FEMEN

In this week topic, I’m going to discuss about FEMEN. What is FEMEN? FEMEN is an international women’s movement of brave topless female activists painted with the slogans and crowned with flowers. (Femen, n.d.) Female activists from FEMEN are the women with special training, physically and psychologically ready to implement the humanitarian tasks of any degree of complexity and level of provocation, and ready to withstand repressions against them and are propelled by the ideological cause alone. In other words, FEMEN is the special force of feminism, its spearhead militant unit, modern incarnation of fearless and free Amazons.

Feminism, its defined as a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women. The first-wave feminism was happened in year 1918, which female get the equal contract and property rights and the opposition to chattel marriage and ownership of married women by their husband. The second-wave feminism in year 1960s to 1980s is still concerned with other issues of equality such as ending discrimination. Female has facing inequality in cultural and political. However, the third-wave feminism in late 1990s, its more focused on ‘micro-politics’ and challenge the second wave’s paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for female, also the no inherent differences between the sexes and contend that gender roles caused by the social conditioning. Lastly, the post-feminism defined as a range of viewpoints reacting to feminism. whereas people believe that women have achieved second wave goal and still in critical of third wave feminist goals. (GWANET, n.d.)

However, FEMEN is the force of feminism. There are many cases we can found around the world that related with FEMEN. For instance, a group of topless female gather in front of the Justice Ministry in the capital city of Tunis and wrote a slogan ‘Breast Feed Revolution’ on their breast. Yet, this kind of activities has against the rule of Islamic, whereby one of the 19-year-old FEMEN activist from Tunisian was receiving lashing and death threats from Adel Almi who is a prominent Islamic cleric and the president of the Commission, its because the girl has posting two topless photograph of herself on Fecabook. (Anna, 2013)

‘Ukraine is Not a Brothel’ is a film directed by a Australian named Kitty Green. She spent one year with FEMEN activists in Ukraine, and shooting a documentary that has been showing at the 70th Venice film festival. Basically, this film has presented history of FEMEN. It shows a crucial paradox of the movement, one that has now become a scandal. (Inna, 2013)

Here is the trailer for ‘Ukraine is Not a Brothel’.

References

1.Anna Lekas Miller, 2013, FEMEN’s ‘ Topless Jihad, The Nation, accessed 7 June 2014, http://www.thenation.com/article/175056/femens-topless-jihad#

2.FEMEN, n.d., accessed 7 June 2014, http://femen.org/about

3. GWANET, .n.d, History and Theory of Feminism, accessed 7 June 2014, http://www.gender.cawater-info.net/knowledge_base/rubricator/feminism_e.htm

4.Inna Shevchenko, 2013, Femen let Victor Svyatski take over because we didn’t know to fight it, theguardian, accessed 7 June 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/victory-svyatski-femen-man

 

 

Diasporic Media

This week blog, I’m going to talk about Diasporic media. What is Diasporic Media? By the word ‘diaspora’ itself, its mean a dispersal or scattering of people and can be a huge range of different reasons, from the pursuit of work to escaping a threatening home society. this indicates that this scattering can be either voluntary or forced. (UKessays, n.d.) Therefore, we can define diasporic media as the media whose content is relevant to, representative of or produced by or for these groups of people. It’s because of the different forms of diasporic media, it often plays many differing roles, with fluctuating and debatable significance, for these communities of people.

In other words, diasporic media can play the role of helping socialize migrant communities into their new environments and familiarizing them, in a less intimidating way, with the host country. (UKessays, n.d.) According to Cottle (2000), he mentioned that the important role of ethnic media where have to put into consideration, he also explains that is this kind of media is made available to these communities, and it needs to ‘enhance the confidence of minority ethnic individuals and communities’ and will therefore ‘increase access to, and active participation in, media production.’

The growth of economic in China has make more and more Chinese migrant to Australia. Therefore, we can easy find things that related with Chinese culture or something wrote in Chinese language in Australia. Also, its make the growth of diasporic Chinese-Language media and its play an important role in Australia.

First of all, diasporic Chinese-Language media  is important in technological, cultural, and economic where need to reassess their cultural role and strategies in the wake of the PRC’s New status as a global power and its push for expansion of its media content and cultural impact outside China. Nevertheless, to varying extent and in a variety of ways, the diasporic Chinese-language media have become part and parcel of the global transnational cultural economies of Chinese-Language media production.

Furthermore, the growth of technologies nowadays has become another pathway of diasporic media. For example, internet, websites, and Tv stations. In Australia, http://www.chinatown.com.au is the most ‘mainstream’ website for Chinese-language users, following by http://www.yumcha.com.au which is narrower to targets business professionals, and http://www.waiwai.com.au which caters to new students. A wide range of websites have appeared which is catering to various community needs.

Another cases study can be discuss would be a film named ‘ Bend it like Beckham’ (2002). It’s also a form of diasporic media to show the different culture between British and Indian culture. Jesminder Bhamra (Jess) comes into conflict with her family especially her mother, because Jess love soocer, but she come from a traditional Indian family which is food play an important role in film. However, she meets Jules who encourages her to join her team – the Hounslow Harries. She also falls in love with a British guy – Joe. Although she was facing a lot of challenges in the film, but she knows she has to ‘bend’ with Jules to change perception of others where Indian people only got food. by the end of the film, Jess and Jules been choose to U.S and they have successfully changed their family’s view to support their choices.

References

1.Sun, W, Yue, A, Sinclair, J & Gao, J 2011, ‘Diasporic Chinese media in Australia: A post – 2008 overview’, Journal of media & cultural studies, vol 25, no 4, pp 515-527, accessed 1 June 2014, http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/10304312.2011.576751

2. Jamie Rees 2012, Bend it Like Beckham and “Bending the Rules, accessed 1 June 2014, http://artifactsjournal.missouri.edu/2012/09/bend-it-like-beckham-and-bending-the-rules/

3. UKessays, n.d., Diasporic Media play in Migrant Communities, accessed 1 June 2014, http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/media/diasporic-media-play-in-migrant-communities.php%5B/embed%5D

 

 

 

Globalisation – a connection with different countries

“In sociological and cultural analyses of globalization, media such as satellite television, the Internet, computers, mobile phones etc. are often thought to be among the primary forces behind current restructurations of social and cultural geography. Electronic media facilitate an increased interconnectedness across vast distances and a temporal flexibility in social interaction.”  (Kaul 2011)

In China, there are variety of entertain show such as the current show named ‘Daddy has come back’ and the previous show named ‘Where are we going, Dad!’. These two particular shows were origin from Korea which named ‘The return of superman’ (in China named ‘Daddy has come back’) and the other named’ Dad! where are you going!’. ‘The return of superman’ is a show that daddy have to look after their kid without their wife, ‘Daddy has come back’ in China have the same scenario as Korea version. Also, ‘Dad! where are you going’ in Korea and ‘Where are we going, Dad!” in China have same scenario where daddy have to bring their kid to travel alone. Somehow we can say China copy the show from Korea.

“Daddy has come back” & “The Return of Superman”

“Dad! Where are you going” & ‘Where are we going, Dad!”

Nevertheless, these show no matter in Korean version or China version. All of that we can watch from the Youtube website. It’s because these particular TV stations has owned a Youtube channel where we can subscribed their channel to view the show that showing in their country as well. According to John&Mark (2004), the TV shows in China which is a nexus of Chinese content were played across the Chinese-speaking market. Also, a satellite TV station in Malaysia – ASTRO has provided different channel from various countries such as Korea, China, Taiwan and etc. (ASTRO n.d)

Another Korean wave sweeps China was a drama show named ‘My love from the star’ which host by top South Korean actors Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyu. (Lixin 2014) I also a fan of this drama show, a tall, handsome, rich and alien man who loves the heroine blindly and always protect his women. A news that I saw  from Facebook, some of the companies in China allow their employees to apply ‘drama’ leave during the final episode of this show.

Due to TV shows, we can speak several of language that we not belong with it such as Korean. People learned the language to understand better the culture of the country. Language is one of the culture’s elements. Its can be used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties over generation, and can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. (Emma 2010) An example for globalization where people connecting each other although they born in different countries and speak a different language.

References:

1. Vineet Kaul, 2011, Globalisation and Media , Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism, accessed 26 May 2014, http://omicsgroup.org/journals/2165-7912/2165-7912-1-105.php?aid=3360

2. Xiao Lixin, 2014, Second Korean Wave Sweeps China, The Korean Herald, accessed 26 May 2014, http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140304000914

3. ASTRO n.d., accessed 26 May 2014, http://www.astro.com.my/whats-on/channels

4. Sinclair, John and Harrison, Mark , 2004, Globalization, Nation, and
Television in Asia :The Cases of India and China, Sage Journal Vol 5. No.1, accessed 26 May 2014, http://tvn.sagepub.com/content/5/1/41.abstract

5. Emma, 2010, The Relationship between Language and Culture, Lexiophiles, accessed 26 May 2014, http://www.lexiophiles.com/uncategorized/the-relationship-between-language-and-culture

 

 

 

Race stereotyping in Media – ‘Crash’

People would like to say movies are the mirror of the society, they’re portraying the current issue into movies. A movie called ‘Crash’ has shown the stereotype, misrepresentation, sensationalism, racialism, ‘othering’ and burden of representation. The storyline shown handful of disparate people’s lives intertwine as they deal with the tense race relations that belie life in the Los Angeles over a thirty-six hour. A begin of the movie has already shown the racial discrimination on a Aussie father and daughter, when they’re buying gun in a Caucasian’s shop. Then, the scene was following by the unfair treatment on a couple of black man in a restaurant.

This movie full with racial discrimination toward black people, ‘othering’ on Asian people where the Caucasian do not think Asian can speak English. For example, one of the scene in the movie show that an Asian lady walk into wad and shout her husband Chinese name, the first question she been asked are ‘can you speak English?’ Nevertheless, black people in United State always been stereotyping as gangster or robber. Based on research, both US-born and foreign-born Black participants had high level of exposure to poverty (51% and 57%, respectively) and racial discrimination (76% and 60%). (Nancy, 2011) An example that can found in this movie, two black men were carjacked a Caucasian marriage couple, the two black men believes that the lady has stereotypical views of non-whites on them.

According to the American Civil Liberties and the Rights working group, the international community has recognized that racial profiling is a violation of human right, defining it as ‘the practice of police and other law enforcement officers relying, to any degree, on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin as the basis for subjecting persons to investigatory activities or for determining whether an individual is engaged in criminal activity.”  For example, a black men has been arresting by few police officers and he did not want to surrender because he do nothing wrong. A police officer is advice him to cooperate with them because the other officers will just shot on him due to his color although he did nothing.

‘Crash’ is a movie reflecting the current society that happening in U.S. We might think that all the citizen in US has get a equal right no matter black or white skin. Yet, race stereotype still existing in certain corner in society. In their mind, Black people are still at the level of slave. Everyone have their rights, please do not stereotype them based on their color or religion.

References:

1. IMDb,2004, Crash, accessed 18 May 2014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/

2. The American Civil Liberties and the Rights Working Group, 2009, The persistence and Ethnic Profiling in the United States, accessed 18 May 2014, https://www.aclu.org/files/pdfs/humanrights/cerd_finalreport.pdf

3. Nancy Krieger, 2011, “Racial Discrimination,Psychological Distress, and Self-Rated Health Among US-Born and Foreign-Born Black Americans” , American Journal of public Health, Vol. 101 (9): 1704-1713

 

Gender Role – Female Stereotyping in Media

From the pictures on above, female has been portray as a sex object to man. No matter the product are selling to men or female. Gender stereotyping has been occur a long time ago. According to Sue(1996) , the feminist scholars, political activists, socially conscious consumers, and media practitioners have all expressed concern about the negative effects of female stereotypes in advertising. Of particular concern are advertising images in which women appear as inferior or subservient to men or as engaged in activities considered less important or less valuable to society such as pictures on above.  Gender role socialization is a complex process which is not only involving an individual’s family experience, also involving cultural conditioning, and education. (Sue, Dawn, Mary, Dan 1996)

Nevertheless, not only advertisement has stereotype female but the films from Disney such as Snow White, Cinderella and other Disney Princess films also involved.  According to , the prince and princess characters differ in their portrayal of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, these gender role portrayal are complex, and trends towards egalitarian gender roles are not linear over time. Also, the Disney and its princess phenomenon have a powerful influence on children’s media, contributing to a new ‘girlhood’ that is largely defined by gender and the consumption of related message. Therefore, the Disney Princess line and its gender role portrayal in their film have important implication for international children’s media as well. (Dawn, Lara, Melisa, 2011)

As we know, many children have access to the Disney animated movies during their childhood including me as well, and parents perceive Disney as quality family entertainment. However, Disney films have been found that the presented gender images were not current with societal developments in gender equity. (Dawn, Lara, Melisa, 2011) Examples that we discussed in class where girls have to be domestic working hard, do anything for their love, must be pretty, glide instead of walking and so on . Another examples that I personally found in Disney film which is all the princess have to be singing well and dance in the movie. ‘Frozen’ which is the recent Disney film in year 2013.

The video on below is one of the scenes in ‘Frozen’, where the Princess – Elsa run away from her castle. She have a power – freeze by hand and she is pretty. When I saw this during the class, immediately I realized that almost all the Disney films no matter from the past or now, they portrayal the princesses have to be singing well.

In conclusion, female stereotyping had occurred since the past – the first feminism as female fight for their rights. Although it’s 21st century right now, female has get well educated and the gender role have been changed throughout the years. However, female still been stereotyping when come to media such as sex object, domestic, soft, nurturing, and emotional.

References

1. Sue Lafky, Margaret Duffy, Mary Steinmaus, Dan Berkowitz, 1996, Looking through gendered lenses : Female stereotyping in adv, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, pg 379 – 388

2. Dawn Elizabeth England, Lara Descartes, Melissa A. Collier – Meek, 2011, Gender Rome Portrayal and the Disney Princesses, Sex Role, pg 555-567

Emerging Issues in Journalism – Malaysia

As we (Malaysian) know, most of the mainstream media in our nation are owned by our government (Barisan National). Also, due to media law and regulation, there is almost no freedom to the media. News had been filtered by gatekeeper before the news being print. Based on my personal opinion, most of the news especially related to political, this news is never talk bad about the government. Therefore, alternative media such as blogs, online news website (Malaysiakini) and Facebook page were turned up because people are no place to giving news without filter. Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is the main reasons to make alternative media successfully in Malaysia.

Video on above is one of the examples, the news has been censored by government in mainstream media.

Rises of new media and technology has lead youth in Malaysia especially Generation Y do not read anymore newspaper anymore. Online news portals, sociopolitical blogs and social media have risen to function as the voice of public, especially during nation election. These platforms now become a popular to many urban and educated Malaysian turn to for reliable and accurate political news. I’m the person seldom read newspaper, and social media is the platform for me to get latest news. As most Malaysian know that traditional media especially mainstream are filtered by government. For examples, when BERSIH 3.0 in April 2012, detailed accounts and updates of the demonstration were dutifully reported by citizen blogs and online website in ways usually dismissed by mainstream media.

Our guest lecturer worked in RTM and previously work in UTUSAN Malaysia. She shared an experienced when she worked in UTUSAN Malaysia. She wrote a news and send to gatekeeper check, however, the news that published on second has became different story although the writer was her. This is one of the best example for us to know mainstream media filtered news (bad to good?) before it publish. Journalist write an event based on what they seen, heard and feel, yet, gatekeeper might change the truth to other story.

In conclusion, alternative media has became the popular platform for Generation Y rather than mainstream media. However, accuracy and credibility news in these platforms also became an issue for most of the people. For example, there are several rumors during incident MH370 such as all of the passengers in the plane were rescue and so on. People have to decide is the news credibility or not by themselves.

References

1. Munsuet, 2008, Media in Malaysia, accessed 25 April 2014, http://mediainmalaysia.blogspot.com/

2. Sheena Ho, 2013, The Rakyat Post, Mainstream media in Malaysia: Political Puppet, accessed 25 April 2014, http://www.therakyatpost.com/allsides/2013/12/13/mainstream-media-in-malaysia-political-puppet/

 

Media space : Verbatim Theatre

All theatre engages and concerns others, and on many levels (writing, devising, producing, performing, viewing), as does even so-called ‘autobiographical’ theatre, as the self is relational, not just a social and historical construct. Lives are never isolated form other lives. Any works that engages with others will therefore have an ethical face. (Janet, 2011) Verbatim theatre is one of the topics in this week lecture. Verbatim theatre is not a form but is a technique,  which is a way of incorporating the words of real people, as spoken in private interview or public record, into drama. (Micheal, 2012) There are two examples that given in class, which is case of Matthew Shepard and talk show of Jimmy carter and the camp David Accord.

Case of Matthew Shepard is one of the best examples for verbatim theatre. Matthew Shepard was born on 1 December 1976 and stayed in a small town Casper, Wyoming. He is a gay and person who love politics during his University life. Unfortunately, he was died on 12 October 1998 due to murdered by two guys. Director – Roger Spottiswoode has directed a movie in year 2002  based on Matthew’s story. In the same year, there are  another movies named : The Laramie Project is also one of the movie related with Matthew’s story. These movies are based on the true story but also lead people to imagine and believe some of the part are true although it’s a movie. In year 2009, an act called ‘ Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.Hate Crimes Prevention Act’ was signed in to law by President Barack Obama, even though the case has already happened 11 years ago.

According Janet 2011, people argue that some of the form has diversified away from the origins in interviews and storytelling, to include a more varied range of data than just interview alone. There are ethical problems have to be noted during the verbatim plays. In many verbatim plays, real people become fossilized at the age, time and stage of publication as ‘characters’ in a play, which may mean that when meeting new people, they are understood to be these ‘characters’, rather than the people they have become over the years since the play was first published. (Janet, 2011)

In my conclusion, how journalist can do ‘informing without informing’ is a complicate task. The form of ‘theatre’ can be a technique for future journalism to inform media audience and lead their imagination in public sphere. Yet, ethical is one of the most challenges to all journalists to do ‘news’.

References

1. Matthew’s Place, 2014, accessed 20 April 2014, http://www.matthewsplace.com/matthews-story/

2. Human Right Campaign, 2014, accessed 20 April 2014, http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-laws/matthew-shepard-and-james-byrd-jr.-hate-crimes-prevention-act

3. The Laramie project, 2002, accessed 20 April 2014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257850/

4. The Matthew Shepard Story, 2002, accessed 20 April 014, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267736/

5. Micheal Billington, 2012, theguardian, ‘V is for verbatim theatre’ , accessed 20 April 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/08/michael-billington-verbatim-theatre

6. Janet Gibson, 2011, Saying it Right : Creating Ethical Verbatim Theatre, pp1-18

 

Future of Journalism

How we define journalism? A person who is writing news? A person who gather information, investigate information and giving put information and news updates? Or a person who reporting news that related with entertainment? There are many definitions for journalism. According Fenton (2013), journalism is a person who writes for newspaper or magazines or prepares news to be broadcast on radio or television. However, the growth of technology nowadays has made each person own a smartphone. The ways of publishing news are different compare with the past.

According to Pavlik 2013, the growth of social media and public engagement in a news flow via social media underscores this development. Citizens are increasingly utilizing their mobile devices to access and participate in a news dialog via social media. Therefore, the innovation is the main key to journalism for them to survey in this industry. Innovation in news media is defined here as the process of taking new approaches to media practices and forms while maintaining a commitment to quality and high ethical standards. (Pavlik. 2013) Innovative news media called upon the public to act as citizen reporters to use mobile and social media to help report on the storm’s impact. (Pavlik, 2013)

Images showing on above are two of Facebook pages that I had followed. Both of these pages are basically updates the news by fans which is everyone who followed or liked these pages can send what they has seen and experienced to the pages. They provided pictures, times and location to prove the news can be trust and not fake. Also, they will post the news has been published in paper or news from oversea that did not publish in our newspaper. One of the benefits of these pages is people do not need to buy paper. People can read the news when they are playing Facebook.

But there a debate between a broader range of activity and some is considered by governments to be criminal and even treasonous. For example, the publication of reams of government digital files by Army Private Chelsea Manning and National Agency in United State by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and traditional media including The New York Times.  (Fenton, 2013)

Although journalism have to be innovation, but there are four principles that will insure the long-term viability of news media in the age of global, mobile, networked media. First thing is research intelligence, research is to build knowledge, is essential to guide news media decision makers. The second principle is a commitment to freedom of speech. The third is a dedication to the pursuit of truth and accuracy in reporting. The fourth principle is ethics which is I personally think the most important principle. To insures the long-term viability of digital strategy and promotes the social responsibility of that strategy, ethical decision-making is the most important principle. (Pavlik, 2013)

In conclusion, journalism needs to be innovating in the future due to the growth of technology and the change of people behavior in using social media nowadays. People are no longer reliance on a hard copy of paper to get news, especially the generation Y. Traditional way of published have to be innovating to survive on this industry.

 

 

References

1. John V. Pavlik, 2013, “Innovation And The Future Of Journalism,” Digital Journalism, 2:1, pp181 – 193.

2. Tom Fenton, 2013, Globalpost, ‘What is journalism? Reports on a US spy agency run amok meet the test’, accessed 11 April 2014, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/commentary/what-journalism-reports-us-spy-agency-run-amok-meet-the-test

 

 

 

Public Sphere – Journalism and New Media

Public sphere is both ideal and actual, the actuality is a good deal less perfect than the idealization of free and open debate that has policy consequence in a democratic polity. (Jim McGuigan, 2005). People have used to discussion daily issues or share their opinion during their daily conversation with their friends, colleagues, or family.

Newspaper is not the only platform for people to get latest news. John V. Pavlik mentioned that the new industry is not much closer to a new revenue model than a year earlier and has lost more ground to rivals in the technology industry. (John, 2013) The growth of new technology such as mobile devices has changed the behavior of people in reading. A recent example that happened in my family, when the news ‘Missing plane of MH 370’ haven’t published in paper, my dad has already get the news through his iPad in morning and told me when I woke up on that day. Although my dad is Baby Boomers, but he most likely to get news from internet rather than newspaper.

By using the incident MH 370, everyone has become journalism especially users in social media. News are fulfilled all my Facebook page on this month which are shared by my friends and official page. The news will automatically place in front of you even you do not want to know these.    John V. Pavlik also shared that, online news consumption is consistent across all ages, but younger cohorts have substantially greater news consumption via smartphone and able devices than among Baby Boomers. (John, 2013)

Besides that, journalism is no longer to publish the truth as the source for helping a society learn about itself. Yet, journalism start to report an a new events based on their experiences shape an interpretation of what has happened and come out a stories that resonate with the way they see their worlds. There is the blurring of news content and audiences feedback and mostly caused by journalism. (Dan Berkowitz, 2009)

In conclusion, social media has become the news sites as a source for political news among younger cohorts. As we know, mainstream media in Malaysia are controlled by government and some of the news has filtered by them. People who are Baby Boomer might believe what they published in newspaper, but its does not work in Gen X and Y. Therefore, media industry to overcome this issues, they were innovation to use new media to get closer with the Gen X and Y.

 

References:

Berkowitz, D 2009, ‘Journalism in the broader cultural mediascape’, Journalism, vol.10, no.3, pp290-292, accessed 26/3/2014, http://jou.sagepub.com/content/10/3/290.citation

McGuigan, J 2005, ‘The cultural public sphere’, Cultural Studies, vol.8, no.4, pp427-443, accessed 26/3/2014, http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/8/4/427

John V. Pavlik, 2013, “Innovation And The Future Of Journalism,” Digital Journalism, 2:1, pp181 – 193.

 

 

Introduction

Bello, I’m Pei Juan and aged 23 years old. A typical Chinese girl living in Malaysia that having final year of degree. Not a person who like to write but due to some reasons make me to write. Hehehe….. Not a English educated person so very bad in speaking and writing but can understand simple English. 🙂