I R Journey

My I R journey could most probably be described by the metaphor of learning how to swim. Scientists believe that new born babies already know how to slim. In fact, I've seen myself how babies are able to float themselves in the water, but for a short period of time. Our inborn talent of swimming is because of the fact that during the earliest time of our infancy, we were already swimming in a pool. A different kind of pool, our mother's womb.

As we grew older and got adapted to living on dry land outside the womb, we begin to forget how to swim. And as the years go by, we completely lose that knowledge and that is why many people admitted that they do no know how to swim.

It takes courage (interest, and curiostity) to return to the pool and take a dive. To learn how to float our bodies and then to learn all the techniques of swimming, breathing, diving.

Just like the pool, the internet like a vast open water. Although we were not born with the inborn talent of knowing how to browse through the internet, the children of my generation grew up with the internet. The internet has been there throughout most of our lives.

But learning about the vast internet through this module, is just like learning how to swim in the water. We must learn how to swim through the vast waters of internet and dive deep to find whats relevant. But we cannot just jump into the water and frantically kick and paddle the waters. We must first learn the correct technique, the correct strokes in order to swim our way through smoothly.

This module is just like that. And after the lesson has ended, I am more able to swim smoothly by myself, taking the correct strokes and kicks. The water seemed less intimidating and with the correct technique, I can happily swim in internet's vast waters without getting lost and fear of drowning in over-load of information. The waters now look clean and clear from where I am swimming.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The music trend among Asian teens shows quite an interesting trend, especially for teens in the region of Singapore and Malaysia. Recent years show massive interest and steep trend in preference for other Asian music scene, particularly Japanese pop music and Korean pop music, or better known as J-pop and K-pop respectively. The import of J-pop and K-pop music is perhaps driven by the demand among teens as this age group is considered a large group of consumer of the latest music trends. Teens who are hooked to Korean and Japanese drama shows (such as "Boys Before Flowers") are also exposed to the Korean and Japanese theme songs of the shows. From there, they delved deeper into J-pop and K-pop music genre.

The import of J-pop music continued into later of last decade and is evident when a certain popular all girls Korean group, Wonder Girls burst into the scene with their song "Nobody But You" and suddenly, the whole nation is swept away by the sweet, demure looks of the girl-band and their dancing. One example of how K-pop has boomed into a cultural trend among Singaporean teens is when popular local podcaster, Mr. Brown did a parody of Wonder Girls' popular song when the world was hit by the deadly pandemic of the H1N1 swine flu. The song was so popular that it no longer was just a trend among teens, but for the younger generation, in general. Following the success of Wonder Girls and their appeal to the Asian masses, especially among teens who look to these artists for fashion and music, Korean has continued to produce and export numerous boybands and girl groups to tap into the market of teen K-pop music. Groups such as Super Junior, 4Minute, FT Island and 2PM are just a few of the K-pop groups consisting of young, handsome, pretty, fashionable and talented singers who are packaged for international audience as they have such appeal towards teens and masses, alike.

Teens as major consumers of this genre of music is willing to spend a lot of time searching for such music. Some fanatics would buy tickets to see their favourite K-pop artists and groups. Teens are not only willing to spend time chasing after their favourite stars, but also willing to splurge to watch them perform.

With such appeal against the teens, there seems to be no stopping the popular trend of Asian music next big thing among teens in this region. In fact, by browsing through the numerous blogs and fansites as well as youtube videos posted by fans, it is safe to say that the K-pop invasion has arrived and taken ground amongst the people, especially among teens who find the Korean culture so intriguing and K-pop artists themselves so appealing.

Citizen Journalism

Welcome back to EIR~

So what's the hype about citizen journalism? Apparently, in this day and age where a camera is just a flip away, everyday people are using their freedom of speech (or technology use) to good...or maybe not so good. Depends on how you judge it.

With the technology of camera phone and the fact that almost everyone nowdays own a camera phone, people are using their power and their phone to capture and post whatever they feel is news-worthy. Whether its the public's bad habits or behaviour, or queer observations, everyday people are finding some sort of joy in posting on the internet what they want others to see. Speaking of which, this could as be seen as society reflecting upon itself, whether its seeing the ugly truth about society or the beauty of society.

We discussed as a class about what we think citizen journalism means. And Ms Faridah concluded that our answers could fit under 3 big umbrellas:

i) Freedom of speech
ii) Contribution of info/user generated content
iii) People's viewpoint

We also discussed in groups about effectiveness of the Stomp website for ctizen journalism. Stomp provides everyday people who wants to post something on it more political freedom. Each and every user is free to post and comment on it. With this freedom, it is important that users know their responsibilities and post and comment responsibly. Sensitive issues such as race and religion should be handled carefully and tactfully so as to not offend others. Although there is much freedom in citizen journalism, as responsible and mature citizens, people must know how to comment in a critical and fact-based manner. People should not comment and post according to their emotions and judge without analysing a certain topic from a few angles. It also boils down to the education of the users on the site. With wide knowledge and understanding of a certain topic, people are more likely to post or comment something that is relevant and constructive, instead of just rambling whatever is on their mind.

In conclusion, I find this week's activity rather refreshing. Being an international student here in Singapore, I have not taken note of how famous this Stomp website is among the citizens. It is a place where people observe people and more comment on the topic. There are good sides and bad sides of it, but if put to effective use, the website could be useful in publishing up-to-date news with the views from the local people themselves. It was quite an eye-opener and I realised that this website will truly help foreigners see and analyse certain topic through the eyes and mind of the locals, if its true potential is reached.