Week 8: Halloween has come to Town!

Halloween is primarily observed and celebrated in the western parts of the world. It marks a public holiday on their calendars, and people get themselves involve in Halloween activities such as treat-or-tricking, sharing spooky ghost stories and even visiting haunted attractions. Today even though Halloween is not recognized on Singapore’s calendar as a public holiday, this westernized festival is gradually gaining popularity here.

One obvious reason for this phenomenon is globalization of the mass media. As a kid, I came to know about Halloween and its associated customs from western television programs. Famous cartoons that I grew up with such as Peanuts featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy, popular Disney movies such as The Haunted Mansion, which includes Halloween elements, allow myself and also other Singaporean viewers to be introduced to the western concept of Halloween.

(Peanuts Halloween)

For households that subscribe to cable television, we see ‘Halloween Special’ programs aired each year. Their presence is overwhelming. We see them on Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, HBO movie channel…etc.  Moreover, the toys sold in Toys”R”Us locally would often tend to be Halloween related when this spooky festival is around the corner. Halloween is hence spread locally through consumerism as well. We can see the powerful effects of media globalization in Singapore, base on the rising acknowledgement, popularity, and celebrations of Halloween here.

Halloween has come to town! (Kudos to media globalization)

This morning, thesundaytimes (24 October 2010) features Halloween ‘Fright Night’ on its cover page. The write-up on Halloween states a rise in Halloween related events and celebrations held locally. As quoted from the article: ‘Once a North American celebration confined only to nightspots and expatriate homes, Halloween is becoming a bigger deal – and big business – in Singapore’. We cannot deny this trend as we see nightspots like Night Safari and Sentosa, and even neighborhood community centres now coming up with Halloween events to cater to popular public demands.

The imported idea of Halloween from the west, in my opinion, brings more vibrancy to our home. There’s now an additional occasion for us to socialize and have fun, although it may not be listed as a public holiday in the near future. (I’m sure many of us would love the idea of including Halloween as a public holiday) Nevertheless, some may argue that it seems to be subtle form of cultural imperialism because Singaporeans, especially the younger generation, appear to be more welcoming towards the influx of western ideas, and on the other hand neglect local traditions. The Qingming festival (tomb-sweeping festival), is one instance whereby the younger generation gradually loses emphasis and interest on. We the younger generation embraces and celebrates western festivals such as Halloween instead.

So is cultural imperialism really taking place in Singapore?

I do not think so. We do retain our tradition cultures here in Singapore. The influx of foreign ideas through mass media globalization and other means inevitably affect our lifestyles and the cultures we choose adopt. Celebrating Halloween does not mean that we forgo Lunar New Year celebrations. It is just a new idea being incorporated into our society, and we should not choose to be negative to perceive it as the west’s attempt to dominate our culture. I feel that we should embrace these elements of fun brought to us by mass media globalization.

Cheers, and Happy Halloween to all!

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October 24, 2010

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Week 7: Mass Media as our Health Guru

‘Media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but it is successful in telling us what to think about’. This is the primary function of the mass media’s agenda setting theory which is undeniably true. We cannot deny that we do allow our perceptions and thoughts to be influence by the mass media in one way or another. It is through mass media broadcasting that raise awareness on certain issues, and hence it appears to us as things we should ponder over.

An example would be health issues. People naturally yearn for longevity, and this idea is emphasized by the mass media. We see many health programs on television, gourmet programs that encourage the audiences to get creative with healthy recipes, and even variety shows (E.g. The Biggest Loser) that help obese contestants lose weight. In a nutshell, the message sent across to us is then how much do we care about our health?

Health consciousness is hence the outcome of the media directing us towards thinking about health issues. There are countless websites, news articles, and television programs today which act as constant reminders for us to mind our health. I would say that the media is doing a great job as a health guru. A report dated Oct 8, 2010 indicates that media campaigns do affect public health for the better. The media have been an effective tool in influencing health behaviors. As mentioned in the report, campaigns aimed at smoking cessation, improving eating habits, increasing activity levels as well as preventing drunk driving, are some successful attempts by the media. Nevertheless, there’s only so much a health guru can offer help and it will then be left for us to decide what to do. One can thus observe the trend of a moderate effect model of mass media in cases whereby health campaigns turn out unsuccessful. In such cases, audiences selectively adhere to the advices from the mass media on health issues. Sometimes people find it too tough to kick their ingrained habits and hence they choose to ignore the advices all together.

It is important to note that the successes of the mass media as a health guru may differ greatly from one individual to another, simply because the messages extracted from a similar source may differ. Personally, I choose to digest the health messages sent by the mass media in a healthy manner. That is, I would avoid reading too much into them as one might become overly obsessed with health issues to the extent that it may change one’s lifestyle drastically.  I believe that so long as a balance is achieved, there is no need to be extremely health conscious. The trade-off between the fun in live and being overly health conscious is just too great for anyone to bear.

 

 

Reference:   ‘Media Campaigns Can Affect Public Health For The Better’ (Oct 8,2010) http://www.insidermedicine.ca/archives/Media_Campaigns_Can_Affect_Public_Health_For_The_Better_4696.aspx

 

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October 17, 2010

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Week 6: respect even if you don’t accept

Culture is highly diverse in the Global Village we live in today. People may speak the same language, work within the same company, or study in a same school, but belong to varying cultural backgrounds. It is hence of utmost importance that we learn to respect people from other cultural backgrounds in order to maintain harmony within a society.

 

On top of securing peace, I feel that we should respect (even if we cannot readily accept) other cultures especially in cases where they belong to the minority culture within a society because it would be helpful for ‘them’ (minority culture) to cope with living with the domination of ‘us’. Let’s try to put ourselves in their shoes. Would you like to be judge upon by others? Doesn’t it feel horrible if others show disrespect or even go to the extent of mocking at your culture?

 

The world recently witnessed a case in which bullying of gay teens resulted in a tragic suicide. The name Tyler Clementi became popular overnight, and the doings of his friend received endless criticism.

 

 

 

We can conclude from Tyler Clementi’s death that being insensitive to another culture may cause unintentional harm to someone. Although Tyler’s roommate did not physically force him to jump to his death, his actions unintentionally did.

 

Other than the invasion of privacy and the act of cyber bullying, Tyler’s roommate obviously did not observe the need to respect Tyler’s sexual orientation. The homosexual cultural is generally being stereotyped by the majority because people do not come to terms with it. I am not saying that people do not accept homosexuality because they are conservative or narrow-minded. Each of us has our own set of beliefs and we should not take for granted that others follow or share what we think and believe in. Nonetheless, we should not dismiss the need to respect homosexuals even though it may not be considered appropriate for some of us.

 

Tyler’s roommate’s homophobic reaction relates to an interesting point raised by Richard Porter and Larry Samovar: ‘The difficulty with being thrust into a global village is that we do not yet know how to live like villagers; there are too many of ‘us’ who do not want to live with ‘them’. It makes perfect sense by putting it this way. Hence I feel that what the majority can do is to allow ‘them’ a space of their own, instead of probing and criticizing.

 

I am sure that similar questions such as ‘why must he choose to take his life?’ crossed many people’s mind upon learning about Tyler’s fate. My analysis is that Tyler is one who subscribed to the collectivism culture. Collectivist culture refers to social behavior determined by the views of the society rather than self. Collectivists conform to norms and they are readily influenced by others. If Tyler was more towards being individualistic, and had more courage to stand out and question what is wrong with being homosexual, there would surely be a different outcome. As such, we see that collectivism do have its dangers.

 

It is perfectly fine if one finds it difficult, or probably do not wish to come to terms with a diverse culture. What matters most is that one should bear in mind never to discriminate or be disrespectful towards other cultural groups. The world would then be a better place to live in.

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October 10, 2010

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Week 5: Is distance an obstacle?

A recent movie titled ‘Going The Distance’ starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long is a good one in analyzing interpersonal relationships between couples. In a nutshell, the film tells about a long distance relationship between Garret and Erin, and how they overcame the challenges to stay together.

I felt that it was a heartwarming film as it was nice to see how much Garret and Erin treasured their relationship by working things out together. Also, it quite accurately depicts reality.

Long distance relationships seem almost impossible to maintain for some couples, and this can be explained through analyzing relational needs. It is known that conflict arises when some of the most important needs in a relationship conflict with one another. The focus today is about intimacy versus distance.

I do agree that distance is one major obstacle for couples in a romantic relationship. Being physically apart from one another means lesser time spent together and hence this may cause a relationship to eventually disintegrate. So what if there are means to keep in contact with each other? Technology, in my opinion, is not the best option to help in keeping a couple close to each other when they are separated. After all, face-to-face communication is ultimately the richest, or rather the best medium for interpersonal communication. This is especially true for romantic relationships between couples who are madly and deeply in love with each other, isn’t it?

Base on my observation (within my social circle), many couples choose to give up the relationship when they are separated by distance. They would choose to grant their partners total freedom rather than putting in a huge amount of effort and going through the seemingly endless trouble to keep the relationship going. We cannot deny that it takes a lot of discipline, commitment, and trust on both parties to maintain a long distance relationship. Very few would be strong enough to endure the battle against loneliness when their partner is perhaps at the other side of the globe.  Moreover there are just too many temptations around us! That would put the couple’s faithfulness to each other to a real test.

Although absence makes the heart grow fonder, too long an absence would eventually dilute the feelings for each other. (This is usually the case) In the film, Garret eventually got a new job which allowed him to move out of New York and live nearer to Erin who was in California. However in reality, how many of us are willing to give up an established career just to be with the person we love? Our generation is steering towards being overly career orientated and in extreme cases, valuing money and status over relationships. This explains the phenomenon of delayed marriages in our society.

I guess it’s time for us to re-think what interpersonal relationships mean to us. And if it means the world, I would consider giving up material goals in pursuit of the happiness in my life. How about you? After all we can never put a price tag to happiness.

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October 1, 2010

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Week 4: Protest – a form of nonverbal communication

Protest is a strong nonverbal communication. Be it peaceful or violent, protestors express their opinions through a series of actions instead of verbalizing their ideas directly to their target audience. Reason being it may sometimes be to no avail hence they choose to physically show their demands instead.

Based on my reasoning on the need for protests, is nonverbal communication (protests) an equally effective method of communication when verbal communication fails?

Not necessarily.

I refer to the Red Shirts protests in Thailand and draw conclusions that nonverbal communication may not always work for them. From peaceful to violent protests staged, the Red Shirts are still far from their goal of bringing back the ousted Thailand Prime Minister Thaskin Shinawatra.

Recently on 19 September 2010 the Red Shirts once again staged a protest, this time a peaceful one, at Bangkok’s Rajprasong intersection. According to the news article (http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/red-shirts-stages-protests-in-bangkok-demand-fresh-elections/336958.html) the ‘anti-government ‘Red-Shirts’ activists today staged protests here demanding fresh elections marking the fourth anniversary of a military coup that ousted exiled Thailand prime minister Thaskin Shinawatra.’

In my opinion, this does not mean that the Thai government should respond to the demands of the Red Shirt protestors by holding a round of elections that would allow Thaskin another chance of ruling Thailand. The government does not necessarily have to give in even though there are strong nonverbal messages sent by the masses. They have to consider other factors as well, for example the conduct of the leader. The ousted Thai Prime Minister is notorious for his involvement in corruption and disrespect to Thailand’s constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Despite Thaskin’s social welfare policies that won the hearts of the rural poor and working class in Thailand, his poor conduct makes him a poor leader as well as a poor role model.

Nonetheless, I feel that the spirits, perseverance and unity of the Red Shirt protestors are admirable. They have been faithfully staging protests in hope of Thaskin’s return to Thailand ever since he was being ousted in 2006. The photograph attached below shows one of the protests held by the Red Shirts. The sea of red indeed intimidates and at the same time sends a strong message. We see a huge poster of Thaskin being held up by the protestors as well as bandanas wore around many of their heads. These are recognizably forms of nonverbal communication.

Looks like the Red Shirts are not giving up even after four years of fruitless attempts. Another conclusion one can draw from this is that is democracy is not always desirable when the community takes it for granted. If protests, be it peaceful or violent, carries on in Thailand, it would be economically and socially devastating for the country as tourists may shun potential protest areas, while investors lose confidence in investing in an unstable economy.

At the end of the day, nonverbal communication may not be a useful alternative when verbal communication fails. The political struggle in Thailand reflects a depressing reality of failed communication.

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September 26, 2010

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Week 3 Interpretation vs Media censorship

Art is a form of communication. Messages are being sent to audiences and it is then up to individuals to decode. Say audiences are exposed to the same piece of work, logically speaking, they should be in agreement of the message sent across. However in reality, this is not always the case. Reason being interpretation is subjective.

What causes the difference in interpretation? It may be due to cultural differences, individual characteristics, norms of a particular society, etc.  Based on such, the question proposed is should art be bounded by censorship simply because the majority within a society interpret and conclude that it is inappropriate, or perhaps crossing the line of what is acceptable within their society?

Apparently such a phenomenon is right before our eyes. Art is somewhat controlled by censorship here in Singapore. For example movies are rated, explicit song lyrics amended before being aired on radio, show scenes that are deem unsuitable removed, contents of mainstream television programs filtered and so on.  I refer to a news article (http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4341630) that deals with the issue of censorship in Singapore and hence ponder on the relationship between media censorship and individuals’ interpretation.

Being raised in a typical Chinese family, the values inculcated in me since young are more towards the conservative direction. It is almost impossible for my parents and me to openly discuss about sensitive issues and they would often remind me in a subtle way to adhere to the traditional thoughts. I would say my parents’ take on media censorship would be that it helps to protect their children from the ‘bad role models’ of society. This is clearly due to the way they interpret as they cling on to the traditional thoughts. Nonetheless I feel that media censorship has become an obstacle for our society’s artistic development.

It is necessary and in fact important for us to progress along with the ever-changing global community. Understanding art and appreciating it is considered one aspect of human development, as we learn to be more cultured and civilized. Singaporeans should not be denied the chance to cultivate their artistic sense, hence too much media censorship is intrusive. One may argue that censorship is needed because majority feels the need to have it in place to prevent social problems. Their interpretation of the art work viewed is one reason for the support behind censorship. Think, but that would in turn slow our artistic development which we already lack in the first place. My point is that our society should not use the majority’s interpretation as a yardstick for censorship.

I second the idea of ‘public to be given more responsibility. They should be given enough information on what the show is about, and left to decide if they want to watch it’ that is mentioned in the news article. It makes absolute sense to me as we should not be deprived of chances to be exposed to unique art productions. One should be matured and open while interpreting in order to learn and gain new experiences that will benefit our minds.

In my opinion, it does not necessarily mean that censorship must be involved if majority interpret and conclude that an art work is unacceptable. Unless it has the potential to create chaos, censorship should be minimized to allow artists to express their ideas and convey messages in their own unique and interesting way.

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September 18, 2010

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Week 2

One criticism of the social constructive perspective of communication is that it is overly concentrated on the social self, and hence neglects the individual self.

I would like to question that if it is always wise to put self over society. What will happen if one stubbornly stands by their opinion and ignore his surrounding?

Since ancient times, people have been dependent on one another, be it in the economic or social aspect. For instance, it would be impossible to achieve economic growth if members of a society do not perform as a whole. Also, social cohesion can never be made possible if members of society fail to exercise acceptance or tolerance among one another. Hence my point is that the criticism of the social constructive perspective cannot be fully justified because at times the social self is valued over the individual self.

Let us examine the validity of the criticism against the social constructionist perspective by looking into the Quran burning issue.

This highly debated issue regarding plans to burn copies of the Quran by Pastor Terry Jones (Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida) on September 11 has created intense global tension.

Protests broke out alongside condemnation by global political figures were some of the reaction from the international community. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11258739) ‘The president of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, warned in a nationally televised address on Friday that Mr Jones’s plan threatened world peace.’ This quote from the BBC news website clearly indicates that Pastor Terry Jones’s publicly announced decision to burn copies of the Quran is insensitive and at the same time jeopardizes world peace. Based on this instance, the criticism of the social constructive perspective can thus be deem as weak and limited. Who wouldn’t agree that world peace triumph over an individual’s opinion in this case?

We should also consider Pastor Terry Jones’s rationale behind his decision before concluding that it is extremely important to abide by the social constructionist perspective with regards to such an issue.

From this BBC news report (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11076846), it is understood that he had created this scene to express discontentment regarding the plan to build an Islamic cultural centre and mosque near the World Trade Centre site. Needless to say, it has angered the Americans as the 911 terrorist attack which happened 9 years ago is still devastating for them. The following pictures show Americans out on the streets to protest against it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rival protests have been held at the site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11076846)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protesters say the mosque is insensitive (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11076846)

Clearly, both parties are caught in a major miscommunication as the social constructionist perspective is ignored. If they were to take responsibility for their actions and the methods of showing disapproval, the outcome would not be as disastrous as it is today.

Overall, I would like to emphasize that the social constructive perspective of communication has a vital role to play, despite the criticism against it, in ensuring harmony in the process of communication. It is even more crucial when it comes to ensuring world peace. As much as individualism is encouraged in the contemporary society, I strongly feel that one should prescribe to the social constructive perspective while addressing sensitive issues that may result in severe repercussions on our society.

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September 11, 2010

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