7th; what be this hard topic? Media imperialism?

Welcome to the hardest blog topic assigment there is. Or maybe it's just me who find the video/topic boring, that's why it's hard....

Personally, I hate politics to the deepest core of the core there is don't like politics and anything related, but this is for assignment, so i HAVE to do it. Ugh.





Here's the video of what we're suppose to relate to with Media Imperialism. Here's the assignment topic :

" The documentary entitled "The Power of Nightmares (Part 3 - Shadow in the Cave)" by Adam Curtis was shown in class on Monday. How do you relate the information given to you in the documentary to the theory of Media Imperialism that we talked about in lecture? "

Feh, I don't even know if the video is the right video I picked okay, got the right video this time, thanks Angie!

[03:03] EternalLove: power of nightmare.
[03:03] EternalLove: is a boring video but a bit interesting
[03:03] EternalLove: a bit
[03:03] EternalLove: about cnn
[03:04] EternalLove: or bcc news in usa
[03:04] EternalLove: saying how islam in iraq
[03:04] EternalLove: got super awesome modern facility
[03:04] EternalLove: for war purpose
[03:04] EternalLove: while the documentary goes and see
[03:04] EternalLove: the whole desert place thing dun have
[03:05] EternalLove: then bcc/cnn news say
[03:05] EternalLove: a video made by teenager
[03:05] EternalLove: is made by arabian
[03:05] EternalLove: in disneyland
[03:05] EternalLove: to plant bombs

Quoted from Angie with permission.

6th; I love facebook.

Now, what is this? Well, the 6th assignment, of course! Let's look at the blog topic assignment.

" Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media" (see diagram above), choose a medium or media application or tool (e.g. newspaper, books, radio, tv, film, internet, computer games, handphone, instant messaging, blogging, online advertising, youtube, facebook etc.) and explain its media effects? Please refer to Week 9's lecture notes plus your own research to discuss this topic. "


There we go. The medium I'm gonna pick to use the tetrad to explain with, is...

Facebook.

So why facebook? Because I'm most familliar with it, and my close close friends know I'm 24/7 on facebook, ha ha ha~

Anyway, here's the definition i got from wikipedia regarding tetrad of media :

Generally speaking, a tetrad is any set of four things. In Laws of MediaThe Global Village (1989), published posthumously, Marshall McLuhan summarized his ideas about media in a concise tetrad of media effects. The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology/medium (put another way: a means of explaining the social processes underlying the adoption of a technology/medium) by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously. McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:

1. What does the medium enhance?
2. What does the medium make obsolete?
3. What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
4. What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?

The laws of the tetrad exist simultaneously, not successively or chronologically, and allow the questioner to explore the "grammar and syntax" of the "language" of media. McLuhan departs from his mentor Harold Innis in suggesting that a medium "overheats", or reverses into an opposing form, when taken to its extreme.

Visually, a tetrad can be depicted as four diamonds forming an X, with the name of a medium in the center. The two diamonds on the left of a tetrad are the Enhancement and Retrieval qualities of the medium, both Figure qualities. The two diamonds on the right of a tetrad are the Obsolescence and Reversal qualities, both Ground qualities.

• Enhancement (figure): What the medium amplifies or intensifies. For example, radio amplifies news and music via sound.
• Obsolescence (ground): What the medium drives out of prominence. Radio reduces the importance of print and the visual.
• Retrieval (figure): What the medium recovers which was previously lost. Radio returns the spoken word to the forefront.
• Reversal (ground): What the medium does when pushed to its limits. Acoustic radio flips into audio-visual TV.

With this piece of information, I can explain much easier.


1) What does FACEBOOK extend/enhance?

Facebook amplifies networking and connectivity between friends, family and new friends through the internet, as a social website. By using facebook, friends and family can now keep in contact with each other, through the internet, without being charged (excluding internet and broadband charge, that is, but hey, it's much easier than travelling house by house to talk to each other, or waste $$$ by talking on the phone right?). Also, we can also know one's status, and what they did or went with facebook, because facebook has the function to upload photos, writing on the wall to each other, and even in notes to show what you think/ponder about as well.


2) What does FACEBOOK make obsolete?

As mentioned, by using Facebook, one does not need to call each other up and waste phone credits anymore, as by using facebook, you can chat like an instant messenger, and you can upload events/parties so your friends/family in ur network knows about it to attend, and you can use the invite function as well!), neither does one have to waste car/petrol to go house by house to visit and be sure that they're alright and still friends, as there's the photo uploading option for you to upload photos of urself! Although there is a bad part; we won't be able to face each other and "yumcha" in front of each other, person-to-person that much. physical contact is much less.


3) What does FACEBOOK retrieve/retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?

Connectivity and closeness, as well as keep-to-update-ness of friends and family, and also new friends. We can still be close and keep in touch and keep updated on each other using Facebook, without walking or phoning each other up. We may not ask each other every single thing needed to know in real life/person-to-person, but one may retrieve more information on a friend/family member by using facebook as we tend to "update" more using the internet, mainly, facebook. Example, parties he/she went to, when did he/she broke up, etc etc.


4th) What does FACEBOOK flip into when pushed to extremes/reverse into if it is over extended?

Facebook might be the one and only social networking that people use (actually it kind of already is, iphone and maxis promotes facebook - a lot). Maybe one day, Facebook will have webcamming/voice chatting functions, that would make the feeling of not hearing/seeing someone decrease bit by bit. Who knows...




PERSONAL REFLECTION!

Well, there was the video on Power of Nightmare 3 - not the type of videos I would watch, but it does make sense. Almost fell asleep watching it.... Is there any better examples/movies like it?

5th ; YOU LITTLE *BEEEEP* *BEEEEEEP*!

Hullo! Welcome back to Cultural Media Night once again! The event sure is getting closer and closer, eh, people?

Anyway, let's proceed more into my 5th blog topic assignment!

"Obscenity, pornography and indecency: What are the differences between these terms?"

Gasp! The topic that Malaysia media is most afraid of (and that kinda irks me)! Now, let's find its' meaning and definition, then I'll have some... entertaining examples.


OBSCENITY
~ the trait of behaving in an obscene manner
~ An offensive or indecent word or phrase
-- wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

~ Obscenity (in Latin obscenus, meaning "foul, repulsive, detestable"), is a term that is most often used in al egal context to describe expressions (words, images, actions) that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time. It is often replaced by the word salaciousness.
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscenity

~ The qualities that make something obscene; lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour.
-- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/obscenity


Let's have some... "obscene" examples, shall we?









That's obscenity. You don't see ahem, genital parts, but you know it's still related, somewhere, and you get it. When you see "genital" parts... doing something to each other... that's pornographic.


PORNOGRAPHY (Woohoo! The internet is for porn, the internet is for porn...)
~ Creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire
-- wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

~ Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer. It is to a certain extent similar to erotica, which is the use of sexually arousing imagery
-- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography

~ Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
-- www.choicesaz.org/resources/glossary/

~ The explicit description or exhibition of obscene literature, art or photography, generally intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.
-- www.qgcio.qld.gov.au/qgcio/resources/glossary/Pages/glossaryp.aspx


I don't think I need to further explain what pornographic is, right? Includes at least 1 boy and 1 girl, it can also be 2 boy 1 girl, or 1 boy 2 girl, etc, on the bed, strutting their stuff. Some wilder porn doesn't need to be on the bed, or even with a human. You get me now?

OPEN AT OWN RISK! (picture)
THIS TOO! (picture)
AGHHHH! (picture)

(I do NOT want my IP being traced by CITS for searching porn. If that happens, please help me, dearest lecturers? LOL)
PS : Want more "examples"? Just type PORNOGRAPHY on your google search bar and click on "Images". Enjoy.


INDECENCY
~ Offensive to good taste; not in keeping with conventional moral values; improper, immodest or unseemly
-- en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indecent

~ Not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
~ An indecent or improper act
-- wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

~ Lack of decency; the property or degree of being indecent; something showing lack of decency; something such as a word that is indecent
-- en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indecency


Well, indecency... I don't know what's decent in the world now anymore. You see girls screaming "SH*T" and "F***" everywhere you go now. It's rare to find a girl, especially to not say the F word (excluding Vivian's case, of course).





HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Everything the narrator is talking is VULGAR. even the title itself is 'indecent'.





PERSONAL REFLECTION!

Well, lecturers came in late, gave a (#*@(#@& assignment that made me stressed up immediately - 800 words on a topic i have no idea how and what to write, and then we can sign our attendance the next week.

Mehmeh. Should've given more details on the assignment. Blanked mind.

4th - Literate, illiterate, literate?

Yay for Olive green font colour!

Anyway, up we go, to the 4th topic blog assignment, only on Cultural Media Night blog!

"What is Media Literacy and why is it important for you as FCM students to have it?"

Well, let's look for the definition and meaning of Media Literacy now, shall we?


"Media literacy is the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms..."
-- (Courtesy to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy)

"The process of understanding and using the mass media in an assertive and non-passive way. This includes an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the media, the techniques used by them and the impact of these techniques."
-- (Courtesy to www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teaching_backgrounders/media_literacy/glossary_media_literacy.cfm)

"the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication and information in a variety of forms and means."
-- (Courtesy to www.unesco.org/education/educprog/lwf/doc/portfolio/definitions.htm)


There you have it, the meanings/definitions of Media Literacy. Now, why is it important for us FCM students to possess it? Well, in order to be a great artist/designer, we need this skill in order to proceed into the industry : to attract potential customers to look at our works, to make them buy it. Once we mastered this skill, we'll be able to produce better artwork as we have better awareness, and we'll be able to understand the artwork from the customers/viewers' point of view and not just ours (the producer).

We need to know how to analyze and evaluate artworks, to critique it in a proper way, and not just do it just because we hate the artist/producer. We can also learn to enjoy artworks and look deeper into artworks/works/media, deeper than a typical viewer, who probably knows nothing about media ; those who only know how to criticize without giving any constructive comments - those who don't care how long, or how hard the artist/producer spent in order to create their masterpiece. Since we are going to graduate and be a creative multimedia person in the future, we need this to understand artists/producer, and learn from their mistakes and triumph/good skills in the future, and not go away blindly.



PERSONAL REFLECTION!

Weeee, media representation and culture stereotypes! As everyone said (and also I have mentioned in the MMLS discussion board), the culture stereotype is much more interesting because they remind myself of me, I used to watch movie and be a typical stereotype as well. (fffffffff mosquito bite HAHAHAH!) Interesting lecture, should do more of those kind of lectures!

3rd ; MAY I HAVE A BURGER AND SUM SANDWICHES??

Before you ask what's wrong with my title, have a look at this youtube video. (PS : It's a banned commercial that I enjoy laughing to.)



(Gotta thank Eddy for forcing me to watch banned commercials on youtube)

Anyway, 4th blog assignment is on Media stereotyping, and here's the question to discuss on about.


" Give a very short basic explanation of what media stereotype is? (Keep it short please!) From your personal experience, what other media stereotype (besides the example from the article) you have seen either on TV or in the movies? "

Link to the article we are to refer/read from


Er, now how do i put this in words...

Media stereotype, in my opinion, are stereotyping of people in either groups, or race, or religion, or skin/hair color, and even many more as people of certain attitude without thinking twice. Example, people who play computers = nerds, boys who play sports = jocks, mean girls who look pretty and has boys chasing their skirts = cheerleaders, etcetra etcetra. Come on, don't tell me you've never thought that way?

Well, as everyone know, one of the most popular stereotype group is of course, high school kids. (Too much High School Musical dissing eh, Charlene?)

Most students in high school are ALWAYS, ALWAYS separated into these classification. cheerleaders, goths, nerdy/outcasts, jocks. And the main character always has to be the nice, outstanding, unique character who is probably not in any labels of group.

Here's the interesting part : Most cheerleaders/mean girls/drama queens HAS to have conflict with the nice one, and the nice one will always prevail, or at least have a truce with the mean ones.

What do you see...? Cheerleaders with those b*tchy attitude, or sporty girls who look cool?

Cheerleaders must be mean, competitive, b*tchy, mean to other group of girls, especially the dorks, etc etc. I mean, come on, can't there be a like, a goth cheerleader for a change as the main character? Or maybe a totally different personality, like a girl who eats a lot but mantains her weight yet sleepy, but is a pretty cheerleader?

Goth. Oh God don't get me started on that.

Now, don't start nagging me on a vulgar photo... We're all over 18.

Goths are also stereotyped as people who are weird, likes to write emo poetries, smoke drugs and consume depression pills, and are also classified as people who cut themselves and had tried suicide at least once.

WEEEE I'M A GOTH AND I SUICIDE. HOW STEREOTYPING IS THAT?!

Also, people classify goths as outcasts sometimes, and doing small robberies from small shops. Actually, not all goth are suicidal and depressed. They're just dressing up the way they are and in the end, they're actually friendly people, like you and me.

The nerdy/dorky ones? Come ON! Always portraying them as bully tools for the cheerleaders and jocks? Not all nerdy/dorky people are fanatic, and stays in front of the computer 24-7. We FCMs do that all the time, but are we dorky? No. And most main characters start off as a nerd that is disliked by the "popular" gang, in the end prevailing as the winner.

Speaking of popular, why can't the nerds be the popular ones instead? I know nerds are popular in MMU.... Don't hit me.

Jocks are like the male version of cheerleaders. Hot, sporty, wanted by every single female living creature in the world, and of course a must -- A player. I know guys who are sporty and NOT hot. (SORRY GUYS LOL) A guy who plays sports must be a jock, what about a guy who is hot but does NOT play sports? Does it make him a jock as well?

Think about it.




PERSONAL REFLECTION ON CLASS!

Well, it was a holiday so there was no class? Well, personally I felt I've learnt more about media and how people view media, and some histories on it (HAHAH THE ALIENS-INVADE-EARTH TALK RADIO DRAMA! Can't get over that one.). Hopefully I'll get to put these knowledge to use. :)

2nd ; ALLLIIIEEEENS!

Today we'll use a pink font, yes?

Anyway, blog assignment 2 is about a comic strip, "Rumors, lies and innuendo spread far, wide, and fast on the Internet." taken from "Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture" by Stanley Baran, pg 324. We were asked to give our critical reflection and of course, personal reflection on class too.


So... Yeah. That's the comic strip. Honestly, it gave me a few giggle. Honestly, it's true you shouldn't believe everything the internet says, haven't parents been warning their kids about it these days?

So the question is...

"Do you often take what is on the Internet as truth without thinking much about it? If yes, why? If no, why? Discuss this in your own words."

Honestly, there's yes and no. Sometimes I admit I do ponder about the things said in the internet, so I can't really say I didn't think much about it when I first see it. Let's see...

Why yes? Some internet websites have been verified to be truth and I believe it. Examples : TheStarOnline.com (dude, that's the website for The Star newspaper.) and other newspaper online websites (MalaysiaKini etc), a very wee-bit information from Wikipedia and related TRUST-ABLE (when I say trust-able, I don't mean bullshits like Encyclopedia Dramatica, although it's fun to laugh at from time to time) encyclopedia-like websites, some magazines' websites, etc etc etc. You get the idea. They're originated from newspapers, magazines, and credit-able authors (because the Wikipedia moderators delete bullshits off the information page as soon as they see bullshits, thumbs up for them!). So that's why I said yes, because not everything on the internet are lies, as internet originated to provide information for its users in the first place, until the bad eggs came over to tarnish it.

Now for my other answer, why no? Well, like I said, bad eggs came over to tarnish it. Like Encyclopedia Dramatica for instance, and joke websites. Remember there were times when you get prank emails on fake newspaper bits? Yeah, that one. And most of all...

Would you believe everything this website says? I won't. If you do, I have bad news for you...

If you haven't heard of 4chan, then it's better to not even check it out. Seriously. it's the best examples for "don't believe the internet too much". Ugh, don't get me started on 4chan. It's the reason why so many weird parodies and internet chats were born, as well as... uh, so many things. You need to be a hardcore web stroller to understand.

So that's my answer, and of course my ponder-ation and critical reflections. I included examples, related it to the question, used correct/as far as I know good grammars, included examples and supporting details. Yes, so far, yes? Haha.




Well well now, personal reflection on class!

Well, I came to class a wee-bit too early, panicked and begged Vivian to come to class. I saw only Khai Wen and Xin Yi (is that how her name is spelled?) in class until the rest all swarmed in 1 group by 1 group.

Anyway, after that our lecturer started class about "Wars of the World" and how *cough*stupid*cough* the history of it was. It was the radio station's way of saying "Boo". NOW HOW LAME IS THAT? I wonder why they weren't sued...

And then there comes the effects that can be used on media, like the powerful effect used by the stupid radio station, some "hey, I've been through that!" effects, etc etc. It was cool learning those, I actually had a bit of fun learning it. The bad thing was, it started getting draggy.

In my very honest opinions, I'd rather the effects come with examples of how the effects can be used, preferably something incredibly interesting or funny to re-attract the class attention back, since there were so many people talking and Mr. Radzi Bedu got annoyed.

And HAHAHA SUMMARY GOT EXTENDED TO 2 WEEKS, good thing I finished mine early so I can start doing DF. Oh God, don't get me started on how angry/annoyed/relieved I was to hear DF assessment being pushed a week back Anyway that was it for this week's cultural media night's update. Do come back for more if you want to catch up.

Ta.

1st ; Social Medias are delicious like ice cream. :B

First topic on blog assignment!

Ice cream = Social Media. Very very creative. The video reminds me of a phone commercial as well, using papers to describe the video. :'D What's that again... Maxis or Celcom?

First there's only newspaper and TV. People only get information scoops (get the pun? >D) through there. Then the internet comes and butt in, giving people the opportunity to voice out and create their own media as well. Then some people's media got popular, example : xiaxue, kennysia, Kevjumba etc etc. You get the idea. Then there were so many things to read/watch, so much that the newbies (a term for people who are new to stuffs) got confused on what to watch, like - What is popular? What is interesting to them? And what is HOT? Then someone decided to put up a brilliant plan -- using ratings and comments to let viewers rate/comment so the media maker can produce better ones by listening to what viewers want!

How does it affect me + lives around me? Better media to view, of course! More entertainment! More nice blogs to read, more youtube videos to watch, more artworks to enjoy. To rate is to let people know how good the media is, to comment is to improve on it or to listen to what people had to say about your media (ice cream). It's actually more convenient, unlike newspapers and TVs who seldom listen to viewer's comments. The media in the world is improving due to this better service. It's better to listen to viewer's opinion than to go all-out on your own + no one being happy with your media.

About personal reflection, on class eh? There were slideshows, as usual. I missed 2 classes consecutively though, so I couldn't say anything.