Week 10: Post 3

I think that my favorite post from the semester would have to be “the medium is the message.” It was the most interesting me to because it actually got me thinking for quite a while and it is something that is very present in our daily lives but not something that we necessarily think about on a daily basis. Marshall McLuhan expressed his idea which is that “the channel through which a message is transmitted is s important as the message itself and that the channel, in fact often determines which messages will be transmitted and which will be ignored.” We obviously encounter many different forms of media everyday and some of the messages that the media puts out there are completely ignored because the channel that the message is sent through. I think that is so interesting. Personally I am more likely to receive a message over the radio or in print than over the television because I don’t have cable; other people might be the opposite. I like this concept because it explains something that is so real in everyone’s lives, even if we don’t recognize it, it is happening all around us.

Week 10: Post 2

I think that the most important thing this class has taught me was to stay on top of my school work on my own. I was worried about taking an online class at first because I was not going to be verbally reminded to do my homework every day in a classroom. This class really helped me to stay organized and not procrastinate which was something I never thought I would be able to fix.

My favorite thing about this class was that it was centered around our blogs. Again, I thought that this would make the class more difficult at first and I was not excited by the idea at all but I really enjoyed being able to freely respond to discussion questions and be able to comment on others posts in an environment more interesting and practical then the desire2learn website.

My least favorite part about the class was that the journals were due at the end of the class instead of throughout the semester. I kept putting them off thinking that I had more time to do them later and ended up waiting to write my final drafts until the week before they were due. That’s obviously my fault and I know I should have been staying on top of the journals but I think they turned out pretty well anyways.

I couldn’t think of a way this class could be improved without making it too easy. I loved the class I think that this was my favorite COMM class at San Jose State.

Week 10: Post 1

To answer this question I had to go back and look at my blog posts to see which of my posts were written the easiest. When I say easiest I mean that the topic was interesting enough so that I didn’t have to make stuff up to fill the word count. The post that stuck out the most to me was the post that covered the concept of non verbal communication. I had gone over this concept in previous COMM classes and it is still one of the most interesting things to read and learn about. I find it so interesting because it is ALWAYS happening around us. Even if you try not to communicate you are communicating non verbally no matter what. I enjoyed learning more about it because there is always something new to be learned and it was also really interesting to read about other people’s experiences with non verbal communication and how they feel about it.

Week 9: Post 3

It has always been interesting to me what the factors are that determine what communication is. I think that the most interesting part to me is whether or not communication is intentional. To me it is intentional and non intentional. Out of all the definitions provided in the book I prefer to think of SPEECH communication as “a human process through which we make sense of the world and share that sense with others” as well as “communication is a process whereby people assign meanings to stimuli in order to make sense of the world. Another factor that determines the definition of communication is whether or not it is sender or receiver based. I agree with the view that communication is both sender and receiver oriented especially since the definition I agree with is both sender and receiver based. It is weird to think of this in real life situations, while communication is in progress and how some things are intentional and some things are not but something is always being communicated.

Week 9: Post 2

I think it definitely makes sense to think of communication as a patterned interaction. The first thing that came to my mind when considering the pragmatic perspective is how communication is like a game. One prime example of communication as a game would be the way in which people interact at the very beginning of a relationship. I do not know why but people always turn it into a game deciding who should call who first or how long they should wait before they contact the possible significant other. One person in the relationship makes a “move” and then the other person takes a turn as well. It is different from a game because over time these acts become routine and patterned instead of planned and strategized. It is probably better that way anyways. I don’t think I would want to communicate with someone who was TRYING to make it a game. That would be exhausting and confusing.