Mediated Communication: TV Package

For the category of Mediated Communication, I will be analyzing package I produced while working as the Production Director for the campus television station MCTV (starting at 3:35). I was given an anonymous tip that there was going to be a protest at meeting on campus for the committee All of Us Together. All of Us Together is composed of some faculty and students working together to improve the experiences of students at Monmouth College. More specifically, marginalized students. Students were upset that the committee did not recognize the students who had worked on the proposals and chose to do a sit in at the next meeting. The central concept of the package was to allow students to voice their concerns and feel heard. The purpose of this package was to inform the audience of why the protest happened and what happened during.

The audience of my article was Monmouth College students and faculty. The audience affected how I constructed my message in a couple different ways. I interviewed students because other students can relate to the students speaking and it may show the faculty how students are feeling which they might not be as open to discuss with them. Because this was going to be aired on the campus television station I had to remain objective which affected the language that I used by trying to remain unbiased and informative. I could not put any of my own opinions into the package, but I still had to make it seem interesting to the audience.

I executed the message strategy first by writing the story in inverted pyramid style which gives the information most important first then goes into the lesser important details later. In the first few sentences I answered the 5 W’s are answered. I explained the who: students, what: protested the meeting, when: after the ASMC meeting, where: at the All of Us Together meeting, why: because they did not give credit to the students. The second way I executed the message strategy was the variety of shots. Since I was not allowed to shoot at the actual meeting I chose to shoot different places on campus. Having a variety of shots can keep the audience interested in listening more to the story. I did notice later that I accidentally had two of the same shots in the story and looking back I would have been more careful when reviewing after editing to make sure I wouldn’t do it again. If I had to do it again I would also switch how I shot the interviews to be on opposite sides so it did not look like the same position of the camera.  This is a skillfully created professional message because I made sure I was loud and clear so that the audience could hear the message during the voice over.  I also remained unbiased by not taking a side on the issue or putting in my opinion, just reported on the event and how it unfolded.

Overall, my article had skillful construction and execution because I had a central concept and purpose, identified the audience and constructed my message for them, provided the audience with all of the events, and conducted the interviews to obtain the reaction from those events.

Oral Communication: Radio Interview

Backstage Pass Preview Show-Destiny

While serving as Assistant Programming Director for Monmouth College’s radio station WPFS, some executives of WPFS and myself created this show to feature interviews and music from undiscovered artists. We chose to kick off the show on National College Radio Day so we used a preview which featured sections of our first interviews and the music from the artists. My artifact is part of my first interview with the band Mid Air. This is a quality interview and can be proven by looking at the purpose and central concept, the identification of the audience and how they affect the message, and examples to execute the message strategy.

The central concept of this interview is the meaning behind the music. The purpose of the interview was to get to know the band a little better and get more people listening to the station/band. Before interviewing, I had to analyze who my audience was and how they affected the way I conveyed my message. My audience was students, faculty, and members of the Monmouth community. The audience affected how I constructed my interview because we wanted it to be interesting to the audience.

I executed the message strategy by making sure I did the research before I started the interview. I looked Mid Air up and listened to all of the songs I could get my hands on to come up with questions the lead singer could be able to answer comfortably. I also kept the energy up while speaking so the audience could get the feeling that this was exciting. My message had skillful construction and execution because I asked open-ended questions so that the interviewee could elaborate and not have short answers that could keep the audience interested. I also annunciated and spoke clearly so that I could be understood which is important especially on the radio because that’s all the audience has to go on and if they can’t understand you then the message is missed.

In summation, my message had skillful construction and execution because had a central concept and purpose, I identified the audience and used that to portray that message, and did my research and had good interviewing techniques.

 

Professional Communication: Internship Commerical

IVCH Fall Fitness 5K

The artifact I chose for professional communication is a commercial I produced from my internship at Studstill Media in the summer of 2016. Throughout my internship, I was given pieces of production written by the sales staff for me to record using Adobe Audition, insert bed music, and place into the system when completed.  The commercial “IVCH Fall Fitness 5K” has skillful message construction and execution and can be proven by looking at the central concept and purpose and the identification of the audience and how they affect the message. It can also be proven through examples to execute the message strategy.

The central concept of this message was to inform the audience that the 5K was taking place, the benefits, and the new addition to the race. The purpose of the message was to encourage people to sign up and participate in the 5K. The audience for this message was athletic people, people who want to be healthy, or normal 5K walkers. The affected my message on choosing how I used my voice and the type of bed music I used.

I chose to use a more cheerful tone to show that joining this 5K could be fun and exciting. If it sounds like I enjoy what I am talking about then the audience can sense that this could be an event they might want to partake in. The bed music I inserted was upbeat and light to again show that this event could be pleasurable. One way “IVCH Fall Fitness 5K” is a skillfully created professional message I was loud, enthusiastic, and clear which is important for radio because the audience can’t see you or what you’re trying to get them to do.

All in all, he commercial “IVCH Fall Fitness 5K” has skillful message construction and execution and was be proven by looking at the central concept and purpose, the identification of the audience and how they affect the message, and through examples to execute the message strategy.

 

 

Oral Communication: Message Strategy Presentation

Link to Prezi here.

The assignment called for students to create a persuasive message and the give a presentation to the rest of the class about how the message used persuasion theories and appeals wisely. My message strategy presentation was about the importance of taking care of your mental health for college students. My message strategy made effective use of the Elaboration Likelihood Model through the central route and the persuasion appeals of repetition and a heuristic. The audience of this message was professor my fellow classmates in my Persuasion class who have prior knowledge of these theories and appeals. Since my classmates have had prior knowledge of the Elaboration Likelihood Model in their introductory communication studies course and in our Persuasion class I did not have to go into much detail as to how my message used the central route. The central concept of my message was to inform my classmates why taking care of your mental health important. The purpose of the message was to receive feedback on my message.

This was a skillfully constructed message because I used a Prezi presentation as my visual aid. I used this because it is still a presentation but different than the usual PowerPoint and flowed through my points so it was easy to follow. The content I chose to include in my message was statistics that could shock my target audience and get them to utilize the campus resources. Using these statistics was a good choice because they go down the central route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model where the more the evidence weighs the stronger arguments are and produce more persuasion. I chose to use a radio ad in which I used a statistic from a study conducted by The National Alliance on Mental Health which said, “73% of students had experienced a mental health crisis in college and 35% of the students reported that their school had no idea.” I used this statistic to show the listener that it is not uncommon for their mental health to take a hit and utilizing campus resources could help their wellness. I identified my audience of my campaign in my presentation which is essential because if you do not know the audience then you are not able to target your message properly. Also, I was able to read my radio ad to the class in the way that it would be played on the radio which allowed my classmates and professor to understand the message and how it would be portrayed to my target audience. I was confident in my delivery to my audience and even though I had an outline to help with my presentation I still had good eye contact.  Overall, my presentation had skillful construction and execution because I had a central concept and purpose, identified the audience and constructed my message for them.

Written Communication: Newspaper Article

Article linked here

For the category of Written Communication, I will be analyzing one of the newspaper articles I’ve wrote for the journalism course I took. This article was published in the campus The Courier. I was assigned to attend the events hosted by the on campus organization Spectrum. Spectrum is an organization that advocates for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, inter-sex, asexual/ally (LGBTQIA+) community. The central concept of this article was equality and how the campus reacted to the events Spectrum hosted as a part of Equality Week. The purpose of this article was to inform the audience of the events that happened during that week.

The audience of my article was Monmouth College students and faculty. The audience affected how I constructed my message in a couple different ways. I chose to write this story the way I did because I thought that the topic of the equality with the LGBTQIA+ community would get my audience’s attention and allow them insight of what their peers on campus thought and how the week went. Because this was going to be published in the newspaper I had to remain objective which affected the language that I used by trying to remain unbiased and informative. I could not put any of my own opinions into the article, but I still had to make it seem interesting to the audience which is why I started with the “Hot Topic” discussion.

I executed the message strategy by giving the audience all of the events that were held and what happened at each event. I also did interviews of people at the events and members of the Spectrum organization. This allowed me to go in provide the audience with what occurred and how students reacted. This article is a skillfully created professional message because I incorporated the key elements of good journalism writing. First, I started out with a solid lead to grab the attention of my audience. The lead was “Last week Monmouth College buzzed with the message of equality.” The word choice of using “buzzed” would catch the audience’s attention because they would ask the question “how?” and would make them read further. Second, was I wrote the story in the inverted pyramid style which gave the more important information first and then trickles down to the least important details. This is shown because in the first few sentences the 5 W’s are answered. “Last week Monmouth College buzzed with the message of equality. LGBTQIA Spectrum hosted a variety of events to celebrate including tie-dye, coming out stories, and a dance.”  I explained the who: Spectrum, what: hosted events for Equality Week, when: last week, where: Monmouth College, why: for equality, how: a variety of events. The article ended up being chosen to be put on the front page of that edition of The Courier. Overall, my article had skillful construction and execution because I had a central concept and purpose, identified the audience and constructed my message for them, provided the audience with all of the events, and conducted the interviews to obtain the reaction from those events.I complied those things and produced a well-written article.

 

 

Written Communication:Communication Theory Research Paper

Communication Theory Paper

I was assigned to do this research into the Relational Dialectics Theory in my introductory communication course. The Relational Dialectics Theory lays out contradictory forces through the use of internal and external contradictions that can be applied to the communication of any interpersonal relationship to understand people. My research is quality research and can be proven by looking at the purpose and central concept, the identification of the audience and how they affect the message, and examples to execute the message strategy.

The purpose of the research paper was to persuade the audience that the theory is a good theory. I stated in my thesis, “The Relational Dialectics Theory is a strong theory that illuminates the inherent struggles in all relationship in multiple contexts.” To prove that I went on to the central concept by looking at how the theory is broad and represents an understanding of people that is simple, used responses to the dialectics, and gave examples of the theory applied to different types of relationships.

Before writing, I had to analyze who my audience was and how they affected the way I conveyed my message. My audience was not only my professor of the course, but I attempted to write it for an educational purpose of anyone looking into the communication field and looking at theories as I explain what the theory is and the components of it. Also, communication scholars could potentially be the audience of my research. That is why I used professional language, but broke down the theory and made each component easy to understand at a collegiate level. I explained each part of the theory using using professional language and then used examples that were easy to understand, for example, “The  internal contradiction that RDT looks is the connection vs. autonomy. This deals with the internal struggle in the relationship when there is a want to spend a lot time with the other person, but want to spend time alone. RDT addresses this issue and saying that the only way to battle this struggle is to have a balance. An example of this issue is the relationship of Billy and Sally. Billy loves Sally very much and wants to spend time with her, but he also feels like he wants to spend some time by himself and read a book.” All of these affected my message by forcing me to think critically but write simplistically so anyone could read it.

During my writing, I executed the message strategy by making sure I did the research and found out as much as I could to understand the theory. I chose sources from journals and reports, one of which the author was Leslie Baxter who came up with the ground work for this theory. This allowed me to go in depth about the theories and how they were applied to different relationships.

In summation, my message had skillful construction and execution because I set out to persuade the audience that the Relational Dialectics Theory is a good theory. I identified the audience and used that to portray that message, used scholarly yet simplistic, writing and found good resources. I complied those things and produced quality work.