54002 Communicating Difference

Write a critical essay in order to demonstrate an understanding of core concepts in Communicating Difference and to develop skills in academic reading and writing.Choose one Australian (ie about or involving Australia) media item as a case study, critically discuss how at least three different scholars might analyse its relationship to social identities and difference.Critical understanding of scholarly ideas and concepts around social difference.

 

Write an essay that critically evaluates the collaborative in order to demonstrate an understanding of communication practices from a scholarly viewpoint. Critical evaluation means ‘standing back’ to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal, which could include problems encountered in the design process, issues in the framing of social difference in the project, or concerns around the kinds of community consultation available to support the project.

This essay reflects the differences in the communication in the diversified community from the perspective of several academic references. Sensuous multiculturalisms, the three dimensional yellow man, the spectacle of the other, ain’t i a woman and publics and counterpublics are the theories used for the analysis of the issue of communicating difference. These theories show the different aspects of cultural diversity.

Present scenario of the world is quite gloomy when it comes to humanity. Apart from the climatic changes and terrorism, this present generation is currently facing the issue of racism and social discrimination. Religion discrimination is another phenomenon, which is recently emerging around the world. Countering all these issues, it is suggested by a few that encouraging multiculturalism or diversified communities will help to avoid or prevent these issues. However, diversity or multiculturalism has number of merits as well as demerits (Modood 2013). This essay will discuss about Blended from the perspective of the above said theories.

According to Stuart Hall, people tend to consider the darker person as ‘other’. According to them, this ‘other’ seems related with negativity. Darker people are being considered as villain also (Hall 1997). Therefore, it is of utmost need to respond appropriately to prevent this racial discrimination and to change the wrong assumptions of the people (Burt Simons and Gibbons 2012). In this case, concept of Blended may have both the positive as well as negative impact. This project can help the people in rectifying the misconceptions regarding the darker ones by connecting the white and dark people via apps and encouraging them to meet physically. Blended is being promoted as a social networking application with a noble cause or objective.

However, it still holds some drawbacks also as well as some advantages. The project of Blended is targeted to reduce the gap between the people of different cultures and backgrounds by letting them interact with one another through the app as well as physically. Social reform can only be possible when people from different communities interact closely with one another physically. Only then, they can break their stereotypes regarding the opposite cultures (Bar-Tal et al. 2012). Therefore, Blended is the perfect and effective way of connecting these people with one another. Apart from its noble cause, as a conventional social networking application, Blended can be a suitable alternative to the other established players. Another advantage of this project is the availability through apps and websites. This ensures them to be available at any time and at any place to the customers.

This project is also providing different business organizations and communities to advertise themselves in their online space. Therefore, apart from meeting the social responsibility, this project is providing business opportunities also. Blended targeted the customers between the age group of 15-25, this age group is the most comfortable in social networking. On the other hand, this age group will be in the forefront in the near future, therefore, social reforms among this age group will yield best and most effective outcomes. From the ethical perspective, this project promotes several measures to maintain the ethical standard as well as the safety and privacy of the customers. The motive behind this project is to socially connect people from different backgrounds but individuals having racist mindsets may get in to the conversation with the help of fake profile.

Measures are there to be taken in case of this issue but initially it will affect the basic purpose of the project. The most effective way of social reforms is physical conversation. However, there is also some kind of physical and mental risks associated with this concept. Any individual can prove harmful for his partner during physical meetings. Preventive measures are also being stated for this potential threat. However, these measures are also not full proofed and still a percentage of risks or threat remains.

On the other hand, certain people can intentionally use this app to bully the darker ones in the chat rooms and pose a threat during the physical meeting. As told by Julie Koh that in case of discussion between the people having different skin color, the main topic of discussion always remains is of having inferior skin color (Koh 2014). People tend to believe that these are common factor for any human; hence, curiosity is always there to know the origin and other aspects of the skin color. Therefore, in social networking tools also, these factors may become the main topic for discussion, which ultimately contradicts the main motive of the project.

This project holds some drawbacks also, apart from having a noble objective. Blended is being promoted as a social networking application. The market of social networking is already very saturated and over polluted. Hence, it will be very difficult for it to penetrate in this market with just promoting noble causes. The initial target market of this project will be in and around Sydney. However, the dominant group in the application will be the English speaking users. Hence, the market will be much smaller for a social networking app.

The prime objective of this project is to have customers from different social backgrounds. However, operating in a small and limited market will restrict the chance of having a broader and diversified customer base. Even though, measures are been promoted to maintain the privacy of the customer’s information, but still technological readiness are not full proofed and hence, there is a chance of breach of privacy (Rauch and Schanz 2013). The basic verification process of this project will be based on the similarities and the differences of the individuals. However, similarities and differences are vast terms, which can be further segregated in more specific manner. Hence, the segmentation of the customers may not be implemented in the desired manner.

According to Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix, feminism is the concept of changing the uneven balance between the male and the female. However, the concept or approach of the feminism has been changed with the change in time (Brah and Phoenix 2013). At one point of time, it speaks about the anti-slavery issue. Then it speaks about the women rights in the society. According to them, women are still being discriminated; they are still being seen as a “problem” (Joncheray and Tlili 2013). This project may contribute in preventing gender discrimination by socially connecting people from both the genders. However, the stronger or the more influential group may get the upper hand and utilize this app for promoting gender discrimination. There are also several risks associated with physical meetings from the both genders.

According to Amanda Wise, she shows in one of her article of sensuous multiculturalism of how diversity in the population is affecting the local culture of Ashfield, a suburb in Sydney (Wise 2010). Ashfield once had the Anglo-Celtic ethnic groups as the majority but with the gradual migration of Chinese people, now they became like a minority. As the host culture, they were resistant to this change and with the time Chinese became the majority and now most of the cultural events there are influenced by them (Matera, Stefanile and Brown 2012). Ethnic group are becoming marginalized, they are having less commercial presence than the Chinese people are. Therefore, the main issue here is that both the parties are resistant to their opposite culture. Availability of a concept as Blended can help by socially connecting the people from both the culture and let them shares their issues with one another. Maybe they are having some misconceptions about the other culture, which can solve by having effective communication among them.

According to Michael Warner, public always get tend to influenced or driven by collective opinions. Individual’s characteristics are not considered separate from the public (Warner 2012). The individuals irrespective of any logic are following any misconceptions of the public. This project may help in avoiding these misconceptions by connecting individuals from both the group. Social reform will let them know that individual characteristics may differ from the public opinion or conceptions. Cultural segmentation is a broad term. Several people may have different cultural identities but same political views and vice versa. Hence, Blended will mix the people having different and heterogeneous views and make them share their opinion with all.

Therefore, the main objective behind this concept will be to implement a sustainable business plan where the organizational objectives will be related to the social reforms. Racism, gender inequality and hatred towards other cultures are a threat to humanity and it is increasing day by day. Therefore, it is of utmost need that these types of issues be avoided or prevented (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). Apart from government and other legal bodies, if different organizations can come forward with innovative ideas to counter these, then it will be more effective. It concludes that this project is having some drawbacks regarding its implementation but overcoming those issues will make it an attractive alternative to counter the issue of social discrimination.

Reference

Bar-Tal, D., Graumann, C.F., Kruglanski, A.W. and Stroebe, W. eds., 2013. Stereotyping and prejudice: Changing conceptions. Springer Science & Business Media.

Brah, A. & Phoenix, A. 2013, 'Ain’t I a woman? revisiting intersectionality', Journal of International Women's Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 75-86. 

Burt, C.H., Simons, R.L. and Gibbons, F.X., 2012. Racial discrimination, ethnic-racial socialization, and crime: A micro-sociological model of risk and resilience. American Sociological Review, 77(4), pp.648-677.

Hall, S. 1997, 'The spectacle of the other (excerpt)', Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices, Sage, London, pp. 225-41. 

Joncheray, H. and Tlili, H., 2013. Are there still social barriers to women's rugby?. Sport in Society, 16(6), pp.772-788.

Koh, J. 2014. “The three-dimensional yellow man”, The Lifted Brow, vol. 5, no. 1, viewed February 8, 2017, .

Matera, C., Stefanile, C. and Brown, R., 2012. Host culture adoption or intercultural contact? Comparing different acculturation conceptualizations and their effects on host members’ attitudes towards immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(4), pp.459-471.

Modood, T., 2013. Multiculturalism. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.

Rauch, S.M. and Schanz, K., 2013. Advancing racism with Facebook: Frequency and purpose of Facebook use and the acceptance of prejudiced and egalitarian messages. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), pp.610-615.

Warner, M. 2002, 'Publics and counterpublics (abbreviated version)', Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 88, no. 4, pp. 413-25.

Wise, A. 2010, 'Sensuous multiculturalism: emotional landscapes of inter-ethnic living in Australian suburbia', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 917-37.