Study Abroad vs New Media

Adrienne’s presentation focused on how study abroad affects new media and vice versa.  According to Adrienne, new media is the “stuff we’re using the most today that hasn’t been around long.”  An example of this is the Internet.  She goes on to say that the way study abroad students communicate with family and friends is different today versus 20 years ago.

Adrienne is right.  Because of all this new technology, we are able to leave the country while still being able to keep in contact with family and friends.  For instance, my roommate just left for Costa Rica.  However, it doesn’t even feel like she’s gone because we’ve been emailing each other back and forth constantly about living arrangements for next year.  So, even though she’s gone, it’s almost like I’m not actually going through this alone because I’m constantly keeping her updated.

She also discusses the U Curve Culture Shock which involves different phases: honeymoon phase- excited to be somewhere new, culture shock- beginning to feel unsure and disoriented, adjustment- begin adjusting to these habits over time, and mastery- when the culture is mastered and you become a part of it.  And you don’t have to go out of the country to experience this.  Looking back at my transition from high school to college, I experienced this.  When I first moved into the dorms I was super excited, but then I began missing all of my family and friends back home.  Now I feel comfortable living on my own because I’ve done it for a year.

Adrienne then asks “does new media make the shock not as severe?”   I think that part of why I was able to deal with being on my own was because of Facebook and texting.  I might not have physically been near my family and friends, but I was able to connect to them within minutes.  So yes—the  shock is not as severe because it is so easy gain access to this kind of technology.  Therefore, we are never truly alone.

Prof Barnhurst's lecture

Even though Professor Barnhurst’s lecture gets cut off at the end, it is one of the most interesting lectures.  He focuses on human storytelling.  He begins by having the students do an assignment called “speed narrating” in which students had to tell a story of an important event in their life.  They were then asked to compare notes in order to find similarities. 

Professor Barnhurst states that story telling always has a clear pattern.  We begin by announcing that we are going to tell a story by saying something like “oh that reminds me...”  We then describe where we were, what we were doing, and who we were with.  Finally we tell the complicating action and the resolution, or the response.  If we didn’t tell stories in this way, the listeners would be confused.

The way we tell stories can relate to our most basic model of communication.  According to this model, the sender is the person telling the story [message] to the receiver.  This can even get more complex in Schramm’s Model of Communication when the receiver begins to decode and interpret the information that is being given. And then responds to the storyteller, thus sending out another message.

With that said, the most important part of storytelling is the interpretation because it is everywhere.  Professor Barnhurst states that “From the beginning everyone knows what kind of story it’s going to be” based on word choice as well as our tone of voice.  Right before the video cuts off, Professor Barnhurst begins discussing the difference between interpretation and judgment. To me, interpretation is how we receive the message—based on something from our past or from what we know about the person telling the story.  Judgment is the conclusion or our opinion of the message.  This relates to the topic of perception.  The third step of perception is interpretation.  It is important to be aware of how we tell stories because the message can be easily misinterpreted which can lead to a lack of intimacy.

Prof Rojecki

Professor Rojecki begins his lecture by asking the students what they were most worried about after college, and a majority of the students had said finding a job.  He also asked students why they didn’t watch the news.  While some students said that it worried them, most students simply did not care.  He then states that “In order to have an opinion, you have to keep up with things, so you know when politicians are lying.”  Professor Rojeck tells the students to take control and that it’s our fault because we are the ones electing the politicians. 

I think that many people don’t care because they just don’t know what’s actually going on.  They just believe what they hear from either the media or their family and friends.  This is problematic because what people think they know about politics may be completely false.  Going back to the topic of framing, different sources can state the same information but stress different parts in order to get a certain reaction from its viewers.  For instance, the article we read in class skewed the information to make it seem as though it was the mother’s fault that the baby got bit or it was the government’s fault…  And if you hear this from what you consider a “reliable news source,” then of course you are going to believe it.

Abby C

Professor Meraz states that in 2008, 2% of men declared computer science their major and not even 1% of women did.  In my opinion, this shouldn’t even come to a surprise because we live in a society that has men doing “men’s work,” such as computer science, and women doing “women’s work,” such as cooking and cleaning.  Because women are not being taken seriously in occupations like computer science, we have what Professor Meraz calls the incredible shrinking pipeline: the decreasing percentages of a woman in those fields.  In my opinion, if you are constantly being told what is and is not acceptable; you eventually begin to believe it.  And those women who still choose to be in the computer science field do not get taken seriously nor do they receive equal pay. 

          With that said, Professor Meraz talks about Mena Trott and the Movable type.  Basically, she states that Mena “complained to her husband, Ben, that the available tools didn’t offer enough control over comments or archiving.”  Meraz continues by saying that the way the story is presented makes it seem as though Mena could not think of this type of software on her own; she needed to be rescued, in a sense, by her husband.  This is exactly what we talked about in class.  The story was framed to make it seem as though a woman would not be capable to create such a software.

            Professor Meraz also mentioned how op-ed blogs are viewed differently when written by a male or female.  It’s okay for a man to state his opinion, but when a woman does, she is considered a bitch.  Blogs aren’t the only place we see discrimination either.  Another example is that it’s normal for a guy to see more than one girl at a time; however, if a girl is seeing more than one guy, she’s considered a whore.  This is an excellent example of how people perceive things based on what society says is right.