chapter 9 question 3

What I really liked about this chapter describes audience attitudes and changes. It shows that the audience members come prior to speeches with their own beliefs and values and life experiences with them which the speaker must realize and relate to. This shows that they must understand the audience and appeal to them, “Psychologist Milton Rokeach believes that the human mind uses three kinds of cognitive structures: beliefs, attitudes, and values. Because these structures organize perception and motivate action, it is essential that public speakers understand them.” You have to be able to understand the audience in order to know how to present your speech and your point to them. You have to persuade them to think the way you do yet keeping in mind that they have their own beliefs and their own dimensions such as cognitive, affective, and behavioral, which is different for each individual. To be able to be open minded as a speaker is important and to be able to relate to your audience is key.

chapter 9 questions 2

Barack Obama has very strong characteristics when he speaks. He has to carry himself with head held high and to prove to everyone in the nation that he is the best leader there is. He has to show even his opponent McCain who is thinking of ways to take Obama down, that he is a better leader despite what he says, such as Obama being too young to being so inexperienced. He built his credibility through his campaign speeches and traveling around and devoting his time with others to show his compassion and show everyone that he can make change. I believe that it does take all three credibility, attractiveness, and power to make a strong speaker; appealing yourself for your audience is important so it helps them realize why they should believe what you say and power so they know how important you are and what you can do for them in your speech. To build ethos you have to bring not what the book tells you to bring to your speech but your ultimate you factor, your own personality and your character is what makes you different from everyone else. I’m sure as we all made our votes on November 4th, we all voted for Obama for many different reasons, but those reasons are because of those three characteristics he carries and that we believe in him.

chapter 9 question 1

I have been influenced by a speaker several years ago at a retreat for college students. It was a retreat for United Methodist Churches in the area, and usually had a speaker every year, this one year I went, he spoke in a way that captured all of the audience. He made it relate to what it was like to a Christian, and just the experiences he shared captivated everyone. It was the experiences and how he told the stories that caught our attention, because as a Christian we believed you have to live the “perfect” life, but when this pastor was speaking to us, he was telling the opposite, how he sold drugs, and joined gangs, etc, just the most astonishing stories that you wouldn’t hear from someone of his stature. Public speaking is hard, since you have to attend to a very large audience, but to be able to approach them with shocking stories and how you learn from them it can be influencing. The worst speaker was once at my church when we had a big event we hired a speaker to discuss being “homesick” with God. He rambled on for over the time limit, like an hour more, you could see the audience was getting restless and the topic didn’t even seem to go with the theme we asked for him to speak about. The kids were confused, even I was confused and we kept telling him to wrap it up but he just continued. Listening to him was a big dreadful time for all of us, as much as I tried to listen to him, his topic seemed to go off tangent and kept all of us confused. After that we never recommended him for any other events. Speaking to a large group of people has to be able to connect and easy to listen to.

week 4 question 3

What I found most interesting about this chapter was Social constructionist model of communication. The way that we have to play off of each other’s reaction and signs, show a great deal of understanding and connection between two individuals. Even though we all come from different backgrounds and different cultures, those set of roles and rules guide our actions and shape the way we experience the world. It shows diversity in communication and always keeps us learning of new ways to interact with each other from different people who come from different experiences. It’s true what they say, “Everyone has their own story”, but with that it can enhance our identities and communications skills.

week 4 question 2

The pragmatic perspective is such that follows the same as playing a game. It's an interdependent behaviors we have that soon become a pattern. It's in a way that we play off each other's reaction when we communicate. When we speak to one another with friends, when they make a certain face expresison or a certain reaction to what I said, we continue our story basing off their reactions.
In the chapter the pragmatists argue "you need to do much the same thing: understand the moves people use as they work out their relationship to one another." Each step you take into making a certain statement as crying or laughing, there is a story behind as to why, therefore we keep playing off their reactions, the more you know about the reason why, the more you understand the communication game. It is more like a game because in order to win one must strategize and keep up their toes and keep the opponent always guessing what their next move would be. The most important thing is to focus on the interaction rather than the personality. Instead of blaming each other think of what you may have said or done to make the opponent react that way. There is a reason why some may act that way. Such as relationship between boyfriends and girlfriends, most tend to blame each other because they are too stubborn to realize what the individual had done to make them feel that certain way. It's what they do to to work out the relationship then and there.
It's little different from a game because it's not the objective of winning but more of the strategy within the game and the reaction that they play off of one another. It's that moment in time that matters, where they are in a pattern to work out the problems within the "game."

week 4 chapter 2

Consider the social constructionist perspective. How do we build worlds through communication? Think of some ideas we talk about in our culture that may not exist in other cultures. How do these concepts continue to our happiness or success in our culture?

As defined in our text a social constructionist model is "a process whereby people in group, using the tools provided by their culture, create collective representation of reality.” When we respond to one another we play off each other’s reaction and therefore begin communication. A simple nod or a simple answer as yes can be received differently.
In different cultures such as Korean cultures it is always most respectful to answer directly and being precise to your answers, not beating around the bush; however it may be ok to just nod or in other cultures. Growing up I learned the hard way with my parents on what was right and what was wrong, especially during arguments there was a bit of culture clash since, they were from South Korea and I was born here. The certain holidays, and the way we are supposed to act towards elders, totally different from America where it is a little more liberal. Even looking my mother straight in the eye can mean disrespect whereas here it may mean you are making eye contact for the better.
Everyone comes from a different background and through their self experiences from trying again and again can improve our social constructions. Through enhancing our skills through this model we meet new people everyday and manage to look beyond the stereotypes and learn different symbols that help us mold who we are and how we communicate. It can help us understand each other more accurately and reveal the “truth” not the illusion.