Griffith Goas

How is it, that the practice of human communication is so common, and yet so complex? One would expect a common occurrence to be simple in nature, but all too often, when one really inspects that common occurrence, they find numerous elements that contribute to its cause. A wrist watch is able to tell you exactly what time it is, but there are many intricate moving pieces on the inside that allow it to perform that function for you. I’d like to discourse on some of the intricate pieces that allow for the practice of human communication.

When I asked one of my colleagues, Srikant Devaraj, to give me one key word that described human communication, he said, “human communication is unavoidable.” I found that to be a pretty meaningful statement. In order for humans to have any kind of quality in their lives, they must first have the ability to effectively convey their thoughts, feelings and ideas onto other people. Humans, and their ancestors, have always functioned in groups. They have always relied on communication to survive. With each generation, human communication has gotten more complicated, but because it is necessary for our survival, we have not only been able to adapt to the changes, but we have thrived on those changes. The reason human communication is so prevalent in our lives is because it is one of the main reasons for the survival and eventual success of our species.
One of my other teammates, Senthil Natchimuthu, said, “human communication is indefinable.” While I don’t necessarily agree with this statement, I do understand why he said it. Human Communication is very difficult to define. Just because it is an intangible, abstract concept, does not mean it is impossible to define. Communication happens everywhere, over many different mediums, using many different encoding and decoding processes. It is used so often, that most people don’t even think about it as they’re doing it. People don’t often step back and ask “why?” I like to think of Human Communication as: a person’s ability to send and receive messages with another person(s). It is communication between or amongst humans.
“In human communication, your words have a function beyond mere transfer of information. Your message has value as an act.”(Theories of Human Communications, Littlejohn, Foss, p103) Value is key in communication. Your message should hold meaning. If you ask for something, it is a request. If you tell someone to do something, it is a command. Each time you communicate, it is a call to action. (Occasionally, the call to action requires no action at all) Each communication you transmit adds value to the receiver(s), and each transmission you receive adds value to your life.
Cross-cultural communication is another element in human communication that influences the way we communicate with each other. In his book, Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters highlights a great point about being an internationalist. “American management in the past has been singularly blind to the needs of human beings. Management wants to eliminate the human equation from business…. That puts businessmen at a disadvantage overseas because so many businesses are based on human relations and friendship.” There are great cultural differences in the way we communicate, and in the way other cultures communicate. Understanding those differences will be an important process in developing our communication skills. Once we understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, gestures, and words in other cultures it will be much easier to successfully communicate with those cultures. Peters finishes the paragraph by saying, “But all over the world, if you have friends, you can do anything. That’s how the system works.” (Thriving on Chaos, Peters, p151)
The practice of human communication has developed from the origins of our species. It has become an essential part of our culture and every day life, it is based on the value of our message, and it is quickly linking and merging cultures together, even if those cultures are separated by great distances. Human communication is easy to participate in, but difficult to define. It requires a great deal of our energy, but at the same time, it is one of the main things that propel our lives forward. It is important to think about human communication, but our survival requires us to apply it effectively.

References:

Foss, K. A., & Littlejohn, S.W. (2007) Theories of Human Communication (9th ed.), 103.
Thomson Wadsworth

Peters, Tom. (1987) Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution. 151
New York, Harper and Row

(Senthil Natchimuthu, personal communication, 22 October 2007).

(Srikant Devaraj, personal communication, 22 October 2007).

Posted by grgoas at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was written as an assignment for ICS 640, but i thought i could include it here too.

Peter Jennings was the anchor and senior editor of ABC's "World News Tonight." While working at ABC, he was responsible for breaking news, election coverage and special events. Peter was there to report to America, many of the important events in human history. He was in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was going up, and he was covering it in the '90s when it was torn down. He reported on the civil rights movement in the southern United States during the 1960s and the struggle for equality in South Africa during the 1970s and '80s. He was one of the first reporters to go to Vietnam in the 1960s, and covered the “killing fields” Cambodia in the 1980s to remind Americans that, unless they did something, the terror would return.

Jennings was named anchor of "World News Tonight" in 1983. In more than 20 years in the position he earned almost every major award given to television journalists. But all of this shouldn’t come as much of a shock, considering his upbringing, in which broadcasting played a crucial part.
Peter Jennings was born in Toronto, Ontario. His younger sister’s name was Sarah, and his parents were Elizabeth Osborne and Charles Jennings. Charles was a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Peter started broadcasting career at the age of nine, when he hosted Peter's People. It was a thirty minute, Saturday morning, CBC Radio show for children.
Peter wanted to follow his father's footsteps in broadcasting, but his first job was as a bank teller for the Royal Bank of Canada. The company transferred him to its Brockville, Ontario branch. It was at that time that he explored his acting potential with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society. Brockville was also the place where Jennings began his rise in broadcasting.
In 1959 CFJR, a Brockville radio station, hired him as a member of its news department. Some of his stories were picked up by the CBC. By 1961, Jennings became a member of the CJOH-TV staff (CJOH-TV was a new television station in Ottawa). When the station began in March 1961, Jennings was an interviewer and a co-producer of a late night news show called “Vue.”
At 24 years old, Jennings was hired by CTV (the first private Canadian Television station) (competitor of his father’s company, CBC) as a co-anchor of its late night national newscast. Jennings was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas, TX in 1963 after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The following year, when he was assigned to cover the Democratic National convention, he met the president of ABC news, Elmer Lower. Elmer offered Jennings a position as a correspondent for ABC, which Peter initially refused, but later accepted.
At the age of 26, Peter Jennings was moved from a correspondent position, directly to an anchor position. To this day he is still the youngest anchor to ever be reporting U.S. Network news. But after only three years at the anchor position, Jennings found it difficult to compete with the anchors on the other networks. Anchors like Walter Cronkite at CBS and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC took a great deal of the audience away from Jennings, and after the third year, he gave up his anchor position and became a foreign correspondent.
Jennings left his first anchor position to build his journalism credentials abroad. In 1968, he established ABC's Middle East bureau in Beirut, Lebanon. It was the first American television news bureau in the Arab world. As ABC's Beirut bureau chief, Jennings soon became familiar with the Arab-Israeli conflict. He conducted the first American television interview with Yasser Arafat. While he was stationed in the Lebanese capital, Jennings dated Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi, who was then a graduate student in literature at American University in Beirut.
In 1972, Jennings covered his first major breaking news story, the Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes by Black September, which some consider to be one of the defining moments of his career. His live reporting, which drew on the expertise he had acquired in the Middle East, provided some background for Americans who were unfamiliar with the Palestinian group. Jennings was able to provide America with clear video of the masked hostage-takers.
Jennings came back to the U.S. at the end of 1974 to become the Washington correspondent and news anchor for ABC's morning program “AM America.” ABC was hoping that the show would challenge NBC's “Today.” “AM America” debuted on January 6, 1975. The show never gained ground against “Today,” and was canceled after ten months. In November 1975, Jennings moved abroad once again, this time as ABC's chief foreign correspondent.
He married ABC correspondent Kati Marton in 1979. That same year, he became a father when Marton gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth. In 1982, Jennings' and Marton's second child, Christopher, was born.
On August 9, 1983, ABC announced that Jennings had signed a four-year contract with the network and would become the sole anchor and senior editor for “World News Tonight” on September 5. Jennings would anchor the program from New York City. The announcement signaled the beginning of the "Big Three" era of Jennings, Dan Rather of CBS, and Tom Brokaw of NBC. Rather had already been elevated to anchor in 1981 after the retirement of Walter Cronkite, and Brokaw of “NBC Nightly News” was set to become sole anchor the same day as Jennings.
The Gulf War started on January 16, 1991. Jennings spent 20 of the first 48 hours of the war on-air, and led ABC News to its highest ratings ever. During the mid-1990s, Jennings was commended by television critics for not focusing on the O.J. Simpson murder case. In place of the Simpson case, Jennings covered the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, anchoring three hour-long prime time specials on the subject. ABC dedicated more time to covering the conflict than any other network. Jennings was also given credit for raising the profile in the U.S. of the Quebec referendum in 1995. The Canadian press was pleased with his in-depth coverage of the issue, and he was the only U.S. anchor to broadcast from Canada during the referendum.
On December 31, 1999, Jennings was on the air for 23 straight hours to anchor ABC’s millennium eve special, “ABC 2000 Today.” An estimated 175 million people tuned into at least a portion of the program. Jennings' American prime-time audience, an estimated 18.6 million viewers, easily beat millennium coverage of the rival networks. This made the broadcast the biggest live global television event ever. Production costs totaled about $11 million (compared with $2 million each for NBC's and CBS's millennium projects). ABC made a profit of $5 million. ABC's evening newscast spent the first week of January as ratings leader, before dropping back to second place.
Jennings was also there to cover the September 11 attacks of 2001. He anchored ABC's coverage of that day's events for 17 continuous hours. Jennings led the network's coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks and America's subsequent war on terrorism. He anchored more than 60 hours that week during the network's longest continuous period of news coverage, and was widely commended for providing a reassuring voice during the time of crisis. He and the other network news anchors were widely praised for guiding Americans through the tragedy.
Jennings had an interest in broadcasting for the next generation. He did many live news specials for children on subjects ranging from growing up in the age of AIDS, to prejudice and its effects on our society. After the events of September 11, and again on the first anniversary 2002, he anchored a town hall meeting for children and parents entitled, "Answering Children's Questions."
He anchored the news for America for a number of years, but never became a true American Citizen. Then in 2003, after 9/11, and his work on "In Search of America," he decided to become a duel citizen of Canada and the United States. He made a statement about his decision: "I think that 9/11 and the subsequent travel I did in the country afterwards made me feel connected in new ways. And when we were working on the America project I spent a lot of time on the road, which meant away from my editor's desk, and I just got much more connected to the Founding Fathers' dreams and ideas for the future." His work as a news anchor during a great number of historical events in
America prepared him for the citizenship test, which he passed. "Can you imagine I, who just finished a whole series on America and had been an anchorperson for an American broadcast...could you imagine if I had failed?" he asked. "It would have been horrendous." Jennings' formal pledge of allegiance took place at a regular citizenship ceremony on May 30 in Lower Manhattan.
By late 2004, Tom Brokaw had retired from his anchoring duties at NBC, giving his position to Brian Williams. Dan Rather stepped down in March 2005. Jennings and ABC saw an opportunity to gain viewers, and initiated a publicity blitz bragging about the Jennings' foreign reporting experience.
Peter had almost always reported from the scene of any major news story, but he was unable due to an upper respiratory infection in late December 2004. He had to anchor from New York during the Asian tsunami, while the other network anchors traveled to the region.
Jennings' voice began to sound uncharacteristically gravelly during his evening newscasts in late March of 2005. On April 1, 2005, he anchored World News Tonight for the last time. His health also prevented him from covering the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. On April 5, 2005, Jennings informed ABC and the viewers through a taped message on World News Tonight that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and was starting chemotherapy. "As some of you now know, I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer," he said. "Yes, I was a smoker until about 20 years ago, and I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reason, the news does slow you down a bit." Although he intended to continue anchoring whenever possible, the message was his last appearance on television.
Just after 11:30 PM, on August 7, 2005 Charles Gibson interrupted regular programming on ABC to announce Jennings' death from lung cancer. He read a short statement from the family, and reveiled that Jennings had died in his New York apartment with his wife, two children, and sister at his side. The anchor's ABC colleagues, including Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, and Ted Koppel shared their comments about Jennings' life. The next morning, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather paid a tribute to their former rival on the morning news shows. "Peter, of the three of us, was our prince," said Brokaw on Today. "He seemed so timeless. He had such élan and style." American President George W. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin also offered statements of condolence to the press.
Jennings won many honors and awards during his career, including 16 Emmys and two George Foster Peabody Awards. His work on "World News Tonight" and "Peter Jennings Reporting" consistently won Overseas Press Club and DuPont-Columbia awards. At the most popular point in his career, Jennings was named "Best Anchor" by the Washington Journalism Review in 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1992. The Radio and Television News Directors Association awarded Jennings its highest honor, the Paul White Award in 1995, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to journalism. In 2004, he was awarded with the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting from Washington State University.
Eight days before his death, Jennings was told he would be awarded the Order of Canada, the nation's highest honor. His daughter, Elizabeth, accepted the award for him in October 2005. On February 21, 2006, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dedicated the block on West 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West as "Peter Jennings Way" in honor of the Jennings. The block is home to the ABC News headquarters. In October 2006, The Walt Disney Company, which bought ABC in 1996, posthumously named Jennings a Disney Legend, the company's highest honor. He was the first ABC News employee so honored.
Throughout his career, Peter Jennings reported the news to the American people. The manner with which he carried himself was the reason why millions of people respected him, listened to him, and trusted him. He was able to influence history by reporting it.

References:
(2005) Jennings’ times, and ours. Retrieved November 18, 2007, from USA today, Web site: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-08-08-jennings- timeline_x.htm
(2005) Peter Jennings dies of lung cancer. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from CNN, Web Site: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/07/jennings.obit/
Baerkircher, F. (2007) Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life. Library Journal, 03630277, 11/1/2007, Vol. 132, Issue 18
Jennings, P. (2005) Letter from Peter Jennings. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from ABC World News, Web site: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=715587 Mcshain, Walton, White. Peter Jennings Defining Moments, Retrieved November 17, 2007, from Helium.com, Web site: http://www.helium.com/channels/559-News- Industry/knowledge/3142-peter-jennings-defining-moments
Taylor, C. (1995) Jennings At His Zenith. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from the Seattle Times, Web site: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2103056&date=19950203
Waite, C. (2005) Jennings, Peter. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from the Museum of Broadcast Communications, Web site: http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/J/htmlJ/jenningspet/jenningspet.htm
WNT (2005) Peter Jennings. Retrieved November 19, 2007, from ABC News, Web site: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=126542

Posted by grgoas at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The European Renaissance, or the European rebirth, was a new and exciting time for Europe. It started in Italy, in some of the more wealthy cities, like Florence and Venice, where people could afford to spend their money on paintings, sculptures, and learning.

They also became interested in new forms of painting , art and sculpture. During the Renaissance, artist were no longer regarded as artisans, as they had been in the past, but for the first time, they emerged as personalities, similar to poets and writers. Many artists merged math with art , in order to become more precise in their measurements and to make sure an object was supported both rationally and porportionally. As a result painters tried and often suceeded in making their painting a window into the world. Artists also studied the way light hits objects and the way our eyes percieve light. This is where oil paint got it's start. This allowed the artist to create texture, mix colors, and allow more time for corrections before it dried.

Art from the Renaissance has survived today, and it has inspired many people to strive to create their own unique styles.

Posted by grgoas at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Renaissance in Europe had an effect and still has an effect on society. Many people are now interested in politics, and that interest came from the Renaissance. Also, people became interested in the world outside of thier towns. That fact has increased exponentially, because today, we need to know everything about the world around us in order to function properly in this global society.

Many people became explorers and mapmakers. They traveled, were able to document their surroundings, and bring that information back to their home towns.

The printing press was probaly the most important advance in technology. Europeans were the first to use movable type to print a book. These could then be arranged to form words and sentences. Johan Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, is given credit for the first book printed, a copy of the Bible.

By the 1500's printing presses where wide spread throughout Europe. The printing press had many effects on the world. First of all, it made books much easier to come by. Common people could afford them. Literacy became more widespread, compared to the Middle Ages where usually monks and church officials, and the rich were the only ones able to read. Second, since many more people were able to read, they wanted to read subjects other than religious or scientific works, and because of that need, books on other subjects were published. Also many books were published in languages other than Latin, such as English, Spanish, French, and Italian. A third effect was that scholars had better access to other works. this information sharing became a big reason for the improvement of society.

Posted by grgoas at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, I was researching for one of my classes the other day, and i found a great summary of what IPTV consists of. Guess where i found it? That's correct. I found it on the first google link after searching for IPTV, on Wikipedia.

But i wasn't allowed to reference the information that i had found. Apparently it isn't considered a credible source. But who determines whether or not something is credible? If people cite it enough, and reference it enough, doesn't it become credible?

I also think that the more people input about a topic, and the more people critique the input of others, the more accurate the information becomes.

Eventually, Wikipedia will be one of the main sources for credible information. IT already has one of the largest concentrations of human knowledge in existence, and it is increased every day. It makes information easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to apply. That is why i think Wikipedia is going to be a great contributing factor in the Information Renaissance that is taking place.

Posted by grgoas at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The development of the real-time update. I was recently involved in a project that dealt with the Stock Market. We had to look up prices of individual stocks, and track them over a period of time. I noticed that when I checked on my stock during the business day, I was able to see it's changes instantly. Every time an investor bought or sold, I could see the change on the screen in front of me. I realize that there was probably a slight delay between my computer screen, and the actual Stock Market, but still, I was impressed.

And then, I found myself checking on my favorite NFL team. I was looking for their injury report to see who would be out, and who would be playing again. On the ESPN website, they had up-to-the minute scores and results of any game going on at that moment, be it men's and women's college basketball, NBA, college football, NFL, and NHL.

Again, I thought to myself, "what an age we live in."

And finally, Ebay! It tells you exactly how many seconds till the bidding ends on any item. How does it know? I'm not sure, but I'm impressed. Information is given to the user exactly as it happens.

Real-time updates are beginning to happen more frequently, in many different fields. They are a major indication that we are in the midst of an Information Renaissance.

Posted by grgoas at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Facebook, one of the largest social networking websites, and one of the most popular of it's kind since social networking sites came into existence, is a great example of web 2.0. It has developed over time to include many different functions and features, but at the same time it's purpose has remained constant. It's purpose of course being for you to let all of your friends exactly what you're doing and how you're feeling every minute of the day.

It's second function is for you to know exactly what everyone else is doing. This allows you to stay connected to every person you've ever met, and know exactly how they feel about the homework that they are doing or how good of a weekend they're going to have.

But has social networking gone too far? You have some control of who views your profile, but you never have total control of the actions of others.

I am a heavy user of this particular website, and have been since it came to Ball State in 2004. It has taken control to the point where i feel like if i don't check the site every day, or every few hours, i might miss some important development in one of my friends' lives.I wonder what people did before Facebook? How did they keep track of concerts, parties, relationship news, photos, videos, and many other facets of their lives? It doesn't seem like it was possible in the time prior to this website.

Posted by grgoas at 01:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)