A BIT ABOUT ME

Hi, I’m Eulas Kirtdoll Sr.  I am currently a graduate student enrolled in the Strategic Communications program at Troy University.  Go Trojans!!!

UNDERGRADUATE IN HISTORY

I am grateful to be learning about how communications works in the world today.  My undergraduate degree is in History.  Learning about history taught me about the past, but more importantly, how important the past is to the present and the future.  Historians seek to understand the past, to interpret it, and to keep it alive in our memories.  After all, everything is in the past, except the present moment, and the unlived future.  And where would we be without memories and memory? 

COMMUNICATIONS AND HISTORY

Studying communication for me, therefore, is a paradigm shift.  But not a total shift away from history.  I am blending the two, realizing that much of what we communicate about is also history.  In fact, communications has a rich history itself.  This week in class we are focusing on the decline of print hard copy newspapers.  To understand the decline of newspapers you have to know some newspaper history.  In our class discussions I have talked about how newspapers may be dying to some extent, but their actual death is “greatly exaggerated” to quote Mark Twain’s famous reply to those who thought he was already dead.

Newspapers have done a great service to the world and to the USA.  Our founding fathers understood their importance when they made freedom of the Press one of our constitutional rights.  It was the Press that exposed Nixon’s Watergate scandal, and it will, no doubt, fall to the Press to investigate and reveal important scandals today and in the future involving government officials.  Our democracy is strong because of a free press.  Journalist have a lofty calling, and in my estimation, are under appreciated. 

The internet has made everyone a potential citizen journalist.  I applaud this because it truly democratizes the press.  But it also unlocks the potential for fraud and misinformation to run rampant.

  NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

"No man is an island" (John Donne, England 1624).  Each of us is connected to others  in some way.  

John Donne - Age 42 - Source -  Wikipedia

Our interconnectedness is our communication.  Through communication we interact.  Communication is much more than words.  It is any act, or action that directly or indirectly either involves or is observed by another human being, or even an animal.  Communication can be passive or active.  

THE FALLING TREE IN THE FOREST

The tree that falls in the forest is heard whether anyone "hears" with their ears or not.  The tree's fall changes the life of the tree.  The amount of oxygen that the tree produces is affected.  As we have seen with global warming and climate change, we are all connected, and the oxygen from even one tree contributes to the aggregate of oxygen in the atmosphere, however minutely.  The communication from the tree is not just the sound of falling, it is even more importantly, the resultant change in the atmosphere when the tree dies and is no longer contributing to the oxygen content of the atmosphere.  So the falling of a tree, while not heard if outside of hearing range, still makes a difference.  My point?  Communication is not all hearing.  Communication is not all verbal, or in writing.  Communication is action.  The proverbial saying rings true:  Actions speak louder than words.

All of us are communicators and make a "statement" whether it is heard or not, seen or not.  The space we occupy, the air we breathe, all communicate our existence.  Ultimately, all communication attests to existence.  Communication is the manifestation of existence. Without existence we could not communicate.  And even if we live alone on an island, we communicate our existence without words, with each breathe.  Some of us are passive communicators, and others are active communicators.  Some of us are strategic communicators.  

I WANT TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU

Strategic communicators are aware that every act of communication has the potential to effect change, or reinforce the status quo.  In the interconnected world of today, how we learn about what is occurring in the world around us is through media.  None of us can be everywhere at all times. The media brings local, regional, national, and international news to use today almost instantly.  Often the news matters little to us.  At other times, it impacts us either directly or indirectly.  None of us can afford the luxury of being an island, communicatively.  The purpose of this blog is to talk about STRATEGIC communication, particularly, emerging media, which includes social media.  I want to inform you, interact with you, and learn from you.  In short, I want to communicate with you.  

Communicating strategically means to communicate with a focused goal or goals in mind.  The emergence of the internet, and mobile communication technology have made it possible for us to share across the waters that separate the islands of individuality we each represent, and collaborate and synergize around shared goals.  Together, we can help one another become excellent communicators, and use that communication strategically to reach our goals, because, no person is a communication island.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.  Strategic Communications-Emerging Media is ON THE AIR!!  

A POEM TO CLOSE THE BLOG POST

Talk is cheap

Action is not

What you say

is often soon forgot

Talk and action

When they jive and jell

Make it easy for

Your plan to sell

Be consistent

In all you do

Talk and action

Are like one and two

Communication is Strategic when

The talk and action are going to blend

Please remember it’s not just what you say

But what you do that matters anyway

Happy Communicating!!!

Welcome to my new blog.  

Eulas Kirtdoll Sr.

January 12, 2017