Gridiron Gang

As i'm running out of time (and ideas!) for this week's blog entry, I guess I will succumb to a movie review/analysis-of-sorts (something which I've been trying very much to avoid the past 3 weeks..)

The movie I'm gonna talk about this week was released slightly less than a year ago in theatres but it's just been showed this week on HBO Asia for the past couple of days and I thought it pretty much has got quite a lot to do with what we covered in comms lecture this week..about group interaction and communication..

Without further ado, i present to you the trailer of : Gridiron Gang!


Here's the synopsis from IMDB.com:
"The movie is based on a true story of a juvenile detention camp probation officer Sean Porter (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson), who is frustrated by the 75% recidivism rate of the teenage felons that he is responsible for at Camp Kilpatrick. Sean Porter, a former college football star, comes up with an idea to form a football team. Porter believes that football will teach the teenage inmates what it takes to be responsible, teammates, and be winners for the first time, not losers. Porter and probation officer, Malcolm Moore (Xzibit) become the coaches, and they only have 4 weeks to get a team together before their first game. The juveniles must give up their gang rivalries on the gridiron to unite as a team."
- Douglas Young

What better way to look at group interaction than from a movie that's all about delinquents coming together, having to work as a unit, from a group of initially separate and hostile indivuals that eventually turn out to become interdependent on each other on the football field.

Even though these delinquents were from rival gangs and had difficulties at first working together, in the end they managed to form a shared and collective identity as the "Gridiron Gang".
If you're a sucker for sports and team-related movies, Gridiron Gang will not disappoint in inspiring you as you will be able to witness the transformation of these delinquents from low self-esteem and angsty individuals to an inspired cohesive unit and the story of how one man managed to turn a bunch of misfits to a team of full of confidence and ambition.

I'm fortunate enough to have obtained a copy of the dvd and watched it again. I've noticed that 4 of Tuckman's Five-Stage Model of group development is present in the movie namely forming, storming, norming and performing.

Forming Stage

This scene shows Forming Stage where the delinquents get together for the first time, and the head coach, Porter, identifies for them their nature of their task and their relationship to each other in the squad.

Storming Stage


This scene typifies the Storming Stage when 2 members in the team experienced conflict, being from different rival gangs.

Norming Stage



The Norming Stage is the stage when members, after settling initial disagreements, find ways to work with one another and this scene is a great example of that. In this scene, the whole team, even those two who earlier showed strong dislike for each other, for the first time in the movie agreed on something and decided to take action as a group; even though it was against coach Porter's orders.

Performing Stage


Finally, in the movie we have a scene that nicely depicts the Performing Stage. In this poignant scene very late in the movie, we see the team bonding together and being absolutely focused on their task at hand. After the rousing pep talk and team encouragement, the team of delinquents went on to get their work and tasks done on the field, to win their match despite being behind during the half time break.

Whilst the movie may be more about team dynamics, it also touches on some other comms concepts of prejudiced perceptions (of juvenile delinquents) as well as interpersonal communication (the interaction between the coach and individual team members and how he helped them realise their potential).

So, if you have cable or just feel like watching some sports related movie..give "Gridiron Gang" a go..you might like it. =)

Getting personal without getting close.(And a shameless self plug!)

In many relationships, especially romantic ones, interpersonal communication plays a key role in maintaining a healthy and sustainable relationship.The traditional view of interpersonal communication is one that involves a face-to-face interaction of sorts.

But have you ever found yourself in a situation when a "normal" face-to-face interaction is simply not enough or rather, not exactly the ideal method of getting your message across to the other party?

Take for example the shy and meek boy who secretly has been admiring that cute girl who has been sitting in the 3rd row in class for some time. He wants to get his feelings across to her, at least tell her that he's interested and wants to get to know her better.
Or the forlorn lover who has to contend with his angry partner after a heated argument. He wants to apologize but she doesn't even want to see his face at the moment.

What can they do?

This is where non face-to-face but nonetheless still personal aspect of communication comes into the fray. Say hello to written letters, poems, emails, mobile text and voice messages guys!

Many may argue that since there is a lack of direct feedback and the physical detachment of letters and the such, messages lose their "personal" touch and may not be as effective as when it is being conveyed in person.

I would like to think otherwise. I'm not saying that face-to face interaction is not important but in some cases, these non face-to-face communication methods are just as good, if not better, than their face-to-face counterparts. Imagine stammering in front of that cute girl and ending up looking and acting like a total fool. You can say goodbye to a good first impression or even further contact with her. The poor shy boy may actually stand a better chance in getting to know her if he sat down, gathered his thoughts and presented his case in a clear and organised manner in a letter or email. Maybe a good way to calm that angry girlfriend of yours is to write her a nice romantic poem saying you're sorry.

The emotions and effort needed to string together a poem or a letter, using the appropriate words to convey intended messages, should not be discounted as "less personal" as compared to simply saying in person, "I like you" or "I'm sorry."

Writing personal letters, poems and songs may seem a tad "antique" to some but in my opinion can be just as charming a way to get to know someone. I'm sure there are some of you out there who agree with me.

As for this shy boy, when he wants to tell someone he likes her, he grabs his guitar and either start penning down his thoughts or recording that famous sappy song.. doing something like this,



and dropping it into her MSN shared folder...

That's my way of getting personal without really getting close. What's yours?

Stop blogging and start doing!

Here’s something interesting which I came across today as I was browsing for new material for this week’s entry:



The full report can be found here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/375693/1/.html

From blogging to taking action!

So, it seems that Singaporean bloggers are finally doing more than just typing out, discussing and imposing their opinions on serious issues online and are actually trying to reach out to the public by making public appearances and engaging in public debates and trying to make an actual difference! Hurrah! Good for them!

Here we can see the bloggers shifting from the typical interactive model of communication with their fellow online buddies and moving to a more face-to-face discussion of ideas like public debates which is in line (somewhat) with the transactional model of communication.

I feel that this is a good step up for these bloggers to convey their ideas and opinions more effectively as

1) Communication is not restricted to purely verbal cues and use of language only as is in an online setting

2) They are able to engage non blog/net-savvy people and convey their messages to a larger audience

3) The anonymity of the Internet is eliminated, bloggers will have to be more responsible in dissemination of information to their target audience

They’re really just here to hear what they want to hear! (Say that quickly 10 times and it’s a tongue twister!)

The bloggers were on hand to discuss several issues of Singapore’s public transport system which were brought up in their proposal to the government for improving public transport. For those interested to read on their proposal, you can find it here: http://theonlinecitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/proposal-vff.pdf

The issues discussed included:

1) Increasing motor-vehicle taxes

2) Subsidies for public transport

3) Enforcement of higher service standards by public transport operators.

4) Environmental issues concerning transport emissions

These were some of the responses from those who came to listen to the discussion of ideas (watch the youtube clip from 1:10 onwards):

“It concerns my living... because my pocket money will be getting less.”

“I think it interests everybody, right? Because transport fare is too high, so everyone is affected. Everyone.”

“Transportation should remain affordable, especially for the needy.”

Notice that no one commented on the standard of service or the environmental issues, rather all were more concerned about the fares and the issue of money. This got me thinking, “So all these people came and all they cared about was really just the fare hike announcement...” It seems to me that, whilst it may be on hindsight unfair to judge over 100 people over comments made by 3 people who were interviewed, those who came to witness the debate perceived and internalized only the monetary aspect of the discussions.

This, in my opinion, is a good example of perception theory in practice. From their responses for the interview, we can get a basic idea of how these 3 attendees have selected, organized and interpreted the ideas that were discussed by the bloggers that day. For them, all that mattered was how to cope with the fare hike and were interested particularly in ideas that would help to alleviate financial burdens in the face of the impending fare hike.

And so it was, bloggers and non-bloggers alike on the 14th of September 2008 came and gathered to the oft-empty and underutilized Hong Lim Park Speaker’s Corner and had a ball of a time discussing and debating on Singapore’s Public transport System and the October fare hike.

Wow...Public speaking AND a proposal to the government! Even the anti-blogger and cynic in me have to applaud that. Well done.

"Ad"-venturing in a car..a coupé to be exact..

..And so as I was panicking and trying to come up with something to write about, I came across this full page advertisement (ad) on The Straits Times, Thursday September 4th, and it immediately caught my eye.

Besides the fact that I have always been a Mercedes-Benz automobile fan, what strikes me most about the ad is its stark simplicity, direct message and its extensive use of the color black to invoke certain emotions from its target audience.


Well then, let’s begin to analyze the ad and try to apply the concepts that we’ve learned so far in COM 101. I shall begin with the choice of color:


The color black, in my opinion, is used extensively and solely to invoke our persuasion appeal of “pathos”. Black here is used to arouse our notions of power, sophistication and luxury. It is also used to effectively contrast against the white glares and white fonts to conjure some notion of professionalism and class.


Next, let’s bring our attention to the Mercedes-Benz symbol, located at the top right corner of the ad:


The Mercedes-Benz symbol is synonymous with the concepts of power, wealth and reliability. Especially back in the late 1990’s, to own a Mercedes-Benz car is akin to flexing your financial status on the streets of Singapore. The Mercedes-Benz symbol, which has been around since the early 1900’s, also speaks volumes of its rich history in the automobile industry, further enhancing its credibility and reliability status. Thus clearly we can see that the symbol alone appeals to our “pathos” (notions of wealth and power) and “ethos” (appeals of credibility and reliability).

Then we come to the showcase of the ad, a sleek black sports car, a new model in the Mercedes-Benzs stable of sports cars, the CLC Sports Coupé.




Notice that again the choice of color for the coupé is black. Not only does it reinforce the notions of power and luxury, I personally think a black sports coupé is kind of sexy as the color black accentuates curves and overall sleekness of a car, especially a sports one. To further appeal to our “pathos”, the white glare behind the coupé adds a “shine” to the coupé and a dream-like appearance to the car. Aren’t we all attracted to shiny, glimmering things? Don’t we all dream of uncovering wonderful treasures?

It is appropriate then the main text of the ad reads:

Here we see the advertisers toying with our “logos” and “pathos”. By associating the coupé to a “dream car”, the advertisers are inadvertently telling its audience that the object of their dreams has finally arrived and that their automobile and driving fantasies can become a reality with the CLC Sports Coupé. A simple question is all it takes to invoke a sense of fantasy which is then immediately grounded to reality with the simple reason, “The new CLC Sports Coupé is here”.

Finally at the bottom right corner of the ad, we see the words “Mercedes-Benz” clearly and proudly printed as a reminder and reinforcement of its symbol, strengthening its “ethos” appeal.

So there you have it! Mercedes-Benz new print advertisement for its new line of Sports Coupé deconstructed and explained, albeit rather simply, using the concepts of “logos”, “pathos” and “ethos”. Simple yet effective in getting its intended message across to its target audience..

So what do i think of the ad?:
Now…if only I have wads of cash to burn and actually owning a driver’s license…