Stetson University Interpersonal Communication

These four pictures make up a tragedy happened in Shanghai Fudan University Medicine School. A graduate student killed his roommate by putting chemical poisoning substance in dorm water dispenser. The whole Chinese society was shocked by the incident. We thought little conflict between youngsters can be ignored, the travail problems will be solved by time. The criminal Liu said he didn't meant to kill the victim Huang, just wanted to intimidate and build his stateliness. But it becomes a murder when the amount of poison is enough to kill people.

Conflict exists in most of relationships when people communicating, everyone has own perspective to view issues. In this case, outstanding Medicine students living together with conflicts, they just pretend the problem doesn't exist. They try to avoid facing it instead of discussing and coming out with a solution. Gradually the problem becomes an unforgivable contradiction, one of them chose to punish him secretly. Finally, the victim died and his family were desperate because they used many time and money to cultivate their son a doctor. The criminal ruined his future and would spend his whole life in prison. Through his example, it is obvious that we should pay attention to conflicts in communication, especially the nonverbal ones. Conflict may elicit serious result of problems are not solved properly.

- Bella Huan Ma

Revenge is defined as "the infliction of harm in return for a perceived wrong" (Yoshimura, 278). If you look back in history you can see that in all prominent societies there have been "codes" or rules set forth for people to live by. These rules were not there to encourage revenge but rather to limit the extent to which one could punish another. The most common example of this is the concept of "an eye for an eye" found in Hammurabi's code. However, the fact that revenge has been found in all cultures throughout history can only mean that revenge is a "fundamental human phenomenon" (pg. 286) that none of us are immune to. Everyone is farmiliar with the show NCIS. My example of revenge comes from season 3 episode 23 (and 24). Team leader, Jethro Gibbs, is hospitalized after being exposed to an explosion that has put him in a comma. While under the comma he has flashbacks to when his wife and daughter were murdered by a Mexican drug dealer, Pedro Hernendez, while he was deployed in Desert Storm. After being injurded and returning home, he meets with the NCIS detective on the case, Mike Franks, to learn more about the death of his family. Shortly after, he heads to Mexico where Hernandez fled to escape prosecution of the killings. In his grief-stricken state, Gibbs was consumed by an overwhelming desire to enact revenge on Hernandez, which he did by shooting him in the head killing him instantly. Gibbs then returns to the US, keeping his actions a secret. Because Gibbs is not likely to forgive Hernandez for his actions, it was practically inevitable that he would seek revenge. After receiving the news of his family's death, Gibbs becomes distraught and grief-stricken for ever leaving his family. As time goes on however, his anger and hatred for Hernandez grows. Hernandez has committed a crime against Gibbs by taking away two of his loved ones. Jethro being the old fashioned man he was took it upon himself to enact revenge. However, he saw it more as getting justice; an eye for an eye, a life for a life. there are many goals that can motivate someone to seek revenge. According to Skarlick and Folger, justice restoration is one of them. However, Gibbs' revenge was more than just getting justice. He needed to be at peace again, and by killing Hernandez, he was able to get that. Many people experience relief after "getting even" because social equality has been restored.

This video demonstrates how conflict is managed in the English Parliament’s House of Commons. The video is a compilation of heated debates that have occurred in the House of Commons over the last ten years. In these clips, we constantly see the Prime Minister (majority leader) and the Minority Leader go back and forth in their argumentation regarding their policy ideas. As Wood describes, this is an example of how conflict arises as the result of a superiority                                   versus equality climate. In this legislative body, MPs are constantly debating looking to exert their ideas and views as the dominant figures. Although the House of Commons operates at a larger political party level, we can still see interpersonal interactions between individual leaders. We can most definitely observe this phenomena between the Prime Minister and the Minority Leader. Using Wood’s framework we see that both sides strive in eliminating any confirmation between the two. They do this to establish their dominance and avoid any political compromises. Eventually, however, both groups must eventually concede certain preferences to enact policies.  

-Miguel Ortiz Burgos 

From what we have learned in class, nonverbal communication’s definition is all communication besides language: gestures, body languages, utterances. It is also very important; nonverbal communication makes up 65-93% of the total meaning of communication. There are three main differences between verbal and nonverbal communication. Nonverbal is more believable, it is multi-channeled, and it is continuous. My example of nonverbal communication is from a Pixar short called For the Birds. This is a great example because it shows how nonverbal communication plays a part in everyday lives. The short starts off with a little bird flying onto a telephone wire and resting on it and starts to ruffle his feathers, looking like he is settling in for a while. A short moment after the bird lands on the wire, another bird lands right next to him, invading his personal space. The first bird looks aggravated by his facial expression, while the second bird has an expression on his face that nothing is wrong with how close he is to his neighbor. Suddenly, more birds come onto the wire. Once they see the large bird a few feet away from them on the telephone post, they all start making fun of the big bird, and start panicking when the bird starts to fly over to them to sit on the wire with them. The big bird’s expression on his face looks like nothing is wrong and that he is comfortable with the small birds and wants to be friends with them.

-Morgan Eiland

I love this post because it is extremely cute, but it also shows the different signs of nonverbal communication. This is such a good post because unlike people, birds cannot speak and say how they feel, so everything has to be read through the birds reactions to one another. Each bird is sending an implicit message to the others, whether intentional or not. Some ways of communication include: facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, gestures displayed through body language (kinesics) and the physical distance between the communicators (proxemics). This video shows facial expressions, gestures displayed, and the physical distance between the birds. Another example of nonverbal communication would be someone nodding their heads while saying "Yes" to show that they agree with the other person. Nonverbal communication can help when talking about your emotional state, showing the relationship between people, when regulating communication, for example by signalling to someone if they wish to say something. When we communicate, non-verbal cues can be as important, or sometimes more important, than what we say.

Nonverbal communication is just as important, if not more so, than verbal communication. The way we present ourselves and our use of body language can say a lot about us and how we view the situations we find ourselves in. Our actions speak louder than our words and often times our actions say what we can’t bring ourselves to verbally communicate. Our facial expressions, posture, hand gestures, eye contact, tone of voice, and even how much space we keep between those we talk to give away much more than one would like to think. They show our level of interest and investment in others. What you communicate through your body language affects how others perceive you, how well they like and respect you, and whether or not they trust you enough to associate themselves with you.

-Sofia Poulos

My picture represents different speech communities. Speech communities are defined as “People who share norms about talk and what purpose it serves,” according to Labov. Between parents and their children there is a generational gap. Within these group different vernaculars are used.  As new slang is created it is more often adopted by the younger generations.  So, there has always been a slight difference in word choice between myself and my mom.   When entering college students are in contact with new slang such as terms about greek life, their classes, and their college.  Last semester this was evident when I uploaded a picture online of me and my sorority family using the caption “So Srat” to which my Mom responded with “I don’t know what ‘SRAT’ is, but cute picture!”  I had to direct my mom to Urban Dictionary where she found that Srat was an, “abbreviation for "sorority", popular at colleges with a large greek population. based on "frat", an abbreviation for fraternity.” (Urban Dictionary). This showed how I entered a new speech community when I joined my sorority.  There are many other speech communities that I became a part of when I entered college, but this was the most evident.  I am sure that my mom joined different speech communities from her parents when she began her college career. I believe there will always be a disconnect in terminology between parents and their children.

Although verbal communication is only a small part of Interpersonal communication, it is highly important. Speech codes within communities are one of the most important aspects of verbal communication. There are six different propositions of speech code. The first proposition says, wherever there is a distinctive culture, there is a distinctive speech code. The second states, that there are several different speech codes within one community. Third, the speech code theory states that the way we speak reveals how one lives their life. Fourth, the significance of speech is dependent on the speech code. Firth, the terms or rules of the speech code can be understood just through speaking. The sixth proposition tells one to impose on any person’s speech code. This cartoon reflects the idea of speech communities. In the cartoon one man is speaking in slang that the other man does not understand. This reflects the second proposition, which states that in any speech community, there are many speech codes. These two men appear to live within the same community however because they have different speech codes, they are unable to understand what the other is saying. It also affects how these men can communicate with each other, which reflects the sixth proposition. Because they have different speech codes, we are able to see that they have difficulty verbally communicating.

-Carlton Robinson

The definition of Verbal Communication is the use of sounds and words to express yourself, especially in contrast to using gestures or mannerisms. Verbal Communication is something that people deal with everyday. It is how we communicate with one another. Communication is something that happens without thinking about it. The example that I chose expresses communication in a different way that most people don't consider communicating. I chose to do a music video because a lot of singers chose to express how they feel through music and lyrics. The song I chose is called “I took a pill in Ibiza” by Mike Posner. This song is very popular right now, but a lot of people only know the Seeb Remix version of it. This remix is very upbeat and happy, but the original version of it is slow and makes sense with the lyrics. The versions are the same lyrics, but with the remix people do not think about the sad lyrics. The words in it are “all I know are sad songs”, “I’m just a singer, who already blew his shot”, “I get along with old timers, cause my name’s a reminder of a pop song people forgot”, and “you don’t wanna be high like me, never really knowing why like me, you don’t wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone”. His lyrics shouldn’t go to such an upbeat song because he is trying to communicate a sad song and sad lyrics. I think using music to verbally communicate is something that artists escape too and depend on to communicate.  Verbal communication is in everyone’s day to day lives, including all the music we listen too.

I feel this photo is very similar to the movie spring breakers because of the gender role that is being played. In the movie spring breakers was a movie where the whole movie was based on gender roles with showing a lot of nude girls through out the film. The film director was asked why was it so man nude girls and he said “Who wants to see men naked, like did you want to see penis.” So This photo ties into the movie because it plays on the gender role because in the photo you see  two girls on each other  with there tops off being filmed. And this is fine because it two girls just having fun for spring break, because if it was two men it would be considered gay. In the film it showed girls being film doing wet t-shirt competition and and other things that caused them to show there boobs. And I don't Think the film or the photo properly represent women and how they act during spring break. Spring break is known for drinking and maybe doing drugs but nudity is more of a fantasy for what men see in movies an think thats what spring break is like.

So as observing the movie Spring breakers we see how many ways race, gender, sexuality, etc are targeted. For this image I chose this particular image for the fact it gives you the stereotypical image of a college girl. In the film " Spring Breakers", the depiction of a female is really degrading. It put woman in a category as if thats all college girls do is get dunk party, hook up, and give themselves away. In this image we see how the females are wrestling in their bikinis in oil. Now if you look closely you will see beer cans making one assume they are drunk and or were drinking.  This in it's self relates to the movie where it seemed as if only the women were party animals getting drunk etc. In the image in the back you can see the men standing around watching looking normal not really doing any crazy things. This relates to the movie in the ways the men were kind of just around having sex with the females, getting them to take their  clothes off etc. The men seemed as if they were really just having a good spring break where the women were over dramatic in so many ways. Stuff seen in this movie never happens in my eyes, or that I have seen. Where also in the film the women seemed high and on drugs throughout the entire movie. I feel as if women in general in this film betrayed has not very smart or having no common sense. As in terms of race you seen really just the white females were acting crazy showing themselves naked. There is no comparison when trying to say females and males with their shirts off are the same thing. Women really were degraded in this film. In the  movie we  also see  how the author  made the tension in the club between whites and blacks, where later in the movie there was a shoot out in the club between opposite  races.  With race, we see that the black males have no sentence structure and talk as if they have no education. In Stuart Hall- Representation, it talks about the images that media gives off with black individuals. It gives examples of how to walk black, or talk black. In the movie we seen a whole lot of this. We also see a lot of stereotypes with the clothing and sagging of pants. With this clip is said learn how to be a pimp, street thug, or a mugger. This is the terrible part is that in our society blacks are put into that category of negativity. Day in and out we hear how blacks are killing , stealing, raping, etc. Where is the positive media and the fact you can't act a color? There are killers, people who steal, rape, etc of all colors. But as far as this image I have picked, we  get a view that women are for show, or put on the show and males just watch which isn't how one should be thinking. As we set in class we watched the Harmony Korine film and he goes into how the women are portrayed as the strong hardened gender in this movie by the crimes in which they committed. Also he states how the movie itself, comes off as a " Drug experience".  In the interview the director also says how basically women and men with their shirts off are the same. But to me this guy is just crazy!! This film was terrible!!!

The image above is what most people imagine when they think of spring break. People think about no responsibilities, drinking, drugs, sex and being free. Social Identities are looked at differently on spring break. Males are looked at as crazy party animals where as the females are often looked at as sexual objects. The picture shown above shows a large group of people watching a female dance for the crowd in a sexual manner. The crowd is not thinking about the female’s personality or identity, they are viewing as if she is a sexual object. The reason this deception of identity continues every year on spring break is because of the promotion it receives. Hollywood keeps producing movies like the film we watched in class “ Spring Breakers” and it portrays these particular behaviors and deception of social identities. When college students think of spring break, they expect the experience to be like what they witnessed on the big screen.

In reference to a link, social Identities through spring break are viewed as a representation. In Stuart Hall’s video on representation and the media, he describes that social media is a representation of people, situations, events and topics. Spring break is represented through social media through situations like the image above. Like Hall discusses, all the people are representing the situation. They all look happy and they are all on spring break. Therefor everyone on spring break is happy. This female is dancing on stage in a sexual way in front of a large crowd of people. Again Hall’s theory says that this female is representing how females are supposed to act on spring break. Other females see this image through social media and believe that they have to represent themselves the same way on spring break because that’s what society expects from a female on spring break.

Stuart Halls link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sbYyw1mPdQ