Practice

I. Opening Story: Starting the Discussion

A. Michael’s Instructions: While not obligatory for reading, the opening story in each chapter sets the mood for the rest of the reading. Stephen chooses stories that relate to several concepts in the chapter and talks about these concepts in general terms.

B. Read the opening story and identify three concepts from the chapter that characterize the communication process in the situation.

C. Then: (a) think of similar examples in your life, (b) remember the actions that the hero of the story, you, and other people around you took when they faced the situation; (c) think of the ways these actions influenced everyone involved; (d) suggest the ways which your naïve knowledge of communication offered you as remedies for whatever did not work in communication in that particular instance; (e) discuss how your scientific knowledge of communication changes your perception, and list three things that you would do now if you faced a similar situation in the future

D. An essay on the opening story can be used as an extra credit opportunity. If you would like to get more points, write a six-paragraph essay answering the questions above in good paragraphs (1 opening sentence, 2-3 main idea sentences, 1 summary and transition sentence). Make note that although this assignment is long and fairly difficult, you will be given only 10 points for it. The reason for it is that the extra credit points must be extra hard to get.

REALITY SHOW CONFLICT

In 2008, African American activist Kevin Powell announced his intention to run for the U.S. Congress, representing the 10^th district in Brooklyn, New York (he lost the primary to the incumbent). The next month, MTV revealed that the 21^st season of the reality series The Real World would also be filmed in Brooklyn. The two announcements formed a strange coincidence. Sixteen years earlier, Kevin had been a cast member in the show’s first season.

The producers of The Real World select people with conflict and power struggles in mind. In the show’s first season in 1992, they housed Kevin—a longtime activist against racial injustice—with several other participants, including Julie. The youngest, most naïve cast member, Julie was an 18-year-old European American from Alabama. Upon hearing another roommate’s beeper, she asked, “Do you sell drugs?”

Within the season’s first few weeks, a bitter argument erupted between Kevin and Julie. Crying hysterically, Julie explains to two other loft mates that she and Kevin had a fight about a phone call and that Kevin threw a candleholder at her. She is afraid of Kevin, thinks he is crazy, and never wants to be alone with him again. Kevin denies brandishing the candleholder and insists that the fight wasn’t his fault. Julie was rude to him first, he contends. Later at a party, the conflict breaks out again with Julie shouting at Kevin, “What are you going to do, hit me?!”

The conflict between Kevin and Julie sparked intense viewer interest, as it cut across lines of gender, power, and ethnicity. Who was to blame—Kevin or Julie? After the show aired, communication researchers Mark Orbe and Kiesha Warren (2000) had groups of European American and African American women and men watch the episode and discuss their perceptions.

Although participants viewed the same episode, each group perceived a different conflict.

European American women saw Kevin as the aggressor who used his physical strength to wield power over Julie. “Race was irrelevant,” said these women. “Not so,” maintained the African American women in the study, who felt the conflict was all about race. Although Julie and Kevin were equally aggressive, the fight escalated because Julie played the “powerless victim.” As one of the African American women said, “I think the ‘big black guy’ perception did play a part, and he wasn’t even physically big, so the stereotype was there” (Orbe & Warren, 2000, p. 54).

African American male participants agreed that race was an issue, but said the differences between Kevin’s and Julie’s ages and backgrounds played the largest role in the conflict. In contrast to all other groups, European American men thought the problem had nothing to do with power or race. They believed it was a personality clash. The four groups in Orbe and Warren’s study viewed the same dispute, but each made distinctly different judgments about the protagonists’ interpersonal communication, the role of power in shaping their interactions, and the meaning of the conflict itself. And although the first season of The Real World has receded into pop-culture memory, and the cast members have moved on to bigger and better things, the study’s findings reveal the fundamentally subjective nature of conflict. For participants and witnesses alike, the nature of Julie and Kevin’s battle lay very much in the eyes of the beholders. Yet, for all the variation in viewpoints, one point of perceptual agreement was shared: had Kevin and Julie both communicated more effectively with one another, they might have constructively managed their disagreements and therefore prevented things from spiraling out of control.