Its not just me, everyone is talking about her. The man or rather woman of the moment, Ris Low. Our beloved, disgraced and dethroned Miss Singapore World.
In recent years, Ms Singapore World has not been telecast on national TV due to poor television ratings and poor response. The events would be held privately. Hence the contestants or winners would not be under the glare of the public eye.
However this year, the winner of the contestant, Ris Low, was interviewed and the video was uploaded on YouTube and instantly, the response was overwhelming. Many netizens started bombing her and began to question the authorities about the integrity of the competition. Soon she was the talk of the town. She was under immense pressure. Reporters soon dug out her past when she committed credit card fraud. The abuse just would not stop and there were calls for her to give up her crown. Finally, it was too much for her to bear and she relinquished her crown. Even after this, they still poked fun at her, for example, PCK did an impersonation of her.
From this we can see the power of mass communication. Even though the event was not publicised, she still managed to receive so much attention of the media. From this we can what function the media serves as. By providing knowledge of her 'misdeeds', the media serves as a powerful form of surveillance. If these were not made known to us, we would have let her represent Singapore in the contests and a chance for her to disgrace us. The YouTube clips that were posted were a form of entertainment in a distasteful. However it may be funny, but the torrential abuse directed at her is definitely over the limit.
No matter what she has done wrong, it is all in the past. Moreover, she is only 19. How many of us are beauty queens at 19? Hence I think while beauty queens should be under constant scrutiny, poking fun at them and digging out their past is somethung we should not do.
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Hello!
ReplyDeleteHahah this is the third/fourth post that I've read about on Ris Low.
True, Ris Low has done quite a number of things wrong and her most grave mistake was to take part in the beauty pageant. However, under the media's constant scutiny, she continues to make scandalous news across the Internet. This makes me wonder if she is making negative news for herself just to gain fame or is it purely incidental?
If one were to look at her most recent interview on being the ambassordor of the Speak Good English Campaign, one cannot help to think that she's a liar. If she appeared to have blunted out the words accidently, perharps the audience would have forgive her. Yet, she refused to correct herself or apologise after the clip went online.
Hence, I have to say that us, the audience are not poking fun of her. We are just angry or embarassed that we have such a beauty contestant in our country who does not think before she acts.
Looks like EVERYONE loves Ris Low!
ReplyDeleteLike what I've commented on your post regarding MJ. The media is just willing to employ any means to their benefit them economically. And what's bigger news that scandals. Hence the act of digging out ones past and critiquing their past wrong doing.
Of course this doesn't mean I'm on the side of Ris Low and I am not proud to say, but I will anyway, that I did make fun of the poor Ris Low. THis is because I am angered by what a poor representation she is of Singapore, disgracing us and making Singapore being portrayed in a negative light.
the Ris Low issue again!
ReplyDeleteWell mass media and new media did made a surveilance on this.
Remember the videos we caught are all from youtube? This shows that the presence of new media is really impactful and massive.
She disgraced singaporeans with her "not so good" english which will definitely affect the perception of foreigners towards Singaporeans.
People all over the world can watch the videos on youtube and mock at us for the inefficiency of speaking good english.
Oh well! I just hope that people will soon forget this episode.
Hi Justin!
ReplyDeleteI think that the media function here, instead of surveillance, I felt that Cultural transmission and Entertainment was more suitable. For Cultural transmission, the media used Ris Low as a bad example of poorly spoken English to educate the public in other words, used her a 'role model' for a bad example. As for Entertainment, as you mentioned, PCK making a spoof of it was clearly a form of entertainment for viewers.
And I agree with you that Ris Low deserves another chance and not be condemn for a video which was her first interview.