The final post!!!! Domination by Mr Macdonalds

What comes into your mind when you think about Macdonalds? My first guess would be the burgers, hashbrowns and hot cakes drowned in maple syrup? Well other than food lets take a step back and see how has America dominated our Asian cultures.
In the late 1960s , cultural imperialism was very apparent and the US dominated the main stream international media. The era where fast food and western dining was integrating itself rapidly into our asian diet. The macdonalism of many asian countries were soon obvious as many branches of macdonalds cafes started sprouting all over the south east asia penisular like weeds in a garden. The rapid rate of expansion of the M- cafe was alramingly fast and within a decade it completely assimilated into part of our asian culture despite the food being served is not even close in terms of taste to our asian delecacies. Why is this so?

Firstly, the US mass media industry has been a dominant figure in the global mass media industry and has been the biggest supplier of motion pictures and tv programmes. This too resulted in many asian countries depending on the US to meet programming needs. Unavoildably, many ideologies and believes get sent to such asian countries indirectly westernizing them too. Take for example of the picture above, isnt that the M-sign but with a foreinge language next to it? Macdonalds have been so integrated into most asian countries that we accept and embrace western culture as our own. Futher more with imported communication hardware from the west, electronic colonalism is bound to occur as such foreign technologies comes with its own set of foreign norms, values and expectations.

All in all, in this globalised world, many asian countries tend to lose their national and cultural autonomy and prefer to embrace the west. Whatever the case maybe, embracing other peoples culture is good but we have to ensure not to lose ours even for a delicious succulent cheese burger!

Media - the greatest influence on our minds or is it?

The media again. The media surrounds our everyday lives and we are so used to its presence that we often are oblivious to how influential the media can be. It can alter perceptions and sometimes make us do, say or even believe in things that we never need or heard off.
Whatever it is, the media basically works on three fundamental principles that have been applied in different context of time frames over history. In the early 1930s, the media had total control and that is where the powerful effects theory was applied as the media had total control over the ideologies, believes and perceptions over the general population. This was probably so as the communication was one way where only the receiver gets what the sender sends. Being that most households could only afford a radio or at most a television, the media was mainly through such sources and usually dictated from higher authorities.
However as time progress and the creation of the internet brought about a revolution where information can be easily retrieved through multiple channels and no more through just a few restricted source, this led on to the limited effects theory and the moderate effects theory where the media has no longer total control on its passive audience. With new technologies, censorship and regulation of media becomes very difficult and the audience are now equipped with such tools to help them be more discerning on whatever media they receive.
However this might not be the case for certain countries that have such state of the art communication tools like the internet. Take Singapore as an example where the media model is described to be a teacher giving a lecture to its students. Its still very one way in that aspect so does this means media influence boils down to just an individuals own attitude and mindset? Whatever the case maybe, the media has now changed its focus from just informing but now to also cater for their targeted audience. Why some might ask? Well, money and profit of course! Money makes the world go round and so do media. So is the media now influenced by agendas that are just purely informational? Or is it influenced by political and economical agendas that we might not know of? You be the judge!!!

Culture is not innate but learnt!

Have you ever wondered what this world would be like if culture was absent? Everyone around us would think the same, act the same, dress the same and even eat the same. Culture differentiates all of us and it is culture that provides us with the uniqueness of what makes us human. In commuication, culture is an important aspect as it influnces and decides our perceptions when we interact with the world around us. Now lets talk about office culture in our post war modern metropolitant society. Office culture is like a culture within another culture where people interact with one another in a small confined space. Look at this comic strip. It dispicts the ever so present dishonesty when it comes to climbing the career ladder or simple just securing a place in a prominent company. As we all know culture is learned, shared and dynamic. Its is also multi faceted and such principles used here in the office reflects the kinds of mindsets that some people have with regard to their own culture. Within a context of a office, such behavoirs are usually catogorize as indiviualistic cultures where social behavoir is largely determined by personal goals, values and attitudes. Especially in our Singaporean context, 'kiasuism' seems to be our acquired culture and its not surprise that some cases or incidents of such frauds did take place in our very homeland. Whatever it is, whether good or bad, cultural identities overlaps and gives us humans a unique and distinct flavour when it comes to communicating with one another and the world around us.

The hidden truth about whats real and whats not

Has anyone heard about digital governance? Digital governance is a system whereby an entire country is run or managed by using technology such as the internet and other areas in which Information and Communications Technology (ICT) play an active and significant role. In a nut shell, digital governance is just running a country using different media channels, mostly via cyber space to disseminate and influence the general population. Roanoke country is one of the states in America that uses digital governance to run the entire country and has been successful in doing so. So how does this relate to communications one might ask? Have you ever wondered that governance of a nation requires a lot of communication, media influences and other forms of media channel to persuade and control the general population?

The cultivation theory proposed by George Gerberner in 1976 shows to us how media can cultivate and have a gradual influence on the general population. Examples like the usage of cyber space to propagate information and media channels like the television set at home can some what rather have a resonance effect on all of us. It can make us unaware of what actual reality is. Such distortions are happening everyday and if digital governance is applied, other popular sources such as the internet would then be still under the influence of the ruling authority. In most countries, media hegemony is practiced and the media presents the powerful elite who have influence on both economic and political power. As they monopolize media, they have the ability to drive society towards satisfying their own political and economic agendas. With such powerful driving force behind the general population, there will gradually be a spiral of silence which causes most people to refrain from expressing what they truly believe. This silence is further strengthen by the media as they only support certain views that are deem ‘right’.
All in all, it is important to be aware that each of us is unique and have the right to be different from others. Being aware of what reality is and how to be discerning in what the media or higher authority tells you to believe. Do not take everything as truth and always be on your toes.

The Tv and its unknown supernatural prowess!!!

The art of communication!!! A fitting cartoon drawing which ironically has the same title as my blog's address.
Can the media destroy our perception on things and shape how we interpret and understand information? From this cartoon, it seems that the media, particularly the tele or as we all know the idiot box, seems to be the main channel of information source,debate topic and communication similarity as depicted in this cartoon. Has the tv destroyed our own personal perceptions, thoughts and opinions? Well to tell you the scary truth, the tv does have a very strong influences on our cognitive schematas even if you counciously or unconciously aware of it.
In all of us, our minds are complex creations that consist of many storage areas that keep our cognitive schematas. Such cognitive schematas include personal constructs, prototypes, scripts and puntuation. Such areas of cognitive store houses are the key fundamental pillars in how we respond to a stimulus from the outside enviroment. Take the above abstract for example, the tv which is a form of linear model in communication, sends the stimulus in the form of information to us and inturn affect us sublimally. As watching the tele occurs across all ages, we are in one way or the other affected by such channels of media.
However, do not fear or be alarmed as now we are aware of the mind controlling effects of the media, we can gaurd ourselves against such froms of bombardment that we experience day and night. The 4 idols of the cave and having multiple channels of communication would enable us to prevent such brainwashing from taking place. Further more, we have to be aware of the origin of source and seek multiple veiwpoints before jumping into any self-bias perceived conclusions.
All in all be aware of the fundemental attribution error innate in all of us and please do watch more tv as even though it maybe evil, it is still entertaining and well worth to talk about! Be the tv's freind but do not let it enslave your thoughts, perceptions and principles.

Unknowningly readible! scary but true.

Welcome to the world of non verbal communication! Look at this picture and what is the first thing that comes into your mind? Are you judging his facial expression? His hand gestures? Or you just dislike him from the way he looks? All thoughts like these all fall under your cognitive appraisal of a person which determines your perception of an individual. Such thoughts about someone might be greatly influenced by self serving biasness and most of the time we are wrong about someone because of the fundamental attribution error that is innate in all of us. For those who dislike him or just cant stand his guts, this individual here is Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who is about to annouce his resignation as prime minister. The press chose this picture for dileberate reason so as to invoke readers like us emotions and associations when we see such hand gestures and facial expressions. From the way i see it, the press probably wanted to show or potray the helplessness and frustration of his resignation. A sign of throwing in the towel i guess after being accused of battle graft allegations. The usage of such provoking pictures with strong physical gestures is reciever orientated communication where the receiver will attach meaning to non verbal cues like body language. From a single pciture like this, once can observe that there are actually many channels of communication involved like for example body movements, facial expression etc. Whatever media that is involved, even in our daily lives, we use multiple channels of communication knowingly or unknowingly.
Within the context of interpersonal communication, we use both verbal and non verbal cues to engage, deliver and develop relationships with others.
So just a careful warning to all, sometimes your body language and facial expression betrays the words that come out from your mouth to another individual hence think before you talk and bring along a portable mirror just to keep those twtiching eye browns in check! :P

News! Open your eyes and you will see things more clearly

This article is about Russian airliner that crashed near a city in the Urals, killing all 88 people on board, caught fire and exploded in mid-air. Although this is a typical news report of a plane crash, there are many communication tools being employed in just this one article. Reading the article, one can see the different types of cognitive schemata being used here to portray the information intended. Such use of cognitive schemata include scripts where there is an organization of events, or pieces of information arranged in specific sequences. For example the article starts of by stating the amount of casualties, time and place of the event. This is followed by witness accounts and description of what happened during the flight. Other organizational principles used here include figure ground where a picture of the burning inferno is shown at the backdrop of dark shadows of buildings. Such contrasting images of the inferno of the plane wreckage and the dark shadows of the buildings forces readers to focus their attention to the inferno more clearly. Although sometimes local news or even foreign news may just be a day to day event, do open your eyes and notice the subtle use of such communication devices to alter and restrict our perceptions on a particular issue or event. As the human mind is complex and we store different schemata and have different stero and prototypes, each individual perceives the same piece of information given differently. All in all for such public display of information, communication devices such as cognitive and schemata and organization principles help the majority focus with the same intended objective.

LOTUS 12 , a new perspective

Just a couple of weeks ago my friend and I watched a movie called lotus 12 at vivo city. The movie is by Roystan tan and what struck me most about this movie is the different perspective that the director used to portray the tragic story of love, Chinese opera and betrayal.

In most movies, the director usually uses a script which dictates the character movements and speech. Similar to the scripts in communication where it is a framework of interaction for an event and how they are suppose to occur in chronological order. Such system of delivery is seen very common in most movies however for this show, delivery of messages were through songs and plays. The songs played during this movie reflected very much on hokkien culture and the nature of the expressive language. In terms of communication, this is a very apparent example of the modern period where Francis bacon proposed the 4 idols where one idol being idol of the theatre states that it is culturally driven. In this movie it shows the culturally driven biasness in certain songs where the portrayal of being poor is the most miserable thing in the world. As in Chinese culture, rich is prosperity hence such cultural biasness can be clearly seen expressed in hokkien songs such as ‘一百万 which directly translated as one million dollars. This song expresses the hope of an individual obtaining one million dollars where achieving that would solve all life problems.

Other tools of communication used in this movie were songs where this is known as the ‘Lexis’ of communication. In other words, how the message was delivered to the audience. The ‘Lexis’ used here was by songs and with songs, music which is a form of phonemes help further enhance the delivery of the intended message.All in all, directors use different communication tools on developing, enhancing and ultimately potray a certain theme or message to the targeted audience. However for Roystan tan, he explores the world of flim differently and potrays certian life lessons through the use of songs, dramatic opera style acting and the embrace of local singapore hokkien culture!