Last Week, Question 3

I really liked the section about non-verbal communication and I wish that we could have discussed it further. I think that perhaps it may be irrelevant to the class, but I find that it has helped me become a better thinker when I can pick up non-verbal cues from other people. This subject is something that is never explored in any other classes, not even my public speaking class. It’s good to know so that when you do find yourself working in groups, you can gauge the how everyone is doing and if every person that needs to be engaged is doing so. I feel that this topic could make a big switch in the way a lot of people act, especially in academic settings. Sometimes we may really be interested in a certain topic, but our body language says differently and we could sway the way a speaker is going.

Last Week, Question 2

I think that my favorite part about this class was the format in which everything was ran. It was very fluid and kept me engaged without being extremely demanding. I really appreciated the blog posts, because it made me rethink and go back to what it was that I read for the week. I think that my least favorite thing about the class were the first couple of weeks. I found that different information was posted in different places, and it took me a while to get used to the format. Once I got the hang of it though, I really liked it. I think that if there is one long blog post with every single detail of the class, or maybe a recorded webinar explaining where to find everything that we would ever need, it would be very beneficial. 

Last Week, Question 1

I have learned more than I imagined I would in this COMM 41 class this semester. There are just a lot of topics, terms and ideas that I did not even realize existed. I came into this class as a graduating senior, redoing a general education requirement. I ended up learning some very valuable lessons. I think that I learned how to construct my arguments better by learning about all kinds of different fallacies. I also learned a lot about group work-not just from the text but actually from working with other students in the class. I found that the theories and techniques really helped when it came to working with people I had never met before. I’m used to working with people who I have built a relationship with, and whose style of working I know. Being thrown into groups with strangers posed its challenges, but I ended up learning a lot from it. 

Week of 11/12 Question 2

One time that I drew an incorrect conclusion based on an observation alone was at my job a couple of weeks ago. There was a person who was walking towards the desk that I work reception at. He seemed really angry and was walking rather fast. I have had my fair share of angry customers, so I was preparing for whatever was going to happen. It really surprised me when he was one of the nicest people I had ever helped. He was polite and kind and was really understanding about the answers that I was giving him. I drew the conclusion that he was going to be difficult to deal with based on his facial expressions, but I ended up being wrong. I think that because I don’t really encounter people who “look” angry being nice, I ended up assuming he wasn’t going to be any different. 

Week of 11/12 Question 1

After reading my horoscope on horoscope.com, I have found that this could possibly be more accurate than what I first expected. I am a cancer, and it suggested that I take a look at my life and see if I am where I want to be. This is rather accurate because of what I am currently going through. I am going through the process of applying for graduate schools, and I think that I have fallen a little bit behind. I think that it is right that I should make a list and stick to the plan. This is my dream and I need to get it together. However, I do think that this prediction could be falsifiable. I now have everything in line and in check to graduate and go on to apply for new schools. I believe that we may also try to make our lives fit into what these horoscopes tell us. 

Chapter 11 Question 3

A topic that I really enjoyed learning about was social media/networking and how it works/affects our world. I understand that it hasn’t been around for too long, but I cant imagine my world without it. Ever since I was in middle school, we all had Xanga blogs and stayed connected to people through there. Today we have things like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and many other forms of staying connected. I have noticed that this has gone super mainstream, and is used by major companies, corporations and even smaller businesses to sell their product and get connected with their customers. I think that while it is a really cool thing to find people that you haven’t seen for ages, I think that it makes us all a little disconnected from what is actually happening in our present world. I think that we could do a much better job at living peaceful and successful lives if we just stayed away a little bit from all of the artificial lives that happen on the internet.

Chapter 11 Question 2

Brook Sadler brings up some very good issues in the article “The Wrongs of Internet Plagiarism: The Quick Arguments.” Sadler says that plagiarizing could be considered somewhat of a theft. One person is taking away, or one could even say that they are robbing, somebody else’s intellectual property. They are stripping them of the hard work that they have made and claiming it as their own. In “Four Reasons to be Happy About Internet Plagiarism,” Hunt believes something a bit different. Hunt believes that students should be able to plagiarize because it will help them pass and be successful in classes. Sadler has the best argument of these two for a few reasons. Sadler gives reasons and support as to why it should not happen and even offers possible solutions. Hunt seems to only state where he stands. I believe that plagiarism is simply unfair to people who put in a lot of hard work and effort into their work.

Chapter 11 Question 1

I think that it is very easy to get carried away with what the media portrays and what you are made to believe by it. It is also, however, one of the only outlets or sources of information that is really and readily accessible and doesn’t take too much work to learn from. One experience that thoroughly reinforces my world views and values is when I saw a commercial that was against smoking. It featured people who had to suffer through lung cancer in it. It make me realize exactly to what extent/circumstances could exist if someone were to smoke. It reinforced the fact that I already felt strongly about-nobody should smoke. It made me realize that more people needed to be educated about this issue just like I was educated. It challenged my views, however, in that it featured mainly white, older victims. I think that this commercial should have been more inclusive of all the people that it happens to so it doesn’t give any idea that certain people don’t have to worry.

Week of 10/24: Question 1

This week, I have encountered quite a few marketing strategies that have come up. Having only two days before the elections, there is a lot of marketing out there for different propositions and candidates running for different governmental positions. I am an avid user of Youtube and go on there to distract myself. I like to watch different channels for different reasons. Some offer humor, some are simply video diaries of different, very interesting people. Before a lot of the videos I’ve watched this week, there have been 15-30 second commercials that pop up. Most of them have been advertisements pro-Mitt Romney. Being that he is a more conservative candidate, the way in which he is portrayed says otherwise. I think that somehow Youtube collects data as to what kind of videos I watch, and therefore categorizes me. Then, they put advertisements before the videos that fit the type of person they are trying to persuade. I think that this method is rather ineffective because it simply is annoying. They are not swaying me in any which way.

-CesarCOMM41

Week of 10/24: Question 2

Chapter 10 poses a couple of good arguments when it comes to children’s food advertising. Both Wootan and Liodice take their time in elaborating what they say and why it is that they are saying it. Wootan takes the stance of agreeing with government regulation of advertisement aimed towards children because there is the belief that it is a positive stride towards ending childhood obesity. Liodice on the other hand takes a very different approach. He argues that stopping or regulating a certain kind of advertisement is a violation of rights. It also wont be a solution to the problem. While I do believe that it might be impeding against a certain group’s rights, I believe that it is really important to take into consideration the future of the children and what society looks like as a whole. There are a lot of factors that contribute to childhood obesity and if getting rid of one of them will help, why not do it?

-CesarCOMM41

Week of 10/29: Question 3

This week's reading proved to be a very interesting one, and set up a lot of different topics. One that interested me the most was marketing research. As defined by Boss, marketing research is "identifying a target market and finding out if it matches customer desires."I feel that people these days make a really good job at finding who their target audience is. One example would be the way that Axe advertises and targets its products. They use a lot of sexuality and women in their ads. Their products could probably work just as well on women as they do on men, but they have marketed them towards men. From their first campaign, they have obviously reached success, so they've continued with their style. Today, most of their products and commercials somehow involve a woman, or multiple women, chasing a man down because of the scent of the Axe product that they are using.

-CesarCOMM41

Week of October 15-21: Question 3

This week I will be focusing on social errors and biases. I am very much interested in which was people perceive those who are different from themselves and how groups of people are clumped together because of some similar attributes. While I am very dedicated to social justice and equality, I recognize that I am a biased person myself and have to fix that. We have been so conditioned to make judgments on people based on one characteristic that it is really hard to stray away from that. It makes us more comfortable than to think we don’t understand somebody completely. Another issue that this brings up is how we only respect those people that we see are like ourselves. We only see our experiences and identities as important and relevant, leaving everyone else marginalized and in the background. I think that I have been really good about straying away from this kind of mentality. It is important to recognize that nobody has an easier or harder life because everything is relevant to each experience.

-CesarCOMM41 

Week of October 15-21: Question 1

I do believe that knowledge and wisdom are two very different things. I think that while knowledge is basically having information about a certain subject in your brain, wisdom is how you apply that knowledge into your experiences and use it to solve problems. You can have all the knowledge in the world in regards to algebra, but unless you know how to apply it to real world situations, that information is kind of useless. I think while knowledge is important and necessary in order to have wisdom, you have to have both in order to be a better functioning member of society. At college, I feel like I am acquiring both. I get knowledge when it comes to the content of my courses. I read and I learn from other people’s experiences. I think that wisdom comes from how I apply that knowledge to my every day life at work and in working with classmates. I think that being in the information age, it has become easier to be more knowledgeable than wise. We have all this access to information, but because we are so indulged in it, we have no avenue to put it into practice. We are so glued to knowing more that we don’t practice our wisdom.

-CesarCOMM41

Week of October 1-7: Question 2

One of my favorite rhetorical devices ever is sarcasm. It flows out of my mouth naturally, so I use it on a daily basis. Sarcasm is using insults to cause irony, as stated in the book. Just yesterday, I was at my parent’s house. My mom asked me if I could give our dogs a bath and brush their coat after. I responded saying, “sure mom, and I’ll make sure to do the dishes, laundry and mow the lawn as well.” While I had no problem doing the task that she asked of me, I said it hoping that she would simply say never mind and not make me do it.

Another rhetorical device that I use is hyperbole. This uses exaggeration to make the facts seem more extreme than what they really are. While it is true that I probably need to get more sleep, I often state, “I’m so tired, I only slept like, two hours.” The reality of the situation is that I slept around 6 or 7, but it still wasn’t enough for me to feel rested.

-CesarCOMM41

Week of October 1-7: Question 3

One of the topics in this week's reading that really caught my attention is nonverbal communication. I had never put much thought into this before, until recently. My friend happens to be a graduate student in the Communications program, and he gets things out of my through my nonverbal communication. This term describes the action rather thoroughly: it's what we communicate without being verbal. In other words, it's what we say without speaking and using our bodies. I am often unaware about my nonverbal communication, which makes me a horrible liar.

When I am feeling a little bit aggravated or angry, my face goes rather serious. It's something that is hard for me to control and I don't really notice that I do it. I'm always in the belief that my face looks the same. When I'm angry, I think my expression is normal, but people always ask me what is wrong. It's something that I think I need to get better at and hopefully will find ways to do so.

-CesarCOMM41

Week of September 24-30: Question 3

My favorite topic from this week's reading is Empathy. Empathy, as stated in the text, is the ability to enter into and understand the experiences and emotions of others. I have had to use this a lot in my life. Like I have stated before, I am very much dedicated to social justice and working towards a much more equal world. When you have privilege, it is often easy to bask in it and not notice how much power you actually have. It also makes it hard to see other people's forms of oppression. I think that empathy is one of the main things that helps solve that issue. What the book also states is that it can make us more understanding and compassionate people. We can be more flexible to others' desires and needs. It is a very positive value that can create a lot of change in our world.

Week of September 24-30: Question 2

I believe that Richard Dawkins brings up some very good points in his piece of writing The God Delusion. This piece is a direct argument to Thomas Aquinas's statements proving that there is a god. As Dawkins explains his rendition of Aquinas's statements, I think that the main point he is trying to make is that evolution and God can't exist at the same time. What I also feel, however, is that he doesn't really tackle the situation at hand. He goes on and tries to disprove the statements in the first article, but does nothing to suggest that it could be any different. I think that Dawkins lacks in providing his ideas and ways of thinking and focuses too much on bashing the first author. This argument does nothing to disprove evolution or god. I think the way they both describe it makes it possible for both to coexist.

CesarCOMM41

Week of September 24-30: Question 1

I think that overall, I am pretty strong when it comes to reasoning. The part of reasoning that I think I am strongest in, however, is imagination as it is stated on page 38. My major is Design Studies with an emphasis in Graphic Design, and I think that my imagination is what has made me successful in it. I don't plan on pursuing a career in the design field, and instead I am looking into applying for a graduate program in Student Affairs/Higher Education Administration in hopes of working at a four year institution. Like I have seen by observing my mentors, working in higher ed requires a lot of imagination. You are constantly having to plan new programs and events that students would want to participate in. You want to make sure that they are not repetitive or overused because that makes students not want to show up. You also have to look at new ways of keeping students engaged beyond programs. You have to be able to think outside of the box and create things that are going to make your university stand out from the rest.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 4: Question 2

Dr. Antonia Novello uses cause-and-effect inductive reasoning in a very effective manner. First, she took the statistics and results from the effects that Camel and Joe Camel advertisements had on children and teenagers in 1988. She saw that more children were consuming tobacco, so she used that cause to create a more positive effect. She went on and created a few things to help solve the problems. First she worked more with education to help make sure children learned the negative effects of alcohol. Secondly she worked on banning tobacco advertisements that would appeal to a younger generation. The cause was that Camel was making advertisements that appealed to children, and the effect was that the rates of children smoking were rising. She used this reasoning to create a positive change in the way that advertisements were created.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 4: Question 1

Inductive arguments are used all the time. I feel like it's a way of settling different life situations that makes us unsettled or uncomfortable. Just last week I was at work and had to plan an event that is somewhat of a mixer where students can come meet each other and professionals on the campus. Our goal (or our conclusion) was to make sure that students left having made at least two connections with others. What we did was plan different activities that we could do during this welcome in order to ensure that we would get the results that we wanted. We came up with a “speed dating” game and a name games where people could get to know each other. We also agreed to have some mingling time after the activities so that people could hang out in a scenario with less pressure. In the end our argument was this:

If students play the name game, do some speed dating, and mingle, they will hopefully have connected with at least two people.

-CesarCOMM41 

Week 4: Question 3

One of the concepts that I was really interested in from this chapter was Generalization. It somewhat ties in with what we were discussing last week. A generalization is when you come to a conclusion or make a statement about a certain group of people based on one example. For example, say I take a survey of X amount of SJSU students, and they all have taken general education classes. To say that all SJSU students (24,000+) have taken GE classes is a generalization. 

There are different ways in which you can make a proper generalization. You can take polls or surveys of groups of people. After you collect the information, you can draw a conclusion and make a generalization. You have to be careful though, because you want to make sure that you have an unbiased selection of candidates. Whether it’s random polling or selective sampling, you need to be sure to survey the right people or else your generalization will be skewed.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 3: Question 3

One concept that I learned in this weeks reading was deductive arguments. It is something that many of my teachers have brought up and talked about, but also something that I sometimes have trouble constructing. I feel that when I write, it tends to be more open ended, so I don't usually practice deductive arguments. The way that deductive arguments work is rather simple, and it had never been explained to me as straight forward as it’s written in the book. Hopefully I grasped the concept correctly:

In a deductive argument, the conclusion has to be true only if the premises are true.

Here’s an example that I came up with:

Cesar goes to San Jose State. All San Jose State students get an Eco Pass. Cesar gets an Eco Pass.

While the book has explained this to me a lot better than others have, I am still struggling with it a little bit. Hopefully with more practice and application I will get it down.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 3: Question 1

I believe that it is human nature to make assumptions about certain situations because we tend to have a fear of the unknown. It is really easy to simply put labels on things based on what others have said because it eliminates the process of thought and the time consumption that comes along with it. Once we accept those embellishments, they become a norm or a standard and getting rid of them is a lot harder than it is to gain them.

I have had plenty of experiences where people assume things about me based on my appearance. There have been several times where I walk into a small store and I get followed. The workers assume that because of my skin color or perceived race, I will most likely try to commit a burglary or vandalize their store. I have never committed any kind of crime related to that. It is clear to me that store employees who have followed me have a perception of Mexican/Mexican Americans as burglars or thieves. Their perceptions however are only based on assumption and generalization and lead them to believe an untrue image of me.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 2: Question 3

One concept that really caught my attention was the section in The Essential Guide to Group Communication about identifying and overcoming problems in group roles. I find that having known this information when working in groups in the past would have helped gotten our assignments a lot faster and a lot more efficiently. I also reflected on how I have taken these rolls many times. It's easy to disengage and be the problematic group member, so having knowledge of the following roles will help make me a better participant. I often find myself being an avoider. Sometimes I act as if I really don't want to be at a meeting even when I am passionate about what is being discussed because I don't know how to effectively communicate my discomfort with certain statements or decisions. The other role that I constantly play is that of distractor. When something is on my mind that I think is amazing I feel as if I have to share it with the world. I also find that when I'm working in a group setting a lot of discussions bring up memories or stories that I feel compelled to share then and there. This often invites others to share their stories, and hours later we find that we haven't gotten anything done. Putting names and definitions to these roles has helped me better understand how I can change and become a better group worker.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 2: Question 2

I am a strong believer in social justice and the idea of standing firm on equality regardless of the adversity that might present. That being said, I am not a big fan of offensive terms being thrown around as insults or mockery. I know that its something that’s engrained in our culture and we all hear it growing up, but it still doesn’t make it okay to use them.

I have a friend who loved saying words like “retard” or “faggot.” Every time I’d hear him say it, I’d cringe a bit but never had the courage to confront him about it because I was afraid of damaging our relationship. I also feared the possibility of him taking out some aggression on me by using terms that I wouldn’t like.

I saw myself forced to do some thinking. The more that I became aware about oppression and how those terms only enabled it, the more I felt uncomfortable whenever I heard him say them. I had to make the choice between letting him know how I felt about his ill taste of hurtful words, or just suck it up and let him continue doing his thing. Then I came to realize that I had no choice but to tell him. Why would I want to hold on to a friend if I wasn’t going to ever be comfortable around him? Needless to say, we had the conversation and it made us both uncomfortable. Thankfully, in the end the love that held our friendship together helped him understand my needs and helped me be forgiving if he ever slipped up.

-CesarCOMM41

Week 2: Question 1

While I think that President Barack Obama’s views on same sex marriage are more progressive than any other president I’ve witnessed in my lifetime, I still don’t think that they are as inclusive as they need to be. I see a couple of conflicts here, however, and can understand why perhaps Obama’s views aren’t necessarily conflicting with his beliefs in equal rights and opportunities for all people.

The term “marriage” is originally a religious term identifying the union of a man and a woman, which is where the problem begins. I think that he is trying to take the approach of making everyone happy-give the conservative/religious crowd ownership of their beliefs on the term, but also give gays and lesbians equal rights as everyone else.

I do appreciate Obama’s desire to fulfill everyone’s needs, but if our government is willing to accept “marriage” as a term for a legal union between two people, they should be able to separate its religious origin from its meaning. Our country is not supposed to be regulated by religion or religious beliefs.

Obama can respond to Nava and Dawidoff’s argument by saying that he wants the same protections for all people, but giving those protections different names. I don’t believe this to be fair or just. There is no reason for any person to be alienated by giving their rights a different name.

-CesarCOMM41

Hello all!

My name is Cesar and I am starting my fifth year here at San Jose State. I am Design Studies major. College has been an amazing experience for me and has provided me with a lot of really cool opportunities. I am originally from Hayward, which is about a thirty minute drive north. However, ever since I moved to San Jose, I haven't wanted to go back. This place has a lot of culture and life that I don't think I could live without. I've been involved with numerous things on campus. I was an Orientation Leader, an RA, am a member of a fraternity, etc. As fun as my journey here has been, I am ready to wrap it up and embark on something new.

I don't have much experience in Communications classes. The closest thing I have taken is MAS 74 where I learned public speaking. I am open to what I will learn in this class. I'm also taking it to challenge myself, considering the online format is new to me and will require a lot more dedication and attention to detail.

Happy Sunday

-CesarCOMM41