http://www.marcomblog.com/2006/01/15/blogging-for-pr-internships/

Yes, as an employer I’d recommend all PR students to learn about the impact which blogging etc is having on the media, corporate reputations and the communications industry. One of the best ways to learn is to practice - so set up a blog, record a podcast, read and comment on other blogs, so you learn to mores. It’s not something you can really learn from a book or second-hand.

Stephen secured his internship via his blog - it helped him make connections and gave him a showcase for his thinking. At the moment, that’s a differentiator. Soon it will be a routine checkbox.

The bigger picture though is that since the PR and media industries are changing so much at the moment, there is a massive opportunity for those new to PR to rival the old hands when it comes to navigating these dynamics. None of us can lay claim to lengthy experience in these tools, nor can we confidently claim to know how this will pan out. So students can deliver value at a really early stage in their careers.

So jump in - it’ll help you get a job, build your experience and it might even be fun.

A comparison between Chinese and American use of communication styles with reference to high and low-context culture.

Introduction

This paper would examine the comparison between Chinese and American culture, based on the hall’s communication pattern of high-context and low-context communication. The verbal and nonverbal communications were the key concepts that we used to compare the two cultures. The literature review contained theories from books and journals; the findings were compared with the present studies about the culture in the case study where some examples of the present Chinese culture were examined.

Hoftsede & Smith (2002: p.41): culture is changing from time to time” The rules are emergent in social interaction, they are forever reinventing and reinterpreting themselves. It only manifests itself through social action that always takes place in a changing context.” Because culture is dynamic, it is important to compare the findings and present the effective conclusions and recommendations to encounter the barriers to communication.

The background of this study was based on the China’s transition from the communist country into a very developed country has brought a huge impact on its young generation. Globalisation and fast track economy has given every Chinese people equal opportunity also changed people’s lifestyles which are more westernized these days. This paper would provide the knowledge about the emergence of language and non-verbal communication in China to give an insight of the low-context Chinese culture and the comparison to the high-context culture such as American culture.

Nixon & Bull (2005) argues that intercultural communication has become more common in recent years with increases in immigration, world travel and international business and the advancement of telecommunication technologies. Obviously there is an increasing need for people to acquire necessary knowledge and skills and appropriate attitudes to achieve successful intercultural communication.

Aims and Objectives

- To investigate the difference between Chinese and North - American communication styles in terms of low-context and high-context culture.

- To outline the barriers of communication that may encounter in the relationships between American and Chinese culture.

- To examine the evolution of the communication style (verbal and non verbal communication) and culture changes in the present days

- To distinguish the aspects of assimilation in order to overcome the barriers of communication through case studies.

Literature Review

Culture

“Every culture has it own world view, its own way of thinking of activity, time and human nature; its own way of perceiving elf and its own system of social organisation.” Jandt, (1998: p.30)

Everybody has different communication styles to express their meaning. One example that differs the Chinese and American culture both verbal and nonverbal communication practices can be seen in the demonstration.

In low-context culture, demonstrations are viewed as the last, most desperate act in a series of escalating events. It is a message a plea, a scream at anguish and anger for the larger society to do something. In china, the Red Guard riots are promulgated from the top of the social order, it is used to produce a show of strength by Mao Tse–Tung; and to give pause to the opposition and shake things up at middle – levels away to mobilize society, not destroying it. It aimed to erase imperialism, corruption and against the bad things, Chinese people had a good perception about the demonstration and did not take demonstrations to seriously. (Hall, 1976: p.94)

In the example above, because of the culture people have different social behaviour and assumption about aggressive verbal and nonverbal communication uses. In this essay, we would talk more about the verbal and nonverbal communication according to Hall’s classic pattern of communication.

High context and low context communication

“A high-context communication or message is one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicitly transmitted part of the message. A low- context communication is just the opposite; i.e., the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code.” Hall (1976)

Hall, (1967) examined the similarities and differences in both perception and communication. He categorised culture as high-context and low-context culture. The assumption that based hall’s theory is:” One of the functions of culture is to provide a highly selective screen between man and the outside world. Culture designates what we pay attention to and what we ignore.” Context can be defined as “the information that surround an event; It is inextricably bound up with the meaning of the event.” (ibid)

Gudykunst et al. (1996:p.32) stated that: “High-context communication is characterised as being indirect, ambiquous, and understated with speakers being reserved and sensitive to listeners. Low-context communication, in contrast, is characterised as being direct, explicit, open, precise, and as being consistent with one’s feelings.”

In high-context culture, people are homogenous, with similar experiences information network and the like. More often found in the traditional culture because the culture has produces consistent message and response to the environment from time to time. Meaning is not necessary contained in words. High-context culture use a lot of non verbal communication, gestures and silence are communication signals that are significant to be considered.

Verbal communication

“Verbal communication (semantics, syntax) conveys content of message oral and written.” Samovar & Porter (2004)

Members of low-context cultures are more concerned with the clarity in conversations (Kim, 1994) and view clarity as necessary for effective communication more than member of high context cultures. Members of low-context culture perceive direct requests as the most effective strategy for accomplishing their goals, while member of high-context cultures perceive direct request the least effective. (Kim & Wilson, 1994)

Samovar and Porter (2004: p.78) stated that “Low-context culture talks more, speaks more rapidly and often raises their voices.” They like to “speak up and “say what’s on their mind. They admire person who has moderately large vocabulary and who can express themselves clearly. In high-context culture, people who rely on verbal communication are perceived as less credible.

Gao & Ting – Toomey (1998, p. 36) studied about Han Xu which implies to Chinese belief about implicit talk. When Chinese vaguely express an idea, an opinion, or a suggestion, they expect their conversational partner to be highly involved and to take an active role in deciphering messages as well as in mutually creating meanings. Young (1994; Gao & Ting - Toomey, 1998) indicated that a Chinese speaker serves the role of guiding rather than dictating a conversation by employing various skills to suggest and to evoke.

Language

Tsuda (1986) argues that language is a significant aspect of a person’s ethnic and cultural identity: “Language should be considered a mirror of its culture. It is a guide to social reality and builds up the real world through the language habits of a group. ”

Kaplan (1966: Zhu, 2003) found that linearity of paragraphing is basically in line with directness, while circularity is seen as relating to indirectness and digression. Some Germanic languages such as German, Dutch, and English tend to be linear, while some Oriental languages such as Korean, Japanese and Chinese tend to be circular.

Kirkpatrick (1993: Zhu, 2003) tried to defined that Chinese language has a progressive from reason for request towards request. He used an example of the interaction between the senior expatriate officer (EO) in a Hong Kong police station. The constable (CPC) wants to request a day's compassionate leave to take his sick mother into hospital.

CPC: Sir

EO: Yes, what is it?

EPC: My mother is not very well sir.

EO: So?

EPC: She has to go into hospital sir.

EO: Well, get on with it. What do you want?

CPC: On Thursday sir.

EO: Bloody hell man, what do you want?

(At this point, the police constable mumbled something like 'Nothing sir' and left the office.)

Kirkpatrick argues that the above rhetorical structure indicates an opposite tendency from English in which a request would normally precede the reason. The above request would be reworded into something like this in English: I am asking for a leave because my mother is sick in hospital. This is an interesting observation that supports Kaplan's circularity of the Chinese discourse patterns. By circularity, Kaplan (1966: Zhu, 2003) refers to the indirect way of coming to a point of argument. Based on this, Kirkpatrick concludes that English discourse tends to arrange arguments from request to reasons for request. The opposite is true of the Chinese who develop from reasons for request to the request, thus revealing a 'because-therefore' structure in Kirkpatrick's terms.

Non Verbal Communication

“Nonverbal communication (visual) conveys framework, context and ‘innuendos’.” Samovar & Porter (2004)

Andersen pointed out that “High-context cultures are more reliant on and tuned in to nonverbal communication.” Information provided through gestures and silence. Gao & Ting-Toomey (1998) stated one expression called Han xu which also explains the importance of nonverbal communication in Chinese culture. Han xu involves a lack of expressiveness that is apparent in everyday life in Chinese. Chinese are socialized not to openly express their personal emotions, especially the strong and negative ones. (Hsu, 1971: Gao &Ting –Toomey, 1998) For instance: love, Chinese rarely verbalise their emotional love, and love is often expressed through caring and helping other. (Potter, 1988) meanwhile American uses “I love you” expression to everybody that they like easily. Therefore unspoken actions, not words are emphasized in Chinese communication.

Han xu also influences how joy and anger are expressed. Chinese person is rarely seen jumping up and down upon receiving a piece of good news. Chinese usually open a gift in private rather than in front of the gift-givers, which can be explained by their face-sensitive concern for not “imposing” or “displaying” their feeling inappropriately.

Face and image is the most important part in the Chinese society

Face is conceptualized as the interaction between the degree of threats or considerations a member offers to another party, and the degree of threats or considerations a member offers to another party and the degree of claim for a sense of self-respect by other party in given situation. (Ting-Toomey, 1988). Member of low-context culture emphasise on self-face maintenance. Meanwhile the high-context culture emphasise on mutual-face and other-face maintenance more, so that face management is influenced by the amount of politeness behaviour. Face is considered as an important thing in China, because it connects to self-reputation. Losing face, saving face and giving face is very important and should be taken into consideration at all times. Losing your temper, confronting someone, putting someone on the spot, arrogant behavior, or failing to accord proper respect can cause a loss of face. In high-context society, Americans use humour as a way to maintain face embarrassing situation.

Furthermore, gesture is widely used also in connection with saving face, for instance; in a conference room usually higher level and important people get the front seat and the VIP seats as a gesture to threat them with more respect.

Eye contact and handshakes are another source of nonverbal communication. According to Eitington (1997: p.217) low-context cultures consider them essential to good communication, but high-context cultures avoid eye contact to signify the deference to authority and respect. Direct eye contact is considered to be rude.

Space is also use to communicate in high-context cultures; they have less physical space between them when communicating than those in low-context cultures. The concept of “‘bubble’ of space” (Hall, 1959: Manfred, 2004) is the space a person moves and in which he or she feels comfortable. Scollon and Scollon (1995) point out Asians in general have a smaller sphere of personal space than westerners. With different expectations of personal space, a Chinese speaking to an American might find that he or she is trying to keep a distance while on the other hand the American might feel that the Chinese is intruding into his or her personal space. This inevitably affects the evaluation of each other and interpretations of interactions.

Case study

The Changing values

Chu & Ju (1993: Jandt, 1998: p.230) speculated that a century ago nearly all the 18 traditional Chinese Confucian values would have received a positive high rating. But the history of Communist Revolution, modernisation and globalisation has changed the way Chinese people think. A survey was conducted in 1993; there were evidences that some values received negatives ratings because of the changing relationship between men and women, the changing attitude about large families and also the changing of harmony and tolerance. (Appendix 1)

Moreover, economy development also changed the Chinese people values, according to BBC (2005); China's economy was 16.8% larger in 2004 than initially calculated. In this case, Ong & Nonini (1997) argued as country has become richer, they also moved toward the individualist end of the spectrum meaning that they would become high context culture. Wealth makes it easier to for people to take care of themselves, to make it on their own.

In results of modernisation and globalisation, American and European investors are developing their business, influencing China with western culture. In 2006, US publication will launch Rolling Stone magazine in China. They focus on China's emerging youth culture as their local content as well as foreign arts and entertainment.

On article about the present Chinese culture McGivering (2005) investigated the changing cultures by examined Wuhan City in China. In the city, young generation (urban youth) consume popular culture which have western influence; like nightclubs, pop music (Karaoke), and working out in the gym instead of spending the time with the families, listening to Chinese classical music, or doing the tai-chi in the park with the elderly people. (Appendix 2)

These new culture influences has a tremendous impact to the society as well. People have become more individualistic and fashioned to consumerism habits. "Before, people lived together in harmony and the neighbours cared for each other. Nowadays, we are separated from each other most of the time. We don't spend a lot of time together." (Fangfang, 2005: McGivering, 2005)

Moreover, Huge popularity of the Internet, fax machines, satellites, and cable TV have swept away cultural boundaries and making English as a common language in the society as well. More Chinese people use English expressions because of the global entertainment spread the western values in Chinese society. Some expressions are used especially in the cyber world, more to the crossbreed of English and Chinese shorthand. The changing phrases were studied by York, (2005) stating that: “The Chinese word for eight is ba, so 88 can be pronounced as ba-ba or bye-bye. Some of the new slang is based on puns and wordplay. Instead of asking, "What?" in a computer message, many use the Chinese character xiami, which means "shrimp as small as rice." Because Xiami sounds a bit like shenme, the Chinese word for "what."

Barriers to communication

Even if Chinese people are moving towards the western culture, Chinese people are still stick to Confucian values, for instance; family, education, high savings, hard work, home ownership, and clean living are the Confucian values that differs Chinese culture with American culture. Meanwhile, American people have their own values which are individualism and freedom of speech.

Jandt (1998: p.68) argued that there were 6 barriers to communication which are anxiety, assuming similarities instead of differences, ethnocentrism, stereotypes and prejudice, nonverbals, and language problems.

Anxiety is the nervous feeling that affects communication when you focus more on your feeling and you do not pay attention to what other people saying. If you are speaking to someone in your second language; you might worry that those people does not understand your meaning or if you make any grammar mistakes or if the other people speak too fast and they use words that you do not understand. For some people anxiety over speaking English properly contributed to avoiding interactions with the U.S. co-workers and limiting interactions both on and off the job to other Chinese only. (ibid)

Furthermore, assuming similarities instead of differences is a natural thing to do if you do not have any background about a culture. Jadnt (1998) argued that this feeling could cause people to ignore the important differences that cultures share in common, so that when you encounter a new culture just assume nothing and ask what the customs are.

Another barrier to communication is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism believes in the superiority of one’s own culture, for example, Kristof and WuDunn (1995) Chinese people consider foreigners (White people) as the outsiders who have lower dignity than the local people in China because foreigners sometimes do not speak mandarin and they are not familiar with the customs. The less extreme form of ethnocentrism can be labeled as cultural nearsightedness, or taking one’s own culture for granted and neglecting other cultures. It often results in making assumptions that simple things are the same everywhere. For instance; Based on its 1982 census, China has 87 million people sharing the name Li – the most common surname in the world. “Smith” is shared by 2.4 million people in the United States. These behaviours lead to rejection of the richness and knowledge of other cultures. It excludes other point of view and ethnocentricity orientation is restrictive and limiting.

Moreover, stereotypes and prejudice. Stereotyping is the judgement made about others on the basis of their ethnic group memberships. It can have a negative effect when people start uses them to interpret behaviour. (92) In America Chinese people are associated with the “Model Minority” who achieves success form through hard work perseverance, silent stoicism, strong family ties and strong support for education. Because of this American drew the conclusion that Chinese people are extroverted or not being free thinker which is to narrow and confining.

Meanwhile prejudice refers to the irrational dislike, suspicion, race, religion, or sexual orientation (Rothenberg, 1992: Jandt, 1998: p.74) American perceived China as a poor and dictatorship country, because of the communism in China (influenced by the Marxist –Chinese cultural revolution); China is often linked to the despotism of Chairman Mao, who forced farmer into communes, who isolated the country from outside influences and he also abolished private property (1948-1976).

Communication use both verbal and nonverbal messages during a conversation. If a speaker uses nonverbal codes poorly or inappropriately, a listener may consider the person a poor speaker and sometimes misunderstanding can occur. For instance: to most people in the America, silence means lack of attention and lack of initiative. A person must speak up to participate. In contrast to the Chinese, silence means agreement; you should only talk if you had something important to add. You should always let the other talk first. (ibid)

Languages problems will lead to misunderstanding. According to Bernstein (1997) high context culture is restricted and low context culture is elaborated. Sometimes, talking down to someone is low - contexting him, telling him more than he needs to know. Misunderstanding was most probably compound by their differing communication styles. Language level differences are the trigger to misunderstanding. High context culture are most indirect, they don’t want to show their objectiveness to saves their colleague’s face. Meanwhile they use a lot of body language. The low context culture is more verbally communicated so that it’s more straight forward and comprehensive. Moreover, too many “pleases”, “Thank you”, and “I’m sorry” will be interpreted as sarcasm and coldness to Chinese people. In warm, comfortable close Chinese relationships, these words that are used to make a friendly communication are characteristically missing. People in America really do verbalise everything that they say sometimes when they compliment someone, it will be interpreted as a very serious matter to the Chinese culture, because Chinese culture never compliment people as long as they know that those people are really worth to compliment.

Recommendations

To overcome the barrier of communication between Chinese and American, one must learn and respect the culture. it is important to understand ways of relating in the Chinese culture, one needs to enquire into the interconnected nature of personal relationships and to uncover some of the guiding principles embedded in those relationships such as the way Chinese people communicate in verbal and nonverbal communication.

In order to overcome the anxiety; people need to be confident with speaking in the second language. "Business in China depends heavily on relationships or "guanxi." Most Americans do not make any attempt to learn Chinese, so, when one does, it is appreciated deeply and helps pave the way for developing such relationships.” Benz (1981)

To overcome the Nonverbal communication barrier, American needs to be aware of Chinese people expression. For instance: A Chinese may be so hungry that you can hear his or her stomach rumbling, but if you ask the person, “Have you had dinner?” he or she would answer “yes.” Thus, observing one’s body language and facial expression helps to determine what is on a Chinese person’s mind. (Bo, 1992)

Language differences could be overcome by using intermediaries. “Interactions with strangers often are initiated by a third person who is known to both parties. Intermediaries both formal and informal play a very important role in Chinese personal relationships and also language translation.” Gao & Ting-Toomey (1994)

Jandt (1998: p.67) suggest that American people need to separate their thoughts and their prejudice about Chinese people from their communist party-led government. Chinese citizens are generally pro-United States. It can be seen from the acceptance of U.S icons from KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, etc. that have popular and growing franchises in Beijing. Furthermore, the pro- United States attitude can be seen on the support from individual Chinese citizens about the Gulf War, which showed respect for U.S political freedom and technological sophistication.

Conclusion

The importance of increasing "cultural awareness" has been emphasised by Brislin and Yoshida (1994: Nixon & Bull, 2005) explained that becoming aware of culture and cultural differences would help people to monitor their ethnocentrism, to respect and be sensitive toward culturally different others, and also to become comfortable with the differences.

In summary, one must understand the certain values and norms that their counterpart holds, for instance the indirect and less open value of high-context society that could lead to conflict in the communication. Conflict has to be dealt discreetly and subtly. A good intercultural communicators use their knowledge to select message behaviour that is appropriate and effective for that context.

References

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Appendix 1

Endorsement and rejection of traditional Chinese values

Traditional Chinese values	Endorsement Index
Long historical heritage	89.7
Diligence and frugality	86.2
Loyalty and devotion to state	67.5
Benevolent father, filial son	48
Generosity and virtues	39.8
Respect for traditions	38.5
Submission to authority	33.2
Preciousness of harmony	29.5
Tolerance, propriety, deference	25.3
Chastity for women	-13.5
Glory to ancestors	-23.8
A house full of sons and grandsons	-35.5
Farmers high, merchants low	-43.3
Pleasing superiors	-48.9
Discretion for self-preservation	-55.9
Differentiation between women and men	-59.2
Way of the Golden mean	-59.6
Three obedience and four virtues	-64
Source: Chu & Ju (1993, p.222).

Cognitive Consistency Approach in Propaganda

The main principles of persuasion and influence based on the cognitive approach

Persuasion is the way people communicate to influence others’ opinions and actions.

Basically, Larson (2001: p.1) argues that persuasion does not attempt to force people into taking a certain action, but more to move the recipient towards considering taking the action by giving them good logical, emotional and cultural reasons.

Cognition refers to the knowledge and intelligence of understanding and learning. Wagner (2003: p.2) Cognitive psychology defines human behavior as a triadic, dynamic, and reciprocal interaction of personal factors, behavior, and the environment (Bandura: 1986, Stone: 1998) Cognitive psychology has the role with the internal processes involved in making sense on the environment and deciding what action might be appropriate towards the persuasion process (Eysenck & Keane, 2005).

The main sequential stages of cognitive processing. (Groome et al., 2004)

Perception is the analysis of the process to make sense of the info. Perception is recording the input received, attention helps guide processing to important aspects. Hovland et al. (1953: Larson, 2001)) studied a chain of five steps on information processing. The first factor that changed people’s attitude in a persuasive communication is attention; the recipient has to attend to the messages to get persuaded by it, otherwise if they do not put their attention to process the message, they would not be persuaded.

The second part is learning and memory storage, it consists of short term storage and long term storage, it is processing an input to a deep automatic processes (familiarity judgment) and making use of schemas controlled processes (Context recollection) from pass experience. Retention persuades people through their memory; message is remembered and stored so that when the time comes, the memory would be retrieved.

Retrieval process (Mandler, 1980: Larson, 2001)

Familiarity: Automatic effortless involuntary unconscious

Recollection: controlled effortful voluntary conscious

Thinking involves problem solving that moves from problem recognition and then followed by a series of step of solutions and goal state. Thinking also involves decision making that selects one of the presented options and possibilities. It leads inductive reasoning (conclusion based on logical thinking) and deductive reasoning (conclusion based on the available findings).

Jones (1989) studied that through feedback and reciprocity, a person's own reality is formed by the interaction of the environment and one's cognitions. In addition, cognitions change over time as a function of maturation and experience (i.e. attention, span, memory, ability to form symbols, reasoning skills).

Commitment and consistency theory

Cialdini (2001) argues that people has the desire to remain consistent with what they have chosen. Once they are committed to value, they would convince themselves that they have made the right decision.

According to Freedman & Fraser (1966: Cialdini, 2001: p.67) people remain consistent when they are committed with something. Once he has agreed to the request (in this case “DRIVE CAREFULLY”), People may feel that they are changed because they are involved with good causes or taking action in things he believes in.

People who do not have a consistent belief, words, and deeds are identified as confused and two-faced in many cultures. In one of the Indonesian proverb, a person who does not have a firm conviction is perceived “As if water on talas leaf. “

Cognitive consistency principle has the power to direct human action. Even in the situations where it is not sensible way to be, we would automatically remain consistent and produce the same responds because we want to save our time and does not want to confront any contradiction issue to other. “We need only believe, say, or do whatever is consistent with our earlier decision.” Cialdini, (2001: p.55)

Moreover, cognitive consistency theory has the power to influence people to agree with one topic so that they would escape from troublesome consequences of thought or regret. For instance, people are willing to pay a lot of money for going to the gym, they perceived that when they join and pay for the gym they would be healthier, without even thinking what they should do in the gym and how much effort should they put practicing in the gym.

Moreover, cognitive consistency would influence people automatically to fulfil their request even if they have actually substituted the product with something else. For instance, Cialdini (2001) states about his experience in a toyshop, he wanted to buy the Robot for his son, but it was sold out in the Christmas time and he bought other toys as the substitute. But the in the new year the Robot are displayed in the shop, because he promised and committed to his son request, he bought the Robot even if the son has already received his Christmas present.

When the persuaders use this tactic, the recipient would experience tension that falls to cognitive balance, cognitive congruity and cognitive dissonance process.

Cognitive balance

Heider (1958: Larson, 2001) argued that balance theory is based on the simplest form of human communication; one person communicating with another about single topic. The whole idea of Heider’s theory is when person experience a psychological tension, he would try to create balance.

Thus, a balanced state is obtained when, for instance, P likes O, P likes X, and O likes X; or when P likes O, P dislikes X, and O dislikes X; or when P dislikes O, P likes X, and O dislikes X. (Zajonc, 1971)

Heider (1958: Hill, 2005) argues that change most likely to happen in weaker link/ relationship. When people do not have a close relationship with someone, they tend to be more compromise and tolerate others opinion.

Cialdini (2001) argues that once people make a choice or take a stand, they would encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. To create balanced situation the persuaders strengthen their receiver minds by telling the receiver what they have already known in their mind.

Newcomb’s symmetry theory (1951: Mansted, 1996) is also based on maintaining balance. He argues that people tend to agreed on many things with people that they attracted to and the one they share the same interest (liking).

Furthermore, Osgood and Tannenbaum (1955: Stone, 1998) focus on the measurement of like and dislike degree to predict the direction of change. It concerns about people who experience complex condition is more likely to change their attitudes and have the similar opinion with the one which they have the least amount of similarity. Conflicts and rejections might arise in the inconsistencies message when you hold certain belief and when other people hold different position. In order to create balance, when the sender wants to change the belief of the receiver persuader just speak up their view to shake the receiver’s mind and create imbalance and dissonance. The receiver who always seeks out psychological equilibrium would identify what put them into the imbalance state and then try to create balance by compromising, so that minor tensions and inconsistencies will be reduced by self-persuasion and changing beliefs.

Hogg (1998: p.99) argues that cognitive balance has social impact theory which stimulate to potential grouping. For instance, increase conformity, group belongingness, and cohesiveness. Group size also impact the level of consistency in the group itself, so that the larger the group the greater the group impact and the closer the group in space and time the impact of consistency are greater as well.

For instance, the concepts of balance, symmetry, and congruity can be seen in the way of American society changes their perception and belief.

“Many people do not wholly agree with a solely Democrat or Republican stance, but in American society, the majority tend to side with one or the other. Balance theory suggests that these people tend to focus more on the issues with which they are concerned and push those with which they disagree to the periphery.” (Woods, 2001)

The three theories state that humans attempt to create a cognitive balance that they believe to be rational and consistency as the central of motivation of behaviour. Furthermore, an individual’s attitude toward an object or person is influenced by object or other person, and in order to achieve balance, people will generally change their attitude towards the person or object with which they feel the most reinforcement. (Woods, 2001)

Applications of cognitive balance, commitment and consistency theory

We analyse the way persuader used cognitive balance in the health and security presentation to the employee of Flower world.

P

P – Alan Barber – Health and security expert

O – Flower World employee

X – Terrorism must be prevented

	O		X

He talked about terrorism ideas and he tried to give the idea of terrorism by defining the important role of every employee in the flower world in order to prevent terrorism. The persuaders used a good argument, he used a lot of pictures of terrorism acts to create emotional feeling in the receivers’ mind, he did not talk too specific about certain religious to prevent stereotyping and it would offend the employee from Afghanistan.

The receivers felt committed to protect their own lives, their workplace and many people’s lives that could get infected by the flower virus.

Because the receivers were from different kind of nationality and religion (Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Poland), the persuaders tried to create balance and consistent message by using terrorism acts from many countries so that at least people would feel that they have bond with the other people who got affected by the terrorism acts (for instance: in Russia, Afghanistan, Israel, etc). By recalling this terrorist acts in the employees’ mind, it would create balance and consistent message in employees’ mind that terrorist act is bad. When the employees committed in preventing the terrorism acts in the World Flower Factory, they felt that they have maintained balance in the society where they are working.

Cognitive dissonance

The idea of Festinger’s theory (1957) is when people experience a psychological tension; they would try to reduce it by relating the differences to pass experiences and belief to create an agreement in their selves. Differences or dissonance might exist, if people talk about sensitive messages and there are two non-fitting pieces of knowledge about the world, for instance; topic about war, abortion, religion, etc. If you dislike a person and you dislike their views, what they say is unlikely to say something seemingly out of character or fails to accord with expectation or their image. When they hear something that they dislike, they would start using defensive communication. The reactions vary from not concentrating on messages to deliberately misinterpreting or misunderstanding the sender’s motive as well as his/her message. (Hill & Watson, 2004: p.61)

Larson (2001) states five sources of dissonance in the society. The first one is loss of group prestige. The loss of the America’s prestige can be reflected on the scandal of President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky that was revealed in the whole nation. Member of concerned institution moved quickly to reduce the dissonance by using humour, apologies and explanation to the public.

Economic loss also creates dissonance, because when economic values are in danger, people feel psychological dissonance and insecurity. They try to reduce it by supporting the politicians who promise them the economy stability.

Loss of personal prestige is the source of dissonance. When people are losing respect of themselves and from other. When people are getting fatter or older, they try to reduce the dissonance or the bad feeling of themselves by consuming more vitamins and dieting.

Furthermore, uncertainty prediction concludes that people are unable to predict their future. To reduce it they would try to protect themselves from the negative circumstance of the future, by going back to school, by buying insurance, or start investing on houses, etc.

Finally guilt, people would urged to avoid guilt by having enough medicine on hand before their kids start coughing which will caused dissonance if you do not have enough medicine.

Strategies to reduce the dissonance

Perloff (2002) argues that dissonance is psychologically uncomfortable, psychologically arousing and drives individuals to reduce it. Cooper et al. (2005) examine how people used some reasons to reduce the dissonance. First strategy is, Induce compliance is when a person obey a request that is contrary to his/her attitude, for example, someone may tell his romantic partner how much he enjoyed the ballet when, in fact, he could barely keep his eyes open during the performance. People try to reduce the dissonance by bring them more in line with the content of their statement.

Reason to reduce dissonance also occurs when people choose an option. When they decided to choose something, they would start to think about the pro and contra and some negative elements about their choice. To reduce the dissonance they would change one of their cognition and start thinking that their choice is better and the rejected options are worse than they thought before.

When a lot of effort was put on an object, justifying effort is a reason to reduce the dissonance. Cooper et al (2005: P.69) states if people endure a strenuous interview process to get a job, they may reduce their dissonance by liking the job more.

Applications in advertisements

Advertisers use cognitive dissonance to change beliefs, to engage people to invest their time, attention and participation to create dissonance cognition and then provide simple and immediate participation to create dissonant cognitions. (Lidwell, 2003:p.36) Dissonance makes people question their original thoughts by using a bombardment of messages to create dissonance, ultimately work in automatic level that stimulate the consumption of products to restrain such dissonance.

For example, stop smoking campaign used dissonance to inform the smokers that smoking kills. Smoker would hold two cognitions that were discrepant: “I believe that smoking kills and dangerous.” and “I smoke two packs of Marlboro everyday and it helps me to relax.” Advertisement use cognitive dissonance to confront people on what they do not have in the society and it is imbalance. When it grabs people attention, it automatically persuades people’s mind and resistance process work in the mind to reduce the dissonance.

Cooper et al. (2005: p.65) studies that people would reduce their inconsistency by changing one of their cognition, adding cognition or reducing the importance of their cognition.

If the smokers decided to add cognition, they could have remembered all the times that he was healthy and thought, “I’m healthy and I don’t need any cigarette to make me relax.” Alternatively, smokers would reduce the dissonance by reduced the importance of one of his inconsistent cognitions. For instance, “Whether I’m dying tonight or tomorrow does not really matter to me as long as I can enjoy my cigarettes and relax.” Moreover, according to Cooper et al. (2005: p.66) smokers would change their cognition that has the smallest amount of resistant to change by thinking that it was okay to be smoker because a lot of people are smoking as well and it is a cool thing to do.

The way cognitive approach techniques are used by the American government and the media in the Gulf War media coverage

The power of Gulf War coverage to maintain balance and consistency

Hill & Watson (2005) studies that propaganda spins the information in another direction away from the truth so that the media broadcast fixed ideas and goals of the government to create a favourable impression in the public minds.

Figure 1.2: The cognitive response approach to persuasion (Perloff, 1993: p.109)

Based on the figure above, the persuaders (president, media, press officer, lobbyist, etc in the political communication) use their charisma, good argument in spinning the message and use mass media to deliver message. The flow of information also plays an important role in shaping public minds. Barsamian & Chomsky (2001) argues that media is a major basis for acquiring our knowledge about the world. The cognitive approach plays an important role to mass communication because it emphasize on the way that our minds create knowledge – about the world based on our experience with the media. This knowledge or mental reality is the basic idea of attitudes and behaviour that shapes our lives.

Society would react with different responses according to their political point of view. The democrat would confront and ban the war which create dissonance (will be discussed in the cognitive dissonance analysis). Meanwhile, the republican would support the president and the government choice. Even if the public know that the government is in the war with Iraq and dying people are everywhere, they still support the government because they believe in government.

Some persuasion techniques were used to strengthen public’s opinions. Consistent and repetitive messages were used through the speeches, news coverage and mass media to keep on telling the public what they have already known in their mind, thus it would create balance and produced positive attitude towards the Gulf War. Cialdini (2001) argues that when public are secured with their initial commitment when they support republican, it would be easy for the government induce people so that they are willing to take an initial position that is consistent with the behaviour they will later request from the public.

Cognitive congruity persuasion theory is described when people identify what they have in common with those around them and subsequently anticipate the dominant tendency. (Newcomb’s symmetry theory, 1953) For instance: The credibility and charisma of the source or ethos ( Aristotle’s theory of persuasion – all person are perceived in some way by the audiences) is significant in the persuasion communication., if the persuaders has high reputation and charisma he would be able to shift quality depending on circumstantial factors as well as on sincerity expertise and power. In America, George W Bush is the president of United States, who is credible, honest and powerful leader, so that people would believe in his policies and his decisions.

People who believe in President Bush and his government would maintain their commitment and has the same perception about the Gulf War.

Cognitive dissonance: Influences techniques to create dissonance and the resistances about Gulf War.

Negative publications and confrontations are used against the American Government and Bush policies about war in Iraq, for instance; controversial publications from independent film makers (Michael Moore’s Farenheit 9/11); from unilateral journalists that produces the news in the independent mass media; controversial scandals of torture to the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad; the issue of non-existence weapon of mass distraction, the sensational Al-Jazeera TV station that shows how U.S troops killing the women and children. These dissonances ask the public to question why they supported the Gulf War and American government.

Complexity of ideas and propaganda brought confusion and difference in their minds which they would try to reduce them to create consonant or agreement or balance in their mind. There were two cognitions in public minds: “Gulf War is totally wrong because a lot of people died.” And the second one “America is trying to free the Iraqi people.”

Some of the public who have democrat point of view experienced inconsistent state; they banned the war by making sure that Bush was not getting re-elected again, Singers use their songs to criticise the war e.g. Madonna in “American lives”, Greenday in “ American Idiot”, etc. On the other hand, some other tried to reduce the dissonance.

Festinger (1957) defines two ways people reduce them. First, they would change the dissonant cognition by moving their belief closer to one another by trusting the authority and the military because in their mind war is wrong but there will always victims and casualties to be scarified in the war.

The other would start rationalise the problem away by discrediting the source of cognition by saying that they are inaccurate and unreliable. Like what happened to the people who discredits Michael Moore films as inaccurate and unreliable source.

Meanwhile, other try to escape the dissonance by forgetting the fact that other people are dying in Iraq. When people in other part of the world watch the news, they feel sympathy for the people who died in the war. But then afterwards they would switch the TV off, continue with their dinner, and forget about it.

“I think if people see this footage, they'll say Oh, my God, that's horrible. And then they'll go on eating their dinners. There will be no rescue, no intervention for us. We can only save ourselves. Many of you know influential people abroad, you must call these people. You must tell them what will happen to us... say goodbye. But when you say goodbye, say it as if you are reaching through the phone and holding their hand. Let them know that if they let go of that hand, you will die. We must shame them into sending help.” Paul Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda, 2004)

References

Books

BARSAMIAN, D. & CHOMSKY, N. (2001) Propaganda and the public mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky. London: Pluto Press

BUTLER, J., HOLDEN, K. & LIDWELL, W. (2003) Universal principle of design: A cross- disciplinary reference. Glocester: Rockport.

COOPER, J., MIRABILE, R. & SCHER, J.S. (2005) Persuasion: Psychological insights and perspectives (2^nd Ed^\), Edited by BROCK, T.C. & GREEN, M.C. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage.

CIALDINI, R.B. (2001) Influence: Science and practice (4^th Ed). London: Allyn & Bacon.

CHRISTIAN, C. & REAL, M. (1979) Jacques Ellul’s contributions to critical media theory. Journal of communication, 29, 83-93: In LARSON, C.U. (2001) Persuasion, Reception and Responsibility (9^th Ed). London: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning.

ELLIS, A.W. & YOUNG, A.W. (1996) Human cognitive neuropsychology: A textbook with reading. London: Lawrence Erlbaum associates: In GROOME, D et al. (2004) An introduction to cognitive psychology processed and disorder (5^th Ed). Hove and New York: Psychology press.

FREEDMAN, J.L. & FRASER, S.C. (1966) Compliance without pressure: The foot-in the door technique. Journal of personality and social psychology, 4, 195-203: In CIALDINI, R.B. (2001) Influence: Science and practice (4^th Ed). London: Allyn & Bacon.

GROOME, D et al. (2004) An introduction to cognitive psychology processed and disorder (5^th Ed). Hove and New York: Psychology press.

HARRIS, R.J. (1999) A cognitive psychology of Mass Communication (3^rd Ed). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

HEIDER, F. (1958) The psychology form of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley: In LARSON, C.U. (2001) Persuasion, Reception and Responsibility (9^th Ed). London: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning.

HILL, A. & WATSON, J. (2003) Dictionary of media and communication studies (6^th Ed). London: Arnold.

HOGG, M.A. (1998) Social identification (5^th Ed). London: Routledge.

LARSON, C.U. (2001) Persuasion, Reception and Responsibility (9^th Ed). London: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning.

NEWCOMB, T.M. (1951) in MANSTED, A.S.R. (1996) The Blackwell encyclopaedia of psychology. Oxford: Blackwell.

RANK, H. (1976) Teaching about public persuasion. IL: National council of teachers of English: In LARSON, C.U. (2001) Persuasion, Reception and Responsibility (9^th Ed). London: Wadsworth/ Thompson Learning.

RICHARD, M. & PERLOFF, R. (2002) The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st Century. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

E-Journals and Websites

BANDURA, A. (1986) Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall: In STONE, D (1998) Social Cognitive theory [WWW]. Available from: http://hsc.usf.edu/~kmbrown/Social_Cognitive_Theory_Overview.htm (accessed at 6 January 2006)

FRASE, J. (2003) Cognitive dissonance. [WWW] Available at: http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ep380697/cd.htm (accessed at 1 January 2006)

OSGOOD & TANNENBAUM (1955) in STONE, D (1998) Social Cognitive theory. [WWW] Available from: http://hsc.usf.edu/~kmbrown/Social_Cognitive_Theory_Overview.htm (accessed at 6 January 2006)

ROBINSON, P. (2001) Theorizing the influence of media on world politics: Models of media influence on foreign policy. European Journal of Communication. London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: Sage, Vol 16(4): 523–544.

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SIMON, S. (2004) “Gonzo Demagoguery” Writ Large. Wall Street Journal. July 27, 2004: In Rhoads, K. (2004) Propaganda Tactics and Fahrenheit 9/11 [WWW]. Available from: www.workingpsychology.com (Accessed at 12 January 2006)

STONE, D (1998) Social Cognitive theory. [WWW] Available from: http://hsc.usf.edu/~kmbrown/Social_Cognitive_Theory_Overview.htm (accessed at 6 January 2006)

WOODS, R. (2001) Cognitive Consistency. [WWW] Available from: http://www.ciadvertising.org/sa/spring_03/382j/aclaire/Advertising.html (accessed at 1 January 2006

ZAJONC, B. (1971) The Concepts of balance, congruity, and dissonance," in Attitude Change P. Suedfeld, ed. Chicago,Ill: Aldine, Atherton, Inc: In Heider’s balance theory [WWW]. Available from: http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/97_fall/theory/cognitive_coc/balance.htm (accessed at 12 January 2006)

Akhirnyaa sekolah pun selesai..

"Waktunya santaai....", kata si Vicky

Cuman di sini santai engga ada yang bisa dikerjain euy..!!

NO money.. NO good friends around... NO NO NO..

yang ada cuman Tintin, Novel, and a very comfy bed..

So all that I do every day ..
is wake up in the afternoon..
Browsing and chatting in the internet..
Breakfast..
take a shower..
Then... I usually go for a walk to the supermarket to buy something to eat for dinner..
or sometimes I go to the library
or I just go walking around
then I come back at home
having dinner..
and take a nap.. usually at 8 pm till 10 pm but sometimes I can sleep til 11.30 just like tonight..
then I go browsing in the Internet and..

Watch something downloadable from DC++ the hall network where we exchange movies and music.

Then at 4 in the morning I go to sleep..

I say it is better than my other routinity.. but I guess...just sleep too much.. way too much...

I don't feel okay... I get stomach ache everytime I wake up from my nap...

Hihihihi..

That's the price I pay for being such a laZy girl..

but heey.. I have to gather my energy back....

Mai Fairy Tail..

One upon a time, there is a little girl called Vicky. She lives with her family in a tiny house with two turtles and five birds. The turtles belong to her; the birds belong to her Grandpa. Vicky is a lonely little girl; both of her parents are usually working late, her brother is too young to play with her so she spends most of her time playing alone and sometimes helping grandma water the garden.

There is actually one girl in the neighborhood, but she doesn’t always play with Vicky because she is busy with her school.

“I am so sorry Vicky; I have to study for my test tomorrow.” Says Mida.

Vicky says, “That’s okay, Mida… I know you are very busy studying. Oow...I can’t wait to go to school; I would meet a lot of friends.”

When she come back home, she ask her grandma. “Nanny, when am I going to go to school? I can’t wait to meet a lot of friends so I can play with them…”

“Next year my dear… next year… you have to be patient.” says nanny.

A few weeks later, nanny comes home with a lot of presents for Vicky. She bought Vicky a new bag, some new books, stationary and a pair of shoes.

“Vicky, I have a surprise for you. Tomorrow you will start your school. You will meet a lot of friends and plays with them. You will go to Indra’s playgroup where they prepare you for you kindergarten.”

When Vicky hears about it, she is very happy. No more lonely days for her; just happy days with a lot of friends.

Just another Chessy journal of mine...

Sometimes I realize when I smell something weird, something that make me goes to another part of myself accidentally, where memories, images and feelings were there. It feels so good; I would always love the moment when I remember all of those things.

Listening to “Keane” (I know it’s too Cheesy) reminds me to the summer time when I was in Indonesia, I listened to the album everywhere, everyday, and every time I could. My driver said he would certainly go crazy if I kept listening to the songs in the car with him… He He…

About the smell, the aftershave that boys use usually reminded me to my dad’s smell. It’s so strong and very nice… When boys try to appeal their masculinity smells it really remind me to my dad’s figure, don’t know why but I always miss my dad… Another thing is, every time I smell terasi, I would always take a deep breath then I close my eyes trying to imagine the Sambel Terasi at my home…

Oh yeah, one more thing ; when I am sitting and eating in the Chinese restaurant everywhere…..all that I can remember is Dim Sum Palace…with Rainbow, Maarten, Tata, Sasa, Ian, Sigit, Barry (All the people who’s addicted to Dim Sum palace in Leidseplein). Well, it’s newly opened and I have been eating there 1 or 2 times free no charge, because of Rainbow (God Bless Her) also It has normal price, so it’s affordable for student… the food are splendid… I remember when my cousin visited me and we ate whole bunch of Dim Sum, because he hadn’t seen any Chinese food for like 2 weeks and my problem was and still is ‘I know the art of Eating‘(That’s what Ian said) … ^.^

Well I certainly miss my life before and it’s quite hard to imagine everything in my head (It’s not that my brain is tiny, or something). Sometimes I feel like I waste my time letting everything goes by without even taking any pictures of it. But then I realize writing might be more like me than capturing everything through the camera… I can write and describe everything about what I feel and how I see things from time to time.

I Quit Smoking…

• If people Asked me why I smoked?

Basically I hate the idea of breathing passively the cigarette’s smoke, it feels like hell… To avoid that I had the solutions, I started smoking when people smoked in front of me, but then I became addicted to Cigarette…I’ve tried to stop several years ago (Never really tried) so the attempts didn’t really works… Ha Ha.. In Indonesia, some of my friends and my Ex-boyfriends were smoking so instead of killing myself with the smoke, I decided to darker my lungs by blowing the bud myself.

Anyhow, then I moved to Amsterdam, the whole school is smoking; no one doesn’t smoke in Amsterdam… It’s the culture, so then I became addicted to smoke. When the whole environment does something, I couldn’t really resist the temptations. It seemed that there were no differences if you are smoking or not, ^. ^ So better enjoy the cigarette than breathing passively.

• If people Asked me why I quit smoking?

In Southampton, people don’t really smoke and the cigarette is pretty expensive here, well the English cigarettes are pretty cheap but they taste just like the Dark tea taste... So bitter and I almost threw up one time I tried them. Another thing is, I don’t really see why I should smoke anymore, I’ve been a social smoker for like a few years and some part of me enjoy it, some part of me reject the idea of smoking, also no one smoke in front of my face anymore and about one month ago, I decided to quit and I realized that was the perfect time to stop smoking and it works at least until now, apart from the English Cigarette I tried last week (it’s only a tester).

• If people Asked me whether I am ever gonna smoke again?

Well, I am not gonna promise myself that I would totally quit, I would allow myself to smoke in some particular situations because when you are stress and you smoke, you can exhale and inhale so hardly, it feels like releasing your troubles out of your brain and heart for about 5 minutes (per 1 Cigarette) and it helps really.

One Good Tip...

Angie said, "In order to be a good writer, you have to keep a journal."

No matter what kind of a writer you're interested in.... whether you are going to write a novel or become a journalist or Editor or become another thing that involves writing skill...

Keeping a journal is an effective way to improve your skill, learn to create different kind of angle and structure.

liburan telah tiba

Not so much to do on the holiday; only play Wario Ware and chat with a lot of people from Indonesia and the Netherlands, miss them so much (Rainbow, Bulan, Intan, Qoloor, Ceppy, and dink2).
A few days ago my ex bf called me with his angry tone from Indonesia. (In the middle of the night, while I was about to watch the “Whale Rider” with my Ian; Cool Movie anyway, I cried a lot) He told me that my best friend (My ex. Best friend:A**e), she told his girlfriend that last summer, me and him were going out in Surabaya.

Well, it was true, but at that time he said that he was having a break with her and we were still a good friend also… my boyfriend was fine with it. So basically it was really not my fault. Grrrr…what I don’t understand is how she could tell her about all the stuff. I know that she (My ex. Bestfriend:A**e) like to talk a lot (Typically person who has big mouth and tiny brain) and she is desperately want to be friends with all the popular people everywhere, she use all the tricks to get their heart, well if she doesn't talk about me, I am fine with it.. ^^

But that what she did, she thought that I wouldn’t even hear about it because I'm so far away.


Too bad…I heard it, and it’s very not cool… you Bitch….!!

Enough about her.. it feels so good to write it down really...

Anyway let me go back to my happy holiday...

I miss my noisy corridor; it feels so creepy when people going on holiday and nobody left in the building except me and some other Chinese people. Huaaah… living here is so spooky in Easter break.

Well not all part of the holiday sucks, I am waiting for our long weekend in London next week, I know it’s gonna be fun… We are going to watch Lion King the musicals and eat a lot of Japanese food and Malaysian food, it’s going to be great for sure.

Happy Easter Everybody...

This is Easter and I Forgive you my little friend... ^^

I understand you and your position.. I understand your need... just let me get back to the beautiful time with you...