Action Group 3 update

Keepin it Real: ...shot the Band Vathika and had some interviews with band members on Sunday....

Iris_chapter 11

Here is a quote that stuck out to me:
"...the number-one ingredient for good storytelling is a "big dose of humility". (...) Listening to these stories slows time, erases economic, social, and racial differences; and creates a visceral emotional connection (...)"
I know that this quote was in context of the Children's Miracle Network's radiothon but it reminded me of the speech the Dalai Lama gave in Bloomington last Saturday.
The things he talks about are really obvious and universal but he does it in a very humble way. He doesn't try to be the big religious leader (he actually is) and stresses that he is just a regular human being. He convinces through his calmness and in addition he has a nice sense of humor....a little bit dry I would even say. Other religious leaders try to "sell" their religion as the "best one" but he even detaches the topics from it at all. That is quite impressive....

Iris_chapter10

Ok....as the German in the class I was kind of struggling with it...but I feel I have to "add my mustard to it" (German saying)

I am not sure if Hitler was that brilliant storyteller: I didn't read "Mein Kampf" (illegal in Germany!) but I heard from a philology professor that the language he used was pretty crappy (grammatical structure etc). The point is that Hitler had a huge propaganda apparatus behind him.
Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda minister and a very skillful demagoge. Hitler was the "Hero" (or main character) of the story a particular party/group of people created. The Nazis tried to use the latest scientific findings to work out their strategy and the German culture of obedience provided a fertile soil.
Germany's additional problem were/are "The silent masses"(and/or CYU-mentality)...the ultra national socialists were actually a minority...a very loud one, I have to admit! To the followers the propaganda spawned hatred (towards everything Non-Germanic) and pride (in a totally made-up heritage) , to the rest it spawned tremendous paralyzing fear (of being punished for "wrong-doing") and some just did not care unless it affected them.

Iris_chapter 10: Heartland Education Seminar

Me and Han went to the Monday Session of the Heartland Education Seminar (Liz was there, too) and I was quite (EXTREMELY) impressed by the keynote speakers.
....Why I am telling this?...Well it just made me think how the negative and positive things in and about a story can enforce the message you pull out of it!

Bobby Bailey, Jason Russell and Laren Poole are three young filmmakers who traveled to Africa in 2004 and discovered the children of Northern Uganda being abducted from their homes and forced to fight as child soldiers in the country’s battles. Every night the children commute from their homes to gather together in a place they feel is "safe". The filmmakers decided to record/film their experiences to create a cultural wake-up call. Their Film is called "Invisible Children - Rough Cut" (because it is a project still progressing) They received the highest possible award of Heartland.

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php

The negative part of the story is the situation in Uganda, the positive part is how we (All!) are able to change the situation. In course of the last three years the non-profit organization founded by the trio has raised 12Mio $ (most donations under 20$!) and the different events and projects (e.g. national commute night in US 2006, school for school) caused so much involvement that the peace talks in Uganda are running and at the moment the night commuting of the children has decreased dramatically! Now the filmmakers are focusing on the displacement camps still existing in Uganda. The creativity of the guys was overwhelming!!! They pulled all the projects with almost no seed money and are able to spark young people to take initiative and get involved in the projects contributing whatever their strength may be.

What struck me was that the film started out as a documentation of unimaginable atrocities and devastating life circumstances will turn into "an anthem for this generation" (according to filmmakers), because the filmmakers say that this young generation has the power to change the world ("Go Millennials"!!!!!!!!). They clearly state that Uganda is just a starting point and involvement can be everywhere -even locally in US communities!

I like their approach of the "rough cut" ...history always has preceding and descending events! Just because one problem seems to be "solved" doesn't mean that the work is over....(and I caught myself feeling too comfortable when hearing that the commuting ended!!!)

Iris chapter 9_ I

Hey guys...let's do an exercise: instead of Simmons don'ts let's find the matching dos and for Simmons dos lets find the matching don'ts....maybe we can find some interesting oppositions...Crawford for example (...I know that's a 634 insider...) said that the opposite of "anger" is "fear".....lets see what we can come up with!



(...and I don't care if some people think my efforts are pointless ;P!)

Iris chapter 9

In this chapter Simmons is wrapping up a lot things mentioned in the earlier chapters:
Don't bore your listeners...intrigue and captivate them! Do connect at the level of humanity and leave them feeling hopeful! Don't act superior or scare them or make them feel guilty....

Concerning the last part there are even studies for decades about the so- called "Fear Appeals": In case you want to work with fear the stimulus has to be strong enough to create a certain "drive" (dissonance) that the recipient need to work to solve. If the stimulus is too strong the recipient acts with avoidance! I think we had a similar discussion last week in connection with Gore and Moore and their extremely bold way of portraying things....

Group 3 update

Hopefully we will conduct survey 16th-18th....Mary Watkins is looking for teachers who volunteer

Iris chapter 8

Well...indeed listening properly is something we have forgotten and that needs to be trained again. For me it was quite interesting to read about that people don't listen because they are actually selfish..."If I don"t get attention then why should I give you mine"
.....honestly: we don't even listen to OURSELVES. How can we be able to listen to others? We push ourselves past any limits of physical and mental bearance. We swallow nutritionless food not paying attention to the signs (screams) our body sends us. We swallow a bad working climate pushing away the burned out feeling. We swallow the rules of a competitive environment evaluating things by their efficiency or the benefit they may bring us and not questioning the system itself. We scream for attention from all the world not realizing that we give (the right) attention (at the right time to the right aspect) to ourselves.
Listening means perceiving - fully perceiving. Being with no urge to respond, advice, judge, argue etc....

Iris_chapter 7

Here a few quotes that stuck out to me:

p 163:
The goal is to spread emotions that create action and hope in the people you want to influence
- we want to motivate the kids to do something and realize that even small things can inherit a major change (see p 175)...if all people do tiny things all over the place they change the face of the earth...yes they are just a nut or a bolt in the huge machine but they have a purpose! We "grown-ups" tend to make children feel small and insignificant, we don't take them serious and we often label their ideas as "illusionary", "far out" or just "stupid".....

p 164:
If you are going to connect to and activate the good part of humans, you will need to stop obsessing about the "evil" part.
You want to bring out the good? Then enforce the good!
See the good things that the school kids are already doing and support them.....

p 164: ...you may discover you are the one who doesn't understand, isn't willing to change, or won't listen.
- a big problem: talking next to each other not with each other! Very often arguments are caused by misunderstandings and especially misinterpretations, sometimes it is better to reconfirm in a question how you interpret the person's points and ask the person to explain what they really mean. We have to put ourselves into the other's situation and mindset.


and just because I like it so much:
p 158:
....and the monster smiled back with enough warmth to convince even the most cynical of the villagers that this monster was now a blessing to the village rather than a curse.

...a lot of the stories that Simmons includes in the book are stories that either show somebody solving a problem in an "outside-the-box"-way or show how an event/a fact can be seen in a totally different light...it shows me that we either have to fight the patterns we are stuck in or have to use them in a certain way to improve and change.

Actiongroup#3 update

Meeting Thursday 10am in Yorktown with Mary Watkins.

Action Group #3 : Sarah J., Brandon, Iris

Motto: "keepin' it real" - real friends have real interaction

Step 1:
video interviews with kids
- what is "real" friendship, how to "keep" friendship "real"?
- what they do with their friends besides videogames, movies etc.?

Step 2:
video production of 3 videos with snippets of video interviews (above) inserted
a) for three different age groups
OR
b) one age group and three areas: indoors, outdoors, school

idea --> challenge: do social work in your community, OR quest over a certain period of time (week or month)....animate school kids to find their own challenges


Step 3: put it on youtube and call out for video responses of school kids filming what they do with their friends

Iris_chapter 6

Shasky always said in his class:

"People don't remember what they've been told - they remember what they feel!!!"

It goes back to emotions that influence and make a story stick to your head.....(like Head-On....hehe)


Three quotes of this chapter that stuck out to me:

"Understanding your own story prepares you to understand the story of others and the biases (yours and theirs) that unnecessarily impede your ability to influence." (p135)

In my opinion, being able to switch perspectives in your head is very important. By "simulating" the other person's set of mind you have a better idea what that person would "jump on", where hooks and angles are and what reasoning is behind the choices the person makes. It also enables you to see the weak aspects or flaws of your own story and how to improve (or cover) them.


"Touching others without a willingness to be touched leaves you isolated and alone. The joy of life blends giving and receiving. Any healthy model of influence must incorporate that blend."
(p140)
I think to convince people you have to be "authentic" which you can only be if you "share" from yourself with others. Another aspect is that by revealing something from your life your to ambition to convince and influence receives a neat pretty veil. People will feel that you have given something in first place before expecting them to change . It makes you look more "generous" and have good intentions.


And last but not least:

"The stories you tell can bring out the best in people." (p148)

I think this is a good motto for our project. We will bring out the best in these kids!!! yeah!

Iris_chapter5

The part about the deficit of human attention was quite interesting because -despite the fact that I already think that more and more people loose the ability to communicate properly- it made me realise how important this lack is as a driving force that makes people receptive towards stories. Hence it is one major factor to determine where, who and in which way we belong to feeling valued and connected is so important in our life. A message can have a mass produced content but if it is wrapped into a "unique" coat a lot of people fall for it. Manipulating without being obviously manipulative is truly an art....

Iris_chapter_4 Q

Reading about the importance of face expression, gesture, body language etc. in storytelling is nothing really new to me but I like her approach not to train particular elements to make a story more convincing but to train your "inner attitude" - to convince yourself before you are able to convince others. She also in my opinion correctly remarks that body language can be read differently (especially when you deal with a different cultural background).

...But reading about the importance of the "visual aspects" of oral storytelling (-what a combination of terms!) made me recognize what an important craft it is to create good radio stories. In radio stories there are no gestures or face expressions or body language....probably the voice expression, sound effects, music and atmo-sound have to replace all this.
My question to this course is: What is it nevertheless that makes you listen to a good radio-story....or do you not listen at all to pure oral storytelling?
(isn't phoning with a friend something similar???...nevermind...)

Iris_chapter 3_Q

Fact 1: My book still did't arrive
Fact 2. I borrowed it (thanks John...and thanks Brian B.)
Fact 3: I quick read the chapter - and of course the Posts
Fact 4: I realize that if I just take the facts out of this chapter the chapter would be darn short
(see e.g. Sarahs post)
Fact 5: I somehow feel an overload of story and I am thirsty for "pure" facts....
Fact 6: Most of the things have already been said (bad luck of the late poster)
Fact 7: It is interesting to see how people refer the contents of the chapter to their own experience (See Chad and Boyun)
Fact 8: putting these facts together into a persuading story isn't easy -there are way too many ways to do this!

Doc Joe would say "narrow it down!" and "spare the details!", Simmons probably would want me to to go into the "shades of grey" and transform the facts. I could either try to convey my own point of view or try to meet expectations of my audience.....Whaterever....It is an old question: facts vs. story, facts => Story, Story >(facts)

Somehow I had to think of the neat "little" chart of Napoleons march...and I am still thinking that this visual is more factual than a "story". Would the Story be the explanation of the chart? or is that again to be considered as facts?

Iris I&2 $&$§&§$%!!!

...I deleted my beautiful Post through marking the Text with shift+arrow up (...I haven't used blogger in a long time...- three months is long when you don't blog AT ALL) and then - just in that second- blogger "autosaved" the empty post so I couldn't get back to the previous version (next time write it in word and then post it)....and then I spilled my "tons-of-pulp" Orange-Juice on the table which took me at least five dead trees to clean up.....I am feeling a little bit enraged right now and would like to destroy something or start a dressless riot on university avenue....but I shouldn't because all my work will be useless if I am sitting in a padded cell unable to attend the class tomorrow....*phew*...I know it is very unprofessional to bother the public with my insane profanities....and I still have almost an hour to finish the post - and guys....I can write a lot &%$§ in an hour if it wasn't Monday where my mind falls apart at 7:45am and it usually takes me the whole week to puzzle it together......

AND YES...I am also one of the memebers that waits for the book....so I thought I ride down on my oldschool-backbreak-bike to the village to CBX to buy it and then return it to get full refund before Sept. 2nd (uuuuh I am so SMART!!!) just to find out that CBX didn't order any of them AT ALL.....so I ended up sitting on the carpet of the Atrium and quick reading the two chapters (and peeking into a book about a Voodoo Priestess in Brooklyn named Mama Lola) because the full-refund date already passed there.....anyway....a few things popped into my mind and I promise I keep it short and sweet:

- did anyone felt at least a little bit reminded of Csikszentmihalyi while reading about Capital-T-Truth?....(that wasn't meant negative)

- Knowing and showing your vulnerability is also a form of defense because you also state:"I know my weak points so don#t stab into them because I amprepared and if you nevertheless do so you shed bad light on yourself"

- Somehow I have the impression that communication studies made me "see" stories and now I see them everywhere. That bothers me because sometimes I just do not want to hear a story to illustrate me why and how I have to act a certain way or to change my attitude/behavior towards something. Sometimes as cold and naked the truth is I want to hear it straight and clear and not botoxed and lifted and wrapped in a pretty corset. Because when you strip it it is still the cold and naked truth.....I just guess it is a thin red line between being offensive and being honest.....
A story has to be well incorporated otherwise it may pulls me away from the speaker. I went to a service of Campus Crusade and the speaker used a lost+found story of her dog to build up a connection with the audience and then to lead into her speech about "lost sheep".....I got pulled away...I didn't like it...

- although the author talkes about basic and essential aspects of communication I am already familiar with (through courses I took during my 11 semesters of study) she formulates and organizes them in a clear straight manner and sometimes points out connections that were too obvious (!!!) for me to recognize them. I like her six categories. Those categories are extremely basic - thats why the connection to religions: basic and ancient patterns!!

....and I know I broke my promise....;D!