Microsoft who is well known for launching softwares for computers, is expanding their buisnesses by setting up retail stores (hardware). Bill Gates finally sees the need to establish a channel to display his products. It was mentioned in the news that he was out to win his rival, Apple Inc.

Complementary expansion is seen here as with the launch of  Windows 7, the company decided to open stores to sell their products instead of depending on other retail stores for sales. It is definitely the best way as the profit earned goes directly to the company and not through unnecessary channels. I guessed it is a matter of time for Microsoft to proceed on with horizontal expansion where consumers can find retail stores in their countries. Of course, Bill Gates will consider the opportunity cost (priorities the highest) and the “public good” nature of the media products before expanding in the retail industry.

Indeed, Microsoft is very successful today which proved that they have achieved the vertical expansion of media products. Bill Gates is no doubt the monopoliser of the computer software industry which explains the billions of dollars he is earning every minute. Though Apple Inc emerged with macbook to counter his attack, the dominance of his product can be seen prominently with the expansion in the industry. Hence, in my opinion, Apple have to work harder in order to turn the tables over to their side.

With this post, i shall end the 7 weeks of communication blog entries. Thank you all who have commented! and my loyal reader too! =D

Such advertisements are very common in the Korea market. Companies often scout for celebrities or singers to advertise their products simply because they understand the theory that ” The Medium is the message” (how to deliver the message is more important than what the message is).

In this video, the message is being delivered through the song. We could also see the ability of the media to influence its audience by employing the tactic of using the popularity of the band to persuade the audience (mainly fans i supposed) to consume their products. Only companies who have the advertising budget can engage themselves in such act of publicity. From the lyrics of the song, it attempts to influence the audience to buy their product. For instance, ” Chocolate Love! Will you be able to resist this magical charm!” may convince the audience that it is indeed wonderful to own ” Chocolate” and the power of it is irresistible.

Notice that there are no specifications or features mentioned in the video but the dance moves and the song being emphasized. This is one strategy to attract the audience’s attention before filling them up with the boring part. (specs)

Hence, a development is seen in mass media, (having the ability to influence audience) from the limited effects theory (where audience select the information they want from the abundance of availability). They can still choose today but they are somewhat “forced” to think the way that benefits the media. Mass Media is being smartly used by companies as its influence is prominent in the society.

So what do you think of local advertisments?

Read the link below.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_438765.html 

This speaks alot on the culture in Moscow and maybe other parts of the world? That lesbianism is still not considered legalised in the eyes of the judicial. Canada is one of the most common places the gay couples turn to for marriage. Why so?

We are taught in a culture, whereby only a man and a woman can achieve marital status by marriage. This controls our perception of marriage where only two individuals who are of different gender are involved. An invisible line is drawn in our cognitive schemata that separates marriage from gay couples. Our societal culture on the whole, still does not welcome such practices which is why today there are only 4 countries in the world who legalised same sex marriages. One of which is Canada, which is seen to have a more open culture compared to other parts of America.

Our behaviour reflects our culture. Hence, you are taught by your parents not to behave this way but this way due to cultural reasons. For instance, chinese do not wear black on New Year and not allowed to mention any words that is inauspicious. On the other hand, malays and indians do not have such tradition. This substantiates my point of how our behaviour emulates our culture in others’ perspectives.

So what’s your take on homosexual marriage?

Marriage is defined as a relationship to be shared by two people in the manner of husband and wife. Since they pledged themselves to be the wife or husband of their spouse, i don’t see a reason why it cannot be legalised. Indeed, it is against the natural course of interaction; against God’s wishes. Perhaps, a form of deviance but humans are human for the simple reason they cannot be Saint. Hence, maybe we should condone such behaviour? I mean is their freedom to choose the spouse they want to spend the rest of their lives with. This forms the divergence between us and animals as we have the freedom to choose, we have the ability to think.

Something out of the topic to share. It’s a BREAKING NEWS!

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_439553.html

It’s ok if you do not agree with me, don’t reply with WHATEVER.

What do you think is shown in this picture?

There are 10 stages in the knapp model.

Initiating, Experimenting,Intensifying,Integrating, Bonding

Differentiating, Circumscribing, Stagnating, Avoiding and Terminating

5 stages to come together and 5 stages to come apart. Simple? Not exactly.

Does all relationship comes this way? I don’t think so. If all of us were to follow exactly the 5 stages to get together, it will be too inflexible and routine which does not appear to be successful though. It may regress to a previous stage or skip a stage depending on the individuals involved.

When a pair wants to become a couple, these stages may not apply and sometimes it overlaps too. It depends on the personality and character. If the girl is more bold and brave, she would naturally show her feelings without going through stage 1 and 2. She may try to intensify their relationship by establishing physical contact, and at the same time integrate the identity that ” We are a couple” to their friends as they are always seen together in and out.

This applies if there is mutual feelings on the guy side.                       

In my opinion, i think Relationship starts with punctuations.

First, you start to question who is this person? how is he/she like? what type of personality does he/she possess?how can i get to know him/her better? etc

Next, you got to know more about this person and start to put fullstops. He/she is kind. He/she is serious in work, considerate, bad tempered, blah blah. Thats where the relationship have developed into some sort of certainty. Sometimes, it may contradict the initial perception.

Lastly, if you ever get to this stage.

Maybe it’s time to start a new paragraph of your life?

Another thought to end it off

Would you wish for such drug to be developed?

What will happen if everyone of us are under this “medication”?

I guessed the knapp model will be useless. Everything seemed to fall in place and occurs naturally and i mean SEEMED! Maybe the existence of true love will cease? Love will be something concocted and not an occurence by fate. There will be no trust in the relationship. Everything will seem to be a facade. Till then, will we still continue to believe what we believed?

It all started with 2 strangers, who sees each other almost every other day. Be it at work, at school, on the way home, etc. It depends on fate and maybe luck too. One day, they got to know each other, oculesics ( eye contact ) plays its role, sparks flew and TADA! Relationship comes into the picture.

THE END

Wait! Isn’t that familiar to you? You meet Strangers, got to know more about each other,and then you decide whether to move on to closer terms eg. friends, couple. Possibility of ending up each is 50-50. We engaged in interpersonal relationship as it is our human nature. It is part of the natural course of communication.

Apart from the friends talk, relationship consists of 3 main processes namely engagement, management and disengagement. I recalled this korean variety show i watched sometime ago called ” We got married”, a production where 2 celebrities are paired up according to their personalities. They were expected to live a married couple life with each other and see if it works.Usually they are paired up with complementaries, i guessed they were conscious that complementary differences played a larger part in sustaining relationship rather than having similar ones. It showed the whole process from the start of engagement: many actually knew about each other ( ok they are celebs though) before they met but hasn’t got any chance to speak to each other. They could be from the same company but hardly see each other during work. Fate plays an important role here.

Thereafter, through activities and games designated by the production crew, they start to open up their hearts and built relationship with their “spouse”. Management comes into place as they were “forced” to have dyadic communication (exchange of information between 2 persons) with each other, gain deeper understanding with each other and eventually act like a couple.

Though not all couples worked out, there are also several where they are really “compatible” and you could see that they were serious about this relationship. I do not deny the fact that this show was for entertainment value, but the genuity of their relationship could be witnessed by the smart audience.

Disengagement came when they had other assignments on hand and they do not have enough time for the filming production. They were often seen teary, reluctant to leave the show, afterall they have been together for months. I believed they really meant it and felt sad for them too. It’s rather similar to any relationship where there is a need to split regardless of any reasons given.

Here’s a video to share.

Apart from the drama part, have you ever wondered this could be one of the reason a relationship have to end?

It does happen! for those who are questioning this.

Here’s another thought to leave with you people…

Guys, how much can you sacrifice in a relationship?

Girls, do you think you can find such soulmate in your life?

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_430493.html

In addition, it is an indication that China is moving towards an open society. I believe that Shenzhen’s initiative would push the country to be less corruptive and increase the transparency of govermental issues. China is developing due to its modernization drive but one concern that will hold them back is the relationship between the citizens and the government. An open society is necessary for the growth of a nation to reach greater heights.

Looking back at cases in 2008, where the Tibetans created commotion which rocked the country’s safety demonstrated the lack of active communication between the two. Communication cannot be achieved if there is absence of simultaneous exchange and mutual influence between the communicators. Open society can be achieved  if the government trusted its people and executed their policies with high transparency. In this way, Citizens would then be appeased and build up trust in the politicians.

One message to bring across: Openness is linked to prosperity. Will China recognize the difficulty in realizing this principle? They have to if they want to bring their nation to a higher societal level not just verbalizing it.

Restaurants like MacDonald’s and KFC often set their target on this age group mainly because they are easy targets. With the freebies from Happy Meal, Chicky Meal and also seasonal collections like the Olympic Cups are some of their strategies to attract more customers to consume their food. Such freebies encouraged young children and teenagers to consume their food on a regular basis resulting in obesity leading to excess belly fat. Then again, the parents are the ones who bought the meals for their children. It could be used as a tactic to pacify them but they are unaware that it will jeopardise their child’s health.

On the other hand, teenagers are supposed to be more informed of a healthy diet. They fall to this category as fast food is easily available in all parts of Singapore. It is seen to be the most convenient and express way to settle their meals. Hence, they willingly grab any burger or meal to satisfy their hunger and while time away.

I would suggest that Parents should take the initiative to dissuade their child from indulging in fast food. Eventually, they are the ones who have the biggest influence on this group of people. They can attempt the transactional model which is face to face communication to get a clearer idea of how their children view fast food and the other alternatives to it. This will prevent miscommunication which strains relationship.Since it cannot be banned from Singapore due to economic reasons, it may perhaps be consumed adequately.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/health/view/1003553/1/.html