Friends

Recycling Good morning to our beloved teachers, Puan Rusni and my dear fellow friends. Standing here today,I would like to deliver a speech entitled,”Recycling. ” According to the Asian Development Bank,rapid development,rising personal consumption and unprecedented levels of waste in Asia where cities will generate on estimated 1. 8 million tonnes of rubbish per day by 2025. In Malaysia alone,we produce over 15,000 tonnes pf rubbish daily and it is a matter of time before we run out of space to dispose them.

In dealing with this phenomenon,we shall discuss some of the suggestions that all of us can adapt through the process of recycling to conserve the environment. One of the ways to recycle is to sell old newspapers to the junkman who will eventually send them to the recycling centres. By selling the old newspapers,we can earn some extra money at the price of RM0. 03 per kilogramme of old newspapers. Buying recycled paper is also another option. On the average,about 17 market sized trees are felled to produce a tonne of paper or one tree is felled to produce 20 reams of A4 size paper.

Today,we recognise the limits of resource demand and this is the reason why recycled paper is critical part of our aspiration for a healthy global environment. We should also use both sides of a sheet of paper because it cultivates the habit of not being wasterful while saving our earth from further deterioration. In addition,glass bottles should be recycled. The energy saved by recycling a glass container can light a 100-watt bulb for up to four hours. Avoiding the use of plastic products is another recommended way to protect our Mother Nature because plastic is non-biodegradable,it may survive as long as 700 years.

Apart from that,it is indispensably necessary for us to save water and electricity as much as possible. We have to save electricity because we are running fast out of fossil fuels. The fossil fuels saved by turning off the water taps while brushing our teeth. By doing this we can save the energy used to filter purify and transport the water to the end users. On the other hand,electricity can be saved by switching off the light,television,radio and fan before leaving any rooms.

This is because the primary environmental impact of electricity consumption is the production of greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. Hence,saving electricity is the key preserve our Mother Nature, Another advice that everyone ought to take head of is not to throw away leftover rice but instead,make fried rice,tamarind rice,pepper rice and yoghurt rice. This is because many poor nations of the Third World countries are suffering from famine and malnutrition due to accute shortage of food such as Mozumbigue and Sudun and Myannar.

Lastly but not least,we can also use water for washing clothes to wash our parents’cars and other non-drinking purpose such as watering plants,washing toilets and mapping floors. As a conclusion,our planet is in a bad shape but most people choose to be indifferent to the effects initiated by the goverment to safeguard to dire condition of the environment. Majority of Malaysians choose to ignore the gathering storm clouds and hope the problem will magically take care of itslef.

In Klang Valley,for instance,it produces more than 5000 tonnes of rubbish everyday which can cover the whole of Petronas Twin Towers,one of the tallest buildings in the world,in ten days and this is the reason why we must reduce,reuse and recycle. Whether the planet lives or dies,it depends on us and so,everyone plays a significant role by starting to recycle even from homes because a small change in behaviour has a measurable impact on our Earth. Thank you for lending me your ears. I hope all of you are benefited from my speech today.

Smart Phones: Classroom Friends or Foes? It’s no surprise that these days all across the United States in any high school and in any classroom, one can find teenagers avidly texting under their desks or behind their text books.

While texting may seem innocent enough to the students committing the act, it also proposes the danger and risk that the student could be getting answers for the quiz that they are taking from a friend that’s outside the classroom. The introduction of smart phones, such as the iPhone and the Blackberry seem to have made matters of this phenomenon even worse.Now, instead of just having access to other students via texting, kids have the ability to surf the internet or upload audio clips on their cell phones that could be helpful to them while they’re in class. While some would argue that the access to all this information could, in fact, be beneficial to students in the classroom, others would argue the exact opposite. The increased use of these smart phones decreases a student’s attention p, expands the amount of cheating done, exposes students to information that might not be correct, and also increases the amount of disturbances in a classroom.Students of this century rely heavily on the internet to get them through their studies and now that the access to the internet is available on their phones, that reliance will grow to be even greater. With that constant growing reliance on these smart phones, the quality of this generation’s education will begin rapidly decreasing.

The ability to concentrate in class and on the lecture the teacher is giving is already a difficult task itself to most students, even without the introduction of texting, music players, or the smart phones.By adding those components the attention level paid to the lesson is slowly diminishing. A student wanting to waste time in class not only has the option to stare out of the window, but now, they can bury their phones in their books and text, surf the web, and listen to music. Now that these devices, such as the iPhone and the Blackberry are available, students don’t have to worry about how they can preoccupy their time, they just have to take out their phones. Cheating is another hindrance that has been more wide spread now that texting has been presented into the classroom.This act of getting answers from one another has been even more enhanced with the rise of smart phones. Now, the student doesn’t only have to rely on their friend, but they have a better option: the internet.

These phones allow the students to get on the internet and search for the answers that they need. The iPhone and Blackberry only encourage students to quickly memorize what they get off the web, instead of actually studying the material in depth. Why study when you can get the answers at the tips of your fingers?Also, with programs and features available such as Cha Cha, a number where the student can text a question and receive the answer in a text, the possibility of cheating gets higher and higher. Another problem presented by these phones and their access to the internet is the falsified information on the world wide web. It is highly unusual to find a good source when searching for answers on web search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Also, there is not much time or thinking needed when keying in some words on to these search engines to get the answer that is desired, and who’s to say that the material generated isn’t completely false?The first website that Google provides is always Wikipedia, and since Wikipedia can be altered by anybody, the information on it isn’t necessarily credible. Other sites that are provided by Google are usually blogs or personal opinion essays that aren’t very credible at all, either.

This decreases the amount the student is learning because instead of studying the correct material before a big test, they can just get quick and easy answers off of their phones right away, not necessarily guaranteeing that these answers they receive are correct,Also, with the growing use of these phones it is more likely that a disturbance will occur in class. Even without these smart phones, a text or a call can happened during class and the ringer can go off, disrupting everybody. The iPhone and Blackberry also include alarms, calendars, and music, etc… and at any time, one of these components can go off in class. This disruption takes time away from the lecture or lesson the teacher is trying to give.Since almost every student can be found on their phones, that means the rate of disturbances will also go up. All of these distractions take a lot of time away from learning: a text message goes off here, an alarm goes off there, and someone’s music might start accidentally playing. Since the focus is more on these devices that keep going off, students don’t get the most fulfilling learning experience in class.

Smart phones, such as the iPhone and the Blackberry, have the potential to completely decrease the amount of learning done in the classroom.While one can argue that they are a beneficial tool that can be used by the students, any classroom in any high school shows the total opposite. These phones have more cons than pros when it comes to their uses in the classroom: their ability to increase cheating, disruptive behavior, falsified information provided by them, and their ability to make students pay attention less in class. Overall, the smart phones will lower the standards and the quality of the education taught today because of these unfortunate cons.

Companionship Have you ever had a companion? Well, George and Lennie were great companions! The short novel “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck is a novel that teaches you about companionship. The two main characters in this Novel are George and Lennie. This novel teaches you about having a companion in your life. I think comfort and companionship are profound human needs that, when unmet, can destroy the human spirit. George and Lennie are traveling together everywhere looking for jobs to work. This shows that George has Lennie as a companion.

When Lennie’s Aunt Clara died, Lennie just came along with George working with him all over places. George and Lennie have a good relationship because they have been traveling together for quite a long time. Also, in the novel Slim says “Maybe everybody in the whole damn world is scared of each other. ” This shows that Slim is wondering why more people don’t travel together more often instead of traveling alone. Slim is suggesting that people should travel together more often instead of traveling alone. This means, traveling ogether makes people feel more happy and satisfied with their life’s. When George killed Lennie at the end of the story for the purpose to give him a peaceful death shows how much of a companion George and Lennie were. Having the guts to shoot your own companion for a good thing like that is a really good companion in my opinion. George new that Lennie made a huge mistake this time and it could not be dodged this time so he made his decision to shoot Lennie. Also during the novel, Curly tells George that he doesn’t see many people traveling ogether and laughs at them for traveling together as an odd group. Because Lennie is big and George is small he thought it was odd for them to travel together. This shows he was jealous that he did not have a companion in his life. This shows that comfort and companionship are profound human needs that, when unmet, can destroy the human spirit and mind. There are many people out there who are traveling alone and are very sad and lonely in there life’s because they do not have a companion. Most people would love to have companions in there life rather than traveling alone.

Introduction

The society of nowadays is filled with advertisements, messages, films, blogs, technology, etc. The meanings that they carry have to be transmitted to the audience through different media. (Branston and Stafford, 2006) It appears important for the receiver to analyse and understand the meanings carried by each type of medium. In order to do so, the different “vehicles” used by media have to be identified. Different vehicle theories include: semiotics, genres, narratives, representation, audiences, etc. Ibidem) And while they all have to be gathered and related to form a medium, these theories have on their own signs to be interpreted by the viewer. Media has to construct meanings about the world in order to represent it appropriately or logically enough for the audience to understand, and make sense out of what they are seeing. (O’Sullivan etal. , 1994) Representations of the world have to be understood by the audience. It allows an easier and faster understanding of what media is trying to portray and by doing so saves time needed to achieve other goals o since the media has limits of time and space. (Wilson, 1993)

For instance, T. V. hows, in order to save time and capture viewers in the story faster, resort to stereotypes “There may be a shared recognition of the world as represented through familiar or dominant images and ideas” (O’Sullivan etal. , 1994) A good example of a type of media that uses representations as a way to help audience identify with the world presented on T. V. is the very popular show named: Friends. It debuted in 1994 through NBC and moved on to become one of the shows with the highest rate in television. It won multiple awards during its time on air until its end in May 2004. In 2002 the show won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series. (TBS. om, 2009) It had a big cultural impact, for instance, phrases from the sitcom became common in American slang, and songs from the show became very famous around the globe. It is a sitcom that presents the life of six friends (3 males and 3 females) middle aged, middle class who live in New York. They live close to each other and spend a lot of time together discussing very different themes. They all have different personalities and different backgrounds but compliment each other comically. This case study will analyse through the theory of representations, the stereotypes presented by the female characters: Rachel, Phoebe and Monica.

The representations

When referring to representations in the media, it is important to notice that stereotypes are present very often. Especially in a commercial T. V. show such as Friends, creators have to turn into cultural stereotypes in order for the audience to easily and quickly identify each role; who plays whom in a story and, in certain situations, justify their actions. “Within the media, limits of time and space plus the desire of achieving rapid audience recognition have obliged the stereotypical representations to be constructed and portrayed…” (Wilson, 1993)

The role of Rachel Green represents the rich bimbo girl. She comes from a wealthy background, her father, is a successful doctor able to provide her and her sisters with a fancy childhood. She has never worked, is not self sufficient, and as mention in chapter 12 of season 6 “The one with the joke” (Blinkx. com, 2000) she is always trying to please others. She is in many ways an exaggeration of a spoiled American girl. Rachel is dumb, lost, and she does not know what she wants. According to Wilson (1993) stereotypes have to be exaggerated or maximised, since there is a necessity for audience recognition.

If there is no recognition then it becomes a commercial failure. For this reason the character of Rachel is exaggerated. She cries over anything, she is afraid of commitment, irresponsible, and does not want to take care of anyone as much as she wants to be taken care of. But there is a necessity for her to form part of the group of friends. Her irresponsibility can be very funny, guys always want to date her because she is pretty. In a sitcom of its genre (comedy) the familiar is necessary and comfortable (Branston and Stafford, 2006) for this reason, someone has to play the pretty, spoiled one.

The sets of characters and values portrayed by Rachel involve in it a diversity that the audience can relate her to. Whether it means that they identify with her and her actions (for example, girls with good economic status), or see in her someone they know, or maybe even look up to her. On the other hand, the role of Monica Geller represents the controlling responsible one. Her character is the opposite from Rachel, obsessive-compulsive, and very competitive. She is probably the more mature female of the show.

She comes from a suburban middle class family, known for having overweight during high school, she is Rachel’s best friend, but admire and envied her during youth. She likes to be in charge of everything, plans every detail and enjoys serving other. Her representation in the show is maximised, her obsession for order and cleanness is exaggerated, but this traits help the viewer to identify her and categorise her as the “mother hen” of the group. (Warnerbros. com, 2009) Although she was pretty the audience tends to forget this fact and relate her more with the need of a responsible one in the group.

As mention above, there is comfort in familiarity, in this case the role of Monica becomes funny when the audience relates her actions with reality, for instance, mothers cleaning the mess left by little children. She is referenced to in the chapter mention above as “high maintenance” American slang to refer the fact that she needs a lot of attention and everything has to be done the way she likes it. She goes ahead and proves it by then forcing Chandler (her boyfriend) to learn a speech and mention that she is not “high maintenance. What this scene is portraying is an irony that proves how embroidered stereotypes can be a useful tool in sitcoms since they are funny. By evoking irony, the media uses stereotypes and disguise them as jokes allowing the label to become somewhat acceptable and familiar. (Branston and Stafford, 2006) Finally, the role of Phoebe Buffay who represents the hippie one. An eccentric character, who enjoys from playing music but is not really good, she does not care what others think about her. Phoebe’s character is a very sensitive one who goes beyond to help others, she is not interested in conventional things such as marriage, babies, or money.

But rather she is concern with environmental, spiritual issues. With a troubled past, she became homeless at age 14 (Warnerbros. com, 2009). She is very dumb but knows how to play and have fun with others. The circumstances of this character are ironic and funny. Once again, creators of the show play with exaggeration of personalities and portray the obliged hippie New Yorker. Phoebe’s character is a clear example of how stereotypes are not always wrong (Branston and Stafford, 2006) , and they do portray reality but in a magnified way. New York is a city known for its extravagant movements regarding animals, and vegetarianism among others. So Phoebe played that side of New York which is radical.

Conclusion

The three characters above represent not only labels for people of their own circumstances but also they represent 3 very common stereotypes in which women can be categorised in the media; the sex object, the mother, and the friend. The three characters are also very different from each other going from the little princess, to the tough one, to the weird one. But in many ways these stereotypes are not always negative, they are not rigid or unchanging, and they help the audience to identify and differentiate the 3 characters. According to O’Sullivan etal. 1994) the media production is based on the need to please the audience. For this reason, if certain values or believes predominate in media output it will be due to the fact that society is sharing such same values and believes. In the case of “Friends” such conceptions of people from specific backgrounds in America are constantly presented in societies’ believes and therefore portrayed with this specific characters in the show. Ideologies work through symbolic codes, (O’Sullivan etsl, 1994) and because the media cannot speak directly to the audience it uses semiotics. These signs are represented with people through stereotypes.

It is important to understand and analysed the latter so that there is a better understanding of society and culture. People uses stereotypes everyday to achieve a mental understanding of the society and the people they meet in their everyday lives. But even when stereotypes portray the real world in many aspects, it is important to notice that they are also often exaggerated and closed and they limit a viewer’s point of view of a determined group or person. They can be funny and helpful but the media should understand that portraying a group of people using stereotypes can cause negative cultural impact.

Stereotypes should not become prejudices or send an erroneous message to the audience. When recurring to stereotypes, the media has to be very sensitive and take care of every detail as to portray people openly with no set rules and as accurate as possible. This was well achieved by “Friends” T. V. show since characters evolve, acquire new characteristics their personalities changed and they all achieved their goals.

References

Branston, G. and Stafford, R. ( 2006) The Media Student’s Book. 4th ed. Routledge. U. K. Pp. 141-156 Blinkx. com (no date) Friends. The one with the joke.

Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from: http://www. blinkx. com/video/friends-the-one-with-the-joke/CljtsymVdOFbvw5xENhNNQ

O’Sullivan, T. etal. (1994) Studying the media. An Introduction. St. Martin’s Press Inc. New York, U. S. A. Pp 113, 115, 117, 122, and 125. Tbs. com (2009) Friends, About the show. Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from : http://www. tbs. com/stories/story/0,,268,00. html

Wilson, S. (1993) Mass Media, Mass Culture. 3rd ed. Mc Graw Hill. United States. Pp. 225-236 Warnerbros. com (2009) Friends. Retrieved online on 3rd October 2009 from: http://www. warnervideo. com/friends15/