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