Eco-Communication

I read an article in the New York Times that discussed some of pyschological problems behind really going "green". The most interesting aspect of this article was the idea of semantics and its role in how we perceive environmental problems. Based on the study discussed in the article it may be much more difficult for people to commit to the green movement unless we (government, environmental policymakers and advocates) change our lingo.

As we talk about possible solutions and problems we need to be aware of the possible connotations associated with certain words we commonly use to to describe and solve environmental issues. A study discussed in the article demonstrated how people were opposed to doing something that would benefit the environment when the word "tax" was used. Being aware of words that may turn people off is essential in solving environmental problems.

My final take on the article is that we need to work as groups and use group language to solve the environmental problem. According to the article we as humans are more likely to react in a positive environmental manner if their is a group consensus to do so. One approach we should consider taking is hosting more community forums to discuss environmental issues.

Communication at Work

This past week at work, I was asked to fill in for another manager. Part of this “filling in” included an invite to a meeting. The assistant store manager, who happens to be a bit hardnosed and rough, was in charge of this meeting. I had always wondered what type of dialogue the department managers had with the assistant store manager during these meetings so I was excited to sit in and witness the interactions.

I arrived to the assigned room on time with pen and paper. The other two department managers were also present on time with pen and paper. Slowly time ticked by as we waited nearly thirty minutes for the assistant store manager to make his appearance.

Immediately he asked us to bring out our weekly reports so we could review our numbers. The discussion on numbers was brief but pleasant as our store was performing well in comparison to the district. We moved on from the reports to new changes in our installation programs. And here is where I witnessed what a typical meeting looks like.

The department heads were criticized for their lack of installations, one department (my own), was really in the doghouse. As the assistant store manager shot down almost all legitimate concerns from the other managers, I felt I should step in. I recognized from some of my social interaction training here at Alverno that the assistant store manager’s dominating demeanor and negativity was not resolving the install problem and not the best way to communicate with his staff.

I briefly interrupted and shared my perspective as a non-manager. I shared with the group how the new implementations would reduce employee morale and prove ineffective in boosting the install numbers. My information was solid and difficult for the assistant store manager to disprove. The brief break from his viewpoint also allowed the other managers to voice some frustrations they had with the assistant store manager.

I am not sure if it was because I was present and the assistant store manager did not want to look bad but he appeared to listen to his management team. He responded in a positive manner to both their feedback and mine. Although I believe the management team has work to do on their communication techniques I hope that some of the things I pointed out will help them in the future.

I miss reading for fun. I am an avid reader and typically I will read anything I can get my hands on but this semester the text books are not cutting it. Lately, I have been wishing I was an English major instead of a PCM major. I would love to escape into somebody else's fantasitical world for awhile.

Well I stopped wishing and instead I have moved on to doing. I am starting a book club with some people I work with, however, I never realized how difficult it would be to create a list of books for an entire group of people.

First, even though I have been on a brief reading hiatus, I have still read quite a few books. I went to a few of the must read book websites and the top 100 classics of all time and I found I have read about 50 percent of the lists. Since I have never started or even belonged to a book club I did not know if it would be fair to include books that I have already read. So I kept on searching.

This time around I tried to be more specific. I figured we could set our book club up by genre months and this proved to be ideal. I began searching for different genre specific classics, starting off with sci-fi. I pulled up quite a few awesome book lists including some from the indiebound website.

Here are a some books I am considering for the book club:

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen
3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
4. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
5. The Women by TC Boyle

I have not decided which one we will start with but I am excited to bring "fun" reading back into my life.

Media Reflection

In my semantics class several weeks ago, we watched a video called Faces of the Enemy. One aspect of the video discussed was how propaganda was used to dehumanize the enemy during times of war.

A man I work with fought in Vietnam and I thought it would be interesting to discuss the video with him. Although he did not discuss in great length how he separated himself from the enemy, he did agree with the idea of making the enemy something that was less than human.

He also discussed how propaganda has always been used in wars. One type of propaganda material he was most familiar with was World War I and II posters. He has been collecting reproductions of those posters for years. The posters were hung in various public places like the post office or grocery store to promote war participation.

I have been thinking about his poster collection and how it relates to our modern version of propaganda but I have not been able to come up with a concrete connection. I believe we are even more removed from the idea of our "enemies" and that we need very little obvious propaganda to dehumanize them.

Modern propaganda appears to be intrinsically linked in our entertainment. It is not as simple as a poster. Our news and entertainment outlets are seeping with different slants on the war on terror. I myself am questioning how I developed my own opinions on our current war. It is alarming to think how much biased information I may have absorbed unknowingly.

I think it would be worthwhile for everyone to take a step back and think about how people they consider enemies came to be.

Where is the money?

The other night I listened to parts of President Obama’s speech regarding the economic stimulus/bailout package and I was impressed. I was happy to hear him speak bluntly about poor decisions made on behalf of all parties: citizens, businesses and government. I was even more pleased when he announced the launching of a website, recovery.gov.

For the past several weeks, I have been trying to follow the stimulus money trail. I discovered an online newspaper that contained a link to the 407-page stimulus document which I found extremely difficult to wade through.

So today, when I had the opportunity to check out the government’s page I became utterly disappointed by what I read. Mr. Obama’s website does not show detailed information on how the money is distributed. In fact, there are two sections with headings so vague (one literally titled "Other") I wanted to call our dear President up and say, “What the…?”

I advise everyone to check out the website and if anyone knows what exactly the “protecting the vulnerable” group is please let me know.

TV on the Brain

In my PCM320 class we are studying some of the theories behind media effects and my topic to review is the cultivation effect. The main study behind the cultivation effect is people who spend a good deal of time watching television believe the US to be extremely violent. The book cites that less then one percent of the population is an actual victim of violent crime.


Being the skeptic, I decided to do a little impromptu lunchroom survey at work. There were seven people in the room, five of which considered themselves heavy television viewers. All seven people thought the US to be an extremely violent and unsafe place. I then shared the information from my text (the less than one percent part) and most of my colleagues responded the same: the US is still an extremely violent place. I thought this to be interesting which spurred another thought. Did the word violent hold an entirely different meaning to those I work with?

Perhaps it did, which is probably another reason there is some room for debate regarding this theory.