10 How You Remind Me sound bite

10 How You Remind Me sound bite

10 How You Remind Me sound bite

Farewell! :D

I logged onto Blogspot today... then I realised that I already have 11 entries!

Hahaha, strange, because I remember missing a week or two.

Hey Dr Choy, if you're reading this.. thanks for teaching us this sem! :D

Your lame jokes are awesome hahaha!

Week 11 - Internet and Journalism

Well I know everyone is going to be saying good things about what the Internet has done to journalism, so I thought I'd cover the other side of the coin! Despite the pros of the Internet, there are some undeniable setbacks too.

1) Lack of responsibility

If a newspaper journalist fabricated news, twisted facts, or wrote irresponsibly in any way, we can always be assured that public pressure will force the newspaper to investigate the journalist. But most online journalists are independent of any such authority, and often have the liberty to say whatever they want without recourse. Although many will call this "freedom of press", but in any society, there cannot always be complete freedom of press. Who will take responsibility if the news of an irresponsible online journalist were to create social unrest?

In a country like Singapore, it is still not that difficult as we are small in size and thus any offenders can be traced and caught easily. But in other countries, this may not be the case. What could possibly make things worse is when a local online journalist creates social unrest in ANOTHER country. This will not only threaten the people in that country, but also the international ties between the involved parties.

2) Lack of credibility

Because many people now have the notion that online journalists are free from the pressures of media control, they are more ready to believe online journals than newspapers. It is true that online journals sometimes produce news faster and with more intimate details, but they are not always from credible sources. One good example is The Onion. The Onion is very obviously simply a spoof, but up till now many people still believe that it is reliable. If people can believe even this... who is to say they won't believe everything else?

Other than the reliability of news, this may even affect the academic field. Many professors have complained that students are relying more and more on online sources for research information, one of which are online journals. If online journals can't always be trusted.. how can we always trust academic papers that are produced based on information from online journals?

3) Overexposure

The newspapers may provide coverage on the same issues over a long period of time, but it is always at most twice a day, and from a unchanging point of view. However, due to the abundance of online journals and the ability to post news at any time of the day, readers can become bombarded by repeated coverage of the same piece of news. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be unfair to those involved in the event.

Singapore's very own Ris Low is a great example. In the past, such an issue would hardly have garnered more than 2 or 3 articles in The Straits Times. However, with the arrival of STOMP and other online journals, Ris Low's incidents have become blown-up beyond proportion. The sensational value of her incidents have overshadowed other news events that many would say are more deserving of this coverage.

Week 10 - Internet and Politics

Why are young Singaporean adults apathetic towards politics?

1. Lack of political understanding

Unlike youths in countries such as Thailand or Malaysia, Singaporean youths are seldom exposed to or involved in local political events. The fact that our education system does not include any political content also contributes to our lack of understanding of politics in Singapore. Although an education in political science is provided at tertiary level, only a small number enrol in the course, and even less actually put their degree to use in the political arena. With so little exposure, the youths in Singapore are unlikely to take part in politics because to them, it is unfamiliar ground.

2. Lack of opportunities for involvement

Singapore's political scene is dominated by a single party, and opposition activities are often clamped down. From Presidential elections to simple GRC elections, there are often walkovers. Despite being eligible to vote from the age of 21, many Singaporean youths simply do not have any opportunities to vote. Without the need to vote, there is also no incentive to find out what is going on in the political arena, leading to a vicious cycle of political apathy. Even if youths wish to take part in politics, there are very few official political youth groups that they can join-- one of which is the Youth PAP.

3. Upbringing

Singaporeans are always taught by parents to "study hard, get a good job". As our government has been efficient the past decades, it has led to Singaporeans being passive and reliant on the government. Knowing that the government will not fail, Singaporeans simply turn their attention to their own lives, without any participation in the political scene. Not forgetting the high cost of living in Singapore (and more recently, the difficulty of procuring a HDB unit), there is much more incentive to focus on getting a well-paying job than taking part in politics.

4. Alternative forms of preoccupation

This affects youths in particular. In an age when forms of entertainment are abundant, there is simply no incentive to engage in politics when there are so many alternatives available. Complacence in the effectiveness of our government also contributes to this, as youths feel that since the government will not fail, they might as well spend their time on more personal past-times.

5. Role of media

We can't deny that the media is very closely linked to the government. The media often emphasizes Singapore's good governance, and downplays opposition involvement in politics. This creates an impression in Singaporeans that the political scene is stable and does not need any active participation from them.

Week 7 - Internet Security

Okay I did my Multimedia blog post before my Internet Security one. A little weird, but rest assured both posts are still there! Haha. =D

I decided to look up on cybercrime in Singapore. Interestingly, probably due to our smaller size, we're one of the countries in Asia with the lowest rates of cybercrime. Still, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

So here's a good article that I found:

http://law.nus.edu.sg/asli/pdf/WPS001.pdf

It details Singaporean laws regarding cybercrime, and covers specific legal cases too.

Here's what I picked up from the article:

1) Many hackers hack not out of true criminal intent, but simply for bragging rights. Not entirely worth going to jail for, but hey some people are like that.

2) Activities carried out after hacking can sometimes include minor things like using their server for online chat, creating a user account on their server, and resetting their passwords for fun. Although no physical harm is done, these are still considered severe crimes as they can hinder the work of these firms.

3) Piggybacking on your neighbour's wireless network is also considered a cybercrime!

4) Credit card fraud greatly burdens the original owners of the cards, the credit card companies and ultimately the entire banking industry.

5) Using forged ATM cards -- yes, it's actually possible?! -- is also a cybercrime. Someone caught in 2006 in Singapore for doing that got a 10-year jail sentence.

6) Using the Internet to distribute copyrighted material is also a big cybercrime. The authorities actually track heavy downloaders and send them warning letters at their own homes!

7) Cyberstalking and online harassment is hardly ever prosecuted, even though it is one of the most common forms of cybercrimes in Singapore.

8) Law enforcement officers sometimes pose as children online to trap paedophiles.

9) In conclusion, Singapore has A LOT of cybercrime offences, both under the CMA and the Penal Code. Law enforcement officers are generally given the high hand in Singapore to deal with cybercriminals.

Week 8 - Multimedia for Marketing Communication

I'm not really very updated with the marketing scene, so I'll just use the 3 firms that were listed in our notes, haha! After some research, it appears that each of the 3 firms has had a loooong history of marketing strategies, so to make things easier I'll just pick ONE outstanding marketing stint from each firm.

1) Nokia -- Comes With Music

In 2007, Nokia started a program in partnership with hundreds of major and independent music labels to bundle 12, 18 or 24 months of free music downloads with the sale of any phone from the Comes With Music series. Downloads can be mobile or on the PC, and users can search according to many specifications -- artiste, song title, genre, even language.

2) Samsung -- AnyCall

AnyCall is a mobile phone brand under Samsung. Starting from 2003, they began to hire media artistes to star in music videos advertising their phones. Their most notables videos are the AnyClub, AnyMotion and AnyBand series, which are often pre-downloaded onto Samsung phones when they are purchased.

3) Sony Ericsson - Walkman W Series

Launched in 2005, the W series phones are the first-ever music-centric phones. This is notable because it was launched amid a frenzy of portable music players, sans the phone functions. The phones have a prominent media center that manages all the music, videos and photos stored on the phones.

MY EVALUATION:

First thing I noticed: ALL the marketing stints involve MUSIC! =D This is quite unlikely to be just a coincidence... people are the most pervious to music, so it's definitely the easiest way to market something.

Nokia's Comes With Music is very innovative, but unfortunately I feel its competition is not against other phone brands, but against music piracy. Why get a Comes With Music phone specially to download music for free, when you can ALREADY do that so many other places?!

Samsung's music videos stint is clearly targeted at the teeny-bopper crowd, which grants its success to a certain degree since we all know how crazy teeny-boppers can get to support their idols. But unfortunately, I feel that the target group is ALSO the limiting factor for this stint, because it simply eludes the older crowd, who may actually have more purchasing power.

Sony's idea was great too, but as said before, it was launched during a time when people were happy with their mobiles but wanted specialised portable music players. Thus, the W Series' success was short-lived because other phones soon overtook its phone functions, and specialised portable music players began to surpass its music center functions. It's hard enough to beat one group of competitors, let alone two.

Conclusion: Multimedia is a great way to market something, but unfortunately the public's taste for multimedia evolves much faster than the marketing campaign can respond. That is why multimedia-centered advertising stints often taste only short-lived success.

Week 5 - Video-making!

Okay, with all the CNY buzz I didn't have time to make a new video... So I uploaded one I made back in 2006. =P This video is a tribute to the 05-06 batch of Guitar Ensemble seniors who provided my 06-07 batch with direction.

MY EXPERIENCE MAKING THE VIDEO

1. I didn't have any live footage, sadly. The entire video consists only of photos. But thankfully so, because I think photos are a lot easier to time to the music, unlike videos which have fixed playing times. =P

2. But because there were only photos, there HAD to be music. Otherwise, it would be dead boring, just like watching a PowerPoint presentation. If there were videos, there would probably be dialogue or sounds in those videos, so I could do away with the music...

3. Timing the photos to the music was probably the trickiest part. Maybe it was because there was a shortcut I didn't know, but each time I altered the timing of a photo, I kinda had to manually alter the rest too, it got a little tedious after a while.

4. In general, I think Moviemaker is quite easy to use. But that's also because layman users like us only use a few basic functions, which are easy to manipulate. I've seen professionals use the very same software to come up with amazing videos, how on earth do they do that?!