Maxim

Maxim

I found the chapter really interesting, especially since I have previous knowledge about the media and how it works. While the most of the information was something that seemed really familiar to me, there were a few things I have never thought about. The comparison of the events of East Timor and Cambodia made me really think about the issue - even though I had heard before what happened in East Timor and I knew why it happened, I did not know the media portrayed it at that time. AND, it is still very valid current issue. The Indonesia's government is still terrorizing (for example, not the only one) West Papua in the same way as it did in the East Timor. We do not hear that many news reports from West Papua, don't we?

//"Survival is asking President Obama, who is due to visit Indonesia next week, to suspend US military assistance to Jakarta until its forces stop killing and torturing the people of West Papua. Obama’s visit comes shortly after the emergence of shocking video footage showing Indonesian soldiers torturing two villagers in the West Papuan highlands. The Indonesian government has admitted that the torturers were its soldiers"// []

So, definitively, I have found the comparison between Cambodia and East Timor the most interesting.

The other things I have learned from the chapter what is economical situation of the media abroad in the English speaking countries, Australia, United Kingdom and the Unites States. Their situation is really different compared to the situation we have in my home country, Finland. The biggest media company,, Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE (Yleisradio), is state-owned and it has the largest share of the viewers and radio listeners. Our first commercial channel was established as late as in **1993.** Because of that, I found it hard to imagine how the media works in Australia/UK/USA. But thanks to the News International phone hacking scandal, I have some kind of idea how it differs from my home country's situation (Edit: UK's situation)

Martin

Just like you Maxim, I really found the comparison of the events in East Timor and Cambodia thought provoking. Furthermore, It is noteworthy that the biggest media company in Finland is state-owned. However, I do not understand the linkage between the difference of the economical situations of the media among Australia, UK and USA and Finland, and News International phone hacking scandal. How did that scandal help you to familiarize yourself with how media in Australia, UK and USA work?

Response to the advertisement you liked most:
[] 

This advertisement was made last summer in Finland. It is about //salmiakki// (salt liquorice) ice cream. //Salmiakki// is something that only Finnish and other Nordic people appreciate - and not even all of them. You either hate it, or you love it. And when you love it, you have to get it every day - when my parents came to Hong Kong last week, the first thing I received was //salmiakki//.

So for this advertisement, the **target audience** is really narrow, carefully selected and it is focused just for one location, in other words, **niche.** The product is not something that you could just sell anywhere with success.

The structure of the advertisement is very simple and foreseeable. At first, advertisement shows the foreigner's reaction to the ice cream - reception is of course, terrible, inedible, something that they would offer at the "FearFactor", et cetera. And after that, the reaction of Finn's. Marvelous, wonderful, great, and of course - Finnish. There is a very strong **confortation** between those opinions. And for a FInnish viewer, there is only one one correct answer - if you do not like this ice cream, you do not like //salmiakki// - and all //true Finns enjoy salmiakki -// otherwise you are weird.

I think that I enjoyed this advertisement because it really appealed to me (I think I bought at least ten of those ice creams last summer). It was something that I wished I could bring here, something that reminds me of my homeland and all the moment's of that summer. So for me, it was really personal. I also liked the creativity of this advertisement - the idea to let foreigners taste //salmiakki// and film it is not something totally new, but in this advertisement it was cleverly linked to the product and it was really fun to see the mixed reactions of the people. I think it was one of the factors that made advertisement successful.

**My commentary about the last lesson.** = = I feel that the discussions we had last lesson were really informative and gave everyone something to think to think about. Not only we discussed the topics itself, but we also discussed **how** we think and **why** we think in that way. I think we all understood from how different backgrounds we actually come and how important it is to shape our identity. Our religion/ideology, home country, language, ethnicity and where we lived are the most influential characteristics that make us think as we do.

And now the point, the discussions. Since I am not religious person (I suppose I "am" atheist in some sense, even though I do not think it in that way), it is really hard for me to accept different kind of discrimination and compartmentalization of people that is done - for example the case with the Egyptian IDs. I understand why the authorities (or the majority of the people//)// want to categorize people, in this case Copts. It makes them easier to spot and later on, destroy. Every nation needs its own scapegoat or the common enemy in order to increase the cohesion in the society in order to upkeep the social harmony. When there is someone to blame - bourgeoisie, Jews, communists, Nazis, George W. Bush, Obama, Copts or the wealthy bankers at the Wall Street, we tend to forgot about our real problems and their real cause.

And media is in the same plot. Why? Because the simple solutions are always more appealing than the complex ones. That is the reason for the religion's popularity, in contrast to science. The religion is a conspiracy theory, and conspiracy theory is a religion. It makes our life so much easier when we have a simple solution to the complex problem. It is really attractive to think that all (or most) of our problems are caused by one person or group. Is it much more comfortable to blame other people, usually someone in the higher position, for the situation you are in.

     