Annotation 3

The Distortion of Televised Reports on Teenage Crimes in Taiwan

    In the essay, the author, Dr. 蘇蘅, explores how Taiwan's televised news and newspapers report teenage crimes and the effects of their ways to represent teenage crimes. With statistics from different television news stations and newspapers, he finds out a couple of characteristics in their reports of  teenage crimes: Firstly, both of them prefer to report the teenage violence crime which is not the highest ration of teenage criminal types according to the statistics from Ministry of Justice because they think that the violence crime can appeal to the viewers. Secondly,  the televised reports does not trace the  further development of the case although they value the occurrence of the teenage crime and the moment of arresting than the newspapers does. Thirdly, their sources of the teenage crimes highly depend on the police and the authorities. In conclusion, he points out that the televised reports is especially able to distort the viewers' perception about teenage crimes  because of not only the prejudiced information of the teenage crimes from the police but also the use of the dramatic and exaggerated explanation in the reports for attracting the audience.
    That discourse can be an interpretation of the televised violence news' effect on the potential school bullying in Taiwan. It goes without saying that Taiwan's TV news like to report the criminal news. To appeal more viewers in the short broadcasting time, it tends to choose the more severe cases such as murder or injury and overstate the context of the teenage crimes but lacks the profound reports. With that representative way, the teenage viewers who watch those reports can possibly think the reports entertaining even imitate those behaviors in school like threatening  or harming other weak classmates which result in the happening of bullying. Thus, the way of Taiwan's televised news representing the teenage crimes can make the effect of inciting school bullying instead of  transmit the viewers the positive message of admonishing the similar circumstances to reoccur.

蘇蘅 (2002).  新聞裡的罪與罰--報紙與電視新聞如何再現青少年犯罪 Retrieved January 9, 2009, from NCCU Institutional  Repository Website: http://dspace2.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/28089

Reflection 1

    In the beginning, I set my title ‘the media violence-the potential inciter of school bullying in Taiwan’ too widely. The media has many representative means such as TV, movies, music, books and the Internet. It is difficult to discuss so many media tools aptly at the same time, so afterwards I decide to narrow down my issue into the televised news violence.
    However, there are lots of problems and confusion I need to tackle with and clear. Even if I change my title, the primary problem still results from my issue. In my annotation 1, I suggest that the televised violence makes children imitate the heroine violence and possibly leads to school bullying because of the excess of the televised violence exposure to the children with the lack of parental supervision. I also emphasize the importance of parents on the precaution of the youth aggressiveness. But in my annotation 2, I take the effect of the popular Taiwan’s violent movie Monga on the school bullying for example to aim to draw out the problem of our televised news that it which reports the violence effect from a movie actually has its violence effect too. From that inference, it seems that the televised news should take the responsibility of the risks of school bullying. And that is the point where the problem and the confusion emerge.
    With peers’ comments and teacher’s suggestions, I find that I am confused which is responsible for school bullying from the televised violence. Is it only the televised news’ problem or other TV programs are also involved in this violence effect? Should the parents also have responsibilities for that? Or both of them need to think about the suitable ways of preventing school bullying? Besides, the occurrence of school bullying is not solely attributed to the televised violence; it consists of many complicated factors. The problem of the school bullying has existed for a long time, and why I choose the televised news for the inciter of the school bullying? Is it the primary cause of school bullying?
    I know that it is impossible to clear my mind with the problems and the confusion completely, but I try to refigure out my thesis and argument as hard as I can. I still want to explore the relation between the televised news violence and the school bullying because the appearance of the issue of school bullying owes to the televised news expansive broadcasts which arise the public attention. Due to the televised news, we appeal for and promote the anti-bullying activities. Nevertheless, we seem to ignore the problem of our televised news that often likes to present and even exaggerate the violent scenes to the viewers for their rating or of the viewers, ourselves. I think that the possibilities of school bullying may lessen with not only the control of the televised news violence but also our audience’s efforts of improving the news literacy. Thus, I will write and revise my paper with my present idea later.

Annotation 2 - draft 2

Monga’s Effect? The Problem of School Bullying is only because of the Violent Movie?

    According to the reporter from TVBS, Yi Shen He’s report, a gang fight between two student’s groups occurred in a junior high school in Kaohsiung County. Because of the misunderstanding on the phone which proceeded into a collision, two student’s groups from two different schools assembled on the campus and engaged in the gang fight. This fight caused four students wounded and the other students sent into the Police Officer. One of the participant students confessed that they imitated the ‘brotherhood’ in Taiwanese gangster film, Monga, to fight for their friends as the characters did in the movie and even called themselves ‘Gang of Temple’ simulating ‘ Gang of Princes’ in Monga.
    That report proves the discourse that the televised violence could beget the youth imitation in the previous article. Although the movie, Monga, intends to emphasize the spirit of the brotherhood and the friendship through the Taiwan’s gangster culture, the negative values are possibly produced in the youth minds, such as gang fights, and criminal behavior for the brotherhood. Due to the immaturity of the judgment during the adolescence, the youth might sill distort the right meaning of the film’s violent expression and imitate it as the heroine behavior for fighting with his friend’s ‘foes’. Thus, the problem of Monga’s negative effect evokes the dispute whether we should limit the violent movies like Monga to broadcast to the children lest the possibility of school bullying.
    However, is the negative effect of the youth imitation all the movie’s fault? We cannot totally blame it on Monga. Some school bullying news or other violent-related ones are often linked to Monga’s effect by the reporters after Monga becomes a hit movie and gains high popularity; but do those news are related to Monga truly? Are those reports possibly the televised news plot that the reports exploit Monga’s popularity for grabbing the viewer’s more attention on that news? So do we not be influenced by the reports of the news and have responsibility of that? All in all, the problem of school bullying is not only mainly from the violent movie but also from Taiwan’s televised news; and perhaps, we viewers are also involved in it.

Yi Shen He (2010). Monga's Effect? Junior High's Gang Fight. Retrieved March 1, 2010, from TVBS: TVBS News Website: http://www.tvbs.com.tw/news/news_list.asp?no=blue20100301120610

Peer Comments and My Responds on My Annotation 2

Richard: I think it is parents’ responsibilities that decide or control what his or her children are watching, because if you give the problem to the society or the government it still cannot solve the problem. Problem is everywhere. We cannot deal with them but we could do is close some doors which is not necessary to the children and open other doors that is suitable for the children’s watching. It is about choice.

Templar: I think maybe it is about human nature because there is something in our mind we want to do but we don’t know how to release it such as anger or something. Maybe the movie provides us a solution like the actors in Monga deal with the problem by violence. And some immature children will think it an appropriate way to release their anger. I think it is their parents’ duty how to teach children to deal with their emotions. I think most important thing is to teach the children to tell right from wrong. After knowing what is right and wrong, the children may watch everything.

Lisa: I agree with Templar.

Corinne: Do you think the question lies in the movie itself or the parents or the viewers? Do you think this movie or the program as you mentioned has its own value?
Lisa: I think the responsibility of causing school violence is the televised media violence.

Tina: I think the movie or Apple news has no problem in it because their contexts are violent and we have the rights to choose whether we watch or not. So do you think something wrong in the movie or news? So you think we should not have so many violent programs?

Lisa: I think there is something wrong in Taiwan’s media, especially the televised news. I think they exaggerate the events or expose too much violence to get high viewing rate