Episode Analysis-Communication Understanding

For my latest assignment I had to watch a television show with the sound off.
Back in the day I loved Judge Judy. It just so happened to come on again on my day off, so I chose this. I don’t get to watch it anymore and haven’t seen it in years.

Based on what I have learned this week, through communication, without any sound. It was an interesting experience. I had to use what I knew about communication to watch it without sound. I had to rely heavily on my other senses. I could read a little bit of their lips but mostly what I got from the episode was body language, facial expressions and facial expressions from audience members. Their behaviors told me a lot of what was going on even though I could not hear anything. I did witness deception. An “attempt to convince others of something that is false” (O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015, p. 99). There was a lot of gestures and body movements that was evidence. These things may not have been picked up if there were sound, but since I had no sound I had to rely on these types of movements and gestures to gain some kind of understanding. Previously, I understood facial expressions but never knew of “oculesics.” “Oculesics is the study of the use of eyes to communicate” (O’Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015, p. 104).

          Because of the type of show it is, the relationship is parents of a young child, daughter. They are not together. Based on what I saw, and how they perceived to be communicating, they are upset with each other and felt the need to bring things to court because they could not verbally communicate civilly with each other.

          Based on their facial expressions, body movements, and gestures, I would say the feeling of the people involved to include Judge Judy was aggravated, irritated, lying, disgust, astonishment, and agreement and times

          After watching the episode with sound, I got more clarity. I watched it differently because I had sound. The emotions, gestures, and facial expressions were different to me watching this episode. Before I heard any sound I had already made a impression of the characters, and after the sound was introduced made my feelings stronger about them. The sound just heightened my opinions. Nonverbal communication gave me an insight, but verbal brought it all home and could have made things worse. The gestures and facial expressions made more sense to the words.

Watching it this way is like watching something for the second time and getting something every time. It could be things you missed when you watched it the first time. I think this is true for even things you have seen before. I have seen movies or shows once and then watch a rerun and see things differently a second time. My eyes are more wide open because I already know what’s going to happen. 

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.