Public and Mass Communication, Essay Example

A1. Credibility exists when the listeners believe in the speaker and trust his words. Credibility is based on listeners’ perceptions of a speaker’s position, authority, knowledge, dynamism, and trustworthiness. Speakers can build credibility by demonstrating that they know the topic they are talking about, are dynamic communicators, and use evidence and reasoning ethically.

There are three main types of credibility which are initial credibility, derived credibility, and terminal credibility. Initial credibility is based on the perceived expertise, dynamism, and character of the speaker even before he has begun speaking. Examples of initial credibility would be Stephen Hawking’s lecture on the origins of the universe, Pope Benedict’s address on Jesus’ life, and Michael Jordan’s commentary on a basketball game. Even of these personalities have made a name in their respective fields, thus, the listeners will trust them to be experts and all of these also enjoy positive public image.

Derived credibility is earned in the process of presenting a speech, thus, derived credibility is also the result of the speaker’s public communication skills such as providing clear, well-organized information and convincing evidence in an engaging delivery style. Speakers also earn derived credibility if they come across as likeable and having goodwill toward the listeners. An example of derived credibility may be Bill Clinton’s speech during the Democratic National Convention which might have increased support for President Obama among the independents because Clinton delivered an effectively organized speech that included statistics and other evidence to make the argument that President Obama’s policies will be better for the country and for the people. Terminal credibility is the cumulative combination of initial and derived credibility. Terminal credibility could be greater or less than the initial credibility, based on the speaker’s performance. An example of terminal credibility would be Bill Gates’ presentation on Windows 8. Bill Gates is considered an icon in tech and is also an effective speaker, thus, whether his terminal credibility is greater or less than initial credibility may be determined by listeners’ perceptions of Gates’ performance in the presentation.

A2. Martin Zwilling argues that every entrepreneur should master public speaking skills because it will help him succeed in his career and give access to more opportunities. Zwilling says many entrepreneurs are content with the communication skills that are required in one-to-one and one-to-many communication and don’t see the need to acquire public communication skills but they don’t realize that public speaking is now a necessary skill in the business world. Zwilling recommends courses and books such as Dale Carnegie’s course and Jan Yager’s The Fast Track Guide to Speaking in Public as good starting points (Zwilling).

Zwilling mentions several opportunities that good public speaking skills will help the entrepreneurs take advantage of. First of all, entrepreneurs may have ideas but they need someone to fund their ideas and investors always want to talk to the person with the idea and not the marketing representative because they want to be convinced the investor is worth the trust. Public speaking skills also create opportunities for entrepreneurs to appear on panel of experts that is a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs to build credibility and bring visibility to themselves, their brands, and their companies. Similarly, public speaking skills may also result in more television interviews that often require same skills as public speaking. Similarly, as their companies grow, the entrepreneur may have to host customer seminars or attend industry association events (Zwilling).

Zwilling claims that anyone can learn public speaking skills through determination and practice and also overcome their fear of public speaking. An entrepreneur can’t do all things by himself and without public speaking skills, will have difficulty building up the company (Zwilling).

A3. A Forbes article presents the ideas of three experts, Ray Wang of Constellation Research Group, Dr. Andreas Weigend who is professor of e-commerce and was Chief Scientist at Amazon.com, and Dr. Rick Wilber who is professor of mass media as well as an author, regarding the future of social and mass media. Mr. Wang believes that social media will play even bigger role in the future and the businesses will be built around relationships. The organizations will need to focus on five things to prepare for future which are building trust in the brand, having an on-going social media strategy, aligning business processes around social and community behaviors, developing people-to-people relationships, and being a good business (Wilms).

Dr. Weigend says that social data will become extremely valuable. Dr. Weigend describes social data as information created and shared by individuals who expect to benefit from its socialization. Dr. Weigend gives several examples of how social data is being created such as through profiles on websites like Linkedin, expert answers on websites like Quora, print and video data such as on Flickr, and geo-location data. The real disruption will occur when companies will learn to effectively exploit all this data. Dr. Wilber makes even more sensational claim that new technologies will emerge that will make it possible to allow stimulus directly enter the brain. This would mean not watching an entertainer performing but being in entertainer’s head as he/she is performing. In other words, one will be able to experience another person whenever he/she desired (Wilms).

References

Wilms, Todd. The Future of Social and Mass Media: Wilber, Wang, and Weigend Weigh-In. 22 September 2011. 29 November 2012 <http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2011/09/22/the-future-of-social-and-mass-media-wilber-wang-and-weigend-weigh-in/>.

Zwilling, Martin. Every Entrepreneur Needs to Master Public Speaking. 23 November 2012. 29 November 2012 <http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2012/11/23/every-entrepreneur-needs-to-master-public-speaking/>.