Communication is the way of life.

Computer Mediated Communication - CMC

2009-03-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

This my last post for communication 101.
Although I already have a blog, I don't think I will close this blog,
most probably will change my blog skin and maybe my blog add.. haha
And, after that I can blog whatever I what!
Without the need to stress about people commenting!

Anyway, this entry still need some comments.
This entry shall be about Computer Mediated Communication
So what is CMC?

In simple terms, it is using of computers to communicate with one another like Facebook, Mirc, Msn and other kind of communication tools available. In this high technology era, I believe everyone, definitely have the experiences of using computers to communicate with one another.

What do you use CMC for?
For me, I use it to keep-in-contact with my friends so that we can know how each other have been doing. I also use it for entertainment, to watch movies, listen to music, playing games. Other than that, I also use it as a form of communication.
So, what do you use computer for?

What is your identity in the virtual world?
There are people who are so different in their virtual world and real world. For me, I tend to expressed myself more in the virtual world than in the real world, of course, with the expection, only to my friends. So, somehow I am different in the real world as compared to the virtual world. What your identity in the virtual world then?

How has computer affected your everyday life?
Computer has invaded everyone in their different aspect of lives.
For eg: Family and Interpersonal realtionship - Do you communicate with your parents, brother and sister, using email or msn, even though you are at home?
Social life like religion, support, culture - Meeting through msn with own culture group as a it is more convenient in our busy life. So, how has computer affected you?

Do you find Knowledge through computers?
With the use computer, we can easily access information from all over the world. People might prefer to acquire news from the internet rather than the TV. And, internet has become so accessible that, people might get famous in the internet because of their blog, music..etc. However, there are some disadvantages like credibility. We do not know whether a particular news is true or false.

Ok. end of my post. =)

Mass media

2009-03-08T08:21:00.001-07:00

Today topic is on Mass media.
- What is media to you?
- Why do you use the media?
There are many reasons to it. Some people use it for entertaintment, presentation, school purposes, keep in contact with friends.. etc

I have decided to make my post short and sweet and simple. Because it seems that no one is commenting on my blog. So, why waste my effort to type so long and do so many research? After all, marks are given based by comments not post..

Different types of mass media theories
1. Powerful Effect theories
- Believe that media is the most powerful
- Believe that media is the most influencial
- Believe that audience is powerfil and has no control over the media.
So, do any of you come across this kind of media before?

2. Limited Effect theories
- Believe that media is powerless and have no control
- Audience has the most power
In this theories, audience have the right to choose what to believe and what they want.

3. Moderate effects theories
In this theory, it is said that media is not all powerful or powerless and this same goes for audience. There is a balance to both media and audience

It consist of the following functions:

Agenda setting function refers to the media ability, through repeated news coverage, to raise the importance of an issue in the public's mind. For example: Issue on smoking. Media is widely used a means to let audience know the harmful effects of smoking. Like advertisement on anti-smoking. However, some issues may not be true. For example: If you see an advertisement that is being broadcast frequently, you might end up believing what the advertisement say
Media determinism says that the medium used is more important than the message itself. How we put across a message, what is used is important than the content of the message.
Spiral of silence states that people have the tendency to refrain from expressing unpopular ideas or views. Because the media will not support it. If you have an unpopular view about something, would you still express you view?
Media hegemony refers to media represent the views of powerful elite. It is influenced by those who hold economic and political power.
Cultivation theory says that message in a media do not influence audiences directly, instead it cultivate indirectly. It lets you change the view about tht world. For example: When everytime we see the new, there are always negative news or news about killing, sucide, stealing..etc, than you might think that the world is full of bad people and is not safe. But than actually it is not true.

What are you view?

Mind Your Language

2009-02-28T06:52:00.000-08:00

Before I start on today topic, let me share with you guys 3 interesting videos. I consider for a long time before deciding on whether to use these 3 videos, as there are some stereotypes involved. I hope I don't offend anyone. If I do, I am sorry. =)

The video I am sharing with you guys is called Mind Your Language. I don't know if you all have hear before. This show is a real classic comedy.

Mind Your Language Series 1 - The First Lesson (Part 1)

Mind Your Language Series 1 - The First Lesson (Part 2)

Mind Your Language Series 1 - The First Lesson (Part 3)

Mind your language is talks about culture and stereotyping.
Lets discuss about Culture.
"Cultural tells us who we are, what groups we belong to and how we live our life's."
one more
"Cultural influence as well as influence behaviour."
Mind you language is about a group of people from different countries came together to learn English from a British teacher. The class consists of foreigners with varying degrees of English proficiency. Also, it is multiculturalism as there are a total of 10 people, coming from different countries, with different culture, come together to learn English.

They are from:
Teachers and Principal
England - Jeremy Brown
England - Miss Dolores Courtney
Students
Italy - Giovanni Capello
German - Anna Schmidt,
China - Chung Su-Lee
Japan - Taro Nagazumi
India - Jamila Ranjha
India - Ranjeet Singh
Greece - Maximillian Papandrious
Spain - Juan Cervantes
Pakistan - Ali Nadeem
France - Danielle Favre

In the clips, it clearly shows the verbal and non-verbal cues of the different culture. Did you guys spot any? One example: Su Lee, who is from china (how we know she is from china?) by wearing a chongsum and holding a Mao Zhe Dong book, which she treats it like a bible. This is a typical stereotype of Chinese. And see how this shows portrays her? The way she walk, the way she speak.. etc. This shows that " Cultural beliefs represent our understanding about what is true."

Lets talk about Stereotype
Culture affects communication, which will lead to stereotyping.
What is stereotype? Stereotype is generalised belief by which we make sense of the world around us, regardless of context or accuracy. What are some of the stereotypes shown in the clips? One example: Ms Courtney is Englishwoman and the clips portray her as superior to others. She believes that her culture is superior than all others and she have the tendency to judge all other culture by her own criteria. Therefore, prejudices and stereotypes occur.

Another example: See how the show portrays time orientation. In the beginning of the clips, not all the students are present, after a while, Su Lee came in. This is a stereotype of how Chinese are always late for everything. Also, after Su Lee entered the class, Ranjeet enter the class too. This is also another typical stereotype about how Asians don't have a good concept of time as compared to the Western countries, such as America, as they believed that time is money.

Conclusion: I like one the sentences that Mr Brown says: "Let us all have no racialism. In this class, all are equal." Yes. It is interesting to see how a class of multicultural and multiracial, especiall for Japan and China, India and Pakistan co-exist with other. Although there are times when they quarrel with one another, you will find that, as the show progress, they actually start to helps one another.

Some questions to ponder about.
- What are your views on the show Mind your language?
- What are some of the stereotypes shown?
- Is Mind your language supporting stereotype? Or is it creating awareness?

For more info, visit here. Mind Your Language has altogether four series. In series one and four, there are 13 stories altogether and in series two and three, there are 8 stories altogether.

P.S: This is a good show to lighten your mood when you are feeling down.
Have a good laugh =)

Group Communication (II) - Music

2009-02-24T08:03:00.001-08:00

Music is actually another form of group communication too.
Especially true for music bands.

So, today, I am going to talk about music bands.
Why the need of group communication?
Because the group members need to communicate with themselves to come up with the kind of music they want, as a group. And, they also need coordination in their music. The chords, the rythm, the pitch, the beat, the flow, the coordination of the music..etc

One example of a music band is,
Mayday - 五月天(Wu Yue Tian)

AH!!! 五月天!! Ok. Enough of screaming. My favourite rock band in the chinese music industry.
I believed their supporters are all over the world!

A brieft introduction of the band:
Mayday is one of the most popular alternative rock bands in Taiwan. They are a group of 5 people which consist of one vocalist, two lead guitar-ist, one bass guitar-ist and one drummer. Currently, they have just realised their latest album, Poetry of the Day After (后青春期的诗). They have been praised as “the zeitgeist of Taiwanese youth” because its music focuses on themes like dreams, love, loneliness, and growing up. Their goal is to be the Chinese version of The Beatles, personally, I think they are pretty close.

In group communication, there are different types of goals. For this, I shall talk about
Task vs Maintanence roles
Task roles: behaviours that help group accomplish its task
- Initator, Contributors
- Information giver/seeker
- Opinion giver/seeker
- Coordinator
- Evaluator
Some of the roles are reflected also reflected in Mayday music band. For example: all of them are to provide songs which they have created (information giver) and the rest of the team mates will give comments about the song the memeber have created (opinion giver). Some of them are contributors, like the singer of the band, Ashin, who contributes to all the lyrics of the album.
And the evaluator of the group would be the leader of the band, as the leader would critic about anyday regarding their band.
Maintance roles: behaviours that enhance social climate of the group.
- Encourager
- Harmoniser
- Standard setter
- Group observer
Some of the memebers of the band display those maintance roles like encourager,the members of the band will encourage or motivate one another and normally,standard setterwill be the leader of the group. Sometimes, memebers of the group will set their own standards for themselves to achieve.

To know more about them, visit
- For more infomation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday(Taiwaneseband)
- For English and Chinese lyrics of their songs: http://www.onedayinmay.net/
- Official Website: http://imayday.com/

Some Mayday songs from youtube:
- 突然好想你 Suddenly missing you
- 你不是真正的快乐 You aren't truely happy
- 离开地求表面 Jump!(Leaving the earth surface)
- 小太阳 Little Sun
- 天使 Angel

Enjoy~ =)

Group Communication (I)

2009-02-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

All right, Actually I wanted to talk more about interpersonal communication, but I guess I will just stop there. Well, I realised that I have writer's block. Seriously, sometime I don't know what to blog about. I need inspiration. (This shouldn't be happening, because I am someone who likes to blog. I guess I just think too much. All I need is to just go with my heart..)

Lets move on to Group Communication. So, what about group communication?
Before I start, let me share some of my 'Group communication' encounter. Personally, I am someone who like to do things in a group. I don't like to do things alone, maybe to a certain extent, I hate or probably fear doing things alone, although I am used to it and have done it before. Confused? Doesn't matter. That's not important.

What's more important is that, I am glad there are times that my life revolves around group communication. In a group communication, there are bounds to be advantages and disadvantages, good and bad. One of the main problem in group communication is Groupthink. Firsy, let me explain what is Group think.

"Group think is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing and evaluating ideas. During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of thinking. Reason may be due to avoid being seen as foolish, or a desire to avoid embarrassing or angering other members of the group. Groupthink may cause groups to make hasty, irrational decisions, where individual doubts are set aside, for fear of upsetting the group’s balance. " - Wikipedia

Some examples:
i) During secondary school, I know a group of good friends (7 including me) and we have been very good friends till now. The thing is, we will still constantly meet up probably once a month, although one or two cannot make it, but we still meet up as a group and probably go for dinner, lunch, movies or k-session. And, we have problems such as groupthinktoo. We basically just live in our own world, without caring less about what is happening in the school. So, in a group there are bound to have conflict. We do have conflict too.

ii) My NPCC times. Yes, I know I don't look like one, but I used to be from NPCC, definitely true! Reason for having NPCC as my cca was, becoming a police-woman used to be my ambition. Anyways, we take strong pride in our group. We used to think that our batch, is the best batch ever, compared to the juniors or senior batch. See, groupthink again. So, whenever we have drills with other groups, we always strive to do our best and we did it! Our batch, used to be the lousiest group among all. But after being bonded together, we improve drastically. I will never forget what my inspector always told us. "One for all, All for one". Therefore, we shared woes, sorrows, hardships and also the good times together.

iii) My religion committment. I am currently involved in my Youth group activity, up to now. One of them consist of giving volunteering tuition for pri and sec levels. So, basically, we do everything as a group, especially when it comes to planning of activity. We would have problems of group think such as Illusion to invulnerability & Illusion of unanimity. Haha. We would always think that our game or activity is the most fun and interesting. That's when a devil's advocate would be needed. Fortunately, our group leader is the devil's advocate who knocks some sense into us by giving us comments on our activites, what are the flaws and how to improve it.

Enough of my personal experience about group communication. Lets talk about something else regarding group communication too. For that, I will mention it in part (II) of the blog.
As for now, what are your views on group communication?
- Do you agree or disagree?
- Do you have similar experiences?
- Do you have conflicts in a group?

Interpersonal Relationship

2009-02-14T09:51:00.001-08:00

This week I learnt about what is interpersonal communication all about. Basically, it is about human relationship. Or in short, love. Love is something so expectional, so held-in-esteem that it makes everyone so interested about it, that many may to wonder what exactly is it about.

There are 10 different stages from Knapp's Relational Development Model.
The first 5 stage is about coming together
Stage 1: Initiating: making the first move.
Stage 2: Experimenting: trying to find similarities between each other
Stage 3: Intensifying: getting to know each other, more self disclosure
Stage 4: Integrating: status as a couple would be confirmed
Stage 5: Bonding: commitment, marriage

The next 5 stage is about coming apart
Stage 6: Differentiating: Finding differences
Stage 7: Circumscribing: Setting limits and boundaries on communication
Stage 8: Stagnation: No progress made.
Stage 9: Avoiding: Start avoiding one another
Stage 10: Terminating: The relationship stop completely.

Some movies clips which shows about interpersonal relationship. I found them nice and interesting. I have watched them before and all of them are my favourites. haha =)
- Titanic

This movie is a classic. I guess, it fully describes the different stages of Knapp model.

- Cape No 7

This movie is a hit in Taiwan. I realised that this movie used many non-verbal cues.
For a longer version of the trailer: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWs9ilMOIr0&feature=related)
For more info, visit (http://%20en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_No._7)

- Secret or Secret that cannot be told

This movie is not the movie The Secret. It is totally different.
This movie love story, somehow, is different from the rest. If any of you have watched this movie than you will know why it is different. Those who have not watched yet can consider watching online. It is acutally a love story about two person at different space and time.
For more info, visit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_(2007_film)

From my point of view:
Knapps rational development model act as a guidelines or references as to "How a relationship started and How a relationship ended". I would not say these are a must-follow-guidelines in a relationship though, but it does help in expressing your love to others.

Relationship is part and parcel of our life. Or, I can say, is everywhere around us. It tends to change from time to time, generation to generation. For example: In the past chinese tradition, only the husband can 'divorce' the wife. The wife has no rights to do so. Now, be it the husband and wife, both have the rights to 'divorce' each other and the rate is getting higher compared to the past generation.

I remember there was a few times, when I saw an old man and old woman, holding hands, walking together. I guess this is a very rare sight in Singapore. Do you believe in true love or forever love exist in this modern society?

I believed it does exist, in the small corner of Singapore. There are many people I know of have all found their true love. It is just a matter of fact if you have already found it or not. If you have not found it, it doesn't mean it would exist, maybe it just you have not found the right person =)

So, what are you views then?

Perception and Non-verbal communication

2009-02-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these two picture. What did you see?

Did you see a rabbit or a duck?

Did you see a young girl or an old woman?

"Your perception of others is the product of how you view yourself"
"Perception is how you look at others and the world around you. How you look at the world depends on what you think of yourself"
"Perceptions are the way we view the world and how we interpret situations"

These are some of the views of perception from different people.
One simple question and there is many different answer to it.
Reason is that, we all have our own thinking, own views about different things.

I quite agree with this sentence.
"Your perception of other is the product of how you view yourself." Sometimes, the way we think of others, is actually a reflection of our own thinking, what we really are.

Non verbal communication is the hidden language of emotional intelligence. It is said to be better and important than verbal communication to sustain successful relationship. "Actions speak louder than words." This is an example of non verbal communication.

What is non verbal communcation?
It is about using our facial expression, gesture, body posture, emotions.. etc to communcate. Somtimes, we may be using or have used non verbal communication before, just that we are not aware of it. All of us have non-verbal genes in us, is a matter of whether we are conscious about it or not. Awareness is closely related to non verbal communication. How is it relate than?
For example: If we are not aware of what kind of non-verbal language we are using to communicate, others might have the wrong impression/conclusion about you.

I think non verbal communcation all boils down to listening.
Have you really listen to what your friends, family, people around you are trying to say?
I believed that communication is more than just talking. It is also about listening and it plays an important role in communication.

Listening, as mention above, is not about listening to with your ears. It also requires you to listen with your eyes and heart. The things we see, the things we feel about is all part of non verbal communcation. So, have you really listen to what your friends are saying all along?

Some interesting facts I have found:
The differences in posture at different countries

Bowing (not done, criticized, or affected in US; shows rank in Japan)
Slouching (rude in most Northern European areas)
Hands in pocket (disrespectful in Turkey)
Sitting with legs crossed (offensive in Ghana, Turkey)
Showing soles of feet. (Offensive in Thailand, Saudi Arabia)

and the gesture
Pointing :
- US with index finger
- Germany with little finger
- Japanese with entire hand (in fact most Asians consider pointing with index finger to be rude)

Sometimes, we may lie when we speak. However, when we use non verbal communication, somehow, it reflects the truth. It reflects what you really feel/think about something/someone. I guess that, non verbal commuication is something that all of us, including myself, is still learning. If we could effectively pick up the skill of non verbal communication, we would establish a better relationship with our friends or family as we know how to relate to one another.

What is your about perspection and non verbal communication? Feel free to leave some comments. =)

References made:
- http://lynn_meade.tripod.com/id38.htm
-http://www.andrews.edu/~tidwell/lead689/NonVerbal.html

What is communication?

2009-01-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

I believed that we all might have this question in mind.
What is Communication to you?

When I knew that I was going to take up a module called Principle of Communication, I was kind-of looking forward to it. It was because I suppose this is going to be quite important in our life, at least for me.

To me, communication is part and parcel in everyone life. It also plays a significant role in our daily activity. I have learnt about the different processes of communication. To be exact, there are 3 different models of communication. They are Linear, Interactive and Transactional.

Linear – One way communication. Examples: blogger and email
Interactive – Two way communications. Examples: msn, mirc, facebook
Transactional – A process of simultaneous exchange between communicators. Examples: face to face communication.

Thus, what kind of communication do you prefer or used every day?
For me, I have used all the 3 different kinds of models before. I must admit that I am a frequent user of interactive model, which is the use of msn and sms-ing, more than talking to a person face to face. Well, all I can say is that, there are pros and cons to everything.

When you communicate through internet, somehow, you don’t know what is true and what is false. Everything becomes very uncertain. Like, when your friend puts a “=)” face, you don’t know if your friend is truly happy or is just putting for the sake of putting it. Sometimes, I was thinking does improvement in technology really benefited us? Maybe to certain extend.

Although I might use msn or sms to communicate with my friends frequently, I still favour talking face to face. Talking to a person face to face shows your sincerity and it would have lesser miscommunication compared to communicating with your friends through the internet. The most distinct difference between them is the tone. You know what exactly the tone of what a person is talking about and you can feel it. You can feel whether the person is happy, sad, angry, frustrated, etc by listening to the tone of the person.

However, occasionally we might feel that talking face to face has some obstacles too. For example: talking to your crush, saying sorry or thank you to someone. You might tend to use interactive model in those kind of embarrassing situation. See how contradicting humans are!

Something to share with you guys. I realized I am not a good communicator or should I say, I am not good at expressing myself because, no matter what type of communication mode I used, there would be miscommunication now and then, especially when talking to someone face to face. I don't know why. There should be lesser or no miscommunication when you talk to a person face to face but it doesn't happen to me. I guess partly is due to the fact that I don’t like explaining. There is a saying, “Never explain yourself to anyone because, the person who likes you doesn’t need it and the person who dislikes you won’t believe it.” How true!

In conclusion, I think all we need to do is to learn how to balance between these 3 different models since we need to use them quite often is it? What are your opinon then?

Hello everyone!

2009-01-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome! This blog is about one of my module, communication.
Basically, I will be blogging about my thoughts or opinion about communication, which hopefully, will trigger some discussion.
So, feel free to comment about everything and anything that has stir your interest.