A rising star?

As we all know, Mediacorp Raintree Pictures is a Singapore-based company. This company has achieve tremendous fame and credit in movies such as The Leap Years and Homerun. In their official website, Mediacorp Raintree Pictures mentioned that they are "interested in producing mainstream movies, movies that audiences regardless of language or culture can relate to." This tells a lot about their intention of horizontal expansion.



Being a small company as compared to 20th Century Fox, its appetite for production is huge. Any producers, directors or writers can approach the company and work out a way to embark on new projects. Furthermore,the company constantly collaborate with media companies from other countries to produce movies. Being stationed in Singapore, it is ideal as Singapore is a hub where the East and West merge. Although there might be cultural imperialism at play by the US on Singapore culture, movies such as 881 had helped to retain the "Singapore flavour" in our movies. Apparently, we might be exposed to other cultures but we must not forget our roots, our culture.

With such a local company existing to bring out new talents and encourage Singaporeans to be creative, I believe that future movies by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures will be a mixture of cultures, whereby many would see familiarity with today's society.

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Advertisements are done with the intention to boost the sales of a certain product/brand. But are their creativity crossing the fine line of ethics?



Banned X-BOX360 advertisement


Let us imagine if this advertisement is being shown in Singapore. Do you think this advertisement should be banned? Let us apply some of the media theories that we learned in Unit4.

Cultivation theory is definitely in use here. Teenagers will be the first ones to be affected if it is shown on television frequently. Being young and easily influenced by media, teenagers will create a false reality on how reality is like a game. Gamers themselves will be even more enticed by gaming and social influence might play a part in the long run. Media determinism will also be valid since television has impacted us one way or another, merely through the information that it provides.

Agenda setting theory and media hegemony will be in place too. Why? Governments are likely to ban this commercial because it depicts violence and gaming. Imitation of such acts of violence in real life can be one of the key reasons, which might result in an increased number of crimes. Furthermore, being a country whereby education is the top priority in order to survive here, I am sure the government will not risk having students being obsessed with gaming. That is probably the reason why we do not see much gaming consoles' commercials on television in Singapore.

Theories aside, you can appreciate how innovative this commercial is. Despite all its negative aspects, I believe this commercial can be an effective tool in increasing the sales of X-BOX360 consoles. What do you think?

Singapore culture

What exactly is the Singapore culture? Many would say that we have a collectivist culture, intertwined with the mixture of Western and Eastern culture. As the majority of the population in Singapore are Chinese, we tend to be more traditional. However, the influx of Western influence is changing Singapore gradually into a Neo-Western society.


Evidence of Westernization in Singapore

Look all around you. McDonald's, Adidas, Starbucks, etc. All these shops are evidence of Westernization in Singapore. Those former generations' traditions are diminishing and the Singaporeans are adopting a more Westernized lifestyle. Inevitably, family values will change too. Teenagers are not as close to their family as previous generations used to be. The over-reliance of technology have distanced everyone. Life has become easier yet complex. We live with ease, but have the problem of communicating to a large social network. Furthermore, Singaporeans are becoming more selfish and are always in a rush. In other words, we are becoming more individualistic.

So, are we advancing for the better? Is it about competition between or cohesion of interpersonal bonds and ease of life?

Anime

Anime is an alternative form of media that many turn to when they want to fulfill or visualize their fantasy. It is increasingly popular due to the fact that it depicts scenes or technologies that cannot be seen or experienced in real life.

I watched an anime called Gundam 00 a few months back and man, i was equally enticed like any other Gundam series like Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny. The series is set in a futuristic Earth and centered around Celestial Being, a private paramilitary force and their efforts to rid the world of war and conflict with a series of unique and highly effective mobile suits known as "Gundams". It is these "Gundams", which is the main focus of this anime, that attracted many teenagers to follow this series. The anime is action-packed, with a variety of emotional scenes inserted in between to develop the plot based on friendship, love and hatred.



In animes like this, our perception are constantly being changed. For example, a shabbily dressed person might be a terrorist or people have different capabilities regardless of age. We can also see that using non-verbal cues, emotions are being shown and it is complemented with different genres of music. This creates a holistic experience of how the character is feeling.

Interpersonal relationships are also shown in animes. How lovers come together, how friendships are being fostered and how these relationships are being maintained. Usually, all these animes have happy endings. This makes the audience feel satisfied and in turn appreciate the anime. But why is it necessary? That's because some animes have hidden messages for the audience to interpret and accept it. For example, i believe that in Gundam series, it shows the various tragedies that derived from war. In other words, war causes suffering and we should not promote it.

So, the next time you watch an anime, watch out for the cues that the characters show and attempt to retrieve the hidden meaning behind it. :)

Obama and McCain

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20080925/ts_usnews/mccainandobamascrambletoshowleadershiponeconomy

The two contenders in the presidential campaign have been faced with a challenge that seems rather tricky. This financial crisis has proven to force McCain and Obama "to show leadership, judgment, and political cunning even while they try to gain an advantage in the race for the White House."

The political system in most countries are similar in a sense that they have a council to help the leaders to make decisions that might affect the entire nation's survivability. It is essential that the council, or the advisers of the leader, do not engage in groupthink. I believe that in a group, it is necessary for every member to play a part in the decision-making. Every member helps by providing an alternative point of view, or just simply lend support and commitment in the decision made. Even President Bush needed to invite "Democrat Obama and Republican McCain to join him and congressional leaders at the White House Thursday to negotiate a compromise and "safeguard the financial security of America.""

This is an example of how important a group is to an individual. As the solution might be risky, the group can provide many perspectives on the case and work towards the best possible solution. Many decisions need to be made, many opinions need to be considered, many problems need to be solved. With a group, the support is there to help boost the decision made and ensure that it will be the best. It is required of them to displace any form of individuality and stay united to the decision-making process. A group discussion allows a leader to make decisions, know that he/she has support and is not overlooking any flaws in the decisions made.

Interpersonal attraction

I was roaming around in the Yahoo! site for the first time when i saw the "Personals" category. Without any hesitations, i clicked it and saw the front page of the "Personals" . Immediately, i told myself that it must be a dating site for men and women to look for potential soulmates. This triggered my thoughts about the "aftermath" of the first impression(perception) from my previous post and how important communication is, apart from the impressions.

As mentioned before, we perceive someone based on first impression to make certain judgement on the person. It all starts with the display picture and a brief description about yourself. When an individual visits a dating site of this sort, he/she would look for the potential soulmate based on the looks alone. Undeniably, he/she would go for the good-looking ones. Nevertheless, never judge a book by its cover, as many not so good-looking ones can be better in many ways. Apart from the appearance, people tend to look for similar traits or hobbies as a step to feel similar to the target person, and yet, they also look for unique traits so as to see the opposite as a person who is uniquely himself/herself. Once these qualities are fulfilled, many would start to engage in conversations with the target person in order to further understand that person.

These first impressions play a major role in forming a strong connection between two parties to embark in a long-term relationship. People in today's society are busy and stressed with their life. The search for the "other half" is secondary to their work. This creates lesser opportunities for many to socialise, which results in them being single until a later age. What is important here is that one needs to priortise what they need at their different phases of life. Work is important, so is marriage. To attain a balance in these two is like balancing oneself on a thin wooden pole. You need to have the ability and confidence to balance and the faith that the pole don't break.

All in all, communication is important and people should spare a thought on their future in terms of relationships. Surely no one wants to be single until the day that they die. That would be very lonely. So for all the singles out there, remember to create a good impression of yourself and keep a lookout for potential partners through socializing and for those who are attached, place faith in your partner and exercise healthy communication with your loved ones in order to keep the relationship going. Good luck people!

Perception

Perception plays an important role in how we judge people, especially the first impression. The way you look, the way you speak, the way you behave. It all tells a story about you, be it fictional or factual. That is why giving a good first impression is vital in securing a good relationship with a person, which leads to a positive communication process.

I am a person who judges people based on my observations of their behaviors. When I see a person for the first time, for example a classmate, i would observe his/her behavior throughout the lesson and make certain assumptions about his/her behavior. Nevertheless, i would continue to assess his/her behavior after the first encounter to verify my assumptions.

Undeniably, stereotypical characteristics are applied just from the way they dress. These stereotypes are personal constructs and can be shaped from many different sources, such as our own experience, the media that we consume, what others tell us, etc. The way that they dress greatly shapes how we perceive their character/personality.

Next would be the behaviors. Everyone, including me, applies "getting-to-know-you" script whenever we meet a person for the first time. Through a conversation like this, we subconsciously assess their actions, responses and behaviors. As mentioned above, even before we start to speak to them, we would make certain judgment on the person's personality based on how they dress. This affects the communication process as we might change our attitude while we continue to assess them. As we tend to attribute their behaviors to their personality, we should take into account of the situation, so as not to create perceptual errors.

Of course, when you judge that person with negative characteristics, you tend to pick up verbal or non-verbal cues that verifies your perception. This can take a toll when you are making new friends in a new environment. Therefore, it is important that we interact with an open-minded and try not to judge the person as a whole on the first meeting. And also, we should not attribute every negative behavior to their personality. Who knows, we might find similarities which acts as the basis for the start of a life-long relationship.