The Outer Banks is a TV show set on the coast of North Carolina with a handful of different characters from very different backgrounds. One one end of the spectrum, there is Sarah Cameron, who is born into a very rich family and does not mix with the kids who are not in her circle. On the other end of the spectrum is the rest of the friend group in the TV show, and these characters consist of John B, JJ, Kiara, and Pope. In the show, those who are born into rich or well-known families are called kooks, and those who are not and work for a living are called pogues. The integration of Sarah and the group of friends who are considered pogues become friends as the show goes on because they learn that they can become friends even though they are told not to be from a young age by getting to know each other.

Social penetration theory is described as, “the process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability,” (94). As one gets to know another person, they learn more and more about their personality and their life. The depth of penetration depends on how well you get to know someone. Depth of penetration can be defined as, “the degree of disclosure in a specific area of an individual’s life,” (95). Getting to know someone at a different time in life can also affect how one penetrates the layers of their personality. This can be described as the breadth of penetration, which is, “The range of areas in an individual’s life over which disclosure takes place,” (96).

At the beginning of the plot, Sarah and John B are obviously spiteful towards one another because of their backgrounds. Sarah is considered a kook and her family is very wealthy. This conflicts with John B because he is a pogue and does not appreciate the fact that Sarah has a lot of money and not a lot of problems like he does. After an episode or two, John B and Sarah go take a ferry to the mainland so that they can go find something that is key for John B to find in order so that he can find what his father had been looking for before he passed away. They bond over this experience, and by the time they get back they soon realize that they are in love. The depth of penetration that they experienced on their outing was enough to become intimate with one another. Before this outing they had, they had still considered each other enemies, but the timing of the outing worked in their favor. This demonstrates that the breadth of penetration was also key to them getting to know one another better. Later on after John B decides to tell the rest of his friends that she had been helping him with their project, and his friends all are against their relationship. They did not make an attempt to get to know Sarah before deciding that it was not a good relationship. They did not experience the social penetration that John B and Sarah had experienced when they were out of town getting to know one another beyond the social divide that existed between the pogues and the kooks. By the end of the show, they are all working together towards a common goal. They all had gotten to know Sarah, and they had looked beyond the social divide.

In the new Marvel TV series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” the story picks up right where it was left off in the grand finale of the Marvel cinematic universe. Captain America had essentially gone back in time to live life with the girl he fell in love with in the 1940’s. All of his friends that he had made in the present day were left with his legacy, and also his shield which was not only a functional weapon but also a symbol of everything Captain America stood for. The show is reminiscent in nature because of this departure of a significant figure from the Marvel universe and the characters who were close to him are followed throughout the course of the series.

Legacies are made from stories that are told. Stories are told by people because we are naturally a species that communicates through symbols. According to the theory of narrative paradigm, which is, “A theoretical framework that views narrative as the basis of all human communication,” (300), all humans are innately storytellers. Narration is defined as, “Symbolic actions—words and/or deeds—that have sequence and meaning for those who live, create, or interpret them” (299). Stories that are effective and have people that believe them to be true are considered to have an ideal audience. This term is defined as, “An actual community existing over time that believes in the values of truth, the good, beauty, health, wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, harmony, order, communion, friendship, and oneness with the cosmos” (303).

Storytelling is a key factor that makes this show have the impact that it does with it’s audience. Because Captain America was no longer there in the present, his story and his legacy were the only things that kept him relevant. The Falcon gives a monologue during the show where he gives the shield to a museum rather than taking up the mantle of wielding it himself. Even though it is just a shield, the Falcon sees it as a symbol and the legacy behind not only the weapons itself but the man who wielded it kept him from doing so. Many of the characters on the show have a lot of respect for how noble he was and how his leadership kept the Avengers banded together. This is why the ending of the first episode has such a huge impact on the characters who knew Captain America best. The end of the first episode shows there to be a new Captain America using the same shield that the Falcon had left with a museum. The stories and the legacy of Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, were immediately defended by the main characters whenever they saw this. The Falcon and Captain America’s childhood best friend Bucky both show an incredible amount of resistance to the new Captain America because they believed that the legacy of Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, was not going to be recreated by any regular person who picked up the shield and wore a blue jumpsuit.

Space Force is a TV show starring Steve Carrell about the United States starting a new branch in the military. Even though it is a comedic TV show with many highly unrealistic scenarios within the organization, there is a lot of examples of culture in a federal organization. Steve Carrell plays as a four star general who was next in line to take over as the general in charge of the Air Force branch of the military. However, the military decides to create a new branch in the United States military called Space Force. The show navigates how the new branch is run by the four star general who has to deal with both scientists and military personnel.

The culture that is created in an organization can dictate its efficiency. Within cultures, metaphors can be utilized to illustrate the vision of a company to its workers and also people outside of the organization. A metaphor “clarifies what is unknown or confusing by equating it with an image that’s more familiar or vivid” (240). Information shared between employees within an organization can also affect the culture. There are three types of stories that can be used to define this sharing of information; corporate stories, personal stories, and collegial stories. I will focus on two of these for this particular example. Personal stories are “tales told be employees that put them in favorable light” (242). I will also focus on collegial stories, which are, “positive or negative anecdotes about others in the organization; description of how things ‘really work'” (242).

During the first episode of Space Force, the four star general played by Steve Carrell is tasked with launching a new militarized satellite which will orbit the earth equipped with a defense system. The entire episode leads up to the launch at the very end, but the process along the way is where the audience learns a lot about all of the characters. The lead scientist is in the four star general’s ear the entire episode talking about how the launch will be risky because of weather conditions. The general, however, attempts to create a culture in which the branch is not all about science. Him being ex-military makes him want to do things despite the risks, which is where some conflict is demonstrated between him and the scientists. His lead scientist gives him props at the end of the episode because despite all of the information and research him and his scientists had gathered as to why they should not launch on that particular day, the general forces them to launch anyways because of multiple factors and it goes according to plan. The culture of the new branch is very much in question early on because it is a brand new branch of the military. In the middle of the episode, the general has a lunch meeting with a few US Senators. His helicopter pilot does her job by the book despite him not wanting to be late so he scolds her. She then tells collegial stories about the general to others about how he wanted her to break the rule about landing the helicopter in the grass instead of the helicopter pad so he would not be late to lunch. At the end of the first episode after the launch goes well, the general sends a note to her apartment with a gift telling her she does a good job and to keep up her good work. This promotes a positive culture in the new branch, which is exactly what the general is trying to create with his experimental branch of the military.

The Last Dance is an uncensored documentary series about Michael Jordan’s career, and it specifically highlights the last season that the Bulls’ super-team was intact. Michael Jordan was a household name all throughout the 90s. In fact, he was one of the most famous people not only in the United States but on the entire globe towards the end of his tenure with the Bulls. However, back then social media was nonexistent and television was the main channel of communication. The cameras that were used inside the locker rooms and behind closed doors showed how players and coaches truly communicated during that time. Because social media was nonexistent, no one knew for sure what all would go down in between games and press conferences. This documentary series provided audiences with a new perspective on Michael Jordan, the Bulls’ players and front office, and the relationships that developed between them all.

A channel is something we use to communicate with somebody. This could be a phone, mail, email, a text message, Facebook, etc. We have countless channels available to us nowadays thanks to technology. We develop weak ties with people, and we maintain strong ties with people through communicating with them through the various channels made available to us. A weak tie is, “a relationship involving a small investment of time and emotional energy, such as an acquaintance” (159). A strong tie is, “a relationship involving a large investment of time and emotional energy, such as a close friend” (159). These tie strengths determine what channels are used and how many different channels are used. The term media multiplexity illustrates that, “whether a pair chose email, instant messaging, or some other medium didn’t matter much—at least as far as the strength of their relationship. Instead, what differentiated strong ties from weak ties was the number of media the pair employed. Greater tie strength seemed to drive greater numbers of media used” (161).

Michael Jordan maintained strong ties with every teammate he respected. This is demonstrated in the documentary series when his teammate Dennis Rodman went out on the town for a few days during the middle of the season. If any of Michael Jordan’s teammates that he did not respect decided to leave in the middle of the season to go party for a few days, he would have berated them. Jordan knew that Rodman was a very consistent player who played his role very well, so whenever he decided that he would go out to Las Vegas for a few days to party, Jordan said that it was just Rodman being Rodman. However, examples of media multiplexity occurred when Jordan would talk with his parents not only through phone calls, but through letters and fax machine as well. He would utilize multiple channels to maintain those stronger ties he had with his family. Jordan did the same thing with his coach, as he would go into Coach Jackson’s office very often to communicate his thoughts on how the team was doing and where he thought they should be in their journey to bring Chicago more championships. An example of a weaker tie was illustrated between Jordan and the General Manager of the Bulls. Michael Jordan and Jerry Krause were not on good terms by the 1997-1998 season. Jordan would ignore him and sometimes even insult him in person whenever he saw him. They would both use as few channels as possible to communicate with one another. Despite the nonexistence of social media, the media multiplexity theory still applies to that era because there were still many channels of communication that Michael Jordan and people in the 90s utilized to maintain relationships of both strong and weak ties.

The Mandalorian is a Star Wars TV show that dives into the culture of the Mandalorian race in the Star Wars universe. The main character is a Mandalorian who’s character is deeply rooted in the traditions of his people. The culture of the Mandalorian race in the TV show is passed on through stories that are told. The Mandalorians are infamously lethal in combat to everyone in the Star Wars universe, and during the TV show just the sight of the main character in his armor makes all of the other characters turn their heads because they had all heard the stories about his race. Stories in the TV show are created as the audience gets to know the main character, and the audience watches the Mandalorian become more and more of a legend.

Coordinated Management of Meaning, “uses the term story to refer to much of what we say when we talk with others about our social worlds – ourselves, others, relationships, organizations, or the larger community” (67). Stories come in many different categories. There are lived stories, unknown stories, untold stories, unheard stories, untellable stories, story telling, and stories told. There is no correct way to interpret a story, but rather categorizing them is “[to enlarge our] awareness of how complex our social worlds are” (69). Many people react to stories in different ways. This can be explained by, “logical force [which is] the moral pressure or sense of obligation a person feels to respond in a given way” (70). Stories are how we communicate with one another our past and our history.

Stories are mostly lived in the Mandalorian, but some stories are told amongst people in the Star Wars universe, which gives the main character and other Mandalorians their reputation. Most characters’ logical force whenever they see a Mandalorian is to be intimidated by them because they know if they pick a fight with one it will most likely not end well for them. The stories that are lived are demonstrated through epic fights and showdowns that the Mandalorian gets himself in to when protecting his companion. Stories that make the main character so intimidated go mostly untold because everyone already knows them in the TV show, so they tend to not talk about him whenever he is around. The stories directly affect everyone around him because of how they react to him. Another story that does get told in the show is about his companion, which was called baby Yoda by fans who watched the show. He was shown to have skills like a Jedi, which were known as peacekeepers to characters in the Star Wars universe, and which were known as the main protagonists to the audiences who watch Star Wars. Baby Yoda’s story gets told in the second season of the Mandalorian. It gets revealed that he had been trained by Jedi when he was younger but then he escaped before the Jedi were destroyed. His story got told because audiences were left guessing as to what made his character so special and so powerful. Now and again the baby would save the Mandalorian despite being a cute and innocent looking creature. Stories are an essential part of the plot throughout the TV show and throughout Star Wars in general, which is why audiences become immersed so easily into the Star Wars universe.

WandaVision is a brand new show that has released 5 episodes onto Disney Plus as of February 7, 2021. The show is about the Marvel characters the Scarlet Witch and Vision. These two characters are both very poor at social interaction with people because of their pasts. The Scarlet Witch, or Wanda, lived in isolation from people because of her powers. Vision was technically not a human being but a software that had been put into a human-like body. The first couple of episodes portray them in a 50s-style sitcom where they are trying to fit into society without standing out. They have jobs, and they do things that any normal human would do like having Vision’s boss over for dinner from work and having Wanda clean house and cook for them. Both of them do not understand a lot of things that we consider normal, but if we were raised the same way that they were we would have the same issues.

A large part of human interaction is assigning meaning to certain things. “Meaning is negotiated through the use of language – hence the term symbolic interactionism” (54). For instance, whenever we talk about a kitten, we think of a small and cuddly little animal. Just the word kitten invokes a small creature that humans find adorable. “There’s nothing inherently small, soft, or lovable in the word kitten. It’s only by talking with others – symbolic interaction – that we come to ascribe that meaning and develop a universe of discourse” (54). Humans are also able to think before they react to certain interactions. Animals, however, are unable to think about how they respond. This term is called minding and this communication process is unique to humans. “[Minding] is the two-second delay while we mentally rehearse our next move, test alternatives, anticipate others’ reactions” (56). We have mental capabilities that are natural to humans, but we also have social interactions that we learn as we interact with other humans throughout our lives.

The communication in WandaVision is interesting to view because of the lack of social skills the two main characters possess. They are oblivious to the symbolic interactionism that is shared between the other characters. Wanda, for instance, does not realize the implications of what dinner means whenever Vision plans to have his boss over to their house. She is surprised to find out that she actually has to cook dinner and have the table set and ready for her, her husband, and then her husband’s boss and his wife. The implications of certain social situations that Wanda and Vision are unable to read. They have a neighbor that will always come over and be nosy, which is a typical social interaction found in most American suburbs. However, Wanda and Vision are not able to read into it as much and they think she is just a very odd person. Despite their inabilities to pick up behaviors or notice social cues, they are still human (Vision is as close to human as you can get) and they have the ability to think about what they want to say. Wanda, for instance, has the power to do dishes and cook and clean with her mind, but whenever her nosy neighbor would walk by or come into the house she would immediately stop what she was doing or distract her so she wouldn’t see the mind-controlled dishes and pans flying around. She knew that at the end of the day her and Vision wanted to fit in. WandaVision demonstrates the two super heroes attempting to live in a small suburb in the United States, and despite their natural abilities to communicate with others in conversation, their understanding of meaning is very poor in comparison to the typical American person.