Week6 #1

In chapter 17,Hirokawa states that goal setting is important for group activities and decision making. In the chapter, " goal setting" is that " establishing criteria by which to judge proposed solutions." ( Griffin, E. ) ( P 224). In a group , if every member in the group understands the goal of the group, he/she will try to achieve the goal. Also, the goal can make the group more successful. If the group doesn`t set a goal, members of group don`t know what they try to accomplish, feel that they have nothing to do with the group, and are tired to attend the group activities. In this case, the group is failed. I`m so lucky never have a group like that. Does someone have the experience of group failure beause of no goal setting?

Week 5 #3

In chapter 13, Watzlawick mentions " content" which is " the report part of a message, what is said verbally. " and " relationship " that is " the command part of the message; how it`s said nonverbally," ( P 172). If there is no content, there is no relationship. For example, my husband and his older brother had some kind of misunderstand 10 years ago. After that, they didn`t meet and talk to each other. Now, my husband understands that he made a mistake in 10 years ago; and he likes to call his older brother to say sorry. But, when he called his brother, he found out that his brother moved out to another state; he can`t find the brother. They haven`t contacted for ten years, haven`t known how they were and where they lived. They have been strangers even though they are brothers. Therefore, there is no content between epople, there is no relationship even though they are in the same family. Two days ago, his sister called my husband and gave the brother`s phone number to him. Yesterday, my husband called his brother, they talked on the phone about four hours about the happen 10 years ago, how they were in the 10 years, and how their families were. After the call, my husband said that he understood more his brother than 10 years ago, and didn`t understand why he didn`t call his brother within 10 years. They are still brothers and try to become the best friends. They lost their relationship about 10 years; they are very thankful to have the relationship back to their life. So, content and relationship are related to each other.

Week 5 #2

In chapter 12 mentions that " for without dialogue, there is no relationship." It`s a very good piont to talk about communication. In the first month of my son`s new school, I didn`t know anyone in his school. I was alone. But, in some day of the second month, a mother of a first grader talked to me while we were waiting for the kids dismissing from school. At the beginning, we just talked some simple things about the school; later, we found that we had a lot of similarities from each other.Half years later, we went shopping together. Now , she `s one of my best friends. Our relationship began with only simple dialogue. On the other hand, my husband and his brother had some kind of misundersatnding 10 years ago. They haven`t met and talked together. Now, my husband doesn`t know how his brother is, where he lives, and how his family is. Even though they are brothers, they haven`t had relationship from each other because they didn`t have dialogue between them.

Week 5 #1

In chapter 11 mentions about Computer-Mediated Communication versus Face-to-face. Now more than 90% of young people like to go on Internet to research, send and get mails, talk through webcam, and play games. They can`t live without computers. Most of them feel comfortable with the activities of computers, but feel anxiety to make face-to -face communication with people. They are social isolated from people and society. Also, it`s dangerous to communicate to others through computers. People create good image and personality online to perform themselves. If young people believe the "good image and personality", the young will get caught. Therefore, young people don`t spend much time online; they need to go out to meet people face by face to develop their social skills.

Week 4 #3

In chapter 10, it mentions " Message plan", which is " Mental representations of action sequence that may be used to achieve goals." ( P 129), ( Griffin, E 2008 ). If you want to catch your communication goal, you must make message plan in your mind to communicate others. In our routine life, some people are easy to achieve their communication goal. At the first, they catch others` attention by showing their friendly manner. The others feel warm from the people and like to open their " doors" to communicate with the people. And then, the people organize their ideas step by step to let the others understand easily. On the other hand, if a person is nervous or having other problems, he/ she performs himself/herself in cool manner. The others withdraw from him/her, and don`t want to communicate with him/her. In this case, even though he/she has excellent ideas, he/she can`t communicate the ideas to others. The ideas are only in his/her mind. Therefore, " message plan" is imptant in communication.

Week 4 #2

I like the ideas of Comparison Level--Gaging relationl Satisfaction in Chapter 9. Peter was looking forward to call his girlfriend on Sunday night, and talked more than 30 minutes to her. The coversation made Peter happy. In our rountine life, our friendship, romance, and family ties is pegged by our relational history. For example, my son became a third grader at the new semester. Even though he was happy with his new third grade teacher and classmates in the classroom, he still loved to play with his second grade classmates at the recess time. He feel happy and safe with his relational history. Few weeks later, he spent more time playing with his third grade classmates and less time with the old classmates. His new relational ties is taken the place of his relational history. But the relational history gives a stable emotion for people to begin or develop new relational ties.

Week 4 #1

I agree with Axiom 6--Similarity in chapter 10 which is " Similarity between persons reduce uncertainty, while dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainty." ( P127) ( Griffin, E. 2008 ). As the chapter explaintation, if both people are bog lovers, they will be easy to become friends because they are similarity. They will begin to understand each other from the bogs they have. They have the same issues to talk about. They feel comfortable to start their frinedship. But, if one person loves bogs, and another loves birds, they will feel hard to find the same issue to talk about. And it`s difficult to follow each other`s conversation. They will feel more difficult to start friendship than they are similarity. i love to look for friends who are similarity as me.


Griffin, E. ( 2008). Communication Theory. New York:McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Week 2 #3---Me

According to the textbook from chapter 5, " Me, The objective self; the image of self seen when one takes the role of the other." ( P63). People develope their " Me" by communicating with their friends and peers. people`s " Me" change time by time because they communicate to difference friends and peers in difference time. we always hear parents say why their children`s behaviors change often. Also, people look at their friends to detect the image of themselves, and try to act like their friends. For example, when I was in the third year of middle school, I had two best friends who were the top five students in my class. I spent more of my time studying with them, and I studied hard to get good grade. I thought that I should be a top student in my class just like my friends. Therefore, when people change their behaviors, not only ask why they change, but also need to understand their friends.

Reference;

Griffin, Em. (2008). Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Week 2 Blog #2

I`m interesting in "Communication as a system of information processing" from Chapter 4. We use phone calls everyday, and we can`t without the phone in our routine life. It`s a very good source to send information. But, the sound and voice from phone line can make total difference result in sending information to receivers. For example, within dinner time, I got a call of advertisement. I was angry to receive the call, but I heard a smooth and nice voice with right speed from the phone. At that moment, I held the phone and sat down to listen to the phone even though I didn`t want the products or plans. Finally, I got some information from the phone call. On the other hand, after the call, I got another advertisement call. I was happy to answer the call because of the call I got before. When I got the second call, I heard a unhappy voice from the phone. At that time, I cut the call immediately. I didn`t know what the call was about. They are not only my experience. I know that every one has the same experience as me .

Week 2-- #1 Blog

I`m Chujing. The Socio-Cultural Tradition from chapter 4 is very touched my feelings. The Socio-Cultural Tradition is focused on people`s talk, they produce and reproduce culture. The same color has many difference meanings in difference culture. For example, Americian think that white color means peaceful, honest, and purify. They use the color in their wedding. But, in Chinese culture, Chinese think that the white color means sad and ghostly. They usually use the color in funeral ceremony, and don`t use it in their wedding. The white color has total difference meanings with these two cultures. Therefore, people misunderstand other people not only the words they speak, but also they have difference explaination with their culture.