Touro Communication Club Notes #61

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This Week!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 –

2 pm – Room 223 - Midtown

The Club Writes a Letter to President Obama

We will spend the session translating our ideas into a coherent document which we will send to the new President. All suggestions are welcome. In a very small way we are taking the abstractions of our opinions and converting them into an action proposal. We will experiment with walking our talk.

Dear Communicators

Sometimes I feel like a little child rediscovering what I thought I already knew. This past week was no exception. As you might have guessed I read the New York Times daily and watch CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, Channel 13 plus C-SPAN on occasion.

I’ve been watching C-SPAN-2 this week when I could because on the Congressional discussion on the bailout/stimulus package. This experience drove home what I already knew – reality is different from the media’s portrayal of reality. The media’s “sound bite” does not often represent what really goes on. As the phrase goes, “The map is not the territory.”

If I believed what I read in the NYT and saw of TV, I wouldn’t recognize what C-SPAN recorded in the Senate deliberations on the stimulus bill. Compared to C-SPAN’s single camera on a Senate speaker, here are some observations:

• The media greatly edits what happens (not surprising.) But it is WHAT it edits that is important.
• The media selects some speakers, often the best known speakers, to represent reality.
• The media eliminates any mention of opposition to the bill, or minimizes it so drastically that no one will notice the arguments of the opposition.
• The media does not capture the tension and the hospitality (genuine and feigned) of the Senators’ interchange.
• The media often presents as “done-deals” the Senate deliberations still in flux.
• The media overlooks the extreme formality of parliamentary procedure which makes the deliberation overly slow for the average viewer.
• The media omits most of the rhetorical nuances of the Senators. For example, a Republican called the stimulus bill as big as the Titanic waiting to sink while the passengers were rearranging the deck chairs. Another Republican made parallel references to Homer’s Odyssey where Ulysses is caught between the monsters of Scylla and Charibdus.
• The media presents a partial picture which many people assume is the whole picture.

Although boring and repetitive at times, C-SPAN is more calming than the hype of the media on events that it covers. What’s communication lesson to be learned? Get your information from a variety of sources, especially when it comes to gossip and political news.

UPCOMING CONVERSATIONS:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 –

Theatre Workshop III – Improvisation Technique

We continue to explore the basics of acting – breathing, sense memory, emotional recall as foundations for intensifying our notions of characterization. No doubt, this will be another frustrating hors d’oeuvre in the smorgasbord of valuable life skills of actor training.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

“Handling Conflict”

This topic came out of our lively conversation on Gender Communication. Conflict seems to be a frequent occurrence in everyone’s life. We’ll talk about when conflict occurs, how to mediate conflict and, most importantly, how to anticipate and prevent conflict. Obviously some conflicts are unavoidable – and healthy, but we’ll try to focus on those that we can address productively.

What happened on Wednesday. February 4, 2009

Discussion: Gender Communication”

Richard Green shared a handout he found on the Internet, claiming major differences in male and female communication. As we were beginning, Dean Stanley Boylan, Vice-President of Undergraduate Education, among other duties, strolled by, noticed the sign outside the room and peaked in. He took the handout, smiled and was on his way.

In addition to Richard, Lorinda Moore, James Millner, Markus Vyandorf, Carlisle Yearwood, Anna Indelicato, Geovanny Leon, Charles Mason, Jose Dunker, Egypt Allen and Hal Wicke welcomed Henry Prenord to the session.

Hal opened the discussion with the characterization by Dr.Louann Brizentine, author of "The Female Brain,” that women have an eight-land highway for a brain while men have a single, solitary, wandering country road.” No one seemed particularly upset by the statement.

The discussion began with each person stating whether the communication styles differed between men and women. Most everyone agreed there were differences but no single communication trait between the sexes emerged. Everyone had a different idea.

One suggested that women were more open minded than men. Another offered that men “report” while women seek “rapport.” A third commented that women operate in cliques whereas men seem to operate as loners.

One person raised the question of whether lesbians, gays and trans-sexuals are included in this discussion of heterosexual communication. She felt they were excluded from many conversations because of sexual preference. There was clear level of discomfort in the group as individuals suddenly became aware of a controversial issue and were not sure how to address it.

A reference was made to what the Bible said about men and women. Hal interjected that our discussions must remain “secular’ minimizing any reference to individual belief systems. When we have a “secular” discussion, we are on equal ground. When someone introduces a belief system as the higher authority, the discussion focuses on whether we agree with that belief system. Separating the two is an important part of our work in Communication. However, if we are talking about a topic within a particular belief system to which the group subscribes, then we remain on equal ground. To have an interesting and equitable discussion, we must have a level playing field.

The discomfort was not resolved in the discussion, but clearly it needed much more time for people to think about it. Hal suggested that for the time being we could pause and “agree to disagree.” The group seemed to relax at this point, -– for a moment.

Then Hal raised the question of nature vs. nurture between the sexes. Many people participated with many differing points of view. This subject is like the endless discussion of which came first – the chicken or the egg? Although not clear, there was some agreement that nature precedes nurture in influencing behavior.

The discussion moved to the question of whether homosexuality was clear at birth or whether it was acquired through socialization. The temperature of the exchange rose perceptively without a clear resolution. Again, this is a topic to be explored more fully in the future.

Other topics that were touched on were the number of women (vs. men) at Touro, how the arts prefigure politics, how the novels of Jane Austen capture specific male and female stereotypes. Since there was significant tension in the discussion, someone suggested that we examine how we can h andle conflict. That topic has been scheduled.

In closing, Hal asked one of Lorinda’s questions, “What did you learn from this discussion?” Many responses were forthcoming;

• “These discussions are necessary,”
• “They teach listening.”
• “They are frustrating because we focus on so many topics.”
• “There is too much stereotypical thinking going on.”
• “We need more practice in learning how to disagree without being disagreeable.”

Let’s not forget last week’s IDEA: Carlisle Yearwood suggested we develop a 3x4 index card with basic Touro information on it. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

As always, these sessions are open for everyone to attend. Bring a friend and join the excitement. See you next time.

Hal Wicke