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Helping Bullied Victims Bullying is a serious social problem in many countries. According to the Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2009 Report, 25 to 30% of students aged 12 to 18 in the U.S. have been bullied—physically, verbally, or relationally—at school. Similarly, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan reported that more than 20,000 cases of bullying were reported in 2007. Bullying is also reported in one out of every four companies in the U.S. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, not only employees but customers and supervisors can be targets of bullying at the workplace as well. Victims abound, and they need help.   Helping victims of bullying, however, is a tricky business, with communication and culture playing key roles to determine its effectiveness. Having an empathetic and caring interaction will cure victims' mental health and lead to constructive post-bullying adjustment. But not all messages are effective, and what counts as ineffective support varies across cultures. Read more>   Cross Current   Examining Communication Our communication practices are among the most human of all human behavior. We use words to create messages, and we create meanings from those messages. Humans are social creatures, making the need to communicate essential to our survival, development, and happiness. Too often, communication is thought of as just something we do. However, to fully appreciate communication, let's examine it more closely. Communication is functional. Communication allows us to create things we need. For example, an organization does not exist until we talk one into existence. For an organization to survive, we talk about the culture we want to create and the policies we will implement. We develop procedures for procuring and providing products and services. In large collectives, such as organizations and communities, communication can be more functionally difficult as time and geography separate us. For example, you call the utility company to report a disruption of service and get “press 1 for . . .” In this case, what is functional for the utility company (and the people who represent it) is different than your idea of functionality. Often the ways in which we use communication to accomplish a function or do something complicates the conversations we have. Communication is social. Communication allows us to create and manage relationships with one another. You don't have a boyfriend until you have the talk about being boyfriend and girlfriend. You can't get a divorce until you (or the lawyer and judge) talk one into existence. Relationships between people are negotiated from talk. Formal relationships become solidified as you accept your role as manager and talk as a manager to your subordinates. The relationship between husband and wife is also negotiated—think of the number of couples who disagree over what is said in their wedding vows. You can't just say, “I do.” This simple phrase has to be said after what you vowto do, and after it is said in front of others (or at least a justice of the peace). Informal relationships, such as friendships, are derived from talk that shares personal information. Through these conversations we learn what the other person likes and dislikes, as well as his or her attitudes toward the things we like and dislike. Somewhere in those conversations, acquaintances turn to friendships—but you really don't know you are friends until he or she introduces you with, “Say hello to my friend Jeff.” Read more> Putting on an Identity   Take a look at what you are wearing right now. Go ahead—I'll wait. Now ask yourself what you are trying to communicate with this ensemble. Although we dress ourselves every day, we often do not stop to think about the communicative aspects of clothing. Through our clothing choices we often communicate subtle (and not so subtle) cues of race, class, and gender. All of these can be viewed under the umbrella idea of culture.   It is useful to think of human interaction from a dramatistic perspectiveand consider how people continually perform roles. As with any drama, costumes are an integral part of the performance. This is often apparent when someone goes against commonly held views of how one should present him or herself. For example, my students are often surprised by how I dress because I do not look like a stereotypical professor. When I teach I wear a button down shirt and shorts. I do this for two reasons. The first reason is for comfort. The second reason is to decrease the psychological distance between me and my students. I teach courses that grapple with material that is often difficult to understand. By dressing in a way that is more relaxed, I attempt to foster an environment in which experimentation and mistakes are tolerated. I also recognize that there is a difference of power between me and my students that I wish to diminish.   There are other ways that people dress strategically. For example, when applying for my position, I wore a suit and tie because I had to look the part of a job applicant. When my students go out on Friday night, they are dressed to look as attractive as possible, accentuating certain desirable features while downplaying others. Yet in all of these situations, there are unspoken constraints of what is acceptable to wear in each situation. Examining these assumptions can illuminate deeply-held, often invisible cultural norms. Read more>     Communicators Speak   Dr. Steve Duck is the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Iowa. Focusing on everyday communication, Dr. Duck examines how people reveal information about themselves. Click to listen to his explanation. Dr. Mary M. Meares is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama. Her research on diversity in the workplace reveals that management can facilitate opportunities for employees to start casual conversations. Click to listen to her description.   Dr. Kate Hawkins is Professor of the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University. She examines how people communicate about childhood obesity--noting that print journalism's approach to obesity revolves around personal responsibility, an approach not applicable to children. Click to listen to her explanation.   Dr. Brian Richardson is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of North Texas. His research examines the role of communication in community rebuilding after natural disasters. He finds that coordination among city leaders and communicating with parents on reopening schools were key activities. Click to listen to him describe his research findings.   Dr. Kathie Turner is a Professor of Communication Studies at Davidson University. Dr. Turner studies the rhetorical history of images of women in comic strips, especially young women who are lead or title characters in comic strips.Click to listen to her explanation.                 Cheerleading and Spirit “Ready. Okay.” Anyone familiar with American cheerleading is likely familiar with the idea of spirit. Because the cheerleader is a longstanding icon of American femininity, spirit communicates ideas about how young women should behave and express emotion in public life. However, cheerleading has changed, growing more athletic and competitiveover time (consider the film Bring It On. As a result, more boys and young men are getting involved. What, then, is the meaning of spirit in this new context? We argue that as cheerleading has changed, the expression of spirit has become more scripted--more routine--than it was in the past. This allows cheerleaders to continue communicating traditional meanings of spirit regardless of who they are or how they really feel. Read more> Professional Communicators Face Unique Challenges As graduates search for jobs incommunication and public relations, many are likely applying for jobs in both government and for-profit organizations. Most are probably not considering how different the professional communicator's role would be in one sector as compared to the other. However, a recent survey has found that communicators who work in government experience different obstacles and opportunities in their day-to-day work than their counterparts working for private corporations. A survey of 976 government and corporate communicators from across the United States revealed that while professional communicators share some similarities, there are far more differences. These differences, including greater political pressure and legal constraints, are significant enough to influence government communicators' daily tasks. Read more>   Sophisticated Subversion in Hate Group Websites Extremist. Terrorist. Hate. In the years following 9/11, we've become increasingly attuned to the messages and actions of groups who bear these labels. However, the attention toward domestic extremist groups has been less prominent--that is, until recently. Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that the number of hate groups operating in the United States has increased by 54% since 2000 and continues to rise. This begs the question: How are these groups recruiting members? The Southern Poverty Law Center speculates that Barack Obama's rise to power, immigration issues, and an ailing economy are potential factors in the growth of hate group membership. While political and economic factors offer some explanation, the answer to this question may also lie in the strategic communication efforts of these groups. By gaining a clearer understanding of the messages and means of communication used by domestic hate groups, we may be better equipped to answer this question.Read more>   Doing Good by Communicating Well Partnerships between corporate and nonprofit entities are producing powerhouse messages that simultaneously reach into consumers' hearts and wallets. Product packaging and corporate messages, dressed up in the promise of a better tomorrow, are on display almost everywhere Americans shop, play, and work. For example, consumers can drink from a Diet Coke can that features the American Heart Association's little red dress. Movie theater cashiers can accept contributions to St. Jude Children's Research Hospitalas they ply moviegoers with popcorn, candy, and soda. Even grocery aisles sing of a friendlier world with Starbucks' and Green Mountain Coffee's fair-trade certification.Read more>