Week 8 Entry: The Media Creeps

News Article Site: : http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC091024-0000053/?To-jab-or-not-to-jab-...-

Print Edition Page: http://www.todayonline.com/PrintEdition/NF

I’m sure many of you have seen over the weekend, the huge picture on the cover of Today’s newspaper: A doctor or nurse holding an injection needle probably containing the H1N1 vaccine. The big story is entitled: “Should you get the jab?” A survey was held to find out how many people would actually go and get vaccinated when the vaccine was to arrive in Singapore.

How in the first place would the world find out about H1N1 if not for the media coverage that has been so “in your face” for the past couple of months? For this pandemic, we see most effectively the surveillance (information) and cultural transmission (education and socialization of receivers) functions of the media.

Through the agenda setting function, repeated news coverage of the H1N1 epidemic has raised the importance of the issue in the public’s mind. While this article does not aim to influence or tell us what to think, it is able to make us think about it for ourselves.

Based on the people who were surveyed, most of them have indicated that they were not worried about the virus. Here is a short snip of the article which I find is most amusing:

“Of the 50 Singaporeans surveyed, 68 per cent said they weren't worried about H1N1. Of these 34 "non-worriers", 11 said they would nonetheless take the H1N1 vaccine once it became available.

What piqued my amusement was that men were far more likely to say they weren't worried - 81.5 per cent, versus 52.2 per cent of the women polled. However, almost all the professed non-worriers plumping for the vaccine were men (nine out of 11).

Was male bravado involved?

"The vaccine is for protection, even though I'm not worried," explained a 42-year-old male respondent.”

(Today 24th October 2009)

Indeed, was the male bravado involved? =P

We could see here that the powerful effects theory, where mass media is influential and the audience is passive, hardly or does not exist in modern day society. Everyone is way too educated as compared to the past. Rather, the limited and the moderate effects theory are more likely to show themselves in audience’s reactions to the mass media. Most people are waiting to see how the H1N1 pandemic evolves before they think about getting themselves vaccinated.

Apart from this small poll, a high-risk group of people were also interviewed, namely, the pregnant women. Most of them said they would not take something the vaccine for the fear of side effects, which have not yet been stated. They generally demand for more information on the dubious product that the government is intending to bring in, but haven’t yet told the public enough about it. Fair enough arguments.

Who runs the media? Why the powerful elite of course. Media hegemony is obviously existent in the H1N1 coverage. In this case, the people with the biggest say would be the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They control what we read or hear about in the news. How much they actually tell us is something people hardly question. People can usually accept answers like, “We are confident they are safe…” Sure. They’re the professionals, what could go wrong?

The media surrounds us all and is always out to creep into our heads; the dirtiest of methods would probably be via sublimal messaging. As humans, we are no doubt easily influenced indirectly by the powerful elite through the different media vehicles.

Let’s have a short poll here too. Would you bother to get vaccinated? Why or why not?

Week 7 Entry: To try again, or to escape…? That is the question.

Music Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yditeQ6lDYU&feature=related



Let’s see now: In the video, first we have got two well-dressed men in black, wearing sunglasses and walking through the school like they own it. Towards the end of the video, we see a short rewind to the time the men enter the school, to when they get somewhat “beaten up”, and then come out of the school again looking like they had a rough night after clubbing.

The girls shown in this video are an aggressive bunch; ultimately proud of their sexuality, which we can seen by how they dress and carry themselves. This sort of culture would definitely not be seen in Asian or Eastern cultures, where people are far more conservative (high context culture). The older Asian folk would certainly have a harder time appreciating such music videos.

Music videos are a great way to see and experience the high and low context cultures that exist in the various countries. In countries like America, low context culture is shown through their freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Words hold a higher meaning and the masses are able to relate better it. “New perspective” is a song which has quite thought-provoking lyrics. It is individualistic and rather honest. The idea of wanting to gain some kind of freedom is evident throughout the song as shown in the lines, “ I wanna live a life from a new perspective…” as the singer most passionately belts out. The singer certainly made this song “his own”.

The male character is portrayed as strong, “And I as I respire because I know they’ll never win…”, itching to prove himself to be someone different, “I wanna be praised from a new perspective…”, and just urging to find himself again after having lived life in a way he can’t comprehend anymore, “I’ll lose the traits that worry me...” It’s amazing how the number of “I”s are actually written into the song, which once again stresses on how the song was made to be personal. In case you guys didn’t already figure it out, this song is meant to relate to the singer’s romantic, dyadic relationship.

Time is an entity and various cultures have different ways of structuring it. I would say that this song has some interesting time orientation to it, thus showing a free and an open culture. It deals with both polychronic (synchronic) and monochronic (sequential) views of time. While in the sequential view, there is a clear indication to the process of relationship degradation in the song. There is a synchronic suggestion of time where it is flexible and can be stopped, rewound and fast-forward, as shown by the diction used in the song writing.

How many times have your plans fallen through and you find yourself lurking in the dark? Would you try again, or would you escape?

I seriously don’t think most songs today could get as personal or individualistic as this. But then again, I have been wrong before.

Week 6 Entry: The correct puzzle piece – Squeezing in to belong

Group communication (A personal experience bit)

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that a group cannot be run by too many people, and too many egos. Groups are everywhere no matter how big or small the sizes vary. Small groups or subgroups that form are generally known as “cliques”. Cliques are known to give social stability and provide an individual with a status, usually to indicate some kind of self-importance and distinction from all others. These groups are “closed” and would seldom allow new people to join the group unless they are deemed “the same” or “cool” or “hot” or “popular” enough to join the clique. Even when most of us know that the most important thing is to be yourself (an individual who does not need a group for social security), naturally, we would still crave to be part of an “in” group.

Although some groups may seem all glamorous and powerful on the outside, one doesn’t usually take note of the group politics that exist within every single group. No one group is completely harmonious and agreeable to one another all the time. Power struggles between members who are characteristically dominant are always prevalent. You can’t avoid it.

The media is always portraying the importance of being a member of a group. Not just any group, but a group that is popular. The “A” crowd in a school is a place, a status that people would dream of. Seriously, is it all it’s cracked up to be? Is it even realistic to want to always be a part of the “popular bunch”? Belonging to such groups would also subject you to group pressure (the balance between group and individual needs), like any other group would. Maintaining your status in a group would mean you would have to keep participating in group activities and chipping in wherever you’re needed to. I think many kids go on through their schooling stages of life pretending to be someone they’re not because they want to fit in.

On the other hand, I’m not saying that belonging to a group is a bad thing. Groups give you the support you need: You’re included, you’re in control, and you’re loved! But most importantly, a person needs to retain his or her individual identity. Not act to get in the good books with the other puzzle pieces.

If you don’t fit, then something’s telling you to move on. No matter how you turn a piece of a puzzle to fit into a small space, if it doesn’t complement in the first place, wouldn’t the next natural reaction be to move on to the next piece?

Week 5 Entry: Two Is Better Than None. I mean ... One.

Video site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnsauWgTMBs&feature=related



Two is better than one.

I know what you’re thinking: … It’s another love song.

No doubt. The title is just screaming out to you.

The title “Two is better than one” immediately tells listeners that a dyadic, interpersonal relationship is involved in the song. The song starts off with a guy singing “I remember what you wore on the first day”. This sort of shows the importance that physical appearance plays in the initiation and formation of a relationship. Of course the first thing anybody would notice about you is what you wear and how you carry yourself. That determines whether you would be significantly remembered or easily forgotten.

The physical appearance aspect is dominant in the song, like when they talk about how wonderful the other party’s face and eyes are and so forth. I would say that the song does not go deeply into the formation of the dynamics between the couple. It concentrates mainly on the initiation phase, and very quickly skips through the experimenting and intensifying phase, on to the integrating and bonding phase, where you get the idea that they would die without one another. It is rather shallow, and uses common phrases from every other cliché love song that has already been produced. But hey, it’s catchy so what’s not to like? We can’t expect much in a song after all. If we wanted to see the whole “coming together” stages of relational development bit, it might as well be an opera.

Exchange is all about getting what you want out of a relationship, like the costs and rewards. In this case, the obvious exchange is that: one party can’t live without the other, “…I can’t live without you”. I’m sure you all know that it’s nothing literal. Rather, that their lives would not be the same without each other present. Certainly they meet each other’s tangible and emotional expectations. This is where the saying, “They complete one another” comes about. Meeting each other’s relational need is imperative in relationship maintenance.

In sweet songs like these, you hardly or never see conflict arising in the middle of the song. The song writers know better than to spoil a perfectly romantic song. It throws people out of the “mood”, and chart ratings and popularity would thus not be so high.

By the way, I really like this song. I’m just sarcastic today. I can’t help it really. But I think that a lot of songs today can really warp a person’s idea of what a relationship should be like. It’s always about how “hot” this guy looks or how gorgeous that girl looks. We all know we can’t be that superficial all the time.

But here we are.