Instructions:1. After reading chapter 5, write-up your responses.2. Submit your reading reflection as a .pdf in Moodle.Reflection questions:1. What was the most meaningful, interesting, or significant thing you learned from this chapter?Next, answer the following questions:1. Because we’re not always aware of the ways in which our experiences influence our perceptions, what are some ways we might create a sense of individual awareness?2. Think about the diversity of your classes and answer the following: What are some of the ways in which individuals in the classroom have unequal power relationships? What are some methods students can use to resist that inequality? How might the classroom as a community work in a productive way to educate their peers about the inequalities that exist?3. Have you ever changed your point of view on a certain issue or idea? Why did this change occur? Did it change your perspective on other issues or
READING REFLECTION CHAPTER 5
Instructions:
1.
2.
After reading chapter 5, write-up your responses to one of the options below.
Submit your reading reflection as a .pdf in Moodle.
Reflection questions:
1.
What was the most meaningful, interesting, or significant thing you learned
from this chapter?
Next, answer the following questions:
1. Because we’re not always aware of the ways in which our experiences
influence our perceptions, what are some ways we might create a sense of
individual awareness?
2. Think about the diversity of your classes and answer the following: What are
some of the ways in which individuals in the classroom have unequal power
relationships? What are some methods students can use to resist that
inequality? How might the classroom as a community work in a productive
way to educate their peers about the inequalities that exist?
3. Have you ever changed your point of view on a certain issue or idea? Why did
this change occur? Did it change your perspective on other issues or ideas?
Communication
A Critical/Cultural
Introduction
Deanna L. Fassett | John T. Warren | Keith Nainby
COMMUNICATION
A Critical/Cultural Introduction
•
CHAPTER 5: IDENTITY AND PERCEPTION
Overview
• Explore how identity and
perception are central to
communication studies.
• Analyze the role of power and
culture in the formation of
identity.
• Apply communication theories to
the study of identity and
perception.
• Apply theories of identity and
perception to public
communication contexts, in
general, and to audience analysis,
in particular.
What Is Identity?
● Identity is a compilation of your
experiences, as influenced by the
social, political, and cultural factors
that frame and mark those
experiences.
● “Identity” does NOT simply refer to
who someone is, in the sense that
your identification is your driver’s
license, social security, student ID
card, etc.
What Is Identity?
• Our identities aren’t born with us but
rather are built in relationship with/to
other people in our lives.
• Rituals
– Repeated patterns of human action that
function to shape and define our identities.
– Who we are is a result of these repeated
actions and patterns.
• Theory of Social Interactionism
– Theorizes that the self is a product of the
messages that it has encountered over past
interactions.
Audience Analysis and Identity in
Public Communication
• Audience Analysis is an important application of our growing
understanding of identity and perception. Attempting to
know your audience—who they are and how they became
who they are—is vitally important for anyone who
communicates in and with the public.
– Recall a moment in a speech where you used audience
analysis to better understand your audience; did it help
you be more successful in your speech? Explain why or
why not.
Fig. 5.1: Copyright © Ted Eytan (CC BYSA 2.0) at

550661/.
What is perception?
• Perception is similar to identity,
but it is NOT the same.
• It is always a product of who we
are in the moment and the
conditions we find ourselves
within; it grows and adapts too
similar to how your identity adapts
and changes.
• It is also how one sees the world in
the moment, as influenced by the
social, political, and cultural
experiences that frame and mark
them.
Positionalities in Relation to Our Identities
and Perceptions
• Positionalities are where we stand in relation to various
categories or elements of difference—those markers that
make us different from each other, whether race, economic
background, or ability. Positionalities shape our identities and
perceptions unintentionally.
• Standpoint Theory
– This theory contends that we stand in relation to one another within systems
of power
– We are people who occupy relationships to each other, and those relations are
mediated by social, political, and economic power. All of these factors can
change our perception and positionality along with our very own identity.
Theorists and the Standpoint
Theory
• Theorists who use standpoint theory attempt not only to
understand unequal power relationships and why they persist
but also to interrupt them.
– A benefit of this sort of theory is that it helps us
understand how our positionalities affect our perceptions
of the world, which shape and are shaped by our
communication.
Power and its Role in Shaping our Identities
• Why is it important to consider the role of power in relation
to professionalism?
– Power and performativity, are shaped by ideology that serves the interests
of those who already have power.
• Communication theories such as: standpoint theory,
performance theories, symbolic interactionism, etc. can help
us better understand the complex relationships between
identity, culture, and power.
• Performativity
– Dress, Vocal and Verbal Communication, Gestures, Professionalism, and
Role in Power are all aspects of Performativity
– Was first defined by philosopher of language John L. Austin as the capacity
of speech and communication to act or to consummate an action.

attachment