August Blog Post

“Sometimes sounds are taken for granted (like the audible signal at the crosswalk), and sometimes they are hard to ignore (like the ambulance roaring down the street).”

 I think that this quote from the chapter four reading really resonates with not only my life, but most others as well. Small sounds that can easily be overlooked, I think most people take for granted. I know that before our readings and this chapter especially, I didn’t take into consideration all the things that I could be missing because I wasn’t really listening.

An example of hearing vs. listening that I came across is in the movie The Emperor’s New Groove. The Emperor Kuzco has a trusted advisor, Yzma. During the movie he makes it known that she is the advisor and not the Emperor. There is a specific scene where he actually fires Yzma for trying to run the country behind his back. When Kuzco sees that she has been doing his job and was sitting in the Emperor’s, all-mighty chair, he decides to confront her about doing his job. She starts to make excuses for herself saying that she was only dealing with meaningless peasant matters, and then all of a sudden Kuzco wasn’t ‘listening’ to what she had to say, rather focusing on her facial features, and the piece of lettuce stuck in her teeth. He then decides to fire her and make his point known that she was being let go.

I think this is just a small example of what hearing vs. listening really is. It happens in our everyday lives and we don’t take much consideration towards it. I think now that doing our readings on listening and the lectures that I can say that I am attempting to make a change in my life on my listening skills and not just hear someone for the sake of hearing someone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLA28umt9iw

The link to the scene in Emperors New Groove.

Hearing vs. Listening

Something that caught my eyes from chapter 4 in Communication: A Critical/ Cultural Introduction was, "we live in and are surrounded by sounds" (pg 63).  After reading further we came to the understanding that hearing and listening are two different things.  When we hear a noise we are probably not going to be able to identify it soon after it happens, but when we listen to a sound it will have a certain meaning to us and this will cause us to remember.

This reading made me realize how much of the my daily life I am not paying attention to.  Most days I will be wearing headphones around my apartment or on my way to class and this closes me off to parts of my life.  This is stoping me from hearing and listening to the things that surround me.  After the reading I have learned how this is not helping me in any way.  By blocking off sounds with my headphones I am losing my ability to know how to properly listen.

One thing that can benefit people's listening skills is to sit in silence for a few minutes everyday.  By doing this we are learning how to listen again.  We a making are ears more sensitive to sounds that surround us.

I found this chapter in the book to be very important because listening is not one of my strongest skills and it made me more aware of ways I can listen instead of just hear.

August Blog Post

“One of the simplest, most profound, and yet consistently difficult practices that disrupts the automatic entitlement to hegemonic speech is active listening.” – Ann Russo

            Early in the Russo reading, she points out that in our culture, speaking up, showing your knowledge of a topic, and making your name standout are all signs of power in leadership roles (Russo). In America, having a voice and being loud is what shows power whereas weakness lies in staying silent. There have been many examples of this in our latest political campaign for the presidency (e.g. Donald Trump’s active Twitter updates). According to CNN, this latest race divided the people of America more than ever before (Agiesta, 2016). I have never been one to address politics because I am completely aware of my lack of knowledge but this election I did try to gather information from both sides to better understand why people were so invested and heated. The more I listened, the more I became aware of how others were so reluctant to listen to anyone of an opposite party or view. I found myself getting caught in multiple arguments, being yelled at for asking someone to acknowledge another point of view. It truly made me realize how our culture in America is extremely proud of talking, and not of listening.

            More recently, Charlottesville, Virginia, was widely spread throughout the news because of the white nationalist rally that was held and yielded violent results. Not many days after that was an interview with the imperial wizard of the North Carolina KKK, Christopher Barker, and a Colombian reporter, Ilia Calderon (Noticias, 2017). I only watched a few minutes (“highlights” rather) of the interview in which Barker, interrupted, interjected, and cut-off Calderon to give his own opinions and beliefs every few seconds. He allowed only a few words from her before he erupted in a tangent about how he was following the word of the bible. It did not take any effort to realize that no matter what any reporter, book, or loved one said to him, he had his stance and it is the only stance he will hold for the rest of his life. He could not even bare to hear three words from someone else, let alone try listening.

Although these two issues are not related, they are evidence of the absence of active listening in our culture. Russo defines active listening as a practice of open-mindedness to allow for change, modification, and transformation to take place. It requires empathy and the willingness to share and learn from others. Throughout the election and throughout this recent rally, power has been exerted through use of words. The hate speeches, the stories, and the slander are all used to divide people against each other. It removes empathy from conversations and turns debates into rants. Perhaps if our culture embraced active listening, fights could move towards resolutions.

Active listening is an important concept to study because it can contribute

humility, empathy, and create a larger knowledge and awareness of issues from different viewpoints. Whereas it is something that our culture lacks and sees as a weakness, it can help to create a better power structure of openness and change. Although speech is especially effective and a great tool of power exertion, active listening can be as well.

References

Agiesta, J. (2016, November 27). CNN/ORC poll: A nation divided, and is it ever. Retrieved from CNN Politics: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/politics/cnn-poll-division-donald-trump/index.html

Noticias, U. (2017, August 21). "People were just proud that finally a white man (Trump) took back the office". Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCAXE_78chM

Russo, A. (n.d.). Between Speech and Silence.

https://youtu.be/suLlnz8F6cs Robert Lewis Murmur Project Comm 160

Compassionate Critical Listening

"I do not merely hear with my ears, I hear with my whole body. My ears are at best the focal organs of hearing." Don Ihde

Listening is something that we are constantly doing in our everyday lives. We are surrounding ourselves with noise and sounds, and we have different types of listening styles to how we interpret what we hear. In the TED talk that we watched in class he spoke about how we are able to develop our listening skills and ways that we can become better listeners. Some of the ways that were talked about in the TED video to become a better listener was to meditate or have moments of silence. In an article by psychology today they gave some other key ideas of ways to become a better listener. One of those ideas is to comprehend what is being said. We also talked about this idea in class and how sometimes when someone is talking to us instead of fully engaging in the conversation we are thinking about what we should say next. The article also mentioned to notice the others body language and changes in tone. Both the article and in class also mentioned how it is important to not interrupt and let the person finish speaking.

One of the biggest distinction that can be made is between hearing and listening. This was mentioned in chapter 4 and immediately made me think of all the times in my life that I do one but not the other. One example would be in class when the instructor is giving important information and I hear it but than go home and don't understand what I need to be doing because I wasn't listening when the instructor was speaking. I also listen a  lot differently when in a classroom compared to when I am at my house with family, because these are two different types of genres. Genres invite specific modes of listening as mentioned in chapter 4.

Dialogic listening is genuine understanding of others. Changing minds.org defines dialogic listening as "seeking to improve upon empathetic and active listening by focusing on the actual communication and seeking of true understanding. Understanding is seen as emergent rather than created. It emerges from a two-way conversation that works to connect both people in an open partnership." In chapter 4 Conquergood mentions four pitfalls in our performance as listeners. These four pitfalls are: custodian's rip-off, enthusiast's infatuation, curator's exhibitionism and skeptic's cop-out. The custodian's rip-off is defined in chapter 4 as being "more interested in how she or he might personally  benefit from engaging with the other." Or only listening to benefit ourselves. The enthusiast's infatuation is defined as "differences of the other are superficially oversimplified or ignored," or hearing what you want to hear. The curator's exhibitionism is defined as "focusing almost exclusively on the difference of others." The last of the for pitfalls of listening is the skeptic's cop-out which is defined as to"refuse to engage in any way with those who are different." Listening is something that is very important in our every day lives and if we focus on improving our critical listening than we will have a better understanding of others.




https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-do-life/201405/how-become-better-listener

http://changingminds.org/techniques/listening/dialogic_listening.htm

Audience awareness

“Elbow suggested it is important for writers to develop a heightened awareness of audience to develop strong, powerful, effective writing.”

I agree that when you start with an idea that you would like to convey to others you need to start by envisioning the audience that you are trying to reach.  It is important to gather all potential ideas and brainstorm. You need to understand your audience. What is the interest of the audience? What is the audience’s belief and cultural background? What is the age group that is being targeted or is there no age limit? These are some of the questions that I as a writer or communicator need to be prepared for.

I want to invite the audience into my world of ideas so that I can present it to them. I want to make sure that I set a proper goal and then I can work towards it. Being prepared prior to presenting to the audience can help with being successful.

Furthermore, it is essential that I am convinced of what I am presenting. I am reflecting the topic in my voice and in my demeanor. My voice is what also reaches the audience. If I interact in a positive way, I am more inclined to convince the audience.

In addition a good speaker engages the audience with the communication and listens. Some of the audience might not understand and agree with the point of view but trying to understand and listening to the audience’s concerns helps to build relationships. It also helps to evaluate critical thinking for a different point of view. Aspects that might have not been considered are suddenly valuable and can influence a perspective. An active problem-solving perspective encourages a stronger connection with the audience that I am trying to reach.

Critical Listening Robert Lewis Comm 160 9/3 Blog post

From the last two readings I read about critics listening and how many people take the smallest thing like that for granted. In the last reading it stated, " Modes of listening  help us start to define and understand what it means to take on the stance of compassionate critical listeners by drawing our attention to the roles context, individual experience, and cultural expectations play in the process and performance of listening." This struck me because just hearing a person out respecting his or her voice can define a relationship. Critical listening plays a huge role in long lasting bonds. Communicating and listening are two things that people see as the most basic things two do, but don't know the true meanings of it. Their are a lot of attributes to being a critical listener. Little did I know before reading the passage is their is a distinct difference from listening and hearing. The text opened my mind to broader ideas of the subject "Critical Listening."