After doing our mini “experiment” with our computers, we've also had a chance to reflect on communication modes, particularly non-traditional ones (such as facebook). We began to consider how an increase in use of those has not only lowered our interaction with others, but probably also reduced our interpersonal communication skills. Another aspect of our mini experiment has to do with mass media and how it is related to communication ethics. The mass media has a a lot of power and some times persuades people to think differently. Although ethical decisions should be use in every kind of media, it is not.
Another topic discussed in class was about disabilities and communication ethics. Disability is a hard to deal with sometimes because most people’s first instinct is to kind of stare at the person that is disabled and then feel sorry for them and want to help them out. When in reality they just want to be treated just like a “normal” able-bodied person.
Another interesting point we found was when working with the blog, we had realized how one another is able to do things and reacts to certain situations. We have learned that you have to be fully present in order it be able to deal with certain situations. We feel that ethic of care is really important since we wanted the children to know that we do care about everyone of them, and that we are not going to be picking a certain one out of the group.
Here are two pictures that relate to our blog and what we have discussed in class.
The first pictures relates to our discussion on disabilities and communication ethics. This picture is a good representation of ethics relates to disabilities.
The second picture is depicts many people of different culture holding hands and celebrating their differences. The caption on this picture describes how are group feels about communication ethics and diversity.
While writing this blog our group found some really informative websites.The first website has a lot of information on disabilities that could help make better ethical decisions. The second website is an informative article about social networking.
http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/digov-public/public/DisplayPage.do?parentFolderId=500
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/technology/social-networking.html
9 comments:
Throughout the entire semester I have thought about the connection between communication ethics and diversity. After learning about culture and communication ethics and communication ethics and the media some of my thoughts on the subject have changed. In individualistic cultures, cultures in which each individual has his or her own idiosyncratic ways of performing culturally influenced behaviors, it is of a more “me, me, me society.” Many of us live in an individualistic society, not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just different from what I think we should be living in. I think we should live in a more collectivistic culture, this culture tends to cluster in their preferences around collectivist values rather than individualistic, meaning they think of the whole culture instead of just themselves. The media has a hand in this issue of individualistic or collectivistic cultures; many medias portray collective thinking, such as volunteerism, as not “cool” and only the “teacher’s pet” thinks this way. I find this very sad, I guess I just don’t understand why some people thinks it’s wrong to help others and to think of others instead of themselves. Overall, I found this class very informative and interesting. It defiantly kept me thinking about topics we have discussed in class and relating them to my life.
Since our group project is now over, and we are just looking over it and reflecting it, I feel that there are some things that we may never fully understand. Which a word that I think relates to communication and ethics and diversity is demographics. Whereas demo is dealing with people and graphics refers to writing about or studying of something. So it’s basically the study of people. That is one thing that we will never truly understand. Since we can study people for a very long time, but we will never fully know exactly what’s going through their mind or how they are going to communicate with an individual. Another term that I feel that is appropriate is proxemics is how the cultures differ in terms of how comfortable people are with how close we stand to one another. When dealing with children, they have no bubble and are not afraid to come right up to you and tap you or pull on your pants to get your attention. Although when comparing the adults and how they may communicate with each other, we may notice how far apart they may stand from one another. They are not like children, unless they are really good friends you may see them touching each other when they may be talking. Mediated communication also fits too. When we were getting ready for this project or trying to make sure that we had everything ready we had communicated through emails, instead of face-to-face. Mediated communication is communicating through a medium and not standing in front of a person and talking face-to-face. Now I also know that parents when taking care of their children, they are more likely to send their teacher an email instead of talking to them face-to-face. Since mediated communication is right at our finger tips it makes our lives as what we like to think as easier. So overall we see how certain terms deal with communication ethics and diversity and how it affects children.
In wrapping up the semester and this group project I have really discovered the diversity found around every corner in life. It is everywhere...in everyone... it cannot be avoided, and it must be accepted and understood for society to function. I found applying the dialogical ethics in interpersonal commnication to be very straightforward on how to approach communication and understanding between two possibly diverse people. To focus on the other, rather than yourself during communication helps one to understand their viewpoint and where the oher person is coming from in the long run. Especially in this class, it's so important to understand where everyone in the group stands on an issue and how to pull those varying opinions together to make a complete idea. People-first language, or communication that avoids the tendency to precede a person with their disability or diversity is an important skill to have especially when living in a society being so diversified. Knowing who a person is based on what they think or a personal concept rather than what they have been identified as in class -- a slacker, cheater, brown-noser, and more-- is a way to stand out against the crowd as someone who pays attention as places the idea of the "other" above the steretypical judgements. Both these theories mentioned before are similar to situations in media ethics when news takes place...depending on the person, the situation may take on different forms based upon interpretation. Observations play into past experiences, helping many of us to pre-judge situations and act accordingly. This class has opened my eyes to all of that pre-judgment and stereotyping. And while it's taken a lot of learning to figure out why I am the way I am, it takes just as long to figure out why others behave, respond and communicate the way they do.
Your final blog fulfilled all the basic requirements however; I feel there was a lack of detail and insight that went into your group’s reflection. The general feeling of your group was expressed however there wasn’t any concrete examples of how your views have changed. Also, the blog was difficult to follow due to the lack of transitions and proper grammar. I feel that you did not proofread your work before posting it.
Criteria #1
The terms and theories that you used were applicable but again how these terms apply to your situation could have been developed more. For example, in the 4th paragraph you use fully present. This is an extremely important aspect of communications ethics and diversity. Was there a specific time where you found that important, that you could refer to that would substantiate you claims?
In the same paragraph you immediately refer to working with the children at the elementary school. The idea of ethics of care I feel can be applied to your situation but exactly how needs to be defined. There are many ways in which having an ethics of care can improve the situation however none are outlined. In your blog you state, “We wanted the children to know that we do care about everyone of them, and that we are not going to be picking a certain one out of the group”. Here you are referring more to Egalitarianism wanting to treat all the children equally and fairly.
Criteria #5
The idea of being fully present that I commented on earlier is something that I believe everyone can take away from this group project, especially due to the diversity that existed in every group. The most common types of diversity in this project have been how people learn and work. In the group this large there has to be a great deal of compromise. Each person has their own way of working on such comprehensive projects. Each member has to work hard to be fully present when working in order to be able to understand how the other is working and learning. Miscommunication occurs most often when someone is not paying attention to the situation. If everyone were to be fully present, acceptance of others working styles would be understood and fewer altercations would arise.
Harsh Erik... ouch.
As this blog wraps up our semester as a group, I'll touch on my personal "take-aways."
I think the first thing I should say is that a lot of my views have changed about the idea of diversity. I always knew that diversity wasn't just the ones you always think of like race, culture, gender, sexuality, etc., but I had never really considered what it spanned to. It's interesting to see how much better I understand the idea of diversity now, just because through the class I took the time to actually think about it.
That said, I've also noticed that my ethical beliefs haven't really changed, save one part. I feel that, though I perhaps don't always act by my ethical beliefs, they are reasonable. My Christian background influences me to something like an ethic of care, so I tend to think in terms of how people are affected, and look at things from the view of situational ethics. I'd also like to see society more collective like it is in most Latin countries, and I intend to raise a family in a manner similar to that.
The only thing that has changed a little bit is my view on ethical communication with regards to the internet. I think reducing the amount of communication we do over the internet, and increasing the interpersonal, face-to-face, communication would improve society by making our communication skills stronger and forcing people to be more ethical in their communication. It is harder to create drama, lie, or otherwise act unethically when face-to-face with a person.
Overall my beliefs are roughly the same, but I have taken a great deal from the class and had a chance to reflect on my own values.
Throughout this course I became much more aware of the amount of diversity that exists everywhere. Before taking the course I never thought much about how different people are and how each person views and reacts to things differently.
Sometimes these differences are obvious and easy to observe while other times people hide them more. I think it is safe to say the majority of people focus on themselves first and then possibly think about how their actions effect others around them as a secondary thought. And while this is not the way it "should" be in a perfect world it has become the expected norm.
There are times when people speak first and think after which can have negative consequences. If we act before we think out our decisions we are not taking time to analyze how our actions could affect those around us. There have been times where I have unintentionally upset people by saying or doing things and this course has made me more aware of the options in these types of situations.
My personal thoughts and beliefs have not drastically changed since the beginning of the course, instead I am just more aware of the fact that others may have very different views than I do and have different morals and priorities. My religious beliefs, the way I was brought up, and various life experiences have shaped me into the person I am today and I now have a better realization that others are the way they are for these same reasons and those experiences are just as important as the what I have been through.
I apologize, the last post I did not realize my friend was logged into gmail on my computer... but it is my post.
Throughout this course I became much more aware of the amount of diversity that exists everywhere. Before taking the course I never thought much about how different people are and how each person views and reacts to things differently.
Sometimes these differences are obvious and easy to observe while other times people hide them more. I think it is safe to say the majority of people focus on themselves first and then possibly think about how their actions effect others around them as a secondary thought. And while this is not the way it "should" be in a perfect world it has become the expected norm.
There are times when people speak first and think after which can have negative consequences. If we act before we think out our decisions we are not taking time to analyze how our actions could affect those around us. There have been times where I have unintentionally upset people by saying or doing things and this course has made me more aware of the options in these types of situations.
My personal thoughts and beliefs have not drastically changed since the beginning of the course, instead I am just more aware of the fact that others may have very different views than I do and have different morals and priorities. My religious beliefs, the way I was brought up, and various life experiences have shaped me into the person I am today and I now have a better realization that others are the way they are for these same reasons and those experiences are just as important as the what I have been through.
I felt that the terms, ethics of care, disabilities, and being fully present, are good terms to use for this blog. I also worked with Madison Elementary School for the Family Fun Night and I thought about all of these things at one time or another. I think the fact that each of use made an effort to act ethically while dealing with the children helped to make that night a great success. There were not any kids that I know of with disabilities that were at Family Fun Night, but I know that my group made an effort to have games present that would accommodate children that would potentially have different kind of limitations.
I really enjoyed some of the terms that you used for your individual response. One of the terms that really stuck to me was when you were considering individualistic cultures to collectivistic cultures. After reading your responses I had a new outlook on how we as a society tend to act in situations. I wonder if people would get along better and if there would be less hostility towards others if we were to live in a collectivistic culture. I think that our children would have more respect for others and their elders if they saw other people in the community taking feelings other then their own into consideration. Demographics, or the study of people, was another term that I really enjoyed reading about. I was also present at the Family Fun Night I was able to study people and how the interacted with each other. I seemed to notice that the children who misbehaved most often did not seem to have what I would consider health relationships with their parents. I also noticed a difference in how the children acted whose parents talked to them as apposed to the children whose parents tended to do mainly yelling. Overall, I really enjoyed the individual responses. They gave me a new way of looking at the Madison project and also helped to backup some of the things that I had noticed that night.
Post a Comment