I chose to watch the show Blue Bloods on CBS (Wade & Pressman,
2011). I had never seen this show before
and did not know anything about it. It
is an hour long, but I only watched the first 30 minutes of it with no sound
before starting it over with sound. It
was frustrating to me to watch without sound because I did not know the
characters or even the setting. For
example, I thought by the title and the opening scene that this was a show
about politicians. It was not until
after the opening credits that I realized this was a show about police
officers.
The very first scene involved at man getting out of a Range Rover
(which is a very expensive car) in a neighborhood that did not look so
nice. He gets a phone call that makes
him look concerned. Later he is found
dead in his Range Rover in another part of the city. While I was watching without sound, I began
guessing that he was a cop. However,
after watching it with sound, I realized that he was not a cop, but rather an
elite New Yorker who was heavily involved with fund raising for the Mayor that
was just elected. In addition, I also
learned that the phone call was from his wife and he lied to her about where he
was. I was not able to understand any of
this while watching with no sound.
In this show, Tom Selleck plays the New York City Police
Commissioner. His daughter works for the
district attorney’s office and his two sons are NYC police officers. I found it frustrating to watch the show with
no sound because I was unable to understand the relationships between the
characters. It really did not make much
sense and most of the assumptions I made during the show were proven wrong when
I watched the show with sound. Overall,
this seems like an interesting show and I have set my DVR to record more
episodes.
This exercise has been a good example of the roles verbal and
non-verbal communication play in the overall communication process. Without both, the message may or may not be
understood in its entirety. Our text
explains that nonverbal communication can be ambiguous and that clues can be
gained from the situational context (O’Hair & Weimann, 2009). Since did not understand the context of the
show, I was unable to correctly interpret the non-verbal communication. This would not have been the case if it was
a show that I watched regularly. I would
have better understanding of the relationships between the characters and would
have more of a knowledge base to make assumptions about facial expressions and
body language.
References:
O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An
introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Wade, K. (Writer) & Pressman, M. (Director). (2011, 23 September).
Blood Bloods [Television Series]. Kelly, T. (Producer). New York, New York:
CBS.
4 comments:
You make a good point about possible misunderstanding. It is not uncommon for people to misunderstand what others are trying to say via non verbal communication. It leaves a lot of room for assuming which is a common cause for arguments in personal and professional settings.
Thank You for your posting. I am one that is guilty of misinterpreting things.That is why communication is very important because people will twist things up to fit their own perception on how things should go.
I think it is interesting that it was hard to follow the non-verbal cues in the drama you chose. I happened to choose a comedy and the non-verbal cues were very clear. I was able to follow most of the story without sound, based only on the actors' non-verbal communication.
I think I would have had the same difficulty that you found if I had chosen a drama. Perhaps in comedy, non-verbal cues are more exaggerated?
I choose an animated children's show and it was quite easy to understand what was happening without the sound. I agree that if I had chosen a drama it probably would have been hard to follow. Perhaps the children shows are designed in a way to accomodate the level of thinking it takes to understand them knowing that children's vocabulary and communication skills are limited.
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