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我的第一篇網誌文章

做你自己，其他人都已經有人做了。
— 作者：Oscar Wilde。

這是我的新網誌的第一篇文章。我剛開始經營這個新的網誌，敬請期待更多內容。請於下方訂閱，以便你在新內容發佈時收到通知。

Mini Parody&UGC

Hi everyone! Welcome back and this is my last blog post!! Today I will share a mini parody done by our group and talk about UGC.

Mini Parody

Our group selected the Uses and Gratification theory as the topic.

We used different examples of social platforms to show how people use media to satisfy their needs.

Instagram:
“Capture and share the world’s moments” is the slogan of Instagram but we think that people only show the perfect perfect moments instead of their daily life. They post photos only when they are with full makeup or after photoshop, like the photos that the 2 girls liked in the first scene. Those people try to get attention by posting good-looking selfies, and those who “liked” and pay close attention to the beauty bloggers show their desire to be pretty.

Twitter:
Some users post eye-catching posts online in order to get more “likes”. “Likes” became a symbol of popularity. That is why people want to make videos that can seek attention. In scene 2, the two girls went undercover to expose the dark side of the society. This is news that will not be officially reported and the two “reporters” wanted to be famous by exposing this to the public. This shows how they use media to satisfy their own needs.

WhatsApp/TikTok:
The third scene is a girl sharing a video to her friends and they will then share to their friends. Eventually, everyone will be watching the same thing. Information is easily spread through social platforms. This facilitates people’s communication as people nowadays prefer online interaction instead of face-to-face conversation, which fulfills people’s social integrative needs.

What is UGC?

User generated content (UGC) is content created and posted on online platform such as Facebook, Youtube and Instagram by anyone.

It provides additional information of different social issues to the users. As the content shown on traditional TV will be filtered, some sensitive topics may be blocked. People will be able to know more about those issues only through social platforms. Also, “first hand” news tend to be published through social media rather than traditional TV. There are lots of preparation work needed before a TV news broadcast but with the advanced technology, any netizen can be a reporter reporting “news” to the public. They can simply just start a live broadcast through social media and share what they see immediately. Apart from that, a wide variety of entertaining shows is provided by UGC. Except the soap opera, more choices are given such as vlogs, mukbang and make-up tutorials. It is definitely more attractive than the mainstream traditional TV.

People can express their opinions freely through UGC with little or even without restrictions but it caused the problem that there will be many fake news. It is hard to determine the credibility of online news and posts. Rumors may be spread and crisis caused. The news reported through traditional TV program are being verified that they are relatively reliable. Some people may think that the news is biased to the government. Despite this, traditional TV programs are still more trustworthy than the online ones as anyone of us can post “news” and be a “reporter”. That is also why Wikipidea is not that dependable as everyone can change the content. Both online and official resources have their disadvantages, we should have our own judgement instead of being over dependent on any resources.

Mainstream TV shows are my only entertainment when I was younger. I enjoyed watching cartoons or even the soap opera. But when I got to have my own smart phone, I seldom turn on the TV. I can watch whatever I want through different online media. Even if I missed an episode of a show, I can watch it online. I no longer have to sit in front of the TV at a specific time, waiting for the start of the show. And I have discovered that there are limitations on the content shown through mainstream traditional TV so UGC would be a better choice.

Hope you enjoy reading this and our parody!! Finally no more blog post HAHAHA!

Feminism and Mediated Public Sphere

Hi everyone! Welcome back!
This week I will be talking about feminism and the mediated public sphere.

Feminism

We have finished the group work about feminism this week. We were inspired by the advertisement of Victoria’s Secret and focused on how most people define the “beauty” of women in three aspects.

1. Size
A majority agree that female with skinny body type, youthful and glowing skin would be “beautiful”. In the picture, all models are having slender body and they are described as “perfect”. There are a lot more advertisements emphasizing the importance for female to be skinny in order to be perfect. Victoria’s Secret even got no larger size model before. This idea influenced women that they have to be thin, so weight loss pills are commonly found and popular among female.

2. Color
Another main focus would be the skin color. We seldom see models with dark skin. There are products for skin whitening but we rarely see products to make people’s skin darker. When people looking for cosmetic products such as foundation, they will usually look for the color that is slightly brighter than their original skin color instead of looking for a darker one. It shows that people nowadays treat brighter skin color as one of the criteria of being beautiful.

3. Gender
The chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret Ed Razek had claimed that “transsexual models should not be cast because the show is a fantasy”. The example would be the transgender Youtuber Nikita Dragun. She posted a video to “sell the fantasy” in response to Razek. Later on Razek apologized and the first trans model was hired. This incident shows Victoria’s Secret was disrespectful to transgender female. They had their own definition of what a “real” woman is. The message we wanted to bring out is, is there a definition of “female”? Why women have to follow and change to make themselves the “real” and “perfect” women?

Our title of the poster is “Beauty is Natural” as we feel that it is not fair to judge a woman according to different requirements and the public seldom do this to male.

What does feminism mean to me?

For me, feminism is to strive for equality between female and male. Although there is no 100% fairness in the world, we still want to reach a “relatively equal” status.

In the society, women are having comparatively less opportunities than men. Some companies are not willing to hire women as they are afraid that the ladies will have to frequently take a leave after they get married. Actors get more opportunities than actresses in the entertainment industry in China. A 30-year-old actor can still get good scripts and continue developing in this field while an actress at the same age will only get script that requires her to act like a 20 years old young lady. Not to mention there are still someone thinks that the female victims in rape crisis should bear the responsibility because they dressed up nicely, which is a “temptation” to male.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s hard to be completely fair but at least as a female, I hope I get the same opportunities as male does and not to be misunderstood by others that woman is always weak and needs to be “protected’ by men.

Mediated public sphere

Different media platforms allow people to freely express their feelings. In Hong Kong, there is a famous online forum—LIHKG. It is widely used by Hong Kong people, especially teenagers. They freely express their own thoughts (mostly the dissatisfaction and complaints towards the government) and comments are often radical. Some strikes in the anti-extradition bill movement were organized in this platform by the netizens. Materials for propaganda were also often posted in the forum.

This song would be an example.

This singer in the video actually supports the Hong Kong police and presented a speech which criticized that what protesters did was all harming Hong Kong. Her speech then was edited by the protesters and background music is added. The content was totally different that it changed to blame and scold the police.

A simple and brief translation of the lyrics:
“Don’t ruin the future of others (those arrested protesters). The police were doing nothing except attacking protesters, journalists and the members of legislative council. They are not willing to apologize for what they have done (such as threatening the citizens and arresting innocent citizens) that lead to social disharmony.”

The original speech express the opposite idea of the above lyrics.

There is an unique culture in Hong Kong during the anti-extradition bill movement. Songs, paintings and passages supporting protesters and criticizing the police were massively produced by people.

Some pictures were used as propaganda to encourage people to join and some passages were trying to explain the current situation shortly. However, as I have said before, some of the shorten version of the bill or some incidents were actually not telling the truth. People have to have their own judgement.

I still remember when I was in Hong Kong, lots of my friends were asking me to join the protests and support them, or even call me “Kong Pig” because I didn’t really agree of what they did. People’s comments in different online forums were relatively radical and that’s why I was afraid to express my own point of view towards this issue as I might easily be scolded. At that time, or even now, people who support the government or those just simply don’t agree with some acts of the protesters, will be regarded as the “50 cent party”. It is actually an irony—people leaving one comment to support the government would earn 50 cent, and they are the 50 cent party.

Supposedly, everyone enjoys the freedom of speech. However, comments opposing the protesters are rarely found. As people know that anyone opposing them will just resulted in being scolded, they choose not to express their views. That’s why people may think that most Hong Kong people oppose the bill as the comment sections are all opinions from the protesters.

Protesters said they are fighting for freedom of speech for everyone in Hong Kong, meanwhile some of us are not able to freely express ourselves because of them.
Is there a right or wrong in this movement?

That’s all for today! Thank you for reading!:D

References

Marketing boss quits Victoria’s Secret after first trans model hired | Fashion | The Guardian. (2020). Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/aug/06/marketing-boss-quits-victorias-secret-first-trans-model-hired

Marketing boss quits Victoria’s Secret after first trans model hired | Fashion | The Guardian. (2020). Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/aug/06/marketing-boss-quits-victorias-secret-first-trans-model-hired

(2020). . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzXk5bPmrQ

Cecil, Y. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/yuen_cecil/status/1189198888080564224/photo/1

(2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_2019%E2%80%9320_Hong_Kong_protests

(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://twitter.com/remonwangxt/status/1167275587326685184/photo/1.

Standard News. (2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.facebook.com/standnewshk/photos/pcb.2241377132614561/2241369505948657/?type=3&theater.

(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-perfect-body-campaign-2014-10?IR=T.

(2020). [Image]. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2019/04/10/feminism-needs-to-be-intersectional/.

Media Ownership

Hi! As we have done a presentation on media ownership last week and we all understand the characteristic, pros and cons of government media and private-company owned media, I’m not going to repeat those information but to share some examples and my own opinion.

Government vs Private Ownership

Let me just quickly recap what government media and private-company owned media is.

Government media: tightly regulated and controlled; content are filtered; mouthpiece of government, eg. advantages of a new government policy

Private-company owned media: less restricted, biased towards public opinions

Examples

China—government owned media

The Chinese government strictly control the media. They have their own media—Weibo, WeChat and Baidu. Information relating to “sensitive” topics like June fourth Tiananmen Square protests and the cultural revolution are blocked.

Recently the tag “鄂A026W” was hot in Weibo, not only because of the severity of this issue, but also because of the attitude of the Chinese government. It was about the video recording a man took a box of masks from the storehouse of the RedCross and put it inside the car and “鄂A026W” was the license plate number. The man claimed that he took the masks for his leader. People were pissed off when this video was posted up as they tried their best to send materials to Wuhan and hoped to help the medical staffs there but turned out that their donation were taken by an unknown man and would be given to his “leader”. People reposted and shared, hoped to receive an official response but almost all posts related to this issue were deleted within five minutes. Users leaving radical comments are banned, no one was allowed to share and repost the post and comment section was closed. The government was trying to hide the fact that a leader in a very high position asked the man to get him a box of masks which the masks were supposed to be given to hospitals in Wuhan.

As the government tightly controlled the media, news related to this issue could easily be covered by other news. No private media would be telling the truth so the public would eventually forget this issue without knowing the dark side of the government.

That’s why some people oppose the government ownership of media as some truth would never be known under such censorship.

Hong Kong—private-company owned media

There are lots of non-governmental and individual owned media in Hong Kong, such as 100Most, AppleDaily and the pages run by the KOLs. People enjoy freedom of speech that they rarely bear legal liability even if they spread false information. Online platforms were the major channel of organizing some illegal activities during the past few months because of the anti extradition law amendment bill. The private media has strong influence and somewhat escalated the conflicts in the society.

Some posted the short version of the bill, letting the public understand more easily but it is a “demonized version” instead. People would then misunderstand the bill and oppose the government. Some edited videos were posted through media engines such as YouTube and Facebook. The edited videos, eg. the police throwing petrol bomb to the protesters. In fact it’s the other way round. However, the video was widely spread already and people trusted it. It would be hard for the government to explain. The public tended to trust the private media instead of the government as they might think that the government is making excuses.

This shows that there are actually lots of problem come along with freedom.

My thoughts

I personally think that the government should own the media. The example of China is a relatively extreme case. People can still enjoy freedom of speech if the government regulate the media appropriately. The government policies will not harm the people, only the ways of carrying out cause controversy. But if the private company owns media, they may harm the society for their own benefits as they are working for themselves, the government works for people.

The conflicts in Hong Kong reflects how important it is to have a strong government. As the Hong Kong government wasn’t strong enough to stop the violence and to convince people that the bill is not that horrible, the situation got worse. That’s why I agree that government should own the media to prevent similar situation as Hong Kong. It’s kinda sad to see such big conflict within the society that you grow and live for 18years.

I’ve always heard about people criticizing China for the dictatorship. There are lots of problem seen in the Chinese government and I know that they always hide their dark side and show the illusion to people that they are the best government. But still I always tell my friends that I believe those problems will be solved one day. It really disappoints me when the “鄂A026W” incident happened. As I’ve just mentioned I tell others that I believe there will be improvement but how the government handle and respond to this incident was really like a slap in the face. As the technology advanced and people receive better education, a majority of Chinese people have their own thoughts and judgements, they are no longer ignorant and innocent as before. But the government still chose to hide everything instead of improving. Chinese government may still want to adopt the “brainwash” education in order to control people’s mind to gain fully support and respect. But when more people received high quality education, they will find out that there are still lots of weakness. Wouldn’t it be better if the government correct and improve instead of people figuring out the problems and try to overthrow the party?

I really hope that the Chinese government will be changing the political system to improve the situation of the “leader” having all the authority and controlling everything.

Reflection

I think our group had a quite complete presentation with the examples from different places of the world. One thing to improve is that some slides may be a bit wordy. Some words can be cut so it will be more clear and easier to see and also prevent presenter(me!) from referring to the powerpoint slides frequently.

Presentation is always my weakness! Luckily there is still some time for me to overcome and improve before the next presentation. I actually can speak when I’m talking about something personal, such as my personal experience or my own opinion but when it comes to formal presentation I will be sooo nervous and my brain cannot control my mouth (Cantonese almost jump out!!)! Hope this situation can be improved and I could be a confident presenter on stage someday!

Thank you for reading and see you next week!:)

References

Uses and Gratifications

Hi! Last week we have talked about the media effect model and for this week, I am going to discuss the “Uses and Gratifications” theory.

What is it?

Uses and Gratifications theory, introduced by Blumler and Katz, suggested that people actively use media for their own needs and satisfaction instead of the audience being passive and vulnerable to media. There are five main reasons explaining why people need to refer to the media:

1. Cognitive needs
It refers to people using media to acquire academic and intellectual knowledge. For example, students do research for their assignments, searching for articles as references. They take the initiative in using the media as they are looking for something that helps with their needs of finishing tasks.

2. Affective needs
This is relating to people’s emotions that they use media to satisfy their emotional needs. People watching soap operas to entertain themselves, fulfilling their dreams of being a pretty girl meeting a perfect boy.

3. Personal Integrative needs
Relating to people’s self-esteem. They want to stabilize their social status. Buying products after watching advertisements to show that they are affordable for those goods and to increase their self-esteem.

4. Social Integrative needs
People communicate with their family and friends through social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram but not having gathering to have direct interaction. It may also refers to people trying to have common topics with friends so they watch a particular TV programme not because they are interested in it.

5. Tension free needs
People use media to escape from reality. Watching movies and playing online games to relax.

The video is a short introduction of what this theory is.

The uses and gratifications theory explains our reasons for using the media. As mentioned before, people take the initiative to use media. I personally think that this theory can better explain how and why media could affect people to do certain things than the media effect model. We do everything for a reason. For me, I am now having over 10 tabs on Google Chrome, searching for information on this theory, fulfilling my cognitive needs! We eat because we are hungry, we watch news because we are curious about things happening around us and we often use media to entertain ourselves.

People being affected by media is because they actively use the media but not the media forces them to use. Media effect takes time. For example some may be interested in action movies so they keep on watching similar kind of films, and that’s why they are being influenced by those movies. Watching one movie would not affect the minds but when they actively and continuously watch same kind of movie, they would eventually be affected.

Survival International

Survival International is the only global organization striving human rights for tribal peoples. They found that gaining public’s attention and support is more important and efficient than only publishing information about tribal people’s problem and lobbying in international forums. Actions are elevated to global movements by their supporters around the world to raise people’s awareness towards the needs of protection of tribal people.

The video shows one of their participated project. A multi-national mining company (Vedanta Aluminum) wanted to mine the Niyamgiri Hill as there were materials for aluminum. However it was a sacred mountain to the Dongria Kondh tribe and they relied on the rocks under extreme weather conditions. Later on, Dongria’s film was released online and people were aware of this issue, sending letters to the Indian government and having protests in India and worldwide. At last the Dongria Kondh were allowed by the Indian government to reject the mining project and saved the mountain.

Survival International works as partner in this project. They successfully got people’s attention, not only Indian but also people from different parts of world. This shows that it is important to get people’s support in order to overthrow a decision of the government and that’s what lobby groups trying to do.

The above is the official logo of Survival International.

At a denotative level:
-It is just a simple image with two hands.

At a connotative level:
-The white area may gradually be narrowing down and at last being covered by the red.
-The two hands may be waving, seeking help.
-The hands may also be handprints representing live—some people may do baby handprint for newborns.

At a mythic level:
-This is a sign calling for action. If people do not pay attention to problems that tribal peoples face, they will be risking annihilation someday.
-The red area represents blood. Tribal peoples are having fatal challenges, such as Dongria Kondh tribe losing their habitat. If they cannot get help from people, they will risk annihilation so this image is actually telling how urgent the situation is and to call for action.

Survival International is urging people in different parts of the world to join them in protecting tribal people’s human rights. As they are the minority group, some people may neglect their needs. Although there’s not much we can do, at least we could pay close attention to their projects or donate to support.

Thank you for reading! Hope you don’t feel bored!XD

References

Communication Theory–Uses and Gratification Theory. Retrieved from https://www.communicationtheory.org/uses-and-gratification-theory/
Elizabeth, P. (2014, January, 30). Uses and Gratifications. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0132.xml
Survival International. Retrieved from
https://www.survivalinternational.org/info

Media Effects

Hi everyone! This is my second blog post and I am going to share some thoughts about the media effects.

People cannot live without media as it is a means of communication. In the past, people relied on newspaper to know more about the society and now, we just simply get what we want with a few short clicks. It appears in our daily life in different forms—online educational courses, entertaining TV programmes, official news by the government…

What is wrong with the “media effects” model?

David Gauntlett suggested “ten things wrong with the ‘effects model’”. He mentioned that to tackle the social problem of violence, researchers should begin with the background of those engage in it. However, the media effect model is starting from the media and its relation with the involved ones. This shows that media effect model may not be the most reliable method of finding the root cause of the social problems and tackling them.

Albert Bandura had conducted the bobo doll experiment on children. He tried to prove that children who watched violent videos were more violent than those who did not watch through this experiment. I have a doubt about this proof. First of all we do not know the background of the kids. Family background is an important factor that affects the growth of a kid, especially the development of their minds. Children from dysfunctional family have higher risk in having mental problem than those from ordinary family. They might be more impulsive and violent because of the lack of parental guidance. For example the murderers of the 2 years old kid Jamie Bulger, they were both neglected at home and they were experienced shoplifters at the age of 10. This shows that the violent videos were not the only reason leading to the result of the experiment, background of the tested kids also matters. Also, the children may considered the violent video as an instruction to them. They were too young to have a proper judgement of what they should do when clear instructions were not given. Maybe they were just trying to follow the video given by adults and to show that they were obedient and to please the adults. There are too many factors that can affect the result of this experiment. That is why I personally do not agree with this proof and I also think that it is unethical to use children in conducting this experiment as their minds are not well-developed yet.

My thoughts

In my point of view, there may be some negative effects brought by media but media is not the main reason for violence. Background and past experiences of people would also be the reasons. The two murderers mentioned previously are the examples. They both came from dysfunctional family and were neglected kids at home. Their minds could not normally develop like other kids as they were lack of love and guidance. Living and growing in an abnormal family definitely affect the health of a kid, both physical and mental health. The kid would not be able to have correct values of life. For example a boy from an abusive family may think it does not matter to abuse others as that is what he experienced since small, no one tells him that it is illegal. Other than family issues, people’s personal experience can also be a factor. Some people may be bullied for long time at school and it affects their mental health. The Columbine High School massacre was once suspected as the revenge on school by the two shooters. Unfortunate experiences may eventually change one’s mind that they may have antisocial behaviors. Last but not least, some are just born to be offenders but of course they are the minority.

Blaming media for violence is unreasonable and it is not feasible to restrict people access to media like banning the “violent” cartoon Tom and Jerry to solve the social problem. Proper education would be a better solution instead. It is not about keeping kids away from violent things but to let them know what violence is and teach them to distinguish between right and wrong. The media itself does nothing wrong, the problem is how people use it. The existence of violent programme is not totally meaningless and if some people imitate the bloody scene, we should first think of ways to solve the mental problem of the people but not banning the programme. Social problems actually come from people but not the media itself.

What are some interesting questions to ask about the role of the media today, in the shaping of mass opinion?

Do we have the responsibility of providing 100% accurate information in the internet?
What is the ‘suitable” age for children to get in touch with media?
Should the “violent” TV programmes, videos and movies be banned? If yes, does it mean that only educational programmes can be published and how to define whether a programme is violent or not? If no, how can we ensure that kids have no access to those violent things?

自我介紹 (範例文章)

此為範例文章，最初是發表在「網誌大學」中。我們提供十幾項方案，現在就註冊所需方案，立即開始建立你的網誌。

你今天要發表文章了。不必擔心網誌的外觀配置。此外，如果你還沒有幫網誌命名，或是感到不知所措，也不需要擔心。只要按一下「新增文章」按鈕，並告訴我們你在此撰寫文章的原因即可。

為何要這樣做？

因為這樣可讓新讀者瞭解來龍去脈。你打算做什麼？為何讀者應該閱讀你的網誌？
這將能協助你專注於自己對網誌的想法，以及你想要使用網誌來做的事情。

文章可長可短，可以是你的個人生活介紹或隨性的使命陳述、對於未來的宣言，或者你也可以針對想要發表的事物擬出簡單的大鋼。

為了協助你開始使用，以下提供一些相關問題：

為何你要建立公開網誌，而不是私人日記？
你認為自己會撰寫哪些主題？
你想透過網誌與哪些人建立連結？
如果你在未來一年可以成功持續經營網誌，你希望達成什麼目標？

你不應就此侷限在上述任一問題；網誌的美好之處就是可以觀察它們如何隨著我們學習、成長及互動的步伐不斷演變；不過，瞭解你要從何處著手與開始使用的原因將對你有所幫助，而明確表達自己的目標也許就能提供你一些其他的文章構想。

不知道如何開始嗎？只要寫下心中想到的第一件事就可以了。有一本廣為流傳的寫作相關書籍，作者 Anne Lamott 表示：你需要允許自己寫下「蹩腳初稿」。安妮說到重點：開始寫就對了，編輯的事以後再說。

當你準備發表文章時，為文章提供三至五個能夠說明網誌焦點的標籤，像是寫作、攝影、小說、育兒、食物、車子、電影、運動等。這些標籤將有助於關切你的主題的其他人在「讀取器」中找到你。請確認其中一個標籤為「zerotohero」，這樣其他新的部落客也可以找到你。