Justin Cohan COMM-430 Blog

  1. For someone going into a job interview, I would recommend they practice using ‘ Convergence ’, which is a strategy by which you adapt your communication behavior to become more similar to someone else (Griffin, pg. 424). It is obviously important to make connections between yourself and either the person who’s interviewing you, or the place you’re being interviewed for. Trying to accentuate those similarities may make you seem like someone they would want to hire, as we are in general more attracted to people whom we share similarities with. However, it would be important advice to not go overboard on this, which is why I would also recommend this person uses Divergence , a communication strategy of accentuating the differences between you and another person(Griffin, pg. 425). It will be important for someone in a job interview to make themselves stand out and seem unique, so that they could bring something new to the table. Along with this, no one wants to seem like they’re just

  1. In what ways does knowledge of Tannen's theory make us better or worse communicators? Make sure your answer includes examples from real life and identifies specific communication encounters that Tannen discusses in her theory (e.g., report v. rapport talk, etc.). Tannen’s theory states that women seek human connection , whereas men are concerned mainly with status . While women are focused on cultivating a sense that they’re in touch , men are working hard to preserve their independence as they jockey for position on a hierarchy of competitive accomplishment(Griffin, pg. 385). She also says that men communicate in a way known as ‘ report talk ’, which seeks to command attention, convey information, and win arguments (Griffin, pg. 386), and women communicate in what is known as ‘ rapport talk ’, which seeks to establish connection with others (Griffin, pg. 386). Being aware of these various aspects of her theory can make us better communicators because they can help us make s

  1. The typology which typically describes my television viewing habits is Excitement (Griffin, 2019). I love the thrill of getting to know a new cast of fictional characters, following their journeys, and feeling like you’re growing with them along the way. While violence plays a role in certain pieces of media that are popular, I don’t think violence is always needed to fit the typology of excitement- oftentimes it can just be a rush you get from the emotions of sadness or happiness on screen- or just two people talking in a room can be extremely exciting. For me personally, this fits onto Maslows Hierarchy of Needs somewhere between Love and Belonging, and Esteem. You can find things such as respect for yourself or a higher self-esteem, by watching characters who DON’T have those things. 2. According to Hall, the dominant code refers to how the media produces the message, and  the masses consume it. The audience reading coincides with the preferred reading. The Negotiable code refe

  1) McLuhans claim 'the medium is the message' means that  media—regardless of content—reshape human experience and exert far more change in our world than the sum total of the messages they contain(Griffin, pg. 310).  In this case, this advertisement being in print allows it to be seen by a wider audience, and is something that can be put anywhere and everywhere. Were it a tv advertisement, it would probably be something I would shut off, but being in print allows the ad to show ALL the benefits of using it's product. So the medium of a print advertisement allows people to maybe not even have to read all of those benefits- they can just take a quick glance and will see that there are a lot of benefits to using this product. One downside to this medium, however, is that an advertisement like this is very optional and not necessary to read- and perhaps the amount of words on the page would turn a customer away before they even have a chance to read what the ad is saying.  T