Muacks Advertisement

30 seconds commercial - Muacks 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tMw95PRSJM&feature=youtu.be

Our group's advertisement appeal to both emotions or logic. Although this advertisement slightly exaggerated but in our society today, it is slowly changing. It had appear absolutely normal when guys gives woman their first impression through their appearance instead of seeing how genuine could their heart be. In this advertisement, it actually portrays the confidence in a woman whenever they apply lipstick. This advertisement features the brand 'muacks' and she gain the attention of passer bys the moment she apply the lipstick. 

 "Apply, and taste the kissable lips." This slogan is used in our advertisement. It is used to send a message to the society on the importance of even the smallest object on how it can impact the viewers in certain ways. This lipstick also in turn increases women's confident after each time after they apply it. Besides that, the message that audience will remember most in our commercial is lipstick play a very important role for every women. That is, with or without lipstick can help them in their relationship with people.

Claasy X

Post 7: Library as a private abode, thumbs up or down?

Library as a private abode, thumbs up or down?

"I love the library. From 8am-8pm, I am here to study and to meditate", says Ashley Gan, 21, from Taylors University."Can't imagine why some people find the library boring, but I don't." A story house filled with books, also known as the library, is now a second home for many students. To them, a trip down to the library has become a part of their daily routine. Various people have different intentions when they  journey to the library; some make  visit to the library when their is a task that has to be accomplish while some visit the library on a daily basis just to flip some books to gain some useful knowledge. Based on our interview, it has summed up that about 60% of the students come to the library frequently. Therefore, let's find out why students find the library as a haven. 

Have you ever wondered why is there a need for library in colleges? Yes, I believe everyone knows the reason why. That is because it holds more than a house full of books which is essential for the students. It also helps to student to receive extra knowledge which will be beneficial to them. Therefore, no matter how old you are, the knowledge that one has will never be enough. 

One of the main reasons why students go to the library is to get their assignments done. According to one of the interviewee, Yen May, 19, from Taylors University, said that " If there is research to be done in the library, there is no library." This clearly states that majority of the students make their way to the library to do some research that are most probably asked by lecturers or other purposes. After interviewing a wide array of students, we found out that more than half of the students visit the library to do some research, borrow some subject related books and to print materials that are needed in class. The remaining students said that the reason why they spend some of their time in the library is because they personally felt that it is a nice place to just sit down and catch a breath after a long busy dreaded week in college after hours of lectures.

Besides that, most of them also find the library a peaceful and quiet place to spend their time at. To most of them, the environment is perfect for revising when exam is near and to complete their assignment that is soon to be due. Due to the large number  of computers provided, the students find it extra convenient especially for those of them who does not own one by themselves. Some of them also mentioned that library is a perfect place to "chill" as it has a comfortable ambience alongside with the cooling air conditioner. According to another student of Taylors University, Kit Yi, 20, Diploma in Communication said "Library is more cooling that any other places in the campus." Living in this country with only sun and rain, a cooling place needed as it is always important.

Sarah Jane, 20, Foundation in Science, said that " It is of no mistake that every college owns a library of it's own, as it plays one of the biggest role in the entire college." Library is well known for the ambience and the surrounding environment. It provides comfort to the students and makes their university life a little more convenient. Thumbs up for Taylors University Lakeside Campus Library. 

Music genre impact on society

“Music can changed the world” - Ludwig van Beethoven, the well known composer and pianist. The music industry has been with mankind for decades. The music now and then have varied significantly. We can see the variation from the genres of the songs during each era. Nowadays, music has become part of ones life in many different ways. Music has always impacted our societies in so many ways, but we must be aware that there were positive and negative impacts.

New Wave

New wave is a music genre that originated  in the 1970's. New wave was a hit during the 1970's until the 1980's. Wisegeek (2013) offers information about, 'new wave music is often thought of as an outgrowth of punk music that became popular in the 1970's. 

New Wave was pop music, pure and simple which it retained the fresh vigor and irreverence of punk music, as well as a fascination with electronics, style, and art (all music, 2013).

New Wave music had also brought a few impacts to the society. According to Michael Wolfe 2013,

Mixing of High and Low Cultures

• New Wave was to introduce the "high culture" of visual arts and literature into the "low cultures" of rock music. Band suchs as the Talking Heads were openly influenced by contemporary art, mixing of the techniques of these artists, such as collage, into their songs, while songwriters such as Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe offered complex, overtly literacy lyrics. Socially, this complicated the popular conception of rock music as the domain of unsophisticated teenagers, transforming it into a vehicle of expression for a wider swath of listeners and performers.

Paved Way For Other Genres

• Although New Wave has been critized for its lack of an overtly political viewpoint -- in contrast to radical anger endemic to the punk genre -- New Wave's expansion of rock's musical purview paved the way for a number of other genres that did have an overtly political and socially minded focus, such as grunge and certain types of political ska.

R&B - Rhythm & Blues

2000- In the late 1940's, R&B was first used in the Billboard Magazine. The name was created for music marketing term by the Billboard. The meaning behind the name is this: the " rhythm" part comes from the music's typical dependance upon four-beat measures or bars and employ a backbeat (beats two and four accented in each measure). And the 'blues' portion came from the lyrics and the melodies of the songs, which were often sad, or 'blue' during the music's emergence in the World Was II era. It was an African-American urban sound that evolved from blues and jazz. This music genre was described as rocking and jazz based with a heavy and insistent beat. R&B was becoming popular because of it dance ability. By 1949 the term had replaced Billboard’s category Harlem Hit Parade. The lyrics of R&B music were about everyday life and this is also one of the reasons it became a hit as people find these songs relatable. 

R&B artists like Usher, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Little Richards, Keith Sweat, Back Street Boys, Boyz II Men have made changes to R&B music. They have included New Jack Swing, Hip Hop,soul, funk rock, love songs, etc. into R&B music ! From songs like Tutti Frutti by Little Richard to I Do by Olivia ft. French Montana, we can see the changes throughout these years for R&B music. 

Meanwhile, the R&B has also brought the new fashion trend to the society. From the 1960's glamorous gowns, wigs and heavy makeup to 1970's over-sized earrings and sun glasses to 1980's Whitney Houston's shoulder pads, pantsuits and leotards to 1990's over-sized sweaters and t-shirt, leather jacket to 2000's low-rise skinny jeans, tunics' worn with a belt and knee-high boots.

Kpop - Korean popular music 

2010 - Korean music is a internationally known music genre and is becoming increasingly popular in our society today. For instance, Psy 2012 music release 'Gangnam Style' had broke the record for the most number of YouTube views. His music video had gone viral that thousands of parodies were made and uploaded on Youtube. It has indeed impacted younger generations in many way in which he is an example to never give up in pursuing your dreams. 

In a conclusion, music can be divided into various type of genre such as pop music, R&B, k-pop and many more. These music genre kept increasing over the years from 1960-2010. Different types of music genre had influence the society and cause great impact through it's music video, lyrics and the way of their dressing. 

Reference list:
- Ellis-Christensen, T 2013, What is New Wave Music, online, viewed 17th April 2013,
<http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-new-wave-music.htm>
- Punk / New Wave 2013, Rovi Corporation, viewed 17th March 2013,
<http://www.allmusic.com/subgenre/punk-new-wave-ma0000011872>
- Wolfie, M 2013, Effects of New Wave Music on Society, viewed 17th March 2013,
<http://www.ehow.com/list_6323837_effects-new-wave-music-society.html>

Newspaper Has The Chance?

Newspaper. What is newspaper? Newspaper is basically a periodical publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features, editorials and advertising. Nowadays, newspaper has become less popular, especially among the younger generation. Many industry had thought of this question many times, why is newspaper not interested by younger generation these days? The reason is that because newspaper makes them feel bored and it is not that colorful like magazines or other journals, it is simply black and white images had created this kind of result that teenagers had decrease their interest towards newspaper. Besides that, newspaper is mostly about news around the world, not many entertainment channels or even sports channels are produced in it as younger generation had created more interest towards the entertainment world and sports events that are currently happening. Also, the number of people reading newspaper is decreasing because of the modern technology invented so how will the future newspaper be like?

There are ways to attract young readers to read newspaper more often. One of the way is applying more colors onto the newspaper to make it more entertaining and interesting for them. Colors can allow them to be more influenced in newspaper instead of only just two plain colors, black and white, as younger readers love looking at more colorful features anywhere in their eyes. They will often feel bored or exhausted with the same old colors apply on the media, which is the newspaper, because it's not that interesting and will finally cause them to ignore reading any news from it. For example, images with colors can attract young readers to be curious on what are they reading at.

Moreover, newspaper industry should put in more entertainment news into the newspaper so that young readers would feel more relaxed and comfortable with just reading it and this can make the newspaper more saleable in the future. Journalist can view the newspaper in their own perspective to determine what young readers think about the newspaper and can apply better news or entertainment into the newspaper. Examples for entertainment are celebrity's lifestyle, food, creativity and many more.

In addition, have junior journalist programmes collaborating with newspapers. Why junior journalists? It is because that juniors are known as youngsters in the society that can provide reliable and much interesting news for others to read. Comparing junior and senior journalists, junior journalists are more dependable and much understanding towards the thoughts of the young generation nowadays as it can bring more interests among them. Junior journalists with young and immature thoughts could just be similar to the society now, including the adults would like it perhaps. Say writing news about the Hollywood news for example, nowadays youngsters prefer knowing about what are the celebrities out there doing.

Furthermore, industry should organize a campaign open for all youngsters to explain to them about the benefits of reading a newspaper. This campaign can just change their minds of rather reading newspaper than using other media frequently. Reading is a good exercise in everyday life due to the improvement in grammar and ofcourse reading skills. It is better to read on a paper or books instead of reading through the internet because it can worsen eyesight. Besides that, industry should organize more than one campaign for them to get more influenced with newspaper media.

Last but not least, another way that can attract young readers to read newspaper is journalists should consider to dedicate a space for young readers to voice out their views towards the news or any article in the newspaper. Any articles that they have suggestions or comments, they can write it down and send it to the company so the company can improve in advance for the next newspaper distribute. With this, young readers will feel desperate for the next paper to come and will never feel bored of it. 

In a nutshell, in my opinion, the future newspaper should be colorful. Not too rainbow but at least applying some interesting colors onto it and make it refreshing to the society especially young readers. Not only that, to make it more entertaining, newspapers should be put in more entertainment news or even sports news, like about celebrity's lifestyle and so on. Next, the future newspaper should dedicate some space for readers to give opinion of their own so that it can be improved in the future.

The Impact of Youtube

Youtube is a video sharing website that is well-known internationally, created by three formal PayPal employees. Hundreds and millions of video are being uploaded, shared and viewed on a daily basis by users all over the world. Youtube act as a source of entertainment, information, relaxation and this had changed the world. It is an undeniable fact that Youtube has impacted our society positively and negatively in many ways.

From the political side, politicians are given the opportunity to share their ideas and allow them to voice out their opinions through videos. Meanwhile, it allows the whole world to hear their voices and also to let people notice what they have done for the public. For an example, as election is approaching, Youtube had been flooded with news regarding political parties. It enables citizens to gain information relating to their favoured political party. On the other hand, Youtube also has cultural impact towards the society, just like the milking videos. Student paper The Tab Newcastle reported that students in Edinburgh, Nottingham and Cirencester are all filming their own versions of Milking Newcastle as the trend spreads across the UK’s institutions for higher education. The trend grew and a lot more students made their own version of that video which had caused wastage of milk. Besides that, it has also affected the way the media provides information. Through YouTube, news can be viewed by anyone, or in fact everyone can see it. We used to have blogger but now "Vlogs" also came in line as one of the next trend whereby people take videos of themselves instead of writing it on a blog which would be more interesting for the viewers or the used-to-be-readers. Youtubers like Niga Higa, who post videos on himself talking about the recent issues in Youtube, or Michelle Phan, who shoots herself and teach the viewers how to apply make up. They are examples of how people do vlogs. Youtube has also impacted the educational aspect in our society. Videos of any aspects can be found on Youtube. For instance, if you are not sure of how an AC Generator actually works while studying Physics, you can actually search on youtube and you have a video of people explaining to use giving us animated experiment for us to understand more deeply of what we want to know about. It has enabled us to learn faster and easier in such way.  


In a nutshell, YouTube has made a huge impact to our society with positive and negative effect. For instance, media companies have YouTube  account to promote their broadcast news but somebody may spread fake rumours though YouTube. YouTube should  create the a battleground for issues of censorship to provide to the users, especially some of the users under 18-year-old as YouTube has become the major impact on the eldest culture.Therefore, to protect the privacy of users that YouTube should practice greater censorship that has positive effect on today's popular culture only.

A Respectful Role Model

Lee Hom Wang (born May 17, 1976) is an American-born-singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, and film director of Chinese descent based in Taiwan, definitely known as a Jack-of-all-trades. He was born in New York and started music at a very young age. He wrote his own songs and can play multiple musical instruments particularly the violin. He had won multiple awards and plays an important role in the music industry. He had also participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He was the torch bearer number 17 on March 24, 2008. His single 'One World One Dream' was chosen as the Olympic Games participant song too.

Besides that, Lee Hom is very active in participating World Vision charities and he personally sponsored over 20+ under privilege children. Besides that, he also visited countries like Laos and Sierra Leone to raise awareness about the state of poverty. With his compassionate attitude towards the least fortunate, he had definitely implied good values in every soul of his fans. Many fans had learnt to be grateful for what they have now and who they are through him. Therefore, this enables him to gain even more fans from all over the world.

If teenagers were to emulate the aspects above, I believe this will build greater self esteem and optimistic characteristics that can be applied in their daily life. With this attitude shown by Lee Hom, they too will be influenced to learn, to love and to cherish everyone around them despite any individual's status. The fact that he does charitable work can also influence the young to follow in his good footsteps. As for negative effects, fans may get overly obsessed with their idol, Lee Hom that they may forget about reality. People will start to lose their identities, for example Asians like us who start to follow Korean culture especially teenagers.

As an agent of socialization, media portray Lee Hom as a celebrity who is so dearly respected and loved by all his fan. Many of them looked up to him for all his good deeds that he had contributed in many charity events. Wang Lee Hom is also recognized for his effort and financial contributions for the charity. He definitely portray a great deal of positive effects towards the society and all his fans around the world.

In conclusion, every individuals have their own favourite idols. As fans of our chosen idol, Lee Hom, we should show oue respect and appreciation towards him as he participated by contributing in terms of financial and effort in most of the charity events held. Not only that, he had been releasing Taiwan, Japanese and compilation albums these years. This shows that he is one of the famous celebrity in Taiwan as well as Japan. Its difficult for one idol to be really popular like Lee Hom as it needs a period of time for people around the world, especially Taiwan and Japan to get to know him. This can influence his fans to be more hard working, responsible and reliable. Even so, fans should not always follow their idols habits blindly and apply into their reality because it could build up a negative attitude in our society.

Effect of Music Videos!

Audience look through the media with a close-up lens known as microanalysis. The general name of the functional approach is named uses and gratification model. Uses and gratification states that 'audience members have certain needs or drives that are satisfied by both non media and media sources' (Joseph R. Dominick, 2013, p. 40). There are various uses and gratification and can be classified into six-category system. This includes cognition, diversion, social utility, affiliation, expression and lastly withdrawal. 

One of the uses and gratification of the media includes cognition. Cognition simply defines 'the act of coming to know something' (Joseph R. Dominick, 2013, p. 40). Individual uses the mass media in a cognitive way so that they can keep up with the world. Based on the music video clip chosen, "Thinking about You" by David Choi, many individual watch this music video in order to keep up with the latest music video clip. People uses the media to obtain various information for an example, David Choi, a famous YouTube singer will be coming over to Malaysia in less than a month time for a youth conference. 

"Another basic need of human beings is for diversion."(Joseph R. Dominick, 2013 , p.40). Diversion includes stimulation, relaxation and also emotional release. The viewers of this music video might only be some random person going onto YouTube and start searching for song covers or basically have nothing else to do but to search for some new songs on YouTube. Coincidentally , they found this song and started listening to it and enjoy the cute music video. That's stimulation. They actually view this video to avoid boredom or they might be actually thinking about someone and this song just suits their emotion.

On the other hand, this music video and the music is also a source of relaxation. The music is slow but not too slow and its actually falls into the genre of modern 'balled' music. It sounds a bit fun and also relaxing , in my own opinion I don't think anyone would feel stressed by listening to this song or by watching this video. Besides, this video also involves viewers to release their emotion. The storyline of David Choi and the other guys trying to impress the girl is so cute that girls will actually feel jealous of the girl in the video thinking, "why isn't there anyone doing that to me!?". Some of the viewers might actually feel frustrated for David Choi while watching this music video as they don't want him to make a fool of himself by acting like some other guy instead of being himself. 

Furthermore, watching a video on YouTube could strengthen ties of families and friends. If I watched this video as well as a friend of mine, we could discuss how well did David Choi acted or sang, how handsome David Choi is and many other aspects of the video. This form of communication can enhance and strengthen all sorts of relationships. After watching this video, fans tends to feel closer to David Choi because they might realize another side of him that they never knew, building a parasocial relationship with him. All these examples are the result of social utility.  

Moreover, audience do express their inner thoughts, feelings, as well as opinions on what they see or watch in any video on YouTube. For example for this music video clip chosen, fans do comment on what they think or feel about David Choi's song cover, "Thinking about You", whether they like it or dislike it, it is just opinions in order for him to improve in the future. Through mass media, it is basically expressing himself to the world and let them understand him better in other ways. Individuals also use mass media to express their creativity and artistic to the world. These are some examples that can prove expression as one of the important function for an individual in their everyday life. 

“Psychologists have recognized that one of the central needs of human beings is the needs for affiliation.” (Joseph R. Dominick, 2013, p. 42) It shows that a person’s desire involve a socialization. Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and YouTube are the one of the medium that contents the affiliation for society. When I share a video in Facebook, many Facebook friends will like to give comments on the video. For instance, "Thinking about You" by a famous YouTube singer, David Choi had manufactured hot topics as ‘meaning of the flower on different ears’. Thus, media helps to build rapport with people from all over the world.

Last but not least, media also act as a withdrawal. Based on a survey,  an individual uses an average of 7 and a half hours on media daily. In this 21st century, majority of the people owns a smart phone. Thus, watching music video can be done anywhere and anytime. Most of the people will get irritated when things around interrupts them when they are having a connection with media.  David Choi is talented and has a unique voice that is able to attract people's attention. The viewers will detach from reality temporarily while watching his video and this is how a media act as a withdrawal. 

"Thinking about You" by David Choi shows the uses and gratification of the media which includes , diversion, social utility, affiliation, expression and lastly withdrawal. Many individual watch this video which as known as HOT topics that to keep up the latest music video and get to strengthen the ties of family members and friends by the media. Besides, music is one of the sources that help the relaxation of the mentality. 

Reference list :
1. Dominick, J 2013, The Dynamics Of Mass Communication, McGraw-Hill, New York.

The Power of Mass Media

A culture’s values and beliefs reside in the stories it tells. Our stories help define our realities, shaping the ways we think, feel and act. (Baran 2011, p14) The media acts as a cultural story teller by providing stories through books, movies and etc.

The movie, ‘Taken’, former CIA agent, Bryan Mills reluctantly agrees to let his daughter, Kim to Paris with her best friend. Her dad was horrified to hear that she is kidnapped by an Albanian gang whose involve in prostitution ring.

Human trafficking is an illegal act of sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or extraction of organs against one’s will. Just like one of the scene in the movie, teenage girls were caught as  victims of human trafficking. Thus, the amount of people getting involved in prostitution rings had been increasing gradually. Cases of human trafficking have been flooding news headlines and here are some of the recent cases :

Mexican Cult May Have Forced Women Into Prostitution

Hundreds arrested as China police smash child-trafficking ring

Human trafficking had changed the perception towards our society today.  This helps in creating safety awareness towards  our community. This showed us how each individual should avoid from involving themselves in human trafficking.

Besides that, parental love is also shown in this movie. The father to daughter love that we have families is obviously shown. For example, the father, Bryan Mills, who was a retired agent who left C.I.A. (Centre Intelligence Agency), sacrificed a lot to save his daughter. He has strong determination and is willing to do anything to save his daughter out from this danger even if it means risking his life or to kill. Therefore, we should learn to appreciate our parent’s sacrificial love and also to cherish the time spent with our parents.

Not only that, the act that the daughter, Kim was rebellious towards her father was the start point of her being kidnapped. Her  father knew a lot about the wicked side of the world and that he discouraged her to go Paris with her friend. This taught and made us feel how every advice should be taken seriously.  This affect us in a way that every decision and action we make could turn our lives upside down, so we should always think twice before making any decision or taking any actions.

It is obvious that the media has vast influence over the society’s thoughts. One single movie can bring us various messages and culture beliefs, it depends on how we choose to consume it. Taking  this movie for an example, the cruelty and inhumanity of the human trafficking culture, how one simple decision can turn into a disaster is obviously portrayed. This shows how influential the mass media can be. 

Here I present you the trailer of the movie. Enjoy~

So we hope you find our findings beneficial, thanks for reading ciao!

Regards,

Classy X

Where journey begins...

Hello,

Starting off this very first blog post with a warm welcome to whoever that is reading. We named ourselves C-L-A-A-S-Y X from our respective group members' initials. Six of us, currently pursuing our studies in Foundation in Mass Communication at Taylor's University Lakeside Campus.

This includes :
Vanessa Chan Sze Yeng
Lau Poh Moi (Janet)
Andrea Mok Kar Men
Amelia Yap Qiao Jing
Vanessa Chan Sze Yeng
Lau Ying Ying
Cham Li Xian

This blog is created as part of our journey through our introduction to Mass Communication class. We hope that there'll be many more visits from you together with us in this journey. Enjoy reading! :)

Regards,
Classy X