Communications Blog #6

Steve Jobs Apple Keynote

   For this weeks blog post I have chosen to write about a 2010 Apple Keynote address by Steve Jobs. While not quite the greatest dresser, I can say with confidence that Steve Jobs is one of the greatest product presenters in the world. Every year Apple releases new products that are presented by Jobs to a large audience of reports and observers who foam at the mouth for these products before they even hit the stage. As Jobs begins to speak silence suddenly strikes the room. You can tell right away all attention is to the stage and Steve Jobs feeds off of this very well. As he begins pacing around the stage jobs uses his hands to help express both the excitement and enthusiasm for his companies products. He fluently gives fact after fact convincing the audience that his products are the best on the market, and that Apple as a company continues to push the boundaries of technology. You can tell by his posture that he is the center of attention and when he shows the features of the Ipad and Iphone 4, the room lights up with applause. Throughout the speech his hand gestures are a key factor that helps him direct the audiences attention to the real stars of the show, his products. As the demonstrations of the Iphone start you cant help but notice the expressions that the models have on their faces. A smile from cheek to cheek lets you know how much fun they are having using this product. They want you to look at it and say "that does look like fun I want to buy one of those". The audience reaction also changes the sound of oos and ahs fill the room as more and more uses are being shown for the product. The people who are demonstrating however have nowhere near the command that Steve Jobs has on stage. The power thats exerted by his mere presence is enough proof to show why he is an expert verbal contortionist as he bends the minds of the audience slowly but surely.

Communications Blog #5

Jimmy McMillan NY Governor Debate

   For my fifth blog entry, the video that I have chosen to write about for this weeks blog, is a video taken from the New York State Governors Debate that took place on October 18th, 2010. This Debate was thought of as going to go on without any excitement, just the main candidates leading the show leaving the little third party candidates in the dust. However this is exactly the opposite of what we saw that night. The show was run by the so called "little guys", such as Candidate Jimmy McMillan of the "Rent is Too Damn High" Party.

    Jimmy McMillan right away as you can see in the video is very serious as he sits up very straight, has no expression on his face, and has a drive behind his voice that shows you he means business. However, as I'm sure was the case with many people watching that night,  I had a very hard time understanding the message McMillan was trying to get across. At some points in his speech he would speak so quickly that I could not understand a word that was coming out of his mouth. It all just sounded like one large meaningless phrase made out of ten thousand different words. He even goes so fast that he messes up one of the statements he is trying to get out. This only confuses the audience and the NY population, who are the ones he is trying to win over by doing this debate. However despite the difficulty I had with understanding what he was saying, Im not so sure the things that he said made very much sense in the first place. As he clearly demonstrates when he say, "as a karate expert I will not talk about anybody up here." As the camera pans over to Andrew Cuomo who laughs at what his competition has just said, you see a much more comfortable and professional Candidate. Judging by his body language you can clearly see that he has the upper hand in this environment, and reigns supreme over the competitors during this debate.

Communications Blog #4

Bill Clinton Fox Interview

The video that I have chosen to write about for my fourth blog post, is an interview between President Clinton and Fox News. I chose to do this particular interview because it is a very detailed and aggressive interview of Bill Clinton. In this interview Clinton is being asked about his influence in the prevention of terrorism before 9/11, and his plans to overthrow Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan. From the beginning of the interview you can clearly see who the most dominant figure in the room. President Clinton does a very good job of getting his point of across when he is confronted about the U.S plans to protect the country against Bin Laden. He uses very good physical movement to support the information that he is stating, for example he says that what the Interviewer is saying about how strongly Clinton pursued Bin laden, Clinton immediately starts moving his hands all around and getting closer and closer to the interviewer invading his personal space thus making him more uncomfortable about the topic. You can tell by the tones of their voices that Clinton overpowers the other man and becomes more frustrated with the topic as is progresses. However the interviewer attempts to fight back sometimes, trying to interrupt Clinton mid sentence only to be overpowered soon after. In this Interview the body language and shear strength in factual information and verbal domination makes President Clinton the clear victor in this argument, and triumphs over the conservative reports of the Fox News Network.

Dinner Party Blog/Letter

Dear Mike,

I wanted to write you this letter because my phone is broken, and I have no other way to reach you. As you know we were invited to Jennifer Aniston's house for a dinner party Friday night and I don't want you to embarrass yourself like you did last year. Remember you started break dancing on the floor yelling Mc Hammer? I'll admit that it was awesome, but this year is going to be different. I looked up a few things to ensure that you don't pull another stunt like that again and are respectful to everyone around you. As you remember the hosts are Greek and follow typical Greek traditions. In the Greek culture family gatherings are very important. They consider it an honor to have guests over regardless of whether they know them or not, because they feel that they should never be left alone. Now I know that you haven't had the widest range of variety when it comes to food, but I am sure that you will love their cooking. They are preparing some traditional foods such as Spanakopita, pita bread served with a variety of spreads such as hummus, a main course with Lamb as the primary ingredient and some delicious Baklava for desert. Now we both know that you are not the best when it comes to table manners, just know that blowing your nose in your napkin and then using it to wipe your hands is not cool. First off your going to need to use a fork and knife, the fork must be held in your left hand and the knife in your right. Make sure you have the best possible posture; sit up straight and make sure not to lean on the table. Elbows on the table is considered very rude. Make sure that you can eat everything on your plate. It is very polite and compliments the chef. It is also polite to ask the chef for seconds. Now theres a few things that you shouldn't do also. And hopefully we can work on these together so i am not embarrassing either. For example we cannot sit down before the hosts, or give a toast before the host has done so. You definitely should not keep to yourself seeing as the greek culture is a very verbal one. Always expect alot of conversation, and give feedback to anything you receive. Needless to say you should always dress appropriately and be on time, however on time will vary to be up to thirty minutes late in the greek culture. Listen Mike this is going to be a great night and I know were both gonna do great. Just stick to these rules and don't stare at Jennifer Aniston too much.






Sources:
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/greece-country-profile.html
http://www.traveletiquette.co.uk/EtiquetteGreece.html
http://entertaining.about.com/od/dinnerparties/a/greekdinner.htm

Communication Blog #3 Part 2

What is the first thing you think of when you here the name John F Kennedy? Chances are that most of you reading this will associate this name with tragedy or some other bad memory or time in American history. But this simply is not the case, this is a name that defines power and defiance. If you take one look at JFK's inaugural speech you can hear the power in his words. He discusses the importance of unity and peace throughout the whole world. He says that the power to enforce all of the details he touches on such as prevention of communism, help the poor and prevent all different types of poverty worldwide. He makes a pledge to the people and makes to very easy to believe that everything he says about the cold war is going to come true. John F Kennedy Was one of the greatest political minds of all time. It is both sad and tragic that his life was ended before he had a chance to change the world.

Communication Blog #3

Stephen Colbert Capital Hill

The video that I have chosen to write about for my third blog entry is a speech that Stephen Colbert gave in front of the Subcommittee of Immigration. In this video you can clearly see that Colbert is the main focus as he is in the center of the frame the entire speech. Throughout the speech Colbert remains cool, calm and collected as he somewhat mocks the people in which he is presenting to. Colbert discusses the fact that he does not want the farm work to go to immigrants, and uses his so called experience to back up his claims. Now as the video goes on you can clearly notice different aspects about the way Colbert is presenting his information. The way he is sitting all slouched over makes me feel as f he does not care about the topic and the way he is constantly looking down at his paper is unacceptable. Compare this to the man sitting directly behind him,who has sat there stone faced joke after joke, and you will see polar opposites. Colbert proves in this video that humor is a great way to get our point across and uses this skill to his highest potential. This is the kind of situation where i would say Stephen Colbert is in his element.

Communication Blog #2

 The class I'm going to write about in this blog post is Psychology. While I find the course very interesting and in depth, it is probably on of the hardest to pay attention in and really listen. Psych is what I would call the typical lecture style class. I have around 100 students in my class, and if you take one look around you, can clearly see who is listening to the teacher and who isn't. Now as far as the steps of listening, I try my best to use each step in each class. Now in all of my other classes I can do this relatively easily. However for me Psych is a different story.

In Psychology class I can almost complete every step in the true listening process. However the two problems I have are understanding, and memorization. My main problem with understanding is this, I sometimes cannot keep up with what the teacher is telling us. Because of this I sometimes may right the wrong thing or miss it completely. This just puts me into a deeper ditch because if I copy the wrong information than I will have a big problem memorizing it. And when the time comes to use that info I will have listened to the wrong thing.

On top of the problems I might have listening, my surroundings greatly affect how effectively I take in the information being presented. For example in he middle of class today while the teacher was discussing the functions of the nervous systems when a guy walks through the door and just stares at everyone in the room. We are all now locked in a starring contest with this guy and the information I had just stored is suddenly gone. In particular class I do not have trouble responding. I simply look over what I have read the previous night and use that knowledge to form an intelligent answer.

Now I never claimed to be a saint, and my listening does need alot of help. But when the situation presents itself I am a very good listener and can surprise you with an excellent response.

First Communications Blog Post

Sean Hannity/Michael Moore Interview


For my first blog entry I wanted to write about a not necessarily new interview, but a very interesting one. This interview took place on October 6, 2009 between Sean Hannity and Michael Moore on Fox News. Right from the get go in this video you can see that Sean Hannity is the more dominant figure in the room. He is sitting upright is using his hand motions very well, and is a very strong and persuasive talker. However when the camera pans over to Michael Moore you see just the opposite. He is very slouched has his hands folded on the table and does not seem very comfortable in the area he s in. As the two men begin to converse Hannity asks strong seemingly easy questions and Michael Moore has trouble answering them. You can hear the uneasiness in his voice as he trys to answer the questions being thrown at him. He offers mediocre answers and constantly declines facts when there is a large amount of proof to support it. For example when Hannity asks "If you were in Cuba do you think Fidel Castro would allow you to make millions bashing his system?". Moore responds by saying "I don't know". Another example when Hannity talks about the war in Iraq Moore mumbles and utters things under his breath. This shows his disapproval of the subject, and how he is uninterested in discussing  it. While Hannity dominates most of the interview, there are rare occasions where Moores responses silenced the smooth talking Hannity. However I would say that Sean Hannity is the dominant person in the room on this one. This interview was a great example of interactive communication, and shows how body language and tone can make or break you in an argument.