chapter 1-2 thoughts

     To be frank, the readings started out super dry and confusing. I can still feel the headache as I think back on it. There were times when I wanted to throw the book across the floor. There were numerous times that I felt like the author over used the term communication ethics, like he used the word to describe the word. I realize that the word communication ethics is a very hard word to describe, and that there are many different forms to it, but describing it in so many different ways kind of hinders me from grasping a concrete meaning. For example communication is a broad term, but we all have a pretty general definition and that is the transmission of some type of message be it sign,verbal, nonverbal, etc.All those definitions made the reading some what confusing, but as I dove deeper I gained enough mental strength to pull some key concepts.
   I did however enjoy some of the examples they used like the baseball reference when it spoke on the philosophies of communication and the why's and the how's.  In the example they asked, "what is baseball" and the responder could answer in many different ways to explain the game. Then the author added what if the question asker is from another country known for a different sport and wonders,"why anyone would want to play that." Then they introduce a new perspective as to how to answer that question by sharing the history of baseball and its ties to the country and the industrial revolution, connecting meaningful phrases like "the american past time." In all things honest as I read some of the explanations of why anyone would play baseball, I remember how fun it was and it made me want to play the game again. Especially when the stated, "baseball is not a game about failure, but, more accurately, about the patience and tenacity needed for success." This statement its self has a lot of meaning behind it which ties into a lot of other values. This statement had a lot of power words like value, success, tenacity, failure, all of which inspire the audience.
   There was another section that really caught my attention which was the section on narrative. It was interesting because Ive been talking about narrative in a few other comm classes and by the given definition of narrative, it ties into culture and is time sensitive. I think it ties into culture because "narrative is  a story agreed upon by a group of people," but which people. The book goes on to say narratives provide guidelines for human action and religious traditions, scientific enterprise, and political philosophies are seen as narratives. In my opinion human actions, and religious traditions are culturally based. They are learned behavior, passed down throughout generations.