Week 16 Question 3

Organizational communication is the chapter that I feel like needs further discussion. Organization, “is a system consisting of a large number of people working together in a structured way to accomplish multiple goals” (Trenholm,, 2008, p. 215). I think this topic needs further discussion because I think we are in college and soon to be out in the society. Topics like intercultural communication and organizational communication are going to affect us greatly in a working environment. For the most of are going into the corporate world it is very important for us to understand organizational world. However, I feel like this chapter didn’t explain enough internal aspects in the organization. For example, how does one become part of the organization, how is diversity effects the organization…etc.Topics like the norms, roles, ritual, and diversity in a organization isn’t discuss in the book and I think these are the topic can effect us greatly once we start working in a corporate environment.

Week 16 Question 2

I always like the intercultural communication because I think I can relate to that in my daily life. The concept about co-cultures sound very interesting to me because it is a trend that has being going on in the United States for a while. “We are a country of many coexisting cultures. Americans from different ethnic or religious backgrounds may seem as alien as someone “just off the boat.” It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the presence of co-cultures” (Trenholm, 2008, p. 349). It is becoming more obvious that we should be aware of the co-culture trend and be competent with different cultural backgrounds because there could be misunderstandings behind these cultural differences. Whether it is in school, work or even in business context, intercultural communication skills become one of the major factors for success. I think it is also a reason why school starts to emphasis on the importance of intercultural communication more and more throughout the years.

Week 16 Question 1

I think the survey research interests me the most because I am more of a quantitative person when it comes to research. I have done a survey research in my quantitative communication class on what do college students looking for in their romantic partners. I really like gathering information and conduct interviews with people, and the analysis afterwards. If I want to study some aspect of deception I would probably frame my question like “What is consider deception in a romantic relationship among college student?” I would use the survey research method and comes up with questions for interviewees to answer on a liker scale. For example, “Is omitting about past relationship counts ask deception?”

Yes Somewhat No

1 2 3 4 5

I would find a random sample about 50 college students, both male and female. Interview them and look for my common findings. This way I would have a general idea about how college students’ opinion on deception in a romantic relationship.

Week 14 Question 3

The concept that interests me in chapter 11 is gatekeepers, “select the issues they feel are most worthy of coverage and give these issues wide attention. Receivers accept the gatekeepers’ agendas without realizing that, somewhere along the line, an editor or producer is making choices about what to cover and what to ignore” (p. 304). This concept makes me thinking about how the Chinese government always presses any news or information that are coming from Tibet. Just recently, there was a huge earthquake happened in the Tibet area but surprising we didn’t hear or see that many news coverage on this incident. Compare with the earthquake happened two years ago in SiChuan, we saw that was the major headline in every newspaper and television. Because of the political stands between China and Tibet, Chinese government is gate keeping any information that are coming out of Tibet and isolating the community.

Week 14 Question 2

I agree with Marshall McLuhan that medium is the message. The way he expresses is that “the beliefs that the channel through which a message is transmitted is as important as the message itself and that the channel, in fact, often determines which messages will be transmitted and which will be ignored”(p. 307). I agree with this concept because it is just like the basic communication concept that when you deliver a message, the message is not the only thing that matter. Things like the content of the message, how you deliver it, in what way you are delivering it and when you are delivering it. However, I can’t fully understand his idea on television being a cool medium because I feel like it really depends on what kind of television program you are watching. The way he refers cool medium as “it demands that viewers fill in detail”(p. 307). Compare with radio, we don’t need to concentrate that much in television because “television encourages sensory involvement”(p.307).

Week 14 Question 1

I have never make friendships that exist exclusively in cyberspace. And I do not plan on moving towards that direction. I think I am still very traditional when it comes to friends because I think relationship made based only on Internet is not safe and legit. We all know stories about people made up identity about who they are on the Internet and being manipulative in cyberspace. And I also think relationships based on Internet cannot be real like face-to-face relationship. There are a lot of elements that you can’t observe through Internet for example nonverbal cues like facial expression and eye contact. These are the things I rely on the most when I am observing people are whether being truthful or not. On the other hand, cyberspace relationship is too dangerous and as a girl, I don’t want to put myself in a vulnerable position. When it comes to making a relationship, I still prefer the old traditional way.

Week 12 Question 3

The concept that interests in me is self-disclosure, “when one person voluntarily tells another person things about himself which the other is unlikely to know or discover from other sources” (Trenholm, 2008, p. 160). I like this concept because I have a bad habit of disclosing too much information about myself to the people I just know. Because I always believe the best in people. If I’m lucky, the person will respect my self-disclosure and I will feel relive to get something off of my chest. However, I have experience that people use the information I told to against me. I think people should be grateful that others want to disclose themselves to you because that means they value you and your personality. “When we self-disclose, we share with another our past experience, present feelings, basic values, and hopes and fears” (p.161). And I think it takes a lot of courage to disclose that kind of information.