This very common poster “Stop the Horror with Soap and Water!” is posted almost all around Singapore. You can see this message in public places, not just in public toilets but also at bus stops and the train stations. This poster, by the Health Promotion Board of Singapore, is an example of a mass media communication because it targets the general population – our large and heterogeneous and anonymous audiences created by institutional sources. Their message is simply serves as a reminder for everyone to maintain a certain level of hygiene by washing their hands regularly.
In this poster, we can see some characteristics of the media messages, such as the institutional sources, which show that the complex product is composed of individuals who performed specialized functions that created great expenses, in this case these specialized people who are designing the poster to convey the message. Another characteristic is the invisible receiver – the large, heterogeneous and anonymous target audiences. Two other characteristics in the poster are the interposed channels and last but not least the non-exclusivity and temporal. Interposed channels are basically about the different media employs different technology to transmit and/or receive messages and it requires some technologies and skills to encode and decode the message. This poster uses easy medium to send the message; people do not need a computer, television or buy the newspaper just to see this poster. This is non-exclusive and temporal because the messages are transmitted publicity and it takes time to reach most audience members.
There are some functions of the media indentified by Charles W., which are surveillance, correlation, cultural transmission and entertainment. For this kind of poster, the media can only perform a surveillance function to basically inform people and cultural transmission that help to educate the audiences.
The media communication theories are basically to explain the effect of mass communication to the audience, how people use the mass media, and explaining the role of mass media itself. Through this poster, we cannot see the whole theories applied here but there are some theories that are related to it. This poster shows the limited effects theory (1950s/1960s) where the media has limited power rather than the audience because the basic of this message is only to educate and inform. The audiences are active to resist the media message(s). As audiences, they might consume it when they see it that can benefits them, but if the audiences think it does not have any benefit for them, they might just ignore the message.
Another theory is the Agent Setting Function where it keeps repeating the news coverage to increase the society’s awareness towards the issue. This agenda setting function is set by the gatekeepers; which refers to the people involved in the media such as the media owners, the producers, the editor of the media and even the political groups. Therefore in this poster, Singapore government is the gatekeeper who keeps informs and reminds the public to be clean through this poster.
Mass Media Communication can be a very effective way to communicate and send messages to the public. It largely depends on the purpose of communication, the information in the messages and the methods of communication. For me, this poster has great influence because it is usually posted in public toilets thus it always remind me to wash and be clean towards my body.
People might not agree with me, but do not you feel that mass media communication is one good thing that we can implement to send our message? I believe what we need is only to choose the right methods that will help to achieve the purpose of it.
The mass media is indeed one of the most effective mediums to send messages to the general public. Since many of us are highly interconnected through the television, internet, etc. We are able to readily obtain information about anything at anytime.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of H1N1, it is through daily reportings through avenues such as newspapers that we have updates on the latest measures taken to combat the virus.
sticking posters to the public area is a good way to not only giving messages to people, but also persuading them to do or not to do something which is related to the pictures.
ReplyDeletesometimes people don't get full idea of what the meaning of the picture, but partially the picture will tell itself.
it works.
i believe mass media communication is important nowadays, it will reminds society of something, especially if it is for society's health.
ReplyDeleteGovernment should acting like this years back then, to inform the society to live their life healthier.
I'll have to disagree with you on this one. An overdoes of mass media communication can make one more ignorant than conscious. Alright, I'm guilty. The media kept reminding us of the H1N1 issue, the posters around the school was to inform people to approach the lobby for their temperature check. I just merely glanced at the poster with the impression - "oh, another reminder." And went to class without the sticker. You can guess what happened next. (:
ReplyDeleteI cannot really see through whether I should agree or not agree. But basically I want to say that mass media indeed play a crucial role in our nowadays life. It is indeed influence us a lot. It may be seemed unbelievable but it is true. No matter how sure you are that you think you are not influenced by it, it is quite impossible.
ReplyDeleteI cannot really touch the issue of h1n1 because in my country we still do not really put attention towards this h1n1 issue because the number of case here is still small in number, but what I can say is outside the h1n1 where it is basically the physical appearance. Because it is can be seen clearly that lots women are trying so hard just to be looked like all the models in the magazine and in the TVs. However, as audiences, we really need to make sure that although it influences us a lot, but still remember to follow our norms and culture.
for me, to communicate with society should be posted clean and simple, because not everyone has the same level of perception.
ReplyDeletejust like A.J. said, if it is too much or overdoes of mass media communication, the link between the concious and ignorant is a fine line.
It's all propaganda to try and keep Singaporeans paranoid. Paranoia is a useful tool used by the government to keep its citizens under control. The US does it, Iraq did it, and Singapore does it as well.. This is just another form of control to spread panic and distress to keep citizens' minds under control.
ReplyDeleteFear has always been a better way of getting attention than any thing else. Instill fear into a public and they will panic. They will look for help and that is when the government offers help thus giving a favorable perception of the government.
ReplyDeleteYou realise that more newspaper space is spent reporting on either the growing infection cases, the latest deaths due to H1N1 or the government's efforts to combat the spread? Hardly any coverage is given to those that recover.
Instead of spreading hope, they choose to spread fear.
Visual stimuli, especially the terribly graphic ones, can serve to shock the public into conformity or obedience! The germ-infested hand is an effective attention and grabber, but if we have to wait for situations to turn this dire before pulling this communication technique out of the bag, does that a lot about our proactive natures?
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