The Golden Palace Buffet

We chose the Golden Palace Buffet for our space ethnography. The Golden Palace is a little ‘hole in the wall’ Chinese buffet on Forbes Ave. When you walk in, you are immediately greeted by the cashier. The buffet is located in the middle of the restaurant and there are tables the whole way around it. The lighting is not the best and the music that is played comes from a small radio by the cash register. The tables and chair are outdated and some of cushions in the chairs are starting to rip. The carpet looks old and worn. The current set up of the tables is crowded and uncomfortable. It is easy to overhear the conversation of a table nearby due to the lack of background noise.

                To make this small space more appealing and to draw more customers in, we have made changes to the layout as well as to the fixtures and furniture. To start, the carpets will be replaced with laminate flooring. The lights will also be replaced with dimmed recess lights. We decided to move the buffet and the drink fountain to the back wall. This will free space in the middle for a small soothing water fountain. The updated tables and chairs will circle the fountain at the center. Also, a surround sound system will be added so that the music can be heard throughout the entire restaurant.

                We believe that these changes will bring in more people because it will be more appealing to the eye. The dimmed lights and water fountain will create a relaxed atmosphere in which people are able to eat and talk with friends and family members. The fountain will also appeal to little kids. We notice that it was most busy for dinner around 6 pm when people are leaving work and getting out of school. We also noticed that around this time a lot of people come in and get take out. The more relaxing atmosphere will invite people in and encourage them to stay and eat instead of leaving.

 

Disconfirming Messages- The Concrete Angel

The Concrete Angel by Martina McBride

The Concrete Angel is about a little girl who is abused at home by her mother. In the video, she goes to school wearing the same dress she wore the day before and tries to hide her bruises. The teacher sees the bruises anyway, but doesn't ask or do anything. The abuse has gotten so bad that the little girl finds herself wishing she had never been born. Then, the girl seems to befriend this little boy who lives next door and they become friends. She finally has a friend and things are looking up. But one night, the little boy looks into the window of the little girl's house and sees her mom beating on the girl. The police are called and arrive on scene to find that the little girl has passed away. The last scene is at the cemetery and we see her grave. The little boy turns around and sees her. They embrace before running towards the sun with other children.

Lyrics

She walks to school with the lunch she packed

Nobody knows what she's holding back

Wearing the same dress she wore yesterday

She hides the bruises with the linen and lace, oh

The teacher wonders but she doesn't ask

It's hard to see the pain behind the mask

Bearing the burden of a secret storm

Sometimes she wishes she was never born

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone

In a world that she can't rise above

But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place

Where she's loved concrete angel

Somebody cries in the middle of the night

The neighbors hear but they turn out the light

A fragile soul caught in the hands of fate

When morning comes it will be too late

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone

In a world that she can't rise above

But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place

Where she's loved concrete angel

A statue stands in a shaded place

An angel girl with an upturned face

A name is written on a polished rock

A broken heart that the world forgot

Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone

In a world that she can't rise above

But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place

Where she's loved concrete angel

According to Floyd (2011), disconfirming messages are “behaviors that imply a lack of regard for another person” (p.339). This is clearly seen in the video by the mother’s actions. She shakes and hits her daughter which is obviously harmful to the little girl. The mother reacts violently to deal with her aggression with no regard for her daughter. The little girl is in pain emotionally and physically but the mother is blinded by her own anger. When the mother hits the little girl this disconfirming message is interpreted by her; thus, she thinks that her mother does not care about her.

An example of disconfirming messages is Donald Trump’s presidential plans. He claims that he will deport millions of immigrants without going through the court system. “I will have perfect legal authority to circumvent the courts,” Trump said (Tani 2015). Trump plans to deport millions of people with no regard for the affects it will have on our economy. He has a lot of money so he does not think about the rest of America. This disregard for millions of people can have dire effects on our society.

References

Floyd, K. (2011). Interpersonal communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Tani, M. (2015). We pressed Donald Trump about the practicality of his plan to deport 11

million people. Retrieved March 22, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-deportation-plan-2015-11

Nonverbal- Inside Out

In the movie Inside Out, there are many examples of nonverbal communication. According to Floyd (2011), nonverbal communications are “behaviors and characteristics that convey meaning without using words” (p. 179).

                The movie Inside Out, is about a girl named Riley and her emotions. Inside Riley’s head, there is a whole new world. Headquarters is where her emotions live; they help Riley get through her everyday life. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are the five emotions that control Riley.  

                In the movie, the emotions use many nonverbal cues to display how they are feeling. They each display many emotions (not just the emotion that there name describes). The emotions do not try to conceal information from one another by hiding there non-verbal cues. They embrace them to show what they are feeling. In this clip, Anger uses many non-verbal cues that fall under the different non-verbal channels. A non-verbal channels are the various forms in which communication takes place (Floyd, 2011, p.181). We use our different senses to pick up non-verbal cues. We use our vision to pick up the non-verbal cues Anger uses such as his facial expression, body language, gestures, and personal appearance. We use our sense of hearing to hear the different tone and volume in Anger’s voice when he gets mad compared to when he is not agitated. When Anger gets mad, he clenches his fists, shoots fire from the top of his head, and yells. He also becomes very aggressive.

                People use non-verbal communication in their everyday lives, whether they are aware of it or not. Some of the many non-verbal communications we use include many, if not all, of the same as seen with Anger (facial expressions, body language, gestures, personal appearance, tone and volume of the speech). Most of the non-verbal messages that we send are involuntary; this is why most people trust the non-verbal cue over what the person is saying.

 

References

Docter , P., & Del Carmen , R. (Directors). (2015). Inside Out [Motion Picture].

Flyod, K. (2011). Interpersonal Communication. Boston: McGraw Hill.

 

Deception- The Lion King

In the movie The Lion King, there are many different ways communication is used. One of the forms of communication most easily seen is deception. According to Floyd (2011) deception “the knowing and intentional transmission of information to create a false belief in the hearer” (p. 384). Simba’s Uncle Scar uses deception with him throughout the movie to manipulate Simba. Scar manipulates Simba so that he can become king.

               

One of the scenes that Scar uses deception with Simba is the scene where, he tells Simba about the elephant graveyard. In this scene, Scar uses the Act of Simulation. The acts of simulation fabricate or exaggerate information to mislead others (Floyd, 2011, p. 389). There are two forms of simulation, falsification and exaggeration. Scars uses exaggeration when he is talking to Simba about the elephant graveyard. Exaggeration is when information is inflated or overstated (Floyd, 2011, p. 390). In the movie, Scar says “It’s far too dangerous. Only the bravest lions go there” and “I suppose you would have found out sooner or later. You being so clever and all”. Scars exaggerates when he says only the “bravest lions go there” because in reality no lions really go there. He also exaggerates how clever he really thinks Simba is. Scar uses the exaggerations to spark curiosity in Simba. Simba’s curiosity causes him to want to go to the elephant graveyard and explore.

                A real world examples of deception can be seen in politics. One example is when Donald Trump says that all immigrants are criminals. This is a major exaggeration that can cause stereotypes to develop or further develop.

Another place that Scar uses deception is when he tells Simba to leave after Mufasa dies because everyone will blame Simba and hate him. Scars uses acts of dissimulation. According to Floyd (2011) acts of dissimulation are “forms of deception that involve omitting certain details that would change the nature of the story if they were known” (p. 390).  Like acts of simulation, acts of dissimulation have two different forms, omission and equivocation. Scar uses omission because he left out the part where he pushed Mufasa off the cliff into the pack of wildebeest instead of helping him when he was talking to Simba. Omission is when a person leaves out important details of the story entirely (Floyd, 2011, p. 391).

One common real life example of omission would be when two little kids are playing and one goes running up to their mother screaming “Josie hit me!” When the mother goes and asks Josie why she hit her sister, Mara, the mother finds out that Mara took a doll out of Josie’s hand. This one action was left out of the original story that Mara told her mother. If she would have told her mother that she took the doll then her sister hit her, it would have changed the reaction the mother gave.

References

Allers , R., & Minkoff, R. (Directors). (1994). The Lion King [Motion Picture].

Flyod, K. (2011). Interpersonal Communication. Boston: McGraw Hill.