Last Blog

So, here we all are. Almost done.

My reseach consists of one unit of analysis: The Freedom of Speech
The First Amendment states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So where does the FCC draw the line in censoring political wartime footage if we are granted the right so free speech, which includes journalism? I thought this was an interesting article entitled We were censored. It is amazing to realize how everything that deals with the news has a political agenda wrapped around it, especially when it comes to wartime footage and how it is shown in different countries. The perspectives are so different.

The article says that yellowtimes.org's website was shut down for showing improper images of US soldiers and POW's. Yet, other countries show these images on thier television programs. America shows images of Iraqi soldiers on our news television programs every day. When asked about this CNN's Aaron Brown said: "because their families wouldn't be watching" which just is not true because CNN is broadcast around the world, and is avalible to Iraqis. Why is this a double standard for the United states? And how is the government allowed to censor wartime footage? I thought this quote was interesting:
"CNN, however, is accused of not airing any footage of Iraqi dead or Iraqi civilian casualties, although this is a necessary image of war. War is horrific and to portray it otherwise speaks of corporate agenda."

Why so much control over the wartime footage?

Upon reading some blogs from the Comm 226 class... I found one from Ryan Olsen that talks about the different news programs and how they were portraying the catholic church during the search for a new Pope. These different news programs are completely all about agenda.

Another interesting topics is anothing one of Ryan's. Our society is all about money, ratings, agendas. I wonder if CNN had had higher ratings than Fox News, the 2004 election would have turned out differently?

Julie Motheral
Quality Blog Number #11

Our social morality is at stake?

What are the guidelines of television these days? Can comercials show partial nudity? Can cartoon characters curse? What can be seen on cable TV verses non-cable TV and are there even any regulations on satellite programming?
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is responsible with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. It was established by the Communications Act of 1934.

The statistics of sexual content in the media are pretty crazy. So... (Revised RQ:) what constitutes appropriate program content on television in terms of the FCC?
There were several very interesting group blogs this time. Ryan Herb had a very interesting post about the humanistic approach to research and how it relates to the critical and rhetorical. Although it was just a quantity blog, I found Whitney's April 8th post interesting about her disecting Denison and the different symbols we have here.

Julie Motheral
Quality blog #10

Wal-Mart Advertising

Walmart is hideous, there is no way getting around it. Question - So how did Walmart get to be this giant? Answer - Through Walmart advertising, slashing prices, mind control, no unions, taking advantage of other countries, and discrimination. But seriously, advertising has made Walmart larger than life.

How is their advertising so effective? They portray an image of happy families, happily shopping, with happy staff at stores all over the country with the lowest prices in the world, and this brings average american families in by the crowds.

Bottom line - Do not shop there, it's destroying our country.

I popped my collar today. Its amazing how many people around campus do this, but I really don't see it as a big deal. Although it's not seen that often in Walmart. Symbol? yes... but a deep one? no. Herbiums should pop his collar too.

Julie Motheral
Quality Post #9

Communication Law

The Comm Law Journal of The Indiana University School of Law has some really great articles; including many on media, TV, and politics. I especially liked the one entitled The Deregulatory Trend that began in the 1970's and how TV and regulations have slowly but surely been lifted.

So if television, radio, and general media regulations have been loosened, and violence, sexual and language content rules have relaxed, where does society draw the line? Our Pop culture is a false image of a perfect celebrity life style that is warping our generation.

In Samantha's blog she talks about celebrity pop culture icons and brands being symbols in our society. I like how in her previous blog she talks about shopping online at J crew and Polo. We live our daily lives conforming to the social image of being a consumer.

Bottom line - We are a slave to pop culture. Our speech, actions, life styles, eating habits and cloths as Americans depend on the media influence. So if the media influence goes down the tubes, wont we as a society? I think the downward spirl has already begun.

Julie Motheral
Quality Blog numero EIGHT!

Body Language

Did you know that 65-95% of all effective communication is nonverbal? Well, thats what Dr. Jackie Ranken has discovered in her studies. Check out her site, she looks like a funny little lady.

So if nonverbal communication is so influencial in our daily lives what are we telling others through our body language? Kevin Hogan, Psy.D. lays out for us some of the obvious and not so obvious communication mediums that we engage in.

1. Dress - in large part determines how much people will trust and like us.
In a study Dr. Hogan did when he was a sophomore in College, much like many of us are, he did a qualitative study on how jewlery retailers responded to someone who was wearing jean jackets and jeans as appose to someone wearing suit coats. They found that they got waited on three times as quickly, and saw jewlery that was almost five times as expensive. That would be a really fun study to do!

2. Vocal Cue - although this isnt so much body langauge, its really interesting. "It is best to gain rapport by matching the same rate and tone of voice that your fellow communicator is using. It is not necessary to mimic the other person, simply alter your speech patterns in the direction of the other person."

3.Posture and Physiology - "pacing" and "leading" is a form or what I think is observing and manipulating the situation in your favor. read about it, its really interesting.

4. Breathing - "You can pace the person’s breathing pattern as a powerful mode to build rapport." Take notice in the next few days to see how people breathe, I never realized its communication, so I'm going to take notice.

So, basically, Dr. Hogan says "You must often be more like others than yourself if your goal is to engage people in deep and intimate relationships." Which I think is worth taking a moment and thinking about.

Body language plays a BIG part in communication in the court room. I look forward to researching it in the future. I wonder what the process of being a jury consultant entails. That would be a great internship for the near future.

There are some really good RQ topics out there -The Pop Culture Page has a really good research question regarding distorted body image for woman from ads. That is a form on non-verbal communication.

NC is gonna win it all.

Julie Motheral
Quality Post #7

The Trial of the Century

My RQ:
How did Court TV's media coverage protray the OJ simpson trial and turn it into a juicy narrative or story for the public to feast on?

How:
I will investigate this through the communication concepts of pure/ambiguous symbols, rhetoric, persuasion, fictional narrative vs. factual narrative, media influenced narrative construction, culture of our institution of american court, and the humanistic behavioral wants of the public that were fullfilled by the media coverage.

Bibliography thus far:
Bell, Allan. "News Stories as Narratives." The Language of News Media. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.

Abbott, H. Porter. "Narrative as Life." The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Friedman, Richard D, and Roger C. Park. "Sometimes What Everybody Thinks They Know Is True." Law and Human Behavior. 27 (2003): 629-644.

Moran, Garya, and Brian L. Cutler. "Bogus Publicity Items and the Contingency Between Awareness and Media-Induced Pretrial Prejudice." Law and Human Behavior. 21 (1997): 339-344.

O J Simpson Murder Case. 2005. Court T.V. 22 MAR. 2005.
http://www.courttv.com/casefiles/simpson/.

Vidmar, Neila. "Case Studies of Pre- and Midtrial Prejudice in Criminal and Civil Litigation." Law and Human Behavior. 26 (2002): 73-105.

Julie Motheral
Quality Post #6

Ways To Study Persuasion

Ahhh... the almighty judicial scales.
In Ways to Study Persuasion by Kelton Rhoads, PhD, he touches on many important topics in communication, including some of the topics we discussed in class today. The advertising and marketing sections are particularly good, but I want to study law, so his section on law communication interests me.

He mentions the journal Law and Human Behavior which relate the structure system of law to human pyschology. So, I looked it up, and we can access this journal through our library page. Some of the articles are extremely insiteful, and I will read more of them when i get more free time. It is convinient that our library has online jounrals, especially ones that we can access when doing research for our potential life careers.

Adrienne's study tip link was good stuff. This week is hecktic. Ah, spring break is almost here. Have fun in mexico Kristen. We are heading down to New Orleans.

Julie Motheral
Quality Post #5