Pygmalion and Pretty Woman Essay

The relationship between the texts you have studied and their respective cultural context is significant because it provides insight into the way values have been maintained and changed. Discuss with reference to the text from the past and it’s appropriation. The intended audience of both Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw and Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall was the mass of society at the time of composition. This is seen through the choice of the form of each text, Pygmalion is a play because in the early twentieth centaury this was the popular way of spreading ideas and Pretty Woman is a Hollywood film, a current form of mass media today. Because both texts were aimed at the majority of society they each must represent the views of their cultural context to be popular, which both texts proved to be. As both texts reflect the cultural views of the context they were composed in, a comparison of the two provides a significant insight into the way specific values have been maintained and changed over time. One of the main values explored in both texts is what each society believes to be the ‘perfect’ woman. By comparing the way these women in both texts are presented, we are given an insight into the changing status of women over time. In English society in the early 1900’s women were seen as inferior to men and were often stereotyped in the sense of the clothes they wore, how they spoke and how they presented themselves, rather than their personality. Women’s inferiority is seen in Higgins and Eliza’s unequal relationship, Higgins is clearly presented as the master and owner of Eliza as he ‘buys’ her from her father and treats her as a â€Å"live doll†. Eliza is almost objectified by Higgins, representing the sexism present in the 1900s. She is seen as the ‘perfect woman’ by society only when she has been transformed to a dignified, well spoken, beautiful lady of high society. This is seen through the differing reactions to Eliza by the Eynsford Hill family when she is a flower girl, compared to when she is a ‘duchess’ . The position of women in society has changed a great deal over the last  centaury and the contemporary post-feminist society is believed to provide and equal playing field for all. Women and men are seen as equals socially as well as by law and in the workforce. This is seen in the portrayal as Vivian as the heroine in the film who, although she is still beautiful, is individual, independent and has a certain instinctive intelligence, she is seen as ideal for these personal qualities. Another view explored in both texts is the complicated system of hierarchal social classes and bridging the gap or breaking the barrier between these classes. Late nineteenth – early twentieth centaury English society had a rigid class system with the idea of upper, middle and lower classes that were based upon birthright. At the time Pygmalion was composed however, the system had begun to change as the growing middle class was beginning to rise up through the social hierarchy due to wealth. This is portrayed in the play when Mr. Doolittle becomes rich and rises the ladder into â€Å"middle class morality†. Shaw is deeply satirical of these social classes as is seen in how Eliza can easily rise herself to upper class and her statement to Higgins at the end of the play of â€Å"I had only to lift my finger to be as good as you† clearly makes his view clear that the social barriers are superficial. Pretty Woman was written in the late 1980’s, a decade known as the â€Å"greed is good† decade were social class was based solely upon wealth, apart from in the global community were both ethnicity and wealth both play a role. Social hierarchy is more flexible as any one can rise to what is seen as higher society through the gaining of money, not through the class they were born into. Prejudice between the classes is seen when the shop assistants refuse to serve Vivian on Rodeo drive. However as the movie is aimed at the â€Å"all day average American† one typically of the middle class, mistreatment of wealth or greed is seen as a bad thing. Seen in the portrayal of Edwards work partner Stukie who because of his attempts to increase the size of his company and his unfaithfulness to his wife is seen as superficial and by  Edwards’s sad comment to Vivian: â€Å"we both screw people for money†. The audience instead sympathises with Vivian, who all though is of low class is still seen as the favoured character because of her personality. This demonstrates the modern disregard for social class, which is a value that has changed over the past one hundred years. The major observation that can be made of both texts and which demonstrates changing values over time is in the conclusion of each story. Shaw was determined to give Pygmalion an anti-romantic ending, meaning the play did not conclude as a romantic comedy should, with the main female and male characters falling in love. His reasoning is that Eliza has achieved independence and no longer wishes to be seen as Higgins belonging, as well as that â€Å"his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable†. This reflects not only Shaw’s strongly feministic views but the need for more equal gender relationships at the time and the publics preferred choice of a more believable conclusion over a romantic one. Popular thinking at the time believed that people married within their class and Higgins’s dismissal of love as a â€Å"life of the gutter† demolishes any dream-like romantic world. The conclusion of Pretty Woman was specifically designed to suit the mass market romantic comedy genre and to appeal to today’s romance obsessed society. The conclusion of Vivian and Edward falling in love and meeting symbolically half way in the fire escape is a typically â€Å"Hollywood† ending and highly unrealistic. To make the movie popular with a wide audience Marshall has created a fairytale ending when Vivian is â€Å"rescued by her prince† as she has always dreamed of. This constitutes the happy ending of a typical romantic comedy and reflects how today’s media has moulded society into having idealistic romantic perceptions. Both texts were popular culture of their time and thus reflect the common ideals and values of the context in which they were created. By studying the relationships between each text and their cultural context we can compare both texts to reveal the way certain views, in this case romanticism, the role of women and social classes, have changed over time.

The Patriot Act

After the United States was attacked in the infamous 9/11 episode, the United States enacted the United States of 2001 on October 24, 2001 (Mil Net, 2001). The law was passed without any objections to the passage of the law, and was signed by President Bush on October 26 of the same year (Encarta, 2008). The Patriot Act is considered as the centerpiece legislation of the United States' response to the September 11, 2001 tragedy (John Gamboa, 2008).The law by its defintion is a tool that aims to strengthen the instruments of the law enforcement arms of the state, especially its police and prosecutin arms, with the goal of preventing attacks of this kind in the future (Encarta, 2008). The act itself lays out specific rules on surveillance, intelligence gathering and sharing among law enforcement units, money laundering, security at entrance and exit points of the country and criminal law among others (Gamboa, 2008).In conjuction with the applicability of other statutes, has in fact giv en more foundation to the civil freedoms and rights of people (Paul Rosenweig, Alane Kochems & James Jay Carafano, 2004). To prevent abuse, the Act has been one of the most extensive reporting procedures attached on any law (Rosenweig, Kochems & Carafano, 2004). But the question lies not in the benefits, but whether the law should be encated as is, with amendments or totally scrapped. Many critics of the Act have demonized the legislation as an instrument of abuse and a threat to individual rights (Paul Rosenweig, 2004).In the lifetime of the Act, many of the provisions in the law have either been amended, changed and re-worded to effect changes in the law to make it adapt to broader changes to attain less then defined and specific goals (Gamboa, 2008). But after all the smoke of critcism has cleared, one thing is still evident, the Act is still a very important tool in the fight against terrorism (Rosenweig, 2004). In the past, law enforcement groups were limited in the amount and quality of information that they could pass on to each other. The Act virtually did away with that limitation (Rosenweig, 2004).In this light, a majority of Americans, about 60 percent, are in favor of re-enacting that Act, but oppose any additional powers given to entities like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, like access to electronic mail, issuing subpoenas (Gary Langer, 2005) and to limit the access or rights of immigrants on U. S soil (New York Civil Liberties Union, 2005). Congress, basing on the utility of the Act, must enact the Act, subject to thorough study and discussion. Under the current ambit of the law, it is the people of the United States that are more apprehensive of the law than the intended terrorist targets (Gamboa, 2008).Many of the oppositors of the Act even claim that the law was just a cover for some law enforcement agencies to obtain the new expanded powers in the Act (Encarta, 2008). But again, the law and its effects would be more beneficial than the percieved threats to the citizenry (Rosenweig, Kochems & Carafano, 2004). And that is where the powers and wisdom of the members of Congress must step in to review and take action against the threats that the Act has seemed to conjure up (Rosenweig, Kochems & Carafano, 2004). References Gamboa, J. B. (2008, September 11). The Patriot Act.The Daily Aztec -9/11 where are we now http://media. www. thedailyaztec. com/media/storage/ paper741/news/2008/09/11/911WhereAreWeNow/The-Patriot. Act-3425472. shtml Langer, G. (2005). Poll: support seen for Patriot Act. Retrieved September 25, 2008, from http://abcnews. go. com/US/PollVault/story? id=833703 Mil Net. (2001). U. S. Patriot Act of 2001. Retrieved September 25, 2008, from http://www. milnet. com/pat-act-HR3162. htm MSN Encarta. (2008). Patriot Act. Retrieved September 25, 2008, from http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_701712693_3/Patriot_Act.html New York Civil Liberties Union. (2005). Oppose expansion of USA Patriot Act. Retrieved S eptember 25, 2008, from http://ga1. org/nyclu/alert-description. html? alert_id=1303074 Rosenweig, P. (2004). United States. Retrieved September 25, 2008, from http://italianlibertarians. tripod. com/id12. html Rosenweig, P. , Kochems, A. & James Jay Carafano, J. J. ( 2004). The Parito Act reader: understanding the law's role in the global war on terrorism. Retriieved September 25, 2008, from http://www. heritage. org/Research/HomelandDefense/upload/69895_1. pdf The Patriot Act The United States 9/11 attack has marked a significant event in the history. The attack against USA was a proof that even strong and imperialist countries are never safe at any time. It has severely damaged the US reputation and challenged them further – economically, politically and socially. This system reluctance has made citizens and government more vigilant of their safety, and consequently it led US into formally launching laws and policies that aimed to strengthen their defenses against terrorist activities.Immediately following the 9/11 attack, the US government was fast into amending the US Patriotic Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). This act contains 157 sections, which includes legal responses to assist terrorist victims, protect civilians from fake solicitations, and provide benefits for public safety (Perez, 2003).The act gave more ability to the law enforcement bodies to investigat e on cases suspected to involve local and foreign terrorist activities, more power to target monetary transactions that possibly induced terrorist connections and filter against all electronic communication devices that may be infiltrated by terrorist activities (Gable). According to the US government and its supporters, the US Patriot Act shall be able to reveres terrorism efforts and effects in several ways:(1) The Patriot Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking; (2) The Patriot Act facilitated information sharing and cooperation among government agencies so that they can better â€Å"connect the dots. â€Å"; (3) The Patriot Act updated the law to reflect new technologies and new threats and; (4) The Patriot Act increased the penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes (The USA Patriotic Act: Preserving Life and Liberty, pp.1-4). However, several years have passed since the attack and since th e start of the implementation of the act, numerous claims of its inefficacy have emerged; moreover, instead of its benefits being publicized, its negative implications and results are rather more rampant. Shortly two years since the 9/11 occurrence, and even right at the moment that we speak, numerous cases of violations of human liberties have bee n reported to have thwarted the civilian.More so, it has nourished the feeling of discontent and dissent over concerned citizens as the act continued its â€Å"rampage against terrorism. † What the act has merely done is to limit the privacy of the civilians. The act has legalized all sorts of interferences towards the private messages and way of communication that every individual goes through against their will, and even behind private citizens’ knowledge and consent (Kranich, 2003).The act, though it has indeed signaled the intensified battle against terrorism, it has also catered the arena that strengthened the backbone for government intervention against private citizens. Ironically though, the same provisions that are supposedly and potentially to be of important use in order to eliminate terrorist activities, are the same provisions that have suppressed the liberty of individuals and have further violated human rights in a number of ways.Amidst the oppositions from concerned groups against the passage and the continuity of the amendment, still the US government pursued its interest to counter terrorism even against the will and support of a large part of the American citizens, as well as other citizens around the world. Now, looking back at the instances starting from the attack, towards the end wherein the US legalized such provisions for the US Patriot Act – it is only rational to take a look on what it has caused and asses if the result was worth taking the risk once more if the provisions of the act are to be renewed.Personally, if I were to take a vote on whether the act should be re newed, I would rather have it reassessed first and point out the blunders that have caused too much opposition against it. At one point, the act was passed under limited time and too much pressure from the international community as it was enacted shortly after the 9/11 attack, it is enough to say that it was passed without proper deliberations (Van Bergen, 2002) Moreover, changes are really ought to be done in order to create a just and equal standpoint in battling against terrorism.One thing that should be changed is the utter disrespect against individual liberty that it encourages. Anything that directly and deliberately limits and suppresses the freedom and privacy of an individual must be opposed just because of mere suspicions. If anything must be done that shall violate the rights of the individuals, proper investigation must take recourse and until sufficient information are gathered, no one holds the right to interfere against anyone’s privacy.Though the US Patriot Act was implemented in its goal to counter terrorist attacks and to further protect the welfare of the American citizens, as well as other citizens in world but, it should not be forgotten that the basic right to freedom of the individuals should not be put at stake. Countrywide safety is really important, however, to totally violate the human rights is also as dangerous as what terrorism can bring, thus justifying the changes, if not the repeal of the US Patriot Act. References Department of Justice. The USA Patriotic Act: Preserving Life and Liberty.Retrieved from Life and Liberty database Gable, Garrett. Effects of the USA Patriot Act. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from Kranich, Nancy. (2003) The Impact of USA Patriot Act: An Update. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from Perez, Paul. 2003. USA Patriot Act helps efforts to combat terrorism. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from St. Petersburg Times Van Bergen, Jennifer. 2002. Repeal the USA Patriot Act. Retrieved December 2, 2007 from www. tru thout. org

Earplugs Improve Patients Subjective Experience of Sleep in Critical Care

Earplugs improve patients’ subjective experience of sleep in critical care Laboure College Nursing 202 March 8, 2013 The purpose of this study is to see if earplugs improve sleep in patients in critical care areas. It is to see if the use of earplugs will improve patient outcomes by decreasing noise levels during sleeping hours. The problem statement is that patients will get better quicker if they get uninterrupted sleep. The literature review summarizes the topic and its findings.According to the article, noise can have a negative affect on patients outcomes like; sleep disturbances (Honkus, 2003; Redeker, 2003), increase in the stress response (Kam et al. , 1994; Moore et al. , 1998; Lower et al. , 2002), and reduced patient satisfaction (Lower & Bonsack, 2002). Different interventions were tried to decrease noise levels, but unfortunately, patients’ needs came first therefore abandoning those interventions like quiet time. Quiet time protocols were implemented by re stricting care activities and visiting at sleep hours (Moore et al. , 1998; Olson et al. 2001; Kellman, 2002; Lower & Bonsack, 2003). Wallace et al. (1998) studied the effect of earplugs worn during normal sleeping hours by 12 intensive care patients receiving mechanical ventilation and reported an increase in REM sleep during earplug use. This study was qualitative because it had the test subjects use subjective data about the use of earplugs and the decrease in noise level by using The Verran-Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale. The fit between the research question and methods are inconclusive because it is based on subjective data and not all the test subjects finished the study.The sample is the test subjects in the study. The participants included men and women over the age of 18 who were admitted to critical care units at a Midwestern US teaching hospital (Scotto, McClusky, Spillan, & Kimmel, 2009). The criteria consisted of subjects who were alert and oriented, able to understand the study, able to give informed consent and mark the tool (Scotto et al. , 2009). The data was collected by having the 100 participants randomly assigned to the earplug intervention or control group.The intervention group was giving instructions on the use of the earplugs during regular sleep hours for one night only removing them briefly for less than 10 minutes at a time for communication purposes (Scotto et al. , 2009). The data was compiled by having the participants complete the Verran-Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale the day following the study. The sleep scale scores were then kept in a locked box until data was entered into an SPSS spreadsheet for analysis to be seen by the research team. The instruments used were soft foam earplugs and the Verran-Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale.The sleep scale measures subjective response to sleep in hospitalized adults (Snyder-Halpern & Verran, 1987). The tool is an eight-item visual analogue instrument that takes about 10 minutes or less to complete ( Snyder-Halpern & Verran, 1987; Richardson, 1997). The pilot study received approval from the Summa Health System internal review board and had an equivalent group post-test-only design (Scotto et al. , 2009). The weakness of the study is the limitation of test subjects and that the data is qualitative.The findings showed that the participants using earplugs during normal sleeping hours fell asleep easier, woke up less, decrease tossing and turning, slept deeper and woke up feeling refreshed. Out of the six different types of earplugs, used patients preferred foam earplugs because they were more comfortable and easier to insert (Chisholm et al. , 2004). I would rate this article a three in difficulty. The overall contribution the study makes to patient care is finding ways to improve patients REM sleep therefore improving outcomes for patients well being.I think that earplug use on all types of floors in a hospital setting would be beneficial to help improve the overall health of the patient. References Chisholm E, Kuchai R, McPartlin D. (2004). An objective evaluation of the waterproofing qualities, ease of insertion, and comfort of commonly available earplugs. Clinical Otolaryngology; 29: 128-132. Honkus V. (2003). Sleep Deprivation in critical care units. Critical Care Nurse; 26: 179-189. Kam P, Kam A, Thompson J. (1994). Noise pollution in the anesthetic and intensive care environments. Anesthesia; 49: 982-986. Kellman N. (2002). Noise in the intensive care nursery.Neonatal Network; 21: 35-41. Lower J, Bonsack C. (2002). High-tech high touch: mission possible? Dimensions of Critical Care; 21: 201-205. Moore M, Nguyen D, Nolan S, Robinson S, Ryals B, Imbries J, Spotnitz W. (1998). Interventions to reduce decibel levels on patient care units. The American Surgeon; 64: 894-899. Olson D, Borel C, Laskowitz D, Moore D, McConnell E. (2001). Quiet time: a nursing intervention to promote sleep in neuro-critical care units. American Journal of Critical Care; 10: 74- 78 Redeker N. (2003). Sleep in acute care settings: an integrative review. Journal of Nursing Scholarship; 32: 31-38 Richardson S. 1997). A comparison of tools for the assessment of sleep pattern disturbances in critically ill adults. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing; 16: 226-242. Scotto C, McClusky C, Spillan S, Kimmel J (2009). Earplugs improve patients’ subjective experience of sleep in critical care. Nursing in Critical Care, 14(4). Snyder-Halpern R, Verran J. (1987). Instrumentation to describe subjective sleep characteristics in healthy subjects. Nursing in Research and Health; 10: 155-163. Wallace C, Robins J, Alvord L, Walker J. (1998). The effects of earplugs in critically ill patients. Sleep; 21(Suppl. ): 234.

Those Winter Sundays Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Those Winter Sundays - Research Paper Example I think everybody is attached to their parents and we can easily relate our emotions through this poem. As a child we always rely on our parent’s assistance and support and we hardly feel thanking them for their help which is quite obvious with human nature. Similarly, here the speaker tells us about the limited communication with his father. And the only communication his family members ever had between them was through demonstration of anger. â€Å"Fearing the chronic angers of that house† tells the frustration and anger that the speaker was living in. The speaker always felt his house as dull, lifeless, frustration and anger. He felt that the house was empty and there was nothing which can express love. May be he was too young to understand the complexities of a family. Now when he is older he understands the reason of anger and frustration. The poem reveals how difficult fatherhood is as the opening lines of the poem tells â€Å"Sundays too my father got up early a nd put his clothes on in blueblack cold†. There are many literary poems made on the strong relationship of father and son. There are famous literary poems made on this theme like Homer’s â€Å"The Odyssey† and â€Å"The Illiad†. Both poems show the affection of father for their sons even living apart. They hardly had interactions with their son but still they care for them. In this particular poem the speaker says that he has behaved â€Å"indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold†. Although he took care of the family but no one ever thanked him for his concern and abilities. This poem takes me back to my childhood days and I remember how my father took care of every minute things of my life. Many times he tries to hide his emotions and love, but I can get the sense of affection through his caring attitude. I remember one day I was crying for a silly thing and how my father hugged me and pacified me with his words. Now when I recall those da ys I feel father is a special figure who can strain themselves for the well being of their family. Here in the speaker tells that his father never expressed the sense of affection verbally. But now he feels that his father is a strong man who never compromised his family, although he is tired â€Å"from labor in the weekday†. Although tired he still makes it a point to do stuffs for his family. Hayden has used imagery to reach out to the readers and convey the message of fatherhood as he tries to picture the activities done by the father. That means even in the hard times of winter he wakes up early morning to warm the house for his children. The speaker also mentions that he wakes up only when the house is warm or when his father calls up. Despite of doing all these, the speaker tells that he never shown any affection towards his father. And now when he is grown up he understood the love and affection of his father. In the last lines of the poem the speaker mentions that as a child he was unaware of father’s love through his behavior. – â€Å"what did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices†. He now regrets and whished if could thank his father for affection and care. Like the speaker I have also many times ignored my father’s gestures and rather appreciating him for his care and concern sometimes I neglected him. But after reading the poem I feel it gives us a sense of regret for not understanding our parents. And this realization comes to us only when we reach

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Assignment - Essay Example The lines consist of several curves, as well as, loose gestures. The curves are evident on the picture representing the dead Jesus. The belly consists of valley-like curves. Curves are used by artists whose intended messages on pictures are mainly emotionally based. The lines used in this picture are classical or analytical in nature. The lines are precise and are rationally and mathematically organized. The lines are drawn into scale in order to fit the available drawing page. The artist has used expressive lines in the above picture. The element of emotionality is evident in the picture. This was the artist’s intended message. The decoration of the photo, in terms of coloration is also an evident that the artists used expressive lines to come up with the picture. The artist of the above picture has used analytical lines. The lines are straight with no curves. The picture is also fixed in a small frame. This has been done to allow the viewing of all images in the picture. The lines used are expressive. There are several curves in the lines and the artist is trying to bring out an emotional status he/she had when composing the picture. The portrayal of the photo also reveals a lot concerning the emotionality of the photo. 7. Henri has used analytical lines in the designation of this photo. He has used straight lines with no curves. The lines are precise, rational, and mathematically organized. He has ensured that all that he wanted to present in the picture is included. This way, he manages to display his artistic skills. Expressive lines. Mary the artist has applied expressive lines when composing this picture with a view of showing the emotional aspect of the picture to the viewers. The lines are curved showing the image of a woman in 3D format. This enables the viewers comprehend the message behind this picture. Analytic lines have a close relationship with static composition. First, static composition implies

International Finance (Compare between the current rate and The Essay

International Finance (Compare between the current rate and The temporal method) - Essay Example Thus, the use of the current rate method and the temporal method of foreign exchange come into play. This paper looks at the each of the two methods and compares them. The current rate method involves the conversion of foreign currencies, Items on balance sheets and income statements at the exchange rate that is current (Investopedia, 2009), hence the name. On the other hand, the temporal method converts the same based on time (Investopedia, 2009). That is to say, if an item is valued at the market cost then the current market rate is used and if it is valued at historical cost then the historical rate is used to translate the value of said item. Of these two methods, the current rate method is the more popular. This is because unlike the temporal method, which is constantly changing, this method is more static and has only one variable, which is the current exchange rate. Also rather than recording profits and losses associated with the conversion in the net income, it is recorded and presented in a reverse account. This creates simplicity in the interpretation of the earnings. The temporal method combines the two, losses/profits, and net income thus causing the volatility of the earnings expected From the above, there is a clear advantage in the use of the current rate method as it provides more accurate and static results trough separation of net income from the losses and profits compared to the temporal method, which consolidates losses/profits with the net income. Also current rate method depends only on the current exchange rate while the temporal method relays on the current or historical market depending on the nature of the value of the

The Eighth Wonder of The World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Eighth Wonder of The World - Essay Example The architecture style of the building is Art Deco (Tauranac, 1975). In 1986 The Empire State Building entered the list of National Historical Monuments and in 2007 the building became the head of the list of the best American Architectural Solutions according to the American Architectural Institute. W&H Properties Company is the owner and the manager of the building. The Tower is situated on the Fifth Avenue, between the  33rd and 34th Street (Tauranac, 1975). As the Skyscraper is surrounded by many offices, it can’t be viewed in full from below. It is accomplished  in modest but very elegant Art Deco style. In contrast to many modern skyscrapers, the front of the tower is fulfilled in classical style. On the grey stone front, there are strips of stainless steel and the upper stores look like three projections. The hall is 30 meters in length. It is decorated with the picture representing Seven Wonders of the World with the eighth added to them – The Empire State B uilding itself. In 1964 the system of floodlights was set on the top of the towel to illuminate the top in different colors. It is interesting that the colors are chosen depending on the season of the year, holiday or event (Tauranac, 1975). In the Empire State Building there is a hall of Guinness  Records there is the information about outstanding records and record-holders. The tower was first shown in the film King Kong in 1933. After that, it was represented in many other famous films such as Love Affair and Empire. The building plays an important role in the sport life of the world because race competitions are held there annually.

The external factors the will have an impact on the future of the Essay

The external factors the will have an impact on the future of the clients business - Essay Example There has not been noted any significant changes within this external environment that will impact on the client. Expansion is the key to unlocking business success and business competitiveness. But in order for the client to effectively evaluate where they stand in terms of business expansion possibilities a clear and defined topic related research has to be understood. This will enhance the chances of success while limiting the chances of future business failure. The benefits of the tourism industry in relation to travel are that it is an industry that is constantly growing and changing. The raison d'etre of an industry is clearly economic, but the sustained economic success can also have environmental, social and cultural benefits. As Europe's largest industry with great opportunities for employment there can be no let up in the efforts to ensure that tourism continues to prosper and grow." http://www.rete.toscana.it/sett/turismo/euromeeting_2003/greg_richards_engl.pdf The main concern when a company is entering a new market is whether the political and legal environemt will allow room for the business. The client is part of the EU ccommunity which aims to implement progress in all the political and legal aspects of all the community members. ... The main concern when a company is entering a new market is whether the political and legal environemt will allow room for the business. The client is part of the EU ccommunity which aims to implement progress in all the political and legal aspects of all the community members. These are the benefits that the client can consider since it is also clear that the EU community intends to improve the tourism industy as well. Culture The external enviroment which will act as a plus for the client is culture. This is due to the commonly accepted fact that people are interested in exploring other cultures. The reason that people are also aiming to travel more is that they want to experience different aspects of the different cultures. It might seem that since the EU is becoming one community all the cultures will adopt each others habits, therefore making the experience of travelling outside ones home country mundane and boring. However most countries pride themselves in their heritage and therefore aim to keep it that way. So in this respect the option of expanding is more viable as culture keeps the flames of curiosity burning. Technology Technology is one aspect that is constaly changing and the rate of change often has a high impact on the small businesses. This external factor will play a role in whether the client is sucessful or not. So in analysing this option the main focus will lie on the countries that the client intends to expand in. These countries fall within the EU community and if one aspect of technology affects one of the community memebers the logical conclusion will be that the same affect will happen in the rest of the community. However to ensure that business progresses within the EU community, the decision makers have

State-Church Issues in the Film Boenhoffer Dissertation

State-Church Issues in the Film Boenhoffer - Dissertation Example The paper "State-Church Issues in the Film Boenhoffer" identifies similar conflicts between the politics of the state and personal religious belief. The paper also discusses if in the film "Boenhoffer" given the odious nature of the Nazi regime the decision by Boenhoffer to resist the state is unlikely to be questioned or criticized.Bonhoeffer's do not resemble the religious and political extremists of the Middle East because his actions were aimed at ending an authoritarian rule as opposed to the Middle East Extremists who fight religion and extend the fight to the Christian related political ideologies. Adolf Hitler is known in history for murdering people, Jews, but the Middle East extremists fight the Christian ideologies that have never claimed lives like the Hitler’s regime. Therefore, Bonhoeffer's actions are not similar to the Middle East extremists of political insurgency.It is permissible to break the law when a political regime does not respect humanity and uses an authoritarian rule like the Adolf Hitler case. On the other hand, it is permissible to break the rule when the pursuance of religious scruples serves to protect human rights and as such, is directed towards denouncing inhumane acts. However, the danger of such sacrifices may result in severe penalties in the case of Bonhoeffer's prosecution and can comprise an individual’s personal liberty through imprisonment. The Gestapo used the statement to accuse Bonhoeffer of going against his religious belief.

Urban Legends Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Urban Legends - Essay Example It also evaluates how our lives change throughout adulthood when these legends disappear. †¦Modern folklore believed to be true by the people who preach about them†¦ [An urban legend is] an incredible story that may be true or false but gets exaggerated by the people who tell the story. As the story grows older, the more unbelievable the story becomes...Urban legends are a way for people to try and explain the unexplainable. Every culture has their own urban legends that people create. The stories carry their own traditions as they are passed down to later generations (Smith, Smith and Bobbitt, 2008, p. 93). Urban legends originate for a number of reasons. They may have been propagated as an explanation for unexplainable phenomena, as a fun addition to festivities, as a consolation for tragic events, as a way of inculcating certain morals and values, or merely as a creative release. Whatever the reason be, the fact is that these are lies. In most cases, those who propagate these stories know them for false. The questions that emerge here are – is it ethical to spread stories that we ourselves know are false? Is it right to lie to small children about the existence of characters such as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy? Is it valid to justify those lies by believing that they serve a fun or moral purpose? These questions continue to be a matter of debate. In early childhood, we live a magical time. We grow up listening to fairy tales, tales of dragons and brave princes. Our festivities, especially Christmas time, are immersed with hoards of expectations from Santa Claus and fun with the Easter Bunny. We grow up idolizing the characters we hear stories of. As children, we do good and avoid bad because we know Santa Claus will get us what we want. Gifts appearing miraculously under the Christmas tree, stockings left overnight filled with candy from Santa,

Proposal for Academic Achievement and Parental Involvement Essay

Proposal for Academic Achievement and Parental Involvement - Essay Example They must communicate with their children to develop an understanding with then so that they share with them all problems that they might be facing in their education. Working parents also need to stay regularly in touch with their children’s teachers so as to get informed about their progress. They should be a great help for their children, both morally and physically. Epstein (2001) asserts that working parents or those who live far away or fathers are â€Å"less involved† in child’s educations â€Å"unless the school organizes opportunities†¦in various times and in various places† (p. 407). This proves that as compared to house wives, working mothers and, especially, fathers are often non considerate toward their children’s educational achievement because they do not have enough time to spend with them. Thus, there is a great need to address the issue of working parents and their involvement in their children’s academic lives, so that the latter are able to show better achievements in their education. Alternatives Epstein (2001) suggests that â€Å"caring communities can be built intentionally† that allows working parents to participate actively in their children’s educational activities (p. 408). ... Another important alternative is that teachers should make it compulsory for children to have their homework reviewed and signed by their parents daily or every two days so that the parents are kept involved. School events must be scheduled â€Å"at different times of the day† (Brown, 2000) to make it convenient for the working parents to attend these events. Working parents can make their homes a good learning environment by conversing with their children over dinner; taking them out on educational trips on weekends; and, providing them educational activities on computers. Epstein (2001) provided types of parental involvement all of which should be practiced by all parents including working parents. He says that parents should be made to attend special training classes so that they learn how to establish a learning environment at home. Parent-teacher communication through notices, conferences, language translators (in case of language gaps), phone calls, newsletters, and memo s, is very useful. Volunteer programs for parents should be arranged so that parents are encouraged to provide their help and support to the teachers. Teachers can also visit working parents at their homes to make them aware of their children’s progress. Proposed Solution Since too much lies in the hands of school authorities to make efforts to achieve collaborative partnership with the parents, the most feasible and workable plan to involve working parents in their children’s academic life is to arrange parent-teacher meetings at weekends or in the evenings of weekdays. The process should involve notifying the parents a week before the meeting is to be held, and discussing with them over the phone or through written form of

Intergenerational Family Violence Essay Example for Free

Intergenerational Family Violence Essay The family violence has taken a new toll in the current times. The family violence has become very common indeed and the number of offenders in these crimes has increased far beyond the reach. The cases originate on daily basis and the statistics show that most of the times victims are females who are physically and mental abused in different ways. In these scenarios it has been observed that these events cause much more damage to the children who watch these events often. The child abuse on the other hand has also become debatable as the cases increase. The intergenerational family violence might not have been studied before but it has always been available to study whenever there is an event of family violence. The human nature is based on social learning theory. It is the human tendency to watch the behaviors and then try to implement in their personalities (Murrell et al, 2007). Behaviorists have put forward the theory that the social learning theory is applicable only when if it triggers a change in the behavior of the observer whereas the theorists say that the learning process is an ever going process and it is not incomplete if it doesn’t cause any change in the behavior (Kernsmith, 2006). Whatever the theorists and behaviorists state about the social learning theory, it is evident that the observations of these events cause damage to the future lives of those who watch these family violence events. Postmodern thinking supports these claims, stating that individuals â€Å"create the social reality for their behavior according to how they interpret norms in particular milieus† (Markward, 1997). Child abuse has different effects on the victims. Some children after these events become reserve and some become violent. Even also watching the abusing of their mothers in front of them creates a negative notion in their minds about the realities of life (Pollak, 2004). This is the learning process as described by the theorists. The observations made by child make a deep impact on the mind intentionally or unintentionally. Sometimes the action doesn’t come right after the observation. It is dependent about the mental strength of the individual on how much extreme extent he has to formalize his mind towards these events. But surely the mind is working as the interpretation process continues from time to time (Kernsmith, 2006). In order to cause change the mind works in such a way to determine how much impact such event has made. For example, continuous abusing observations might make the child to become violent at times, even if he is not violent the aggregation of emotions might be taking place in his mind which makes him to get reserved to the situations from time to time. A time comes when the mentality of the child becomes harnessed by the violent activities and he also starts to become violent at times (Corvo, 2006). Thus the change has been triggered in the behavior of the child after looking at these abusing events continuously. This makes the situation awful not only for the child because by this way they cause different violent activities and the victims may increase in numbers depending upon the strength of activities (Pollak, 2004). The violent psychology taken forward by the children has been creating lot of issues. The US population is filled with those who have tensions grown up in their households due to different financial and emotionally problems (Kernsmith, 2006). These usually end up fighting and one of them getting beaten. The children also come down in the impact of these fighting resulting in long term future damage to their lives. The behaviorists say that the children have a tendency to attract to those thing quickly which make a deep impact on their mind and heart. They are emotionally immature at early stages and an action like abusing them or their parents can increase their interest towards these activities (Murrell et al, 2007). It has also been observed that the continuous family violence has been exhibited by those who have gone through this violence before in their lives when they were young (Corvo, 2006). Thus an event like this happening in their early lives provides them the luxury to be like them in the future as they commit family violence by abusing their children and their spouses. Many researchers have observed a relation between the events happening in an early age of a young one when he experienced violence and those offences which he committed when he was adult. This phenomenon is now known as intergenerational transmission of violence and aggression. Researchers believe that the pattern of social learning theory makes its mark by providing the model to the child as he also sees the positive results due to this violence (Kernsmith, 2006). Most often the result of abusing her mother by her father results in the victory of the father due to his aggressive attitude and then therefore inherits these positive results to implement them in his behavior. Learning theories, such as socialization, social learning, and elements of feminist theory, asserts that behaviors are learned throughout our lives through our interactions with others. This is how the socialization then gets affected by the family violence as it is then exhibited outside the homes (Corvo, 2006). The social learning theory is based on the study of behaviors. With change in behaviors the extremism of these violent acts can be configured by the child as he observes all these events. When we critically evaluate the works of the researchers we come to know that there theories are practical and are very close to reality. That is, formally it was believed that the social learning theory doesn’t have any impact on the child’s behaviors and how he interprets different things and scenarios differently. These theories are nevertheless were thought to be just taught in the classrooms without any practical implementations to be viewed. But certain examples with results have provided the evidence that each and every action is based on some behavior and behavioral change in the children. Alan Sears has been the follower of the social learning theory and he stated the change to be inevitable in each case. It, however, depends upon the current and future scenarios when the person feels the extreme need to behave in a particular order. According to Hume Lock’s theory of empiricism the child mind is a blank slate after he is born. He just starts to observe things when his mind becomes little bit old. But still the child doesn’t have any ability to differentiate between the things quickly. He first acknowledges difference between things and then tries to remember them. The object of family violence plays its part when the child starts to learn these behaviors and try to compare them with others in contexts of their results. This learning process binds these actions in his mind and produce intimidation. The intimidation is considered as the urge of something to do. This urge is the force that drives the child to implement those actions which he had learnt over time and time. Now when this intimidation gets extreme, the action follows (Pollak, 2004). The strength of the action will be less at first but the result might be satisfying for him thus providing him the strength to commit this again. These continuous steps will make the child habitual of these things and the interpretation of things and difference between good and bad become ineligible in the mental stature of the child. The intimidation process is then followed by reinforcement. The reinforcement is the final phase of the social learning theory where the mind of the person has become mature enough to stand by his rules and principles and actions which he first observed and then followed over the course of his. The string of these events has made the mind to do violent as a good act and the maturity of the man accepts these actions as inevitable to bring about a change in others as well. In order to clearly view the reasons of these violent activities we have to go through a number of research steps through the prison record checks and the information provided by various NGOs. This information depicts the facts that the family violence is caused by difference in mental statures of the two who are involved. The gender differences, the act of domination by male on his spouse, the financial and emotionally tensions and the mentality of the person of his childhood when he would have experienced such event and would have thought that it will be better off to get aggressive and make people agree by force rather than negotiations, thus providing a lot easier battleground to them to conquer (Pollak, 2004). The intergenerational transmission of family violence has made the problems to arise in whole of the America. There are very common cases of these events taking place on common basis. People get hurt physically without any reasons and the innocent children who grow up by being abused or watching get people abused try to implement these behaviors afterwards. In order to remove these kinds of violent activities it is imperative that the laws should be made more severe for those who are adult and also they have to provide a facility where they can control their aggression and should be treated for the change in behaviors. The children which have been affected by these events should be taken in for great care as to change their pattern of thinking process which could benefit them in their future lives. References Murrell, Amy R. Christoff, Karen A. Henning, Kris R. (2007). Characteristics of Domestic Violence Offenders: Associations with Childhood Exposure to Violence. Springer Science + Business Media. Corvo, Kenneth. (2006). Violence, Separation, and Loss in the Families of Origin of Domestically Violent Men. Kernsmith, Poco. (2006). Gender Differences in the Impact of Family of Origin Violence on Perpetrators of Domestic Violence. Pollak, Robert A. (2004). An Intergenerational Model of Violence. Springer Verlag.

The Effects Of Globalisation For Women Sociology Essay

The Effects Of Globalisation For Women Sociology Essay Critics of Globalisation have expressed the view that the opening of markets and foreign investment in developing countries will further exacerbate the existing gender disadvantages and create conditions of forced labour amongst women. What this paper considers is that as countries become more open and transparent through globalisation, it becomes very hard to sustain and continue cultures of discrimination and gender rights imbalances. Whilst some areas of womens rights are exacerbated by Globalization. The majority of women globally have benefited greatly from employment opportunities, access to new technologies, support from NGOs, increased political rights and social freedoms. Female education has been recognized as one of the critical pathways to promote social and economic development. Female participation in education has been acknowledged as the single most important investment that a developing country can make, translating into better living conditions for families and increased productivity. Education is a crucial element of increasing rights for women, countries that hold a higher female literacy rate have a lower gender inequality rate. In developing countries 1 in 5 girls that enrol in primary school will not complete her primary education (USAID, 2009 ) which obviously creates a massive disparity between a the female population and a more educated male population. Globalisation has increased access to NGO for women in developing countries, many of these NGOs promote the education of women and develop programs to specifically target education gender inequalities. Catholic Relief Services (NGO) targeted the increasing school attendance and reducin g dropout rates amount girls (Obanya, 2004). Once a group of girls are educated they then are able to pass these benefits onto the community and their family members and future husbands are able to appreciate the reasons and benefits of educating women; slowly increasing the female education rate with each generation. In developing countries investing in just once extra year of education means women are more likely to earn more, raise healthier families and are more likely to be better educated about diseases and health issues. Higher female literacy rates also correlate strongly to reduced fertility rates and lower infant mortality rates (Kawachi Wamala, 2007). Womens health and access to health services has improved dramatically through globalisation. Women have additional vulnerabilities, malnutrition, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy complications, cervical and breast cancer, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and genital mutilation. Globalisation and improvement of health, particularly in impoverished countries has lead to greater levels of birth control and sexual health. Developing countries have a disproportionate number of female deaths during child birth as well as high infant mortality rates, through improved health and education these rates. Women suffer from Malaria and HIV more than any other diseases, in some areas the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been able to reduce malaria infections by up to 50% greatly reducing the risks of child birth (Bellamy, 2004). Education programs by the WHO have helped to improve safe sex practises in an effort to reduce HIV infection. Womens health is improving with globalisation. Thi s is because overall Improved population health, particularly amongst the worlds poorest countries, is increasingly associated with improved economic growth. As the economies and work forces of developing countries grow stronger so do their levels of health and social awareness in the process improving womens health. In grained and miss informed cultural practises are still a major issue to for womens health. Female genital mutilation is a practise that still exists and is culturally practised, over 132 million women and girls have been victims of genital mutilation (Tinker, Finn, Epp, 2000). The majority of the African nations have now made it illegal to commit female genital mutilation, however without public education making the practise illegal would be ineffective. Government organisations along with NGOs have developed education and awareness programs in many developing nations to outline the affects and problems with this long standing cultural practise. This aims to reduce significantly the practise of female genital mutilation and so far has shown positive results. Political and democratic representation is obviously plays major role in the advancement through creation of public policies and legislation. The status of women has vastly improved through participation in democratic processes. Some countries such as Indian and France have introduced quotas to ensure a certain level of participation in the political process, the quotas aim overall to ensure that womens interests are looked after at a government level (International IDEA, 1998). The quota system ensures that cultural and gender barriers do not impede the proper representation of women in the political environment. Some critics dislike the idea of a quota system as they believe it artificially increases female representation, when democracy is meant to be democratic and that women are being elected just because they are women. This is a fairly shallow view of the overall problem, by actively representing women within politics it enables cultural change, it enables discriminatory pract ises to be overturned by governments and enables an overall fairer, balanced democratic process. As an example through the support of the UN the World Economic Forum (WEF) has developed the Women Leaders and  Gender Parity  Programme to encourage womens participation in the WEF has risen from 9% in 2001 to 17% in 2007 (WEF, 2010). Worldwide women only currently represent 18% of all political positions, whilst this may seem like a small number it is important to consider that since 1945 womens political participation has quadrupled as part of a globalised society (Karam, 1998). What this says is whilst women are still at a serious disadvantage at obtaining political positions, this disadvantage is decreasing and worldwide female representation is dramatically improving with globalisation. Whilst Western women have benefited the most from globalisation, there still remains a disparity in the working environment. Gender Inequality in the workplace is one of the most publicised issues for womens rights activists, discrimination in the workplace today is more subtle and is correspondingly harder to detect. This has resulted in a large proportion of women in part-time work and very little representation in upper managerial roles, when compared to males of equal education and experience. Whilst Anti-discrimination legislation has existed in Australia since the 1980s and yet there still remains a large disparity in the workplace between men and women, due to gender and cultural stereotypes. The glass ceiling in many professional workplaces denies women the opportunities to rise through the ranks of organisations. This was highlighted through a study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which found women on average earn $611.50 per week and men earn $897.50 (ABS, 2005). Whi lst direct wage discrimination has all but been quashed, a division of labour still exists due to roles being defined along traditional gender lines. These roles are often rewarded more highly in favour of male workers (Jones, 1983). This is highlighted in the law profession where 60% of Monash University Law graduates are women yet less than 14% of women are partners in law firms. (McLeod, 2008). This is not something confined to the legal profession nor is it something confined to Australia, only 1 to 3 per cent of top executive jobs in the largest corporations worldwide are held by women (Wirth, Luxembourg). Despite some existing problems overall these figures have increase dramatically over the last century, even thirty years ago women had little or no representation in a large corporate environment. From 1985 to 2010 there has been a massive increase of participation of women within the workplace globally and this expect to rise further in coming years (ILO, 2010). As the world becomes more globalised gender equality within the workplace is reduced, this is because the main barriers to this form is equality culture and social norms are changed. Globalisation creates increased employment opportunities and demand for women in non-traditional sectors enable them to earn and control income, thus providing a source of empowerment and enhancing womens capacity for representation and power within the community. In a recent World Bank study of developing countries, respondents from more than 90% of the countries studied identified gender violence as a serious problem (Doyal, 2002). Modern day slavery and trafficking of women has become a major problem. Transnational crime has become prevalent through globalisation and remains a massive threat to women in particular vulnerable women. The underground trafficking of women across borders is an issue of great international concern and has been exacerbated by globalisation. The individuals that are normally transported in these operations are normally abused, raped and often forced or coerced to work as prostitutes in a target country. One of the main contributing factors to this increase in trafficking has been the widespread forced submission of women. Poverty stricken populations are more vulnerable to trafficking, because these women and girls have a very low social status that puts them at risk. Another signifigant contributor to the increase in trafficking is political targeting and conflict zones. The breakdown of society and the rule of law have made these women especially vulnerable to the lure of a better future or an exit out of their countries or event a forced exit. The counter measures in place in the majority of countries target the human traffickers with heavy imprisonment and fines, specifically in Australia this is targeted with the anti-slavery and organised people smuggling legislation where the maximum penalty imposed can be 25 years (David, 2000). This legislation aligns with the United Nations Conventions against Transnational Organised crime, which specifically targeted the trafficking of people (Green Grewcock, 2002). Despite these efforts at any given time over 2.5 million people are held in forced labor the majority of which are women and a further 98% of these experience physical sexual abuse (ILO, 2007). Overall 43% of trafficked people are used for sexual exploitation or prostitution almost all of whom are women (ILO, 2007). Cowen highlights quite elegantly the problems with globalisation, While some sectors expand extreme rapidity, other shrink and wither away (Cowen, 2002). This is true for women and globalisation in some areas women have received increased rights and economic power and yet in many places they still suffer large amounts of gendered violence. Globalisation has presented new challenges and new opportunities to women, gender equality develops from many different sources and it is often impossible to determine whether these are the result of globalisation or they just have been exacerbated by it.

Effect of Produce Placement in Computer Games

Effect of Produce Placement in Computer Games Product Placement Does Product Placement in Computer Games Affect The Consumer’s Buying Behaviour? Chapter 1 Introduction Can you remember a movie in the cinema without some kind of product placement (a product and/or a brand intentionally placed in a cultural medium (Lehu, Bressoud (2007))? Placing branded products in entertainment media like movies is not a new developed concept. This kind of advertising nowadays is very common. People often ask themselves what exactly advertising is. The term advertising describes any communication effort that might influence consumer purchase decisions (Rotfeld, H. J., 2008). Different types of models can therefore be used like product placement used in movies or in computer games. Everything started with investments in the production of radio programs at the beginning of the 1930s. Consumer product manufacturers tried to reach their target audiences via the radio through so called sponsor-owned shows (Lavin, 1995). Product Placement, also called brand placement and â€Å"brand casting†, appeared first in motion pictures as early as the late 1940s and early 1950s. One example was in 1948 in the drama Mildred Pierce where an actor in the movie drank Jack Daniels whiskey (Nebenzahl Secunda, 1993). In the beginning, using branded property by donating, loaning or purchasing them for particular movie scenes just to enhance their artistic qualities (Spillman, 1989). Since Reese’s Pieces appeared in the blockbuster movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial, over 20 years ago, product placement has developed and evolved significantly. That implicated that after the film release, Hersey claimed a 65% increase in sales of Reese’s Pieces (Karrh, 1998). Today, almost every movie contains product placement. While in the â€Å"James Bond†-Movies 007 drinks Martini, Will Smith drives a Porsche 911 Turbo in Bad Boys. (Quellen) There could be mentioned thousands of examples like this as today ads in movies are very common. Beside movies, another media based method to reach a wide range of consumers, can be seen in ads turning up in computer games. To date, except for movies or television, attitudes toward product placement in media have received little attention, despite increased product placement in games (Nelson, 2004). Computer and console games are getting more and more interesting for marketers due to today’s households own at least one PC and playing computer games nowadays is very common. This applies not only for the youngsters in a family but also for their parents who also play games. Computer games are emerging as a new medium for advertising but yet there is comparatively little empirical independent research investigating the outcomes of marketing communications using this medium. Ads in computer games have not a very long tradition like ads in movies but nowadays it is more and more often used. To reach key consumer segments, marketers are turning to games in order to improve their chances. In 2005, advertisers spent $80 million to reach video game players. Experts expect this spending to top $400 by 2009 (Park Associates 2006). Whether it is billboard ads, sponsorship and product placement, or the game character experiencing the product by drinking, wearing, driving or listening to it as a part of the game, the opportunities for branding in computer games are vast (Townsend, J., 2007). While European gamers’ most popular form of entertainment is watching TV, the $25 Billion gaming is even bigger than the $10 Billion film, as well as the $20 Billion home video industry. If we believe analysts from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the worldwide game industry is set to rocket to revenues in 2009 of about $54.6 billion (Ferrand et al., 2006). In regard to those numbers for today’s companies advertising in computer games has also become important to gain popularity. As 75% of people who have internet access also play online games for more than an hour per month (NEUE STUDIE IGDA Online Games SIG Steering Committee 2005). Another important issue today is subliminal advertising in media. Beginning in 1982 many people were concerned about subliminal messages in rock music claimed that messages had been recorded backward into popular rock music (Vokey Read, 1985). They feared that these messages could be perceived while listening to the music in the normal way. Even in computer games there is advertising that is perceived just incidentally. This might be true for example in racing games. Here might raise the question whether the player perceives billboards while driving with a speed of 130 MPH. Nobody can say if some kind of messages have an impact on our decision making process. Yet no empirical study has explored incidental effects on computer game players by advertising. Furthermore, it has not been investigated if the placement of the ads is designed to be subconsciously processed. 1.2 Reasons for Choice of Topic The topic in this paper was specifically chosen due to the writer’s interest in the area and desire to learn more on the subject of game related advertising issues and effects on the consumer of computer games. 1.3 Research Objectives This paper explores recent developments in the video game market in marketing practice that have resulted in brands being found in an increasing number of computer games. The main target of this investigation is to work out if product placement has any impact on the consumer in terms of the buying behavior and actions that the consumers enforce as a result of brands appearing in computer games. To investigate the prior research question, there will also be investigated if product placement is perceived by the respondents and their attitude towards product placement will be examined. As the subconscious as a component that should not be neglected in terms of subliminal advertising, it should be questioned whether it has any influence on the consumer or not. All these questions are coherent as if people perceive the product placement and have a positive attitude towards product placement it is possible that they subliminally perceive the placements. As all this is coherently, it is also possible, that buying decisions are predicated on these variables. 1.4 Computer Games Limitations Academic and professional literature on gaming often makes distinctions between computer games, video games and electronic games. These boundaries are blurred and moreover the situation is complicated by the availability different types of games. There are console games, PC games, mobile games, handheld games, interactive entertainment and virtual worlds that could be differentiated. Some of these distinctions are made to describe the hardware on which the games are played. Others also refer to a particular characteristic of the medium or the social aspects of playing. This variety of different types of consoles and handhelds is not helpful especially considering that today many games like for example the game Doom can now be played on cell phones, calculators in addition to PCs and tricked out consoles. Creating and using a separate name for each case/instance of a new hardware group would quickly become obstructive. The term â€Å"electronic games† might be too broad as it could also include games that are technically electronic like for example pinball machines. This kind of media is rarely discussed in the context of â€Å"video† or â€Å"computer games†. Like a good fit on the other hand seems to be â€Å"computer games†. The term â€Å"computer games† refers to games that are controlled or used by a computer which is a machine that digitally processes data according to a set of instruction. This then again includes a large range of devices that contain an embedded computer. Computer games that use a video display as the primary feedback device can be described by the term â€Å"video games†. Since most of the games discussed in this paper rely on computer monitor or a television screen for the visual playback, â€Å"computer games† and â€Å"video games† will often be used alternately. Below there will also follow a contextual definition while clarifications will be provided when necessary. 1.5 Chapter outline Following from this chapter; chapter two gives a crucial review of the literature available on the chosen subject matter and identifies an apposite theoretical framework for this study. It looks at the issues raised by academics and provides a basis for what has been observed. Chapter three discusses the quantitative methods used in this dissertation to collect the research required. The set up of a questionnaire is depicted as well as the appropriate methods that need to be factored in. Chapter four presents the findings of the primary research undertaken for this dissertation and the findings will be analyzed using content analysis in order to put some figure to the numeric nature of quantitative research. It will present the participant’s answers to the questions asked for the research of this project, and reiterate statements made in the data collection process (questionnaires). Finally in chapter five the research findings and analysis and attempts to draw conclusions from this are considered. To resolve the matters discussed and argued in this paper, the conclusion will help to draw an end to this dissertation. Chapter 2 Review of Literature 2.1 Introduction This chapter deals with the academic literature and pre-existing studies on the subject of product placement in computer games and its impact on the consumer. This chapter’s aims and objectives are to afford better clarification of the topic and the variables that affect consumers. Existing studies will be explored further and perhaps bring new understanding to the subject. This is achieved through the way in which this chapter is structured; by looking at the definitions presented by academics of product placement; subliminal advertising; brand recognition and recall; brand equity and trust; considering various studies and selecting the most appropriate ones for this dissertation to prove the research questions. 2.2 Product Placement From the time when movies provided brands in the 1940s and 1950s, they have been served as background scenery as well as props and character developers. Advertising supports media economically, yet for product placements but when the practice began with branded products it was donated, bartered or bought (Nelson et al., 2004). Today, companies generally are paid by film-makers to appear in the movies (Chunovic, 2002) and that change was then being followed in the game industry, too. Brand properties or placements differ from conventional broadcast advertising in leastwise three ways: At first, placements do not suspend the media experience of the consumer like it is done by paid media advertising which operates between media content (Nelson et al., 2004). Secondly, placements are according to Wasko et al. (1993) not always paid by the brand. Thirdly, Nelson et al. (2004) claim that it would be important that placements are not be perceived by consumers as commercial messages. In a public policy debate the extent of the consumer awareness and knowledge about product placements is considered an important measure. Product placements are presented as subversive, subconscious techniques, even though others assert that most consumers are aware of the practice (Nelson et al. 2004). The continuous advances in technology have made it incrementally easier for consumers to circumvent traditional advertising messages. Whether bypassing advertising by switching to another channel via the remote control or VCR and DVR make it necessary for advertisers to find other ways to catch the attention of the consumers to make them buying the company’s products. One such strategy that marketers have begun to make use of is product placement in entertainment media (Lee, Faber, 2007). 2.3 Definition of games and information about the people playing them While taking all the time about games; what is a game in the sense used in this paper? Jesper Juul (2003), a video game theorist, investigated seven well-known definitions of games which have been provided by different academics. Based on a screened listing of features which describes issues that are necessary for something to be a game, he then identifies it as â€Å"a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable† (Juul, 2006). To be able to understand the distinctive features of the computer games particularly as a medium, this description will become helpful later. To understand the entire matter around games, there should be explained the type of people who play games. According to a study conducted by the Interactive Software Federation Europe (2008) the average gamer in Europe today is 33 years old. It is also claimed that in a typical week 45% of the PC owners play games more than 1-5 hours while 29% play more than 5 hours. In case of console owners it is more or less the same so this does not need to be considered separately as in this paper this component is not taken in account. The main reason of playing is for most of them to play just for fun (80%) followed by relaxing and de-stressing (55%) and playing when they are bored (41%) (Interactive Software Federation Europe, 2008). Gamers are people who immerse themselves in an alternate reality which allows brands having the permission to act in a way that helps players to do this. Shortly this means, as brands appear in or around a game, it makes sense to use them to enhance the virtual reality (Mediaedge, 2005). Nevertheless it would be pointless to place billboards of real world advertising like Coka Cola in games with a fantasy setting like for example the well known World of Warcraft. That kind of product placement would not turn up realistic and it would disturb the player’s experience. World of Warcraft is an ongoing multiplayer world that was subscribed by about 8 million at the beginning of 2007 which (Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., 2007) has increased to 10 million in 2008 (Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., 2008). The expert Samuel Turcotte (Lehu, 2007) claims that ‘product placement isn’t about sales; it’s about brand awareness’. Aiming on increasing sales and making the customer aware of one’s product, marketers should not try to disturb the player’s word but enhance it. Examples like World of Warcraft show that those players or subscribers are out of advertiser’s reach. Today in generally things have changed as product placements are part of many games. Depending on the setting and the kind of placement, many products found their way into the games. Whether BMW in car racing games like for example Need for Speed or ordinary products like Axe deodorants and Airwaves chewing gums in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, most products that appear in the games are products that surround gamers and non-gamers daily. According to a study conducted by Nielsen BASES and Nielsen Games on behalf of in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide, 82% of gamers react positively to contextual In-Game Ads (Androvich, 2008). Results of this study showed that of consumers with the strongest opinion about in-game ads, both positive and negative, over 70% felt the ads made them feel better about the brand. They felt more favourable toward the brand and it made them more interested in the brand. Ultimately they believed that the ads are for innovative/cutting edge brands. More than 60% of these most opinionated customers feel ads do not interrupt their attention while experiencing the game. Also, the ads catch their attention and make games more realistic as well as the brands shown in the games are promoting relevant products. According to Lockergnome (2007), most of today’s computer games give the impression being made for men. An industry report published by IBISWorld (2008) reveals that women and older adults are the new driving force behind the success of the video games industry. According to IBISWorld (2008) it is also claimed that today, more and more women begin to play action games. Today in general the consumer research on product placements has focused on attitudes towards the practice and the effectiveness (Nelson et al., 2004). 2.4 Gamers’ attitude towards product placement in computer games Advertising placements that mimic real-world ads – such as billboards in sports or racing games – are generally accepted by gamers because they have perceived to add to the realism of the game (Thompson, 2006) which is also in accordance with Nelson (2002). He claims the research on consumer attitudes to in-game product placement shows that participants were in the main positive about practice and did not perceive any disruption in the experience of the game used in the study. As already mentioned above, brands should be used as enhancer of the virtual reality (Mediaedge, 2005), some participants of the study just mentioned reported that product placement enhance the realism of the game as well as it would add value to the gaming experience (Nelson, 2002). The argument that consumers are more positively disposed towards brand placements relative to more conventional forms of advertising is also supported by research investigating consumer’s attitudes to product placement in other media (Nebenzahl and Secunda, 2003). They also found that product placement was related favourably by 70% of people going to the cinema, extensively higher than ratings for pre-movie advertisements. As attitudinal surveys and focus groups showed, questioned consumers generally find product placements to be acceptable. They even said that it would enhance the value of the media as well as the entertainment value (Nelson et al., 2004). On the other hand, some of the polled consumers, in most cases women from countries like the U.S., Austria, France and Singapore are not that positive about the acceptability of ethically-charged products. They claim that such things like guns, cigarettes or alcohol in media would be targeted at children (Nelson et al., 2004). According to information from PRNewswire (2008) women do also play computer games with that kind of content like action games or shooter. So it depends on the attitude of the individual and the kind of placement used in the media. In most cases when guns are placed in a computer game, it target adults (PRNewswire, 2008). In Germany for example, it is controlled by law what kind of games need to be censored or not. All this is the executed by an institution called USK. If a computer game is not checked by the USK, it is not coming out. And if it contains explicit violence and language, it may only be sold to adults which is from 18 years on. 2.5 Brand Equity and Social Trust Many customers buy needed goods by habit, are drawn to purchase by promotions, or simply do not pay much attention to which brand they buy (Walshe and Fearn, 2008). Therefore it is important for marketers to draw customers’ attention, convince them to prefer their product blindly and make them to trust in the product. Brand equity is depicted to be known by Yoo and Donthu (2002) to create customers’ blind preference for a brand over its competing brands. Brand equity also increases the company’s value by affecting the decision making in terms of merger and acquisition, stock market responses and the extendibility of a brand name. Brand equity measures most of which have long been used by marketers but which are only now being brought together as single intangible asset which in accounting terms, is brought forward at the start of the period and carried forward to the next (Ambler, 1997). As long as the marketers don’t do anything dreadful, traditional brand leaders will stay brand leaders. This can also be seen in the fact that the brand leaders in the 1920s were mostly the leaders 60 years later (Wurster, 1987). Brands with lower rankings normally hold their places. Ambler (1997) claims that the awareness is cognitive, as is our knowledge of a brand’s functional performance characteristics and price. Attitudes towards the brand are primarily affective. Most essentially, making use of regularly purchased brands is likely to be merely reinforced by advertising. Believing in a product blindly requires people’s trust in the company. To comprehend the importance of trust a definition of trust will now follow. ‘Trust is one of the most important synthetic forces within society’ (Simmel, 1950). Trust is needed to gain customers’ blind preference for a brand. Customers that trust in company’s products as well as in its established brands will buy these products in the future. Referring to this, for marketers it is an essential factor, that trust is built. This signifies that trust is controlled mentally. Ambler (1997) claims that as long marketers are engaged with what changes customer’s behaviour, mental stages of the customer cannot be ignored. While the customer perceives that a product represents a high profit, it is probable that the product will be bought in the future. Convincing a customer to consider another the own product to be better is very hard for a company to. If a product is favoured by the customer, then good arguments are needed by the marketer change the preferred product. By looking at features like customization in computer games like in many car-racing games it can be seen, that product placement can be implanted differently. Even the design or the car’s power can be adjusted. Very famous for that is for example the car racing game series Need for Speed. By implementing such features the player identifies himself with the brand, which in real life can results in an increased brand loyalty of the respective player. The virtually perceived quality then may have an impact on the gamer. A possible indicator of future performance might be the perceived quality which has been identified as a key; possibly it is the key (Gale, 1994). However, as we do not know the correlation it is hard to forecast which seems probable between perceived quality and trust. In a computer game, the perceived quality in a racing game may lead the player to believe the car he is driving with is unbeatable, but it is questionable whether it can be trusted in that car to be equal in reality. These examples show that the options of marketers in the game segment are enormous. Brands simplify the process of making decisions by acting as ‘summarized knowledge’. A brand reduces the need of the customer to undertake the time-consuming activity of ‘researching’ products (Morrison and Firmstone 2000). 2.6 Subliminal Messages in Media As already mentioned above, subliminal messages also appeared in media or still do. Embedding material in print, audio or video messages so faintly that they are not consciously perceived is called subliminal advertising (Rogers and Smith, 1993). Besides the attention, the capacity and the perception of in game advertising, there exists another theory. A lot of scientists say that subliminal messages do leave a mark on the brain. By using brain scanners, they found â€Å"we often record images we are not even aware of having seen† (Jha, 2007). Researchers from the University College of London proved on a psychological level that invisible subliminal images catch the brain’s attention on a subconscious level. Using a method called fMRI, this study investigated if it is possible images which the customer is not aware of – but ones that reach the retina – have any impact on activity of the brain in the primary visual cortex, part of the occipital lobe (Smith, Lewis, 2007). The brain of the subjects did act in response to the object even when they did not know about having seen it (Smith, Lewis, 2007). At a basic level, people perceive messages differently when they are presented in the form of an advertisement than when they are written in the form of other types of communications as the same literal content can result in different consumer perceptions (Rotfeld, 2008). The research of the University College of London tackles the theory of William James, a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher (1842-1910), who once said: â€Å"We are conscious of what we attend to, and not conscious of what we do not attend to† (Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, 2007). Within several tests scientists found out that there are situations where consciousness and attention don’t accompany each other. Nevertheless, the research also indicated that when the brain doesn’t have enough capacity to attend to an im age, even subconsciously perceived images simply do not get realized (Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, 2007). According to Rogers and Smith (1993) many people in the public have heard of the term ‘subliminal advertising’ and know about its importance. They also claim that as the public understands the basics of the concept they believe it not only to be used by advertisers but also to be successful in influencing brand choice and purchase behaviour. Zanot (1984) examined 38 studies of American attitudes to advertising from the 1930s to the 1970s. He found that these became increasingly negative over time, perhaps reflecting increases in the volume of advertising, the growth of consumerism and rising concerns about the social responsibility of business. According to studies conducted by Zanot, Pincus and Lamp (1983) after a survey of 209 adults in Washington, DC it was reported that 81% had heard of subliminal advertising and that respondents believe that subliminal advertising is widely and frequently used and that it is successfully in selling products. According to Rogers and Smith (1993), these results were confirmed in separate surveys conducted later. They also conducted an own study to prove whether the results are still valid or not, and it was proved again. Heyder et al. (1992) compared attitudes across several East and Western Europe countries. They also found more positive attitudes in Britain than in France or West Germany, although Czecheslovakia emerged as the country best disposed to advertising. Attitudes were however less favourable in Poland, Hungary and East Germany. 2.7 Effectiveness of Product Placement Brand Recognition and Recall Even though advertising through digital games appears widely in popular print media and industry magazines there are only a few empirical studies attempt to explain the effects of the ads that target game players. Today the increasing brand awareness is amid the most ordinary goals advertisers have when product placement in games is used. Often it is assumed that the amount of people playing a game is equal to the number of people that actually pays attention to brand names turning up in the game. As a game player is busy playing the game then this is what occupies primary attention. It is important for advertisers to find out whether their brand name is being noticed at all since brand names displayed in a game are not the focal object of attention (Lee and Faber, 2007). According to Lee and Faber (2007), â€Å"most cognitive psychologists believe that attention is the progress of allocating cognitive capacity to an object or task†. Furthermore, researchers frequently focus their attention on two issues: on the one hand on the selective aspect on the other on the intensive aspect. Lee and Faber (2007) also claim that the intensity of attention relates to the amount of cognitive capacity. This intensity of attention is allocated to a particular task as well as the selectivity which refers to selective allocation of cognitive capacity to a certain task in preference to others. Beside the attention, there is also the capacity that should be thought of. As the player is attentive it might be that the brain does not have enough capacity to handle all the absorbed information. To explain both, the selective and intensive aspects of attention, the limited-capacity model of attention was generated (Kahneman 1973). This model makes use of the assumption that ones entire attentional capacity is limited at any moment (Kahneman, 1973). Even with a strong attention, it might be difficult as there is no capacity to handle the mass of information. Kahneman (1973) claims that the entire capacity that is allocated to execute all actions can be split into two parts: on the one hand there is capacity devoted to the primary task and on the other hand there can be regarded spare capacity (Kahneman 1973; Lynch and Srull 1982). According to scientists, spare capacity attends to secondary tasks and other surroundings. They also say that the capacity that is used to perform the primary task cannot be used for the secondary task as the more capacity is used for the primary task, the less is available for the person – in the context of this paper the gamer – to accomplish any secondary task. Both, primary task capacity and spare capacity are central to understand the how in-game ads are working in terms of product placement on brand memory. According to Lee and Faber (2007), playing the game is the primary task that players perform. Processing advertisements embedded in the game is then the secondary task. As more attentional capacity is needed to apply oneself to playing the game, the less will be accessible for handling brand information. Similar to industry measures, academics have relied seriously on memory-based measures. Examples for those can be aided and unaided recall, recognition, and sometimes on acceptance, reported usage behavior and perceived ethical factors related to product placement (Gupta and Gould, 1997; Karrh, Firth, and Callison, 2001; Morton and Friedman, 2002; Russel. 2002; Sargent, 2001). Andrà © Sonder, New Business Director of IGA Wordwide, subsidiary of Microsoft responsible for co-oper sations in matters of advertising, provides reasons for computer games as advertising medium. On one hand, he claims, that investigations showed that in particular men between the age of 18 and 34 have a six to seven times higher cognition while gaming than while watching primetime TV-Shows. In-game ads are for that reason very effective as the player is very concentrated and ads can be better recognized than in television. (Aichinger, 2006) Displaying brand identifiers in the games may be comparable to product placements in TV shows or in films in various ways. However in other ways, playing games is in some way different compared with watching a movie or TV program, and the force and consequences of product placements may, as a result of that differ. The major difference may be in the scope of involvement and its effects on the resources concerning attention. While gamer interact with the game actively by managing and influencing what happens in the game a ‘TV watcher’ passively just ‘watches’ television or movies (Nicovich 2005). Compared with movie or TV product placements, noticing a brand and remembering it may be more difficult in the game context to a considerable degree. This might be due to its immersive nature (Chancy, Lin, and Chancy 2004; Nicovich 2005). To create a to some extent on-of-a-kind situation for in-games this distinction may also interact with other variables. According to a study to investigate the effects of product placement in games on brand recall which was analyzed by Nelson (2002), it was found that 95% of the participants were able to recall the brand of the car they drove during the game spontaneously. Nevertheless, on the other side, recall declined to 0% after a five-month post-play period. 2.8 Effectiveness of in-game ads studies There are a few studies around product placement concerning computer games. The British company Bunnyfoot offers the op

Mobile Phones Essay -- Technology

In their relatively short period of widespread use since their introduction in 1978 (Agar, 2003), handheld mobile telephones have had a significant impact across the globe on a social and economic level, however the long term impact of their use is difficult to predict. Despite this, mobile use in Australia has rapidly grown to rate of almost 130 phones per 100 people (MNO Directory, 2011), one of the highest in the world. Increasingly, consumers are purchasing smart phones, which have the same capabilities as computers in terms of internet access and processing power (Macmillan, 2007). These modern â€Å"smart phones† also allow for advanced features, such as mobile high-speed access to the internet and social media, and the ability to create, consume and share multi media all from the one device. This always on connectivity has, however, raised concerns regarding the outcomes of constant exposure to mobile phone radiation, but despite the potential risks, Australians continu e to use mobile telephones and their various features more than ever before. The use of social networking applications, such as Facebook and Twitter, on mobile devices has been rapidly rising, and it has been estimated that there are 925 million users of mobile social networking worldwide in 2012 (Meyers, 2008). With modern smart phones being able to access the internet in almost the same way as a desktop computer, the mobile phone has changed from a communication device, to something that constantly connects people with not only other people, but provides a constant source of new information and media. While current research suggests that use of the internet use can strengthen social contact, community engagement and attachment (Ellison, 2007), certain exper... ...ederal Communications Commission"FAQS - Wireless Phones". n.d.. http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/faqs-wireless-phones#evidence (accessed 14/05/2012). Garnell, C. "Apps: the future of tech or a passing fad?". April 2011. http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/apps-the-future-of-tech-or-a-passing-fad--941212 (accessed 14/05/2012). MacMillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. 2ed. Macmillan, 2007. Macrae, F. "Mobile phones CAN increase cancer risk: Shock finding by major study". The Daily Mail, 2011. Meyers, J. US Mobile Social Networking and the Millennial Generation. Scottsdale: InStat, 2008. MNO Directory"Australia Mobile Market Q1 2008 - Q1 2011, PDF Report". 2011. http://mnodirectory.com/Australia.htm (accessed 15/05/2012). Sigman, A. "Decline In Face-to-Face Contact Linked to Biological Changes in Humans". Biologist, 2009, 2.

The Grifters :: English Literature Essays

The Grifters Symbolism in The Grifters The Novel and Film of The Grifters had many uses of symbolism, supporting the theme of sexual corruption, and the fall of the three main characters’ craft of the grift. In the novel, symbolism was tougher to pick out. However, the descriptions of the characters created symbolic visualizations of their personalities and human nature. The film had more obvious uses of symbolism through the choice of women’s clothes, the character’s actions, and their language. In the film, symbolism was everywhere. In the beginning of the film, the pictures of the city were in black and white and dull shades, giving the city a gloomy look. The camera angles made the cars in the city appear tiny, and the buildings appear very large to symbolize how small everything was amongst the city. The interiors of the office buildings and the panic symbolized that there was no way out. The soundtrack of the film was symbolic to the tension of the film. The darkness of visual composition of the lighting in the film, symbolized the darkness of the human nature in the story. Roy’s character as a conman is revealed early in the story when he was puking after the blow to his stomach due to an unsuccessful con job. In the novel, he told the cop that he was just sick; symbolizing that he was a manipulator, and was used to lying. In the beginning of the film, Roy answered to the cop with, â€Å"some bad shrimp†¦,† which was extremely ironic to me because it symbolized that something was a bit fishy about Roy’s character. In the film, Roy hid his money behind clown paintings, which symbolized the joke of his grift. The irony was that he took his grift so seriously. In establishing Lilly’s character, the author of the novel used the line, â€Å"Roy danced around her in helpless rage,† which to me symbolizes her dominance. Moira was compared to a â€Å"kitty† early on in the novel, which symbolized her feistiness. The film showed the hotel elevator descending to symbolize Moira going to Hell. At the close of the story in both the novel and the film, Lily wore Moira’s red dress after killing her; symbolizing the blood of both their deaths. The women themselves were symbols of excitement empowered by their sexuality. A minor character in the film and a more prominent character in the novel was Nurse Carol.