Topic 7 :: Media Imperialism

For this week's topic, we shall be looking in on Media Imperialism:

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?

To start off, the definition of Media Imperialism:

Media Imperialism is a theory stating that smaller countries are losing their identity due to the force-feeding of from larger nations. It can be equated to small community shops closing down due to large superstores moving in, taking over and having a monopoly. As the larger corporations begin to take over, smaller companies are either being forced out or swallowed up.

taken from here

In regards to the documentary,

First critical reflection would be how the US government tried to push the world into thinking how the extreme islamist movement was a threat to them and even tried their best to manipulate the audience into thinking it's a wrong thing therefore it's considered as a Media Imperialism into making us all think of the wrong thing instead of the contrasting truth.

Second critical reflection is how audiences perceives the information and yet takes the step to believe what is on the media due to it being widely subjected towards a big target audience therefore, they are brainwashed by the false information that was given. You could say that without people who are working on trying to dig out the truth, audience will forever be stuck under the influence of Media Imperialism and everything false that goes with it.



Reflection on the class:
Class was okay,
Only one thing.
I could see that everyone was shivering terribly from the cold.
I think it's because of the lack of students in the class due to submission the next day.
But i'd appreciate it if you could lower down the aircond level. Very very much will appreciate it because i'm bad in cold places. Seriously.









Couldn't concentrate because of the cold.

Topic 6 :: Tetrad of Media

As for this week's topic:

Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media" (see diagram below), 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.



According to the Week 9 lecture and the notes included,

• "What does it (the medium or technology) extend?"

• "What does it make obsolete?"

• "What is retrieved?"

• "What does the technology reverse into if it is over extended?"

From there, it is understood that the medium holds many possibilities of uses to us and not to forget it's effects on us. Using McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media", we can identify the media effects of a certain medium.

In this case, i'll pick blogging.

Critical reflection 1:

"What does it (the medium or technology) extend?"
In the case of a car it would be the foot, in the case of blogging it would be the mouth trying to share stories among others.

"What does it make obsolete?"
The car makes walking obsolete while blogging makes writing in books or discussing/talking among friends and family face to face as something no longer needed or not frequently done.

"What is retrieved?"
In this case, what is retrieved is that blogging allows individuals to connect with one another without any hassle of meeting up for lunch or spending hours and hours updating each other on what has happened in said person's life and such.

"What does the technology reverse into if it is over extended?"
If blogging is over extended, people might not have a social life outside of the computer/internet range and the things written in their blogs might as well be truth or just made up to portray someone they'd want to be depending on the situation.

Critical Reflection 2:

Through McLuhan's "Tetrad of Media", we can clearly see how blogging affects us in 4 laws. First being that it replaces a way that we have come to use before the existence of the media itself where it replaces our ability to speak to people about what has happened as blogs allow more space for us to express..

Second, being that after using the said medium, it clearly shows how we are no longer used to doing something in a certain way and are more prone to do it in ways that are more connected to the growth of technology as blogging erases the need for us to write letters to people to tell about what has been happening, the need to write diaries to remind us of what has happened, as a form of identity for us to show to the society connected to us virtually.

Third, what is retrieved gives us more than what we retrieved from the old way of doing things therefore leads us to produce more productivity for a better lifestyle where in this case, blogging allows us to retrieve information of friends and acquaintances and even act as a form of information-sharing department among society.

While fourth leads us to the pros and cons of the medium whereby blogging might lead to an individual to being someone indoors rather than engaging in real-time conversations and meet-ups with various individuals in the society to share information about their lives. In this case, it might make us rely too much on blogging to spark excitement in life which leads to more spending time in front of the computer and maybe even more ridiculous blogging of something that didn't exactly happen at all. In contrast, blogging also helps us to connect with one another easily with just a click of a button and maybe even connect with people we haven't met for years. Or maybe you can just use blogging as a medium to stalk people on the net, which is, something most people would rather do and never admit.



Personal Reflection:

Sometimes, i find class to be very noisy.
And i dislike how the chairs are all.... erm. All over the place.
But in another case,
Class is fine, i have no issues about it.
I guess that's all.








Oh essay, how i need to finish you.

Topic 5 :: Obscenity, pornography and indecency

Hello again, for another blog entry in this Media Culture blog of mine.
My stomach is like a tumble dryer now for some reason and its full with things going round and round including subway biscuits.

Anyways:

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

ob·scen·i·ty

n. pl. ob·scen·i·ties

1. The state or quality of being obscene.

2. Indecency, lewdness, or offensiveness in behavior, expression, or appearance.

3. Something, such as a word, act, or expression, that is indecent or lewd.

4. Something that is offensive or repulsive to the senses

por·nog·ra·phy

1. Sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal.

2. The presentation or production of this material.

3. Lurid or sensational material

in·de·cen·cy

n. pl. in·de·cen·cies

1. The state or quality of being unseemly or immodest.

2. Something indecent(Offensive to public moral values; immodest).

In which, all definitions taken from here.

In regards to this, i shall try to explain the differences between these two terms in my own basic understanding.
First of all, let's start off in stages so i'll begin with indecency which derived from the word 'indecent'. Indecent is, something that is offensive to public moral values. Like, for example, someone who is wearing a short mini skirt going to a formal event, that is called indecent. Stuffing 10 types of cake in your mouth while everyone is eating only one is indecent. Kissing someone in public is an indecent act so from that, you can say that 'indecency' is something that is not usually subjected to the proper rules of us humans, something that you don't do in public.
Easier said, Improper or wicked or immoral behaviour.

Which leads to the second one, Obscenity on the other hand is when something indecent is done improperly which acts as something disgusting or just over the boundaries of indecency. Something that is disturbing in such a way like for example, watching a movie that deals with the dissection of human body, disturbing enough to make certain individuals cringe.
Or maybe something that relates to acts that are not to be seen public or just disturbing to an individual's senses.
Basically, obscenity is something that disturbs you. That deals with your senses and maybe even make you puke in a way. Depends on how you interpret it.

While Pornography on the other hand deals with both obscenity and indecency but more of towards the sexual part of it. Pictures that deals with nudity and even obscene/indecent images connecting to sexual ideas used to arouse individuals to provoke them into the world of sexually explicit content. For example, magazines that deals with naked women in it, movies that portray sexual activities or images, Visuals that depict any part of the human mind and body done in a sexual aspect.
Or maybe cow on cow action.

Somehow, in a way, all three of them connects together to form one big idea which pornography.
But at the same time, the three of them maintain a different sort of idea depending on the situation and how you view it altogether.

As for class this week;
There was no proper class, except for Mr.Radzi coming in and telling us we have this assignment on 800 word essay of some sort.
So i guess there's not much to say, ya?








Refrain yourself from watching obscene things.