The End Marks a New Beginning?

This blog was sent for grading assesment two weeks ago. And thus, I am glad to announce that I am officially done with blogging about issues concerning Communications. YAY.
Blogging was a first time thing for me, and I have to admit that I actually found it fun and interesting to be able to share my opinions with everyone out there who is reading this. Thank you all for actually taking time to read my (long, boring, and academic-styled) posts and sharing your thoughts on them.
On another note, I am still contemplating on whether I should continue blogging on this site or create another personal blog (just for fun).
The final examinations are drawing near, which also means that holidays are a step closer!

All the best for those studying for exams!

Cheers,
Regina

Media : Good or Bad?

The mass media plays a very important role in everyone's lives, especially in today's world. Be it the television, radio, newspapers, or even magazines, these media channels all share the same main functions. According to Charles Wright, there are 4 functions of the media : Surveillance (information), Correlation (analysis and evaluation), Cultural Transmission (education and socialisation of receivers), and Entertainment (enjoyment and gratification).

Just a week ago, I saw an article on Today which caught me attention immediately. Entitled, "Teen Sex and the 'P' Factor", this article (http://www.todayonline.com/articles/279770.asp) begins by blaming the media, Internet, lack of parental support and discipline in schools for the hike in sexually-transmitted infections among youths in Singapore. Yes, the media. Citing tv drama shows such as Gossip Girl and the OC, the writer is trying to convey the message that constant media bombardment of such tv shows have influenced teens in one way or another.

(Picture Source: http://gossipgirlchat.com/new-gossip-girl-promos-every-parents-nightmare-more/13/)

Such tv shows often revolve around teens and sex, whereby high school kids shown having sex, getting pregnant, and swapping partners. In the article, the writer touched on how young people, when repeatedly shown the same messages, etch these messages in their memory, and soon pick them up. Quoting from the writer, "Television, movies, videos, music and the Internet all bring a new set of people into teenagers' lives. They see these characters as friends who begin to influence their lives". This clearly illustrates one of the media communications theory, the Powerful effects theory. According to this theory, the mass media is influential and audiences are passive. The media has a very powerful effect on the audiences. This can be supported by the rise in STDs among youths. However, I feel that the media should not be solely blamed for this phenomenon. Parents should actually take on the role of an educator, and educate their children on such issues. Teens consuming such tv shows should also be able to differentiate entertainment from real life, and not simply mimick what they see on television.

(Picture Source: http://gossipgirlchat.com/new-gossip-girl-promos-every-parents-nightmare-more/13/)

Yet another commercial which sparked concerns by a few parents would be a perfume advertisement by Dolce and Gabbana. On local prime time television, the commercial featuring a male model only clad in a pair of white briefs and a female model in a see-through white blouse hugging and kissing each other was aired. Parents who saw the commercial with their children around them felt that the commercial was suggestive and unsuitable for broadcast during prime time, especially since children will be around watching it.

(Picture Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20081024-96137.html)

Personally, I feel that the consumption of media should be supervised to a certain extent, whereby parents, teachers, and even peers, take on the role of educators to transmit and impart the right values and thinking. Audiences have the right to decide what television shows they want to consume, and they too, should take responsibility on what they watch. TV shows such as Gossip Girl, the OC, Sex and the City, should be taken as a form of entertainment whereby audiences seek enjoyment from them. They may also act as a form of cultural transmission whereby parents can make use of these shows to educate their children on the dangers of having underage sex and dealing with drugs.

(Picture Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/blowup_stock.asp?imageref=cgo0204&artist=Goddard,+Clive&topic=television+Media)

Many times, it is up to us, the consumers, to decide on whether we want to be exposed to the mass media or not. We have the choice to subscribe to certain television channels, purchase certain magazines, and tune in to preferred radio stations. Moreover, the mass media is a very useful tool when is comes to transmitting emergency messages and information. An example would be the recent tainted milk powder incident, where people from all over the world were informed almost immediately about the tainted products that could not longer be consumed. Therefore, I feel that the media plays an important role in educating us, informing us, as well as exposing us to other cultures and values that we may not be able to experience in our society. Ultimately, it is up to our own interpretation and decision on whether we want to let the media influence us.

What do you think? Do tv shows like Gossip Girl impart the wrong sort of values to teenagers? Comment!

Campaigns, a Singapore Culture?

Culture, what exactly is it? Does it actually shape the way we think and influence the way we behave? Well, according to Daniel Klophf, culture is "that part of the environment made by humans", including tangible objects such as possesstions, and intangible objects such as customs and values that bind a group together, giving them a sense of commonality. Culture tells us who we are, what groups we belong to and how we live our lives. Thus, in short, we can say that cultures are templates for living.

Instead of discussing about other cultures, I have decided to touch on our Singapore culture on a different perspective. When asked, "What do you think is our Singapore culture?", many of our responses would contain things like "Singlish, multi racialism, kiasu-ism, fines, and even ERP gantries." For me, the recent "Goodness Gracious Me!" campaign organized by The Straits Times, caught my interest and it somehow made me feel that such campaigns are becoming more and more like a part of our culture. The 'Goodness Gracious Me!' is a project by The Straits Times to get Singaporeans to think about others, starting with clearing their food trays after eating. Posters and stickers will be displayed in foodcourts, eateries, and coffeeshops to encourage Singaporeans to return their trays and clear up their mess after eating.

(Picture Source: http://www.stomp.com.sg/)

In Singapore, it has become increasingly common to see foodcourt aunties going around to help clear the dirty tables after our meals. Even in fastfood restaurants like McDonalds and KFC, the service staff there will help us to clear up after we leave. Thus, many of us conveniently leave our trays uncleared. This "culture" is definitely foreign in other countries, where people immediately clear up and return their trays after finishing their meals. As such, this "Goodness Gracious Me" campaign was organized to encourage Singaporeans to be more considerate and gracious. So, how successful has this project been? Recent reports have shown that this campaign has been successful in several foodcourts and people have started to become more civic-minded (http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/sp/sg_gracious/story-moremaking.html). This shows that Singapore is actually more of a collectivist country, whereby people are highly interdependent and we are willing to conform to cultural norms. Besides that, we are readily influenced by others and there is a great tendency for us to "follow the masses" For example, if we realize that every table around us clears their tray after eating, we tend to do the same thing too.

(Speak Good English Movement, launched in 2000 and Speak Mandarin Campaign, launched in 1979)

Besides this tray-return campaign, Singapore also organized campaigns to encourage Singaporeans to be billingual and good speakers. With Chinese making up a major portion of our population, it is essential that as Chinese, we are able to speak our language correctly and properly in order to converse with others. Not forgetting our first languange, English. The Speak Good English Movement is a nationwide movement to encourage Singaporeans to speak grammatically correct English that is universally understood. Although Singlish has been constantly been part of our culture, it is still imperative for us to be able to grasp the English language properly and at least be able to converse in proper English, instead of Singlish.

Next, we also have the "Clean Public Toilets Campaign". Many of us may have seen the poster (on the left, Source : http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=336) in most of our public toilets. But, how many of us actually know that it is actually a campaign launched since 1983 to motivate users and public toilets providers to act collectively make clean public toilets possible? Some of us may find is absurd that the goverment has to launch such campaigns to encourage Singaporeans to be a considerate bunch of people and adopt good toilet habits.

Be it comic strips, cartoon caricatures, or even not-so-appealing posters, the campaigns launched here as in one way or another managed to influence us and the way we behave. Yet another campaign that was widely debated would be the National Anti-Smoking Campaign organized last year. With media and print advertisements of graphic health warnings depicting some smoking related diseases and conditions such as stained teeth, mouth cancer and black lungs, these posters were aimed at creating a reverse psychological effect on smokers. (Picture Source: www.getformesingapore.com/teenyboppers.htm)

(Picture Source: http://www.singaporekindness.org.sg/about/courtesy.html)

Not forgetting our familiar gold lion mascot, Singa. Singa is actually a character created inconjunction with the Singapore Courtesy Campaign in 1979, encouraging Singaporeans to be more kind and considerate to each other, so as to create a pleasant social environment.

Having talked about a few of the many campaigns that we have in Singapore, I feel that campaigns are beginning to become a part of our culture. As defined by Trenholm, culture is learned, shared, dynamic and multifaceted. These campaigns teach us to act in a certain manner, and we soon become so well programmed that we seldom stop to think that out culture is learned. Cultures are also group understandings whereby belonging to a culture means according to the group norms. This can be clearly illustrated with the returning of trays after we finish our meals. Culture is multifaceted, where is affects every aspects of our lives, even the way we communicate and our perception of others. In foreign countries such as the United States, it is a norm to see people returning their trays in McDonalds. However, when Americans come to Singapore and find that we do not have the culture of returning the trays, they may have a different perception of us. Probably a negative perception of self-fishness and lack of consideration. Thus, in order to prevent misunderstandings and misperceptions, we all should be open communicators who are comfortable with co-cultural and cross-cultural diversity.

(Picture Source: http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/library/media/Image/id/634 )

Besides the countless campaigns that we have, what other factors do you think are a part of our culture? Is the "campaign culture" a new form of communication here in singapore?

Isolate?

With the great advancement of current technology, people are able to communicate and interact with each other even though they may be countries apart. As our society is becoming increasingly integrated, it is inevitable for us to form groups in order to meet our own needs.

(A group picture of my colleagues at our BBQ. some have already left the company)

A group is a collection of individuals who, as a result of interacting with one another over time, become interdependent, developing shared patterns of behavior, and a collective identity. Most of the time, people form groups to meet interpersonal needs. According to William Schutz (psychologist), we have 3 interpersonal needs - the need for inclusion (to establish identity by associating with others), need for control (to prove one's worth by making effective decisions), and need for affection (to develop close, caring relationships with others). Cohesive groups also provide support and commitment, making individuals feel encouraged when faced with complicated tasks.

Most importantly, groupwork enables group synergy to occur, whereby every member in the group is encouraged to do their best to complete the task. Personally, I feel group synergy is especially critical in work groups. I would like share my part time working experience to help illustrate this point. Currently, I am working as a part time service crew at a well-established café, with about 29 branches in Singapore. The particular branch that I am working at is located in the Central Business District area, meaning that our customer pool is mainly the working adults. Besides that, our branch is one of the few 2-storey outlet, with a cosy bean bag seating ambience on the 2nd level. Heres a few pictures of my workplace:

(Level 1)

(Level 2)

As our outlet is a double-storey shophouse, effective communication is important to ensure that we are able to run our daily operations smoothly. Besides that, our kitchen is located on the first level only, meaning that someone has to be always sending the food to the second level once it is ready. On the contrary, drinks are prepared on each individual level on the spot. In my work group, everybody plays a different yet important role. Due to limited pictures available, I will just touch on a few prominent roles to give you all a gist of what I am trying to illustrate.

(Picture drawn by a fellow colleague, Goh) (From L to R: Miss M.F, me, Miss E., Mr J., Mr M., Miss F)

Quite evidently, my managers (Miss E & Miss F) take on the role of Standard Setters. A standard setter is a person who express maintenance standard and applies standards to group process. Miss E. always ensures that the services we provide is up to standard, and the food and beverages that we serve are of high quality.

Mr J., a fellow part-timer, takes on the role of an Encourager, encouraging all of us to cheer up and persevere whenever we encounter difficult customers and have to find proper solutions to satisfy them.

Mr M., on the other hand, acts as a Gate-Keeper, always very open to new ideas on ways to improve our service quality and the way we interact with customers.

Our Harmoniser, would definitely be Miss M.F, a very bubbly lady with no tempers at all. Her friendly disposition makes everyone feel happy even though there may be disagreements. With a positive and enthusiastic mind, she is able to relieve tensions and mediate disagreements. For example, an angry customer may be frustrated at having to wait for quite some time for his order. Miss M.F. would approach him and patiently explain to him (in her sing-song voice) the situation and not make the customer feel that we have forgotten his order. Most of the time, the remaining bulk of us take on the role as Observers, Followers, and Information Seekers. When encountering a difficult situation where we (part-timers) are not able to make a decision, we usually have to seek information from our managers who will then advise us on what to do. As Observers, we also play a very important role of observing our customers and offering feedback on how to deal with specific customers. Not forgetting, our Energizer, Mr E., who never fails to make funny faces and dance along our music just to make the atmosphere more lively and not make us feel so tensed up when handling large crowds of customers.

As we all can see, communication is a need, especially when we are working together as a group. With efficient communication and increased interaction, we will be able to understand each teamplayer better, making work much easier and pleasant. Most of the time, we need the help of other people to accomplish a task. In this case, a service crew would need to be informed by the kitchen crew about the correct table number to serve the food to. Thus, it is essential for us to learn to work well in groups.

Lastly, I will just briefly mention about my wonderful and enriching group experience I had during secondary school. My CCA in secondary school was Guzheng (a type of Chinese musical instrument) Ensemble. As the whole ensemble only consists of one instrument, playing a piece of music requires great group cohesion and teamwork.

(Front Row: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson)

In the ensemble, we had a Chairman, also known as a Coordinator in this case. She is always the one sitting at the front first position, cueing us on when to start playing the first note and when to pluck the last note. The rest of the team are mostly followers and observers, occasionally taking turns to contribute our opinions on how to improve. In our ensemble, our girls are a closely knit group as we have a small group size, making interaction with each other relatively easy and comfortable. Besides that, we are very interdependent on each other because if someone is a beat slower or faster, the whole piece of music will be ruined. In order to stimulate bonding, we often organize practices and gatherings together after school. Furthermore, as we are all from the same cohort, communication is unproblematic as we get to see each other quite frequently. When preparing for competitions, our teacher-in-charge, and fellow schoolmates from the Military Band steps in to act as Evaluators/Critics to evaluate our group performance and identify areas of improvement. Needless to say, every single member in the ensemble acts as precious acts Contributors because with one member less, the music piece may not be as perfect as before. With a common goal and a common passion for music, our ensemble was able to work towards achieving group synergy. As a result, we managed to clinch a Gold Medal for the Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging Competition! CHEERS!

(SYF 2003, Gold Medal)

Having written so much, do you think group communication is important? Or do you prefer to live in isolation? Do share your opinions and Comment!

To Be or Not To Be (Together)

Love is very complicated concept, that up till now, many of us fail to fully comprehend the true meaning of it. Love plays a very significant role in relationships. It helps to faciliate the formation and development of relationships in different forms - interpersonal relationships (friendships, close relations with family members), impersonal relationships (a waitress and a customer), and intimate relationships (husband and wife). How are relationships formed then? Is there a certain procedure to go through in order to get together? Interestingly, Mark Knapp has developed a 10 Stage Relational Development Model to depict the various stages that couples go through in their relationships.

The first 5 stages comprises of happy moments couples go through - the "Coming Together" stages. The next 5 stages, also known as the "Coming Apart" stages, is often filled with conflicting ideas and unhappiness.

A real life example that illustrates this model would be Singapore table tennis player Li Jia Wei's previous relationship with national badminton player Ronald Susilo. Their relationship developed after they got to know each other (they were both national players) and it even advanced to the Bonding Stage where both of them announced their engagement publicly in 2004. However, their relationship went into doldrums when differences began to arise. They even had to settle their financial disputes in court. In January 2008, both of them decided to call off their engagement, illustrating stage 10 of Knapp's model: Termination. I feel that their relationship is a very clear example of Knapp's model, whereby their relationship developed and intensified in the early stages. Subsequently, when they realised that they have too many uncommon things (the language they speak?), and cultural differences, their relationship began to stagnate and ultimately, they decided to terminate it. 10 months after their break-up, news regarding Li Jia Wei's new romance with a Beijing businessman was made public. This evidently illustrates the Resurrection Process (Duck's Model of Relational Dissolution). According to Duck, breakups can be represented in a series of processes. One of the process, the Ressurection Process, is where the couple splits and move on with their individual lives. Both of them have already gone separate ways to look for their future prospective other halves. In this case, Jia Wei is already engaged to her new romance. (Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Sport/Story/STIStory_286163.html )

(Picture Source: http://www.youth.sg/content/view/52/66/)

Nonetheless, it is not fair to conclude that Knapp's Model is always applicable based on just this example. Couples may actually skip certain stages and advance to another stage, or they may also regress to a previous stage to maintain their relationship.

A point which I would like to make in particular would be the issue of self-disclosure. As identified in Knapp's Model, self-disclosure takes place as early as the second stage. Self-disclosure actually refers to the sharing of information about yourself that the other person is unlikely to know voluntarily. This means that you actually have to decide on what you want to let the person know about you and how much you want the other person to know about you. Most of the time, self-disclosure is reciprocal whereby after sharing bits of information about yourself, the other party discloses certain things about him/her too. Self-disclosure is a very important aspect in every relationship because it requires a certain level of trust before a person is actually willing to share unknown information stuff about himself. For me, I feel that self-disclosure is a form of getting to know each other better and trusting the other party with the additional information that you have provided. By disclosing certain stuff about yourself to another person, you are actually letting another person into your world of thoughts. Besides that, disclosure should be done in a slow manner, whereby we learn a little more about each other and digest that information before bombarding more stuff to the other party. This is critically important in maintaining relationships. If only one party is contributing his/her thoughts and feelings, it becomes a one-way communication because the feelings of the other party is unheard. Now, the main problem is, how much to disclose and when is an appropriate time to disclose? Personally, I feel that inner thoughts and emotions should only be disclosed to people whom you are close with, people whom you have already established a mutual understanding with. On the other hand, basic information such as your interests and hobbies can be shared even with people whom you have been just accquainted with. If one were to divulge too many of his/her secrets, there will be a high tendency of creating misperceptions and misunderstandings.

(Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heatherleggettphotograpy/2299588734/ )

What about you? Do you think self-disclosure is neccessary in developing relationships? How much then is sufficient and who do you choose? Comment!

Because I Love You - Cheesy or Creative?

Home-grown brand, Allswell, which is famous for Asian bottled drinks such as Water Chestnut and Sugarcane, has recently produced a drinks commercial that have sparked various differing opinons amongst viewers of local television. This big hoo-ha has even resulted in the Allswell drink being featured and discussed on The Straits Times in the Lifestyle section on 21st September, 2008. By now, many of us may have already seen this commercial on television, either in English or Mandarin, and viewers tend to have quite extreme opinions about it. Some may like it a lot and find it sweet, yet others may find it to be a tad too cheesy - mainly because of this tagline used at the end of the commercial: Because I Love You.

Here's the commercial (English version) for those who have not seen it yet.


Basically, this commercial is filmed in a food court, with 2 bottles of Allswell Waterchestnut Drink in front of a young lady. As her partner appears in the picture, he looks at the bottle with contempt and decided to order a cup of Teh-Peng (Iced Tea) instead. The lady then starts to persuade him to drink it by introducing the nutritious facts to him. When asked why he has to drink it, she promptly replied, "Because I Love You". This then convinced him to consume the beverage.

Personally, I feel that this advertisment has a certain element that managed to attract viewers to pay attention to it - an element of being realistic. As Allswell is specializing in producing traditional Asian drinks (Plum Juice, Star Fruit, and Water Chestnut and Sugar Cane Drink), the targetted audience of this commercial would inevitably be Asians, and in this case, Singaporeans. Credits should be given to the director and producer of this commercial, as it is quite obvious that much thought has been put into the creation of this commercial. The commercial lies on the basis on people showing love and concern for their loved ones. This is so because observations have been made that such drinks are usually purchased by mothers and females, who tend to be rather particular about the nutritious contents of food and beverages.

Source: http://www.allswelltrading.com.sg/Product/AllswellProduct.html

Apart from the use of verbal communication (the tagline, "Because I Love You), this commercial has also cleverly made use of sources of nonverbal communication to relate to viewers. The wise selection to use a foodcourt as the setting clearly displays the use of environmental nonverbal stimuli. Allswell is a drink that is widely sold in hawker centres and foodcourts. It would definitely be inappropriate to film this ad in a restaurant. In addition, the female lead in this ad also made use of Paralinguistics (vocal nonverbal stimuli) to emphasise on the message that she is trying to convey. Her pitch, volume, tone, and accent clearly depicts the way a typical Singaporean speaks (although i feel that she may have over done it a little bit). She used her natural voice to "act" in this commercial, instead of conscientiously trying to pronouce every word in an English accent. This tone instinctively draws the attention of viewers as they tend to be curious about the content and purpose of the commercial. I feel that this commercial perfectly made use of one of Francis Bacon's Four Idols - Idols of the Marketplace (use of language) to appeal to views.

On the other hand, viewers who found this commercial to be "cheesy" were mostly put off wby the way the female lead spoke - in an Singlish accent. Some of them felt that this ad is actually portraying a negative image of Singaporeans not speaking properly. Most importantly, not many people were convinced that a simple reason such as "Because I Love You" can actually persuade someone to relent to the other party's requests (drinking the waterchestnut drink in this case). In a nutshell, I found this commercial to be relatively creative and interesting! The fact that it managed to sparked such a huge amount of discussion (even in the papers!) proved that this commerical is indeed successful in attracting the attention of viewers. How did YOU, find this ad? Feel free to share your comments regarding this commercial (or other commercials which you find to be interesting) :)

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words?

Just a few days ago, as my favorite television programme went into a commercial break, I was so tempted to switch to another channel when an advertisement caught my attention and stopped me from channel surfing. After watching the commercial, it left me pondering about the way we use cognitive schemata to form impressions of other people, interpret their messages, and develop a certain perception about them. Personal prototypes are idealized representations of a certain kind of person. The information contained in prototypes consists of traits, patterns of behavior, and role relations that fit our idea of a certain type of people. Many times, we often subconsciously develop a certain perception or opinion about a particular person without any particular basis, just purely by looking at the appearance of the person. How then, did we manage to come to a conclusion on how we feel about this person without even getting to know him or her? Our own real life experiences, stories that our friends shared with us, and sometimes even the way the media portrays a certain types of people plays a role in helping us to form perceptions and impressions of a particular individual. Although this may be useful in helping us to identify and categorize people, negatively, it actually colours the way we view people and it often leads to stereotyping.

Here is a picture that is from the television commercial that I mentioned earlier. (I tried to attain permission from the producer of the commercial to include the video in this post, but my request was not acceeded. ): )

Be truthful, and think carefully about what comes straight into your mind the moment you see this person with a back that is so heavily tattooed? What is the first thing that you will associate this person with? Is he just an ordinary caring father of two, or could he be someone from the underground society? Some of us may associate tattoos with gangsters and rebels, some may think that having tattoos are cool and trendy, and yet others may find that tattoo is actually a form of body art. All these different responses are largely attributable to the different perceptions that we have already formed in our minds. Because these perceptions are already instilled in us, it is very difficult for us to change them. For example, assume that I associate tattoos with someone being very cool. Once I see a person with tattoos, I will automatically have the thinking, "Wow, this person is so cool." Such perceptions often result in stereotypes and in more serious causes, misinterpretations. Think about it, how often have we let our own perceptions guide our way of thinking?

Have you ever avoided taking a seat on the public bus next to someone with tattoos all over his body despite feeling very tired? What if that person was someone dressed smartly in a longsleeved shirt and tie? Would you have taken that seat otherwise? When asking people to donate to charity, did you only approach people who looked "friendlier" and not those who have body piercings and tattoos everywhere? Don't judge. You can never know what a person is like just by looking at appearances.

In this commercial, a heavily tattooed man is trying his best to remove a Post-it note that is stuck on his back. No matter how hard he tries, there is no way he can reach it. The note saying, "Ex-Offender" is out of his reach. The only way to remove that "label" is for another person to remove it from his back. This commercial made use of a simple props, an ex-convict with lots of tattoos on his back, a Post-it note reading "Ex-Offender", and a simple background music to cleverly convey its message clearly to everyone of us. Why did the director of the commercial decided to use a heavily tattooed man as the leading "actor" of the commercial? The answer is very simple. Due to our perceptions of people with certain traits or characteristics (in this case, tattoos), our society has come to a point where we are all guilty of categorizing people and putting labels on them. So much so that in order to clearly convey this message of prejudice across, the director deliberately chose to use a heavily tattooed man to portray himself as an ex-convict. This is largely due to the fact that many of us often have this misperception that people with tattoos are likely to be offenders, or rebels of any sort. All of us - you and me, should put aside all our prejudices and negative stereotypes before coming to a conclusion about the character or personality of a person. Just by looking at a person's appearance is inadequate and unfair for us to make an accurate judgment about a particular person. Once again, this commercial clearly demonstrates the effective use of non-verbal communication to convey a certain message. There was no need for fancy props, catchy music or digital imaging effects. Encoders of the message (you and me) could clearly comprehend the meaning of this commercial.

Touching a little bit more on this commercial, this commercial is actually launched in conjunction with the Yellow Ribbon Project (http://www.yellowribbon.org.sg/) . The Yellow Ribbon Project is a network that helps ex-offenders and their families integrate back into the society by encouraging companies to hire them and organizing campaigns to help remove the label of prejudice. I feel that it is of utmost importance that we actually give these people another chance in society. Before we condemn them and straightaway jump into the our biased perception of ex-convicts, I think we should take into considerations about the feelings of these people who are perpetually being rejected or looked down upon in our society. Some of them may have already changed for the better, some may just want to lead an ordinary life after they have served their time, and some, may just be trying to earn a living to provide for their families. No matter what, I feel that we should all be responsible to help these ex-convicts and give them another chance. Because, if we don't, who will? Don't let our personal prototypes affect our decisions, and more importantly, never judge a person just by looking at his or her appearance. Of course, all these also largely depend on whether the ex-convicts are willing to start afresh, turn over a new leaf and embrace the opportunities that are given to them. If they are willing to do so, I would definitely be willing to help them unlock their second prison too. What about you?