2016 GP Y5 Infopack - Media + Social Issues - FINAL PDF

RI GP Y5 2016 / Media and Social Issues
Copyrighted: Knowledge Skills Department, for internal circulation only,

for educational purposes only
RAFFLES INSTITUTION
YEAR 5 GENERAL PAPER
STUDENTS INFORMATION PACKAGE
Units: Media & Social Issues (Terms 1 & 2, 2016)
Developed by: Mr Adrian Tan, Ms S Uma Rani, Mr Patrick Wong & Ms Masnidah Masnawi
Updated by: Ms Sharon Chan & Mr Clement Cheng
SECTION 1: MEDIA
Enduring Understandings And Essential Questions 2
Past Year Examination Questions 3
New versus Old Media
1. Media Making sense of it all 8
Stereotyping
2. Media and gender stereotyping 11
Values and Behaviour

3. Media teaches bad values to your children 15
4. Is media violence damaging to kids? 19
5. Can media really affect behaviour? 22
Privacy, Security and Surveillance

6. Why privacy matters 24
7. Fear big brother... Or firms' abuse of big data? 28
Censorship and Social Norms

8. Freedom from the press: Why the media are the way they are 31
9. Internet regulation A myth in Singapore? 36
10. Moral censorship Pulp Friction: Looking beyond the liberal/conservative divide 40
Media and Democracy

11. Je suis tired (I am tired) 42
12. Charlie and Theo 45
13. The New Fourth Estate 47
14. Politics and the media The tyranny of the Fourth Estate 49
SECTION 2: SOCIAL ISSUES
Enduring Understandings And Essential Questions 56
Past Year Examination Questions 57
Gender Rights
15. Women are better off today, but still far from being equal with men 63
16. The challenge of closing the gender gap in developing countries 67
17. Leftover women: The resurgence of gender inequality in China review 70
18. Paid family leave: Nice, but costly 73
Family and Marriage

19. What is family? 75
20. Why DOMA (Defence of Marriage Act) is doomed 78
21. The flight from marriage 80
Ageing and Inter-Generational Conflict

22. South Koreas subway seat fight 87
23. Economic opportunities in an ageing population 89
Education and Social Mobility

24. Same performance, better grades 91
25. The unequal ability to exploit opportunity 93
ASSSESSMENT
Term 1 - 1 diagnostic essay
Term 2 - 1 essay, 1 comprehension (w/o AQ) & 1 short assignment
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SECTION 1
MEDIA
Enduring Understanding(s):
What will students understand as a result of this unit?
1. All media are carefully manufactured cultural products that seem to represent reality
but are, in fact, constructions of reality.
2. What is portrayed in the media influences the way we see ourselves, our aspirations and
desires, and our perceptions of others.
3. The media have commercial interests.
4. The media have embedded values and points of view.
Essential Questions:
What are the essential questions of this unit?
1. How reliable is the media? Can the media ever be truly objective?
2. Should the media aim only to inform or should they attempt to shape public opinion?
3. What is the impact of the media on culture, values and choices?
4. Are the media responsible for the problems in our society?
5. Who has the greatest influence media conglomerates, consumers or the government?
6. How should governments balance the concerns of the community with the individuals
freedom of expression?
7. What is the impact of new media on mainstream media?
8. What is the impact of new media on politics, governance and democracy?
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PAST-YEAR EXAMINATION QUESTIONS ON THE MEDIA
Cambridge
1. There is no such thing as bad publicity. To what extent is this true? (Nov 15)
2. Consider the argument that the main purpose of television should be to educate rather than
simply to entertain. (Nov 15)
3. Books serve little purpose in education as technological developments become more
sophisticated. How far do you agree? (Nov 15)
4. Do films offer anything more than an escape from reality? (Nov 14)
5. Consider the view that spoken language is more important than the written form. (Nov 13)
6. How far, in your society, should unpopular views be open to discussion? (Nov 13)
7. Is there any value in preserving minority languages in the world? (Nov 12)
8. In the digital age do newspapers still have a role in your society? (Nov 11)
9. The book has no place in modern society. Discuss. (Nov 10)
10. Assess the impact of foreign films or foreign TV programmes on the culture of your society. (Nov
09)
11. Nowadays, the pleasures of reading can never compete with the pleasures of visual
entertainment.
12. To what extent do you agree? (Nov 08)
13. Advertisements are often entertaining, but they rarely affect consumer choice. Is this your
experience? (Nov 07)
14. To what extent do the newspapers and magazines that you read deal with what is trivial, rather
than with what is important? (Nov 06)
15. How far do magazines or television programmes aimed at young people in Singapore have a
positive effect? (Nov 05)
16. Advertising encourages a desire for products which people do not actually need. Discuss. (Nov
04)
17. Can the media ever be relied upon to convey the truth? (Nov 03)
18. Should advertising be restricted in any way? (Nov 01)
19. 'A film has one purpose - to entertain.' Using examples, consider this view. (Nov 01)
20. Freedom of speech is a basic right as long as the speakers do not abuse it. Discuss. (Nov 98)
21. Films which have the greatest appeal are usually those which have the least value. By reference
to specific examples, consider how far this is a fair assessment. (Nov 97)
22. Compare the effectiveness of any TWO of the following as a means of news coverage: the radio,
television, newspapers. (Nov 97)
23. The media can largely be blamed for the world-wide increase in violence. To what extent do
you agree? (Nov 96)
24. To what extent should the private lives of public figures be the subject of media coverage? (Nov
95)
25. Television will eventually be the death of sport. Do you agree? (Nov 91)
26. Should the press be completely free? (Nov 91)
Raffles Institution
1. "Censorship protects the interests of the people." How far do you agree? (1988 Promos)
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2. How do advertisements affect our ways of thinking? (1989 Promos)

3. "In a world dominated by electronic media, the newspaper has largely lost its relevance." Do
you agree? (1989 Prelims)
4. Discuss the roles of censorship and the impact censorship has on society. (1989 Prelims)
5. What are the implications for society of the emergence of global television? (1991 Promos)
6. How far do the programmes you watch fulfil the beneficial potential of television? (1991
Promos)
7. "Television consists largely of mediocre programmes aimed at an easily satisfied audience."
Discuss. (1991 Prelims)
8. ''The mass media today provide little more than 'info-tainment'." Do you agree? (1992 JC2 CT1)
10. "Packaged rubbish for couch potatoes." Is this an accurate description of the television fare
screened in your country? (1992 JC2 CT 2)
11. Is Television ruining our children? (1992 Prelims)
12. ''The description of TV as the 'idiot box' has never been more appropriate." What is your view?
(1992 Promos)
13. ''The function of the media is no longer that of watchdog but of predator." Discuss. (1992
Promos)
14. Discuss the influence of television on politics. (1993 JC2 CT 2)
15. What effect does advertising have on society? (1993 Promos)
16. What characterises a good newspaper? (1993 Promos)
17. Are the fears of some countries regarding the introduction of satellite television justified?
(1993 Prelims)
18. "Television commercials defeat their purpose as they only succeed in irritating viewers."
Discuss with reference to your own country. (1994 JC2 CT 1)
19. "The best pictures are on the radio." Would you agree that the radio is a better
communication medium than the television? (1994 JC2 CT 2)
20. ''The US press used to boast that it would use 'all the news that's fit to print'; now, however, it
is the news that is unfit to print that sells newspapers." Discuss. (1994 Promos)
21. Discuss the likely benefits and potential drawbacks of the introduction of satellite television.
(1994 Promos)
22. The Mass Media: the bane or blessing of international sport? (1995 JC1 CT)
23. Should the Internet be banned? (1995 Promos)
25. What are the responsibilities of a national newspaper? (1996 Promos)
26. Is the private life of a public figure his own concern? (1995 Prelims)
27. People get the media they deserve. Discuss. (1997 JC2 CT 1)
28. "What the mass media offer is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be
consumed like food, forgotten and replaced with a new dish." (W.H. Auden) Do you agree?
(1997 Prelims)
29. What qualities are desirable in a good censor? (2001 Promos)
30. Reality TV caters to our worst tastes and is therefore of limited value. Do you agree with this
view? (2002 Promos)
31. Consider the view that pop music has three great lyrical themes sex, hate and a smarmy
version of brotherly love. (2002 Promos)
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32. "Governments didn't build the Internet, they don't own it, and they can't control it; they will
have to learn to live with this." What is your view on Internet censorship with reference to
your own country? (2002 Y6 CT 1)
33. Why bother to read the daily newspaper? (2003 JC2 CT 1)
34. Do you agree that teenagers are unfairly portrayed by the mass media? (2003 JC2 CT 2)
35. What do you understand by the phrase its a free country? (2003 Promos)
36. You deserve the media you get. How true is this statement? (2003 Prelims)
37. Can a weblog ever truly replace a personal diary? (2003 Prelims)
38. "Advertising - a clever mixture of flattery and threats." Discuss. (2004 JC1 CT)
39. In what ways do you think your national newspaper could be improved? (2004 JC2 CT 1)
40. Do you agree that reality-TV fulfils a human need? (2004 JC2 CT 1)
41. We are all slaves to the media. How far do you think this is true of our lives and experiences
today? (2004 JC2 CT 2)
42. The extent of state censorship reflects the level of maturity of a society. Discuss. (2004
Promos)
43. Does the media ever tell the truth? (2005 JC1 CT)
44. Is it true to say that nowadays the choice offered on television is little more than a wide
selection of trivial rubbish? (2005 JC2 CT 1)
45. The curse of our age is the cult of celebrity. Discuss. (2005 JC2 CT 1)
46. Reality TV programmes have made television a more democratic medium. Do you agree?
(2005 Y6 CT 2)
47. Blogging and podcasting have little worth beyond allowing the individual to indulge in
narcissistic exhibitionism. Do you agree? (2005 Prelims)
48. Is there any value in popular culture? (2005 Promos)
49. The great power of the media should be balanced by an equally great sense of responsibility.
Discuss. (2005 Promos)
50. Reality TV is all about style and not substance. Do you agree? (2006 Promos)
51. A profit-driven media is more vibrant than a government-regulated one. Discuss. (2006 JC1
CT)
52. Censorship is an insult to mans intelligence Discuss. (2006 JC1 CT)
53. The mass media today is too heavily influenced by commercial interests. Discuss. (2006 JC2
CT 1)
54. How far should the media be held responsible for the problems faced by young people today?
(2006 JC2 CT 2)
55. The greatest rival of newspapers today is the blogger. Discuss. (2006 Prelims)
56. Citizen journalism undermines the future of newspapers. Do you agree? (2007 JC1 CT)
57. You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. (Norman Douglas) Comment. (2007
JC1 Promo)
58. The media promotes empty spectacle and not true talent these days. Discuss. (2007 JC2 CT 1)
59. The Internet is the best thing that has happened to democracy in recent years. Discuss.
(2007 JC2 CT 2)
60. To what extent is cyber-gaming a healthy pursuit? (2007 Prelims)
61. Consider the impact of new media on the lifestyles of young people today. (2008 Promos)
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62. The mass media has distorted our understanding of what it means to be a true hero. Discuss.
(2008 JC2 CT 1)
63. Freedom of the press is no different from any of our so-called freedoms; it must be curtailed.
How far do you agree with the statement? (2008 JC2 CT 2)
64. The media have exaggerated the importance of sport. Do you agree? (2008 Prelims)
65. New forms of the media have made mainstream media redundant. Discuss. (2009 JC1 CT)
66. Advertising has evolved over the years, but not for the better. Do you agree? (2009 Promos)
67. Popular culture has destroyed the true meaning of love and marriage. Do you agree? (2009
JC2 CT 2)
68. The book is dead. Long live the Internet. Discuss. (2009 JC2 CT 2)
69. Style without substance. How far is this true of television programmes today? (2009
Prelims)
70. Should the arts ever be censored? (2010 Year 5 CT)
71. New media has made us more self-absorbed than ever before. Comment. (2010 Year 5 CT)
72. Pop culture is all about appearance. Is this a fair comment? (2010 Promos)
73. Whoever controls the media controls the world. To what extent do you agree? (2010 Promos)
74. Should nation-building be on the medias agenda? Discuss this with reference to your country.
(2010 Year 6 CT 1)
75. Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. Discuss
this with reference to your society. (2010 Year 6 CT 2)
76. The media does not require more freedom; rather it needs to exercise more responsibility.
To what extent do you agree with this statement? (2010 Year 6 CT 2)
77. The media works best when it gives the masses exactly what they want. Discuss. (2010
Prelims)
78. Is there still a place for public libraries in your society? (2010 Prelims)
79. Social media has changed the face of politics. To what extent is this true? (2011 Y5 CT)
80. Do you agree that the mass media should pursue responsibility and not profit? (2011 Promos)
81. To what extent does the media create mediocrity? (2011 Y6 CT1)
82. To what extent do you agree that the media has been a liberating force? (2011 Y6 CT2)
83. To what extent has new media changed the face of human interaction? (2011 Prelims)
84. Advertisements truly reflect what a society desires. Do you agree? (2011 Prelims)
85. New media is a new evil. Discuss. (2012 Y5 CT)
86. To what extent are young people in your society slaves to the mass media? (2012 Promo)
87. Privacy is dead, thanks to new media. To what extent do you think this is detrimental to
modern society? (2012 Y6 CT1)
88. Discuss the impact of new media on social cohesion in your society. (2012 Prelim)
89. Advertising reflects the values of society but does not influence them.(David Ogilvy) What
are your views? (2012 Prelim)
90. We should have the freedom to read and watch what we like. Comment. (2013 Y5 CT)
91. To what extent is social media a useful platform for change? (2013 Y5 CT)
92. With the emergence of new media, there is a greater need for censorship. How true is this of
your society? (Promo 2013)
93. Are bookstores still relevant in todays world? (Promo 2013)
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94. Assess the impact of foreign films or foreign TV programmes on the culture of your society.
(2013 Y6 CT1)
95. Public campaigns are rarely effective. To what extent is this true? (2013 Y6 CT2)
96. To what extent do advertisements have a negative effect on society? (Prelims 2013)
97. Censorship is both harmful and futile in todays society. Comment. (2014 Prelim)
98. To what extent have people given up their freedom for comfort? (2014 Prelim)
99. To what extent is fame overrated? (2014 Y6 CT2)
100. To what extent has new media made us poor communicators? (2014 Y6 CT2)
101. How far is the media responsible for promoting democracy in your society? (2014 Y6 CT1)
102. Is there any value in horror films and books? (2014 Y6 CT1)
103. The media is to blame for gender inequalities. Do you agree? (2014 Y5 CT1)
104. There is no such thing as privacy today. Comment. (2014 Y5 CT1)
105. The media needs to exercise more responsibility. Do you agree? (2015 Y5 CT1)
106. Are we overly dependent on digital technology? (2015 Y5 CT1)
107. Personal privacy and national security cannot co-exist. Comment. (2015 Y5 CT1)
108. Freedom of speech should be a privilege, not an entitlement. How far do you agree with this
statement? (2015 Y6 CT1)
109. It is better to be an entertainment celebrity than a politician today. What is your view? (2015
Y6 CT1)
110. With the rise of new media, censorship is needed now more than ever. Do you agree? (2015
Y6 CT2)
111. In the digital age do newspapers still have a role in society? (2015 Y6 Prelim)
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Reading 1: Media Making sense of it all
This reading will help you:

Define old vs new / mainstream vs non-mainstream / social vs new media
Examine the validity of some beliefs that you may have about such media
More critically evaluate some key issues associated with such media
1a. Old vs New

Descriptions about new media are often contrasted against what is seen as old media,
including media such as newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, hardcopy books, landline phones
and movies in the cinema. The hype around new media suggests that old media are becoming
increasingly less relevant, as users have begun to ignore or change what were seen as everyday
5 practices reading the daily paper in paper form, watching commercial television, using the
family phone to call a friend.
However, as these are media that still are very much present with us today and are also being
integrated into forms of new and social media, it is perhaps better to refer to them as
traditional media.
1b. Distribution makes the difference

10 Traditional media were and are analog forms of communication and require relatively complex
forms of distribution. For example, the distribution process for a traditional newspaper (e.g.
moving from the printing press to the delivery trucks to the local distributors) is a relatively
resource-intensive process. And this is all for a product that remains the same and cannot be
changed after being printed. The distribution for radio is not too different, with transmission
15 towers sending out content at one particular time with the potential that many people or no
one is listening to it at all.
New media changes the distribution process. Forms of new media are necessarily digital, with
communication broken up into digital bits and bytes and distributed through the internet,
mobile phones, digital receivers, etc. This has drastically reduced costs for communication and
20 the time frame for receiving the communication, as well as allowing the potential for
personalization. It has created significant problems for traditional media in terms of its
audience and revenue, and all of these traditional forms are often desperately trying to catch up
with and make use of new media.
1c. Is new media better?

In the process of making information and communication digital, new forms of media have
25 made the ability to store, share and work with information easier. Computers have of course
played an essential role in this, and it is the transition to technologies focused on use by the
consumer (as opposed to the original use of computers at workplaces, for instance) that is a
crucial element in new media.
These technologies are (relatively) affordable and simple to use, making the transmission of
30 information and communicating with friends, family and colleagues easy, fast, and reliable.
People now have the ability to share and distribute a lot of information about themselves and
their life, including personal information data and the music they listen to, videos of their
friends to pictures of their cat, ideas they have and plans they are making, preferences for food,
people, and music and places that they have been and are going.
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35 Whats important is to see that new media is a concept that incorporates all the technological
devices and programs that have made this change to digital information and distribution. It
includes Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, but it is also about e-books and downloading
movies and paying your concert ticket on-line and using Bluetooth to swap photos and having
your own website, things that may not necessarily be social at the outset.
1d. Mainstream media

40 Do not confuse old media (i.e. media in analog form) with mainstream media.
Mainstream media refer to media channels provided by national or global networks that are run
by established and relatively big corporations (e.g. BBC [UK]; CBS [US]; Singapore Press Holdings),
typically operating with a legal licence. Such corporations tend to have a clear, hierarchical
management structure and a large employee base (e.g. of journalists, marketing professionals,
45 human resource departments).
And far from using only old media, todays mainstream media giants typically leverage on
both old and new media platforms to deliver the news, provide advertising channels, etc.
These companies continue to thrive by strategically using both media forms, often symbiotically.
For example, traditional newspaper/TV/radio channels can provide key information and drive
50 readership/viewership to their online counterparts for additional content or for interactive
feedback from their audience i.e. to continue the story online, as it were. Conversely, online
posts by the public can lead mainstream media reporters to the next big story to be carried in
the headlines of the next days traditional print/TV/radio news coverage. It is not a zero-sum
game.
Activity + Discussion
Based on what youve read so far, come up with a media model that includes the key
components that are needed for communication (a key function of media) to take place.
1. How do these components differ between traditional and new media models?
2. Do these differences necessarily make new media better? In what ways might new
media be problematic?
2a. Social media: Subset of new media

55 Social media are forms of new media, but not all forms of new media are social media. Of
course, social media are part of the digitized sharing of information arguably the biggest and
most influential part, in many ways but still just a part.
While new media allows for sharing, the development of social media and its interactive
components has made the ability to comment, respond, share, critique, change and add to
60 information possible on a broad scale. It is the increased visibility of interaction, with largely
unfiltered peer-to-peer communication that cannot be easily controlled, that is central to social
media.
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Social media is necessarily interactive, focused on social connections. By this definition, a static
website that only sends information out and does not allow for responses may be a form of new
65 media, but is not a form of social media. In contrast, a blog that can be commented on and
shared with others is a form of social media.
Still, the distinction between new media and social media is not always very sharp. The fact that
someone can take a picture with a camera on their mobile phone, and that this photo can be
edited and put on a website, is a clear form of using new media. When the photo is put on Flickr
70 or Facebook, it is now a part of social media. The two are clearly interlinked, and more and more
new media devices and programs have a more social character.
2b. Social media Are organizations losing control?

If the two are so interconnected, why make this distinction? The reason is that the distinction
can be especially important for the strategic practices of organizations (which include
businesses, even governments). The social aspect of social media makes the intentions an
75 organization had for information more difficult to control and may require increasing attention
and work.
Proximity marketing, for instance that is using geolocation services to market to consumers
near one of your stores uses new media. The company has significant control over who gets
that message and when (and obviously where). In contrast, attempting to create a viral
80 marketing campaign by making a humorous or clever YouTube video that is passed on from
friend to friend is much less predictable. Plus it is easily subject to misinterpretation or creating
a negative image for the company. Similarly, using Twitter for customer care makes these
practices far more public than traditional responses to complaint letters or even e-mail. To put
it simply, using social media allows for some new and exciting possibilities, but it also limits the
85 control an organization has over its own practices including how and when and where its
message and information is distributed. These become subject to a different set of socio-
technical factors that are bound up in the systems and practices that surround social media.
Adapted excerpts from New media and social media Whats the difference? by Jason Pridmore, Annelies Falk,
Isolde Sprenkels
[http://www.academia.edu/1122278/New_media_and_social_media_-_whats_the_difference_v_2.0]
For discussion: Class

Do you agree that social media causes organizations to lose control? Can you think of
situations where organizations can use/have used social media to their benefit?
For discussion: Small groups

To what extent can social media empower the individual? What issues might there be in
such empowerment? Each group can focus on one of these aspects:
o Social activism
o Political engagement
o Learning/Education
o Consumer decisions
o Leisure activities
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Reading 2: Media and Gender Stereotyping
This reading will help you to:

Better understand the phenomenon and social implications of stereotyping
Examine the medias role in influencing the gender stereotypes that we may hold
More critically evaluate the impact that such influence may have
2a. Stereotyping and its effects

A stereotype is a belief about a category/group of people that is over-generalized, inaccurate,
and resistant to change. This belief is usually a negative one, resulting in a biased perception
(prejudice) that can lead to undesirable behaviour (discrimination) towards all persons of that
group.
5 For example, if one holds the stereotype that all students of ABC school are arrogant
(prejudice), one may make rude online comments about a student of that school or refuse to
offer him assistance, say, when he injures himself in public.
In the worst scenarios, holding a stereotype of a certain social group may lead to unfair
10 treatment of a certain group, warped notions and expectations of persons belonging to that
group, self-esteem issues among those who belong in that group, and even acts of hatred and
violence against them. Such behaviour could have ripple effects on factors such as personal
safety, social mobility, and even government policy that may impact a nations socio-economic
and political stability, which in turn could have wider global repercussions.
15 It is therefore important to consider where we may derive stereotyped notions from, and
research has shown that the mass media can be one powerful source of introducing and
reinforcing skewed perceptions.
2b. Media (mis)representation of gender

(i) Of women
In both quantity and quality, there is still a long way to go for media representations of women.
In terms of quantity, the media is still a long way from reflecting reality: women represent 49
20 per cent of humanity while female characters make up only 32 per cent of the main characters
on TV, as shown by a broad survey done in 2008 by Maya Gtz of the International Central
Institute for Youth and Educational Television. The media industry justifies this disparity by
arguing that it is easier for girls than boys to identify with characters of the opposite sex. Gtz
argues that this argument reverses cause and effect, saying that it is the lack of female
25 characters on TV that leads to the higher popularity of male characters.
Quality-wise, the media still conform to a stereotyped image of women. Gtzs study identifies a
number of gender stereotypes found around the world. In general, girls and women are
motivated by love and romance, appear less independent than boys, and are stereotyped
according to their hair colour (blondes, for example, fall into two categories: the girl next door
30 or the blonde b***h; redheads are nearly always conventionally attractive, thinner than
average women in real life, and heavily sexualized (oddly, even as redheads are often portrayed
as tomboys).
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Magazines are the only medium where girls are over-represented. However, their content is
overwhelmingly focused on topics such as appearance, dating, and fashion.
35 Research indicates that these mixed messages from media make it difficult for girls to negotiate
the transition to adulthood, with confidence dropping in the pre-teen years as they begin to
base their feelings of self-worth more and more heavily on appearance and weight.
In a landmark 1998 study, American psychologist Carol Gilligan suggests that this happens
because of the widening gap between girls self-images and societys messages about what girls
40 should be like. Likewise, Children Now (a California-based advocacy organisation promoting
childrens health and education) points out that girls are surrounded by images of female beauty
that are unrealistic and unattainable. And yet two out of three girls who participated in their
national media survey said they wanted to look like a character on TV. One out of three said
they had changed something about their appearance to resemble that character.
45 In 2002, researchers at Flinders University in South Australia studied 400 teenagers regarding
how they relate to advertising. They found that girls who watched TV commercials featuring
underweight models lost self-confidence and became more dissatisfied with their own bodies.
Girls who spent the most time and effort on their appearance suffered the greatest loss in
confidence.
50 The hyper-sexualization of very young girls, most notably in fashion and advertising, is another
disturbing trend, given that these stereotypes make up most of the representations of
themselves which girls and women see in the media. The most cursory examination of media
confirms that young girls are being bombarded with images of sexuality, often dominated by
stereotypical portrayals of women and girls as powerless, passive victims. The pressures on girls
55 are exacerbated by the medias increasing tendency to portray very young girls in sexual ways,
with the fashion industry being a major driver of this trend.
As these girls become teenagers, many choose to tune out, but others maintain a hungry
appetite for these messages. And research has shown that those who continue to consume such
media images tend to have the most negative opinion of their gender.
(ii) Of men
60 Mainstream media representations play a role in reinforcing ideas about what it means to be a
real man in our society. In most media portrayals, male characters are rewarded for self-
control and the control of others, aggression and violence, financial independence, and
physical desirability.
In 1999, Children Now, a California-based organization that examines the impact of media on
65 children and youth, released a report entitled Boys to Men: Media Messages about Masculinity.
The report observes that:
The majority of male characters in media are heterosexual.
The medias portrayal of men tends to reinforce mens social dominance.
Male characters are more often associated with the public sphere of work, rather than
70 the private sphere of the home, and issues and problems related to work are more
significant than personal issues.
Non-white male characters are more likely to experience personal problems and are more
likely to use physical aggression or violence to solve those problems.
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A more recent study found similar patterns in how male characters were portrayed in childrens
75 television around the world: Boys are portrayed as tough, powerful, and either as a loner or
leader, while girls were most often shown as depending on boys to lead them and being most
interested in romance.
These portrayals are of particular concern when it comes to young boys, who may be more
influenced by media images than girls. In the 2008 article Media and the Make-Believe Worlds
80 of Boys and Girls, Maya Gtz and Dafna Lemish note that boys tend to incorporate media
content into their own imaginations wholesale, taking it in, assimilating it, and
thendream[ing] themselves into the position of their heroes and experience a story similar to
the one in the original medium.
The portrayal and acceptance of men by the media as socially powerful and physically violent
85 serve to reinforce assumptions about how men and boys should act in society, how they should
treat each other, as well as how they should treat women and children.
2c. Stereotyping of men in advertising

In his analysis of gender in advertising, University of North Texas professor Steve Craig argues
that women tend to be presented as rewards for men who choose the right product. He
90 contends that these commercials operate at the level of fantasy presenting idealized
portrayals of men and women. When he focused specifically on beer commercials, Craig found
that the men were invariably virile, slim and white (and the women always eager for male
companionship).
95 University of Kentucky academic Susan Bordo has also analyzed gender in advertising, and
agrees that men are usually portrayed as virile, muscular and powerful. Their powerful bodies
dominate space in the ads. (For women, the focus is on slenderness, dieting, and attaining a
feminine ideal; women are always presented as not just thin, but also weak and vulnerable.)
Clearly, just as traditional advertising has for decades sexually objectified women and their
100 bodies, todays marketing campaigns are objectifying men in the same way. Research and
anecdotal reports from doctors suggest that this new focus on fit and muscled male bodies is
causing men the same anxiety and personal insecurity that women have felt for decades.
2d. Stereotyping of women in news coverage

Women professionals and athletes continue to be under-represented in news coverage, and are
105 often stereotypically portrayed when they are included.
(i) Women, News and Politics

Although there has been a steady increase in the number of women professionals over the past
20 years, most mainstream press coverage continues to rely on men as experts in the fields of
business, politics and economics. Women in the news are more likely to be featured in stories
110 about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional
abilities or expertise.
Women in politics are similarly sidelined. Canadian journalist Jenn Goddu discovered that
journalists tend to focus on the domestic aspects of the politically active womans life (such as
details about the high heels stashed in her bag, her habit of napping in the early evening, and
115 her lack of concern about whether or not she is considered ladylike) rather than her position on
the issues.
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Quebec political analyst Denis Monire uncovered similar patterns. In analyzing 83 late evening
newscasts on three national networks, he observed that womens views were solicited mainly in
the framework of average citizens and rarely as experts, and that political or economic success
120 stories were overwhelmingly masculine. Monire also noted that the number of female
politicians interviewed was disproportionate to their number in parliament; nor, he noted, was
this deficiency in any way compensated for by the depth and quality of coverage.
Inadequate womens coverage seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. In 2006 the Association
of Women Journalists (Association des femmes journalistes AFJ) studied news coverage of
125 women and womens issues in 70 countries. It reported that only 17 per cent of stories quote
women; one in 14 women was presented as a victim (compared to one in 21 men) and one in
five women was shown in the context of her family (compared to one in 16 men).
Professor Caryl Rivers notes that politically active women are often disparaged and stereotyped
by the media. When Hillary Clinton was still first lady, she was referred to as a witch or
130 witchlike at least 50 times in the press. Rivers writes: Male political figures may be called
mean and nasty names, but those words dont usually reflect superstition and dread. Did the
press ever call Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, or Clinton warlocks?
(ii) Women and Sports

Women athletes are also given short shrift in the media. Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Michael
135 Messner studied sports coverage on three network affiliates in Los Angeles. They report that
only nine per cent of airtime was devoted to womens sports, in contrast to the 88 per cent
devoted to male athletes. Female athletes fared even worse on ESPNs national sports
show Sports Center, where they occupied just over two per cent of airtime.
Duncan notes that commentators (97 per cent of whom are men) use different language when
140 they talk about female athletes. Where men are described as big, strong, brilliant, gutsy
and aggressive, women are more often referred to as weary, fatigued, frustrated,
panicked, vulnerable and choking. Commentators are also twice as likely to call men by
their last names only, and three times as likely to call women by their first names only. Duncan
argues that this reduces female athletes to the role of children, while giving adult status to
145 white male athletes.
Media images of women in sports are also very different from the familiar pictures of male
athletes in action. Female athletes are increasingly photographed in what Professor Pat Griffin
calls hyper-sexualized poses. Griffin notes: When it was once enough to feminize women
athletes, now it is necessary to sexualize them for men. Instead of hearing, I am woman, hear
150 me roar, we are hearing I am hetero-sexy, watch me strip.
Sources:
Media Smarts Media and Girls @ http://mediasmarts.ca/gender-representation/women-and-
girls/media-and-girls
Media Smarts Men and Masculinity @ http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-
issues/gender-representation/men-masculinity]
For discussion:
1. What gender stereotypes have you come across in other popular mainstream media
forms (e.g. movies, TV shows, music videos)?
2. What other kinds of stereotypes (especially negative ones) do mass media perpetuate?
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3. What kind of wider impact (i.e. beyond the personal domain) do/might these stereotypes
have on societies?
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Reading 3: Media teaches bad values to your children

Adapted from an article by Dr Jim Taylor, University of San Francisco (Huffington Post, 9 Nov 2012)

Consider the negative impact that media messages can have on values of the young
Evaluate the specific role of new media as a causal factor
Understand how such impact on values might have undesirable personal & social
consequences
Note: This reading can be compared with the next (Kaplan) for reflection & class discussion.
How powerful and toxic are the messages about values that children are receiving from
popular media today? According to a large body of research, the answer is "very". Though
Im obviously making a judgment on what good and bad values are, I dont think many
parents would disagree with the values that I believe arent healthy for children.
1. Success at any cost

5 An unsettling aspect of the medias perspective on success is its imperative that success
must be achieved at any cost. This causes children to believe that they need to succeed in
our culturally-defined ways to be esteemed by society, peers and, most sadly, by their
parents and themselves. When that need is combined with growing up in a culture of greed,
fraud and the absence of culpability, they learn that they can use any and all means to attain
10 that success.
This culture of avarice not only tolerates, but also encourages this win at all costs
mentality by modelling and messaging dishonesty, cheating, manipulation and back
stabbing. Examples of this distorted view of success abound in our culture. Reality TV
relishes lying and deception. Sport has seen the proliferation of illegal performance-
15 enhancing drugs among star athletes who are revered by young athletes.
This the ends justify the means attitude is starkly evident among high school
students. Recent surveys found that 75 percent of high school students admitted to
cheating in the previous 12 months, as compared to only 25 percent in 1963 and 50 percent
in 1993. The rationales that students use to justify their cheating are disturbing, for
20 example, I actually think cheating is good. A person who has an entirely honest life cant
succeed these days; "We know that we are almost completely judged on our grades. They
are so important that we will sacrifice our own integrity to make a good impression"; and "I
believe cheating is not wrong. People expect us to keep a 4.0 GPA, not go crazy and turn in
all our work the next day. What are we supposed to do, fail?"
25
This "just win, baby" message can also be life-threatening. Recent research indicates that
between four and 12 percent of high school male athletes said they had taken steroids.
Pressure to make varsity teams, receive college scholarships, and pursue the dream of
professional success compels many young athletes to take drastic steps to improve
30 performance. These athletes are heavily influenced by professional athletes who act as
their role models. They see that the benefits of steroid use are significant and the
consequences of being caught are minimal. The invincibility that many teenagers feel
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precludes them from considering the health risks of steroid use, including infertility, high
blood pressure, liver damage and prostate cancer. Young athletes also ignore the
35 psychological and emotional dangers of steroid use, for example, hyper-aggressiveness or
roid rage, irritability and, upon discontinuation, depression, lethargy and feelings of
hopelessness.
Technology now enables young people to cheat more creatively, with less effort and with
less chance of getting caught. For example, students can now plagiarize written assignments
40 with ease from the wealth of information on any subject they can find on the Internet.
There are also websites from which students can purchase papers rather than actually write
them.
Research has also found a "social contagion" effect in which young people are more likely to
cheat when around others who cheat. Before the recent advancements in technology, the
45 circle of contagions to which young people were exposed was quite small (e.g. a group of
friends or a sports team). The Internet now exposes children to a much wider and more
diverse range of contagions, from peers to professional athletes to politicians to
businesspeople. The messages from many of those contagions tell children that everyone
cheats, its OK to cheat, and they must cheat if they are going to keep up with those who are
50 already cheating. And disturbingly, research indicates that those who cheat early in life are
more likely to cheat later in life, for example, by lying to customers, bosses or significant
others; overstate insurance claims; and falsify tax returns.
With so much of our culture sending messages through its technological conduits to your
children that its okay to lie, cheat, steal, be irresponsible and act selfishly, how can your
55 children not come to the conclusion that such behaviour is not only perfectly acceptable,
but absolutely necessary to find success in life?
2. Wealth and Materialism

The pursuit of wealth and material goods for their own sake, or in the belief that they will
offer something deeper and meaningful, is a fantasy foisted on parents and children alike by
popular media to meet its own profit-driven ends.
60 Our culture does its best to convince people that wealth and materialism will make them
happier, more attractive and popular, and of higher status. Yet, research shows that it has
quite the opposite effect: people who value high financial success are less happy, have
lower self-esteem, are more depressed and anxious, and have less healthy relationships.
Unfortunately, in the battle between popular culture and the facts, popular culture is
65 winning and its influence has trickled down to children.
Children these days are inundated by media messages of wealth and materialism: from
celebrity magazines that feature mansions and expensive cars, to start-up millionaires (and
even billionaires) in their 20s, to reality TV shows in which ordinary people get rich with
little talent or effort. Children get the message early and often that they way to distinguish
70 themselves is with money and stuff. These messages, combined with the anything is
possible messages that children get from our culture, convey that wealth and material
possessions are not only important, but also attainable. Its no surprise, then, that a recent
survey revealed that 81 percent of young people rate "getting rich" as their first or second
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most important goal. There is not, however, any accompanying messages about what it
75 actually takes to make money or any discussion of the problems that come from valuing too
much the acquisition of wealth.
Popular culture also has an impact on whether children come to value wealth and
materialism. Most of the research has focused on television advertising, and those findings
are clear: Children who are exposed to more advertising are more materialistic. They also
80 ask their parents to buy more things, and those requests lead to more parent-child conflict.
Moreover, materialism is negatively related to pro-social values and behaviour and to self-
esteem.
Strategies for marketing products to children using so-called old media notably television
and radio, include repetition (e.g. repeating the same commercial during cartoons),
85 branded characters (e.g. Tony the Frosties Tiger, Capn Crunch), catchy slogans (e.g.
"Theyre grrreat!" Tony the Tiger), merchandising tie-ins (e.g. SpongeBob SquarePants,
Shrek), and giveaways (e.g. Cracker Jack: "A prize in every box"). The advent of new media
in the last decade has allowed popular culture to create supersystems that include websites
(e.g. Candystand sponsored by Kraft), YouTube videos, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, video
90 games, tracking software and spyware, online and video games and viral and stealth
marketing that exposes children to even more undue influence on their values.
3. Fame
A recent UCLA study analyzed the values expressed on the most popular television shows
among tweens (children ages 9-11) every decade from 1967 to 2007. The results revealed
little change in values presented on the shows between 1967 and 1997, during which time
95 the five most expressed values according to researchers were community feeling,
benevolence, tradition, image and popularity and the five least expressed values
were fame, physical fitness, hedonism, spiritualism and financial success. Only
during the most recent decade did a dramatic shift in values occur. The new top-five values
were fame, achievement, popularity, image and financial success (with self-
100 centeredness and power close behind) and latest bottom-five values were spiritualism,
tradition, security, conformity and benevolence (with community feeling to
follow).
An additional analysis of the data revealed a significant increase from 1997 to 2007 in the
centrality of fame to the main characters in the television shows. Related values that also
105 increased substantially included ambition, comparison to others, attention seeking,
conceitedness, glamour and materialism.
Given that the findings described in this research were not a gradual shift across the
decades studied but rather an abrupt change only in that last decade, the results cant
readily be attributed to demographic patterns related to increased wealth or education.
110 Instead, the most dramatic change, and the likely cause of these results, is the rapid and all-
encompassing emergence of new technology that has given popular culture new and
startling reach and influence.
The programming through which these value messages are being communicated to your
children is growing by the year. Since that UCLA study, more televisions shows aimed at the
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115 tween audience are being produced, including Big Time Rush, True Jackson and iCarly. In
fact, seven out of the top ten shows aimed at tweens are about teenagers who have
achieved fame with careers in entertainment. Not surprisingly, all of these shows send the
same message: fame is the singular goal and it can apparently be achieved with little
preparation or hard work.
120 Of course, you could argue that just because popular media is sending value messages to
children doesnt mean that theyre paying attention to them, much less internalizing them.
Unfortunately, preliminary research by the same investigators examining this question
indicates that children are getting the message from popular culture. According to this new
study, fame is now the number-one aspirational value among children 9 to 11 years
125 old. Another survey of children under 10 years of age found that, among their ten favourite
things, being famous, attractive and rich topped the list and being fat topped the list of
worst things.
Should you be alarmed by this dramatic shift in the content of popular media? Absolutely! Is
there any way for you to exert influence to reverse this destructive trend at a societal level?
Probably not, as the forces supporting these messages are powerful. All you as a parent can
do is educate yourself about these unhealthy influences on your children and do your best
to limit their exposure to those messages and expose to them to positive values that will
counteract the bad ones. And, perhaps most important, dont allow yourself to be seduced
by these harmful messages.
For discussion:
Which of the 3 toxic messages was/is most prevalent in the media youve
consumed?
What effects mentioned in the article have you noticed among young Singaporeans?
What factors in your society might be able to mitigate these effects & to what extent?
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Reading 4: Is media violence damaging to kids?

By Sasha Emmons (CNN, 21 Feb 2013)
In this article, you will learn about:

The impact of media violence on young peoples behaviour.
Problems with current research to determine whether media violence leads to real-life
violence.
Is there a connection between violence in the media and real-life violence?
With every school shooting, like December's horrific massacre in Newtown, questions about
guns in media and their connection to real-life violence bubble to the surface again. After all,
there have been reports that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza was a fan of the ultra-bloody Call
of Duty video game series.
5 But almost 13 years after Columbine, the connection is still murky. What does research really
say about the connection between our kids and the gun-heavy imagery they see on screens?
What -- and how much -- should parents do to mitigate aggressive copycat behaviour?
THE "STAR WARS" PROBLEM

It was not my proudest parenting moment. It was movie night and my 7-year-old daughter,
Chloe, was begging for Star Wars. She'd seen it before and seemed to take its gore-free violence
10 in stride. The problem was my 3-year-old son, Julian, who through the movies' massive licensing
reach, was already familiar with a galaxy far, far away. He already knew who Chewbacca was;
would it really be so bad for him to see the actual movie?
He started pew-pew-pew-ing the next day.
Julian turned everything (Tinker Toys, tennis rackets, you name it) into a pretend gun and
15 started running around the house like a pint-size Han Solo taking down Storm Troopers.
With the events of Newtown still fresh in my mind, I was horrified. We purposely don't have any
toy guns in the house, save a few squirt guns, but that didn't seem to matter. With just one
exposure, my baby had morphed into a gun nut.
Was Julian just being a typical boy, or on the precipice of a slippery slope? "There's a certain
20 amount of cowboys-and-Indians-type play and sorting through good guys and bad guys that is
very normal at Julian's age," says Gwenn O'Keeffe, M.D., CEO of Paediatrics Now and a member
of Parenting's advisory board. "We have to allow for some normal child role-playing that lets
kids sort out good versus evil and what's acceptable in society."
Sure, it's normal, but is it healthy? Researchers who study TV's effect on kids say this black-and-
25 white view offered by the TV world can cripple kids living in a grey real world. "If a child sees
himself as the 'good guy,' then anyone who disagrees with him must be a 'bad guy' -- and this
black-and-white thinking doesn't leave much room for trying to see it from the other side, or
working out a win-win compromise," says Michelle Garrison, investigator at Seattle Children's
Research Institute Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development. "On the other hand, if a
30 child starts seeing himself as a 'bad guy,' then it may no longer feel like it's about choices and
actions that can change."
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THE LATEST RESEARCH

It's virtually impossible to keep your kid in a violence-free bubble. "Ninety percent of movies, 68%
of video games, and 60% of TV shows show some depictions of violence," says Caroline Knorr,
35 parenting editor for Common Sense Media, the online resource for vetting kids media. Kids 8
and under watch an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes of TV or DVDs a day; older kids watch an
average of 4 hours daily. Most kids start playing video games around age 4, according to their
research.
Yet for all that exposure, we don't know much about what those images do to kids' brains or
40 psyches. The research on the amount of violence consumed by kids is woefully out of date and
incomplete, says Knorr. Could playing gory games like HALO or watching violent movies turn a
kid into Adam Lanza? "The best we are able to ascertain is that there's no one single factor that
can make a non-violent person act violently. But prolonged exposure to violence in media is a
risk factor. And it's kids who have multiple risk factors who are likeliest to behave aggressively,"
45 explains Knorr. Media experts hope that the task force on guns led by Vice President Joe Biden,
which includes discussions with the entertainment and gaming industries, could fuel more
research.
TELEVISIONS AND MOVIES

"With both preschool and school-aged children, studies have found that they are more likely to
50 imitate the violence they see on screen if someone they see as a 'good guy' is using the violence
to solve a problem, especially if there are no realistic consequences for the violence," says
Garrison. Think Spider-Man and a bad guy smashing into the side of a building, but both appear
unhurt and keep on fighting.
A new study published today in Paediatrics, the medical journal of the American Academy of
55 Paediatrics, found that viewing shows in which cooperation and empathy are emphasized
(instead of shows that demonstrate aggression) can improve behaviour in 3- to 5-year-olds in
just 6 months.
Scary images can spook kids even as they are drawn to them. "With toddlers and preschool-
aged children, everything can seem much more immediate -- and so seeing violence on TV can
60 leave them feeling like their world is a scary place, where things like that might happen at any
moment," says Garrison. "In our research, we've seen that sleep problems like nightmares and
trouble falling asleep go up in preschool children even when the violence they're seeing on TV is
comic cartoon violence, suggesting that there really isn't such a thing as 'safe media violence' at
this age." Look for shows with a rating of TV-Y, which are virtually violence-free, on the
65 channel's web site or your local TV listings.
Quantity is key. Another new study from New Zealand, also published today in Paediatrics,
found that excessive TV watching in childhood and adolescence (we're talking 3+ hours a day) is
associated with an increased risk of criminal convictions and anti-social behaviour in young
adults. The AAP recommends no screen time for kids under 2, and no more than 1-2 hours for
70 kids preschool age on up.
Age seven or eight is a turning point, what experts refer to as "the age of reason." While kids
under seven have a difficult time distinguishing between fantasy and reality, older kids get that
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slapstick violence is funny because it's happening in a way that never could in real life, says
Garrison (think Wile E. Coyote going over a cliff and emerging without a scratch in the next
75 scene). Although it can make parents squirm to see their kids giggle at someone getting hurt, it's
the disconnect from the way things really work that makes it funny, and doesn't mean they'd
laugh at a friend's injury in real life. Kids this age also grasp the concept of special effects.
However, they're still not old enough to handle realistic depictions of violence, so look for shows
rated TV-Y7. These shows feature only mild comic or fantasy violence, la Wile E. Coyote.
VIDEO GAMES
80 The research on video games, especially first-person shooter games, is much more scarce since
they have not been around as long as TV, making long-term studies difficult. A recent meta-
analysis in 2010 of 12 earlier studies found a link between time spent playing bloody video
games and violent behaviour later in life. A 2004 study in the Journal of Adolescence showed
that video games, because of their physical activity and be-the-character interactivity,
85 desensitized kids to violence even more than TV. However, other studies have failed to show a
link between violent video game exposure and aggression.
Also, most studies have focused on normal kids, not those with existing mental problems. A
2011 study found that gamers who had lower social competence and great impulsiveness had
an increased risk of becoming pathological gamers. While playing video games can be a coping
90 mechanism for a child who's already experiencing depression or anxiety, the study's authors
suggest gaming can also increase those problems. Like TV, more research needs to be done,
especially on kids with risk factors like mental illness or violence in the home.
Cheryl Olson, author of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games,
believes many of the dire predictions about kids and video games are overblown. "Violent crime
95 has been decreasing for the last five years, according to the FBI. So why would we be seeing that
if there was a monkey-see, monkey-do effect going on with video games, which are increasing?"
she says.
For discussion:
1. The author suggests that more research needs to be conducted to determine whether
there is a link between violent video games and aggressive behaviour (line 40). Read the
article Shooting in the Dark by Benedict Carey (The New York Times, 11 February 2013)
to find out more about the three types of research conducted today. Critically analyse the
findings of these studies. Offer one criticism of the methodologies employed in these
studies.
2. Media experts are hoping that politicians can influence greater research in this area (line
45). To what extent is the involvement of politicians desirable? Could there be a danger
of the research evidence being divided down party lines?
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Reading 5: Can media really affect behaviour?

Adapted from the article What If We Really Knew What Media Does To Us by Marty Kaplan, USC
Annenberg professor & Norman Lear Center director (Huffington Post, 5 May 2014)

Critically question whether media really has a direct, powerful impact on values and
behaviour
Consider whether, conversely, our values influence how we consume media
Recognize the complexities involved in media regulation (which includes censorship)
What if we knew that the fictional rapes in HBOs mega-hit Game of Thrones caused
real rapes in the real world? What if we knew that the portrayals of gay characters in
Modern Family caused actual states to legalize same-sex marriage?
The catch, of course, is causation. Medical research can prove that cigarettes cause cancer,
5 but the best social scientists can do is to say whether theres a correlation, or not,
between media and behaviour. And sometimes even that isnt clear.
When you comb communication research for evidence for or against a correlation between
violent video games and violent behaviour, for example, you can find enough on both sides
to muddy any conclusion. Yet, this doesnt correspond with our experience. For example, as
10 Jane Mayer reported in The New Yorker, the dean of West Point, along with three of the
most experienced military and FBI interrogators in the country, flew to Hollywood to tell the
creative team behind counter-terrorist TV series 24 that his students, despite being told
by their teachers and textbooks that torture is wrong and doesnt work, were learning the
opposite lesson from Kiefer Sutherlands character, Jack Bauer.
15 There wouldnt be an advertising industry if people werent susceptible to messages. POM

Wonderful1 wouldnt rent billboards promising (falsely) to prevent prostate cancer; the
fossil fuel industry wouldnt spend millions on spots claiming (falsely) to produce clean
energy; candidates wouldnt fork over billions of dollars to local TV stations for (pants-on-
fire) political ads if all their money could buy were some wispy correlation.
20 Anecdotes arent data, and theres always the risk that a confirmation bias a stacking of
the evidentiary deck is at work in citing examples like these. But it would be odd to ignore
what Uncle Toms Cabin did to abolish slavery; what On the Beach 2 did to increase
awareness of the threat of nuclear war; what Fox News narratives are doing to undermine
the scientific consensus on climate change.
25 Today, because so much content is consumed digitally and shared socially, and because
there is so much data to be mined about our knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, there
now exists an unprecedented opportunity to quantify the impact of media. It wont be a
true science of cause-and-effect until neurobiology makes some big leaps forward, but the
1
A private company in the US selling beverages and fruit extracts. Its main product is pomegranate juice.
2
1957 post-apocalyptic novel by British-Australian author Neville Shute.
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methods and tools for measuring the differences that media make are dramatically evolving,
30 with consequences that are both encouraging and discomfiting.
What if it were possible to fine-tune the content, marketing and distribution of a

documentary or news story to maximize its impact on a target audience? What if a soap
opera or a telenovela, a Bollywood feature or a Nigerian video, a Chinese social media site
or an American advertising campaign, were able to finely calibrate their effects on what
35 people knew, believed and did after they encountered them?
The answer depends on what moral and political values you hold. I think that family
planning, vaccination, voting, access to health care, human rights, renewable energy and
sustainable agriculture are public goods, and that promoting them makes the world a better
place. If media can improve the odds that the societal needle moves in those directions, Im
40 all for it.
But other people may think that ethnic cleansing, consumerism, state censorship, fracking 3,
machismo, oligarchy and theocracy are good things; they would call the content I favour
propaganda, and I would return the favour. One persons pro-social media is another
persons psyops4 and agitprop5. If you increase the power of media to move audiences, you
45 do it for white hats and black hats alike.
That worries me. Im also concerned about the potential consequences for freedom of
expression, especially artistic expression. What would happen if data demonstrated
beyond a reasonable doubt that parts of our popular culture were toxic that the
connections between song lyrics and misogyny, video games and violence, rape on TV and
50 rape on campuses and in the military, were as strong as the connections between air
pollution and asthma, coal ash and birth defects, fluorocarbon gases and skin cancer?
We have laws banning child pornography and marketing cigarettes to kids. How would we
regulate entertainment found to be harmful without turning good intentions into a witch-
hunt, without pulling art from museum walls and literature from library shelves? How would
55 we draw a line between news that covers violence and hatred, and news that incites
violence and hatred? I do want a world where my kind of do-gooders have more tools to
increase the good they do, but not at the cost of empowering algorithms that score media
against someone elses idea of a moral yardstick.
I come down on the upside of this dilemma. Ive cast my lot with efforts to use media to
60 repair the world and to improve how we measure their effectiveness. But when it comes to
the mystery of how words and images affect what people know, what they feel and how
they behave, theres always something to be said for a little pre-emptive paranoia.
For discussion:
3
The process of drilling down into the earth and using high-pressure water to release shale gas from rocks. Despite
revolutionizing the energy industry, fracking is controversial as it has prompted environmental concerns
4
Truncation of psychological operations, planned operations by the US military to convey information that can
strategically influence emotions, reasoning and behaviour of governments, organizations, groups and individuals.
5
Truncation of agitation and propaganda, political propaganda propagated chiefly via literature, drama, music or art.
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Kaplan (in contrast to Taylor in the previous reading) asserts that media messages can
be a means of encouraging desirable, constructive, pro-social values. Whose views do
you find more compelling, and why?
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Reading 6: Why privacy matters

By Alessandro Acquisti (TED Talk, June 2013)

The technologies used to infer sensitive and private personal information from publicly
shared personal information
The trade-offs from giving away and not protecting our privacy on social media
The ways one can be nudged into disclosing personal data online
What would a world without secrets look like?
I would like to tell you a story connecting the notorious privacy incident involving Adam and Eve,
and the remarkable shift in the boundaries between public and private which has occurred in
the past 10 years. You know the incident. Adam and Eve one day in the Garden of Eden realize
they are naked. They freak out. And the rest is history.
5 Nowadays, Adam and Eve would probably act differently:
[@Adam Last nite was a blast! loved dat apple LOL]
[@Eve Yep... Hey, know what happened to my wallet tho?]
We do reveal so much more information about ourselves online than ever before, and so much
information about us is being collected by organizations. Now there is much to gain and benefit
10 from this massive analysis of personal information, or big data, but there are also complex
tradeoffs that come from giving away our privacy. And my story is about these tradeoffs.
We start with an observation which, in my mind, has become clearer and clearer in the past few
years, that any personal information can become sensitive information. Back in the year 2000,
about 100 billion photos were shot worldwide, but only a minuscule proportion of them were
15 actually uploaded online. In 2010, only on Facebook, in a single month, 2.5 billion photos were
uploaded, most of them identified. In the same span of time, computers' ability to recognize
people in photos improved by three orders of magnitude. What happens when you combine
these technologies together: increasing availability of facial data; improving facial recognizing
ability by computers; but also cloud computing, which gives anyone in this theater the kind of
20 computational power which a few years ago was only the domain of three-letter agencies; and
ubiquitous computing, which allows my phone, which is not a supercomputer, to connect to the
Internet and do there hundreds of thousands of face metrics in a few seconds? Well, we
conjecture that the result of this combination of technologies will be a radical change in our very
notions of privacy and anonymity.
25 To test that, we did an experiment on Carnegie Mellon University campus. We asked students
who were walking by to participate in a study, and we took a shot with a webcam, and we asked
them to fill out a survey on a laptop. While they were filling out the survey, we uploaded their
shot to a cloud-computing cluster, and we started using a facial recognizer to match that shot to
a database of some hundreds of thousands of images which we had downloaded from Facebook
30 profiles. By the time the subject reached the last page on the survey, the page had been
dynamically updated with the 10 best matching photos which the recognizer had found, and we
asked the subjects to indicate whether he or she found themselves in the photo.
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So essentially, we can start from an anonymous face, offline or online, and we can use facial
recognition to give a name to that anonymous face thanks to social media data. But a few years
35 back, we did something else. We started from social media data, we combined it statistically
with data from U.S. government social security, and we ended up predicting social security
numbers, which in the United States are extremely sensitive information.
Do you see where I'm going with this? So if you combine the two studies together, then the
question becomes, can you start from a face and, using facial recognition, find a name and
40 publicly available information about that name and that person, and from that publicly available
information infer non-publicly available information, much more sensitive ones which you link
back to the face? And the answer is, yes, we can, and we did. But in fact, we even decided to
develop an iPhone app which uses the phone's internal camera to take a shot of a subject and
then upload it to a cloud and then do what I just described to you in real time: looking for a
45 match, finding public information, trying to infer sensitive information, and then sending back to
the phone so that it is overlaid on the face of the subject, an example of augmented reality,
probably a creepy example of augmented reality. In fact, we didn't develop the app to make it
available, just as a proof of concept.
In fact, take these technologies and push them to their logical extreme. Imagine a future in
50 which strangers around you will look at you through their Google Glasses or, one day, their
contact lenses, and use seven or eight data points about you to infer anything else which may
be known about you. What will this future without secrets look like? And should we care?
We may like to believe that the future with so much wealth of data would be a future with no
more biases, but in fact, having so much information doesn't mean that we will make decisions
55 which are more objective. In another experiment, we presented to our subjects information
about a potential job candidate. We included in this information some references to some
funny, absolutely legal, but perhaps slightly embarrassing information that the subject had
posted online. Now interestingly, among our subjects, some had posted comparable
information, and some had not. Which group do you think was more likely to judge harshly our
60 subject? Paradoxically, it was the group who had posted similar information, an example of
moral dissonance.
Now you may be thinking: this does not apply to me, because I have nothing to hide. But in fact,
privacy is not about having something negative to hide. Imagine that you are the H.R. director
of a certain organization, and you receive rsums, and you decide to find more information
65 about the candidates. Therefore, you Google their names and in a certain universe, you find this
information (image of a young woman). Or in a parallel universe, you find this information
(image of a pregnant young woman). Do you think that you would be equally likely to call either
candidate for an interview? If you think so, then you are not like the U.S. employers who are, in
fact, part of our experiment. We created Facebook profiles, manipulating traits, then we started
70 sending out rsums to companies in the U.S., and we monitored, whether they were searching
for our candidates, and whether they were acting on the information they found on social
media. And they were. Discrimination was happening through social media for equally skilled
candidates.
Now marketers like us to believe that all information about us will always be used in a manner
75 which is in our favor. But think again. Why should that be always the case? In a movie which
came out a few years ago, "Minority Report," a famous scene had Tom Cruise walk in a mall and
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holographic personalized advertising would appear around him. Now, that movie is set in 2054,
about 40 years from now, and as exciting as that technology looks, it already vastly
underestimates the amount of information that organizations can gather about you, and how
80 they can use it to influence you in a way that you will not even detect.
So as an example, this is another experiment actually we are running, not yet completed.
Imagine that an organization has access to your list of Facebook friends, and through some kind
of algorithm they can detect the two friends that you like the most. And then they create, in real
time, a facial composite of these two friends. Now studies prior to ours have shown that people
85 don't recognize any longer even themselves in facial composites, but they react to those
composites in a positive manner. So the next time you are looking for a certain product, and
there is an ad suggesting you to buy it, it will not be just a standard spokesperson. It will be one
of your friends, and you will not even know that this is happening.
Now the problem is that the current policy mechanisms we have to protect ourselves from the
90 abuses of personal information are like bringing a knife to a gunfight. One of these mechanisms
is transparency, telling people what you are going to do with their data. And in principle, that's a
very good thing. It's necessary, but it is not sufficient. Transparency can be misdirected. You can
tell people what you are going to do, and then you still nudge them to disclose arbitrary
amounts of personal information.
95 So, in yet another experiment, this one with students, we asked them to provide information
about their campus behavior, including pretty sensitive questions, such as this one, Have you
ever cheated in an exam? Now to one group of subjects, we told them, "Only other students
will see your answers." To another group of subjects, we told them, "Students and faculty will
see your answers." Transparency. Notification. And sure enough, this worked, in the sense that
100 the first group of subjects was much more likely to disclose than the second. It makes sense,
right? But then we added the misdirection. We repeated the experiment with the same two
groups, this time adding a delay between the time we told subjects how we would use their
data and the time we actually started answering the questions.
How long a delay do you think we had to add in order to nullify the inhibitory effect of knowing
105 that faculty would see your answers? Ten minutes? Five minutes? One minute? How about 15
seconds? Fifteen seconds were sufficient to have the two groups disclose the same amount of
information, as if the second group now no longer cares for faculty reading their answers.
Now I have to admit that this talk so far may sound exceedingly gloomy, but that is not my
point. In fact, I want to share with you the fact that there are alternatives. The way we are doing
110 things now is not the only way they can be done, and certainly not the best way they can be
done. When someone tells you, "People don't care about privacy," consider whether the game
has been designed and rigged so that they cannot care about privacy, and coming to the
realization that these manipulations occur is already halfway through the process of being able
to protect yourself. When someone tells you that privacy is incompatible with the benefits of
115 big data, consider that in the last 20 years, researchers have created technologies to allow
virtually any electronic transactions to take place in a more privacy-preserving manner. We can
browse the Internet anonymously. We can send emails that can only be read by the intended
recipient, not even the NSA. We can have even privacy-preserving data mining. In other words,
we can have the benefits of big data while protecting privacy. Of course, these technologies
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120 imply a shifting of cost and revenues between data holders and data subjects, which is why,
perhaps, you don't hear more about them.
Which brings me back to the Garden of Eden. There is a second privacy interpretation of the
story of the Garden of Eden which doesn't have to do with the issue of Adam and Eve feeling
naked and feeling ashamed. You can find echoes of this interpretation in John Milton's "Paradise
125 Lost." In the garden, Adam and Eve are materially content. They're happy. They are satisfied.
However, they also lack knowledge and self-awareness. The moment they eat the aptly named
fruit of knowledge, that's when they discover themselves. They become aware. They achieve
autonomy. The price to pay, however, is leaving the garden. So privacy, in a way, is both the
means and the price to pay for freedom.
130 Again, marketers tell us that big data and social media are not just a paradise of profit for them,
but a Garden of Eden for the rest of us. We get free content. We get to play Angry Birds. We get
targeted apps. But in fact, in a few years, organizations will know so much about us, they will be
able to infer our desires before we even form them, and perhaps buy products on our behalf
before we even know we need them.
135 Now there was one English author who anticipated this kind of future where we would trade
away our autonomy and freedom for comfort. Even more so than George Orwell, the author is,
of course, Aldous Huxley. In "Brave New World," he imagines a society where technologies that
we created originally for freedom end up coercing us. However, in the book, he also offers us a
way out of that society, similar to the path that Adam and Eve had to follow to leave the garden.
140 In the words of the Savage, regaining autonomy and freedom is possible, although the price to
pay is steep. So I do believe that one of the defining fights of our times will be the fight for the
control over personal information, the fight over whether big data will become a force for
freedom, rather than a force which will manipulate us.
Right now, many of us do not even know that the fight is going on, but it is, whether you like it
145 or not. And at the risk of playing the serpent, I will tell you that the tools for the fight are here,
the awareness of what is going on, and in your hands, just a few clicks away.
For discussion:
1. In what way do the technologies mentioned by the author alter our notions of privacy
and anonymity (line 24)?
2. How are current policies to protect us from the abuse of our personal information
inadequate?
3. What is big data? What is the connection between big data and social media?
4. Discuss the ways in which social media users may trade away [their] autonomy and
freedom for comfort (line 135-136).
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Reading 7: Fear big brother... or firms' abuse of big data?

By Derrick Ho (The Straits Times, 19 Sep 2013)

The extent to which governments around the world have access to personal data.
The laws allowing the Singapore government relatively easy access to personal data.
The ways in which data mining is carried out and its potential abuses.
Whether Internet users are aware of it or not, a good chunk of their most personal and
private information is probably sitting somewhere on the Internet.
Like most netizens, I use Web services like Yahoo's Flickr to share vacation photos, and social
media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to share thoughts on the latest government
5 policies. On Google's Gmail, I e-mail travel plans and itineraries, some of which contain
passport and banking details. Like most responsible netizens, I dial up my privacy settings on
these platforms to a pretty high level, limiting my online pourings and photos to only those
whom I intend them for. Or so I thought.
Over the past few months, each of these technology giants Microsoft, Google, Twitter,
10 Facebook and, most recently, Yahoo have all released reports, revealing that they have
disclosed details of their users to governments which have demanded them. Facebook said it
had acceded to almost three-quarters of the 107 requests for details on 117 individuals it
received from the Singapore Government in the first half of the year. Yahoo disclosed user
details in 75 instances to the Singapore authorities within the same period.
15 The companies claim that most of the data released concerned basic user information such as
names and how long a user had been using their services. Yahoo revealed that it did disclose
extracts of e-mail messages, contents of messenger chats and even entries in address books
and calendars. All the tech giants have insisted that they released details only if the requests
were valid ones: those pertaining to national security or the investigation of a crime. But what
20 exactly constitutes a matter of national security or a criminal act, and hence the decision of
whether they accede to the requests, seems to remain at their discretion.
When asked about the nature of the Singapore Government's requests, a Ministry of Home
Affairs spokesman would say only that law enforcement agencies may request data from
persons or organisations for investigations into criminal cases, "as part of the evidence-
25 gathering process provided for under the law".
The reports came on the heels of revelations earlier this year of the US government's top-
secret surveillance programmes, which allegedly allow it to access data from major Internet
companies.
Late last month, an Australian newspaper suggested that SingTel has been aiding a highly
30 secretive intelligence unit of the Ministry of Defence and its Australian counterparts in
harvesting communications carried on a major undersea telecommunications cable between
Tuas and Perth. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, this is part of a partnership
between intelligence agencies in Singapore and Australia, which extends to the United States,
Britain, New Zealand and Canada as well. When asked about the matter, SingTel declined to
35 comment. The Defence Ministry would not respond to any of The Straits Times' queries either.
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Wide access
What does it all add up to for data privacy in Singapore? In short: There is none. Technology
allows Internet companies and telcos to store and retrieve data. Laws allow the State to
demand access to them.
In Singapore, broadly phrased laws such as the Criminal Procedure Act give the Government
40 wide access to data and communications such as SMSes, e-mail, call logs and websites you
have accessed. It does not need a court order as laws allow it to directly obtain such
information from firms. Similarly, under the Telecommunications Act, the Government can
order telcos to provide any document or information related to an investigation.
The Singapore state seems to be an outlier in the wide powers it holds. While some
45 governments have managed to attain sweeping powers to gather user data since the Sept 11
terrorist attacks in the US in 2001, many are still in the midst of pushing for wider access. In
Britain and Australia, law enforcement agencies still need a warrant to access a computer
within their borders. However, lawmakers in both countries are now proposing to force phone
and Internet companies to hold and surrender without a warrant in Britain's case records
50 of digital communications to track potential criminal activity.
In Singapore, the Government doesn't need a warrant. That may sound like scary Big Brother
to some, but the truth is that the same can be said of companies and even individuals. Already,
Google and Facebook track users' interests and online activity to earn money from targeted
advertisements. Businesses can even buy data on where you live, how much people spend on
55 shopping and even their cellphone numbers. All of this is mined and harvested from a variety
of sources lucky draw forms, survey forms and those name cards you drop into a bowl at
product launches.
Then, there are hackers and cyber criminals who are increasingly eyeing your mobile devices,
a treasure trove of intimate data. Earlier this year, I saw first- hand through an IT security
60 expert's demonstration how easy it is for a hacker to gain control of a phone with a single SMS.
Once in, the hacker can instruct the phone to record audio or snap photos, all without the
user ever knowing. In recent months, hackers have managed to infiltrate the systems of
various organisations including Sony, Apple and Yahoo, compromising user names and
passwords of customers.
The lesser of three evils

65 The bottom line: If someone has the will to get hold of your data, there will be a way to do so.
Hence, it is worth asking yourself this: Who would you trust the most with your data the
government, a company or an individual? Herein lies the politics of trust. Who has the biggest
tendency to abuse your data and betray trust?
In the absence of checks and balances, there is a valid concern that a government may use its
70 powers to collect data for its own political agenda. For now, though, there is no evidence that
the Singapore Government is collecting data for anything other than bona fide purposes.
Conversely, citizens don't know this for sure. Until proven otherwise, citizens can only rely on
trust and the State's goodwill.
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This same benefit cannot be afforded to profit-driven companies or deviant individuals. Time
75 and time again, they have proven that they will do anything to cash in on your data tech
giants included.
A Pew Research Centre study released last month found that while the American public is
concerned about Internet privacy, they are far less worried about government snooping than
they are about their online activity being monitored by hackers and advertisers. In Singapore,
80 the Data Protection Act6 may already be in place to restrict companies' use of data, but there
is no saying what firms might do to bend it.
The irony in all of this is that despite privacy concerns, people all over the world continue to
share personal data online. Netizens make it easy for anyone to collect data about them by
blithely sharing their details on social media sites.
85 Perhaps this invasion of privacy is the price to be paid for enjoying the convenience of staying
connected via the Internet. And if you object to anyone knowing what you buy? Go to a brick-
and- mortar store and pay in cash. The rest of us who want e-mail, Facebook and the
convenience of transacting online continue to hand over our personal data to a myriad of
individuals and companies daily.
90 Sure, the State can get its hands on that data. But you should probably worry more about
nefarious companies crunching your data to sell you something you don't want, or criminals
out to steal your identity or money, rather than a nefarious state out to get you because of
your critical comments online.
In other words, don't be too alarmed about Big Brother. It's what companies and criminals do
95 with Big Data that's more unnerving.
For discussion:
1. Explain the backlash received by technology giants for disclosing details of their users
to governments which have demanded them (line 11).
2. Should the State be allowed access to personal data? Discuss whether or not this is
necessarily a bad thing.
3. At present, enjoying the convenience of the Internet makes people vulnerable to the
abuses of personal data. What measures can be put in place to further protect peoples
right to privacy?
Cambridge questions
A. How far is it acceptable for technology to be used only for financial benefit? (2012)
6
Under the purview of the Personal Data Protection Commission, a Singapore Government statutory body
established on 2 January 2013 to administer and enforce the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA). The
other roles of PDPC include undertaking public education and engagement programmes to help
organisations understand and comply with the PDPA as well as to promote greater awareness of the
importance of personal data protection in Singapore.
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B. To what extent has technology made an impact on both privacy and security in your
country? (2009)
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Reading 8: Freedom From The Press: Why The Media Are the Way They Are
By Cherian George (http://cherian.blogspot.com/, 25 Oct 2001)
This reading will help you understand that:

While Western democracies see the Press as the Fourth Estate, checking on the possible
abuse of power by the government, in Singapore, the Press is seen as having its own interests
which may not be for the good of the nation so it is the Press that needs to be controlled.
The press in Singapore is managed by legal restrictions such as the Internal Security Act, the
Official Secrets Act, as well as Newspaper and Printing Presses Act.
The political ideology in Singapore, contrary to that in the West, is that of active support of
the Press for those in power. This is achieved not entirely by coercion but also by consent
and a record of good governance.
In some countries, when newspapers cannot say what needs to be said, they publish blank
editorials in silent protest. Editors lobby for greater freedom of information. Press organisations
rally behind journalists who are obstructed or harassed.
5 In Singapore, the most distinctive feature on the press scene is not the existence of political
controls, for these exist elsewhere, but the newspapers seeming acceptance of their lot.
Journalists responses range from stoic silence, as when The Business Times and its sister papers
ran no editorials protesting its editors prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, to a
masochistic turning of the other cheek, as when columnists join politicians in decrying Western-
10 style press freedoms. What accounts for this unique state of affairs? The answer lies in a system
of press management combining watertight legal controls with a compelling political ideology
that encourages not just obedience, but also active support.
The controls operate at two levels. The first, which is the older and more common, is made up
of various licencing and national security laws. Press laws inherited from the British require all
15 newspapers to be licenced; licences can be revoked at any time, effectively killing a publication.
Journalists must also beware the Internal Security Act, under which they can be detained
without trial. They can be fined or jailed if they are judged to have breached contempt of court
or of contempt of parliament laws. The Official Secrets Act deters reporters from being on the
receiving end of leaks, while libel laws compel them to take extreme care with any information
20 that could hurt officials reputations.
The government wielded these powers most aggressively in the 1970s, when the licence of The
Singapore Herald was withdrawn and four Nanyang Siang Pau pressmen were jailed under the I.
S. A. The 1990s were less traumatic. The O. S. A. prosecution of Business Times editor Patrick
Daniel, together with four other individuals, was apparently not intended to crush either him or
25 the paper but to signal to civil servants that leaks would not be tolerated. Daniel returned to
work after being found guilty and paying a fine. One magazine was suspended: Womans Affair
ran a feature on the PAPs female MPs that included a few critical comments, and was judged to
have strayed into political commentary in contravention of the aims stated in its licence.
This first level of laws provides the government sweeping powers to punish journalists and their
30 publications when they cross the line of acceptability, including the power to silence them
completely. One problem with using these powers, however, is that the public is bound to
notice, and levy some political cost. Besides, the PAP has never been content to have national
institutions that are merely cowed into submission: it wants them to support positively its
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policies and programmes. The governments second level of control addresses precisely this
35 point. More than 20 years old, it has been so effective in fulfilling its objective of behind-the-
scenes control that most Singaporeans are not even aware of it, even though it is the main
instrument shaping how the press operates.
The law in question is the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, which in an amendment passed
in 1977, after the Herald was closed down empowers the government to determine the
40 composition of a newspaper companys board of directors. Newspaper companies must be
publicly listed, and their shares divided into ordinary and management shares. The government
can select who holds management shares. Through the chairman and directors, the government
can also ensure that the senior editors who serve as the main gatekeepers of the press are
trustworthy. With this mechanism in place, the government needs neither to post its officials
45 directly into top newsroom positions, nor to nationalise the press. In that respect, its control of
the press differs from the way it has managed, say, the trade union movement, or the
universities. The Straits Times remains a newspaper edited by professional journalists and
published by businessmen, as it has been for more than 150 years.
Contrary to popular folklore, the newsroom does not receive daily instructions about what to
50 publish, and sensitive articles are not submitted to government officials for vetting. Like all big
newsmakers, government officials try to influence coverage of their particular portfolios
through a mix of persuasive tactics, from offering the inducement of greater access, to dangling
the veiled threat of legal action. Of course, the government is not just any newsmaker: it has
more power than most to affect the livelihoods of editors and journalists. But, for the same
55 reason that it amended the press laws in 1977, it has not been trigger-happy in the use of its
almost limitless firepower: the senior-most figures in the leadership prefer to have editors who
independently come to the right conclusions even if they occasionally do not than to replace
them with mere functionaries. As members of the establishment, newspaper editors are
expected to have an instinctive grasp of Singapores national interests and how to protect them.
60 They interact regularly with cabinet ministers to keep these instincts honed. Most of the time,
they get it right; but not always, which is why the press is the single establishment institution
that is regularly chastised by government leaders for not being supportive enough of national
goals.
Singapores press system is sustained not just by coercion, but also by consent. At the corporate
65 level, publishers can hardly complain about the PAPs press model. Lee Kuan Yew has
understood perfectly that the media business is, first and foremost, a business: that a press
allowed to make money out of a system will support that system; and that publishers value their
bottom line more highly than they do their editorial freedom. The news media industrys
regulatory barriers to entry may frustrate consumers and would-be competitors, but you will
70 not hear Singapore Press Holdings complaining. SPH, partly as a result of its monopoly, is one of
the most profitable newspaper companies in the world. Its stable includes not just its cash-cow,
The Straits Times, but also the once-wobbly Chinese press. The government put the Chinese
dailies on a secure financial footing through a forced merger with the profitable English press. In
the 1960s, the Chinese press was a headstrong and unpredictable institution; in the 1990s, the
75 Chinese division of SPH dreamt up a best-selling book and compact disk on Lee Kuan Yew.
Support for the ruling party and its programmes may not be as strong in the newsrooms as it is
in the boardrooms, but it is significant and genuine. Editors see the press as having both a
contributing role and a vested interest in Singapores success. In keeping with the national
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ideology, success is defined primarily in economic terms. The link to economic growth is tangible
80 and personal. With attractive pay and bonuses, and one of the earliest stock option schemes in
the country, journalists in the national press have little incentive to jump ship to an anti-
government vehicle, even if one existed.
The editorial positions of the national press have been described variously as prostitution and
self-censorship, but editors believe they are practicing responsible and intellectually-honest
85 journalism. They point to the PAPs record of good government, and say that it does not warrant
the kind of negativity and cynicism that is second nature to journalists in many other countries.
Indeed, one has to recognise that the PAP did not just deliver on its threats; it also delivered on
its promises. It did not stop at silencing dissent; it went on to persuade the public of its ability to
govern. It achieved decades of high economic growth with social equity. Unlike most other
90 authoritarian regimes, the PAP does not suppress the press in order to cover up corruption or
hide its mistakes. It does so out of a conviction that the press has a narrow and short-term view
of the public interest, and that this can obstruct good government.
Unfortunately for more independent-minded journalists, Singapores history supports the PAPs
view. The press has had a record of being out of step with the historic nationalist project that
95 saw Singapore emerge from colonialism, through messy merger, to independence. The Chinese
and Malay media were slow to adjust to the new realities of a sovereign, multi-racial republic;
they sometimes acted with immigrant, diaspora instincts, instead of media with a national vision.
As for the English press, The Straits Times made the strategic error of, first, treating the
opposition PAP as communist-leaning troublemakers, and then, transferring its headquarters to
100 Kuala Lumpur in preparation for the union with Malaysia. The newspapers initial anti-PAP stand
and its 13 years in KL, from 1959 to 1972, meant that it could not draw on the prestige of having
played a leading role in the countrys early nationalism. The Straits Times is remembered by Lee
and the Old Guard as colonially hung-over thirds of passage, who quit when the going got tough.
The assessment is unfair, given that even Lee worked hard for merger and shed tears when it
105 did not last. But the papers failure to Singaporeanise itself promptly in 1965 shows that it, like
the Chinese and Malay press, grossly underestimated the resolve and ability of the PAP to wrest
Singapore out of the past and establish it as a modern, developed, multi-racial society. The PAP
view of journalists in Singapore is, not unreasonably, that it succeeded in spite of them. Lee said
in his memoirs: "My early experience in Singapore and Malaya shaped my views about the claim
110 of the press to be the defender of truth and freedom of speech. The freedom of the press was
the freedom of its owners to advance their personal and class interests."
This history explains the PAPs twist on the principle of press freedom. In the classic liberal
formulation, the press is seen as a pure expression of democracy. Thus, in the United States, the
Constitution protects the press from the government, which, despite having been elected
115 democratically, is assumed by American political culture to harbour undemocratic tendencies. In
the Singapore model, the formula is reversed. The elected government is the embodiment of
democratic expression. Government, which expresses the will of the people, must be protected
from the unelected press, which is prone to being swayed by private commercial interests,
narrow ideological missions, or, at the very least, the hubris of journalists inflated egos. In liberal
120 democracies, it is all about freedom of the press from government; in Singapore, it is about the
governments freedom from the press.
The PAP therefore maintains that the press should be independent, but subordinate to an
elected government. In practice, this means that the tone of stories is crucially important.
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Stories can be critical, but must be respectful towards the countrys leaders. They cannot
125 ridicule or lampoon, or erode public respect for those in office. If disagreement persists, it is the
governments duty to make a final decision, and journalists should not use their access to the
public to continue plugging their contrary point of view. If they do, they would be judged to be
engaging in politics, the proper place for which is in the electoral battlefield. Lately, the
government has professed that there are few or no sacred cows? It is in the mood for creative
130 destruction of old ways, and finding new solutions for success in the new economy. Thus, the
out-of-bound markers are being progressively widened.
However, it would be foolish for any journalist to assume that the PAP is diluting its core
position, that the press must remain subordinate. The government continues to assert that only
it can be in charge of the national agenda; and that the press must never confuse Singaporeans
135 or the world outside as to what that national agenda is. Thus, for example, The Straits Times
could not possibly campaign against the governments foreign talent policy and get away with it,
even if it publishes the occasional critical column or letter. Nor can its overall coverage be
sympathetic towards, say, gay rights.
The national media are not part of the avant-garde, and will not become so. Political controls
140 aside, and for purely commercial reasons, the press is not likely to stray from its safe, middle-of-
the-road position. That, after all, is where the maximum market share lies. The national press is
thus an establishment institution, along with the universities, the labour movement and other
organisations that in most countries are crucibles for democratic change. But within Singapores
corporatist context, the press is in fact probably the most plural of all national institutions. It is
145 in the pages of The Straits Times, more than anywhere else, that Singaporeans read alternative
views and participate in public debate. Long-time readers detect a steadily more serious
attempt to reflect various shades of public opinion.
This courtesy, however, is not extended to opposition politicians. The press does not seem to
subscribe to the theory that the opposition is an indispensable pillar of democracy, and
150 therefore inherently newsworthy regardless of its quality. Instead, opposition politicians must
satisfy editors that they are offering serious and credible ideas, before they are deemed worthy
of more than minimal coverage. Also at work is the very Singaporean bias in favour of pragmatic
ideas of immediate functional value, and an impatience with political ideals such as democracy
and human rights. Since opposition politicians deal mainly in the latter, they are easily dismissed
155 as saying nothing new or of substance.
The press has also suggested that its unsympathetic treatment of the opposition is a fair
reflection of public opinion, as expressed during general elections. This claim carries some
weight between elections, but is somewhat suspect during the campaign. The point of an
election being to determine the peoples wishes, media bias in election coverage cannot be
160 justified by an as-yet-unknown popular will, and indeed can be criticised as undermining the
freedom and fairness of the poll. Editors defend their pro-PAP bias by pointing out that even
newspapers in the West take sides during elections. Readers complaints that SPH, as a
monopoly, has a moral obligation to be fair in its election coverage have not succeeded in
changing editors minds.
165 Singapores newspapers did not help the PAP much in the partys early years. They have since
made up for it. The New Guard leaders have been able to count on a press that, in keeping with
Lees vision, is pro-establishment enough to serve as a reliable partner, and professional enough
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to remain profitable. The editor of The Straits Times, Leslie Fong, has acknowledged, and tried
to address, the obvious concern: of course, the danger for the ST is that working with rather
170 than against the establishment can become such a habit of mind that it would not recognise the
need to break ranks even when that stares it in the face. And, yes, the status quo can become so
comfortable that there would always be the temptation to rationalise itself out of doing
anything which might upset it. It may or may not happen this way. But I would like to think that
should the establishment turn rogue, the ST will not be found wanting. It will do its duty.
175 There is a certain pathos in this promise, for it assumes that editors who choose to break ranks
can get away with it long enough to make a difference. It ignores the fact that the largely
consensual character of government-press relations in the 1990s continues to be undergirded
by massively one-sided legal powers. When consensus fails, the government can, if it wishes,
instantly switch to the two levels of coercive control described above. It can remove editors
180 overnight, and replace them with individuals possessing the proper understanding of their duty?
Detain offending writers without trial, and close down the entire newspaper, all with complete
legality. The government has much latitude, in a system that upholds its freedom from the press.
For discussion:
1. Explain the various ways in which the press in Singapore is different from that in
Western democracies.
2. Explain how the various laws in Singapore ensure that the press is controlled.
3. What assumptions are made about the government of Singapore and the press in
Singapore to justify the limitations on freedom of the press and the expectation that the
press must support the government? How have these assumptions been challenged in
recent times? And how has the press responded to these changes?
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Reading 9: Internet regulation A myth in Singapore?

By Yip Yee Hui Josephine (Singapore Law Review, 30 Nov 2013)

Societies decide what is to be censored based on socio-cultural norms. Offensive remarks
about race, religion and politics continue to be the focus of censorship in Singapore.
While technological measures are used to control new media in some autocratic
countries, the Singapore government prefers to use legislation.
Self-regulation by users and the online community also play a part in managing new
medias content, and this is believed to be a more mature response than state
censorship.
As with all other freedoms, freedom of speech is not without its limits, a principle deeply
enshrined in article 14 of the Singapore Constitution. Racial and political issues remain
particularly sensitive, and are thus the key targets of censorship here.
However, the rise of the Internet has dramatically narrowed the boundaries of state
5 regulation. While countries such as China and Iran have illustrated that extensive Internet
regulation is not impossible with the use of technological measures to filter out undesirable
content, Singapore has shied away from such an approach, preferring instead to adopt
mostly non-technological ones. The question thus remains: with the ineffectiveness of
technological measures, and the governments purported commitment to a light-touch
10 approach, is Internet regulation now little more than a mere myth in Singapore? This article
argues that this seems unlikely given the governments continued attempts to regulate the
Internet through new legislation, and the self-regulation by both individual Internet users
and the virtual community.
The governments role in regulating the Internet is largely moderated due to two main
15 reasons. The first is Singapores use of mostly non-technological measures. These include
both laws specific to online content such as the Internet Code of Practice and the Class
License Conditions, and more general ones such as the Films Act and the Sedition Act. Such
regulations restrict online content with certain repercussions such as fines should they be
contravened.
20 Yet, they are unlikely to have much effect in practical application. Without the heavy use of
technological measures, the rapid propagation of information and the sheer volume of
content on the Internet have made regulating objectionable content a mind-boggling
challenge for Singapore. When MICA opted to retain its ban of 100 websites in 2010, it was
not so much for its functional usefulness, [but] rather as a symbolic statement of our
25 societys values. Indeed, Mr Lui Tuck Yew, then Minister for Information, Communications
and the Arts, acknowledged at that time that the ban was likely to be largely ineffective as
the technologically savvy among us will be able to circumvent this ban, and that there are
many more than 100 such websites out there. Additionally, the extensive online circulation
of the political film Singapore Rebel7 even before its ban was lifted in 2009 illustrates yet
7
A 26-minute documentary about Dr Chee Soon Juan, leader of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).
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30 another instance of how state regulation of the Internet is highly limited. By then, the film
had already garnered a few hundred thousand views.
Moreover, Singapores commitment to a light-touch approach towards Internet regulation

right from the outset has also played a role in limiting state regulation of online content.
Since 1996, the Internet Code of Practice has required Internet Content Providers to remove
35 any content that were objectionable on grounds of public morality, order or security, and
has called for certain content providers displaying political and religious content to register
with MDA. However, the apparent harshness of these regulations was mitigated by the
governments reassurance that it would not attempt to remove all objectionable content
but only censor 100 websites as a symbolic move, and that such registration was nothing
40 more than an administrative exercise aimed at improving accountability.
Despite these assurances, the regulations were still viewed as an attempt to cover what is
essentially an exercise of unchecked power, and regarded as the spectre of government
surveillance and censorship, according to several adverse comments made on a feedback
page set up by the then popular Sintercom8. Yet these fears were proven to be largely
45 unfounded. In fact, in the decade after the regulations were first announced, fewer than
thirty cases of state action against online content were reported. On hindsight, the
governments continued adherence to the light-touch approach hardly seems surprising,
given the need to protect Singapores reputation as a technological hub. Also, this could
possibly be the governments attempt at distancing itself from the label of an authoritarian
50 regime, a label that is politically costly, both locally and internationally.
Even so, Internet regulation remains a reality in Singapore. Despite the limitations of non-
technological regulations and the governments commitment to a light-touch approach, it
continues to play a key role in monitoring online content. A most apt example to illustrate
this point would be the recently-enacted legislation governing online news sites which first
55 came into effect on 1 June 2013. Under these new rules, online news sites must be
individually licensed if, over a period of two months, they report an average of at least one
article per week on Singapores news and current affairs and are visited by at least 50,000
unique IP addresses from Singapore each month. Such sites will be required to remove
objectionable content within 24 hours of being notified by MDA.
60 At first glance, it seems that the new regulations are unlikely to have as much impact on the
online community as the 2,500-strong demonstration at Hong Lim Park, or the 24-hour
blackout of more than 130 Singapore-based websites, would suggest. Despite the fact that
MDAs broad definition of news could potentially subject countless websites to the new
regulations, it is doubtful that the government will take a proactive approach towards
65 enforcing them. After all, the aforementioned motivations for maintaining a light-touch
approach on Internet regulation seem all the more relevant today, as citizens become
increasingly educated and politically aware.
Indeed, in response to criticism of the new regulations, Minister for Communications and
Information Yaacob Ibrahim stated that MDA will be judicious with Internet regulation.
8
Acronym for Singapore Internet Community, an online community launched by Dr Tan Chong Kee in 1994, with the
objective of providing a platform for free flowing discussion on various national issues.
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70 However, it may well be that having identified 10 websites such as channelnewsasia.com,

todayonline.com and sg.news.yahoo.com that fall within the ambit of the new licensing
scheme, the government could potentially have a real influence on what is produced on
these few sites. The narrow focus on a very small number of websites would significantly
reduce the volume of online content to be sieved through, helping the government to
75 overcome one of the main obstacles facing state regulation.
In addition, self-regulation by both individual Internet users and the virtual community also
play a role in regulating the Internet. A main driving force behind self-regulation would be
auto-regulation. In Singapore, terms in legislation pertaining to online content are usually
ambiguously or broadly defined such that a vast number of online users could fall under its
80 regulatory jurisdiction. For instance, under the Internet Code of Practice, Internet Content
Providers must remove any prohibited material if directed to do so by MDA. An Internet
Content Provider, as defined under the Class License Conditions, is:
a) any individual in Singapore who provides any programme, for business, political or
religious purposes, on the World Wide Web through the Internet; or
85
b) any corporation or group of individuals (including any association, business, club,
company, society, organisation or partnership, whether registrable or incorporated
under the laws of Singapore or not) who provides any programme on the World
Wide Web through the Internet, and includes any web publisher and any web server
90 administrator.
With such broadly defined rules, the authorities possess expansive discretionary powers to
bring offenders to task. While the Government has unstintingly reiterated its stance of
adhering to a light-touch approach, the deterrent effect of such regulations remain as
online users have to be constantly wary of infringing upon these rules as they might fall
95 under their jurisdiction. In fact, many online users have likened the recently enacted
legislation governing online news sites to the proverbial Sword of Damocles, where a
climate of fear is created despite assurances from the Government. Thus, auto-regulation
seems to play a significant role in Internet regulation.
Quite apart from auto-regulation, online communities have on several occasions

100 demonstrated an intrinsic propensity to self-regulate. Online comments that undermine
Singapores social fabric are often lambasted by other users, prompting those who made
the comments to remove them even before they are brought to the attention of the
authorities. This was evident in the case of Amy Cheong, who made expletive-filled
derogatory comments about Malays in a Facebook post. Her comments were rapidly
105 circulated around cyberspace and incited a flurry of disapproving comments on numerous
social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, causing her to delete her comment
shortly after. Similarly, polytechnic student Lai Shimun promptly deleted her Facebook and
Twitter accounts after her racist post on Indians drew flak from the online community. Such
incidents illustrate how even without government intervention, the Internet may still be
110 regulated through self-regulation.
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In conclusion, it is apparent that Internet regulation, whether in the form of state

intervention or self-regulation, is here to stay. While a balance must be struck between the
two, it is unclear if the right balance has indeed been achieved under the status quo.
Adverse reactions to the recently enacted licensing framework for news sites seem to
115 suggest otherwise, and cases such as that of Amy Cheong appear to point to an online
citizenry that is increasingly mature, thus paving the way for greater self-regulation.
Although the governments recent enactment of licensing framework indicates that it is not
likely to relax its stance in the near future, perhaps there is room for the hope that
Singapore will witness a gradual change in the time to come.
For discussion:
1a. Why do you think race/ religion and politics are the primary focus of censorship in
Singapore? Do you think censorship is justified for each of these? Why or why not?
Explore carefully using details relevant to Singapores social and political scene.
1b. The ban on 100 websites in Singapore is seen as a symbolic statement of our
societys values. How is this statement justified? How is this open to criticism?
2a. Do you think the recent ruling regarding the registering of news websites is
necessary?
2b. For what reasons would critics argue that it is an exercise of unchecked power of
an autocratic government? Explain with close relevance to politics in Singapore.
3. The writer claims that cases such as that of Amy Cheong appear to point to an
online citizenry that is increasingly mature. Do you agree that the public was
mature in this instance and again in the recent Anton Casey incident?
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Reading 10: Moral censorship Pulp Friction: Looking beyond the liberal/conservative divide
By Cherian George (27 Jan 2015)

While race/religion and politics remain key targets for censorship in Singapore, increasingly
new areas of contention, such as homosexuality, have become the focus of state censorship.
Societies decide what is not acceptable based on the majoritys view, but societies also
decide to censor out of respect for minority groups.
Greater tolerance for diversity will lead to less necessity for censorship.
Some will see it as a victory for a vocal minority of liberals. Others will declare it a conservative
triumph. Perhaps, though, it was never about where the government landed on the left-right
spectrum. What was really at stake were the principles by which a multi-cultural nation makes
5 decisions that will inevitably offend one community or another.
This specific controversy was over three childrens books meant to teach kids about
nonconventional families. The National Library Boards professional librarians had earlier
decided they were suitable for acquisition, but some parents complained that the books were
too soft on homosexuality. As a result, the books were to be discarded. Following a public outcry,
10 the government intervened, in time to save two books from pulping. They will not be returned
to the childrens shelves, but will be made available in the adult section.
Compared with the earlier decision, this is a passable compromise. It concedes to the
conservatives that the books should not be freely available to all children regardless of the
moral objections of some of their parents. At the same time, it does not permit these parents to
15 dictate standards for all library users: adults interested in teaching their own children to be
more broad-minded about what constitutes a loving family can still borrow the books.
What was striking about the earlier decision was not so much that it did not conform to liberal
standards (nothing new there), but that it deviated from the governments own principles. For
more than 20 years, it has been official policy to avoid censorship when classification would do.
20 A totally laissez-faire approach to public morals would fall short of the fundamental societal
obligation to protect the young; it would risk treating children like adults. At the other extreme,
a crude censorship approach treats adults like children, denying them choices that they are
entitled to.
In contrast, classification maximises choice for consenting adults while protecting the
25 vulnerable. NLBs original response to the conservatives complaints was inconsistent with this
rational, well- established approach. The latest decision simply brings the practice more in line
with the principle. Instituting a proper, transparent review process would have to be the next
step. Expert judgments by professional librarians need to be shielded from shadowy
complainants who are not prepared to come out to justify their positions publicly.
30 Even more disquieting was the fact that the decision to pulp was part of a wider pattern, of
deciding cultural policy based on how offended people are. It is dangerous for the government
of a multi-ethnic country to resolve disputes this way, even if they side with the majority. Once
the referee signals that he will side with those who cry the loudest, some players will start
outperforming the most talented World Cup actors.
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35 In football, at least, an eagle-eyed referee and slow-motion HD replays can discover the truth:
was it a real foul or did he dive? When it comes to religion and morality, however, it is all
subjective. No amount of rational theological forensics can establish whether a believers
outrage is justified. Governments that agree to play this game end up having to take community
leaders word for it, that they are suffering intolerable indignity.
40 Around the world, religious leaders use this inherent uncertainty to their own political
advantage. Claiming to be offended and then declaring battle against the real or imagined
source of that offence is one of the easiest ways to galvanise your followers; gain a higher
profile than your competitors; put opponents on the defensive; and play the state like a puppet.
It happens in Malaysia; it can happen here.
45 Indeed, as the most religiously-diverse country in the world, Singapore is particularly prone to
this risk. There is no limit to the offence that the intolerant can choose to take from what other
communities do. Proselytization by Christians and polygamy among Muslims are just two
examples of practices that some consider consistent with their faiths but that others find
upsetting. Thus, restrictions based on the capacity to offend wont just hurt secular liberals; it
50 will also backfire on the most devout.
In most countries, like Malaysia, the state simply sides with the majority community (its wrong,
but at least its unambiguous). Here, where there is no religious majority, the state will find itself
pushed this way and that. And the ultimate result will be the conclusive unwinding of
Singaporean experiment in multi-racial, multi-religious harmony.
55 The only responsible approach for a society like Singapore is for the state to adopt a strong bias
for tolerance, and suppress nothing other than the most extreme of speech. Adult Singaporeans
need to be educated to look after their own feelings.
After decades of enjoying the dubious privilege of turning to a nanny state whenever one feels
offended, many Singaporeans will find this a difficult adjustment. Indeed, by changing tack, the
60 government may lose more votes than it wins. But it is the only viable strategy for a crowded
city- state whose greatest asset, as well as its greatest challenge, will always be its cultural
diversity.
For research + discussion:

1. [T]he decision to pulp was part of a wider pattern, of deciding cultural policy based on
how offended people are (lines 30-31) What other recent instances in Singapore can
you think of that belong to this wider pattern that Cherian George mentions?
2. Around the world, religious leaders use this .to their own political advantage.
Claiming to be offended and then declaring battle against the real or imagined source of
that offence. It happens in Malaysia... (lines 40-44) What other instances in Malaysia
might Cherian George be referring to?
3. What is your response to the view that instead of resorting to calls for censorship
Singaporeans need to be more tolerant of differences and for our laws to only suppress
the most extreme of speech? What problems would this suggestion face?
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Reading 11: Je suis tired (I am tired)

By Nazri Eddy Razali (The Nanyang Chronicle, 12 Jan 2015)

Freedom of speech is not an absolute right.
In society, one freedom may clash with another.
Freedoms especially in modern multicultural societies need to be carefully managed,
but there is no simple solution that pleases everyone all the time.
As France tries to get back on its feet following its worst terror-related violence in years,
we need to question if freedom of speech is indeed worth its price in blood.
The scimitar and pencil stand poised, facing each other. A few
flourishes later, the pencil lies diced and defeated. After all,
how could wood and lead ever hope to challenge the might of
steel, fashioned to kill?
5 The scimitars victory is short-lived however; each fragment of

the fallen pencil defiantly respawns as individual pencils in
their own right, ready to face the tyranny of the scimitar again.
So it goes in the cartoon (right) drawn by The Straits Times

cartoonist, Miel Prudencio Ma, in response to the terror attack
10 on the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo by three
gunmen.
The attack, which took place on 7 Jan, left 12 people dead,

including the publications editor, Stphane Charbonnier. The
trigger for the unfortunate turn of events appears to have
15 been the Parisian publications insistence on republishing a
2005 Danish cartoon that satirised the Prophet Muhammad,
while creating another of their own despite having previously
faced violent threats from Muslim extremists. Image: http://www.cagle.com/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-18/
And its not the first time Charlie Hebdo has been a victim of terror attacks. As recently as
20 2011, their office was firebombed as a result of publishing a special issue containing content
that mocked the Islamic faith. At that time, Charlie Hebdo remained unfazed. Such was their
will to defend their freedom of expression that Charbonnier famously said, Id rather die
standing up than live on my knees.
As soon as news of the shooting broke, condemnations of the attack came swiftly. Author,
25 Salman Rushdie, whose own book The Satanic Verses resulted in him experiencing death
threats, led the charge. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of
satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and
stupidity, he said.
Around the world, silent vigils were held outside French embassies. Aside from lighting
30 candles, placards with the words Je suis Charlie, which is French for I am Charlie, were
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also carried by crowds as a sign of solidarity with the victims. Even the Muslim world was
quick to distance itself from the attack, with Saudi Arabia calling it a cowardly terrorist
attack that was rejected by the true Islamic religion.
And while the world still reels from the attack, the question of whether freedom of
35 expression is really worth ones own life is most definitely worth pondering upon.
Freedom through speech

The ability to speak ones mind has always been paramount in a liberally inclined country
such as France. After all, how can other freedoms be protected if its expressions are stunted
by communicative limitations?
The art of satire is largely built upon such a spirit. Through the use of humour, wit, and
40 ridicule, satire aims to highlight the shortcomings of its subject matters to the public, albeit
without being overtly confrontational.
However, this can only work if the subject abides by the sensibilities of the satirists, and is
willing to accept the criticism. This is clearly not the case in the Charlie Hebdo attack. The
Muslim extremists stance was clear from the very beginning: do not publish the comics, or
45 face the consequences. Charlie Hebdo saw pandering to the demands of the extremists as a
sign of defeat and a compromise of their freedom of speech, and they published the comics
anyway.
It has become clear that many also feel the same way. One of the popular ways through
which solidarity has been shown for the victims of the attack is through the reposting of the
50 contentious comics on social media. This act of defiance serves to show that the people
would rather choose to assert their freedom and brave the consequences rather than to
have their liberties curtailed by the spectre of extremists.
The other side of the coin

The primary reason for the terrorists rage towards Charlie Hebdo was due to what has been
perceived as flagrant disrespect for Islamic customs. In Islam, the depiction of the Prophet
55 Muhammad is forbidden as it encourages idolatry.
While there can never be a reason strong enough to justify the unlawful killing of another
human being, it cannot be denied that the publication of such images has served to
marginalise the Muslim community in France, both radical and otherwise. The irony here is
all too glaring in Charlie Hebdos attempt to defend its freedom of expression, the
60 freedom of others to feel respected has been infringed on.
As if the guilt of being associated with the errant few is not enough, the phenomenon of
moderate Muslims having to denounce these acts of terror highlights their fear of being
judged because they share the same religion as these Muslim extremists. Some Muslim
individuals have taken to social media to denounce the actions of the gunmen, using the
65 hashtag #notinmyname to emphasise that the gunmens actions were not representative of
the whole Islamic faith.
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It should be simple enough for others to comprehend that the actions of a very small
minority can hardly be representative of a religion spanning 23 per cent of the global
population. The majority shouldnt need to feel ashamed for the few.
70 And now, the Muslim community is expected to also stand and watch as the images
depicting their Prophet go viral, all in the name of making a political statement against those
who misrepresented their religion to begin with. In our rush to condemn the atrocities
committed by the few, it is easy to forget that hate can still implicitly be felt by the majority
of Muslims.
75 Charlie Hebdo will be releasing a million copies for their upcoming issue which will be
published this week, as opposed to their usual 60,000 copies. One of its columnists, Patrick
Pelloux, said the decision will show that stupidity will not win.
Fighting stupidity is all well and good, but let us not forget that humans not only think, but
feel too.
For discussion:
1. In asserting freedom of expression by publishing the comics, how is Charlie Hebdo
ironically also infringing on other rights?
2. How is Muslim support of the reposting of the comics ironic?
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Reading 12: Charlie and Theo

By Prof Ian Buruma (https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary, 15 Jan 2015)

The notion of free speech is relative.
While freedom of speech is an important principle of democracy, (multicultural) democracies
need to manage free speech just as they do many other freedoms.
The Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered by a Muslim extremist in Amsterdam a
little more than ten years ago, had much in common with the satirists of Charlie Hebdo. Like the
French editors and cartoonists, he was a provocateur, a moral anarchist, a shock artist who
never saw a taboo he did not wish to smash.
5 Because anti-Semitism is the great post-war European taboo, Van Gogh insulted Jews with crass
jokes about gas chambers. Because we are told to respect Islam, he ridiculed Allah and his
Prophet, much in the way Charlie Hebdo did.
The aim of taboo-breakers is to see how far the limits of free speech can be stretched, legally
and socially. After all, despite the rather hysterical claims being made in the wake of last weeks
10 gruesome murders, free speech is not absolute. Most European countries have laws against
hate speech, including France, where it is forbidden to deny the existence of the Holocaust.
Free speech is in fact relative. What can be said by an artist or a novelist cannot be said by a
judge or a politician. Some language used by African-Americans among themselves would be
grossly insulting if used by a white person. And so on. Simple rules of politeness create social
15 barriers against saying anything we want.
The role of provocateurs is to challenge those social barriers by being deliberately impolite.
There should be room for such iconoclasts, in the arts and the fringes of journalism, and they
certainly should not be subject to violent attacks.
But to equate Theo van Gogh or Charlie Hebdo with democracy or Western civilization
20 seems too grandiose. One might as well claim that Al Qaeda in Yemen stands for Eastern or
Islamic civilization.
Western civilization is a rather vague concept anyway. Does it mean Greco-Roman, or Christian,
or even Judeo-Christian? Or is it the Enlightenment? If so, which Enlightenment? Voltaire? De
Sade? Adam Smith? Were fascism and communism not part of Western civilization?
25 In any case, the urge to break taboos is hardly unique to the West. And the culture of insult and
provocation is in some ways the opposite of the way democracy actually works.
Democracy, in the West or anywhere else, is based on the willingness to strike compromises, to
solve conflicts of interests peacefully within the framework of the rule of law. For democracy to
function, citizens must be prepared to give and take. This also means that in a civilized society
30 we agree to live with cultural or religious differences, without deliberately insulting those whose
values we do not share.
This is not a matter of cowardly collaboration with evil, or giving up our freedom of expression.
Nor does it mean, as some would claim, a lack of principle. Tolerance is not a sign of weakness.
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What tolerance shows is a reluctance to view social values in absolute terms, or to divide the
35 world into good and evil. But even tolerance is not absolute: One thing that no democratic
society can accept is the use of violence to impose ones views, whether they are religious,
political, or a combination of the two.
We can only guess at the psychological motives of the men who murdered the editors and
artists of Charlie Hebdo, or of the man who abducted hostages and killed four at a kosher
40 supermarket. Perhaps they were pathetic losers, who turned from adolescent dreams of girls,
football, and easy money to Holy War. This appears to have been the case for many home-
grown jihadis, including the killer of Theo van Gogh. They would not be the first vulnerable
young people to adopt a revolutionary cause to give themselves a sense of power and belonging.
We know more about the political motives of the violent revolutionary groups that recruit such
45 young men and women to do the killing. Some claim that blasphemy or ridicule of the Prophet
was the main reason that Charlie Hebdo was attacked and Van Gogh was murdered. I doubt it. It
is true that many Muslims might feel insulted by blasphemous movies or cartoons. But there is
more to the killings than wounded sensibilities.
Brutal intimidation of actual and potential critics is just one of the aims of revolutionary groups.
50 What revolutionaries hate most of all are not direct attacks by their enemies, but the necessary
compromises, the give and take, the negotiations and adaptations that go with living in a liberal
democracy. Their most important goal is to gain more recruits for their cause. If they are
Islamists, they must try to force peaceful, law-abiding Muslims to stop making compromises
with the secular societies they live in. They need more Holy Warriors.
55 The most effective way to do this is to provoke an anti-Muslim backlash by attacking symbolic
targets, such as the Twin Towers in New York, a notorious filmmaker in Amsterdam, or a
controversial satirical magazine in Paris. The more Muslims in Europe feel feared, rejected, and
under siege by the non-Muslim majority, the more likely they are to support the extremists.
If we conclude from last weeks murders that Islam is at war with the West, the jihadis will have
60 won a major victory. If we embrace the peaceful majority of Muslims as our allies against
revolutionary violence, and treat them as fully equal fellow citizens, our democracies will
emerge stronger.
For discussion:
1. Why are the claims made about free speech in France ironic?
2. In what ways, according to Buruma, is free speech relative? Can you think of other ways
this is also true?
3. Why does Buruma object to Charlie Hebdo being equated with democracy? How do
multicultural democracies across the world deal with freedom of speech? What other
freedoms do democracies also limit? Why are such limitations a necessity?
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Reading 13: Citizens The New Fourth Estate

By David Hoffman (Huffington Post, 10 Sep 2013)
This reading will help you understand:

The impact of the media on politics and governance
The role of the 3 Estates in a democracy
The role of the Fourth Estate in a democracy
How new media and citizens using them have become the new Fourth Estate
Citizens are taking to the streets in cities across the world to demand greater accountability
from their leaders in a surge not seen since the end of World War I. The issues differ from
country to country against graft, violations of the rights of women, exploitation of the
environment or the abuse of privilege but they all demonstrate a hunger for good governance
5 and the power of the new media. These citizen uprisings represent a new force on the world
stage that serves as a counterweight to the excesses of our current political order, whether
democratic or authoritarian. The grass-roots are stirring and politicians everywhere must pay
attention.
As these pages themselves testify, the news media have traditionally played an essential role as
10 our watchdog over government, a "fourth estate" that guards against abuse of power. From
Watergate to today's exposures of the NSA's surveillance activities, the news media shed light
on the workings of government and provide a public forum for the debate of our laws and
policies. But with the decline of traditional news outlets, particularly on the local level, there are
concerns that the power of the press has been compromised and that our freedoms have been
15 curtailed.
Not so. Citizens are the new Fourth Estate. As the new media disrupt the industrial model of
information, citizens have become empowered to oversee the doings of their elected
representatives. A more direct form of democracy is emerging. The availability of information
and, more importantly, the ability to communicate and self-organize has created a diverse
20 "citizens movement" that serves as a check and balance on the prerogatives of government. It is
a worldwide phenomenon. Millions of citizens have taken to the streets of Sao Paulo, Tel Aviv,
Manila, Madrid and Bangkok demanding good governance and an end to corruption.
Demonstrators have swept away autocratic governments in scores of countries. Citizens in India
demand protection from rape. In China tens of millions of bloggers have become a virtual
25 citizens lobby pushing for environmental change, blocking huge new dams and petrochemical
plants. In Italy and other European countries new citizen parties have emerged to challenge
established political powers.
The new media enhance rather than compete with traditional journalism in defending the public
trust. Citizen journalists have expanded the reach and the scope of established news
30 organizations. Whistle blowers or traitors, depending on your political orientation, are piercing
the veils of government secrecy. Social media activists have ignited revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran
and Syria. Although attention has focused on these so-called Facebook and Twitter revolts, it
should not be forgotten that traditional mass media outlets like Al Jazeera and CNN vastly
magnified their power. When Mohammed Bouazizzi self-immolated in Tunisia sparking the Arab
35 Spring, videos on YouTube spread word of spontaneous protests. But it wasn't until Al Jazeera's
Arab-language Mubasher network broadcast these cellphone images on satellite television that
a veritable conflagration engulfed the Arab world. The symbiotic relationship of old and new
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media plus investigative journalism from independent non-profit organizations like ProPublica
have brought a greater degree of transparency to governments than has ever existed before.
40 Now that almost everyone on the planet has access to a mobile phone, news reports, pictures
and opinions can come from everywhere and anyone. Traditional journalism continues to sort,
contextualize and analyze the vast data that is available and has the training, the skills and the
credibility to tell the story. But a new citizens movement is now emerging that has the people
power to demand accountability from our governments, whether in America or in China. There
45 are certainly risks that these newly empowered citizens could become pawns for populist
demagogues, but this is far more likely to happen when the media are controlled by a few than
when there are multiple and independent sources of information.
Politicians everywhere fear the crowd. They try to control the powerful new tools of
communication, they censor the content they don't like and they tighten their secrecy regimes
50 against leakers and whistle blowers. This will only harden the resolve of the emerging citizens
movement. Instead of manipulating and monitoring its speech and activities, political leaders
should embrace this surge in democracy. Sclerotic eighteenth century systems of representative
government need to evolve into new forms of direct democracy. Let the peoples' voices be
heard. Open up government data. End the surveillance state. The people demand full
55 transparency. The citizens movement is not going away. It will increasingly assume its role as the
watchdog of government.
David Hoffman is the Founder and President Emeritus, Internews Network and author of Citizens
Rising: Independent Journalism and the Spread of Democracy (CUNY Journalism Press)

1. Read up and explain (a) the Watergate scandal; (b) the NSAs surveillance activities.
How are they similar? How are they different?
2. Read up and explain (a) the Fourth Estate; (b) the 3 Estates in a democracy.
Why does the writer refer to the new media and citizens as the new Fourth Estate?
3. How do new media/social media help mainstream/traditional/old media in politics and

governance?
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Reading 14: Politics and the Media The Tyranny of the Fourth Estate
Adapted from a journal article by Jurgen Kronig (Progressive Politics Vol 3.2, June 2004)

The democratization of the media with greater accessibility and increased citizen
participation has not necessarily led to positive outcomes.
New media has created a new kind of citizenry.
New media has also created new problems and challenges in the governance of democracies.
Democracy seems in crisis. Democratic politics has, in the words of Philip Gould, become a
minority sport. Apathy and cynicism have become the dominant features of modern
democracies. Turnouts at elections have been falling everywhere, in the case of Britain
5 dramatically. A culture of contempt for politicians is spreading; political debate is more and
more contaminated in our hectic media societies. In a democracy without informed citizens, it
will be ever more difficult to pursue progressive politics.
What a contrast to the mood of the recent past. Not even 10 years ago, there was excited talk
about a new golden future lying ahead of us. Technological change and the information
10 revolution would lead to an unprecedented supply of information. Knowledge and
understanding would increase between individuals and nations. There was talk of an evolving
democracy about new, direct forms of participation. Much was expected from the Internet.
Some politicians suggested that we were experiencing the beginning of the end of
representative parliamentary democracy; it would be replaced by a more direct, plebiscite
15 driven model. Flowing together in this vision of the future of Western liberal democracies was
the belief in the inevitability and intrinsic value of technological, scientific progress and the
conviction that any extension of democracy would be beneficial for our societies. After all, this is
what parties of the Left had fought for all along.
We are facing a new question, as unexpected as it is awkward: can there be too much of a good
20 thing; could it be possible that the extension of democracy in our societies is not just a blessing,
an undeniable good, but could actually be creating new problems and challenges? Fareed
Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International and a political scientist from Harvard, is providing a
qualified yes to this question. In his recent book The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracies
at Home and Abroad, he reminds us that freedom and democracy do not automatically go
25 together. In many parts of the world, from Russia to Venezuela, we are observing democracies
that produce elected autocrats or establish a dictatorship of the majority.
1. The democratic age

Democracy has spread around the world with enormous speed. In 1900, not a single country
had what today would be considered a democracy, that is, governments created by elections in
which every adult had a vote. Today around 120 States do; thats 62 per cent of the world.
30 Democracy has become the only game in town, the only accepted form of government for
humanity. The alternatives, communism and fascism, are totally discredited. Even dictators are
trying to create the impression at least that they follow democratic rules and are organising
elections.
Furthermore, democracy, the rule of the people, has been extended in our Western liberal
35 societies. Zakaria calls this development democratisation, a process which goes far beyond
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politics. Hierarchies are breaking down, closed systems are opening up and pressures from the
masses of citizens are now the primary force of changes in all walks of life.
In Western societies, experiencing historically unprecedented mass prosperity, economic power

has been shifting downward, to the consumers, away from the exclusively rich. The tastes and
40 wishes of the many need to be taken into account more than ever before. This extension of
power to the masses is the dominant feature in our democratic societies. It changed the shape
of education, not necessarily for the better.
Culture, too, has been shaped by the extension of democracy. At the centre of the cultural life
of our societies is no longer high culture, which has retreated. Popular music, blockbuster
45 movies and prime time television are the dominant expressions of modern culture. In the past
cultural elites were able to determine what the masses should watch and listen to. Inform,
educate and entertain was the guiding principle of the old Reithian9 BBC. Today, modern TV as
the most influential cultural medium reflects the preferences of mass audiences. Elites are
losing the battle for influence.
50 Central control over the distribution has become more difficult, if not impossible which, of
course, is a positive development. This is a result of the information revolution, which has
produced hundreds and thousands of outlets for news. As Thomas Friedman remarked about
the Internet, Everyone is connected but no one is in control. The democratisation of
technology means that everybody can get their hands on anything, from anti-globalization
55 material, pornography and weird conspiracy theories, floating through the World Wide Web, to
weapons of mass destruction. In its camps in Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda was working on chemical
and biological weapons programmes, downloaded from the Internet. The democratisation of
violence is the most terrifying feature of todays world.
There seems to be a dark side of democracy, which progressives cannot afford to ignore. This is
60 not to say that democracy is a bad thing. Nobody wishes to return to a time and age, where
choice, individual freedom and autonomy were in short supply. Instead we need to examine
coolly the consequences of democratisation. We should reflect that liberal democracy is not
only based on rule by majorities, formed in elections, but on the rule of law and on many
intermediate institutions, the judiciary, central bankers, churches, associations, trade unions
65 and media, which often are not democratically legitimised, but nevertheless play a vital part in
securing freedom. We do not elect judges, public officials or editors.
Furthermore, representative democracy was established to function as a filter between the

electorate and the executive, to tame the beast of raw emotions and mood swings, to prevent
the unfettered rule of the majority, which all too easily could lead to a dictatorship of the
70 majority.
2. Media and democracy power without responsibility?

The fourth estate, the media, has been shaped by the forces of democratisation too, even if it is
not reflected in the ownership of media companies. The dream that the new information age
would be one of greater enlightenment, of rational discourse and greater participation, has not
come true. Governments feel haunted by an aggressive media. The media act as if they were a
9
John Reith was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public
service broadcasting in the UK. He was the first director-general of the BBC.
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75 kind of conspiracy attempting to keep the population in a permanent state of self-righteous

rage, is the complaint in London. In Germany, one day, a red top10 like Bild demands tough
action against the pension crisis; when politicians act, it accuses them of stealing the pensions.
To avoid any misunderstanding: a natural tension between politics and the media has always
existed and that is right and necessary. Without a free press there is no public sphere, no
80 informed citizen and thus no democracy. As Tocqueville wrote in the 19th century, It would
diminish the importance of newspapers to say they serve to maintain freedom. They maintain
civilisation.
The only problem with this glowing tribute is, that one may find it difficult to recognise todays
media in it, with its vulgar entertainment trends and often irresponsible campaign journalism.
85 Even so, in essence, Toquevilles observation about the role the fourth estate should play is as
true today as it was then. It is just that some things have changed dramatically since then.
3. Media power
The fourth estate is more powerful than ever before. Defining media power, the Left has
concentrated on media tycoons and conglomerates, worrying about their ability to suppress the
free flow of information, to influence, even manipulate their audiences. This fear is not
90 unfounded. Governments and parliaments should never forget the danger of too much
concentration in the media industry. Italy, where political and media power have been merging
in an unprecedented way, should serve as a stark warning.
But there is another side to media power, more often than not overlooked by the Left. Mass
media gained their status because they express and reflect instincts, gut feelings and
95 aspirations of the masses. Otherwise the Financial Times or the Frankfurter Allgemeine, BBC 2
or Arte, not ITV, Sun or Bild would be the media of the majorities. Mass media have to be seen
as what they really are: tools and instruments of power of the people. Electorates are more
demanding, emotional, erratic and self-interested than ever before. The culture of deference is
dead, replaced by an attitude which can be described as have your cake and eat it.
4. Hyper-commercialisation
100 The fourth estate is shaped more than ever before by two dominating principles: by
sensationalism and simplification, which the American sociologist Robert McChesney in his book
Rich media, Poor democracy defines as the consequence of hyper commercialisation. It has led
to ever fiercer ratings and circulation wars, which inevitably lead to what is called dumbing
down. To succeed, the media industry tries to appeal to the lower instincts of people.
105 Of course, it is one thing to pander to lower instincts. But they have to be there in the first place,
and so has the willingness to be pandered to. In the end, people have a choice. One has to face
an unpalatable reality: a Rupert Murdoch or Silvio Berlusconi, whose media outlets are giving
the people what they want, fun, games and entertainment, is more democratic than the
cultural elites, who tried imposing their values and standards on the masses.
5. Entertainment
110 The appeal to the lowest common denominator is shaping the content of TV and popular culture
10
Tabloid newspaper, known for sensationalist reporting.
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more than ever before. The result is dumbed-down entertainment, the triumph of banality. TV
has turned into an endless attempt to lure and titillate the audiences with ever stronger
attractions. For TV programmes to be successful, they have to promise to be ever more
outrageous explicit sex, exhibitionism, voyeurism and violence have become their vital
115 ingredients.
Highly successful Reality TV formats like Big Brother, Temptation Island, Pop Idol or Im
Celebrity, Get me out of here are tellingly equipped with an element of direct democracy.
Audiences are asked to vote; it does not matter if they are using their right to vote once or
dozens of times. Most of these programmes belong to the category of what I call Sado-maso TV
120 the participants must accept humiliation, they have to satisfy lower human instincts like
gloating and voyeurism; for their moment of TV fame they must accept to do ghastly things, eat
worms or beetles, dive into a snake infected swamps or wade literally through shit.
6. News and political coverage

In the democratic age, news and information have been transformed. The way politics is
covered has changed radically. Papers do not report news anymore; they quite often present it
125 according to their preferences and prejudices. The growth of columnists has led to the birth of a
Commentariat. It contains a few excellent and analytical minds, but all too often reasonable,
balanced voices are drowned out by journalists who seem untainted by facts or deeper
knowledge but substitute this with gleefully presented prejudices.
A lot of modern political journalism ignores context and complexities, presenting everything in
130 black and white, while the nature of politics most of the time is a balancing act between
contradictory interests and demands. No surprise, then, that politicians are losing control over
the political agenda. The much maligned spin doctor11 was an attempt to win back the
initiative. It failed a long time ago, while the myth of the spin doctor is being kept alive by a
media which presents itself as heroic fighter against the dragon of spin. The loss of control over
135 the political agenda would not necessarily be such a bad thing, if significant parts of the press
had not eliminated the opportunity for thoughtful debate between people and politicians.
7. Electronic media
The last trusted bridge between politics and the public seemed for a while to be TV and Radio.
But here too, as Richard Tait (former Editor of ITN) notices, commercial pressures and audience
research are pushing editors away from political coverage. News has become more superficial
140 and sensational. The need for images and pictures is greater than ever before. News is all too
often degenerating into disastertainment. Public Broadcasting is not immune against this trend.
OFCOM, the new regulator for the electronic media in Britain, registered a decline of up to 25
per cent in their political content over the last decade. But more has changed than just the
extent of coverage.
145 A Survey by the British Film Institute, published in 1999, revealed a worrying trend. The
overwhelming majority of television programme makers believe that ethical standards have
collapsed. Among those working in news and documentaries, 52 per cent said that they had
been pressured to distort the truth and/or misrepresent the views of contributors to create an
exciting, controversial or entertaining programme. The BFI report stated that some
11
A person (such as a political aide) whose job involves trying to control the way something (such as an important event)
is described to the public in order to influence what people think about it. [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]
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150 respondents felt that bowing to pressure had almost become habitual within factual
programming. It may only be distortion by oversimplification, or by altering or concealing facts.
However, it is often serious falsification by omitting inconvenient evidence, misrepresenting
contributions and sometimes knowingly restating untruths. This was in 2000. The situation has
hardly improved since then. And it is by no means a problem specific to British TV. Reporters of
155 German TV stations told me that this kind of pressure is all too well known. Political reports
which are regarded as being too boring will be worked over to make them more exciting. The
method is called hotting up.
8. The breakdown of trust

160 Sensationalism and oversimplification are affecting the output of all media outlets. There is less
room for a balanced approach, for analysis instead of going for the crass headline or
extraordinary story. The merciless hunt for weaknesses and inconsistencies of politicians and
other figures of public life has become a prevalent feature.
Furthermore, the rhythm of politics and the media is drifting apart. After the end of the great
165 ideological divide, politics is more often than not undramatic, complex, not easy to understand
and therefore more difficult and boring to report. Often the results of political decisions, in
education or welfare can be judged only years after implementing them. Quite often, the results
of political decisions say, in education or welfare can only be judged only years after
implementing them. That is exactly the opposite of what modern media needs and demands.
170 The media has a 24-hour mindset, shaped by the demand for ever shorter soundbites. They are
impatient and short-termist; they want results here and now.
Media language has changed too. What we are observing is an adjectival degradation. Every
report, coming from inside governments or institutions outside is, if it contains some form of
criticism, therefore damning, devastating or scathing. Warnings, which most of the times
175 were not heeded anyhow, are stark, differences of opinion between politicians of the same
party are dramatic splits, developments are alarming the consumer of media is confronted
with a permanent linguistic overkill. Official language is evolving in the opposite direction; it is
becoming more sanitised, cautious, bureaucratic and politically correct.
All this has contributed to the change in democratic politics for the worse. The electorate has
180 become hostile and distrustful of the media and politicians alike. Trust has broken down
threefold, between the public and politicians, between journalists and the public, while
journalists and politicians are observing each other with deep distrust and mutual antipathy. A
vicious circle has established itself. Journalists claim that the political culture is not appealing to
the public; driven by commercial considerations and market pressures, the media therefore are
185 reducing their political coverage even further. The chances of the public participating in the
rituals of democracy are declining even more.
The Phyllis Committee, set up in Britain to look at the relations between media and politics, has
confirmed this bleak outlook. Politicians have given up trying to get their message across via
newspapers, which they regard as hopelessly partisan and biased; newspapers no longer believe
190 much of what the government is saying. Thus leaves public broadcasters in an even more
important and responsible position. If public broadcasting 12 , torn between commercial
12
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is
public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual
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pressures and public duty, surrenders even more than it has done already to the culture of
contempt too, there will be only a few niche outlets left in the fourth estate, willing to promote
and practice a fair journalistic approach to politics. Sections of the BBC were operating on the
195 basis of a strong antipolitical bias, like many of their colleagues in the press, regarding all
politicians at the end of the day as lying bastards who should never be trusted.
Self-criticism is not popular among the media. Sometimes it seems that the only taboo for the
media is the media itself. Some journalists and broadcasters are aware of the danger. Andrew
Gowers, editor of the Financial Times, wrote at the beginning of this year [2004], after Lord
200 Hutton had delivered his judgment: [F]or while the crisis at the BBC is deep seated, it is merely
part of a broader malaise; ... journalists reflexive mistrust of every government action is
corroding democracy. And Martin Kettle remarked in the The Guardian, a paper deeply critical
of the decision to go to war in Iraq, that the episode [the Kelly and Gilligan affair 13, triggered by
the controversy over the weapons dossier of the British government] illuminates a wider crisis in
205 British journalism than just the turmoil at the BBC.
Democracy and civil society need informed citizens; otherwise they will have difficulty surviving.
Without a media aware of its own power and responsibility, an informed citizenship cannot be
sustained. What our democracies have got today is an electorate highly informed about
entertainment, consumer goods and celebrities while being disinterested and/or deeply cynical
210 about politics, equipped with short attention spans and a growing tendency to demand instant
gratification. Politics in Western democracies is mutating into a strange kind of hybrid, a semi-
plebiscitarian14 system, in which the mass media represent the new demos (populace;
common people).
If this trend cannot be reversed, the stadium might become even emptier than it is now. It
215 might only be filled again if seductive populism calls. When democracy is running out of control,
it is the politicians who suffer first. Once the demos in ancient Athens and during the French
Revolution had developed a taste for more power, it looked for and found its victims as easily as
authoritarian tyrannies did and disposed of them.
220 9. Democratic renewal

Is more democracy a recipe to rejuvenate the ailing media democracies of today? There are no
quick fixes for the present malaise. Some suggest lowering of the voting age as a first step
towards improving the level of democratic participation. Its first result would be to lower the
percentage of citizens engaging in elections even further. The number of young people voting at
225 elections has been consistently lower than that of older generations. Young citizens are even
less interested in the process of politics. They are media savvy, they know how to navigate
contributions, public financing, and commercial financing. [Source: UNESCO brochure Public broadcasting
Why? How?, May 2001]
13
David Kelly was a British scientist and authority on biological warfare employed by the British Ministry of
Defence, and formerly a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His unauthorised, off-the-record
discussion with BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq was cited by Gilligan, leading to a major controversy. On 18 July 2003, Kellys body was
found in the woods close to his home; a 2010 post-mortem report into his cited the main cause of death as
bleeding from a wrist wound typical of self-inflicted injury.
14
System of voting in which the entire electorate is invited to accept or reject a proposal (much like a
referendum).
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through the entertainment soaked, chaotic world of multichannel TV, skilfully avoiding any
intellectually demanding or informative programmes that are still on offer in some hidden
digital corner. Research studies have confirmed this unfortunate reality again and again.
230 Perhaps the right to vote would become devalued even further if it is offered in a desperate bid
to attract more voters.
A further extension of direct democracy would be problematic. The advocates of this solution
have become more quiet recently, aware of the pitfalls and dangers lying ahead on this path.
This does not mean that even parliamentary democracies should never grant referenda to their
235 peoples. In matters of significant constitutional change, it seems not only unavoidable but right
to give the public a vote. But, otherwise, it does not seem the way forward anymore.
Holding out hope for modern communication technology and the Internet seems equally
doubtful. Computer technology remains dangerously unreliable, as the failures of public and
private IT projects have demonstrated in recent years. The blind faith in the promises of the
240 Internet should have dissolved into thin air by now. Hackers will most probably find a way
around security systems established to defend e-voting, another popular but unrealistic remedy.
The most urgently needed remedy will work over a longer period of time only. Nothing is more
important than nurturing a sense of civic duty and pride. This has to start early on in schools,
where active democracy and citizenship with rights and responsibilities should be an important
245 part of the curriculum. Maybe it is also worth considering voting to be a duty.
It would not matter, if 15 or 20 per cent of the ballot papers were wasted in such elections. At
least these people would have fulfilled their duty to liberal democracy which provides them with
freedom from tyranny. If we do not take care of the political system it will not survive.
Only one response to the crisis of democracy would definitely be wrong and complacent: to say
250 that there is no problem at all and assuming that our democracies are stable systems, which no
longer need any care.
Jrgen Krnig is UK Editor of the German weekly paper Die Zeit and a freelance author for TV and
various publications in Germany and the UK. He has worked as a political editor for German
Broadcasting and as a correspondent in Bonn and Washington. He has written about globalization
and the information revolution, the political impact of new technologies and the role of the media.
For discussion:
1. What, according to the writer, are some of the positive and negative consequences of
democratization of the media?
2. What criticism about the various groups of the fourth estate today does the writer
mention & do you agree with his view? : (a) the users of new media; (b) the old
media: the press, the TV and the radio; (c) the general public
3. What are the writers suggestions to improve political involvement? Consider these
in Singapores context.
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SECTION 2
SOCIAL ISSUES
Enduring Understanding(s):
What will students understand as a result of this unit?
1. What is defined as a social problem differs by audience and by time.

2. Social problems are sociocultural and political phenomena that prevent a significant
number of societal participants from developing and using their full potential.
3. Social and political structures and arrangements determine the underlying features of
the social world and play a role in perpetuating social problems.
4. There is a discrepancy between what a country is supposed to stand for and the actual
conditions in which many of its people live.
5. Individuals are products of their social and political environment. Who they are, what
they believe, what they strive for, and how they feel about themselves are all dependent
on other people, the society in which they live and the politics that govern their lives.
6. The politico-economic system of a society, from which social problems emanate, is the
result of historical events and conscious choices by political elites.
Essential Questions:
What are the essential questions of this unit?
1. What are the causes and consequences of social problems?

2. Are these causes and consequences inter-connected?
3. How should society be designed in order to reduce or eliminate social problems?
4. What is the role of human agency in shaping, resisting, challenging and sometimes
completely changing the social structures and institutions that affect their lives?
5. How can we ensure we are not dispassionate observers of social problems?
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Essay Questions on Social Issues (2006 2015)

FAMILY & MARRIAGE
Cambridge 2015 Parents have no right to impose their own values and beliefs on their children.
Discuss.
Cambridge 2014 Traditional marriage is an outdated concept. To what extent is this true of your
society?
Cambridge 2012 Should people be allowed to have children by artificial means?
Cambridge 2003 The family has suffered at the expense of career in Singaporean society. Is this a fair
comment?
Y5 CT1 2015 Discuss the view that marriage should be for life.
Y5 Promo 2015 In the family, should the most important role of a man be that of a breadwinner?
Y6 CT2 2014 Good parenting has little to do with how children turn out. Comment with reference
to your society.
Y6 CT2 2013 Is marriage still relevant in modern society?
Y6 CT1 2013 Modern life is not conducive to the survival of the family. Comment.
Y6 CT2 2012 The traditional institution of marriage is in decline. Is this a cause for concern?
Y5 CT 2011 The family has suffered at the expense of economic growth in Singapore. How far do
you agree?
Prelim 2011 An unhappy marriage is best resolved with a divorce. Comment.
RI Y5 CT 2010 Is monogamy unrealistic in modern society?
J2 CT2 2009 Popular culture has destroyed the true meaning of love and marriage. Do you
agree?
J2 Prelim 2009 Is there ever any justification for divorce?
J1 CT 2009 The role of the family as transmitter of culture and values is all but dead. Do you
agree?
Promo 2009 How far would you say that singlehood has been hugely underrated?
J1 CT 2008 Giving monetary incentives is the best way to encourage procreation. Comment.
J1 CT 2008 In your opinion, how easy is it to be a good father today?
J2 CT1 2008 Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. Comment.
Prelim 2008 A countrys low birth rate is a reflection of the peoples selfish mindset. Is this a fair
comment?
Promo 2007 To what extent is the family still relevant in modern society?
J2 CT2 2007 Is marriage still relevant in todays society?
Prelim 2007 Is work-life balance a realistic aim in todays society?
J1 CT 2006 Social change has diminished the importance of the family today. Discuss.
Prelim 2006 It is most unwise for people in love to marry. Do you agree?
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GENDER
Cambridge 2014 Consider the view that some careers are more suited to one gender than the other.
Cambridge 2011 The world would be a better place if women had a greater say in politics. To what
extent do you agree?
Cambridge 2009 History records male acts, written by males, and holds little interest for females as a
result. Is this a fair comment?
Cambridge 2006 Women will never enjoy the same rights as men. Do you agree?
Y5 Promo 2015 In the family, should the most important role of a man be that of a breadwinner?
Y5 CT1 2014 The media is to blame for gender inequalities. Do you agree?
Y6 CT1 2014 No country can really develop unless its women are educated. Do you agree?
Y5 Promo 2013 Women are a decorative sex. (Oscar Wilde) How far is this still an issue today?
Y6 CT2 2012 Does it matter that the leaders of most countries are men?
Y6 Prelims 2012 Women are not suitable for politics. To what extent is this true?
Y5 CT1 2012 The pursuit of gender equality will do more harm than good. Discuss.
Promo 2011 It is increasingly challenging to be a man today. Do you agree?
Y6 CT1 2011 A nation cannot really progress until it empowers its women. Do you agree?
Y6 CT2 2011 Women in the developed world have never had it so good. Do you agree?
Y6 CT2 2010 Infidelity is a biological imperative. Discuss.
Y6 CT2 2010 Do you think there is much ambiguity and confusion about what it means to be a man
in todays world?
J1 CT 2009 Women hold up half the sky. (Mao Tse-Tung) Is this true in todays society?
Prelim 2009 Women play a more important role than men in families today. Do you agree?
Promo 2008 Men make better scientists than women. Do you agree?
Prelim 2008 Male liberation is a myth in todays society. Do you agree?
J1 CT 2007 To what extent should men and women be given equal treatment?
J2 CT1 2007 Women make better politicians than men. Comment.
J2 CT2 2007 Beauty pageants are degrading to women. How far do you agree?
J1 CT 2006 The pursuit of equality of the sexes is not only futile but foolish. Do you agree?
J2 CT1 2006 Should the success of a woman be measured differently from that of a man?
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION + DISCRIMINATION
Cambridge 2014 In times of economic hardship, should a country still be expected to provide financial
or material aid to others?
Cambridge 2013 How far is increased prosperity for all a realistic goal in your society?
Cambridge 2012 In your society, how far is equality for all a reality?
Cambridge 2011 It is inevitable for technology to be more responsive to the problems of the rich than
the poor. Discuss.
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Cambridge 2011 Can prejudice ever be eliminated?

Cambridge 2009 Is the elimination of global poverty a realistic aim?
Cambridge 2008 Many developed countries are paying increasing attention to the needs of the
disadvantaged. How far is this true in Singapore?
Cambridge 2007 Should poorer countries develop their tourist industry when the basic needs of their
own people are not being met?
Cambridge 2007 The view of the majority is always right. Do you agree?
Cambridge 2006 Is there still a place for charity in todays world?
Cambridge 2004 Are the poor an inevitable feature of any society?
Y5 CT1 2015 Education has produced a population that is literate but not compassionate. How far
is this true of your country?
Y5 CT1 2015 Should society pay more attention to the needs of criminals?
Y5 Promo 2015 Ours is a country of divided people. Is this a valid comment on your society?
Y5 Promo 2015 Is your society doing enough to protect the rights of the disadvantaged?
Y6 CT1 2015 Laws are the most effective way to combat prejudice and discrimination. How far
would you accept this view?
Y6 CT1 2015 To what extent can technology be a solution to social problems?
Y6 CT2 2015 Has competition resulted in a less compassionate and caring society? Discuss this
with reference to your country.
Y6 CT2 2015 Foreign is always better than local. To what extent does this reflect the attitude of
the people in your society?
Y6 Prelim 2015 There are enough opportunities in your society to improve ones iife. Do you agree?
Y5 CT1 2014 Examine the impact that foreigners have on your society.
Y5 CT1 2014 Technological advancement has worsened the problem of poverty. Do you agree?
Y5 CT1 2014 Consider the view that multiculturalism inevitably leads to conflict.
Y6 CT1 2014 Competition breeds success. To what extent is this true?
Y6 Prelim 2014 We do not do enough to help with the less fortunate. Is this a fair assessment of
your society?
Y6 CT1 2013 Is equality for all within your country a realistic and desirable aim?
Y6 CT 1 2012 Do you agree that we can now do little to help the poor in our world?
Y6 CT2 2012 Is it ever possible to eliminate stereotypes in society?
Y6 Prelim 2012 'Success is determined by one's intelligence.' Discuss.
Y5 CT1 2012 People who are in poverty have only themselves to blame. Comment.
Y5 Promo 2011 Is it always the responsibility of the state to help the poor?
Y6 CT2 2011 What can people in your society learn from its youth?
Y5 Promo 2010 Have we paid too high a price in our pursuit of economic growth in Singapore?
Y6 Prelim 2010 Inequality is a fact of life. To what extent should we accept this?
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J1 Promo 2009 With economic development comes greater equality in a country. To what extent do
you agree with this statement?
J1 CT 2009 Poverty is not a serious problem in Singapore. Do you agree?
J2 CT2 2008 Do you agree with the view that elitism is justifiable when its beneficiaries are the
broad masses?
J1 CT 2008 To what extent should the government help the poor in Singapore?
J1 CT 2008 Is affluence a blessing or a curse?
J1 CT 2007 Can prejudice ever be eliminated?
(Age) SOCIAL STRATIFICATION + DISCRIMINATION
Cambridge 2015 When a governments finances for social welfare are limited, should they be directed
towards to the young or the old?
Cambridge 2011 Can prejudice ever be eliminated?
Cambridge 2004 To what extent are the young in Singapore favoured at the expense of the elderly?
Y5 CT1 2015 To what extent is old age considered a burden to your society?
Y5 Promo 2015 Is your society doing enough to protect the rights of the disadvantaged?
Y6 Prelim 2014 We do not do enough to help the less fortunate. Is this a fair assessment of your
society?
Y5 CT1 2013 Is old age approached with horror in your society?
Y5 CT1 2012 How far do you agree that it is the responsibility of the young to take care of the
elderly in your society?
Y5 CT1 2011 Is longer life expectancy a blessing or a curse?
Y6 CT2 2011 Retirement is a redundant word today. To what extent is this true?
Y5 Promo 2010 To what extent is raising the retirement age a necessary evil in todays society?
Y6 CT1 2010 Growing old can be an empowering process. Do you agree?
J2 Prelim 2007 We worship the young and scorn the old. What is your opinion?
J1 Promo 2007 More needs to be done to fight ageism in our society. Do you agree?
J2 CT2 2006 More than at any other time, the old have no place in society today. How far do you
agree with this view?
YOUTH
Cambridge 2015 Parents have no right to impose their own values and beliefs on their children.
Discuss.
Cambridge 2015 When a governments finances for social welfare are limited, should they be directed
towards the young or the old?
Cambridge 2006 To what extent do young people in your society take an interest in politics?
Cambridge 2003 Was life for young people in Singapore better in the past than it is today?
Y6 Prelim 2014 Young people today think of nothing but themselves. Is this a fair description?
Y5 CT1 2014 Do you agree that teenagers in your society have a bright future ahead of them?
Y6 CT1 2013 With reference to the developments in the world today, to what extent would you
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agree that the future holds much promise for young people?
Y5 Promo 2013 Always follow your dreams. Is this good advice for young people today?
Y6 Prelim 2012 Are the youth in Singapore prepared for future challenges?
Y5 Promo 2011 Is too much being expected of todays youth?
Y5 Promo 2010 Todays youth have no regard for authority. Discuss this with reference to the youth
in your society.
J1 Promo 2008 Children today are no longer able to enjoy their childhood. Is this true of children in
your society?
J2 CT2 2008 Affluence breeds political apathy. Is this a fair comment on Singaporean youth?
J1 CT 2007 Youths today are self-centred and cannot be relied upon to build the future. Is this a
fair statement?
EDUCATION
Cambridge 2015 Books serve little purpose in education as technological developments become more
sophisticated. How far do you agree?
Cambridge 2015 Consider the argument that the main purpose of television should be to educate
rather than simply to entertain.
Cambridge 2014 How far is it important for people to be aware of current events in countries other
than their own?
Cambridge 2013 Education should only be concerned with what is useful in life. Discuss.
Cambridge 2011 Does better education necessarily lead to a better standard of living?
Cambridge 2009 Only educated people should have the right to vote in elections. What is your view?
Cambridge 2007 The word failure should never be used in education. Discuss.
Cambridge 2002 Conformity should be the main aim of all schools. How far is this true?
Y6 Prelim 2015 Is the study of History increasingly losing its relevance in todays world?
Y5 Promo 2015 How important is the study of History for a nations future?
Y5 CT1 2015 Education has produced a population that is literate but not compassionate. How far
is this true of your country?
Y6 CT1 2014 Consider the view that the study of history is essential for mankind.
Y5 Promo 2014 To what extent do you think that creativity can be cultivated?
Y5 Promo 2014 How relevant is the study of History in our world today?
Y5 CT1 2014 Only grades matter in education. Discuss.
Y6 Prelim 2013 Qualified but not enlightened. Is this a fair description of educated people today?
Y6 CT1 2013 The teaching of literary classics should be made compulsory in schools. Discuss.
Y5 Promo 2013 Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education. (Martin Luther King,
Jr.) Discuss.
Y5 CT1 2013 Singapore can do without the study of the humanities. Discuss.
Y6 CT2 2012 To what extent should schools use examinations to evaluate students?
Y6 Prelim 2012 An educated people can be easily governed. Is this a valid statement?
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Y5 CT1 2011 Education has resulted in only more inequality. Do you agree?
J1 CT 2006 An educated society is a civilised one. Is this always true?
Y5 CT1 2010 Education is the great leveller. How far is this true?
Y6 Prelim 2010 To what extent should government influence education? Discuss with reference to
your country.
J2 Prelim 2009 Education heightens inequality. Discuss.
SOCIAL ISOLATION
Cambridge 2013 How far is increased prosperity for all a realistic goal in your society?
Cambridge 2011 Examine the view that loneliness has become the new curse of modern society.
Y6 CT2 2012 Not in my backyard. To what extent is this a growing problem in your society?
J1 Promo 2009 Increasingly, Singaporeans are feeling displaced in their own country. To what
extent do you think this is true?
ENGAGEMENT AND ACTIVISM
Cambridge 2014 How far is it important for people to be aware of current events in countries other
than their own?
Cambridge 2013 Why should we be concerned with current affairs when most of them will soon be
forgotten?
Cambridge 2013 How far, in your society, should unpopular views be open to discussion?
Y6 CT2 2012 Do you agree that the tools of social media have reinvented social activism?
Y6 CT2 2011 To what extent does your country challenge the current state of affairs?
OTHER SOCIAL ISSUES
Cambridge 2015 How effectively is public health promoted and managed in your society?
Cambridge 2014 Getting what one wants in life is what matters. Discuss.
Y6 CT2 2014 Do you agree with the view that consumerism is harmful to society?
Y5 Promo 2014 In modern life, are we trying to do too much?
Y5 CT1 2014 Change should always be embraced. Comment.
Y5 CT1 2014 Stress is healthy. Discuss.
Y6 CT2 2013 People today lack the capacity to imagine and feel. Is this a fair characterisation of
individuals in your society?
Y6 Prelim 2013 Is work-life balance ever achievable in your society?
Y6 Prelim 2013 How important are memories?
Y6 CT1 2013 Do we expect too much from public figures?
Y5 Promo 2013 How important is it for us to recognise and celebrate our heroes?
Y5 Promo 2013 To what extent is Singapore a liveable city?
Y5 CT1 2013 Consider the importance of conversation.
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Reading 15: Women are better off today, but still far from being equal with men
By Nikki van der Gaag (The Guardian, 29 Sep 2014)

The gender gap in employment and political leadership
The economic cost of gender inequality
The impact of education on closing the gender divide
Things have certainly improved for women, but at the top of both industry and government
the faces remain stubbornly male
There have been huge changes for women in terms of employment in the past decades, with
women moving into paid employment outside the home in ways that their grandmothers and
even their mothers could only dream of. In the US, for the first time, in 2011, women made up
slightly more than half the workforce. There are (some) high-profile women chief executives.
5 There is a small but increasing number of female presidents. Women are moving into jobs that
used to be done by men. Even those women working in factories or sweatshops have more
choice and independence than if they remained at home. But their experience is contradictory,
as feminist economist Ruth Pearson points out:
As individual workers, they experienced both the liberating or the empowering impact of
10 earning a regular wage, and of having increased autonomy over their economic lives; at the
same time many were also well aware of the fact that their work was low paid, both in
comparison with male workers but also with women workers employed in industrialised
countries.
This contradiction is widespread although more women are working, they are often still worse
15 paid than men, in part-time jobs or in the huge informal employment sector with little
protection and few rights. In many places, the increase in women working is simply driven by
the necessity of having two wages to make ends meet.
And at the top of industry and government, the faces remain stubbornly male. In fact, there is
some evidence that the numbers of women are actually decreasing. As Sheryl Sandberg, chief
20 operating officer of Facebook, said: Women are not making it to the top of any profession in
the world.
It is true that progress in terms of gender equality is uneven, but the proponents of the
argument that women are taking over the world at work need only look at statistics on
employment, equal pay and political representation of men and women to see just how wrong
25 they are.
Gender analyses of labour markets tend to look at womens participation in paid employment
compared with mens and not the huge informal sector in which so many women work; selling
a handful of tomatoes that they have grown in their gardens, picking cotton or sewing at night
long after their children have gone to bed. The number of women owning small and medium-
30 sized businesses is estimated to be between 8 million and 10 million, and although this is still far
fewer than that for men owning similar enterprises, numbers are slowly growing. In most
countries, the informal sector is far larger than the formal one. For example, in south Asia more
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than 80% of men and women work in the informal sector, and in sub-Saharan Africa it is 74% of
women and 61% of men.
35 There are also more women in formal paid work today than at any point in history. They now
make up about 40% of the global formal labour force, and 43% of the agricultural labour force,
although this varies considerably from country to country. For example, in the Middle East and
North Africa in 2010, only 21% of women participated in the formal labour market, compared
with 71% in East Asia and the Pacific. Mens labour participation rates tend to be more stable,
40 both across countries and in different income groups.
While they cannot be said to be representative, the highest positions are even more elusive for
women: only seven of 150 elected heads of state in the world are women, and only 11 of 192
heads of government. The situation is similar at the level of local government: female elected
councillors are under-represented in all regions of the world and women mayors even more so.
45 And many of the women in top positions are already lined up for success. The few women in the
Forbes rich list mostly come from rich families or business dynasties such as Walmart or Apple.
In the private sector, women are on most boards of directors of large companies but their
number remains low compared to that for men. Furthermore, the glass ceiling has hindered
womens access to leadership positions in private companies. This is especially notable in the
50 largest corporations, which remain male dominated. Of the 500 largest corporations in the US,
only 23 have a female chief executive officer. That is just 4.6%.
Even in the 27 member countries of the EU, in April 2013 women accounted for only 16.6% of
board members of large publicly listed companies. This is up by 5% since October 2010, when
the European commission announced that it was considering targeted initiatives to get more
55 women into decision-making positions. But one in four big companies still have no women on
the board at all, and the target of 40% by 2020 is still a long way off. Although there is little data
on women managers in the global south, one paper on the subject in Africa notes that: The few
figures available showed wide disparities, with Egypt at one end of the spectrum with only 10%
of managers being women, while Botswana at the top end had 30%.
60 Globally, research by accountancy firm Grant Thornton in 2013 found that women now fill 24%
of senior management roles, a percentage that is gradually creeping up. But women make up
only 16% of board members in the rich-world G7 economies compared with 26% in the BRIC
economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and 38% in the Baltic countries. Interestingly, one
possible reason for this is that women in the latter have more access to childcare from extended
65 families or from women they employ as nannies.
This means that in Japan, 93 out of every 100 people in top positions are men, in the US this is
80 out of 100, and even in the countries at the top of the list, only China has more women than
men, and this is a leap from 25% the previous year. And interestingly, despite many years of
legislation for gender equality, Sweden and Norway are only 27 and 22 in the ranking of top
70 countries.
Women dont have power in other areas either even in 2013, they still made up only 21.4% of
parliamentarians. Most recent figures show that 17.2% of ministerial posts worldwide are held
by women up from 16.1% in 2008, which shows just how slow progress can be.
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Lack of political voice is critical given that this is where laws and policies that affect whole
75 populations both male and female are made. In the UK, Dame Helena Kennedy, QC, noted in
a speech on International Womens Day:
You dont have to believe in patriarchy to realise that the law was made by men and is
dominated by men, and that the same goes for parliament. Which means that in all the making
of the law, women are largely absent. It is not surprising that the law doesnt work for women.
80 Women who are in powerful positions often find they face a daily barrage of sexist behaviour
from men, which in many countries is outlawed in the workplace. And often, even among the
elite, women do not do as well as men. Eighty-eight per cent of women aged 30-39 see their
earnings decline when they have children. A study of Harvard graduates in the US found that
median earnings in 2005 were $90,000 for women but $162,500 for men. Among full-time, full-
85 year workers, median earnings were $112,500 for women and $187,500 for men.
What is interesting too is that despite the fact that in many countries girls are forging ahead of
boys when it comes to educational attainment, this doesnt always pay dividends when it
comes to employment. Despite the youth bulge in much of the global south, even secondary
and university education, where girls and young women are excelling, are failing to translate
90 into employment for many young women. As one report from the World Bank notes: Progress
in education is not matched by higher labour force participation. By age 24, women lag behind
in all regions. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the gap is around 26 percentage points. The
gap is even larger in south Asia, where 82% of men are active in the labour market, against just
28% of women.
95 If we look at the gender pay gap, the story is no better. An International Labour Organisation
(ILO) study of 83 countries found that women earn 10%-30% less than men. Even in the US in
2010, women working full-time still earned only 77% of the male wage. In sub-Saharan Africa
and east Asia and the Pacific, young women aged 15-24 who are working earn only 82% and
84% respectively of the amount young men earn in an hour. According to the ILO, if present
100 trends continue, it will be another 75 years before the principle of equal pay for work of equal
value is achieved.
In some countries, however, in Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and central Asia,
young women are beginning to earn the same and sometimes even slightly more than young
men. And younger women everywhere seem to be doing slightly better in terms of earnings
105 than older women, except in Latin America and the Caribbean, perhaps owing to progress in
female education, but also probably because older women have taken time out to have children
while younger women have not. Or because the pay gap is such that in many countries,
including, for example, Brazil, middle-class women in paid work outside the home have been
able to afford to pay other, poorer women to care for their children.
110 The cost of women not being engaged in paid work is huge: according to one report the
economic cost of failing to educate girls to the same standard as boys in 65 low- and middle-
income countries was estimated at $92bn a year. And according to the IMF, whole economies
are losing out if women and men had more equality at work, it would increase GDP in the US
by 5%, in Japan by 9% and in Egypt by 34%.
115 None of this would seem to back up Hanna Roisins theory that the world of work is becoming a
place where women hold all the cards.
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CASE STUDY: FAIR PAY FOR DOMESTIC WORK IN NICARAGUA

You no longer have to lower your head and wait for the man to tell you what to do; now we
make our own decisions and share activities and responsibilities with our partners.
120 An innovative development is taking place in Nicaragua. A number of cooperatives with

Fairtrade contracts are including in the costs of production a component for the unpaid work of
women. This is exceptional in a world which consistently undervalues womens work and
refuses either to measure it or count it as economic activity, despite feminist campaigning over
several decades. The money raised is being used by the cooperatives for collective projects to
125 empower women and improve gender balance in the wider community. As Adilia says, the
relations between men and women are being radically altered.
The starting point came in 2008, when the cooperative Juan Francisco Paz Silva needed to
renew its Community Trade (equivalent to Fairtrade) contract for sesame oil with the Body
Shop. The co-op and Etico (an ethical trading company that works closely with the co-op) both
130 had strong gender policies and were looking for ways of supporting women through this
contract. The idea of including a component for womens unpaid work came as a flash of
inspiration, as a recognition and recompense for the contribution to production made by
women.
This calculation, and its addition to the costs, was accepted by the Body Shop, although they
135 wanted more justification and more detail on what was actually being paid for. Subsequently,
some coffee buyers have also agreed to make a similar addition.
Since this development started, there have been more women than men joining the co-ops as
new members, an increase in the numbers of women initiating new projects, and a remarkable
100% payback rate on loans made to women.
140 These changes have led to an increased sense of self-esteem among the women, who now have
greater confidence to speak and participate in the affairs of the cooperatives.
For discussion:
1. What do we mean by gender inequality? Why is it said that women are still far from
being equal with men? Discuss this with reference to the different sectors mentioned by
the author.
2. Education is often hailed as a means to achieve gender equality. Discuss reasons why
progress in education is not matched by higher labour force participation (line 91) and
equal pay. What recommendations do you propose to bridge the gender gap?
3. Young women earn as much as, or even more than young men in some parts of the world
(line 103). Discuss the factors which lead to the progress of women in those countries.
Cambridge questions:
A. History records male acts, written by males, and holds little interest for females as a result.
Is this a fair comment? (Cambridge, 2009)
B. In your society, how far is equality for all a reality? (Cambridge, 2012)
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C. The world would be a better place if more political leaders were women. What is your
view? (Cambridge, 2013)
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Reading 16: The Challenge of Closing the Gender Gap in Developing Countries
By Dwyer Gunn (The Atlantic, 24 Dec 2012)

The different challenges faced by women in the developed and developing countries.
How economic development can lead to a decline in gender inequality.
The contrasting view that gender equality is a pre-requisite for development.
Which is more effective in improving life for women: economic development or specific
programs aimed at increasing equality?
While the developed world discusses the glass ceiling, the end of men and whether women
can really ever have it all, activists in developing countries tend to focus on more basic
issues like combating violence against women and providing equal access to vaccines, basic
healthcare, and primary education.
5 "Today, it is estimated that 6 million women are missing every year (World Development
Report, 2012)," writes MIT's Esther Duflo, one of the world's foremost development
economists and a John Bates Clark medalist, in a new comprehensive literature review on
the relationship between poverty and gender inequality across the developing world,
published in last week's Journal of Economic Literature. Sex-selective abortion, infanticide,
10 unequal treatment in childhood, and the risks of childbirth all play a role in the missing
women phenomenon.
Duflo's paper is concerned primarily with the best way to fix this problem. Will economic
development, with its attendant rising incomes and resources, eventually lead to gender
equality on its own, even without targeted efforts at improving conditions for women? Or is
15 gender equality a prerequisite to achieving development goals, as Kofi Annan and others
have argued? And in this age of diminishing foreign aid budgets, can organizations focus
their meager resources on just one of these two channels?
There's lots of evidence that gender inequality declines as economic development occurs
and incomes rise. Prior to development, poverty-stricken families respond to income shocks
20 by re-allocating resources to sons. "In India, the excessive mortality rate of girls, relative to
boys, spikes during droughts," writes Duflo, in reference to a 1999 paper by Elaina Rose.
"When they cannot afford to feed everyone, families disproportionately sacrifice the
welfare of girls." On the other hand, Rose found that wealthier families with assetsland
they can sell during particularly rough timesdon't show the same gender disparities.
25 Economic development in a community not only brings more doctors and health facilities,
but also increases families' abilities to weather the kinds of crises that disproportionately
harm girls. In Duflo's words: "[B]y reducing the vulnerability of poor households to risk,
economic development, even without specifically targeting women, disproportionately
improves their well-being."
30 Development is also often accompanied by decreased maternal mortality and increased

labor market opportunities for women, both of which may encourage parents to invest
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more in their young daughters. In other words, parents who think their daughters have a
better chance of surviving the perilous childbearing years, or of one day getting a high-
earning job outside the home, might make very different decisions about feeding and
35 educating those daughters. A 2009 evaluation of a policy initiative in Sri Lanka found that a
reduction in maternal mortality led to increases in female life expectancy, literacy and years
of education.
But is it enough? "Is there a reason to design policies specifically targeted towards
improving the condition of women?" asks Duflo. "Or is it sufficient for improving women's
40 condition to fight poverty and to create the conditions for economic growth in poor
countries?"
Duflo doesn't think development alone will be enoughgender gaps in wages and political
participation persist in even the world's most developed countries, and researchers have
found evidence of sex-selective abortion in countries like China, South Korea, India and
45 Taiwanand among certain ethnic groups in the U.S.
So what about the other leverempowering women through political quotas or

scholarshipsin the hopes it will drive development for both women and men? Kofi Annan
isn't the only one who views gender equality as a prerequisite for developmentmany
microcredit loans and cash transfer programs are offered exclusively to women due to the
50 belief that they make better spending and investment decisions than men.
Empowering womeneither through cash transfer programs given only to women,

scholarships, parliamentary/government quotas aimed at increasing female participation, or
laws designed to protect women's rightsdoes change the way families make decisions.
"[C]ompared to income or assets in the hands of men, income or assets in the hands of
55 women is associated with larger improvements in child health, and larger expenditure
shares of household nutrients, health, and housing," writes Duflo.
Efforts to increase female participation in government, through quotas in India, for example,
also result in different spending and investment decisionsdespite early concerns that
female leaders would simply vote as directed by their husbands.
60 "Women invest more in infrastructure that is directly relevant to the expressed

development priorities of women," writes Duflo. "In West Bengal, where women
complained more often than men about water and roads, reserved councils [those with
seats reserved for women] invested more in water and roads. In Rajasthan, where women
complained more often about drinking water but less about roads, reserved councils
65 invested more in water and less in roads."
But Duflo is skeptical of the theory that women are purely benevolent and always make
better decisions than men. For example, those investments in water in West Bengal and
roads in Rajasthan? They came at the expense of investments in schools.
Research on the South African pension program, an old-age program that was somewhat
70 rapidly expanded to cover elderly South Africans of all races after the end of apartheid, also
found somewhat troubling resultswhile young girls living with pensioners showed
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improved health outcomes, no such improvements were seen for young boys. Much like
male policymakers, male pensioners also seem to emphasize education more than women:
"[C]hildren are more likely to be in school when they live with an eligible man than with an
75 eligible woman," writes Duflo. "Here again, we find evidence that the identity of the income
holder matters. In this case, however, it is when men receive the pension that they make
the decision favorable to well-being and development."
Even more importantly, in resource-limited developing countries, these empowerment

interventions have real costsfor both boys and girls. Not only does a scholarship
80 designated for a girl mean one less spot for a boy, it means less money to hire teachers for
everyone.
Duflo's ultimate message is, in her words, not the "most comforting message to deliver."
"[N]either economic development nor women's empowerment is the magic bullet it is
sometimes made out to be," she concludes. "Equity between men and women is only likely
85 to be achieved by continuing policy actions that favor women at the expense of men,
possibly for a very long time."
For discussion:
1. Two contrasting solutions have been proposed to tackle the missing women
phenomenon (lines 10-11) in developing countries. Which view do you find more
persuasive? Why?
2. Researchers have found evidence of sex-selective abortion in countries like China,

South Korea, India and Taiwanand among certain ethnic groups in the U.S. (lines
44-45). Account for why women in these developed countries continue to be afflicted
with problems associated with the third world.
3. It has been argued that equity between men and women is only likely to be achieved
by continuing policy actions that favor women at the expense of men (lines 84-85).
Is this fair? What are several unintended consequences of such actions?
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Reading 17: Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China (Review)
By Julia Lovell (The Guardian, 5 Jun 2014)

How the state-controlled media in China perpetuates sexism.
The role of culture as a driver of gender inequality.
Gender roles and societys attitude towards men and women in China.
Leta Hong Fincher has written a shocking account of the way women are treated in
the People's Republic
Leftover Women should carry a health warning: this book will severely raise your blood
pressure. Leta Hong Fincher's subject researched through statistical analysis, sociological
surveys and extensive first-hand interviewing is the toxic vitality of sexism in China today.
The book's title is drawn from a vile state-sponsored media campaign of the same name, which
5 is designed to browbeat educated, professional women into early marriages in the interests of
safeguarding social stability. Since at least 2007, newspapers, magazines, websites and
perhaps most troublingly of all the All-China Women's Federation (a government organisation
founded in 1949 supposedly to defend women's rights) have aggressively pushed the idea that
unmarried urban females over 27 are "leftover women". These women may have university
10 degrees and thriving careers but in the eyes of much of the state-controlled media they are
essentially worthless without husbands and children. "Do leftover women really deserve our
sympathy?" asked one article on the Women's Federation website. "Girls with an average or
ugly appearance hope to further their education in order to increase their competitiveness.
The tragedy is they don't realise that, as women age, they are worth less and less, so by the time
15 they get their MA or PhD, they are already old, like yellowed pearls."
Although the Chinese media makes much noise about the country's epidemic of "leftover" single
women, there are in fact far more "leftover" Chinese men, due to a traditional preference for
sons and sex-selective abortions. By 2012, there were 117.7 boys to every 100 girls. "The
continual accumulation of unmarried men of legal marrying age," admits the Communist party's
20 mouthpiece, the People's Daily, "greatly increases the risk of social instability and insecurity." In
this context, Hong Fincher writes, single, educated women "threaten the moral fabric for
being free agents, unnatural in failing to perform their duty to give birth to a child and tame
a restless man". The openly eugenicist Chinese state is particularly anxious to see educated,
"high-quality" women marry, "to produce children with 'superior' genetic makeup".
25 The social coercion of women into marriage has troubling economic consequences. Because
urban women in their mid-20s are indoctrinated to feel already almost on the shelf, they often
marry hastily and do not press for economic equality within their marriages. The urban Chinese
today are preoccupied with buying a home. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, prices have
skyrocketed in recent years, resulting in an extraordinary appreciation in real-estate wealth.
30 Working women often contribute their life savings to securing a marital apartment, and siphon
their salaries into mortgage repayments. Yet although more than 70% of women help finance
the purchase of a marital home, only 30% of such deeds include the wife's name, and their
contributions to mortgages are frequently not officially acknowledged. Hong Fincher's research
suggests that husbands and in-laws often make women who request property rights within a
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35 marriage feel grasping and unreasonable. Consequently, women tend to back down, for fear of
scaring off a potential spouse. Sole ownership of the marital property inevitably gives a husband
greater power in the relationship, and weakens the woman's bargaining position on financial
and domestic issues. At the same time as women have been left out of China's property boom,
employment rates for urban women have fallen in the past two decades, from 77.4% to 60.8%.
40 One female graduate whom Hong Fincher interviewed deliberately dropped out of employment
in order make herself "less intimidating to suitors".
Some parents of young women also fail to support their daughters emotionally and materially,
compared to sons. One father told her daughter that she would not be able to have children
after the age of 30. Parents routinely help sons buy their own apartments, but many choose to
45 financially assist a male nephew rather than their own daughter. Chinese parents commonly feel
they have no responsibility to buy a house for a daughter; that is the duty of a spouse. As a
result, urban Chinese women have lost out badly in the massive growth in private home
ownership of the past decade and a half.
Recent legal developments further undermine women's property rights. In 1950, one of the first
50 pieces of legislation enacted by the young People's Republic of China was the New Marriage
Law, theoretically guaranteeing women's rights in marriage, divorce and property. In 2011,
however, China's Supreme Court specified that marital real estate "belongs to the person
whose name is on the property deed". Since the majority of property deeds are in the name of
men, if a marriage collapses the woman can be left homeless, even if she sank savings and
55 income into financing the property.
The book also highlights the shocking inadequacy of China's laws against domestic violence.
Women are actively discouraged from reporting abuse: wives who go public are accused of
"exposing family ugliness" (jiachou buke waiyang). Social institutions that should be protecting
vulnerable women the police, doctors and the Women's Federation seem to be seriously
60 failing in basic duties of care. One wife whose husband took away her son and beat her publicly
was told that she ought to "just put up with it". The police labelled the abuse "family conflict"
and told the couple to solve their differences peacefully. A recent analysis of open media
coverage of domestic violence revealed that 70 to 80 women had been killed by their partners
in the course of just two months. A husband who murdered his wife in 2009 after she had
65 reported domestic violence to the police eight times was given a mere six-and-a-half-year prison
sentence for "ill-treatment" of his wife. A 2013 UN study reported that 50% of Chinese men
surveyed on intimate partner violence had physically or sexually abused their partner, and that
72% of Chinese rapists suffered no legal consequences. Moreover, Hong Fincher writes, "marital
rape is not considered a crime in China". Activists have been campaigning for an effective law on
70 domestic violence for a decade; no legislation has resulted.
Although extremely depressing, the book is also scattered with inspiring life-stories of
courageous women who have faced down appalling discrimination. One example is Kim Lee, a
US woman who in 2005 married the billionaire entrepreneur Li Yang. For years, she helped
develop his business and brought up their three daughters. Throughout this time, she suffered
75 escalating levels of domestic abuse, including Li Yang kicking her in the stomach when she was
seven months pregnant. After she finally walked out in 2011 (with head injuries), Lee began a
two-year legal battle to prove domestic violence occurred, in which the Chinese legal and
medical system blocked her case with successive bureaucratic obstacles, and during which Lee
suffered unthinkable stresses in her private and public life. While the case was ongoing, Li Yang
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80 (either in text messages or yelling through her locked apartment door) threatened to kill her. At
one point, while Lee was riding the Beijing underground with one of her daughters, a man spat
at her and screamed, "I hope he beats you to death next time, you American b***h." Yet Lee
struggled on posting pictures of her injuries on Chinese Twitter, appearing on Chinese TV in
the hope of resolving her case, and publicising China's domestic violence epidemic. "This is really
85 an open sore," she has commented. "It's hidden, but it's hurting." Eventually, in a landmark
ruling, a Beijing court granted her a divorce on the grounds of domestic violence. Nonetheless, a
women's rights attorney still argued that Li Yang had succeeded in skilfully concealing from the
legal process many of his assets; Lee's financial settlement was consequently much too small.
The book ends with profiles of other women who are committed to resisting sexism: female
90 activists and bloggers dedicated to drawing attention to China's deep-seated male chauvinism,
and politically neutral professionals who have vowed never to marry, in protest against the
political and social oppression of women. "Marriage in China is a living hell," one woman told
Hong Fincher. The international press with headlines such as "China dominates list of female
billionaires" and "Women in China: the sky's the limit" trumpets the egalitarian opportunities
95 that Chinese women enjoy. Leftover Women is a highly sobering corrective to this rosy picture,
but also gives faint grounds for hope that the fight for gender equality in China is not yet dead.
For discussion:
1. How have legal processes and structures sustained men's and women's relative status in
China?
2. Discuss the economic and social consequences of a lack of economic equality within
(Chinese) marriages (line 27).
3. Identify and discuss other factors which relegate women to a subordinate position in
society today. [For a different perspective, you may wish to read Why Scandinavian
Women Make The Rest Of The World Jealous by Lynn Parramore (Thomson Reuters, 31
Oct 2013) to understand the conditions that have made gender equality a high priority in
Nordic countries.]
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Reading 18: Paid family leave: Nice, but costly

By Sarah Elizabeth Cupp (New York Daily News, 25 Jun 2014)

The types of paid family leave to which men and women are entitled.
The burdens leave policies impose on small businesses and the government solutions created
to ease these burdens.
The trade-offs that come from implementing such paid leave policies.
Find a way to encourage paid maternity leave without a top-down mandate
Wouldn't it be great if you could leave your job for months at a time and still get paid as if you
were showing up?
Of course it would. And in many countries, this is already the standard. In countries where
5 businesses are mandated to cover family leave, including maternity leave, employees receive
paid leave to care for infants or sick family members. In some countries, families get as much as
one year of paid leave, divided between mothers and fathers.
Who doesn't think that this is a generous and productive policy that will make for a happier
workforce and stronger families? No one who's being honest.
10 But anyone who's being honest must also admit that mandating generous leave across the
economy will have some negative consequences on some of the very people it's designed to
help.
Paid maternity and family leave are great - but the question is how we get there.
As an expectant mother, the issue takes on new meaning for me. I will be fortunate. I'll take a
15 healthy amount of time off to care for my newborn and not have to worry about losing my job
or my pay being docked. My husband will take far less time, but we are prepared for that. I'm
incredibly grateful that my company's leave policies are so generous.
But not every American company has been as resilient as mine during the recent economic crisis.
And by calling for yet another government mandate that will choke the most vulnerable
20 businesses at the very worst time, President Obama is playing politics with peoples' livelihoods.
Again.
In a perfect economy, every employer in this country would, as Obama wants, raise the
minimum wage to $10.10 (or $50!) an hour, pay for their employees' health care and cover
extended family leave. If freed from unintended consequences, these are well-meaning ideas
25 that would give every American working family more flexibility, choice, dignity and income.
But unfortunately, we aren't freed from unintended consequences, and saddling businesses
with more unaffordable government mandates will have plenty, as business leaders at local
chambers of commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and the Society for
Human Resource Management, to name a few, have argued.
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30 In fact, the NFIB Research Foundation examined multiple proposals to mandate paid leave and
concluded it could cost between 12,000 and 16,000 jobs over several years, and cost billions in
lost economic output. "There is no way to force employers to provide an expensive benefit
without forcing some of them to make cuts elsewhere," said NFIB State Director Bill Vernon.
"The result will be some combination of fewer hours for employers, weaker productivity for
35 businesses and fewer opportunities for job seekers."
The President's response? He likes to make two arguments. One, he boasts that the average
Fortune 500 company practices all of this benevolence voluntarily, because they know it's the
only way to retain the best talent.
Well, sure. But that's like saying the millionaire down the street voluntarily puts $25,000 away
40 every year for his kids' college tuition, and therefore you are mandated to do so as well.
Sure, you'd be smart to do so, but if you only make $50,000 and it means selling the family car
and taking the kids out of after-school programs, is it really practical? Especially if the mandate
comes just as your wife has lost her job and you've already adjusted your finances to
accommodate another mandate forcing you to pay higher community lawn fees?
45 Obama's second favourite argument is that we're behind the rest of the world. As he glibly put it
at the Working Families Summit on Monday, "If France can figure this out, we can figure it out."
Well, France hasn't figured this out. While Europe's generous family leave policies certainly
outmatch ours, "women there are far less likely to hold private-sector leadership positions than
are American women," as Carrie Lukas, managing director of the Independent Women's Forum,
50 writes in Forbes. "That's because there's a cost associated with extensive leave time."
Something always has to give. And here in America, something will if companies are mandated
to pay for family leave when they can't afford it. Smaller companies may hire fewer people or,
worse, lay current employees off. They may likely decide to alter their benefit packages or stop
offering them altogether (so be warned now - if you like your benefits, you might not be able to
55 keep them).
The sad truth is that as great as all these entitlement programs sound, we don't have the
economy yet to support them.
There are solutions, however, to help expand family leave in the meantime, like tax incentives
for businesses that provide paid leave or promote creative and flexible at-home or part-time
60 accommodations.
Of course, it's an election year, so that's probably wishful thinking. After all, who needs reality
when you can just play politics?

1. Explain the link between gender equality and paid family leave.
2. Discuss the economic and social costs of instituting mandatory paid leave. Do the costs
outweigh the benefits?
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3. State a few examples of Europes generous family leave (line 46) from your own
research. What conditions allow these policies to be effectively implemented in Europe,
but not in America?
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Reading 19: What is family?

The modern family is evolving and it is being shaped by many social, economic and
political forces.
Improvements to the socioeconomic climate have had a direct and positive impact on the
family and on child development.
It is worth noting that the word family originally meant a band of slaves. Even after the
word came to apply to people affiliated by blood and marriage, for many centuries the
notion of family referred to authority relations rather than love ones. The
sentimentalization of family life and female nurturing was historically and functionally linked
5 to the emergence of competitive individualism and formal egalitarianism for men.
Webster's Dictionary offers twenty-two definitions. The Census Bureau defines a family as
"two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption who reside in the same
household"--a definition selected by only 22 percent of a random sample of 1,200 adults in
a 1990 survey conducted by Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company.
10 Interestingly, there are political, economic, legal, and religious interests bound up with the
definition. Sociologically, being identified as a "family member" implies differences in the
social rights and obligations toward others who are identified (both by the broader society
and by the members, themselves) as "family" as opposed to being a stranger, colleague,
neighbour, roommate, or friend.
15 The modern nuclear family was shaped by three sentiments: romantic love between
spouses rather than marriage arranged for reasons of property and social status; maternal
love, or the idea that women have a maternal instinct and a need to care for young children;
and domesticity, or the belief that relationships within the family are always more binding
than are those outside it (Elkind 1992). As a family based on the personal satisfaction of its
20 individual members, the modern family also has been termed the psychological family; its
chief value is satisfaction (Doherty 1992).
FORCES DRIVING FAMILY TRANSITION
The modern family evolved in concert with industrialization, science, and technology
With the growth of specialized wage labour, economically productive work moved beyond
the reach of the family compound. Individualized remuneration and liability led to a
redefinition of kinship obligations. The family that was engaged in farming or crafts could be
25 expanded because extra hands could produce extra food and other products. Its boundaries
were elastic. The resources of the salaried family and the number of people who could be
supported by its wage-earners were fixed. Living space in the neighbourhood of factories
and other specialized worksites was expensive and non-expansible. Where neighbours were
strangers, the modern family became a "haven in a heartless world" (Lasch 1977).
30 Even without significant industrial growth, the expansion of global markets, the mass media,
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the civil service, and other services such as health care, education, and transportation led to
the formation of modern families in developing countries. Caldwell and Caldwell (1977)
described this change in Nigeria and Ghana as "a movement toward monogamy, a
strengthening of the conjugal bond over all others, a strengthening of the parent-child bond
35 over all relationships external to the nuclear family, and ultimately an emphasis on what
parents owe children rather than what children owe parents."
Falling birth rates and the death of the institutional family

Falling child death rates lead to falling birth rates, through the sequence of events known as
the demographic transition (Caldwell and Caldwell 1990) that occurs under favourable
socio-economic conditions. Wherever such fertility control is successful it brings not only
40 fewer children but fewer extended family ties in subsequent generations of children, who
have far fewer uncles, aunts, and cousins than their parents' generation. The arithmetic of
the demographic transition is such that it is impossible to lower death rates to
internationally acceptable levels and simultaneously to control population growth without
reducing the number of children per family to an average of two (Zeitlin et al. 1982). With
45 the lure of out-of-family employment, this small number of children is insufficient to sustain
the farming or other business enterprises of the institutional family.
POSITIVE LINKS BETWEEN SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE MODERN FAMILY
Optimism and ideology

The modern family came into being with the surge of optimistic thinking that began in the
Renaissance and continued through the Industrial Revolution. Human progress, universality
of the newly discovered laws of science, and the consistency and regularity of the laws
50 governing the universe were underlying assumptions of this era. Widespread agreement
remains today that the modern nuclear family, with its two parents and two or three
children, is the ideal end result of progress in the evolution of family forms (Elkind 1992).
Evidence for progress

The modern family's vital statistics are far better than those of the institutional family, and
of all previous family forms. Quantum changes in income, mortality rates, life expectancy,
55 nutritional status, educational opportunities, and other indicators of the quality of life occur
in response to industrialization, modern health care, education, and other aspects of socio-
economic development. It is widely agreed that families are better off with these changes
than without them.
Modernization has commercialized many aspects of life that depended previously on much
60 less commercialized exchanges within the traditional extended family and community. On
the positive side, expanded communications networks create uniform global value
standards in areas such as health care, nutrition, education, and basic human rights (as
expressed, for example, in UNICEF's The State of the World's Children, 1992, which asserts
that progress is ongoing). These value standards require technologies far exceeding those
65 available to the traditional extended family.
Positive effects of changing child-rearing practices on child development
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The ways in which parents train and stimulate their children also change systematically with
the modernization of the family. These changes produce children who are more cognitively
advanced by modern performance standards and are better nourished, and hence better
prepared to participate in the modern workforce. Werner (1979) documented very similar
70 differences in parenting styles between modernizing and traditional parents in the United
States (Bronfenbrenner 1963; Becker and Krug 1964); Mexico (Holtzman, Diaz-Guerrerro,
and Swartz 1975); Lebanon (Prothro 1962); and Indonesia (Danzinger 1960a, 1960b; Thomas
and Surachmad 1962); Nigeria (Lloyd 1966, 1970; LeVine, Klein, and Fries 1967); and Ghana
(Grindal 1972). We found evidence of the same differences in the Nigerian and Indonesian
75 data analysed in chapters 6 and 7; these differences were associated with better child
growth and cognitive test performance (Zeitlin and Satoto 1990; Aina et al. 1992). We
summarize these transformations as follows:
1. A change in parental discipline away from immediate physical punishment to

tolerance of slower obedience, but expectation of greater understanding of the
80 reasons for rules.
2. Acceptance of the child's physical dependency up to an older age.
3. More affection and intimacy, a more personal relationship with the father, and
more recreation shared by parents and children.
4. Increased verbal responsiveness to the child and use of explanation rather than
85 physical demonstration in teaching.
The first parents to alter their behaviours tend to be members of the lite and middle
classes, who have the earliest contact with modernization. The same changes later occur as
secular trends among less-privileged families. Our research demonstrated that the
modernizing changes found in the lite families in Ibadan in the 1960s now also are seen
90 among low-income families in Lagos State. The association of these factors with better child
growth and cognitive scores tends to confirm the view that parents adopt these styles of
interaction because they are adaptive, in that they do improve school achievement and the
ability of children to compete in the modern world.
For discussion:
1. To what extent has the notion of family changed in your country?
2. With the notion of family changing in many countries, what are some of the positive
and negative impact on society? (Consider the impact on the economy, on social
attitudes, on the role of the government etc.)
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Reading 20: Why DOMA (Defence of Marriage Act) is Doomed

By Amy Davidson (The New Yorker, 25 March 2013)

The right to marry is also closely linked to federal benefits and obligations.
Acceptance of alternative families is dependent on social-cultural attitudes.
What would America look like if there were two Congressmen, each married under the laws of
his state, one who had to include his wifes financial holdings on federal disclosure forms and
one who could keep his husbands money secret? How about two soldiers, one who could list
her husband as her next of kin and one who could not make sure that her wife would be the one
5 the Army sought out first if something happened? Two widowed fathers, one who, if his income
fell low enough, could get social-security benefits on his late wifes account, and one who could
not draw on his husbands? One widow who had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in
taxes in she wanted to inherit her spouses share in their home, and another who inherited her
spouses share tax-free?
10 Except for the first one, that is how America looks right now, and it is why the Defense of
Marriage Act is doomed. The final example fits the facts of a case the Supreme Court will hear
this week, one of two dealing with marriage equality; the other is a challenge to Proposition 8,
the California measure banning same-sex marriage. As Jeffrey Toobin writes in Comment this
week, there is a great deal of optimism surrounding both: whatever happens in the Court, and
15 even if there are reversals, The question about marriage equality for all Americans is not if it
will pass but when. The country has changed, and its never going back to the way it was.
But how will that look, legally? If one had to guess, the DOMA case appears to be stronger than
the Prop 8 one, and more likely to be the instrument for the next stage in the progress toward
marriage equality.
20 Prop 8 has, in some ways, received more attention, in part because it is about a constitutional
right to same-sex marriage and thus could, in theory, result in a single ruling that makes it
legal in all fifty states. And maybe that will happen, though it is also possible that it will bring
marriage equality only to California. (It also helps, publicity-wise, that the case is being managed
by David Boise and Theodore Olson, lawyers who opposed each other in Bush v. Gore.) DOMA
25 might seem a little more boring because it is not, strictly speaking, about stopping states from
legalizing gay marriage and people being kept from the altar romance denied but about
withholding federal benefits and obligations from such couples. The vehicle for it coming before
the court is an estate-tax case. (It doesnt help that the pro-DOMA lawyers, formally called the
Bipartisan Legal Action Group, are referred to in briefs by the unfortunate acronym BLAG.)
30 But federal paperwork is the venue for plenty of human drama. Under DOMA, even if same-sex
couples could legally marry in all fifty states, the federal government could still pretend they
werent spouses. That is a problem in terms of both states rights and federalism. At a certain
point one we are already past, given the number of states that have legalized same-sex
marriage even judges who have reservations about same-sex marriage should recognize that
35 either DOMA is unconstitutional or that the more than eleven hundred federal laws, from
inheritance to immigration, that rely on a definition of marriage that DOMA has straightjacketed
are. And since DOMA makes them nearly impossible to fix, it amounts to the same thing. The
language of DOMA:
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In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or

40 interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United
States, the word marriage means only a legal union between one man and one
woman as husband and wife, and the word spouse refers only to a person of the
opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.
is so inflexible that it is hard to see how Congress could even fix various laws (i.e., by
45 amending every piece of legislation by inserting or spouses under state law) without running
into an Escher-esque series of dead ends. And the very madness of the bureaucratic illogic that
DOMA creates might generate even more government interest in overturning it.
Doing so would, its true, not instantly bring marriage to a single new state. But it would remove
a last, federally imposed asterisk; it would mean that same-sex marriages would be, simply,
50 marriages, in every American context. It would make the injustice of the situation in states
without marriage equality even plainer. (And that is clear enough now.)
The counter-argument of DOMA proponents is that the government gets to make rules about
who gets benefits it could say that no spouses get estate-tax exemptions, for example. The
Court might then look at the way it has carved out this exception, and find that, in doing so, it
55 serves no interest but discrimination; as Toobin wrote, courts, even the current Supreme
Court, usually require that laws be justified by something more than tradition and bigotry. (This
is part of an argument that a legal standard called heightened scrutiny should apply.) It might
even seem to the justices that DOMA collides with the interests used to justify many laws. If the
government has an interest in Congressmen being upfront about their family finances, or
60 widows and widowers staying in their homes rather than ending up on the street, what are its
arguments for not having an interest in applying these laws to same-sex spouses?
This particular DOMA challenge, brought by an eighty-three-year-old widow named Edith

Windsor, might fail for any number of reasons, from questions of standing to the Canadian
provenance of her wedding certificate (although her marriage was recognized by New York
65 courts). It may succeed with the help of her personal story, which includes caring for her wife
for years as multiple sclerosis gradually confined her to a wheelchair, something that gets at
why words like marriage, as well as honour, respect, and love, have meaning not to individuals
but to communities.
But Windsor might also prevail because of the very skittishness even some liberals have about
70 moving too quickly for the country Toobin, in a Profile of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writes
about her persistent worry that this was the case with Roe v. Wade. It is telling that many
conservatives, such as Michael McConnell, in the Wall Street Journal, are now arguing against a
sweeping decision on Prop 8 by emphasizing that a state-by-state progression on same-sex
marriage is preferable, and should be respected. In doing so, they are also making the case
75 against DOMA.
For discussion:
1. What are the arguments for and against legalising same-sex marriages?
2. Should countries like Singapore legalise same-sex marriages?
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Reading 21: The flight from marriage

By Prof Gavin Jones (The Economist, 20 Aug 2011)

Culture plays a pivotal role in determining attitudes to marriage.
Changing marriage patterns are also the result of improvements in women's education and
income.
With her filmy polka-dot dress, huge sunglasses and career as a psychologist, Yi Zoe Hou of
Taiwan might seem likely to be besieged by suitors. Yet, at 35, she is well past Taiwan's
unspoken marriage deadline. It's a global village, she shrugs. If I can't find a Taiwanese guy
that accepts my age, I can find another man somewhere else. Maybebut since she still wants
5 children, Ms Hou is also wondering whether to use a sperm bank or ask a male friend to be a
sperm donor. She represents a new world of family life for Asians.
Conservatives in the West are fond of saying that the traditional family is the bedrock of society.
That view is held even more widely in Asia. The family is the focus of Confucian ethics, which
holds that a basic moral principle, xiushen (self-improvement), can be pursued only within the
10 confines of the family. In an interview in 1994 Lee Kuan Yew, a former prime minister of
Singapore, argued that after thousands of years of dynastic upheaval, the family is the only
institution left to sustain Chinese culture. It embodies a set of virtueslearning and scholarship
and hard work and thrift and deferment of present enjoyment for future gainwhich, he said,
underpins Asia's economic success. He feared that the collapse of the family, if it ever
15 happened, would be the main threat to Singapore's success.
His Malaysian contemporary, Mahathir Mohamad, went further. In a book written in 1995 with
a Japanese politician, Shintaro Ishihara, Dr Mahathir contrasted Asians' respect for marriage
with the breakdown of established institutions and diminished respect for marriage, family
values, elders, and important customs in the West. Western societies, Dr Mahathir claimed,
20 are riddled with single-parent families with homosexuality, with cohabitation. He might well
have concluded that the absence of traditional family virtues from the streets of London
recently showed the continued superiority of Asia.
Asians, in fact, have several distinct family systems. To simplify: in South Asia it is traditional to
have arranged, early marriages, in which men are dominant and the extended family is
25 important. East Asia also has a male-dominated system, but one that stresses the nuclear family
more; nowadays it has abandoned arranged marriages. In South-East Asia, women have
somewhat more autonomy. But all three systems have escaped many of the social changes that
have buffeted family life in the West since the 1960s.
In South Asia and China marriage remains near-universal, with 98% of men and women tying the
30 knot. In contrast, in some Western countries, a quarter of people in their 30s are cohabiting or
have never been married, while half of new marriages end in divorce. Marriage continues to be
the almost universal setting for child-bearing in Asia: only about 2% of births took place outside
wedlock in Japan in 2007. Contrast that with Europe: in Sweden in 2008 55% of births were to
unmarried women, while in Iceland the share was 66%.
35 Most East and South-East Asian countries report little or no cohabitation. The exception is Japan
where, among women born in the 1970s, about 20% say they have cohabited with a sexual
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partner. For Japan, that is a big change. In surveys between 1987 and 2002, just 1-7% of single
women said they had lived with a partner. But it is not much compared with America where,
according to a 2002 Gallup poll, over half of married Americans between the ages of 18 and 49
40 lived together before their wedding day. In many Western societies, more cohabitation has
offset a trend towards later marriage or higher rates of divorce. That has not happened in Asia.
Traditional attitudes live on in other ways. Compared with Westerners, Asians are more likely to
agree that women's happiness lies in marriage. They are more likely to say women should give
up work when they get married or have children, and more likely to disapprove of pre-marital
45 sex. Surveys by Pew Global Research, a social-research outfit in Washington, DC, show that
Muslims in South and South-East Asia are more likely than Muslims elsewhere to say that
families should choose a woman's husband for her.
Over the hill

Yet, as Ms Hou shows, Asia is changing. Although attitudes to sex and marriage are different
from those in the West, the pressures of wealth and modernization upon family life have been
50 just as relentless. They have simply manifested themselves in different ways. In the West the
upshot has been divorce and illegitimacy. In Asia the results include later marriage, less
marriage and (to some extent) more divorce. The changes in the West may be more dramatic.
But both East and West are seeing big changes in the role of women and traditional family life.
The first change is that people are getting married later, often much later. In the richest parts
55 Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kongthe mean age of wedlock is now 29-30 for women,
31-33 for men (see chart right). That is past the point at which women were traditionally
required to marry in many Asian societies. It is also older than in the West. In America, women
marry at about 26, men at 28. If you take account of the cohabitation that routinely precedes
Western marriage (but not Asian), the gap between East and West is even larger. The mean age
60 of marriage has risen by five years in some East Asian countries in three decades, which is a lot.
The second change is that, among certain groups, people are not merely marrying later. They
are not getting married at all. In 2010 a third of Japanese women entering their 30s were single.
Perhaps half or more of those will never marry. In 2010 37% of all women in Taiwan aged 30-34
were single, as were 21% of 35-39-year-olds. This, too, is more than in Britain and America,
65 where only 13-15% of those in their late 30s are single. If women are unmarried entering their
40s, they will almost certainly neither marry nor have a child.
The Asian avoidance of marriage is new, and striking. Only 30 years ago, just 2% of women were
single in most Asian countries. The share of unmarried women in their 30s in Japan, Taiwan,
Singapore and Hong Kong has risen 20 points or more (see chart below), a very sharp change in
70 a relatively short period, says Gavin Jones of the National University of Singapore. In Thailand,
the number of women entering their 40s without being married increased from 7% in 1980 to
12% in 2000. In some cities, rates of non-marriage are higher: 20% among women aged 40-44 in
Bangkok; 27% among 30-34-year-olds in Hong Kong. In South Korea, young men complain that
women are on marriage strike.
75 What is remarkable about the Asian experience is not that women are unmarried in their 30s
that happens in the West, toobut that they have never been married and have rarely
cohabited. In Sweden, the proportion of women in their late 30s who are single is higher than in
Asia, at 41%. But that is because marriage is disappearing as a norm. Swedish women are still
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setting up homes and having children, just outside wedlock. Not in Asia. Avoiding both
80 illegitimacy and cohabitation, Asian women appear to be living a more celibate life than their
Western sisters (admittedly, they could also be under-reporting rates of cohabitation and pre-
marital sex). The conclusion is that East Asia's growing cohorts of unmarried women reflect less
the breakdown of marriage than the fact that they are avoiding it.
But marriages are breaking down, too. In Hong Kong and Japan, the general divorce ratethe
85 number of divorces per 1,000 people aged 15 or morewas about 2.5 in the mid-2000s,
according to Mr Jones's calculations. In Asia as a whole, the rate is about 2 per 1,000. That
compares with 3.7 in America, 3.4 in Britain, 3.1 in France and 2.8 in Germany. Only in one or
two Asian countries is divorce as widespread as in the West. The South Korean rate, for
example, is 3.5. Because divorce has been common in the West for decades, more couples there
90 have split up. The rise in Asia has been recent: China's divorce rate took off in the early 2000s. In
the 1980s the Asian rate was 1 per 1,000 people; now it is 2. If that rise continues, Asian divorce
could one day be as common as in Europe.
An educated choice
The main function of marriage in most traditional societies is to bring up children (romantic love
rarely has much to do with it). Not surprisingly, changes in child-bearing have gone along with
95 changes in marriage. The number of children the average East Asian woman can expect to have
during her lifetimethe fertility ratehas fallen from 5.3 in the late 1960s to below 1.6 now, an
enormous drop. But old-fashioned attitudes persist, and these require couples to start having
children soon after marriage. In these circumstances, women choose to reduce child-bearing by
delaying itand that means delaying marriage, too.
100 Changing marriage patterns are also the result of improvements in women's education and
income, and the failure of women's status to keep pace. The salient characteristic of many
traditional marriage systems is that womenespecially young womenhave little
independence. In South Asia, brides are taken into the groom's family almost as soon as they
move into puberty. They are tied to their husband's family. Sometimes women may not inherit
105 property or perform funeral rites (this is especially important in China). In parts of South Asia,
wives may not even take their children to hospital without getting their husband's permission.
Two forces are giving women more autonomy: education and jobs. Women's education in East
Asia has improved dramatically over the past 30 years, and has almost erased the literacy gap
with men. Girls stay at school for as many years as boys, and illiteracy rates for 15-24-year-olds
110 are the same for the two sexes (this is not true of South Asia). In South Korea now, women earn
half of all master's degrees.
Education changes women's expectations. Among Thai women who left school at 18, one-eighth
were still single in their 40s; but among university graduates, the share was a fifth. A survey in
Beijing in 2003 found that half of women with a monthly income of 5,000-15,000 yuan (roughly
115 $600-1,800, an indicator of university education) were not married. Half said they did not need
to be, because they were financially independent. South Koreans call such people golden
misses. Why should I have to settle down to a life of preparing tofu soup, like my mother?
asks one.
Rates of non-marriage rise at every stage of education. Women with less than secondary
120 education are the most likely to marry, followed by those with secondary education, with
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university graduates least likely. This pattern is the opposite of the one in America and Europe,
where marriage is more common among college graduates than among those with just a
secondary education.
There are two reasons why education's spread reduces women's propensity to marry. First, non-
125 marriage has always been more prevalent among women with more education. Now that there
are more women in these higher-education groups, there are fewer marriages. Marriage rates
are also lower in cities. Since education is likely to go on improving, and urbanization to go on
rising, more women will join the ranks of graduates or city folk who are least likely to marry.
Marrying up
Second, more education leaves the best-educated women with fewer potential partners. In
130 most Asian countries, women have always been permittedeven encouragedto marry up,
i.e., marry a man of higher income or education. Marrying up was necessary in the past when
women could not get an education and female literacy was low. But now that many women are
doing as well or better than men at school, those at the toplike the golden missesfind the
marriage market unwelcoming. Either there are fewer men of higher education for them to
135 marry, or lower-income men feel intimidated by their earning power (as well as their brain
power). As Singapore's Mr Lee once said, The Asian manpreferred to have a wife with less
education than himself. In Singapore, non-marriage rates among female university graduates
are stratospheric: a third of 30-34-year-old university graduates are single.
Better education also makes possible the other main trend changing marriage: female
140 employment. Asia's economic miracle has causedand been caused bya surge of women into
the formal workforce. In East Asia two-thirds of women have jobs, an unusually high rate. In
South-East Asia the figure is 59%. In South Korea the employment rate of women in their 20s
(59.2%) recently overtook that of twenty-something men (58.5%). This surge has been
accompanied by the collapse of the lifetime-employment systems in Japanese and South Korean
145 firms, which used to ensure that a single (male) worker's income could support a middle-class
family. Now the wife's earnings are needed, too.
All things being equal, having a job increases a woman's autonomy. She has more options, and
these options include not having a husband. But it is clear from Western societies that women
will not necessarily choose a job over marriage. Rather, they will struggle to balance the
150 conflicting demands of work and family.
What is unusual about Asia is that women seem to bear an unusually large share of the burden
of marriage, reducing the attractiveness of family life compared with work. Certainly, this is
what Asian women themselves think. Surveys about attitudes to marriage are patchy and
subject to a lot of reservations. But for what it is worth, in a survey from 2011 of Japan's three
155 largest cities, only two-thirds of wives said they felt positive about their marriage, much less
than their husbands; in America, both husbands and wives usually report higher and similar
levels of satisfaction. In a survey from 2000, satisfaction levels in Japan were only half those in
America. This may be because the readier availability of divorce in America has left fewer people
trapped in loveless marriages. Or there may be something in the Japanese caricature of the
160 salaryman husband working long hours and socializing all night and at weekends, while his
neglected, fretful wife struggles to bring up the children at home.
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Whatever the problem, it is not confined to Japan. Illyqueen, a popular Taiwanese blogger,
recently ranted about Mama's boys in their 30s who have had no hardships, no housework,
[and who] have lost the ability to keep promises (like marriage). If some Asian women do
165 indeed have an unusually negative view of marriage, it might make them more likely to choose a
job over a husband, or to put off marriage while they pursue a career.
Moreover, public attitudes and expectations are lagging far behind changes in women's lives in
Asia, making it even harder to strike a balance between life and work. Despite higher incomes
and education, women have lower socioeconomic status than men, argues Heeran Chun, a
170 South Korean sociologist. Their lives are markedly restricted by the cultural values associated
with Confucianism. They are expected to give up worksometimes on marriage, often after
childbirthand many do not return to the job market until their children are grown. This forces
upon women an unwelcome choice between career and family. It may also help to explain the
unusually low marriage rates among the best-educated and best-paid women, for whom the
175 opportunity cost of giving up a career to have children is greatest.
As in most traditional societies, women in Asia have long been the sole caregivers for children,
elderly parents or parents-in-law. People generally assume they will continue to be so, even
though many women have paid jobs outside the home. The result is that expectations placed on
wives have become unusually onerous. Surveys in Japan have suggested that women who work
180 full-time then go home and spend another 30 hours a week doing the housework. Their
husbands contribute an unprincely three hours of effort. In America and Europe the disparity is
less extreme, and has narrowed considerably since the 1960s.
On top of this, many Asian couples face enormous pressure to ensure their children succeed in
schools with cut-throat competition for placespressure that falls mostly on the mother.
185 Private childcare is exorbitantly expensive. There are few state-subsidized crches (324,000
children are on waiting lists in Seoul alone). And setting up a home is expensive because of high
house prices. All this means it is harder to strike a satisfying balance between job and family in
Asia than in the West.
The lost brides

Not every Asian country is affected by these trends equally. South Korea, for example, has lower
190 rates of non-marriage, and a lower age of marriage, than its neighbours. But the big exceptions
are Asia's giants. At the moment, marriage is still the norm in China and arranged marriage the
norm in India. As long as that continues to be true, a majority of Asians will live in traditional
families. But how long will it continue? Signs of change are everywhere.
The mean age of marriage is rising in both countries. Divorce is increasing, especially among
195 younger people. In India, traditional arranged marriages are being challenged by online dating
(shaadi.com claims to be the world's largest matrimonial service) and by self-arranged
marriages, hybrids in which the couple meet, fall in love and agree to marrybut then let the
two families fix everything up, as in traditional arranged marriages.
In China, the migration of millions of young men and women from the countryside to cities is
200 changing family life profoundly. It has pushed up the divorce rate because migrant workers
return home to find that they and their partners have grown apart. When the husband and wife
go to the city together, either they choose not to bring their children with them (since both
work full time) or they may not do so, since the hukou household-registration system prevents
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dependants from joining them. According to a survey in 2008 by the All-China Women's
205 Federation, 58m children of migrant workers were being brought up hundreds of miles away, in
their parents' village, usually by grandparents. The immediate family is no longer the universal
setting for child-rearing in China.
More important, the marriage systems of both giants risk being torn apart in future by their
practice of sex-selective abortion. Tens of millions of female fetuses have been aborted over the
210 past generation, as parents use pre-natal screening to identify the sex of the fetus and then rid
themselves of daughters. In China in 2010 more than 118 boys were born for every 100 girls. In
India the ratio was 109 to 100. By 2030, according to Avraham Ebenstein of Harvard University
and Ethan Sharygin of the University of Pennsylvania, about 8% of Chinese men aged 25 and
older will be unable to marry because of the country's distorted sex ratio. By 2050 the
215 unmarried share will be 10-15%. In 2030, in the two giants, there will be 660m men between the
ages of 20 and 50, but only 597m women. Over 60m men therefore face the prospect of not
finding a bride. That is almost as many men of 20-50 as will be living in America in that year. This
alone will wreck Asia's tradition of universal marriage.
Parasites and bare branches

The big question remains: how much is this a problem? And if it is, why? Arguably, the most
220 important thing is that women who do not want to marry are no longer being forced to. And
that must be a benefit: to them, to men spared an unhappy marriage; perhaps to society as a
whole.
Against that, there are several reasons for worry, some of them extremely disturbing. Social
attitudes in Asia change slowly, and many people think it wrong to remain unmarried. Parasite
225 singles is the unflattering term in Japan. The reluctance to marry seems to have unleashed
spiteful hostility, an attitude that makes the decision not to wed a tough one.
Contraception is a particular problem. Several Asian countries restrict state-provided family

planning to married couples. A few even demand to see the wedding certificate before
dispensing condoms (that has happened in Europe, too). This is not a sensible policy when so
230 many men and women will remain unmarried throughout their 20s and 30s.
Then there are the educational and social aspects of changing marriage patterns. Because
women tend to marry upthat is, marry men in an income or educational group above them
any problems of non-marriage are not dispersed throughout society but concentrated in two
groups with dim wedding prospects: men with no education and women with a lot.
235 Almost every East Asian country is worried about the decline of marriage among its best-
educated daughters. In Singapore the government even set up an online-dating service,
lovebyte.org.sg, to boost marriage rates among graduates. The problem is no less acute among
poor or ill-educated men. South Korean women seem to be no longer interested in marrying
peasant farmers, for instance.
240 China has coined new terms to describe the two groups: sheng-nu (left-over women) and guang
gun (bare branches, or men who will not add to the family tree). Bare branches is most
commonly used in China to refer to men who will be unable to marry because of sex-selective
abortion. And that encapsulates the biggest worry about Asia's flight from marriage. If (when?)
it spreads to China and India, it will combine with the surplus of bachelors to cause unheard-of
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245 strains. Prostitution could rise; brides could be traded like commodities, or women forced to
marry several men; wives could be kept in purdah by jealous, fearful husbands.
This may sound alarmist. But the reluctance of women to marry, together with men's continuing
desire for a wife, is already producing a surge of cross-border brides. According to Asian Cross
Border Marriage Migration, a book edited by Melody Lu and Wen-Shan Yang (Amsterdam
250 University Press), 27% of Taiwanese marriages in 2002 involved foreign women; one in eight
births that year was to a mixed family. Many girls are illiterate teenagers sold (in practice) by
their families to older, richer foreigners. Back in their home villages, therefore, young men's
marriage chances are lower. Arranged marriages with foreigners fell in Taiwan after the
government cracked down on them, but they continue to rise elsewhere. In South Korea, one-
255 seventh of marriages in 2005 were to Kosians (Korean-Asians). In rural areas, the share is
higher: 44% of farmers in South Jeolla province who married in 2009 took a foreign bride. If
China or India were ever to import brides on this scale, it would spread sexual catastrophe
throughout Asia. As it is, that catastrophe may be hard to avoid.
There is an historical precedent for falling and low marriage rates. It happened in Ireland in the
260 late 19th century and in America and much of Europe in the 1930s. American and European
marriage rates bounced back between 1945 and 1970. But Europe and America were different:
marriage rates fell during an economic crisis and recovered as the economy did. The Asian
peculiarity is that marriage rates have been eroding during a long boom. And as Asia gets richer,
traditional marriage patterns are only likely to unravel further.
For discussion:
1. How relevant are some of these trends in marriage to Singapore?
2. Is traditional marriage an outdated concept in society?
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Reading 22: South Koreas subway seat fight

By Young-ha Kim (New York Times, 29 Jan 2014)

Economic woes have put a strain on the young and the old, and frustrations are high.
There is a need for meaningful dialogue to help these groups of people.
Last September, a 55-year-old man lit some scrap paper on fire and threw it into a Seoul
subway car as he left the train. He had just been cursed at and kicked by senior citizens for
sitting in a seat designated for the elderly and the infirm.
The man, whom we know only by his surname of Kim, was sentenced on Jan. 14 by a Seoul
5 court to one year and six months in prison. One news article reporting the results of his trial
garnered more than 1,000 comments in just one day, most of which were from sympathetic
younger people complaining about being forced to give up their seats on the subway to
senior citizens. Mr. Kim is hardly young, but his frustration resonated with the younger
generations.
10 The Seoul subways designatedseating section has become a curious backdrop of

intergenerational conflict in South Korea. In the 40 years or so since full-scale
industrialization began, the social divide between generations has widened. Senior citizens
grew up during Japanese occupation and the Korean War, and lived through the era of
breakneck economic growth that followed, building a modern country from the ground up
15 in just a few decades, most of the time under a military dictatorship. Most younger South
Koreans have come of age in a time of relative affluence and freedom, and like many
younger people in East Asia, have gradually become more independent-minded than their
elders and less attached to the traditional Confucian values that have been the basis of
Korean society for centuries.
20 In recent years, South Koreas economic woes have put a strain on both groups, and
frustrations are high. Older South Koreans are finding themselves financially unprepared for
retirement, while younger people cant find jobs. The Seoul subway is a rare place where
the generations cross paths and the intergenerational tensions are playing out in the
crowded trains. South Korea is one of the worlds most rapidly aging countries. It is
25 expected to become an aged society, according to the United Nations definition of 14
percent of the population above age 65, in four years. South Korea also has the third lowest
birth-rate in the world.
The countrys elderly spent their lives assuming their children would care for them in old
age and did little to prepare for retirement. But their children dont appear to be fulfilling
30 their end of the bargain and now the elderly are not faring well economically. The relative
poverty rate among senior citizens in South Korea is 49.3 percent, the highest of the
industrialized countries. Public pensions tend to be small. And the suicide rate for senior
citizens, surely an indicator of economic strain, is the highest among the industrialized
countries, at about 80 for every 100,000 people.
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35 Meanwhile, South Koreas younger people are facing unemployment not seen since the
early 1980s. More than half of the countrys college educated youth in their 20s remains
unemployed or has stopped searching for work.
The notoriously congested Seoul Metropolitan Subway, which opened in 1974 and covers a
total of some 200 miles, transports an average of 7 million passengers per day, which is
40 more than twice the daily average of Londons Tube. For years, pushmen were employed
at busy stations to stuff hundreds of extra passengers into each train. In 2008, the subway
switched to employing cutmen instead, who prevent people from boarding cars once they
are full.
At both ends of each subway car, 12 seats are set aside for the elderly and the infirm. As
45 the name suggests, these seats are intended for senior citizens as well as for the
handicapped and pregnant women, but in practice they are mostly occupied by the elderly.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Subway authorities, there was a sharp increase in the
number of complaints over the seats, from 252 in 2/5/2015 South Koreas Underground
Seat Fight 2009 to 536 in 2011 (the latest year for which statistics are available). Anecdotal
50 evidence suggests the trend has continued. About two years ago, I had unintentionally sat in
one of the elderly designated seats on the subway and was checking my email when I
looked up to meet the eyes of a scowling elderly man. I got up right away. He didnt thank
me, but continued to stare at me from across the train. There had been other free seats for
him to use, but he pressured me to get up just to make the point that I shouldnt have been
55 sitting there.
All subway lines in South Korea are free for those over 65 years of age, so most elderly
people use it whenever possible. There was a time when young people were happy to give
up their seats for the elderly. And the elderly, fitting to tradition, have always assumed they
had a right to a seat occupied by a younger person. But young people today are simply less
60 deferential to their elders.
The fighting over seats mirrors a vast political gap outside the subway. A majority of older
Koreans support President Park Geun-hye and the governing party, but the younger
generation is strongly opposed to her leadership. Many older people feel nostalgia for the
days of Park Chunghee, the current presidents father, when they were more prosperous
65 and the country was in the throes of exciting development.
For now, South Koreas intergenerational conflict seems limited to the underground. But
without a meaningful dialogue on how to help both our struggling elderly and disaffected
young people, the tensions will find a way of rising to the surface.
Young-ha Kim is a novelist and short story writer. This article was translated by Sora Kim-Russell from
the Korean
For discussion:
1. Is the issue of intergenerational conflict relevant to your country?
2. To what extent is the government responsible for resolving such conflicts?
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Reading 23: Economic opportunities in an ageing population

Dr Seet Min Kok (TODAY, 29 Aug 2013)

An ageing population has traditionally been viewed as a problem because few people are
working and paying taxes.
However, there are companies who are benefiting from an ageing population.
From the perspective of economic policy, the ageing population in Singapore poses significant
challenges.
The old-age support ratio which measures the ratio of residents aged 20 to 64 to those aged
65 years and over has trended downwards from 13.5 in 1970 to 6.7 last year. As fewer people
5 are working and paying taxes, the Government would have to look for alternative sources of
revenue to fund the public expenditure on healthcare, particularly as it has signalled that the
States share of healthcare bills will increase.
At the same time, the Government will have to set aside a larger slice of the fiscal budget to
subsidise the poor and needy among the growing numbers of seniors. Increased expenditure
10 might require taxes to be raised, which could undermine the incentive to work and invest in the
economy.
But while the economic challenges are significant, the ageing population offers a myriad of
opportunities for businesses. Take Sweden for example, where total healthcare expenditure
accounts for nearly a tenth of gross domestic product.
15 The Swedish healthcare industry is largely driven by the needs of its elderly and ageing
population. Pharmaceuticals and medical services markets are anticipated to expand steadily
over the next five to 10 years.
While Scandinavian countries such as Sweden have strong pension systems providing support
for citizens rising healthcare needs, in Singapore, rising affluence and the improving educational
20 profile suggest also higher consumer expectations among the ageing population.
Data from the Census of Population indicates that the median household income has increased
at an average rate of 3.2 per cent per annum over 2000 to 2010. More households have also
been upgrading their housing over the last decade as the proportion of those staying in
condominiums and private flats increased from 6.3 per cent in 2000 to 11 per cent in 2010,
25 representing a larger source of monetisable assets.
Over the next five to 10 years, the more affluent retirees from the baby boomer generation will
likely provide demand for a wide range of goods and services commensurate with their
improved standard of living. Such demand in the silver economy ranges from pharmaceutical
products and private healthcare services, to apparel and footwear tailored to the needs of
30 seniors.
Moreover, the higher educational profiles of the retirees from the baby boom generation also
means that they are likely to demand a comprehensive range of financial and insurance services
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(above and beyond the new MediShield Life) which would meet their individual needs in wealth
management.
SHOPPING CARTS WITH MAGNIFYING GLASSES

35 How have companies benefited from the growth of the silver economy in countries with ageing
populations? Take the case of Japan, which has more than 30 million people who are aged 65
and above.
Many companies in Japan are taking advantage of the rising market opportunities generated by
the seniors. The NTT DoCoMo company, the countrys largest wireless carrier, has launched a
40 smartphone targeting older customers who need larger fonts and more simplified steps for
sending emails and taking pictures.
The retailer Aeon runs a supermarket that has a medical centre and provides shopping carts
with magnifying glasses for seniors. Even the travel industry in Japan is benefiting from
increased travel expenditure by the countrys rising number of retirees in the population.
45 Notwithstanding the demand from more affluent retirees in Singapore who would provide
support for the silver economy ranging from healthcare and apparel to financial and tourism
services, there are two critical factors which might restrict the spending power of the silver
consumer and slow the growth of the silver economy in the near term.
First, in contrast to the more affluent seniors, there is a group of Singaporeans who are falling
50 through the cracks in government support provided for the poor and underprivileged. As the
spending power of this group of retirees is likely to be limited when they retire, they might not
provide as much stimulus to the expansion of the silver economy as Singapores population ages.
Second, unlike Japan which has a large pool of seniors numbering more than 30 million, the
development of the silver economy in Singapore, with fewer than one million seniors, would
55 take some time before firms can enjoy economies of scale in mass production for the silver
market.
Thus, on the supply side, the lack of short-term cost competitiveness in large scale production
for the silver economy could limit its growth in the near term.
Even so, while the growth of the silver economy would take time for firms to realise its full
60 potential, companies which are positioned to identify the specific niches of demand for targeted
groups of retirees will stand to gain as the demographic trends evolve over time.
Dr Seet Min Kok is a senior lecturer at SIM Global Education. He is also a Council Member with the
Economic Society of Singapore.
For discussion:
The author believes that that the ageing population will have a positive impact on the
economy. To what extent do you think this is overly optimistic?
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Reading 24: Same Performance, Better Grades

By Aina Katsikas (The Atlantic, 16 Jan 2015)

It is believed that grades do not accurately reflect academic achievement today.
Students in some areas may actually be performing better academically, which could help
explain the inflation, but they cant account for national upward grade trends.
Its raining As in Americas higher education system, and not necessarily because students are
particularly smart. In fact, many of them probably dont deserve the high marks theyre getting.
They have grade inflation to thank.
That inflation is rapidly spreading to higher education institutions across the country. Despite
5 stagnant academic performance, more students than ever before receive higher grades than
they should. The trend is raising ethical questions and marks a 180-flip from a few decades ago,
when the opposite problem grade deflation plagued many colleges.
Students arent getting smarter," said Stuart Rojstaczer, a writer and former science professor
who calls himself the countrys grade inflation czar. They arent studying more. When they
10 graduate they are less literate. Theres no indication that the increase of grades nationwide is
related to any increase in performance or achievement.
Rojstaczers website, GradeInflation.com, compiled GPA data from more than 230 American
universities. These studies corroborate the inflation, showing that the growth rate started to
escalate following the Vietnam War.
15 Average college GPAs in 2006 were much higher in they were in 1930, according to a study of
more than 160 colleges and universities that was published in the Columbia University-based
publication Teachers College Record. Rojstaczer co-authored the study with Christopher Healy,
who teaches computer science at Furman University and said such inflation can ultimately
undermine students achievement.
20 If you give everybody an A, either people are not going to take it seriously or those who do take
it seriously might get the wrong impression, Healy said. When students receive grades, theyre
receiving feedback on how well they did in their courses, if they put in an equal amount of effort
[in] each one. And [if] they receive higher grades in some subjects, they logically come to the
conclusion that they are good at certain things. It wouldnt normally occur to them that they
25 happened to receive a grade that was out of line."
Grade inflation is more prevalent now at private institutions than it is at public ones, according
to the study. The mean GPA for both private and public schools in the 1930s was 2.3, or a C+.
That number for both types of institutions increased at the same rate until recently. Today, the
average GPA at private universities is 3.3, a B+, while that at public colleges is 3.0, a B.
30 A 2013 study conducted by the University of North Texass Department of Economics might help
explain the forces behind recent grade inflation, suggesting that several key players could be
responsible for the overall trends. For one, the study shows that classes in certain subject areas
are more prone to inflation than others. English, music, and speech courses experienced higher
rates of inflation compared to those in math and chemistry, for example.
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35 Class size also appears to be a factor. One theory is that departments with smaller student-
faculty ratios have a greater tendency to exaggerate grades because those instructors have less
job security than their colleagues in larger-scale college divisions. Lets say my department
finds out that we give far fewer As than some other department that were competing against
for students, Healy said. That may give an incentive for faculty to increase their grades.
40 The type of degree program could also influence the extent to which professors overstate
students grades. Inflation was more prevalent among Ph.D. departments, for example, than it
was among lower-level programs, according to the study, which looked at data between 1984
and 2005. The instructors gender could be a factor, too: Inflation is much higher among female
educators than it is among their male counterparts.
45 Meanwhile, student evaluations could incentivize instructors to give their pupils higher grades
than they deserve in an effort to buy higher evaluation scores, the study says.
Whatever the cause, an analysis of average test scores as well as literacy levels over time
confirms that rising GPAs are not a reflection of increasing academic achievement. Though
standardized exams are certainly flawed measurements of intelligence, comparing trends in
50 scoring with those in grades is revealing: Unlike average GPAs overall test scores have remained
relatively steady over time, demonstrating that the grade inflation is artificial. Graduate literacy
has also kept constant; the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that average
literacy hasnt changed since 1992.
Students in some areas may actually be performing better academically, which could help
55 explain the inflation, but they cant account for national upward grade trends. On a national
level, student quality hasnt improved enough to justify the inflation.
Ultimately, grade inflation has severe consequences. Not only does it make it difficult for
employers to vet the calibre of an applicant, but it also misleads students, who often use their
grades as benchmarks to help diagnose their strengths and weaknesses. If everybody gets an A
60 or a B, then grade point average doesnt carry as much as information as a signal to potential
employers or graduate schools, Michael McPherson said, an economics professor at the
University of North Texas. Grade deflation which still affects some institutions, including
Boston University has its repercussions, too.
The epidemic of grade inflation and deflation brings Americas higher education system
65 under further scrutiny, particularly because many administrators and professors appear to
condone, or at least accept, the grade manipulation.
Were not in an era of strong, moral ethical leadership in higher education, Rojstaczer said,
Leaders are obsessed with national reputation and the size of their endowment and not very
concerned about the quality of education.
For discussion:
1. Do you think grades accurately reflect the ability of students in your country?
2. Suggest other reasons why there could be an inflation of grades in your society. Justify
your reasons as far as possible.
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Reading 25: The unequal ability to exploit opportunity

By Jerry Z. Muller (The Straits Times, 16 Mar 2013)

Women are now receiving more education than their counterparts in the past and this
has changed the socio-economic climate of most First World countries.
Education does not necessarily solve problems of inequality and may instead exacerbate
the situation.
Inequality is increasing almost everywhere in the post-industrial capitalist world. This is

not the result of politics, nor is politics likely to reverse it, for the problem is more deeply
rooted and intractable than generally recognised. Inequality is an inevitable product of
capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it because some
individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the
opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.
If capitalism has opened up ever more opportunities for the development of human
potential, not everyone has been able to take full advantage of those opportunities or
progress far once they have done so. Formal or informal barriers to equality of opportunity,
for example, have historically blocked various sectors of the population - such as women,
5 minorities, and the poor from benefiting fully from all capitalism offers. But over time, in
the advanced capitalist world, those barriers have gradually been lowered or removed, so
that now opportunity is more equally available than ever before.
The inequality that exists today, therefore, derives less from the unequal availability of
opportunity than it does from the unequal ability to exploit opportunity. And that unequal
10 ability, in turn, stems from differences in the inherent human potential that individuals
begin with and in the ways that families and communities enable and encourage that
human potential to flourish.
The role of the family in shaping individuals' ability and inclination to make use of the means
of cultivation that capitalism offers is hard to overstate. The household is not only a site of
15 consumption and of biological reproduction. It is also the main setting in which children are
socialised, civilised, and educated, in which habits are developed that influence their
subsequent fates as people and as market actors. To use the language of contemporary
economics, the family is a workshop in which human capital is produced. Over time, the
family has shaped capitalism by creating new demands for new commodities. It has also
20 been repeatedly reshaped by capitalism because new commodities and new means of
production have led family members to spend their time in new ways.
Dynamism and insecurity

For most of history, the prime source of human insecurity was nature. In such societies, as
Marx noted, the economic system was oriented towards stability - and stagnancy. Capitalist
25 societies, by contrast, have been oriented towards innovation and dynamism, to the
creation of new knowledge, new products, and new modes of production and distribution.
All of this has shifted the locus of insecurity from nature to the economy.
99 of 104
Hegel observed in the 1820s that for men in a commercial society based on the
breadwinner-homemaker model, one's sense of self-worth and recognition by others was
30 tied to having a job. This posed a problem, because in a dynamic capitalist market,
unemployment was a distinct possibility. The division of labour created by the market
meant that many workers had skills that were highly specialised and suited for only a
narrow range of jobs. The market created shifting wants, and increased demand for new
products meant decreased demand for older ones.
35 Men whose lives had been devoted to their role in the production of the old products were
left without a job and without the training that would allow them to find new work. And the
mechanisation of production also led to a loss of jobs. From its very beginnings, in other
words, the creativity and innovation of industrial capitalism were shadowed by insecurity
for members of the workforce.
40 Marx and Engels sketched out capitalism's dynamism, insecurity, refinement of needs, and
expansion of cultural possibilities in The Communist Manifesto. In the 20th century,
economist Joseph Schumpeter would expand on their points with his notion that capitalism
was characterised by "creative destruction", in which new products and forms of
distribution and organisation displaced older forms. Unlike Marx, however, who saw the
45 source of this dynamism in the disembodied quest of "capital" to increase (at the expense,
he thought, of the working class), Schumpeter focused on the role of the entrepreneur, an
innovator who introduced new commodities and discovered new markets and methods.
Post-industrial economy
For humanity in general, the late 20th and early 21st centuries have been a period of
50 remarkable progress, due in no small part to the spread of capitalism around the globe.
Economic liberalisation in China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and other countries in the
developing world has allowed hundreds of millions of people to escape grinding poverty and
move into the middle class. Consumers in more advanced capitalist countries, such as the
United States, meanwhile, have experienced a radical reduction in the price of many
55 commodities, from clothes to TV sets, and the availability of a river of new goods that have
transformed their lives.
Most remarkable, perhaps, have been changes to the means of self-cultivation. As

economist Tyler Cowen notes, much of the fruit of recent developments "is in our minds
and in our laptops and not so much in the revenue-generating sector of the economy".
60 As a result, "much of the value of the Internet is experienced at the personal level and so
will never show up in the productivity numbers".
One crucial impact of the rise of the post-industrial economy has been on the status and
roles of men and women. Men's relative advantage in the pre-industrial and industrial
economies rested in large part on their greater physical strength - something now ever less
65 in demand.
Women, in contrast, whether by biological disposition or socialisation, have had a relative

advantage in human skills and emotional intelligence, which have become increasingly more
important in an economy more oriented to human services than to the production of
100 of 104
material objects. The portion of the economy in which women could participate has
70 expanded, and their labour has become more valuable - meaning that time spent at home
now comes at the expense of more lucrative possibilities in the paid workforce.
This has led to the growing replacement of male breadwinner-female homemaker

households by dual-income households.
The trend for women to receive more education and greater professional attainments has
75 been accompanied by changing social norms in the choice of marriage partners. In the age
of the breadwinner-homemaker marriage, women tended to place a premium on earning
capacity in their choice of partners.
Men, in turn, valued the homemaking capacities of potential spouses more than their
vocational attainments. It was not unusual for men and women to marry partners of roughly
80 the same intelligence, but women tended to marry men of higher levels of education and
economic achievement.
As the economy has passed from an industrial economy to a post-industrial service-and-

information economy, women have joined men in attaining recognition through paid work,
and the industrious couple today is more likely to be made of peers, with more equal levels
85 of education and more comparable levels of economic achievement - a process termed
"assortative mating".
Inequality on the rise

These post-industrial social trends have had a significant impact on inequality. If family
income doubles at each step of the economic ladder, then the total incomes of those
90 families higher up the ladder are bound to increase faster than the total incomes of those
further down.
But for a substantial portion of households at the lower end of the ladder, there has been
no doubling at all - for as the relative pay of women has grown and the relative pay of less-
educated, working-class men has declined, the latter have been viewed as less and less
95 marriageable.
Often, the limitations of human capital that make such men less employable also make
them less desirable as companions, and the character traits of men who are chronically
unemployed sometimes deteriorate as well. With less to bring to the table, such men are
regarded as less necessary - in part because women can now count on provisions from the
100 welfare state as an additional independent source of income, however meagre.
In the US, among the most striking developments of recent decades has been the
stratification of marriage patterns among the various classes and ethnic groups of society.
When divorce laws were loosened in the 1960s, there was a rise in divorce rates among all
classes. But by the 1980s, a new pattern had emerged: divorce declined among the more
105 educated portions of the populace, while rates among the less-educated portions continued
to rise. In addition, the more educated and more well-to-do were more likely to wed, while
the less educated were less likely to do so.
101 of 104
Given the family's role as an incubator of human capital, such trends have had important
spill over effects on inequality. Abundant research shows that children raised by two
110 parents in an ongoing union are more likely to develop the self-discipline and self-
confidence that make for success in life, whereas children - and particularly boys - reared in
single-parent households (or, worse, households with a mother who has a series of
temporary relationships) have a greater risk of adverse outcomes.
All of this has been taking place during a period of growing equality of access to education
115 and increasing stratification of marketplace rewards, both of which have increased the
importance of human capital.
One element of human capital is cognitive ability: quickness of mind, the ability to infer and
apply patterns drawn from experience, and the ability to deal with mental complexity.
Another is character and social skills: self-discipline, persistence, responsibility. And a third
120 is actual knowledge. All of these are becoming increasingly crucial for success in the post-
industrial marketplace.
Globalisation has not caused this pattern of increasingly unequal returns to human capital
but reinforced it. Economist Michael Spence has distinguished between "tradable" goods
and services, which can be easily imported and exported, and "untradeable" ones, which
125 cannot. Increasingly, tradable goods and services are imported to advanced capitalist
societies from less advanced capitalist societies, where labour costs are lower.
As manufactured goods and routine services are outsourced, the wages of the relatively
unskilled and uneducated in advanced capitalist societies decline further, unless these
people are somehow able to find remunerative employment in the untradeable sector.
130 Family and human capital

In todays globalised, financialised, post-industrial environment, human capital is more
important than ever in determining life chances. This makes families more important, too,
because as each generation of social science researchers discovers anew (and much to their
chagrin), the resources transmitted by the family tend to be highly determinative of success
135 in school and in the workplace. As economist Friedrich Hayek pointed out half a century ago
in The Constitution Of Liberty, the main impediment to true equality of opportunity is that
there is no substitute for intelligent parents or for an emotionally and culturally nurturing
family.
In the words of a recent study by economists Pedro Carneiro and James Heckman,
140 "differences in levels of cognitive and non-cognitive skills by family income and family
background emerge early and persist. If anything, schooling widens these early differences".
Hereditary endowments come in a variety of forms: genetics, prenatal and postnatal

nurture, and the cultural orientations conveyed within the family. Money matters, too, of
course, but is often less significant than these largely non-monetary factors. Over time, to
145 the extent that societies are organised along meritocratic lines, family endowments and
market rewards will tend to converge.
102 of 104
Educated parents tend to invest more time and energy in childcare, even when both parents
are engaged in the workforce. And families strong in human capital are more likely to make
fruitful use of the improved means of cultivation that contemporary capitalism offers (such
150 as the potential for online enrichment) while resisting their potential snares (such as
unrestricted viewing of television and playing of computer games).
This affects the ability of children to make use of formal education, which is increasingly, at
least potentially, available to all regardless of economic or ethnic status.
The Economist recently repeated a shibboleth: "In a society with broad equality of
155 opportunity, the parents' position on the income ladder should have little impact on that of
their children."
The fact is, however, that the greater equality of institutional opportunity there is, the more
families' human capital endowments matter. As political scientist Edward Banfield noted a
generation ago in The Unheavenly City Revisited, "all education favours the middle- and
160 upper-class child, because to be middle- or upper-class is to have qualities that make one
particularly educable".
Improvements in the quality of schools may improve overall educational outcomes, but they
tend to increase, rather than diminish, the gap in achievement between children from
families with different levels of human capital.
165
Education not a panacea
A growing recognition of the increasing economic inequality and social stratification in post-
industrial societies has naturally led to discussions of what can be done about it and, in the
American context, the answer from almost all quarters is simple: education.
170 One strand of this logic focuses on college. There is a growing gap in life chances between
those who complete college and those who don't, the argument runs, and so as many
people as possible should go to college.
Unfortunately, even though a higher percentage of Americans are attending college, they
are not necessarily learning more. An increasing number are unqualified for college-level
175 work, many leave without completing their degrees, and others receive degrees reflecting
standards much lower than what a college degree has usually been understood to mean.
The most significant divergence in educational achievement occurs before the level of
college, meanwhile, in rates of completion of high school, and major differences in
performance (by class and ethnicity) appear still earlier, in elementary school.
180 So a second strand of the education argument focuses on primary and secondary schooling.
The remedies suggested here include providing schools with more money, offering parents
more choice, testing students more often, and improving teacher performance.
Even if some or all of these measures might be desirable for other reasons, none has been
shown to significantly diminish the gaps between students and between social groups -
103 of 104
185 because formal schooling itself plays a relatively minor role in creating or perpetuating
achievement gaps.
The gaps turn out to have their origins in the different levels of human capital children
possess when they enter school - which has led to a third strand of the education argument,
focusing on earlier and more intensive childhood intervention.
190 Suggestions here often amount to taking children out of their family environments and
putting them into institutional settings for as much time as possible (head start, early head
start) or even trying to resocialise whole neighbourhoods (as in the Harlem Children's Zone
project).
There are examples of isolated successes with such programmes, but it is far from clear that
195 these are reproducible on a larger scale. Many programmes show short-term gains in
cognitive ability, but most of these gains tend to fade out over time, and those that remain
tend to be marginal.
It is more plausible that such programmes improve the non-cognitive skills and character
traits conducive to economic success - but at a significant cost and investment, employing
200 resources extracted from the more successful parts of the population (thus lowering the
resources available to them) or diverted from other potential uses.
For all these reasons, inequality in advanced capitalist societies seems to be both growing
and ineluctable, at least for the time being. Indeed, one of the most robust findings of
contemporary social scientific inquiry is that as the gap between high-income and low-
205 income families has increased, the educational and employment achievement gaps between
the children of these families have increased even more.
The writer is professor of history at the Catholic University of America and the author of The Mind
and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought.
For discussion:
1. How important is education to you and your society?
2. To what extent are the authors views on education overly pessimistic?
3. Parents' position on the income ladder should have little impact on that of their
children. Is this a realistic point of view?
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RI GP Y5 2016 / Media and Social Issues

Copyrighted: Knowledge Skills Department, for internal circulation only,

Values and Behaviour

Privacy, Security and Surveillance

Censorship and Social Norms

Media and Democracy

Family and Marriage

Ageing and Inter-Generational Conflict

Education and Social Mobility

PAST-YEAR EXAMINATION QUESTIONS ON THE MEDIA

2. How do advertisements affect our ways of thinking? (1989 Promos)

Reading 1: Media Making sense of it all

This reading will help you:

1a. Old vs New

1b. Distribution makes the difference

1c. Is new media better?

1d. Mainstream media

2a. Social media: Subset of new media

2b. Social media Are organizations losing control?

For discussion: Class

For discussion: Small groups

Reading 2: Media and Gender Stereotyping

This reading will help you to:

2a. Stereotyping and its effects

2b. Media (mis)representation of gender

2c. Stereotyping of men in advertising

2d. Stereotyping of women in news coverage

(i) Women, News and Politics

(ii) Women and Sports

Reading 3: Media teaches bad values to your children

This reading will help you:

1. Success at any cost

2. Wealth and Materialism

Reading 4: Is media violence damaging to kids?

In this article, you will learn about:

Is there a connection between violence in the media and real-life violence?

THE "STAR WARS" PROBLEM

He started pew-pew-pew-ing the next day.

THE LATEST RESEARCH

TELEVISIONS AND MOVIES

Reading 5: Can media really affect behaviour?

This reading will help you:

15 There wouldnt be an advertising industry if people werent susceptible to messages. POM

What if it were possible to fine-tune the content, marketing and distribution of a

Reading 6: Why privacy matters

In this article, you will learn about:

What would a world without secrets look like?

5 Nowadays, Adam and Eve would probably act differently:

[@Adam Last nite was a blast! loved dat apple LOL]

[@Eve Yep... Hey, know what happened to my wallet tho?]

Reading 7: Fear big brother... or firms' abuse of big data?

In this article, you will learn about:

The lesser of three evils

This reading will help you understand that:

Reading 9: Internet regulation A myth in Singapore?

This reading will help you understand that:

Moreover, Singapores commitment to a light-touch approach towards Internet regulation

70 However, it may well be that having identified 10 websites such as channelnewsasia.com,

Quite apart from auto-regulation, online communities have on several occasions

In conclusion, it is apparent that Internet regulation, whether in the form of state

This reading will help you understand that:

For research + discussion:

Reading 11: Je suis tired (I am tired)