Rhetorical criticism is the way of knowing or coming to an understanding about the communication process and the artifact under study. Rhetorical theory is the body of thought about human symbols used. Both of these terms have a relationship that comes back to a different form of communication. Rhetorical criticism and theory can be viewed in different areas such as social movements, political and campaign rhetoric, and studies of popular culture. 

In this chapter as I was reading about popular culture and its relation back to rhetorical criticism I immediately thought of watching when a music video drops by an artist and people post “reacting to…” videos. This part of the chapter mentions the difference of your critique vs a professional critique. Professional critics base their critiques on a system or plan. Meanwhile “non-professional” critics base it off of reaction to what they prefer or view something as. Most of the time, artists for example, use criticism as a lesson rather than take it personally. But that is always not the case, because sometimes celebrities don’t take criticism well and see it as an insult.

This channel REACT was famous for getting reactions from people whether it would be music videos, viral videos, or anything that was popular at the time. Their videos would consist of the reaction and then the overall critique of what they viewed. In this video they reacted to Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It” and all had different things to say about it.

When growing up I was always taught when making decisions to “trust your gut”.  Whether it would be deciding on what to choose when it comes to multiple choice on a test or figuring out what to spend my money on, I most of the time, go by that. That phrase goes along with communication theory. 

The definition of theory is a set of interrelated propositions that suggest why events occur in the manner that they do. Communication theory sometimes helps us make decisions and has steps when we form theories. The first step would be asking important questions. Second, is looking for answers through observation. And third, is forming answers or theories as a result of observation. When I was thinking of these steps I thought of the whole deciding college process. Since it’s still fairly fresh in my mind, I thought about how a few months ago I would have to make an important decision. And I pretty much followed those steps when it came to making my final decision of where I wanted to go.

I think we can all agree that making decisions is challenging depending on the situation. And although “trusting your gut” is something I go by a lot, it definitely makes me question more. But questioning isn’t always bad, because most of the time it’s questioning yourself on making the right decision. 

Most of us, if not all, have definitely had our moments where we are really wondering what we’re doing with our lives. With how advanced social media is, and especially with how the lives of social media influencers are seen it definitely brings a sort of insecurity that I personally never knew was a thing that I had. Media overall is honestly mentally exhausting no matter what type of media you could be viewing. Watching the news can possibly make you anxious, seeing influencers living that “Hollywood life” after dancing in front of a camera can bring out insecurities, it is all mentally draining from both ends.

This all definitely falls under cultivation and narrative theory. Cultivation theory is how active we actually are when we consume mass communication. I wouldn’t say that for me personally that my life is completely revolved around social media, but a good chunk of it definitely is. I view my weekly screen time on my phone and sometimes get annoyed when the numbers are too high even when I always try to tell myself “get off your phone and do your homework”. Narrative theory is the idea that people use stories to understand and interact with the world around them. This is more of the somewhat positive side of media, where everyone interacts to learn and understand each other. 

Although we mostly tend to find the pros of social media, the cons are such a big impact. We sometimes tend to think that we need to be accepted by everyone on every platform we have, causing a mentally draining mentality. 

In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned how my classes are always meshing together, which stressed me out a little bit. But in this case it made sense with my Business class. The project for the semester was to work in a group to make careful decisions in order to have a successful business, and this is where organizational communication plays a role. 

Organizational communication, or just overall communication helps build a team in a business. It helps everyone get tasks done by giving them responsibilities in order to be successful. With my business class what I thought about was how with group work in order to get work done in an organized way was through communicating through group chats and everyone taking part in certain roles. Another way I thought of Organizational Communication was teamwork, everyone has to be involved and willing to put the effort into getting work done. Organizational communication is also about building a connection with the people you’re working with, it always may never work out but if everyone is willing to get work done then that’s is really what mostly matters. 

I personally was scared to start off the semester straight away with group work because you never know how everyone works and who will take part in getting work done. But fortunately we all had the same mentality like the cartoon above. We all are managing to focus on getting work done and taking role in certain parts.

With online classes, one of my biggest fears is going into a silent breakout room when work is supposed to be done during the class time. When it comes to school group work it could really be a hit or miss situation with who you’re working with. And if it comes to the point of hearing crickets when you ask “So does anyone else have ideas?” It gets so frustrating. 

I’ve run into this situation multiple times and one particular moment was during one of my English classes in high school. The groups were split up randomly and we all had to write a paper together, but when it came to doing the work nobody spoke. The work was getting done, but everyone had different ideas that they weren’t communicating with other group members. And when it came time to read the overall paper, it all didn’t flow properly because nobody communicated. 

The importance of group communication is obviously communicating. Groups should have a plan on how to approach what goal they are trying to reach, in my case it was the paper. Groups go through 5 stages in order to complete tasks. Forming, where group members establish what characteristics identify the members of the group as a group and have a clear sense of their goals. Storming, where members share their opinion on how to operate. Norming, working through conflict. Performing, defining the characteristics in a group. And terminating, coming to the end of the group work. 

If group work were to properly flow with those five stages, getting work done would be much easier since everyone would be communicating.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/06/21/just-let-us-be/discrimination-against-lgbt-students-philippines#

My parents immigrated here from the Philippines, so growing up there were definitely lessons that my siblings and I had to learn on our own. The majority of the Philippines is Roman catholic, so when it comes to religion they are very serious. So along with everyone my parents had their opinion when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, and pretty much only followed what the church says. And when it came to talking about it, whether it would be popping up on Filipino news or just news in general, it would spark a bit of a heated conversation between them and my siblings. With society now and how much there is online on educating yourself, my parents now know the effect on how they used to think. They took their time to process the effect of their opinions and would also listen to what my siblings and I had to say. 

This example falls under gender development in gender communication. Chapter 13 mentions how gender is socially learned, and there are five theories of gender development. Psychodynamic is a role of the family, specifically the mother, and how it shapes ones gender identity. Symbolic Interactionism focuses more on communication and messages. Social learning is based on outward motivational factors, a positive action will lead to motivation or a negative action leads to stopping that action. Cognitive learning is developing gender at their own level. And standpoint combines culture and the understanding of gender development.

Where my parents and siblings and I stand is mostly under Cognitive learning and standpoint. We were able to educate and learn more on our own even with the views of our parents. The people who surround you and who raise you definitely play a role in the understanding of gender communications, and how it affects your opinions growing up. Like I definitely mentioned in previous blogs, it mostly comes down to taking the time to educate yourself on different issues. 

If there is anything I’ve learned as someone who would fall into the category of a “Gen Z-er”, it’s that culture and communication are two concepts that are difficult to separate from each other. They go hand-in-hand, what Chapter 12 calls a “reciprocal process”, where culture affects communication and communication affects culture. 

When thinking about communication, my mind goes straight to the concept of language. This can go for acronyms found on twitter, internet slang on tiktok, or even in academia, where different terms are coined to describe a specific state or situation. 

However, there is one language that is widely used, especially on the internet, appropriated and imitated, yet at the same time, made fun of and degraded: African American Vernacular.

This chapter reminded me a lot of James Baldwin’s essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What  Is?” (https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ) In it, he writes about Black English, the way it stemmed from Standard English, and how language is *meant* to evolve because it gives people the ability to describe their specific circumstances. It’s questionable how there is a sense of superiority in using Standard English over Black English, when the latter is its own language with a particular structure and grammar rules. Why are non-Black people so hellbent on using it, then categorize Black people who use it as “unprofessional”. Baldwin writes that language is proof of power, which suggests that any erasure or invalidation of a language, like AAVE, is an attempt for oppressors to push their colonized agenda. 

There’s no doubt about the way AAVE is a language, but what will it take for people to see it as one?

Like many people, meeting new people and making new friends is sometimes difficult. For me personally, when I meet new people the only thing I hear in my head is “be nice and don’t overshare”. Because of these thoughts, conversations most of the time result in awkward silence and standing until someone says something. 

Developing friendships and trying to maintain them fall under interpersonal communication which is defined as, communication between individual people. When building friendships there are six steps to developing one. Role-Limited Interaction, when we interact with others based on our social roles. Friendly Relations, communication that moves beyond initial roles and interacting with one another to see of their common interest. Moving Toward Friendship, making moves to advance to a more personalized friendship. Nascent Friendship, committing to spend more time together. Stabilized Friendship, taking each other for granted as friends but not in a negative way. And Waning Friendships, which is basically growth in a friendship. 

I definitely play both roles in this image. I’m either questioning too much and then I reply with something that completely has nothing to do with the conversation, or I try to start a conversation and end up talking a bit too much, still putting me in an awkward position. 

Like many of us, we are waiting for the day to have at least one in-person class. I’m included as one of the many freshmen who haven’t been on campus yet, but am hopeful that it will happen one day. Since the start of the school year, I’ve had my outfit planned, how I’m going to do my hair, and what I’m going to bring all planned for just the first day of school. I wanted to look presentable for being in a new setting and meeting new people and just wanted to start off with a good impression. All of that together is a form of nonverbal communication. 

Nonverbal communication includes not just body language, hand gestures, and facial expressions but many other aspects as well. Nonverbal communication is defined as any meaning conveyed through sounds, behaviors, and artifacts other than words. Personal appearance is included and how we use our bodies and surroundings to communicate. Proxemics is how our use of space influences the ways we relate to others. Paralanguage is vocal qualities, volume inflection, rate of speech, and rhythm. These terms are just a few of the many different types of nonverbal communication, it’s labeled as continuous, meaning that messages are ongoing and open ended so it can be viewed in different ways. 

Clothing speaks a lot for a person, whether it’s if people want to dress comfortably or they’re just having an off day, you can tell how that person’s day is going. It’s just one of the ways of nonverbal communication and how it speaks for a person, without the person actually speaking.    

The title sounds odd doesn’t it? Well to me it actually has quite the meaning to it. It’s a symbol of love that I learned through my favorite band BTS. Many people don’t like them for many reasons but one is because “it’s kpop”. But through them I learned that the color purple has more to its meaning other than it’s just a color.

For me personally I tend to find symbols and meaning to many things. I love knowing the definition or knowing about something but finding more to it. Like how many people see lady bugs as good luck or how lyrics to a song can mean something but there is more to it and a story behind it. Symbolism has its 3 qualities, arbitrary, ambiguous, and abstract. Arbitrary has no direct relationship to the object. Ambiguous has several possible meanings. And abstract means they are not material or physical and only represent objects or ideas. 

Symbolism all falls under a form of verbal communication and how it is used to show meaning or how people interpret things. In this blog specifically “ I purple you” has its ambiguous symbol with the last color of the rainbow as one meaning and another saying of “I love you” that BTS uses toward ARMY, their fanbase, as another meaning. Music for sure has its own form of communication especially when it comes to songs about emotion or experiences.