New Director of the MA Program in Communication

Hey everyone.  Dr. Gwen Wittenbaum has agreed to step in as the new Coordinator of the MA program in Communication.  She will do an awesome job and has some great ideas to re-energize a weakening program. 

My protege at PSU!

    With Xun Zhu and his parents when they came for graduation to MSU in May!  My office is very cluttered here.  In the meantime I have downsized, cleaned out and reorganized my office with excellent results.  It is much happier and ergonomic!

The Goffmanian Conundrum - great article on stigma!

Communication Studies

Vol. 65, No. 2, April–June 2014, pp. 208–222

This Goffmanian Conundrum: Supporting the Status Quo or Forced

to Manage Societal Ramifications?

Susan A. Stearns

This article presents Goffman’s (1956, 1963) description of particular micro-social

systems exhibiting embarrassment with the potential to escalate into stigma as a

near prescriptive communication cycle coined the Goffmanian Conundrum. The

impact of  this Goffmanian Conundrum is examined both across communication

contexts and within one particular context: the darkside of organizational

communication, specifically in relation to muting and silencing, incivility, and

bullying, concluding with the need to better understand stigma as a mediating

influence on communication.

Keywords: Bullying; Embarrassment; Incivility; Organizational Communication;

Stigma