Looking for Fun Examples!

This Spring, I will be teaching Business Communications and Interpersonal Communications. I am very excited about both of these courses!

I am looking for clips as well as articles and books that highlight topics in both courses. For example, in Business Communications, I discuss getting a job. I found a great Caesar Millan article about his career path and how he used his past experiences to get him where he is today (the thing I like about the article is that Millan is one of those success stories that involve the whole process of yucky jobs to good jobs to vision; too many times, students think that life is going to be "I write a story which catapults me to fame"; it does happen; it just doesn't happen very often).

I would be interested in any suggestions! (And writing this list helps me brainstorm as well.)

Here are specific instances where a clip or article/interview, etc. would enhance the material (including examples I've already come up with):

Business Communications

• Finding the right job (Dead Like Me actually has some funny clips about this)
• Bad interviewing techniques and good ones (ditto)
• Relating to good bosses and to bad bosses
• Being a good or bad team member
• Good or bad meetings (Big Bang Theory and Stargate: Atlantis both supply good examples of bad meetings--they are easier, and more fun, to televise than good meetings)
• Conflict resolution
• Good or bad reports/memos
• Doing research on the job (investigation)
• Arguing in favor of a new business plan, new business, new way to advertise (thanks to Eugene for the clip from Other People's Money)
• Speaking before an audience: good and bad examples (I have one very funny example from Home Improvement where Tim dresses like a woman to help Jill prepare a speech)

For Business Ethics, I'm using The Apartment (Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClaine plus the awesome Fred McMurray; how could such a nice guy be so slimy!)

Interpersonal Communications

• Communication complications (communication isn't just one person talking, the other person listening; the speaker is getting feedback from the listener at all times--I have a great example from Law & Order where the detectives go to tell a mother that her child is ill, and Logan gets progressively more upset because the mother isn't responding normally)
• Roles that people adopt and how those roles change the way they communicate (think code-switching)
• How perceptions affect how we communicate--how we bring assumptions to a conversation (this doesn't have to be a negative thing; people should bring their knowledge and previous experiences to a conversation)
• Bad versus good stereotypes (the textbook calls it categorizing versus stereotyping; eh, tomate-o, tomah-to)
• Negative versus good ways to handle emotions
• Non-verbal communication (uh, I won't be using Lie to Me; the textbook argues that people who use Lie to Me techniques are usually WORSE at spotting deception than people who don't because they fail to pick up on verbal cues; I'm afraid I agree)
• Use of language to establish convergence (match one's speech patterns to others--people in cliques do this)
• Use of language to establish divergence (where speakers use speech patterns to set themselves apart from others)
• Communication differences!

Cultural differences (I have a great Miss Manners letter that I'm going to use here)
Gender differences (so . . . a clip from every "married-people" sitcom ever made)
How children communicate
How teenagers communicate (badly?)

• Improving Communication!

Creating a positive communication environment
Disclosing information--when it is good, when it is bad
Forgiveness
Listening--ineffective versus effective
Listening responses: mirroring, prompting, asking questions, paraphrasing, supporting

It may sound dopier than it actually is. A surprising number of students are freaked out by this course (which is a required elective--an elective that is required for some, but not all, majors), and I want to make it as much a practical experience for all personality types as possible (rather than some kind of "I'm going to turn you all into camp counselors!" ordeal). Here's how people communicate--here's what you can do about it (in a reasonably productive way): that's my approach.