Journal Entry 5: Meeting Remotely

This week’s discussion topic focused on meeting remotely and the most effective way to conduct a meeting. Our reading focused on management strategies that should be implemented and considered when structuring a meeting within a company or organization. Ironically this topic was prevalent within my past week here in London. In Tuesday morning’s class, we have a large social project ahead of us to complete this semester in which we gather in a team to organize a fundraising topic to implement social change on a certain topic we choose.  This past week my two other team members and I finally chose to sit down together and discuss what exactly we planned on doing for the project. Looking back, I can see both positive and negative aspects that took place during this meeting and now after assessing this week’s reading, our team can implement these techniques into our future collaborations. When deciding upon a time to meet, it was not done efficiently. We continued to tell one another yes yes we will meet sometime this week and continued to brush it off without implementing an actual time and place. Rather, I finally put my foot down and called them one evening during the week and told them I would come over to their apartment to discuss the project. For our next meeting, it would be far more efficient to set a certain time and to choose a place, which will be more constructive for us to work and collaborate. An apartment creates a more relaxed environment with easy distractions whereas a coffee shop or library will create a more diligent atmosphere. With this stage in our lives, the meeting time is the most important aspect to consider when conducting a meeting. As each of us are traveling each weekend to different places and having different class schedules, finding the right time to meet with one another is key. As we experienced in class this week as well, we had a guest speaker Skype in to talk to us from Egypt. It was important to realize the time difference as she was hours ahead. We gave her great thanks for making her workday even longer and Skyping in to teach us at 9 p.m. her time. Scheduling is such an important aspect when coming together to work.  As we finally sat down to work there was no one leader. We considered one another equals on the project and therefore we all were eager to participate and lend our own opinions. For the next meeting, it would be more efficient to assign each of us a certain aspect to focus on rather than spewing out random ideas and having no strong focus on who is doing what.  The reading referred to the leader of a meeting as a facilitator. A facilitator is someone who can direct the conversation, keep the meeting on track and in a sense is a moderator for the entire gathering. Since the project is equal we cannot necessarily have one lead facilitator but in a situation like this, we can assign certain tasks for one another to complete the work efficiently. I could be in charge of keeping the meeting on track, Jamie could be in charge of researching the media related to the topic and so on. By mediating the tasks, we can have more quality research on each aspect of the topic. Overall, professor Robinson said the most important aspects of a meeting were to send an email prior to the gathering and both starting and finishing on time. I will incorporate both of these aspects for the next meeting and am sure to find a much more efficient time spent working.

Journal Entry 4: Negotiating through Email

This week’s discussion centered on negotiations by specifically looking at the art of communicating via email. Our discussion in class had every one brimming at the surface with information to add because in our day and age and especially our changed circumstances abroad, each of us are dealing with this global form of communications. I thought what better way to really evaluate this topic in comparison to my every day life here in London than to look at the emails I sent out this week. I wanted to evaluate my emails by comparing their effectiveness and context in regards to tonal cues, length and purpose. As I look at my list of emails from the week, it is astounding to see the difference in the context of emails I was receiving back at USC versus now here in London. Back at SC, my emails consisted of daily mass informational emails from my sorority, countless emails from professors commenting on the slightest details regarding class assignments, various messages from USC Annenberg on internship opportunities and the rest mainly consisted of little interests I partook in such as fandango fan mail and fashion sights updating me on their latest apparel. What a change now as I glance as my weeks email intake. I now have countless flight, transportation and hotel booking confirmations either from the companies or my friends forwarding me their travel documents, talk mobile updates reminding me to top up my phone and the rest consist of daily reflections of my life here in London to loved ones back at home. No swarms of emails from professors or nonsense updates. Prior to coming to London, I never really sat down and wrote a daily email reflecting on my day. Even though I was far from some family members at USC, I would never have used email to communicate with them. The various call every now and then would have sufficed. However now as I experience new and exciting things each day here in London, I find myself glued to the keys of my computer and forming detailed emails on a daily basis. I decided to pick a few emails I sent and pick them apart in regards to the aspects we discussed in class to decide whether or not my emailing skills abided by what my professor described as most effective. This week I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark so I decided to send my dad an email regarding the weeks finances. I titled the email: Hi Dad! It was short and concise. I got to the point and wrote everything that was necessary for my dad to understand. It was an important topic we were discussing so instead of the caption I used, I should have been more specific so he knew what he was getting into prior to reading the email. We discussed in class how it is difficult to incorporate empathy into an email. However, I find that to be untrue. I have taken the time in each email to thank my dad for allowing me this wonderful experience. I have the ability to write out my words and express fully what I want to tell him. Nothing is there to distract him from my words and he knows the time I took to write it out means my sincerity. I applied to an internship this past week. I have applied to countless internships before so I found the structure to my email to abide by what was discussed in class. I titled the caption: Whitney Griffith Internship Submission. I was short, concise and to the point. I ended the email with every means of contact and an appreciate tone overall for the company to take time for reading my email.  These emails were definitely low culture forms of communication: black and white and to the point. I found myself negotiating by the end of back and forth with my internship application due to the fact I am in Europe and their company is back in the States. I have to account for time change (They may think I am late in responding when in fact I am experiencing a large time difference) and how to negotiate a proper interview from so far away. All of these different aspects I have to account for when communicating globally. 

Journal Entry 3: Presentations

This week’s discussion focused on the art of an effective power point. More specifically we compared the positive and negative aspects brought on through the use of power points, presentations, reports and the differences that separate each. What better way to incorporate my own living habits here in London with this class than to discuss the courses I am taking here and the consequential changes I have come to experience. This topic has provided me the unique opportunity to compare the large differences between the presentation techniques implemented by my London professors with my professors back in the States. I am currently enrolled in four classes while here in London: Communication and Global Organization, Communication for Social Change, Media Consumption and Popular Culture. This semester has been a large adjustment for me already in comparison to a normal workload at USC. I am also a film minor, so when I am at USC I am taking both communication and film course, whereas, here in London I am taking only communication courses. Rather than breaking up the topics, I have divulged fully into the study of media and communication. These aspects rely primarily on reading and writing. My film classes, however, are largely interactive in which I am either watching movies or making them myself.  Film classes have a unique form of presentation that incorporates no form of power point. My film professors generally base their curriculum around initially getting up and discussing one topic in film and then following it up through a visual representation by viewing a film. My communication classes at USC, however, are strictly structured through the use of power point. One professor sticks out the most in my mind, Professor Durbin. Each semester I sign up for a class with him, I can look to expect the same exact structure. You are instructed to buy a book which is a notebook compiled of his power points with missing blanks. When attending the class, you are to fill in the blanks as he projects the same power point onto the screen. My USC professors will elaborate some with the use of oral presentation but the entirety of their classes are done by studying directly through the power points they have created for the semester. This is drastically different than the style of teaching I have come in contact with here in London. I have come to sense professors here dislike the use of power points and rather rely solely on the use of oral presentation when discussing topics. Only one of my classes here in London, Media Consumption, incorporates some form of power point but even then, that use is limited. The communication classes are far more involved here. At USC, I find myself in the middle of a huge lecture hall and attendance can be easily avoided. In London, however, classes are a few in size and the day revolves on individual input and interactive learning. In my classes I have already performed mock interviews, oral presentations on the spot, class debates and open discussion on topics. Professors in London rely heavily on oral and video presentation. My classes generally involve the professor discussing the topic the first half of the class and ending the course with a video and or music representation. So rather than seeing any similarities between the communication courses in London and at USC, I see a larger parallel of presentation techniques of London communication courses to my film courses. Overall, I can find positive and negative aspects in both. By implanting an oral presentation followed by a video, I find myself focusing much more on the topic and having a visual representation to further explain it helps immensely. However, at times it is hard to focus on just a speaker for such long periods of time and there is no formal structure for a student to follow and feel confident on the material. Implementing videos are my greatest help in learning. Overall, every teacher in every city, country or state implements his or her own forms of course presentation. I look forward to seeing the many more differences I will experience while studying in London.