My week in Hawaii

I was in Hawaii for the past week and a half and it was amazing. I was the total tourist, but I was also the total PR practitioner, and student and CDSC professional. I found myself embracing all three of these titles several times during the week. For example:

- PR practitioner: Why was I examining the rhetoric and placement of certain signs in the hotel resort? And why did I want to meet Hilton's PR team/person and commend them/him/her on the wonderful job being done at the hotel in all aspects?
- Student: Why did I want to conduct communications research (qualitative and quantitative) regarding the tourists and their choices of entertainment for their week in Hawaii? Why did I want to do a rhetorical analysis of Hawaiian bilingual language use throughout the tourist districts?
-CDSC professional: Why did I find myself wanting to find the "slums" of Honolulu and see how the people lived and what their communities were like?

Why why why? Oh wait, I'm a professional student and it's my nature.

Hawaii was fun. I will go back before I die. Or else I will die.

On a mini vacay!

Sorry, everyone! I've been in Hawaii for the past week and a half and therefore, there ARE NO POSTS. Stay tuned! I've got some great insight on life in Hawaii. And yes, it goes beyond the sandy beaches, amazing views, and sleeping until the sun wakes me up.

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Why do I love this so much?

Just a quick thought...

This is what happens when we see change or development that we feel would benefit society or a certain group, and we don't use communication. This is not how we exact change. Rather, it's a tragic step backwards, even if I don't agree with late-term abortion.

Just a quick Thursday Thought...

Morning, all--

So my quick thought is this: In light of CDSC, its goals and its objectives, it would be worthwhile to do an in-depth analysis (rhetorical, political, and overall popularity-based) of Obama's first 100 days in office as compared to G.W. Bush's first first 100 days in office (from 2000). What CDSC strategies, practices do the presidents' administrations and personal actions portray? Were they consistent across the boards or more CDSC-heavy in some aspects?

Hmm...

Communication for Development

Communication for development and social change (CDSC) is my niche. It's the whole reason why research and journal articles and term papers are exciting to me now. As I said in my very first post, this blog is geared towards advancing my thoughts and ideas about CDSC and my job as a doctoral student and as a future CDSC practitioner. So I figured...I better explain what CDSC is, what its platform/foundation is, and why it's so important.

I first heard of CDSC about 6 months ago. I was registering for public relations classes for Spring semester and this CDSC class was the ONLY one that fit my schedule. I initially wrote it off as a class that would not fit my specialization, but it would give me 3 more hours. At any rate, this class took me by surprise with its relevance to my interests in communication and rhetoric and my coming to an understanding of where I need to set my focus for my dissertation and all the research papers and projects that come before that.

CDSC is most aptly defined as the practice that uses communication processes to help people and people groups recognize and understand their situations--those situations that slow down economic, educational, health-related progress. These are situations or plights that people and people groups get stuck in and cannot or will not find their ways out. CDSC strives to build better nations and better countries by working with individuals, work that will radiate out to the whole group and bring about change in mindsets, attitudes, and eventually behaviors.

CDSC is concerned with several factors that have the ability to debilitate or rehabilitate people groups. These include:
- power/empowerment: what kinds of power do people of developing nations/communities have? DO they have power? Do they feel EMpowered to change their situation? How can communication processes restore this power? This concept also deals with balance of power.
- interpersonal communication: there are two theoretical approaches to CDSC; one deals with one way communication (a developed nation comes into a developing nation and tries to exact change without communicating with the people of interest). The other deals with two way communication (a developed nation comes in and fosters open communication with the people)
- participation: along the lines of mutual, two way communication is this idea of letting those you are trying to help progress work WITH you in your efforts. This encompasses respect for cultural considerations, respect for their feelings of empowerment. CDSC development can have much better effects with much more longevity, if the people being helped are actively working towards their development

So that was a long drawn out explanation of mainly the postmodern perspectives of CDSC (I'll discuss the modernity era of CDSC in another post). So with that said...here's an example:

The American inner city is a quickly disintegrating portion of most American cities. Older residents are in homes where after 30 or 40 years, they are STILL paying rent to a landlord, rather than proudly owning the home they've raised children and grandchildren in. (How is that even possible?) Younger residents find themeselves in a vicious cycle of violence, teen pregnancies, dropping out of high school, and depending on grandparents who should be enjoying their grandchildren, NOT raising their grandchildren. Suffice it to say, communication about priorities, power, and the ability to rise above stereotypes got lost somewhere in the mix.

This is where CDSC comes in:
- restoring communication with and within the community.
- demonstrating that the residents of the inner city CAN participate in the renewal of their communities
- showing them that there can be a balance of power when it comes to their relationships with landlords, city officials, each other

So that's my CDSC definition, description, and application. I'm working on establishing a CDSC research plan for American inner cities, because the welfare state is so counterproductive to development and social change AND it's time to look in different areas for help and progression.

Rhetorical Analysis--the love of my life

I listen to NPR whenever I have a chance. It started off as something to keep me awake when I was driving back home from school...whether it was the 12 hours journey from Indiana or the 6 hour drive from Florida. The news stories are interesting, as are the position essays that people write and have read over the air. Being an English scholar, I value the words, the way they are said, and the thoughts they provoke. That being said...NPR is good at what they do and this morning I was even more amazed at the content aired on Morning Edition.

This morning, two news stories in a row that used rhetorical analysis as the basis for the stories (one on Barak Obama and Cheney's torture debate and the other on Jim Cramer's stock picks). I won't go into full, boring detail about the pieces, because you can read them yourself, but I felt so connected to the tactics NPR used in presenting two stories that could have been done in totally different ways. Using rhetorical analysis as a foundation for the news story is a creative way of getting people to consider other aspects of newsworthy material. Yes, NPR could have gone the old route and simply spouted off the proceedings of the Obama/Cheney debate (which they did, but with the added flare of telling listeners howmany times a specific word was used and why the speaker chose that word) or they could have totally left out the Cramer portion, because all it was only a reporting on two professor's analysis of stock market trends and Cramer's predictions. But no...today's Morning Edition made me proud to be an English scholar and even more proud to be a communications doctoral candidate.

What I do in my research now and how I choose to apply it in the industry or in the classroom is valuable and NPR proved my point today. It totally validated my 90-page Master's thesis on the rhetoric of Nelson Mandela and it gave me that extra umph to love the research my professor's have me do (in the form of daunting term papers) each semester. Thanks, NPR. Keep up the good work. And I will too.

Hello, blogging world!

Well it finally happened. I avoided starting a blog for as long as I could and it wasn't because I hate blogging, or bloggers, or blogs. Actually, one of my hobbies is treading through all types of blogs. I guess it was mainly laziness that made me not start a blog, but here I am now, and I'm starting a blog. Sad that it took a course requirement to get me into the blogging world, but hey, whatever it takes.


I'm a graduate student (yes, a professional student) and so this blog can only rightfully be about my life and my perspectives as student, because I've known nothing else. Technically, I'm in the 19th grade. omg. I'll probably throw some other perspectives in there as well because I love to know what other people are thinking. I love news and I love the interpretations of news. I just like communication in general (which I guess is why I'm getting a PhD in public relations).

At any rate, this blog will serve as my sounding board for ideas, practical and research-based, about my degree focus--Communication for Development and Social Change (CDSC). It's my passion, it's my dissertation focus, and hopefully it's going to be my breadwinning profession. Haha.


I like discussion; I like new ideas. I like academia and I like its relevance to the real world. Everything I write here will be real, tangible and yet it will shed light on CDSC practice and CDSC theory. So let's get started; this is going to be SO MUCH FUN!