Monday, July 16, 2007

mood: calm, thoughtful
time: 2.56pm.

Dear Diary,

i was doing my revision for my TDMC main paper tomorrow. and the more i study about mass media and it's functional theory. the more it stirs up emotions and deep thoughts in me. i began to think that mass media is the most influential thing of all things, be it locally or globally. masses uses media for a very basic purpose - to seek information, to get education and entertainment. but do you know it is manipulating people in many ways?

perhaps, media was created to serve it's audience and masses. but now, people are so money orientated that nothing in this world can separate from money matters? media now no longer function with the value of transmitting good news to all. they are more concern about their revenue and the way they market their products? media is controlled by elites and people who enjoy some social status and wealth.

i think cultural theory is right to a certain extend. i feel that media is a bad influence in many ways, it shows the gloomy side of media. brings more disadvantages than benefits. there are some people who use media to meet their ends, to dominate, to manipulate others. but there's no way the world is gonna eliminate the existence of mass media because that's the only way people get information and communication globally.

sometimes, have you actually wondered why there's a phenomenon going on? it seems that it's gonna be globally westernized? well, then me fill you with this information. have you ever realised, many of our news are from western news press? even global television news are supplied by CNN, CNBC, BCC world service tv? have you realised they are big cooperation in UK or USA? western culture again? And do you know what impact they cause in each society? actually, over half of all television programmes in Asia are imported from west? therefore, there's no doubt why the world is so westernised. their culture have influenced us in many ways and has definitely created an impact in our daily lives.

for American, they believe in individualism, liberty in which known as freedom. for collectivist Chinese, we are almost opposite, but in Singapore alone, our divorce cases has been increasing rapidly over the years? have you ever thought of the reason why? i think it's because of American's culture, they made felt that being what i'm is most important and i'm doing what i want to no matter what others say. because of the cross culture influence and impact, people's perception changed and cause some social problems indirectly. and gradually, we lost our own culture and blinded by what we see everyday through the media.

so many things in the media are moulded to suit human interests. for drama, they are very unrealistic because they are portrayed and filmed this way in order to generate wealth. so if you think that those drama broadcast are so romantic and if you wish something similar to happen on you, i think it's time to wake up. those are manipulated stuffs, you don't have to get manipulated by those too beautiful images.

though i know life itself is like a stage and you're the actor/actress of your own life. but there are bound to be a thin line between what's real and what's not. what's portrayed and what's realistic. we're human, we're worldly. what you see in media are not true, those capitalist are just after your money and interests.

i also know that many audience seeks media as a form of relaxation and something that can relate to and to an extend of social utility. for many of us, we go cinema to catch a movie to have a break. but do you know. that global films productions is dominated by the studios owned by 8 big corporations? they are Disney, time Warner, Viacom, universal, Sony, polygram, MGM and news corporation's? and for recorded music is controlled by almost totally by 5 big companies, poly gram, time warner, sony, EMI and Bertelsman.

look at those facts i provided you. this is how big firms controlled the production of economic goods, other big companies controlled the production of cultural goods. as for those owner of such big companies, they adopt the capitalist model of production, they main idea and purpose is not to entertain you, make you think about this world or entertain you. they are just after your money that's all. it's as simple as that. they often exploited the working class and guarantee their domination by the wealth. not only that, they also managed to control the audience of their production in some ways.

such adoptions can make their audience too reliant on media for information which falsehood as can exists. they make people lose the ability too think further. but however, if you're not compliance, you can use this trend in media to search a new self by redefined their meaning and created a new definitions of your new image. you can use the products of mass culture to define your own identities through the subcultures, only then you're not manipulated by the media and those people who used media in wrong ways. =)

i hope you had a good time reading this post.
i did my revision for 2 chapters through writing this.

be back to blog about other chapters.
see you guys.

ps: i think i now what i wanna major in, media studies. =)
i love mass communication, i know where i'm heading my future to now.
=D

loved on 6:31 AM