The Tiananmen Square Massacre

In June 5th 1989, Tiananmen Square had witnessed one of the darkest moment in China History – The Tiananmen Square Massacre.At least 3000 thousand people  had been killed by Chinese army (Timperlake, Edward. 1999).  However, younger generations  born after the massacre did not know anything about the incidents. The Government of China had blocked all kinds of communication that may lead to news about this incidents.  I was amazed to learn how the Government had filtered communication in China. For example, if we use Google Images in China, we will never be able to find a single picture about the Massacre while thousands of pictures about the Massacre can be found when we google from Singapore.  Even a free communication channel like the Internet is also controlled and filtered, what else can be truly free?  CheckVisible();

Unit 5: The social network – Virtual Societies

  Recently, a research from France had created a world map of Social Networks on the Internet. It is interesting to know that different cultures, continents have very different approach to CMC – Computer-Mediated Communication. 

    For example, as we can see from the map,  USians prefer MySpace over Facebook and other social networks like Bebo … It is not just because MySpace was born in US but the American’s  individualism has contributed largely to the widespread usage of MySpace – an ego-centric social network (social network that focuses on self-expression).

    On the other hand, Asia Pacific region adpots Friendster because of the friend network or its relationship-centric approach. Friendster allows people to keep/manage/add friends through friends’ networks. Friendster, in some ways, reflects Asian collectivism culture.  

    Another interesting finding from the map is Korea. They are the only nation endorses their own developed social network – Cyworld. Why Internet giants like Google, Six Apart and Yahoo! fail to meet Korean’s demand? It is the language or  culture barriers to communication had stopped foreign social networks to enter Korea market. In addition, Korean mentality of supporting national products plays a big part in their home-made Cyworld social network.

    We can simply conclude from the map that there is no social network that influence dominantly on the Internet. Technological Diffusion between nations also make this differences.

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Banned Advertisement – Condoms

Unilever’s Ads (Omo & Ala) – Cultural Barriers to Communication

 

   

The first advertisement is OMO (Unilever’s product) done for Vietnam’s market during Tet Holiday.

The second advertisement is also OMO ad with different name ALA, introduced in Argentina.

From these two advertisements (ads), I can see that Unilever has succeeded in avoiding Barriers to Intercultural Communication into getting notice from their customers. Perception of reality, images or sense of self, and language are some ways that communication can be influenced by culture.

The two ads above were made in the order to transfer a message from Unilever to their customers that ‘Dirt is Good.’ Understanding of perception of reality plays a significant role in advertising strategy of Unilever. Why they are not using a same advertising for both countries. It’s simply because Vietnam and Argentina have different perception of reality.

Sense of self can be noticed obviously through the ads as well.  Same idea ‘Dirt is Good’ was put smoothly in two different ways for both marketplaces to best fit their sense of self.

·      In Argentina, kids like to play in outside, discover the world themselves. Sometimes they are even a little bit naughty, playing with dirt and mud. The ad come up with the title ‘Pedon Mama’ which means ‘Pardon Mama’ in English is just so cute, just like the kids. They play, they discover, and they know their mum will not mind. How great it is!

·      Vietnamese like to help others. No wonder why Unilever has promoted the images of people helping people, no matter what. This has touched on the sense of self of Vietnamese. Especially when they even add in the traditional Tet Holiday in Vietnam, when everyone will try to do at least one good thing to other. So BOOM, they just Love the product!

Language is noticeably from the two ads. Spanish was used for ALA’s ad in Argentina, whereas Vietnamese was used for OMO’s ad in Vietnam. Would Unilever’s ad be effective anymore if the company only use one single English Ad for both markets? It would be a worse strategy ever. They even use two separated name for the product in the two countries. OMO for Vietnam and ALA for Argentina. Be flexible to change and adopt the language where the most of the products being consumed will bring best results to the company.

 

As I said at the beginning, Unilever is brilliant in avoiding the cultural barriers to communication when expend their brand to new and unfamiliar marketplaces. Something valuable for a future-businesswoman like me to learn.

Unit 4: Hutch Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival Campaign (India)

 

 

 

 

    

Campaign at Java City 

 

 

I found this Campaign really helped me understand about the theories of

communication such as Cultivation theory and Agenda setting function.

(The story of how the campaign started and its results are posted

above).

·         Agenda setting function:

Ogilvy & Mather (India), the media agency who has created this advertisement, has succeeded in increasing the importance of the ‘interest in theatre’ issue in public’s mind through repeating the ads with the ending message “For more drama come to the Hutch Range Shankara Theatre Festival.”

A media’s influence depends on public’s direct experience with the issue and whether it is obtrusive or unobtrusive. In this case Ogilvy is an expert. The media created a campaign with real life incidents and filmed them with hidden cameras. This provided the target audience direct interaction with the campaign, therefore, they remember the ads. Not only the witnesses were influenced, the ones who watch it through TV were also convinced because the campaign does not look like a stage at all. Moreover, the audience has the right to choose to come to the theatre or not. In other words, it is unobtrusive, thus created more effect among the audience.

·         Cultivation theory: Resonance

Ogilvy also did a good job in getting the target audience’s attention through making the ads matching their daily life experience. Indians are extremely curious about other people’s lives; therefore, creating something that raise up their curiosity would be a wide strategy. Ogilvy hence created a “double dose” effect on their audience.

More amazing to know that this campaign only cost Ogilvy & Mather, India $625, but its results are unbelievable. 

Unit 3: 2. No Reservations (Knapp Model of Relationship Development)

 

Right at the first moment when Ms. Hui gave us a hint for mid-term exam preparation “Hey guys, please go home to watch one or two pieces of romance or drama. You will need it for your mid-term paper,” I thought of the movie named ‘No Reservations’ released in late 2007.

The movie is for the Relationship Development analysis. I chose this movie because it fits the Knapp Model of Relationship Development, which contains 10 stages, moving from ‘Coming together’ to ‘Coming apart’ stages in a relationship. This entry will mainly mention about the 5 stages of ‘Coming together’ and will touch on a little bit on the first stage of ‘Coming apart.’

Coming together

1.     Initiating: Kate and Nick, the two main characters in the romance are both famous chiefs. So it is obviously that the first place they meet will be at the kitchen of a well-known restaurant. Nick presents himself to Kate with a smiley face and the reason why he comes to work for this kitchen is because of her. He admires her talent in cooking. In the other hand, Kate appears cold and very cautious as thinking that Nick comes here to take away her job.

2.     Experimenting: Because of the job feature, they start having some small talks even though Kate does not want to. At the same time, the ‘feeling each other out’ process begins. Kate is perfect at creating recipes but holds too much pressure when working, while Nick plays and inspires others by his enjoyment when he cooks. Nick finally makes Kate smiles by helping her niece move out of the shell.

3.     Intensifying: Nick and Kate disclose more personal information to each other as well as sharing their feelings oftenly. Trust hence has been built up between the to souls. That’s when intimacy takes place. More physical contacts are shown.

4.     Integrating: Nevertheless, I think the movie doesn’t review much this stage. Since their is no announcement from Kate and Nick that they are a couple, no body knows, except Kate’s niece. 

 

Coming apart: Differentiating

However, love never runs smooth. Kate and Nick have conflict. Kate concerns about Nick taking away her job rises again as the owner of the restaurant follows Nick’s advice and change everything Kate has built up.

Coming together: Bonding

As mentioned in the lecture note, the stages in Knapp Model of Relational Development are not linear, which means it can skip and then go back to the previous stage.

‘No reservations’ is a case. Nick and Kate later realize that the problem is not that intense. They then get into peace again and even more attach to each other. When Nick and Kate feel that they have understand each other enough, enough commitment has been formed, they move in to live together and open their own restaurant. A happy ending, isn’t it?

Overall, ‘No reservations,’ like most of other romances I have seen, has a typical story line, which follows through most of the parts of the Knapp Model of Relationship Development. I realize that in any romance, the relationship needs to either pass the 5 stages of Coming together, or follows the other 5 stages of Coming apart. Sometimes, it can also move back and forth between ‘coming together’ and ‘coming apart,’ like the movie ‘No Reservations’ itself. I believe that my analysis above has explained it clearly enough.

Unit 3: 1. My dance team – My love (Group Communication)

Today lecture’s topic, Group Communication, reminds me so much about my golden time at Saigon South International School, back in Vietnam. Being involved in many varsities high-school teams such as dance team, basketball team, as well as volleyball team; I know well how important communication in a group is.

Dance team is my favorite team ever. And it was the hardest one to manage as well. Why managing group communication is that hard? It is because any great performance requires a strong coherence of talented individuals. Group synergy is how this is called, which explains that individuals perform best in a group. But because dancers are gifted and artistic, they are quite hard to work with. Some may even say that artists or dancers are hard-to-pleased as each individual one of them has a very strong characteristic. Took it at a challenge, I myself formed my own dance team and participated in the School’s Annual Dance Competition. As the other two members of the group are my two best friends, I thought that it would be very simple to work as a group. However, things turn out the other way around, we had the problem related group dialectics. I could be able to manage well the task vs. maintenance goals in the group, but not individual vs. group needs. For task vs. maintenance goals, each member of the team was in charge with different tasks such as costumes seeker, music picker, or performance coordinator. By focusing on what we were best at reduced a lot of time-consuming for us and avoided any conflict among the group’s member. In contrast, we did not meet the individual vs. group needs. Our levels of individual expectation of rewards gained from the competition were not same; therefore, leads to different levels of commitment and contribution to the group. After all, we solved the problem by re-adjusting our individuals and group needs.

The best part came out at the end, when our efforts have been paid by the First Price of the Competition.

Reading about Bruce Tuckman’s Five stages of Group Development’s Model, I can see that our team work process that day exactly passed those stages mentioned. They are forming (task identity), storming (status argue), norming (disagreements), performing (get the work done), and adjourning (reflection).

 

Additional Feed:

 

Step Up 2, the newest movie released last week again wakes my love for dance up. The movie also shows a lot of concepts about Group Communication like I mentioned in the entry above. Below is the trailer of ‘Step Up 2′

Watch it and get inspired by the Dance Evolution as well as strategies for effective Group Communication.

Enjoy the movie ^^