Welcome to my Blog!

The creation of this blog is part of my final Communications Capstone COM480 course at Ashford University. This is my final course at Ashford University!! So as I begin the journey of creating my very own blog I am filled with both excitement and nervousness. While I love to write, the idea of being critiqued by others is a bit intimating.

As I got started on google blogger, I was happy to find that creating a blog is not quite as difficult as I thought it would be. However, I am aware I have much to learn. In his article, “7 Elements to make your Blog Look Great” Martin gives some great pointers. He states good blogs should have structure, balance, color, clarity and emphasis, functionality, remarkability, and small detail (Martin, 2014). To get myself started, I choose a layout that is not too busy but had enough fields to provide both structure and balance so that the reader’s eyes would not be overloaded.

I chose a color that represents me: Pink. 

It is Graduation Time…

 

When we all embark on new journeys with excitement.  As working adults we enroll in college excited for change and personal growth.  Some enroll seeking promotion in a career, financial security, new knowledge, and some just enjoy learning.  Along the way we encounter obstacles that bring us through struggle, frustration, stress, and even fear.   Life gets in the way and can distract our goals, for me that distraction was ten years long. But today, I have arrived at the end of my journey and will be graduating with my B.A. in Communication Studies.

We all have heard the saying “Life happens” and it does, but when we look back we realize that everything we have been through plays a role in the development of our personal character and who we are as a person.  It all has purpose.

Influences around us develop our genes and traits. Sometimes these very influences limit us from being able to experience opportunities; but we should always seek to learn, grow and develop.  When we do we will find genes and traits within us that we never knew existed. 

I can’t stress to anyone how important it is to believe in themselves and embark on their journey to fulfill whatever goal it is they have left dormant in the inside.  We can do anything we put our minds to with hard work and perseverance.  It is our choice.  Never let your environment or circumstances hinder your dreams or growth for too long.

We all were created for a specific purpose and I believe we should focus on bettering ourselves and in helping others.  Now that I am graduating, I am excited to find a job within communications that will allow me to serve others and help encourage them to take their first step.  The first step is always the hardest, but just like a baby who just learns to walk, once the first step is taken there is no stopping us.

Communication Theory

Human Communication is made up of key principles that are important when trying to convey messages across to others.  Four key principles that are very important are:  communication is a process, communication is irreversible, communication is transactional and communication includes both content and relationship management (Kreps, 2011).  Communication is a constant process that never stops because we are constantly sending messages and trying to understand the meanings of communication that is both sent and received. 

Communication is also irreversible.  Once we send a message, it can’t be retrieved.  For example, many of us have heard of the popular sayings “Words are powerful” and “Think before you speak”, well they are both very accurate.  Once we say speak words to someone, they can’t be taken back.  We must keep in mind what is we want to convey in advance before we speak because they will influence our relationships with others.  When we communicate messages others will process them and develop a perception of who we are.

Jamaican Culture in America

People migrate to different countries for many different reasons, for Kim an opportunity for better life is was what brought her to United States of America. Kim migrated over from Kingston, Jamaica to the U.S. over 14 years ago at the age of 37. Having already had family living in the U.S., Kim came in hopes of finding an easier life with better opportunities for her and her three children. In this paper I will discuss the positive and negative sides to immigration that Kim experienced here in America. Sacrifice for her meant leaving behind what was familiar for a life in America that would not be free of struggles. Kim had to overcome obstacles when assimilating to the American culture, her children lost their original Jamaican culturally identity, and she came to see that obtaining citizenship was not an easy process for immigrants of the Jamaican culture.

Assimilation to the American Culture

Most immigrants experience culture shock when moving from their homelands to the United States. They leave behind what is familiar and must go through the inevitable assimilation process as they try to participate and grow accustomed to a whole new culture and way of life. Individuals can experience both physical and psychological symptoms of culture shock (Jandt, 2013). In Jamaica, the main language is English, this similarity made assimilation easier for Kim. Although Kim did not experience a huge culture shock, she had to learn to overcome internal fears of prejudice, stereotyping and possible judgement being passed on her and her three children due to their cultural differences. According to Ruby Cain, the assistant professor of Adult & Community Education at Ball State University, “The cultural landscape of communities is constantly changing (Cain, 2012). As an immigrant, Kim must become culturally adapted to her new community and adopt and learn the norms and values of the American culture (Jandt, 2013).

Intercultural Communications in Virtual Environments

Intercultural Communications in Virtual Environments

Over the past few years, virtual environments have become very popular. Web-based learning is now used in the workplace to train new hires and also for E-learning at private and public universities to allow students an alternative education to the more traditional colleges. “We are living in a digital economy where information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge is essential to succeed in almost all areas” (Hampel, 2014). Technology is on the rise creating new opportunities for communicating via different mediums. While there are many benefits to communicating electronically, we also face communication barriers which we must try to overcome.

E-Learning

According to Olaniran (2009), “the current demand for education has transitioned to one where training is not confined to a particular geographic location, but instead, to those in which portability, mobility, and convenience are of central importance” (pg. 181). E-learning offers students the convenience to learn no matter where we are without having to be present in a physical classroom. Many middle-aged individuals work full time and are unable to find time in their busy schedules to take course at traditional colleges. E-Learning has provided these individuals with an opportunity to finish their degree on timeline that works with their schedules. E-learning removes boundaries and makes education a possibility to all no matter where they are located allowing students to take control of their learning and study at a pace which does not interfere with their day to day demands from their employers.

More Perfect Union Speech

In the United States, the first amendment allows for freedom of expression. This amendment allows for all citizens to openly share their prejudices, racism, hate speech, gossip, hatred of religion, and to make offensive statements publicly and socially. While some feel freedom of speech is our right, I believe allowing negativity to be free can ultimately be detrimental to society as a whole. According to Jandt (2013), “Communication can play a role in either spreading prejudice and racism or stopping their spread” (pg.52). In President Obama’s famous speech called “More Perfect Union” addressed to the nation in 2008 at the National Constitution Center, he made the nation aware of racial inequalities which are still present in the United States within all races. Obama reminded American’s of all cultures that we are still working toward “a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America” (Obama, 2008, para. 5).

President Obama chronicled the resentments of blacks and whites by stating, "Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze…." (Obama, 2008, para. 36). Personally I do not agree with these subgroups he places blacks and whites in. Although some blacks may have anger which proves counterproductive, whites have anger as well just as blacks too have resentments. Blacks and other minorities are fearful when riding through wealthy, neighborhoods populated mainly by white Caucasians out of fear of being pulled over solely due to the color of their skin. Whites also harbor anger and are labored to be white trash when they are raised in poverty and forced to live in low-income trailer homes.

Managing Conflict though Communication

Conflict

At some point in life, you will experience conflict. Conflicts arise to due to issues that can’t be resolved and escalate to an emotional level (Lau, 2008). Conflicts can bring about feelings of anger, resentment or pain. Five areas of conflict I will discuss further are: why conflict occurs, conflict management, the positive and negative effects of conflict, stress and anger, and forgiveness. I experienced conflict in my professional workplace two years ago when I accepted a contract position as the bid department manager while the manager went out on maternity leave. I had two employees, with the same job title who began to resent each other. I was faced with the challenge of helping to resolve the conflict between the two employees. Through this challenge, I learned that we can diffuse conflict when we learn how to recognize and understand it, identify personality or style differences in individuals, and by encouraging others to learn to see the positive side of the conflict.

Why Conflict Occurs

Some of the reasons conflicts arise are due to differences in interests, age, values, differences in background, and personality type. According to ACAS the independent and impartial Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, sometimes the cause of the conflict is very obvious; however, there will be times when conflict may suddenly flare up due to the conflict remaining dormant for so long. (ACAS, 2014). In close relationships, chances for conflict increase because we care about these people; therefore, emotions are highly involved. The inevitability of conflict principle is self-explanatory: conflicts are inevitable (Cahn, 2014). 

Successful Communication within a Small Organization

Every organization depends on communication to achieve success. According to Smeltzer and Fann, the main difference between large organizations and small organizations is small organizations have less procedures and rules resulting in a higher level of uncertainty, and less emphasis on formality (Smeltzer & Fann, 1989). Although small organizations tend to be more flexible and have less hierarchy, some must improve upon their level of communication in order to retain their employees due to societal evolutions because of shortfalls in team building, relationship development, communication outputs, organizational culture, leadership strategies and employee retention.

While small organizations may offer their employees flexibility, many small corporations must improve upon their level of internal communications in order to promote and maintain effective team building and relationship development. Interpersonal communication is used to establish relationships with other organizations participants to accomplish organizational tasks (Kreps, 2011). In every organization, different employees will bring different strengths and contributions to the table. Each individual team must contribute to the organizations goals. In order to do this each department or team must have clear objectives and processes.

Small business managers facing unpredictable events on a regular basis find procedures useless (Smeltzer & Fann, 1989). Small organizations are generally more informal. Since there are fewer employees, each employee may have multiple roles resulting in less time to prepare written communication processes and memos. When there is less formal procedure, there is a higher level of uncertainty. Small organizations also places less concern on keeping those both higher up and lower the organizational chart in the loop of decisions and changes. This results in disconnects and poor communications across departments in a small organization.

New Client Proposal

To Accept or Reject a Client                                           

For this assignment I was asked to write a proposal to my business partners with my recommendation as to whether or not we should accept the contract with a well-known professional baseball player as per the below scenario:

A well-known professional baseball player is suspected of having used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. He has not been charged. His agent asks you to advise and assist him in handling the intense media interest in the case. He wants you to try to place favorable stories about the baseball star in the media and create a positive environment for him. If formally accused, it could mean irreparable damage to his baseball career.

You are not asked to do anything unethical. The money is quite good, and you know the publicity from working on the case will probably help your public relations consulting career, especially if the athlete is exonerated. Would you take the account? The agent tells you confidentially that the athlete has admitted that he took some substance that was unknown to him, but may have been steroids. Does this information affect your decision? What are the ethics of the situation as you see them?

A New Client

The well-known professional baseball player Andre Baller is in need of our firm’s help to save his career. Mr. Baller has been suspected of having used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs; however, he is not being charged at this time. By accepting Mr. Baller as our client, we will create a win-win situation for both Mr. Baller and our firm. We will help recreate a positive image for him while also bringing publicity to our firm for our representation of this well-known player.

Since being suspected, Mr. Baller has not been able to live a normal life. He has been ridiculed on social media, and paparazzi follows him everywhere making accusations and trying to press him into admitting why he took the substances. His family is being taunted and ridiculed as well. Our trade has six Public Relations Society of America (PSRA) values; honesty, fairness, advocacy, loyalty, expertise, independence and transparency (Seitel, 2015). It is our duty to show fairness to Mr. Baller and represent him because he has not been charged and is innocent until proven guilty. By sharing positive stories of Mr. Baller’s life with the public, we will show the public that Mr. Baller is truly a

The Mass Media’s Role in Racial Profiling

Today in the year 2015, by watching both local and network news it is clear that racial profiling is still a major issue. When you watch your local news, or read the news online one can recall seeing or reading about multiple reports of crime, drug-use, vandalism, violence and terrorism committed by African Americans or those of Muslim descent. The news is becoming the place to look to find negative information concerning minorities. Rarely are there are any positive reports of the actions minorities are involved in. The mass media plays a crucial role in racial profiling within our local and global communities by falsely targeting African Americans and Arabs for crimes they have not and would not commit. The mass media must begin to objectively report news showing both sides of the stories and also begin to report the positive contributions African Americans and those of Arab descent make to society.

People depend on their local news communications and media to report news occurring in their areas and around the world. It is important to be aware that mass media is currently contributing to the worldwide growth of racial profiling; therefore, we cannot always take what we read and watch on our local news to be factual without conducting our own thorough research. By reporting just one side of the story, the media is shaping the minds of the communities and creating false images of what a minority from African American or Muslim descent is. This one sided view is causing viewers to becoming narrow minded and subconsciously take part in racial profiling, all due to fear.

Email Etiquette

Email is the form of communication that has commonly replaced traditional mail. Many today use it to pay bills, receive the flyers and specials to their favorite stores, communicate with friends and family members who live far away, and most common on a day-to-day basis – communicate professionally for business and work purposes. The convenience of sending short text messages via smart-phones has played a part in why many people forgetting to use email etiquette. Although text messaging is the fastest, most convenient way to communicate today, there are times when communicating via email is more appropriate.

Communication Portfolio

Communication is the activity of exchanging a message between two individuals, the sender and the recipient. We all engage in communication on a daily basis. Although communicating with others is assumed to be natural, there are many times when communication breakdowns occur. As a result, thoughts and feelings are not conveyed successfully. There are different forms of communication; three of the most common types most of us will exchange through are Interpersonal, Group and Organizational Communications. Although, many will engage in these communication forms, many do not understand their significance. 

Interpersonal communication is generally known as face-to-face communication between two people (Trenholm, 2011). As technology has evolved, it is possible to engage in interpersonal communication through other means. For example, individuals are now able to interact by chatting or emailing each other through online dating websites until they are comfortable meeting face to face. With the video conference technology option, they are also able to meet face to face without actually being in the same room. Interpersonal (face-to face) communication enables people to interact using visual and verbal clues to understand the information being shared (Mishra, 2014).

What is Technical Communication?

According to STC Executive Director Susan Burton, technical writing includes just writing and layout and assumes your only way to communicate is in written word (Burton, 2007). The STC office’s job description for technical communicators goes on to include multimedia knowledge, strong communication skills with technical expertise, and the use of visual and/or audio capabilities to educate users.

My own personal definitions of technical communications and technical writing are:

• Technical communications - The translation of specialized information for specific audiences sharing though various mediums to help the target audience better understand a process or subject in a way that will be understandable, useful and engaging. 
• Technical writing - writing that is straight forward and process oriented containing no personal thoughts or feelings. 

Technical writing is limited to words providing instruction or describing a process while technical communications is broader including writing, multimedia, editing, design, and takes the end user into account. Technical communication can also involve research, the promotion of ideas/solutions and involvement of others in order to help them understand information and gain access to the necessary tools they need to execute a job, a function, a process or solve an issue.

Organizational Strategies When Shopping for a Laptop

Shopping for a laptop can be both overwhelming and stressful when you are not knowledgeable about the components that makeup a laptop because you will find that there are many different options to choose from. Laptops are be classified into different categories that sever different needs. Below are some of the most common categories:

1. Every day computing or light use – This type of laptop would be a good fit for someone who will use it for simple tasks such as checking email, social networking, paying bills online or just surfing the web.
2. Entertainment and or gaming – This type of laptop normally will have a larger screen and powerful processor which are a good fit for those who desire to watch movies, play games online and for editing photos or videos.
3. Lightweight or Ultrathin – This type of laptop is ideal for those who travel often such as students or those traveling for business.
4. Business or high performance laptops – This type of laptop has top of the line processors to allow for a large amount of memory and storage space to house software and also provide the user with excellent power, while being durable and maintaining reliable connectivity.

Laptop categories can be broken down further by partitioning them in order to compare the features

Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively

Conflict is commonly perceived to be a challenge that is negative. Delivering bad news to an employee regarding negative performance is likely one of the worst parts of being a manager. No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, but when a company’s productivity is decreasing due to performance addressing the conflict early on is crucial. Organizations are made of individuals from different cultural backgrounds and leaders must be able to delivery bad news tactfully and effectively. If I were the department manager of a mid-sized company providing support services and I had to address an employee’s poor performance, I would approach the conflict from a positive perspective by using direct honesty and dignity. Conflicts can be an opportunity for growth. And as a good manager I will approach the conflict of my employee’s bad performance as an opportunity to use the win-win conflict approach by confronting the issue and working with my employee to solve it.

Being a manager can be challenging at times; however, handling conflict must be approached from a positive perspective and with an open mind. In order to approach my employee, I would send the employee a meeting invitation on Outlook using a subject line of “Process Improvement” or “Performance Improvement”.  By using a direct subject line for the meeting topic my employee will not be surprised and will know up front that I need to discuss improvements I would like to see happen. Being direct will show my employee that I respect both their time and my own and show courage.  This will display that I am a leader who can approach a difficult topic directly.

Skills Acquired at Ashford

Enrolling at Ashford University has been one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself. I have developed many new skills and also feel as though I have embarked on a new journey of self-discovery and personal growth. I have found being able to engage in conversation with people from all over the United States and other parts of the world to be both interesting and insightful. I have learned that I have things in common with others from across the globe despite us having different cultural backgrounds and being from different generations.

Here at Ashford, I have learned how to conduct thorough research and navigate through an online library with different databases. I have also learned how to differentiate between scholarly, primary and secondary sources. Before my enrollment at Ashford, I understood what plagiarism was but I was not aware how important it was to cite references on a reference page and to use in-text citations for quotations and paraphrased opinions taken from others. In addition to properly citing information taken from other sources, I also learned that when we support our arguments with scholarly sources we strengthen our arguments. Scholarly sources analyze information based on studies and are not biased. They also include citations for all information stated in the source that further substantiates the validity of the information.

Media Technology

There are many different forms of communication technology used across the world today. As technology advances, methods of communications will too. Communication channels disseminate information such as news, entertainment, data, messages and educational information across mediums such as print, television, telephone and most popular today social media. Technology-mediated communications allow for information and messages to be shared quickly and efficiently enabling interaction and activities from anywhere in the world (Kreps, 2011).

Print Media

Print media includes books, newspapers, magazines, journals and community newsletters. Newspapers are one of the oldest forms of print media. The first daily newspaper published in America was called Daily Courant (Bellis, n.d) and began in 1702.

In today’s modern world many of us are glued to our mobile devices but unlike in America, there are still areas of the world that still rely on print media. India has experienced a drastic growth in their newspaper industry. There is a circulation of more than 82,000 newspapers combined currently contributing to India’s total circulation of 110 million daily (Dawson, 2016). This is because around 80% of their population is still lacking basic internet access. Although print media has declined over the decades, newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times often times are where people hear about news first. Most of the daily newspapers readers tend to be politically active. The most popular circulating magazine is AARP The Magazine which caters to those age 50 and above while many of the other popular magazines are catered to woman who enjoy reading magazines other top circulated magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan to name a few (Lulofs, 2014).