Coach Jones' Resignation Speech

Coach Jones gives an inspirational speech in the movie Radio. He is the sender because he is the one delivering the message and getting the townspeople to think about and listen to what he has to say. He uses emotion to get his point across and uses a light tone so that the receivers can reflect, but at the same time take seriously what he has to say. The receivers are surprised and shocked at what he has to say, but Coach Jones expected this. We can tell this by his tone and slow deliverance of the message. By delivering it in a slow and easy manner and pausing at times, he is allowing the audience to take in what he has to say so that it’s not overwhelming. After all, he is resigning from his position as coach of the football team.
The context of his speech also contributes to the delivery of it. He picks a time when the townspeople are already gathered in a local, familiar setting. He picks the time and place for a reason. He knows that it’s going to be a surprise to them, so he wants them to be comfortable, and not in a position to argue or riot. Same thing for the time; he knows that he caught them at a time when they were already talking, anticipating that they would talk about it after he leaves, which would avoid riots or people getting out of hand. He also speaks in a positive way about Radio, which helps the receivers to rethink their judgment and criticism about Radio. The most significant element of the coach’s speech is his anticipation of the receivers. It is significant to the effectiveness of this speech because if he hadn’t anticipated their reactions, things most likely would have gotten out of hand and there would be a lot of disagreements. This would probably have happened because, as their surprised reactions showed, they didn’t agree with the coach’s resignation. Especially in this case, since it was over an opinionated matter, seeing that Radio is mentally handicapped. In general, though, anticipation of the audience’s reaction is important because if you address their reactions, the audience might rethink their views.

Justice is served

President Barrack Obamas speech delivered on May 1, 2011 announcing the death of Osama Bin Laden includes many elements of the communication model. Although he is reading a pre-written speech, his delivery is key. The speech is being televised nationally, thus the receivers are endless. Not only is every U.S. citizen receiving his message that Osama is dead, but people in other countries are also receivers as well. I think Obama does an excellent job presenting the speech. The strongest element of this speech is his channel. He has a channel or medium throughout the entire delivery that is calm and collective. This is important because the news he is delivering is historic to the nation. Millions of people everywhere are celebrating the victory, yet he is there to inform the public of what has happened. Obama is there to send a message and communicate important information about the event. He recognizes all the people that were affected by 9/11 and informs America that he is proud to announce Osama has finally received justice. He also recognizes other countries affected by the work of Al-Qaida and the many lives lost. He presents the information smoothly keeping solid eye contact, as well as appropriate hand gestures that were also key symbols.

Obama also keeps in mind how the receivers will react. Many people have questions and are worried about what will come next. He gives feedback to this by saying “The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to.” He thus recognizes their concerns and does his best to send a message reassuring the people.

charts, graphs, communication

One example of the communication process is an episode from How I Met Your Mother, where Marshall goes chart crazy. To express himself and to give out information, he uses charts and graphs for everything. He uses them when he has to give a presentation to his bosses at work, to even when he wants to explain something as simple as his favorite pies. The graphs contributed to his way of communicating with others.

In these instances, Marshall is the sender, using the graphs and his speech to send his message across. His bosses and friends are the receivers and it is their job to decode the message and send it back. The graphs/charts is significant to the process because it really helps the message be understood at lot easier and more quickly. When people are able to see a visual aid of the actual information or message, it makes it better to comprehend. People seem to learn better when they have some type of visual aid, whether it is a picture, graph, chart, video, etc. Being able to actually see it in front of you is more effective than just listening. Noise can distort your hearing, which can make you miss crucial information, but it cannot impair your vision.

Marshall's graphs/charts makes its easier for his fellow employees, bosses, and friends to get the concept of what he is saying. The use of a any visual aid makes the sending of your message that much more effect than if you were just speaking.

"Here, swab my throat."

In this video clip from "The Big Bang Theory," Sheldon demonstrates a rhetorical situation by inquiring to Leonard for assistance. In this episode, Penny returns from visiting family in Nebraska and mentions that some of them were sick during her stay. Sheldon, being extremely cautious, becomes concerned that he will become very ill. Because he views himself as more intelligent then most (or all) people, he decides to conduct research to attempt and discover what the pathogen that Penny carried may be. As Sheldon conducts his study, he realizes that he needs someone to swab his throat and conveniently enough, Leonard enters the scene. This rhetorical situation that Sheldon finds himself in requires the use of communication for solution. The simplistic exigence of this situation is that Sheldon cannot swab his own throat and therefore asks for assistance from his friend Leonard. Even deeper than that, though, Sheldon is attempting to acquire all the information he can about a pathogen he may have so that the doctors may have a "fighting chance," should something happen to him. In order to do that he needs a small amount of help from Leonard and the only way to receive it is to communicate. It is important to note that Sheldon supports his point with personal propaganda so Leonard will be more inclined to help him. The targeted audience in this scene is Leonard. He is the only one currently available to help Sheldon solve the problem at hand. Sheldon faces very few constraints because he and Leonard share a similar intellectual level. His only constraint is that Leonard does not particularly want to swab his throat; his psychological state is not aligned with Sheldon's. Even after trying to convince Leonard by showing him the "facts" it is clear that he does not want to be involved and he thinks Sheldon is overreacting.

The most important factor in this rhetorical situation is Sheldon's awareness of his audience. He knows Leonard well. After all, they are friends and share an apartment. He knows his intellectual capabilities and capacity. He is more than aware that he can give Leonard, in full detail, the summary of exactly what he is doing. He really takes advantage of this by selecting a vocabulary that will convey the exact (i use that term loosely) message he wants. He doesn't have to "dumb it down" so that Leonard will understand. Audience awareness is absolutely imperative to an effective delivery. If Sheldon were to speak that way to a eight year old, it would be completely ineffective. Knowing the audience and adjusting the language, tone, and subject matter to suit that audience is crucial. If the intended audience cannot comprehend what is being presented, the communication is all in vain.

*As a side note, I would like to mention that because this is a television show Sheldon has a secondary intended audience. This is script is ultimately created for the enjoyment of viewers. Therefore, Sheldon's delivery is greatly influenced by attempts to entertain. Part of what makes this humorous is his large vocabulary and intellectualism. I stand by everything I wrote as pertaining to a rhetorical situation, however, I felt this necessary to mention.

Independence Day

The President's Speech
Independence Day at MOVIECLIPS.com

The President’s speech to the U.S. fighter pilots in the movie, Independence Day, is a great example of the communication process. The President acts as the sender and the fighter pilots are the receivers. He begins by saying that they are about to launch the biggest battle in the history of mankind. He goes on to say that they will, once again, be fighting for their freedom. While he does not use many hang gestures or facial expressions, he lets his audience know how he is feeling through his voice. The President uses a loudspeaker as his medium for sending the message. The fighter pilots receive the message and respond at the end by cheering and getting riled up.

What makes this speech effective and memorable is the way in which the President delivers. The way he changes the volume of his voice really makes an impact on his audience. He starts out almost timid, but by the end of his speech he speaks with power, which makes the fighter pilots more confident in themselves. Like I said in my first blog post, delivery is the most important aspect. If the President did not speak with such emotion, the audience would not have responded the same.

P.S. I Love You

The communication model occurs whenever there is interaction between two or more people, whether it is verbal or not. This process is not always a success, and often times, it is a complete failure. An example of this, is in the movie, P.S. I Love You, a married couple played by Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler are in a heated argument, she is not speaking, and he does not know what went wrong.

Earlier on in the night, Gerard told Hillary’s mother that she does not want children right now. He experienced his wife planning out a baby, and wanting to wait. In his own mind, he thought that was fine, and it would also be fine to tell her mother. This idea, he thought was harmless, only meaning to inform her mother of their plan. It was not meant to harm her feelings and he did not put much cognitive or emotional meaning into what he wanted to convey. However, the signs and symbols he displayed, she interpreted as a slap in the face. When she was decoding his message, instead of thinking how he thought, she understood that he was making a dig at her. Her reaction was that of a negative one, and she intern, gave him the silent treatment on the way home. It was an awful experience for her, because of all people to tell that she doesn't want children, in her eyes, her mother was the worst person. The meaning she took away from his remark, was that he didn't want children with her, and he didn't want her as well, and that scared her. Her reaction was very emotional and not very well thought out. Her feedback, was not what he was expecting, from his “harmless” comment. So, as he is fighting for her attention on the silent walk home, he breaks her down and she tells him why she is upset. He decodes her feedback, in a very confused manner, because she overreacted,in his eyes. This cycle continues, until more miscommunication takes place, and they need to walk away, because they are not getting anywhere.

The one element that is significant to the ineffectiveness, is her failure of interpretation from his message. In the movie he says that they have “two conversations, the one they're actually having, and the one she thinks they're having.” In many relationships this is true, and it is best to just walk away, when you cant agree or communicate efficiently. The significance of her failure of interpretation, is that it is the entire problem. He did not lie or construe something to make her look like the bad guy, he merely stated a fact. However, she took it in a completely different way. It is a fact of life, that the two sexes need to work hard to communicate well, and jumping the gun is not the answer to interpreting a message.

(The link with "P.S. I Love You" goes to a script of the movie, and the 76th line or coupling is the reference I used, when I was talking about the duel conversations.")

John Nash – 1994 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

In his celebratory speech, John Nash demonstrates the communication model in progress because it has a clear sender, receiver, message, and context. John was nominated for the Nobel Prize in economics for his concept known as “Nash equilibrium.” At the Nobel Prize Ceremony, in Stockholm, Sweden, in December 1994, John delivers his acceptance speech while he directly addresses his wife Alicia. John the sender established his ethos by crediting his belief that “numbers, equations, and logic are the key to reason.” Although he is an expert, he rhetorically questions his audience on what those components to reason really mean. At this point, Alicia is the immediate receiver who is apart of a larger audience as well.

In his message, it is important that one understands that John deals with schizophrenia, and he has achieved so much despite his adversity. Setting aside all of his great accomplishment, John believes that love is the true means to find reason. At the end of the speech, in the context of the Nobel Prize Ceremony, he honors Alicia because “she is the only reason he is there tonight.” Without Alicia, John would not have been able to manage his hallucinations because it was her who showed him that “love is reality.”

In this communication situation, the message is responsible for the effectiveness of his speech. Though his message, he was able to not only immediately address his wife, but also he connected his larger audience by explaining his journey to find reason. By his signs, he was capable of conveying his emotional experience of dealing with schizophrenia while still using symbols numbers and equations for which is the reason he is standing delivering his speech. Also, it is the noise of his audience through their applause by which it is known that his message was effectively decoded.

Rhetorical Situation on TV

(Sorry you can't watch the video directly on the blog, the person who posted the video on Youtube won't allow it!)

Rhetorical situations happen often in daily life, and even more often on TV shows. I have seen many rhetorical situations on one of my favorite series, Gilmore Girls. The show takes place in a small town, Stars Hollow, where they frequently have town meetings to talk about various issues. Taylor, the town selectman who runs all the meetings, in the clip shown in this post, is discussing the overpopulation of deer, which is in this case the exigence or reason for the meeting. The audience is all of the residents of Stars Hollow. In this case, the audience is also one of the constraints, the limitations on Taylor's speech. Another constraint is that Taylor does not have a good ethos. The people of Stars Hollow do not like him or respect him and therefore do not want to listen to what he has to say. The audience does not participate when asked to, or pay attention while Taylor is speaking, which makes it difficult for Taylor to deliver a successful speech.

In this situation, the constraints are the most important elements because they completely determine the success of the speech that is being delivered. This is often the case in many rhetorical situations as well. All speakers need to know their audience well; they need to know their demographics, previous knowledge and opinions, etc. The speaker needs to cater to the people they will be speaking to in regards to tone and message. It is also necessary for the speaker to establish ethos in order to successfully get their message across, as seen in the Gilmore Girls clip.

"I'm not asking you who's on second base!"

To demonstrate the communication process, there was no other option than the classic skit, 'Who's on first?'. In this skit, the man on the right is trying to learn the nicknames of the players on a baseball team, and the man on the left is trying to inform him. However, the nicknames of the teammates consist of things like 'Who', 'What', and 'I don't know', resulting in some major confusion between the two!

In this particular case, the sender would be the man on the left, who is trying to inform the other man about the nicknames. The receiver would be the man on the right, who is trying to learn the names. The message would be the nicknames of each of the teammates on the baseball team, and the context is technically in a comedy skit from a movie, though it could also just plain be that they're on stage, and the man on the right is interrupting a show to ask his question. The vital aspect of this particular conversation would be the receiver, because he is clearly decoding the symbols that the sender is using to send the message. The sender encoded the phrases 'Who', 'What', and 'I Don't Know' as names for the teammates. However, the receiver decoded the message with the only knowledge he has of these words, which is their dictionary definitions. The receiver then incorrectly interprets that the sender has no idea what the names of the teammates are.

This happens in a surprisingly large amount of conversations. The sender attaches a different meaning to a symbol than the receiver does, so when the message is sent, the receiver interprets the message completely differently than the sender intended. It just goes to show that communication will always be an imperfect process.

Miscommunication

The clip above is a very clear-cut example of miscommunication in the communication model. In this example, the initial sender is the man, while the woman is the receiver. However, they both also assume the opposite rules throughout the course of the dialogue. The channel is the telephone through which they are speaking to each other. The message changes throughout the discourse but the original message is the man asking to speak to "Michael."

The most significant element to the ineffectiveness of this particular communication situation is the sender and receiver’s incorporation of their personal experience and knowledge in the conversation. The man assumed that he had dialed the correct number and that the woman should know who he and his business partner are. However, the woman does not understand who the man is or whom he is talking about because she has had no personal experience with either of the two men in question. Because of this, the feedback she supplies him with, such as offering a different man’s name, further confuses and frustrates him.

Without the conscious realization that other people's experiences are different from one’s own, people will apply their own opinions and meanings to messages and may jump to incorrect conclusions. Jumping to conclusions will lead to anger and frustration, which will, in turn, perplex and offend the receiver of that anger and create a vicious cycle of misunderstanding.

Bed Intruder

The four parts of the communication model are the sender, receiver, message, and context. My example of the communication model is the Bed Intruder Song. The context of the original video on Youtube was an interview of Antoine Dodson and his sister at their house in Alabama. Antoine was the sender of the message. The receivers would be anybody who watched the video either on live TV or on Youtube. Another receiver of the message is the rapist. When Antoine looks straight into the camera and says, "We gon' find you. So you can run and tell that," he is speaking directly to the rapist and trying to get his message across. The overall message of the interview and song was to tell everyone in the area to be aware of a rapist. "Hide your kids, hide your wives, and hide your husbands." I think what made Antoine's message effective was that the interview was turned into a song. It made the message more memorable. Antoine was being completely serious when he was speaking, but the song and the lyrics were funny. To me, the more memorable a message or a situation is, the better I listen to it and understand it.

Communication model example

A good example of the communication model in my own experiences is when I use online search engines. In this example, I am the sender and the search engine is the receiver. I input a search (the message) and the search engine receives and interprets the message through the medium of the Internet. The search engine then formulates a response based on my message and now becomes the sender. It sends out the search results (feedback). I am now the receiver. I look at the feedback and choose a result that fits my search. The process then repeats every time I select a new search result.

I feel the most significant element of this example is the fact that one half of the model is a piece of technology. This is a different situation since normally technology is used as the medium. Now it is what I am speaking to instead of what i'm speaking through. The search engine has a seemingly infinite amount of knowledge to use when interpreting my message. It uses the Internet as its medium, so it can access any pieces of data that might be useful to me. As a result, the "feedback" given to me by the search engine is much more diverse than any human could give me.

This can also be a disadvantage to the effectiveness of the model. The search engine is not a human being. Therefore, it cannot interpret the hidden meanings in the message that are a result of the complexities of the English language. Words or phrases may have multiple meanings and the search engine may not realize which meaning to follow. This results in feedback that has nothing to do with what I was searching for in the first place. I feel this is important in the development of communication in our current society. Today, our society is becoming more reliant on using technology to communicate. We feel it is easier and less complicated to use these pieces of technology than to communicate face to face. Although the technology may be easier, it has the same issues as the search engine example. There is no way for technology to duplicate face to face conversation. It is impossible for this technology, no matter how much information it can access, to accurately represent all the meanings in our messages like we could in person. We must realize that technology cannot be our only form of communication. There will be times when using a search engine to answer a question, or using a piece of technology to talk to someone is the best way. However, there will always be a need for face to face communication in our society.