Obama and McCain

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20080925/ts_usnews/mccainandobamascrambletoshowleadershiponeconomy

The two contenders in the presidential campaign have been faced with a challenge that seems rather tricky. This financial crisis has proven to force McCain and Obama "to show leadership, judgment, and political cunning even while they try to gain an advantage in the race for the White House."

The political system in most countries are similar in a sense that they have a council to help the leaders to make decisions that might affect the entire nation's survivability. It is essential that the council, or the advisers of the leader, do not engage in groupthink. I believe that in a group, it is necessary for every member to play a part in the decision-making. Every member helps by providing an alternative point of view, or just simply lend support and commitment in the decision made. Even President Bush needed to invite "Democrat Obama and Republican McCain to join him and congressional leaders at the White House Thursday to negotiate a compromise and "safeguard the financial security of America.""

This is an example of how important a group is to an individual. As the solution might be risky, the group can provide many perspectives on the case and work towards the best possible solution. Many decisions need to be made, many opinions need to be considered, many problems need to be solved. With a group, the support is there to help boost the decision made and ensure that it will be the best. It is required of them to displace any form of individuality and stay united to the decision-making process. A group discussion allows a leader to make decisions, know that he/she has support and is not overlooking any flaws in the decisions made.

Interpersonal attraction

I was roaming around in the Yahoo! site for the first time when i saw the "Personals" category. Without any hesitations, i clicked it and saw the front page of the "Personals" . Immediately, i told myself that it must be a dating site for men and women to look for potential soulmates. This triggered my thoughts about the "aftermath" of the first impression(perception) from my previous post and how important communication is, apart from the impressions.

As mentioned before, we perceive someone based on first impression to make certain judgement on the person. It all starts with the display picture and a brief description about yourself. When an individual visits a dating site of this sort, he/she would look for the potential soulmate based on the looks alone. Undeniably, he/she would go for the good-looking ones. Nevertheless, never judge a book by its cover, as many not so good-looking ones can be better in many ways. Apart from the appearance, people tend to look for similar traits or hobbies as a step to feel similar to the target person, and yet, they also look for unique traits so as to see the opposite as a person who is uniquely himself/herself. Once these qualities are fulfilled, many would start to engage in conversations with the target person in order to further understand that person.

These first impressions play a major role in forming a strong connection between two parties to embark in a long-term relationship. People in today's society are busy and stressed with their life. The search for the "other half" is secondary to their work. This creates lesser opportunities for many to socialise, which results in them being single until a later age. What is important here is that one needs to priortise what they need at their different phases of life. Work is important, so is marriage. To attain a balance in these two is like balancing oneself on a thin wooden pole. You need to have the ability and confidence to balance and the faith that the pole don't break.

All in all, communication is important and people should spare a thought on their future in terms of relationships. Surely no one wants to be single until the day that they die. That would be very lonely. So for all the singles out there, remember to create a good impression of yourself and keep a lookout for potential partners through socializing and for those who are attached, place faith in your partner and exercise healthy communication with your loved ones in order to keep the relationship going. Good luck people!

Perception

Perception plays an important role in how we judge people, especially the first impression. The way you look, the way you speak, the way you behave. It all tells a story about you, be it fictional or factual. That is why giving a good first impression is vital in securing a good relationship with a person, which leads to a positive communication process.

I am a person who judges people based on my observations of their behaviors. When I see a person for the first time, for example a classmate, i would observe his/her behavior throughout the lesson and make certain assumptions about his/her behavior. Nevertheless, i would continue to assess his/her behavior after the first encounter to verify my assumptions.

Undeniably, stereotypical characteristics are applied just from the way they dress. These stereotypes are personal constructs and can be shaped from many different sources, such as our own experience, the media that we consume, what others tell us, etc. The way that they dress greatly shapes how we perceive their character/personality.

Next would be the behaviors. Everyone, including me, applies "getting-to-know-you" script whenever we meet a person for the first time. Through a conversation like this, we subconsciously assess their actions, responses and behaviors. As mentioned above, even before we start to speak to them, we would make certain judgment on the person's personality based on how they dress. This affects the communication process as we might change our attitude while we continue to assess them. As we tend to attribute their behaviors to their personality, we should take into account of the situation, so as not to create perceptual errors.

Of course, when you judge that person with negative characteristics, you tend to pick up verbal or non-verbal cues that verifies your perception. This can take a toll when you are making new friends in a new environment. Therefore, it is important that we interact with an open-minded and try not to judge the person as a whole on the first meeting. And also, we should not attribute every negative behavior to their personality. Who knows, we might find similarities which acts as the basis for the start of a life-long relationship.

News

I was watching the news on Channel 5 when i realized that the news is a very good example of how the linear model is being used and applied in our society. As what we have learned in our communication lesson, it's source-centered. Thus, it is extremely effective in conveying messages to the large population of Singapore through the method of broadcasting. In a way, Channel 5 acts as a medium which analyze and reformat the news to make them more presentable and acceptable to the Singapore population.

I am not really sure about this, but i think that Channel 5 has been trying to convert itself from using a linear model to an interactive model. Well, it's not totally interactive. However, the fact that they encourage feedbacks through emails or phone calls shows that they are trying to make communication two-ways. Connecting to the audience is an essential part of being a news provider as they are the ones who interpret the information sent to them, process it, and then transmit it to us, the Singaporeans.

Looking deeper into the news, one can realize that our perception of certain news reports can be shaped based on how they are presented to us. It's undeniable that television broadcasting can be biased in many ways. Thus, i believe that when we watch the news, we have to keep an open mind so as to ensure that we do not jump to conclusions based on the initial schemas formed.