Standpoint Theory

An example of Standpoint Theory is the rap community. The rap community is dominated mostly by young, black men, this creates a hierarchy and creates marginalized groups. The marginalized groups in that hierarchy are white people and most women. In the exact opposite of the normal hierarchy, rich, old white people are looked at as the worst kind of people. Their inability to relate to the young black rappers makes them look foolish when they try. This also creates some animosity for the rich, old white people that has caused them to try to hurt rap by labeling it. They don’t like being the marginalized group, they want to be the dominant members of society. The rap community has created a hierarchy that changes the normal hierarchy of our society, it has given some of the marginalized groups power and made the powerful somewhat marginalized.

Genderlict Styles

An example of Genderlict Styles is a Saturday Night Live skit in which Will Ferrell, Ana Gastyer and Sarah Michelle Geller are sitting at their table eating dinner and they have a series of conversations that display their varying styles. This is very evident when Will is telling a story and Ana interrupts with feedback, she is trying to add to the story and show that she is listening but he shouts “Can I finish one damn story.” This shows that he would have stayed quiet and waited for her to finish the story before giving feedback. Throughout the scene the family starts yelling at each other and Will usually ends the fight with a statement to show his power and status, he says things like “I am a division manager in charge of 29 people” or most notably “I drive a Dodge Stratus.” He says this with pride as if driving a Dodge Stratus will show is authority over his wife and daughter because his car is nicer than theirs.

Face-Negotiation Theory

An example of Face-Negotiation Theory is when my roommate and I had a dispute about how much he owed for the utility bills last month. He felt that because he had paid for groceries more than everyone else did that he didn’t have to pay what he promised to pay when it came to the bills. We used two totally different conflict management strategies, he tried the dominating approach and I was trying to come up with a compromise. As soon as I brought up the topic he started yelling and swearing and I just sat there asking him to calm down and talk about it. It didn’t matter what I said he wasn’t going to calm down but we got the problem worked out eventually. Julian was acting exactly how I expect a person from a very individualistic culture to act, whereas I feel like I was trying to help everyone and not just myself. He was trying to restore face and I was trying to give face, had he done what I asked he would have saved face, but instead his face saving method caused him to lose face even more.

Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory

An example of Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory is the first time I met some of my teammates on the KSU football team. The first time I met some of the guys on the team I was extremely anxious and uncertain. Here I was, a white kid from the suburbs and I was going to be playing on a team with guys from the heart of some of the most dangerous cities in the country. The first time I met Coleman, one of our receivers from Atlanta, I was a little nervous because, aside from football we had very little in common. Our first meeting there was little effective communication because even though we both were speaking English it was difficult for me to understand him once in awhile because his dialect was very different from my own. My levels of both anxiety and uncertainty increased because I was meeting someone from a different culture than my own, but I don’t think that they were too high and eventually me and Coleman became friends. At the beginning of our relationship I was consciously incompetent when it came to Coleman; now, almost three years later, I can understand him most of the time.

Spiral of Silence

A good example of the Spiral of Silence is the debate about the war in Iraq. It seems that pretty much everyone is lobbying to bring the troops home. The president is seemingly the only person who thinks that we should still be there. This can’t be the case though, I’m sure that there are a large number of people who believe in what the president says or they wouldn’t have elected him in the first place. The problem with them speaking out is that the perceived majority believe that he is wrong and that the war is a lost cause. The people who are willing to speak out are the people who are for bringing the troops home, whereas the people who think we still need to be there consider themselves to be the minority and will keep their opinion to themselves. The media also is playing a role in this, you would be hard pressed to find a news station or pretty much any program that openly supports the war and the president.

Agenda Setting Theory

A good example of Agenda Setting Theory is that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie adopting kids from other countries is newsworthy. The first level of agenda setting in this case is that they report every time Brad and Angelina adopt a new kid. I have seen pictures of the children that they have adopted, and I’m happy for them but there is no reason that this should be national news. The media’s agenda has made their adopting habit’s the public agenda. You see it on TV and in magazines, you can’t get through the line at any grocery store without seeing them with their newly adopted child. If it wasn’t for the media the only reason the public would care about Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie would be if they had a new movie coming out. I think that the gatekeepers in this situation are Jolie’s public relations people because they wanted to change her image. The media has told us to change our view of Angelina, we should be happy for her and be happy that she is adopting a child every other week, ok that’s a little bit of an exaggeration but you can see my point. The stories about these two shouldn’t be important but the media has made them important so we will continue to follow their family’s growth.

Cultivation Theory

An example of Cultivation Theory is my Grandma Sunny and her new 357 Magnum. She watches at least three hours of television a day, which makes her a moderate TV viewer by this theory’s standards, and most of the programs she watches are either news or cop/doctor dramas. The news is inherently violent and the dramas on TV are usually very violent. After she saw that a large number of houses in her town had been broken into, on the news, she went out and bought a 357 Magnum handgun. My grandmother is about 5’1 and maybe 105 pounds soaking wet, if she ever fired this gun it would knock her to the ground, but because she saw on TV that houses had been broken into she decided that the world was not as safe as she thought and needed protection. Television has caused my grandma to develop “mean world syndrome” because she thinks that she could possibly be involved in violence.