Michael Jackson, King of the World

Michael Jackson and his death display a prime example of cultural imperialism.

When Michael Jackson was still alive, we all know how much of an influence he was, and still is, to every nook and cranny in the world. He is an African American who managed to charm the socks off the Indians, the Chinese, the Japanese, and pretty much everyone else. Watch the videos below to see why this is so.

India



The Philippines



Hmong



The Digital World



As you can see, Michael Jackson himself had influenced such a great diversity of people in his time, from Bollywood, to prison inmates, toddlers, to computer gamers. In a sense, he truly conquered the world.

Let us look at how Michael Jackson is mourned all over the world. (Some videos added after blog entry date for added emphasis.)


Vietnam



Denmark



Greece



Sweden (This video depicts the diffusion of "MJ" Culture in a pretty cool way, as you can see how gradually, the dancing spreads across the square.)



After watching all the above videos, you have to agree that in one way or another, Michael Jackson had bridged social gaps across the developed and the developing nations. One thing that all these people all over the world have in common is that they are all mourning for his death, mourning for the loss of a very talented and influential being.

During Singapore’s tribute to MJ, reporters noted the huge diversity of people who attended as well, including monks and “heartland aunties”.

It is no surprise that during this period of time when people all over the world are mourning for MJ, there is a sort of feeling of unity amongst all, as they all share the same view, thoughts, and emotions.

AP - Queen Latifah called Michael Jackson "the biggest star on Earth," and it was hard to argue when his memorial service united television networks as diverse as ABC, MTV, Fox News Channel, BET and ESPN News.

Russian News - His death united everyone. MJ fans organized actions of memory all over the world.

CBS News - This is a big world, with many remote corners where America is known only as a distant and different land. But Michael Jackson touched almost all of them.

Michael Eric Dyson (Professor of Sociology) - He brought human beings together across the barriers of race and class and gender. He projected into the world (the genius and strength) of African-American culture.

Records Statistics - Jackson's 1991 hit "Black or White" charted at number one in the Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cuba, Denmark, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the Unites Kingdom, Zimbabwe and, of course, the United States.


The Nation - But, as with Elvis Presley and so many brilliant artists whose lives ended after their stars had been tarnished, it will be the iconic influence - an influence stretching across boundaries of race, class, gender and nationality -- that is most remembered when we speak of Michael Jackson, and the ultimately most significant.


I shall end this blog entry with Michael Jackson's superb performance at The Grammys 1988, when he was at his prime. RIP Michael Jackson. The children of the future will learn about you in their history textbooks.

Fox News Edited to Favour Republicans

This video demonstrates how mass media can affect how millions of people will view an issue. In this case, the issue is Barack Obama's and John McCain's health.

As the narrator describes in the Youtube video shown above, Fox News, the institutional source of the message, has seemingly edited out negative sounding facts about John McCain, and edited their news coverage in such a way that it favours McCain and puts Obama in a bad light. This is also known as agenda setting, whereby Fox News tried to influence viewers into thinking that McCain is possibly a better choice, and hiding the truth from their invisible receivers. By doing this, they are also altering the standards by which people evaluate the issue. It is very possible that the gatekeepers of Fox News are pro-Republicans.

It is rather interesting how a simple bit of information, such as the medical history of two people, can be depicted in so many different ways just based on different focuses on different angles, and very importantly, the way the information is being presented to the audience. This is where the media uses different communication techniques to present the same message differently.

In the case of Fox News, once their invisible receivers receive the message, how they comprehend the message, is up to them entirely. As it is a one-way communication, the receivers will probably just talk about the message among themselves, and forget about it over some time. Feedback to the institutional source is delayed. There might not even be feedback in most cases because of the “Spiral of Silence”, whereby some receivers think that they are the minority who think this way, and thus are too afraid to voice their opinions.

Below is another video which is solely a Fox News Report on rapper, Jay-Z's, lyrics about Obama.



Below are some examples of how invisible receivers comprehend the message.

Naturalthing1 - Jay-Z's and Young Jeezy sound real intelligent don't they? Great role models.

Starcatcher777 - What did anyone expect!

PierreElliottTrudeau - Who cares? Seriously. I mean how many freaking white supremacists supported Bush openly? Never heard Fox News blast them?! Seriously...

Shanghai Pride

After much obstruction by Chinese authorities over different matters, “Shanghai Pride”, Shanghai’s first homosexual festival, finally took place today. Drag queens donned colourful Chinese opera costumes to take part in fashion shows and “hot body” competitions. There was also a “Big Bash” barbecue held in a bar. At the end of the event, two fake gay marriages took place as a symbol of them announcing their love.

From this piece of news, we are able to see how differing cultures in one city affect each other so much.

The first culture we have here is the conservative Chinese culture. The conservative Chinese culture is unable to embrace an alternative lifestyle, in this case, homosexuality. Therefore we can see how the government reacts, by sending officials to forcefully prevent an event like “Shanghai Pride” from taking place. Traditional Chinese are against homosexuality because they believe that it is an unnatural deed that interferes with the continuation of the family line. So collectively, these Chinese do not condone homosexuality.



For more liberal Chinese who embrace homosexuality, or who are homosexuals themselves, they need to develop the mindset of an individualist in order to break out from the general collectivist nature of this Asian society. Most of such Chinese are not only liberalized, but also westernized, as they pick up certain liberal habits from the West.

In fact for this festival, the organizers are Americans by the names of Tiffany Lemay, and Hannah Miller. Also, quoting a gay man, Chen, he says that, “I think gay culture in Shanghai has gradually come out of the closet, thanks to the expat community in the city.”

We can see from here how exposure to the culture of the west helps the Chinese to be unafraid of being more individualist.



With this minority of Chinese individualists emerging from all over, a small community is formed to cater to the needs of these people. In this case, the homosexual community in Shanghai is known as the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Community. The individual homosexuals who join the community then make use of their collectivist characteristics so that the community’s bonds can be strengthened, against the majority of conservative Chinese in China.

That is why, despite the countless attempts by the police to disrupt the festival, such as stopping the screening of a gay film in a café, and canceling various events at different venues repeatedly, the LGBT Community still managed to continue the show.

Gordon Brown is a Bad Leader

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing revolt as the Labour Party plunged to its lowest ever during the European elections. During this period of time, Labour members of the parliament have also criticized Brown greatly for his poor leadership skills. This is not the worst that Brown has been facing. Six senior cabinet ministers had resigned last week, and junior minister Jane Kennedy quit on Monday. The rest of the members urged Brown to step down from his position and give the Labour party a chance.

Let us take a look at how Brown failed as a leader of his party. If we were to use William Schutz’s theory of interpersonal needs within a group to judge Brown’s party, we can say that the party has failed in these regards. First of all, the affection needs have not been fulfilled. It is known that despite Alistair Darling’s loyal services to Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Brown conspicuously failed to back him up in an attempt to move an even closer ally, Ed Balls, into the job. This is not only betrayal, but also a huge failure in developing a close and caring relationship with his team member.

Due to this shameful act by the party’s leader, the group synergy started to slip downward rapidly, due to the decreasing morale and faith of the members in their leader. Other bad leadership qualities that Brown displayed were “tribalism, the refusal to admit mistakes, bouts of control freakery and indecisiveness”. (The Economist) Instead of taking up a task or maintenance role, Brown has taken up a negative role, to be precise, the role of a Special-Interest Pleader, Dominator, and Blocker. With all these negative qualities in its leader, it would be almost impossible for a group to make complex decisions. It would also be hard to gain the full support of the group. These factors indicate the downfall of the party as they are the things a group gets together to achieve in the first place.

I strongly feel that a good leader should take up both task and maintenance roles at the same time, and not a single negative role. A good leader should be an Evaluator-Critic, an Energizer, and a Coordinator. He/she should also be an Encourager, a Standard Setter, and a Group Observer. These are all the roles that Brown should have considered taking up. Perhaps he should take some leadership lessons from Mr Obama.

Phillipines Sex Scandal

A sex scandal in Phillipines between a cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Hayden Kho, and a few of his celebrity patients, has recently emerged. Sex videos of the doctor and his patients have been leaked out onto the Internet. The only identified woman involved in the scandal as one of his sex partners is up-and-coming actress, Katrina Halili. When asked about it, she said, “I fully gave my heart and soul to a man who is doing his own movie.”

This is an example of how a Qualitative approach of Interpersonal communication went totally wrong.

Before Ms. Halili went to Dr. Kho for his surgery services, they shared an impersonal relationship as doctor and patient. But as Halili and Kho drew closer to each other, and Halili eventually got seduced by Kho, their relationship became interpersonal. From her statement above, we can tell that Halili adopted a mindset during their interaction, that perhaps Kho was a man she could trust and love.

One reason they even hooked up together in the first place was because they were both similar to each other in certain ways, one example being they are both celebrity figures, rich, and good looking. This is an example of stimulus generalization.

Another reason they hooked up was because each was also rather special in their own ways. Kho is well known for having an ideal well-toned body for a man. Not only that, he is also an educated doctor. Halili is Philippine’s sex symbol, voted FHM 2006’s sexiest woman, and has graced the covers of such magazines over and over. This is an example of stimulus discrimination.

Using non-verbal communication, particularly objectics, the Philippines media communicated their disdain towards Halili by pulling her posters and advertising billboards down from all over Philippines. Film and modeling companies have also retracted jobs they have previously offered her.

I feel that stimulus generalization plays a bigger part in attracting one to another in an interpersonal communication. This is because both parties need to be similar to a decent extent in order for them to take an interest in each other. If both parties were too different from each other, they probably would not even take notice of each other in the first place, just like how a basketball jock would probably never notice a punk rock musician, if we put superficial interests aside. Stimulus generalization emphasizes the proverb, “Birds of a feather flock together.” So one will often notice that couples almost always have many things in common, whether they are similarities in terms of status, wealth, career, mindsets, or interests.

Kris Allen Wins

This video demonstrates both Verbal and Non-verbal communication. Lets watch the reactions of these people as the winner of the latest American Idol is announced.



As the winner is announced, we see the viewers jumping up and whooping, communicating to us non-verbally that they are happy with the results. As they whoop and rejoice, they also communicate verbally to each other, saying things like “Yeah!” repeatedly.

Speaking of the word, “Yeah”, it is amazing to know how this simple one-syllable word can convey so much meaning along with the nonverbal cues. In this video’s context, by just simply shouting the word “Yeah” many times in that particular tone, while jumping around and throwing punches in the air, it means, “I am completely overjoyed that Kris Allen won!”

As the person is jumping around shouting “Yeah!”, we see a girl attempting to hit him with a cushion. This is a nonverbal way of saying, “Shut up and sit down already!” A moment later, another girl hits another screaming guy with a cushion, also indicating the same meaning.

Because language reflects its users, we can gauge to a certain degree what kind of people these kids are from the way they reacted to the video. Some of them are obviously extroverted and rather loud-mouthed, whereas there are more introverted ones who express their emotions in a milder manner. These kids are also possibly very closely related, maybe either close friends or relatives, for them to bother gathering together just to watch the results of an ongoing reality show.

On the other hand, we have a girl who is completely devastated that Kris Allen won.



The nonverbal cues that indicate this include the way she looks, as if she is about to cry, and the hysterical tone of her voice. The verbal cues are obviously the content of her speech, such as the introduction of the video, “I HATE LIFE! KILL ME NOW!” We can see that this girl is a very dramatic person and expresses her emotions very freely.

As meaning is attached to language by humans, there are many differing opinions from Youtube viewers on her reaction to the results. Below are some of them.


Nedsdag (27 minutes ago)

You need prozac.

LifeWithoutNick (3 hours ago)

Again this is horrible acting, as for her friends saying it's real, if you really were her friends you would have advised her to take comedy classes before making this attempt at "humor" Are you really doing her favors by encouraging this kind of behavior? Shame

TheEvilPuppy (9 hours ago)

My thoughts exactly. Last American Idol episode I will ever see. I swear on my soul NEVER AGAIN will I waste a second of my life on this piece of SHIT overglorified Kareoke Contest.


Plainly, due to different personal construct, different people interpreted her reaction differently, with some people thinking that she is just over-emotional, some people believing that she is acting it all, and some people understanding why she is behaving this way.

At the end of this analysis, we know that it does not take a rocket scientist to communicate successfully, because with every little body movement and word formed, a message is being communicated.

The Aware Saga

30 years ago, homosexuality was not a very well-accepted way of living in conservative Singapore. Our more traditional elders perceived homosexuality to be “unnatural” and maybe even “wrong”. This was due to many different factors, some of which include religious beliefs, and also the old-fashioned perception that families should be formed with a heterosexual man and woman to maintain the “balance”.

30 years from then in present times, homosexuality is widely accepted in a more liberal Singapore. This is again due to perception. As Singapore embraces the cultures of other countries, Singaporeans also mould their perceptions around these newly embraced cultures, such as accepting homosexuality as a possible way of life.

This then brings me to the topic of The Aware Saga. I must say that The Aware Saga was a pretty good example of a psychological perspective of communication. Before I begin, let me give you a brief summary of this case.

Josie Lau, DBS bank executive, was appointed head of women’s rights organization, AWARE, despite disapproval from her boss. It was later discovered that 5 other women from the same church also joined the new team leading AWARE. The drama was started when these women made statements that hinted at them being anti-gay, and also when Dr Thio Su Mien, senior lawyer and also another member of the same church, spoke up to say that she had been mentoring these women to “take over” AWARE so as to “re-direct” AWARE “back to its original cause. These discoveries sparked off much displeasure among both the homosexual community, and also people who felt that homosexuals had a place in our society and should not be discriminated in any way.

In the early stages of this saga, members of the public learnt about the case through the news. They then processed the information they received with their individual perspectives, and formed different conclusions about the case. This is when the psychological perspective took place, because whatever conclusions these people formed in their heads might not be the most accurate of conclusions, since they do not even know Lau and her croonies personally. The only information they received was passed through the media, which also might not be 100% accurate due to the media’s tendency to over-sensationalize trivialities.

Armed with all their different conclusions formed, people seek for both interactive and transactional ways of sharing their thoughts with the rest of little Singapore. Therefore they flood their thoughts on various forums on the Internet, and also share their thoughts with friends and family face to face. They either discuss or debate, and either influence or be swayed. All kinds of sentiments among Singaporeans were naturally induced what with all the hype generated.

The social constructionist perspective comes into place as these people communicate their opinions to one another. People who had no opinion about the saga initially, were gradually drawn into it as others with opinions communicated their ideas to them. For some of them, they even start to feel so strongly about it that they join other like-minded ones in voting for or against Josie Lau's exco during the EGM. These people turned from having no clue, to actually having a part! As the people who were influenced to be against Josie Lau was significantly more than those who supported her, her exco was naturally ousted out of place, where they lost drastically by 700 votes.

It is interesting to see how communication weaves its web via so many different means to form one great story. Another point to note is that if any of the participants in this great story had employed a slightly different form of communication to share their ideas, the whole situation might have turned out differently with a different ending.