Television Communication

Television Communication

For my blog assignment this week, I was asked to choose a television show I have never watched before, record it, and then watch it first with no sound to make observations about their body language and facial expressions and then watch it again with the sound on to see if my assumptions were correct.

I chose to record and watch The Office because it is not a show I watch or would normally enjoy. The episode I chose is episode 14, season 4, "The Chair Model". I picked a couple of clips to observe with no sound since there are a lot of monologues in this show. In the first clip, Michael, the boss, is talking to his employees in the office. While Michael is talking, he is very animated and looks to be a bit angry. He gestures with his hands quite a bit and even points at them once. You can tell from his body language that he likes to be in charge. The employees look to be confused and not in agreement with what Michael is saying. You can tell this by their facial expressions. A couple of them are looking down as if they do not like what they are hearing or as if they are trying to ignore them. One of them flips his pen in the air in frustration after Michael walks back into his office.

I went back to watch this clip of the show with the sound on. Michael was supposed to be picking out a new chair from an office supply catalog when he became fixated on the female chair model. He realized he was ready to date and went out to talk to his employees about helping him find a date. Michael was upset over on one helping him find a date or not having any friends they could set him up with. The employee that tossed the pen in the air was exasperated over his phone is in his car and was not related to what Michael was asking of them. I feel I was correct in reading the body language and facial expressions other than the employee tossing the pen. He was frustrated that he would have to walk far to his car if he wanted his phone. (I was correct in reading his frustration, but it was not related to Michael asking them to find him a date.)

The second clip I chose to observe with the sound off was Andrew and Kevin in a meeting with a group of men. One man, maybe the leader, looked angry to be there with Andrew and Kevin. Andrew and Kevin both looked nervous. I could detect nervousness through Andrew’s body language and because he was tensely holding a note card. I could tell Kevin was nervous because he was stiff and looked to be talking fast. The meeting did not last long. One man at the table looks at the man who appears to be in the lead, they all look at each other in agreement and get up to leave. From this, it looks like the meeting did not go well.

When I watched this clip again with the sound on, I discovered that they thought they were there to discuss something with Michael. Andrew and Kevin were nervous because they called the meeting (maybe they could only get the men there if they said Michael, their boss, called the meeting). The men around the table were other businesses in the building who were parking in the closer spots to the building. Andrew was speaking nervously from the notecard and began by thanking them for coming when Kevin butted in quickly to say they wanted the closer parking spots back. That is when I saw one man at the table ask the other to start parking further away from the building; they agreed to do so and walked out. The body language and facial expressions I observed were pretty close to what I witnessed with the sound on. Andrew and Kevin were clearly nervous and most of the men around the table were clearly annoyed that they were called to a meeting. Once they found out why they were there, they quickly agreed and walked out. What seemed to be important to Andrew and Kevin was clearly not a big issue for the other men.

What I learned from these two clips is the importance of body language and facial expressions when communicating with others. Sometimes, your body language and facial expressions do not convey what you are saying. In other times, they are in direct relation to what you are saying. What I have learned this week is that you need to be careful that your body language and facial expressions should convey what you are saying so you do not offend the person or people you are talking to. Nonverbal communication can clarify what you are verbally saying through complementing or accenting (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2015, p. 37). In other words, it is important that your nonverbal cues coincide with what you are saying if you wish to be an effective and competent communicator and want to avoid conflict.

References

O’Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. G., & Teven, J. (2015). Real communication (3^rd ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.