American and European Family Communication

Blog Entry #5:

 

Seasons, Melanie, "An examination of modern family communication and moral values in America and Europe" (2005). Senior Honors Theses. Paper 67. http://commons.emich.edu/honors/67

Click here to view article

In “An Examination of Modern Family Communication and Moral Values in America and Europe” by Eastern Michigan University student Melanie Seasons, moral values are defined, explored, and cross-referenced between the two cultures in order to get a better understanding of how they play a part in modern family communication.

In her senior honors thesis, Seasons examines the American family and its so-called traditional moral values and contrasts them to European families.  This article goes hand in hand with my research project, because I want to compare the daily communication and interaction between American and European families.

To fully understand the American family’s communication processes, the

American family is contrasted against the European family (who seem to, according to her research, lack concern for the same traditional beliefs that American families do).  The paper is divided into two sections.  The first section of the paper deals specifically with the American family.  The second section examines the same thing, this time with the European family.

A large part of the European section of her project focuses on the European reaction to

American family values.  This is a vital section because it not only helps to understand the Europeans’ perspectives on America, but it uncovers the intrinsic differences between the two.  For my research, I will attempt to do the same thing through various recordings of family conversations as well as transcribing them into English.

I know my boyfriend’s parents (who happen to be 100% Serbian) for instance; have very definitive opinions on American culture and American communication practices.  It will be interesting to examine the two cultures and explain the different positions that the “modern family” finds itself in.

Because they speak no English in the home, I am always intrigued by what they are saying.  I would also be interested in studying and comparing the customs and etiquette of families who speak different primary languages in the home.

Her article serves two purposes relevant to my research project:  To gain a better understanding of why the European values are the way they are and also to gain more rounded characterization of the American family.  She concludes her paper by explaining why there are such divergent viewpoints between the two cultures.

The New York Times: "Life in the Fast Lane"

Blog Entry #4

Video clip:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2006/11/26/us/1194817111326/life-in-the-fast-lane.html

Accompanying article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/us/27album.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For this entry, I decided to do a media analysis of an interview conducted by Charlie Leduff for the New York Times series “American Album.”  Leduff’s piece focuses on fast food worker and American, Gloria Castillo.  I chose to deconstruct this interview because it reminded me that the way we make sense of the numerous impressions that we come across us daily is to use frames that Chaika mentions in chapter 5 of Language: The Social Mirror. A frame is an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations."

I hope that through an analysis or a dissection of Leduff’s interview and video clip “Life in the Fast Lane,” we can resurface stereotyped situations in society and more importantly, show how people may choose to interpret them differently based on their own experiences and cultural meanings. 

In terms of content and organization, in the video “Life in the Fast Lane,” the core of the interview is told mainly through Gloria Castillo, herself.  Its main focus is on minorities, in general, in the workplace –something we find very stereotypical today.  In her interview, she even states that she has never worked with white people before; it has only been Mexicans, African Americans, and Asians.  The entire interview cleverly takes place through the window of a Burger King drive-thru.

Obviously here, Leduff is trying to put a human face on a serious problem.  His voice is casual and familiar, but that doesn’t mean he wants us to be casual in our attitudes towards that fast food worker from Dallas.  He wants us to listen to her, and to take what she has to say seriously.  He provides us with factual information –stuff that could be found in any abstract report, but his insights run a little deeper than the statistics he tosses at us.  He employs “pathos” to get our attention –he appeals to our emotions, our sympathy –in an effort to gain our interest and concern about a problem or issue that many people live with from day to day. 

After watching this clip I ask you this:

Because “society says so,” why must we conform to these stereotypical generalizations that people of ethnicity must be separated from jobs and isolated from gaining any amount of success?