#jm204

Who would have known that each of us would go through 3 levels of reading? Whenever we read something, we just tend to disregard our thoughts process and think however we think it is -- but little did we know, we have to go through each different types of encoding the message since not one of us have the same thought and the same way to interpret a message. The three types are: dominant reading (preferred), negotiated reading and oppositional reading. 

Dominant reading happens when we read something and absorb it fully without question or thinking about anything. Remember the first time you read a book? Harry Potter, perhaps? We are super indulged into the stories that we read word by word without doubting about how things could go differently - or was that just me? I read and read until I finished the book only until then that I have started to think about things... leading up into another type of encoding. 

Negotiated reading happens a lot to us especially now that we live in the mass media society that the audience method of receiving communication is mostly based on Uses and Gratification Theory, which means that the audience can pick out what they want themselves to know and learn. This involves thinking process, weighing out the logical thoughts of the possibility of something happening. For example, wasn’t it by at the end of the book that we have started to point out how Dumbledore might have been a homosexual? Here is where we use our reason whether we want to believe in something or not, or even what we as individuals think of the subject. 

The last but definitely not the least is the oppositional reading. With the changing mass media and the uproar of teenage fanatics these days, oppositional reading tends to be used a lot all over the Internet. This is where people just have the opposing thoughts even right before knowing what the article is about. It is almost like someone coming out to deny something but with the fixed opinion each individuals already have, they choose not to believe just by seeing the headlines - this leads aggressiveness into day today’s communication and the new media society. 

Stimulus diffusion is a culture trend spread but people in other places adapted the culture to fit their society. A best example for a stimulus culture would be McDonald in India where Hindus people don’t eat meat; therefore they change a meat burger into a veggie burger instead. Food and stimulus culture is a fascinating combination and when stimulus culture applies with Thai food, we could say that heaven really exist! I would like to dedicate my last blog post for JM204 class about 12 super mouthwatering Thai food that happened from stimulus culture that you couldn’t find it anywhere else. 

1. KFC’s Wing Zap KFC is famous for their fried chicken but in Thailand they adapted KFC’s chicken by adding Thai’s spicy seasoning. 

2. KFC’s green curry chicken rice bowl Another name for green curry is Gang Kiew Whan. It’s a new menu from KFC Thailand! Green curry fried rice serve with fried chicken and vegetable.

3. Another KFC’s spicy chicken rice bowl In Thai we called this menu ‘Kaow Yum Gai Zab’ it is a fried chicken mixed with special spicy sauce perfectly fit with jasmine rice.

4. McDonald’s chicken, pork and duck rice porridge This is a breakfast menu from McDonald. In Thai, another name for rice porridge is ‘Jok’ This menu is delicious and perfect for someone who needs breakfast in a rush hour. You can buy this menu starting from 10 p.m. until 11 a.m. at McDonald every branch in Thailand.

5. McDonald’s Patongko This is another breakfast menu from Mcdonald Thailand. Patongko or a deep-fried dough stick is a famous snack that Thai people eat it with soymilk. FYI, McDonald’s Patongko goes well with a cup of rice porridge!

6. McDonald’s amazing corn and pineapple pie! Did you know that Thailand is the only place that sells a corn pie and pineapple pie? Yes! That’s right corn pie and pineapple pie is super famous that many foreigners come to Thailand just to try this pie. If you don’t believe me try searching #콘파이 it is a hash-tag in Instagram that Korean people made to show how they love Thailand’s corn pie.

7. McDonald’s basil fried chicken, pork and beef Basil fried rice or what we called in Thai, Kaow Pud Grapao is a famous menu that could go with anything whether it’s a chicken, pork, beef, duck or fish but it is perfect if you eat it with McDonald’s fried chicken.

8. Mos Burger’s pork basil with sticky rice burger! Another basil fried rice menu from Mos Burger but sadly this menu stayed just for a while, I hope it will come back soon.

9. Chabuton’s Tom Yum Kung ramen Chabuton is a ramen restaurant that is very famous in Japan. All Chabuton branches in Thailand have a special Tom Yum Kung ramen menu. The ramen is served with big a shrimp that goes really well with spicy Tom Yum Kung soup and a ramen noodles.

10. Pizza Hut’s Tom Yum Kung In Thailand, there are Tom Yum Kung pizza flavor that the pizza is seasoned with Tom Yum Kung seasoning and have crispy shrimps and mushrooms as a topping.

11. Dairy Queen’s mango and sticky rice menu Dairy Queen is a tasty ice cream shop that has various ice cream menus whether it is a Blizzard, Sundae, Dilly bar (DQ’s ice cream stick) or mocha latte. Dairy Queen Thailand’s blizzard mango edition serves with sweet sticky rice or a cheesecake and for ice cream sundae, you can enjoy the ice cream with mango sauce and sticky rice. There is also a mango Dilly bar flavor too!

12. Swensen’s mango and durian ice cream Swensen’s Thailand special ice cream flavor of mango and durian is serve with optional sticky rice flavor; you can choose between a sweet white sticky rice or a green pandan sticky rice. 

And there you have it, the 12 menus from a food stimulus culture in Thailand! I hope you enjoy reading my last blog for JM204 class and thank you for always being my good reader or listeners. 

    The film Captian America Civil War hit the theater and take 181.17 millions dollars for the weekend box office. For me the film for me the film is pretty good and I really love it. In Christmas the film Star wars The force awaken also hit the theater and it’s the 7th episode of star wars. These two movie frenchise are originally own by marvel and lucas film consecutively. But later Walt Disney came in and give the budget to these two company to create their own film.

       Before that Marvel sold their super heroes character’s right to other company like sony (spider-man) ,21 Centuries Fox (X-men, Deadpool) Because at first marvel doesn’t have enough budget to create their own film. So they only just make their comics for the readers. Later Walt Disney came in and give marvel budget to create their own film and create the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now marvel have their own Film studio in the cooperation with walt Disney.  Also Starwars, Lucas Film created starwars Universe 30 years ago. Star wars have 6 episode and later Walt Disney came in and release plan for the episode 7, 8,9 to be a sequel for starwars episode 6. And also announce a plan for releasing a side story such as rouge one and han solo side story.

       Many flim franchise are owned by disney such as Pirate of the Carribean,  Alice in Wonderland.  Snow white and huntsman and also many famous Animation sucha as Frozen Toy Story ,Finding Nemo. Which these film are films and animation which children in my age are born with. And also the original Disney character like mickey mouse Minnie mouse Donald Duck which really classic and become signature for walt Disney apart form the castle.

        Now Disney have a many character for them to play with in Disneyland just kidding. Disney also have plan for their theme park (also known as Disneyland) to build a starwars theme Disneyland this would be amazing for the starwars fan to ride a starwar theme roller coaster. Disney Land is one of the famous theme park in the world and have many branches all over the world. (Nearest for Thailand is Hongkong Disney land).

         This is Called the media conglomeration which mean that the big compant take over the small company. But its not like what Disney done to marvel and Lucas Film. What Disney done to marvel and lucus is like helping each other. By making star Wars be able to have right in character whith Disney and so did marvel. Marvel and Lucus get the budget to make their film and Disney got more character to play with and create a magical fantasy with.

          Since Disney is one of the 6 biggest media company in the world it is not odd that Disney could reduce their competition by buying them and let them join Disney by peace and create the dream for those children. Ib this situation it has advantage in many ways Disney got character Small studio got budget Viewer got freakout by those films.

        Sony’s Spiderman didn’t work out very well so the sign a contract together with marvel so that Spiderman could join the MCU and could hangout with the Avengers. Sony knew that their spiderman could not go as far as what the Marvel Cinematic Universe do with their character so Sony Bring spiderman back to mcu and let Marvel take control of the spiderman film with cooperation with sony. Its not like what Disney did but it is a good cooperation together since sony know that the have faild with the spiderman character. As I mentioned before that the spiderman character’s right was sold by marvel to Disney long time ago so that disnet could not do anything with spiderman but now spiderman could come home and stay with sony as well.

The world nowadays seems smaller because of the new media. People can be connected to each other and can access to information from every part of the world via the Internet. Many entertainments are available online. People from different countries can learn different culture from consuming these media products provided on online. Once they consume these products, their thoughts start to saturate with those texts. People’s perception begin to change. Their thoughts and behaviors are beginning to get influence by those media. One example that I’m going to discuss is Korean Drama.

You may wonder how the Korean drama can influence people’s perceptions and behaviors. Well, let’s see.

What is your decision in choosing one single Korean drama to watch?

Some may decide from an interesting plot.

Some may be K-dramas addicted as they can’t miss any single one of them.

AND some people may decide from good looking actors and actresses.

Korean drama in the present time is getting popular than before. People are more obsessed with it more than in the past. The reason behind this is that the media has exaggerated the Korean drama to get to the point that every people can enjoy watching it. The producer tries to produce the content that will please audience's need. The media exaggerates the Korean dramas in the way that it creates the leading actor to be really handsome and charisma. Furthermore, the leading actor is super heartwarming and also romantic. He always does many great things to the heroine and that is why many girls are fall in love with the leading actors. So, their perceptions have changed. They begin to think that Korean guys, in reality, are all good-looking and very gentle and nice to the girls like they are in the dramas. However, in the reality, Korean guys, in reality, are unlike Korean guys in the dramas. Some of them are rude and they are not very as nice as we’ve seen from the dramas. It's the media that exaggerated it and that it influences people’s perceptions.

One example that is obviously seen as an impact of Korean dramas is the event that recently held in Bangkok last week, the fan meeting with Song Joong Ki. It caught many eyes of people including the people on the Internet and also with the media. Song Joong Ki is a male leading actor from the drama called “Descendant of the Sun”. The drama received many positive feedbacks after it was aired and that the male leading actor is widely known throughout many countries. People who watched the drama are really obsessed with him and dreamed of him as their boyfriends. His role in the drama is attractive to many girls so there are lots of people are paying attention to him.

The picture below showed a group of people who were waiting to greet and welcome Song Joong Ki to Thailand at the airport. This can show that the Korean drama is really influenced people’s minds.

So, what is the effect of the hyperreality that occurs in the Korean drama?

From the example above, we can see that the Korean drama has created daydreams to many young girls. Girls may start to look for a guy that will be the same as those who are in the drama. Many young girls can’t distinguish between what is real and what is not real. So, what they do is that they start searching for Korean guys in dating websites or apps. They may post the pictures of themselves attached along with information including their name, place to live, phone number or any other things that related to them. 

“Stupid Cupid the Series - Parody of Thai drama”

This is a blog about stereotype, again. So first thing first, let me recap the stereotype meaning so all of us will be in the same ground.

The Urban Dictionary meaning:

Stereotype

A stereotype is used to catergorize a group of people. People don't understand that type of person, so they put them into classifications, thinking that everyone who is that needs to be like that, or anyone who acts like their classifications is one.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stereotype

Example: A stereotype of Asian people is to be good at math. The truth is no, not all Asian are good at math. People of other nationalities are also good at math.

The TV series “Stupid Cupid” (Nam Tar Kam Ma Thep) is the product of this postmodern era. It is a parody of Thai drama that claimed itself as a very very Thai style drama. The series itself is mocking both the media producer in the drama industry and the audience. It shows every possible element in Thai drama that you can expect to see. It’s a cliché. In which in the long run, it becomes a stereotype of the drama.

Some postmodern aesthetics that you’ll find in this series:

1.    Bricolage – The series appeared once about seven years ago as a short clip in the movie “Bangkok Traffic Love Story.” The studio wants to continue on this project as an actual TV series.

2.    Intertextuality – The most prominent elements in the series. It refers to hundreds of Thai dramas in a funny way. A parody indeed.

3.    Blurring of Boundaries – The traditional way of Thai drama is mixing with the new way of TV series. It represents Thai drama in a new way.

4.    A society of Spectacle – It’s either that the character is super rich in the series or they are extremely poor. The acting is exaggerated that you’ll never see this in real life.

Stupid Cupid story plot is not different from other story out there. The great grandmother of the wealthy family got sick. The greedy daughter-in-law and her daughter feels threaten that they will not get to own the heritage by the innocent girl in the house. In which the grandmother had arrange the marriage for that girl and her own grandson. Lastly, the grandson also hates that girl.

If this is normal drama, we all know that in the end the grandson and the girl will fall in love no matter how much they hated each other in the beginning. The greedy people will soon get trouble into themselves. In the end, everyone will be smart even though they could have been since the fifth episode.  

But this is not a normal drama, it’s a parody. First let’s identify each character’s characteristics. They exaggerated the acting that we can clearly know what type of person they are playing as because it’s a stereotype.

1.    The lead actor – Chavee

Charming, rich, live in a big mansion, trust everyone except the right ones, and dislike the lead actress in the beginning.

2.    The lead actress – Araya

Beautiful, innocent, mistreated by the lead actor and his family, always minor comparing to the lead actor, and they come in soft makeup.

3.    The envious people – Didi, Cholly, and The daughter-in-law

They always sounded in a high-pitched and loud voice. They want either the lead actor or the entire heritage. They come in a vibrant and heavy makeup, usually red lip.

This exaggeration gives us something more than just a funny program to watch. It reflects the Thai society. We judge each other by the way they look. It’s not necessary that a person who wears soft makeup is innocent and those who wear red lipstick is bad. But it has become the stereotype of those characters already.

It also promotes the gender inequality too. Most of the time, female character got fooled and tricked by the envious people. The only way they will be safe is from the protection of the male character. The media portrays women as a very fragile sex.

Media has defined how females and males should look and act.Stereotypes play a huge role in this. Though advertisements, performers, actors and actresses. The standard male should be masculine, dominant, physically fit, has abs, handsome and so on like depicted in the image on the previous slide. The standard women is feminine, soft, pretty, treated as property, objectified, should be submissive, thin, have large breasts and so on, again as described in the image on the previous slide. 

Because of the heavy usage of these types of individuals in media, what is actually a normal body type for either gender is not acceptable, so everyone who doesn’t process the unattainable image/ especially for women, doesn’t measure up and is deemed unworthy. Women are often represented negatively thereby promoting negative stereotypes about them. (Tapfumaneyi & Rupande , 2013).

I couldn't agree more on what's said above. Beauty standard and stereotype in women still remain an issue in everywhere in the world. Especially the country I live in, Thailand. 

Thai people are somehow vulnerable to the media they consume. They tend to believe and mimic things from the media. Since we watch and see media too much that it become the reality we believe we are living in. The sense of reality is now dominated by the media stereotype which presented by the hyperreal world. 

Celebrities are also one of the most important factors that create a false needs and false representation of life via the media. As we can easily see from many advertisings or any media. 

Fortunately, there are still some media that encourage the awareness for women from falling into beauty stereotype. 

For example, this is a song call "แค่เป็นเธอ" (Just be yourself) by Two popetorn, A Thai singer. 

 I’ma do a lyric translation for you since some of you might not understand Thai (you know who) 

*The translation is in Italic*

อยากให้เธอมองเห็นตัวเธอเองผ่านสายตาฉัน เพราะว่ามัน ยากเกินจะอธิบายด้วยถ้อยคำ ให้เธอฟัง ให้เธอเข้าใจ

I want you to see yourself through my eyes because it is too hard to explain to you and get you understand what I see in you.

ว่าที่เธอคิดที่เธอกังวลอยู่ทุกวัน ต่างกับภาพที่ฉันมองเห็นอยู่ เธอจะรู้บ้างไหม

What you’re worry about yourself everyday is totally different from what I see in you. you know?

ว่าเธอทั้งสวยและทั้งดูดี โดยไม่ต้องเสริมอะไรก็ Sexy แค่เธอเป็นตัวเองเท่านั้น แค่เป็นเธอคนนี้ มันดีแล้ว

You’re beautiful and looking great. Don’t need any makeup, you’re already sexy. Just be yourself in the way you are is enough.

เธอไม่ต้องลดต้องเพิ่มอะไร อยากขอให้มั่นใจ you’re the only girl in my eyes อยากให้รู้ไว้คนดี

No need to be more or less, just want to make sure that you’re the only girl in my eyes. please do know.

เธอ... ไม่มั่นใจกับภาพในกระจกที่เธอเห็น สิ่งที่เธอนั้นเป็น กับสิ่งที่ใครๆเค้ามองว่าดี วัดอย่างไร ไม่เคยเขัาใจ

You’re unsatisfied of what you see in the mirror. The way you are and those stereotype. I don’t see how it works. 

and it’s like, I found my diamond in the biggest crowd want you to know so I sing it loud เธอจะไปมองใครๆเพื่อเปรียบเทียบทำไม (Why do you want to compare with others?) you’re the only girl I know that can make me smile that’s why... you always got me coming back ใคร... จะเป็นอย่างเธอ (no one like you) who can replace that a beauty head to toe beautiful soul it’s unbelievable you’re something special

Another example would be.. “What makes you beautiful” by One Direction.

Here’s the lyrics

You're insecure Don't know what for You're turning heads when you walk through the door Don't need make up To cover up Being the way that you are is enough

*Everyone else in the room can see it Everyone else but you

**Baby you light up my world like nobody else The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed But you when smile at the ground it aint hard to tell You don't know You don't know you're beautiful If only you saw what I can see You'll understand why I want you so desperately Right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe You don't know You don't know you're beautiful Oh oh But that's what makes you beautiful

So c-come on You got it wrong To prove I'm right I put it in a song I don't why You're being shy And turn away when I look into your eyes :)

To just wrap it up, I believe every women have their own definition of beauty. Don’t let the media dominate your sense of beauty standard. Be yourself and be proud of who we are. and girls, don’t for get to smile. 

A smile is the best make up every girls could wear :)

This week, we can't deny that  people have been arguing over one of the most highly anticipated movie "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" which released last week. 

Of course, Batman and Superman are the most famous superheroes of all time. Even though we had seen many of their movies came out through generations like Tim Burton's Batman, Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman even the masterpiece Dark Knight Trilogy, this is the first time we see Batman and Superman together on the silver screen. With the reputation of those DC superheroes and the power of the new  media made "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" talk of the town.

Back in 2012, the internet went crazy when Christopher Nolan claimed he won't be directing the fourth Batman film or simply "The Dark Knight Rises" will be his last. Warner Bros started to build up the DC universe competing Marvel starting with "Man of Steel" on 2013. Then the internet went crazier after Ben Affleck (He actually did a great job though) has been cast as the new Batman replacing Christian Bale. The fans including myself were so hyped before this movie came out. The dream of DC vs Marvel rivalry was about to be true. So there has always been a link between this movie and the internet for years.

After the movie came out last Thursday(Thailand release date), many of only reviewers posted their feedbacks. Started with famous movies review website Rotten Tomatoes which rated this movie only 29% and 44 out of 100 from Metacritic. Follow up with the reviews from the audiences which are also mostly negatives. People were worried that these critics would let the film to be another flop like the remake of" Fantastic Four." However, the movie still got fine feedbacks 7.5 on the IMDB from over a hundred thousand fans. With an estimated $250 million of the budget including the advertising which potentially raise up to $400, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" needs reach a high box office not to be a movie flop.

It happened once with the movie "Fantastic Four" which released last year. The movie got $168 million gross worldwide while the budget was around $120 million. I remembered the fans went so hard on this film with all the critics about plots and the ending The movie got only 4.3 on the IMDB and only 9% for Rotten Tomatoes. Later on Josh Trank(director) came out saying that he had problems with Fox that his movie was cut to meet the studio's philosophy.

As a superheroes fan, I was personally afraid that this stuff is going to happen again with "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." Anyway, bad critics have pros and cons. There's a bunch of people who actually don't want to watch the movie anymore since people said it is a bad movie. At the same time, it helps to promote the film itself as people are talking about it makes many people want to prove if the critics were wrong or not. So far the film makes a worldwide debut of $424.1 million which is the highest global opening for any superhero movie. It is higher than the prediction which was around $300-$340 million. So I guess those critics brought much more attention to the film.