Bob Ash Eportfolio

I. PERSONAL STATEMENT

My enrollment in the communication studies department has allowed me to enhance and broaden my communication skill set. A skill set that is now more elevated. I now consider myself to be a more accomplished public speaker. The enhancement of my public speaking skills now allows me to professionally communicate detailed business objectives within the company that employs me, as well as my leadership role within the various community organizations that I am involved with.

I have also become more competent in performing detailed research analysis. Research analysis that has been formalized into various conclusions and shared with my colleagues at San Jose State University.
The communication studies program has allowed me to grow, intellectually. Therefore, allowing me to become more credible in my interaction within the community as well as on a professional basis. My time at San Jose State has been most memorable since the skills that I have learned and practiced are relevant in today’s society.
　
　
COMM 101- Introduction to Communication Studies.
This was clearly the most challenging course that I have taken while at San Jose State University. Dr. Andrew Wood challenged me to improve the main assignment in the class. In fact, I performed a rewrite of it. Starting from scratch since I did not feel that it was strong enough. The completed project, entitled "How do clothes communicate authority for middle management….." featured the application of Geertz and Pacanowsky’s cultural approach to organizational theory.. I’m quite proud of the research that I performed in this class. In fact, I developed it even more while in another upper division class.　

II. FOUNDATIONS

a)Theories of Communication: Theories of Communication are explanations that can be applied to how information is transferred from one individual or group to another. The principals of these theories of communication by various individuals have been devised by research and are widely accepted as rules. -I’ve chosen two foundational papers to list. One from COMM 101C, Intro to Communication. Entitled, "How Clothes Communicate Authority to Middle Management Employees at Lintelle Engineering. The other paper that I have listed is from COMM 172F Intercultural Communication. Entitled, "Global Outsourcing".
-Both of these papers have helped me to achieve the foundation learning objective by applying formal communication theories that have been developed by academically respected communication theorists. McCail’s theory mass communication theory and Geertz and Pacanowsky’s cultural approach to organizations.

b)Ethics:My understanding of ethics is a word that defines the moral character of a person. In my opinion, it is the responsibility of a person to have their actions reflect a positive moral character by doing the right things in their every day life.
　
LINKS:
How Do Clothes Communicate Authority to Middle Management Employees at Lintelle Engineering.Global Outsourcing　

III. INQUIRY

a)Research Methods: My understanding of research methods is to apply a theory of communication that has been learned in class to a certain subject matter. I have used this method on a number of

projects in order to determine the substance for analysis. I have conveyed these findings through speech in an attempt to elevate understanding of a topic to others.

• Listed here are two papers that I consider to be part of my best work while at San Jose State. The first paper, from COMM 145I, Rhetoric, entitled, China Syndrome: An Artifact, focuses on a movie that was released in 1979. I analyzed the plot of the movie itself and by using the concepts of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic criticism and Kenneth Burke’s Comedy and Tragedy was able to synthesize the meanings in correlation to societal norms.

I consider the second entry from COMM 169, Media Response, simply entitled, Unemployment, to have been given a second look at. This is a paper that I reworked during my enrollment in COMM 199C. This paper is important to me because it is relevant to the current time period. I was able to apply terminology learned during the course as explanations to why unemployment is occurring.
Links:
China Syndrome: An Artifact
Unemployment
b)Research Application and Critique: This method is related to research methods. However, I understand it to have an evaluation aspect to it. An evaluation that draws upon my own personal opinion.

IV. PRACTICE

a)Communication Competence: My understanding of this learning objective is to know how to communicate and get my ideas conveyed in a competent manner to another party. This is done in everyday life through one to one, small group and addressing a crowd in public.

I have chosen my paper on Mediation: Dynamic of Court Mediation as my paper for communication competence. COMM 116P Mediation. I’ve chosen this since I was a court-mediated observer in Santa Clara County. I’ve chosen my second paper from COMM 131P New Media since there is a degree of social responsibility on the content of material that should be placed on the Internet. The work is entitled, "How effective is online terrorist propaganda".
Links:
Mediation: Dynamics of Court Connected Mediation
How Effective is Online Terrorist Propaganda


  b) Social Responsibility: I undertand social responsibility to be able to demonstrate proper ethics when giving back to the community. Being able to assist the community without a personal agenda or ego. Being a proper citizen to the people. Helping those in need.

　

V. MY CAREER

My career goal is to locate a position in the San Jose area that utilizes my skill set. My background in various purchasing departments within the semi-conductor industry has allowed me to develop various skills such as the ability to understand various MRP systems as well as Microsoft office. I am a recent communication studies graduate from San Jose State University also. I look forward to offering my skill set to your company.
MY RESUME
　
　
　
　
　
　
　　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　　
　
　
　

　

Response to Article: New media, young audiences and discourses of attention:from Sesame Street to 'snack culture'

What I learned in Class.

     I've accumulated a large pile of readings. Picking out the readings that I enjoyed was a bit fuzzy at first since it is difficult to remember all of them. I've picked out five readings that I enjoyed the most. Most of them dealt with popular social media web sites that we use today. I found these to be the most interesting since I could relate to them.

     I've learned quite a lot actually in regards to the class. Privacy issues and how people can be so shifty by portraying themselves as some person other than they are. I also enjoyed my research project. The final project. I learned a lot more than I assumed in terms of propaganda for terrorists. Both sides of the conflict are involved and control the media as best as they can. My favorite thing about the class though is the fact that these online courses are convenient. Convenient since I don't have to leave Santa Cruz. I have to say that my least favorite aspects of the class is that there is no human contact with this course. I like human contact. Also, the fact that some of the readings were a bit technical put me to sleep. They reminded me of hardware tech manuals. I think this class can be immensely improved if it were a "hybrid" class. Human contact and ideas that are bounced off each other is key. There is no substitute for it!

     My favorite concept in this course was in an earlier reading. George Herbert Mead's "Me" and "I" theory. The "Me" theory refers to the social self while the "I" theory is the response "me".  For example, the reading explains that the "I" would maintain a social network site. Your "me" would be how you would project yourself to others. I have chosen this concept since I had a difficult time grasping it prior to this class. It is clear to me at this point.

Response to:Collective Behavior in You Tube: A Case Study of "Bus Uncle" Online Videos

     I have never viewed or even heard of the "Bus Uncle" video prior to the reading of "Bus Uncle". The results of the research showed that it was quite popular for a time.
    The aspect that I thought was interesting about the article was how it had been mashed up. I've never heard this term before but I believe I've come across some of the videos that have been mashed up. The videos that come to mind were in regards to "Pirates of the Carribean". I had done a search for Captain Jack Sparrow. I had intended on locating original footage. Unfortunately, all the videos that I came across were choped up. They had music that was not in the film interjected into them or the scenes were inconsitant. I thought it was really annoying.
     Youtube is a "broadcast" yourself medium. I've never uploaded any videos before. However, lots of people put up goofy stuff. I'm not sure if they want to get noticed or if they have way to much time on their hands.

Response to Article: RIAA Chief: Copyright bills won't kill the Internet

Response to Article: The World-Wide Web

     So many times it seems that we take the world wide web for granted. We don't appreciate or are not aware of the way that it works. This article wne through the motions of how the "web" works for us. It seems that pages appear effortlessly to us but the web is actually actually from independent sources.
     I'd like to bring up a few points here 1)URI Syntax, 2)Hypertext Protocol and 3) the increase in the amount of servers. I would also like to mention my first time jumping onto the web.
     I learned something new tonight. Everyone has seen the symbols ? and / in the URL. However, they actually mean something. The / represents a hierarchical space. For example www.watsonvillehighreunion.com/reunions. Two pages. The ? is a space between a address and a query. I had always thought that most charecters were "thrown" in there as chop suey, so to speak. There is really a method to the madness.
    The hyper transfer protocol was the most interesting part of the article for me. It is interesting that our computers basically let a server know what type of formats that can be used and then sends the requested information. I thought this to be amazing.
   Thirdly, the comment on how many internet servers were registered at the beginning to what it is at the time of publication is staggering. 62 in 1993. 829 in 2002(I saw this date on the reference page).
    Reading this article brought back memories to me. I can remember getting my first computer. I was so excited when it arrived from Gateway. I remember plugging it in and then learning how the damn thing worked. It was about a week before I figured out how to jump on the internet. It was a brand new world, once I was on.
    

Response to Article: A Virtual Death and a Real Dilemma

     This article is in regards to a woman that posed on the internet as a girl who was extremely ill and eventually died. The woman portrayed a victional charecter on an internet blog. The woman never led on that it was a fictional charecter. This lead to a lot of people feeling upset since they believed that the fictional charecter was real.
     I agree with the asserstion in the reading that this charecter would have been o.k. to portray if it was noted that the blog was fictional. Debbie Swenson intentionally misled people to believe that her daughter was ill. This is completely wrong of people to do. In my opinion. I find it interesting that someone would even attempt to mislead people.
     The fact that the reading indicates two outcomes is what I learned. Two sides were taken. Those that labled Debbie Swanson as a lunatic and others that supported and still believed in the illness of the child.
     The other outcome that I saw in this is the internet should be a place of distrust, even though most people would not portray themselves as anything more than what they are. There will be and are people that are out there that are devious though.