Saturday, July 12, 2014

Observing Communication through Television

The television show I chose to view was “Criminal Minds”.  I have had opportunities to watch this show but did not because I thought it was trying to be much like one of my favorite shows “Law & Order, Special Victims”.   From watching Criminal Minds with the sound turned off was very tough because having volume is important when it comes to really understanding things.  I listen very well so I can actually be doing something else without paying attention to the screen and understand what is going on.  The vibe I got from watching the characters on this episode pertaining to their relationship to communicating amongst on another was very good.  No one seemed snappy or rude or bigger than another person.  Based on the nonverbal behavior I observed, seems as if they have intense feelings on cracking the case.  Everyone seems to be about business, going off of the looks on their faces.       
In this episode, the assumptions I made about the characters and plot based on the ways in which I interpreted the communication I observed are they actually communicated very well.  Eye contact was always made and body languages seem to be at a respectful stage as far as the investigation team represented themselves.  In the FBI, communication is valuable and non-verbal communication has to be used a lot in order to get the job done correctly without getting anyone hurt.  In this episode I viewed one of the agents nodding his head to another agent pointing in a direction for him to go in and the communication was picked up well.  This communication was perfectly executed because the guy was able to sneak around the side to grab the young boy before he shot anyone.  I believe my assumptions would have definitely been more correct if I had been watching a show I know well.  I say this because from past episode I would know the characters and understand how they communicate and what would possibly happen before it even happens.  I actually do that a lot when it comes to “Law & Order”, a show I watch pretty much every day.
          What I learned from this experience about communication is that we have to learn how to pick up on people’s actions by understanding non-verbal signs.  In the early childhood field children are going to come to us with mixed emotions and we have to understand what they are feeling because most of the times children will not speak about it, especially if the child is shy or do not speak much at all.  

2 comments:

  1. Carlos,

    Your observations are quite interesting; although I am curious to know how much of your assessments of the nonverbal cues were actually based on prior knowledge from a similar television show. Sometimes we are able to make assessments, assumptions and predictions of non-verbal cues based on our prior knowledge or experience of a similar event. As we work with children and families, we have to confirm our understanding of their non-verbal cues to avoid misinterpreting their messages and responding inappropriately.

    Good post!

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  2. Yes it is very relatable to how children act and react to situations. Non-verbal communication or messages can be sometimes controversial and display the opposite or different message of an individual on accident. This is often used as a technique in those crime tv shows to crack a case, when a person is given away by their body language in an investigation of murder or what have you. So there is a lot to be learned with the tv not on mute too!

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