Seeing the title i guess most people are wondering what this post would be about, well its a new channel 8 9pm drama that i just watched just now. The timing this show is being aired i guess is too close a coincidence with one of the topic discussed by our PM Lee's National Day Rally. The topic our PM approached was giving increased benefits to encourage Singaporean families to have m0re kids.
Well the show is about this bachelor Alan ( portrayed by Adrian Pang ) who is a selfish and petty man who is hated by all his fellow neighbors in the block. One day his sister shows up at his house with her nine month old baby daughter and begs him to look after the baby girl as she has to rush to the middle east to save her husband. Well as the story progresses on we see many funny antics and situation between Alan and the baby like him learning how to change her diapers and wearing female clothing to breastfeed the girl. Basically the show is trying to portray how much fun and joy a baby can bring to a person or family's life and having a baby can also change one's character to make the person more responsible. This might have a certain effect that would lead couples to ponder deeper on having a children as they see the positives sides and joy of having a kid in the family.
Going back to what i learn during communication lectures, i guess the government is using appeal to emotion ( Pathos ) to persuade couples into having kids. The reason why i feel that the government is using persuasion by emotion is because seeing the comical and happy situation with the baby girl evokes one's emotions, feeling the sense of joy through the tv show.
Personally i feel that the show is not really able to get across the sense of joy of having a baby to its audience. No doubt there are the comical moments in the show but some scenes keep repeating itself making it not comical anymore, for example in one episode yesterday i notice twice they tried to make a comical situation of the baby peeing onto Alan's clothes. Seeing it once was enough but repeating it twice kills the effect. Next i feel that there can be more variety of happy scenes with the baby then there is shown on the show.
Hahz so for those who have read this post please comment on what u think about it and if you have seen the show u can also comment on how you feel about the show.
10 comments:
I believe it is true that anything aired on the media is a tool for the government to disseminate their agenda. This may not be a bad thing however, as it does portray having kids in the positive light, something which many Singaporeans really have forgotten in their pursui of wealth etc etc. Of course, if there are too much of such similar themed shows, then it may become to the public as irritating as nagging from a mother is to a schoolboy, hence also creating an opposite effect due to "turning people off" to the ideas which the government wishes to show.
I feel that the effectiveness of this show as a tool to persuade couples to have children is somewhat limited. It might push a small number of couples who were already considering having a baby to make the decision and go ahead with having children, but I doubt that it will be able to stimulate a constructive discussion between couples to have babies. Having said that, this show does offer a light-hearted take on the serious issue of raising a family and could perhaps make a daunting task seem more appealing.
Just wondering... do you think there might be other messages from the drama besides encouraging Singaporeans to have more babies? E.g. difficulties of being a single parent, how to balance work and family, men having to be the bread-winner of the family, etc.
No doubt, media tend to make use of emotional appeal to persuade its audience (and pretty successful at it in fact, I would say). Through the realistic portrayal of day to day situations, I think couch potatoes like myself would unknowingly be subtlely influenced by the dramas and advertisements aired and such in turn affects our behavior.
That said, I also feel that dramas are still dramas and people often just watch for entertainment purposes. And for important decisions such as having a baby, definitely would require more than a sitcom to justify a couple's future.
To say that this show is mediacorp's attempt at driving across the governemnt's pleas for family building could perhaps be too dogmatic a view. propaganda shows would definitely tug at the heartstrings more and induce paroxysms to a greater degree than the show in question. besides,the show would probably already have finished filming before the rally even took place. to think that the government had collaborated with the media to create such an effect in tandem would be too much of a longshot. Afterall, the show is really centred around the egocentricities of one man and his budding romance with a neighbour. the only chance at encouraging births lies in the cuteness of the casted baby, everything else is really quite negative to the government's plea if you'd like to think about it. labour pains, constraints of expectancy, financial woes and sleepless nights aren't exactly useful catalysts in encouraging births.
Great attempt on commenting about the show!(:
Great attempt on commenting about the show!(:
haha i guess from the comments in here most have pointed out that the sitcom would not really persuade couples to have a children, looking back i guess i have to agree that it really would not have much effect but i guess the show acts subtlely as a reminder of the joys of a family
I do agree that 'Nanny Daddy' might just be one of the media's effort to tap on the government's continuous encouragement to boost birth rates.
After all, the issue on having more babies is not limited to this year's rally. It appears that since the introduction of 'family and baby related policies', there had been many local (esp chinese?) shows which embrace the theme of procreation...
It can be a little overwhelming at times.Just wondering...is it really helpful and impactful on birth figures to have such repeated reminders on proceation?are we really a 'nanny state'? =X haha.just some random thoughts...
In addition to what many of you have already pointed out, I believe this show has more to it then just pointing out the joys of having a baby.
I have to point out that they chose to have the lead character as a male. I think this is a shout-out to all the fathers out there to do their part for the family.
Many Asian societies like Singapore and Japan tend to be patriarchal. The old (and outdated) view is that the father should work while the mother stays at home to look after the child.
As a result, fathers do not spend as much time with their children as they should.
In my opinion, this show attempts to encourage fathers to spend more time looking after their children. Not only will the bonds with their children be strengthened, it will also reduce the workload of the mother.
With this kind of responsibility sharing, the mother will not have to spend all her time with the child. She has the freedom to continue her job if she wants to, compared to countries like Japan where a pregnant or married woman is expected to quit her job.
All in all, this show encourages fathers should to spend more time looking after their families. Don't leave everything to the mothers. Otherwise, fathers will miss out on their share of the joy in raising a family.
oh yes that is quite an important point that i have overlooked during my post that this show also shows that man also have to play their part in the family and help take care of the children in our modern day family..thanks emil for pointing that out
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