Twelve Angry Men
In the movie "Twelve Angry Men" the actions and behaviors of the Jurors demonstrate the concept of small group communication. It is evident that the film shows the development of the task-oriented group from the beginning to the end. In this paper we will discuss the power of consensual meaning, the relationship of the communication process to the group process, and the distinction between socio-emotional and task behaviors. We will also discuss the concept of leadership, roles, and our ideas in regard to norms and group culture. Lastly, we will discuss how conflict affects the group process. We will be using the examples from the movie to apply the concepts we have been learning in this course dealing with small group communication. In the movie "Twelve Angry Men," twelve jury members were given the task to decide a boy's fate. The jury members, when beginning deliberation, were almost unanimous on a guilty verdict. All but one man was in favor of the death penalty for this boy. This was before the group of jury members had any interaction. Before the almost unanimous vote, the men were very polite to one another. They made comments on the heat, what they did for business, going to a ball game, and basic general sel
The Jurors in many various ways portray task dimension as well. Several examples of the evidence were used to illustrate this point. Juror eight used the knife to back up his ideas about the trial and to keep the other Jurors interested in his opinions. He also made points concerning the train as well as demonstrating the amount of footsteps it would have taken the boy to reach his father if he was the killer. There was an ascribed leader of the group, as well. The mediator was assigned to organize the group and bring them back to the task at hand when indulging in group fantasies. He would also lead the group away from fighting and personal attacks. Although not successful in holding this position through out the whole process, he was the ascribed leader out of all the men. Another issue of this movie is socio-emotional vs. task behaviors. Many groups have two dimensions; the first dimension is when a group indulges in group fantasies and social activities. The other dimension is the technical part of the group, the main reason they are together in the first place. Although, they both balance each other out, the task dimension weighs slightly more. However, socio-emotional and task come together contributing to the whole process. An example of this from the movie would be when Juror three finally self disclosed the situation with his children in the end because the sequential events of the jury process lead him to reveal this information. He would not have revealed this without the build up to that moment. It wasn't something he would have exposed early on with out an established relationship with the group and the events. The old man also played an important role in demonstrating task dimension. He noticed the marks on the women's eyes that testified and claimed to the group that he was certain she must have worn glasses. Another example of task is when it was time to caste the group's votes. The Jurors voted by secret ballot and open ballot, making them obligated to make a decision about the case. Group norms, another major theme in this movie, play a role of importance. When a group starts out with zero-history, they enter with no pre-defined rules, attitudes, or expectations. They don't have a defined route to travel, instead together, they create the route road by road. In the film, the jury is a zero-history group where there is no obligation to be loyal to anyone else in the jury. The members of the jury played many roles in this film. These roles were useful to the Jurors and they also revealed the structure of the group. The initiator/contributor of the group was Juror eight. He played more than one because he also was seen as the devil's advocate by the way he expressed the minority vote right from the beginning, being the only person to voice his not-guilty opinion. Also Juror eight was the first true leader of the group. The concepts of these roles are useful in this case. These roles are extremely important because each person plays an essential part to the group. This leads the group to come to consensus and to reach their final decision. Another group norm, which the group established for itself, was the issue of conflict leading to disagreement, in turn, leading to consensus. It can be agreed that many of the decisions and agreements made were reached after complete arguments and differences of opinion. The willingness to quickly accept a fact, resulted in the conviction of an innocent person, and almost immediately was followed by much debate and confusion. An example of this would be when Juror eight pulled out an exact duplicate of the knife from the trial. After that bit of evidence was revealed, (the fact that it was possible someone else could possess the same knife) it prompted an immediate reaction of conflict and quarrel. He also proposed a time limit of an hour for the group to debate the issue at hand, which would be followed by a revote. Juro
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3237
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)
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