I observed the Rickey Smiley Show on television, mute initially then, I watched it unmuted.

On mute, I noticed three short, separate segments. There were three characters in the first segment. They stood in a semi-circle, in a room. It was not an ordinary room. There was no windows  nor beds in the room. It looked like the characters were taking turns reading from a script and they were animated. Their arms flailed. Their heads bobbed and their legs made their bodies bounce up and down as they were seemingly acted out a scene. It looked like there was some competition happening as the female who was more animated than the others, seemed to smile and laugh as she had won the competition.

            The second segment was very short as a young man sat outside what looked like a café. He was sitting by himself when suddenly a young lady walked up beside him. He immediately hugged her with a loving “I’m happy to see you” hug. Then, they sat down and talked together, looking into each other’s eyes and smiling, while having a cup of coffee or tea. After a short while, both stood up. She walked towards him. He walked stepped beside her and draped his arm around her shoulders and they both lovingly walked down the street together. It looked like they were more than just mutual friends.   

The third segment showed two men approaching a large building that looked like a gym on the inside. There were four characters looking towards them as they entered, talking to one another. A young lady approached them. She and the tallest gentleman began to talk and someone threw him a football. He spoke to her. She darted away running and he threw the football in her direction. She turned to catch the ball but it missed her grip. After a few huddles, runs  and several more tries, the young lady finally caught the football. Then all teamed-up and played a short game of football. The young lady, who had a problem catching the ball before suddenly caught the ball with ease and the football game was immediately over. By this time, I sensed that the gentleman was an experienced football coach who was called in to help the young lady practice catching a football.

Unmuted, I discovered that all of my assumptions were correct. The two male actors were helping the female actress practice for an upcoming audition she desperately wanted to win. The young gentleman invited his girlfriend for coffee so that he could give her the good news about the location of  his future waffle house he wanted and the football coach was helping the young lady practice catching a football so she tryout for the community coed football team.

One insight I learned is how general context information—the who and what may be gathered from observing nonverbal communication. I also learned that one can gather the more detailed or specific information—the when, where and why from listening to verbal communication as O’Hair states that the communication process itself is interactive and depends on at least two people exchanging both verbal and nonverbal messges (O’Hair, 2011).

References

O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2011). Strategic communication in business and

the professions. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon