Chapter 11 (Culture)

Welcome Back, Scholars!

This week, Chapter 11, reading really allowed me to make a connection with my other communications courses. Specifically, the course that this chapter related to and help make more sense wasThe Social Creation of Organizing course.

Chapter 11 in Theories of Human Communication provided theories that I found would be helpful in understanding different cultures and how to fit into a specific culture. This chapter did that by informing us about theories that to see how culture communication varies and how to figure out what type of culture a person has. This drives a connection between the Social Creation of Organizing because we also talked about culture in the workplace and how it is shaped top-down.


A theory I found that connected both courses and reflected what I have been experiencing is the Anxiety-Uncertainty Management Theory. William Gudykunst explained in this theory that the only way to communicate effectively with culturally different people is by being mindful in managing anxiety and uncertainty.

I understood this theory as being a person who is cautious of what he or she says around those where they aren't fully aware of the culture of the other person. I believe that it takes time to
understand a person culture or way of life and in order to not step on anyone toes its best to be mindful of what you say around. Also, one should panic or be unsure when talking just careful of what he or she says.

Overall, I found myself doing this without even realizing it at my job that I started in August. I went in new to the crew and wanted to be careful that I didn't offend anyone especially because we were all different races, genders, and ages. Now that I know how most of my coworkers conduct their life, I am able to communicate with all of them differently.

All in all, I would advise others who are entering a new career, school, or group of friends to be cautious without showing anxiety or uncertainty.

References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 10 (Health Context)

Welcome back class to Her View on Communication!

This week blog post is focused on Chapter 10. I really found that this chapter was very informative and connected to reality so much. This chapter provided us with theories that showed how we communicate about our health, managed risk, and health imbalance. Chapter 10 explained how different levels of health content affect communication and how people respond.

In this chapter, there was one theory that really hit close to home.

Rajiv Rimal and Kevin Real created the risk perception attitude framework theory. This theory explained how people are motivated to take action when they are at risk or believe to be at risk for a health problem and are capable of doing something to prevent it or lessen the risk.

This theory really told an exact story of how I am when it comes to health issues. For example, because most of the ladies on my dad side of the family have diabetes, I always took precaution to get checked for diabetes at least once a year. I also watch certain things I consume and try to balance my diet with regular activity and detox cleanses. But, knowing that my family has diabetes, definitely put me at risk for it as well; especially when you love their cooking.

Therefore, this risk perception attitude I have has been controlling my life in order to ensure that I do not add to this health condition. Overall, I am happy that I am precautious when it comes to certain health problems because it really allows you to live a slightly healthier life and prevent health conditions that are able to prevent.

References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 9 (The Organizaiton)

Hello class!

As we get close to the end of the semester, I know we all are excited; however, we are not quite done yet. A couple more chapters and we will be there soon.

As we wrap up Chapter 9, we all should have gotten an understanding of key principles about communication and organizations. Communication helps an organization run smoothly and more efficient. It helps create patterns and structure. The chapter also focused on how communication helps to understand various cultures and different genders, race, and class.

During this chapter, a classmate and I was delegated to teach the class a specific theory within the chapter. This theory was the communicative constitution of organizations (Montreal School) created and authored by James Taylor, Francois Cooren, Daniel Robichaud, Boris Brummans. The communicative constitution of organization (CCO) theory shows and displays how communication constructs organizations through five translations. These five translations include co-orientation, distanciation, textualization, presentification, and back to the specific rules and regulations of the culture.

Overall, the theory focused on how organizations are created and how they produce and reproduce themselves. After getting an understanding of the theory and how it works really got me to thinking about others companies that are constantly reproducing such as Walmart's and fast food chain restaurants. 

References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 7 (The Relationship)

Hello class!

After last week chapters reading, I was more than ready to only have to complete one chapter for this week. Even after opening up the text and seeing the chapter entitled relationship, I became more in tune.

This chapter was design to help us understand how relationships function, managed over time, and signs of productive, positive, or problematic relationships. Some of the information included in the text focused on family relationship, personal relationships, work relationship, and even intercultural relationships.

In the section boundaries and connection,  was where I got fully connected to the text and the reading of the text went more smoothly because it provided information on how people managed their boundaries depending on the relationship they have with the other person or people. I definitely do see a trend in myself of setting boundaries, especially when it comes to the people at my job and  those who I have came in contact with since moving to Charlotte. I am more reserved when it comes to revealing details of my life and also think before I speak. This example really falls under the communication privacy management theory by Sandra Petronio.

Then Chapter 7, closes with explaining how to handle tensions and challenges in a relationship. I looked at this section on a more personal level and focused on how I could better my relationships and change the reactions I gave to certain situations. One of the most popular topics, relational maintenance really focused on the five behaviors to help relationship. These five strategies that characterize relational maintenance are positivity, openness, assurances, sharing tasks, and social networking.

After fully understanding these behaviors I took a while to reflect on what I could I improve on in my personal relationship and professional
relationship. Even though the two are different both theories are helping me to be successful at both.


References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 5 & 6 (The Medium & Beyond Human Communication)

Hi, once again class!

I think we can all agree that this week reading of Chapter 5 & 6 was very lengthy. However, I know we, as scholars, was able to understand different types of medium in communication and the nature of the media in Chapter 5. While in Chapter 6, we saw that communication is beyond just human-to-human relationship; it is communication between humans and nature, objects, and technology.

As always, I try to find theories within each chapter that supports what I believe and also to see if any relate to actions throughout my productive week.

Therefore, in Chapter 5, the theory I could see many connections to was the agenda-setting theory.

This theory by Walter Lippmann, Maxwell McCombs, Donald Shaw, and David Weaver describes how the media structure issues to be told to the public and this determines what we should be thinking about. I feel that a good example of agenda setting is the news and how they give information. As we know, many news anchors tell specific stories and in this case, they do it through repetition, prominence, and proximity. I look at this theory to be somewhat of a strategic way of communicating and a theory I am more interested in learning more about and seeing how it can be connected to other real-life events. 

While reading Chapter 6, the communication between humans and technology section was overall the section that I got the most understanding of. The digital play and media transference theory was the main event in Chapter 6. I later realize how it relates to real-life based on experiences throughout my undergraduate matriculation. This theory shows how gamer identities are created in interaction with games. For instance, many guys at my HBCU, Voorhees College, played digitals games on the XBOX or Playstation; but I never understood the hype until now. They are connecting with various individuals and also being the person they want to be seen as. I guess I can understand know why they loved to play the game. 

References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 4 (The Message)

Greetings class!

As I started Chapter 4, I was aware this chapter would be lengthy, yet informative. So many things were cover in this chapter; from the aspects of understanding the messages, to the theories that help explains the message.

All in all, this chapter gave me the understanding one should know that verbals and nonverbals are the basics of the message. For instance, an example of verbals is the actual language that is being spoken, such as conversing with a friend or co-worker.  While nonverbals are gestures of some type of motion including facial smirks, tapping of fingers, or any other outrageous behaviors.

This observation from the text made a lot of sense when an inpatient customer at my job continuously taps on the counter as I help another customer, who was ahead of him. He then slams the box of shoes down on the counter and begins to look for his card, in a quick fashion, to pay for the shoes. Without the guy even saying anything, I could tell that he was uneasy, in a rush, or upset. That comes to show how powerful nonverbals are and gave me a more clear sense of how nonverbals can be displayed.

While maneuvering through Chapter 4 some theories were unclear,but one theory I can speak on and totally understood and grasp easily was the Theory of Identification. Kenneth Burke explains in this theory that symbols help people understand. As a new employee at the Shoe Deptartment I notice that before I received my work shirt, many people asked:

"Do you work here?" This was only being asked because my shirt was not recognizable without the store, Shoe Department, symbol/logo.

After receiving the official work shirt, those questions didn't come as often. It goes back to show that the theory of identification can be seen at almost any uniformed workplace, cars, clothing, and accessories.

Overall, in order to improve my understanding of the theories, I try my best to connect them with real-life situations. Since I read sometimes on my break at work, I feel that this is where most of my connections are made.

PS: I hope that little bit of advice guides you through the next couple of chapters.


References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.

Chapter 3 (The Communicator)

Chapter 3 begins by providing information about the five major groups of theories. These five groups are the biophysiological, cognitive and information processing, communication competence, theories of identity and theories of agency.

For instance, biophysiological theories were one of the groups that caught my attention. This theory group tracks the specific aspects of human behavior such as traits. Traits are attributes to a person that are first developed in the communication discipline and helps create personality. On the contrary, the trait approach/theory allows people to understand the differences between people who are argumentative in communication or those who have communication apprehension, like me.


Another theory group that I allowed myself to dive more in-depth to was the competence theory. Competence theories tend to explain why and how people behave with the interaction between others. I find this fascinating to think about because after reading, I began to listen more closely and were observant of my friends who came down to visit for the weekend, my roommate, and co-workers. I became observant of them just to see if I could understand how they made everyday situations as a stage to sell themselves, see how they negotiate,either  mindfuly or not, and how
they shape their identity.


Overall, Chapter 3 made me do a lot of thinking about those who I surround myself with and how I can improve on traits that I already portray.

References: Littlejohn, S. W., Foss, K. A., & Oetzel, J. G. (2017). Theories of Human Communication.