The Medium is the Message

This is the enormous poster up on the left wing of Paragon….

This is the smaller poster below the larger one at Paragon…
Unfortunately, there are a lot of trees blocking the way from across the street… 

This week one of the many things we touched on under Mass Communication was Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium is the Message’. I began to search online to better understand this phrase and took the challenge in finding something that would represent it.

The phrase coined by Marshell McLuhan means that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan proposes that media itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. - Wikipedia

So I was in the bus passing Paragon on Friday afternoon and noticed this gigantic poster on the right of the Paragon building. I could see the words ‘GUCCI’ printed on the left hand corner of the poster and then tried to see if I could recognize the model on it. As it turns out, I could and it’s none other than Claire Deans who happens to be replacing Drew Barrymore as the spokesmodel for GUCCI’s fine jewelry line. 

I believe that this advertisement’s medium is more important than it’s message. Because honestly, what message can this poster be saying as compared to what the medium is saying? 

The message I get from this poster is that Claire Danes is the last endorsement of GUCCI and she is wearing the latest in GUCCI fine jewelry but that is it.

The medium is the shopping mall, Paragon & the poster. Having this enormous poster up on Paragon tells consumers that GUCCI has an outlet in the building and obviously that it is a high-fashion brand due to the size of the poster. It says, ‘This brand has enough money and is big enough to advertise on something so large‘. Everyone knows that a poster as big as this costs lots of money. But that is not all, everyone knows that Paragon is one of 3 shopping malls (ION & NGEE ANN CITY) that carries premium luxury brands. The message it sends, ‘GUCCI is still premium enough to be selling it’s goods in such a shopping mall’. If this poster was placed at Far East Plaza, it’s value is not as highly regarded as if it was placed at Paragon. Why? Consumers have the perception that Paragon is more high-end and Far East Plaza is meant for the average teenager and people who want a good deal in Orchard Road. 

Luxury brands such as PRADA, GUCCI & CHANEL have to keep their advertisement as prominent as their brand. They can’t afford their brand to drop in status. Take for example, GUESS, over the years, they have dropped from expensive to affordable and in terms of status, it has lost it’s ground. People do not see GUESS as a brand worth ‘showing off’. They are no more, ‘the brand to have’. Thus, brands like GUCCI have to use mediums such as large posters and shopping malls like, Paragon to advertise their brand.

I believe in this advertisement, the medium is more important than the message because the medium is the message.

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It’s inevitable… Ris Low

I’ve been trying to stay away from this topic because that would mean I have actually read and watch videos on it…. but I guess my sister’s (Melissa) right…
It’s inevitable…
talking about Ris Low is bound to come up sooner or later…. 

 

So culture… Singapore is a High Context Culture whereby ’saving face’ is very important and explicit communication style is seen as rude, coarse and insensitive. Although I think in truth, as the generations go by, explicit communication is becoming more and more common but that is for another time, another entry. 

Ms Low’s atrocious command of english in her ‘BOOMZ’ video was what got her all the attention on the island. The only thing that crossed me mind was, ‘What were the judges thinking….’. In a straitstimes article, the organiser said (quote) ‘During the Grand Finals competition held at the Shangri La hotel on the July 31, she spoke perfectly good English, had a good answer (short, sharp and sweet) and performed very well to impress the 11 judges that she was good enough to win.’  (http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_435832.html)

Hmmm…. yes…. keyword… SHORT. I found an interview on youtube with Ms Low (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO_3wokogSs) and found out just how slow she can speak. As you can see, she does keep her answers short and sweet. Also STOMP, someone has posted Ms Low’s facebook page with it saying ‘”‘YA I SUCK IN ENGLISH AND I GOT A1 FOR MY ENGLISH O LEVEL AND A1 FOR MY COMMUNICATIONS. YES, I SUCK IN MY LANGUAGES. =)’” (http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/caught_in_the_act/259912/ris_low_claimed_she_scored_a1.html)

Everyone has been giving this girl a hard time about her english and say that her representing Singapore would be embarrassing and thus ‘no face’ but the question I pose is, How many of us speak good english? The fact of the matter is, most of us don’t speak proper english either, so who are we to criticize? And I speak from personal experience when I say, what we get for our O Level English does not mean anything. You can speak well but get B or less on your O Level english or get an A and speak like Ms Low. Are we being too hard on Ms Low? Some of us can turn on and off our singlish if we need to and speak perfectly good english and apparently so can she when she needs to (Ms Singapore competition). 

Aside from Ms Low’s terrible command of english, her credit card fraud conviction is another topic. ‘How can we allow someone with a record represent Singapore?’ is the question on everyone’s mind. In hopes to distance herself from her wrong doings, Ms Low went to officially get diagnosed after heeding a suggestion by her lawyer. So now she’s blaming it on bipolar. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ris_Low). I guess the issue about her retaking her exams for the diploma course in hospitality and tourism in MDIS also has something to do with bipolar. (http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_438756.html)
The thing that makes me confused it when it comes to the conviction of Ms Low and her stepping down due to it, is that the government talks about giving people a second chance. The whole yellow ribbon project. We see posters, ads and even marathons to support the yellow ribbon project but the truth is, many us don’t bother about the posters or ads. How does society change their views of convicts and begin taking the first step of being more open when such a large organization like the ‘Ms Singapore’ competition does not show an example.

The media has a strong influence on us and if something as big as the Ms Singapore competition does not show us an example of forgiveness, then the stigma stuck on convicts will never change. 

Our culture does not look kindly upon those who potentially make us lose face. Are we being too arrogant and unforgiving to a girl who sadly, like many of us, do not speak proper english and is trying to be a beauty queen even with a conviction? Could the organization have turned this into a positive thing and not a circus act?

Individual VS Group

 

This week we’re talking about Individual VS Group.
And yes, you might be wondering with the poster of ‘Sorority Row’ is doing up…. well, they are going to be what I am using to talk about the topic this week.

‘Sorority Row’ is you typical slasher flick, where a group of sorority girls or ‘sisters’ play a prank that goes horribly wrong and lands one of their own, Megan (Audrina Patridge from The Hills), dead. 8 months later on graduation, someone begins to kill the reminding 5 girls. Of course, some extras get killed as collateral damage and you spend the whole movie guessing who the killer is. Seen ‘I know what you did last summer’?

This movie also stars, 
- Briana Evigan (Step Up 2) – Cassidy (the sensible and pretty much the main star of the show)
- Rumor Willis (House Bunny) – Ellie (the nerd, innocent & comes out being the heroine)
- Jamie Chung (Dragon Ball) – Claire (erm… not too sure what she’s suppose to be)
- Margo Harshman (Fired Up) – Chugs (the promiscuous one)
and – Leah Pipes – Jessica (Queen B)

So the girls come from a Sorority called Theta Pi and their motto is “Trust, respect, honor, solidarity and secrecy”. Everything the girls do, they do as a group and their actions not only affect themselves but it affect the girls of the sorority house. Everything becomes group orientated, as it always happens when you join a group, especially one that is supposedly so close knit.

From the beginning of the movie, the audience is shown that the girls are close, they get along well and they seem to have a good bond (sisters for life etc…) but this quickly changes when one their own gets accidentally killed. The girls are then divided, having Cassidy and Ellie wanting to go to the police while the other 3 wanting to save their reputation and future by hiding the body.

Jessica applies pressure onto the other girls  when she starts playing with the minds of the rest by convincing them that hiding the body and telling no one about it is what’s best for all of them. Their futures will be intact and their families will not have to be hurt by this tragic incident. Suddenly, ‘Sisters for life’ becomes, ‘Every man for himself’ and this continues to show in the character of Jessica when every thing else she does is for her own benefit. 

During the show we also see the group socialisation process (Moreland & Levine) in different characters, Prospective Member in the character Maggie (Megan’s younger sister), Full member in the other girls and Ex-member in Cassidy, although she did not leave the sorority officially (because it would look bad and they are more group orientated), she did distant herself from the house. We also get to see the push and pull of the characters choosing between being an individualist or group.

Although the other girls still show signs that they do think about others and not only about themselves, it makes me wonder, if we humans are more individualists or group orientated? Think about it, as a group, we would dare go up to others and start a fight, as individuals we would almost always be the first to run away from danger. As much as I would love to think that in times of dyer need, some hero would come in and save us, for some reason I feel that that would happen on the large chilling rooms of the theatre.

Just for thought – Hypothetically speaking if you and a group f your friends accidentally killed one of your own, what would you do?

 

 

 

 

 

Interpersonal Relationships… The Lack Off

This week I caught ‘Surrogates’, some of you may have caught it and some not. This show is similar to ‘Gamer’, such that people are able to take control of another living being or being that looks like a human.

“In 2017, humans live in near-total isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, thanks to remotely-controlled robotic bodies that serve as “surrogates,” designed as better-looking versions of their human operators. Because people are safe all the time, and damage done to a surrogate is not felt by its owner, it is a peaceful world free from fear, pain, and crime.”

I feel that if this was to really happen to us, it takes away all the interpersonal relations that humans ought to have. We skip all the steps, the intimacy and personal connections that a relationship would usually have. Imagine never feeling the touch of another human being, never smelling their scent or ever being able to hug or kiss the one you love. If we never got to feel the sunrays hitting our faces or look at the moonlight under the clear night sky and never being able to feel the sand between our toes.

We would stay at home, never bothering to leave the safety of the four walls. We get to be someone we are not, meaning we look different, we don’t even have to be our own gender. We could lie about almost anything and everything about ourselves and relationships would lose every aspect of its meaning. Interpersonal relationships are precious and if such technology takes it away from us then we are also losing apart of ourselves.

Meeting someone would not be the same because how would we know if they are who they claim to be? If you are able to portray anyone you desire then you do not have to be who you are. People would never be able to trust and find their life-long partner like they can now. Already at present day, some of us are being lied to about who some people are. People are lying about what they do for a living or where they come from. Imagine if we were given the power and ability to take on any persona, any life? It would make it double hard for relationships to form, for them to built any ounce of trust.

How are we suppose to live the life we are meant to live if we live a lie?

One a passing thought, why is that the hot blonds in both ‘Gamer’ and ‘Surrogates’ were controlled by obese men?

the eyes are the windows to the soul

Right, so this week we touched on Non Verbal Communication….
so what better way to reflect that then silent videos. 
I am an absolute television freak so I’ve been noticing that The Hallmark Channel airs short clips between shows.
Some are silent clips and some have dialogue but all of them are under 3 mins.
I have taken note of a few of them and decided to post up ‘Lullaby’, it’s actually one of the more recent and favorite ones of mine.It is one of Tropfest finalist 2003 and directed by Pat Stevens.

Here’s what the video is about but of course watching it is a lot better.

“Lullaby begins one morning when an elderly man in his 80s waking up next to his wife. He turns to look at her and gently strokes her face but can see that she has passed away some time in the night.

He gets up from bed and goes about his daily morning routines. Brushing up, making breakfast and taking in the newspaper. All this while he looks normal and as if everything was normal but he finally goes back into the bedroom and puts on his best suit and takes out his wife’s dress and lays it down on her and he does so he lifts it up to his nose and takes in a deep breathe. At that moment, the realization of losing his wife dawns upon him and he breaks down. He then lays next to her and closes his eyes.”

 

*edited (thanks ash!)

If any of you have the hallmark channel and have the chance to watch those silent clips between shows, some of them are not bad. 

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 ’SIGNS’ 

‘SIGNS’ is a simple short film about communication. 
Created by Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia
Director: Patrick Hughes
It is also one of the 2009 Cannes Lions winners.

Well…. the video is speaks for itself….
I just love this short film…
it’s a total romantic… 

Body language, facial expressions, it’s all there…. who needs vocal cords….

-The eyes are the windows to the soul-

Commentary: My life as a ‘Mighty Hermaphrodite’

Let me take a cue from my fellow COM101 group mate, Sery. Last week on her blog she spoke about Caster Semenya, an 18 year old athlete from South Africa who is an intersex person – (formerly known as hermaphrodites).

Yesterday on CNN.com, there was Hida Viloria and she like, Caster Semenya, is an intersex person as well as an activist for intersex people.

Viloria grew up being raised and labelled a female. She grew up in a strict Catholic home, where no one spoke about nudity or sex and so she grew up perceiving that she was just like everyone else. Her parents never sent her to have any sort of ‘corrective’ surgeries and/or hormone treatments as an infants because her father knew that unless absolutely necessary, that such an operation shouldn’t be done on an infant.

“I’d already learned that people can be prejudiced against things they’re unfamiliar with, or are taught to dislike, and that we shouldn’t take on their bigotry.”

 ’On April 19, 2002, I appeared on the television news program “20/20″ with a prominent urologist and “expert” on intersex conditions. When asked why he supported “corrective surgeries” he answered, “Society can’t accept people of different colors, and now we’re supposed to accept somebody with genitalia that don’t match what their gender is? I do not believe this society is ready for it.”

Intersex folks are not some new invention that people need to be “ready for:” we exist and always have. Resistance to accepting us has created the mess that Semenya now finds herself in. If medicine had been more upfront about intersex conditions rather than pretending they’re just male and female as usual, they could have avoided ruining the career of some athletes.

Whichever condition Caster Semenya has, she shouldn’t be made to suffer for others’ mistakes. Since infancy, she’s been legally labeled, raised, and accepted as female. To be told that she can’t compete as one now would be like being a U.S. citizen all your life, but being suddenly denied a passport because somebody decided that the city you were born in is actually, sorry, on the wrong side of the border.’

Speaking only for myself, I feel that what Viloria says about ‘Intersex folks are not some new invention that people need to be “ready for” ‘ and that they have existed all along, is very true. We just have not been aware of them and this is not something people go around publicizing about themselves in public. How does humanity prepare ourselves for something such as this? 

Our perception of the norm is so strongly influenced by the mass media and society that anyone who doesn’t fit our idea of the norm, gets a stare or a raised eyebrow. But who decides who or what is the norm? What if, it turns out that the number of  intersex people is more then the rest of us? 

I am sad to hear that the prominent urologist and “expert” on intersex conditions still believes that ”Society can’t accept people of different colors.” Yes, maybe there are still parts of the world that cannot accept people of different color but it makes me think of all the hard work & sacrifice that Martin Luther King, Jr & Rose Parks made to gain equality for colored people in the mid 60s. I would like to think or believe that the majority of society has accepted people of different colors and it is only the minority that is stuck in the 60s.

Are our mental framework so rigid that there can never be total equality? 

Will we as human beings finally be able to accept people for who they are and not what they are?

I guess I have more questions then anything else, eh?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/18/hida.viloria.intersex.athlete/index.html

 

 

 

The new Apple Nano

Every year in the 2nd week of September, like clock work, APPLE releases a new or improved product.

This year, was no exception.

Thursday, 10th September 2009
Apple released the latest generation of the iPod Nano, that includes a video camera.

The Washington Post did an article, ‘Head-to-Head: iPod Nano Video vs. Pocket Camcorders’  & made a little comparison between the iPod Nano Video & the Pocket Camcorders.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091003937.html

and the results?
“The Nano shoots better video than most cell phones do–as long as you’re in a well-lit setting–but it can’t quite compete with a pocket camcorder such as Pure Digital’s Flip Mino.”

Apple has always been able to attract the ‘IT geeks’, teenagers, businessmen, almost everyone with their new products or improvements to their products. And that is because as quoted from the Washington Post, ‘Apple products are all about fun, convenience, and simplicity, and the addition of a video camera on a device of this size will be a draw for many people.’

They know what attracts people and a little change in their products every now and then, gets us guessing in anticipation ‘what is Apple going to do next?’. Plus, coming up with something new every year gets us buying a new Ipod or Apple item almost yearly.

So I ask again, what do you think Apple will come up with next year?

Greetings…

Greetings…

Welcome to my COM101 blog.

Where I am suppose to evaluate, critique and/or personal response to any issues raised in recent or current media texts in relation to any of the communication concepts learnt each week in class.

I can do all that by sourcing news bulletins, magazine articles, advertising campaigns, music releases, feature films or movies and television program but they can only be at the most, a month old.

One entry a week for 7 weeks, each entry not exceeding 550 words and it takes up 20% of my grade.

It’s almost the end of week 2 so here I go!

Wish me luck.

Alicia