Reshaping culture with new technology (Critical reflection2)

2) Is there a possibility to reshape the (new) culture today via new technology, How?

In my opinion, there is a big possibility to reshape the (new) culture today via new technology. Culture can be changed according to the situation. Culture will change from times to times whenever there is new technology. The "TV culture has gone" by Bob Garfield is an example of how the creation of "new" media (Internet) change the perspective of human toward TV. How will this new technology change the current culture? It is as simple as because human just like new thing and keep themselves up to date with the latest trend. In addition, if the invention of 3D broadcast is success, the 2D broadcast will no longer be used. This is because people know it is better view by seeing the 3D broadcast compare to 2D. People will no longer use projector, LCD screen and other 2D screen devices because they think it is out dated. In conclusion, if a new technology is created with functions that fulfil our needs, it will gain its popularity very soon. When many people prefer to use the new technology, the older one will be abandon. And hence, a new culture formed. It happened otherwise if the technology offers poor function and does not gain attention of people.

Technology and the culture it influences (critical reflection1)

It’s typical for a new technology to be adapted within a culture and used to support existing patterns of behaviour. With your own relevant examples, answer these questions.

1) What kind of culture influences through technology can you see from today’s world?

In my opinion, I think one of best examples for culture influences through technology that I can see from today’s world is cell phone culture.

Cell phone is an amazing tool that do make our life better as it can be use to call for help, contact anyone around the world, keep track of time, keep it user entertained (Games, Music and Video) and can used as a flash light. The latest advance cell phones even have 3G and GPS function. 3G functions allow the caller to see the receiver face to face and GPS function provide the user way to nearest town or road. With just carry a cell phone, one can do many things very easily and will no longer feel afraid or lonely.

The cell phone culture is a global phenomenon and indeed had influenced our culture from all around the world in today. No matter you are children, teenager, adult or old folk, most of them already have their own cell phone.

Below is a documentary video talk about technology of cell phone revolution the world.

“This compelling documentary takes viewers on a journey through cell phone culture, showcasing its numerous functions around the world from Japan to India.”

To watch the whole video: Cell Phone, The Ring Heard around the World, go to http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/cellphones/video.html

As a conclusion, the cell phone had shaped our culture as we are now calling or messaging each other more often using a cell phone and these has resulted in less face to face interaction. Besides, the cheap rates of instant messaging have degraded the use of proper language in youths today. As you can see, the cell phone culture has changed our society into one that demands speed and efficiency in telecommunications.

Personal Reflection-Week 11

This week lecture is about Technology & how it is changing our media & culture. Once again it is delivered by Madam Helena. Today, I had learned about the advancement of technology has changed our culture in several ways. For example, most of us using social network to communicate with each other, download movies or TV-series from internet instead of watching TV and read online newspaper to get latest news from internet. Besides, Madam Helena also showed us several short videos to watch. One of the video talks about ACU University demonstrated the versatility of the I-Phone. However, this week is the week we will be given our final blog assignment. Overall, I felt happy and quite satisfy with what I had learned from Media Culture Class. For me, it is always nice to be given a chance to do writing on the blog. Goodbye, my MLC Blog!

Media Imperialism (Critical Reflection2)

In this post I will further explain what media imperialism is and how it affects the society. Basically, media imperialism is about smaller countries are losing their identity due to the force-feeding of media 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 media corporations begin to take over, smaller media companies are either being forced out or swallowed up.

When the media is under the controlled of larger nations, they can create many things on media to influence the public, they have the power to decide any type of awareness that is suit to be known by the public and what to be cover-up from the public. As a result, most of the truth had been buried behind and left all the great lies that are shown to the society. Someone may know the truth, but they cannot do anything about it or cannot even find a chance to speak up. This is because they do not have the power like the stronger and larger nations to change the fact. Even if they manage to speak up, and the public knew the truth, nothing will change too because the one who control the media is still the one who creates the lies.

Just like In advertising, all products are advertised as perfect regardless of its real ability, and any bad feedback will be covered up during the advertising. As long as the advertising company are able to pay to the media company, such phenomena continues. And that is the reason why we never see any advertisement saying a product is not good. Both of the company will able to get their own company profits and benefits if they cooperate with each other. In the end, the public is the one who become victim and been trick. However, there is an exception - cigarettes. Before the government banned the advertisements of cigarette, we can see them frequently everywhere. The media company cover up the consequences of smoking and make smoking into a cool act. However it had been ended since our government decides to stop all advertising of smoking in our country. That is why what we are seeing today on advertisements about smoking in our country is all about “cancer”, “death” and “illness”. Yet this is media imperialism as well; the government control the media to show the effects of smoking to the public, but at least it is a positive matter.

Hence I said that media imperialism is not always bad although usually it is. Media imperialism can be good too if the one who control the world media is willing to tell the truth. I believe it all depends greatly on the Media Company or whoever that has the power to control the media.

Media Imperialism (Critical Reflection1)

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?

The documentary is about how the power country (the rich and advance country like US) makes the world believe that terrorist is actively involving in crimes and state that vanish the "terrorist" is the correct way. However, the "terrorist" actually does not exist; in fact, it is just an assumption of the super power country. It is very obvious that the country has abused the power of media for their own purpose. Although there are small group of people who realise that this is not right, they cannot speak up their words as the media is dominated by the powerful country. This is similar to Media Imperialism.

From the documentary, I learn that media imperialism is very unfair to the weak as they are being force to obey and tolerance by the stronger rival; the stronger one can make whatever action and claim it as a correct act even it is wrong. Using the example from the documentary, the late President of America, Bush had announced that there was an active terrorist army, which involved in the 911 tragedy, located at somewhere around the Afghanistan. As we can see, through media imperialism, the Bush administration was able gain power and authority in the people. They control the media content by showing the people what the politicians consider as the truth. The truths were covered up while others were distorted or made up. Politicians created an illusion for themselves and a shadow enemy for America. For example in the Documentary, they told the world of the existence of a terrorist organization called Al Qaeda which is lead by Osama Bin Laden. The truth was actually there was no Al Qaeda. Bin Laden was merely a wealthy man who funded the operations of Islamist terrorist. They even added that this organization have operatives in more than 40 countries, while in reality, these terrorist are merely different groups of people fighting against regimes in their own countries. Besides, they also announced that terrorist intent to use dirty bombs to attack America. According to experts, actually such threats are of no concern because the radioactivity produced is not harmful to humans.

In my opinion, the US government practice media imperialism because as one of the world’s leading economic powerhouse, their actions are monitored by the world. Media imperialism is very unsafe and yet, not easy to block because the media has been controlled by developed countries and they are the only one who have the power to filter and choose what they want the public to think and know. In other words, only the strong country will have the ability to use “Media Imperialism” to control the whole world.

Personal Reflection-Week 10

This week, there were just a few of us (less than half of the class) who attended the class and many were absent due to the Design Fundamental upcoming submission. Basically, we only have a 15 minutes lecture by Madam Helena. It is about Media Imperialism. After the lecture, I understand that Media Imperialism is about a superior country control and influences others by dominating the media. Then, we were asked to watch an hour-long video: “The Power of Nightmares (Part 3-Shadow in the Cave)”. It is a very interesting video to watch and I do enjoy it very much. So, I hope during the next lecture, Madam Helena will provide or show us another interesting video too. For me personally, I like video more than long and boring slides.

Tetrad Of Media (Critical Reflection 2)

This is a website which provides examples of the laws of media applied on mobile phone.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innis-mcluhan/002033-2030-e.html,

Below is a the example used: Can you apply the laws of media to the cellular telephone?

1)What does the cell phone enhance?
· Interpersonal communication
· Accessibility
· Response time

2)What does it make obsolete?
· Phone booths
· Privacy and anonymity
· Isolation and the home

3)What does it retrieve?
· Tribal culture
· Acoustic space
· Cameras

3)What does it flip into when pushed to extremes?
· Letters



This is my personal explanation based on the above example:

The cell phone makes the communication between people become more convenient, easy, and faster. It is easily accessible because the cell phone can be placed anywhere in our pocket and hand bag as it is small. Besides, it enables us communicate with individuals which either in local or foreign country just within a short time and it also reduce the response time between two parties.
The cell phone makes the phone booths obsolete because we are able to contact a person where ever we are; regardless of the location of the sender and receiver .We no longer have to rely on the availability of a phone booth to contact someone. Besides, when we use a phone booth, there is no privacy because people can overhear or eavesdrop on our conversation. By using a cell phone, we can have our own privacy as we can make a call or answer the call in a suitable place. The receiver of a cell phone call or message would also be able to identify a person’s phone number (unless it’s a private number). The cell phone also removes isolation from the user because the user is always connected to the outside world; he or she can be contacted anytime.

The cell phone also retrieves tribal culture. For example, the notion of arranged marriages in certain culture is revived because pictures and cell phone numbers can be exchanged between prospective families. The camera built-in phones revive a generation of users who can capture and appreciate the beauty of pictures.

When pushed into the extremes, people longs for snail mail. Letters gives people a sense of excitement when sending or expecting a mail. Letters is also much more intimate because letters can be accompanied by items when using mail.

Tetrad of Media (Critical reflection1)

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

After I done my research based on this week notes and book entitled “Mobile as 7th Mass Media, I had chosen the mobile phone to explain its effects on society using the “Tetrad of Media” theory by McLuhan.

(The Mobile phone Of Yesterday-Today)

There are four laws in the tetrad of media, which is phrased into questions.

1)What does it (the medium or technology) extend?

The mobile phone is the extension of audio and visual. A person voice can travel further and faster through a mobile phone. The mobile phone is also a medium for music, games, pictures, messaging, and even internet.

2)What does it make obsolete?

"The phone makes smoke signals and carrier pigeons unnecessary” (from notes). The mobile phone makes the wristwatch and alarm clock obsolete. People no longer need them because a mobile phone has functions that can be use to tell us the exact time and to set an alarm. The mobile phone also makes the landline phone outdated due to the inconvenience. Mobile phone is too convenient as it can be carried and used in almost any place around the world.

3)What is retrieved?

Mobile phone retrieves a sense of community because different parties can get in touch easily with one another. The users can respond, initiate and maintain a conversation between family, friends and colleagues.

4)What does the technology reverse into if it is over extended?

The over-extension of mobile phone reverses people into the longing of isolation.

Personal Reflection- Week 9

This week our Media Culture class lecture was conducted by Mr.Radzi. At the end of the lecture, we learned about Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan. Mr.Radzi had explained to us clearly through the powerpoint slides and I found that it was easily to understand. Basically, the lecture touched on the medium is the message, Hot and Cool media and tetrad of media. By the way, once again, I do hope Mr. Radzi would try considering my opinion, which is reduce the amount of text in his slide, because I think the text was over much already until I actually start to feel sleepy. I think the text should be in points form instead of paragraphs; honestly, I think it would be easier to read and digest.

Obscenity, pornography and indecency (critical reflection2)

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

As we know, these three terms- obscenity, pornography and indecency are closely related to negative sexual behaviour from Media who has been widely spread toward the general public. A Material is known as obscene when it is detestable to the general public. It is highly offensive because it may be forbidden in some cultures, and can be considered as immoral or unethical in some societies. For example, photo of naked females or even males are considered as obscene in Asia due to the conservative nature of Asians. Most Asians agree that the act of showing one’s body in public as an act of someone that does not have self respect nor respect others. In other words, obscenity is about showing adult's content, such as naked and sex, without proper purpose. Furthermore, it usually carries extreme offensive sexual elements. If compare indecency with obscenity, obscenity is more serious and such broadcast is prohibited in media.

Pornography is different from obscenity because it is meant to arouse the feeling of sexual excitement whereas obscenity merely disgusts the audience. However, there are many people especially the teenagers who actually enjoy pornographic materials. Most of the pornographic material is not encourage in general public because when seeing too much such thing will eventually come to addiction towards sexual behaviour. Even though pornography is a legal broadcast of sexual material in some countries and some of the companies actually have license to broadcast it but it is highly restricted to children under 18. Besides, it served the desire of human and it is a form of business.

Indecent materials are seen as inappropriate materials which are usually a minor issue compared to obscene materials. Indecent materials are usually targeted as inappropriate to younger audience whereas obscene material is inappropriate to the community. For example, the video of a sex transplant operation is considered as indecent because it depicts the genitals. Those groups of trainee surgeons are encouraged to watch it but children are prohibited to watch it. However, no matter how, it does not reach the level of obscenity and it is protected by the First Amendment. So, the content is partially had been filtered before the broadcast and to avoid it from reaching the children.

Basically these are the major differences between obscenity, pornography and indecency. However, in my opinion, it is impossible for parents to stop their kids from being corrupted by sexual materials because the power of mass media nowadays is so vast and powerful. Besides, the content is too complex until one can just dig anything from the media especially the internet. Parents should give proper education about sex towards their children before their children go through the wrong site and being influenced by those obscenity, pornography and indecency materials.

Obscenity, pornography and indecency (critical reflection1)

Definition of Obscenity, Pornography and Indecency.
According to the Word Web Pro,

Obscene :
1. Designed to incite to indecency or lust
2. Offensive to the mind
3. Suggestive of or tending to moral looseness

Obscenity:
1. The trait of behaving in an obscene manner
2. An offensive or indecent word or phrase
3. An obscene act

Pornography:
1. Creative activity (writing or pictures or films etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire

Indecent:
1. Not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society
2. Offensive to good taste especially in sexual matters
3. Offending against sexual mores in conduct or appearance

Indecency:
1. The quality of being indecent
2. An indecent or improper act


In US, the censorship is controlled by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government. The FCC works towards six strategic goals and one of the areas is the media.

What makes material “obscene?”

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, tobe obscene, material must meet a three-prong test:

(1) an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest (i.e., materialhaving a tendency to excite lustful thoughts).
(2) the material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way,sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law.
(3) the material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic,political, or scientific value. The Supreme Court has indicated that this testis designed to cover hard-core pornography.

What makes a pornographic work obscene?

Pornography is the term used to describe a work which uses sexual images with the primary purpose of causing sexual arousal. Some of this material may be "indecent," that is, offensive to some but still protected by the First Amendment. But some pornography is "obscene," and is not constitutionally protected.

A less technical way of classifying pornography divides it into two categories:
a)Hard-core porn- features total nudity, lewd display of genitalia, actual representation of sex acts, bestiality, incest, fetishes, homosexuality, exploitation of children and violence.
b)Soft-core porn- such as Playboy magazine, may also include full nudity and lewd presentation of genitalia, but will not emphasize violence and sexual perversion.

Pornography merchants work to target various interests and demographic groups. There are trading cards featuring porn celebrities. One can find group-specific pornography for Asians, African-Americans, older people, pregnant or lactating women, obese men and women, and so on. If there is the slightest chance that the depiction of a sex act will titillate people, someone will produce and market it.

Pornography, of course, is not the exclusive cause of sex crimes or of hostility toward women (except a person imitates violent porn). It is clear, however, that pornography fuels perverse behaviour in what seems to be a growing number of deviant individuals. Many who study the problem agree that pornography's effect on society is growing, and the more and longer porn is used, the greater its impact on an individual.

What makes material “indecent?”

Material is indecent if, in context, it depicts or describes sexual orexcretory organs or activities in terms patently offensive as measured bycontemporary community standards for the broadcast medium. In each case, the FCC must determine whether the material describes or depicts sexual or excretoryorgans or activities and, if so, whether the material is “patently offensive.”
In the FCC's assessment of whether material is “patently offensive,”context is critical.

The FCC looks at three primary factors when analyzingbroadcast material:
(1) whether the description or depiction is explicit orgraphic
(2) whether the material dwells on or repeats at length descriptions ordepictions of sexual or excretory organs
(3) whether the material appears to pander or is used to titillate or shock.No single factor is determinative. The FCC weighs and balances these factorsbecause each case presents its own mix of these, and possibly other,factors.

The general difference between obscenity and indecency is indecency is milder than obscenity. Obscenity relates to a larger audience whereas indecency has a smaller scope. Indecency is used to gauge a media whether it is suitable for a certain group of audience, such as small children. If the material is found to be inapropriate for that age group, it is restricted from being broadcasted at certain hours. However, if a material is found to be obscene, it is censored and not broadcasted at all.

Personal Reflection- Week 8

Time wait for no man, one week holiday had been passed. So, this week we have Media Culture Class. Basically, this week we had no lecture given by Mr.Radzi because Mr Radzi says that he's giving us more time to complete assignment. Unfortunately, we had been given another new assignment by Mr.Radzi. According to Mr.Radzi, for this second assignment, we need to write 800 words essay about Role of Media in Socializing; discuss the human needs that the Media help satisfy in term of the News and Entertainment. Seriously, I hope he extends the deadline for the essay submission because I feel very stressful as we are facing other assignment too.