Final Entry

Change! Change is something that is hard to do, it is uncomfortable, it is unknowing. But change can also be for the better. This semester I believe I have changed for the better. It is nothing drastic, but I think that by learning a couple key concepts and theories, I better understand communication. Communication, in my opinion, is something that comes easy, but it also improves with practice. But this course showed me that by learning different concepts and theories, we know have the knowledge to understand communication and how it works. I used to not understand how other people communicate. I know know the types of communication and how different people use communication. I leaned to pick up on non-verbal communication. I have found that I have been noticing peoples body language more often and leaning how to read it. For example, there are sometimes during a game where I have a question to ask one of my coaches. I used to just ask whatever coach is closest to me, but know that I understand body language, I can see what coaches are in the best mood and I will ask them. It does no good to ask a stupid question to a coach who is pissed off. Now, I ask the most calm coach and I find the answer that I needed. As you can see, this course has helped me better understand other people and I have used it in many aspects of my life, from baseball to my relationships.

Media

I just finished my final paper and I wrote it on the Negative impact the media has on athletes. As I was watching T.V this morning, yet another huge blow from the media occurred on Boston Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett. Beckett is one of the Red Sox's best pitchers and just a few years ago he brought them to a World Series. Recently Beckett has been nursing a small injury and had to miss his last scheduled start. A few days later the media caught wind that Josh Beckett went golfing on the Red Sox's last off day. Many professional baseball players play golf on their days off, but because Beckett missed his last start the media decided to publish it. The media ended up turning the whole city of Boston against Beckett. After his last outing, the entire stadium gave him a standing-boo as he was walking off the mound. It was a disgusting sight and I felt horrible for him. In the post game new conference they asked him about his round of golf, he replied, “I can do whatever I want on my days off, it is nobody’s business.” The media took a small story and blew it way out of proportion. Its sad to think of the influence that the media has on people, especially in the sporting community. Its hard to believe that the media can exile someone and turn them into a monster for something as small as golfing on a day off.   

Communication Struggles

We all have our personal communication struggles. For some of us it in our professional life, and for others it is in our personal relationships. For me, my personal communication struggles happen in my closest relationships. My two closest relationships that I struggle with on a communication level is with my mom and with my girlfriend. I guess I have always struggled with expressing my feelings and it comes out on the people I love the most. For example, my when my mom calls me to see how I am doing, I give her short answers and she gets upset. When my girlfriend asks me how my day was, I normally just reply, “good”. My girlfriend sometimes also gets upset with me because I do not express how much I care about her as much as she likes, or as much as she deserves. My mom always tells me that I need to express my emotions more and be able to communicate to the ones I love. For me, I feel like it is almost easier to discuss my feelings with people I barely know, instead of someone I really care about. I think that the course work in this class has helped me better my relationships and helped me express my feelings to the people I truly care about the most. It also has helped me understand other people and how they communicate. I believe if I can understand how others communicate, it is easier for me to adapt my communication to better fit other people and improve our relationship.

Department Function

I have been pondering what I could do for my department function post and I realized I had just took part in an advent this past week on Monday May, 7^th. The event took place in HGH room 231 at 3 o'clock. The Comm 141 P class happen to be doing presentations on Sexism, Sizism, Ethnic Identity, and Immigration. Im my Comm 41 class we have been learning about these issues and so I thought it would be relevant to sit in on their presentations. This happened to be the first day of presentations and each were about an hour long. The first group that presented on Monday was Ethnic Identity. They gave a very interesting presentation and used videos to support their claims. Me, being a white male living in America, do not receive any type of racism or discrimination. It is sometimes hard for me to put myself in another persons shoes and understand how they feel. This group did a good job expressing the problems and concerns. They also gave good information on how to make it better. The second group was Sizism. This group used a series of skits to express the discrimination of size, whether it was height or weight. I learned a lot from these two groups and I'm glad I sat in on that class. It was very beneficial to me and very eye opening. The students did a fantastic job presenting their topics. In my opinion, im very happy with this department function.

Baseball Communication

Today we played Santa Clara University and many situations came up that depended on certain communication. In baseball their is lots of verbal and non-verbal communication that takes place on the field that a normal fan would never be able to pick up on. As I was pondering what to blog about I realized that the game I love, baseball, depends more on communication than most sports I have played. We have a complexed sign system to communicate a simple steal or even where to hit the ball. We also have communication coming from the dugout calling out what pitch the opposing pitcher is throwing. Every play, every pitch communication is going on. Whether it is from a coach, teammate, or umpire. For example, if my coach wants our pitcher to throw a curveball. He gives a complicated non verbal sign to our catcher using a tap system. Our tap system is based on the number of times our pitching coach taps a certain body part. That number is then counted and relayed to our pitcher. It is much more complicated but it is tough to write it all. I hope you get my point. Even on a simple fly ball, lots of communication occurs. For example, if there is a fly ball to left-center field; the infielders all point to the ball and yell to the outfielders, in-in-in or back-back-back. The outfielders then communicate who will catch the ball. Once someone yells “ball” the others yell “take” for reassurance. Baseball is full of communication and these are just a few examples of simple verbal and non-verbal communication. 

What to do with Communication Studies? (post 1)

I have many interests in communication studies. I was immediately drawn to the field in my first semester of schooling at San Jose State. For fun, I enrolled Comm 41 with Tina Lim and I loved the class. Not only did I enjoy the course work but I found out that I was very good at it. I would describe communication studies as the study of verbal and non verbal communication. I include non verbal communication because silence and actions can also be forms of communication. Communication Studies depicts a large variety of topics from politics to media. It also can teach students, such as myself, research skills that last a lifetime. I believe communication studies is the study of language and not languages. It does not count as communication studies when you are studying a certain language such as spanish, french, or even sign language. It is the study of language as a whole and other ways we can use language to persuade, sell, and present. A degree in Communication studies can open many different doors in many different fields. Any job that deals with public relations can be a great fit. It can exemplify strong writing skills, organization, and personal relationships. Another path you may take is marketing or advertising. Marketing or advertising will allow you show of your communication skills by selling or advertising for products or companies. I hope to get into the marketing or advertising fields. I believe it will best serve my skills with communication and research.