Blog #1 - Vanessa Ventresco

Are we hearing or just listening?

The sentence that stood out to me was from the textbook, Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction (2015), written by John T. Warren and Deanna L. Fassett in chapter four.

“If listening is a stance, then we can begin to move away from thinking of listening exclusively in terms of the physiological act of hearing and move toward thinking of listening as a way of fully engaging with others” (pg. 65).

When I read this sentence, it really put things into perspective. We are listening, but not hearing. When you are walking to class, maybe you are listening to music or listening to people talk as they walk past you. There is always some sort of background noise. But to fully engage with someone while listening is something else.

For example, you and your friend decided to go get coffee at a coffee shop downtown, to get “caught up.” You go mid-morning, so it is a busy time. There are a lot of background noise, people talking, and coffee machines working, people dropping dishes off into the bin. It is hard to focus on what your friend is talking about. Yet, you think you are still listening. But you find yourself asking questions for your friend to clarify something or to repeat something or you interrupt to say something that happened to you. But if we all took the time to focus on what the friend is saying and actively engage in the conversation, you are going to enjoy the conversation and time you spent with your friend.

Some people may argue that they are very good at actively listening and engaging with others. They may claim that when they are listening to a friend or co-work vent, they will tell them their experience with the situation or tell them what they should do. While that is engaging in the conversation, you are not quite listening to the person. Linda Adams from Gordon Training International says, “You active listen by consciously suspending your own agenda, ideas, and judgments and putting yourself in other’s shoes” (2016). When you are listening to someone and you responded with a “you sound upset” or “it is great to hear you are happy,” you are actively listening and focusing on that one person and the topic. Have you ever wanted someone to just listen? That is what Linda was talking about. We all need someone to just listen and you can be that someone to a friend who needs it.  

http://www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/just-because-youre-hearing-doesnt-mean-youre-listening/

Kristin J. Soria— The Most Important Sentence

In Reading Chapter 3, Public Advocacy: Commitments and Responsibility, Compassionate Critical Listening helps the readers dig deeper in some of the ways we might not be receiving the full message from our presenters. Making the readers ponder on the ways they make connections with either the presenter or the topic that is being discussed. When reading a few of the listed questions that are asked for the readers to reflect upon, I was struct with the most interest in: “If you inventory how you’re feeling, are you tired, sick/injured, unhappy, or hungry? How does each of these feelings affect your listening skills?” (Warren and Fassett, 51) When thinking about this question, I referred back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with motivating everyone’s behavior. When your needs are not being fulfilled from the presenter, your less likely to engage within the attempt of persuasion. To receive the full intake of the material that’s being presented, you must be able to either push aside those unmet needs or have them be fulfilled.

Personally, this made me think back to pretty much anytime I sit down for a lecture, a presentation, or even listening to friends. If I am feeling hungry and the discussion isn’t holding my attention, I become more aware of my need of hunger. When I am stressed about certain issues that need my full attention, I become more oblivious to other information that is trying to connect with me. When I reflected upon this question, I immediately thought, “Yep, that is one of my biggest weaknesses as a listener!” Continuing reading Chapter 3’s section on Compassionate Critical Listening, it gives a great thought to consider when trying to change your listening weaknesses into strengths. “One way we can teach ourselves to refocus is to be empathic, to consider what the speaker is thinking and feeling— in general, about the course, and about her or his topic… It helps, as listeners, if we consider our own ethical relationship, our responsibility, to that speaker.” (Warren and Fassett, 52) Rather than trying to figure out the dialogue, and details of the topic, putting my focus more on how the presenter is feeling is a great distraction and fulfilling my needs in refocusing my attention to the topic. This can then allow my engagement with the topic and presenter to become more of a connecting relationship, rather than just a one-way message.

Overall, becoming aware and reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses as a listener is extremely important to discover. This can truly enlighten the way we think, interact, and create our overall opinions on topics of discussion. Understanding the type of listener, you are, can help you change from being a good listener to an engaged listener.

January Blog Post-Zach Haney

“If we strive for dialogic engagement in our listening, our opportunities for learning increase, and, by listening to learn, we can began to enact change in the world and in our relationships with others.”

            In this sentence from the Chris McRae reading Compassionate Critical Listening, it explains that listening is a meaning-making process.  It requires one to be open minded and receptive to others and their differences in beliefs, values and perspectives.  It also requires awareness of your position as a listener in the world and creates an awareness of others positions and differences. Listening is an ongoing process that can create change in our relationships and the world we live in. 

 According to the Harvard Business Review, (https://hbr.org/1957/09/listening-to-people), research studies and now business leaders are finding their effectiveness doesn’t depend so much on what they say as on their ability to listen.  Some executives reported up to 80% of their work depends on listening to someone or someone listening to them.  

In addition, there is an accountability between speech and silence as explained by the other class reading “Between Speech and Silence”, by Ann Russo, that explains active listening is really important to relationships and ultimately being heard.  It shows an openness to learn which allows for ideas and actions to be transformed.  It can sometimes be uncomfortable and create a feeling on unimportance, but it creates an opportunity to learn.  Listening is powerful!

Most Important Sentence: January Post

The concept which I was very intrigued by in the book and in class was the idea of listening. On page 65 of the textbook, the authors explain, "if listening is a stance, then we can begin to move away from thinking of listening exclusively in terms of the physiological act of hearing and move toward thinking of listening as a way of fully engaging with others" (Warren and Fassett, 65). To me, this means listening is so much more than just hearing. Hearing is just the sounds your ears are picking up, where as listening requires action and diving into another person's dialogue and trying to understand another person's words to try to make a connection with them.

I took a class on listening last semester and it never fails to amaze me just how little we notice that we are listening and not actually retaining what we have heard. Listening is such a crucial and important portion of our lives; in words lies the key to connection and understanding. In this TedTalk that I really enjoy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saXfavo1OQo, and if you have the time you should take a look, William Ury says listening is, "absolutely necessary, but often overlooked." He goes in to talk about how in negotiations you have to be willing to listen in order to connect and come to a mutual consensus. What we sometimes tend to forget is in order to be heard, we have to be willing to fully engage and listen to others.

Listening is so important because without it how do we expect to ever create genuine and authentic connections with others and be able to come to an agreement? Think of all of the different things we can learn if we are willing to stop talking for a short period, and just listen. If we focus on actively participating in other people's words and ideas we could come across a huge breakthrough!

The Most IMportant Sentence

De’Andre Pierce                                                                                                   January Blog Post

The part of the book that I chose to do my blog on was the compassionate critical listening section. Last year I took COMM 130, in which the whole close was based on Listening: how do we define listening, types of listening, how to be good at listening. So when reading this section there was a lot that I could relate to you solely off the class that I took last year as well as my own personal experiences. I think one part of the book that stands out to me is when it talks about how we need to seek, find, and fix the problems that may affect our hearing. “One of the most important steps we can take, as listeners, is first to recognize the conditions that affect our ability to listen” (Pg. 51). I believe this is huge because it happens so often when we are trying to engage and listen in a conversation but we have a hard time staying focused for a long time and getting distracted easily. I know this happens to everybody in class when they are in lecture and zone out for about 5 minutes and don’t even know it until they snap back to reality and have no clue what the teacher is talking about. I listed an article at the end of the page that helps expands on this problem as well as other problems students deal with while in the classroom. So much of our life is about our ability to listen and to be able to comprehend what our teacher, parents, or job is trying to tell us and if we can’t make anything out of it, people are going to have a hard time trying to put together what it is that they are needed to do. When this happens they are often slowed down and can’t fulfill their jobs to their best and are left behind and in the real world they get fired from their jobs. This may seem like I’m exaggerating but think about how many lives could be seriously impacted from something like this. If you are a firefighter and you are told to get a 30 foot ladder but only get a 25 foot ladder, how can you save people from an apartment fire? The ability to listen is a major key in our lives and is something that I believe should be taught at all levels.

https://www.usingenglish.com/articles/why-your-students-have-problems-with-listening-comprehension.html

The Most Important Sentence

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nwDtuFKgXZR0pTnHouCevux_bkeFK_QZIcLfTMIMqlA/edit

January Blog Post - Tyson Maeva

“I continue to explore ways to speak out while simultaneously implicating, rather than distancing, myself in the process. In other words, I am learning to speak not as an ‘authority,’ but as a learner, and to speak with humility as someone also implicated in the dynamics that I am simultaneously trying to undermine” (Russo 47).

I’m sure that many of us have been in a situation where you thought you were doing the right thing for someone, but then having everything blow up in your face when you realize that this individual (or group) did not want your help. Being an athlete that has always tried to help the new guys learn how things are done on the team, I never really took into consideration who they were or what kind of background they came from before joining the team. During my Junior year of high school, finally being an upperclassmen and having some type of authority on the team was something I didn’t know how to use at first. I thought that I would be able to tell the underclassmen how things are done and expect them to follow what I had to say. Little did I know, I became that guy on the team who thought he knew it all and was eventually brushed off. While I was trying to help, the manner in which I tried put a separation between myself and the rest of the team. After realizing who I had become, I took a step back to think about what I was doing and what I needed to do to become a better teammate. I put myself in their shoes and thought that I would hate the guy that tried to tell me what to do without actually doing it myself. From then on, trying to not be so much of the “authority” figure I was but becoming someone that had to go through the same trials as my teammates created that leader role that I was striving for. Later on in my life, I came across a TedTalk that talked about leadership. Bob Davids, the speaker, gave an example about how leadership worked for Dwight Eisenhower during WWII. Eisenhower’s example of how a chain would react when being pushed versus pulled is something that I thought tied into Russo’s statement. While you might know what is best for others, you don’t know for certain what will happen if you were to push this group of people towards a goal, however if you were to become involved and pull them along with you towards that goal, you know exactly what will happen. As seen through Russo and Eisenhower, while you might have the best intentions to help others, that manner in which you do so will determine whether you actually help them or not.

TedTalk by Bob Davids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQrPVmcgJJk

Listening and Advocacy

     "I worked for an Italian NGO, working with African countries, setting-up technical projects.  And every single project we worked on, failed.  Not because we Italians did not know what we were doing, we are good people and wanted to do good work.  But we failed because we did not listen to the local people and do what they wanted or needed."
                                                                                       -Ernesto Sirolli (TEDtalk, Nov, 2012)

     This is a terrible trap to get caught-up in, and unfortunately, it is a very easy trap to fall into.  I myself, have been snared by the idea that I knew what was best for someone else.  Someone that I deeply wanted to help, but failed to take their perspective into account.  Now, I find myself speaking with, and working with, at-risk populations that are now homeless, and I must stop myself, take a moment and listen to what they want and/or need.  This is not an easy task, as after all, I have the know-how, the resources and the expertise to get the job done.  Right?  Wrong.  Sure, I might have years of experience planning communities, designing homes or even speaking to funders to get the resources that we need to do the job.  However, if the persons that I am trying to help don't buy-into the idea, then they won't see it through to the end and all of my efforts will be for nothing.  I must listen to them.  Really listen.  Get to know their stories, understand their lives and where they are coming from to truly know how to approach their specific issue or issues, and get them to buy-into the solution.  Only then can I ever hope to create the kind of permanent change that we all want for those we wish to help.

January Blog Post- Emily Tenorio

Pg. 50. "We have also all had the experience of listening to someone go on and on about something about which we couldn't care less. There are many listening situations where we might check out or harden ourselves or give someone too much slack situations where we would benefit from engaging in compassionate critical listening. "

It goes to show that we need to listen in order to hear what the other person is trying to say. We as humans tend to always over talk or cut off the other person in a conversation. In order to know what the other person is trying to say we need to stop and listen before speaking.
We as students need to engage in compassionate critical listening to our professors in order to understand the material that they are trying to teach. Hearing what the teachers are trying to teach us is a form of purely biological. Listening is what we comprehend what the other person is trying to say.

January Blog Post

Page 65... "To illustrate the way we might take on the stance of critical compassionate listeners, the idea of modes of listening can help us consider the ways context, personal experience, and cultural expectations might shape the way we engage as listeners."

It goes on to explore the areas of musical listening that, "different musical genres invite us to listen in different ways and that, as listeners, we can work to develop different modes of listening for different musical styles, situations, or contexts."

Certain music we listen to can invite us to listen to different parts of it, like the vocal capabilities, the message, the rhythm of the music. As we learn to listen to different parts of the music it can shape how we listen outside of the music as well. It transfers into the art of listening to, maybe, a friend better, you have practiced some of the necessary skills needed to engage with that friend. So if my friend was a sad song, I would stop to listen to the words better than if it was a happy song. If my friend was the happy song I wouldn't be listening to the words I would be listening to the rhythm, which would be more likely to be upbeat.

Culture influences how we listen, different situations call of different types of listening. I grew up listening to piano music and instrumental music because my family was a part of an orchestra. I like to listen to wordless music when I study, for one to block out the noise of my angry downstairs neighbors, and two I can better focus on the words in my head than the words of the music. But to someone who did not grow up listening to that and instead listened to heavy metal, they have a better time understanding the meaning of the message rather than the feel of it like I do.

Isiah Moore January Blog Post

In the Roland Barthes reading, there is a section of the reading named "The Great Family of Man" which goes into great depth taking scripted writings from the bible. The article speaks of great wisdom, one concept that caught my attention was "The Earth is a Mother who never dies, Eat bread and salt and speak the truth." We must celebrate life and learn from mistakes to keep moving forward in society. This relates to everyday life to be healthy and keep treating our Earth with respect, treat Earth as a women.

Murmur Project Tait Larson II

https://youtu.be/gJBjxjbSLPY

Murmur Eagle Ridge Loop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0UCCqLVBP4
Sam Anderson Spring semester 2018

Boise Murmur Project

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6s7FZjTCk

[Madeline Gresick, Spring, 2018]

This video is a part of the Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project, a required assignment of Dr. Christina L. Ivey's COMM 160: Communication and Culture course at Boise State University.

The Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project seeks to collect small narratives and pictures in and about Boise and the surrounding Treasure Valley area.

The Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur project was inspired by [murmur], a "documentary oral history project" that began in Toronto's Kensington Market in 2003. The project "records stories and memories told about specific geographical locations" in order to preserve lesser-known histories of the area. The project has since grown to many locations around the globe.

I do not claim to own [murmur], nor is this project or video monetized; it is strictly for educational purposes.

Please visit [murmur]'s website for more details: http://murmurtoronto.ca/

Also, visit the COMM 160: Communication and Culture course's blog for more links to Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project videos: http://commandcultureatbsu.blogspot.com/

Boise Murmur Project-Drew Kaminski

https://youtu.be/J67bNUXF9pA

Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project - Omar Farfan

https://youtu.be/cCPQFoFMRSE

Akilian Butler Barthes reading

Akilian Butler

In the Roland Barthes reading, the text about the enemy is something that stuck with me throughout the reading. The enemy is an interesting character in any story, and can play many roles. What I mean by playing many roles is showing their actions in other ways other than showing the traditional jealous trait. The enemy will always be there in the end to envy the status of any character. The enemy can come in any form, shape or size. An enemy can come in the image of your best friend. That's the scary part of an enemy, you never know where they are or when you will discover who they are.

This statement made me think of the phrase, “ Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer”. Keep the enemy in sight in order to watch their every move for your sake.the enemy will always be there to watch your every move, despite the circumstances. That is the most scariest thing of one, you never know where they are watching from or if they are in your presence. Trust is hard to come by and putting it into someone who you really are not sure of can be a hazard to you and the things you have in your future.

In every character’s story there is someone who is an enemy, and one thing about them is there really isn't anything that can push them away surly. An enemy will do just about anything for satisfactory on their end of the stick. In Barthes article, reads the enemy still remains, and this is something that we today should always keep in mind. There is always someone watching and wanting you to be defeated, and this should only be motivated to pursue everything you want to be in life and be alert for things that are not genuinely for you.  

Tyler Mardesich - Murmur Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_m6L2_wug

January Blog Post

January Blog

Between Speech and Silence: Reflection on Accountability By: Ann Russo

 “I believe strongly that white people need to step up and speak out in the face of injustices, and yet do so without making ourselves the center of power and knowledge.” (pg.47)

            When reading over the Russo reading, I felt that it was extremely relevant to the challenges that we are facing as a society today. Russo mentions in the beginning of the reading that she has been a part of multiple movements, including the feminist movement. She thought that all her years of service and knowledge about socialist, radical, and lesbian feminist gave her the authority to speak out about these issues. Looking more into it, Russo realized that it was her race, class, able-bodied, and citizenship privileges that gave her the authority and comfortability to speak out about these issues. I appreciate Russo’s realization of how her white middle class upbringing plays a part when she is an advocator for these issues.

            Even though Russo realized the perception of authority she holds, others have yet to comprehend why their voice has authority over others. I see this a lot within mass media, specifically with social media like Twitter or Facebook. I am a frequent user of Twitter and almost every day I see some type of opinion about a current issue. I also notice majority of voices heard are not based on education of the subject but based on class, race, or able-bodied. For someone who is continually on social media, it is frustrating to see the people who have the authority of speaking out are potentially uneducated on the subject, and are jumping to conclusions based on bias.

            When analyzing Russo thought process a little closer I started to notice that others use their own authority to speak out about issues. Example of this is when politicians discuss issues revolving around women but the politicians debating the issue are a majority of old white men. Because these politicians have worked hard for their jobs and are well educated within political science, they then have the perceived authority to discuss issues on this subject matter even if they are uneducated on the issue and have no personal reference.

            It seems that as a society we are attempting to be culturally diverse and educated on all matters so we are politically correct. Where we are lacking is the knowledge and awareness of how our own words are perceived based on your culture. We are unaware of how our cultural differences affect how we our perceived specifically in day to day conversation. An example of this is how a normal conversation with your co-workers can be influenced and dictated by the racial, and class background of the parties. We as a society need to be culturally aware of others but specially of our own culture. This is what Russo mentions at the end of her reading; when you are aware of how you are perceived, it can assist you in being culturally aware.

            I quoted this sentence from the Russo readings because it acknowledges who has the authority in the public eye, and how we can fix that. As a white middle-class women, I found this as a profound sentence, and how I can make a difference without using my “authority”. Russo is a great example on how we can still speak up on injustices without being the center of power.

Boise Murmur Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhl1mxxzDM0

Boise Murmur Project Carly Snider

CARLY SNIDER, SPRING, SOPHOMORE 2018 

This video is a part of the Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project, a required assignment of Dr. Christina L. Ivey's COMM 160: Communication and Culture course at Boise State University.

The Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project seeks to collect small narratives and pictures in and about Boise and the surrounding Treasure Valley area.

The Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur project was inspired by [murmur], a "documentary oral history project" that began in Toronto's Kensington Market in 2003. The project "records stories and memories told about specific geographical locations" in order to preserve lesser-known histories of the area. The project has since grown to many locations around the globe.

I do not claim to own [murmur], nor is this project or video monetized; it is strictly for educational purposes.

Please visit [murmur]'s website for more details: http://murmurtoronto.ca/

Also, visit the COMM 160: Communication and Culture course's blog for more links to Boise/Treasure Valley Murmur Project videos: http://commandcultureatbsu.blogspot.com/

Boise Murmur Project

https://youtu.be/sGV0fvAtwvc

Marques Evans

Communications 160

Chapter 4 Compassionate Listening  

“compassionate listening”  is very important when it comes to communication . If you can not actually listen when communicating with another person then only one person is actually doing the communicating.  I really like how compassionate listening isn’t just listening with your ears, it is also body language . compassionate listening is good body language. Good body language tells the other person that you are engaged  in the conversation and that you could advocate for what they are saying if need me.   A quote that stood out to me from  Don Ihde,  “ I do not merely  hear with my ears , I hear with my whole body, my ears are at best the focal organs of hearing”  (Pg. 67).  That quote really speaks to me because I feel that the ears may be the most  important way of listening, but they aren’t the only way of listening.  When  communicating with someone listening  to them and hearing them are two different things . When listening    to someone you are understanding the message they are communicating to you. When you just hear someone, you aren’t really comprehending the message is. To me those are the two mane differences between the two.  A quote I got from Livestrong.com says “ you can hear someone speak without listening to the words” (The Difference Between Hearing & Listening Skills , K. Gaskell).  That quote pretty much sums up everything I have been saying about hearing and Listening .