Stereotyping is essential to giving off an impression. In this photo David Beckham can be stereotyped as the modern, caring, sensitive, intelligent man who is not ashamed to be in touch with his feminine side. In this photograph he fills every aspect of that stereotype. If people can easily associate with a stereotype it is easier to predict their reactions and thoughts. Therefore making the whole process of gaining a desired impression through self-presentation easier and more effective.
The main bulk of my research was collecting photos of celebrities from the Internet and magazines, such as the above example and using Lasswell’s flow model of communication to determined the meaning and reason behind them.
Most of the theory came from the work of the late Erving Goffman an American sociologist. Along with the work of Lasswell his explanations and theory have helped me understand and make sense of the self-presentation and behavior of celebrities such as David Beckham. My research supported Goffmans theory and his theory supported my research thus making the research a success, this can be seen in greater detail in my appendix and oral.
Preparation
Presenting my talk on how celebrities use self-presentation to portray different images of themselves
In this section of my project I shall be analyzing and discussing the factors that will affect the way in which I present my talk. I shall try and make my talk as interesting and interactive as possible without straying from my script.
The factors I shall be discussing include gestures these are usually made subconsciously using the hands. Gestures are vital in creating a good rapport with the audience. Good hand movement shows interest and confidence therefore keeping the audience focused. Throughout my talk and especially during my question and answer session I shall be trying to express confidence through my gestures and paralanguage in order to cement my knowledge. Facial expressions are also made subconsciously. Facial expressions can be accompanied by language or simply used on their own to covey a message. Facial expressions can be more truthful than words in many situations as they are subconscious. If my face is very plain with not much expression the audience will think I am nervous which is not good for the rapport and atmosphere between them and myself. They may become board and uninterested and even begin to question my knowledge.
When considering how to use my eye contact I thought of how teachers speak to a class but concluded that it would probably be best for me to look at points on the wall behind my audience creating the false impression that I am actually looking at them. The main reasons for doing this is that I do not want to directly look at them is firstly because I don’t want to intimidate myself and loose my rhythm and secondly because I don’t want the others to feel left out and loose interest when I am looking at one person. My body posture will also be important. There is a wide range of body postures ranging from dominant to submissive and including friendly, confident and aggressive body postures. I will use a combination of confident and friendly engaging body postures in order to help familiarize and relax my audience.
Physical appearance is another important factor I have considered in my investigation, oral and presentation. This time however the emphasis is on me rather than a celebrity. Attributes of a person’s physical appearance include hair, jewelry, clothes, smell and so on. I have decided to wear my normal school clothes, a dark gray suit. I will take off my suit jacket, undo my top button and loosen my tie this is in order to relax my audience and make them feel more comfortable.
I must be specific with my paralanguage. The tone, speed and volume of voice need to be carefully managed as they can often carry messages. I will attempt to speak slowly and clearly varying my volume and tone according to what I am saying, explaining or asking. This should help me come across as confident and knowledgeable without being nervous.
I have decided to uses a semi circle of chairs with me in front at the center standing behind a lectern. The lectern should give me a feeling of authority without intimidating my audience.
Diagram of layout
I shall be using an over head projector (OHP) as my main visual aid. I will be showing photographs of famous celebrities to help show and emphasize my points.
Oral Review
After watching my video I realize that I came across reasonably well. However after evaluating my performance I found many more negative points than good points. There are several areas I would wish to improve on. After speaking to my audience I have come to the conclusion that this may just be because I am very critical of my performance in everything I do.
One of my main concerns was achieving and maintaining audience interest. I felt that if I made my content redundant by involving my audience as much as possible this could be achieved. My assumption was correct and I feel that I created an excellent rapport and gained the maximum attention capacity of my audience. I also tried to make my topic simple yet interesting without being patronizing to my audience. I felt my OHP photographs were effective in giving my audience examples to back up my theory and maintain interest. They also gave the audience a break and this prepared them to take in more information.
I feel that at the beginning of my oral presentation my hand gestures and non-verbal communication suffered due to a lack of confidence and this subsequently lead to a heavy reliance on my notes. My eye contact was very relaxed and I looked at my audience in general, occasionally focusing on an individual randomly or if they appeared to be losing interest.
My paralanguage was slightly restrained at the beginning but as I relaxed my tone, volume and speed began to settle into a normal pattern. This in turn helped my audience, as they appeared to carbon copy my relaxed appearance by relaxing themselves. This was great because I felt their non-verbal communication showed interest and gave me a greater confidence.
During my oral I tried to adopt a confident upright posture standing with my shoulders back and head up high. This worked well in conjunction with my paralanguage because it made me seem alert yet relaxed. The paralanguage helped to create the relaxed impression.
I tried to not really think about my gestures and just to keep them as natural as possible. I was however aware that I may freeze up and tend to not use many hand gestures therefore I kept this in mind whilst giving my oral presentation.
I felt that my seating plan worked well, the semi circle was a common seat layout and helped my audience feel as relaxed as possible. It had been suggested that the lectern might have created a negative barrier between the audience and myself. This was definitely not the case; it gave me a feeling of authority without intimidating my audience.
As was common with most of my class colleagues I really began to excel during my question and answer phase. This gave me a chance to show my extensive knowledge on the subject. I believe the reasons for my improvement were due to several factors. The fact that it was non-rehearsed gave natural non-verbal communication. The main reason was because it was at the end of my talk and my nervousness and inhibitions had disappeared.
After reviewing my performance I believe that all the ideas discussed and decided on in my preparation turned out well. The only way I could have improved my talk would have been to simulate and rehearse the exact same situation with some schoolmates before hand. This would have hopefully reduced my nervousness when doing the real thing.