Last Words on New Media

Last words on my first post.

Media has brought tremendous changes in the way we communicate and interact with people in different communities. New media is no longer just a passive provider of information but instead an interactive tool to connect to people in different communities as well as providing various services to the public. With all these solutions to our hectic lifestyle, why are we more stress than ever? I believe the reason is that social media has enslaved us. It is a double edged sword – one that provides greater efficiency at the workplace as we are able to check emails and contact clients from across the boundary as well as it inundates us with work even when we are not working.  The line between work and play is now blurred with social media. 

We have seen many examples through movies and television series such as Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps and the local drama The Pupil where the characters are obsessed with work to the point that they neglect the ones close to them-  their friends and family.

From left: Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps, The Pupil, Up In The Air

Last words for my second post

The new media has revolutionized the political environment of countries as evident from the Middle Eastern countries as well as in our local context.  As Singaporeans become more IT savvy, candidates turn to social media to cater to these groups of people. But the question is whether the general election is an ‘Internet Election’.

 According to the a recent survey conducted by Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies the General Election 2011 was not an “Internet Election. 2000 Singaporeans age 21 and above are surveyed and 66% are 40 years. 

These voters are less IT-savvy and traditional media makes up a large part in media consumption with 3.69 for newspaper and 3.59 for TV rated in Media importance.

Last words for third post.

Should Media be blamed for the increase sexual aggression among children? Can we only blame Media? My answer is NO! Media is only a channel to deliver news and information and it cannot solely be responsible for these negative effects. It is the same as blaming Mother Nature instead of mankind’s actions for global warming! In this case the government and the parents should also take responsibility.

The government is responsible for the content available on media and thus they must constantly filter and regulate the influx of new content being accessed online. The government must revise their rating system to ensure that the young and impressionable is protected.

When R18 is introduced in1991, there was a great influx sex-exploitive films within the first month. The rating was modified to R(A) to only restrict films with artistic merit. Finally in 2011, a comprehensive censorship rating was created after introducing PG13 to help parents supervise the selection of films for children. This shows their willingness to adapt to changing mentality and that measures can be constantly improved.

Lastly parents should also be involved in children’s exposure to media. They should filter and regulate the internet by purchasing stand-alone filtering software such as CyberPatrol and NetNanny. With these services and such software, parents can be better equipped to help their children access the Internet safely.

In my final blogpost, we are dealing with a “chicken or the egg” debate. Which comes first?  Can aggressive and violent behavior be attributed to violence in video games? Or do those who are drawn to these games already have violent tendencies? Studies show that the extent of youngsters’ exposure to media violence in childhood predicts their aggressiveness in adolescence and early adulthood but not vice versa. (Huesmann,1986 ; Huesmann et al., 2003) This means that high exposure to media violence precedes and even causes high aggressiveness.

According to Bandura’s famous Bobo Doll experiment, human behavior is learnt, through social imitation and copying, proving that a child can easily be conditioned to learn this aggressive behavior.

Through Hans Eysenck theory, he believes that some people are able to be conditioned more readily than others. This is because of inherited differences in our physiological functioning. The “variations in conditionability” are assumed to bring out our innate aggression Eysenck explained this difference through extraversion-introversion. He proposed that introverts tend to have higher levels of physiological arousal making them easy to condition than extraverts. Hence, we cannot solely blame the media

In conclusion, despite the fact that the new media may provide its users negative and undesirable information that may be potentially detrimental, its benefits are not to be denied and remains an important factor, allowing our lives to be shaped for the better. The new media has brought about changes to our lives to better our society, in terms of self, government and the global community

Links:

Pictures from Google

"Impact of New Media on General Election 2011 " ; http://www.spp.nus.edu.sg/ips/docs/events/Impact%20on%20new%20media_041011/S1_1_Tan%20Tarn%20How_0410.pdf

'Was Singapore General Election 2011 an "Internet Election" ;

"http://blog.dk.sg/2011/10/10/was-singapore-general-election-2011-an-internet-election"

"Classification Ratings for film and video"; http://www.mda.gov.sg/Public/MediaClassification/FilmsAndVideos/Pages/RatingsFilmsandVideos.aspx

"Bobo doll Experiment";&nbsp "http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html" 

Eysenck theory"; http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/criminological/A2_AQB_crim_EysenckTheory.pdf

"Personality theories", pg 474 , Psychology Themes and Variation, Wayne Weiten