Observe patiently,
Let them swarm rapidly— celebrate victory.
Listen to the flies buzzing— endure the mockery,
Withhold reactions to misplaced glory.
When emotions rise like a tsunami,
Pull them back, eliminate the worry.
Calmness is your fury,
You must control your story.
Stabs will poke holes, might get gory,
Hold the strike, for time is eerie.
Soon their horses will turn to ponies,
Let the dust divulge those cronies.
Waiting for a sunrise,
Chores, all done.
It takes time,
But thoughts don’t stop.
Mountains climbed,
To pass that time,
Hope is all that’s left,
For dreams to hang on.
Just look around,
Some just have it easy.
Even when it’s tough,
They all have something.
Then the mind ponders,
On what eyes have seen,
Gently whispers that;
Time hasn’t been forgiving.
Some nights it’s a wrestle,
Shut-eye seems impossible.
Racing mind, fighting thoughts,
Calming breath, holding down.
Faith says: it shall pass,
Hope says: I’m all you’ve got.
Fear is the shame I’ve got,
What life, is reality, such?
When words spoken, often alter,
Unspoken, they are left to wonder.
Thoughts are better off to ponder,
Than feelings they produce, to harbor.
Why can’t we discuss without a faulter?
Listen, converse and be much broader?
If love is truly greater than the marauder,
Being right doesn’t have to be the deriver.
Better left alone than a survivor,
Of a battle fought for vain cadaver.
Feeling with intended desire,
Allows thought to quickly transpire.
I wrote you poems,
Thought you’d notice.
I showed up,
Thought you’d speak.
I sent you thoughts,
Hoping you’ll catch them.
Then I got over you —
Just like that!
Nothing drastic,
No mind altering tactics.
I’m not a waiter.
My heart’s not a restaurant.
I waited long enough.
There’s only one moon,
In this galaxy, that is.
I’m not a fighter,
I’m only a writer.
There are other galaxies,
Different possibilities.
I let my mind wander,
To the distant galaxies yonder,
Maybe they too have bumble and tinder?
New moons are new, when found.
But they existed, all bright and round.
Love beyond compare,
Where the lilies bloom and birds nest,
Liberated stars lay in adoration.
Every moment has en eternity,
Encapsulated with majestic splendor.
For the eyes to see and the ears to hear,
For sorrow has long passed,
Left behind the remnants of a life of bewilderment.
Distance shores call me now,
Yet the mind is still, to ponder.
Nothing to add or subtract,
Yet time passes by with this addition and subtraction.
The greater the mountain, nicer the view,
Yet, to get there one needs strength and valor,
Good friends, courage and a bit of hope.
Once conquered, spend each day gazing,
At wondrous sunsets over glorious horizons.
At the end of the day, one must do what’s best for themselves without becoming a thorn for anothers’ possibilities and expressions. Those who demand you to meet their expectations will never change to meet yours. So, why waste time trying to meet the expectations of those who are concerned with propagating their version of life on to your reality?
If all expectations were to be fulfilled, the world might end up in chaos. To expect is to wait for something. You are now dependent on something else to find fulfillment. Like a mighty pit bull, salivating and kneeling before his feeble master for a treat. I love dogs, but I am not too fond of training them to beg for treats. The loyalty of a dog is more valuable than manipulative obedience.
Or, to expect is to project your perception of ideal outcomes onto other people’s lived experiences and expressions. They are not meeting YOUR expectations that YOU made up in YOUR head with YOUR self-interests at the forefront.
Water is fluid. Most of everything around us consists of it. The same element that we consume to hydrate can drown us. Just like that, that which goes up, must come down. That which stays up must one day land. There’s nothing wrong with going up or staying up as long as one remembers where it started from. Born naked with the imminent reality of joining the dust, some get too caught up in their self-proclaimed status on the planet. This self-proclaimed superiority complex then starts to ooze out like poisonous gas in the form of expectations. If you were a bird, your innate dispositions would tell you when to land. But you aren’t a bird. You are just a skeleton with a suit with nothing but expectations.
Tell your mind to guard its entrance from unwelcomed expectations. No matter how high and mighty they present themselves as, they are nothing but expectations of dust. The deeply rooted fear of uncertainty is only a facade when you are not afraid to take bold steps. Not all steps are taken to go forward. There’s no loss in taking a step back to avoid an imminent threat and change directions. The forces that work behind closed doors are not powerful. They are just fear mongers that needs a hand to hold when it’s dark at night. With light, each and every plot will be revealed. Such a revelation can only become a reality by the hand of the absolute truth. Oil and water will get separated then and there won’t be any more doubts.
In the meantime, it’s better to show less than what you know. Don’t worry about anothers’ perception of yourself. When you are able to free yourself from the false notion of external acceptance, freedom will take you ashore with powerful waves. Till then, ride the waves and enjoy the sunsets. Expect nothing and know when to give it all and when to give sparingly. When we expect nothing, we are not controlled by that idea. When you free yourself from your own shackles, you will find the strength to remain free.
About the photo: These waves in Nusa Lembongan Island in Indonesia are simply breathtaking. Its shear power keeps the mighty rocks that keep the island afloat in check.
He rose up early and painted beautiful skies,
Even for a few minutes, he tried!
He stayed up as late as he could at night,
Even when he was drowning,
He tried to shed some light.
Then it dawned on him:
It’s his arrival that makes the moon go away,
And entire planets depended on his arrival.
With sadness and without choice,
He decided to forever paint the skies for the moon 🌙
Hoping she will realize why he has to go away every night.
~Instagram.com/smilander87
http://lankansapphires.com/ has some beautiful moonstones and a variety of natural gemstones.
Follow them on Instagram at: Instagram.com/ LankanSapphires
When the tea becomes cold,
And there’s no hand to hold,
You are now getting old;
No point doing as your’re told.
You realize there’s a hole,
As you search within your soul;
Like a fisherman with no pole,
You keep fighting for your goal.
Some just want to be a mole,
Watch out! They will take a toll.
Those who are looking for coal,
Use the kind-hearted to maul.
Don’t treat me like some doll,
Or a cat with a plastic ball.
I don’t have to wait for your call;
Or for Saul to change into Paul.
Always keep things simple,
And remember to be nimble.
It won’t pay, but stay humble,
Care not much about a dimple;
Reality is more about the pimple.
Do things that may seem ridiculous,
Not to you, but for the superfluous.
Not for their sake: live scrupulous,
Follow your passions and be meticulous.
You’ll find many smiles to be dubious,
That’s not your problem, Mr. studious!
Pay less attention to things too fabulous,
Be careful with time, when your laborious.
Whatever it is, that helps you sleep,
Shouldn’t bother your neighbor, please!
Spread jam on toast not hate on prose,
We can only handle each other in a dose.
A box that contain memories, of bittersweet realities,
The only thing that knows the inner walls of a desolate heart.
No one can open it- there is no key,
As the heart closes its eyes to embrace its forlorn reality,
Memories flood into the box painting painfully beautiful imagery.
At the core of the box lies a garden- exclusive,
Where the mind can create memories all-inclusive,
Not bound by that which bounds the external realm,
The mind admires beauty and wanders off.
Invisible but strong, undetectable yet true,
Beyond emotions, gestures and fantasies or any poetic imagery,
Desires whisper secrets that acknowledgment will never hear,
Wordless melodies, utterly meaningless to the world outside the box,
Not out of fear, rather,to avoid subjugation of inadequate means,
The only visitor and retriever…keeps the box alive.
Entertainment Education programs have been found to create awareness and behavioral changes on social and health issues. The traditional definition of E-E refers to entertainment programs that are designed to convey known, prosocial effects to viewers. The wide range of definitions that describe E-E can be attributed to the variety of goals in E-E programming. Some programs are focused on informing viewers whereas others are focused on changing attitudes or behaviors.
The Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model highlights E-E’s role of resistance and narrative engagement. The Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model was thus introduced as a way to consider how E-E programs can overcome resistance. EORM states that transportation, identification, similarity, and PSI help overcome various types of resistance to persuasion—enhancing persuasive outcomes.
The article examines how narrative transportation and character involvement reduce three forms of resistance: reactance, counter arguing, and perceived vulnerability. It compares effects between a dramatic-narrative and nonnarrative program that highlighted consequences of unplanned teen pregnancies. It revealed that the dramatic narrative reduced reactance, fostered parasocial interactions, and decreased perceptions of persuasive intent. Identification with characters in the narrative was found to reduce counterarguing— increasing perceived vulnerabilities to unplanned pregnancies. Transportation into the dramatic narrative though, was associated with counterarguing, contrary to the expectations.
Furthermore, noticing a hidden agenda to promote healthy behavior, disguised as entertainment was found to arouse reactance, while a more straightforward attempt to persuade, did not. This is an interesting find and I really liked the suggestions to address such behavior. The authors suggest that E-E creators should begin by first understanding the forms of resistance that operate within their targeted audience, since there are different types of resistance. It is suggested that perceived persuasive intent to be kept lower for audiences with high reactance and to use characters that users can bond with. Another suggestion is to focus on production features that facilitate empathy when the goal is to increase perceived vulnerability, rather than developing similar characters. These suggestions can be very helpful for E-E creators that want to communicate social issues. Being too pushy or being too cunning could turn the audience off to what you are trying to say, especially if it is a controversial topic for the viewer to begin with. So, using a charismatic character as a vehicle to carry the message seems to be a logical approach to me. The suggestion to focus less on the character but more on production features, when the goal is to increase perceived vulnerability, is a bit harder for me to grasp. Perhaps the idea is that in order to increase awareness a mere character would not suffice.
Koops van ’t Jagt, R., Hoeks, J. C. J., Duizer … (2017) conducted research to find out how a Spanish fotonovela (similar to a comic book), about diabetes communicated E-E messaging to high and low proficiency Dutch readers. The results found that when it comes to diabetes knowledge, readers of the fotonovela outperformed participants that were given a traditional brochure. This was true for both high and low proficiency readers. However, they did not score significantly higher than traditional brochure readers when it came to behavioral intentions. The researchers state that perhaps the lack of focus on measuring behavioral intentions could be a reason for the lack of visibility into behavioral significance and that in similar studies behavioral intention too had been found to be significant from E-E exposure.
I think EORM could be applied for advertising efforts, especially when advertising healthcare related products. However, if the advertisement is seen as too cunning or crafty, audiences might display reactance. So, advertising professionals would have to focus a lot on characters as well production features to evoke empathy. In practicality, this approach would be quite difficult to achieve in short 30 second – 1-minute advertisements. However, if advertising efforts were to focus on longer-formats, leveraging EORM could benefit both advertisers as well as audiences, especially when it comes to imparting knowledge.
My question to you is: would you be interested in product marketing efforts that utilize the EORM model? Where would you think such ads would be appropriate? For example, would you be receptive if an EORM ad was playing on your Facebook feed, interrupting something you were watching, or would you rather prefer that it shows up in search results when you are searching for a potential health concern? So, for example, you suspect you might have arthritis and you are trying to find more information on YouTube and happen to come across an E-E video series on YouTube about a character that suffers from similar health issues, would you prefer that piece over something that is served on your Facebook feed?
Citation
Koops van ’t Jagt, R., Hoeks, J. C. J., Duizer, E., Baron, M., Molina, G. B., Unger, J. B., & Jansen, C. J. M. (2017). Sweet Temptations: How Does Reading a Fotonovela About Diabetes Affect Dutch Adults with Different Levels of Literacy? Health Communication, 33(3), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2016.1258617
Since 1953, fear appeals theory has undergone developments to keep up with the trends of the time. In the beginning, fear was the focus in fear appeals theories and perceived threat and perceived efficacy were introduced to the equation in the ’70s and ’80s. Past research on the subject matter was focused on conceptual and methodological issues and recent research, including the present study, focuses on quantitative methods to analyze fear appeals literature.
There are three main models of the fear appeals theory: Drive Theories, Parallel Response Models, and SEU Models. In fact, one could say there are four if one was to consider the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), which draws upon elements from the former three models. Drive Theories is the oldest model that was used to explain fear appeal results. It suggested that the level of fear, aroused by a fear appeal, motivates actions. It proposed a U-shaped relationship between fear and attitude change, where a moderate amount of fear was thought to produce the most attitude change. The biggest contribution of the Parallel Response Model was the introduction of cognitive processing to the fear appeals theory. It introduced the idea that fear appeals produce danger-control and fear-control processes in subjects. The SEU models identify components and cognitive mediators that lead to message acceptance in fear appeals. The SEU models suggest that high-threat and high-efficacy produce the most message acceptance but fail to explain when and how.
I found the EPPM to be the most interesting of the models. The EPPM suggests that when people believe that they can perform the recommended response against a threat, they are more motivated to consciously think of ways to remove or lessen the threat. Usually, this means adopting the methods outlined in the message to control the danger. In contrast, when people doubt the efficiency of the recommended response or their ability to do it, they are motivated to control their fear and focus on eliminating the fear through denial.
The EPPM can be used to analyze how people have responded to the pandemic. It might also be noteworthy to pay attention to how their political affiliations and media consumption choices affect their responses to fear appeals as well. For example, the Far-Right has downplayed the threat of COVID by claiming that it is as dangerous as the common flu. They have also downplayed the effectiveness of wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Whereas the media outlets considered to be liberal or Left-Leaning by the Far Right have portrayed COVID as a serious threat and have promoted mask-wearing and social-distancing as effective and necessary measures to tackle it.
The findings from the metanalyses conducted by Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000) suggest that high-threat fear, accompanied by equally high-efficacy messages is the most effective. It also suggests that feal appeals, without high-efficacy messages, run the risk of backfiring and producing defensive responses. In the light of this matter, do you think this is what happened with how the pandemic was portrayed and how it was received by American society? Was it portrayed as highly threatening and inevitable, making some people think that there’s not much they could do to protect themselves against it? Was there a lack of high-self efficacy and an overemphasis of high-threat that enabled certain Right Wing media institutions to strengthen their narrative of COVID being nothing more than the common flu or the ineffectiveness of wearing a mask? Hold on to that thought because you might want to consider the findings from the article I selected as well.
Gerjo Kok, Gjalt-Jorn Y. Peters … (2018) states that researchers have been misled in their interpretation when it comes to the effectiveness of fear appeals in promoting health behaviors. The study reviews empirical evidence to conclude that fear appeals are only effective in cases of high self-efficacy. The study uses smoking as an example to illustrate the discussion on fear appeals, with the goal of promoting political decision-making that is based on theory and evidence and suggests alternatives to fear appeals that can be used in health promotion messaging. The researchers suggest that fear appeals are more effective when combined with non-threatening messages that improve self-efficacy, which is in stark contrast to Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000)’s recommendations.
The article provides an example of how messages related to coping tactics have garnered more attention from smokers as compared to fear appeals. Applying the suggestions from Gerjo Kok, Gjalt-Jorn Y. Peters … (2018) to the COVID responses in populations can shed some light on the behaviors we have seen in American society. What if COVID was presented in the media with a heavier focus on coping rather than fear appeals? Would such an approach have been more effective? I am aware that COVID is a different kind of danger as compared to smoking, which can be avoided solely by choice, whereas a contagious virus is at times unavoidable. That said, the spread of COVID would have been lessened if stricter measures were taken and if people had adhered to guidelines from the very beginning. Taiwan, being in such close proximity to the epicenter of the disease managed to handle the pandemic much better than the West.
Citations
Gerjo Kok, Gjalt-Jorn Y. Peters, Loes T. E. Kessels, Gill A. ten Hoor & Robert
A. C. Ruiter (2018) Ignoring theory and misinterpreting evidence: the false belief in fear appeals,
Health Psychology Review, 12:2, 111-125, DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2017.1415767
Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000). A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns. Health Education & Behavior, 27(5), 591–615. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019810002700506
Cacioppo and Petty intended ELM to be a generic theory on persuasion and attitude change. The theory is based on two assumptions about attitudes. The first is that there are people who hold correct attitudes. Correct attitudes are based on rational thought and help people in their daily functions. The second form of attitudes are based less on personal thought and more on external influences— especially on subject matter authorities. The two mental strategies that ELM poses based on these assumptions are central and peripheral routes of processing persuasive messaging.
Central route processing requires involvement by the subject when evaluating persuasive messaging. During central route processing, messaging is actively compared to prior knowledge of the matter and finally integrated or rejected based on mindful evaluation. In the peripheral processing route, participants are less motivated to self-analyze information and are influenced by peripheral cues based on source credibility or attractiveness. People cannot be categorically bucketed as central or peripheral information processes, so it is understood that people use both cues, perhaps one more than the other, in certain situations.
The chapter is more focused on how people react to political messaging and suggests that those who use more central processing are “elite” information processors compared to information “non-elites” , who are thought to be easily influenced by popularity or popular consensus. In other words, information elites do not only depend on the media to form political opinions, whereas nonelites use media as the only source when it comes to forming opinions.
“The effects of Online Reviews …” explores how online reviews are used by males and females using the ELM models of persuasion. Here, based on prior research on gender and online behavior, paying attention to the quality of reviews is thought to be indicative of central processing (elite), whereas being persuaded by the quantity/popularity of the reviews as being indicative of peripheral (non-elite) processing.
The study, conducted in China, found that men displayed central processing when they were purchasing heuristically relevant items and were driven by the quality of the reviews more than women. Women were found to be driven by the number of reviews when basing their purchase decision. The study also found that for purchases driven by hedonic value, neither gender displayed a significance between review quality and quantity.
Being an advertising and marketing professional, I was interested in learning more about how this theory could be applied to e-commerce. The study is not without limitations, but the findings reinforce former findings of how men and women are different when it comes to persuasion processing.
ELM is a very relevant theory for digital marketers. As web and social media analytics tend to gather more and more user data, the room for influencing purchase behavior increases. ELM can be applied to personalize marketing and advertising materials to prospects. For example, users that are identified as better suited for central processing cues can receive advertising content that dives deeper into advanced use cases and configurations of a product while users that are more peripheral driven can receive more celebrity testimonials and “product in-action” type of content.
Furthermore, ELM can be used to identify purchasing behavior and product-research-preferences of users, so advertisers and marketers can serve relevant and compelling advertisements, which in turn will secure a better return on investment for advertisers while providing a more relevant ad experience for prospects.
So, my question to you is, do you think men tend to care about the quality of reviews more than women when they purchase something that serves a heuristic purpose online? The study seems to hint that men tend to care about review quality when it comes to items that are needed for practical purposes whereas they might tend to be less caring when they are purchasing something for fun. According to the study, women tend to be more driven by the number of reviews and less caring about how good the reviews are. Do you as a man or woman find yourself behaving similarly when you purchase something online?
Citation
Luo, Y., & Ye, Q. (2019). The Effects of Online Reviews, Perceived Value, and Gender on Continuance Intention to Use International Online Outshopping Website: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 31(3), 250–269. https://doi-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1080/08961530.2018.1503987
George Gerbner first introduced the cultivation theory as a macrolevel system of explanation—an alternative to the micro-focused media research of his time. His approach consisted of three components: the media institutions, mass-produced messages, and the effects they cultivated on people. When first introduced, the theory focused, on a macrolevel, on broadscale institutional practices, widespread meanings, and long-term adoption. In essence, it focused on how mass-produced media messages from media institutions, when widely disseminated, shape public knowledge and belief in the long run.
Gerbner’s team was interested in primetime and children’s weekend morning programming as they analyzed entertainment programming for three commercial TV networks. They considered commercial TV as presenting a “total world of interrelated stories (both drama and news) produced to the same set of market specifications.” They also justified their choices stating that those programs had the most extensive viewership. So, in their view, any widespread meanings across the media landscape would be evident in such a sample. However, over time, researchers started to modify or even move away from certain aspects of Gerbner’s theory. The move towards a micro-focused approach is perhaps one of the most noticeable shifts. Another critical change in usage was the shift in focus from the importance of the media’s dominant meanings to constructing cultivation indicators and then testing which indicators closely relate to heavy TV viewing.
“Watching the rich and famous: the cultivation effect of reality television shows and the mediating role of parasocial experiences” by Jahng, M. R (2019), explores the relationship between reality TV exposure and college students’ beliefs on wealth and materialism. The research found that heavy viewers of reality TV consider wealth (as presented on the show) to be more prevalent and attainable than light viewers. The study also revealed that heavy reality TV viewers hold stronger materialistic beliefs than light viewers, supporting the cultivation theory’s genre-specific effects. The study and a growing number of researchers suggest that cultivation effects should be applied to specific genres rather than applying them broadly across television. The article also examines the impact of media migration by studying viewers’ interactions with reality show casts via social media. I found the article to be extremely engaging and interesting. I have never watched a full episode of reality TV. So, it was interesting to understand how reality TV influences the perceptions of heavy viewers. I also found the cultivation theory’s application to be noteworthy as it deviated from the original widespread media institution approach that Gerbner had proposed.
Social media is not just a secondary media consumption medium anymore. For some, it is the primary medium for news and entertainment—perhaps even replacing TV! Twitter allows users to consume unfiltered content from many sources and provides a hyper-focused experience to users who customize their feeds to keep up with their topics of interest. To study social media usage and its effects on people, the cultivation theory could be applied— exploring the relationship between heavy Twitter use and their beliefs on police brutality, for example. This could give journalists and media professionals more insight into how to rethink their TV content to narrow the polarization of information between audiences.
Social media advertising professionals can narrow their targeting because of the highly detailed personal information collected from social media platforms. Understanding public perceptions on social media privacy and being sensitive to those views is perhaps the best way forward for advertisers—as the ability to track and analyze a user across platforms and connected devices will only increase as more aspects of life become digitized. Most social media users are aware of cookies, tracking, and retargeting. Perhaps understanding how media messages about social media privacy affect user behaviors and perceptions could help social media platforms and advertising professionals to create better explanations of how user data is collected and used. Macro and microanalyses of the cultivation theory can help advertising professionals garner how social media users feel about using their personal data.
Do you think heavy Twitter users care more and support the need for social justice movements such as BLM, compared to heavy Facebook users? I could rephrase this question by substituting Facebook users with heavy TV users, but I am more interested in users that have adopted new media over traditional media sources.
Citation:
Jahng, M. R. (2019). Watching the rich and famous: the cultivation effect of reality television shows and the mediating role of parasocial experiences. Media Practice & Education, 20(4), 319–333. https://doi-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/10.1080/25741136.2018.1556544
Thou art more than a summer’s day!
Not too hot or cold, just deliberate:
Rough winds does make your hair sway,
Thy Summer has no start or ending date:
Sometime too bright the heaven shines,
With golden rays that can’t be dimmed;
And your beauty stays forever, and never declines,
Not a chance, that your radiance, ever trimmed:
For in the heavens were thou made,
Divinely crafted, no need for me to boast,
Even death is driven away, just how you were made,
When in radiant smiles your love only grow’st:
Not for all, but for my eyes to see,
Inexplicable thou are, and the light I see in thee.
Determination requires discipline and discipline requires consistency. Do the best you can and do your best to do it for the right reasons.
We can be a leaf in a stream and get taken wherever the water flows. We can also be a rock in the stream. But it’s better to be the stream.
The stream will flow where it needs to flow. It will go around the rocks or over the rocks to get there.
Consistency has power that a stale rock doesn’t. A rock can only resist. But water can overcome resistance.
A rock, that’s too heavy, cannot move. Though strong, it can only experience decay. Water sustains life. It is refreshing. It flows. It can carry. It can be useful. It can transform. If it is stored for too long, it will evaporate or seep into the soil and nourish the earth. When it is too cold, it can be hard enough to destroy the Titanic. If you boil it enough it will disinfect and get rid of the germs.
Be like water. Strength is not only what we can see or do. It is also what we can become!
Cuffed and loaded they brought us here,
Whipped and hanged we built their piers,
With blood and sweat and constant fear,
Scoffed and mocked we bred our dears.
Time has turned days to years,
While they get drunk on too many beers.
We still get stopped as we shift gears,
No justice exist in our rear view mirrors.
The union is there to protect the killers,
The president is a savior, to their seers.
What we have are lakes filled with tears,
Equality seems nice but exists only to hear.
Ever wan·der 