Adrian Stoner....Culture Shock

Adriane Stoner’s lecture caught my attention because I was able to relate to her experiences with culture shock. Her lecture focused on this subject while studying abroad and I found myself relating to this topic in different ways. The majority of my family resides in Europe and I have been fortunate enough to travel there often to visit. I have experienced the vacationing aspect and also a bit of the schooling process as well. Culture shock is definitely something that people will experience while visiting Europe and I believe that one can experience it in a very short amount of time frame, such as a week.

I have personally traveled to Poland, Austria, Germany, as well as London. Besides the language barrier, the entire way of life differs greatly from the US. One thing that I learned from my travels about Europe is that people enjoy life on a much higher level than people in the U.S., which is something that I admire.  I find it very often that in the U.S, people are constantly working, which in turn leads to famous expressions such as, “People live to work”. In Europe businesses are closed on Sundays which is considered a family day. Saturdays everything closes around 5:00pm and everyone makes an effort to spend time with the family by sitting down at a dinner table and enjoy a family dinner. On the down side, everything from daily commute all the way to the financial aspect is drastically different than that of the U.S. Not everyone owns a vehicle there and more people take public transportation. The roads are narrow and in different parts of Europe highways can be quite rare, which leads to very long commutes. 

The economical state of Europe is also a bit on the shocking side. Everything is far more expensive compared to the U.S because of it. However, depending on the location one travels to, everyone for the most part, is friendly and helpful . Then there are those parts of Europe such as Paris where people are extremely rude and arrogant. The schooling process is also very different. Although, education is much more affordable than it is out here, often times it is also much more demanding and difficult.

Lastly, my views on communicating were a bit different than those of Adriane’s. I did find it much more difficult to find means of communicating with my family in the states. Not only because the time difference is about seven hours ahead, but also because their rate plans are so expensive I was unable to pick up the phone at any given time and call my family. Cell phone use was pretty much restricted to its use only within Europe. I was only able to use landline phones with a calling card or I would have to wait for my family to call me. Although the internet access was much more available, I found myself never being able to communicate fully at a given hour and finding myself waiting for a response due to the 7hr time difference. This was very difficult for me to adjust to due to the time zone difference.

Often times, I believe we take advantage of the privileges that we have until we are faced with different circumstances. I love the fact that I am fortunate enough to own a vehicle, a mobile device and minor things that we often do not appreciate or acknowledge until we are faced with rather inconvenient circumstances.  I enjoyed Adriane’s lecture very much and I was able to relate to her experience. I believe culture shock is inevitable however, it is something that that everyone should experience.

Professor Yuan's Lecture

Professor Yuan’s lecture brought me back to a previous chapter discussed in class concerning schemas and perception. Yuan’s main focus is on media. It was particularly concerning the viewers partake in what Yuan refers to as fragmentation, polarization, as well as their loyalty toward a favored movie, channels, or program. With today’s wide variety of programs, and most importantly the vast amount of channels offered to the public, one would think that favoritism toward a few designated channels is non existent, however, according to Yuan’s research this is certainly not the case.

 As we previously learned, schemas and perception play a large role in the shift of one’s mentality toward a particular event, person, place and in this case, toward media. Individuals are more prone to lean toward an event, topic, person and in this case toward a channel or program based on their perception of it. Yuan mentions that during the earlier years when television was limited to only a few channels, the audience perception of the world and their view on things were based off of the negativity seen on television. Today, due to the wide variety of channels offered, we encounter what Yuan refers to as audience polarization, which means that viewers choose what is most appealing to them by selecting their favorite programs or channels which in turn, leads to audience loyalty. This simply means that we are more focused on what is most appealing to us as viewers and we tend to use favoritism toward given programs over the wide variety of different programs that are being offered to us.

 In summary, certain channels gain favoritism from their audience. This may be due to the framing of the content or even a hidden message that allows the audience to form a particular perception of what is being presented to them. This allows the viewers to take a more favored approached toward one program over another, which in turn, leads to audience loyalty. 

Personally, I find it interesting  how today’s media is capable of capturing their viewers attention toward one program over another. This can be through a hidden message or anticipation on what is to follow. Ratings are a crucial aspect of keeping the continuity of  a program and in order to achieve those ratings, viewers appeal and the ongoing interest is of great importance.

Professor Barnhurst

I found Professor Barnhurst’s lecture to be interesting. However, I was not keen on his approach on introducing his topic. In a brief summary, in which Professor Meraz had given, Barnhurst specializes in sociology in adolescents, as well as several different aspects of communication. His lecture can be related to our class study on social sciences.

 Barnhurst begins his lecture by dividing the class into small groups in which each individual shares a brief story of a recent event that they had encountered. This technique brought me back to our class discussion on non-verbal message codes. Most individuals veer away from sharing their personal life events with strangers, let alone having a one on one interaction with those whom we are not accustomed to. Although Barnhurst approach on the one on one interaction helped others to open up, not every individual feels comfortable with sharing their personal life with others.

Barnhurst’s reasoning behind this activity is to introduce and educate others on the art of story telling. One of the main points underlining his lecture and one that we have discussed in class is to introduce individuals to the proper ways of telling a story. He continues on with speaking of the abstract. Every story whether told or written, has an abstract. This part of story telling is crucial because it introduces the reader and listener to what they will be informed about. The presentation of the story will lead to the effect it has on an individual’s interpretation of the material.

As we spoke of framing in previous class discussion, Barnhurst conveys that this process is what story telling is about. The way we present the story whether it is with excitement, anger, or worry it will set the mood of the event. Framing also entails an introductory phrase or sentence that will catch the reader and listener’s attention. Lastly, Professor Barnhurst mentions that an important step of story telling is the resolution. As we all know, this is the part of the story telling where everything comes together and a resolution is drawn. All of the steps above are what leads to the resolution, which is basically the conclusion of the story. I found Professor Barnhurst’s lecture on the steps to story telling to be intriguing. For myself, when writing a paper, I never think about the proper steps that should be taken when writing a story. It is always very important to figure out an approach that will spark the interest of a reader and most importantly keep them continuously interested in the story.

Professor Mc. Closkey's Lecture

I had previously taken a class on rhetoric, which in turn, leads to my fascination with professor Mc.Closkey’s lecture. Although rhetoric can get confusing at times, the idea behind this concept can be very engaging. If carefully examined, our daily existence is based on the art of persuasion. From the food we consume, to our daily activities, we are subconsciously persuaded to make the choices that we make. As a society, we have been programmed to take part and act upon this concept. Today’s media has a profound impact on the younger generation. For example, young girls are being taught that image is everything. Girls fall into the agonizing peer pressure of having the “perfect” body because the media often portrays the perfect body to be a size 0. Who is to say what the perfect size is? Yet, shockingly we fall into the illusion that this is acceptable. 


Furthermore, I found Professor Mc. Closkey’s comment regarding work ethics very interesting. She mentions that one cannot be taught to be a hard worker, but rather one needs to be persuaded to succeed. Although, I have never thought of this from Professor Mc. Closkey’s perspective, I cannot help but agree. One of my family members manages a very large dealership and one thing that I have learned through his story telling is that this business in particular is mostly based on persuasion. The employees must be taught that in order to succeed they must be able to present the buyer with the perfect sales pitch. They must be well informed and knowledgeable of their products to ensure that the buyer will not feel any uncertainty and continue to shop around. Once they succeed in persuading the customer to invest their money with their dealership, they then have effectively earned their way toward a financially positive outcome.


 Lastly, Mc. Closkey’s mentions the idea of “prediction,” which was one of my favorite parts of the lecture. Until today, I never thought that those individuals who claim to predict an outcome are simply persuading one’s thoughts to veer toward a result in their favor. We educate and inform ourselves on daily events enough to persuade our logical thinking into believing that and outcome will occur. This is not a prediction but rather a way of taking all of the gathered facts and believing that whatever the information that we are presented with will lead to an outcome. Ultimately, communication and the art of rhetoric is the key to success.