Parasocial Relationship with Beyonce

Online Social Game - "Happy Farm"

If you select the popular network words in China, "Happy Farm" must be on the list. It generates from a rising video game called "Happy Farm” – an online social game. “Hi, did you steal food yet?” – It has already become a conventional greeting. Since it was released in November 2008, “Happy Farm” made a hit at a staggering speed in cyber-network market, hundreds of thousands of Internet users become diligent “farmer”. Every day, growing vegetables, harvesting them and stealing other’s crop have become “farmers” everyday task. Less than a year, this development cost less than 10 million game quickly occupied the campus network, QQ space and other famous social networking platform. It owns more than 16 million most active users and the expected profit of it this year is nearly 300 million Yuan. the function of the negative effects in mass media narcotic is mainly reflected in two aspects: First, because the message of the mass media brings vast quantities of information that is overwhelmed, cause to waist a lot of time on engaging in such audio-visual activities instead of social practice. That’s why the social relations among the public has become increasingly distant and cold. Second, to get information of social understanding and social activities in this way could provide public the vision satisfactory. In this way, they will gradually loss the cognitive initiative so that to weaken people's ability to act. In fact, the principal of creating “Happy Farm” has always been the “entertainment ". We can own with a blue sky, a vegetable when we play the game, but we should know that this is just the virtual world and would never become a reality. We just get happy from them, nothing more. The audience should be the spirit of "entertainment" principle, with a critical eye to accept the "Happy Farm", so that we will have the ability to control its impact.

Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady”

Rap is arguably the most dominant force in U.S. popular culture. American teenagers rate rap as their favorite musical genre. Among different styles, gangsta rap is the most controversial style of the rap music genre. It has achieved global prominence through its vivid sexist, misogynistic, and homophobic lyrics, as well as its violent depiction of urban ghetto life in America. Marshall Bruce Mathers III, as one of the most popular gangsta rapper, is professionally well known to public as Eminem. Undoubtedly, he has become a successfully leader figure in rap fraternity. One of his most famous work “The Real Slim Shady” gained many master awards. But simply going through the lyric, people might be confused why this type of music could be so “outstanding” in contemporary music factory. Of course, he has had his share of critics. Despite the unnumbered coarse words, the content of his violence songs about brutally raping women has caused many to label him as a misogynist. Even though, he still attained such critical acclaim and awarded him. It is because many critics seem to buy Eminem's claim that his music is just entertainment. Just assuming that it does mean funny and people are amused by it, what about the effects on public? This consent is equivalent to disclosure the notion that such violence could be treated as a joke rather than criminal. In reality, the harsh truth is that domestic violence is one of the top health risks for women. It is hardly something to joke about and this idea cannot be spread. It would somehow mislead people to commit a crime, or intensify the issues indeed.

The Function of News

I feel media always exaggerate the news when they report it. It seems like they want to get more attention. But I think the function of the news is to inform people, rather than arise a sensation amount public, especially for the conflict problem. Since we are not witnesses, the facility of the news becomes more essential. Many news medias focus more on their own interest and ignore the basic value of news. I believe that the minimum fairness requires avoidance of stereotypes and news coverage should reflect the degree of complexity inherent in the events themselves. Thus, the reporters should try to avoid biases and stereotype while they report. Such as the new about a woman football player got a score in the game, but when the media reported it, it focused more on the moment she took off her shirt rather than the joy. Bias news will cause more conflicts or even worse the current situation. Because for one point, public opinion will be influenced by the news they received. News needs to balance the conflict and show the fact to the public. Also, the news needs to contain the essence of the event, rather than the sensational parts of it. Sometimes if we don't know the origin of the story, we probably interpret the result in different meaning. 

Review of "Miss Representation"

Last week, I saw a video called “Miss Representation”. It was begun with the quote by Marie Wilson, President and Founder of The White House Project, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” She began the film when she was pregnant with her first daughter. She talked about the concern of the future environment that would affect her 2 daughters. She compared the different situation when she gave birth to her first two kids. Her boy got a congratulation letter from a government official looking forward him to become a great leader in the future, while her elder daughter got a lot dolls and pink princess stuffs. She found there was a serious gender quality issue, especially in media. She claimed that the media is distracting girls from becoming leaders that women were always valued by their bodies and beauty while men were seen as the nature born leaders and dominators. People are culturally accept male leadership is more valuable than female’s. So she called for all the girls and women to challenge the media’s wrong portrayal of women and girls and be brave to stand out to tell their story. Though she said that there were not an effective way to suddenly turn this notion among public, but there were several things people could do to contribute the progression. Women are 56% of this country; they should take advantage of it. Also, they could spread the right message, be aware of early education for children, and fully exploit their consumer power and language power. At last, she claimed that what she expressed was not letting female to go against male, but to awake women to go for their right.

Problem of women in relationship

In recent years, although it is a fact that women have increasingly gained respect in every aspect, there are still a lot of things we should put forward, such as the problem of female vulnerable position in relationship, especially in thought and emotional aspects. There are lots of stories about how men betray women or hurt them and always end up with a massive psychological or physical damage to women. I've seen a new about a mother who threw herself and her son off a building, because she suspected her husband was cheating on her. She chose to give up her life to punish her husband, which is impulsive. However, for some women, they may choose to be together and let bygones be bygones when they encounter such problem, because they are really afraid of men be away from them and they believe their generosity will work. One of the reasons that women are always playing the victim is that they are not emotionally independent. Also, because the notion of male domination is still ingrained in people’s mind. Therefore, women should take action to become independent and fight for their proper position in relationships. Although the progress of this problem may takes a long time to have a big step forward. In fact, there are still some women being placed in a vulnerable position in relationship, but on the positive side, there has sprung up a lot of realistic role models in our present society. In a word, women should keep the faith and take action to change the situation, because they are not supposed to be in that position, they should have equal rights as men in the relationship.