Communication Climates: Media Clips
Purpose: To assist you in understanding course concepts by recognizing them in
the media which, hopefully, will assist you in recognizing them in your own life.
Procedure:
1. Learn as much as you can about Jack Gibb’s communication climates. Watch
the video lecture, read the textbook, do some more searching on your own.
Make sure you fully understand the difference between Defensive and
Supportive Communication Climates and the communication patterns that
make up each of them.
As a reminder, here they are:
Defensive
Supportive
Evaluation
Descriptive
Control
Problem Orientation
Strategy
Spontaneity
Neutrality
Empathy
Superiority
Equality
Certainty
Provisionalism
2. Now the time consuming but fun part comes into play.
a. Look for short video clips that display at least two communication patterns
that make up a communication climate. For example, find conversation
between two (or more) people where an evaluative statement is made
(causing a defensive reaction) and a statement that communicates
superiority is made… two patterns that contribute to a defensive
communication climate.
You are not limited to verbal communication; look for nonverbal
communication as well.
You can find movie or television videos on DVD or YouTube.
b. If you can’t find anything online or in your video library, you can write and
perform your own skit. Create a situation and then write out a dialogue
that demonstrates the communication patterns.
Record the skit (you will need to have others help you here, as it is hard to
perform a dialogue with just one person… that would be a monologue).
Record the skit on your phone or with a video cameral
3. Prepare your clip to bring to class.
If you have a DVD, bring it in but make sure you know exactly where the clip
begins and ends. (We don’t want to spend 15 minutes waiting for you to find
your 2-minute clip). If it’s on YouTube, have the url and, again, be able to
navigate to where the clip you want us to see is. If you have access to (and
the skills to use) video recording/editing technology such as Camtasia or
SnagIt, you can create your own little snippet.
If you have recorded it on your phone, figure out a way to get it to display
larger. Some options are to email it to yourself, post to YouTube, or to bring in
the technology to connect to the classroom projector (assuming we are in a
classroom that has a projector)?
4. Be prepared to identify and explain the behaviors that have created the
communication climate.