Week Four

This week I would like to touch about non-verbal communication. Do check out this 5mins short clip provided above.

In this short clip, it shows you how you can determine whether a person welcomes you, whether a person is lying to you or whether a person is promising. I totally agree with this clip except * part two which I have yet to test it out.

I split this short clip into 3 parts:

1st part – If a person open his/her arms to welcome you means they are really welcoming you and welcome for a hug. However, if a person is standing like a stiff fish probably he/she does not welcome you or he/she does not want a hug from you.

*2nd part – Your brain is split in to two parts. For right hander they will use their left side of the brain for logical thinking while right side of the brain for creativity. If you ask someone a question and he/she looks to the right side and answer you, he/she is probably lying to you as he/she is using his creativity to come out with a lie. While the left hander will be at the opposite side.

· You may want to try this test by asking random questions from your friend/instructor?

3rd part – Your words may lie but your body can’t lie. Normally when a person who lie to you his/her will move/act opposite or different from what he/she has said or the person will look distracted.

As we say actions speaks louder than words. From one's action, we can see the whole picture and the truth. I totally agree with it. The part that we can least control will be our eyes. Our eyes are “tools” that pass messages and cues to people.

In a face to face conversation, it consists of verbal and non-verbal communication. However, whether the conversations/words are true, the receiver will base from non-verbal cues he/she received.

For example, A says “I Love You” to B. If A is busy looking somewhere else while saying “I Love You” I don’t think B will believe what A has said.

Most of the time we will look at the dynamic features of non-verbal communication such as eye contacts, body movements, gestures, facial expression, space and paralanguage.

SIDE TRACK:
To the girls and boys out there… How you know whether your partner is lying to you? Look straight into his eyes and observe how his/her eyes move!

Week Three

From my point of view, I feel that Media plays the biggest role of changing one's perception of beauty. We look upon celebrities, models and designers.


Do read this article =) Written on 13th September 2009 by Tammy Gallagher.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2169229/how_the_media_changes_our_perception.html?cat=69

This is the summary of how the article shows the perception of beauty changed over years.

In the 1960s, Television (TV) was considered as a privilege and not everyone owns a TV.

After 1970s, TV slowly becomes a norm and TV has become a necessity in our life. This is when the media strongly affects OUR perception of beauty.

The media set the image of beauty and push this look in the highest rated television shows, movies, TV advertisements, print advertisements, music videos, posters, and anything else which can portray a visual image. The lists of the "most beautiful" people are compiled over and over again further blatantly telling us what beauty is. Human changed their perception rapidly from what they see from the media.

Perception is influenced by psychological factors and social factors.

Social Factors

- Media uses celebrities, beauty pageant, advertisement, competition, movies and etc to influence us.

For example; a movie has a very beautiful woman (main lead/celebrity) and everyone on the earth says that she is very beautiful.

* The image of the female lead is the image that the media wants to “enforce” on us.

However, the image that the media wants to enforce to us might not be good or true. For example; to be a model you have to be very thin. A lot of teenagers inspire to a model and they will wish/need to have that particular image. Thus, there is an increase or eating disorder diseases .

Trend is also influence by the media. What the celebrities wear are the most 'in' look and people will follow it.

- The media would repetitively show the same kind of image to the public till we are "force" to turn to that image.

For example; in a fashion magazine, there will be a section about how celebrities wear, how they do their make up, their new image and critique on them. At that section, they will show similar kind of look and that will set the trend.

Thus, I conclude that media changes our perceptive of beauty in a positive and negative manner

Week Two

1)http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_427341.html

2)http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_429194.html

A group of teenagers plan to suicide as one of their close friend, Witaya, claims that a world war was coming and that they had to die in order to be resurrected as slayers who would save the world from demonic attacks.

This case actually happened last year 23rd of August. However, the case was brought up on court recently.

This news really caught my attention. It’s amazing how a group of teenagers had such a strong belief for their religion that they could take their live so easily. From what I have read, the 8 boys played World of Warcraft and Online games like other normal teenage boys. I believe that they belong to the Allies Faction (in the game) which requires them to slay demons. They could be too engrossed in playing the game and bring what they see from the virtual world to reality. OR. It might be someone who influenced them that they could have special powers and the boys eventually believe in it. And came Witaya, who told them they can save the world from world war III by taking their own lives.

For someone to take their own live is never an easy task or a day thing. I believe the boys were under "brain wash" whenever they go for their weekly ritual since 2006 to 2008 at Witaya's house. Someone else or Witaya could have been guiding them through the ritual and telling them about their beliefs of they will be resurrected as slayers who would save the world. Through this period of "brain wash", I believe that the boys were persuaded under 2 factors; Logos and Pathos.

Logos: This definitely does not sound logical to me. However, the teenagers were still young and they were easily influenced by what they had being told. They brought what they have seen from the virtual world to reality. Thus, the teenagers believe in whatever they have been told.

Pathos: I feel that it might be due to the environment created at the ritual. The atmosphere at the ritual makes them feel "holy" and well taken care of from their religion. In the situation like this, the boys were easily influence/persuade by the speaker. I feel that parent should communicate more with their children and know what they are doing. The mind of a child is innocent, they are easily persuaded and they are mostly unable to differentiate what is right and wrong.


Key Point: Persuasion is one of the key points of Rhetoric. Under Persuasion there is 3 points, which are Logos, Ethos and Pathos. For someone to be persuaded, one or more of these 3 points must be used.

COM101 Communication Blog

Blog created for COM101.

This is my Communication Blog. I called it mich's communication box.

My blog name address is e - media - circus. There are reasons to it. I have a bad time thinking of what names should i give my blog and make sure the hits/traffic will hit the TOP! Thus, I use encarta to look for nice words which are relavant to media. Fortunately, i found two beautiful words media circus.

The meaning of Media circus:

media gathered at newsworthy scene: a group of journalists and photographers who gather at the scene of a news event or at the home or workplace of a person who is in the news

SO! i think somehow its a little related to what i will be doing for the next few weeks. AND! i like the word circus! As we think of CIRCUS, it means fun fair with games, animal shows, magic shows, roller coasters and etc. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY! circus is a place for us to have fun and make noise!

SO GUYS GUYS! do make some contructive NOISE to this blog alright ? Be it you are from SIM or not. Be it you are from COM101 or not. I need your few mins at least 3 times a week? it will better if YOU can visit this blog EVERYDAY!

THANKS ALL =) i gonna start studying for my COM101 quiz tomorrow!

* for any private comments or improvements you may email me to " michmedia@live.com "

* NOT FOR GRADING*