Overview+of+topic+and+Project+Paper

**__ Now introducing... __** The topic of this paper is the co-culture of fans within the larger culture of Major League Baseball (MLB). This paper will first examine why fans themselves are considered a co-culture, what the two types of communication are, as well as specifically focusing on the different types of communication used by fans practicing within this co-culture. Some of the most common and popular verbal and nonverbal ways of communication will also be highlighted. This topic was chosen because baseball is a culture within itself, and because of the researchers fondness for sports, baseball being the most favored. The researcher also thought it would be interesting to further investigate exactly what forms of communication fans practice, whether intentional or unintentional, at baseball games to differentiate themselves from other individuals within the same co-culture.

This is a significant topic because it is important to understand and be aware of the correct values, rules, and beliefs associated with any culture different than your own, even if you do not associate with that culture or co-culture on an everyday basis. Baseball has often been referred to as “America’s pastime”, and like anything else historic or any other “pastime”, we should research and learn as much as we can about that time period and the culture associated with it. This topic relates to Intercultural Communication and Communication 322 because, as described in the course syllabus, this course is designed to assist students in developing their knowledge and skills in communicating with people from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Issues of culture, co-culture…verbal communication and nonverbal communication are discussed in this course.[1]

__** A few definitions and some background... **__  Lets first see why fans are considered, or should be considered a co-culture. The definition of a co-culture is: a groups of people of social communities who exhibit and are united by significant, distinct cultural differences from the dominant culture in which they are embedded.[2] Next, we should also be sure and define culture. Because culture is all-inclusive, it includes all aspects of life.[3] These aspects include things such as daily life (which also includes sports, clothing, and games), creative arts (which includes entertainment, music, and television), and the nation (including famous people, geography, and history).[4] According to Professor Armeda Reitzel, culture refers to the products and processes that define the ways of thinking, believing, and behaving of a group of people.[5] Based on these definitions, fans should be considered a co-culture because they are a group of people, associated within a social community (specifically daily life), who exhibit distinct cultural differences (clothing, hair styles, makeup), from the dominant culture, in this case Major League Baseball being the dominant culture and the difference in the two groups of people is quite obvious, one group being the professional Major League players, the other being the fans. It is also important to note that co-cultures often have many of the defining characteristics found in any culture.[6] As well as noting that culture is mainly an unspoken, nonverbal phenomenon because most aspects of one’s culture are learned through observation and imitation rather than explicit verbal expression or instruction.[7

There are two types of communication: verbal and nonverbal. It is important to make sure and differentiate between the two types. As discussed in class lecture notes, verbal communication is defined as the “words” we use.[8] Another definition found in the textbook states that communication is the management of messages with the objective of creating meaning.[9] Obviously there is always an underlying reason why one communicates, regardless of the situation. When we communicate as humans we do so to inform, persuade, or provide some sort of entertainment to and for others. It can be assumed then that when we communicate, we do so with a purpose. Communication is symbolic, it is considered a process, and as explained in a class handout, “…culture is communication…communication is culture”.[10] Communication also requires a sender, some sort of message to be conveyed, and an intended recipient(s).[11] Not only for the argument of this paper, but for arguments sake in general, it is important to know that it is also not necessary for said recipient to be present or even aware of the original sender’s intent to engage in communication; thus communication is able to occur across distances of time and space,[12] like on the baseball field or across the bleachers at a game.

Nonverbal communication is the actions we do; the “everything else” we use besides our words.[13] These nonverbal communication actions include our hand gestures, our facial expressions, our appearance (including clothing), objects that we use, the volume, and tone of our voice, as well as pauses and words such as like, umm, awww, ohhh, and OK[14]; these are all examples of nonverbal cues which we use on an everyday basis, whether we know it or not. There are seven nonverbal universal codes outlined in the text: proxemics-space and distance, chronemics-meaning and time, kinesic-body motion and facial expression, haptics-touch, oculesics-eye contact, vocalics-non-vocal cues including tone, and olfactics-smell. These seven dimensions aim at providing a framework that helps studies on nonverbal communication across different cultures.[15] Every language is complex and capable of communicating a wide variety of thoughts and ideas. From what we wear, to how we do our hair, to what type of car we drive, what smell of perfume we put on (or don’t put on) in the morning, they are all nonverbal universal codes that are a part of our life each and every day; taking place without much thought most of the time. These practices are a part of our own culture and help to make and shape us into who we are as individuals. Now that we know what the difference between cultures, co-cultures, verbal and nonverbal communication is, lets take a look at some more specific examples and how they are associated with sports, specifically Major League Baseball and the different ways that fans use these ways to communicate.

__** Lets see this stuff in action (examples)... **__  Let us first examine some nonverbal ways of communication, specifically facial expressions that fans might give to other fans when communicating at ball games. When one fan turns and smiles towards another fan in the same co-culture, the smile being the most common figure of speech and communication,[16] we could assume that the two are communicating nonverbally and in a positive way through the symbol of the smile. We would assume this because we have been taught that some words carry more meaning and degrees of stability[17] than other words. We have learned this through our cultures and co-cultures over time and through our daily life. On the opposite side of fan co-culture, if the same fan smiled at you after their team just scored a run or made a double play, you probably would not smile back to that member of the co-culture. The reaction and nonverbal way of communicating might not be so positive. A grin or raise of the eyebrows, or even increase in voice tone, these would all be examples of nonverbal codes used by fans to communicate that they are not happy with another fan in the same co-culture. Physical appearance is the most externally obvious nonverbal code; and not only does it cover gender, height, skin color and body shape, but physical appearance is also associated with the way one wears their hair, makeup, and clothing.[18]

Let us now take a look at clothing for example. When a fan wears a jersey to a baseball game, one could and would assume that they are rooting for the team that the jersey is showing affiliation towards. On one would really stop to think that a fan would wear a jersey to a baseball game and root for the opposing team, that would be considered silly and not part of the normal baseball culture. Without knowing it, the fan is expressing a nonverbal communication code within their co-culture by wearing the jersey to the baseball game. They are doing so by not only wearing the jersey, but each time they are seen by another fan within the same co-culture or from a different co-culture, their affiliation to the team is being expressed by that jersey in the nonverbal way. A co-culture associated with Major League Baseball would be group know as the “Bleacher Creatures”, which are a notorious group of season ticket holding fans which occupy a designated section at Yankee Stadium. They are know for taunting the right field player of opposing teams, and chanting the names of the home team players as they take the field in the first three innings of each home game. This is a nonverbal way that the specific co-culture of Yankee fans is expressing communication towards the opposing teams.

__** However... **__  There are some exceptions of course. Fans might wear clothing items or carry items that express their dislike for a team rival or culture. Another example of how fans express their nonverbal communications among other co-cultures is when Los Angels Dodger fans wear t-shirt making reference to the San Francisco Giants and their fans which includes a racial slur rhyming with the word “bay”. A member of the co-culture of Boston Red Sox fans would associate and communicate quite differently with Yankee fan culture members; verses if each team was interacting with Chicago Cub fans. The reason being is obviously the teams’ rivalries towards each other, but also because there are numerous nonverbal and verbal cues within the mainstream Major League Baseball culture to symbolize this dislike of teams towards each other.

As stated above, verbal communication is the words we use. Communication is the process of understanding and sharing meaning. The role of language in intercultural communication is self-evident in that all the participants must share a language, to some degree.[19] Words like homerun, steal, double play; those are all obviously words and forms of verbal communication that the co-culture of fans use when attending baseball games. Even if you were not an everyday avid baseball fan, you would be able to pick up on these words and this form of verbal communication if you associated yourself with the co-culture long enough. When fans talk to the food venders, the ticket takers, fellow members of the same co-culture, the words that they use and the language that they chose to use are different than the language they use in their everyday life and culture.

__** So what is Intercultural Communication?... **__  Intercultural Communication is a form of global communication; it studies situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact.[20] Major League Baseball enables individuals to do just that and interact with different peoples from different cultural backgrounds. Peoples from all over the nation, all over the world can come together and share a common interest and interact with each other through the co-culture of Major League Baseball and its’ fans. Items such as the “Dodger Dog”, which is the famous hot dog served at Dodger Stadium, and the even more infamous NYY-New York Yankees Steak House, which is located at the new Yankee Stadium in Brooklyn, New York, or the “Bleacher Creatures”; these things are also ways that the co-culture of fans communicate while at baseball games. Peoples and fans from all over the world and from all cultures and co-cultures can familiarize themselves with food. Food is considered a common nonverbal way to communicate at baseball games. You will commonly see a fan eating a “Dodger Dog” while enjoying a cold beverage and taking in the game in sunny Southern California.

To summarize then...In conclusion, there are many ways to communicate both verbally and nonverbally within the culture of Major League Baseball and the co-culture of the fan base. Obviously it is easier to communicate with words, however it seems easier to come up with more examples of nonverbal behavior within these cultures. Facial expressions, the type and style of clothing that you wear, the food you eat, and the words you say, these are all examples of things that encompass a different meaning when associating with baseball fans. A smile is much more than a smile to a fellow Yankee fan at a game than it is to a Boston Red Sox fan. Eating a hot dog at Dodger Stadium is much more than eating a hot dog, it becomes a “Dodger Dog”, and the phrase “Hey batta’batta’” makes much more sense at the ballpark verses sitting with a group of friends in your living room. There are an infinite number of examples that encompasses the co-culture of Major League Baseball fans.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">Much was learned about intercultural communication when conducting research for this paper. The ability to communicate with peoples from completely different cultures, and understand one another even if it is not with actual words is fascinating. Sharing the same joy for a sport, in this case baseball, and being able to communicate through food or t-shirts is a great ability. It is important to know as much as we can, as much as we are able to know about different peoples from all different culture and co-cultures in our lives today. The study of intercultural communication allows us to do just that.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">[1] Reitzel, Armeda C. “Course Syllibus” (January-Spring Semester 2012) [2] Wikipedia-“what is co-culture?” [3] The Nature of Culture- The CrossCultural, Language, and Academic Development Handbook p. 33 [4] see footnote 3 p. 234 [5] Lecture notes Spring semester 2012 [6] Co-cultures: Living in a Multicultural Society-Intercultural Communication: A Reader [7] see footnote 6 [8] See footnote 5 [9] see footnote 6 [10] see footnote 5 [11] see footnote 3 [12] see footnote 6 [13] see footnote 5 [14] see footnote 5 [15] see footnote 6 [16] Dialogues: an Argument Rhetoric and Reader Chapter 4, page 97 [17] see footnote 6 [18] see footnote 6 [19] see footnote 6 [20] see footnote 2-“What is intercultural communication?”