Stereotype!!!

When I was New Zealand for studying English, I always went to ESOL class instead of English class. This ESOL class was created for foreign students who are weak at English in reading and writing. So when everyone else went to English class, I went to ESOL class which is adjusted to my English level. Every lesson I read books and write about it. Now, as I study communication in UB programme, one of the stories has reminded and this has linked to communication theory. This story goes like this.

[It was bright and sunny day but I was sure that whenever the weather was great something bad has happened. As I got used to that kind of situation I made my move to Wendy’s as usual. As I just tempted to cross the road, a loud and unpleasant noise annoyed my ear. It was motorbike with a fat hairy guy. In his right arm there was tattoo of an angel and it got me wonder whether the tattoo was really meant to be there or not. I followed the smoke of motorbike thoughtlessly and it reached at Wendy’s. I felt uncomfortable that I got the feeling somehow I will meet up with that scary guy. Anyway, I moved my foot again to Wendy’s. As I entered my ears got busted with noise of people’s wild chat. I queued for my turn. I ordered one chocolate cookie packet and ice cream from habit. I looked for the seat but could not find one then suddenly one couple left their seat so I quickly walked down and snatched the seat before someone takes it. But it was totally my big mistake. When I just sipped my drink that chubby guy I saw in motorbike held his tray and turned his head this way and that. Even he was inside, he put his sunglass and his ridiculous cloth style was extremely conspicuous to compare with other normal outfits. When his head was turned to my view, I was afraid of sitting with him that I quickly turned my head down and hope he does not see me. But I as I mentioned before, I was always in bad luck when the weather was super cool. He saw my empty seat which was located opposite of me. He approached to and asked me whether he could sit opposite to me. I was so scared that I could not even meet his eyes and whispered my approval like a mosquito. He sat opposite to me and started to eat his food. So I just keep digging into my food so that I finish it quickly and leave this awkward and uncomfortable situation. Then, this has happened. This guy reached to my cookie and started to eat. I was so shocked that I became motionless. I had to consider whether I will continue to eat the cookie or not even it was mine. Kindly, when there was one piece of cookie was left, he took it and broke into two pieces and gave it to me. I do not know why but my mouth said this word “Thank you” so timidly. As soon as I finished my food, I dashed out of the restaurant and impatiently waited for the traffic lights to be changed. And that was the second moment that I became motionless again. As I put my hand into my pocket of jacket I felt something inside and took it out. It was a packet of cookie, absolutely new one. I got confused and slowly my mind combined to one piece. I thanked God that that guy did not try to kill me for eating his cookie. Now I understand the true meaning of angel tattoo which was on his right arm. He was a true angel.]

People judge other people based on their stereotype minded. Each person deny him or herself that he or she is not like others who critic other based on their standard which is strongly firmed through many various stereotyped mind. As it shown in this story, this boy judged this fat guy as scary and fierce person but it was completely wrong. We think that stereotype idea in our mind is useful that it can help to judge people without too much thinking but I take it rather an obstacle which makes our stream of mind dirty.

"Eat you up" by Boa

Boa is one of the best singers, most popular and influential female singer in the world. Mostly, she has spread her song in Asian area but now she has taken one step further to the wide world. On 21st of October, her new song “Eat you up” has broadcasted through America’s iTunes, Amazon, AOL, Emusic and music website as well. Her song is not only in America but also in Japan, Thailand, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand and so on. This song has heard by many many people as it was introduced to thirty countries and three hundred online websites.

Until now, Boa was main one’s stage of activity was Japan and Korea with having images such as girlish, strong woman who even takes control over man and cute. However, as she is the first Korean female singer who debut in America, this time she has appealed to audiences and fans with sexy image which she has never tried before. This shows our cultural barriers which is related to communication theory. There are many cultural barriers in communication like perception or interpretation of reality, understanding of role relations or identities, goal- oriented behaviors, images or sense of self and language or message making.

The management of Boa has thought that to attractively appeal to audience in America, using ‘sexy’ image would strongly work and I think this idea is caused by cultural element. As western culture has more open minded and freer to express art, showing sexiness is quite well adapted in the culture unlike Asian countries’ strict regulation of showing sexiness in public. For example, if the lyric of the song has lascivious content, the song was easily banned to play in public. People try to think more creatively but as the company of Boa entertainment has shown that they just follow their stereotyped mind as using ‘sexy’ appeal to America. However, as Boa has great potential of being a superstar, this new song will make her top of the world again.


Lyric of [Eat you up]
When I first saw you I knew nothing's like it used to be

Boy you have got to be the finest thing in history

The way I feel inside is just so hard to understand

You feed my appetite in ways I can't explain

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)

(Woah)I'll eat you up(Woah)

So yum yum(Woah)Can't get enough(Woah oh oh)

I think I'm in love

If you move any closer boy there is no guarantee

What I will do to you I fear it and it's scaring me

Like I've become some kind of demon in the night

You look so tasty I could eat you up alive

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)

(Woah)I'll eat you up(Woah)So yum yum(Woah)

Can't get enough(Woah oh oh)I think I'm in love

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)(Woah)

I'll eat you up(Woah)So yum yum(Woah)

Can't get enough(Woah oh oh)

I think I'm in loveCan't stop thinking 'bout the things

I wanna do to youIf you move any closer

you'd be asking for it to

I want your loveI need your touch

So much I think I'm in love

I'll eat you up(Your love, your love~)(Woah)

I'll eat you up(Woah)So yum yum(Woah)

Can't get enough(Woah oh oh)I think I'm in love

I wanna take you to my roomWanna take you to my room(Woah)

I'll eat you up(Woah)So yum yum(Woah)Can't get enough(Woah oh oh)

I think I'm in love

"We just got married"

This Korean TV programme “We just got married” is popular not only in Korea but also in other countries. This is virtual reality show that selected top Korean celebrities falsely got married to assigned partners. They take wedding photos and further they live together as well. Each couple and each celebrity has different and diverse characteristics and this adds more entertainment and excitement to the viewers. Even though the situation is mostly scripted I can find communication theory in here and this could explain why this programme is so attractive to viewers and why it is getting more popular.

One of the four couples, I would like to explain the communication theory with this couple, Seo In Young and Crown J. Both of them are singers and love music but apart from that fact they are completely different. In real world, man and woman can also meet with who has opposite characteristic and even the TV show is fake they wisely take the factor which is same in real world. Crown J is quite gentle and try to get along with Seo In Young, she is quite selfish and tend to get what she wants first. Their individuality is quite unique and strong that at first they struggle and argue a lot.

From this couple, Knapp model of relational development can be applied. At first when Seo In Young and Crown J are met, they were trying to get to know each other. They tried to communicate in common subject and look for open communication channels moreover they try to create favorite initial impression. As they experimenting like allowing themselves to reveal personalities they were too relaxed that in intensifying stage they met difficulty in maintaining their relationship. However, they have disclosed their feelings to the other party, this worked well as this has helped their relationship to build the belief towards each other.

According to my experience and this TV programme, in every relationship, revealing own feeling and thought is quite important as this does not make any misunderstanding between one another.

As this TV programme is created to attract viewers, there is no broken up couples but each situation and each emotion shown in each episode delivers many message which makes viewers to think about relationship and moreover about marriage. Viewers agree with certain situation as they recollect their own experience and this makes them to watch this show.
One of the factors that makes this show popular is that it shows something that previous TV shows not shown. Until now, in most of virtual reality shows, it showed only pleasant scenes, but in this show, the camera is still on when couple got quarrel, show all their emotion towards another one and even when one is crying. These scenes delivers to viewers that even this show is scripted, indirectly made viewers to think that somehow this show is not that falsely taken. The real emotion of celebrities can be felt directly to viewers and this delicate factor draw viewer’s attention.

Max Payne

The movie starts with Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) struggling to surface in a frosted river while also narrating. The film then cuts to one week earlier, showing Max working as a clerk in the cold-case unit and his obsession with finding the fleeing killer who brutally murdered his wife, Michelle, and newborn daughter. Max then attends a party run by his snitch, Trevor Duncan, where he meets Natasha Sax (Olga Kurylenko) and her sister, Mona (Mila Kunis).As Natasha call to her drug dealer on the phone, she is hunted, attacked and killed by a mysterious flying entity in a alleyway. The next day, Max goes with his former partner Alex Balder (Donal Logue) to investigate her murder. Alex then reveals Max's wallet was found at the crime scene and that he is the prime suspect.

Back in his office, Alex discovers that a tattoo of wings found on Natasha's arm is similar to the one on the arm of one of Michelle's murderers, killed at the crime scene. He tries to call Max to reveal his finding, but in vain as he's answered by his voice mail. Max receives his message and rushes to his apartment, only to find Alex dead. Suddenly, he is attacked and thrown around until he blacks out. Max wakes up in hospital beside his mentor B.B. Hensley (Beau Bridges). Max goes to Alex's house to offer his condolences but is forced to leave by his wife Christa Balder (Nelly Furtado).Later, Max again meets Mona Sax, who believes he killed Natasha, but Max convinces her that they are both looking for someone else. After storming into Alex's precinct and searching through his partner's investigation files, Max learns that a man named Owen Greene was the last person Natasha called before her death. Max and Mona find Owen Greene's apartment but hear him screaming. Owen has also become unstable and hallucinated due to Valkyr and backs away from Max and Mona towards the edge of the apartment. He is then pulled by a demonic creature on wings and falls to his death.

Max and Mona go to see a tattooist who did Natasha's tattoos; when asked about the winged tattoo, he tells that it is the wing of a Valkyrie, the Norse mythological deity that carried to Heaven only those that died violently in combat. Max then arrives at Aesir Pharmaceuticals headquarters, Michelle's former workplace, to talk with her former supervisor, Jason Colvin (Chris O'Donnell). After brutally beating him up and even holding him at gun point, Colvin reveals everything. He explains that Michelle was working on a big military-related project with Aesir's CEO, Nicole Horne (Kate Burton) concerning the development of a stamina-enhancing drug for soldiers. Colvin also reveals that the drug only worked in 1% of the test subjects and the remaining suffered severe traumatic hallucinations about demonic creatures. Colvin tells Max that everything he wants to know is inside an envelope Colvin has been carrying around. Max and Colvin attempt to escape but a S.W.A.T team arrives, after being alerted by Colvin's secretary. Colvin is purposely shot dead but Max manages to escape with the envelope, amidst a shooting spree, not before a brief encounter with Jim Bravura (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges), an internal affairs agent.

Mona later finds Max in a abandoned warehouse, watching the video inside Colvin's package. It is revealed that Aesir Pharmaceuticals was the company manufacturing Valkyr for the military. It was a drug created for the purpose of enhancing a soldier's ability in combat and to control their fears. It is also revealed that, before becoming unstable and a rampage killer, Jack Lupino was a former sergeant who volunteered for Valkyr testing; in the video interview, Lupino stated that "he felt invincible" and "suffered no side effects". Mona tells Max that Lupino's lair is at Ragna Rock. Subsequently, Max goes there and successfully kills all of Lupino's henchmen with ease. Max then encounters Lupino, who attempts to force the drug into Max's body. Before he can, he is shot dead by B.B.. While leaving Ragna Rock with B.B., Max is knocked unconscious by B.B.'s assistant. Max is then showed walking handcuffed between B.B. and his assistant, who confesses he is the lead manufacturer of Valkyr and the runaway killer that Max has been searching for. B.B. and his partner then attempt to eliminate Max. Making him look like an drug-addicted suicidal by slipping two vials of the Valkyr drug in his jacket pocket, and then attempting to drown him in a freezing river.

Max sinks to the bottom as we saw in the opening scene of the movie, but only the thought of his wife and daughter give him the strength to struggle and he barely makes it out alive. In order to combat freezing to death, he ingests the two vials of Valkyr that B.B. had earlier put in his jacket. The effects are felt immediately as he revives his strength and anger and hallucinates with the demonic winged creatures as seen by Valkyr-consuming subjects, which are revealed to be the mythological Valkyries. A strengthened and berserk Max then rushes to Aesir Pharmaceuticals to kill B.B., but amidst all the shooting and due to his increasing hallucinations, Max is almost killed by one of B.B.'s security team members, before Mona arrives, saves Max and offers to hold the rest off until he reaches his former mentor. B.B. has arranged a helicopter to evacute him while his assistant tries to blow up the rooftop access with explosives. Mona fatally wounds the assistant, but he still manages to blow up the floor he is on. Max catches up with B.B. and, despite being shot twice, he shoots B.B. dead. Max then slumps near the edge of the building and the dark, snowy, cloudy city sky is now clearing up and the sun appears shining on Max's face. He then experiences a flashback of himself, his wife and daughter and the film ends with Michelle saying "Not yet, Max."

Through the movie, I can detect one communication factor which is a psychological perspective.
This psychological perspective is located in human mind and this is well shown through the main character of the movie “Max Payne”. As the deep despair and revenge towards his wife and baby daughter’s death, he can not communicate with other people in his social life. For example, in the beginning of the movie, one policeman explains about Max Payne to other man as he is bounded to his miserable case and kind of locked himself in his office. This shows clearly that Max does not maintain his relationship with other people as receivers are distracted by competing internal stimuli. The successful communication can be occurred when the minds are met but Max could not let this happen as his mind set only looks for who has the same mind set with him.Through this movie, I solidly sensed how strong the power of mind is.

The movie "Connected"

[Bob’s life isn’t going well at all. A single father in a dead-end job as a debt collector has trapped in a job that goes against his usual easy-going helpful nature and has under tremendous pressure to be a better dad, a better brother, a better worker, even a better person. While dealing with all this and his sister treats to move to Australia with his son to force him to clean up his act, Bob receives a call out of the blue. It’s a stranger called Grace who claims a mysterious kidnapper is keeping her daughter against her will and begs him to save her and her young daughter. Is it just a prank? The detective he tried reporting the call to seem to think so but Bob’s instincts tell him that he may just be the only thing standing between them and a painful death.]

There are two scenes in the movie “Connected” where communication theories about individual characteristics, psychological state and how our selection is influenced by the mass media, can be applied. The first scene is where Bob is answering a phone call from Grace. Bob’s first response to the call was that he thought Grace was a prank caller who was trying to be funny, and he tries to hang up on her. Bob was in a very difficult situation. He was under a tremendous pressure as he was trying to fulfill many different roles to be a better brother, better father and a better worker. He was not prepared to accept or even register another responsibility when Grace called. He had enough on his hands, trying to pull his life together and prevent disappointing his son yet again. That is why; Bob is more inclined to believe that the call is a prank call despite Grace’s desperate tone and urgent plea for help. Although this is a real life scenario where and individual’s personal experiences and psychological state can affect the way he responds to a situation even when the communication is clear. From this scene, we can realize how our current media has influenced and made us as confused as to what is reality and what is fake. These days, there are many reality TV programmes that produce or recreate fake situations made to look as if they are real just to entertain the viewers, or make us laugh at the hilarious scenarios.

The second scene is when Bob accidentally puts his hand phone in a man’s car. The car starts moving and Bob rushes behind the car. Then the man hears Grace’s urgent voice over the phone in his back seat and answers the phone. When this guy answered the phone, Grace panicked and mumbled some nonsense. When she realized that her improper communication might cost her life, if the man hung up, she wisely changes her strategy. She begins to talk to his guy, as if she is from a game show and asks this man whether he can see a man who is running after his car. The man is easily deceived and he stops the car but the consequence of stopping the car was that Bob takes over the man’s car and the man is left stranded. Through this man’s behavior, it is obvious that his perception is largely influenced by the mass media. Without any doubt, he stopped the car and let stranger (Bob) get in his car, after he heard that his was a game show from Grace. Through this scene, I felt that even though we make choices and decide to believe something by ourselves, even these choices might be made by our perceptions which have been formed and influenced by the mass media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl_VOAXyDEg

Melamine in China

Recently, there was a big issue about excessive amount of melamine found in Chinese food products, especially in milk. Because of this, four babies have died, and now everywhere in the world where Chinese foodstuff is imported, it is strictly inpectes for the amount of melamine in food.

Just as the first impression is crucial within personal relations, the first impression is also very important among international relation. However, because of this unpleasant which happened in China, it has generated negative effects concerning Chinas food quality.

From now on, most of people all over the world will hardly trust the quality of Chinese foodstuff. Moreover, some skeptical people will tend to scrutinize the quality of other things that are impoted from China. China has been emerging as a shining star in this century, but it looks like this star may not stay in the realm of success for long.

China is suffering from various factors. Many companies from world will stop importing from China unless the Chinese inspect their foodstuff under more stringent measures. Some manufactures who were using Chinese milk as an ingredient for their products may have a big problem in producing manufactured goods. They have to source around for another alternative which might be more expensive. Also this unpleasant incident will damage the image of China in future. Many companies around the world were fond of Chinese products as Chinese currency was very low, so the products were cheaper. Despite this advantage, they will now have to look for ways to manage and maintain their business in a competitive environment without using Chinese products.

China will have to work on how they will recover their bad impression. One of the lessons we can learn from this safety scare is that, other's positive or negative impressions about us may influence and affect our whole life. Even though there is a possibility that the first impression can be changed, the possibility of change is very rare and it might thake a long time for it to change.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/03/milk.melamine.australia.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

The ad which makes people upset

http://issue.media.daum.net/editorial/morning/view.html?issueid=2649&newsid=20080820182911885&p=khan

The Article is about how the message delivered by the ad about new apartment

made viewers to feel upset. In the ad, there is one couple, the man is showing

where he is living and the woman feels relieved after seeing that the apartment

he is living in is the one the ad is trying to appeal to people. The viewers argue that

then if we do not live in that apartment, we all live in low class accomodation. The ad

has gone too far that it makes people to feel inferior. The miss communication of the ad

delivers bad images to people rather than promoting the ad's high quality to attract peopel's

mind. When we ad something to appeal to people we should be careful not to overdo or

correctly deliver the message.