Mar 2020 – Aisah’s Blog

What is UGC?

UGC is short for user generated content, and it is a platform where users can post their content through social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube etc. The content posted will usually be the content that users themselves like to share with the world or are highly requested by their viewers. This seems to be the case for youtubers as their content are greatly influenced by what their viewers want to see. Examples are parodies from popular music videos, brand reviews or sometimes just personal experiences that they face e.g storytimes (which is my favourite as I am a KPO hehehe).

Mini video

In conjunction with UGC, my team and I have come up with a skit that comprises of 4 main platforms that is based on the ideology of today’s society. we incorporated the Uses and Gratification Theory in the video to show that what are some of the needs that are fulfilled in using these platforms. My team members are Siva, Angel, Josie, JY and myself!

lame group name but enjoy watching!

The first scene shows 2 girls looking through Instagram and liking photos of females with good-looking features and who are famous as well. Those photos generated thousands of likes. Then comes another girl who shows a picture of a scenery that she has taken and has uploaded on her profile, with very little likes. She then asked if they had seen the photo and wondered why they did not “like” the photo. The message that we are trying to convey is that users will generally be more inclined to like pictures that shows facial features and especially that shows skin.

Second scene shows 2 reporters who wants to uncover the ugly truth of the pandemic of what Singapore is going through which is COVID-19. One of them will go undercover as a desperate citizen in need of masks and meets up with a “dealer” who seize the opportunity of the crisis and decided to sell the item at a ridiculous price. Using the platform of Twitter, in hopes of making the video viral. We think Twitter is the appropriate platform as it is considered the provider of unofficial news coverage that traditional media will not report on.

Third scene is the combination of TikTok and WhatsApp whereby a user sees a cute video on Tiktok and shares it with her contacts through WhatsApp. It implies that users will share just about anything that they enjoy and of their preference, and this can be both good and bad. Bad in a sense that they might be blindly following news spread online and not founding out if the source is credible.

How UGC changed the way I view and understand mainstream traditional media?

To me, UGC has made users more confident in being to express their views and speak what they think is valid. Having social media platforms and utilizing it to express views and to be able to explore different perspectives gives an edge that traditional media could never achieve.

I used to heavily rely my entertainment on television. There are some shows that will be only be on one timeslot of the day and if that particular show happens to be my favourite show, I will need to plan my schedule in such a way that I will be able to watch it without interruptions. Now, I can easily watch my shows on my phone and can even download the episodes beforehand so I can watch it without using my data, thanks to Netflix and other streaming apps. Back then, it is required to have cable network e.g Mio, Starhub to watch external channels such as Disney, Nickelodeon. Now, it is easily accessed through the Internet.

UGC has made life much easier in a way that it has made accessible for anyone who has a stable internet connection. But, it should be used in moderation as I just got to know in today’s lesson that Singapore is the 2^nd most internet addicted in the world!!! Hence it is important to just put the phone down and spent quality time with family and friends!

This post concludes the end of my blogpost and it’s also my final blogpost! Hope you guys had a great time as I did throughout this blogging journey! Till next time, xoxo

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog! For today’s post, I will be sharing what my team and I had designed for our subvertisement poster that is themed “What is feminism in 2020?” I will too share my personal view of what feminism is in today’s world so do scroll down for more! 🤩

one of my favourite characters from Mean Girls LOL

Poster

I have attached a poster that my team (Nicole, Jingying, Akshaya and Shern) and I created in one hour and we are pleased with the outcome, despite having to change our ideas several times HAHAHA & I wanted to include a group photo but for some reason, I couldn’t 😦 hence only the poster sorry!!!

The purpose of the poster is to show that women are not the only ones who should be made to do housework. We decided on the concept of a maid agency as the stereotype is usually that women would be employed as domestic workers and that they are paid to do take care of the employer’s house and also their children, if any. There is also the stereotype that men that would the ones who do not do the work around the house, as they are “usually out, hustling for the money.”

The caption “come home to something different” implicates that there is a different gender that is handling the house chores. The appliances indicates that the males should be able to cook, clean and the image of a baby is implying that they too should be capable to take care of their own children without guidance.

My thoughts

I feel strongly for the message we are trying to send as there are plenty of incidences that I have seen in real life and on Malaysians dramas whereby the female have the sole responsibility to ensure that the house is kept neat and tidy. Not only that, there is also a “rule” whereby females in the house have to serve the males food before serving for themselves. This seems to be the case in certain Malay households and that there are some who have expressed their distaste in this particular culture as the males should be more than capable to be serving their own food, without being served. It is as though they are in denial that they should be doing anything to help out around the house

My stand – there should be equal partnership in helping out around the house, as they too are living under the same roof. There should not be any excuses as to justify why males should be slacking when it comes to house chores as they are physically able.

#MeToo Movement

There is also a movement that I have known for quite some time that has been circling around social media, particularly Twitter that has been used numerous times to indicate the events that involves sexual harassment among women.

#MeToo is a campaign founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 about raising awareness of the prevalence and pernicious impact of sexual violence (North, 2019). Since then, there have been numerous occasions whereby the hashtag has been used to address the importance for women to speak up and shun away from their unfortunate experience. Infamous cases such as the trail of the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, Larry Nassar, who has been sentence 40-175 years in prison for sexually harassing more than 100 young athletes. As quoted by (North, 2019), “During his sentencing hearing, 163 people gave moving and at times heartbreaking testimony about how his abuse had harmed them and their families.”

Another case is of movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct. After the news broke, hundreds of thousands of women around the world responded to the news on social media using the hashtag #MeToo to share their stories and to show how widespread the issue of sexual harassment is (Selby, 2017).

Conclusion

The very idea of feminism is to get equal rights and it is ridiculous that women, despite being the only gender to be able to birth another human being is being denied of their own rights in society. But with a united front and having support from each other, demands for equal rights seems to be in favour of women. #girlpower

That concludes the end of this blogpost! Till next time, xx

References

(2020). [Image]. Retrieved from https://media.giphy.com/media/8luUQ8kb4XsPK/giphy.gif

North, A. (2019). 7 positive changes that have come from the #MeToo movement. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/4/20852639/me-too-movement-sexual-harassment-law-2019

Poster for girl power with women different nations, can be used as card for women’s day, vector illustration — Vector by ghouliirina. (2018). [Image]. Retrieved from https://depositphotos.com/216704910/stock-illustration-poster-girl-power-women-different.html

Selby, D. (2017). The #MeToo Movement Is Actually Working, Study Shows. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/the-metoo-movement-is-actually-working-study-shows/

Month: Mar 2020

UGC