Question 1:
How does deaf culture exemplify the textbooks definition of a culture?
Be specific and give examples from the essay and provide the books definition of culture.
Question 2:
The Newsroom is set at a fictional news channel ACN where Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) is the star anchor. His daily primetime show has dwindled in quality but is now trying to take the noble route once again with executive producer MacKenzie (Emily Mortimer).
The struggle here is – What constitutes as news? And while it could have come out as an idealistic show, it usually comes across as the show where people are resistant to change and are thus constantly whining about their circumstances.
In this particular scene, Jeff Daniels is participating on a panel discussion at a local university when the moderator asks him a question—What makes America the greatest country in the world.
What is a belief?
Why do cultures (specifically USA) feel they need to believe that they are the best?
What part of the clip do you agree with the most—the first half where Jeff Daniels gives the politically correct response or the second half where he gives a lot of statistics and why did you select that portion?
How are beliefs changed, how slow or fast does this change happen?
FIU | COM3461 – Newsroom
Question 3:
Mr. Williams was assigned indefinitely to his company’s Paris branch and he wanted to establish some social relationships with his fellow employees. He had been in France only a few days when he was asked to attend a meeting in the outer office. As Mr. Baudin entered and sat beside him, Williams politely introduced himself and they shook hands. After exchanging some pleasantries about the weather, Williams told Mr. Baudin how thrilled he and his family were to be in Paris. He casually asked how many children Mr. Baudin had. Baudin replied that he had two sons. But Williams noted that when he asked further about Baudin’s family, the Frenchman seemed offended. With Williams thoroughly confused, the conversation then ended abruptly.
What components of culture are at play here?
List and explain the 8 components that comprise culture?
Identify the specific French cultural characteristics in this scenario.
How might U.S. culture be characterized by Mr. Baudin if this were the only interaction that he had experienced with someone from the U.S.?
Question 4:
Go to The Globe. Locate Indonesia (in Asia). Take a look at the “Cultural Information” and photographs.
Summarize the Cultural Information link.
How does your Cultural Identity influence the way you view life and the world?
How do you think the Indonesians view life and the world?
CULTURAL INFORMATION
It is generally believed that the earliest inhabitants of the Indonesian archipelago originated in India or Burma. In 1890, fossils of Java Man (homo erectus), some 500,000 years old, were found in east Java. Later migrants (‘Malays’) came from southern China and Indochina, and began populating the archipelago around 3000 BC. Powerful groups such as the Buddhist Srivijaya Empire and the Hindu Mataram kingdom appeared in Java and Sumatra towards the end of the 7th century. The last important kingdom to remain Hindu was the Majapahit, which was founded in the 13th century. The subsequent spread of Islam into the archipelago in the 14th century forced the Majapahits to retreat to Bali in the 15th century.
By this time, a strong Muslim empire had developed with its centre at Melaka (Malacca) on the Malay Peninsula. Its influence was short-lived and it fell to the Portuguese in 1511. The Dutch displaced the Portuguese and began making inroads into Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company based in Batavia (Jakarta) dominated the spice trade and took control of Java by the mid 18th century, when its power was already in decline. The Dutch took control in the early 19th century and by the early 20th century; the entire archipelago – including Aceh and Bali – was under their control.
Burgeoning nationalism combined with Japanese occupation of the archipelago during WWII served to weaken Dutch resolve, and it finally transferred sovereignty to the new Indonesian republic in 1949. Achmed Soekarno, the foremost proponent of self-rule since the early 1920s, became President. In 1957, after a rudderless period of parliamentary democracy, Soekarno overthrew the parliament, declared martial law, and initiated a more authoritarian style of government, which he euphemistically dubbed ‘Guided Democracy’. Once in the driving seat, Soekarno, like many like-minded military strongmen, set about consolidating his power through monument-building and socializing the economy, a move that paradoxically opened up a huge divide between the haves and have-nots and left much of the population teetering on the edge of starvation. Rebellions broke out in Sumatra and Sulewesi, Malaysia and Indonesia came perilously close to an all-out confrontation and instability was the general order of the day. Things came to a head in 1965, the eponymous Year of Living Dangerously, when an attempted coup (purportedly by a Communist group) threatened Soekarno’s hold on power.
Soekarno won that particular battle but lost the war when the man responsible for putting the coup down, General Soeharto, wrested presidential power from him in 1966. Soeharto started off with a nice line in political reconstruction, but the promises of economic reform and greater government transparency quickly degenerated into much of the same-old. Nepotism, cronyism and grandiose spending, coupled with the brutal massacre of East Timorese nationalists in Dilli in 1975, proved that much of the talk was mere rhetoric. By March 1998 Soeharto was out of touch with the people and, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, awarded himself only five more years in office. He never made it – by the end of May that year, with the economy freefalling and street violence flaring, he was out of office and the vice-president, BJ Habibie, was installed.
Habibie, never popular to begin with, mouthed the same promises of reform and even appeared willing to consider independence for East Timor, but it was all too little too late. The uncompromising stance by East Timor set off a chain reaction and sectarian violence, student protests and increased demands for independence spread like wild fire through Ambon, Kalimantan and Papua. Rogue militia groups, widely thought to be controlled and equipped by the Indonesian military, rampaged through East Timor after it overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1999; local police forces and parts of the army were sent in to quash other rebellions; protesting students were killed in the streets and the whole country went to hell in a hand basket.
A UN peacekeeping force brought stability to East Timor but prompted Indonesian outrage at the ‘meddling in internal affairs’. When the dust finally settled the East Timorese had been granted independence over the smoking ruins of their country. Soon afterwards Abdurrahman Wahid became Indonesia’s first democratically elected president. By 23 July 2001, he’d lost the confidence of parliament and was replaced by the inscrutable Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Indonesia faces numerous crises – rising Islamic extremism, military insubordination, official corruption, a fledgling and fragile democratic process, and the many separatist movements threatening to tear the country apart. On 12 October, 2002, bombs targeting Western tourists claimed around 200 lives in Bali. An extremist group with links to Al-Qaeda was responsible.
Religious violence also plagued the Maluku islands, where Christians and Muslims reached a short-lived peace deal in February 2002. In April 2002, masked gunmen massacred 14 Christian villagers. Fighting between Christians and Muslims has claimed more than 6000 lives since 1999. In Irian Jaya and Aceh, guerrillas have been fighting for independence from Jakarta for decades.
Megawati Sukarnoputri’s presidency deserves credit for restoring social stability and economic growth but was widely condemned as ineffectual in combating rampant institutional corruption. In September 2004, 80% of Indonesian voters turned up to vote in the country’s first direct presidential ballot. Charismatic retired general – and sometime crooner – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (who holds an American management degree) won handsomely.
Culture
Indonesia comprises a range of diverse societies and cultures. However, mass education, mass media and a policy of government-orchestrated nationalism have created a definite Indonesian national culture, with Bahasa Indonesia as its medium. Its distinctive cuisine and handcrafts have made the leap into an international forum.
Batik, the art of applying wax to cloth and then tie-dying in colorful and dramatic designs, is produced throughout Indonesia, and the centre of this activity is Yogyakarta in Java. Other craft forms include: ikat, which is a type of weaving with tie-dyed threads; songket, a silk cloth with gold or silver threads woven into it; and kris, artwork often decorated with jewels. Javanese wayang (puppet) plays and gamelan (hypnotic music composed mostly of percussive instruments) are also popular artistic forms.
Many Indonesian dishes are Chinese-influenced, but some, such as Padang food from Sumatra, are distinctly home-grown. Wherever you travel in Indonesia you’ll see vendors selling snacks such as potatoes, sweet nuts, biscuits or fruit. Rice is the basis of each meal, eaten as a soup or with an assortment of hot and spicy side dishes, salad and pickles. Nasi goreng (fried rice) is the most common dish, while sate (skewered meats with a spicy peanut sauce), gado-gado (bean sprouts and veggies in peanut sauce) and seafood are also popular. The variety of tropical fruits grown would make a greengrocer swoon. They include custard apples, durians, guavas, jackfruits, mangoes, papayas, starfruits and rambutans.
Social and religious duty has, over time, been refined to form a code of behavior called adat or traditional law. Islam is the predominant religion of the archipelago but it’s somewhat tempered by elements of Hindu-Buddhism, adat and animism. In Java, especially, there are hundreds of places where spiritual energy is thought to be concentrated and can be absorbed by followers. Despite a lengthy colonial period, missionaries were only successful in converting small pockets of the Indonesian population to Christianity – the Bataks of Sumatra, the Toraks of Sulawesi and 95% of the population of Flores being notable examples.
Environment
Indonesia’s rich natural environment encourages a diversity of flora and fauna. The archipelago is home to elephants, tigers, leopards and orang-utans. Sea turtles are found in the waters around Bali and the world’s largest flowers – Rafflesia arnoldii – grow in Sumatra. The islands of Papua, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra have national parks, while other parks protect special areas such as Komodo, home to the Komodo dragon. Rainforests are disappearing at an alarming rate, especially in Kalimantan where the mighty dipterocarp forests are being logged ferociously for their durable tropical hardwoods.
The Indonesian archipelago comprises more than 17,000 islands – 6000 of which are inhabited – and shares borders with Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Stretching like a backbone down the western coast of Sumatra is a line of active and extinct volcanoes. These continue through Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, then loop through the Banda Islands of Maluku to northeastern Sulawesi. Less than 10% of the total land area is suitable for farming, while two-thirds consists of woodland, forests and mangrove swamp (mostly found in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua).
Draped over the equator, Indonesia tends to have a fairly uniform climate – hot. It’s hot and wet during the wet season (October to April) and hot and dry during the dry season (May to September). Temperatures climb to about 31°C (88°F) in coastal regions, dropping further inland. The best time to visit Indonesia is from April to October.