Week 8- Final!

Firstly, before I begin the post proper, I want to say a thank you to all the followers of my blog for reading and commenting at every post.

Thank you Ms Hui for making us do such an interesting assignment where we can apply what we have learnt in class to articles or videos that we see everyday!


This is the official trailer for 7th Asiana Interrnational Short Film Festival, directed by Goo Hye Sun. It reflects the theme of "love-hate relationship between people and the media".

(Goo Hye Sun is the girl who acted in Jandi in Boys Over Flowers)
Short films have deeply rooted itself into the our daily media 'needs'. For example, we log on to facebook and share short videos that we see on youtube.

In this short film, the artist was trying to draw a sketch of the girl he sees on the televsion. From the smiling face he sees, he came out with a series of sketch showing the other emotions.

Short films such as this, as compared to an average full lenght movie, takes on a more high context manner to convey the message. No matter if we agree or not, media influences how we lead our lifes and how dependent we are on media sources to give us information and news updates.

According to the Media Hegemony theory, media represent the views of the powerful eiltes. What we see on the television screens, although they are mostly what we want to achieve, they often do not represent the reality. Perhaps this is why we have a love-hate relationship with the media.

Week 7

Since we are on the topic of Mass Communication, I wish to talk about the use of new media in our environment.

According to a Channel News Asia article by Satish Cheney(click me), Singapore is moving towards the intesive use of new media for government related works. In many of our eyes, government related issues are for adults(well, these information are non exclusive and are designed to reach out to the public). They read the long and boring print which will convey to them the important informations. Now, because of the liberal use of new media, we see more exciting manners of communication from the government to the people.

Communicating to large audiences is not easy. To be able to communicate effectively to large audiences, the most important thing would be to provide a service that people need and bring their attention to it.
For example, unemployment is an issue that we all concern about. By using the new media platforms such as the popular networking site Facebook, the citizens are able to voice actively their views and concerns to the government.


The October issue of Temasek Review(click me) talks about the future of new media in Singapore. The writer brought up that in the new media scene, there are three major stakeholders, namely the Bloggers, Journalists and Readers. Indeed, in a country with people of cultures as diverse as you can possibly imagine, developing a good method for mass communication through channels such as new media is very important.

What would you do, if you are the person deciding how to disseminate information to the masses in a culturally diversed society?

Week 6

This movie talks about what sparked off the beginning of the end and how the survivors struggle. This is an epic show, taking references from the many early predictions of the End Times.

There are many predictions made over the millenium about when the world is going to end. The Mayan calendar determined by research scholars speculates that the calendar ends on 13.0.0.0.0 which equates to our date of December 21, 2012. Do you believe in the end of the world?

If you do, its a good time to start preparing for the worst. (Hmmmm, didnt the Bible tell us that when the end is near, we will know it? We will be going up in flames unlike during Noah's time. The 7 years of tribulation have not started, right?)

The Mayans, the ancient Egyptians and even scientists today predicts that there will be something terrible (for us) happening in the year 2012. What we are going to perceive is true will come mainly from our cultural background and interaction with people around us, do you agree with me? From the Communications point of view, the early people had left us documents to communicate with us the future they have predicted. Not so much as a distant future to us though. There are conflicting views towards the issue. This is caused by difference in perception.

Whether or not you believe that the end times will be coming in 2012, Interpersonal Communications is still important. No matter who you are communicating with, I strongly believe that relationships should only grow stronger and not deteriorate. So DO nurture/maintain or even start positive relationships with various groups of people in your lives.

If you are a devil's advocate, you can probably look at this End Time issue from a totally new perspective...Which you can share on my comments page (:

Week 5

A stomper posted this onto the web to share with all netizens.

China celebrates their national day on 1st Oct, which is also our childrens day.

From the picture evidently, its a HDB block, with China's flag hanging outside the window, on the place reserved for Singapore's own flag.

Like erm, HELLO?

The artifact potrayed, in this case the PRC flag, is showing us that a Chinese National is showing the love for his country.

Being patriotic to your home country is GOOD. There is NOTHING wrong. But this is a very apparent non-verbal cue to Singaporeans to start voicing out even more of our displeasure towards PRC workers in Singapore. This act sparked off a heated debate on many online communities that this is a disrespectful act and strong actions should be taken.

Although this is somewhat a sensitive issue, we cannot deny that presence of certain foreign workers have made our lives much more comfortable. Eg, the Bangladeshi workers whom sweeps the road, built our high rise building etc.

The influx of PRC in our community had, on a personal level, made me feel uneasy. With an increasing PRC student population in local schools, it gives us Sg students an even more pressurised and competitive environment. Lower level student/part time jobs are also becoming increasingly hard to find as most employers would rather employ cheaper labour than us....

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Under NATIONAL EMBLEMS (CONTROL OF DISPLAY) ACT(CHAPTER 196)
Display of national emblems in public or at schools prohibited.

3. —
(1) No person shall display in public or at or within any school any national emblem.
(2) For the purposes of this section, an emblem shall be deemed to be displayed in public if it is displayed in any road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place over which the public or any class of the public has a right of way or to which the public has access, whether on payment or otherwise, or if it is displayed in such manner as to be visible from any such road, street, bridge, passage, footway or place by any member of the public using the same or being thereinOffences and penalties.

8. —
(1) Any person who
— (a) displays any national emblem contrary to the provisions of this Act or of any condition of any order or permit made or given under section 5; or
— (b) being the owner, tenant, lessee, occupier or person in charge of any premises knowingly permits the display of any national emblem on or from those premises or within any school contrary to the provisions of this Act or of any condition of any order or permit made or given under section 5,shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction
— (i)in the case of a person other than a body corporate to a fine not exceeding $500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both; and(ii)in the case of a body corporate to a fine not exceeding $1,000.

Week 4

Running out of time ......



US commander's advice to Obama: Boost the effort in Afghanistanor pull out of it



The article is by by Simon Tisdall on Sep 23, 2009

In all, decisions made in the White House communicates pretty much through a Linear Model to the US citizens and the whole world.

General Stanley McChrystal had made a breakthrough by "speaking truth to power", making the communication between the White House and the US military in Afghanistan somewhat an interactive one.

We know that problem will arise when people communicate to us differently. General McChrystal did not delibrately make his speech tactful. It was direct to the point. In this case, the world media is highly focused on the type of move President Obama will make.

President Obama is still in his early terms of presidency and the weight of the world lies on his shoulders. He may be eager to prove himself, but war is always a delicate issue to tackle. By sending more troops to Afghan, many more lives would be sacrificed. It would also contradict his promises to the Americans.

However, if the number of troops are not increased, boys sent to fight in Afghan will continue to be sent home in body bags.

Faced with such dilemma, what can Obama do to balance the scale?

While the war drags on, it takes a toll on US's resources. Afghan no doubt will suffer their own heavy share of war casualities, many of them innocent civilians. Does it weigh heavy on Obama, the countless souls that will be lost if the war drags on? Even though he was not the one who declared war.

Week 3

Yen Ling and family walking around a certain supermarket a few days after MJ's demise...

Background Music: Beat It by Michael Jackson

Okay, they are playing the songs in memory of MJ, that is very nice!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am not a fan of MJ. However, I still feel that MJ was one of the greatest man in the music industry in our time. He had communicated to us through his music, his ideals for the world. It may seem too unrealistic to many, but we all had a part in shaping the world into how it is like today. His lyrics comes attached with meanings, reflecting his own thoughts, giving us a glimpse into the mind of the King of Pop.

Perhaps the previous generation was more affected by MJ. By using the power of language, MJ was able to write songs which are extremely meaningful and catchy.

Perhaps he was tired of living his life as the King of Pop, didnt wish for recognition everywhere he goes. The final concert was meant as to bid farewell to his fans. But it became too 'commercialised' when there are people who tried to make this farewell event into a major money-spinner.

This Is It concert would have been the best concert in 2009, but it was not meant to be. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three weeks later at the same supermarkert...

Background Music: Black or White by Michael Jackson

Hopefully with the final release of THIS IS IT, this will really be it. The King of Pop should be allowed his peace.

week 2

It is relatively common to be see on our local channels advertisments for skin whitening products. But what really caught my attention is that the advertisment is actually targeted towards people whom genetically have dark skin.

The advertiser has perceived that their target audiences are actually keen to join the current fad of using skin whitening products. But in truth, this perception may have its grounds based on actual case studies. Many marriages in these areas are still arranged by parents and matchmakers thus physical appearance is really important so that one can 'market' themself to their potential future spouse. Having fair skin, surprisingly, is a common requirement on many of these marriage-seekers lists! It appeals to logos more than anything else if we were to analyse this up and coming trend from this angle.

However, this is a topic for debate. While one might want to be cool and keep up with the trends, using whitening products to lighten your genetically dark skin may not be acceptable to all in you culture! Westerners have their own ideals, so does the Indians. The subtle, or perhaps not so very subtle differences between people of different cultures and races are what sets us apart. Outrage are mainly due to the part of the population which intepreted this fad as Westernization and racism.

Why can't they be dark skinned and beautiful?