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