The show I chose to watch: The Real
Housewives of Atlanta.
- What do you think the characters' relationships are based on the ways in which they are communicating?
The women
in this show seem to be close friends, but there is one that sticks out of the
group as being bossy and not very liked by the other women.
- What are they feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior you are observing?
The women
are on a private bus and are about to go on a road trip. Many of the women were
late showing up, and once they were about to leave, the “friend” who seems
bossy stands up in the middle of the bus and starts yelling at the other women.
Many of the women yell back, and one of them stands up and confronts the bossy
friend by yelling back at her. The facial expressions show me that the women
are annoyed with the bossy friend.
Now, watch the show with the sound
turned on.
- What assumptions did you make about the characters and plot based on the ways in which you interpreted the communication you observed?
I assumed that
the women were all friends and that there was one of them that was not liked by
the others. I was right!
- Would your assumptions have been more correct if you had been watching a show you know well?
I think so,
only because I would know the characters and the situations the characters
might be in during the show.
What I learned: Facial expressions
and gestures/ body movements can teach you many things about a person/ people.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I agree that you can learn a lot by just observing body language/gestures. I really like to concept of watching first with the sound off and then with it on. I think that I will try it some time and see if I can draw some conclusions as to what I think is going on in the show. Thanks for sharing.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI must say that I am guilty of watching this show every Sunday night!:) I know exactly what episode you are talking about! More importantly, observing others facial expressions can indeed teach you many things about that person. Some people I worked with in the past had terrible attitudes and their facial expressions pretty much warned me about their attitudes.
Latasha
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you were right with your assumptions.Thanks your your post!.I agree that facial expressions and gestures/ body movements can teach you many things about a person/ people. This exercise has definitely made me more of aware of how I communicate. Our bodies indeed speaks volumes.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. Also, I agree with you that facial expressions and body movements can reveal valuable information about people. However, during my experience for this assignment my assumptions were completely off because I did not have any knowledge regarding the relationships between the characters interacting.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI too watched a show where body language and facial expressions played a huge role. I enjoyed this activity. To me, I related this to a picture walk (this is what we teach our first graders to do before reading) where you make predictions and you learn information that the words do not tell you. Then, after the picture walk go back and read the words (this was similar to us going back and watching the show with sound). I think it is interesting how the facial expressions that I saw, looked negative to me, but in reality they were just how those people are. Having no knowledge of the show definitely makes it difficult to understand completely what is going on without sound. This was my biggest challenge.
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI have friends that watch this show. I don't watch it because the women on the show interactions are negative toward each other. I think they communicate poorly with one another. I think you did a good job with your observations. I was pretty accurate with my observations as well. I agree that facial expressions and body language give great clues on how a person feels.