Saturday, 12 July 2014
Focus on Nonverbal Communication
This week we are asked to select a television show that we would not typically watch and view it with the sound off. The aim of this is to make assumptions about the characters’ relationships towards each other and then we are to view the same show with the sound on to see if my assumptions were correct. I decided to view a Jamaican show “The Blackburns of Royal Palm Estate” This is a Jamaican soap opera that seems to carry several story lines. I could detect much emotion among the characters such as character “Sonny T” and a male character (a police officer) seem to having a very hot or aggressive argument I also observed “Sonny T” handling large sums of cash and talking to a few females that seem to work with him. The females seem to be prospective ‘drug mules’ some sort of worker for him base on their facial expressions. The females were beautiful, well dressed and appear to be seductive in character.
I then watched the show with the sound on. Some of my assumptions were right and some were wrong. The argument between Sonny T and the man (a private investigator) was true. The investigator was actually investigating “SonnyT” for money laundering and also for trafficking drugs. Sonny T was not so happy with his visit and so they had an argument. Because the officer did have a warrant to search his premises Sonny T ordered him to leave his premises immediately. I was, however, wrong about the females in the scene. These females were characters that were pretending to like Sonny T and make passes at him but they were really working under cover for the police force so that they can gather enough evidence to put Sonny T in jail. There was female who actually was planting bugs in his office so that they can keep a tap on his activities.
There is a famous saying we say where I come from “ASSUME” means making an ASS out of U and ME. This simply means we are never to assume but we must always first get the facts. I believe if I had watched the clipping with the sound on I would have realized some of my assumptions were totally wrong. The girls paint one picture that they are really working for Sonny T but when I listened to the conversation among the girls I realized they were on a totally different mission to get enough evidence to send Sonny T to jail.
I don’t think I really have any ‘aha’ moments as yet. But I realize that we cannot just go by or use nonverbal communication alone but verbal communication is also needed to support nonverbal communication. O’hair states, “while these two forms of communication are connected, nonverbal communication is vague without its counterpart.
Reference
O' Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
“The Blackburns of Royal Palm Estate”. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcrPGJKYoNw
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Judy, I have really enjoyed reading this week's blog post. I have never heard of the show, "The Blackburns of Royal Palm" What channel does this show come on, and what made you decide to watch it? From the description of the show it seems as if it is a very interesting show, and it seems that it would be kind of easy to detect what is going on with the TV on mute. Even though sometimes we think we know whats going on with nonverbal communication we may not always be right.
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of that show. Considering it is a soap opera, I bet you really gained a lot from observing the non-verbal cues and body language. I know the one my mom watches, Young and the Restless, has very passionate plot lines and character interactions. We can learn a lot from watching, but a thorough investigation into the dynamics and verbal communication always tells a different story.
Hi Judy,
ReplyDeleteI found that my assumptions (like your definition) were completely wrong with the show I watched. I agree that if we are familiar with the characters or the show we have a better knowledge of what the underlying expressions we are seeing. I found that I had to rewind alot to make sure I was catching all of those non-verbal cues. Sometimes we take our hearing for granted. Diana
Judy,
ReplyDeleteYour observations were very interesting. I, too, have realized that nonverbal communication and verbal communication are connected. Just think how difficult it would be if there were no such thing as verbal communication and we had to only evaluate and assess situations based on gestures, facial expressions, etc. There would be so much more conflict. Although nonverbal communication is powerful, we are not always able to make interpretations based on that alone because sometimes people misuse this form of communication themselves. Just like you did with our observation, we would assume and we would not be correct about everything.
Judy,
ReplyDeleteAfter sitting back and thinking about it, communication is not easy. To effectively communicate with someone there is a lot that we have to put into it in order to take away from it. We have to have the correct language, nonverbal and verbal communication, and we also have to listen appropriately. Conflict is a situation that I feel comes from ignorance and assumptions. I wonder now if the lack of effort in communicating is also part of the problem. Some people just are too lazy to put forth the effort to effectively communicate with others. They just want to make assumptions including that other people understand what they are trying to communicate. It is so important for both parties to put in full efforts in the communication process.
Judy,
ReplyDeleteI can say my assumptions were a bit like the show. However if I had of picked a Jamaican soap opera I would have been wrong a lot myself. After reading your blog, I am thinking about watching the soap opera. from reading in our textbook, watching TV with no sound is "the linear picture of communication is limited" (p.21). I am with Samanatha, you have to have the correct language and culture of communication.