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Within Communication studies, Practice represents “the application of communication theories and concepts to real world contexts”, with an emphasis on social responsibility. What I just described satisfies PLO #4- Communication Competence: “demonstrate the ability to communicate competently and in a theoretically informed manner in a variety of contexts” and PLO# 5- Social Responsibility: “demonstrate social responsibility, ethical awareness, and community engagement”.  

 

Since taking 111P: Interviewing, I think that my preparing for and performing of interviews has become better. I learned about different types of interviews which I thought were interesting (i.e. phone interview, video conference interview, etc.) and different types of questions to ask: probing or open ended, for example. Although interviewing can be intimidating, in the end, the class was fun because we were addressing interesting issues and interviewing interesting people.    

 

In 176P: Gender and Communications, I studied male-female and same sex couples and the public’s reactions to both. I got to study how the male-female and same sex relationships fit into different situations and cultures.  “Different roles (i.e. race, class, sexual orientation, language background, assigned sex at birth, and other socio-political factors) determine gender expression.” After taking this course, I was expected to take what I learned and apply it to my life and add it to my arsenal of life skills – which I have…

 

What I have described above demonstrates communication competence and being able to apply what I’ve learned. The social responsibility learning objective has come about through the Oral History Project that I engaged in as part of 111P: Interviewing because the person that I interviewed for that project, Graydon Ramey, is the embodiment of social responsibility. This is the case because he lives his values, he walks his talk, and the following quote said by his girlfriend, Sandra, describes him best, “When someone meets Graydon they get a sense of his way of being. He asks how they are and fifteen minutes later they’re still talking because he genuinely cares about their well-being. He has this effect on his friends as well as strangers.” 

 

Specifically, the way that the Oral History Assignment from Comm. 111P helped me achieve PLO#4: Communication Competence and PLO#5: Social Responsibility was what I described previously, as well as learning how to ask to set up the interview and create a safe container. I also was learning how to gain consent in an ethical way as I set up a safe container in which to conduct the interview; I learned how to formulate questions that were comprehensive enough that I was able to get a clear enough picture of my subject’s life and see the ways in which his values played a part in molding him into the extremely socially responsible man he is today. 

 

The assignment that I chose to analyze for this reflection was the Oral History Project that I did for my Comm. 111P: Interviewing class. Re-reading the project, I realized that even though, my subject, Graydon Ramey, cares about so many things he cares about raising his daughter the most. I also figured out that he likes to be the boss when working for others as well as owning his own businesses. He is a very hard worker and held down steady jobs while raising his daughter. However, reiterating my previous point, he thought that his greatest contribution to the earth was his daughter. I learned that asking specific questions about his daughter and him got him to open up about their relationship and their life together. So, now I know that asking open-ended questions and then probing questions are good ways to go when one is interviewing about a topic that could potentially lead to a really solid understanding of the subject, who they are, and what fulfills them the most.