Research Podcast

The podcast I listened to was by Adar Cohen. Cohen discusses the 3 ways to lead tough, unavoidable conversations. I will also be refrering to this weeks reading material, The Agenda Setting Theory. Cohen makes a great explanation of how when we have these difficult topics of conversation people are afraid to have these talks, their frustration will kick in, communication often restricts, tensions often rise, trust is broken, and there is little to no collaboration being done to help resolve the conflicts we are intrested in. For example, on page 372 there is a list of what the media highlights on the discussion of immigration in 2016. 
“Jobs: Immigrants do work Americans just don’t want to do. Government spending: Can America really afford to build a wall along the southern border? Law and order: If they broke the law coming here, they’ll keeping breaking laws while living here. Education: Children of immigrants shouldn’t be denied admission to college on the basis of their citizenship status. Welfare: Immigrants come here to mooch off America’s social services.Racial relations: Some people unfairly fear immigrants because of the color of their skin. Foreign relations: How would Mexico react to changes in border policy?”
Yes, we see everyones side of this conflict but what are we doing to take all of these ideas and actually come to a conclusion to resolve the conflict of immigration. Lets take a look into Cohens 3 steps to leading a difficult conversation. 1.Move towards the conflict, 2.Listen, because you dont know anything, or atleast pretend that you don't, take the bias away. 3.Keep quiet, dont panic in moments of silence.  

I personally come from a family who migrated from Mexico many generations ago to escape the Spanish invaders in Matzatlan, Sinaloa. Alongside my family many others from Mexico make the travel to the United Sates for a number of reasons whether it is safety, a better oppourtunity, or to provide for their family. The media uses the target of agenda to paint a negative aspect oftentimes because they see people trying to better their lives as a threat because of fake news (false news articles), gatekeepers (editors and authors who determine what is being published for the public), interest aggregators(pressure groups), and the widespread availability to share these forms of communication online. 

Cohen went into detail about how he gathered together different parties so they could discuss the reality of what ways people can collaborate on providing resources to people who were recently encarcerated so they dont end up back in the institution. He mentioned at first nobody wanted to talk until he asked the prison guard, what are the misconceptions you face that people may not realize? He responded "People think that I feel normal about this, keeping people in cages all day. There is nothing normal about my job." 

Well immediately I thought to myself, how can we relate this to Border Patrol agents? They are the front line of our discussion of immigration anyways, how to they feel they are not heard? No matter what I believe there needs to be a need for orientation on this topic that takes into consideration all parties, lets go of all bias and sterotypes, and faces all misconceptions on the topic of immigration and this goes for all of these unavoidable conversations. 

 Works Cited:
Cohen, Adar. “3 Ways to Lead Tough, Unavoidable Conversations.” Adar Cohen: 3 Ways to Lead Tough, Unavoidable Conversations | TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/adar_cohen_3_ways_to_lead_tough_unavoidable_conversations/transcript. 
Bush, Lewis, and Lewis Bush. “Blind Spots: On Miss-Seeing and Not Seeing.” Disphotic, 8 Nov. 2018, http://www.disphotic.com/blindspots-on-miss-seeing-and-not-seeing/.  
McCombs, Maxwell, and Donald Shaw. “Agenda Setting Theory.” Communicating Online, McGraw-Hill, pp. 368–380.

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