COMM 490 Communication, Culture & Society

Assignment 8

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Purpose

To increase your awareness of the significance of the meaning that his shared through nonverbal intercultural communication.

Directions

For this assignment, you are asked to view a program that presents the opportunity to observe intercultural communication. You will need to have access to a television that receives broadcast programs (and, if you have scheduling conflicts, to a VCR to record the program for viewing at another time).

Go to the CourseInfo Web site and look for the Announcement about which program to watch. Then arrange to view the program (or tape it for viewing at a different time).

While you are watching the program, select a scene involving intercultural communication to analyze. Make the following notes during and after the sequence:

1. topic of conversation

2. feelings of the those interacting

3. relationship of the those interacting

4. length of their relationship, and

5. any other conclusions you can draw about them while viewing.

During or after the program, return to the CourseInfo site and click on Communication. Select the Discussion Board, and choose the forum for Nonverbal Communication.

Spend 30 minutes contributing to the discussion of the program, by responding to existing threads or creating a new thread with your comments. Bring the concepts from class – such as emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, and adapters; the uses of personal space; or the significance of touch – into the discussion.

You are not required to print your responses because your participation will be recorded on line. There is no paper due.

Outcome

In the next class meeting, come prepared to report on the most interesting or unusual things you learned about nonverbal communication in an intercultural interaction on television.