Speech Comm

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

301--Interpersonal

So you ought to have a good grasp by now on the Sender/Message/Receiver paradigm. But in case you don't...prepare to take note. Welcome to lecture mode...

[[OOC: Feel free to talk amongst yourselves. Go wild.]]

Today we'll be talking about sender, message, and receiver
*fixes glasses and begins one big boring lecture*

Communication
focuses on the messages exchanged between people and how those messages
affect other aspects of their lives. In interpersonal communication, we
further limit this to focus our research on how the messages people
exchange affect the relationships between them" (Petronio, Alberts,
Hecht, Buley 3). Most relationships are not strictly interpersonal or
impersonal; they usually fall somewhere in between. Levels of intimacy,
commitment, trust, honesty, disclosure, acceptance and emotional
empathy vary and change within all relationships. A recent course in
Fall 1997 taught by Schrader in Advanced Interpersonal Communication at
Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis had students
examine the developmental process of interpersonal relationships by
focusing on those messages which lead to growth, maintenance, and
termination of social encounters and how computer mediated
communication (CMC) influences these messages.

Computers have
revolutionized communication. As Michel observes, "computers and
modems...have opened up new opportunities for communication between
people normally separated by distance and social norms" (1). New areas
of communication research are frequently emerging as a result of the
adoption of innovative technologies. One field of communication
research that is becoming increasingly important due to technological
advances is that of CMC.

Chesebro and Bonsall suggest that "any
form of human-computer interaction can be seen as a form of
communication, varying in degree to which the computer or the user is
in control" (qt. in Gibson et. al. 7). Bordia adds that CMC includes
"any means of communication which is mediated by a computer" (2).
Therefore, programming computers, using educational software, and
playing computer games can be part of the communication process (Gibson
et al., 7). CMC can include such innovations as electronic mail
(email), computer-conferencing and the Internet (Walther 52).

There
are numerous theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques
available for examining interpersonal computer mediated dynamics. The
Advanced Interpersonal Communication course framed its exploration by
examining intercultural-interpersonal CMC. In other words, students
were asked to conduct original research in the area of how a cultural
difference such as gender, influences interpersonal computer mediated
communication. It was assumed that students would learn more about the
subject matter if they reconstructed their original research paper into
a World Wide Web (WWW) site. The pedagogical assumption of praxis was
the driving force behind facilitating student learning of the
mechanical (e.g., learning html language) and social (e.g., rule
structures) cybercultures they were studying.


ooc: text blatently stolen from http://www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed98/sschrader.html if you want to read the rest of it.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

401--Advanced

Images. Power. Five of them. Show me what you've got...and tell me why.