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Part Three
LECTURING AND LEADING DISCUSSION
Chapter 1
Communication Perspectives
Goal: To understand the communication process
Overview: The chapter looks at the basic communication process by identifying the various
elements that interact with one another. It also looks at the many functions of
communication, and how people communicate on a daily basis.
Learning Outcomes:
1-1 Describe the nature of communication.
1-2 Explain the communication process.
1-3 Identify the characteristics of communication.
Key Terms:
Acronyms
Bright side messages
Canned plan
Channels
Communication
Communication
Apprehension
Communication
Competence
Communication context
Communication process
Communication settings
Complementary feedback
Constructed messages
Control
Credibility
Cultural context
Culture
Dark side messages
Decoding
Emoticons
Encoding
Ethics
Feedback
Historical context
Index
Interaction coordination
Interference/noise
Interpersonal
Communication
Intimacy
Intrapersonal
Communication
Mass communication
Message interpretation
Message production
Messages
Physical context
Physical noise
Psychological context
Psychological noise
Public communication
Script
Semantic noise
Small-group
Communication
Social context
Social ease
Spontaneous expressions
Symmetrical feedback
Trust
Figures and Tables:
Figure 1.1 Model of the Communication Process
Figure 1.2 Continuum of Communication Channels
Figure 1.3 Understanding Dark Side Messages
Figure 1.4 Sample Communication Plan
Chapter Outline
I. Communication is a complex process through which we express, interpret, and
coordinate messages with others to create shared meaning, meet social goals, manage
personal identity, and carry out our relationships. At its core, communication is about
messages.
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A. Messages: verbal utterances and nonverbal behaviors to which meaning is attributed
during communication
1. Encoding: the process of putting our thoughts and feelings into words and
nonverbal cues
2. Decoding: process of interpreting another’s message
3. Feedback is a reaction and response to a message that indicates how the
message was interpreted
B. How do we form and interpret messages?
1. A canned plan is a “mental library” of scripts each of us draws from to create
messages based on what worked for us or others in the past
2. A script is an actual text of what to say and do in a specific situation
C. The communication context is made up of the physical, social, historical,
psychological, and cultural situations that surround a communication event
1. The physical context includes the location of a communication encounter, the
environmental conditions surrounding it (temperature, lighting, noise level), and
the physical proximity of participants to each other
2. The social context is the nature of the relationship that already exists between
the participants
3. The historical context is the background provided by previous communication
between the participants
4. The psychological context includes the moods and feelings each person brings to
the communication encounter
5. The cultural context includes the beliefs, values, orientations, underlying
assumptions, and rituals that belong to a specific culture
D. Communication settings
1. Intrapersonal communication: communication within your own head; does not
involve another person
2. Interpersonal communication: informal conversations between a small number of
people who have relationships with each other
3. Small group communication: participants come together for the specific purpose
of solving a problem
II. The Communication Process is a complex set of three different and interrelated
activities intended to result in shared meaning Three activities are message
production, message interpretation, and interaction coordination.
A. Channels: the route used to transmit messages and the means of transporting that
message
1. Face-to-face communication has verbal symbols and nonverbal cues
2. Online communication has verbal symbols and some nonverbal cues (it is missing
movement, touch, and gestures)
3. Other sensory channels
4. Media richness refers to how much and what kinds of information can be
transmitted via a particular channel.
5. Synchronicity is the extent to which a channel allows for immediate feedback.
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B. Interference or noise: any stimulus that interferes with shared meaning, whether
physical or psychological
1. Physical noise: includes the sights, sounds, and other stimuli in the environment
that draw people’s attention away from intended meaning
2. Psychological noise: thoughts and feelings that compete for attention and
interfere with the communication process
a. Semantic noise: distractions aroused by certain symbols that take our
attention away from the main message
C. Model of the communication process: illustrates the communication process between
two people
1. Sender encodes messages based on their previous experience
2. Receiver decodes the speaker’s message from within the context of their previous
experience
3. Feedback provides information on how well the receiver understood the message.
4. Context permeates process
5. Noise may occur at various points, affecting the participant’s ability to arrive at
similar meanings.
6. The process becomes more complex when you include more than two people
III. Communication Principles
A. Communication has purpose
1. We communicate to enhance and maintain our sense of self
2. We communicate to meet our social needs
3. We communicate to develop and maintain relationships
4. We communicate to exchange information
5. We communicate to influence others
B. Communication is continuous
C. Communication is irreversible
D. Communication is situated
E. Communication is indexical
1. How we communicate is also an index or measure of the emotional temperature
of our relationship at the time
2. Trust is the extent to which partners rely on, depend on, and have faith that their
partners will not intentionally do anything to harm them
3. Partners believe themselves to be “in charge” in the relationship.
4. Intimacy is the degree of emotional closeness, acceptance, and disclosure in a
relationship
F. Communication messages vary in conscious thought
1. Spontaneous expression: spoken without much conscious thought
2. Scripted: phrasings we have learned from past encounters
3. Constructed messages: those messages we put together with careful thought
when our known scripts are inadequate for the situation
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G. Communication is guided by cultural norms
1. Culture: systems of shared beliefs, values, symbols and behaviors shared by a
relatively large group of people.
2. Culture has a strong affect on perception, verbal processes, and nonverbal
processes.
IV. Communication and Ethics
A. Truthfulness: refraining from lying, cheating, stealing or deception
B. Integrity: maintaining consistency of belief and action (keeping promises)
C. Fairness: achieving a balance between interests without showing favor to any side
D. Respect: showing regard for others and their ideas
E. Responsibility: being accountable for one’s thoughts and actions
F. “Bright side” messages are both ethical and appropriate.
G. “Hard dark side” messages are somewhat ethical and unethical because they are
honest, but also potentially damaging to the relationship.
H. “Easy dark side” messages are somewhat ethical and unethical because they are
dishonest in order to maintain a good relationship.
I. “Evil dark side” messages are both disrespectful and damaging to the relationship.
V. Increasing Your Communication Competence
A. Must be effective and appropriate
B. Depends on motivation, knowledge, and skills
C. Credibility and social ease are also important to communication competence
D. Communication apprehension is fear or anxiety about communicating with others
1. Traitlike communication apprehension: nervousness about speaking in most
communication situations; 20 percent of people experience this
2. Audience-based communication apprehension: anxiety about speaking only in front
of certain audiences
3. Situational communication apprehension: a short-term anxiety that’s very specific to
a certain communication interaction, such as a job interview
4. Context-based communication apprehension: anxiety about on certain types of
communication; e.g. someone is only nervous speaking in small groups but not other
communication situations
E. A communication improvement plan consists of setting a new goal to resolve
a communication problem, identifying procedures to reach the goal, and
determining a way to measure progress
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Technology Resources
Ethics Connection
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/ Learn more about ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied
Ethics at Santa Clara University, a forum for research and discussion on ethical issues in
American life. This site features information about ethics in business, healthcare and
biotechnology, education, government and public policy, and technology. The site contains
the following media and publications: ethics articles, ethics cases, ethics decision making,
videos, ethics blogs, podcasts, and e-letters. This site is helpful for creating handouts and
addressing relevant ethics and communication issues with students in an academic context.
Profile of Foreign-Born Population
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign.html This site at the U.S. Census
Bureau provides reports, data tables, and other information about people living in the
United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth. The site is useful because it examines
patterns of foreign language and culture in contemporary American communication issues.
Movies
Movies and movie clips can be used to help students grasp concepts. Clips can be shown in
class, or movies can be assigned as homework. Following the movie clips, ask students
written or oral questions. These questions should address pertinent concepts, thereby
actively engaging students in discussion. Movie clips can be shown in class or assigned for
homework. Students should engage in visual and dialogue analyses.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Rated: PG-13 (violence, menacing)
Synopsis: Bruce Wayne/Batman attempts to save the city of Gotham from organized crime,
corrupt police, and the Joker, a sociopathic killer who seeks to destroy the city and Batman.
The film also focuses on Bruce Wayne’s love for Rachel Dawes, the Assistant District
Attorney.
Questions for discussion
1. Do you believe the joker has any ethical considerations in his communication? Do you
think it is possible to communicate without any attention to ethics and morals?
2. Consider the ultimatum given to the people on the ferries at the end of the film. [The
joker tells each group that if they press a button, the other boat will blow up and their
boat will be saved. If they don’t press the button, both groups will die.] What would
you do in this situation? If you were on the boat, how would you handle the decision-
making process? What ethical considerations would be involved?
3. Consider Batman’s choice at the end of the film [to have Gordon tell the people that he
was the murderer, not Harvey Dent]. Why do you think he made this choice? Do you
think his choice was ethical? What implications hinge on this decision?
You’ve Got Mail (1998)
Rated: PG (Mature themes, mild profanity)
Synopsis: Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly are bookstore owners, but their similarities end
there. Joe Fox is part owner of Fox Books Superstore chain, a superstore that is busy
ruining business for Kelly’s The Shop Around the Corner, a small Manhattan children’s
bookstore. By day, these two hate each other. By night, these two bookstore rivals are
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unknowingly falling in love under online pseudonyms.
Questions for discussion
1. How does the communication between the main characters differ in the two different
settings?
2. What context elements are important during the electronically mediated relationship?
3. What context elements were important in the face-to-face relationship?
4. What examples of noise did you see and how did they affect the communication
process?
5. How did the purpose of the communication change with the setting changes? Why?
Office Space (1999)
Rated: R (Profanity, sexual situations)
Synopsis: Office Space offers an insider’s view into the realities of working in a large
bureaucratic and impersonal office. When consultants visit the firm, the employees begin to
recognize that layoffs are on the way. One bold employee interprets this as a doomed
certainty and begins to flaunt authority in a big way. The irony is that while many of his
coworkers get the pink slip, his new attitude earns him the label of “straight shooter with
upper-management potential.”
Questions for discussion
1. Choose an interaction to analyze and label various aspects of the interaction according
to the communication process model. Address both verbal and nonverbal cues and
communication.
2. The psychological and physical contexts are important aspects of this movie.
3. How are these contexts defining the communication that is occurring?
4. How does the communication change as the settings change within the movie?
5. Is the communication effective?
Network (1976)
Rated: R (Profanity, sexual situations)
Synopsis: A fictional television network, UBS, exploits the nervous breakdown and insanity
of a news anchor they initially fire for poor ratings. This man, Howard Beale, utilizes Biblical
and Shakespearean language as the “mad prophet of the airwaves denouncing the
hypocrisies of our times.” Diana Christensen and Frank Hackett are network executives who
see gold when a sensationalized news hour and subsequent circus programming hits a
nerve with the American public. Beale, like other cinematic false prophets, begins to
crumble and so does the smoke and mirrors corporate financial world around him.
Questions for discussion
1. Select a piece of notable or repetitive dialogue from one of the characters and analyze
the message, decoding, encoding, and feedback. One example is Beale’s exclamation,
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Another example is
Christensen’s proclamation,” Son of a bitch! We’ve hit the mother lode!”
2. Based on the repetitious language in the film, what can you discuss about each major
character’s canned plan?
3. Christensen and her older, disenchanted lover, Max Hackett, often discuss their own
relationship as a series of potential scripts and plots, like it is the very show they are
producing. This metalanguage stylizes individual patterns of speech. What is the purpose
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of this metalanguage and why do Hackett and Christensen use it? Which character is
most or least effective and how do you know?
4. Assign each one of the contexts, if possible, a place in the movie. What can you report
about the physical, social, historical, psychological, or cultural contexts of the film?
5. What can you say about the various speakers, speeches, and audiences in the film?
Discuss the relevance of different kinds of contexts.
Additional movie suggestions: About Schmidt (2002) (the importance of
communication); Erin Brockovich (2000) (listening, communication competence); The End
of the Affair (1999) (perception, listening); Pulp Fiction (1994) (perception, relationships,
listening); American Beauty (1999) (interpersonal communication); Easy A (2010)
(channels); 21 Jump Street (2012) (communication purpose and continuity)
Other Media Resources
1. University of South Carolina’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment: Criteria
for assessment of oral communication
http://ipr.sc.edu/effectiveness/criteria/oral.htm
2. Speaking and listening competencies for college students
//www.natcom.org/assessmentresources/
Diverse Voices
Lessons from American Experience
by Harland Cleveland
Harland Cleveland, former president of the University of Hawaii, is president of the World
Academy of Art and Science. In this selection, Cleveland explains how Hawaii, the most
diverse of our 50 states, achieves ethnic and racial peace. He argues that the Hawaiian
experience is no different from the experience of immigrants to the mainland; the ability to
tolerate diversity is not unique in the world.
We Americans have learned, in our short but intensive 200-plus years of history as a
nation, a first lesson about diversity: that it cannot be governed by drowning it in
“integration.”
I came face-to-face with this truth when, just a quarter of a century ago, I became
president of the University of Hawaii. Everyone who lives in Hawaii, or even visits there, is
impressed by its residents’ comparative tolerance toward each other. On closer inspection,
paradise seems based on paradox: Everybody’s a minority. The tolerance is not despite the
diversity but because of it.
It is not through the disappearance of ethnic distinctions that the people of Hawaii
achieved a level of racial peace that has few parallels around our discriminatory globe. Quite
the contrary. The glory is that Hawaii’s main ethnic groups managed to establish the right to
be separate. The group separateness, in turn, helped establish the rights of individuals in
each group to equality with individuals of different racial aspect, ethnic origin, and cultural
heritage.
Hawaii’s experience is not so foreign to the transatlantic migrations of the various more–
or-less white Caucasians. On arrival in New York (passing that inscription on the Statue of
Liberty, “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me”), the European immigrants did
not melt into the open arms of the white Anglo Saxon Protestants who preceded them. The
reverse was true. The new arrivals stayed close to their own kind; shared religion,
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language, humor, and discriminatory treatment with their soul brothers and sisters; and
gravitated at first into occupations that did not too seriously threaten the earlier arrivals.
The waves of new Americans learned to tolerate each other—first as groups, only
thereafter as individuals. Rubbing up against each other in an urbanizing America, they
discovered not just the old Christian lesson that all men are brothers, but the hard, new,
multicultural lesson that all brothers are different. Equality is not the product of similarity; it
is the cheerful acknowledgement of difference.
What’s so special about our experience is the assumption that people of many kinds and
colors can together govern themselves without deciding in advance which kinds of people
(male or female, black, brown, yellow, red, white, or any mix of these) may hold any
particular public office in the pantheon of political power.
For the twenty-first century, this “cheerful acknowledgement of differences” is the
alternative to a global spread of ethnic cleansing and religious chivalry. The challenge is
great, for ethnic cleansing and religious rivalry are traditions as contemporary as Bosnia and
Rwanda in the 1990s and as ancient as the Assyrians.
In too many countries, there is still a basic (if often unspoken) assumption that one kind
of people is anointed to be in general charge. Try to imagine a Turkish chancellor of
Germany, an Algerian president of France, a Pakistani prime minister of Britain, a Christian
president of Egypt, an Arab prime minister of Israel, a Jewish president of Syria, a Tibetan
ruler of Beijing, anyone but a Japanese in power in Tokyo. Yet in the United States during
the twentieth century, we have already elected an Irish Catholic as president, chosen
several Jewish Supreme Court justices, and racially integrated the armed forces right up to
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . . .
I wouldn’t dream of arguing that we Americans have found the Holy Grail of cultural
diversity when, in fact, we’re still searching for it. We have to think hard about our growing
pluralism. It’s useful, I believe, to dissect in the open our thinking about it, to see whether
the lessons we are trying to learn might stimulate some useful thinking elsewhere. We still
do not quite know how to create “wholeness incorporating diversity,” but we owe it to the
world, as well as to ourselves, to keep trying.
Reflective Questions
1. To what degree to you think America has moved forward since Harland Cleveland
offered these statements? Name some specific examples to support your opinion.
2. Do you agree with Cleveland’s assertion that “equality is the cheerful
acknowledgement of difference?”
Excerpted from Harland Cleveland, “The Limits to Cultural Diversity,” in Intercultural
Communication: A Reader (12th ed.), eds. Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter, and Erwin
R. McDaniel (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2009), pp. 431–434. Reprinted by permission of the
World Future Society.
Discussion and Assignment Ideas
I. Have students come up with their own visual diagram of the communication process and
have them share their diagrams with a partner. Afterward, facilitate a discussion in
which you apply the communication process to the exercise you have just completed:
(1) What verbal or nonverbal feedback did you receive about your communication model
during your conversation? (2) What physical noises were in the environment? (3) How
did psychological noise affect you? (4) What unintentional meanings may have been
perceived? (5) How did communication context shape the way you discussed this
diagram? (For example, how well do you know your classmate, how did previous class
discussions about the communication process affect this encounter, etc.)
Commented [JB1]:
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II. Quotes: These can be used to introduce topics, questions perspectives, or gain
individual opinion. Providing students with a quote and prompting them to write or
reflect on their personal feelings about the quote can help to spark discussion and
interest. Suggested discussion questions include: “Define this concept in your own
words”; “Do you agree with this statement? Explain”; “What text material can be used
to support or refute this idea?;” “How can any or all of these quotations be applied
concepts from chapter 1”; “What might these people say to Harlan Cleveland or vice
versa?”
The two words “information” and “communication” are often used interchangeably,
but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is
getting through.
—Sydney J. Harris
The genius of communication is the ability to be both totally honest and totally kind
at the same time.
—John Powell
If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting . . . You
don’t get in life what you want; you get in life what you are. So, the question to ask
is, what kind of person must I become in order to have what I want?
—Les Brown
III. Have students break into groups of 2, 3, or 4 and assign each group one of the
communication principles for discussion. Provide the students with the following
discussion questions: If you had to come up with a slogan for this principle, what would
it be? (This slogan should encompass the most important aspect of this principle) What
are some communication myths that surround this principle? Can you think of an
instance where this communication principle isn’t applicable? Explain.
IV. Ask students to come up with their dream job. Ask students to develop an action plan
for reaching this goal that identifies (1) what knowledge they will need to get this job;
(2) what skills they will need to perform well at this job; and (3) how to keep motivated
to reach their goal. Invite students to share their goal statements and action plan with
the rest of the class.
V. Once students create their action plans for their dream jobs, have them brainstorm a list
of both accomplishments and errors they could have made in the context of this job.
Trade action plans and the brainstormed lists of achievements and errors with another
student. Write a communication improvement plan. Remember you must first state the
specific problem and goal before advancing to the procedure and test for achieving the
goal.
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Chapter Activities
1.1: Getting Acquainted I (Take a Stand)
Purpose: To introduce course concepts to students as you introduce them to one
another
Time: 40 minutes
Process: This activity works well on opening day when students have not yet read the
first chapter. Place each of the following signs on each classroom wall: Agree,
Strongly Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. Ask students to stand and
push their desks to the center of the room. Tell students you will be reading
controversial statements about interpersonal communication and you would
like them to “take a stand” next to the sign that most closely represents their
position on the statement. Let them know they will need to explain their
stance at least once during the session as a mechanism for introducing
themselves to the class. Be sure each responder states his or her name prior
to commenting. Read each statement, then facilitate discussion of each. Be
sure to link the statements to future course content or information directly
gleaned from chapter 1 – basic communication perspectives (serving as your
preview of the course) and to create a non-threatening atmosphere with your
responses. (See Part Two of this manual for suggestions on leading
discussions.) Possible statements include:
• Ethical people do not exhibit prejudice.
• Individuals enter relationships for different reasons.
• Men and women talk and show affection differently.
• Telling a significant other about previous relationships is a mistake.
• A person can be listening even if they are not responding.
• Conflict is a destructive force in relationships.
• Cultural differences affect relationships.
• Family conflict and work conflict are more similar than different.
• Trust is earned, not given.
• The divorce rate is high because people don’t communicate.
• Success depends on the ability to communicate competently.
• Good communication is the answer to most problems.
• Good ethics necessarily vary from one individual to the next.
• Gender is a social construct.
• Conceptions of race are based on biological and social factors.
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1.2: Introductory Speech Assignment
Purpose: To assist class members in learning a little more about one another and help
them identify similar experiences in common, thus creating comfort and
cohesiveness among students in the class.
Time: 20 minutes
Process: Divide students into pairs. Have each pair interview each other; tell them
they will be introducing their partner to the class. Have them ask unusual
questions, such as, “If you had the choice between becoming an orange or a
banana, which would you pick and why?” and “What is the strangest bumper
sticker you have ever seen?” or “What is your most impressive injury?”
After they have interviewed each other, tell them they are to introduce the
other student to the class in the FIRST PERSON. In other words, they are to
speak as if they were the other person. The class is then instructed to keep
eye contact on the person being introduced, not on the person speaking. Tell
them you will monitor them to make sure they act accordingly.
This exercise serves several purposes. Students learn the importance of eye
contact in memory and delivery skills, because we have a hard time not
looking at the person who is speaking. It can help students overcome
communication apprehension issues, because as they are speaking, no one is
looking at them. The exercise compels students to model the communication
process. Finally, it allows us to talk about issues of diversity and identity as
well as to talk about cultural norms the difficulty of breaking the rule that you
should always “look at the person who is speaking.”
Final thought: This exercise has helped to increase class rapport, increase dialogue about
cultural norms, model variations of the communication process, and diminish
communication apprehension between students.
1.3: Communication Channels
Purpose: To understand the affect that tone and asynchronous and synchronous
communication channels have on the message
Time: 15 minutes
Process: Hand out 5 x 7 index cards to the students. Instruct the students to write a
sarcastic comment on one side of the index card and a serious comment on
the other side of the card. Collect the cards and redistribute them to the class
so that everyone has a different person’s index card. Ask students to guess
which comments are sarcastic and which ones are serious. Have volunteers
read the comment they think is sarcastic in an appropriately sarcastic tone of
voice. Ask for the vote from the class as to whether or not they agree, that
this sounds like a sarcastic comment. Finally, ask the student who wrote the
comment to confirm if the student is correct. Facilitate a discussion on the
advantages and disadvantages of written versus face-to-face communication
channels. Why can it be difficult to interpret sarcastic comments without
vocal, facial, and other nonverbal cues? Which verbal and nonverbal cues
usually accompany sarcastic tones? As Brian Spitzberg asks, “To what extent
are the skills we use in face-to–face communication similar to those we use in
computer based interaction?”
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1.4: Communication Functions
Purpose: To define communication and identify the functions
Time: 15 minutes
Process: Divide the class into six groups. Give each group a card with one of the six
functions of communication listed on it. (See the core text, pages 10–11, for
a list of the functions.) Give each group time to discuss the function written
on their card, allowing them to seek clarification from the text or from you as
needed. Provide the group with easel paper and markers. Ask them to draw,
without using words, something that demonstrates this function of
communication. (Play-Doh can also be used as a tool for building models.)
One at a time, have each group come to the front of the classroom while the
remaining five groups guess the object/event and the communication
function.
1.5: Competent/Incompetent Communicator Simulation
Purpose: To enable students to demonstrate behaviors generally perceived as
competent and incompetent in interpersonal communication
Time: 40 minutes
Process: Divide the class into pairs. Let them know they will be role-playing a situation
in their partnerships and that you will ask for volunteers to demonstrate for
the whole class. Provide each pair with a context for interpersonal
communication; some pairs may have the same context (e.g., a professor
and student in the professor’s office, a new college grad interviewing for a
job, a discussion of marriage by a couple in a restaurant, a parent and
teenager discussing curfews, friends discussing evening plans). Instruct the
pairs to brainstorm competent and incompetent behaviors for one of the
characters. Have them simulate the interaction, with one character’s behavior
first demonstrating incompetence and then simulate again, with that same
character changing to behaviors associated with competency. Circulate among
students as they rehearse, then ask for volunteers to repeat their simulations
for the whole class. After all the simulations, ask the class for communicative
behaviors across contexts that are competent and incompetent. List these on
the board and discuss.
Journal Assignments
A. Feedback in Interpersonal Communication
Keep a one-day log of all the feedback (verbal and nonverbal) you receive from others while
you are communicating. Ask someone who knows you well to indicate the types of feedback
you typically give them while they communicate with you. Analyze the similarities and
differences in the feedback you give and receive.
B. Competent Communication
Identify an area of your life in which you feel, and others would agree, that you
demonstrate communication competence. How are you personally motivated, personally
knowledgeable, and what skills do you demonstrate in this area? Now identify an area in
your life in which you feel you do not demonstrate communication competence. Are any of
your skills, knowledge, and motivation from the first area transferable to this second area?
What can you learn from your positive experience in the first area that could help you set
goals for improvement in the second area?
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C. Ethics Reflection
In your personal daily life, both at present and in the past, create a column for both
unethical or ethical behaviors or situations in which you participated. In the third column,
apply at least one ethical principle to support the behavior or situation as ethical or
unethical. Tally all events in both columns. Are you generally an ethical or unethical person
based on this exercise? How are you modelling or undermining effective communication?
What kinds of problems and goals might characterize your communication improvement
plan?
*Students have access to these journal assignments on tear-out cards at the back of their
textbooks.
What Would You Do? Assignment
A Question of Ethics
Molly has just been accepted at Stanford University and calls her friend Terri to tell her the
good news.
MOLLY: Hi Terri! Guess what? I just got accepted to Stanford Law School!
TERRI [Surprised and disappointed]: Oh, cool.
MOLLY: Thanks—you sound so enthusiastic!
TERRI: Oh, I am. Listen, I have to go—I’m late for class.
MOLLY: Oh, OK. See you.
The women hang up, and Terri immediately calls her friend Monica.
TERRI: Monica, it’s Terri.
MONICA: Hey, Terri. What’s up?
TERRI: I just got some terrible news—Molly got into Stanford!
MONICA: So, what’s wrong with that? I think it’s great. Aren’t you happy for her?
TERRI: No, not at all. I didn’t get in, and I have better grades and a higher LSAT score.
MONICA: Maybe Molly had a better application.
TERRI: Or maybe it was what was on her application.
MONICA: What do you mean?
TERRI: You know what I mean. Molly’s black.
MONICA: Yes, and . . . ?
TERRI: Don’t you see? It’s called affirmative action.
MONICA: Terri, give it a rest!
TERRI: Oh, please. You know it, and I know it. She only got in because of her race and
because she’s poor. Her GPA is really low and so is her LSAT.
MONICA: Did you ever stop to think that maybe she wrote an outstanding essay? Or that
they thought the time she spent volunteering in that free legal clinic in her neighborhood
was good background?
TERRI: Yes, but we’ve both read some of her papers, and we know she can’t write. Listen,
Monica, if you’re black, Asian, Native American, Indian, Latino, or any other minority and
poor, you’ve got it made. You can be as stupid as Forrest Gump and get into any law school
you want. It’s just not fair at all.
MONICA [Angrily]: No, you know what isn’t fair? I’m sitting here listening to my so-called
friend insult my intelligence and my ethnic background. How dare you tell me that the only
reason I’ll ever get into a good medical school is because I’m Latino. Listen, honey, I’ll get
into medical school just the same way that Molly got into law school—because of my brains,
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my accomplishments, and my ethical standards. And based on this conversation, it’s clear
that Molly and I are way ahead of you.
Describe how well each of these women followed the ethical standards for communication
discussed in this chapter. What problems, goals, procedures, or tests might you apply in
some sample communication improvement plans? What kinds of recommendations might
you give to any of the above women?
Adapted from “Racism,” a case study posted on the Web site of the Ethics Connection,
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University. Retrieved from
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/education/racism.html. Used with
permission.
PopComm!
Mourning in the United States, 21st-Century Style
Mourning is a universal human communication activity. It is the process of celebrating the
life of someone while grieving his or her death. Its rituals and traditions vary by culture and
religion and change over time. So it is not surprising that mourning in the United States in
the 21st century is adapting past practices to modern life.
Mourning rituals include norms for how the body of the deceased is dealt with, burial
and commemorative rituals, symbols of mourning, and comforting practices. In the past,
personally washing, dressing, and preparing the body for burial enabled mourners to
present the deceased as they would like the person to be remembered. Burial and
commemorative rituals gave family, friends, and the larger community an opportunity to
gather, exchange memories of the deceased, comfort those closest to the deceased, and
receive comfort in return. Graves were places where those close to the deceased could go to
“talk” to the departed and recall memories. Family members would often withdraw into their
homes for a period of time to grieve. Friends and community members would visit with the
family in their home during this intense period of mourning. Those closest to the person
who had died chose or were expected to wear symbols of their status as mourners.
Mourning clothes and tokens served as signals to others in the community that the person
so dressed was in mourning and should be accorded extra gentleness.
Today, most families do not personally prepare the body of their loved one for burial or
wear special mourning clothes. Increasingly, one or more members of the family may honor
their loved one by preparing a commemorative Web page that memorializes the life of the
departed. Web sites such as Legacy.com, MyDeathSpace.com, and Memory-Of.com have
been around for over a decade to facilitate the creation of interactive online memorials. The
Boston Globe recounted the story of Shawn Kelley who created a “moving tribute” to his
brother Michael, a National Guardsman killed in Afghanistan. The 60-second video features
a slide show of Michael growing up, from a toddler to a clean-cut teen, while quiet classical
music plays softly and a voice-over recounts Michael’s attributes and interests. Shawn
reported that it made him feel good to be able to “talk” about his brother, and over a year
later he was still visiting the site to watch the video and to view the messages left by family
members and friends (Plumb, 2006). Today the rituals traditionally associated with funerals
and memorial services such as eulogies, visitations, and expressions of condolence now
often take place online.
Interactive memorial Web sites also have become a “place” where mourners can “visit”
with their departed loved one and connect with other mourners, activities that traditionally
occurred at a funeral or memorial service. Most Web sites that host memorial Web pages
allow visitors to leave messages of condolence, share stories about the deceased, and leave
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 1
messages directed to the deceased. Denise McGrath, a mother who created “R.I.P. Tony,” a
memorial Web page for her teenage son on MySpace explained that it was “just a place for
his friends to go” (Plumb, 2006). Today Legacy.com hosts over 50,000 permanent
memorials and reports being visited by over 10 million users each month (Plumb, 2009).
The somber mourning clothes of past generations have given way to newer ways of
marking oneself as in mourning. Today family members and friends may wear T-shirts
imprinted with pictures of the deceased. This practice is most common when the departed is
young and died a violent death. According to Montana Miller, professor of popular culture at
Bowling Green State University, the tradition of wearing commemorative t-shirts came out
from West Coast gangs in the early 1990s (Moser, 2005).
Not only are people using T-shirts to signal mourning, but they are also designing decals
to place on cars and bikes to memorialize those who have died. In a highly mobile society,
decals are visual markers that can not only memorialize a loved one who has died but can
also connect mourners to others who have suffered a similar loss. When one 17-year-old
was shot and killed, hundreds of people in his town put memorial decals in their car
windows. Four years later the young man’s mother reported that seeing those decals
continued to help her with her grieving process (Moser, 2005).
Although we may no longer personally prepare the dead for burial or wear somber
formal mourning clothes, we still need to connect and communicate with others as we
grieve, and we continue to evolve new methods for doing so.
Experiential Assignments
Communication over the Internet (see handout below)
The Internet has thoroughly revolutionized communication over the last 20 years. Consider
the advantages and disadvantages of communicating via the following Internet-based
mediums: e-mail, instant messaging, social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
etc.), and VOIP (Skype, Vonage, facetime etc). Spend some time evaluating these mediums
if you are not already familiar with them. Enter your thoughts into a two-column table, with
advantages in the first column and disadvantages in the second. Did your analysis produce
any discoveries that surprised you?
Communication Functions (see handout below)
Keep a log of the various communications you have today. At the end of the day, categorize
each episode by one of the five functions it served. Each episode may serve more than one
function. Were you surprised by the variety of communication you engaged in even in such
a relatively short period? How would you evaluate your overall effectiveness as a
communicator?
Interpersonal Process Analysis
Select an important, recent interpersonal conversation between you and someone else.
Analyze how the context, the noise, the people involved, and the relationship between those
people affected the communication. Be specific and provide examples from the
conversation. Overall, was the communication effective and on what evidence do you base
this communication?
Dialogue Analysis
Demonstrate, in classic essay format, your understanding of the process and characteristics
of communications demonstrated in chapter one. You will analyze the communication
between two of the characters in a film that are in a single but complex relationship.
Questions of overall film effectiveness have already been addressed above in the individual
discussions of each movie. Some things to comment on might be messages, interaction
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 1
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coordination, channels, noise, how well or poorly the characters model the communication
process, communication index, ethics, and communication competence. Please get the
movie approved ahead of time so the instructor can make sure he or she has already seen it
and can grade a paper about it.
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 1
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Experiential Assignment Handouts
Communication over the Internet
The Internet has thoroughly revolutionized communication over the last 20 years. Consider
the advantages and disadvantages of communicating via the following Internet-based
mediums: e-mail, instant messaging, social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
etc.), and VOIP (Skype, Vonage, facetime etc). Spend some time evaluating these mediums
if you are not already familiar with them. Enter your thoughts into a two-column table, with
advantages in the first column and disadvantages in the second. Did your analysis produce
any discoveries that surprised you?
Internet-based Medium
Advantages
Disadvantages
E-mail
Chat/IM
blogs
Social networking
VOIP
COMM5 Instructor Manual Chapter 1
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Communication Functions
Keep a log of the various communications you have today. At the end of the day, categorize
each episode by one of the five functions it served. Each episode may serve more than one
function. Were you surprised by the variety of communication you engaged in even in such
a relatively short period? How would you evaluate your overall effectiveness as a
communicator?
Social
needs
Sense of
self
Develop
relationship
Exchange
information
Influence
others