Functions of the Media

Charles Wright identified four media functions:
(1) Surveillance- information
(2) Correlation- analysis and evaluation
(3) Cultural transmission- education and socialisation of receivers
(4) Entertainment- enjoyment and gratification

The above four media functions can be seen through an article published on the front page of The New Paper on friday the 31st of October. The headlines read " Singapore Teacher Sparks Debate: Show and Tell" and the sides read: she almost bares all in pictures for online bikini contest. Its an article about a teacher in a unnamed Singapore pool school who has a private blog and discusses about issues in school and her personal life. In her blog she included details like getting a tatoo and talking about her everyday going-on in life. The main issue of the article was her sending provocative pictures of her dressed in skimpy bikinis for a online bikini contest held in Australia called the Wicked Weasel. The article goes on discussing on what happened there on and after her blog and her participation was discovered and debates whether what she had done was it a professionally right action.

In the article we can see the media performing all four of its function. "Last thursday, Shin Min Daily News reported that pictures of Tina (not her real name) in her skimpy bikinis had appeared on the internet" here the media has performed its role of surveillance by providing information of the person involved, what was going on and even revealing pictures of the person.

Next on the later part of the article there was an analysis of the issue whereby the New Paper interviewed some parents over the issue. Some of them like homemaker Audra Chow, 36, said the pictures showed a confident person who was comfortable with her body but added it turned her off knowing she was an educator. There was a few other interviews on the issue but they were only one-sided and non had given any support in any sense to the teacher involved. Here the media had provided correlation but it was a one-sided, biased analysis of the issue.

In the article there is also cultural transmission or education of the readers of the paper. Included was an excerpt of the spokesman of the Ministry of Education who said that teachers may create or participate in a blog or other types of online publishing or discussion on matters not related to their work, such as their hobbies, provided they do so in their personal capacity, act in a responsible manner and do so on thier own time. This excerpt educates the readers on what the teachers are permitted to do and whats not, hence the media has performed its role of educating the public.

Lastly the article has also provided entertainment to readers who love such gossips and news. The more and vivid information provided, the more entertainment it would provide to the readers especially such exclusive and rare news.

Now is for my own views on the article. True the media did perform all its functions by bringing the information, analysis, education and entertainment on this article. But what i question is whether have they gone a step too far by blowing this whole matter up and putting it on their front page and even showing the provocative pictures of the teacher involved. I reckon the journalist of this article would not take into consideration how much his or her article would disrupt the teacher involved life in many ways as their main objective is get as much attention on the article as possible. And if they felt that her taking those provocative pictures and posting them online was wrong, didnt they go a step even further by publishing some of the pictures on their people? i am sure it provides entertainment for some who sees the picture, but have they forgotten that their paper is easily accessible to kids and teenagers? in ther first place they might not have seen those pictures at all but by publishing those pictures the media has made a wrong move. What do you people reading this post think about the media? do you agree that the media has taken matters too far?

House Bunny - Group Communication

House bunny is a comedy that hit our local cinema screens a couple of weeks ago. Its about a former playboy house bunny Shelly who was tricked into thinking that she was being kicked out of the playboy mansion. By chance, through a series of events she ends up being the housemother of a sorority group called the zeta alpha zeta, the members of the sorority are a group of seven possibly the most socially clueless women. Because of their inability to integrate with society they face the danger of losing thier house due to the lack of pledges to them. Shelly comes along into the picture and begins to give all the girls a revamp and turn them into attractive people whom everyone wants to befriend with. At the beginning the girls were reluctant but realising the emminent danger of losing their house they decide to go with Shelly. Their popularity also caused resentment from another sorority group who tries to prevent the Zeta's from getting pledges. In the end Shelly's misunderstanding with Hugh Hefner, the playboy mansion owner, was cleared up and she went back to being a playboy bunny but did not feel at ease going back to her old lifestyle and returned to help the Zeta's save their house.

In this movie we can see Shelly integrating into the Zeta's. From being kicked out of the mansion, she needed interpersonal needs like need for inclusion as she felt alone and abandoned, need for control as she used to be in charge of stuff in the playboy mansion, as well as the need for affection from the group of Zeta girls. When Shelly joins the Zeta sorority as she has them for companionship as well as went back to her old lifestyle of being in control of things going on in the house, thus joining the Zeta's, the group have met her interpersonal needs for her to feel the need to be included in their group.

Next in the movie we see problems they faced as a group during decision making, for example needing the full support of the group when making decision and Shelly had to work hard to prove to everyone that what she was doing for them was worth their support. Another problem they faced was that the solution they chose was risky, before the decision to have a makeover, all the girls were hesitant as they felt insecure of themselves and were not sure if the next step that they were about to take was it a right or wrong move. These are just some of the problems they faced as a group.

Lastly through the movie, we are able to see the process of Shelly being integrated into the group, from first being a prospective member, to a new member, to a full member. It begins with her being a prospective member when she was brought in to the Zeta's house when everyone was deciding whether to rope her into the group, here she was like a prospective member as she was not part of the group yet. Next in the following stage as a new member, she began to learn about things in the group, finding out information about each individuals in the group. Lastly she intergrates into a full member of the group, being the center of all the activities that the group was involved in. She never fell into the catergory of being an ex-member of the group though at one stage she did leave the group, because despite being away she still felt a huge part of her still with the group and was at a loss without them.

In the movie we can also see many parts of group communication, for example who in the group plays the task or maintenance roles as well as some aspects of groupthink symptoms developing after the sorority group became popular.

It is quite an enjoyable movie to watch, despite its comedic and seemingly brainless plot there are actually alot of things that we learnt in group communication that can be observed from the movie.