COMM 495: Communications Studies Senior Capstone
Introduction
The present portfolio is a compilation of different works that I completed throughout my studies at UMUC. They illustrate my understanding of the different communication theories and concepts that I learnt in these classes. In the first part of this portfolio, I presented my work samples and briefly explained their background and purpose. In the second part of the portfolio, I reflected upon the manner in which these works added to my body of knowledge and developed my communication, critical thinking, writing and analyzing skills. The final part of the portfolio is a resume. I believe that this portfolio accurately reflects my knowledge in the field of communication and demonstrates the fact that I have the necessary qualities to become a professional in the field.
Work Samples
Section 1
Term:
This essay provided me with the opportunity to demonstrate the abilities I acquired throughout my media law class, which proved to be equally interesting and challenging. The casenote reflects my growing understanding of law issues and of the formal aspects of writing from a legal standpoint. The legal letter that follows also had the role of verifying my ability to interpret ambiguous legal situations in order to come up with my own interpretation of the facts, based on the course readings and additional literature that I consulted. This extensive assignment offered me the opportunity to take advantage of many of the theoretical concepts I learnt throughout the class.
Section 2
Term:
This paper was written for a media and gender class that I found extremely relevant and interesting. The paper discussed different gender development theories, and asked me to provide a critique of these theories. This tested not only my familiarity with the topics covered in this class, but also, my analytical skills. The paper provides an insight into my reasoning skills and offers the opportunity to examine my writing skills as well, which is a feature that all the papers included in this portfolio share. The gender development theory paper enhanced my understanding of the origin of gender roles, and their role in the media, and gave me new tools to examine the media critically.
Section 3
Term:
This assignment asked me to choose a relevant media artifact and examine the way in which gender communication takes place. I chose the move “The Avengers”, because it is based on a comic series. Comics are very closely connected to the American culture, and the predominance of a masculine point of view, and characters made me wonder how men and women communicate in this film, and what this further suggests regarding the comics subculture and the Hollywood industry, both of which drive societal trends. In writing this essay, I applied course concepts that I found most relevant, and I also conducted research in order to find other relevant articles. This essay provided a fascinating opportunity to use my critical thinking skills and to analyze an artifact in detail in order to understand its underlying assumptions and stereotypes.
Reflective Essay
In our globalized world, communication has become a crucial aspect in most business fields, and it is particularly important for professionals for whom face-to-face interaction takes place every day. I chose to study communication because I have been a good communicator since an early age and understand how effective dialogue can eliminate tension and promote good relationships, both personally and effectively. However, my studies at UMUC have made me see that communication is a complex process and a vast domain, that compasses no less than 7 different traditions, each with its specific theoretical approaches and concepts. Among these traditions, I found throughout my studies that the socio-cultural tradition was for me perhaps the most relevant one because it explains how our understanding, meanings, norms and values are negotiated , reinforced and challenged in communication (Craig & Muller, 2007). The interactions that people have with each other allow them to make sense of the world, and this is why the socio-cultural tradition is based on the idea that identities are constructed through social interaction. Therefore, the socio-cultural tradition is a very important body of knowledge in the arsenal of any goo communications professional, because it shows how people acquire different beliefs and respect specific norms and rules depending on the groups they associate with and the meaningful interactions in their lives.
Although the set of works I chosen for this portfolio are very different from each other, each of them demonstrates how meanings are constructed and reconstructed based on people’s desire to belong to one group or another. In the first sample, the question of how people interact with large scale collectivities and social processes (Craig & Miller, 2007) will become even more difficult to answer. In “Interpreting a Work’s Social Value Accurately: Is it Even Possible?”, my task was to analyze a legal case and interpret its larger signification for American legislation and society. In this analysis, I showed that the meaning of a work’s “social value” has evolved in time, and the Court is making efforts to expand this term. However, this is a negotiated endeavor, and it is based upon the society’s evolving concepts of morality. It is significant to note that, regarding this issue, the Supreme court showed that, “the proper inquiry is not whether an ordinary member of any given community would find serious value in the allegedly obscene material, but whether a reasonable person would find such value in the material, taken as a whole” (Pope v. Illinois 1987).
Therefore, the idea presented here transcends social groups and tries to construct a specific meaning that all groups may agree with, based on general American principles. In the second part of the assignment, I detailed the evolution of the acceptance of indecent materials being published. In Gizburg v. U.S. 383 U.S 463 (1966), the Supreme Court decided that selling obscene materials was illegal. This decision is based upon social norms and religious regulations regarding sexuality and its public display. While the ‘obscene’ rule remained in force, what ‘obscene’ means changed to a great extend under the pressure of the public. Therefore, the pressure of the public, as a large group of citizens has forced the law to redefine the meaning of this word as the moral code of the society change. This moral code is a set of unwritten laws regarding public morality, which is transmitted from one individual or another, but may be altered as a result of influences such as art, entertainment and public behavior.
In the second work analyzed here, I tried to explain how biological factors affected gender identity formation, but could not explain it entirely. Gender communication is extremely important because it explains why and how women and men differ in their communication patterns. Some of the differences can be understood from a biological perspective. As a study by Lippert-Rasmussen (2010) showed, girls exposed to high levels of testosterone before their birth were immune to the effects of gender socialization in later ages. This means that they could not be influenced to adopt gender-specific roles and behaviors, which different groups teach differently to boys and girls. For example, In Islamic societies, boys and girls are taught different norms and values that the ones in Western societies, and they learn how to communicate differently. However, biologic differences do not account for all the differences between the ways in which men and women communicate. According to Verhofstadt and Devoldre (2012), in a marriage relationship, it was not the sex of the partners which determined the degree of domestic support that they provided to each other, but rather, the degree to which each of the partners was traditionally sex-typed was more important. This paper helped me to understand the strengths and limits of social constructivism and other theories that link gender development to socialization and interaction between group members. While this is a very important aspect of how gender identity develops, it is nevertheless not the only explanation and innate biological factors also have their role in shaping gendered identities.
Finally, in my artifact analysis paper, I chose to focus on the avengers, because of the extensive possibilities that this text offered in order to analyze how masculine ideals are transmitted in this film and how female characters managed to ‘penetrate’ this masculine domain of superheroes. The analysis showed that they did not do this very well, as the only female avenger in the film was left without any superpowers, thus being in an inferior position as compared to the male avengers (Whedon, 2012). It should also point out that no two women ever speak to each other in this film, which suggests that this is a male-centered film, where women have a minor role. However, the film does develop the topic of male-female friendship, as the Black Widow is on friendly terms with all the other avengers, and especially with Barton, with whom she shares a special relationship. The specialized literature agrees that true friendships can develop between men and women (Chatterjee, 2016), and that such a relationship has multiple benefits for both men and women. However, in the film, the friendship between the Black Widow and Barton is perturbed by suggestions of romantic involvement. What is more, in each of the subsequent Avengers films, she was connected romantically to one of the Avengers. Thus, as the only female character of importance, the Black Widow was perceived first in terms of her gender, and then as a superhero. This analysis of the artefact was based on the critical thinking tools that I gained throughout my classes and can be used to evaluate any type of media content, in search for suggestive meanings and gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes have become a sensitive issue in today’s society, and the public has become much more sensitive to such representations. It is therefore essential to recognize and fix gender stereotyped messages before they are delivered to the public.
One theoretical approach in the socio-cultural tradition is symbolic interactionism which suggests that the world is created and maintained by means of the repeated interactions between individuals. (Carter & Fuller, 2015). Therefore, the individual is perceived as an autonomous being which is responsible for the creation of the society, together with each of the members of the society. Also, central to this theory is that all individuals use language and symbols in order to communicate and they make sense of the world in unique ways with the help of these tools. Therefore, this theory suggests that people constantly negotiate meanings and manipulate symbols in various ways.
This theory, and many other insights that I gained in this class allow me to understand how people should always be perceived as unique individuals, whose complex worldviews are based on a sum of experiences, socialization, different interactions that they had throughout their lives, and the influence of the groups they belong to. This results in individuals that communicate in various styles and with different motives. As a communication professional, particularly in the contemporary age where technology allows the public to communicate directly with professionals at different companies more easily, it is essential to be able to understand why people communicate the way they do, and how their communication styles reflect their personal beliefs, or their adherence to particular group norms.
References
Carter, M. & Fuller, C. (2015). Symbolic interactionism. Sociopedia. DOI: 10.1177/205684601561
Chatterjee, C. (2016). Can men and women be friends? Psychology Today. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200109/can-men-and-women-be-friends
Ginsberg v. New York 390 U.S. 629 (1968). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/390/629/case.html
Craig, R. & Muller, H. (2007). Theorizing communication: reading across traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Lippert-Rasmussen, K. (2010). Gender Constructions: the politics of biological constraints. Distinktion 20, pp.73-91.
Scheer, R. (2011). The Supreme Court’s video game ruling: yes to violence, no to sex. The Nation. Retrieved from: https://www.thenation.com/article/supreme-courts-video-game-ruling-yes-violence-no-sex/
Verhostadt, L., Devoldre, I.(2012). Observed support provision in couples: the influence of biological sex and g Whedon, J. (2012).The Avengers [Netflix]. United States: Marvel Studios.
ender identity. Social Behavior and Personality 40(1):175-176.
