assignment - analysis of newspaper articles

8/14/2019 Assignment - Analysis of Newspaper Articles

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Diana J. L. Lai

PSY6112 AssignmentNews Articles Analyses

(1)

11-Year-Old Girl Raises Money for Red Cross With Pop-Up Internet

CafPhilly managed to, largely, escape the wrath of Hurricane Sandy with minimal damageand only a day or two of cancellations and issues. In New York City and the surroundingareas, though, people are still just managing to make it out of their apartments.Buildings are flooded, the power is out in many places, and public transportation isbasically non-existent. In Hoboken, New Jersey, one 11-year-old girl set out to make adifference by providing people with some juice for their iPhones. Lucy Walkowiakestablished a pop-up Internet caf on one of the only blocks with power. With the helpof her father, Steve, Lucy has helped dozens of people get back on the grid, if only for ahot second.

People are donating money to the Red Cross and coffee to the impromptu baristasworking the portable tables. Steve says that hes only heard of one or two other instancesof people having power in Hoboken and was quick to give his daughter credit for thecaf. Lucy does a lot of community service through her school, so this is on par withwhat shes been learning, he said. Lucy and her dad definitely win the Internet forWednesday.

This is a piece of news about a girl who came up with a great idea in helping out

her neighbors after her town was hit by Hurricane Sandy, leaving most peoples homes

without electricity. As she was one of the few who, luckily, still got electricity at her home,

she set up a temporary Internet caf outside her home to provide electrical outlets for

neighbors to charge their phones and other portable electrical devices for free. This

altruistic act was interesting as it was an 11-year-old girls idea, and that she was able

to creatively share what she had that most others did not. It was probably Lucysability

to sympathize with others who had lost the means to connect with the outside world,

understanding how extra difficult it would be in this Internet era that one could not

connect with friends and family via smartphones that gave her the idea.


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While some may feel that what this young girl did was not too altruistic anyway

since it was just electricity she provided. Yet according to the definition of altruism, any

act performed voluntarily to help others and when there is no expectation of receiving

any reward in any form is considered an altruistic behavior. Lucy appeared to not have

expected any rewards when she decided to set up the temporary Internet caf because

according to her father she was often involved in different types of community services.

Finding ways to help others seem to be a nature within Lucy for a while.

Lucys behaviors can be analyzed using the Social Exchange Theory. According

to this theory, human interactions are transactions that aim to maximize a persons

rewards and to minimize ones costs. The benefits for Lucy in setting up the Internet

Caf and providing free electricity to the neighbors are probably social approval from

her father, the neighbors, and in this case even the news reporters and news readers.

She might also benefit from relieving the distress she experienced from knowing how

must people in her town were out of electricity. Doing this also helped boost her self-

image as a kind-hearted and caring person. Relatively, it appeared that theres much

smaller costs in doing this altruistic behavior. The most obvious cost was the monetary

aspect of providing electricity for days for many people in town, which Lucy most likely

would not have to pay anyway. For the father who was so willing in putting Lucys idea

into action, the benefits of encouraging her daughters good acts and recog nition as a

good father are probably much higher than the expensive electric bill he would have to

pay. So according to this theory, Lucy and her fathers actions in the aftermath of

Hurricane Sandy were very understandable and explainable in the context of social

psychology.


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(2)Ex-Wife Donating Liver to Ex-Husband Two Months After Their Divorce

2012 11 01 02:39 (2159)

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This news is about a Chinese woman who divorced with her ex-husband for just

two months but decided to donate part of her liver to him when she found out he was

diagnosed with a severe liver disease that required a liver transplant. The ex-husband

at first refused her request because he believed he should not let his ex-wife took the

risk. He explained that their daughter was still very young so the ex-wife should not risk

her life for him. The ex-wifes explanation for donating her liver was that she did not

want her daughter to lose her father at a young age. The ex-wifes only request from the

ex-husband was that they remarried. They ended up remarrying each other and the liver

transplant was successful.

This is an interesting news in that the wifes behaviors appeared altruistic yet by

definition it was notshe had expected rewards for her action of donating part of her

liver and risking her life. The question that becomes, does the benefit of remarrying

someone who you had a lot of relationship problems with that ended up divorcing with

you bigger than the cost of risking your own life? This indeed brings out the important

aspect of the Social Exchange Theory, that cost and benefit are totally subjective. For

some, it may not worth the risk even if it is their married husband or wife; for others, it

may be worth the risk even if the ex-husband or ex-wife would not agree to remarry.

This news can also be viewed from a different theoretical background. Robert

Sternbergs famous triangular theory of love may shed light onto the kind of love that the

ex-wife was having towards the ex-husband when she decided to donate part of her

liver in attempt to save his life. According to the theory, love has three components

intimacy, passion, and commitment. Different combinations of presence and absence of

any of the three components described the many different types of love experienced by


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different people. In the case of this ex-wife, it appeared that she still feel some

attachment and connectedness towards the ex-husband that gave her the desire to

remarry him (intimacy), and that she felt commitment towards this previous relationship

that she decide to make this relationship work in the long run by first saving his life and

then have a chance to make their second marriage work (commitment). The presence

of intimacy and commitment characterize the type of love called Companionate love

according to this theory, which is a type of intimate, non-passionate, stronger than

friendship type of love where the person feels a deep affection and commitment towards

the partner.

This news is a good example in illustrating how couples facing marital problems

often still have certain loving feelings towards each other, even though these feelings

are often obscured by the anger and hatred they expressed. By being able to

understand the components of love, marriage counselors can better help distressed

couples in saving their marriage and improving their relationships.

(3)

Sunday, Nov 04 20123AM 24C6AM26C5-Day Forecast

Chinese man sues his wife for being ugly,and the court AGREES... awarding him75,000

Jian Feng was confused after his wife gave birth to an 'incrediblyugly' baby

He accused her of cheating and she admitted to spending 62,000on plastic surgery

He then claimed she got him to marry her under false pretenses

BySARAH JOHNSON
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Sarah+Johnsonhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Sarah+Johnsonhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Sarah+Johnsonhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Sarah+Johnsonhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.html


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PUBLISHED:21:40 GMT, 26 October 2012 | UPDATED:00:25 GMT, 27 October 2012

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But for one man from northern China, this was not the case.

Earlier this year, Jian Feng, divorced and sued his wife for being ugly.

Before and after: Jian Feng's wife spent US$100,000 on plastic surgery before she got married

He won his case and was awarded a little under 75,000 by the judge, Fox 31reported.Mr Feng said he took issue with his wifes looks only after the couples daughter was born.

He was shocked by the childs appearance, calling her incredibly ugly and saying shelooked like neither one of her parents.

Mr Feng was so outraged that he initially accused his wife of cheating.

Faced with the accusation, his wife admitted to spending around 62,000 on plastic surgerywhich had altered her appearance drastically.

She had the work done before she met her husband and never told him about it after theymet.

Mr Feng filed for divorce saying his wife had deceived him and convinced him to marry herunder false pretenses.

The judge agreed with him and awarded him the damages.

This is an interesting news that challenge peoples beliefs about the part beauty

plays in romantic attraction and love. I got hold of this piece of new article from

facebook. Obviously it had stirred up emotions and discussions among friends, whether
http://kdvr.com/2012/10/26/chinese-man-sues-wife-for-being-ugly-wins-120000/http://kdvr.com/2012/10/26/chinese-man-sues-wife-for-being-ugly-wins-120000/http://kdvr.com/2012/10/26/chinese-man-sues-wife-for-being-ugly-wins-120000/http://kdvr.com/2012/10/26/chinese-man-sues-wife-for-being-ugly-wins-120000/


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it was the wifes fault or the mans fault that this marriage faltered, and whether it was

fair for the court to order the wife to pay the husband for damage because the wife

never told the husband about her plastic surgeries that were clearly done before he met

her. When plastic surgeries are getting more and more popular and beauty and youthful

looks are more highly valued in the modern societies, it is important to understand

peoples attitude towards these beautifying procedures and the risks involved, be it

physical, mental, or in this case familial.

The reasons for plastic surgeries being so popular is because physical

attractiveness is extremely important especially in romantic attraction. People usually

automatically attribute many positive characteristics to those who are beautiful, like

being mentally healthier and more socially skilled. Because of this positive stereotype

mechanism, people not gifted with attractive faces often suffer from disadvantaged

evaluations or judgment from others. Studies have shown that a persons appearance

matters quite a lot even during job interviews which were supposed to assess the

interviewees abilities, not looks. For those who dare and are willing to pay the heavy

price tags, plastic surgeries then become a good solution to this unfairness they

experienced.

So why did the husband react the way he did, not just divorcing his wife but also

sued for repayment for his damage? Was there real love between the couple, or was

the relationship solely an exchange of resourcesI gave you a family and stable living

condition while you contribute your beauty genes to bear beautiful babies for me?

According to Ganong & Coleman, couples who are divorced or separated usually stay

emotionally attached to each other. If that is true, the husbands reactions appeared to


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show no emotional attachment towards his wife, that all he cared about was justice and

fairness in the exchange. But if he did have at least some level of loving feelings

towards his wife, his reactions may be explained by the cognitive dissonance theory.

His feeling of attachment and passion towards his wife was in conflict with his extremely

anger and disbelief about his wifes dishonesty in hiding the fact of having done plastic

surgeries. Therefore he chose to deny any love feelings he had and went on to express

his anger and disgust by suing her for the damage he got from this marriage and hence

decrease his dissonance.

(4)

In Hong Kong, star tutors earn $1.5 million salariesIn the Hong Kong cut-throat world of Chinese education, star tutors drive Ferraris and earn $1.5-million salaries.

By Isabella Steger, Contributor/ March 2, 2010

In Hong Kong, star tutors can earn salaries of up to $1.5-million.

Newscom/File

Their confident faces smile out from billboards across the city. Their promotional grins are plastered

across double-decker buses, subway light boxes, even on TV.
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/2010/0302/0302-hong-kong-tutors/7493141-1-eng-US/0302-hong-kong-tutors_full_600.jpg


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These areHong Kong's "star tutors," accorded near-celebrity status for their ability to make learning fun

and help students pass exams in everything from English to chemistry.

Tutoring is common inAsia,whereintense emphasison grades and exams means parents are willing to

shell out. More than half of Hong Kong's youths get assistance outside school, a recent survey found.The industry here is especially competitive and commercialized as tutors mimic the city's showbiz industry

to attract students and grab a share of the $460 million market.

"Those images of fame and stardom have been sustained and re-invented in different forms, resulting in

tutors now packaging themselves as the superstars of the education sector in order to appeal to

students," saysGerald Postliglione,a professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Star tutors spare no costs on publicity. Even tutors who belong to one of the four major chains here must

self-promote. But successful tutors can command hundreds of students.

Those at the very top see their lives splashed across the pages of the city's gossip magazines, revealing

how many luxury cars they drive or properties they own. Some reports put their salaries as high as $1.5

million a year. One English tutor,Richard Eng,is famous for his love ofFerraris.

Critics worry that the emphasis on good looks and brand names sends youths the wrong message, but

some tutors say the gimmicks are indispensable and that the results are real. "The marketing is only for

attracting studentswe still need to deliver to keep the students coming back," says Antonia Cheng,an

English tutor at Modern Education, a major chain.

Ms. Cheng says she tries to make English fun, using interactive methods and discussing contemporary

issues. Cheng gives out her phone number; many tutors also are on Facebook.

"Teachers communicate in a way we understand, unlike at school, which we find really boring,"

saysCasper Chan,a high-schooler.

Tutors have capitalized on changes roiling the educational system since 1997, when Hong Kong reverted

toChina.The government introduced "mother-tongue teaching" to popularize Cantonese in the classroom,

but that weakened English proficiency and was scrapped. It also recently switched to a more US-style "3-

3-4" system for junior high, high school, and college. This year it introduced liberal studies in high school,

to improve critical thinking skills.

"There's been a lot of confusion ... in the last few years. Tutor centers have to be result-oriented,"

saysTrino Chan,who recently opened his own center. "When the system doesn't deliver what parents

expect, they are willing to pay for tutors. This is why there will always be money to be made in tutoring in

Hong Kong."
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In Hong Kong, academic tutoring has always been a hot topic because Hong

Kong Chinese are mostly achievement oriented and doing well academically is one of

the most important goals for school age children and teenagers. Attending tutorial

classes outside of school is so common and getting steadily more popular in the past

two decades that it appears to be a necessary part of the current Hong Kong

educational system. The interesting thing about these tutorial schools is that their goal is

solely to improve their students grades at schools and especially in public examinations.

Going to these tutorial classes is never about increasing your knowledge nor enhancing

students academic interests.

About 10 to 15 years ago, the advertisements for these tutorial schools focused

mostly on the success of their students. They often showed how many As their students

have obtained in the most recent public exams as well as how accurate the tutors were

in predicting public exams questions. However, in the recent years, the advertisement

strategies appear to have changed. Tutors are often portrait as stars, dressing in

glamorous tuxedoes and night gowns with beautiful hairdos and posing like super stars

on magazines and billboards. It appears that instead of the central route of persuasion,

the peripheral route has been more frequently used in recent years. The tutorial school

advertisements attempt to enhance liking by making the star tutors appear attractive,

smart, eloquent, and impressive.

The popularity of these tutorial schools may also be explained by the concept

named social proof, which is also known as informational social influence. Social proof

is a form of conformity. This psychological phenomenon happens when an individual is

in an ambiguous situation and therefore will look to others for the right way to behave. It


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is because the person believes that other peoples interpretation of the uncertain

situation is more accurate than his or her own. When a Hong Kong student is unsure

whether attending tutorial school classes is going to help him do better academically, he

may follow what many others are doing and decides to enroll himself anyway.

(5)Chinese Supermarkets Dominance Led to Dissatisfactions Among

Argentineans

90 1

59.8 20

250 9800

This news article explains the situation and possible reasons for the recent

upsurge in robberies of supermarkets opened by Chinese in Argentina. The Chinese

supermarkets in Argentina have been developing rapidly in the recent years because


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they have strong cash flows which allow them to buy large quantity of goods and

provide cheaper prices compared to the local stores. And because Chinese usually hire

Chinese employees, the rapid growing number of Chinese supermarkets and stores

greatly threatens the employment opportunities of the local Argentineans. Before the

beginning of these robberies targeting the Chinese stores, there have been talks about

using legal ways to limit the development of the Chinese supermarkets which led to the

closings of many local small-scale shops and stores.

These robberies could be explained by the Relative Deprivation Theory. Relative

deprivation is experienced when a group of people is deprived of something that they

believe themselves are entitled to. When members of an in-group see that out-group

members have things they need but do not have, in this case employment opportunities,

it can lead to feelings of stress, frustration, and hostility. The subjective feeling of being

unfairly disadvantaged results from group-based social comparisons may foster

collective actions that aim at rectifying the unjust deprivation. This is exactly what

happened in Argentina as reported by this news article.

This is interesting news as it shows how discriminations and hate crimes can

result from actual negative impacts an out-group is bringing to an in-group. When an

out-group is focusing too much on protecting and helping their own members without

considering how their actions are affecting the people of the in-group, their successes in

strengthening and increasing their resources may turn against them and become a

leading cause to further discrimination and race-base aggressions towards their group

members. Maybe, in certain times or situations, prejudice and discrimination are not

solely the in-groups faults or responsibilities.

assignment - analysis of newspaper articles

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