Hi all my friends,
apparently the problem with the not in function comments form is solved.
Once you click the comments, you will get a pop up, and you will see others' comments and the comments form.
Thanks!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Proposal
“The Proposal” is a romantic comedy film officially released on June 18, 2009.
A pushy boss, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada. The two reach a consensus to get married under Andrew’s conditions to be promoted to the position of editor and his manuscript be published. When the government investigates, Margaret and Andrew are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Sitka, Alaska in order to sell the lie. They reluctantly accept the family’s suggestion to marry the same weekend, but really fall in love as they spend more time together. Because of this, during the wedding, Margaret decides she cannot do this to Andrew and confesses the business arrangement in front of everyone--including the immigration officer handling their case. She is then informed that she has 24 hours to get back to Canada, and thus goes back to New York to pack her things. However, Andrew shows up at the office and confesses his love for her in front of the entire office staff, proposing marriage all over again.
This American film was actually released in Australia one day before it was released in America itself, and it shows efforts by the Touchstone Pictures (one alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company)to globalize the movie to reap in higher profits from the international markets. Most of the time, high budget films such as the above mentioned guarantees high gross revenue, and the company’s horizontal expansion by exporting the movie in different countries play a significant role.
This is a fine example of the dominance of US Media Products. Most foreign viewers would watch “The Proposal” partly because of the fact that this is a US production. The US mass media industry is the main supplier of motion pictures at global theatres and home video markets. I find it interesting to note how most people view movies from US as a guarantee of a good film, so much so that even with mixed reviews from critics, as in this case with “The Proposal”, did not stop people from rushing to watch the movie. "The Proposal" earned $10 million from 10 foreign markets, with No. 1 bows in Australia ($3.3 million) and Russia ($2.8 million) leading the way.
However, what I think most people fail to realize is how such US productions are introducing a set of the foreign norms and values, subconsciously influencing us, altering and damaging our domestic culture. For instance, we might not feel that there is anything wrong with “The Proposal”, but I feel that with the movie’s main theme of contract marriage that actually infuses the idea that marriages are not that important after all is sending different messages from our cultural traditions or religion teachings that marriages should be something sacred and for life.
A pushy boss, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada. The two reach a consensus to get married under Andrew’s conditions to be promoted to the position of editor and his manuscript be published. When the government investigates, Margaret and Andrew are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Sitka, Alaska in order to sell the lie. They reluctantly accept the family’s suggestion to marry the same weekend, but really fall in love as they spend more time together. Because of this, during the wedding, Margaret decides she cannot do this to Andrew and confesses the business arrangement in front of everyone--including the immigration officer handling their case. She is then informed that she has 24 hours to get back to Canada, and thus goes back to New York to pack her things. However, Andrew shows up at the office and confesses his love for her in front of the entire office staff, proposing marriage all over again.
This American film was actually released in Australia one day before it was released in America itself, and it shows efforts by the Touchstone Pictures (one alternate film labels of The Walt Disney Company)to globalize the movie to reap in higher profits from the international markets. Most of the time, high budget films such as the above mentioned guarantees high gross revenue, and the company’s horizontal expansion by exporting the movie in different countries play a significant role.
This is a fine example of the dominance of US Media Products. Most foreign viewers would watch “The Proposal” partly because of the fact that this is a US production. The US mass media industry is the main supplier of motion pictures at global theatres and home video markets. I find it interesting to note how most people view movies from US as a guarantee of a good film, so much so that even with mixed reviews from critics, as in this case with “The Proposal”, did not stop people from rushing to watch the movie. "The Proposal" earned $10 million from 10 foreign markets, with No. 1 bows in Australia ($3.3 million) and Russia ($2.8 million) leading the way.
However, what I think most people fail to realize is how such US productions are introducing a set of the foreign norms and values, subconsciously influencing us, altering and damaging our domestic culture. For instance, we might not feel that there is anything wrong with “The Proposal”, but I feel that with the movie’s main theme of contract marriage that actually infuses the idea that marriages are not that important after all is sending different messages from our cultural traditions or religion teachings that marriages should be something sacred and for life.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Arte's At Thomson
I refer to the advertisement “The Arte at Thomson” by the City Developments Limited published on The Sunday Times on 21st June 2009 Home Section.
Selling the Arte’s executive apartments highlighting “Affluence Made Affordable Arrival Made Grand”, this advertisement has a huge photo plastered in the centre. Instead of using the usual pictures that place importance on condominium facilities, the stunning views of the city skyline from the sky villas, the main photo of the advertisement actually features a Mercedes parked right in front of the condominium’s lobby. I think that the advertisers are trying to borrow the image of the Mercedes to raise the condominium’s image. The Mercedes is what many Singaporeans recognize as a classic luxurious car. Contrastingly, the features and facilities are printed in miniscule together with a tiny photo of the night view of the condominium blocks at the bottom left corner of the comparatively large advertisement that took up almost the whole of the page, which gives me the idea that they were perhaps banking more on the “Mercedes image” rather than what they themselves have to offer. The advertisers in this case want to influence people to match the idea of the level of luxury of the car with the “class” and hence “quality” of their apartments – affluent people who drive Mercedes live at ‘The Arte’; so, to be affluent or look affluent, you have to live at The Arte.
This newspaper ad was published in The Sunday Times. This clearly shows that the advertisers (gatekeeper) want to get their announcement across the general public, in fact, as many people as possible in Singapore through this form of the Mass Media by printing their advertisement in the broadsheet paper which most people read to attract anyone with (or without) the financial means to purchase an apartment for a better life. After all, the broadsheet is what most people read every day; rich people read the newspaper; the not-as-rich people also read the newspaper. Newspapers allow us to get the latest news without having to glue our eyes to the television at a particular time every evening or to listen really carefully for the news on the radio.
The advertisers are hoping that some people will fall under the “Powerful Effects Theory”, where the mass media was said to have strong effects on passive audiences, influencing audiences in the direction of advertisers’ intent. However, most people still fall under the Moderate effects models, where the ability of the media to influence its audiences remains.
As Shaw and McCombs say,” The mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about.” Although I did not succumb to the temptations of wanting to get a premium apartment at The Arte’s after reading the advertisement; however, this commercial has for a moment made be imagine how it would be like if I can ever afford a luxurious apartment. :)
Selling the Arte’s executive apartments highlighting “Affluence Made Affordable Arrival Made Grand”, this advertisement has a huge photo plastered in the centre. Instead of using the usual pictures that place importance on condominium facilities, the stunning views of the city skyline from the sky villas, the main photo of the advertisement actually features a Mercedes parked right in front of the condominium’s lobby. I think that the advertisers are trying to borrow the image of the Mercedes to raise the condominium’s image. The Mercedes is what many Singaporeans recognize as a classic luxurious car. Contrastingly, the features and facilities are printed in miniscule together with a tiny photo of the night view of the condominium blocks at the bottom left corner of the comparatively large advertisement that took up almost the whole of the page, which gives me the idea that they were perhaps banking more on the “Mercedes image” rather than what they themselves have to offer. The advertisers in this case want to influence people to match the idea of the level of luxury of the car with the “class” and hence “quality” of their apartments – affluent people who drive Mercedes live at ‘The Arte’; so, to be affluent or look affluent, you have to live at The Arte.
This newspaper ad was published in The Sunday Times. This clearly shows that the advertisers (gatekeeper) want to get their announcement across the general public, in fact, as many people as possible in Singapore through this form of the Mass Media by printing their advertisement in the broadsheet paper which most people read to attract anyone with (or without) the financial means to purchase an apartment for a better life. After all, the broadsheet is what most people read every day; rich people read the newspaper; the not-as-rich people also read the newspaper. Newspapers allow us to get the latest news without having to glue our eyes to the television at a particular time every evening or to listen really carefully for the news on the radio.
The advertisers are hoping that some people will fall under the “Powerful Effects Theory”, where the mass media was said to have strong effects on passive audiences, influencing audiences in the direction of advertisers’ intent. However, most people still fall under the Moderate effects models, where the ability of the media to influence its audiences remains.
As Shaw and McCombs say,” The mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about.” Although I did not succumb to the temptations of wanting to get a premium apartment at The Arte’s after reading the advertisement; however, this commercial has for a moment made be imagine how it would be like if I can ever afford a luxurious apartment. :)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
ODD FOOD
This week's lecture mentioned about intercultural communication, and the definitions of culture. Our culture tells us who we are, what groups we belong to and how we live our lives. The video that I am going to share about today shows how our culture affects our thinking, actions and preferences, in this case, food.
Watch Remy, a regular 8 year old boy from Midwest United States taste food that few adults or kids from where he lives will try. In this clip, Remy will be trying a durian wafer.
Durians are what we, the South East Asians are very familiar with. Durians are easily available in Singapore, we can get them anywhere from the supermarkets to roadside stalls with tables and chairs where we pick and eat durians on the spot. However, this tropical fruit is not widely available in the western countries. When Remy tries the durian wafer, (which is what i will personally describe to be not quite of the same level compared to the king of fruits themselves), he describes it to be a sweet, delicious cookie with the unfortunate odor of rotting onions, which should be a very honest and direct comment given his age and his background.
We can safely assume that a large part of our society is made up of collectivist cultures, where we are heavily influenced by the norms in our own culture. In this case, Remy displays signs of ethnocentrism, by judging the taste of the durian using his own food culture as a yardstick. Though i am unable to imagine how someone can describe a food of such strong and sweet fragrance to be smelly, but I can understand why he feels this way. In the collectivist culture, Beliefs are shared with in-groups, and Remy probably referred to the taste of durians to be unpleasant because his culture has already programmed the thought of durian to be an odd food in his mind.
Being a picky eater myself, I cannot picture myself eating raw oysters, raw sashimi, or any raw food because I was not exposed to them when I was young. I was being influenced by my family that food that goes into your mouth should be cooked. The sight and smell of the wet market with the raw meat and poultry and darting flies that my mother got her groceries from during my childhood days haunted me ever since. The sight of others putting raw meat into their mouth makes me feel quite sick in the stomach as they never fail to remind me of the smell in the wet market.
As for the issue of ethnocentrism, I am sure we all agree that our culture's influence will definitely cause us to not be able to accept other people's culture. However, I feel that we should accept that people around the world have different preferences to food. Even if the thought that others' ideas of delicacy might not be the same as ours, we should see things with an open mind, for many things in culture cannot be compared due to their different contexts.
Watch Remy, a regular 8 year old boy from Midwest United States taste food that few adults or kids from where he lives will try. In this clip, Remy will be trying a durian wafer.
Durians are what we, the South East Asians are very familiar with. Durians are easily available in Singapore, we can get them anywhere from the supermarkets to roadside stalls with tables and chairs where we pick and eat durians on the spot. However, this tropical fruit is not widely available in the western countries. When Remy tries the durian wafer, (which is what i will personally describe to be not quite of the same level compared to the king of fruits themselves), he describes it to be a sweet, delicious cookie with the unfortunate odor of rotting onions, which should be a very honest and direct comment given his age and his background.
We can safely assume that a large part of our society is made up of collectivist cultures, where we are heavily influenced by the norms in our own culture. In this case, Remy displays signs of ethnocentrism, by judging the taste of the durian using his own food culture as a yardstick. Though i am unable to imagine how someone can describe a food of such strong and sweet fragrance to be smelly, but I can understand why he feels this way. In the collectivist culture, Beliefs are shared with in-groups, and Remy probably referred to the taste of durians to be unpleasant because his culture has already programmed the thought of durian to be an odd food in his mind.
Being a picky eater myself, I cannot picture myself eating raw oysters, raw sashimi, or any raw food because I was not exposed to them when I was young. I was being influenced by my family that food that goes into your mouth should be cooked. The sight and smell of the wet market with the raw meat and poultry and darting flies that my mother got her groceries from during my childhood days haunted me ever since. The sight of others putting raw meat into their mouth makes me feel quite sick in the stomach as they never fail to remind me of the smell in the wet market.
As for the issue of ethnocentrism, I am sure we all agree that our culture's influence will definitely cause us to not be able to accept other people's culture. However, I feel that we should accept that people around the world have different preferences to food. Even if the thought that others' ideas of delicacy might not be the same as ours, we should see things with an open mind, for many things in culture cannot be compared due to their different contexts.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
KNAPP'S MODEL IS NOT ALL, CHEMISTRY ALSO PLAYS A PART
This week’s lecture mentioned about Knapp’s Model of Relational Development. It describes the progression and development of relationships as a series of 10 stages. Knapp’s model marked out generic relationship models, the phases that individuals have to go through to in order to get into an interpersonal relationship with others.
However, personally, I feel that Knapp’s Model is rigid and it gives humans what seems like a passive role to play in interpersonal communication. Humans are living creatures. Living creatures are dynamic; they are not inert computers. I think that the framework and structure to form interpersonal relationship looks at relationships in such simplistic manner that it does not do justice to the efforts that people have to put in to secure relationships with others.
While surfing the net, I found an interesting article that proves my point.
There is a news article on an update about this couple who were wed in a shopping mall 11 years ago. David and Elizabeth Weinlick had met for less than five seconds before they turned up at the altar in a stunt whipped up by a TV station. The event set up to find David a bride in the shopping mall, where “bride wanted” flyers were distributed, encouraging interested ladies to sign up. Now, 11 years later, they still happily married with 4 children, still madly in love and planning to renew their wedding vows to tell everyone that they fell in love for real.
This couple did not follow what most people think is the usual script for two people to enter an interpersonal relationship. Elizabeth ran into David handing out the “bride wanted” flyers and after talking to him (initiating), she decided to sign up for David’s bride searching event by filling in a questionnaire of her likes and dislikes (experimenting through self disclosure) at 10am that Saturday. After going through interview by the selection committee which comprised of David and his family and friends (experimenting through self disclosure and reciprocity). By 4pm, after knowing David for 6 hours and saying a formal hello to David, Elizabeth was in a white dress saying “I do” at the shopping centre in Minneapolis, America, directly jumping to the Bonding stage. They dated after marriage, making up for the intensifying and integrating stage that they had missed, increasing commitment level to their relationship and coupling their individual characters into their relational identity and marriage.
Yes, the model has a note that indicated that stages are not linear; they can regress to a previous stage or skip a stage. However I believe that the model has missed out a very important point of relationship, and that is chemistry between two people. Nothing, other than chemistry could have resulted in the couple getting together. Knapp’s model might have served as a very good guideline for interpersonal relationships, but I strongly feel that human interaction and relationship development is not just a direct procedure like doing addition in mathematics, putting 1 and 1 together to get 2.
However, personally, I feel that Knapp’s Model is rigid and it gives humans what seems like a passive role to play in interpersonal communication. Humans are living creatures. Living creatures are dynamic; they are not inert computers. I think that the framework and structure to form interpersonal relationship looks at relationships in such simplistic manner that it does not do justice to the efforts that people have to put in to secure relationships with others.
While surfing the net, I found an interesting article that proves my point.
There is a news article on an update about this couple who were wed in a shopping mall 11 years ago. David and Elizabeth Weinlick had met for less than five seconds before they turned up at the altar in a stunt whipped up by a TV station. The event set up to find David a bride in the shopping mall, where “bride wanted” flyers were distributed, encouraging interested ladies to sign up. Now, 11 years later, they still happily married with 4 children, still madly in love and planning to renew their wedding vows to tell everyone that they fell in love for real.
This couple did not follow what most people think is the usual script for two people to enter an interpersonal relationship. Elizabeth ran into David handing out the “bride wanted” flyers and after talking to him (initiating), she decided to sign up for David’s bride searching event by filling in a questionnaire of her likes and dislikes (experimenting through self disclosure) at 10am that Saturday. After going through interview by the selection committee which comprised of David and his family and friends (experimenting through self disclosure and reciprocity). By 4pm, after knowing David for 6 hours and saying a formal hello to David, Elizabeth was in a white dress saying “I do” at the shopping centre in Minneapolis, America, directly jumping to the Bonding stage. They dated after marriage, making up for the intensifying and integrating stage that they had missed, increasing commitment level to their relationship and coupling their individual characters into their relational identity and marriage.
Yes, the model has a note that indicated that stages are not linear; they can regress to a previous stage or skip a stage. However I believe that the model has missed out a very important point of relationship, and that is chemistry between two people. Nothing, other than chemistry could have resulted in the couple getting together. Knapp’s model might have served as a very good guideline for interpersonal relationships, but I strongly feel that human interaction and relationship development is not just a direct procedure like doing addition in mathematics, putting 1 and 1 together to get 2.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Student Unions can Enhance Interpersonal Communication and Relationships
I refer to the article 'Mercyhurst College's Student Union: A place for friendly conversations' published on Erie Times News, 29 May 2009.
This is a piece of writing which talks about the conducive environment that the student’s union in Mercyhurst College provides for its students to have another common place to have interaction and build interpersonal relationships with their peers, instead of spending all their time behind the computer at networking sites communicating with their friends. Students can eat together at the Union’s eating spots, or take part in different activities like watching movies; playing board games; watch movies or simply just interact with each other, building such good relationships till the point where they describe these relationships to be just “like a family”, where “there’s plenty of teasing, the relentless kind that only good friends can get away with”.
I personally feel that this is a very healthy environment where people can get to know more friends, and engage in face to face interaction, something networking sites like Facebook and Twitter just cannot provide. Online social networking can enhance interpersonal skills, but only to a small extent. Good old things like watching movies, and playing board games or having dinners together are still better done the traditional method by gathering people together. No matter how advanced technology can get, at this moment it is still impossible to fully replace the traditional and real face to face communication as through the wire, true emotions are lost. An everyday example can be seen from the abbreviation ‘lol’, which most commonly represents ‘laughing out loud’. It might have used to mean that the person behind the computer was literally laughing, but now it is more often than not used as just filler for a conversation that you can’t continue, or even to display hints of sarcasm at certain moments. At times, it might be impossible to tell the message that the other party is try to get across. In these cases, social networking can be rather insincere.
On the contrary, I think that when a small group of friends physically hang out together, they engage themselves in dyadic communication that places them in direct contact on topics that are more personal, and get to know each other more intimately. Such spontaneous and informal discussions are more real, allowing us to immediately tune our conversations according to forms of non-verbal cues like Paralinguistics and Oculesics of our partners. Back to the article, it is not difficult to notice the level of comfort between the friends as they “finish each other's sentences and pick food off each other's plates”. These are actions where people will not do unless they share a close relationship with each other.
It was also noted that “the discussion goes around the table, virtually nonstop, without a laptop, cell phone or text message in sight.” This proves that we don’t need the modern gadgets if we can have interpersonal communication with people face to face, as the latter is still the richest medium with better quality.
In conclusion, I feel that schools should set up similar student unions or programs to create more chances for students meet more friends, to lead the younger generation out of their virtual world back into reality.
This is a piece of writing which talks about the conducive environment that the student’s union in Mercyhurst College provides for its students to have another common place to have interaction and build interpersonal relationships with their peers, instead of spending all their time behind the computer at networking sites communicating with their friends. Students can eat together at the Union’s eating spots, or take part in different activities like watching movies; playing board games; watch movies or simply just interact with each other, building such good relationships till the point where they describe these relationships to be just “like a family”, where “there’s plenty of teasing, the relentless kind that only good friends can get away with”.
I personally feel that this is a very healthy environment where people can get to know more friends, and engage in face to face interaction, something networking sites like Facebook and Twitter just cannot provide. Online social networking can enhance interpersonal skills, but only to a small extent. Good old things like watching movies, and playing board games or having dinners together are still better done the traditional method by gathering people together. No matter how advanced technology can get, at this moment it is still impossible to fully replace the traditional and real face to face communication as through the wire, true emotions are lost. An everyday example can be seen from the abbreviation ‘lol’, which most commonly represents ‘laughing out loud’. It might have used to mean that the person behind the computer was literally laughing, but now it is more often than not used as just filler for a conversation that you can’t continue, or even to display hints of sarcasm at certain moments. At times, it might be impossible to tell the message that the other party is try to get across. In these cases, social networking can be rather insincere.
On the contrary, I think that when a small group of friends physically hang out together, they engage themselves in dyadic communication that places them in direct contact on topics that are more personal, and get to know each other more intimately. Such spontaneous and informal discussions are more real, allowing us to immediately tune our conversations according to forms of non-verbal cues like Paralinguistics and Oculesics of our partners. Back to the article, it is not difficult to notice the level of comfort between the friends as they “finish each other's sentences and pick food off each other's plates”. These are actions where people will not do unless they share a close relationship with each other.
It was also noted that “the discussion goes around the table, virtually nonstop, without a laptop, cell phone or text message in sight.” This proves that we don’t need the modern gadgets if we can have interpersonal communication with people face to face, as the latter is still the richest medium with better quality.
In conclusion, I feel that schools should set up similar student unions or programs to create more chances for students meet more friends, to lead the younger generation out of their virtual world back into reality.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Influenza A(H1N1)
This week’s editorial cartoon was created on the topic of Influenza A(H1N1), also known as “Swine Flu”.The cartoon, titled Porky The Swine, includes various Looney Tunes characters. It describes Porky the Pig resting in bed due to the common seasonal flu, with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer J. Fudd by his bedside, looking extremely displeased. In the cartoon, both verbal and non-verbal communications of facial expressions are effectively used. Porky tries but fails to convince the rest that he has only been infected with common cold. From the speech bubble, he can be seen to be stuttering, a type of non-fluencies under Paralinguistics. The distrusting expressions reveal a form of non acceptance probably caused by fear in the three characters while they make use of the Organisational Principles of Closure to make the assumption that Porky has been infected by “Swine Flu” because he is a pig.
Editorial cartoons like the above reflect very clearly how the society views the H1N1 influenza. We can draw a parallel between the characters in the cartoon and the real world. Porky represents infected patients or places with numerous reported cases of H1N1; the other characters portray the general public. Even though the official name of the flu has been changed Influenza A(H1N1), it has still being largely referred to as the term “Swine Flu”. The usage of the slang has caused language-based barrier to the public that is particularly misleading. Countries including Russia and China have banned pork imports from Mexico and parts of the United States (places where H1N1 was first discovered) in the belief that meat could spread the flu. Egypt has also made the decision to kill all the country's 300,000 pigs. This has had a disastrous impact on pork sales and pig farmers.
Referring back to the cartoon, facial expressions and weapons in the characters’ hands might be suggesting the society’s over-reaction to the current situation. In the outbreak, Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru have banned flights going to Mexico. Haiti rejected a Mexican ship last week carrying 77 tons of much-needed food aid because of swine flu fears. Lebanon’s health minister has called for a halt to the national custom of greetings with kisses. Such actions have led the public to organise information provided with the principle of Figure and Ground, as they zoom in on the speed that H1N1 is being spread around the globe and that H1N1 has 11,168 reported cases of infection and caused 86 deaths, yet fail to take into account that Common seasonal flu infects 3 to 5 million and kills up to 500 thousand people a year worldwide.
Although the descent into a global pandemic is not inevitable, I still see the importance for people to be well informed and not deluded by biased information, so that they can stay calm and be well prepared to respond quickly in case the disease evolves.
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