Week 3 - What I've learnt from Media Anthropology

I have learnt to see and observe the things that surrounds me from this subject. I have learnt to observe peoples' reaction in any kind of place such as restaurants, markets, shopping malls, and a lot more. Sometimes, i can know where they went before they reach to another place by seeing them from the attire that they wore or by the things that they brought along with or just bought. For example, if one of the lady is holding an empty basket early in the morning, then i will know her destination is probably heading to the wet market. If a group of teenagers is holding some paper bags on their hand while waiting for the train at the LRT station, i can know that they are going home after they have finished their day as a shopaholic girl.

As for our group work, we have been given a task to go to the wet market (Pasar Borong Selangor) which is located nearby Equine Park Giant to observe the people there last Monday. As you know, it is quite frequent that most of the people will go to the wet market early in the morning, so the eleven of us have been discussed and came up with a decision to go there to observe who would be the target audience when it comes to night. So, it takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to reach the wet market from MMU Cyberjaya.

We have been divided into groups once we reached the wet market and start our observation. The wet market is separated into few categories including marine products, dry goods, poultry and vegetables. Each group is assigned to go to each category.

Most of the target audience are those parent who go there mostly after they finished their work.

There is also husband who take care of the children or helps to carry stuffs while their wive is busy doing the shopping.

Their children normally are between kids and primary schools.

Besides, we also get to know the peak hours of the market are normally during night and weekends by interviewing with one of the seller there.

In my conclusion, the target audience of the Pasar Borong Selangor are mostly parents.

Week 2 - Study and Observation on Social Group

Location: Snowflake SS15 (Subang Jaya)

Date: 26-10-2011

Time: 8.30 pm - 10.00 pm

Social Groups: College students

Snowflake is the No. 1 Taiwanese dessert choice in Malaysia and South East Asian Region. Everything inside the bowl of Snowflake is hand made and every of their product is made fresh daily.

Have my first visit to the Snowflake Taiwanese Dessert Secrets located within the busy inner square of SS15, Subang Jaya yesterday night. The location is just a stone throw to Inti and Taylors college. As you know, most of the students will have their visit to the so-called-dessert shop once they feel they want to grab a bite of snow ice. Besides, some of them will go there after they have finished their class with their classmates.

As you can see from the picture above, the shop is crowded with peoples and there aren't any sit left once I entered the shop. Some of them are waiting for their dessert to be done by taking the "beeping UFO" (funcky apparatus) back to their tables while waiting at their sits. They will get to know when to take their dessert from the counter once the "beeping UFO" starts giving out a red 'beeping' alarm and vibrates. Meanwhile, I can see that most of them are snowflakes lovers as there will sure be a bowl of snowflake on their tables' each. From my observation, they will spend most of their time chit-chatting with each others while they are having their dessert in the same time. Some of them will pamper themselves by having a bowl of Snowflake in order to release their stress and relax themselves when they are having their exam tomorrow.

This is the place where order and payment is made at the same time. Other than that, you can also see that the waiters and waitresses are busy most of the time. This shows that Snowflakes has become a popular dessert in Subang Jaya area.

At 9.15pm, the number of peoples increased. This can be seen from the picture where people starts to queue up to order for their dessert. Some of them are searching for empty place to sit. One of the waiter is busy cleaning up the table after others left.

I have ordered a bowl of soya ice series and a bowl of snowflake bestseller on that night to have a try, and I have fallen in love with it's taste. There are grass jelly, pearl, red bean, barley, taroballs and others inside. Thinking to go and grab a bite again next time. Snowflakes really a dessert which can make people enjoy and happy. It has became most of the students' favourite. I bet this is the reason why it managed to attract most of the students to come to the shop.

Week 1 - Media Anthropology

Media Anthropology

An area of study within social or cultural anthropology that emphasizes ethnographic studies as a means of understanding producers, audiences, and other cultural and social aspects of mass media.

Reference: Wikipedia.org

What is cross-disciplinary?

Crossdisciplinary refers to knowledge that explains aspects of one discipline in terms of another. Common examples of crossdisciplinary approaches are studies of the physics of music or the politics of literature.

Crossdisciplinarity describes any method, project and research activity that examines a subject outside the scope of its own discipline without cooperation or integration from other relevant disciplines. In crossdisciplinarity, topics are studied using foreign methodologies of unrelated disciplines, for example Ethics in clinical research and occupational health.

Reference: Wikipedia.org

What is inter-disciplinary?

Interdisciplinary refers to new knowledge extensions that exist between or beyond existing academic disciplines or professions. The new knowledge may be claimed by members of none, one, both, or an emerging new academic discipline or profession.

An interdisciplinary community or project is made up of people from multiple disciplines and professions who are engaged in creating and applying new knowledge as they work together as equal stakeholders in addressing a common challenge.

Reference: Wikipedia.org

What is trans-disciplinary?

Transdisciplinary refers to knowledge that exists in every individual, thus eliminating the need for discipline boundaries.

A transdisciplinary community or project is made up of transdisciplinary professionals, which is an ideal that can only be approached and not actually achieved in practice.

Reference: Wikipedia.org

What is qualitative research?

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than large samples.

Reference: Wikipedia.org

What is ethnographic research?

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group.

Reference: Wikipedia.org