Based on the past week’s lessons, I was more aware of the dominance of US media products and the trends of media hegemony globally. It occured to me that those concepts could be applied by comparing the television shows available on a local and an American television channel, and reviewing the shifts in media hegemony in the world today. I decided to use free-to-air Mediacorp Channel 5 and Starhub cable tv’s BBC Lifestyle Channel 83, that charges payment per monthly usage, to review the concept of the dominance of America’ media products. An article in Today newspaper’s section of “Weekend Voices” discussed the possible changes of media hegemony that, at the same time, reflects changing economic dominance of media giants.

         When I compared the two channels, I realised that the television shows available on free-to-air Mediacorp Channel 5 on Sunday are 80% imported foreign American television shows. On the other hand, Starhub cable tv’s BBC Lifestyle Channel 83 have television shows that are 100% local American television shows. The similar factor regarding the television shows available on Mediacorp Channel 5 and BBC Lifestyle Channel 83 is that they are predominantly American television shows, supporting the concept that the U.S. media industry is the most important participant in the global mass media industry.

          Since Mediacorp’s Channel 5 is managed by locally in Singapore, they depend largely on the U.S. media products to meet programming needs and to meet viewership ratings. This could be seen through the television programmes that are offered by Channel 5, like “Jamie’s Kitchen” at 0730hrs in the morning and “America’s Funniest Home Videos 19″ at 1730hrs in the afternoon. American television shows are also occupying prime time TV slots in Singapore, like two parts of “Stay Home Saturday Movie: The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers” at 1930hrs and at 2300hrs. The only locally produced television program is the “News 5 Tonight” that is broadcasted between the two slots of American shows.

         However, on BBC Lifestyle Channel 83, the morning programmes start off with shows like “I Want my Mummy” at 0740hrs and lead to shows like “Changing Rooms 14″ at 1555hrs in the afternoon. Almost all the television shows available on Channel 83 were predominantly American television shows, further proving that America is the biggest exporter of mass media products internationally but they are the smallest importer of commercial television programming than most nations worldwide. Hence, U.S. broadcast audiences are overwhelmed by local American media products.

          Do you think that the United States’ media products are dominating many countries’ television slots to a large extent, especially in Singapore? If yes, why do you think viewers tune in to those television programmes more often than local programmes?

          From the newspaper article in Today’s “Weekend Voices”, the author Loh Chee Kong brought up the fact that “in various parts of the United States, freefalling revenue has caused venerable newspapers to file for bankruptcy”. This is reflective of the decrease of economic and political power of the U.S. media giants in the global mass media industry, due to new media and the shifts in media hegemony in the world. As Loh explains, “traditionally, newspaper get their income from readers and advertisers. But as more and more newspapers made their content available free of charge on the Internet, readers stopped paying for articles that they could get free on the Internet”. This shows the negative effects that the new media, the Internet, has caused traditional media, like newspaper, in the United States due to a decrease in revenue and earnings. Loh also raised an interesting question on whether the media hegemony is slowly “swinging from the West to the East as the inaugural World Media Summit that was held in Beijing earlier this month was certainly a signal of China’s intent to realign the global media configuration”.

          Do you think that the once American media hegemony in the world could gradually be shifted to a Chinese media hegemony, signalling a greater economic and political dominance of the chinese on the world, through media?

         Intercultural communication defines culture as “templates for living”, which influences and interpret behaviors of people in different culture. I would explore characteristics of individualism and collectivism in the two main leads of the Hindi movie, Dil Bole Hadippa. On top of that, I hope to discuss the barriers to interculture communication that can be seen in the movie.

         The male lead, Rohan, is more of an individualist while the female lead, Veera, is a more of a collectivist. This is due to the different cultures that they were brought up in and exposed to, despite the fact that both of them have Indian parentage. In the movie, Rohan appeared to have more freedom regarding his schedule in India, as he scheduled his day by only taking into account his individual needs. On the other hand, Veera’s day revolved around helping out at her family’s entertainment business and her dream to become an accomplished cricket player came secondary to her filial peity duty.

         During their first encounter on Veera’s family entertainment bus, Rohan and Veera faced some cultural communication barriers due to their varying language usage. Veera insisted on speaking English with Rohan but it was broken English mixed with some Punjabi phrases. Veera’s mixture of English and Punjabi words made it extremely difficult for Rohan to understand her.

         Rohan and Veera was also portrayed as having some attitudinal barriers to intercultural communication. Before Veera started to Rohan, he had already stereotyped her as a typical countryside girl who only knew her native tongue and not English. On the other hand, Veera dressed up to fit the typical stereotype of a woman on a date in a Western culture, with clothes that were also inspired by Western culture. As Rohan and Veera started to spend more time with each other, Veera started showing Rohan India through her own perspective, with encouragement from Rohan’s father as well. Hence, Rohan started to fall in love with the Indian culture and Veera, so he started to wear more Indian inspired clothes. However, both Rohan and Veera refused to see the true differences that exist in their attitudinal beliefs due to different cultural upbringing and environment. Do we tend to stereotype people according to their race, religion and nationality? When two people of different cultures have relational ties, do they actually acknowledge and respect the differences in attitudes that is resulted from varying cultural backgrounds?

http://www.yashrajfilms.com/microsites/dbh/dbhwebsite.html

         In my opinion, we tend to have cultural and attitudinal barriers  for intercultural communication in Singapore too. This face is quite troubling as Singapore is a multi racial and multi religious country. Cultural barriers are often presented in conversations between local Singaporeans and Westerners, especially in the process of language or message making. As some Singaporeans speak Singlish and not proper English in an extensive manner, Westerners have problems figuring out that message that the locals are trying to convey. Singaporeans have attitudinal barriers when communicating with another person from a different culture due to prejudices and their refusal to step out of their comfort zone. From the Serangoon Garden case last year, Singaporeans showed their attitudinal barriers when communicating with foreign workers as they have prejudices against them beforehand. Besides that, when Singaporeans are introduced to a totally new culture, they would shun away and refuse to step out of their comfort zone. For example, cosplay was a popular culture inspired by the Japanese but it was not well received by the majority of Singaporeans, especially the older generation. What do you think are the barriers that Singaporeans would face when they are exposed to cultures that are very extremely different from the local Asian culture?

         We have all experienced many instances of group communication in our lives, whether it is in our personal lives or throughout our education and work. For me, I feel that group communication is showed best in sports, especially in team sports. Firstly, I will compare individual sports to team sports and the differences these kinds of sports have. I will then explore the processes that will happen in the growth of a team.

         Non team sports, like individual swimming events, only take into account decisions directly made by the sportperson. Regardless of advice from family members or the coach, the sportsperson can decide on certain strategies and whether it is feasible to take part in competitions with regards to his or her schedule, for example in relation to examinations. Moreover, if the sportperson taking part in individual sports have an injury, he or she will be the only one affected by the misfortune. Hence, there is slightly lesser risk involved in individual sports as the sportspeople have more control over their sporting careers.

         Team sports, unlike individual sports, require consensus and full support from team members regarding team strategies or which competitions to take part in. However, I prefer team sports as I feel that the support and encouragement on court between fellow team members helps an individual to improve greatly in their physical strength and skills required in that particular sport. After all, we learn best when we compete amicably and share constructive opinions with each other, something that team sports readily offers. Nevertheless, in team sports, the team members’ priorities may differ between what the group needs and what their personal aim is. Commitment to the team may also waver once a player feels that he or she can no longer learn new skills in that team, something that could adversely affect the whole team dynamics.

         In a sports team, Bruce Tuckman’s Five-Stage Model of Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning is showed evidently to me. As a netball player myself, I have seen these stages being carried out unknowingly in my team. In about a week from now, we will be taking part in the PriceWaterHouseCooper Netball League hosted by Netball Singapore. The team members representing my club for this league started playing as a team during trainings about a month ago. This is also known as the forming stage of the team, with players selected according to whose schedules could premit trainings twice a week on top of match days. Naturally, the more experienced players in my team would take on more leadership roles and guide the less experienced players on court. We went through slight storming about three weeks ago, when the combination of players on court could blend completely and the play was not going as smoothly as we expected. We voiced our opinions out and realised that some players had different understanding regarding the team strategy. Thankfully, most of the players have been training together for a long time already and we ironed out the disagreements very efficiently soon after. The norming stage went through smoothly. Now, as the competition is drawing near, I am confident that my team can perform and maintain our chemistry on court to win the matches that are drawing near. Undoubtedly, once each match adjourns, we would have a debrief session to review individual and team performance and correct them during the next training. Hence, in my opinion, the Bruce Tuckman’s Five-Stage Model for Group Development is applicable, especially for team sports.

         In the previous lessons, we learnt that interpersonal communication is crucial in a relationship. There are three processes in relational communication; namely relational engagement, relational maintenance and relational dissolution. Using “The Wedding of The Year” between local celebrities Christopher Lee and Fann Wong, I would explore the first two processes of relational communication as well as the Knapp Model of relational development.

          Rumours of the relationship between Chris and Fann dated back to 1997, during the filming of their first television drama, “Return of the Condor Heroes”. Whether it was true or not, Chris and Fann had went through the first and second stage of the Knapp Model unknowingly. Through the filming of “Return of the Condor Heroes”, their initial interaction included screening and filtering opinions of the other party whilst making small talk during the long filming hours together. Sometime between 1997 and 2000, Chris and Fann started dating and experienced the third stage of intensifying their relationship. Gradually, they started to disclosure feelings and formed a relational identity of “we”.

         These first three stages of the Knapp model that Chris and Fann had experienced, twelve years ago, were influenced by the relational engagement process. The filtering theory, invented by Duck in 1973, introduces four filters that we use prior to interaction with  another person. They are pre-interactional cues, cognitive cues, sociological cues and interactional cues.

          Evidently, Chris and Fann were physically attracted to each other in the early stages of their relationship. This form of pre-interactional cues, by physical attraction, played a big role in kick starting their future romance.

         Relational engagement also showed that we have a tendency to form relationships with those we perceive as similar to us, in terms of attitude and social preference. This is so that we can reduce any associated risks in the relationship. In the case of Chris and Fann, they have similar cultural and beliefs as both of them were brought up in a Chinese family and they have similar jobs under the same company.

         According to the third factor of relational engagement, we also tend to form relationships with those who are different from us but can complement us, which is especially true for Chris and Fann. With evidence from the 8 Days article, “Chris and Fann are as different as chalk and cheese” due to their different opinions on the preferred time of the day and love for the sun, or lack thereof. However, Chris had “cut down on drinking and quit smoking” for their future offspring and to also compliment Fann’s healthier lifestyle habits.

         As stated earlier, Chris and Fann have close proximity with each other due to the similar nature of their work. Hence, they have shared social and professional contacts, like David “Ah Bu” Gan. However, despite their similar work environment, Chris and Fann often have to travel apart for different work commitments.

          Regardless of the time spent apart during those work commitments, Fann and Chris have busy schedules that shows their outstanding work competency. Hence, any achievement that is received by one party would reflect positively on the other person. From the 8 Days article, there were hints of the negative effects of Fann’s slightly greater work competencyin the sentence, “we don’t know how sure it is that David Beckham is nothing without his wife,” as opinionated by Chris himself, “but we certainly hope Chris doesn’t feel like Beckham”.

         Chris and Fann started to have a collective identity that they were a couple in 2000, as stated in the 8 Days article. Thereafter, they encompassed their social networks and grouped individual characteristics into a unit, as shown several times in The Star Awards for the past few years. The second process of relational communication was relational maintenance. Conflict and relational needs are all part of the relational maintenance process. An example of conflict in Chris’ and Fann’s relationship would be Chris’ drink driving incident two years ago that adversely affected their reputations. Their resolution towards this conflict had to be functional, at that point of time, and compromise would have been exercised by both parties, in order to maintain their relationship. Conflict could also arise when important needs are not met, like the lack of intimacy. Taking evidence from the 8 Days report on them, Chris’ and Fann’s recent trip to Maldives for their wedding photo shoot is “one of the very few times the couple gets to spend every waking minute together.”   

         After going through the first four stages of the Knapp Model of relational development, the fifth stage is “bonding”, where couples conduct significant public rituals, like marriage. Chris and Fann did this five days ago in a lavish manner. They host their wedding dinner extravagantly at Singapore’s “Shangri-La hotel, with more than a thousand friends and family, aired ‘live’ on Mediacorp Channel 8 and with exclusive highlights from the Maldives wedding photo shoot”.

        What do you think about the highlights of their relationship, like their first show “Return of the Condor Heroes”, Chris’ drink driving incident, Fann’s Hollywood movie, the movie “The Wedding Game” and finally, the actual wedding on 31st Sept 2009? What processes of interpersonal and relational communication played a part in the 12 years build-up to their marriage?

There are eight types of nonverbal communication. Kinesics is the study of body movement. Paralinguistics is the study of vocal nonverbal cues. Chronemics is the study of how time convey meaning and psychological aspects have influence on the meaning. Objectics or artifacts refer to the study of how meanings are conveyed through physical objects. Oculesics study of nonverbal meaning associated with the eyes. Haptics is the study of touch in communication. Proxemics is the study of space and distance in communication. Lastly, physical appearance is part of our judgement of a person and what message he or she is trying to convey.

The Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Miami episode that I watched on Tuesday, on Channel 5, displayed many instances of nonverbal communications at work. It clearly shows how nonverbal cues could be influential, supporting knowedge that helps CSIs solve this case. The CSI team was called onto a crime scene of a young woman, called Rachel, lying dead on the floor.

They interviewed the first potential suspect, Jeremy, who was the landlord of the apartment where Rachel was found dead. His physical appearance made him appear like a gangster due to his tatoos. He seemed unconcerned about Rachel’s unnatural death that happened in his apartment and could not wait to end the interrogation. I perceived so due to his body language, constant fidgeting and the impatient look on his face. He seemed like the most probable person, amongst the other suspects, to have caused Rachel’s death. Due to additional information provided by the FBIs at the later stage, it was revealed that Jeremy was the drug dealer that Rachel, an undercover informant for the FBI, was to obtain information about.

Rachel’s step-brother, Zach, was the second suspect that the CSI Calleigh and CSI Eric visited. The CSIs had to make two separate trips to clarify matters with Zach as he was not truthful during their first visit. During the first visit, Zach looked genuinely shaken by the news as the tone of his voice became shaky (paralinguistics). Zach leaned slightly closer, showing proxemics cues, to tell CSIs that Rachel ran away from home due to her drug usage. However, the CSIs soon found out, through a thorough body check on Rachel, that she was actually pregnant with Zach’s child. It was only during the second conversation with CSI Calleigh that Zach admitted that her pregnancy was true and they were only step-siblings. Paralinguistics cues was shown again as his voice, during this second conversation, was very rushed and nervous. The remorse that Zach felt was clearly detected in his tone. The desperate look in Zach’s eyes, showed oculesics at work to convey nonverbal communication with his interrogator to believe him. However, if Zach was really guilty of causing Rachel’s death, he could be more conscious and moderate the kinds of nonverbal cues he would be giving off.

The CSI team found a recording device inside Rachel’s ear, which had a serial number, as well as a picture showing a smiling Rachel and an unknown man. CSI Natalia recognised the unknown man as the superior in charge in a FBI division where she was working previously. The physical appearance of the superior at Miami Field Office gave the impression of a smartly-dressed and extremely charming man, who is named Mike. When CSI Natalia went to Mike’s FBI office, with CSI Supervisor Horatio, Mike received them in a friendly manner. CSI Natalia and CSI Horatio soon discovered that Rachel was Mike’s informant and with evidence of the digitally reconstructed intimate picture of Mike and Rachel, the objectics nonverbal cues showed an intimate relationship between the two of them. Mike also knew about Rachel’s pregnancy but he assumed that the baby was his, due to their initimacy. Unfortunately, Mike is already married with children. He may have a motive to silence her as he knew that she was going to have the baby, which may pose as a huge problem for his family and law enforcement career in the future.

Before I reveal the conclusion to this homicide case, please consider the following questions. If you were one of the CSIs, how do you think the eight kinds of nonverbal cues would affect your initial perception of the three suspects, Jeremy, Zach and Mike? Who do you think is the culprit, based on the nonverbal cues?

The culprit who caused Rachel’s death was Jeremy, her landlord and the drug dealer she was keeping tabs on. Due to the presence of objectics like his blood splatter in the apartment’s carpet and a glass shard found in the folds of his pants that was also all over the crime scene, Jeremy admitted that he suspected Rachel was working undercover and tried to test her by forcing her to consume his drugs. However, Rachel refused and the both of them got into a struggle, resulting in Rachel’s death when she fell onto a glass table during the commotion. Mike, her employer and lover, was listening into the conversation between Rachel and Jeremy through the recording device in Rachel’s ear but he did not go to her rescue when she said the safe word that indicated that she was in danger. Therefore, Mike was an indirect accomplice in Rachel’s murder when he ignored the nonverbal cues, like her desperate tone, that he received during the argument prior to her death.

Was your guess correct? How does the eight kinds of nonverbal cues help or mislead crime scene investigators when they are trying to catch the actual culprit, in your opinion?

Source of pictures: http://www.tv-series-on-dvd.com/csi-miami.shtml, www.flickr.com/photoss/14658774@N03/1655322824/

                   Organisational principles include the similarity, proximity, figure and ground, and closure methods we make use of in order to further understand the information provided. We tend to group information according to similarites like physical attributes. Using the proximity principle, we tend to group information that are adjacent to each other. Figure and ground describes the focus of our attention and the context surrounding our focal point respectively.  Closure refers to our tendency to fill in missing perceptual elements by the way we organise information.

                   Interpretation principles refers to how we try to derive the meaning for the information that we have selected and organised. Interpretation of the information we selected and organised is subjective due to varying factors like cultural differences (the context that we are in) and individual characteristics (our personal attributes) although it may be regarding the same information. 

                   There has recently been many news report about the 23rd August 2008 case regarding the attempted suicides of seven teenage boys and the tragic deaths of two of them as the ruling for this case is finally released, after a year of investigation. It greatly explores the organisational and interpretation principles when we are reading reports about this case as the seven of them are teenagers who willingly agreed to make a suicide pact together solely because of a self-styled medium friend’s mere words, which makes the news all the more sensational.

Report Links:

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090918-168710.html

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090918-168700.html

Video Links:

http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/news/36194.html

http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/news/36192.html

                   Upon reading the articles, I related this case of connecting with the spiritual realm to other movies which often talked about how we should not carelessly intrude on the supernatural. Hence, as a result, I see their similarities and tend to feel that interfering with the supernatural world would probably bring negative consequences to those involved. Cultural differences could also make the interpretation process leading to my perception subjective to the assumption that mediums may cause fear and harm to surrounding people when they are possessed. Different degrees of superstition are not rare in Singapore, although most Singaporeans may appear to be under western influence.

                   On top of that, these articles are non-physical stimuli that brings temporal emotional proximity. To me, upon reading about their case, I am quite concerned about what were on their minds when they decided to make the suicide pact, especially since they are merely a few years younger than me. To parents, these reports may cause additional concern and worry regarding who their children are friends with.  

                  The figure in this news article that captures my attention is this group of 16-year-old teenage boys and the ground refers to context that they got themselves into, the suicide pact.

                   Lastly, we would never know the exact details of their suicide pact and these boys’ thoughts leading to the deed as not all the boys involved were interviewed from their viewpoint. Moreover, the two boys who passed away can never tell their side of the story. Hence, we would attempt to offer some closure to this news on our part, based on our past experiences of teenagers’ extremist behaviours as well as stories about mediums. This may also lead to our own derivation about what really happened based on our own experiences with the matter at hand while we attempt to interpret the news articles and other information.

                   Have you ever heard or read about stories that are related to mediums and the supernatural realm? Were your perceptions of this news article regarding a group of teenage boys’ suicide pact affected by your own personal experiences? Did it affect your perceptions of mediums and teenagers today?

              Selecting the information presented would be dependent on these four factors. They are frequency, contrast, intensity and novel stimuli. Frequency refers to the how often the information is presented to its audience. Secondly, contrast refers to the surrounding space that is affecting our selection, how it stands out from the others. On top of that, intensity refers to the usage of verbal and nonverbal methods to put across the source’s intended emotions while the audience is selecting the information. Lastly, the idea of novel stimuli refers to how the audience would more likely select information regarding a fresh idea since they may lack prior experiences with the subject. Therefore, the above four factors would affect which information we are selecting.

               However, there may be some perceptual errors when we are selecting information. Some examples include omission, distortion and oversimplification. Omission occurs if the most important information is not selected. Distortion refers to misunderstanding the main point in the information and wrongly selecting other information as the most important one. Oversimplification may lead to wrong perceptions formed when we overly simplify the information until it loses its initial significance or if we underestimate the source of information.

                Source of discussion is taken from The Straits Times September 12 2009 issue, life! section:

               
One method that the Singapore governments adopts to influence the masses’ perceptions of certain messages or policies is through posters that would be showcased nationwide. In the past, posters were used to alert Singaporeans regarding government concerns. With the recent scares of contagious illnesses like the H1N1 virus, Singapore’s Health Promotion Board also launched the poster “Stop the Horror with Soap and Water” this year. I would be using this 2009 poster to test the perception theories we learnt this week.

                   I feel that Singaporeans who saw this particular poster would have selected the crucial information to perceive the severity of not washing one’s hands. The frequency of the poster being spotted nationwide was very high as it was showcased in bus shelters, various public transports and even in toilets. Its message creates contrast against the poster’s black background as the words “Stop the Horror with Soap and Water” are in bold and gold. Moreover, these seven words and the hand of monsterous viruses are the only items so the infomation presented for selection is quite clear and straightforward. The intensity of the message to stop the spreading of viruses by washing our hands regularly with soap and water is highlighted by the hair-raising picture of a hand that is covered with viruses that looks like monsters. On top of that, the word “horror” also intensifies the severity of not washing hands. Lastly, novel stimuli is also shown through the poster as the poster is supported by the image of the possible situation of our hands before handwashing, that gives a fresh twist to the original handwashing idea. Have you seen this poster before? Did it attract your attention to it? If yes, which part of it gained your attention?

                    Singaporeans who saw the poster “Stop the Horror with Soap and Water” may not have the perceptual error of omission and oversimplification as the message is rather clear and direct. Distortion of the information may have occured as they may only select the dire consequences of not washing hands as it is emphasized the most through the monsterous hand and the strong word “horror”. However, I think that people who read the poster may not know how to use soap and water to wash their hands thoroughly and may think that that is the only measure to protect themselves against contagious illnesses. What kinds of perceptual errors do you think people will make when they see the poster?

          Last Sunday, I came across this newspaper advertisement in The Sunday Times for Scott’s Emulsion Cod Liver Oil and it reminded me of my childhood so i decided to use it as the source for my first communication blog entry here.

           I don’t know if it is only applicable to me but I was fed cod liver oil by my mother during my younger days (I think it was during my kindergarten and primary school days) and was told that “it just tastes like orange juice and it’ll help you become strong that’s why you need to eat it at least once a day”.  Thankfully the orange cod liver oil solution really tasted somewhat like orange juice and most importantly, it was sweet!

           From the advertisement, I felt that GlaxoSmithKline used some rhetoric ways to persuade readers to buy their products. 

           Firstly, the appeal to reason (logos) and the credibility of the product brand (ethos) was delivered through that same one line :  ”With the trusted goodness of Cod Liver Oil, Scott’s Emulsion can support your child’s immune system with the help of vitamins A, D and DHA.” Ethos was used through the words “trusted goodness”, hinting that people trusted in Cod Liver Oil’s credibility probably since our grandmothers’ generation, while logos was strengthened through the listing of the vitamins present in the Cod Liver Oil.

            Secondly, the lines : “Every mother does her best to keep her child healthy. But even the best moms need help” and “So to keep your child’s growing years strong and healthy, feed him Scott’s daily” seem to appeal to the emotions of mothers worldwide via the method of pathos. By acknowledging that every mother wishes to give her children the best of everything for their development, GlaxoSmithKline promised to help in fulfilling that wish for mothers whilst ensuring that their child would grow up stronger and healthier. Therefore, this advertisement seem to be using logos, ethos and pathos methods to mainly persuade mothers and mothers-to-be to purchase Scott’s Emulsion Cod Liver Oil for their children, instead of other products. More fathers today are also as concerned about their children’s development and well-being as their spouses. Hence, I personally feel future advertisements from GlaxoSmithKline could be more effective if it is targetted at both parents so that the pathos method could be exercised fully on a larger consumer base. What do you think?

            Since my source of discussion is a GlaxoSmithKline advertisement for Scott’s Emulsion Cod Liver Oil, it is an interactive communication model. Like a linear model, it does consist of the sender (GlaxoSmithKline), the message (to consume Scott’s Emulsion Cod Liver Oil), the channel (advertisement in The Sunday Times) and the receiver (the many The Sunday Times readers). Although the art of persuasion was carried out, there are other factors in this interactive communication model that influences its ability to persuade the reader. The first problem would be that response would be given mostly based on the reader’s personal experience with the product. Since my personal experience with Scott’s Emulsion Cod Liver Oil was a pleasant and familiar one, I would no doubt give positive feedback on the product and possibly be persuade to purchase the product. Would you have the similar positive feedbacks based on your personal experiences or opinions about this product? However, I was not fully persuaded as there were noises involved. In my case, it was psychological noise as I was momentarily distracted by the article on top of a traditional malay songket gown with a beautiful peacock motif.