Communication Term Paper

This is for my Intro to Communications class.

I do not yet have the book for the class, that is why I am struggling to complete this assignment.

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CN 101
Term Paper

Assignment Sheet

In your term paper, you will answer the following questions: What is communication?
What are the purposes of communication in the 21st century? Your paper should be 6 pages long
and thoroughly define and explain communication and its purposes. You should provide
numerous examples, meaning 2 extended examples and/or more shorter examples and effectively
apply specific course concepts and communication theories discussed in this class to support
your argument. Half of your examples must be about real moments of public communication.
The other half may be about hypothetical scenarios and/or personal experiences. Your paper
should be free of grammar/spelling errors, use clear and powerful language, exhibit strong
organization, and ethically incorporate research sources. The paper should be in APA style (7th
ed.) and you should include a title page, in-text citations, and a reference page. You must cite a
minimum of 8 high-quality sources in this paper. One of these sources must be your textbook
and 5 of these sources must be academic journal articles. You will submit your paper as a Word
document ( x) or as a PDF ( ) in the appropriate Dropbox on D2L before the deadline. To
learn how you will be assessed, review the grading rubric on D2L.

CN 101
Term Paper

Assignment Checklist

o Read this Assignment Sheet and Checklist.
o Brainstorm and write down your initial thoughts about how you might respond to these

questions.
o Review your textbook (especially Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 5, and the Appendix).
o Outline your argument.

o After reviewing the textbook, write down your definition of communication (as
informed by the textbook).

o Write down what you argue are the purposes of communication (as informed by
the textbook).

o Identify the examples you will use to support your argument/illustrate your points.
o Organize your paper’s main points. The topic sentence for each of your main

points should fill in the blanks of this sentence: “Communication is
_______A______ because ____B______.”

§ For “A,” insert part of your definition.
§ For “B,” insert one of the purposes.
§ Basically, in your main points, you are answering what communication is

and why.
o Research to find academic research (8 sources) to support your argument.

§ One source must be your textbook.
§ Five sources must be academic journal articles.
§ The remaining two sources must be high-quality and credible.

o Set up a meeting with me during our term paper progress meeting week (week 5) to
discuss your outline.

o Write the first draft of your paper.
o Review the above assignment description to ensure you meet all criteria.
o Review the grading rubric (D2L) to make sure your quality is sufficient.
o Adjust your paper as needed after reviewing the assignment description and grading

rubric.
o Polish your manuscript. Spell-check. Grammar check. Ensure you cited all of your

sources properly both in-text and on your reference page. Make sure you rigorously
answered both questions in full. Read through the entire paper silently and out loud to
identify errors.

o Save your paper as a Word document or a PDF document.
o Turn in your paper on D2L before the deadline.

CN 101
W2 D1

Development of the Discipline

Intro (2 minutes)

Last Time

§ Term Paper Discussion
§ Writing Guidelines for APA Style

Things Due

§ On Friday, your first discussion post is due.

Today

§ Communication Agreement
§ Development of the Discipline

Communication Agreement (10 minutes)

§ Let’s come up with some communication best practices that will shape our class
community and how we interact with each other. I’ve provided some ideas here, but am
game for us to modify these, add to these, etc.

§ So, let’s work together to come up with our pact.
§ Take a moment to read over these, then when you’re ready, please share your thoughts.

Development of the Discipline: Why so Many Names? (15 minutes)
§ First, at Washburn, we have the Department of Communication Studies. At other

universities, a similar department might be called something else entirely. So, talk to
me. What are some other names that a Communication Studies Department might be
called?

o Communication
o Communications
o Communication Arts
o Speech
o Speech Communication
o Mass Communication
o Media Studies
o Rhetorical Studies
o Media Ecology
o Visual Communication
o Media Arts and Studies
o Communication and Film
o Communication and Media
o Communication and Journalism

o Communication, Radio, and Television
o Communication and Theatre Arts
o Communication and English

§ Why do you think we have so many names for essentially the same kind of department?
o Disagreement about the definition of communication.
o And if we look at the discipline’s development, we start to see why there is

disagreement.

Development of the Discipline: The Origin Story
§ We often give the Ancient Greeks, like Aristotle, Draco, Plato, and Socrates, and the

Ancient Romans, like Cicero and Quintilian, all the credit. T
§ BUT in reality, the communication studies discipline traces back to 3000 BCE in Ancient

Egypt.
o Ptahhotep wrote the earliest known book on effective communication, which

was called Precepts, and that was written around 2675 BCE.
§ For context, that is WELL before Cleopatra was born.

§ Now, this next bit wasn’t in your textbook, but it fills in some of the gap between
Ptahhotep and the 1900s.

o Communication was largely centered around public speaking because many
ancient cultures were grounded in what we call the oral tradition, meaning that
the primary way of sharing stories and information across generations was
through the spoken word, not the written word.

o And the thing about the history of public speaking is that there’s a ton of tea.
Like, throughout its origination, there have been moments where delivery was
thought more important than substance, then substance was deemed more
important than delivery, back and forth.

o And right before the development of the first communication association – an
attempt to start organizing the discipline – we had the elocutionist movement of
the Modern Era. The elocutionist perspective held that delivery was everything.
It was all about the gestures, facial expressions, posture, voice, etc. The content
of the speech was put on the back-burner. And the general public got sick of it,
thinking speeches were empty of rich messages, so communication was merged
with English Departments.

o But a bunch of folks who focused on public speaking felt that communication
was a related, yet separate discipline and started working together to establish
that discipline.

§ The first communication organization created was the Eastern Communication
Association in 1910. Four years later, the National Association of Academic Teachers of
Public Speaking was formed. This association would eventually become the Speech
Communication Association and then finally transform into what it’s called today: the
National Communication Association, or NCA. Now, we have a ton of other
communication associations, like Central States Communication Association, Western
States Communication Association, and Southern States Communication Association.

There are associations for certain states and associations for specific kinds of
communication. There is also the International Communication Association.

§ The point: Communication Studies has become a rich discipline of its own.
§ We’ll learn this semester the many facets of Communication Studies, because while

public speaking is a part of it, it isn’t the only kind of communication that exists.

Communication and Me: Unpack my Daily Communication (15 minutes)

§ I’m going to put us into small groups for 10 minutes. In your groups, I want you to
introduce yourselves to each other and together, brainstorm all the kinds of
communication you experience and conduct daily.

§ This could be things like texting or having a conversation, but also things like joking or
venting of smiling. There are many options.

§ Have one person in your group agree to be the person typing and type everything you
think of into the Google Doc I sent you in your Zoom email for today. Click on the link
and it will appear on your screen.

§ All of the groups will be in there at once and I’ll have it open on my screen, too. I should
see the number of group cursors on the screen, so be sure your group is participating
(or I’ll crash your party and surprise you in your breakout room!).

§ Go!

§ See? So many kinds of communication, so we have subdisciplines in the field that talk
about those specific communication phenomena.

§ This semester, we’ll learn about what communication is most generally, as well as
explore the most prominent subdisciplines that help us understand many of these kinds
of communication we’ve listed.

Next Time

§ Read Chapter 1
§ Don’t forget that your first discussion post is due on D2L on Friday.

CN 101
W2 D2

What is Communication?

Intro (2 minutes)

Last Time

§ Development of the discipline
§ Created our communication agreement (now on D2L)

Things Due

§ On Friday, your first discussion post is due. See your syllabus for discussion post
expectations and go to Week 2’s Content on D2L and follow the link to go to the proper
discussion board.

Today

§ What is Communication?

Escape the Dinosaur! (10 minutes)

§ Despite the theatrical warnings we received about reviving prehistoric species and
reintroducing them into the 21st century ecosystems, Jurassic World was created. We
are returning to the island to observe the dinosaur’s behavior and learn how they are
adapting to living among the abandoned human infrastructure. We split up into small
groups to observe the dinosaurs when suddenly, a Tyrannosaurus Rex starts chasing our
Jeeps!

§ We love dinosaurs, so we don’t want to hurt the T-Rex, but we need to escape.
§ So, in your small groups, you get to finish the story and tell me how you escaped the T-

Rex! Again, you cannot hurt the T-Rex, other dinosaurs, or any of your fellow
researchers! You must escape some other way!

§ Take five minutes to come up with how you escaped. You can be as creative and
outside-of-the-box as you would like to be. You have all possible resources at your
disposal.

§ When we come back, I want to hear all of you unmute and state your names (so we
know who was in your Jeep) and then I want to hear how you escaped!

Pre-Lesson Conversation (5 minutes)

§ We’re heading back into our small groups for two minutes. In your group, attempt to
answer the following questions:

o How did you personally define communication before reading this chapter?

§ Write down the answers you come up with in your notes.
§ Tell me about our responses. Let’s map them out on the board, then explore what the

textbook had to say. (3 minutes)

Lesson (25 minutes)
What is Communication?

§ We could say that it’s the exchanging of messages, but it’s a little more than that.
§ In fact, there are seven important characteristics of communication.

o Communication is symbolic
o Communication requires meaning
o Communication is cultural
o Communication is relational
o Communication involves frames
o Communication is presentational and representational
o Communication is transactional

Communication is symbolic

§ All communication uses verbal and/or nonverbal symbols, which are representations of
other things.

o Symbols can be language, words, movements, sounds, pictures, logos, gestures,
etc.

o For example, if you are driving, you might notice road signs. What does this one
mean?

o How about this one?
o And this one?
o We recognize that symbols stand for something else.

§ Important note: While those road signs have symbols, sign and symbol are not
synonyms.

o Signs are consequences or indications of something specific that can’t be
changed. (Ex: A slippery sidewalk in the winter is a sign that there has been
precipitation recently and that it’s so cold that there is now ice. If someone put
up a plastic yellow “slippery when wet” stand on that sidewalk, that would be a
symbol of the slipperiness).

o So, in actuality, a stop sign is a stop signal, and a slippery-when-wet sign is a
slippery-when-wet signal.

Communication requires meaning
§ For communication to occur, those symbols have to convey meaning. In other words,

we have to be able to interpret them and know what the symbol is trying to tell us.
§ These meanings develop over time by people using symbols in specific ways and

agreeing upon what they mean. We call that development social construction.
o A good example of this is generational slang. The phrase “no cap” wouldn’t mean

anything to us if people hadn’t started using it and decided upon what the
phrase means. When I was younger, “no cap” mean someone forgot to wear
their baseball cap. But to a younger generation, “no cap” means “no lie.” Unless
it’s already changed from the last time I Googled it. And future generations
might have a different interpretation of what “no cap” means.

§ Also, symbols have different meanings in different contexts. Me saying “You’re the
GOAT” to a friend giving me advice over lunch is different from me saying “You’re the
GOAT” to an actual goat at a petting zoo. In the lunch context, GOAT means greatest of
all time. In the petting zoo context, GOAT means I’m talking to a loveable farmyard
friend.

§ We also know that meaning can be influenced by both verbal and nonverbal
communication.

o If I say, “you’re such a jerk” loudly and while scowling at someone, that means
I’m mad at them.

o If I say, “you’re such a jerk” while chuckling and smiling at someone, that means
they’ve been teasing me and that I’m reciprocating.

§ Finally, meaning can be informed by medium. Have you ever sent a text to someone and
had it completely misinterpreted? Like you meant it as a joke, but the recipient
interpreted it as you being serious?

o Here’s a good example of a medium complicating the meaning.
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09M1R92GfrQ

§ Not having those nonverbal cues can make recognizing the meaning complicated.

Communication is Cultural

o Our cultures influence our communication and how we interpret communication. When
in different cultures, we might find that the meaning of your communication is different.
Things like eye contact and handshakes might be proper in culture A, but offensive in
culture B. And different culture doesn’t just refer to international difference. It refers to
regional difference within countries, too.

o For example, I’m a southern girl. I grew up in the southeastern US. And I was raised to
say yes sir and no ma’am automatically as a symbol of respect. But when I moved to
Ohio, I discovered quickly that in that particular town, a lot of people did not like when I
called them “sir” and “ma’am.” It was either taken as me being overly formal or me
passive aggressively commenting on their age. Neither was my intended meaning, but in
that different culture, that was the meaning of my communication choices. And after a
while, I started using that language less to adhere to the cultural expectations of that
particular town’s culture. But when I’m back in North Carolina? The ma’ams and sirs are
back.

o Can anyone think of a time in which you were in a different culture and your
communication was interpreted differently than your intention?

Communication is Relational

o Communications affect relationships and relationships affect communication.
o The way we communicate with a person indicates our relationship with that person.

o If you joke around a lot with someone at work, you are probably amicable
colleagues at least or maybe even friends.

o If you are very serious in your communication with someone at work, that
suggests you have a more formal relationship with them, like a supervisor-
employee relationship.

Communication Involves Frames
o We make sense of things by understanding basic knowledge that helps make sense of

scenarios. We call this basic knowledge a frame. Ever heard of the phrase, “frame of
reference?” If you have a frame of reference, it means you have the background
knowledge and contextual knowledge you need to make sense of something.

o Frames accomplish several things.
o They help us coordinate your interactions. If you know the person at the front of

the room fits your frame of “teacher,” you’ll probably tailor your behavior
accordingly when interacting with them.

o Frames also assign meaning. If someone fits your frame of “friend” and tells a
joke, it’s probably meant to be funny. If the person fits your frame of “enemy,”
that joke might be at your expense.

o Frames are largely perceptual, meaning that our frames won’t be identical. A
post-injury athlete told he can’t compete yet despite feeling ready might feel
that the call is holding him back, when the coach perceives that call to be in the
athlete’s best interest to avoid exacerbating the injury. Same call, but two
different frames involved.

Communication is Presentation and Representational

o Let’s differentiate between these two words.
o Presentation means your particular take on facts or events.
o Representation describes facts or conveys information.

o How we communicate with others presents them with a way of viewing the world
that’s based on your perspective.

o For example, in Taylor Swift’s new song, “no body, no crime,” she tells a story about a
fictional friend who is murdered by her husband after she finds out he’s having an
affair. Taylor avenges her friend in the end. Disclaimer: Don’t murder people, y’all.

o But there’s a line:
o “They think she did it but they just can’t prove it . . . She thinks I did it but she

just can’t prove it.”
o The representation that law enforcement see is a missing man who had a

missing wife, a life insurance policy, and a woman he was having an affair with.
o The presentation Taylor has constructed for us suggests that the man murdered

his wife, but the woman murdered the man for his money. If we listen to the
end of the song, we discover that’s not the case. But that’s how the facts are
presented.

o So, perception and fact are both involved.

Communication is a Transaction

o If we view communication as an action, that implies a one-way street. We do something
and that’s it.

o If we view communication as an interaction, that implies a four-way stop. Messages are
exchanged, but one at a time.

o If we view communication as a transaction, that implies a two-way street where
communication is happening simultaneously between the people involved.

o THIS is the most accurate way to think about communication.
o It’s not just turn-taking and sharing information. It’s creating shared

understandings between people.

Post-Lesson Conversation (5 minutes)

§ We’re heading back into our small groups for five minutes. In your group, refer back to
your earlier notes about that question and talk about how you would modify your
answers based on our lesson today?

o Based on what we learned today, how would you define communication?
§ Write down the modifications in your notes.

Next Time

§ Read pp. 292-306 in your Appendix.
§ Don’t forget that your first discussion post is due on D2L on Friday.

CN 101
W3 D1

Communication, Identity, and Perception

Intro (2 minutes)

Last Time

§ Areas of Study in the Communication Discipline

Things Due

§ For Wednesday
o You have some videos to watch beforehand. This will be a discussion-heavy class,

so I expect you to have reviewed the material beforehand.
o There are questions associated with each video (they are on the same screen as

the videos). Sketch out your answers and bring them to class.
§ For Friday

o Discussion post is due
Today

§ Methods of Studying Communication
§ Communication, Identity, and Perception

Time to Write a Book! (5 minutes)

§ After our picnic, we felt energized and decided to write a book about our adventures
escaping Jurassic World.

§ So, in your small groups, introduce yourself and brainstorm the title for your book. As a
reminder, these aren’t graded. I want you to be creative and wacky with your ideas. But
“I don’t know” isn’t a good enough answer (unless that’s the title you’ve decided to go
with). Share your ideas! Courage! Designate someone as your representative.

§ Then, we’ll go around the room and hear what each group of dinosaur researchers has
chosen for their book titles.

Lesson (35 minutes)

§ In our reading for today, we learned about identities and perceptions. We learned about
the myth of the true self and we learned about how our identity judgments are often
based in perception rather than fact.

§ We also watched the video clip on D2L and we brought our responses to several
questions posed alongside that video.

§ We won’t always watch the video clip in class, but we will do so today to refresh our
minds before we break out into discussion groups.

§ Video (5 minutes):

§ For 10 minutes, you’re going to discuss how you responded to a set of those questions.
I’ll tell you what each group is discussing.

o Group 1 – Question 1 and 2 + Overall Questions
o Group 2 – Question 3 and 4 + Overall Questions
o Group 3 – Question 5 and 6 + Overall Questions
o Overall questions:

§ Does Alice have a core self?
§ Does the Caterpillar have a core self?
§ Why or why not?

§ Let’s recap together (20 minutes):

o Question 1 — What moods do you think that Alice and the Caterpillar are
experiencing in this clip?

§ Dr. K observations: Amusement, irritability, defensiveness, frustration,
misunderstanding, misinterpretation, confusion

o Question 2 — Does the Caterpillar seem comfortable in this setting? Does Alice?
Why or why not?

§ Dr. K observations:
• Caterpillar: Yes! Until Alice makes a comment about how terrible

it is to be small (like the Caterpillar is).
• Alice: No. While she is curious and is rather calm, given the

circumstances, she’s confused and still adapting to existing in
Wonderland.

o Questions 3 — How do you think Alice’s and the Caterpillar’s relationship (as
strangers) affects the way they’re communicating with each other? How do you
think they would act if they were close friends?

§ Dr. K observations:
• They seem to be doing a bit of an identity dance. They are being

fairly polite, but eventually get frustrated and storm off. I’d
anticipate that if they were friends, that frustration might happen
earlier, but then be resolved by honestly discussing their
frustration and misunderstanding.

o Questions 4 — In your opinion, what does the Caterpillar think of Alice? What
does Alice think of the Caterpillar?

§ Alice: Perceives the Caterpillar to be acting funny, although he is quite a
serious person. Perceives him to be rude when he takes offense to her
size comment.

§ Caterpillar: Perceives Alice to be of little interest due to her inability to
articulate who she is. Also perceives her to be insensitive of his size while
standing in his own house.

o Question 5 — What cultural assumptions do you think the Caterpillar and Alice
made? What was a specific line that reflected that assumption?

§ Assumption 1: to be small is a dreadful experience.
§ Assumption 2: there is one and only one way to recite the poem.
§ Assumption 3: The other party is acting peculiar.

o Question 6 — We know that identities are performed. What identities would you
say that the Caterpillar and Alice were performing?

§ Caterpillar – grouchy, yet thoughtful person. Creative. Unbound by what
things “should” be.

§ Alice – polite, abiding by socialized norms (curtsy), not used to being
confronted when she says something insensitive. Overall, I’d guess from a
highly proper family of society. But Alice’s polite performance snaps at
the end when she has smoke blown in her face and when she returns and
the Caterpillar snaps at her.

o Overall Questions
§ Does the Caterpillar have a core identity?

• No. Although he seems more of the mindset that you should
know who you are, he himself changes into a butterfly when he
gets angry. We see him go from highly poetic to really gruff by the
end (different moods).

§ Does Alice have a core identity?
• No. She seems like the poster child for the idea that the core self

is a myth, mentioning that she didn’t know who she was anymore.
We see her mood shift and her communication shift, as well. We
might think differently of her after seeing her get angry.

Next Time
§ Read the rest of chapter 2 (pp. 27-34)
§ Watch the video: “Leading Lady Parts” on D2L. It’s about 10 minutes long and it’s a

funny one featuring some potentially familiar faces. Jot down some responses to the
questions. Again, these are jumping off points for discussion.

§ Watch the video: “I’m Gay” by Eugene Lee Yang on D2L. In case you were curious, yes,
this is Eugene from the Try Guys! Jot down some responses to the questions on that
video, too.

o Trigger Warning: This video depicts re-enactments of homophobia, gun violence,
and public/familial intolerance of identity.

CN 101
W3 D1

Communication, Identity, and Perception II

Intro (2 minutes)

Last Time

• Communication, Identity, and Perception
• Alice in Wonderland Activity à Identities are shaped through different moods,

situations, relationships, evaluations, and cultures.
• Also learned that we perform identities, the we don’t really have a core self, and that

the identities we give to other people are largely based in perception.

Things Due
§ For Friday

o Discussion post is due
Today

§ Communication, Identity, and Perception
o How we Transact Identities!

Dinosaur Movie! (8 minutes)

§ Our book about our adventures escaping the dinosaurs just got picked up by a big
motion picture company!

§ So, in your small groups, take three minutes and share what actor you would hand-
select to play you in that movie.

Lesson

Setting the Stage (5 minutes)

§ In our reading for today, we learned about identities being transacted. What does that
mean?

§ Remember that we talked about communication as a transaction, as a two-way street?
Can anyone remind me why we describe communication as being a transaction?

o We have simultaneous communication happening at once through nonverbals
and gestures, through our words, through little fillers we add in response to
what others are saying. We don’t take turns really.

§ We also consider identities to be transacted, just like communication. And when we say
transacted, we mean that something is being created, maintained, reinforced, or
transformed through communication with other people.

§ Here’s why we say that identities are also transacted.
§ Our identities are shaped by how we communicate – We shape other’s perceptions of

who we are based on how we interact with them. But our identities are also shaped by
other’s communication. When people praise us for certain communicative behaviors

growing up, we continue to perform those behaviors when we’re older. When we’re
maybe challenged for behaving that way, like being told that eye contact is actually rude
in the new culture you’re living in, you’ll adapt your communication accordingly. So, our
communication and the communication of others shapes who we are. A lot of times,
that communication is all occurring at once. Thus, we say that identities are also
transacted. Identities are created, maintained, reinforced, or transformed through
communication with other people.

§ And that transaction occurs through our performances, through our self-disclosure of
personal information, storytelling, and through the ways that others treat you.

(10 minutes)
§ Now, we saw a great example of other people transacting an identity in the video

“Leading Lady Parts,” which you watched before coming to class. But instead of small
group discussion, let’s go over these questions as a class.

o How are the casting directors defining the leading lady?
§ Smiley, sexy-crying, lots of make-up, thin and curvy, sexy and innocent,

feminine, delicate, “thin-sexy-hooker-virgin-with-boobs-and-hips-but-
not-big-ones,” young, White (racist af)

§ Apparently, that’s Tom Hiddleston
o What do they say to the women auditioning for the part?

§ Very critical of their performance of the character.
§ Racist, sexist
§ This is a good example of satire, humor that packs a really biting punch to

make a serious point.
o What underlying message might those messages send to the women auditioning

for the part? (In other words, how might those messages affect them?)
§ We know that how we’re treated by others impacts how we view

ourselves.
§ So, these aren’t just words. They are contributing to how these actors

view themselves. And if they continue on for a long time, they can
become ingrained in the actors’ identities. One actress might start
thinking she needs to wear a lot of makeup to get leading lady parts.
Another may think she needs plastic surgery. Another may think she’ll
never get the part because she’s Black or Asian.

o What is one example of altercasting that you see in this video? (See page 34 of
your textbook for more info on altercasting.)

§ The entire conversation between the casting agents and the actors is an
example of altercasting.

§ But a specific example would be the agents not allowing Wunmi Mosaku
to read for the part because she’s Black, implying that leading ladies can
only be White. She’s presenting herself as a strong candidate for the role,
while the casting agents are rejecting her presented identity, which is
both altercasting and racist. Over time, that treatment could make

Mosaku start to believe that she can’t be a leading lady, even though she
has won awards for her acting.

Eugene Lee Yang’s “I’m Gay” Video (25 minutes)

§ Just as “Leading Lady Parts” gave us a great example of others transacting our identities,
the “I’m Gay” reflects others’ contributions to our identities. It also illustrates how we
individually craft our identities.

§ So, let’s break this video down with the questions we answered on D2L.
§ How is Eugene self-describing himself early on in this video through this visual

narrative? Midway through the video? At the end of the video?
o So, we communicate and behave in ways culturally associated with those

roles. We can see early that Eugene is attempting to behave the way that
his family expects him to behave. He is smiling, having a drink, mimicking
what his father is doing, sitting in church, and starting a relationship with
a woman.

§ How does Eugene start self-disclosing his identity?
o We see early that while he has moments of mimicking the cisgender,

heterosexual men in his life, he also has moments where we see him
beginning to explore his identity as a gay man. That experience differs for
every person, but for Eugene, that includes dancing with his mother and
sisters, being interested in their makeup, and dancing in the church. We
really see him start to explicitly express his identity when he started
dancing with the masculine dancer and then went to what was
representative of the Pulse nightclub as a drag queen. At that point, he is
openly disclosing his sexuality.

o At that point is when we start seeing others engaging in altercasting,
either by embracing him or rejecting and attacking him through their
nonverbal communication (both in terms of gestures and physical
violence).

§ What boundaries does Eugene establish? Where did you see moments of
turbulence?

o According to Petronio’s Communication Privacy Management theory, we
maintain privacy by negotiating boundaries of privacy with others.

o Boundaries are there to protect personal information and control who
has access to that knowledge and who doesn’t.

o These boundaries can experience turbulence, which refers to the
reshaping and revision of boundaries.

§ That can occur when boundaries come under attack, like when
someone asks you a personal question and you make it clear that
you aren’t sharing that info.

§ It can also occur when a person wants to have privacy about a
specific topic. For instance, Eugene is totally comfortable
expressing himself around his friends in the LGBTQ+ community,

but he might not disclose his identity when interacting with
strangers or with family members.

o Eugene established boundaries through much of the early parts of the
video, which is evident in how he eventually abided by the expectations
(sit in church quietly).

o We see moments of turbulence throughout. When he’s holding the
lipstick, dancing in the church, sitting in the pew looking uncomfortable,
and most strongly when he’s at the other end of a loaded gun.

o At the end of the video, we see him drastically reshaping his boundaries
when he stands in a gown in the midst of a protesting crowd, staring at
the camera. Then, he comes and sits in a living room. In that moment,
he’s taking down that boundary to the public and allowing everyone to
know his identity. That’s a huge moment of turbulence.

§ Where do you see people reacting to Eugene’s self-disclosure in those three
different ways that our textbook discusses? (See page 30.)

o We see Eugene’s girlfriend and friends at the night club being honored
that he shared that information with him.

o We see half of Eugene’s family being accepting of his identity by trying to
help him. It’s hard to tell if it has really changed the relationship between
Eugene and these family members though.

o We see half of Eugene’s family not appreciating being informed of his
identity, as well as random strangers attacking him and yelling at him.

§ In short, Eugene’s coming out video illustrates how other’s communication
affects him and his identity, but also how his own communication shapes it. Even
though everyone is yelling at the end of the video and we can tell it’s affecting
Eugene emotionally, we can also see a strong resilience and determination to
stand tall and proud and not apologize. So, we see the individual aspect of
identity building and boundary turbulence in this video.

So, to recap: Identities are transacted (i.e., they are created, reinforced, and changed) when
others communicate about and to us, and when we communication to them. One way we
maintain our identities is through the creation of boundaries, which help us control who knows
what about us. And if one of our boundaries is challenged, we experience turbulence and can
either resist opening that boundary or we can open the boundary and adjust it so that more
people can access that information.

CN 101
W3 D3

Verbal Communication I

Intro (2 minutes)

Last Time

• Communication, Identity, and Perception
o How we transact identities

Things Due
§ Discussion post is due

Today
§ Verbal Communication

o What is considered verbal communication?
o How is verbal communication symbolic? – Part 1

We’re in a Movie! (10 minutes)

§ We have our actors. Now, we need to pick what genre of music we want in our
soundtrack.

§ So, in your small groups, introduce yourself and share what kind of music you’d like to
hear in the film.

Lesson: Verbal Communication

• Talk to me. What words immediately come to mind when you hear the phrase “verbal
communication?”

o Talking
o Speaking
o Presenting
o Conversations
o Using your voice
o Making sounds with your mouth

• According to our textbook, verbal communication is all about the use of language. And
guess what? It’s not just about speaking! The written word is verbal communication,
too, because it involves the use of language.

• So, if we expand our understanding of verbal communication to include written
communication, what other kinds of communication come to mind?

o Texting
o Literature
o Advertisements
o Instagram posts and comments
o Tweets

• Now, we might think, “but if we include text, how does communication differ from
English, for example, or a Literature course?

o We aren’t looking at language structures when studying verbal communication.
We’re interested in how people USE language. We’re interested in how we take
language, which is a collection of symbols, and put it into practice.

• We read that verbal communication has some specific characteristics. Specifically,
verbal communication

o Is symbolic
o Has meaning
o Is relational
o Is cultural
o Involves frames
o Is presentation
o And is transactive

• Hey, does that sound familiar? These are THE SAME characteristics of communication
that we talked about in week 2. However, instead of focusing on communication
broadly, we’re going to examine what these characteristics look like in verbal
communication specifically.

• We’ll talk about the first four today.

Verbal Communication is Symbolic.

• We talked earlier this semester about symbols. Can anyone remind me what a symbol
is?

o It’s a representation of ideas, objects, people, relationships, and cultures. When
we see a deer crossing sign on the road, we don’t necessarily see a deer crossing
the road, but we know that there could be one.

• Think of the word “cat.” Is the word an actual cat? No. It’s three letters that form a word
that we associate with the animal. Words don’t have meaning themselves, but we apply
meaning to them. Hence, we say that verbal communication is symbolic. It’s made up of
symbols.

Verbal Communication Also Has Meaning.

• That brings us to the second characteristic. But verbal communication involves multiple
kinds of meaning. It involves denotative meaning and connotative meaning.

o Denotative meaning: Can anyone tell me what that means?
§ The identification of something by pointing it out: “Look! There’s a cat!”
§ Think of it as the meaning associated with a dictionary definition.
§ When interacting, we need a common denotative meaning to be able to

understand what the other person is saying.
o Connotative meaning: Can anyone tell me what that means?

§ The overtones, implications, or other meanings associated with a word or
object: “You cool cat, you!”

§ Think of it as the non-literal meaning. Your friend probably isn’t a cold
cat. You’re saying that the friend is a neat person. Other example: “Hissy
fit.” Your friend probably isn’t hissing at you.

o So, while denotation is the literal definition meaning of a word, connotation is
the additional meaning that’s hiding under the surface. You have to have specific
knowledge about it in order to recognize it.

o And we can use a single word both denotatively and connotatively.
o We develop denotative and connotative meanings of words by using them in our

society.
§ Over time, we have both positively and negatively loaded words. When

we hear the word, love, we might get a warm and fuzzy feeling because
it’s a positively loaded word. But if we hear the word “violence,” we
might feel a bit anxious because it’s a negatively loaded word.

§ The reason we have those reactions is because those words have been
socially shaped to have connotative meanings that come to mind when
we hear the word.

§ Take a minute to reflect and write down a word or phrase that gives you
a positive feeling when you hear it and a word or phrase that gives you a
negative feeling.

§ Would anyone like to share the positive-feeling word/phrase they
thought about?

• Springsteen – memories with a speech team
§ What about negative-feeling words/phrases?

• Tractor – Over the course of my life, I’ve had several scary
experiences working with and around tractors. I’m not going into
detail on those experiences, other than to say that as a result,
when I hear the word “tractor,” I feel a little tightness in my chest
because I remember those moments.

Verbal Communication is Relational

• Our verbal communication changes based on the relationships we have with people.
• For example, how you greet a friend is different than how you treat a work supervisor or

a professor.
• Similarly, our relationships influence how we use verbal communication. If we have a

respectful relationship with a work supervisor and they have a concern with our job
performance, they will probably say, “Hey, could you drop by my office when you have a
minute?” If there’s a power-heavy relationship between you and your supervisor (or you
don’t get along), you might get a more abrupt, “My office. Now.”

• A great example of this entire notion is the phrase, “I love you.” That phrase offers
affection, but the level of affection differs depending on the kind of relationship you
have with the other person. If a good friend surprises you with a cup of coffee between
classes, you might say, “oh my gosh, I love you!” to express your appreciation. But

saying “I love you” to a romantic partner is much more intimate. Same phrase, but
different meaning depending on the relationship involved.

• Plus, our different relationships have different meanings for words because you have
different shared experiences with different groups of people. Ever had a get-together
where you had multiple friend groups present at once and you noticed that the
conversation felt a little awkward? That’s because not everyone in the room has the
shared history from which to launch conversations.

• For instance, I have a nickname for one of my close friends and she has one for me. But
when she and I are interacting with other folks who weren’t part of our college history,
we don’t use those nicknames. And if we accidentally do, we then have to explain where
we got them because people don’t know who we’re talking about.

• There’s a lot of hypertext between people who know each other, coded messages
within conversations that only certain people will understand. I can look at my friend
and say, “acorn squash,” and she starts laughing. That makes no sense to anyone else.
Similarly, if I say to refer to “Duck and McMahan,” you know I’m referring to our
textbook. Someone outside of the class would have no idea what a “Duck and
McMahan” is. That’s hypertext.

Verbal Communication is Cultural.

• As with many aspects of communication, verbal communication shapes culture and
culture shapes verbal communication.

• And by culture, we’re meaning groups of people who share distinct meanings. That
doesn’t just include folks in different nations. Athletes have a culture. Artists have a
culture. Kansans have a culture. College students learning during a pandemic have a
culture. In addition to having different meanings and styles of communication, cultures’
communication reflects their values and beliefs.

• Cultures are formed by communication and other kinds of symbolic activities. Yet they
also regulate how we use verbal communication. You might find that the way you write
an email to a friend differs from the way you write an email to a scholarship committee.

• The way you talk on campus might even differ from how you talk when you leave
campus.

• And even within a culture, those communication norms can change.
o Take gender pronouns, for example. For years, the word “they” was treated

mostly as a plural word (although the singular “they” actually dates back to 1375
where it appeared in a piece of romance literature called William and the
Werewolf). But in recent years, it has become more publicly recognized and
accepted as a gender pronoun.

o Sharing pronouns and being respectful of pronouns helps us avoid making
presumptions about people.

o You might notice that I add (she / her) to my Zoom name and list it on my email.
o I do that for several reasons. The more personal reason is that I was

misgendered in an editorial that praised one of my research articles and, as a
woman who years ago wouldn’t have been allowed to get a PhD, I found that

assumption troubling. Yes, I have a gender neutral, borderline masculine first
name, but a simple Google search would have clearly illustrated my academic
profiles which include my pronouns. Instead of doing that, though, the person
writing the editorial made an assumption about my identity. So, I started making
my pronouns much more visible.

o The most substantial reason is that, as someone who studies communication, I
know that in order to normalize communication in society, we have to actively
practice it in society. And I want to live in a world where people are respectful of
each other’s identities and where we don’t assume people’s identities. Where
it’s normal to ask, “Hey, nice to meet you! What are your pronouns?” rather
than it being an anomaly.

Small Group Chat

• In small groups, I want you to chat about the following items.
o What surprised you the most about the material today?
o What’s one thing you hadn’t thought about before?
o What are you interested in learning more about?

Questions?

Next time:

• Verbal Communication II – Chapter 3 (pp. 47-55)
• Group A, you can attend in-person and Group B, I’ll see you online on Monday.