Final Assignment

Suicide

Suicide has been a big social problem in our world for hundreds of years. In 2007, there were 34,598 suicide deaths in the U.S., which was the tenth leading cause of death. According to the statistical data of National Institute of Mental Health, women are at a higher risk of committing suicide than men. Men and women also use different methods for suicide. In 2007, 56% of men and 30% of women used firearms, 24% men and 21% women used suffocation, and 13% men and 40% women used poisoning to commit suicide.

But what are the causes of these suicides?

Bullying, physical and sexual abuse could be a cause of suicide. In Korea, many middle school and high school students committed suicide because of these factors. There’s a group called Il-jin. It is a group of middle students with violence. They usually take away money from other students and spend it on drinking, don’t study, and don’t go home. When they pick on one student, they bully and physically abuse them until they are satisfied. Victims like this are at very high risk of committing suicide. They don’t endure the abuse and finally commit suicide.

Another leading cause of suicide is hopeless life. Hopeless people without goals and dreams commit suicide because they have no point in life. I think expectations in the future are more important than depression. If you don’t have a goal in life and if you don’t have expectations from people around you, then you have no reason to live. These people are confused about their lives, so they choose to not live anymore.

The most common cause of suicide could be psychological pain. Pains could differ from people to people, but they could include pain from love, school, family. Many people in our society suffer from psychological pain, which they do not want to show to other people. Many melancholiacs are hidden in society preparing to commit suicide. They often don’t express how they feel to people around them, so people around the melancholiacs don’t realize that they are melancholiacs. Feelings from depression, shame, guilt, and anger can also cause psychological problems. More than 90% cause of the suicides is depression and psychological pain.

How is suicide represented in media?

Suicide is represented as a perfect solution in media. Suicide is chosen to seek solutions to problems.

In the movie Brothers, there’s a scene where the main character chose to commit suicide.

Main character Sam went to Afghanistan to fight in war, but was imprisoned by the hostage-takers. While being a hostage, Sam had to see his fellow soldier get tortured. Also, he had to kill him in order to get back home. Sam just beat his fellow soldier and killed him. Finally, he was rescued by the Americans and successfully returned home to see his family. However, because of all the horrors in Afghanistan, Sam develops some kind of psychological problems. He is not friendly to his daughters anymore, is very quiet, and obstinate. Also, he is obstinate about the fact that his wife slept with his brother Tommy, who took care of Sam’s family while Sam was gone. One day, Sam just burst with rage and tried to kill himself with a gun. When Sam put his gun on his head, Tommy calms him by saying “We’re brothers.”

Like this, the solution to Sam’s mental illness was suicide. He chose to do it himself. He could not endure himself anymore, so he chose it. However, I do not think that suicide is a solution to problems.

Just like Sam, many celebrities in Korea chose suicide to solve their problems.

Famous movie star Lee Eun Joo committed suicide in 2005, and the reason was depression.

Famous singer Uni committed suicide in 2007, and the reason was cyber bullying. She was born as a daughter of a single mother. There also was a rumor that she did her breast plastic surgery. Because of these reasons, people started to make malicious comments in Uni’s blog. Uni was so hurt by these comments, and finally committed suicide.

Actress Choi Jin Sil committed suicide in October, 2008. Cause was depression caused by divorce, private loan, and malicious rumors.

In March 2010, Choi Jin Sil’s brother Choi Jin Young committed suicide. Cause was personal depression and longing for his sister.

There are many suicides other than these in Korean media.

Suicide is not a solution. It is NEVER a solution. By looking at these celebrities who committed suicide, people could think that it IS a solution, but it’s not.

Listening, talking, and understanding can overcome these problems.

Suicide is not just killing yourself, but killing the hearts of the people around you.

Come Fly With Me versus Big, Bigger, Biggest

Come Fly With Me versus Big, Bigger, Biggest

<Genre>

Come Fly With Me is a mockumentary film and Big, Bigger, Biggest is documentary. Mockumentary’s intention is to “analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. They may be either comedic or dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more common.” (Wikipedia) Documentary is “intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record.” (Wikipedia)

<Representation>

In my opinion, both of these films represent the busy people all around the world. In the airports, people always busy checking in or packing their luggage. These people are busy thinking about their business trips, or the cruise they’re going to have. They always rush to not miss their plane. By looking at these two films, we can see that people in the airports are busy and rushing, as well as the people in the whole world.

<Semiotics>

Both of these films have the topic of the airport. Airport can be a sign of the connection of the world. It has runways for airplanes to take off and land and many facilities for passengers. By providing these, airports connect people around the world. Without these airports, we cannot travel between countries. Business people cannot make business trips, students cannot go abroad and study, or presidents or governmental officials cannot make summit talks. Airports are an important tool to people’s lives.

<Narrative>

Many events in these two films are possible in the real world.

In Big, Bigger, Biggest, there were some concerns about terrorism. It says in the documentary that workers’ number one concern in the airports is security. There are dangerous illegal actions and terrorism happening all over the world in the airports. These terrorists not only kill the innocent people, but they also have an intention to hurt the entire economy. From watching this documentary film, I learned that terrorists think ahead and plan carefully to ruin the lives of the people and the economy.

In Come Fly With Me, there are racism and illegal actions in the airport. When one African woman from Liberia tried to enter into the airport, the officers stops her and says that she has a forged passport. He keeps on saying that there is no such country as Liberia. The woman looks frustrated and upset because of that ignorant officer. Another thing that’s possible in the real world is the flight delay. Passengers got frustrated because of the delay. The officer tells each of the passengers lies about the delay. He makes up lies and tells a woman that the pilot is busy eating his dinner. I know some of his actions are very satirical, but flight delays, racism, and illegal actions are very common in the airports.

Firefly - Episode 2: The Train Job

Firefly

Genre

The genre of Firefly could be space western and drama. The setting of this TV series is 2571, on a variety of moons and planets, and in a spaceship, Serenity. There also exists a pioneer culture in Serenity, so the genre could also be western. I think the fusion of Western and Sci Fi is very fresh, however, some reviewers say that this genre is a "forced hodgepodge of two alarmingly opposite genres just for the sake of being different." I think these reviewers are saying that putting two completely different genres could be original and fresh, but won’t bring a well-known success. Space western is a subgenre of science fiction. There’s also a genre of drama in this show because there are conflicts of political, moral and ethnic issues.

Semiotics

Semiotics exists a lot in this show. There are a lot of things that are signs of something else. What I think about this show is that, this show is a sign of our future. In episode 2, there were events of illegal runs and robbery in space. I feel that events like these are possible in the future. There could be homes in space, planets, and moons.

Although I only watched one episode of this show, I could realize that this show kind of foreshadows our future. This show lets us know that things like better communication systems, better transportation systems, and robotics could be possible to exist in the future.

Also, I think this TV series foreshadows the conditions of the world’s governmental powers. In the show, the United States and China are the only existing superpowers of the world. I think this is possible because the United States is already a superpower of the world, and China is slowly growing to be a superpower. Its technology and government are developing quickly.

Arrested Development

Arrested Development

1. Semiotics

I think Bluth family signifies disharmony among family members in this show. They always cause trouble and they seem to not have unity. By looking at this family, the audience can learn that not having unity in a family can lead to disharmony within family members.

2. Genre

Genre of Arrested Development is comedy and drama, according to the website http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0515236/.  However, I think of it more like a drama rather than a comedy, because I found only two or three scenes funny. Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld consist of scenes that are intentionally made ridiculous and foolish. However, scenes in Arrested Development are just normal and obvious. Scenes are not made intentionally funny, they are just scenes put together to make a story. This show permits more time for plot development rather than jokes. To me, this is show is a drama, rather than a comedy.

3. Representation

I think this show represents the real world to the audience, that is, this story is related to the world of people. There are a lot of dysfunctional families in this world. Bluth family is represented in this show as a dysfunctional family. Most of the Bluth family members seem to have some problems. Lindsay, Michael’s “twin” sister, is very shallow, superficial, noisy, and ignorant. She often flirts with other men. Michael’s older brother Gob received little attention from his parents since he was a child. His mother just hates him. He seems to have difficulty in language. Michael’s son George is very obedient, since he lived only with his father since he was a child. Just like this, most of the family members of Bluth family seem to have some problems. By looking at Bluth family, the audience can realize that family like this doesn’t look good. Other people might say bad things about a family like this. By showing this kind of family, this show teaches audience to not live like this family.

Ideology

Ideology

Ideology is a set of ideas on which people base their actions. It is a set of beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system. It can be different points-of-view, myth, or belief from different kinds of people. Ideology can be a guide or a model for oneself.

Ideology helps ideas get sent out into the world and the media. Ideology also helps media get huge audience. It helps the audience look for the different implications and ideas about the world. Ideology helps audience view the media from many different perspectives or viewpoints. It has a huge impact on people’s thoughts.

One example of this could be the Public Relations Industry. Public Relations is “the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.” (dictionary.reference.com) The media and public relations industry together gives power to get conceptual ideas of our society to people who control the society.

Another example could be the sexual objectifications we always see on TVs, newspapers, and magazines. Since last few years, sexual objectifications in advertisements have been increasing so much, that we cannot even control it now. These ideological ideas are sent out into the world and the media and gave huge impact on producers’ thoughts that advertisements need sex objects to sell their products.  However, ideology later could be a positive impact on the media since it could change the audiences’ ideas, views, and perspectives anytime, anywhere.

Semiotic Analysis - Midterm Assignment

Semiotic Analysis

These two advertisements provide different iconic representation of the same product. Both these advertisements use lots of signifiers. These signifiers are not actually created until we actually find them.

Ad 7 advertises the SKYY vodka in a sexual way. In this advertisement, one woman with bikini is lying down on a beach. She has blonde hair, silver nails, and blue sunglasses on her head. The beach is empty. This woman and the guy standing on top of her are the only people on this beach. A man with a suit on is standing over the woman. He is wearing a blue suit with vodka and martini glasses in his hands. The ocean is very fresh and blue, and the sky is very clear. Everything in this picture is all blue. I think the person who made this ad intentionally made everything blue to signify that this vodka is fresh and enjoyable to drink. The ‘signifiers’ of this image are the woman, man, and the beach. The ‘signified’ are the linguistically expressed “fresh and cool” SKYY vodka.

Ad 8 advertises this product in a mysterious way. In this ad, a brown and white snake is in a wide vase-like glass with its head looking towards the side. I have no idea what this snake is representing. Behind the vase-like glass, there’s the blue SKYY vodka and a blue curtain. Just like ad 7, a lot of blue is represented in the ad. Again, all these blues signifies the new and fresh taste of the SKYY vodka.

The denotations (what it literally means) of these advertisements could be blue vodka and the glasses. The connotation (how it makes us feel or think) of these ads could be the fresh and blue vodka in our mouths that makes us feel cool.

These two advertisements show two different images that are completely different. However, their connotative signifiers are very similar, which could be the “fresh and cool” vodka.

Since Vodka is sold more to men than women, SKYY’s main target is the men. I think this advertisement is designed to be interpreted from a masculine perspective. In ad 7, a woman is objectified to give men sexual pleasure. In my opinion, vodka advertisements don’t need women. They just need to have something other than woman to signify that this vodka is good. Women are not instruments to advertise vodka. Other things like ice and snow can be used to show that this vodka is good.

SKYY's vodka advertisement is not the only advertisement that uses women as instruments to persuade their target. This brownie ad actually is using men. I agree with this ad that brownies somewhat look like those abs, but I think it would’ve been better if they used real chocolaty brownies to appeal to people’s senses and persuade the targets.

I don’t think sexuality should have a role in advertising, but in today’s society, sexuality plays a big role in advertising. In my opinion, vodka advertisements should just have vodka, not a woman with bikini, and brownie advertisements should just have delicious looking brownies, not a man without his shirt. There are thousands of other ways to persuade people to buy the product without using sexuality. These advertisements are actually made for people’s sexual pleasure. For me, they are not advertisements. They are just men and women appealing their bodies to people. I don’t know since when our society has changed like this. We need to stop using sexual objectification as a way to advertise products.

Representation

Representation

http://thegrandnarrative.com/2010/12/16/lolita-effect-korea-sexual-socialization-body-image/

K-pop influence a lot of people in Korea including people in the middle ages, people in the 20s, college students, teenagers, elementary schoolers, and even kindergarteners. Idol groups frequently show up on TV, which people always watch. Korean girl groups always appear on TV wearing really really short pants or skirts or sometimes just the top. I don't think they are good enough to be singers, but they just emphasize their cuteness and body lines to be singers. To me, they are just sexually appealing to the people to gain popularity. In Korea these days, people think of sexual appeal as an obvious thing to be popular.

These girl groups have caused teenagers to follow the fashion that’s not suitable for teenagers. When I go to Myungdong or Daehakro, I see a lot of people wearing really short skirts or shorts with leggings inside them. Those people, who think they look mature enough to wear clothes like these, looked really young to me. Just by looking at their faces, I could notice that they were middle school students. Not just their clothes, but also their make-ups indicated that they were imitating girl groups’ make-up techniques. What I think is that they are young and young means beautiful. Teenagers are beautiful without the short skirts and make-ups. They are spending too much time on their looks, when they have to spend time on their studies.

Secondly, what these sexual appeals in TV have caused is more sexual abuse in society. When I look at the internet news, at least one news article each day is about sexual harassment. A man rapes a woman walking down the street, father rapes his daughter, teacher rapes his student, and students sexually assault their female teacher. I cannot believe all these can happen in our society. I think sexual crimes increased when there was an increase in the number of girl groups on TV. Men watch these girl groups wearing sexually appealing clothes, become sexually active, and commit sexual crimes. I still cannot believe that K-pop singers have led to such result like this.

My conclusion is that the media needs to have limits on girl groups' clothes. This way, I think teenagers can focus more on their studies and the number of sexual harassment could be decreased.