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