CTP BLOG #4 Testing Cultivation Theory- Morgan Raddatz

 After watching a thirty minute local television news broadcast on WISN  and reading about the Cultivation Theory I saw first hand how the media can influence the messages they broadcast towards their viewing audiences. In addition I found most of what I viewed supported the Cultivation Theory.  According to  “Functions and Theories of Mass Communication”, section 15.2 from the book A Primer on Communication Studies states: "Cultivation theory is a media effects theory created by George Gerbner that states that media exposure, specifically to television, shapes our social reality by giving us a distorted view on the amount of violence and risk in the world. The theory also states that viewers identify with certain values and identities that are presented as mainstream on television even though they do not actually share those values or identities in their real lives". This statement reflected on several of the news segments I observed while watching the news. Since I recorded the news on my DVR I do not have a link to view but I do have pictures to display my findings: 

News Stories 1 to 4

The type of  “reality” that is presented to the viewing audience according to the log results is manipulated to fit the norms of a majority-minority society.  This is due to all the segments containing at least one individual who is a non minority with minority individuals while it is not reversed. Therefore my findings reflect what I have read about this week from the assigned readings (15.2 Functions & Theories of Mass Communication and 15.3 Mass Communication & Ethics). For example many of the news segments neglected to show individuals who belonged to the mature age group (people over age 50). Most of the news stories showed individuals who were either adolescents or young adults and five of the news stories dealt with adolescent/young adult issues in educational settings  . 

                                                        
One finding that contradicted what I learned from the readings is that most news segments pertain to the male gender. However quite a few of the news segments I saw dealt with prominent  gender issues for females such as combating against sexual assault and the reduction of health care services provided by Plan Parenthood (news showed two pregnant females getting ultrasounds). Although these were issues that tended to deal towards the female gender; males were still seen in the news story or they even gave their own opinion on the topic (Male Carroll University student gave reason about the promotion of sexual assault awareness on campus).

News Stories 5 to 7

News Stories 8 to 10

While looking at race in the news segments the majority of the news segments contained a mixture of races. But white was the prominent race in all of the news segments. Out of the ten news segments I viewed only two of the segments had Latinos represented. But these Latinos were accompanied by black and white individuals in a group setting. Surprisingly there were more news segments with black individuals than what I thought would occur due to what I read. There were black individuals identified in seven of the ten news segments. But out of the ten news segments there were no Asians or Native American individuals represented. This finding shows there is a dire need to have more Asians and Native American individuals represented on the news.

For the news segments being about a good news story or a bad news story it was evenly split between five good news stories and five bad news stories. Half  of the stories had the theme of violence or being a victim of a crime behind them.  Three of the bad stories depict the convicted individual to be black (Greenfield  Robbery, and Marquette rescinds Bill Cosby's honorary degree)  or as a victim (Missing teen).  Although the focus should be on the news segments themselves sometimes certain individuals (predominantly from minority groups) can cause their groups to be viewed in a negative way due to being the dominant race seen in the bad news story. However individuals from majority groups can be viewed the same way too but they are seen more as an individual who acts alone versus their whole race group being suspected of crime. But viewers should understand blaming a whole race of people due to one person's actions is a bias act. Instead viewers need to understand one person's actions do not represent a whole group's actions no matter the race of the individual depicted in the news segment. 

Overall WISN 12's  news segments related to what I read about the Cultivation Theory. However some of the results surprised me because it seems as if the news is progressing how they promote information. This is by including more individuals from minority groups and females into their news segments. However they are still progressing slowly due to  having men and majority group individuals accompany minorities and females as a main focus; even when they are in the same news segments. Hopefully as the future progresses there will be more news segments that show a greater emphasis of older individuals, females and non represented minority groups; so that the news can show more opinions and contain different points of view.

CTP #3 Fantastic BSC 215 Group Project Experience—Morgan Raddatz

Click For Video Script

 At Alverno College many of the courses have an interactive final group project requirement. Students have to demonstrate the concepts they have learned throughout the semester by applying their knowledge to a final group project to earn course validations. Being an Alverno College student for five semesters; I have had my fair share of doing group projects. A majority of the  group projects I have done were fantastic experiences, but some of them were not.  However one group experience l remember being fantastic is when I did the final group project for a behavioral science class called BSC 215 during my third semester.  

To examine this fantastic group experience I had while doing my final project for this class I  will apply several of the group/team concepts I have learned about in COMM 200. From watching the class PowerPoint presentations and reading the article called Managing Groups and Teams/Communication; I identified my group experience was based primarily  on the concepts shown in the "Group Problem Solving" PowerPoint and the "Small Groups: Rules and Norms" PowerPoint. This was due to having a diverse group for the  project and having to solve several problems to create our final group presentation skit. 

Small Group: Norms

According to Effective Problem-Solving Techniques for Groups: (http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/cd/other/fs9726.pdf) "Every group at one time or another has the task of problem solving...One of the reasons groups encounter difficulty in solving problems is that they fail to follow an organized procedure. For working groups to be effective, they should have an agreed-upon procedure for problem solving."  When I looked back at my fantastic group experience I had in BSC 215 I remembered my group developed a plan by using the "Problem Solving Method".  In addition one of the group members created a video script so each of the members  knew what role they had in the presentation skit ahead of time. Having a script made it easier to solve several of the problems the group originally had.  For example one of the group members was on a sports team so they had to miss a few classes. Therefore by creating a skit each member was prepared ahead of time to do the skit. However, if a member was not there another member of the group could step in because they had read information from the script. 

Small Group: Roles

The group problem solving method which was used in the group also helped each group member to establish their own role for the project. For example there were a few individuals in the group who did not like to talk a lot since they were more introverted. Therefore instead of having them have speaking roles for each skit; they worked as "runners" and "scribes" behind the camera by developing the lines and bringing in the props. By respecting members who had different personality traits and group roles our group was acting cohesive. In addition our group was abiding by social norms in a small group setting such as: participating actively and respecting other group members and their thoughts. Overall our presentation video skit turned out well and it received positive feedback from the professor. This result is attributed to  the majority of the group members being active problem solvers and being respectful towards the variety of roles and norms present within the group.

  

Interpersonal Communication Theory: Symbolic Interactionism--Experience in Aruba (Morgan Raddatz)

An Aruban road sign in Papiamento meaning "Steep Hill Slow Speed"

After learning about  many Interpersonal Communication Theories which influence how people use interpersonal communication; the Interpersonal Communication Theory called Symbolic Interactionism connected  most recently to a situation in my life. According to the PowerPoint viewed in class titled Theories of Interpersonal Communication, the Interpersonal Communication Theory of Symbolic Interactionism is defined by how humans act towards other people or things on a basis of meanings they assign to those people or things. The meaning is then formed though social interaction, thoughts and language. But depending on the language and culture; the way social interaction and thoughts are expressed can vary.

Throughout my life I have always been a social person who enjoyed having conversations and sharing my thoughts with others. Therefore I have been using Symbolic Interactionism since I was  learning how to talk. However when I was eleven years old I began learning the Spanish language which introduced me to a different culture with a different language. Since the first day of my middle school Spanish class I knew I wanted to keep learning Spanish since I could use it to communicate to  people who did not speak English like me. Therefore I continued taking Spanish while I was in high school and when I started college I knew I wanted to have a minor in it. After taking four Spanish college courses I obtained my minor this past May. I am still not at a bilingual level but I consider myself to be at the intermediate or advanced conversational levels depending on the topic. However this last summer I had the opportunity to utilize my Spanish language knowledge while on a family vacation.

Two weeks after I obtained my Spanish minor my family and I went on a family vacation to Aruba. It was the first time my family and I  took a vacation outside of the country. I was excited because I knew  Aruba is a culturally diverse island with four languages spoken by its resident population. The languages spoken on Aruba are English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento (which is a language based off of African, Portuguese and has some influences of English, Dutch and Spanish). Although English is  spoken and understood in Aruba some people tend to be proficient in some languages over others. This was the case with a few of the workers at the resort my family stayed at. Some of the resort workers came from the nearby Spanish speaking countries of Venezuela and Columbia or they grew up speaking Papiamento (which has a closer linguistic relationship to Spanish than to English). However since I had a knowledge in Spanish I could communicate better than my other family members since they do not know how to communicate in Spanish. 

For example, the worker who was in charge of cleaning our room each day was originally from Colombia. One afternoon my mother had to call her on the phone to ask her to clean up a broken glass bottle of Sangria that fell onto the floor of our room. However when my mother  tried to explain what had  happened in English the worker did not fully understand her. Therefore my mother had me explain what had happened to her in Spanish since it was the worker's dominate language.  So I told her, "La botella se cayó al suelo y es  roto" (The bottle fell to the floor and is broken). She understood what had happened since I explained what had happened in a language she was used to communicating in. While in Aruba I had other opportunities to speak with native Spanish speakers and also to learn the basics of Papiamento vocabulary. But this situation gave me more confidence in my Spanish conversation skills. It also let the resort worker develop a communication bond with me. This is because throughout the trip she would ask me in Spanish how my day was and talk about other conversation topics. Overall by utilizing my Spanish knowledge I  had a chance to use the Interpersonal Communication Theory called Symbolic Interactionism not only for myself; but also for my family's benefit.

Communication Theory & Practice: My Communication Interests & Goals(CTP BLOG #1) Morgan Raddatz

Photo Credit: http://globalbizleader.com/what-is-the-culture-in-intercultural-communication/

Communication is my third major change. Therefore I joined the Communication program with an open mindset.  Having had majors in Business Management and then in Early Childhood Elementary Education made me be exposed to several modes of communication. I learned by changing my major that there are many aspects of communication which can be used within several  disciplines of study. For example  I have always been a social and extroverted individual who enjoyed the aspect of group communication for learning new information. From interacting with various groups, I have learned to effectively communicate with others regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. In most professions it is necessary for employees to interact with their coworkers in a group setting. Therefore the aspect of group communication can be applied to many career areas as well.




However, it was not until I took a technology class designed for Education majors that I knew I enjoyed doing the communication form of mass communication the most.  In this class I had the opportunity to learn how to make a website to present to the class on how I integrated educational technology and technology tools into a third grade classroom (http://amerigal94.wix.com/interactiveed).  By having  this class I learned I was more interested in the creative communication aspect of education  rather than in the concept of teaching from a Common Core lesson plan. I also learned I enjoyed producing websites because mass communication extends it's influence beyond a small  group of people; it reaches towards a larger audience to inform them. Therefore my interest in using mass communication to convey my knowledge was a reason why I changed my major to Communication. 

Since I had enjoyed creating my education website it  made me want to pursue more information in the Communication study of  Mass Communication. I would especially like to specialize in the area of  Marketing and Advertisement. This area appeals to me the most because I enjoyed creating my website to be a source of communication to others on how technology is important in a classroom setting. I also enjoy expressing myself creatively with writing and creating visual displays. In addition to Communication  I am pursing minors in English and in Spanish Language in Cultures. This is because I enjoy learning how various cultures communicate. I hope to use my knowledge of English and Spanish to create graphic advertisements and write articles in both languages preferably for a timeshare travel company. That way I can reach a large diverse audience in my job profession; while  continuing to learn more about the diverse individuals who live and communicate in the world.

One Fact About Me: Morgan Raddatz

COMM 200 Fall 2015

Hello my name is Morgan Raddatz and I am a junior studying Communication at Alverno College.  I am also doing supports in Creative Writing, Spanish Language and Cultures and in English. Communication is my third major change I have made while studying at Alverno. My first two majors were Business Management and Early Childhood Elementary Education.