STUDENT RESEARCH PAPER CONTEST

The 32nd Annual Student Research Conference is coming up on May 2nd. All students are eligible to apply for it and it's a great way to share your work as well as compete for a cash award (deadline for that is April 21st). See here for more details. I encourage all interested students to consider participating.

APOLOGIZING FOR SCANDAL

This blog entry by Carmen Kwok
The story: "Twins star apologizes to her fans"

The analysis:

This article mentioned that the Cantopop duo Twins member Gillian Chung apologized for the recent publication of nude pictures purportedly of pop and movie stars. She admitted she was very naive and very silly in the past, but now she has grown up and will continue her work and face her life positively.

In fact, the main character of this story was Gillian's ex-boyfriend, singer and actor Edison Chen. According to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Vincent Wong, it was convinced very much that because of the assistant of Edison Chen taking his computer for repairs, others had via illegal means to take out the obscene information from the computer. As a result, the nude pictures purportedly of pop and movie stars spread speedily through internet. Police also said they had uncovered more than 1,300 pictures involving six women who purportedly Hong Kong pops and movie stars. Some pictures were seemingly taken during sexual intercourse. After the few days that nude pictures leaked online, Edison Chen released a video with his apology to the public. He urged internet users not to transfer the pictures anymore as it may hurt and affect the healing a number of people's lives. And Gillian Chung was the first women who purportedly involved in this pornography scandal to apologize in the public response.
There is no denying that this news shocks over the Hong Kong. Traditionally, girls should defend one's chastity. Pre-marriage sex is not socially acceptable for most Hong Kong people. However, recently hundred and hundred purportedly Hong Kong pops and movie stars' nude pictures spread through internet. Everyone discusses this news, although you are in the school, family, or workplace. Even, this news continuously has appeared on the front page of most newspapers for several days. Thus, it becomes a very controversial topic in Hong Kong.

Yet, the most I concern from this news is not the problem of pre-marriage sex. Instead, I would like to talk about the issue of apology by Gillian Chung and Edison Chen. In fact, comprehensive discussion was raised after the publication of Edison's apology video. Some criticized him as a coward as he did not apologize directly in front of the public. Some criticized his apology without any sincerity. Similarly, the apology of Gillian did not receive much positive response. Some argued that she was not serious enough in her response. And some urged her not to be so silly.

Personally, I appreciate them with their brave apology, as it is really difficult to face public with such pornography scandal. But I do think that the people who are more worthy to apologize to this issue are the original perpetrators and the public instead of the victims. Having sex originally is the privacy of two people. But the repairers of the computer company violated their professional ethics and illegally stole customer's personal information. Apart from that, they also issued the obscene pictures on internet. As a consequence, the privacy was eventually opened to the public without the approval of the victims. However, the repairers did not feel guilty and they continuously transferred the nude pictures files to the public even after they were arrested.

Besides, the public also bore a part of responsibilities. As the ban against publication of nude pictures to public carried out, the pictures were removed from the forum and website quickly. Yet, people transferred the files from one to one by e-mail and msn. I do believe that the curiosity of public helps to deteriorate this issue. If no one transfer the nude files to others, it might not come to be today's such sad plight. Thus, I think the public should bear partial responsibilities of this event.
Ironically, the victims were blamed at the end of this story rather than the ones who should really apologize for this event. I do think that everyone should be forgiven by others as long as he can repent and start anew. But the one who does not repent of his mistake should be blamed admittedly.

Other sources: From `how bad' to `naive and silly'
Police act as more nude pictures of 'stars' appear
Edison Chen Apologizes After Nude Pictures Leak Online

THE ONLINE CONFESSIONAL

This blog entry by Jenna Osiecki
The story: " Forgive us, father; we'd rather go online"

The analysis:

The article "Forgive us, Father; we'd rather go online" discusses websites that are hosted by churches that are actually online confessionals. The sites are places where people can anonymously post their deepest secrets for others to see and to get the bad deeds off of their chests. Other people who go on the sites can also post comments back to the confessors in response to their confessions. While there is a range of both positive and negative responses it is important to note that there are no trained counselors to monitor the posts that are going up, however some of the churches post the names of pastors and phone numbers to reach them at.

I found it interesting how our society has become so consumed by technology, and in the case of this article, the internet; that people are actually going online to confess their sins. While concept of an online confession does seem awfully like just a normal blog, the churches involvement in the matter makes it even more interesting; that they are getting involved in the pop culture phenomena of the internet and blogging.
It is also interesting to think about the new audience that the churches are reaching because of the confession sites, and the benefits that it has for the church.

This article is related to popular culture because of the way that the now almost every part of American society is accessible via internet. I find myself torn by this, and especially when I think about it on a personal level, because while the thought of confessing my sins on the internet and not actually having to face someone in person does sound intriguing, it makes me think about the way that people in society seem to be losing touch with one another, and this is another step in that direction. Today when you walk down campus everyone is plugged into either an iPod or cell phone, it seems as though nobody ever has any face to face contact with anyone anymore. It used to be that people would go to church to socialize, and now people hardly ever have to leave their house. I see our culture becoming more and more advanced when it comes to technology but less and less involved with each other. I think that while it is important to be high tech it is also important to be social, and it seems as though the lines of which is more important are beginning to blur.

ETHNOGRAPHY AND SPORTS LECTURES

Here are the lecture notes for:
1) Ethnography

2) Sports

MIDTERM TOPICS GUIDE

The guide is available in PDF format here.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

This blog entry by Miguel Ortiz
The story: "The Look of Love: When she’s a beauty and he isn’t, it’s no fairy tale."

The analysis:

Since I consider myself as an evolutionist and see the world as one, I was particularly interested in what this article's ideas and reasons was on why attractive, smart women choose to marry wealthy, not-so attractive males. This article is focused on the reason why this trend happens and why people are attracted to it when politicians and stars do it.

I believe that the article nailed it when they asked evolutionary psychologist Kanazawa and proposed that it is driven by "supply and demand" (Niel). From an evolutionary perspective, most women do tend to look for high statues in men because it gives them a sense of security for the future. So one may ask how do wealthy women like Carla Bruni and others like Jennifer Lopez and Melania Knauss, fit into this theory, since they were already popular, wealthy women before marriage? Well according to David M. Buss through the theory of natural selection, women who are wealthy choose mates who are at their status or higher, they do not tend to seek below. I believe this is true. Was Bruni, Lopez and Knauss better established than their current husbands? The answer is no. Bruni's husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, has a bit better stable career as a politician and current French President. Mark Anthony has had a longer successful career than J.Lo's and then lastly, nobody really beats Mr. Trump.

So the idea of women being "gold diggers" like Kanye West refers to in his popular song, is true, but to an extent. I believe women, wealthy or not, unconsciously tend to prefer higher statuses in men as the process of natural selection. Therefore, this new trend turns out not being so new but a trend in life.

Buss D. (2008). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind (3rd Edition).

MOVING EAST

This blog entry by Norma Salazar-Ibarra
The story: "Wal-Mart tweaks store for Arab-Americans"

The analysis:

How many of us are consumers of Wal-Mart. I know I myself am a consumer of Wal-Mart. When I go to Wal-Mart I not only find everyday products that can be found at any store, but have also found food products that are needed to cook Mexican dishes. I can easily hit the Hispanic aisle and find some of the products that I might need. I can easily go into any chain food market and find products I might need. But how many of these nationally known retailers are selling products that are tailored for Arab- Americans?

As I researched news paper articles I found an article that discussed how a brand new Wal-Mart in Dearborn, Michigan would now be selling Middle- Eastern specialties. According to the article, the reason why this Wal- Mart will be selling these products is because this Michigan neighborhood is known as Arab American. The southern part of Michigan is home to an estimated 300,000 Middle-Eastern descendents.
The reason why I chose this topic is because this is an important change for nationally known retailers. For many years retailers have been selling specialties for other ethnicities, but only family owned business have been selling specialties for Middle-Eastern descendents. I belief that today here in the U.S. we see racism against Middle- Eastern descendents, this change is important here in the U.S. because it might help bring tolerance in our country towards Middle-Eastern descendents.

This topic is related to popular culture, because since 9/11 we have seen an increase of racism against Middle-Eastern descendents, but for a nationally known retail to begin selling these products this change can be interpreted by individuals as social acceptance towards this population. This addition of products that Wal-Mart has implemented not only will we begin seeing more of this population shopping at this business, but Wal- Mart will also be seeing an increase in sells. Wal-Mart not only sells everyday products but is also targeting all ethnicities into their store.

POP-Q

This blog entry by Juan Gutierrez
The story: "Brain Candy: Is pop culture dumbing us down or smartening us up?"

The analysis:

It has become apparent that individuals have been getting smarter as every year passes. This might be a contradiction to many people's feelings that individuals are getting dumber because of the infestation of popular culture in our society. According to an article written by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker it is apparent that there is an increase in I.Q. testing scores amongst people that had a privileged education and those that might have gone though a deteriorating public school system. This article seemed eye catching because of the increasing spread of word that today's music, television, videogames, and movies are taking people away from more productive activities.

The article explains that twenty years ago the political philosopher James Flynn noticed that the I.Q. scores where increasing by three points every decade. Apparently modern media is way more complex than it was 30 years ago. It involves more analytical material that we have to put together in contrast to shows that used to give us a direct storyline that follows a simple structure. Steven Johnson the former editor of Feed (online magazine) states that modern television makes the audience "fill in". This means that in order to really attain the message that is trying to be sent out we have to know historical pop culture in order create a link and therefore understand. I see this all the time in shows such as family guy, in witch I have to link pop culture or a previous episode in order to understand the joke. Lots of money is spent on these TV shows to develop ways that the audience is forced to view many episodes in order to truly understand what is going on.

Same is said about videogames because of their modern complexity and use of logic. I agree with this because I have seen the skills and abilities that modern kids have attained through playing video games. I often see 7 to 10 year olds playing videogames almost instinctively. They show great skills that people my age would have a hard time to accomplishing.

Ultimately today's modern entertainment in some ways help develop cognitive abilities to the next level. The fact that we are using our minds to create logic in television shows and video games is a great exercise for our minds and therefore it does not sound illogical that we are learning through pop culture.

SYLLABUS UPDATED!

I've updated the syllabus to reflect recent changes in our schedule.



By the way - students should remember when their blog entries are due. I've been missing a few this week and last.

ADVERTISING + DIFFUSION LECTURES

Women in Advertising

Diffusion of popular culture

OFFICE HOURS THIS WEEK

Apologies - my daughter was sick and I had to take her to the doctor's this morning.

Alternate office hours this week will be on:
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:30 - 1:30pm.

Contact me via email if you need to schedule time outside of those slots.

--Prof. Wang

EARLY CINEMA LECTURE

Early cinema lecture

MAKING A MATCH

This blog entry by Jacquelyn Salazar
The story: "Professionals pay matchmakers to be 'headhunters for the heart'"

The analysis:

Matchmakers have become a growing trend in the United States and our pop culture. Many web sites like Match.com, E-Harmony and Matchmaker.com have been established. In addition there have been many television shows that have the same premise for example there is The Millionaire Matchmaker and The Bachelor and confessions of a Matchmaker. All of these show have one goal in common and that is to find someone a perfect mate. I picked this article because I have seen some of these TV shows and web sites and it amazes me that we are become a culture that wants to cut out "dating" and just find our mate. I thought dating was supposed to be the fun part, which is where you can meet new people.

This article goes in to detail on how people are hiring these matchmakers to find them a mate, this is a growing industry and it explains that there are many people just calling themselves matchmakers to make money. Another issue the article addresses is the types of people matchmakers take as clients. They take mostly only men as clients to find a match. As state by Janis Spindel "The women were very needy, very high- maintenance, and they seemed to nag," (Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY)

I do not know how are society has changed to have this mind set, that a strange person is going to find that "perfect" someone for a person. I understand that the divorce in the United States is very high its actually "50% of all marriages get a divorce"(Divorce Rates.com) but it does not mean that the person this matchmaker matches you with is going to the "perfect one".

I did not like the fact that some of these personalized matchmakers do not take women as clients. I do not understand why, women need to find their match too. I do not believe that all women are "very needy, very high- maintenance, and they seemed to nag," (Janis Spindel, USA TODAY) but I I'm kind of partial cause I am a female.

Over all I think matchmaker televisions shows are a great source of entertainment, but I do not think that our society should relay on them for finding that perfect match. I believe that people need to date to find out what they really want in a mate, because only a person know what they really want, not some matchmaker who interviews a person.