The Development Of Foreign Direct Investment Economics Essay

One of the most important consequences of globalisation in the universe economic system is the development of foreign direct investing among states. Foreign direct investing steering rule plays a critical function in the growing of economic, socio-cultural alterations and development in states around the universe. International trade and foreign direct investing are comparative constructs fundamentally which enables the free motion of labour and capital across the universe or between states without much monitory minutess. This proposes for an indirect association between international trade and exchange production factors between two or more states. The greater advantages of international trade and foreign direct investing is cost advantage in footings of production and concern facilitation, which means the a state bring forthing a peculiar good and handiness of natural stuffs are relatively less so in such state of affairs they would take advantages of other states resorts and facto rs of production become economical ( Euro Journals, 2012 ) FDI plays a critical function in growing of economic system because they tend to be more productive than the investing of local houses. It caused to convey alterations in the production method and it has led to important positive spread out effects on the labour productiveness of domestic houses. Socio-economic and political factors are matters a batch in the influx of foreign direct investing in a state, because the investing has some basic things to be satisfy like the stableness in policy, steady authorities, legal facets as such. So to pull foreign direct investing influx with broad constabularies Hs hence becomes a cardinal combat zone in the emerging markets. The foreign direct investing itself create a wider scope for attract other investors to put and to be invest. The vision of new growing chances and bulky net incomes promote big investing flow across a scope of industry and chance types. When the foreign direct investing take topographic point a concern which has already e xist in the market of state, the per centum of competition would increase quickly merely to last in the market. And this led has led to competition among states in explicating flexible policies that and supplying encouragement to private investors to put more. Basically t a state would accept the policies and processs based on the resorts ( Borensztein, E, 1998 ) In 21st century Brazil, Russia, India and China have obtained important function in the universe economic system as manufacturer of goods and services and the approaching universe super powers. Now a twenty-four hours ‘s universe looking into BRIC states due to the high potency clients and big population fundamentally it pull immense sum of capital. By 2050 BRIC states will go dominant economic system in the universe because it has high economic potency. BRIC nations found a greater place in emerging markets and these states have the fastest turning economic systems. The BRIC states are listed as emerging economic systems but these states as a whole bash non hold any trade or incorporate economic brotherhood. Now a twenty-four hours ‘s a good per centums of foreign direct investing bend to Brazil, Russia, India and China, chiefly Goldman Sachs investing bank to stand for BRIC states as an Economic Block. Global competition for FDI had given the bargaining power to Multi- National Corporation and their Alliess ( Boros Torstila, 1990 ) . Due to the influx of foreign direct investing states started to liberalise their policies fundamentally on decrease in entry revenue enhancements, ordinances, environmental clearances and demand on working conditions for pulling FDIs. Gold adult male Sachs the representative of BRIC states predicted that China and India are likely to emerge as dominant planetary providers of manufactured goods and services while Brazil and Russia to dominant in supply of Raw stuffs ( Journal of Business Science, 2010 ) . The importance of ‘Developing state ‘ is increasing twenty-four hours by twenty-four hours. Africa and Latin American states are the chief competition for BRIC states. The potency of Africa particularly South Africa, the largest economic system in the part is besides plays a critical function in Global economic growing and development and it is challenge for BRIC state ‘s development. If the right policy take topographic point South Africa, they would obtain five per centum of growing in following decennary, study show in the survey of Goldman Sachs. Now the projected figure depicts that South Africa achieved the similar growing as BRIC states have obtained. The important function of FDI in the development of economic system and living experience of BRIC economic systems paid attendings of remainder of the universe. Therefore the universe market and investings are looking into it. On other manus this sort of FDI investing caused to make an unofficial relation betwee n such and such states. The of import potency of this states are in human resources and possible clients, who can afford the slandered of life. The chief and for most of import ground behind the growing of BRIC states is the salvaging outlook of people, when the save resources for future it leads to maintain a good modesty for state. Once the militias has got excess which means the state has possible to put and high capital ratio. In the recent yearss BRIC states exhibited economical strength in the face of the US recognition convulsion and growing diminution. BRIC states differentiate a cyclical constituent of strong domestic demand growing. The economic growing of a state is reference with the consequence of several factors like alterations in labour and capital inputs, entire factor productiveness as such. The entire productiveness captures technological advancement and efficiency additions and residuary remain unexplained due to alterations in labour and capital inputs. However the BRIC states are differ in footings of their growing chances ( Vijayakumar, Sridharan, Rao, 2010 ) The important factors which favorable for Brazil, Russia, India and China is the demographic tendencies, labour supply kineticss and urbanization ratios. Basically BRIC states are good sounded in population. The constructs such urbanisation, industrialisation, mercerization and Internationals helps China from a poorness afflicted state to largest economic system in the universe. A low urbanisation ratio of 40 per cent in China may assist to antagonize the jutting diminution in the on the job age of the urbanisation by leting the transportation of labour from the countryside into the more productive urban economic system. But the instance of Brazil is such different from the remainder of squad because urbanisations have already done in Brazil in a greater scope. It is good structured developed state in the universe. The figures are demoing that 20 per cent addition in population of working age between the twelvemonth 2005 and 2025. Due to the influence of urbanisation Russia gets smal l aid will come from excess rural labour. From the South Asiatic demographic point of position, India confronting most promising economic place with solid growing of population and lower grade of urbanisation. Initial phase India was confronting the rivals of urban development and substructure. But the recent tendency of capital accretion favour to China and India. Assuming the investing ratio does non alter dramatically over the following old ages, China and India face much brighter chance than Brazil, Russia. Currency domestic investing ratios are around 40 per cent and 30 per cent of GDP in China and India severally, were as an investing ratio of Brazil, Russia history to 20 per cent of GDP. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 2012, Foreign Direct Investment in BRIC Countries: A Panel Data Analysis of the Trends and Determinations of FDI, [ online ] , Accessed on January 2013 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.eurojournals.com/EJEFAS.htm Borensztein, E, 1998, Hoe does foreign investing affect growing? Journal of International Economics, Volume 45 Boros – Torstila, J, 1999, The Determinants of foreign Direct Investment operation of Finnish MNCs in passage economic systems, Helsinki: ETLA, The Research Institute of Finnish Economy. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management, 2010, Determinants of FDI in BRICs Countries: A panel analysis, Volume 5, Issue 3, [ online ] , Accessed on Nararyanamurthy Vijayakumar, Perumal Sridharan, Kode CHangra Sekhrar Rao, 2010, Determinants of FDI in BRIC Countries: A panel analysis, [ Online ] , Accessed on February 2013. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.business-and-management.org/download.php? file=2010/5_3 — 1 — 13-Vijayakumar, Sridharan, Rao.pdf

The Sexual Objectification of Women

The sexual objectification of women on the mass media is becoming an alarming affair. According to Faridah, et al.'s study, the uses of sex images of women in advertising by different companies who seek to promote their products are doing an injustice to women (Faridah, et al. 4). It is a challenge the in the modern democracies with regards to the objective of building an egalitarian society. It is worrying that the modern democracies would still promote women objectification. It seems that the leaders have remained so dormant and silent in pointing out the levels of discrimination exercised in the mass media in the name of advertisement (Berberick 12). Another thing is that mass media has been used as an instrument to advocate for equal rights among different genders in the society; while on the other hand, it is used to discriminate women sexually. This study is done through different means, which include social, psychological, philosophical and economic rights that examine the way sexual objectification of men infringes on their rights. In this milieu, the media should not be used to exploit women but should be used to promote their rights and the protection different people from the various levels of discrimination. Therefore, this study is important to address the issues of exploitation and discrimination perpetuated by the advertisement companies that promote various products in the market.Literature ReviewThe portrayal of women in the mass media makes them appear vulnerable to manipulation. Scholars such as Turner are worried that women are thinly represented in as actors in the existing news programs, but are instead used negatively in advertising certain products (Turner 2). They appear as young and slim in the advertising programs in the televisions as well as magazines for eye-catching purposes. The women on such advertisement platforms are explicated as instruments to inspire women to like certain products. Their main role is just to make men happy as sexual objects rather than people with value and personality. They are shown to embody every trait of beauty aimed to attract men in like those products. The society is tailored in a way that women are only perceived to look good to impress men, not for their own good. The products are advertised and made to imply that when used, the skin becomes flawless and beautiful that can be admired by men. It is a very unfortunate affair that should be discouraged by all means in the contemporary society for a sustainable greater posterity.Another thing to point out is that the decision to place anything in the media program is influenced by the current state of cultural and social values. In different societies, such values are greatly based on gender. Females in that respect are considered weak and lesser beings to their male counterparts. Through cultural and social norms, women's rights have been violated, and that is why the same spirit spirals to the media advertisements, which portrays women as objects, not humans with values and images to protect. Punyanunt-Carter did a study on the African-American portrayals on the televisions and confirms that this group of people is more objectified in the American televisions (Punyanunt-Carter 245). Faridah, et al. on the other hand states that the movies produced around the periods of the fifties portrayed women as perfect objects of domesticity, while in the contemporary world, women are portrayed as sexual objects that make men happy and satisfy their sexual desires (Faridah et al. 7). The most important question to answer is why women must just be implicated negatively and vulnerable. Even if at times they are portrayed as professionals at times when out of their offices, they are given a negative image. They are only seen as those that can only be teased, admired, played upon and desired by men. In her study on women images in Polish and Malaysian print media, her findings pointed out that even if done in done in different cultures, the study about women portrayal has some profound similarities and commonalities in the findings.The regrettable thing addressed by the experts involved in the subject of women discrimination in the social media is that despite the efforts to establish a gender sensitive society where people are treated equally, there are still rampant cases of discrimination against women in various fronts. Faridah et al. is worried about the same, more so the words used to describe women when portrayed in the social media (Faridah et al. 5). She says that when the media decided to focus on women in the public space during the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the terms used were very unpleasant. In fact, she considers the words like ‘burning bras', ‘hardcore feminists', and ‘nude women running around the streets of Huarious' among others to be devilish and uncalled for in the contemporary society. This is a weighty proof that the society still remains negative about women and only considers them objects of sexuality that cannot stand for anything good. Even if they try to do something significant, they are only seen to be irrelevant.MethodologyThe study relies greatly on the existing pieces of literature to paint the image of women portrayal in the televisions. It is part of the wider study of women and children's representation in the contemporary media, which include unprinted and printed media. It is generally a qualitative study that relies on the literature about women negative portrayal on the televisions in the United States of America, which is used as a case study to represent some of the discriminations against women that are undertaken silently i n the social media. The ideas by Faridah et al. and Punyanunt-Carter are significant since they explore different findings that have common issues worth addressing in women discrimination in the social media. The scholars are credible in their studies as they explore different pieces of information from different scholars to justify their arguments. They use longitudinal approach to expose the various stereotypical ways in which women are disregarded in the society. I chose the sources since they provide a thrust of the investigation, which is thought-provoking to the readers who are carried with their findings to be part of the fight against women discrimination in the social media.PositionalityI do this study with an aim of addressing some of the injustices done on women in social media. The negative portrayal of women in different fronts like television, magazines, and internet makes them feel less valued in the society. It appears that the society is only happy when they are used. They are seen to best fit as objects to make men happy and satisfy their sexual needs. Sexual objectification lowers their self-esteem. The awful thing is that women from other cultures are more objectified than others are. Women from African-American communities are more portrayed negatively than those from other cultures. This means that social media are only used by the society to promote the cultural negativity about women, something that seems to be more embedded in people. This implies that there is a serious need for attitudinal change to ensure that that mindset is alleviated. Women deserve recognition and respect just as their male counterparts are. They should not be seen as second-class citizens but should be regarded with an utmost value they deserve.Studies show that the spirit of discrimination against women stems from the tradition that only regarded men to manage media. Women are meagerly represented in the employment positions. Faridah et al. states that only 33.3% of women are in full-time employment among the 59 countries they surveyed (Faridah et al. 3). It implies that women do not equal men when it comes to job competition and other important positions in the society. Another unfortunate thing is that different studies have been done on the subject of women discrimination in the social media, but nothing much has changed. It means that various experts need to be more vigorous in addressing the problem of women discrimination in the social media. The revolutionary change in technology has made it easy to sexually objectify women, something that needs to be addressed with sufficient attention to change negative attitude that makes it easy to discriminate women in the social media and other areas. The numbers of women that appear in the social media as main actors are few, but those that are shown on the negative side of the shows are many. Even though men are also objectified, their number is smaller. It means that there is much to be done to deal with the issue of women discrimination. It is also apparent from the study that women are highly discriminated in the social media. The negative portrayal of women on television is fueled by the social and cultural norms that consider men to be superior beings to their female counterparts. They are seen to best fit to make men happy by serving their sexual desire. This mindset does not believe that women can look good for their own sake, but that they do so to attract men. As a result, it is ostensible that it is a negative mindset, which kills women's self-esteem, significance and values, as opposed to men who are seen to be important and worth the best in the society. It remains a serious matter that should not be allowed to thrive in the contemporary society.ConclusionThis study confirms that it is utterly bad to continue the negative portrayal of women in the social media, more so in the contemporary world. As pointed out herein, the portrayal of women in the social media has been marred by a lot of discrimination. For instance, during the fifties, women were pictured as perfect objects of domesticity. Today, they are portrayed as sexual objects that can only be used to make men happy and satisfy their sexual desires. As a result, they are seen to be significant and less valued in the society apart from being there to make men happy. The most regrettable thing is that besides the numerous studies than on the same area, the discrimination against women still thrives. This means that social and cultural norms that disregard women should be attacked and changed. The best way to attack such norms is attitudinal change communication, which would make the society to see life more differently. Instead of being viewed as objects to make men happy, they should be seen as entities that should be incorporated in different avenues to help the society to grow.

Q6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Q6 - Essay Example on derivatives into gigantic data warehouses is concerned, the results have been disastrous, because the operating realities make the process of efficient and optium data storage a messy and complex one. In financial organizations such as banks for example, some of the problems arise because they start to build their data warehouses before figuring out what they want in it. To alleiate this problem, effective preparation is necessary; a specific purpose must be formulated for the data warehouse.(Gronfeldt, 1998).Experts recommend that common denominators be set up for the data, which are accessible to all departments and extensions be created for oother departments to link to. Creating extensions to data tables can make specific relevant informaiotn available to specific departments. An ESRI Report identifies how data warehousing is used in hospitals to enhance Online Analytical processing; including a spatial data model can also facilitate patient profiling and physician profiling.(www.esri.com). Structuring the data warehouse so that it facilitates the aggregation of data and data linking would be helpful in developing suhc profiles. 2. Human beings are able to convert data into information through a process of association using external stimuli as well as internal ones such as memory cues. A similar process occurs in Online Analytical processing of data, where data from different sources are associated or linked together in order to assess, discover and evaluate existing trends wihtin it. Data is associated with additional streams of data available from other sources and a process of elaboration of the exsiting data can be initiated through the process of Online Analytical processing, to generate hypotheses about the data and assess the consequences of those hypotheses.(www.edc.ncl.ac.uk). Alternatively, patterns existing within streams of data can also be evaluated in this manner in order to generate usable information. For example, data on large numbers

MGT506 - Strategic Leadership, Mod 2 SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MGT506 - Strategic Leadership, Mod 2 SLP - Essay Example According to the definition, open systems elaborate an organizational model that allows the organization to interact with the society i.e. take necessary input and deliver outputs. Considering that factor, open social systems and organizations have a tendency to adapt to social changes according to feedback provided and makes required changes internally. Hence, open system of an organization is a live mechanism that is continuously evolving and showing changes in its structure and behavior. In contrast with an open system, closed system shows a deterministic approach. This system operates in the absence of feedback loop that is detached from external factor. It can be said that closed systems allow its components to remain within the sphere of their identity that shows a constant character. In the light of these doctrines, it can be established that language and society are closed mechanisms that only shows slow alterations only when the system needs external information and shows gr adual changes over decades and sometimes centuries. Similarly, external discharge of information is also selected and limited (Katz & Kahn, 1966). It has been observed that Martin Luther King was a transformational leader who used pathos, ethos and symbols for influencing his followers. It can be observed that MLK has emerged as the leader of African Americans due to consistency in his behavior and lack of adherence to requirements of other social forces. This astute and consistent behavior makes him a follower of closed system regime. These demands had a concrete background based on bias shown towards Blacks by American society that spreads on the span of centuries. Basing his requirements on the discriminated behavior, he demanded equal rights for African Americans from the beginning and did not alter his requirements in response to other social factors. Requirement was only one which entails that African Americans citizens must have equal legal and ethical status as the white one s (Luther, 1963). On the basis of this stature, he managed to illustrate a behavior of constant struggle and fundamentality in his principles. With the help of this consistency in overall behavior, he managed to attract and retain millions of Blacks as his followers which ended up brining revolution in American society and legislation. In comparison with MLK, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a follower of open-system ideology. Jinnah himself was a learned barrister who had spent most of his life in England. He was a follower of a belief that Muslims and Hindus in subcontinent should live together. However, after spending considerable time in All India Congress, he observed the bias against Muslims that made him lay down the foundation of Muslim League in Subcontinent, the only Muslim party that legalized the initiatives for separate country for Muslims (Wolpert, 2005). Where Jinnah initially worked on transforming the legal and ethical status of Muslims in subcontinent like MLK, his percepti on changed over time on the basis of events that lead him to believe that Muslims need to have a separate homeland for earning a right of respectful living. Therefore, after late 1920s, the direction of

Risk Management in Practice (an air-monitoring programme is planned) Essay

Risk Management in Practice (an air-monitoring programme is planned) - Essay Example Sick building symptom has no particular contributing factors associated except in cases of carbon monoxide headaches or eye irritation with formalydehyde. Other symptoms of sick building syndrome include cough, malaise, fatigue, chest tightness, and eye and mucus lining irritation. Although some of these symptoms are linked to stress and perception of air quality, significant sources like bioaerosols and synergism of two or more chemicals are also contributing factors since symptoms are relieved upon leaving the buiding (NC employees’ workplace program requirements for safety and health, n.d). Multiple chemical syndrome is demonstrated in employees who demonstrate a combination of symptoms which include fatigue, dejection, petulance, headaches, food bigotry and gastrointestinal distress. Although factories are recommended to have air monitoring programs to monitor the condition of air within the factory, there are potential limitations. This paper explores the potential limitations in air monitoring with respect to contact assessment and offers ways on how to trounce these limitations. In addition, the paper compares the results of exposure to other hygiene standards. The two main approaches used to identify and quantify airborne contaminants are direct-reading instruments for onsite use and air samples laboratories analysis (Lippitt, Webb & Martin, 2000). Direct reading instruments serve factory employers and employees with early warnings especially in case of a leak or an accident that could result to elevation of a given chemical concentration. Using direct reading instruments is however limited to the fact that only the qualitative data of specific classes of chemicals is detected and measured. This implies that this approach is not appropriate in providing qualitative data when there are multiple classes of contaminants in the

The Virgin Mary painting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Virgin Mary painting - Essay Example The essay "The Virgin Mary painting" explores the importance of religion in Mexican art ad discovers The Virgin Mary painting. The Virgin Mary also has a very prominent position in the religious art of Mexico and this is mainly because of the fact that she is highly venerated in the country with many Mexicans considering her to be the mother of the entire nation. In addition, many Mexicans during their prayers seek the help of the Virgin Mary as they ask her to intercede to God and Jesus on their behalf and this has ensured that she has come to be revered by all the people in the nation. The prominence of the Virgin Mary in the national psyche has ensured that she is also given a prominent position in art, because Mexican artists, like all Mexican people, are very devoted to her. This has led to a situation where most of the art in the country has some religious aspect in one way or the other and this has ensured that the religious spirit of Mexican artwork has remained prevalent wit h little sign of its diminishing in the coming years. Religion has been a source of inspiration for Mexican art for many years and it is for this reason that a large number of art that it produced in this country, even that in the secular realm, has some aspect of religion within it. As has been mentioned above, Roman Catholicism is the most dominant religion within Mexico and this has been the case since the founding of the state after the Spanish conquest. However, it has been found that the Catholicism is highly syncretic.

Asgnmt Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Asgnmt - Assignment Example terus, increased amniotic fluid, prolonged or rapid labor, medical instruments which cause trauma during delivery and placental problems such as placenta previa can lead to postpartum hemorrhage. In order to ensure the safety of the mother a thorough assessment is done by the nursing staff after labor. During the postpartum assessment nurses need to include any history of postpartum hemorrhage along with the present condition of the mother. The video clearly explains the various assessments and interventions that are required to be done. The video gives a clear explanation of the procedures for carrying out various preliminary investigations postpartum such as palpitation of the uterine fundus and determining the firmness of the uterus. Massage is given in case the uterus does not appear to be firm. In case of a full bladder the mother should be encouraged to void. The video also explains how to determine the amount and color of lochia and that increased bleeding could be indicative of risk of hemorrhage. Medication is administered in case of a prolonged uncontracted uterus by injecting into the IV fluid followed by constant monitoring. The labia and perineum are examined for pain. In addition the episiotomy and presence of hemorrhoids are also examined. The mother is taught about the various methods by which pain can be reduced using ice and analgesics or narcotics. Sprays are used to decrease topical discomfort and tucks can help decrease pain due to hemorrhoids. Immediate assessments also include recording of vital signs such as temperature and blood pressure, skin temperature and color and mucus membrane are also assessed. In case of a C-section, the mother is additionally examined for the level of consciousness in case of general anesthesia and for epidural anesthesia the feeling and movement of extremities are assessed. The respirations, oxygen saturation are also monitored in case narcotics have been used. In addition, the intactness of the surgical

100 Years of Broadway Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

100 Years of Broadway - Assignment Example Broadway dates as ancient as Sophocles and Shakespeare eras, which translates to about three millennia. It forms the foundation of all drama. As a result, this American history can hardly be forgotten, despite the technological revolution in the film and television industries. When one mentions ‘Broadway’ in America, what comes to mind is not just the location, the history coupled with dreams and ideas. It represents a place where many great Americans had gathered and performed before, and still do to date. Because of this, many people identify with it as it saw the dreams of great Americans in theater and musicals come true (Everett & Laird, 2009: 200). To elaborate the cultural importance of Broadway, the best Broadway shows over the last one hundred years are recreated to honor this show. In his event, shows acted by great American personalities like Dreamgirls, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera are redone. In musicals, ‘standard’ refers to thos e musicals that are older and more established compared to the rest. Just like contemporary musicals, standard musicals also help in propelling the story or action in theatrical performances. They assist the audience in understanding the flow of the performance. Examples are All that Jazz by Bob Fosse, and Oklahoma by Rodgers and Hammerstein. ‘World Blues’ refer to the celebration of the global influence of America’s blues (Spurrier, 1979). Standard musicals help the audience in understanding the flow of a performance.

Is unethical to lie during Negotiations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Is unethical to lie during Negotiations - Essay Example Considering the legal clauses and ethical considerations, there are many aspects that can be termed to be unethical but legal. For instance, if a broker states the history of a property only revealing its net worth, location and future value, and avoid describing the legal charges associated with the asset because the concerned party did not ask about it, it can be termed as unethical. However, this can be justified on the legal grounds. Therefore, in a few instances, such tactics can be legal as well as can be unethical, depending on the merit of the case and intentions. Being completely honest during negotiation, even after knowing the fact that it can earn lesser than what is expected, can never be naive. Revealing the entire truth during negotiation can often result in the cancellation of the deal with higher return. Despite such risk if a negotiator is revealing the entire truth being honest, it must be highly appreciated and respected. However, if the negotiator in this context expects that even after revealing the truth he will earn the deal without losing any bid, the act can be termed as naive. It is because in this case the negotiator is unable to forecast the risks associated with the ethical representation of the facts expecting irrational return. Considering these facts, I personally think that being completely honest while negotiating can be naive by no means when the associated risks are considered significantly. But, if due consideration is not provided to the risks associated with the decision of being completely honest; it can be stated as a naive act. In terms of legal code of conduct, the rule of negotiation can be stated as unique to an extent. But based on the ethical ground, the rules associated with negotiation are not quite unique. Lying during negotiations has frequently been identified in many instances which eradicates the chance to signify the practice

Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 21

Personal Statement Example During that time, I had to adjust to the local culture. This of course threw up its fair share of challenges, but I was determined to succeed. I preserved through many language courses and made a concerted effort to speak Japanese whenever I had the chance to converse with the locals. I did not think at that time that learning Japanese would give me a leg up in life, but later on I got a job working at a Japanese restaurant. My knowledge of Japanese helped to convince my boss to give me the job over the other candidates. 3. The most significant challenge that I have faced was when I decided to study abroad. This was a new experience for me because I had never traveled overseas by myself before. When I arrived, I did not know anyone and could not fit into the local culture the way that I wanted to. I did not understand the language and the cultural customs were foreign to me. I overcame these obstacles by trying to adopt a Japanese way of life and keep an open mind, which allowed me to take many things onboard. 4. I have made my community a better place to live by volunteering for a couple of local soup kitchens. My motivation for participating in these activities at the beginning was simply to get a good reference for my resume, but after seeing the faces and hearing of the lives of some of the people who come into soup kitchens, I have realized that what I do cannot be measured because it is not really tangible. 5. I have witnessed many types of discrimination, but one experience that stands out in my mind is when I helped out an old black woman who was not being served at a soup kitchen. Some of the other servers were busy, but there were a few who were available but just did not see her or did not want to see her. I went over and helped reassure her that she was in the right place. 6. I want to receive an education that allows me to pursue my work goals in the long term. I will work

Ethnographic Process †Homo Narrans Essay Example for Free

Ethnographic Process – Homo Narrans Essay With her assertion in Number Our Days that humankind is a species of homo-narrans, Barbara Myerhoff describes us as story-telling creatures. We identify, express, discover and categorize ourselves based on the legends and lore of our cultural heritage as well as the anecdotal accounts of our personal lives. The works we have read support Myerhoff’s assertion, demonstrating through the narratives that humans define their world through stories at the same time that their stories define them. Myerhoff, Cruikshank and Fabian all respond to humans as story-telling beings, employing ethnographic strategies based on a holistic combination of qualitative and quantitative research. In her Number Our Days, Myerhoff gathered exhaustive narratives from the senior Jewish population of Venice, California. Likewise, Cruikshank’s interviews with the Yukon elders in Life Lived Like a Story reveal how thoroughly she participates with the ethnographic study of man as homo-narrans. (I particularly liked Angela’s story of balancing old and new customs. Similarly, Fabian’s Power and Performance supports itself upon qualitative fieldwork, contributing a plethora of anecdotal information to African anthropological studies. All authors interacted with and affected the social environment in which they worked, their studies not only speaking to the lives of their research subjects but the research and researchers themselves. I support the ways these authors respond to the notion of mankind as homo-narrans. People tell stories in life as a way to communicate their identity and beliefs, their backgrounds and ambitions. The only challenges I foresee lie in the fact that personal accounts are not always representative of the group to which they belong. And while it is impossible not to affect the sample population from which researchers derive information, to feel personally moved even to advocate on its behalf, it seems best that researchers remain objective in their studies, at least for the duration of those studies. A mind clouded with passion is not a viable tool of rational inquiry or observation. Once the study is complete, I could not fault a researcher for advocating people s/he discovered to be in need of help in the course of the inquiry.

Media: The Most Powerful Entity On Earth

Media: The Most Powerful Entity On Earth In his article, The Mediatization of Society Theory, Hjarvard deduces that media simultaneously become an integrated part of society, not to mention the existence of other new social media. New social media, a set of identity-centric information and communication technologies (ICTs) that enables production and sharing of digital content in a mediated social setting (Studstzman, 2009) such as Facebook and Twitter, have successfully attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices and transformed them from a situation of information scarcity to one of information abundance. Accordingly, Ronn (2007) in one of his reports noted that social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are among the most visited sites on the Internet, just behind the major search engines. Facebook for example, as the site grows more popular, claims that it has more than 500 million active users and 50% of users log on to this site everyday (Facebook, 2011), while Twitter records 175 million registered users since its first launch in 2006, with around 95 million tweets are written per day (Twitter, 2011). Both Facebook and Twitter equipped with platforms that allow individuals, as cited in Boyd (1997), to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. These platforms not only serve its users as a tool of sharing of life minutiae (Green, 2011) but also seize the opportunity of increasing their engagement in various issues. For example, Facebook and Twitter have played an increasing role in American politics as they become what US President Barrack Obama campaign in 2008 were most successfully noted for. Accordingly, both also facilitate online community to raise fund for Japanese earthquake and tsunami victim as well as assist innovation that plays as a significant role in cultural change. In other word, interactive and collaborative features provided by the platform of social media have made the dimension of political, social and cultural advancement become more prominent. However, it appears questionable to simply claim that social media alternately acts as the ground of political revolution or creates new social identity and induce cultural change (Boyd, 2011, Green 2011, Hoffman Kornweitz, 2011). A single click on Facebook gro up and merely a tweet do not make people politically activated and socially changed. As emphasises by Boyd (2011), it seems to be only a majestical lustre that technologys structure instantly influences peoples behaviour. Correspondingly, Green (2011) also voices an interesting quandary if social media actually enhance the democracy itself. It is reasonable since Facebook and Twitter are not a replace for motivation that at least required for a revolution to be taken place or new community to be formed. Nonetheless, it is likely understandable from current events that social media have the power to pursue and persuade as by providing platform toward political revolution, social community and cultural advancement yet bring negative and positive consequences for those three subjects. SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL REVOLUTION As mention above, Facebook, in particular, provides three default platforms for its users to convey their political interest (Langlois, 2009). First, users can become fan of politicians profile or page. Second, they can create or join a group and last, they can change their political views in their profile. Among three, becoming a fan or a group is considered to allow users to be more engaged. Once the common interests are created, the Facebook platforms greatly simplify communicating within and to a network via emails, invitation and reminders. Shirky (2011), social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all of the worlds political movement. Prominent example for this argument is U.S. President Barack Obamas election in 2008. As cited from Obamas Facebook groups during the campaign greatly simplify communicating within and to more than 1, 2 millions of his supportersHe also highlights three default ways . Langlois (2009), Addressed by Hoffmann Kornweitz as medium of direct citizen participation, this aggregation of public via the social network does remarkably magnify the engagement of society to the campaign itself, by extending their social activities/participation such as informing others about campaign events, attempting to persuade donations or taking part in activities related to politics without having to sit down face to face! against History of Russia and France are best example of how lack of new social media did not impede both countries revolutions from happening. The media themselves ineffective acted by casual participants which obviously does not guarantee that every political movement of mobilization will succeed, because the state has not lost the power to react. Take Tunisia for example. The only way both governments could immensely stop the quick dissemination of information was to shut down the whole internet. SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL IDENTITY/COMMUNITY As noted above, new social media such as Facebook and Twitter are potentially able to change the character of our social live. According to . that the new media is changing the way people think, act, and feel. Langlois (2009) stated that social media allows for the emergence of marginalized issue and public: The online informational system provide the material, communicational and social means for a public to exist Therefore, it is likely clear that new social media can be powerful tools for spurring social change, with stressing point that it played a facilitating, mediating role in connections and interactions among its user in society. There are at least three reasons for this claim to be apprehended: Firstly, social media enables creation of dense network that extend human communication abilities in both time and space. According to technological determinism purposed by Mc Luhan, the world now is a global village, where physical distance is even less of a hindrance to the real-time communicative activities of people. Therefore social spheres are greatly expanded by the openness of the web and the ease at which people can search for online communities and interact with others that share the same interests and concerns. Secondly, social medias quick dissemination of information supports new communities to be created, (virtual). Equipped with features that enable for users to be more interactive and collaborative, social media becomes a form of mediated communication that gives the audience access to on-demand content and the ability to share and discuss it with others within seconds. Lets look at Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake for example. Addison asserts in one of his reports that images and videos of Japans tsunami were soon hitting the web just minutes count from the first wave hit Sendai. Thousands messages were then updated via Twitter within seconds, showing of good will, condolences and offering aid for Japan. Social media facilitates such as allowing people the chance to donate to the Red Cross via text message, the donation being added to phone bills. According to the members of the each social medium, there are more than 500 million people are using Facebook and more than 200 million view s on the Youtube for a day. It means billions of audiences are able to share and receive information on the same platform at the same time. Moreover, the information on the social media can be posted and received immediately. Therefore, the information on the social media could be disseminated much faster, compared with traditional media. Thirdly, specifically that the social media is more user generated content, it allows users as news producers. The social media provide a platform for public to advocate social issues. Moreover, it also means the news is not limited by organizations or governments anymore. For instance, for Chinese Jasmine Revolution in 2011, even the Chinese Government tried to stop the situation to be expanded on the social media, it is still held quite successfully. Afterwards, the international media is starting to be conscious to what the revolution was trying to present to public and they are trying to report it to public as well. According to media and social dependency theory (Defleur Ball-Rokeach), for some countries (especially developing countries), if public are uncertain about their society and country, it is much easier for them to rely on the media. It means for some countries, audiences might be easy to follow the issues. In short, social media definitely, developed freedom of speech. With every response and action that results from our engagement, we are slowly introduced to the laws of social physics: for every action there is a reaction even if that reaction is silence. And, the extent of this resulting activity is measured by levels of influence and other factors such as the size and shape of nicheworks as well as attention aperture and time. the concept of community no longer has geographical limitations, as people can now virtually gather in an online community and share common interests regardless of physical location. However, idea of new community in Facebook did not make Obama win his Presidency. SOCIAL MEDIA AND CULTURAL ADVANCEMENT Conclusion Yes, overall it can especially in terms of providing fast, quick and ..platform ,,,. Media scholars argue that social media platforms are tools of self-expression that return a benefit to a public good It is reasonable since Facebook and Twitter are not a replace for motivation that at least required for a revolution to be taken place or new community to be formed. . People can virtually gather in Facebok and Twitter online community or groups, regardless geographical limitations and physical location, which (.). Ronn, K. (2007). Social networking: Closer than you think. Business Week Online, p. 12. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/jun2007/ca20070612_954809.htm Hjarvard, S. (2008). The Mediatization of Society: A Theory of the Media as Agents of Social and Cultural Change. [Article]. NORDICOM Review, 29(2), 105-134.

Understanding The Current Trends In Product Placement Media Essay

Understanding The Current Trends In Product Placement Media Essay Product placement is a paid product message aimed at influencing movie (or television) audiences via the planned and unobtrusive entry of a branded product into a movie (or television program). (Balasubramanian 1994, 29; Immonen 1998, 14) These are the prominent definitions given for the concept of product placements by academicians in the past. The pertinent points that relate to product placements in these definitions are that a) its used in entertainment programs/productions b) its paid for by the brands involved. Entertainment mediums like television and radio have long been targeted by advertisers to pitch their products in the mindset of the consumers. Initially these took the form of Spots on these mediums between the programs. They were specialized productions in themselves whose whole purpose was to advertise these products. However with time this method started getting increasingly cluttered. First there was an inherent mental switching off by the viewers during the advertising. The viewers paid little or no attention during the breaks of the program. Morever with technological advent, viewers had the option to switch to another channel, both for television and radio, known as the phenomenon of zapping. Product placements presented a way out of this problem of zapping. The appearance of the products is incorporated as a part of the program itself. Therefore there is no chance of the viewer leaving it for something else. Also the audience is in a high state of involvement, so it is easier to for the brand to leave a mark on the mind space of the viewer. The viewer is also generally very involved with certain characters in a program. If the product is placed in conjuction with the character, it becomes a sort of endorsement by a loved character, which can be very desirable. An example is the placement of Mars chocolate in E.T, where the product got linked with the kids and E.T itself. Another example is James Bond being with a lot of products in the movies. The products acquire a different aura when they are associated with a strong character like James Bond. From the perspective of the producers of the movie/television program product placements are a source of income. In the present times, when the shelf life of the movies has decreased and the budgets have sky-rocketed it makes sense to indulge in this process to make some money even before the movie has even been filmed. The concept of product placement has become so popular that it has started being incorporated during the scripting stage of the movie or T.V program itself. There are specialized agencies which broker between production houses and the brands the following diagram illustrates how this works. Product placement and AIDA model The AIDA model of consumer behavior is as drawn above. Product placement can be used in all of these stages to pitch a product to the potential viewer. However in most of the cases, product placements are used in cases where awareness regarding the brand is to be generated or interest is to be generated regarding it. Awareness In a lot of instances, product placements have been timed to coincide with the launch of a new product. The goal is to integrate the product placement with the other activities related with creating awareness of the new product. With an established actor mentioning the product or better using the product, the launch creates a huge buzz. An example in the Indian context was product placement of Maruti Swift in the hit Bollywood movie Bunty and Babli, coninciding with the launch of the product. The characters of Abhishek Bacchan and Rani Mukherjee are shown to run from the police in a Maruti swift in the climax. Amitabh Bacchan specifically mentions the name of the brand in a subsequent scene. Thus the viewer gets to actually look at the product for the first time. Interest In this case, a brand which has already been launched for quite some time, benefits from product placement by having its working explained for the first time. This works very well for the technology products, where the features of the product get explained when the user is in a very high involved state of mind. However the example which I will quote is that of a services firm, Western Union money transfer service. In the movie Virudhh, the character of John Abraham is shown to transfer money using the service. The character explicitly mentions that with Western Union money transfer, the transfer gets done efficiently and instantly. Desire Product placements lend themselves very nicely in situations designed to provoke desire among the viewers. By nature movies and television characters have an aspirational air about them. Therefore when they use products on screen it creates a desire among the viewers to own the product. Examples are the high end automobiles used in the Bond franchise over the years. This works very well for products like apparel or accessories because of the perception of good looks attached with the stars on screen. Ray ban has extensively been placed in movies over the years. A notable example is Slyvester Stallone using Ray Bans in the Rocky franchise. Product placement and FCB model Affective Informative Thinking Feeling Self-satisfaction Habit forming High involvement Low involvement If we analyse product placements by the lens of the FCB model, examples can be given for each of the quadrants. Starting with the bottom most quadrant of self satisfaction, cigarettes were one of the earliest users of product placements, with the lead actor of the hit T.V show I dream of Lucy smoking a prominent brand on the show. These days, Coke is placed on the American Idol. Also in a lot of movies, the banners of Coke are placed in the background suggesting subliminal advertising. In the affective quadrant, these are products which evoke very strong feelings and are high involvement. Here automobile has been another sector which has bet heavily on product placements. Examples have already been given above. The products in the informative category are a little tough to push in a product placement scenario since it will require quite an amount of screen time. Also unless the product is highly engrained in the plot, the placement for a large screen time may actually become jarring. In spite of this, it has been tried quite successfully. The Western Union money transfer example has already been taken previously. Also Microsoft has plugged its software in the hit T.V series 24. However the limitation of screen time and plot involvement restricts itself in categories of products which are habit forming. There are no prominent examples of product placement which can be given in this category. Global vs Local In the Indian landscape product placements have mostly been done till now. However, now regional movies have started to tap this source of revenue as well. Examples include the recent Bengali film Antaheen where the hair oil Nihar was placed in a prominent manner. In the Telugu movie, Â  Anukokunda Oka Roju, actor Jagapati Babu is seen carrying a pack of Real juice most of the time. However the very nature of product placements means it can be done for mass produced entertainment productions, and therefore cannot be used at a more local, say a town level because the number of eye balls captured will be much too less. Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages Product placement can offer many advantages over other forms of advertising media, especially cost efficient communication. Over the life of a film, including its theatrical run, premium cable appearances, other televised broadcasts and home video rental, cost-per-thousand exposures continues to decrease, eventually declining to mere pennies on the dollar. Product placement also narrows (and often obliterates) the gap between movies and the rest of our marketer-dominated culture. Films can be selected that target consumers who may be difficult to reach with more conventional advertising methods. Nearly three-fourths of the audience for theatrical films is 16-39 years old, a group highly prized by advertisers. Associating brands with particular actors, films or contexts allows the marketer to associate a brand with congruent lifestyle or usage situations. Films offer these brands the full sight, sound, and motion capabilities they do not have access to in radio and television. Finally , product placements are one means for overcoming the all-to-common problem of advertising avoidance via zipping, zapping and muting. Additionally during movies and television shows, viewers are in a very involved and perceptive state of mind, thus making it easier for a product to leave an impression. Disadvantages With the increase in use of product placement, analysts fear that consumers will develop ad-blindness, becoming so accustomed to ads that they stop noticing them. This may happen because when an ad is repeated too often, people adapt to their presence and start filtering them out of their vision. The movie E.T. and Reeses pieces were an example of successful product placement. The use of a recognizable candy added to the appeal of the story. However, poor use of product placement can compromise the integrity of the story. The latest James Bond movie Casino Royale, has been lambasted in the movie for being too much like one long commercial. Although at that time most of the release had used more product placement yet probably due to the way is was done, product placement id Casino Royale led to ad-resentment; the audience to felt like they were being cheated and the whole movie was an ad. Comparison of TV commercial and Product placement Parameter TV commercial Product placement Cost Very high (usually millions `) Low compared to TV commercial Viewers high Very high % viewers watching Very low, usually less than 10% at a time Very high, chances of missing the product are too less, usually 90-100% watching CPM High compared to product placement Duration of Advertisement Very less Extremely high, can be many years Investment to create the commercial yes no Number of Countries Usually One Can be in many countries Number of times shown Once Hundreds to thousands of time Conceptual Model for effectiveness measurement A three dimensional model is used for product placement and the best methodology to capture the user response on product placement is lab experimental A Three-Dimensional Construct Product placement can be categorized along three dimensions i.e. Visual, verbal and plot connection. Video dimension relates to screen placements which depend upon number of appearances on the screen, the style of camera shot for the product etc. The verbal refers to the brand being mentioned in a dialogue. Its variation depends upon the context in which brand is mentioned, frequency and emphasis placed on brand name (tone of the voice, place in the dialogue, character speaking at the time, etc.). Third dimension, plot connection refers to integration in the plot of story1. The relevance of product placement can be judged by the level of plot placement, a high plot placement is done by taking major roles in story or building persona of the character and a mere mention of the name is considered lower plot..Cases of higher plot placements are where a character is clearly identified with the brand, e.g. James Bond with his Aston Martin, then BMW Z3, or where the brand becomes a central part of the plot, as in the Pottery Barn episode of Friends or the Kenny Rogerss Roasted Chicken episode in Seinfeld. Most of the empirical studies on product placement tried to measure its effectiveness in term of how well it is remembered.These measures assumes that effects of memory are similar to effects of attitude but there are counterviews which dictates that there is no correlation between memory and attitude measure. Since recall may be a poor predictor of persuasion, research on the effectiveness of product placements should investigate both memory and attitude effects. This model focus by determining not only how a placement is cognitively processed and thus whether it will be recalled but also how it affects consumers attitudes The Theater Methodology Traditional approach of experimental testing the theoretical framework involved quasi-experimental e.g. finding existing TV shows with product placements which goes well with script, screen and plot dimensions. This procedure was complicated and also introduced noise, making it imprecise. These issues were removed and a new methodology was developed i.e. called theatre Methodology It uses a videotaped screen play as the setting for presentation of stimuli. The branded product are strategically placed inside some written original screenplay The main motivation for using a theatrical setting is to increase the level of experimental control while providing an environment similar to existing television shows. These days a huge chunk of brand placements happens through television shows or movies, so the experiment had to be conducted in audio and visual environment. Moreover, developing a new script and videotaping different versions of the plays allowed the production of multiple treatments. In addition, the use of a specially developed screenplay eliminated any contamination related to prior exposure. This methodology provided a unique environment for the empirical testing of product placement. By placing different brands within the same environment, it offered an opportunity to experimentally test messages that varied only on certain specified dimensions, thus maximizing the internal validity of the experiment. Suggestion for experimental design We have found that some of the previous studies have used experimental design so we are suggesting one of those. Experimental designs which can be used to test the effectiveness of product placement. The design would includes Modality We have studies earlier that key component of Tripartite Typology of Product Placement, has focused primarily on programming differences between visual and auditory information. Research on modality of presentation in audio-visual contexts suggests that the visual and auditory channels indeed differ in the amount of meaning that they carry. The visual channel serves to create the perspective in which the story is set and auditory channel, on the other hand, carries the script of a television program, and, as a result, serves as a conveyor of semantic information through speech. Modality signals how much meaning a stimulus carries, modality of presentation will thus be crucial in determining the effectiveness of a placement. Plot Connection Plot connection is third dimension of the product placement framework, which is discussed earlier. The level of plot connection will determine the role and importance of a placement in a story and will qualify the effects of modality. Now for experimental design, we can use within-subjects design i.e all the subjects saw all the brands. Each placement can be considered to consist of a different combination of modality and plot connection level which can be shown on a 2X2 matrix with each cell represented by one or more brands. We can ask different subjects about the product placement of similar brand sin different categories which will help us in identifying the effectiveness of the product placement Sample Revenue Model There are many different models followed by the parties to product placement and the model shown above is an example of one of these models. This advertising model is based on 30 second time slot for product placement. It is centred on the broadcasters, which includes TV networks, cable and satellite service providers. A broadcaster usually buys the airing rights for different TV shows and then airs the shows for consumers. To make a profit, the broadcaster sells placement spots to advertisers or ad agencies. The cost for the ad spot varies with the Tv channel and the kind of program. Some of the examples of cost of slot is from year 2005-2006, the cost of a 30-second ad spot in the top-10 shows ranged from $705,000 (American Idol) to $293,000 (Two and A Half Men). In this model, the broadcaster sells all the ad spots, and earns all of the advertising revenue. The only revenue source for the content creators, or the production studios, is the licensing fees broadcasters pay for the r ights to air their shows. Compatibility with other form of communication Maximum value can be created out of product placement if it is integrated wit other forms of communication. The key is to avoid using isolated product placement opportunities and create connections to other elements of advertising plan. Product placement can be combined with celebrity endorsement for instance to create much better communication e.g. Santro being used in a Shahrukh Khan movie will be much more noticeable than with other actors or Scooty pep+ being used in Priety Zinta movies. In addition, a product placement can be just the right thing to complement other advertising initiatives that attend the launch of new products. At other places the product placement itself can be used at other places or in other forms of communication e.g. Ray Ban glasses used in Men in Black were used in print media Examples Movies: Movies are the most common place of product placement. The appearance can be traced back to as early as 1920s but it became a commercialized business only after 1950. Of many new product placements in movies few are Aston Martin in Casino royale, iPhone in Gulliver, Everlast and Budweiser in Jackass. Television: Product is very common on television. It can be done on reality shows like big brother which often features one of the participants stating something along the lines of: Oh, did you check out the new product X by company Y yet? after which the camera zooms in onto the named product. It has been claimed that the participants get paid for it. Other example is placing Coca cola in American Idol Comic publishing: SA football comic uses product placement to promote many brands, and the comic is distributed free of cost to all its readers around the world. Product placement occurs at many places in the publication; on the shirts of the players, through placed billboards, and through the branding of locations or scenarios. Music and recording industries: This type of product placement is fairly newly and has not been used much even though the viewership is fairly high. A recent example is the song of movie Dabangg, where Mallaika Arora mentions Zandu Baam.

A Woman Behind the Wallpaper :: essays research papers

A Woman Behind The Wallpaper.† Analyzing a literary work, I have always considered setting of the story to be primarily for a reader to picture the events more vividly. However, recently I have discovered that setting often plays an important role in the development of the plot and characters of the story. Besides time and place of a literary work, setting can include social, psychological or spiritual state of the characters. Therefore setting of the story is capable of not only creating a certain atmosphere, but also help characters change, come to a realization of something, or behave a certain way. The setting of the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† has a direct influence on the development of the plot and the main character of the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† introduces a reader to a young lady, suffering from a major depression. She is prescribed a â€Å"rest cure†, so her husband, a physician himself, rents a house â€Å"a colonial mansion, a hereditary estate† for them to stay in during the summer. In the very first paragraph the author uses an element of gothic fiction, as the narrator declares that she feels â€Å"something strange about the house.† She describes the house as gorgeous place, except for a spacious, full of light room on its upper floor. The room her husband insisted them to stay at. The narrator assumes it has been as nursery before as â€Å"the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.† Its yellow, partially stripped off, wallpaper is the true object of the narrator’s frustration, disgust, and hatred. She describes its color as â€Å"repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclear y ellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others† She also claims that the wallpaper has a particular smell that follows her everywhere. It â€Å"is like the color of the paper! A yellow smell.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another aspect of setting introduced in the story is the emotional state of the narrator. There are numerous clues given in the story that reveal that she is in the state of disharmony with herself and the role of a housewife she is forced to play by her husband and the society of that time. She is unhappy with her marriage and her position in the family.

Digital Image Alteration and Photojournalist Ethics in China and USA Es

Digital Image Alteration and Photojournalist Ethics in China and USA Introduction Photography is a process where lights are recorded through chemical means(by film) or by an electronic device such as digital sensor. The resulting photograph represents a optically realistic portrait of a specific event at a specific location and time. This connection to reality allows people place a significant amount of trust on photographs and coined the phrase "the camera does not lie." Thus, photographs are used heavily in news reporting as a proof that a certain event has occurred. Recently, news agencies have begin to digitize their photographic process. Using digital photography allows journalists to send their pictures to the editor with faster speed and better reliability than using film. However, digital images are easily modifiable. People or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene. Colors and brightness may be adjusted. Pictures can be sharpened or blurred. Yet, when a picture is altered, its link to reality, to that particular even t, may be weakened or completely severed. To many people, this is a form of deception by the news agency to the public because people assume that photograph is a faithful representation of an event. In addition, these changes are difficult to detect since there is no physical negatives to inspect. The public can only rely on the news editorial board to perform as they promised-- to uphold journalist integrity and to report facts as accurately as they can While news editors have a duty to report news truthfully ,they also have to deal with publishing constraints. Editors are constantly tempted to alter the picture to fit the layout, deliver pictures with stronger ... ...oynter Online. 2 Apr. 2003.http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082 New York Times, Guideline on Our Integrity, December 2000, http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=408 Tung-chiang Ch'iu, Literary Inquisition, Banned Books and "The Series of Si Ku Banned and Burned Books". http://www.lib.nccu.edu.tw/mag/admin/26/p28.html Guideline for Chinese News workers. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2003-10-14/19271921005.shtml Identifying fake photographs. http://www.dpnet.com.cn/school/school_show_new.asp?id=1491 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Virtue Ethics. 18, July 2003.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/ Kieran, Mathew. Media Ethics New York, NY: Routledge, 1998. Olen, Jeffrey. Ethics in Journalism Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Kieran, Mathew. Media Ethics: A Philosophical Approach Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.

Examining the Crosses Between Drosophila Fruit Flies Essay -- Fruit Fl

Examining the Crosses Between Drosophila Fruit Flies Introduction The major topic of this experiment was to examine two different crosses between Drosophila fruit flies and to determine how many flies of each phenotype were produced. Phenotype refers to an individual’s appearance, where as genotype refers to an individual’s genes. The basic law of genetics that was examined in this lab was formulated by a man often times called the â€Å"father of genetics,† Gregor Mendel. He determined that individuals have two alternate forms of a gene, referred to as two alleles. An individual can me homozygous dominant (two dominant alleles, AA), homozygous recessive, (two recessive alleles, aa), or heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele, Aa). There were tow particular crosses that took place in this experiment. The first cross-performed was Ebony Bodies versus Vestigle Wings, where Long wings are dominant over short wings and normal bodies are dominant over black bodies. The other cross that was performed was White versu s Wild where red eyes in fruit flies are dominant over white eyes. The purpose of the first experiment, Ebony vs. Vestigle was to see how many of the offspring had normal bodies and normal wings, normal bodies and vestigle wings, ebony bodies and normal wings, and ebony body and vestigle wings. The purpose of the second experiment White vs. Wild was to see how many of the offspring were red eyed male, white eyed male, red eyed female, and white e...

Measuring Return on Investment (ROI)

Before starting to compare and measure the return of investment for an information system, it is better to define terms such as Information Technology and Return of Investment or ROI. Information technology is a field concerned with the production, manipulation, sharing and transfer or information through the use of electronically-based equipments to satisfy man’s needs (Albacea p. 4).Thus, in this definition we are not just referring to information itself but also for the communication aspects of the information system which is of wide use today. The Return of Investment, on the other hand, includes the costs and benefits in putting up a firm. Mainly, it is more focused on maximizing the benefits of the firm. In dealing with information systems, the definition of the return of investment is better to be extended so a to include not only the tangible but also the tangible benefits a firm or an office can derived in establishing their own information system (Grimes).To make a c lear measurement of the ROI, let us have only two groups of consideration. Since most of the websites on the internet are focused only on either commercial or information sake, then we shall consider the firms that invests on utilizing information systems for commercial purposes and the other ones are those that utilizes the information system for information sake such as the government.In the first category, measuring the cost of building an information-related investment such as websites for selling or doing e-commerce can be clearly seen. E-commerce is an innovation in the information technology where consumers can transact with sellers using only information system (Albacea p. 256). Since the cost for hiring a programmer, for example, in creating a website for a commercial firm, the hardware and other features such as searching or blog which can be brought through licensing are known, then the total cost of establishing this set up can be computed and is just can be known by mak ing a total of all of the expenses and efforts.The other part, which is computing the benefits, is rather the difficult part of it. This may be the reason why business owners and IT leaders are not interested in knowing or having a precise or definite benefit evaluation or effectiveness after they had made a website or an e-commerce page. According to Mary K. Pratt of the Computerworld of US in one of her features, the ROI for a website must be necessarily measured.She justified the ROI is truly measurable, and that those companies that are not measuring it doesn’t really concern of what their money’s worth. She takes, for example, Kia Motors. Kia Motors has for their websites visitor and mostly, what their basis of ranking is on the probability or likelihood of the customer to purchase a motor. They said that those that are downloading their white page are more likely to purchase a motor than those that only browse through their homepage.They can also measure the bene fits on how advertisements on the Internet have changed their production and gross profit. If they see that they had made an advertisement on the Internet but has no increase on the sales, assuming all other factors are held constant, then the information-based technique they use is ineffective.Since ROI’s concern is in costs and benefits, we should also take the advantages of having information related systems than not having any. For example, we can measure how we can save money by replacing the paper ads or printed documents by the electronic version.About 18%, according to the analysts, of the printed document of a business firm becomes expired or not updated after just seven days or a week-long of time. Thus, after this period, they must be replaced by the updated ones. On the other hand, updating publications on the web will cost less than updating the printed ones (McGrath). Hence, this is one way of showing how information systems can cause a movement of the computati on of the ROI.For the firms that utilizes the information system for commercial purposes, ROI can be measured in this way – the cost or the expenses can be easily calculated by just summing up the expenses made in putting up or establishing an electronic-based project, and the benefits, though not clearly seen, can be calculated by taking into consideration its effect on the business and how it can cut costs for the establishment.Now, let us look at the second category which is the firms or offices that utilizes information system for information-sake. The most common example for this category is the government. Usually, included in their budget is the allocation for having information systems that are helpful for public. If the benefits in the commercial-related are not clearly seen, here in the second category, the benefits are even more difficult to measure.Take United States for example. According to Center for Technology of Government at the University of Albany, even af ter some years of having information system exclusive for government information, the return of investment for this particular project is uncertain and is very hard to put in numbers (ctg.albany.edu†¦PrintVersion=1). Why is this so?Similar to the first category, the input resources for putting up or for the establishment of the information system to be used by the government can be readily computed for this is only the sum of all the expenses needed in the establishment. This will surely includes the wages or salaries of the personnel involved, the purchases made, and other licensing expenses.Government usually has its websites for its departments to ensure that the public will be well informed of national issues and information that are of public concern or the public can have great use of them. Again, return of investment is concern with the cost and the benefits. Now, how can we measure the benefits? If the members of the first categories’ benefits can be measured by seeing the effect of the system to their business, government’s measurement of the benefits is a lot more different.Remember that the benefits as defined earlier simultaneously with the Return of Investment don’t only include the tangible benefits but also the non-tangible ones. Thus, looking at the example earlier, the government has its own way of measuring the benefits. They had a standard assessment technique that gives results whether their investments or efforts in putting up the information system dedicated to serve the public has a significant effect or just a waste of time, effort and money (Grimes).This assessment technique needs some adjustments as justified by the Center of Technology for Government. This leads them to propose the Public Value Framework (Cresswell). The Public Value Framework emphasizes the role and importance of the public in assessing the performance of the information system used by the government. Unlike the previous system where only t he government are responsible for the evaluation done, the second system or the Public Value Framework will give power for the public in assessments.Therefore, for the firms or offices that utilize information system for information sake, like the first one, they had a clear computation for cost but a rather difficult computation for benefits. The ROI can be computed by computing the cost through obtaining the summation of all the expenses and the benefits can be seen on the effects or how their objectives of putting up the system are fulfilled. That is, if the public has more satisfaction in using the system established by the government, then the government’s return of investment is indeed higher.In general, measuring the return of investment for an information system is not an easy task because of the complexity on the non-tangible benefits it has to offer, even if the cost of establishing the information system is clearly and be easily computed. In the end, the basis of t he measurement of the return of investment is still in how it would affect the entities it is intended to be useful for or how the goals or objectives of a firm who puts up the system is attained or become more possible. It is recommended that more studies be made to make a standard basis for computation of the return of investment even if it has to involve many factors that are hard to put in numbers.ReferencesPratt, Mary K.( May 28, 2007) â€Å"Measuring Your Website’s Return of Investment.† Business Technology Leadership. 6 July 2007. .Cresswell, Anthony M, et al. (September 2006). Advancing Return of Investment Analysis for Government IT. 6 July 2007Grimes, Brad and Joab Jackson. (September 2006). What’s you IT investment worth –really? 6 July 2007Center for Technology in Government. 6 July 2007McGrath, George   and Anthony Schneider. Measuring Intranet Return On Investment. 6 July 2007.Albacea, Eliezer A. Information Technology Literacy I. UPLB, Ph ilippines: UPLB Foundation, Inc. 2005.

When to treat a condition as an absolute contraindication

A contraindication pertains to a state wherein the performance of a specific medical action is not recommended. There are two general types of contraindication that may be directly described in association with its urgency to a situation. A contraindication is deemed absolute when the procedure may not be entirely performed on an individual based of his current condition. On the other hand, a contraindication is relative when the situation of an individual does not entirely rule out the possibility of using a specific procedure unless it is essential that such specific procedure or action be performed. One example of an absolute contraindication is being in a highly infective state, such as having chickenpox. In this situation, the chickenpox virus has the ability to infect any other person that is directly interacting with the infected person and even through the air that is circulating around the room where the infected person is located. The infected person may also spread the chickenpox virus through coughing. Chickenpox is associated with skin blisters that are generally itchy and the fluid from these blisters is very potent in infecting other people that may it come in contact with. A person infected with chickenpox is known to be in a highly infective stage several days before the blisters appear on his skin. Hence, a condition such as chickenpox should be treated as a contraindication because the infected person is highly infective and may pose a health threat to other people surrounding him. Another example of an absolute contraindication is widespread inflammation such as rheumatoid arthritis. In this condition, the patient’s autoimmune system is not normal and his joints are generally inflamed and are very easily affected by drugs and any simple movements. The patient’s connective tissues are generally destroyed hence they have a difficult time in maintaining a normal posture and even simple movements are painful and difficult. In such condition, any type of body massage may not be advisable to an individual with rheumatoid arthritis because it is not helpful and beneficial for such an individual to receive any forceful procedures to the body when the individual is already suffering from joint pains. An individual who has been diagnosed with a severe condition such as Parkinson’s disease should also be considered as an absolute contraindication for several procedures. A patient with Parkinson’s disease suffers from a major disability in terms of motor movements. This condition, also known as dystonia, results in involuntary jerking of specific parts of the body such as the hands, arms or even legs. When an individual has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, this individual’s condition should be treated as an absolute contraindication because his condition may present complications with most procedures. For example, surgery can only be performed on an individual with Parkinson’s disease if a medical release form has been issued by the patient’s primary physician. The reason behind this is that the patient’s condition may become more severe during or right after a specific surgery because his motor movements are not stable and controllable due to Parkinson’s disease. Another condition that should be treated as an absolute contraindication is a medical emergency such as appendicitis. In this situation, the individual’s appendix is infected and surgery needs to be done immediately, or else the patient may die from shock and from the infection (Rizk and Saleem, 2008). In this condition, any other procedure should not be performed unless surgery to remove the appendix has been completed and the incisions that were done on the patient have completely healed. The patient suffering from appendicitis also experiences extreme pain in the lower right portion of his abdomen hence he will be unable to perform any other action unless he is rushed to the hospital and surgery is done as soon as possible.

Rosenbaum’s a Perversion of the Past (Mississippi Burning)

Oleh Jonathan Rosenbaum's critique of the 1988 film â€Å"Mississippi Burning† draws much of its intellectual adn emotional response to the film from Rosenbaum's personal experiences as a participant in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. The article — which casts the movie â€Å"Mississippi Burning† in a pretty much unfavorable light due to what Rosenbaum feels is a deliberate series of distortions of historical fact — recounts in equal portions, Rosenbaum's direct experiences of the era and the experience of the era as it is presented by the movie's director, Alan Parker, who Rosenbaum immediately identifies as a former advertising director. Rosenbaum also remarks that Parker's previous films: â€Å"all reek of advertising's overheated style† (Rosenbaum, 119). and Rosenbaum also makes it clear that he is not, himself, an impersonal interpretor of the era of the civil rights movement that Parker's movie attempts to cover. Rosenbaum's article appeared in a book-length collection of his essays entitled â€Å"Movies as Politics† published in 1997. The book contains numerous essays on Hollywood films and attempts to shed light on the political repercussions of the all-too-routine historical inaccuracies and poetic license which is deeply embedded in contemporary commercial films. Rosenbaum's thesis, relative to â€Å"Mississippi Burning† is that damage to American culture is, indeed, done by the making of a movie which focuses on superficial imagery: churches burning, people being beaten, etc — and in fact distorts the truth of factual occurrences — in order to fulfill the attributes of a successful commercial film. Rosenbaum claims that â€Å"Mississippi Burning† is a dangerous re-visioning of history for many reasons, foremost among them: the fact that the film features two white protagonists, both of whom are federal agents, plus the undeniable fact that Parker in shaping his protagonists as unambiguously moral agents with no trace of personal racism or fear of racists, completely distorts the historical truths behind the events of the film. For example, Rosenbaum remarks that in his personal experience, no agency or authoritative bureau seemed the least bit interested in helping civil rights activists: â€Å"the answer was no-one. Certainly not the local police or the FBI as I quickly learned† (Rosenbaum, 119) and his conclusion that Parker has not only re-envisioned, but wilfully perverted the historical facts behind the event of â€Å"Mississippi Burning† to create a more salable film are rational and just in my opinion. Within the format of the essay, which is more conversational in tone than scholarly, Rosenbaum relies primarily upon anecdotal remembrances and personal experiences than on solidly researched historical evidence or upon sociological references of any kind. His assertions are certainly emotionally convincing because it doesn't take much effort to persuade me, or probably many other people, that a big-money director of commercial films would distort or change whatever was necessary in order to make a successful film in economic terms. If it were not so, then said director would still be directing TV commercials. This seems to be the most onerous flaw in Rosenbaum's thesis, as I am not entirely convinced that Parker or anyone else associated with Hollywood movies ever intended to make anything other than a piece of entertainment posed as drama with a more or less obvious historical â€Å"hook. However, the use of serious cultural issues for the purpose of making money is usually referred to as exploitation and I think Rosenbaum does a quite convincing job of painting Parker as an exploitative director bent first on making money and success and only secondarily, if at all, interested in the issues of substantive historical record of the e vents the movie ostensibly was meant to cover.

Film as Mirror in Hitchcock’s Vertigo Essay

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a master’s class in subtle and effective filmmaking – its noirish tale of obsession and loss is considered one of his best works. This is due in no small part to the directors’ use of the various elements of film as a mirror. Hitchcock intends to create a sense of repetition and a cyclical nature to the life of the characters in the film; following Scottie (James Stewart) through his descent and ascent into madness deals significantly with themes of duality and obsession. Furthermore, the use of film as a mirror onto ourselves is made very clear in the audience’s relation to Scottie throughout Vertigo. In this paper, three instances of the film as mirror will be detailed in Vertigo, as well as how they inform the concept of film as mirror through their existence and varying properties. Metz describes film as a mirror in that â€Å"the cinema involves us in the imaginary: it drums up all perception, but to switch it immediately over into its own absence, which is nonetheless the only signifier present† (p. 250). The audience, like a child, sees themselves as an other; by identifying itself with its ‘other’ other, it can separate itself from that subject and look at the mirror objectively. In the case of Vertigo, the ‘other’ is Scottie, and look at his visage on the screen as a mirror unto itself. Thus, we can project our own feelings and insecurities onto Scottie, which helps us relate to his desperation and madness. The first scene in Vertigo that demonstrates film’s ability to hold a mirror to the individual watching it, and elicit the emotions of the character in the audience, is the first scene of the film itself. The very first shot of the film is a pair of hands desperately grasping a ladder rung in extreme close up. This connects the audience from the beginning with the desperation and fear that comes from hanging from a great height. This pulls back to reveal a shot of a cityscape, focused on the top rungs of a ladder leading to the roof of a building, as we follow the resolute climb and pursuit of a criminal by Scottie and his partner. This shot establishes the faces of the characters and establishes the stakes; the criminal is panicked, and Scottie and his partner are determined and aggressive. The next shot in this scene s a wide shot of the rooftop where the chase is occurring; the blurry, obscured background indicates great distance, and the dull blue lighting indicates dusk. Combine that with the heights at which this chase is happening, and the scene carries the same unease that is placed in the audience during this scene. The real moment of ‘film as mirror’ occurs when Scottie misses a jump and grips onto a storm drain for dear life. The point of view shot used to demonstrate Scottie’s acrophobia is the key to creating the effect of the mirror in the scene, and is one of the most famous recurring shots in the film. As a point of view shot, Scottie’s eyes become our eyes, and what he sees is reflected back at us. In this case, it is the dangerous and intimidating view of the hard, concrete ground dozens of feet below him. In order to punctuate the terror of this moment, and the fear that Scottie (and the audience) feels, Hitchcock accompanies this static shot with a simultaneous zoom in and track out. This is a camera trick used to disorient the viewer and create unease; with the threat of death from falling fully established, the film becomes our mirror to our own fear of heights. While it is exaggerated in Scottie, the film touches on our own sense of fear at this moment. The second scene in Vertigo that elicits the film as mirror conceit the most is the first scene at Ernie’s Restaurant, the one which kicks off the plot thread of Scottie following Madeleine. At first, the camera moves towards a door consisting of bright red glass; the door is a barrier, containing something forbidden. Despite this, the camera (like us) is dying to know what is inside, as Scottie wants to find and pursue Madeleine. We next fade directly to a shot of Scottie, who is clearly scanning the restaurant for her. His eyes search, and so the camera follows his search, panning around the restaurant. This movement is slow and elegant, allowing us a full view of everyone. Soon, like Scottie’s eyes presumably do, the camera fixates on a woman dressed in green, slowly moving toward her. Cutting back to Scottie, we see his eye is fixed on her as well. All of this work Hitchcock places in the scene serves to show us our own sense of voyeurism, as reflected by Scottie’s own snooping and obsession over Madeleine. Through our connection to Scottie, the camera becomes an extension of him; his search becomes our search, and we see our own search for the woman at the heart of this investigation reflected in Scottie. The smoothness of the camera movement indicates the confidence that Scottie feels in his professionalism; this mirror reflects Scottie’s subconscious desire to demonstrate his certainty and calm in the face of pressure, which matches our own. The third scene in Vertigo to elicit the film as mirror conceit is the scene that depicts Scottie’s guilt-induced nightmare after Madeleine’s apparent suicide. After an establishing shot of the city, which reminds the audience of the opening scene of the film, we settle on a close-up shot of Scottie’s face. Tossing and turning in bed, the shot is long and unflinching, remaining on his face for a long time. This gives the audience time to get accustomed to the series of flashing colors that wash over him, and to put ourselves in his place. This brings us deeper into identifying with Scottie’s guilt and curiosity-induced fever dream, which continues the varying flashes of multicolored light, as well as images of animated falling papers and leaves. After nebulous, confused walking toward a freshly dug grave, the audience is treated to a bizarre sequence where Scottie’s disembodied head falls down a tunnel, wind blowing in his hair while the colors continue to flash. Cutting in and out, Scottie’s head falls closer and closer to the audience, closing the gap between audience and character with the screen as the meeting point. By holding this deep connection with Scottie’s face the whole time, his confusion reflects ours; the surreal nature of the whole scene is just as perplexing to Scottie as it is to us. With this in mind, Scottie joins us in wondering about what is going to happen next in the events of the film, becoming the audience incarnate, reflected on the screen. Film as a mirror is showcased deeply through the character of Scottie; just as he watches Madeleine, we are watching him. Just as Scottie believes that Judy looks like Madeleine, we believe they look the same as well. Furthermore, Scottie wants Judy to become Madeleine, the woman he loved; this desire is mirrored in us. The use of mise-en-scene and a strong performance by James Stewart helps us put ourselves in Scottie’s place, and allows us to experience his paranoia, guilt, and fear of heights, among other things. Hitchcock uses all the tools in his film cabinet to help the audience identify and relate to the characters and the events within it, and allows us to identify with Scottie on a psychological level. Hitchcock’s use of surreal imagery and presentational camera tricks bring us into Scottie’s mind and see our own guilt, fear and confusion reflected within. Hitchcock’s Vertigo uses elements of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and acting, amongst other film techniques, to reflect the protagonist’s personality and inherent flaws onto the audience. He makes the audience viscerally feel the disorientation and fear of heights, and thus makes Scottie a reflection of the audience’s anxieties throughout the film. This makes the film succeed all the more in creating suspense and anticipation; we become the investigators and acrophobes because Scottie is the ‘other’ reflected back at us.

Global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Global warming - Essay Example People have changed the land use that has increased the emission of greenhouse gases. For instance, deforestation has led to increased emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that was previously stored in vegetation. Kuwait is located on the Arabian Gulf; the country is made up the mostly flat desert. The climate of Kuwait can be severe, with temperatures that are freezing and scalding. The increased temperatures in Kuwait are as a result of increased industrialization and urbanization. However, some researchers have said that the raised temperatures are not as a result of the industrialization. Kuwait has numerous environmental issues that are severely affecting its biophysical ecosystem, as well as the human health. The rapid industrialization and the careless environmental oversight have resulted in these issues. One of the major issues is the desertification that has remained a serious problem. The government of Kuwait are taking measures to address this problem through restoring the desert lands to forests. Another major issue affecting Kuwait is the increased pollution. The different forms of pollution have increased with growth in industrialization. The government is taking precautions to ensure that this issue does not go beyond the limit. Therefore, the government is setting up the pollutant treatment infrastructure that is adequately addressing this