GP CT Paper 1

Question 1: "A profit-driven mass media is more vibrant than a government-regulated one." Discuss.

According to Economic marking schemes, the word "discuss" indicates a Level 2 or Level 3 response, and hence I'd have to give a balanced argument. However from the question itself, there is bias indicated in the sense that the author is trying to assume and psycho-propel others to think that a profit-driven mass media is more vibrant than a government-regulated one, which might not necessarily be the case.

Therefore, despite your lousy planning of the question, I will do my best to give each type of mass media a chance. The definition of "profit-driven" would probably mean that the people behind the wheel are driving towards profit, very straightforward. A "government-regulated" mass media is one that is regularly regulated by the government, very straightforward as well. The word "vibrant" is debatable - but I understand it to mean sensational, interesting and lively. This is my essay, so whoever's marking it, I have clear intentions of making that THE definition. Don't argue with me, you can't. You only can mark my essay, n00b¹.

So anyway, let us move on to what a profit-driven mass media is about. As mentioned earlier, a profit-driven mass media is driven by profit - and although you might say there's a discrepancy with what I said earlier they are essentially the same. Because either way they want money. Therefore what do they do to get money? They fabricate, they spin tales, they sensationalise the way I do to my Research Education reports in Sec 4 so that they would come out exactly how I want it to be. Well, the editors of the papers want their papers to be money-spinners, so they would obviously make their reports more appealing to the public.

However, when one observes the government-regulated paper, there would be a considerable amount of propaganda in it. Though of course we all know that propaganda is also more or less fabricated, it might not be as sensational as that of the profit-driven. After all, how bloody interesting can a government get? Governments are called to run the country, and running a country cannot be much fun. If it is, your state is doomed. And anyway for some who might argue that government-dominated papers are not always all about the government and that I'm taking too narrow a scope, you are wrong. Go read the papers and you will find that everything links back to the big boss.

An example would be something like - "Iraqi insurgent leader Zarqawi killed" - today's headlines. Now does that seem very non-governmental to you? When they mention this sort of thing, they are celebrating the achievements of the army of the United States. Who is the ally of the United States? Singapore. Or to be more precise, the Singaporean government. There you have it - it's related. Try another article, like "Thai King's 60th-year celebration kicks off". That looks relatively innocent but no, there are governmental undertones in it. We all know about the political unrest in Thailand, and the King's big celebration could possibly lead to an assassination on their side. In other words the government is trying to use the example of other countries to warn us about possible rifts in Singapore that might occur with our multi-racial society.

Okay perhaps now there isn't much problem with our secular state - but as most Singaporeans are kiasu, our government also has to be kiasu² and tell us that our safety cannot be taken for granted. Anyway the multi-racial society is something that the government is super proud of till this day, so might as well give it an extra mention in the papers. And if you haven't realised by now, one of the five principles of good governance, the concept of "forward-looking" (I don't forget my Social Studies concepts), is also practised by our local government. With the increasing numbers of bloggers today, there is higher probability of one silly racist bugger (obviously not me) waiting to incite riots through uncalled-for remarks and in turn causing unrest in our peaceful Lion City. Don't you think that sucks?

So even though the government-regulated newspapers might look to have a variety of different topics, look beyond the surface. Everything links back to the government.

Comparing both of them, the more vibrant one is obviously the one that causes more hubbub in society. To compare, the best place to go would be your local coffeeshop. The papers which the Ah Peks³ make more noise about would obviously be the more entertaining, sensational and vibrant one.

The profit-driven, sensational paper, in my opinion, will not be as widely discussed as the government-regulated paper. This is, after all, common sense. The old men at the coffeeshop, with their old ages and dirty minds, can probably conjure up more sensational stories than your cocky young journalists at the profit-driven paper. And what's more if you will take the time to read these papers, it's probably articles like "Old man caught having three mistresses in Batam" and all that trash - which means that the old men would be reading about themselves! Now who the hell goes to buy papers that more or less tells your life story? There is not much point in doing so.

In contrary to this, however, the government-regulated paper provides debate and space for argument. After all, with Singapore being dominated by a one-party government, sometimes you cannot avoid skepticism. There will surely be discontent and disgruntled Ah Peks who will kao bei⁴ the system, kao bei this and that. Hence with the introduction of government-regulated papers, I dare say that there will be more engaged conversations and lively discussions in the local coffeeshops. Since the heartlands make up the majority of our sunny island, it is important to know what is going on there. With most of them being so worked up from the government-regulated papers, there can be no doubt that it is more vibrant than your stupid local profit-making paper.

Speaking of which, since profit-making papers cannot provide us the same entertainment that the government-regulated papers can, I curse them all to close down. Well, that's also partly because we all know that newspapers controlled by the government will never close down. But that's not the point. Your governmental tabloids (oops I mean newspapers) are certainly more bloody interesting and vibrant - so there. I have discussed the topic.

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Glossary (you must understand that there are non-Chinese GP teachers in RJ. okay in fact they are the majority so it's always good to make sure that they know what we are writing)

1. n00b - short form for "newbie". refers to someone who doesn't know much about a topic. in this case, it's you, teacher.
2. kiasu - singaporean slang for scared to lose. if you don't know this term you're not singaporean and you should be ashamed of yourself.
3. Ah Pek - old man. usually dirty-minded.
4. kao bei - figuratively to bitch about. like how we like to bitch about you (teachers). let's not delve into the literal sense of the word.

Student's note: Why do I get this feeling I'll score DAMN HIGH for GP?