Celebrity or Cheap publicity (Extended blog post)

As the usage of technology is becoming more and more prominent, it has anchored itself deeply in modern society. Social media has changed our daily life routine to be more efficient and convenient especially in the celebrity world where celebrities have embraced the use of technology and social media into life in a natural way. Celebrity is something known in the context of society and it refers to an individual who is considered famous and attracts the attention of many of their personality. In definition, celebrity is not only specific to singer and actors only whereas reporters, politicians, and athletes and TV personalities can also be defined as celebrities. Marshall indicates celebrity as "a particularly powerful and persuasive trope for contemporary culture" (2013). 

The specular economy can be illustrated as "a two-way mirror" of the cover as well as extensions and cooperation with “images and text into the wider world" (Marshall, 2010). The acceleration of technology and social media has proven changes of celebrities’ lifestyle. This phenomenon has become viral to the community around the globe with the access of social media that is present. Pursuing this further, in recent years the world has changed and has become more global with the invention of media with the globalization of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram are the stepping stones for celebrities to protect themselves to get approached. For some people, they make celebrities as role models in their lives. There is no doubt when some celebrities are being ridiculed due to their exposure in the irreverent social media because it will be followed by some people especially adolescents. Marshall explains that this is called as "specular economy" (2010) in the celebrity culture.

image source : blog.marginmedia.com.au

Obviously, most of the celebrities at this time are living in a community in which they can choose to control their own identity to the public and be known to the media. This is due to some artists, they want to control the privacy of their lives and some of them consider the opposite way. Marshall explains that “identifying media that is performed produced and exhibited by the individual or other collectives” (Marshall, 2013). There is no surprise that celebrities like Lady Gaga and Kelly Osbourne have millions of followers in their social media. Generally speaking, social media can bring advantages and disadvantages at the same time as there are no restrictions for an individual to express their point of view. In the light of the good aspect, it is easy to see that social media can be a tool for someone to explore their talent and share it with others for example singing, make up skill, sense in fashion or even to become a blogger and share about their experiences, thoughts and opinions to others. Certainly, social media is an important medium to celebrities as excess to other people in term to built communication and relation to outside people. Nevertheless, as much as the advantages that can be found in relation to celebrity and social media, there are a lot of disadvantages too. For an example, there are a lot of cases in Twitter conflicting of opinions between the celebrities and sometimes personal issues which give a bad reflection to themselves and also fans criticize celebrity photographs on Instagram. Moreover, it seems to be viral to the fans and public criticizing the celebrities social media especially Instagram. This usually happens when the public does not have limits and boundaries expressing their opinion and thoughts and more often they used verbally abusive and dirty languages to celebrities and they have been labeled as 'keyboard warriors'.

Undoubtedly, there are different types of ways on how the celebrities raise their popularity. There is also the celebrity who started the trend can be classified as “significance and value in contemporary culture” (Marshall, 2013). Furthermore, some people who take quick steps to become famous by using uploading videos on YouTube thus becoming a YouTube sensation. For an example of artists who have become famous based on this scenario is Justin Bieber. Obviously for many people, 15 years ago who knew that he would be the most popular celebrity in the world and become as rich as celebrities who were in the arena for a long time. However, at least Justin Bieber showed his talent to become popular in singing although some people still criticize his capability in singing compared to what he is achieving now. On the contrary, there are also some of the celebrities who are looking for cheap publicity to raise their name and the most accurate model although often mentioned is Miley Cyrus. Frankly speaking, Miley Cyrus has issued a statement where she wants to explore the wild side of her but encountered fierce resistance and negative feedback from most of the people. Miley Cyrus indirectly drew the attention of many people especially towards her fans. In addition, the video clip of her latest songs has become a hit when Miley Cyrus took a bold step in the video and appeared half naked. ‘Wrecking Ball’ has reached 14 million viewers of the YouTube for a few days and has become talk of the town. In my point of view, is Miley Cyrus experiencing social problems due to an age factor or did she intend to rise for cheap publicity to promote her latest album? Whatever the answer is, Miley Cyrus managed to get the crowd even in such manner and this shows how the specular economy can be inclined.

                                                      Image source : www.alljustin.com

As mentioned above, celebrities can control the information disclosed and the public’s right to be called as a media presenter. In Marshall’s writing, he described this as classify what has media forms and displayed and delivered right to the individual (Marshall, 2013). This is one reason the genre of pop- culture celebrities, especially the use of it as leverage to gain popularity, and at the same time build a positive personality to the community. But not all made to be walked as planned and variety of other aspects will arise. It is because celebrities will be the center of attention and speculation is true or false. For example gossip and scandal involving social media and specular economy right and they can drop the career if not controlled properly.

Nobody denies that what happened in the youth culture now when everyone depends on their mobile phone, computer and internet access into their daily lives and the worst part is that it has become a prominent aspect in their life. It is one of the disadvantages of this matter as it becomes a risk to the specular economy. This is because as a young person myself, social media has become one of the important things to stay alert to what is happening around us. This is no longer a trend but it has become one of the things needed to survive in the new millennium era. There are also people who are willing to follow whatever they do and become a stalker on celebrities social media to get as much information as possible right (Marshall,1997). As an example of what will be achieved in social media in the life of a celebrity is the important news about them and their development in the world of entertainment, a way of life that people can follow and may also be a lesson to some, and things that they wear that would be follow as a latest trend for people who love fashion. In addition, there is a viral for some people nowadays who open an online business and make the celebrities style as an attraction for people to purchase their product. They most likely used social media like Instagram to promote their product. This can bring something good to others, as in taking advantages of the celebrity for more important aspects. On the other hand, Marshall believes that the scandal of celebrity lifestyle and the changing trends will give effect to others. He stated in his statement about the " democratic public personal revelation , it has changed the discourse of celebrity that exists now available images surplus and potential stories that appear in the way prurient public online through the millions of consumers” ( Marshall , 2010).

As has been discussed, Miley Cyrus is not in a high risk that involves more important issue. She is one of the processes concerning the specular economy following her persona. It is up to the individual how they want to see and at the same time judge the celebrities based on their image. (Marshall, 2013) confirms that celebrity is one of the figures who can influence society and immovable trends represent “significance and value in contemporary culture" and this can bring effect in the long -term and increase the "pervasively in our culture". Miley Cyrus became recognizable since she was small from the character of Hannah Montana, turning out to be drastic and wild as Britney Spears. Both celebrities have become the subject of criticism in the media and also the community due to their bad personality changes. Both of the celebrities are living in effortless scandals until the community has no idea what is right and wrong. This is one case that must be passed as a celebrity, and the media playing big role in exaggerate story to make it more sensation.

In final consideration, celebrities have a big influence towards the society in relation to social specular media stage. In the mean time, the community can make it as an entertainment or role model because not all can come positive to the benefit of everyone. That is why, celebrities should consider they own selves before they post anything on their social media.

                                                                                                                           

Marshall, D. 1997. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, Minneapolis, Minnesota Press.

Marshall P. D. 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, pp 498-502

Marshall P. D. 2013, Persona Studeis: mapping the proliferation of the public self, Journalism, June 4, online edition.  

Celebrity or cheap publicity?

As a usage of technology is becoming more and more prominent, it has anchored itself deeply in modern society. Social media has change our life routine more efficient and convenience especially among celebrity. Marshall defines a celebrity as "a particularly powerful and persuasive trope for contemporary culture" (2013) and celebrity has embracing the use if technology and social media in to life in natural way. In recent years, the world has changed and has become more globally with the invention of media with the globalization of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram are the stepping stone for celebrities. There are also some of the celebrities who are looking for cheap publicity to raise their name. hmm?  To be frank, celebrities that became popular because of the media should feel lucky because the media has certainly placed them into the arena of art. To become a famous celerity seems not difficult at this time, but to become a talented celebrity, debatable. But the question then is, how they can become famous by using only social media? As an examples of artists who have become rich because of social media, who else if not Justin Bierber. 15 years ago, who knows he will be a popular celebrity in the world? Bierber is a normal boy who ride bikes without any paparazzi broke into his yard. At least Bierber showed his talent to make his popularity. (just want to make it clear, I am not his fan this is just a thought) rather than a singer (which her voice was not that good anyway) made a video swinging on the solid ball while naked and get criticism all over the world! 

On the other hand,celebrities who were popular before this could also sell their name and talent using social media so that they can protect themselves closer to the fans so that they are not be forgotten. Marshall indicated that this is called as "specular economy" (2010) in the celebrity culture. 

References:

Marshall, P. David, 2013. Persona Studies:Mapping the Proliferation of the public self. Sage Publications,  pp 2-18.

Marshall, P. David, 2010. The Specular Economy. Springer Science Business Media, , pp 498-502.

Gaming World....

In this week topic, to be honest i did not know what aspect to discuss because I am not a big fan of games especially online gaming. This is because, my personal opinion towards people who have been addicted to gamers is very typical and negative for example, to me online games can make people lazy and waste heir time if they do not put any rules on it. Moreover, there are some negative aspect in relation to online games such as violence and sexism.

As an example of the most widespread online games, Counter Strike which involves heavy violence such as weapons, murders and war.  It may not give any effect to adults because they are able to think with matured mind, but not to children and even adolescents. They may get influenced by what they see, especially when they spend hours  in front of their computer and television in a day. Undoubtedly, the element of sexism is also something that can influence the gamer. For example, female character wear clothes which expose, a slave to men character and many more. People need to be more sensitive in this particular issue because it will give a big impact to people in a long run. (Raessens 2005, p. 376) explains that 'representations are thus not only reflections of society they also play an active role in shaping it'.

Raessens, J. 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388.

Higher Educational Blogging rock!

Downes (2004) says that blogging is ‘the most beautiful tool of the world and it allows us the most magic thing’. Blogging has become popular over the years , because it is considered something that  of up-to -date among users. To be honest, when the first time I knew that this unit requires me to write a blog post for a few weeks, I was quite surprised and not sure whether i can manage to write things that based on my experiences and daily life support by scholarly resources. Generally speaking, as an international student I found that blogging helps myself to express my thoughts and opinions directly to the reader. The reason why i stated that is because usually in class, i would rather sit back and relax with no face expression every time during group discussion. With blogging, i took it as a platform for me to write my opinions, thoughts and idea and based on (Robertson 2011, p.1631) higher educational blogging 'can be a medium for reflective writing’.

Robertson (2011) indicates that  the educational affordances of blogs offer opportunities for students to become self-directed learners in a supportive social environment. With this anyone can learn directly, for example off campus student consider as a way of learning to always stay alert to what is happening inside the campus. Besides that, distance learning can also be embedded right in this topic . Therefore it is not impossible for student who are living in Australia and studying at any university in United State of America. There are also advantages and disadvantage for blogging in high education because people need to stay alert and stick on their computers or gadgets at all time seems like theres no life out there. In addition, it require high commitment and good time management in this case so that we are not left behind especially for off campus students.

Downes, S 2004, 'Educational blogging', Educause review, vol. 39, pp. 14-27.

Robertson, J. 2011 ‘The educational affordances of blog for self-directed learning’, Computers and Education, vol. 57, pp. 1628 – 1644

Blogsphere in the public..

In line with developed countries with the rise of technology, we should be poses a question of reliability and we should not believe everything posted on the internet . According to Brandi Bell, an online blog acts as a space 'in which public and private overlap (Bell, B 2007). We should have to know how to evaluate something we see or hear on so that we did not get influence to the wrong party. Technology or in a more specific sense is the internet, is seen as a platform where as an individual they have rights to share what they wanted too. But as a human who are living in this modern era,  we have to be intelligent to filter all sorts of information that have been display on the internet be on so that we do not believe on the wrong side. Brandi Bell went on to explain that blogging is not easily defined as their ability to adapt, change and evolve to adapt to their audience with their needs (Bell, B 2007). For example, whether the qualified bloggers to write heavy issues such as the government, the economy is right personality got him just high school students. Unless you are fond of reading fashion blogs written by a student of fashion. This is because the nature of the blog is open to the public and blog sphere not be considered complete public areas because we are living in a country that have laws stricter monitoring. There are also blogs that has received money from organizations that sell products to target the audiences. Therefore, it is recommended for an individual to 

consider buying product or service through a blogs or what ever you call it. 

Bell, B 2007, ‘Private writing in public spaces: girls’ blogs and shifting boundaries’, Growing up online: young people and digital technologies 2007, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, N.Y, pp. 95-105

Plagiarism..yay or nay?!

Plagiarism and copyright violation has two different meaning. Plagiarism is where people used other people work or idea without acknowledge or claiming them to be their own. According to (Mahmood 2009) one of the category of plagiarism is ‘self- plagiarism in which reproduces or duplicates 

whole or part of one is own previously published material without taking permission from the editor of the journal in which the work was previously published thus committing copyright violation’. ‘Self-plagiarism occurs when you reproduce portions of your work without citing the original work’ (Anderson 2006, p. 623). This is where the individual can be claim as a thief and especially for tertiary student where plagiarism is seriously not cool in education world and there are consequences to what you are doing.

To avoid plagiarism is not a hard things to do, a proper reference of ‘previous published material’ is all you need due to the respect of the author (Anderson 2006, p. 623).

Based on the Wikipedia defines copyright infringement is an offense to the copyright holder for example to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the copyrighted work without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work's creator.

Commonly copyright violation happen when these thieves take advantage and reap illegal profits and making illegal business that will have catastrophic consequences and chaos in specific industry. For example, the issues of downloading movies and music thru the internet should be taken seriously if not local film industry will get a lot of losses. Therefore, people should be aware of the consequences what other people going to face. Do not forget about the economy of the country, some will go down due to significant losses in any case. (Novos 1984, p.236) indicated that the increment in copyright will going to face two effects on social welfare. Early, it will decline the social welfare casualty outstanding by underproduction. Following, it will increase the social welfare loss due to underutilization.

Therefore, the public should have awareness on plagiarism and copyright violation and the most important thing is not to do what is wrong even though i admit it is so convenient and cost me nothing to watch movie and listen to music but it is not right when others languish on our comfort. 

Anderson MP, Ground Water [Ground Water], ISSN: 0017-467X, 2006 Sep-Oct; Vol. 44 (5),  retrieved August 27 2013, pp. 623

Mahmood KR, Indian Journal Of Dermatology, Venereology And Leprology [Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol], ISSN: 0973-3922, 2009 Mar-Apr; Vol. 75 (2),  retrieved August 27 2013, pp. 182.

Novos I.E, Wldman M, 1984, The Effects of Increased Copyright Protection: An Analytic Approach, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 92, No. 2, The University of Chicago Press, retrieved August 27 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1831385.

Wikipedia, retrieved August 27 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement.

Think....

This week I will be discussing about how media has influenced my life and changed the way I view the world with my point of view. What across my mind when I read the instruction for week 3 blog is ‘western, arabs, terrorist’. First of all, to be honest I am a bit offended how hollywood stereotypes Muslim as a terrorist and militant in their films especially arabs are the most typical stereotype example in hollywood film where killing, weapons, kidnaps, high jack, booming etc is very common in hollywood films. This happened after tragedy in NYC on September 11 and ever since, muslims is always a terrorist. Hollywood has their will power to changed people perspective in the other word ‘influence’ the audience easily. When looking at the race the message that is presented is western actor will be the hero, muslim will be the bad person and western heroin will be the victims. 

(Shaheen, 2003) indicate that live images on big screen and television go beyond a thousand words in perpetuating stereotypes and cliches. Bases on the study of more than 900 films, it shows how moviegoers are led to believe that all have shown Arabs as heartless, brutal, uncivilized, religions fanatics through common depictions of Arabs kidnapping or raping a fair maiden expressing hatred against the Jews and Christians and demonstrating a love for wealth and power.

It is obviously depends to the audience how they want to be manipulate but if out of 100 films that been produced and 90 of them is about muslims terrorist, at the end of the day people going be manipulated, and they going to believe that muslims are terrorists. Audience need a better understanding and knowledge on how to make a good judgement of what they see then they are not going to be easily manipulated. People who reads my post, may be against me but once again this is only my opinions.

Shaheen J. G, 2003, Reel Bad Arabs : How hollywood  Vilifies a people, The Annals of the American Academy of Political, retrieved 4 August 2013, ann.sagepub.com.

Go global, Go adventure..

As an international student, i am blessed to grow up in this millennium year where i can embraced the used of technologies. This is my third year living in Australia and i wouldn't have imagine if i have to write a letter and wait for a long time for the reply just to say hello. When i was a kid, my father travelled a lot for work. He used to send me a post cards, where ever he was to stay connected with me. Even though it was just a piece of paper, it really mean a lot to me. Now, looking at my brother and his son, every time he went overseas, he used Skype to stay connected with his son, how lucky they are. In recent years, the world has changed and has become more globally with the invention of media such as Skype, Facebook, Whatsapp etc. 

As a usage of technology is becoming more and more prominent, it has anchored it self deeply in modern society. As a matter of fact, technology has change our life routine more efficient and convenience into natural way. With many countries going wireless, countless of people are more and more ‘connected’. ‘Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of different parts of the world, a process which gives rise to complex forms of interaction and interdependency’ Thomson (Ratanen, 2007). This fast global reach of communication has opened a new way to communicate with each other as two or more people from different sides of the world can share and exchange information with each other despite their geographical disposition. 

My dad is not a big fan of technologies because he finds it hard and complicated. But because of his work demand, he have to learn how to use Skype so that he do not have to travel every time and in some way, he found it amusing.  In 2001, my brother used to studied in Perth and he used to us back home using phone card which cost him 20dollars. Compare to me, I used Whatsapp and Viber to stay communicate and it cost me almost nothing. Plus, I used Skype where I can see them clearly enough to make me feel like no distance between me and my family. How can I not embrace my life with technology? 

Rantanen, T, 2005, ‘Theorising media globalisation’, The media and globalisation, Sage, London, P1-18.

Me Myself And I

Hi guys!

My name is Syaffyka Binti Musa. I am 23 years old. This is my second year in Deakin University and my third year in Australia. I do not have any specific hobby until this year, i found out that i like to collect necklaces. Other than that, I love to travel when I have time and the money. :)

I will try to create my blog the best that i can every week regarding about globalisation and media. I am looking forward for your comments and opinions.

Enjoy reading my blog!