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.