Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Web Lecture Blog 1
“True love can drive you insane” is one of my favorite metaphors. Without any surprise I figured that communication will have metaphors as well. Conduit metaphor was first founded by Redding and it has three parts.1. Ideas and meanings are objects2. Linguistic expressions are containers for meanings.3. Communication is sendingOrganizational communication metaphors have their perks and their problems. It is assumed that these metaphors can be transferred among speakers, listeners etc. However, sometimes information is not transmitted properly. It is like playing “telephone” as a child. After it gets enough sifting the quality of the information is no longer very accurate. I remember in elementary school we used to always play telephone I didn’t actually think of the “lesson learned” until now. But it all makes sense now.
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Metaphors can sometimes further explain the meaning of a message within an organization but as pointed out in the on-line reading, Metaphors and Culture, metaphors can cause problems. Just as you pointed out with the telephone game played as a child, there may be errors in the translation and reception of the message. However, metaphors are used to give meaning to unfamiliar experiences in terms of more familiar ones as explained in the book. Within any organization, one problem that can occur is when it is assumed that every member of that organization understands the metaphor or that it is familiar. The message is then lost or misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteI don't use metaphors very often, but I do appreciate the art of using them in conversation.
ReplyDeleteHere are some metaphors I found online that I like:
This homework is a breeze.
He showered her with gifts.
The event was clouded over by protests.
My memory is a little foggy.
Into each life some rain must fall.
You are the sunshine of my life.
He'd entered his sunset years. One's life is a single day.
It's gonna' be clear skies from now on.
You'll be blown away!
Criticism began to gust in from all sides.
The boss thundered into the room.
I agree with the other comments; I like when metaphors are used, but so commonly people may not understand the direction you are going when they are used. Your example, "true love can drive you insane," can be confusing to some. Insane normally brings connotations of being bad, but here it is classified as being a good and bad thing at the same time. How is that possible? Metaphors are only useful if the beholder understands the meaning behind them.
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