Sunday, January 19, 2014

Communication Skills Observed on TV

Since I do not own a television, for this assignment I found an older show to watch on Netflix via a friend's account.  (I don't really try to cut myself off from the outside world... We just don't find that television is a necessity!!!)  Anyway, I found the show Gossip Girl which I heard was full of drama.  Sounded perfect for this assignment.

As I watched the show without sound I found myself paying attention to a lot of body movements and facial expressions.  There were several times a big argument between various people broke out and I could tell by actions who was winning and losing the argument.  I could almost even determine  how loud the people were talking/yelling based on how they looked within the argument.  This was kind of neat as I realized just how much I could pick up without hearing a thing.  Some other things I was able to pick up on were feelings of hurt, uncertainty, scared, excitement, and love/affection.

Watching the show with the sound turned on was almost overwhelming after seeing it without sound!  I hadn't really considered how much music really adds to a scene/show until watching this time.  I found that I made some incorrect assumptions but that most of them were correct.  One character in particular didn't have a variety of facial expressions and I took it that she was either a boring character, had something wrong with her, or was just a bad actor.  Turns out I think it was more of a bad acting thing...

Had I been watching a show that I know well I assume that I would be much more familiar with the characters, their history, and what has been happening in the show/series lately.  I would have had this background knowledge to go off of as I viewed the show in silence.  I also probably would not have picked up so much on communication skills and how important the nonverbals are had I known the show well.


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