Oldwisefelix’s Blog

                            -’Transformers’ movie poster in China

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_404416.html

This article talks about how the recent movie, ’Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’, have overwhelmed China’s movie industry, being the top sell-out movie China has ever experienced. 

The ’Transformers’ sequel has become China’s biggest box office hit ever, earning 400 million Chinese yuan (S$85.7 million). ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ surpassed the 11-year-old record of 360 million yuan set by ‘Titanic’ in 1998.

Cultural imperialism of America’s products is very apparent here with Transformers being a product from America, possessing the traits of United States culture, thus diffusing western culture to eastern regions like China, in this case. China is arguably known as one of the most conservative countries, however, that perception of China is changing. The cultural diffusion of western ideologies and beliefs, due to extensive US exports, is currently very popularly reaching out to Asia.  Thus, it is not surprising to know that western ideologies have gradually been imposed on Asians.

Furthermore, in Singapore, the movie is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material. To think such content in a movie can be so highly accepted by the relatively conservative mass audience in China. This shows that the cultural diffusion of US’s products have already been established in the China market. Apart from ‘Transformers’, the second highest box office hit is Titanic, apparently also a US film that had set a 11-year-old record of 360 million yuan in the movie history of China, which further emphasizes the success of America’s cultural imperialism in China.

The ‘Transformers’ record came despite China’s annual quota of 20 foreign blockbusters aimed at boosting its domestic industry. It is obvious that China is trying to control the electronic colonialism that foreign films might greatly influence its local people.  Despite setting the quota for the import of foreign films, China still cannot beat the influence and effortless power of these foreign films mostly dominated by the United States. This follows the criticism aspect of cultural imperialism where the flow of these foreign products from a developed country like the United States overpowers local products, portraying a kind of superiority the United States holds. It is arguable that the United States has the technology and perhaps, higher investment opportunities to create such a movie like ‘Transformers’ which obviously needed such intensive technical and high-dollar support. Not to mention, flow benefits the West as developing nations do not have a comparative advantage in the international media market as they have better financial capabilities that aids the expensive import of their products into foreign markets.

With continuous globalisation, it is almost inevitable that cultural imperialism will take place. This phoenomenon will carry on as long as there is demand of products beyond one’s shore from consumers all over the world. With demand comes supply, which can be easily facilitated by the amazingly efficient the global supply chain, supported by the economical scale of the logistics and transportation industry. In such modern times where communications never stop advancing, to be unaffected by cultural imperialism is nearly impossible unless your country decides to follow in the steps of North Korea. I adore cultural imperialism, don’t you? It is how we get to indulge in American television serials, movies, fashion, food etc.. Without it, I will not know about ‘Transformers’ and I will not be writing this and there will not be such thing as a blog homework for COM101.

The following videos, posted on 26 May 2009, are parts of a National Geographic Channel documentary titled ‘Conspiracy Moon Landing’, which explores why, so many years later, there are those who claim that the moon landings are a fraud on a huge scale.

Part 1

Part 2

There are 5 parts of the video, here are the rest of the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmGno0ZokLM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2-Jon1dXw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPPoOaIaCg&feature=related

Millions of people around the world were captivated for eight days in the summer of 1969. The news of Man landing on the moon brought glory to the embattled U.S. space program and inspired beliefs that anything was possible. This feat is arguably one of the most profound achievements in human history.  However, it might all be a lie.

Some believe that NASA fabricated the landings to trump their Soviet rivals, who had previously been the first to send a space satellite into space, as well as to fulfill President Kennedy’s goal of ferrying humans safely to and from the moon by the end of the 1960s.

It was alleged that NASA lacked the technology in 1969 to land humans safely on the moon, that the Apollo astronauts would have been poisoned by passing through the Van Allen radiation belts that ring the Earth and that NASA’s photos from the moon contained suspicious anomalies.

For example, as explained in the video, moon landing hoax theorists point to the “rippling” flag as evidence the landings were fake when there is no wind on the moon. Other points include, the shadows cast on the moon surface should have all been parallel, but it seems that there are some intersecting shadows, suggesting the presence of an unnatural light source; the movement of the astronaut on the moon was in fact, him running, but it has been altered to half speed to make the astronaut look like he’s moving slowly; also, no blast craters are visible under the landing modules. There many other factors that the conspiracy theorists have pointed out in the video.

So lets say, if Man have never really been to the moon, how did almost everyone so dexterously believed that we DID land on the moon? Simple. Nasa applied the agenda setting function through the media to repeatedly and exaggeratedly volumise the news on this hot topic then. With such great exposure to the ‘news’ reported every day, it would be difficult to doubt the truth behind it all. Long before conspiracy theorists laid out ‘evidence’ that the moon landing might be fake, Nasa used the priming process where they left out certain important issues (e.g. why were there no stars in the photos at all), thereby altering the standards of people’s ability to evaluate the issue.

It is even more convincing now that, in the recent Straits Times article, titled, ‘One small step for man, one big blunder for Nasa’, dated 18 July 09, where it is reported that Nasa had accidentally erased the tapes of the moon landing of Apollo 11. After reading this article, I feel that it is extremely irresponsible and absurd at the same time, that Nasa could have made such a huge mistake in losing such a significant remnant of one of mankind’s biggest achievement. Thus, with such growing possiblilties of hoax regarding the whole moon landing feat, it is even more suspicious that Man might never had been to the moon before.

The following link is an article, dated 8th June 2009, which describes the book and the author, Flora Jessop: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/jun/08/former-flds-member-to-describe-polygamy-abuse/

Jessop, who grew up in an Arizona town controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, ran away as twice as a teenager because of sexual abuse and molestation.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), which believes polygamy brings glorification in heaven, is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which renounced polygamy more than a century ago.  Its menbers grew up in the FLDS culture, which has last for almost a century.

They believe in plural marriages and placement marriages, which states that a man having multiple wives is ordained by God; the doctrine requires it in order for a man to receive the highest form of salvation. It is generally believed in the church that a man should have a minimum of three wives to fulfill this requirement.

(Above) We can see that this FLDS member has about 4 wives, with ages obviously years or generation gaps apart.

It is also in their culture to adopt uniformity in dressing, where women do not cut their hair short or wear makeup, pants, or any skirt above the knees. They usually wear monochromatic homemade long-sleeved “prairie dresses” with hems that end below mid-calf. Men wear plain clothing, usually a long-sleeved collared shirt and full-length pants. Both men and women are forbidden to have any tattoos or body piercings.

(Above) A FLDS family picture of one man, husband, and father.

The practice of polygamy inevitably leads to bride shortages, child marriages, incest, and child abuse. The picture below shows Warren Jeffs, the group’s most recent church leader and prophet, with his 12 year old bride. He allgedly may have had 60 wives.

(Above) Warren Jeffs and his 12 year old bride.

This lifestyle has led to girls like Flora Jessop to feel isolated, distressed and helpless. They have to be accustomed to this culture which is all they have. Growing up in a polygamist household, said Flora Jessop, was “chaos and pain and abuse.”

FLDS Church has also excommunicated more than 400 teenage boys for offenses such as dating or listening to rock music. Antagonistic former members claim that the real reason for these excommunications is that there are not enough women for each male to receive three or more wives, which is required to achieve the highest realm of heaven. These boys, some as young as 13, were considered surplus to requirements. They are also called The Lost Boys.

 An article, http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12586013, “titled FLDS warped lives, ‘Lost Boy’ recounts”, dated 14 June 2009, talks about Brent Jeffs, ex-Mormon fundamentalist, who was was one of the hundreds of boy teenagers forced out of the FLDS church.

Clearly, the FLDS adopts a collectivist culture, with beliefs representing the members’ understanding of what is true. It has been established in children that they have to live for the goal of the group’s belief, which is deemed as the right way to do, rather than for themselves.

They are being forced to conform, self-sacrifice for ingroup members, depend on men for decisions, and obey their husbands. Basically, they are externally controlled with the readiness to be influenced by their only social agents, which are, the Book of Mormons, their church leader or prophet (utmost obedience towards him, second to God) and their family (of whom are mothers and father, uncles and aunties who have already developed complete faith in the religion).

As Flora Jessop puts it, “When the children get to the point where they want to leave or have to leave, they have reached the point where they are willing to damn themselves for eternity,” she said. “You’re taught that you go to hell if you leave the group.”

Are we to respect this controversial religion in their beliefs like how we ought to respect all religions?

this is my 3rd entry

This video above talks about the the gang culture in UK, where an increasing trend of young kids are getting involved in gangs and thus, violence.

These gangs normally reside in the poorer parts of London, where kids come from single-parent families and have barely anyone to guide them along life. The members of the gangs claim that they have each other ‘like a family’, and look out for one another. It is simply their need for inclusion, need for control, and need for affection, which are factors they are deprived of without a proper family group thus turn to gangs. Most of time, these teenagers suffer from poverty and most families survive on benefits. Alone, one may not have the courage to rob to obtain money, thus being a member of a gang can evoke the courage to perform robbery, especially in a group, where it is more exciting and less fearful with ‘support’ given by fellow gang members.

When one joins a gang, one adopts groupthink, being influenced and brainwashed to do whatever their gang tells them to do, for example, steal, fight, indulge in drug activity so on and do forth. If one cooperates with the rest of the group well through group socialisation, it will determine their commitment or allegiance to the group.

The choice made to be included in a gang obviously would have originated from an individual’s needs. A prospective member will be tempted to join a gang because of his or her own individual’s needs for money or need for inclusion. After finally joining a gang, this new member will recognise that full membership comes with time and will acquire indiosyncrasy by conforming to the group’s ideals and acitivities, and eventually one will become a full member.

I believe that a gang or any form of groups, or cliques does offer security to an individual. The fact that most people have a group of friends, cell groups, even tribes from a long time ago from prehistoric times, seals the fact that the need for inclusion and affection by other people is a basic human trait. In a group, there is group culture, where a member adopts the culture and instills in himself the group’s norms which eventually becomes groupthink when you look at the big picture. With so many different kinds of groups, we should adopt culture relativism to evaluate and not rush to judge or stereotype. In this documentary about London street gangs,  we can tell that the interviewers actually bothered to find out the reasons behind their gang activity and we find very common individual reasons like poverty. With that, I cannot help but also feel very sorry for these kids. They did not choose to be born into a less fortunate family, or did not choose not to have responsible parents. Therefore, I feel that the society should help these kids while they still young and not fully indulged in negative gang mindsets yet.

“Rising number of people are feeling used, bruised on social networks as transgressions become part of the norm online”

Full article can be found in the following link: http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/FACEBOOK+VULTURES/1447774/story.html

Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins thought a former colleague had good intentions when he befriended him on Facebook. It wasn’t long before the acquaintance contacted him to ask if they could do drinks — and suggested some of Desjardins’s friends join them.

“He had never approached me before seeing me out with a group of friends, one of whom is a local celebrity,” recalled Desjardins.  Obviously, the friend made use of cyber proximity as a ‘friend’ on Facebook with Desjardins just so to get into closer proximity with the local celebrity probably for status sake. And after “he’d cozied up to the local celebrity, Desjardins never heard from him again.” The disengagement process was used by the friend to dissolve the relationship after he had  engaged  Desjardins to get what he wanted.

He realized then that he had been taken advantage of by a new breed of cad: the Facebook vulture — someone brazen and calculating, a person who has no problem using “friends,” then tossing them aside.

However, besides Facebook being ”filled with posts superficial to the point of banal” , there are also “…plenty of true friends and loving family members on Facebook, people who care about each other and who love the idea of being able to share everything from pictures and personal updates to their take on world affairs.”  This refers to the similarity concept of the tendency to feel comfortable of forming relationships with those we perceive as similar to us as this reduces uncertainties, assosciated risks and a sense of attitudinal and social preference similiarity throughout the relationship.  

The exchange concept in relational formation and development in Facebook  can be seen here, ”..they may be people you know from years ago or people you have never met at all but have connected with to network professionally.”  This concept is especially applied professionally as it more apparent the motives for a connection formed for professional reasons.

The Facebook phenomenon is becoming increasingly stronger, even starting to close the gap between generations with mothers and fathers creating Facebook accounts, who are attempting to catch up with the savvy cyber craze, using Facebook as a start. Even companies and churches, for that matter, are creating organisational Facebook accounts to aid in accessibility/publicity and even functions to spread God’s word now. Nothing is perfect, neither is Facebook. As long as we continue to indulge in Facebook activities, possibilities of ’danger’ will lurk.

The following is an advertisement by Virgin Trains featuring Ed, a businessman who is preparing for the most important business meeting in his life. He boards the Virgin Train which apparently gave him a power boost in confidence on his way to his presentation. This video was posted on 6 May 2009, titled “Virgin Trains TV ad ‘Success express’”.

When the video starts, we instantly notice Ed, the businessman, being pressured by his boss to not screw up the presentation which he is heading to. The use of  kinesics is clearly used in the advertisement as seen from Ed’s body language when we see a clumsy and flustered Ed dropping his things so as to portray an unconfident businessman before he boards the train.

Comparing the way people treated him before he gained his confidence on the Virgin Train, to the way they respected and idolized him after he boarded the train, we can see that chronemics have been applied to compare his social status before and after he boarded the Virgin Train. At the beginning, Ed was insignficant to the rest of the people. After he boarded the train, however, he immediately transforms into an extremely confident and efficient businessman where people start noticing and gave him a lot of attention. Thus, we observe that the change in his social status is due to Virgin Train, in which the advertisement is also trying to tell us that the Virgin Train is equivalent to a high social status. The use of similarity of prototypes have been used here to portray Virgin Train represents high social status.

The use of verbal communications is also being used here so that the audience is able to relate to the emotions in this advertisement. Phases like “Go Ed!” can be seen at random times by his ‘supporters’ as well as the choice of words like “enthusiasm”, “motivation” and ”opportunalize” used during his ‘discussion’ over work. The semantics and pragmatics of these words further emphasizes the drive and intensity in Ed during his journey on the Virgin Train.

The impact of his presence on his ‘supporters’ is obviously seen by their body language and excited cheers in terms of pitch, volume and tone at the 0.45 minute of the video. Kinesics and paralinguistics of non verbal communication has undoubtedly been applied at this point.

The use of the Businessweek magazine with Ed fronting the cover with his thumbs up accompanied by the phase “Ed nails it” served a kind of identity, as if he had represented a well-known magazine. This then boosted Ed’s confidence even more as it proves almost certainly that his presentation was going to be a success. The Businessweek also acted like a closure, showing the audience that Ed would have made it as the result of his presentation was not shown to the audience at the end of the video.

Personally, this commercial is quite successful in appealing to the audience like me, who has not felt bored of watching this commercial over and over again. I feel that the communication tools used in this advertisement is crucial to make the audiences feel inspired by the product the advertisement is trying to sell to consumers. Both verbal and non-verbal communications have proven in this short video, to be necessary in conveying the intended message to the audience. However, there will always be some commercials out there that are dismal and fails in grabbing the attention of its viewers. That kind of bad advertisements are the reason why many people hate commercial breaks. Thus, I think it is very important to consider all elements of an advertisements carefully in order to create a successful advertisement that people will remember.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_375016.html

The above article dated May 10, 2009, talks about how pro-anorexia ‘groups’ are formed in social networking sites like Facebook “in which members tout anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than an eating disorder. They share extreme diet tips and post pictures of emaciated girls under headlines labelled ‘thinspiration’.” Judging from the pragmatic perspective, it is like an interdependent encouragement to stay thin for these people.

“They are usually images of waif-like models or celebrities to inspire a person to be thin.”

The mindsets of these people were undeniably influenced by the media.  This phenomenal tool in society apparently has the power to set standards for society because it influences our sense of appropriate expectations.

It creates ideals for love and lifestyles, and it can expand or constrain our dreams for opportunity and self-actualization in people of all ages. Everyone has expectations in life. Where do these come from? Some are from friends, family, or oneself, but mostly they are from media. The power of media can influence family life, our youth culture, and how we view a man’s or woman’s role in society.

It could be a cover of a magazine fronting a glamourous celebrity, and its contents which psychologically instills in its readers, the ‘must-dos’ and ’must-haves’ of the latest seasons’ trends which reinforces the connection between the reader and the deceiving message it is trying to convey:

Magazine Covers April 2009: In Style – Salma Hayek, O Magazine – Michelle Obama & Oprah Winfrey, American Vogue – Beyonce Knowles, Elle – Reese Witherspoon, French Vogue – Scarlett Johansson, Glamour – Katie Holmes, Harper’s Bazaar – Gisele Bündchen, W Magazine – Drew Barrymore, Allure – Taylor Swift.

Basically, the use of images twist our minds . Many women in today’s world have a low self-esteem caused by the image of a “perfect woman” broadcasted in the media. It is true that people want to see beautiful people. The setting of this standard for the ‘perfect’ body as portrayed by the media has been the envy of most ladies. In this case, the media is trying to appeal to the emotions of young women (pathos) by intriguing envy in them and thus, the urge to also want to look like these ‘beautiful’ people. What the media gives its audiences is also driven by the fact that we want to see beautiful people and pictures. This is accredited to most men seeming to enjoy these fake images of models and actresses that they see in magazines, television and the movies. Everyday, media-messages about how to behave, what choices to make, and what to think, bombard children.

For example, the popular TV show with teenagers - The O.C.,  portrays good looking cast and the daily dose of fresh looks and clothes inspire teenagers to want to look like them and act like them. This can be viewed from the social constructionist perspective where TV shows influences the way people should act -social self. 

This wall of media is damaging because it sets limits on a person’s potential and it is not a healthy way to live life. Models in magazines and product ads have been airbrushed to make the women more appealing. Since its not interactive, children get the message that they can just sit and be entertained. Television can influence children’s beliefs about the gender appropriateness of occupations and their own career goals. Media has provided society with a mold of how people of different genders should be and act. The idols of the cave concept can be seen here by the distortions of certain realities created by the deceiving messages. Children are not engaging in their own skills, imagination or fantasy, because they’re getting their entertainment passively from the oh-so-beautiful, media.

Are Barbie and Ken, the perfect female and male image, what we all desire to look like?