Fourth Topic : Media Literacy

What is Media Literacy and why is it important for you as FCM students to have it?

Critical Reflection : Media Literacy and its impact on me
1. After referring to Wikipedia, I got to know that media literacy is about approaching, studying, analyzing, experimenting and also evaluating media which are in different kind of forms or genres. Such studies allow people to decode and also facilitate the message which is carried on that particular media form. By decoding message in this way, it actually enables people to know about the role and impact of media and thus being more appreciative.

2. As a FCM student, I actually find this study very useful. This study actually provides me the courage to start my so-called approach and analyzation on the media that happen to be surrounding me. From the research I did, I actually received a lot of extra knowledge compared to the previous time. In fact, sometime I even got inspired from the research I did and thus coming out with my own creation or artwork to convey my message based on some issues to the public. Therefore, I really think that media plays an important role in my life as it allows me to know some of the hidden messages of the artworks.


Personal Reflection On The Class
For this week, we were taught about media representation and cultural stereotypes. From the class, I actually paid more attention on the media representation topic as I really found that very interesting. As a fan for truth, I totally support media representation as most of the time, it is mediating the truth, unlike stereotype. However, I realized another thing as well, that the people nowadays actually prefer more on the stereotype as most of them found it funny to crack some jokes on other people. It creates misunderstanding and discrimination, but people seem to have covered up part of their conscience with all the stereotypes which they think it is delighting. No matter what, I am still preferring the media representation as mediating the truth will always benefit the people.

Third Topic : Media Stereotype

Critical Reflection : What is Media Stereotype?
1. To me, media stereotype is something that, even though it is not representative or classified commonly, it is being generally mediated like it is, with some exaggerations and sarcastic jokes in it as an addition, and results in creating a general misjudged acknowledgment or misunderstanding of the receivers towards those particular ethnic groups.

2. Normally, media stereotype is created with a biased judgment of the ones who mediate those "information" towards that certain groups such as the producers. The effects of this kind of stereotypes was thought to be harmless as it is treated as normal sarcastic humor. However, it is kind of influential and offensive as this stereotype will be endlessly mediated and it will create a misunderstanding of the kids in this current era to the groups that are being made fun of, and hence resulting in unnecessary discrimination within one another in the future.


Personal Reflection On the Class
No class for this week, since it's holiday. So I took a look on that article afterward and realized how those media producers and cartoon illustrators created the cartoons to crack a serious humorous but offensive joke on those particular ethnics. However, I feel kind of uncomfortable watching this kind of cartoon, as cartoon is meant to be bringing fun and joy to the kids nowadays, but not as a media for the adults to trigger the "mental war" among themselves. Therefore, to me, I seriously disagree with this kind of acts.

Second Topic : The Truth Shown Online.

Do you often take what is on the Internet as truth without thinking much about it ?
If yes, why? If no, why? Discuss this in your own words.

Critical Reflection on the Truth Shown Online
1. Well, as I said in the previous post, I do rely on the internet very much as it is almost like the only main source for the information I receive in my daily life. However, due to the advice given by my friends and also my personal experience, I do not really believe exactly what is shown in every website. Since the first day I utilized this service , I have been warned not to click on those pop-out article as most of them are either frauds or viruses. As time goes by, I started to learn about the hidden risk or danger in the internet. From the learning, I got to know that there are really some websites which are full of those fake articles being created by some unknown individuals, who has no other purposes but just to terrify or deceive the net surfers that are reading their articles, just for the sake of having fun, like the Stanley Baran's comic strip shown above. Besides that, there are also existence of hackers who created some articles to attract network users' attention and thus taking some hidden advantages of theirs while they are browsing that. We should bear in mind about this, just like how my dad used to tell me, "No one will be willing to provide you a fortune for nothing."

2. Normally, I will be ignoring all those articles shown in those anonymous websites as I deeply believe that most of them are providing untruthful information, just like most of the pop-outs articles online. Therefore, I will not get those demanded information from those websites. It is a must to know that, some news or information can be really influential to the public, some of them might even be able to cause injury or death due to the created misunderstanding, therefore we are supposed to take this issue seriously. While reading those articles, it will be more appropriate if we try to do some comparisons with some others well-known websites to ensure the truthfulness of those articles, as once we get deceived by those concocted articles, it will really arise an awful misunderstanding among the people of different races, religions, or even countries. Therefore, to me, in order to avoid misunderstanding, it is a necessity to spend some time in confirming the real truth of articles shown online.


Personal Reflection on the Media Culture Class
In this week, class was really in a chaos. Everyone was paying attention to his or her own topics. Therefore, I only got to learn something from the class, something about how media influence war. Firstly, we are ought to know that, media really brings a lot of impact in either initiating or preventing war. Let's take an example, if there's news about political issue which has been manipulated or bended by those unfaithful reporters, it will seriously create misunderstanding and thus igniting disastrous wars. However, on the contrary, if there are media everywhere to convey message about the importance of peace, such as newspaper, magazine, tv programs, radio etc, it will really arouse the awareness in ourselves, and thus increasing the amount of people going against this pathetic issue. Even though this is not going to cease the war right away, however, as long as these optimistic messages are being delivered, it will sure become a success in the near future. Therefore I once again emphasized, media is actually manipulating what is happening around us, and this class has really reminded me a lot about this.