Communication Project – Final Draft

        Running Head: COMMUNICATION PROJECT – FINAL DRAFT

Communication Project – Final Draft

Christopher Bultman

Rasmussen College

Communication Project – Final Draft

        This written assignment is being submitted on June 20, 2014 for Heidi Croatt’s G141 Introduction to Communication Course.

For my movie analysis communication project I have decided to break down and analyze the Jargon and Collaborating aspect from the movie “21”. The movie is about a 21 year old MIT pre-med college student, Ben Campbell (Sturgess), that can’t afford tuition to attend Harvard Med. He gets recruited by a group of fellow MIT students and a teacher to count cards at the Blackjack tables in Las Vegas so he can pay his way to the education of his dreams. Like most “too good to be true” scenarios, Ben learns a lesson in life, trying to beat the odds. Let’s take a look at the two key communication elements, Collaborating and Jargon throughout the film “21”. By examining these communication elements we can learn to identify how communication can be unique to each job, group, or lifestyle through Jargon. We can also learn how collaboration amongst our friends, family, and coworkers can benefit or hurt us throughout our lives and careers.

Jargon is the specialized or technical language of a specific group or profession that may not be understood by outsiders (Sole, 2011). Throughout several different scenes in the movie Jargon is key to how the MIT card counting group of students talk to each other. One scene for example is when Ben goes to his first trial run to see if he can keep the count under pressure. The “count” is one example of Jargon used in this scene; the count is in reference to the numerical value the deck currently holds based on the card counting system that the player uses, this gives the player an advantage to know when the deck is most profitable. In this scene after Ben has been playing successfully at the table for a while, his crew (whom he doesn’t know is behind this test) throws a bag over his head and asks him if he remembers the count. Another instance of jargon from this scene is the spotter, person playing the table minimum and counting the deck, nonverbally signals Ben to come to a “Hot” table, where the spotter then says “Sweet, to Sweet”; now to everyone else it would seem like nothing, but to Ben that was a word telling him that the count was at +16. These are two, of many, examples of jargon that this movie has in it, but the movie shows us how our common language can transform into a secret form of communication, or at the very least that it can represent more than one meaning. Jargon is essentially an adaptation of our common language to be understood by those for whom it was intended. We can use jargon to communicate more efficiently, only if we’re understood, and in an abbreviated fashion. Most professions have their own jargon or buzz words, and use of this type of language demonstrates your membership in the group (Sole, 2011). By using the jargon or buzz words was proof that the group was very proficient and skilled in communicating in a way that was secretive, but obvious to the average gambler.

The second communication element I want to talk about is collaborating, or to work cooperatively with others to accomplish goals (Sole, 2011). The whole premise of the movie is a group of students working together to accomplish a common goal, to make lots of money. Collaboration can switch moral directions and help work toward multiple goals, at the end of the movie the collaboration between Mickey Rosa (Spacey) and Ben turn deceitful and now collaboration switches, Cole Williams (Fishburne) and Ben are now working for the same goal, revenge on Mickey. This is particularly my favorite part of the movie, so many twists to make it interesting and then to find out that there is a master plan between seemingly enemies, Cole and Ben to get revenge and come out clean in the end. I really think that the collaboration throughout this film really gets the point across that if we work together for mutually beneficial goals, we can accomplish wonderful things. Collaboration, at the conceptual level, has many different parts, awareness, motivation, self-synchronization, participation, mediation, reciprocity, reflection, and engagement (What is Collaboration). Ben demonstrates awareness, motivation, reciprocity, and reflection, the most in this film. His awareness that he is part of a purpose shared by the other students and is also tied together to his motivation of winning his tuition for medical school. Collaboration is a type of teamwork that requires two or more people to work directly together to make decisions, come up with creative ideas, or develop strategies to be used by the group. It usually involves working directly together to jointly produce an output (What is Collaboration? Is it the Same as Teamwork?). Several times in the movie Ben and his MIT colleagues meet to discuss strategy and practice for the trip to Las Vegas. In fact while they are in Las Vegas they would meet at a strip club immediately after their night of counting to recap or in the morning in the hotel suite to figure out the plan for the day. One difference I noticed is that Mickey was the leader and that is mentioned in teamwork more so than Collaboration. Collaboration tends not to have a leader, all people involved work together and build on one another, not follow a single leader (What is Collaboration? Is it the Same as Teamwork?). In several scenes Ben also expects a type of reciprocity from his teacher, Mickey. He overestimated the strength of their relationship and failed to reflect on the consequences of his actions. Rather than having a cooperative relationship Mickey took that role of the leader and followed the “My way or the Highway” attitude. Ben then failed to recognize Mickey’s lack of collaboration efforts; this cost him his educational opportunity and the money he had already earned playing blackjack.