Five Organizations for the Communcations Professional

When I started the research for Communication Professionals, I was astounded by the mass of choices there are in this particular field of professionals. It is very interesting how many different branches off this profession of choice is. Here are the five that I found the most interesting:

Media Communications Association – International / mca-i

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Media (or medium) as “an intervening substance through which something else is transmitted” as well as “a means of expression as determined by the materials of the creative methods involved.” Communication is “the exchange of thoughts, messages or information.”

As a MCA-I member, they provide the vital connection between the creative methods and the “intervening substance” (a.k.a. technology) (Media, n.d.).

Communication Professionals / CPGP

Due to an increasing demand for services to accompany our myriad products, in 2006 CPI began its service division with an emphasis on design and implementation. Organically, CPI has built a reputation for being a strong ally for our clients, a reputable partner to our peers, and a competitive company  
                                                to our competition (CPGP, 2013).

National Communication Association / NCA

The National Communication Association advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry (NCA, 2014).

The members of the NCA are served as scholars, teachers, as well as practitioners are strongly encouraged to support their professional interests in research and teaching. The NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems (NCA, 2014).

Commissions on Public Relations Education / CPRE

The largest pre-professional organization, the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), offers membership or affiliate membership through collegiate chapters for public relations students. Many other professional organizations offer student memberships and have student chapters to aid in public relations students’ professional development (CPRE, 2013).

The Association for Women in Communications / WOMCOM

It is good to know that there are organizations that are geared towards women in the communication field. This type of field work has a person working in print, broadcast journalism, television & radio production, film advertising, public relations and broadcast journalism, television and radio production, film, advertising, public relations, marketing, graphic design, multi-media design, and photography. Being part of this organization will allow you to stay current within the industry, pursue new job leads through their job board, and take advantage of partner savings (WomCom, 2014).

I believe that The Association for Women in Communications is a place that I could sink my teeth into in order to learn what I can in communications. If I worked for this company, I would feel as though I would be needed by a lot of people so I believe that this would be the association for my.

References

Commissions on Public Relations Education (CPRE) (2013). Public Relation Education for the 21^st Century. Retrieved on May 16, 2014 from http://www.commpred.org/theprofessionalbond/organizations.php

Communication Professionals (CPGP) (2013). Retrieved on May 16, 2014 from http://cpgp.com/

Media Communications Association – International (MCA-I) (n.d.). Retrieved on May 16, 2014 from http://www.mca-i.org/en/cms/?2339

National Communication Association (NCA) (2014). What is NCA? Retrieved on May 16, 2014 from http://www.natcom.org/about/

The Association for Women in Communication (WomCom) (2014). Connect, Engage and Advance. Retrieved on May 16, 2014 from http://www.womcom.org/wp/

Delivering Bad News Tactfully and Effectively

In order to try and rectify a situation that has been brought to my attention, having been created by one of the workers who has worked for me for the past two years, I will take her to the conference room where we will not be disturbed and away from all the other employees for the privacy of this conversation. I know not to bring up faults of a worker in front of the other employees due to the fact that if a problem can be dealt with one on one, that is the best way to handle. Most of the time when having to discipline an employee is because there is a problem on the floor with one or more of the other employees, so I will need to get to the bottom of this and find out what the problems is (Kriesberg, 2003).

By taking her away from the attention of the other employees, I have presented a small haven in which the employee can speak freely to me if she wishes, by doing this I have de-escalated the situation because now this employee knows that something is going to be done to fix whatever the issue is that is causing this conflict.  I must convince her that I really need to know what the problem is that she has developed this attitude that is not only felt by the other employees but has also been noticed by the our customers and that is why I am nipping this in the bud, so we can get it rectified as soon as possible so that we can still produce worthwhile products to the satisfaction of the customers (Kriesberg, 2003).

If I find out that the problem is not within the employee group, and is with one of our customers, I will need to find out which customer and see if there is something that we can do in order to make it better for this customer seeing as obviously something has happened that has made the customer unhappy and has trickled right on across to my employee and in turn is creating a hostile work environment and it need not be that way (Kriesberg, 2003).

References

Kriesberg, L. (2003). "Settlement Stage." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Retrieved on May 5, 2014 from <http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/termination-resolution-phase>.

Media Technology

Town Criers

The art of communication has changed so much over time. Communication has evolved from being a personal way of communication to impersonal due to the way that technology has forged in our time today. Communication is a necessity in order to get through life, because without the world would be in chaos. So, it does not matter how we communicate whether using hand signals, voice or social media, communication has to be utilized.

Using one’s voice was an official job of a Town Crier and it can be traced back as far as 1066, when King William of Normandy planned his first (and it was to be his last) invasion of Britain. The news was passed by chosen people that became employed to specifically go from town to town letting people know what had happened by the King’s orders. These Town Criers had the protection of the law following them, hence the saying “Don’t shoot the messenger” ended up being a very real command. If anything ever did happen to these Town Criers, it was decreed that it happened to the King also and it was considered a treasonable offense (McLaren, 2006).

This job of Town Crier worked its way right into the military of this time period. Musicians, who were educated and respected carriers of messages and "parlees" across the battlefield lines, were "of" the military not "part of" the military. Their uniforms were bright reverse colored and identified them as non-combatant signalmen, protected from the rages of the battlefield. They were armed with only a small 24 inch long sword (McLaren, 2006).

Mail coach: 1784 - 1797

Delivery of the written word went through major changes over the centuries and in 1784 – 1797, the coach was developed with horse drawn coaches that would race across the plains of England in order to get the mail to and from giver and receiver.

In 1782, John Palmer realized that when someone sent a letter to and from London it was take more than three days for the journey to take place and the individual post boys were riding horses that could barely make the journey. So Palmer decided to go to the government and present a proposal that would make a world of difference. He showed how mail would be carried in special coaches with good horses, armed guards, and no outside passengers. There was strong opposition from the post office, but the young William Pitt gives Palmer his personal support. As chancellor of the exchequer, he was attracted by the idea of higher postal charges for a better service (History of Communication, n.d.).

            In 1784, the first mail coach run from Bristol to London was a great success and because of the success in the autumn of the following year Palmer launched more services to sixteen other towns. The mail coach got better with time and by 1797 there were forty-two routes in operation.

The departure of the mail coaches becomes a famous event every evening in London, for they all leave together at 8 p.m. Average speeds are now up to nearly 10 m.p.h. Edinburgh is reached in 43 hours, meaning that an answer can be received in London within four days.

The Telegraph

Mail Coach was a very good way of delivering the mail back then but was eventually moved out by the invention of the telegraph (History of Communication, n.d.).

Being able to send messages over a wire was made possible by Samuel Morse in 1835. He was a professor of arts and design at New York University. Morse showed how pulses of current deflected an electromagnet, and a marker was moved to produce a written code on a strip of paper – which was later called Morse Code. During the next year, his machine was able to produce dots and dashes due to the way it would emboss the paper. In 1938, Morse wanted the public to see his invention, so he held a demonstration but he was not helped by Congress until five years later which funded $30,000 in order to get an experimental telegraph line stretching from Washington to Baltimore which was forty miles apart.

            It took another six years in order for members of Congress to be convinced that this would be a good thing, not until they witnessed the telegraph line do its thing by sending and receiving messages. In 1844, on May first, the news that Henry Clay was nominated by the Whig party was hand delivered to Morse’s partner, Alfred Vail at Annapolis Junction, which was between Washington and Baltimore, then the news was wired to the Capitol. This was the first news to be dispatched by electric telegraph. It could not have been any better for Morse and his partner.

The Telephone

            Then in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. It was a line that was used from one room to another in order to communicate over distances with words (History of Communication, n.d.).

            Bell’s had an interest in educating deaf individuals and this interest led him in developing the microphone, but his greatest accomplishment was the invention of the a device he referred to as an “electrical speech machine”, which was later changed to what we are more familiar with today, the telephone (America’s Story, n.d.).

            Bell wasted no time in showing his invention and by 1878, he had set up an exchange for the telephone in New Haven, Connecticut. This telephone contraption was not bringing big cities closer together by means of being able to communicate in minutes not days or weeks as was the case with the mail coach so long ago. The first long-distance connection came in 1884 between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City. Bell had so many dreams and uses for his telephone but he could have never imagined that it would have blossomed into what we have today. Being able to communicate without wires and even send pictures over the device that Alexander Graham Bell considered his greatest invention. The progress was more than Bell could have ever imagined in any of his wildest dreams (America’s Story, n.d.).

Since Alexander Graham Bell's death in 1922, the telecommunication industry has undergone an amazing revolution. This revolution has gotten to the point that one's ability to access information relies upon telecommunications technology. Bell's "electrical speech machine" paved the way for the information superhighway(America’s Story, n.d.).

References

America’s Story from America’s Library (n.d.). Jump back in time. The first telephone call. Retrieved April 29, 2014 from http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/recon/jb_recon_telephone_1.html

Bellis, Mary (1997). The History of the Electric Telegraph and Telegraphy. The Beginning of Electronic Communications. Retrieved April 29, 2014 from http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm

History of Communication (n.d.). Early methods. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=aa93

McLaren, Brent (2006). Perth Ontario’s town crier. A completely unofficial and very brief history of town criers. Retrieved April 29, 2014 from http://perthtowncrier.com/support.html