The “Pilot” episode of the new show, “New Girl” begins with a flashback to Jess’s recent
breakup. She’s on her way to her boyfriend’s house in the back of the cab wearing nothing but a
jacket with plans for a special surprise. She walks into the house, yells to her boyfriend that
she’s home, and proceeds to undress. After about twenty seconds of her performance, another
girl walks out of the bedroom. The flashback ends with a look of surprise and anguish on Jess’s
face. Then the scene cuts back to Jess being interviewed by Schmidt, Coach, and Nick. After
Jess telling her story she asks, “What was the question again?” to which Nick responds, “Do you
have any animals?” This shows intrapersonal communication by Jess. The rest of the scene is
comprised of Schmidt, Coach, and Nick discussing whether or not to let Jess live with them as a
fourth roommate. The contextual level of communication used in their conversation is small
group communication.
During the intro scene the first contextual level of communication is intrapersonal. One
can see intrapersonal communication during the Jess’s interview when it cuts to the flashback of
her and her boyfriend because it can be seen that she’s not paying attention to what any of the
others are saying she’s just thinking about her breakup. The second contextual level of
communication is small group communication. One can see small group communication in the
discussion between Schmidt, Coach, and Nick about allowing Jess to be their new roommate.
The use of language, both verbal and nonverbal, is explicitly seen during the first scene;
especially in the conversation taking place in the bathroom. The main verbal language concepts
observed in this scene are the use of high and low language and the connotative versus
denotative meaning of words. The main non-verbal language concepts observed are
paralanguage and kinesics.
The intro to the show is intrapersonal in its entirety. Intrapersonal communication is
defined as “communication within a person” (Mullin, 2011, September 26). The reason the
entire intro to the show is intrapersonal is because Jess was not taking into account what any of
the other’s were saying. Nick asked the question, “Do you have any pets?” A very simple and
straightforward question. Jess went off on a tangent and explained the story of her recent
breakup. There was no interaction between her and anyone else. So, even though there were
others there to listen, it was still intrapersonal because there was no interaction between her and
the others. It was just Jess talking about the only thing that was on her mind, the breakup. This
is not the only example of intrapersonal communication in the opening scene.
Another example of intrapersonal communication observed is in Jess’s singing during the
flashback to the breakup. She’s isn’t talking to anyone when she sings, “Who’s that girl? Who’s
