Week 15, Post 3: Audience Adaptation

Griffin says that, "By mindfully creating a person-centered message specific to the situation, we increase the possibility of achieving our communication goals" (477). Audience adaptation is important in communication because it helps us reach out to those we are speaking to. Griffin points out that audience adaptation is most successful when we "adapt our message to the attitudes, actions, or abilities of the audience" (478). The only problem with this is that as speakers, we may loose our authenticity and compromise our own beliefs. It's a thin line we must walk. It is wrong to ignore the audience, but it is also wrong to cater to them completely. The best answer is to find a happy medium. We must keep the audience in mind but not compromise ourselves to the fullest degree.

Week 15, Post 2: Motivation

Griffin's thread of motivation ties many theories together. Griffin states that, "Communcation is motivated by our basic social need for affiliation, acheivement, and control, as well as our strong desire to reduce our uncertainty and anxiety" (472). The need for affiliation ties in both social penetration theory and the spiral of silence. Social penetration theory says that we acheive affiliation through self-disclosure. On the other hand, "fear of isolation- the loss of affiliation- is what causes those in the minority to remain silent" (472). Our human need to be affiliated with others is really strong. No one really likes being alone and in the minority. We have a basic human need of wanting to be with others. This can explain cliques in high school. We all have this need to be accepted and feel a part of the group. If we speak out against the group, we risk being kicked out of the group. Communication is motivated by our need for affiliation because we communicate in ways that don't endanger our affiliations. This happens on a daily basis and we try our best not to jeopardize our affiliations. I think my own communication is strongly motivated by the need for affiliation. I'm not sure if I can explain this need, except that it is basic and instinctual.

Week 15, Post 1: Keep Looking

I really like how Griffin ends the book by saying that we should "keep looking" for new communication theories (485). Communication theories are not limited to what's in our book. There is still much to be discovered about the subject. Griffin urges us to go deeper and look intensely at something that fascinates us about communication. Perhaps we may uncover a theory or phenomena of our own.

Reflecting back over the semester, there is so much more to communication than I could have ever imagined. And as Griffin points out, it doesn't end with this text. There is more out there and as "Comm Scholars" it is in our hands to discover more. Communication is intwined in every part of our lives. Understanding how it works (and doesn't work) is important, especially for us Comm majors!