Gender Inequality in Workplace

People paying more and more attention on female equality but it still undeniable that female is unequal with men in work environment, especially in some Asian countries. For instance in Japan, many people would think female should belongs inside the house rather than work environment. Surveys and experiments show that women are generally perceived as more “communal” and “loyal” whereas men are described more as “protectors” and “competent”. Therefore, there are sexual inequalities exist in many companies. For example, Michael in “gender inequality in public media newsroom” mentioned, “serious sexual equalities exist in public media newsrooms. Firstly, male employee rate is 57% in media industry but female is only 43%. Otherwise, serious sexual inequalities exist in management position. For example, most news directors are male but female only charge in some position not such important like Sr ED.” The public media newsrooms is just one of the samples that there is more female dealing with sexual inequalities in work place. Manly people seems like didn’t consider female needs a career that they think female are belongs to family and should become housewife. In weeks lecture we saw many advertisement cases.in Julie Gooduin’s Fountain Sauce Lecipe, it states “taste of home” therefore it shows a housewife. Comprise to perfect Huliaro Ricotta that it focuses on a professional Ricotta brand therefore it shows a professional male chef.

As a result we can see, people usually think women should cook at home but when it is in work environment people would think about male first. Why sexual inequalities exist in work environment? Is it really female not as good as male? I believe it is not female’s ability not as good as male that it is just because female lack of fair chances. Since 1980, there have been more women enrolled in institutions of higher education than men. According to lensus fighter released in April 2011, among the population age 25-29, 36% of women had a bachelor degree or more, compared with 25% of men. However, no matter how high female been educated they still facing sexual inequalities in work. For example, if you are a mother, your chances of getting the job are reduced by 70% because many people think if women were married and had children that they would spend most time on family and without enough time for work.

Recently people always emphasis sexual equality but still undeniable female have to deal with sexual inequality in work environment. From my view, even though there are many excellent women, they are independent, with high education and good ability, the only thing they need is a chance.

References:

Hsu, C 2011, ‘Gender Inequality in the Workplace’, viewed 10 May 2015,<http://www.harvardindependent.com/2011/12/gender-inequality-in-the-workplace-education-does-not-equal-success-1201/&gt;

Michael,M2013, ‘Gender Inequity in Public Media Newsrooms’, MVM Consulting, viewed 10 May 2015,<http://www.mikemarcotte.com/2013/03/gender-inequity-in-public-media-newsrooms.html&gt;

 

The hidden cost — E-waste

E-waste is a term that means unwanted electronic materials such as obsolete computers and cell phones – are the world’s fastest growing waste stream. The 2012 UN report projected that by 2017 global e-waste will increase a further 33% from 49.7 million to 65.4 million tons per annum. 8 E-waste from cell phones in India alone is expected to increase 18-fold by 2020. 3 and 9 The total amount of e-waste produced is exponentially increasing because of multiple factors. Therefore, e-waste become  a rapidly growing global problem. Electronic products contain toxic materials, and improper disposal, which may lead to water and air pollution，and also severely damage people’s health. Nowadays, recovery and recycling are the main way to deal with e-waste. However, how to accurately deal with e-waste, which is not a straightforward question, especially in developing countries. Caution must be taken to select electronics recyclers who can certify that their practices ensure worker safety and the prevention of toxic releases to the environment. However, It is estimated that many developed countries exported their the 70-80% of the e-waste to developing countries. In these countries, labor costs are lower and environmental regulations may be lax or not enforced, often resulting in major pollution and health problems in these communities.

I think we need reduce the production of e-waste. Consumer demand and a high obsolescence rate lead to frequent and unnecessary purchases of electronic products, which are the main reason to lead to e-waste produced is sharply increasing. For example, new cell phone models are released at highly regular intervals. Not only do cell phone models evolve, but the accessories, such as chargers, often change with each new model.  These new electronic products always attract people change their electronic products and contribute to rapidly rising quantities of e-waste. However, most people are not realize the seriousness of the e-waste problem. For example, some youngster in order to pursues the fashion, they always change new cell phone and laptop. Meanwhile, these people also do not have a good awareness to deal with this old electronic products, which causing significant additions to e-waste. Therefore, enhancing people’s awareness is very important, which can enable more people to realize the seriousness of the e-waste problem. Meanwhile,  making more people understand how to correctly deal with and recycle e-waste, which also is a crucial step to reduce e-waste. Moreover, E-waste recycling is necessary but it should be conducted in a safe and standardized manor. The government should enhance monitoring and regulation e-waste recycling, especially for developing countries.  Meanwhile, we need active innovation to seek more scientific ways and means to promote environmentally sound disposal and recycling of e-waste.

Nowadays, electronic information technology brought many positive influences for people’s life, which always become an important part for people’s daily life. It cannot be denied that e-waste is a hidden cost for the developments of electronic information technology, which led to serious problem for environment and people’s health. Therefore, we must lay emphasis on this problem, and from yourself, from small start, minimize every possible e-waste.

References:

United Nations University (UNU), Solve the E-waste Problem (StEP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). World e-waste map reveals national volumes, international flows. 2013, Accessed 7 May, 2015.  https://www.vie.unu.edu/file/get/11505.pdf

Meanings of the Selfie

With the rise of smartphones and social media, selfie become very popular. In 2013, the word “selfie” was voted as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter. I think everyone has this situation that their friend on social networking(Facebook or Twitter) update their different selfies whatever they are happy, sad, traveling or working. Selfie seems to become the part of their life. Some people think that this explosion of selfies proves that ours is an unusually narcissistic age. However, I think that selfie is a new way of communication. Selfie also facilitate connection with our friends so we can share in what we’re doing, who we’re seeing, and what we’re wearing that day. which enable our communication to become more vivid. Meanwhile, selfie also is a new way to help people express ourself. When we take selfies, we aim to impress and inform others about who we are. Selfie offer people a opportunity  to show their best side, or the part they want to show people. All selfies have one thing in common: they present us at our best, whether that is attractive, impressive, funny, or intelligent. People want to gain the approval from others. It cannot be denied that selfie also enable people to derive immense satisfaction from vanity. Some people use social media and selfie to boost and depress their self-image and social life, making them feel overly vulnerable to approval from their peers and overly concerned with how they are presenting themselves online(Greenwood G2014). Therefore, some people will easy to become increasingly addicted to selfie, especially for youngsters. For example, 19-year-old Danny Bowman’s selfie addiction spiralled out of control, spending ten hours a day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his iPhone. The teenager is believed to be the UK’s first selfie addict and has had therapy to treat his technology addiction as well as OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This situation also will lead to  people perceptions of self-indulgence or pay more attention to seek social dependence.

In conclusion, selfie is a mirror which is a small me that we send out to give others a sense of who we are. However,  when people overindulge selfies, which will lead to people perceptions of self-indulgence and narcissistic. However, I think that in age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to enable more people to understand ourselves and tell people “Hello, this is me.”

 

Reference:

Greenwood, D 2014, “Three Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Confuse Selfies with Vanity” Psychology Today, viewed at 9/April/2015.[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mirror-mirror/201409/three-reasons-why-we-shouldnt-confuse-selfies-vanity]

Keating,F 2014, “Selfies Linked to Narcissism, Addiction and Mental Illness, Say Scientists”, International Business Times,viewed at 9/April/2015. [http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/selfies-linked-narcissism-addiction-mental-illness-say-scientists-1441480]

 

Wonderful Friends

About two months ago, I went to the biggest zoo and aquarium of China. It is undeniable that I love to go to zoo very much since I was a littles girl. However, when I saw the title of the week four which makes me wants to reflect myself. I still remember that polar bear I saw in the zoo two month ago. Those polar bears have lost their freedom, they have been put in a small glass house, and they seem skinny, dirty and tired, which totally different with what those polar bears I saw on TV.  At that moment, I feel their pain, their grief. Human activity lead to a huge harmful for animals, even some behavior which seems very cruel. For example, when Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, aired an episode of current affairs program Four Corners called “A Bloody Business” on 30 May 2011, it showed cattle being slaughtered in Indonesian abattoirs. I was shocked when I read this news. People wants to taste better quality cattle meat therefore they would used very cruel slaughtering process. This is not asking people to become vegetarian. This is because that  humans are omnivores , so asking people to become vegetarian which is impossible. However,  I hope human being adapt less painful slaughtering process to reduce animals pain.

In addition, compare to slaughter animals, I think that people close animals in cage, or training them to let people watch and carry out a variety of performances to please people, which is more painful for animals. Over recent months, A popular Chinese TV show featuring celebrities paired with animals which called “wonderful friends”,  it has been criticised by animal rights activists for its ‘cruel’ tasks. The show dresses up chimpanzees and orang-utans in human clothes and markets them as “cute pets”, and the animals are placed in many stressful and harmful situations, in order to create “entertaining” story lines.

This TV show led to huge harmful for animals in the name of protect animals. For example, people are misunderstanding the animal’s distressed reactions as cute. A chimpanzee that appears to be ‘grinning’ is actually showing signs of anxiety, fear and threat. Moreover, in one part of this TV show, a celebrity taking a young chimpanzee to ‘Find its Father’ which led to the father suddenly becoming emotional and violent.

In this TV show, animals just like toy or entertainment tool to please people, and to garner higher audience ratings. Finally, this TV show was cut, but this kind of situation still happening. Animals is our wonderful friend but not our toy or something make fun. We need to respect them and protect them. People now are paying more and more attention on protect animals but there still a long way to go.

Reference:

GRASP2015, “Joint Statement on “Wonderful Friends” a Reality Show Promoting Unnatural Contact Between People and Captive Great Apes”,  viewed at 6/April/2015. [http://www.un-grasp.org/joint-statement-wonderful-friends/ ]

The Problem With The Australian Film Industry

Nowadays, the Australian film industry entered a declining stage. Therefore, now the Australian film industry faced some serious problems.

Firstly, one prominent reason that the Australian film industry is struggling at the moment is the Hollywood blockbuster. Hollywood blockbusters always have the best production, script, director and actors, and  this element all are powerful guarantee for high office box. Therefore, Hollywood brought huge pressure for the Australian film industry.  This is because that Hollywood is  the most mature and biggest of film industry of the word. Therefore, it always can attract many high-quality talents, so many Australian most capable “commercial filmmakers” don’t stay very long on home turf. For example Patrick Hughes, the Red Hill filmmaker who recently headed to Hollywood for The Expendables 3.  As a result, Hollywood is the biggest competitors of Australian film industry and it also leads to Australian film industry to have serious brain drain.

Secondly,  According to article by Harris(2013) that only one in ten first-release films are now viewed at the cinema. 65% are viewed on video-on-demand and DVD/Blu-Ray. Audience behavior is changing. While physical space for cinema screens is scarcer than ever, online paths to distributing and sharing films continue to open up. Therefore, over recent years, DVD/Blu-Ray become more and more popular. Like me, I also like watch  movies at home, because at home I can feel more comfortable. Moreover, buy a DVD/Blu-Ray that I can watch it anytime anyplace I want. In addition, piracy also become more popular. According to 2012 research by the Intellectual Property Awareness Foundation (IPAP), 27 per cent of Australians aged between 18 – 64 are regularly accessing illegal movies and television programs , and the majority do it because it’s free. As a result, more people choose accessing illegal movies and television programs which spawns a great number of economic loss.

To sum up, actually I do not have all the answers to these questions. However, I think improve Australian film production level and create more movie has own characteristic can helps Australian film industry.

References:

Siemienowicz, R. (2013), ‘Who Does it Hurt?’: How Piracy Affects Australian Film and TV’, Wheeler Centre, viewed 27th September 2014,

http://wheelercentre.com/dailies/post/8b8ed27f82ba/.

Media regulation for Children

Nowadays, Media is a vast form of communication that permeates nearly every aspect of modern culture. Children are exposed to all sorts of media outlets, from television, movies and advertising to social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. The media offer a broader platform for people’s life, but it also brought some negative impact, especially for young people. As a result, children always is one of key protected objects for media regulation.

In Australia, there are a number of classification categories, including: G, PG, M15+, MA15+, R and X. If a film, computer game or publication is deemed inappropriate by the Classification Board, it is refused classification and prohibited from sale in Australia. However, The classification of films and video games often attracts controversy. For example, in 2012, there was controversy of the classification of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. Despite the fact that the film featured graphic science fiction violence, it was given an M classification which meant that children under the age of fifteen could watch the film(Lamb,B 2013). As a result, movies and television programs often show characters using drugs and alcohol and engaging in violent behaviors, in my point, which is worst effect of media for teenagers. At a developmental stage when teens seek greater freedom and independence, the glorification of drugs, alcohol, risky sexual and violent behaviors in the media make it challenging for teens . For example, many teenagers imitate super heroes they see in the screen which may cause danger to their life. In addition, some movies and television programs mislead young people, which cause young people  to think using drugs and alcohol and violent behaviors that are kind of cool. Therefore, children need to be protected from the potentially adverse impact of the media until they are mature enough to treat material critically. However so far, in the media industry, media regulation basically based on self-regulation. Therefore, media regulation still have lat of problems. As a result, many negative elements still exist on television, movies and advertising. For this problem, we need a effective regulatory systems, regulators must be able to identify accurately and specifically the harm they seek to avoid.

Nowadays, media and the Internet have played an important role in our daily life, so we cannot prevent children to contact with media and Internet. Therefore, what we can do is enhance media regulation and offer a good environment to help the healthy growth of children.

References:

Lamb,B 2013, Media Regulation, Lesson bucket, Viewed 20 September 2014, http://lessonbucket.com/vce-media/units-3-4/media-influence/media-regulation/

Multitasking

Who is not familiar with this scenario: one teenagers sitting on a sofa, watching TV, while simultaneously handling their laptops, tablets and smartphones. This scenario happens every day in our life. In the past, I think this scenario just is a normal situation, which has no special meaning. However, I realize this scenario is called multitasking.

Nowadays, With more and more content being made available on multiple devices and brands competing for the attention of viewers like never before, the trend toward mobile multitasking is becoming more mainstream. A recent Nielsen survey found that 80 percent of U.K. tablet users, and 78 percent of smartphone users browse the Web while watching TV. The most common device pairing in these scenarios is the TV and tablet and, importantly, 22% of that simultaneous device usage is complementary, according to Google. According to this survey by Nielsen, people can know that the multitasking were become more popular. Therefore, multitasking also bring a new chance for media industry, especial for TV program and the Internet. Looking at the TV and tablet or smartphone combination, there are two types of multitasking that we’re seeing – meshing and stacking.  Meshing is as mentioned in the Google report above, the consumption of complementary content that is specifically related to the program on TV. It is usually bespoke content or services created only for a certain platform and program, but there is a limited amount available at the moment. “Stacking” on the other hand is more general Internet activity such as search or social media, which is much more common.(Gaydon,L 2013) For example, over recent years, more and more reality TV shows use the multitasking to attract more audiences. They use the TV to broadcast the TV show, meanwhile they also use the Internet or social network to  initiated an online discussion about this TV show, which can effectively increase the audience participation. However, multitasking also bring some negative impact for people. For example, laptops are commonly found in university classrooms. Thus, students will inevitably use laptop applications, or play games or visit social network website during class time. Which lead to many students can not pay more attention to the class. Therefore, in people’s life and study, there are many times we need pay attention to do somethings, in this situation, if a person use multitasking to do this things will reduce efficiency. To sum up, multitasking change the people’s life style invisibly. We need to use multitasking to improve our work and study efficiency rather than divert our attention.

References:

Gaydon,L 2013, Monetisation, Distracted Eyeballs and Multitasking: Thoughts from the Guardian Changing Media Summit, London, viewed at 17,September. http://blog.brightcove.com/en/2013/04/monetisation-distracted-eyeballs-and-multitasking-thoughts-guardian-changing-media-summit-london

Public space, or Private space?

When I find myself in a space full of strangers, I will feel quite uneasy. Therefore, I always use my phone to help me relieve the uneasy feeling. In a space full of strangers, I like use the social network or call my friends, which can make me feels I am not alone. Smart phone have given me a mobile private space. When I feel uneasy, I can toward the smart phone to enter my private space, which enable me to feel safe. Not only me but everyone in the train, bus and other public spaces use their phone with Facebook or chat via SMS. Even is in a public space, people still not communicate with others.

According to this video, we can find that we’ve already lost many things. People pay more attention in the Internet and social network, but they also ignore people all around you. The public sphere plays an important role in our communities: it is where we observe and learn to interact with people who are different from us. In addition, the communication of strangers was always one of the key roles of public spaces, observing and exchanging with the other. However, because smart phones and social network led to this kind of exchange with the stranger is just diminished to almost zero. When I was a little girl, people like to say hello to each other in public. However now, everyone focused on their private space in the public space and the society seems become more indifference.

 

Coming to Cinema

“ Let’s go to the cinema! ” This sentence is very familiar in my childhood memories. I still remember that my first time I went to cinema is under school’s organized. Therefore ever since that cinema plays an important role in my childhood memories.  At the time, my primary school organizes our go to the cinema to watch movies in each semester.  At that time my school organized the whole grade of students to go to cinema, which is a  happy memory for me. Now I already forgot what movies did I had seem, but I still remember how happy am I that spent my time with my classmates.

Now, it’s common for me  go to cinema, so I am never going to expect to watch a movie in the cinema. Nowadays, with the advent of DVDs, Blu-Ray technology, home projector theatre systems and the ability to download movies from the internet. Therefore, many times I will choose watch movie at home, which enable me to feel more comfortable. However, it cannot be denied that cinema is a magical places. This is because that in the cinema people don’t know each other sitting in the same place,  and cry, laugh and get touch together, I think this is why it so attractable. According to the research by Australian government shows that the proportion of Australians attending the cinema at least once per year has averaged 69 per cent since 2000, with an average of about eight visits per year per person.  After last reaching a high of 72 per cent in 2004, the attendance rate has averaged 68 per cent in the subsequent eight years. Therefore, based on this it is clear that people do still enjoy the cinematic experience.

To sum up, although watching movie at home, which enables me to feel more comfortable,  in the cinema also can bring some different experience for people, especially when the  3D movies become more popular. Which is a new chance to attract more people go to the cinema to watch 3D movies. Therefore, lets go to the cinema together at the weekends.

Real Life and Internet

I still remember that when I was 10 years old, my mother bought the first computer of my family. Then I began to use Internet at home. At the beginning, if we want to use the Internet, we need dial-up connection the telephone lines, and the Internet speed was very slow. I still remember, at that time, online game, e-commerce and social network haven’t exist in China, therefore the internet just had few functions for our family. My parents just used the Internet to invest stocks and I just used the Internet chat room. We won’t like nowadays people use Internet everyday. However, do not know from when beginning, the Internet become more and more important for our daily life. We began to use broadband, online game, e-commerce and social network become more and more popular,which led to significant effect for my life and family. However, advantages and disadvantage comes with the Internet become more and more.

Firstly, let we talk about disadvantage of the Internet. The home Internet create a new word- otaku, over recent years, because of the versatility and universality, information from Internet makes people overly dependent on it especially for some young people. These people use the Internet to shopping, play game and make friends. Therefore, they don’t go out much, Internet is the biggest part of their lives. They would do everything online if they could like online shopping and results in neglect real lives. Internet becomes the space, where many people all over the world tend to spend more and more of their time. Internet dependence negatively affects the normal life of a human being and inevitably leads to severe stresses for those who become addicted to the Internet and those who regularly communicate with web-maniacs. As a result, Web addiction has already turned into a serious psychological problem for a huge number of people worldwide, especially for children and youngster. According to Boyd claims that today, many young people find social media appealing because it allows them access to their friends and provides an opportunity to be a part of a broader public world while still situated physically in their bedrooms. therefore, as a substitute, teenagers are today gathering with friends in created “Networked Publics”. (Boyd, 2014, p 201). Moreover, the 2012-13 Australian Bureau of Statistics data on patterns of home internet use even shows that 18–24 year olds preferred Social networking (92%) over other activities. According to the above evidence, we can find that many youngster spent more time in the Internet, and the Internet become center of their life. Like Turkle said “We’re drawn to virtual romance,to computer games that seem like worlds,to the idea that robots, robots,will someday be our true companions.We spend an evening on the social networkinstead of going to the pub with friends.” (2012). However, I think this is a pathological phenomenon，we are real man, we need pay more attention in out real life.

However, it’s undeniable that the Internet also brought many advantage for our life. As a international student, there are two advantages about internet that makes me fell deeply. Firstly, the Internet is very important tool for my study. When I study in Australia, I find out study on the Internet become a very important part for my study. Like this subject, I need to used blog and Twitter every week, which is a new learning style for me. The 2012-13 Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that Internet savvy 15–17 year olds most commonly went online for Educational purposes (93%). Which means that people study on the Internet is a pretty common phenomenon in the Australia,  by contrast，Chinese students more prefer to study with teacher on class rather than study on the Internet. In addition, the best advantage of Internet for me is the Video call, like Face Time. Now, I am studying in Australia, there are ten thousand kilometers between me and my family.  If I don’t have Video call that I need to communicate with my family by message or telephone, but I can’t see their face and fell their emotion. However, now I can use video call with my family or friends. Video call enable me to have face to face communication with my parents. When I video call with my parents I always feel they just sit in front of me, and the distance between us close lot.

Therefore, the internet brought huge change for our life. I think the Internet is a very important tool in our life. The Internet can help us contact our family and friends become more convenient, and also help me study more independent. However, we need remember that the Internet just is a useful tool. we can not over dependent it and neglect actual lives. It just is a tool and help our real life become better.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014, Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2012-13, cat. no. 8146.0, accessed 24 august 2014, <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8A12E6E0D07D36A0CA257C89000E3FB7?opendocument&gt;

Boyd, D 2014, ‘It’s Complicated – The Troubled Lives of Networked Teens,’  Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 199-202

Turkle, S 2012, ‘Connected – But Alone?’  TED Transcript, accessed 24 august 2014, <http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together/transcript&gt;

Other post link:

week1: https://yuanyuan520527.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/media-space-is-everywhere/

week2: https://yuanyuan520527.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/back-in-60s/

week3:https://yuanyuan520527.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/the-importance…ce-measurement/