The Animals

It was my first time to watch “Blackfish” in this tutorial, it has totally awaked my views of the relationship between human and animals. I mean, it is not to be negative, but it made me thinking, can humans really keep and tame different types’ animals? Is it a kind of discrimination between human and rest species? The killer whale attacks humans because of captive pressure, even if human were not abused or other kinds violent acts during the process of rearing and training. The murder incident in 2010 was the beginning of the news coverage of media headlines around the world, and many called for culling the Tirikumum. But others, especially marine mammalians, not only sympathize with Tirikumum, but also criticized the people who captive it. The 2013 documentary “Blackfish” clearly pointed out that its violent behavior was a direct result of a stressful captive condition.This is why “Blackfish” made the U.S. House of Representatives expressed official interest in studying the impact of captivity on orcas and other marine animals.

It is weird that human audiences would applauded if the seals can be counted, dolphins can be performed with humans. We as human being think we are better or higher than rest because we have languages, emotions so will ask the animal to understand and even learn these things of mankind in order to let human could captive them easier. We trained them to make our happier.

Why human could enjoy the performance from animals rather than human show to other animals? Is the status of mankind really higher than other creatures? I do not think so. Respondents in the “Blackfish” talked about why the sea world happened Killer whale injury’s events which almost about these vitamins did not do any violent acts to hurt killer whale or they made some mistakes’ acts like put their feet into the pool. However, these are not the basics mistake. The root cause of this result was that killer whales not expected be hunted and captured. Human beings could not be the owner of killer whales, we are not high than them.  

Animals are proved that they have their language and their own way to express emotion.  Every killer whale family has a unique voice. In other words, they have a culture that can be passed by the generation, which the cultural level of the killer whale group is surprising. I remember “Blackfish” mentioned a event that when a pair of mother and son whales know they will be forced separated to different places, the mother whale kept screaming and shrieking for a long term. Before this time, the mother whale never did any things like this.

Some animals are not pets, they belong to the nature rather than to the human. No matter how to do it, must be reasonable

Resources:

Breaking down the impact of “Blackfish”

Breaking Down the Impact of “Blackfish”

Can animals talk and  use language like humans? http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150216-can-any-animals-talk-like-humans

为什么虎鲸不应该圈养？圈养无法满足虎鲸需求 http://tech.sina.com.cn/d/a/2016-04-10/doc-ifxrcizs7155025.shtml

The other- poverty porn

I really like this week’s topic which about the poverty porn. It helps me to understand better the nature of some documentaries or news. In other words, it shows me the more sides of media. It is a new word for me but it has already exist on screen in the UK for long terms. But this topic left a question to me is that does it is a kind of propaganda? Firstly what is ‘poverty porn’?

“Poverty porn” refers to both Westerners’ portrayal of global inequality, disease and hunger and also to the distorted presentation of disadvantage by the advantaged. Poverty porn produces abjectifying images of the poor through a privileged gaze for privileged gratification.

It is not like the mainstream porn to have any sexual fragments via pictures or videos to make men viewers produces sexualised, but it has the same centre ideas that through some poor images to show the people who are living in the bottom of society to privileged gratification. I think most of the media is out of good intentions to shoot such a photo or documentary, they may want to get more people to pay attention to such groups. But the impact of such a direct expression is both pros and cons.

  

Through BSB series “Struggle Street” showed how UK causing the moral panics about “poverty porn”. It describes the social inequality but frequently not recognized by the public. Poverty is considered to be evil and is not worthy of being sympathetic. But poverty is not original sin.

When I check more informations about poverty porn I found that ‘Slumdog Millionaire‘ was a Controversial film although it received a lot of praise, still could not drowned rest negative comments for this movie. The story of this film is a boy who grew up from the slum because of his unique life experience which able to help him win the final prize in the ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’. This film has won many awards including the Oscars and Golden Globe. However, India viewers did not enjoy this movie and they even paraded protest. Some say it is ‘exporting poverty’. Which means that the film is to use India’s poverty to make Westerners feel gratification. These two diametrically opposed attitude between western and India is the post-colonial culture under the different background of different national cultural differences and contradictions of another characterisation. My favourite India actor and filmmaker Amair Khan replied his attitude of this movie was that “good for the team, the film is an OK one…it’s more a Western than Indian film”. This is a India story directed by English director.

I am neither a Westerner nor an Indians, simply as an audience, I think this is a good movie to tell the story. If, as the film says, “this is the true India,” then the government should faces poverty caused by the severe structural economic reality and try to solve it. I do not think the truth could be changed by some westerners’ gratification, or the locals protest against the film. However, what is worth thinking about whether this film will distort outsider looking for the views of India? Does the British shoot this film to reveal the ” true India” as a way to help India get better? Or they just in order to complete a outstanding film to win a major of awards via showcase the lack of India?

 

 

 

 

Resources:

Struggle Street is only poverty porn if we enjoy watching, then turn away, Gay Alcorn

Click to access Struggle%20Street%20is%20only%20poverty%20porn%20if%20we%20enjoy%20watching%2C%20then%20turn%20away%20%20Gay%20Alcorn%20%20Opinion%20%20The%20Guardian.pdf

Some say it’s poverty porn- but not many, Ian Jack, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/24/oscars-india-slumdog-millionaire-ian-jack

Struggle Street is poverty porn with an extra dose of class racism https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/933678/mod_resource/content/2/Struggle%20Street%20is%20poverty%20porn%20with%20an%20extra%20dose%20of%20class%20racism.pdf

The Selfies

Why we love to take selfies? 

Taking selfies is an essential part in my life for a long time. I almost do any things which I think it is necessary to keep the memories, I will take selfies.

So what selfie defined?

A selfie is a photographic object that initiates the transmission of human feeling in the form of a relationship (between photographer and photographed, between image and filtering software, between viewer and viewed, between individuals circulating images, between users and social software architectures, etc.). A selfie is also a practice—a gesture that can send (and is often intended to send) different messages to different individuals, communities, and audiences.

I think as a girl, which take selfies in a lot of time just simply to show yourself. In other words, it is a behaviour to show your good side to others, the side you want people know, and then get someone else’s ‘like’. The process of being liked by people who we do not know is a enjoyable experience.

Is the selfies a hypocritical social way?  

Let us watch a video before I start to discuss this topic.

This video could be a representative phenomenon for our selfies’ lifestyle. There are too many media platforms worldwide in the modern time that users could upload pictures with writing some beautiful or meaningful sentences to share our ‘life’. But is it real? What we see on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are the true life? This video is very interesting which it shows us what is true behind these cute photos. When you are taking selfie, someone may be vomiting close to you; when you are feeling ‘what a beautiful day’, you probably stay in a normal even dirty environment. Therefore, the selfie is presented in a limited condition, not a complete information. We cannot point it is fake, but it also not hundred presents truth at all.

But is it can easily defined as negative behaviour? I do not think so. Personally each time I take a selfie is much more complex than this video showing. These following applications just a part of my general apps to finish a selfie.

 

I never use the iPhone original camera for taking selfies and never upload a photo without any filters. Sometimes I know it is kind of sickness, but I want to share my ‘best’ life and ‘perfect’ me to people. It is a process to create a closer relationship with people and ‘liked’ by them could give me more confidences. Sometimes we cannot find a topic to chat with a old friend, it would be a good way to leave a comment under the selfie.

Besides, these selfies are also part of my memories, just like my previously mentioned, since it worth to keep, why do not I keep them in a better way through these tools?

 

 

 

 

Micro-celebrity and the Branded Self

It is absolutely that people want to show the best side to other audiences, but why? What are we pursuing?  A ‘Like’? Or a comment? I do not think it just like this.

This gesture may be dampened, amplified, or modified by social media censorship, social censure, misreading of the sender’s original intent, or adding additional gestures to the mix, such as likes, comments, and remixes.

Expect comments, some people even can turn themselves into a brand effect, which this media platforms make them become a micro celebrities. They will shape their own network image be a kind of popular persona for attracting more viewers to like them. Just like the packaging of advertising goods showing to the audiences the side they will love to make more profit.

 

 

Resources:

THERESA M. SENFT, NANCY K. BAYM. What Does the Selfie Say? Investigating a Global Phenomenon https://moodle.uowplatform.edu.au/pluginfile.php/950604/mod_resource/content/4/whatdoesselfiesay.pdf%5D

 

The ROI of Selfies: The Rise of The Micro-Celebrity http://www.mediavisioninteractive.com/blog/social-media/the-roi-of-selfies/

 

The media inequality under the South Korean wave

This project is aim to discusse about how to reflect the media inequality under the influences of South Korean soft power in China, which is what we call ‘South Korean wave’ or ‘Hallyu’. The influences of Hallyu is a worldwide issue. China is South Korea’s neighbor country, and because mainland China which is relatively backward in the entertainment industry. So the ‘Hallyu’ impact on mainland China is even greater than in Japan and in Taiwan. ‘China in 2000 launched this wave, which now includes food, fashion, tourism, etc. as a flow-on effect (Brian Y)’. I chose three representative cases in my video to state how ‘Hallyu’ influences China through their media cultural power.

Firstly, South Korean soap TV series stars are unimaginable popularity  in China. After the TV series ‘My love from the star’ (‘You who came from the Stars’) had hotted all over the world, the main actor in the series, Kin Soo-hyun, in just two months took more than 10 Chinese endorsements, or as a model image. Many Chinese well-known big brands have invited him to do advertising. Thanks to his endorsements, the sales and visibility of these brands have enhanced greatly. Kin Soo-hyun also had made more than 100 million yuan (RMB) profit through these ads (南都娱乐).

Secondly, the example of South Korean idol group I used in the video which was Super Junior, a famous group even in the world. At the same time, in order to expanse the Chinese market, they have a Chinese branch, Super Junior M. This is not a special case, EXO and EXO M which are also popular in both South Korea and China. The alphabet ‘M’ is the initial of ‘mandarin’, which means the ‘M’ branch facing the mainland China mainly.  Among these ‘M’ groups, there are some native Chinese and South Korean members. Both to ensure the barrier-free communication with the Chinese audiences, but also could maintain the elements of the Korean original group. These groups could be hot in China in a really short time. The members who in the Korean group could have more followers in Sina Weibo than much Chinese stars.

Thirdly, what reality TV shows familiarized by Chinese audiences in recent years, such as ‘I am a Singer’, ‘Running Man’, ‘Dad! Where are you going?’, are all introduced from the South Korea original TV show. In contrast, there is almost no completely original reality show in China. Even the “original reality show”, which does not to purchase copyright from Korean programs, still has borrowed heavily from the Korean programming in form (每日头条).

In China, the billboards could see in the roads which are fulling of Korean stars; what idol group Chinese girls’ love are from the South Korea; the hot reality shows in China are the remake versions of Korean’s original version. Although China has its own strong hard power, long history and traditional culture, its modern culture has already impacted deeply by the South Korea.

References:

南都娱乐, 2014, 60天16个代言 金秀贤中国两月捞金一亿[Online] http://www.smweekly.com/news/report/201404/36484.aspx

每日头条,2016,《极限挑战》真的属于中国原创综艺节目？ [Online] https://kknews.cc/entertainment/gyna28.html

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=681VB2gfrqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evGmTliGG4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7v9FWUwXVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-QuBZv42As

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpItqRuvIg0

Pictures：

http://ontheworldmap.com/world/world-political-map-with-countries.jpg

http://food.chinaso.com/xiangqingye/13618362781408051122033915227.html

http://www.buka321.com/dianying/star/2016-9/17805.html

http://news.cnhubei.com/xw/yl/201408/t3016355_3.shtml

http://www.kpopeurope.eu/enpl-wind-of-change-poland-is-one-step-away-from-hallyu-wave/?lang=en

http://en.people.cn/90782/7992483.html

Japanese anime and the East/West divide

I will focus on Japanese anime and America anima as a symbols of the East and West divide in this blog.  I have to say, although I am a big fan of Japanese anime,  we can not generalize, simply say Western or Eastern anime is best.

Before I start to discuss this topic, I am going to show you a group of pictures about Japanese (or East) anime style and America (or west)  anime style.

[Left one is NARUTO from Japan, right one is Avengers from America (Marvel). ]

[Left one is Chibi Maruko Chan, next one is The Simpsons.]

I have just presented pictures are from Japan and America respectively, and could be regarded as the similar type anime , but the painting style are very different. Let’s see some more pictures to analysis.

As can be seen,  after years of evolution, Japanese animated characters tend to have colourful hair and big eyes, and there also be Japan’s unique characteristics in the hair, such as a pigtails, and the bangs like ‘M’ word. Although the color is exaggerated, many animations in Japan are based on their culture elements, such as Japanese school uniforms, and some of the traditional Japanese monster story. Also, sometimes, they would use kind of  style like ukiyo-e to make anime (such as the third one, Mononoke).

 

Differently, compared to Japan’s anime which is more closer to the reality, America’s classics are more exaggerated. The proportion of characters are also different with real people, like the The Powerpuff Girls. In addition, various biotic and abiotic anthropomorphic, Robert elements, special aliens and some high technologies. Especially in science and technology section, both with American style.

Of course, the animation is also a manifestation of global cultural exchange, whether it is in Japan or the United States. It is not only confined to their own cultural background and painting style. So Japanese anime and American anime will influence each other, and even have a special animation is to make each other’s style. For example, These two following picture.The people proportion of the left is obvious American comic style, which is very exaggerated, do not meet the normal percentage of body. And exquisite costumes and props to the right hair color and eye color, have a distinctive feature of Japanese comics. However, the left one is Japanese animation,the right one come from American.

 

Apart from exchange-style, Japanese animation will appear Western clothes or the cultural background story.

American animation, too. The most famous anima should be Disney the Orientalization sets animation with East traditional story such as, Mulan, Aladdin etc.

 

 

Besides that, they also have different target audience. America anime (or cartoon) is mainly facing to the children or youth people, so they always have more positive thinkings or funny communications. But Japanese anime tend to do for the children and adult, more mature depictions like violence, sexual themes etc. Even have a special type like pornography for adult.

All in all, the reason of large difference between East and West anime, which with the social environment, historical factors and cultural differences they themselves have a great relationship. They both are excellent.

 

 

References:

Difference between American Cartoon and Japanese Anime

 

 

 

 

The current relationship between Hollywood and China

 

 

Relationship between China markets and Hollywood movie is very complex. For both parties, there are advantages as well as  disadvantages.

For China, cooperation with Hollywood can bring in more foreign advanced technology to help Chinese movies and promote Sino-foreign cooperative film to the international market. But at the same time, more Hollywood movies have a tremendous impact on China’s immature domestic film market. For Hollywood, China undoubtedly is a fertile overseas markets to be discovered. But import movies that enter mainland China is also controlled and regulated by the Chinese government. Some values advocated by Hollywood such as freedom, diversity, individualism, consumerism are not in line with the communist ideology.

“On one hand, Chinese moviegoers urgently hope the government will learn from the west, using a film rating system to replace the current censorship system. On the other hand, China’s ideological situation is not ready to end the censorship system completely in a short time.”(Siying Bai)

 

 

The way to change

China is now taking an experimenting approach to cooperate with Hollywood in activities such as shooting. China already has lots of top film and television companies that cooperate with Hollywood in investment and production. These Sino-US film and television production companies form partnership and co-produce high-quality movies which are mainly for the Chinese market (zhengjunliao). These films are extremely successful in China because they are able to present Chinese narratives with advanced western technologies from Hollywood, leading more cooperation of this type.

 

International organisations may also propose a mandatory requirement for China to open up its vast domestic market. For example, according

to China’s WTO commitment, upon entry in 2001, “China had to allow twenty foreign film imports a year on a percentage rental basis, up from the previous ten films. One of the first steps the government took to open up the domestic film industry was to end the production monopoly of the large state-owned studios in 2002.” (Siying Bai)

 

 

 

China’s market

China has gradually expanded he share of imported foreign movies in recent years, especially after 2012, added an extra special piece that like IMAX, 3D, etc. The demand from fast growing population of Chinese middle class is high. Some Chinese companies such as Dalian Wanda have even acquired some internationally well known movies making companies.

In order to protect China’s domestic film market, the number of imported films is controlled by government authority SARFT’s stringently.

But in recent years, imported foreign films are introduced at a historically fast rate in China. Of course, before entering the market in China, the film still needs to go through a rigorous review from SARFT. But as more Hollywood films are made with the plan to target Chinese market, sensitive topics and issues are avoided to be included in the film making stage.

 

 

Why cooperation?

Since China has a strict control system, joint ventures, and even in the filming industry, it is a very effective way to enter the Chinese market. On one side, Chinese partners would have the knowledge of the Chinese market and the network with the Chinese authorities to get necessary. In addition, a lot of funds in China can be mobilised into the movie industry. On the other side, the Hollywood partners would have long term industry expertise and skills as well as world leading technologies. The joint ventures reduce risks and improve profitability.

The recent very famous movie, The Forbidden Kingdom, a is a good example of it. The film is based on traditional Chinese myths and story, Journey to the West. There are two major Chinese martial arts actors starring in the film. Meanwhile there are also American actors and plots from western background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

B, Siying, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CHINESE FILM CENSORSHIP SYSTEM

http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1478&context=gs_rp

 

L, zhengjun, Nov, 24, 2015, 与好莱坞合作，中美电影走向双赢

http://finance.people.com.cn/n/2015/1124/c1004-27848071.html

 

P, Jack, Mar,1, 2013 China’s film industry,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2013/03/01/chinas-film-industry/#4e4ba9852963

Happy to see you!

 

Hi good to see you.

I am a student who come from China to here to study media and communication.

Still nervous in the second year!

 

 

 

 

 

Being together or not being together

Story 1: Rainy night

These pictures are telling a story that although the photo which is being upload to the Weibo is full of sunshine, and the girl has a bright smile. However, in fact, the reality of that girl is living in a solitude and rainy environment.

Story 2: Lonely Halloween

Today is Halloween

She is upploadinag photos…

Halloween pictures (What are uploading online…)

but there was nobody to help her shooting… only herself…

She has some friends who has same hobby with her, but they never seen each other.

she leaves  comments and chats with these friends..

 And there is still only her self…

I want to use these two group of photos to reflect a comparison on the online world and the real world.  Modern’s young people can make a lot of friends online, and there are lots things to talk about. But in reality, the people who can have real communication are lacking. 

Social media makespeople social less. 

Chinese media regulation

First of all, what is Media regulation?

“Media regulation is the control or guidance of mass media by governments and other bodies. This regulation, via law, rules or procedures, can have various goals, for example intervention to protect a stated “public interest”, or encouraging competition and an affective media market, or establishing common technical standards.”

The Chinese media regulation is very strong. Although now really on your private terrace or in the public platform, it has enough freedom on the surface, but the press, radio, film and television industries, are controlled by laws and regulations of  relevant government department.  “Regulations are formal and compulsory instructions about the structure, conduct or content of the media. Examples include limits on monopoly ownership or media cross-ownership; limits on the amount of advertising on television (found in many European media systems); or requirements to have an operating or receiving license for television or radio. ”

Actually, free expression of media is truly important. “freedom of expression requires a public dimension—a means of communication—in order to facilitate the exchange of opinions, ideas and information. It follows that free expression activists have focused a great deal of attention on the structure and regulation of the media environment, for it is these that provide the principal platforms for public expression, from books and newspapers to the broadcast media.” But in China, the international community thinks that China”s media environment has deteriorated. A new annual press freedom report says, China’s media freedom declined in power after Xi Jinping. The Chinese government by sending a lot of manpower to monitor the social networking site to control public opinion, and banning does not meet the intent of the government news.

China’s media regulatory system, for News International also have an influences.

References:

1.  “What is media regulation?”. Media Regulation. Leicester: University of Leicester. Retrieved 29 November 2012.

2, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001916/191624e.pdf

3, VOA, 报告：中国新闻自由环境恶化，

http://www.voachinese.com/content/china-freedom-press-20150428/2741073.html

Pay attention please!

“Selective attention has become a central topic in cognitive psychology, and more recently in cognitive neuroscience also.” “A particularly clear future trend is the increasing integration of psychology and neuroscience, plus the development of ever more sophisticated functional imaging methods. (Jon Driver)”

About the task of attention, we did not do a very scholarly research. We were just a few friends among us to do a comparison. (Together doing the experiment had Mia, Serina and I) We spent two hours to learn our own lessons, then compare our efficiency and completeness, as well as our attitude and status changing during the learning process.

So first of all, is our complete efficiency. Mia and I are almost the same efficiency, relatively, Serina efficiency is relatively low. But because we all know that in doing experiments, so two hours or higher efficiency than usual in this area. Then, at the completion of the process, we also have mood and state changeing. Mia and I belong to, do not take the initiative to begin to learn, but once you start to learn, they were more likely to concentrate over a period of time to complete. But there is a habit of Mia and I, which is we are enjoy listening music at the same time in homework, particularly for me, I think that music, especially fast-paced music, but also help me to concentrate. Serina low efficiency, according to her because she is easily distracted. So this is my easy task of attention.

I decided to do this simple task of attention on the learning efficiency, rather than a questionnaire, because I think, for now, for us, can concentrate on learning, which is a very important thing. “Our whole education system has been constructed on the simple premise that learning begins when a student pays attention to what a teacher is saying. All children, regardless of how sincerely they might wish to please the teacher, will be chastised at some point or the other during their life in school for not paying attention in class. (Prakash Nair)”

“What we see, hear, feel and remember depends not only on the information entering our senses, but also upon which aspects of this we choose to attend (Jon Driver).” Maria Konnikova used a cocktail party effect as an example, which was telling as when we listening  some one says our name and then, we will pay attention to that.  “When we pick up on one voice and ignore others, our brains somehow discard the information coming from superfluous sources”. “This basic principle governs our attention all the time. We attend to things that are somehow important to us, and fail to note those that aren’t.( Maria Konnikova) ”

References：

Jon Driver, A selective review of selective attention research from the past century.

Click to access Brit%20J%20Psychology%2092%2053%2078.pdf

Maria Konnikova, Why paying attention is anything but elementary

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130305-paying-attention-isnt-elementary

Prakash Nair, The attention myth: why paying attention in class is overrated

http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/attention-myth-why-paying-attention-class-overrated