The Demise of Foreign Correspondents?

Foreign Correspondent has become a desirable career to most journalists. And it can be attributed to the perks– living overseas, being a member of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and working on major coverages, just to name a few. However, in this world of new information technology, global economic recession and new breeds of journalists, there are talks about the demise of Foreign Correspondent. The somewhat disadvantageous interrelation is generally due to a few factors, which will be illustrated below. I’ll be referring to newspaper and news broadcasting companies as media agencies for simplicity. Many media analysts talk about the demise of Foreign Correspondent; do I think the Australian media are grappling with the same problem? I say yes and no.

Majority of media agencies are pressured to generate increasing profits. Generally, media agencies closed their foreign bureaus down as a measure to save costs. As per Washington Post’s journalist Pamela Constable has stated– the cost to run a foreign bureau is exuberant, for instance, “a typical newspaper bureau overseas costs at least $250,000 a year, according to foreign editors, and a large, security-conscious news operation in the city such as Baghdad can hemorrhage four times that”. So, instead of running staffed-offices overseas, media agencies opt for more cost efficient options– keen freelancers and mobile media.

Highly qualified foreign correspondents in general are argued to be a dying breed, as they are slowly “replaced” by newer breeds of journalists such as embedded journalists and freelanced “stringers” (Novakovic, 2011). So in what way are media agencies saving money? Firstly, as embedded journalists and freelancers are not stationed overseas, therefore do not live overseas; most of the time media agencies do not have to pay for the journalists to settle in. Journalists who are embedded with government organisations overseas, say the Australian Defence Force for example, usually travel, eat and sleep with the soldiers. Hence, these costs are paid by tax-payers, not the media agencies they work for. And as mentioned above, neither do they have to pay the costs of running bureaus overseas. Secondly, with freelancers, media agencies do not pay them a regular wage and staff benefits– instead, they are paid per coverage and for the work they put in– contrary to the costs involved in employing foreign correspondents. Freelancers also help cover more remote or incremental stories, and newswire agencies can cover breaking news in global hot spots.

The next questions are– if they do not have bureaus overseas, what resources are the journalists working with? And how do they broadcast or present news coverages to the audience back at home? With new and mobile information technology, they can– effortlessly and quickly– wherever they are. With laptops, wireless internet coverage, the new generation compact satellite phones, digital voice recorders, and camera mobile and smart phones, more often than not embedded journalists and freelancers digitally record their news coverages and wirelessly send their works back to their editors, who are based locally. Mobile information technology has enabled journalists to cover and transcribe or broadcast news on the move, making them a more appealing option– to media agencies looking to save costs. Hence again, in terms of costs, there is very little need for agencies to maintain bureaus overseas, and more cost efficient to have roving embedded journalists and freelancers than foreign correspondents who live and work overseas.

The demise of Foreign Correspondent is also arguably due to the qualifications and experience sought after in foreign correspondents, by media agencies. As foreign correspondents are often expected (though not necessarily required) to have “thorough grounding” (Novakovic, 2011) “in the language, history and cultures of the country or countries they aspire to report” (Hodge 1999, p. 122), many newer generation journalists opt to fast track their career by working as “stringers” (Novakovic, 2011). And it becomes a vicious cycle. Hence contributing to what is arguably the demise of Foreign Correspondent.

Another contributing factor is internet. Certain websites accessible via the internet become news   coverage sources for “foreign correspondents”, based locally– “foreign correspondents based in Australia have rated web sites as their most useful source of information” and the “search engine Yahoo rated 9th” (Knight, 2001). This implies that foreign correspondents need not be posted overseas to cover news stories.

As per Constable, in the United States the number of foreign correspondents had declined “from 188 to 141”, between 2002 and 2006 alone. Constable also reports that only “four American papers still maintain significant numbers” of correspondents based overseas.

Australia is advancing with the rest of the developed world in technology, and thanks to marketing, consumers are becoming more and more tech savvy. So do I think Australian media are grappling with the same problem? Yes and no. Yes, because some media agencies are pressured to make profits, therefore they would be looking at cost efficient methods. Newspapers more so, because of information technology and mobile media, people are leaning towards paperless media.

And no, because news broadcasting networks would have the revenue to set up bureaus overseas. For instance, Australian Broadcasting Corporation had recently established their Afghanistan bureau in Kabul, January this year. Regardless, it is hard to predict what the future of Foreign Correspondent would be. 

Architectural places and spaces, silenced histories: demolishing the past

I took a walk down St. Georges Terrace and took a picture of some of the “old” buildings. As old as they are, some of them look rather new. Buildings rich with history. And there's something else.. All of them stand out in the midst of modern skyscrapers. At one point in time, they could easily be the tallest infrastructure architects ever dreamed of designing. Now they seemed drowned by the wave of modern, more geometric and taller buildings dotting the city like mushrooms. 

I asked my other half, who was born and brought up in Australia, about the Barrack Arch. His response: What barrack arch? So what significance do these monuments have to Australians? Would they be equally significant to the newer generation as they would to the first generation Australians? 

The St. Georges Cathedral 2011

The Perth Town Hall 2011

The Barrack Arch 2011

The Cloisters 2011

After reading Peter Read's Our Lost Drowned Town in the Valley: Perceptions of the Inundation of Adaminaby, my very initial thought was– devastating! I can, to a certain extent, relate to the residents of Adaminaby even though I can't say my grief will ever be on equal par to theirs. Regardless, my grief is for a place which harbours my childhood memories. Mine is not for a town, but for a school. The old single-storey Sembawang Primary School (funnily the school wasn't located in Sembawang but in the Yishun/Khatib district instead) was one of the smallest primary schools in modern Singapore. Built during the British colonial times, it had 7 classrooms, 1 small library that was also used as a music room, 1 small teachers' lounge, 1 small audio video room for whenever we had guest speakers (which was seldom), 2 girls' and 2 boys' toilets, an outdoor junior badminton and basketball court, a decent size canteen, a tiny outdoor stage area, 2 grassy sun courts and a large field. I can still remember the names and faces of most of the kids I went to school with, and the teachers. What fond memories they are. No, fond is an understatement.

The “minty” smell of morning dew during the daily 8am assemblies turned me into a “morning person”.

Recess time meant whipping out (read: showing off) the self-made thick chain of rubber bands for an anticipated game of “Zero Point”– an all girls jumping game– with friends.

In primary two, my teachers frequently caught me day dreaming in class and complained to Mama.

My first school camp. Literally. The team-bonding camp was held on the school ground; we camped on one of the grassy sun courts.

I participated in my first (and only) school beauty pageant.

My first crush... which didn't involve Hollywood actors.

My first dried seaweed.

The very first ghost tale I heard was told by the school caretaker, which mentioned the dilapidated 4-storey teachers' quarter right next to the school canteen. I suspected that was only to deter us from going on one of our notorious “Famous Five” explorations, but I didn't want to risk it just in case.

I could never sleep the night before the school's annual sports' day, from all the excitement. That was the only time when Mama would let me run around barefooted (still love the feel of morning dew on the soles of my feet), though that wasn't the only reason for excitement.. The Milo truck. The endless top ups of cold milky Milo a child could ever drink.

My first encounter with the amazing (thorny) mimosa plants.. without shoes.

My primary school was demolished in late 1990s, to make way for one of the first government condominiums in Singapore. I recognise it to be a somewhat similar situation to Adaminaby, where the governing power undervalued the nostalgia attached to the old place and deemed it not any more significant than the new project. The demolition was “in the best interest of the nation”. Along with the debris and rubble, went the tale of the school that used to stand there. I wish I could show you pictures, but besides the map of the site where it used to be (see the link below), I've nothing.

http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_19022/travel_site_1/

The old Sembawang primary school stood where Euphony Gardens condominium is now.

Googling “Sembawang Primary School” would only bring up the pictures and info of the new Sembawang school, which was built a couple of years later in the Sembawang district.

On the Yishun-Sembawang heritage trail, http://heritagetrails.sg/content/1673/Yishun_Sembawang_Trail.html

some of the places and schools mentioned were founded numerous years after the old Sembawang Primary School. Though Jalan Mata Ayer– where the old school was located– is along the trail, there is no mention of the school.

It is as if it never existed.

Who determines whether a building is to be heritage listed or not? The country's National Heritage Board or equivalent? On what grounds? Based on who's values?

I do resign to the fact that urban redevelopment is inevitable, but I believe as a nation we have to acknowledge the existence or previous existence of places and respect that they might hold sentimental value to other people, even though they're not of any significance to us personally. In my opinion, the more practical way to commemorate “loss places” would be to place sculptures and/or plaques on the site. However, if the place is more prominent, a bigger commemoration is only befitting. A good example of this is the memorial museum and performing arts complex built at Ground Zero, New York.

Individuals can also get involved in acknowledging the past uses of “loss places” by sharing stories and pictures with others through blogging, internet chat forums, community clubs, commemoration events etc. I found a couple of good blogs and chat forums on old Perth and Singapore:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=600041

http://www.6000times.com/2010/01/swanbourne-abandoned-mental-crazy.html

http://goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com/

I have to admit, after reading Namadgi: Sharing the High Country, I had conflicting thoughts about who should have more “rights” to the heritage of ANY place. Of course I say the easy solution is to get common consensus or meet halfway, but I guess it's never that easy when the parties have conflicting interests.

Living on the edge: shackies and campers

The different perspectives in regards to campers and “shackies” near the Ningaloo Reef, presented by Four Corners: Seachange are very insightful. I can empathise with the different parties and their point of views, as each made a valid point. The Aboriginal people believe they belong to the land, not vice versa, hence they practice taking only what they need, which is in sync with conservation ethics. And then we have the visitors– most likely regulars who've been “paying their pilgrimage” to the reef since they were little– the innocent Australian “cheap beach holiday”, for many generations. However, vehicle access, water usage, and sewage have to be “managed”. This is when the Conservation and Land Management comes into the picture. Hence, the pilot of the eco-tourism plan. But $400 per day for an eco-friendly resort?! I can understand why people would opt for the B.Y.O accommodations. And when the government mentioned “marina resort development” near Ningaloo, it wasn't a big hit with the people because most people, including me, associate Australian resorts with luxury and therefore pricey. I guess in the defence of the eco-tourist operator – as mentioned in the video– the cost of the “rooms” are justified by the cost of renewable energy usage, sewerage treatment, water supply and miscellaneous maintenance costs. But visitors of the reef would steer away from these eco-friendly accommodations knowing that the high costing upkeep would filter through to them. Catch 22. 

Restrictions need to be implemented to save the Ningaloo Reef from ourselves. Imagine– if the reef is not environmentally sustained, what sort of “inheritance” are we leaving our children and their children? So as to the question of whose coast it is and who's entitled to a place there? I say the coast belongs to all Australians and we are entitled to a place there but that doesn't mean we know and are doing what's best for it. That's why I'm leaving the land conservation part to the experts.

Writing Project- 3 hard news articles under the microscope

by huffting post.com

News often means “a broadcast or published report of news” (Oxford online dictionary) comprised of “information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television” (The Free Dictionary online). And the common notion of the news is that it is unbiased, objective and factual. However, as “language can never be completely neutral”, neither can the news. News is produced by journalists, within certain ideological contexts, therefore can never be completely unbiased. This comes through in the language, discourse and structure journalists use in news stories, despite news conventions that aim to make news reporting objective or as objective as possible. However, these ideologies are not necessarily consciously conceived, as they are more often than not embedded in the journalists' “unconscious consciousness”. As can be seen in the three media reports (discussed below) on the civil unrest in Libya by three different news networks and presented from different angles, there are many perspectives and presentational contexts– each of which relies on specific ideologies, and in some, mythologies.

by muppet wiki

News Report 1: Christians reach Libya, as civil unrest continues 

News report Christians reach Libya, as civil unrest continues by Mission Network News (MNN) online is a straight forward example of this, where the journalist's ideological orientation– especially in the context of religion– is made transparent and comes through strongly in the report. But first, to understand the journalist's ideological orientation, a brief look into the ideological context of Christianity is necessary. In Christianity, it is believed that people are God's servants, and “God loves all men and wishes they all could be saved”. And the imperial aspect of Christianity is “God’s free gift of eternal salvation can only be received by accepting His Son Jesus Christ” as the saviour, and through faith in Jesus Christ can they secure their salvation. 

The mentioned ideologies of Christianity have shaped the news frame, language and discourse seen in the news report. The angle and news values chosen for the presentation of the event, focus on the humanitarian work done by the group of Christian missionaries rather than the political aspect of the civil unrest. Even the discourses used in the report are mainly religious and humanitarian, instead of political. The ideology of spreading the word of Jesus Christ is reinforced in the news report through the use of religious and humanitarian discourses. However, the use of religious/those discourses in the news report is at the risk of excluding readers who do not know the historical context of Christianity. 

Besides through the discourses, Christian ideologies are also reinforced through the choice of language and quotes used in the report. For instance, the talk of the “opportunity” for Christians “to work in this challenging area of the world” to help alleviate the nation's “suffering” “as a testimony of the love of Christ”, exemplifies the Christian ideologies mentioned above where salvation is achieved upon accepting Jesus Christ as the saviour, and to secure that salvation is by keeping the Christianity faith. In another instance, the journalist emphasises the ideology of “Love thy neighbour” by quoting Vanderzalm, “Regardless of faith differences that we may have, we want you to know that we care for you”. This can be traced back to a Christian mythology taken from the Bible– the story of the Good Samaritan– where to “love your neighbor as yourself” is one of the pre-requisites to achieve eternal salvation. And neighbour is extended to everyone, regardless of “race or ethnic differences”, as also supported by Vanderzalm. As illustrated, the religious presentational context of this news report and the perspective on the Libyan civil unrest hint at the journalist's ideological orientation as a Christian.

by sky news

News Report 2: Libya, Jordan and Yemen Hit By Renewed Unrest 

In the next news report Libya, Jordan and Yemen Hit By Renewed Unrest by Sky News online, the ideological features are less obvious. Unlike the news report presented above, this report adheres closely to the news conventions making it seems to be an objective reporting of the Libyan civil unrest. However, when dissected, there are evidences of ideological influence in the frame, language and discourses. The journalist's ideological orientation influences the ethical and political context of the news report. 

Political and moral ideologies are also reflected in the discourses used in the report. The journalist uses words such as “anti-government demonstration” and “protests” instead of riot, uprising or rebellion, to describe the event. The definition of protests is “an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid” (Dictionary.com). Unlike the negative connotations that surround the words riot, uprising or rebellion, the word protests has a purposeful, fierce yet subduable connotation, suggesting that their protests is merely to demonstrate their objection, not to create havoc. This hints at the journalist's ideological orientation in the context of politics– democracy and down with dictatorship.

The ideological influence can also be seen in the angle and the news values. The news report talks about how the civil unrest came about, but seems to highlight the civilian fatality rate by the hands of Libyan security forces. Most of the quotes used in the report are to emphasise the number of fatalities. The most influential quote in the report would be by the US President Obama where he “condemned the violence and urged the countries' governments to show restraint”. The moral ideology also comes through in the choice of videos and photos used in the report. One of the videos is of Libyan security forces shooting live rounds at the protesters. And another video of the protests in Libya, Yemen and Jordan, showing unarmed and cheering protesters. The pictures used in the report also say a thousand words. A picture of the protests used in the report shows no violence– the protesters look rather calm. And the caption reads, “Anti-government protesters attend prayers in Taz, Yemen.” The journalist uses the picture and caption to suggest that the protesters are religious and non-violent, as they can put their issues and dismay aside to respond to their call to prayer. The journalist uses the news value of human interest to provoke strong emotions from the readers, also interpellating the readers as the humanitarians who would want to see the fall of the Libyan dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, for authorising unethical shootings of Libyans who were merely standing up for their cause.

by bbc news

News Report 3: Libya protests: Oil prices rise as unrest continues  

The ideological features in the third news report Libya protests: Oil prices rise as unrest continues by BBC Business News is the hardest to detect compared to the other two news reports. Statistics makes up most of the content, and as statistics are regarded as pure facts, it seems that the news report are unlikely ideologically constructed and therefore unbiased. However, frame, language and discourse imply otherwise.

Like the other news reports, the angle used to present the story is a sign of ideological influence. Every time there is war or conflict in the Middle Eastern countries, speculations on the rise in oil prices have always become a newsworthy story. And this news report is no different. The angle used conforms to the ideology of oil business where a conflict in Middle East equals to the rise in oil price. This ideology of oil business also filters through to the syntagm of the news report. Even though, statistics are factual, the syntagm of the statistics and the quotes hints at ideological influence. For instance, the statistics illustrating risen oil prices are placed immediately after quotes that support them. Quotes such as “We expect that the violent outbreaks of civil unrest seen in Libya's...”, “The market is reacting to violence in Middle East” and “The market is very nervous over news of violence in Libya, and that's driving prices”, are used to support the statistics, while representing the negative aspect and outcome of the Libyan civil unrest. The statistics might not be ideologically constructed but the quotes were said and used by people with ideologies.

The language used by the journalist also defines his/her ideological orientation, in terms of business context– business is a specialised field, and hence the use of jargon and “business speak” is required. The use of economy, finance and business discourses exclude readers who do not speak the jargon. Again, this leads back to the ideology of business where it is not for everyone, and is exclusive to people of a certain calibre.

Though all three news reports present the Libyan civil unrest in a negative light, their perspectives and presentational contexts differ from each other. As illustrated above, this variation is due to the journalists' ideologies in the context of civil unrest, politics, economy, religion, humanitarian aid– just to name a few. In the news reports, it might not be mentioned or written the journalists' religion, or whether they're left wing or right wing, but the news reports are the blue print of the journalists' ideologies. Each journalist's ideologies, both consciously thought out and embedded, have influenced the language, discourse and structure they have used in presenting this event to the world. Therefore, media reports are not completely unbiased.

It's that time again!

YES it is. Semester break! I have an abundance of time in my hand that I don't know what to do with it. So I reckon I will take on a writing project of my own to keep myself busy during this 5-week break. The project, I've decided, will involve critical analysis of random stuff, and maybe movies. I might start with media representation of some kind– the news maybe. Being a journo student, I've taken an unspoken pledge to be objective and unbiased when reporting hard news. That is also expected of every journalist. So it would be interesting (for me at least) to pick out the ones that don't comply, and present an analysis of why so.. hmmm.. Will be interesting indeed (thinking out loud). Ok, I'll be off on my little mission now and should be back soon with an analysis. 

Till next time.

Kitadol's Menophobia Message

Kitadol

When I say advertisement, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Product marketing? Product sales? It's a common understanding that an advert is merely putting the word out about a product, usually to increase product sales. However, this particular advert that I found is selling more than just a product. The Kitadol advert not only sells a medication to relieve menstrual period pain, but also reinforces particular socially constructed ideologies and social taboo that society can associate with as being the norm or “common sense”. Patriarchal ideology, in particular, is dominantly reinforced in the advert. Hinting that the targeted audience for this advert is men, though the product is for women. The reinforcement builds a bridge between the meaning of the advert and the targeted audience, so men can relate and empathise with the situation presented in it. The representation involves stigmas surrounding menstrual period, and connoting that women aren't themselves as they “morph” into undesirable beings when in menstrual-period-inflicted pain.

It used to be a taboo and distasteful, still is in some societies, to speak about menstrual periods in public. Feminism and menstrual activism, dating to the mid 1970s, are in an ongoing mission to change that. Though there are more and more products pertaining to menstrual periods advertised on the market, it remains a taboo to talk about what it really entails. For instance, the colour red is never used in adverts or even on product packagings to represent what menstrual periods are mainly about- BLOOD. Sanitary pad adverts use blue liquid to demonstrate the absorbency of the product. The Kitadol advertisement reinforces that taboo. Besides the words “Menstrual Period”, there's nothing in the advert to imply it's selling a product in affiliation with menstrual periods. It could've been an advertisement about a migraine medication or anything, really. This shows that advertising companies are still far from accepting and embracing the fact that menstrual period is a natural and normal cycle, and shouldn't be abashing or seen as disgusting. This stigma about menstrual period gets reproduced and circulated within the society, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

The other social stigma reproduced by the Kitadol advertisement is that women display erratic behaviour during “that time of the month” caused chiefly by premenstrual syndrome or commonly known as PMS. And as if “PMS” isn't “abnormal” enough, doctors then came up with a more severe prognosis called premenstrual dysphoric disorder, also known as PMDD, though the cause of this disorder hasn't been found. The stigma that women aren't themselves when they display symptoms can be traced back to when Dr Katharina Dalton, the doctor who coined the term premenstrual syndrome, presented her “PMS” theory in her testimonies in court to defend women who pleaded diminished responsibility because of premenstrual syndrome, resulting in the acquittal of two women, one charged with manslaughter and another charged with arson!! 

 

Moving on, the Kitadol advert boldly depicted the woman as a muscular-with-hostile-demeanour Muay Thai boxer. Muay Thai is a form of martial art that engages almost all parts of the body where the forehead, the fists, elbows, knees, and feet are often used as the weapons during the fight. The comparison of premenstrual syndrome to Muay Thai reproduces the view that women aren't themselves, thus have no control over “PMS”. Instead of accepting premenstrual syndrome as part of a natural and normal bodily cycle faced by most women, the message the advert is circulating is- “PMS” is a disease, so husbands and partners out there save your woman and “get her back”.

Besides social taboo, the advert also reinforces socially constructed ideologies such as those seen in gender politics. O'Shaughnessy and Stadler stated that “gender involves issues of social power and equality: it is not simply a question of the social oppression of women by men, but a more complex situation in which men and women are constructed and oppressed by the patriarchal, competitive, and heterosexist values of society”. As seen in the advert, the man in the driver's seat is wearing blue which is a conventional colour for male and the colour of the tablet is pink, a conventional colour for female- gender colour schemes were of course socially constructed. The other signifier is the gender of the person behind the wheels- male. This advert reproduces society's “common sense” understanding that men are better drivers. Imagine the pressure put on men by the society, the expectation of having to be better drivers than women. “Behind the wheels” also symbolically signifies power of control, as stated by O'Shaughnessy and Stadler, men are seen in society as “a socially advantaged group” because they “have more social power and control than women, and there is still discrimination against women”. The connotation for control is also deployed by the slogan “Get her back”, which also reinforces the view that men are chivalrous.

Another example of ideologies deployed in the advert is on family and women's role in it. The Kitadol advert reinforces the conservative view that a family should consist of a mother, a father and child. The wedding band on the man's fourth finger implies that the man and woman are married, hence the presence of the child. This can be seen as an ideology of religion, where single-parent household, pre-marital sex, same-sex parent household are frowned upon. Again, this goes back to patriarchy where men and women have their own important roles to play in the family. Men's role is “to put food on the table” and women's is, as per the conventional society's understanding of everyday life, child bearer, nurturer and do-er of HOUSE CHORES. And this is reproduced by the advert by portraying the unshaved husband in a creased shirt, signifying that he has not been looked after and is under stress. The advert connotes that women's capability to look after their husbands is affected by premenstrual syndrome. It stops them from going about their “normal” wifely duties such as ironing. Again, inferring that premenstrual syndrome is abnormal and a disease that should be corrected.

This advert is one of its kind- a product for female targeting men audience. Although not all women get menstrual period symptoms, or do their partners' or husbands' ironing per se, the advertisement's managed to use ideologies and social taboo that most men can relate to as “common sense” understanding of reality, to reach its targeted audience. The Kitadol advert connotes that having menstrual period symptoms and not performing wifely “duties” are not normal. Men are made to see that they no longer have to “put up” with their partners' or wives' abnormal, erratic behaviour at “that time of the month”. Instead they should do what men “normally” do, that is to “take the wheel”, get in control of the situation and make it “right” again.

Stereotyping: Working Both Ends of the Spectrum

by www.adamsacks.com

Every society has different impressions and views on various ethnic minorities. When magnified, the discrimination or the tolerance of an ethnic minority in a particular society is traced back to the essentialist view of language, economic, culture or custom, and environment, resulting in stereotyping which is then circulated and reproduced by the media through their representations of the ethnic minorities. However, the term stereotyping need not be a negative discourse. The outcome of stereotyping can turn an ethnic minority in a particular society into social pariahs or, at the other end of the spectrum, turn another into a socially desirable group. To exemplify what I meant, I'll use a blog by a Singapore celebrity writer, Holly Aroozoo, to illustrate the reinforcement of an essentialist view of two ethnic minorities in Singapore, showing you how stereotyping can work at both ends of the spectrum.

So I've already mentioned that stereotyping can work to the advantage of some ethnic minorities but against other ethnic minorities. How?? For example, society generally gauges the education of an ethnic minority by the language they speak right? That means that society regard English speaking ethnic groups as more educated than non-English speaking groups, though technically that's erroneous. Society also generally gauges the social and cultural status of an ethnic minority by their ideologies, hence 'ranking' their social standing in comparison to the 'majority' group. Society judges the wealth of an ethnic minority by the economy of their motherland and their visible material possessions, again working to the advantage of some ethnic minorities and to the disadvantage of others. These traits can be seen in Holly's blog post titled Banglah Hits On ME ???!!!!, which basically narrates about an incident when a Bangladeshi who was interested in her sneakily took down her contact details as she was filling in a lucky draw form, and contacted her later. Holly makes it clear that she was annoyed and appalled by that act, not because of fear for her safety as she doesn't “think he's any danger”, but because a low socio-class Bangladeshi, presumably, a construction worker had the audacity to assume that he'd stand a chance with her. She adds that she was insulted by the attention she got from the Bangladeshi “who hardly speaks english, smells of 3 day old sweat, holds other Bangla men's hands.” In a sentence, Holly has judgementally represented an ethnic minority based on her essentialist view of their language, wealth and culture. In the post, she also comments that Bangladeshis “always have a knack for walking too close by, staring as if they've never seen women before or getting in your personal space”, negatively stereotyping Bangladeshis while ignoring the fact that this could easily describe any man wooing a woman or vice versa. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Holly's blog posts titled Multi-national Couple Trend and White Men Can't Jump. Well, Neither Can I., portrayed a stereotype of another ethic minority in Singapore- the Caucasians, but this time in a positive light. The term Caucasian is used to replace specific Caucasian ethnic minority because a) the ethnicity of the men in the posts was not specified by the blogger, and b) the Caucasian race in Singapore per se, even with all the Caucasian ethnic minorities coalesced, is still a minority group. In Multi-national Couple Trend, she credits Caucasian men for being persistent when they are wooing Asian women as the author puts it, “pursue them left and right”, unlike Asian men who falter around women “they perceive as even remotely possibly maybe out of their league” and therefor it's comprehensible “that these women would date White men, because they’re not pursued by any promising candidates from the Asian race.” Holly also added that Asian women who have evolved out of their traditional culture, and become “less appealing to the typical Asian man”, will still be palatable to Caucasian men. These are very contradicting views of courtship to the one involving the Bangladeshi. She's presenting a favourable view on the persistence of Caucasian men yet was put off by the attention she got from the Bangladeshi.

by www.guardian.co.uk

 The two ethnic minorities have been stereotyped based on Holly's essentialist way of thinking. The essentialist view deployed in those posts suggests that the Bangladeshis' contemptible standing on the social ladder is justified by their lack of hygiene, occupation, incomprehensible culture (Bangladeshi men hold each other's hands as a sign of close-knit friendship and sticking together), and their incapability to speak good English, hence not suitable for successful and beautiful Asian women such as herself.

by www.nomad4ever.com

 On the other hand, Holly commented that most “white men” converse in English well, an indication that they're befitting companions of articulate Asian women. She also stated that Caucasian men have a “more imposing size” physically, are “different” “yet compatible”, are chivalrous, and “tend to be more experience” unlike their Asian counterpart who “tend to still be latched on and suckling on their mother's teat.” What we've seen so far are mere stereotypes of Bangladeshis and Caucasians portrayed through Holly's understanding of the socially constructed reality (and judging by the blog's high readership, that view is circulated and shared widely with the rest of the nation, or even the world). More importantly, the portrayal of stereotypes has worked differently for the two minority groups. And as we've seen, the stereotype of Bangladeshis has demean and de-value their social standing in the Singaporean society making them social pariahs, whereas the stereotype of Caucasians portrays an attractive embraceable ideology, making them a desirable social group in that society.

by www.guidemesingapore.com

Thus, stereotyping doesn't just surround unfavourable portrayals but it can also positively depict an ethnic minority. This reflects that stereotype need not be consented as a bad thing, as the term stereotype can be used as a neutral discourse. Regardless, how warped or pleasant the society's essentialist view of an ethnic minority is, stereotyping can work at both ends of the spectrum.

Slack much??

OMG what a slacker I am! It's been a while since my last post. Been tooo long. I will endeavor to not let that happen again 'cause there's just sooo much controversial issues to ruminate about and sooo little time. My next post will be looking at social stereotyping. Here comes the controversial part- we generally associate stereotyping with discrimination or prejudice, but stereotyping can also work positively for some, so stay tuned. Till next time.


P.S: I just realised that this is my first post for 2011. Slack!