack & Michelle Obama after 17 years of marriage,

Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson after 21 years of marriage.
And of course.....

MY PARENTS! after 31 years of marriage. Love them.

Conclusion:
There isn't a perfect model for the development of relationships because all relations are unique in their own way. A model that apply to one relation doesn't necessarily apply to all.

It's not easy.

2009-09-27T23:58:00.014+08:00

Non-verbal communication: we make use of it everyday. To communicate from afar, to emphasize on a point we are trying to make, to show how we feel towards certain things. It even helps us make some deductions of a person's character and attitude.

The video shows a group of models on the runway for renowned brand Herve Leger.

Around 2:50/6:29 through the video, a model fell on the runway but rose immediately and continued the show. She was very professional in the sense that there wasn't much changes in her facial expression; she looked as confident, sharp and fearless as before. Her appearance tells a lot about the her professionalism. We can hence deduce that that particular model is rather professional and serious about her job.

When she fell, we can tell that the audiences were shocked by the exclamation they made through paralinguistics, or the "O!"s and deep gasps. (I believe you exclaimed too :) ). When the model rose and continued her show, audiences clapped. Here, it is obvious, they were very impressed by her professionalism and were very encouraging. Kinesics, or body language of the audiences is what tells us about how they felt towards the model's fall.

Designers and models use a lot of non-verbal cues in their work. Objects (their designs) are how designers express themselves or their feeling and views of what a certain theme should mean. Models, through kinesics and their physical appearances, enhances what the designers are trying to convey in their designs.

Non-verbal communication through various cues can be useful in professions like designing and modeling. However, it only works if receivers can understand and interpret the cues correctly and positively. This means that erroneous interpretation would make that particular cue a futile one. If the cues are irrelevant, they are equally useless.

Check out the following videos:

(Hmmm..think you guys should start watching from 8:20/10:02 for this one)

The competitors were supposed to design based on the theme "Olympics Opening for Team USA". The judges were pretty pleased with some of the designs as they get what those designs were trying to convey in them; they reflect the designers' view about what the theme is all about. Non-verbal communication (via design(the object) and modeling (physical appearance/kinesics) is considered successful in these cases.

However, the judges were pretty harsh upon commenting some of the designs as they really couldn't make out what the designs were all about. In these cases, irrelevant physical appearances and objects are failed cues and hence, non-verbal communication was ineffective.

Although we, the audiences, might think that some of the designs looked alright and we might have understood the meaning of them, the judges just did not see them as we did. This shows that though non-verbal cues can tell us a lot about someone/something, it depend on how a receiver interprets them.

Non-verbal cues can be subtle at times and hard to catch on. Misunderstandings can easily occur should a non-verbal cue be misinterpreted.

Spoken words really speaks

2009-09-18T10:32:00.007+08:00

Words are part of most people's everyday life; both yours and mine. Most of us communicate with others orally rather than in written mode on most occasions as it is a fast and efficient way of passing our thoughts. This is verbal communication.

Verbal communication expresses ideas, opinions, emotions, feelings and relationship in spoken words. It can be the most direct way of expressing one's opinions and feelings at the exact moment, and can yet be the most implicit one at times. It all depend on how you phrase what you intend to say and the tone that you adopt. Obviously, different sentence construction and tone leaves you with different results.

You can have the positive ones like this:

Kate Winslet was so happy to receive the Golden Globe this year for Best Actress. If she had went on and gasped for the remaining 4 minutes or so, would anyone ever know who she really wanted to thank? We'll only know she's really happy and ecstatic. Leonardo DiCaprio and Sam Mendes might not know how much she really wanted to thank them. Her grateful speech won her thunder of applause. Verbal communication is at work.

You can have negative ones like this:

Serena Williams, currently seeded World No.2 for women's tennis, was disqualified from the U.S. open and fined for the tirade. We know she was frustrated over the match as she had lost a couple of pretty crucial points. She made it clearer by scolding the line judge in the face, with rather impolite sentences and harsh tone. It's clear. She's unhappy. Direct but undesired outcome.
She got to vent her anger & frustration accumulated from the match through the series of scoldings though. She was disqualified, yes, but she got to let it all out. Maybe there's a little comfort there? In this case, verbal communication can be a form of stress relief as well.

Warning! Negative effects may ensue though. Try it at your own risk.

Or you can have the unclear ones like this:

Did Mr. Obama really mean it when he said that? Or was he joking? It's really hard to tell, isn't it? He was giving his opinion when called West 'jackass'. But I suppose he ought to clarify himself a little given the fact that he's a President.

There are advantages and disadvantages of verbal communication. However, if you do not speak at all, you'll probably end up like this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6663629

Guys, you have to watch this (could not get the embed code unfortunately). It's REALLY FUNNY and kind of warm. Dad, Steve Monforto, caught a hard to come by foul ball hit by Jayson Werth during the Phillies match, passed it to his adorable 3 year old daughter, Emily, and........she throws it back down! Dad embraces her in his arms later on.
There was no sign of verbal communication between them; just a little high five and Steve passed the baseball to Emily. If he could have just said a simple 'keep it' or 'let's take it home', little Emily might not have threw the exclusive souvenir back. It's all good fun and laughter in this case but it is still a pity.
(Happy fact: each of the family members received personalised Phillies jerseys and Steve received a ball signed and presented by Jayson Werth later on.)

What if it was a situation like when you are hopelessly in love with someone but you just can't pluck up the courage or refuse to lose some 'face' and continue keeping mum about it? Or maybe when you choose to text him/her about how you feel towards him/her but there was some technical problem with the service resulting in the message not reaching the other party? He/She will never know how you feel. You might lose a love and a possible life partner.

YES. I know some of you might be thinking: 'such coincidence will only happen in TV dramas'. Well, you never know!

So you see, verbal communication is extremely important in passing on messages. However, one must also be aware of the words/language/sentence/tone of what one uses as he/she speaks. This is because the wrong usage of these might rouse misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the receiver. Moreover, like one of my classmates, Jeremy, suggested in his blog, good command of the particular language that one is conversing in is also essential in aiding his/her construction of a conversation and interpreting that of others', thereby reducing possible misunderstandings, confusions or conflicts.

In verbal communication, words and language are the supporting pillars; choosing them wisely will, doubtlessly, reduce the chances of unpleasant situations from arising. Don't you think?

Nothing beats Face-to-Face Communication

2009-09-12T01:04:00.002+08:00

Pop quiz: What's the hottest networking medium in town?

If your answer is Windows Live Messenger, you are wrong. If it's Facebook, you are also wrong. Twitter? You are close, but still, nope.

Nothing beats face-to-face communication. It is ever the most-used form of communication across the globe; it's part of most people's everyday life.

When you go to school, you talk to your friends in class in the face; you are unlikely to call the person sitting beside you with your cell phone. It is totally silly and not to mention it's a really dimwitted way to spend on bills.
When you are ordering your lunch at McDonald's, I don't suppose you'd go to the counter and chat with the cashier through W.L. Messenger telling him you want a Filet-o-fish meal. It doesn't make sense to do that, isn't it?
We do not attend job interviews by means of Facebook; it's basic respect for our employers, the job and also ourselves to be interviewed in person.
We certainly do not tweet about how bad our flu is and expect our doctors to attend to us, via Twitter; we'd go to the clinic under normal circumstances.

Yes, Messenger, Facebook & Twitter are really very popular nowadays and there is no denial that these networking services have indeed brought about plenty of convenience for most people. However, messages passed around by these means may not be as clear and precise as those in F-F communication. In a F-F communication, one get to see the other party's facial expression & body language, thereby getting a more vivid idea of what he/she is trying to say.

Most importantly, F-F communication is able to creat a real connection between the interacting parties. This brings friends and family members closer together which is really essential to maintain relationship. I believe most people would rather meet up for drinks or party with friends/coworkers after school/work than drinking/dancing alone and laughing to the computer.

Isn't real, genuine friendship and family ties what most people yearn? If so, nothing, nothing beats face-to-face communication in achieving that.