Rhetorical Analysis for “Ways of Talking” Essay

The optimist sees the rose and not its thornsÍ ¾ the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose†, said Kahil Gibran, a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer. In other words, optimists see the more favorable side of the flower, the beauty of the rose, while pessimists focus on the negative parts, blinding their view of the beauty. Ha Jin’s poem relates to this because he illustrates the change from a pessimist to an optimist. In his poem â€Å"Ways of Talking†, Jin explicates the beauty that arises once we rid of our negative minds. Jin uses the word â€Å"grief† to explain that we used to choose to lament, then we couldn’t help to, and finally we stopped doing so. Why did he incorporate â€Å"grief†? Why not â€Å"mourning† or â€Å"bereavement†? Grief is a response to loss, as is mourningÍ ¾ although, mourning results in a loss that produces a strong emotional response, one much stronger than grief . Grief is used because Jin is getting across that whatever causes it can be overlookedÍ ¾ we need only to find the positive in losses. He includes repetition of â€Å"talking about/expressing grief† to elucidate the stages of choosing to focus on negatives, being able to only see the negatives, and deciding to stop focusing on negatives.

Manifestations of Dementia

Manifestations of Dementia Melinda Godfrey GNUR543 St. John Fisher College Mrs. Yowell is a 90-year-old woman who is a resident of a long-term care facility. She was alert and mentally quite capable until about a year ago when she began to manifest signs and symptoms of dementia. A review of her medical records failed to document a thorough analysis of her dementia, but a diagnosis of â€Å"probable Alzheimer disease† was recorded. What are the common manifestations of dementia? The definition of Dementia is â€Å"a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life.It is caused by physical changes in the brain. † (Common Types of Dementia, 2012). The first manifestations of Dementia usually are: * Loss of memory – generally the patient doesn’t notice the loss of memory but a loved one will. This is generally the entree into the physician’s office leading to a diagnosis. * Trouble focusing and follo wing conversations – the patient is unable to handle more than one task at a time and will not be able to perform a task and listen to or follow a conversation easily. * Impaired judgment and reasoning – patients become confused and are unable to cope as well when unexpected events come up.Other symptoms could include: mood changes, personality and behavior changes. As noted, dementia is not a disease itself but a cluster of cognitive changes. The onset symptom of dementia can vary depending on the disease or syndrome that is associated (Common Types of Dementia, 2012). The major dementia diseases or syndromes are: 1. Alzheimer Disease (AD) – AD accounts for 60 – 80% of the cases of dementia (Shadlen & Larson, 2012). 2. Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) – DLB starts with progressive cognitive decline and usually the patient also has hallucinations, periods of lucidity and some rigidity.DLB has abnormal accumulations of protein structures in the patie nt’s brain (Dementia With Lewy Bodies Information Page, 2011). 3. Frontotemporal Dementia (FT) – FT is associated with the shrinking of the frontal and temporal anterior lobes of the brain (Frontotemporal Dementia Information Page, 2011). Generally the patient will have trouble with speech and behavior. 4. Vascular Dementia – This form of dementia results from many strokes. When a patient has a stroke, the blood flow is interrupted to the brain and the result is brain tissue damage (Types of Dementia, 2011).These patients normally lose their cognitive ability before their memory. 5. Parkinson Disease with Dementia – Approximately 40% of patients with Parkinson’s disease will have dementia (Parkinson’s disease, 2011). The nerve cells in the brain that make dopamine are slowly destroyed leaving no way for the brain to send messages. What other potentially treatable factors might have led to Mrs. Yowell’s deteriorating mental function? T here are many reasons that Mrs. Yowell may have impaired mental functioning (see Table 1). The first and easiest reason to rule out would be a urinary tract infection (UTI).A urine sample can show if there are white blood cells (indicating infection) present in the urine. The increased levels of bacteria in an elderly person’s body can cause toxicity which leads to the altered mental status (Midthun, 2004). Most noted changes are confusion, agitation and lethargy. Table 1| | (Shadlen & Larson, 2012)| Secondly, Mrs. Yowell could have vitamin deficiencies. For example, if a patient has low levels of thiamine they can develop Wernicke’s encephalopathy. This can cause damage in the brain to the thalamus and the hypothalamus.These patients will exhibit signs of confusion, loss of memory and hallucinations (Dugdale, 2010). If left untreated it can cause permanent damage but, it is usually corrected by injections of thiamine. Another cause of confusion/delirium in elderly pat ients is an adverse drug reaction or interactions with another drug. Mrs. Yowell could have been given a new medication that is directly affecting her mental status. Nearly 70% of residents in long term facilities take nine or more medications (Gillick, 2012). Elderly patients have slower clearance rates of drugs through their liver and kidney thus leading to drug accumulation (Gillick, 2012).There should be a regular review of medications in order to anticipate and keep on top of any potential changes. Discuss in detail the organic brain/neuronal alterations that are typical of Alzheimer disease? The changes that occur in the brain with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are threefold. The first is amyloid plaque, this is abnormal clumps of protein found outside of the nerve cells. The protein pieces are in the fatty membrane that is around the brains nerve cells. The amyloid is a protein that is snipped from a larger protein (amyloid precursor protein) during metabolism (Copstead, 20 10).These clumps form plaque and can block cell-to-cell signaling (Common Types of Dementia, 2012). In a healthy brain the fragments are broken down and eliminated before they turn into plaque. Without the ability to signal the brain may also activate the inflammatory response. At this point it is still not known whether the plaque causes or is created by AD. Secondly, inside the nerve cells there is a protein called tau. This protein is normally helps maintain the cell structure allowing proper nutrition and signaling. The tau protein in AD is changed into twisted strands, called tangles (Common Types of Dementia, 2012).It is said that the changes are brought on by the phosphorylating enzymes which are activated by inflammatory changes, lipid abnormalities and aging (Copstead, 2010). Thirdly, the brain is losing connectivity between nerve cells and cells are dying which results in permanent brain damage. Other changes in the brain include shrinking of the hippocampus and cortex. AD also shows an increase in ventricles. The progression of the damage in the AD brain is predictable. According to the Alzheimer’s research center, the plaques and tangles spread through the cortex in a predictable fashion (Common Types of Dementia, 2012).Summary Scientists believe that the cause of AD is multi-factorial. IT could be a combination of genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors. Specifically, it is believed that a person with diabetes, depression or heart disease is more likely to develop AD (Copstead, 2010). There is a link to a gene, APOe4 that is thought to be associated with late onset AD. However, studies have shown it is not present in some cases of AD and is present in cases with no AD (Common Types of Dementia, 2012). At this point the definitive diagnosis of AD can only be obtained after death (Common Types of Dementia, 012). This means that clinicians must ask the right questions to diagnose this disease. AD is still quite unknown as to the order of the changes that occur in the brain. As more research is conducted we will be able to identify the manifestations of the disease earlier and slow the progression of AD. References Common Types of Dementia. (2012). Retrieved March 14, 2012, from Alzheimer's Association: http://www. alz. org Copstead, L. -E. C. (2010). Pathophysiology. St. Louis: Saunders. Dementia With Lewy Bodies Information Page. (2011, December 28).Retrieved March 8, 2012, from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: http://www. ninds. nih. gov Dugdale, I. M. (2010, February 6). Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from Medline Plus: http://www. nlm. nih. gov/medlineplus Frontotemporal Dementia Information Page. (2011, December 28). Retrieved March 8, 2012, from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: http://www. ninds. nih. gov Gillick, M. M. (2012, February 22). Medical Care of the Nursing Home Patient in the United States. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from UpToD ate: http://www. uptodate. com Lexicomp. 2012). Retrieved February 5, 2012, from Lexicomp: https://online-lexi. com Midthun, M. R. (2004). Criteria for Urinary Tract Infections. Retrieved March 4, 2012, from Medscape: http://www. medscape. com Parkinson’s disease. (2011, September 26). Retrieved March 5, 2012, from PubMed Health: http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov Shadlen, M. -F. M. , ; Larson, E. B. (2012, February 10). Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from UpToDate: http://www. uptodate. com Types of Dementia. (2011, June 23). Retrieved March 14, 2012, from Cleveland Clinic: http://my. clevelandclinic. org

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 12

12.Alchemy The Chinese herb shop smelled like licorice and dried monkey butt. The Animals were piled into the narrow aisle between counters, trying to hide behind Troy Lee's grandmother and failing spectacularly. Behind a glass case, the shopkeeper looked older and more spooky than Grandma Lee, which none of them thought possible until now. It was like he'd been carved from an apple, then left on the windowsill to dry for a hundred years. The walls of the shop were lined, floor to ceiling, with little drawers of dark wood, each with a small bronze frame and a white card with Chinese characters written on it. The old man stood behind glass cases that held all manner of desiccated plant and animal bits, from whole sea horses and tiny birds, to shark parts and scorpion tails, to odd spiky bits that looked like they'd been flown in from another planet. â€Å"What's that?† Drew asked Troy Lee from under a veil of stringy blond hair. He pointed to a wrinkled black thing. Troy Lee said something in Cantonese to Grandma, who said something to the shopkeeper, who barked something back. â€Å"Bear penis,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"Should we score some?† asked Drew. â€Å"For what?† asked Troy. â€Å"An emergency,† said Drew. â€Å"Sure, okay,† said Troy Lee, then he said something to Grandma in Cantonese. There was an exchange with the shopkeeper, after which Troy said, â€Å"How much do you want? It's fifty bucks a gram.† â€Å"Whoa,† said Barry. â€Å"That's expensive.† â€Å"He says it's the best dried bear penis you can buy,† said Troy Lee. â€Å"Okay,† said Drew. â€Å"A gram.† Troy passed the order through Grandma to the shopkeeper. He snipped a tip off a bear penis, weighed it, and placed it on the pile of herbs in the sheet of paper he had laid on the counter for Drew. Grandma's paper was much larger, and the shopkeeper had been tottering around the shop for half an hour gathering the ingredients. At one point when the old man was up on the top of the ladder at the far back corner of the shop, the Animals had leapt the counter and laced their arms together as a human rescue net, which served only to scare the bejeezus out of the shopkeeper and set Grandma off in a tirade of Cantonese scolding, to which they all responded like dogs, paying her rapt attention and tilting their heads as if they actually had some idea of what the fuck she was talking about. Lately the Animals had been all about saving lives. Most of the time, guys their age would be fairly convinced of their immortality, or at least oblivious of their mortality, but since being murdered by a blue hooker turned vampire, then resurrected as vampires, then restored to living by Foo Dog's genetic alchemy, they had been feeling what they could only describe as Jesusy. â€Å"I'm feeling extra Jesusy,† said Jeff, the tall jock. â€Å"I always feel extra Jesusy,† said Clint, who always did. â€Å"Yeah, extra Jesusy, bitches! Let's go save some mother-fuckers!† Lash had shouted, which had sort of embarrassed everyone a little, since they had been sitting around a table in Starbucks at the time, discussing the attack of the cat cloud and the information they'd exchanged with the two homicide cops. â€Å"It's up to us,† Lash added softly, sort of slinking into his hoody and putting on his shades. Now they watched as the old shopkeeper folded up Grandma Lee's bundle of ingredients and tucked in the paper so it was as tight as a toothpick spliff, then flipped the package over and wrote some Chinese characters on the back with a carpenter's pencil. â€Å"What's it say?† Barry asked Troy Lee. â€Å"It says, ‘vampire cat remedy.'† â€Å"No shit?† â€Å"Yeah. Then there's a bunch of warnings about side effects.† An hour later they were sitting around the Lee kitchen table, waiting for the big twenty-quart soup pot on the stove to come to a boil. Grandma Lee rose from her chair and tottered over to the stove with her package of herbs. Troy Lee joined her, helped her unwrap the package, and held the paper away from the burner as she scooped handfuls of herbs and animal parts into the boiling water. Foul and magical fumes bubbled out of the kettle, like the flatulence of dragons on a demon-only diet. â€Å"This really going to work, Grandma?† Troy Lee asked in Cantonese. â€Å"Oh yeah. We used it when I was a girl in China and some vampire cats invaded the city.† â€Å"And they still have the recipe in a shop down on Stockton Street?† â€Å"It's a good recipe.† She scooped the last of the package into the water. â€Å"How do you use this stuff, anyway?† â€Å"With firecrackers.† â€Å"It's wet, how are you going to use firecrackers?† â€Å"I don't know how, I just like firecrackers.† The Animals covered their noses and started filing out of the kitchen. â€Å"That smells like fermented skunk ass,† said Jeff. Grandma said something in Cantonese, followed by â€Å"My bitches,† pronounced in frighteningly accentless English. â€Å"What? What'd she say?† asked Jeff. â€Å"She says, ‘That's how you know it's a good recipe, gents,'† said Troy Lee. THE EMPEROR A dark basement. A thousand sleeping vampire cats. One formerly human vampire. One huge, shaved vampire-cat hybrid. Five matches left. No way out. A half hour, maybe less, until sundown. The Emperor was not a man to use profanity, but after he assessed his situation and burned his fingers with his fourth to last match, he said, â€Å"Well, this blows.† There was no helping it, sometimes a man, even a brave and noble man, must speak the harsh truth, and his situation, did, indeed, blow. He'd tried everything he could think of to escape the basement, from building a stairway to the window with empty fifty-five-gallon drums, to screaming for help like a man on fire, but even on a platform of oil drums he couldn't find the leverage or the strength to move the Dumpster away from the window. He could hear Bummer and Lazarus whimpering outside in the alley. All the other windows had been bricked up, all the steel fire doors were bolted, and, of course, the elevators and cables were long gone from the shafts (which he'd discovered after an hour prying the doors open with a metal support bar he'd taken off one of the shelves where Tommy Flood lay curled up with the Chet-thing). A dusty spray of twilight filtered down the elevator shaft from somewhere above, and it was by this that the Emperor ascertained that there was no way to climb the shaft, and that now it was dangerously close to sundown, as the light had turned a dim orange color. He would fight, oh yes, he would not go down without a battle, but even the magnificently agile little swordsman had gone down to the attacking pounce of cats. What chance did he stand in the dark with only a metal bar? He'd already checked the empty oil drums for accelerants, hoping he might burn his enemies before they awakened, but he'd had no luck. The barrels had had dry goods or something solid in them, and even so, he wasn't sure how he'd avoid being suffocated by burning cat fumes. Then, in thinking about how he might escape the flames, it occurred to him how he might escape. He made his way back to the storeroom where Chet and Tommy lay, and lit one of his precious matches to get his bearings. Yes, there was still a bolt on the door, and in addition there were enough barrels and shelves to construct a barricade beyond that. The match went out and he felt his way across the room until he touched Tommy's back-cold flesh. He took his ex-friend under the armpits and dragged him off the shelf and across the room, bumping through the door-way as he went. He shoved the body to the side and cringed with the crunch it made, falling onto the immobile bodies of dead cats. Back through dark, feeling around until he found Chet's fur. He felt for what he thought were the front paws, then backed across the room again, the huge shaved vampire cat in tow. Chet was lighter than Tommy had been, but not by much, and the Emperor was winded. He couldn't afford to sit. The ray of light in the elevator shaft had gone deep red. He heard Bummer let out a ruff beyond the window. â€Å"Run, men, away! Go away from this place. I'll find you in the morning. Go!† He never raised his voice to the men, even when they were in peril, and he heard Lazarus whimper at his command, but then the sound of Bummer growling while being dragged away by the scruff of his neck. He would get the message after a block or so. The men were safe. He pulled the metal door shut, then yanked on it until he heard a click. Then spent the second to the last of his matches looking at the simple bolt, and taking a last look around the room, trying to memorize the layout of the barrels and shelves that he would have to move in the dark. As the match burned out, he heard stirring in the room outside. There was a rack of metal shelves to the right of the door. He grabbed them and overturned them in the doorway. Yes, the door opened out, but what could it hurt. The more he put between himself and the vampire cats, the better. He scooped up armloads of the clothing at his feet and tossed them over the shelves, then backed across the room, throwing everything he touched in front of him, as if he were tunneling out the other side. Finally, he crawled up in the heavy shelf where Tommy and Chet had been and crouched, facing the door. He felt for the handle of the kitchen knife that he'd tucked in his belt at the small of his back, drew it, and held it before him. There were distinct cat noises-yowls, hisses, and meows, coming from the room outside. They were awake, up, and moving. There was a tentative scratch at the door, then a whirr of scratching, like someone had turned a power sander on outside, then it stopped as quickly as it had started and all he could hear was his own breathing. No. There was movement. The slight rustle of cloth, then a low, trilling purr. And it was coming from inside the door, he was sure of it. The Emperor clamped the knife in his teeth and lit his last match. The room was as he thought it would be, a pile of debris and barrels, but swirling out from under shelving in front of the door was a layer of mist, moving across the floor toward him, undulating in tiny waves that approximated the sound of a purr.

The importance of Theology for Counseling Essay

The importance of Theology for Counseling - Essay Example Other factors that may relate to therapists' use of theology interventions in counseling, such as their professional beliefs, attitudes, or values regarding religious and spiritual interventions; clinical training involving religious issues; or personal counseling experiences with a therapist who used religion and spirituality in counseling, have yet to be investigated. The purpose of the current paper is to examine the importance of theology in counseling. First, we review the research previously done in theology for counseling, further we present the importance of theology in counseling of depression. The most frequently identified factor associated with the use of theology in counseling has been therapists' personal religious attitudes or behaviors. Church attendance and personal religious behaviors, in particular, correlate with therapists' use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling. For example, Shafranske and Malony (1990b) surveyed 409 clinical psychologists and found that greater involvement in organized religion correlated .27 with the use of religious and spiritual interventions. Jones et al. ... f four religious behaviors (i.e., personal prayer and Bible study, church attendance, participation in church activities, and financial contributions to church) correlated .41 with the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling. The use of theology in counseling has also been found to relate to therapists' religious attitudes. In two separate surveys of 409 and 47 clinical psychologists, Shafranske and Malony (1990a, 1990b) found that clinical psychologists who approached religion in terms of answering personal questions of meaning rather than religious affiliation were more likely to use religious and spiritual interventions in counseling and to consider themselves competent to use such interventions. In a similar vein, DiBlasio and his colleagues (DiBlasio, 1993; DiBlasio & Benda, 1991; DiBlasio & Proctor, 1993) found in several studies of social workers and marriage and family therapists that therapists who endorsed a greater degree of what they termed "religious openness" were more likely to use forgiveness as an intervention in counseling. Thus, previous research has found that both religious attitudes (particularly attitudes of openness and of gaining personal meaning from religion) and religious behaviors have correlated with the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling. Among religious behaviors, both church attendance and personal religious behaviors, such as personal prayer and personal Bible study, have been particularly relevant to the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling. Of relevance to our study is the fact that previous studies have typically examined religious attitudes or religious behaviors independently of each other rather than examining them concurrently. Worthington, Kurusu, McCullough,

Continuing Academic Success Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Continuing Academic Success - Essay Example of objective formulation in education can be metaphorically represented by a destination which without, an individual may find the purpose of travelling thus would consider either going back home or wonder aimlessly. In this program, my goal is to get a†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. grade, which will be a significant improvement from the previous term’s†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. grade. Setting up an objective does not end by a merely stated idea. However, the essentiality of the set goal will only be marked when proper measures and schedules are structured to act as a guide for achieving the set goal. In this light, the measures that I consider essential in meeting up my goal of improving my grade are to spend more time in the library. Spending more time will not mean going to relax in the library; rather it will mean spending more time for personal studies as well as more research on the units I am undertaking. Initiating effective consultations is also important as it will allow me to engage more with the teachers at an individual level and get help in key academic areas that may prove a challenge in attaining the set target. Knowing and keeping to the identified style of learning would not only help me in my academic achievements, but will also be of significance to my future career pursuits. This will be in line with my ability to do personal work without supervision hence enhancing my productivity at the workplace. I consider the writing process very important in the advancement of my education as well as in my career advancement. The scope of applying effective writing is very wide, and is mainly associated with the need for effective communication. In my educational program, writing marks the main mechanisms through which my development is evaluated in relation to the progress that I make towards my career dreams. Effective communication through writing up my papers enables the teachers to determine how well I am growing and provides the foundation through which they can offer advice

Whistle-blowing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Whistle-blowing - Research Paper Example As high officials in the organization, they became privy to information that they thought would be damaging to the company. The Government Accountability Project (GAP) defined a whistle blower as: An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. Typically, whistleblowers speak out to parties that can influence and rectify the situation. These parties include the media, organizational managers, hotlines, or Congressional members/staff, to name a few. These 3 women could not be properly called whistle blowers under the rules cited in Chap 4 of Whistle blowing,:â€Å"employees who follows established procedures is not a whistleblower† As in definition above, whistle blowing should take into account to whom the information is given in order to achieve the desired change. Merely passing information to higher authorities in the organization is not whistle blowing and is only part of their duties. Their testimony in Congress could not be called whistle blowing as they were legally required to do so, and were not done voluntarily. Their memos only formed part of exhibits for testimony. Rowley could not be a whistle blower because her position requires utmost confidentiality, so she could not divulge to outer sources. Watkin’s advise. When Sherron Watkins wrote a lengthy memo to her boss, Ken Lay, she knew of the ticking time bomb that would explode into a scandal. She uncovered fraud that involved many persons in the organization. When she advised Ken Lay to develop a â€Å"clean up Plan†, she probably meant to have an organizational clean up that would correct the system, and purge erring employees. In an ethical perspective, she was

The Capital Budget Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Capital Budget - Research Paper Example Furthermore, better compensation increases the employee morale, generally, given that the increase is awarded in an equitable manner. In other words, employee morale is boosted if the increase in compensation is awarded in respect to the level of productivity of individual employees rather than granting a blanket increment Figure 1: Projected increase in Revenue to to increase in compensation Trend Analysis As shown in figure 2, annual expenditure has been greater than revenues for the past several years until 2002 when an opposite trend was observed. Generally, the expenditure has been declining since 2008. This rate of decline has been most drastic from 2011, but the management seems to be effectively controlling the operating expenses because the gap between revenues and expenditure seems to be closing up. It is very important for the management to ensure that as the cost declines, good measures should be put to ensure that the contribution margin does not decline as well (City of Cincinnati Ohio, 2012). 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Expenditure 365,000,000 356,000,000 356,000,000 354,000,000 334,000,000 Revenue 357,500,000 338,500,000 337,000,000 337,000,000 337,000,000 Table 1: Expenditure trend Figure 2: Expenditure Trend Expenditure Forecast The health expenditure, which finances the services by the city’s health clinics to those patients that are qualifying has been declining since 2010 and it is expected to maintain a slight decline to 2017. This cost should be approached because, although it consumes a substantial proportion of the council’s budget, health services are very fundamental and furthermore the decline shows that the council has been undertaking a cost cutting measure (City of Cincinnati Ohio, 2012). 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Health 23,574,570 19,450,210 20,128,510 19,256,458 19,126,895 19,100,568 18,458,000 18,456,123 Fire 92,832,430 98,662,160 94,358,450 93,125,145 92,125,256 92,125,365 91,125,458 90,125,456 Public servivce 22,291,010 20,015,980 19,963,240 19,256,125 18,125,456 18,125,100 17,124,896 17,100,125 police 139,110,860 146,175,220 132,888,620 135,568,456 125,456,256 120,124,562 119,136,100 118,256,362 Figure 2: Four of the highest expenditure (5 years forecast) The fire expenditure seems to be consuming a very big proportion of the council’s budget, however, this expenditure has reduced since 2010 and the forecast exhibits the same trend of reduction. Therefore, this budget will be approved. Public services have a trend very similar with health and the cost cutting measures are evident, therefore, it is likely to be approved. Finally, the police takes the highest share of the council’s budget. Given that security is very essential as it determines the success of all other activities, the high budget is justifiable. It is also evident that this figure has been on the decline since 2012 and there it is likely to be approved (Weiss & Mark, 1989). Capital Budget There are t wo methods of predicting the cost of needed repairs including qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative forecasting methods make use of judgements to predict cost. This method is most suitable when used in situations where the historical data is not available. Furthermore, availability of historical data is sometimes considered irrelevant because of significant changes that take place in the environmental conditions afflicting the pertinent time. For instance, it

Plan for your Professional Development Assignment

Plan for your Professional Development - Assignment Example The stated program provides the students knowledge and skills for success which opens up a wide ranging opportunities in their lives. It is known to all professional students that the global environment of market place in constantly changing. Slowly and gradually, the global market place is becoming competitive and huge complex. Therefore, it is necessary for me to understand the courses under the program to taste success in the near future. If the opportunities are taken into account at first, it can be said the teachers successfully completing the course can think of a salary rise while others who are involved in educating children can stay connected with the latest trends or fashion in the market and therefore can serve the students in efficient fashion. The course will contribute in enriching the adult teaching theories as well as explore the design and implementation of the theories in the practical scenario. The focus of the course lies upon understanding the diversity as well as creating the inclusive learning environments. The course curriculum is designed for the professionals, who are interested in working with adult learners in the fields of corporate training, community as well as government agencies and post secondary institutions (Strayer, 2013). . These courses will help me to explore myself in future educational environment. Proper in-depth understanding about the coursework will help me to pursue the dream which I want to attain in the near future. Education is always treated as a noble job and when it comes to teaching adults in the various academic o the corporate arena, then it lures up much more excitement. Answer 2: Assessment of Knowledge, skills and experience The course period will provide me a thorough understanding of the adult learning theory. It will also contribute in analyzing the impact of adult learning on the community as a whole and on the society. It will provide me the requisite knowledge to develop and design the institutio nal content that incorporates the theory relating to adult leaning as well as meet the learning goals. The course content and the curriculum are highly effective to strengthen the communication skills to effectively deliver the content and keep the learners interested in a variety of settings. It is important to keep the interests of the learners intact for any learning course. The analytical plans will laid out the format to deliver effective teaching modules. The familiarity with the online teaching systems will contribute in habituating the learners with the online method and facilitate the adult learning. Proper understanding of theories and practices will help me to increase my level of knowledge, skills and experience. High level of knowledge, skills and experience will help me to increase my number of strengths in order to solve several critical and real time practical issues and problems within the environment (Adair, 2013). Data Analysis (Presentation), Conduct Market Resea rch (Lead a Department) and Detect Problems or Error (Organize Programs) are three major strengths that can be applied to current or future educational environment. The adult education theories and the case studies will significantly increase my level of practical understanding. Moreover, this educational process will help me create knowledge, skills

Online learning and cultural issues Research Paper

Online learning and cultural issues - Research Paper Example Also effect sizes were found to be larger for studies that had the online instruction as collaborative or instructor-directed, as compared to those where online learners worked independently. Student learning outcomes were least impacted in the way in which various studies conducted online learning. Across various content and learner types, the effectiveness of the approaches of learning online appears to be massive. Another research of experimental and semi-experimental studies that compares various types of online learning standards report that candidate learning is usually comparable in both distance learning and face to face learning if a study compares a mixture of both to purely online conditions. It also concludes that objects such as video feed or online tests do not seem to impact the amount that students tend to learn in online classes. Online learning can be made effective by giving students control of their interactions with media and requesting for learner interaction as well. When a couple of students group together to learn online, support techniques such as guiding queries usually impact the way students interact, but does not influence the amount they learn (Means, et al., 2010). There were about half a dozen studies conducted from 1989-2004 that actually met the criteria for experimental validation to compare online and traditional courses. Based on this, the National Survey of Student Engagement research concluded that online learners have deeper approaches to learning as compared to classroom-based learners and they also claim to have experienced better use of polished thinking skills, combine thinking process and reflective learning (Susan and Allison, 2009). Another study describes strategies to build and maintain online learning communities. They suggest the effectiveness of setting aims, tasks and their results, role of an instructor, enhancing social comfort and scaffolding. The issues they addressed were cultural and individual differe nces, verbalization, and intimidation of technical skills to operate and interact online. They conclude by suggesting not to expect a radical change overnight to address the issues but further research on overcoming the issues from both the instructor’s end and the learners’ end (Ruth and Wing, 2002). Applications: There are many applications in use today for e-learning. They all emphasize in providing the qualities that would provide ease in communication and to bridge gaps between the student and teacher by employing effective techniques. eFront is the most widely used as it provides features to instructors as creating and managing lectures via visual content editors that support images, video and sound. It also provides a file sharing space which is organized by a file manager. It also provides the flexibility to assign assignments and generate surveys. Another tool is Moodle and its popularity is attributed to the fact that it is open source. Apart from course mana gement features, it provides support for chat between teachers and students. Dokeos is a tool that provides video conferencing capability along with chat and course management features. Claroline is the only tool to be translated in 35 other languages. It

Learning, Knowledge and Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Learning, Knowledge and Performance - Essay Example The discourse also considers the Kolb learning system and influences of improving the situation at Siemens. Siemens organization did not consider earlier knowledge management, yet it is an economic resource for the company. It is essential for Siemens to recognize that sharing of knowledge is a significant element of knowledge management. Knowledge management is not part of the success strategy in the learning and knowledge at Siemens. Employees own knowledge and incorporating them into institutional knowledge at Siemens relies on the cultural behavior regarding sharing knowledge (Morey, Maybury, Bhavani, &Thuraisingham2002, p. 23).It is the role of the company to inculcate the culture of knowledge sharing among employees. Employees at Siemens comprehend that sharing of knowledge is significant but do not share amongst them because they hold it an important asset that can make them remain valuable at the company (Sonbuchner 1991, p. 31). It is not possible to force employees to share knowledge neither is it advisable. However, employees induced or motivated to do so. The system at Siemens constitutes motivational methods to induce workers into adopting the behavior of sharing knowledge, the biggest cha llenge emanates from changing the current behavior of employees (MacKeracher 1996, p. 56). Changing behavior is directly proportional to the success of sharing knowledge and the effectiveness of knowledge management (Stewart & Rigg 2011, p. 41). The value of sharing knowledge in knowledge management requires understanding ways through which employees remain motivated to share knowledge in a way that helps the overall intellectual advantage of Siemens (Kiersey1984). The knowledge gaps at Siemens are barriers in attaining desired goals in the company (Jones& Carr 1987, p. 69). The climate and culture at Siemens play a significant role in developing the process of sharing knowledge among

Traditions of Western Religion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Traditions of Western Religion - Research Paper Example All the world’s major religions contain sects within it; some comingle with ease while others seem to share only mistrust and disdain. Much as Catholics and Protestants fought bloody battles for centuries, Sunni and Shiite Muslims are fighting territorial and political battles throughout the Middle East. This discussion will first address the similar history of all Muslims then the circumstances of the split. It will concentrate on Sunni, Shia, the Druze, a Shiite off-shoot belief and Wahhabism, a derivative of Sunni. The final section explores the contemporary conflicts of Islam’s two main sects. The central belief of all Muslims is that the Prophet Muhammad, who died in 632 AD, was Allah’s (Arabic for God) messenger. His revelations are recorded in the Qur’an and are followed by Muslims of all descriptions who also look to sayings of Muhammad, hadith, for inspiration and guidance. The concepts of justice, goodness and piety are essential to Islamic practices and belief system. Furthermore, all Muslims are directed to live their lives according to the five pillars of Islam: â€Å"(1) shahada—recital of the creed â€Å"There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet†; (2) salat—five obligatory prayers in a day; (3) zakat—giving alms to the poor; (4) sawm—fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan; and (5) hajj—making a pilgrimage to Mecca once during a lifetime if one is physically and financially able.† (Blanchard, 2009) The chief role of Muslim religious leaders is to interpret shari’a, or Islamic law. There are no strict codes or wording of laws such as westerners are accustomed. Rather, for both Shiite and Sunni Islam, shari’a allows for wider legal interpretations to fit the circumstance and greater flexibility for sentencing. The Sunni/Shiite split occurred near the begin nings of the Islamic religion. The main disagreement concerns the Prophet Muhammad’s successor and the type of leadership that would guide Muslim society. The long-standing and significant dispute centers on whether the leader(s) should be a direct descendant of the Prophet or could be a qualified, virtuous and devout person who would adhere to the customs of Islam. This issue was initially decided when Abu Bakr, a friend of the Prophet, was selected by community leaders to be the successor, or Caliph. While most Muslims accepted Bakr, a minority supported Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin of the Prophet’s and his son-in-law. Bakr was married to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. The term Shi’at Ali translates to â€Å"Ali’s helper.† Another important distinction that relates to modern times is the amount of reverence paid to the respective leaders of the two Islamic sects. Sunni Muslims give exalted status only to the prophets of the Quran and not to present day leaders. Shiites bestow imams with this lofty status. The Sunnis religious hierarchy is not adorned as elaborately, as highly esteemed and is not as politically powerful as the Shiite leadership. Because of this distinction, Sunnis tend to be more accommodating in permitting lay people to serve as spiritual leaders. Sunni religious leaders, as opposed to Shiites, have historically been subject to control by the state. Shiite leaders have enjoyed greater autonomy. (Blanchard, 2009) The Druze is a fairly populous yet little known yet sect of Islam because they want it that way. This mysterious group, numbering nearly one million in Syria alone, has endeavored for many centuries to shield their cultural lives from outsiders and keep their religious views secret. Druze prefers to live in isolation. They are

Googles Strategy in 2010 Essay Example for Free

Googles Strategy in 2010 Essay What is Google’s business model? The answer is complex because it makes up of lots of different factors. The top 10 principles of Google’s corporate philosophy is what keeps them doing what they do best. (Gamble, 2010, pg. C-175). 1.Focus on the user and all else will follow. 2.It’s best to do one thing really, really well. 3.Fast is better than slow. 4.Democracy on the web works. 5.You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer. 6.You can make money without doing evil. 7.There’s always more information out there. 8.The need for information crosses all borders. 9.You can be serious without a suit. 10.Great just isn’t good enough. Their mission statement is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. (www.google.com). These 10 principles have helped them achieve their goal within their mission statement. Google has kept it simple but efficient. These 10 principles have guided them from the beginning and it has work. They don’t need to fix something that is not broken. Examine the financial reports in the case to determine the company’s profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity ratios. Based on these ratios what is your assessment of the company’s performance? Justify your answer? Profitability ratios are measures of performance that indicate what the firm is earning on its sales or assets or equity. There are the operating profit margin, net profit margin, return on total assets, return on equity, and basic earning power ratios. (Mayo, 2007). Operating profit margin = Earnings before interest and taxes/Sales 8,381,189/23,650,563 = 35.4% Net profit margin = Earnings after interest and taxes/Sales 6,520,448/23,650,563 = 27.5% Return on total assets = Earnings after interest and taxes/Total assets 6,520,448/40,496,778 = 16.1% Return on equity = Earnings after interest and taxes/Equity 6,520,448/36,004,224 = 18.1% Basic earning power = earnings before interest and taxes/Total assets 8,381,189/40,496,778 = 20.6% Leverage ratios measure the firm’s use of debt financing. There are two ratios; debt/net worth ratio and debt ratio. (Mayo, 2007). Debt/net worth ratio = Debt/Equity 4,492,554/36,004,224 = 12.4% Debt ratio = Debt/Total assets 4,492,554/40,496,778 = 11.0% Activity ratios measure how rapidly the firm is turning its assets into cash. The two activity ratios are inventory turnover and receivables turnover. Google does not have any inventory so there is no inventory turnover. (Mayo, 2007). Receivables turnover = Annual sales/Accounts receivable 23,650,563/3,178,471 = 7.4% Liquidity ratios measure the ease of which assets may be converted into cash without loss. There are two liquidity ratios; quick and current ratio. (Mayo, 2007). Quick ratio = Current assets – Inventory/Current liabilities 29,166,958-0/2,747,467 = 10.6% Current ratio = Current assets/current liabilities 29,166,958/2,747,467 = 10.6% Since Google does not have any inventory, the quick ratio and current ratio is the same. This shows that Google does have more assets than current liabilities. Overall, Google is doing extremely well all over the board. Their debt ratio is low sitting at 11 percent. They paid their bills on time because their receivables turnover is sitting at 7 percent. Investors know that Google is a good company to buy stock into. Perform a SWOT analysis of Google. Strengths Number one search engine with established name Simple interface-user friendly Their interface has 88 different languages-Global usage Localized search results Infrastructure Weakness Contextual ads targeted by click fraud Can’t expand to offline products Opportunities Acquisitions of other business Increase online advertising Alliances/partnerships with other companies Launched their own operating system Google TV Threats Facebook Click fraud Yahoo, Microsoft, and Amazon Slow economy Describe Google’s value chain. What is the source of the company’s competitive advantage? Since Google does not have any â€Å"raw† materials to process into finished goods like a traditional company, their value chain is different. Ben Morrow (2009) their value chain is more nuanced. Google gathers all the web users it can (the raw material) by enticing them to use its stellar search product with highly relevant results delivered promptly. Then, through assorted â€Å"signs† (text advertisements) it directs these same web users in the form of traffic to its advertising partners who transform the traffic into â€Å"conversions† or sales on their sites (finished good). Their added value is that they know where to direct the users to their sites that they needed to go. The source of Google’s competitive advantage is learning by doing as stated by Hal R. Varian, Google’s chief economist (Lohr, 2008). Basically, they arelearning from their competitors. For example, with Microsoft antitrust problems, they are now making antitrust training is mandatory for Google managers (Lohr, 2008). Some of Google’s competitive advantages are their value, rarity, imitability, and substitutability. Value because it is part of their value chain. Rarity because their user interface is so simple and user friendly. Also, it is hard for competitors to imitate because of the large infrastructure requirements to serve the relevant pages quickly. Google has servers all over the world all synced up and all running on a very large quantity of RAM, fast computer memory. (Morrow, 2009). References Lohr, S. (July, 7, 2008). The New York Times. Google, Zen Master of the Market. Retrieved on April 11, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/technology/07google.html?pagewanted=1_r=1. Mayo, H. (2007). Basic Finance: An Introduction to Financial Institutions, Investments Management: 9 Edition. Thomson: United States. Morrow, B. (Feb. 22. 2009). Internal Analysis of Google Inc. Retrieved on April 11, 2012 from http://www.benmorrow.info/research/internal-analysis-of-google-inc/. Thomson A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., Strickland, A.J. ( 2012). Crafting Executing Strategy. McGraw-Hill.

Influencer Marketing On Twitter Marketing Essay

Influencer Marketing On Twitter Marketing Essay Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ have knowledgeable unprecedented growth over the last few years and are some of the most talked about destinations on the web. Social media offers an opportunity to connect and interact with your customers, analysis about your product, promote your brand and drive traffic to your website. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. This form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media. Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. Keywords: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics, Online Business, Web Branding, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Youtube What are the major social media sites? Many online services now have a social element, the five most important social media sites for businesses are: Facebook. Social network available in 70 languages with over 800 million members worldwide, and more than 425 million monthly active users logging in with mobile smart phones. Twitter. Micro blogging site where users post frequent 60 character messages with over 1 billion tweets sent a week. Google+. Social network launched in 2011, attracting 25 million members in its first month! Linkedin. Business focused networking site with over 8 million members in the UK, and 2 million companies profiles worldwide. Youtube. Video sharing site owned by Google, with 8 million unique visitors each month and 100 million people taking a social action (likes, shares, comments etc) every week. SOCIAL MARKETER FACEBOOK There are more than 800 million people using Facebook every day. This platform offers more than just a way to stay connected to friends and family; it is an essential tool in the B2B marketing toolbox. Facebook allows your business to be available to people on a trusted, popular platform, where prospects can see real people (their friends, family or colleagues) interacting with you and your brand. This sets the stage for you to build stronger, more immediate relationships with them. Facebook Pages can help your company build awareness, share interest, create loyalty, strengthen marketing, and promote peer-to-peer sharing. For that first split the elements of a Facebook page-and how you can take advantage of them: How to See and Be Seen An interaction can be defined as a summary of Likes, posts, or comments about the page. To show up in as many users top newsfeeds as possible, your content must be brand new, attractive, current and convincing. Then it becomes a cycle; you post content that gets Likes and comments, and your future content appears in the newsfeeds of those that Liked and commented on earlier content. Dont forget: as prospects interact with you through Likes, reposts, or shares, you should be tracking engagement. Facebook Groups The Group feature is useful for demonstrating your companys passion for a topic, and gathers like-minded people to share ideas. The best part is that the more people join your group, the more it gets promoted to their friends and networks, growing the groups popularity and growth. Creating a Facebook Group is a great way for businesses to create awareness, increase inbound links and promote loyalty. Facebook Lists Facebook launched this feature in response to Google+s circles, so it functions in a very similar way. You can subscribe to and organize lists for different topics or influencers you want to follow. As an example, you might have a list for Social Media Influencers and another list for competitors. Through lists you can easily view and post to select groups or a company, which makes it easier for you to monitor and engage. Facebook Promoted Posts Promoted posts show up in the newsfeed of all your fans and are visible to their friends as well. It becomes a sponsored story that is seen by more people than a regular post, so be sure that when you do choose to promote a post, it is strong, recent and gripping. It is pretty safe to say that businesses will never be able to compete with posts that are strictly entertainment-based or for social purposes only. But by using this promoted post feature, you can call attention to posts that you believe will generate the most impact. Facebook Ads While your Facebook ads need to appeal to your audience, think exterior the box. Use eye catching pictures and gripping language. Remember: youre competing for attention in a noisy environment. Facebook Apps Before the timeline changes took place, you could capture Likes via your welcome page by gating your content and encouraging users to Like your page for access to this exclusive content. This has gone away with timeline. Now Facebook gives you the option to feature up to twelve apps. Four of these apps are shown by default, with the remaining apps under the fold and only visible by clicking and expanding the tab on the right. Allowing you to change the apps appearing above the fold is one of the most interactive and engaging portions of the timeline and your best chance to showcase a call to action or offer that will convert. Consider the image a small advertisement rather than an image. SOCIAL MARKETER TWITTER In 2007, Twitter began as what many considered to be a flash-in-the-pan social media outlet, but as of 2011, Twitter had over 200million registered users and is one of the 10 most popular sites on the Internet anything but a passing phase. Companies that lack a strategic, lead-generating plan of attack for their Twitter accounts are losing out on access to a huge potential customer base and the opportunity to showcase themselves as social confidence, relevant businesses. Being followed on Twitter is an incredibly strong signal of online attraction for your business. Think of Twitter as the water cooler for B2B marketers: its energetic community where businesses can prospect leads and assemble as thought leaders to discuss relevant industry topics. B2B marketers are always striving to provide good content in an easily digestible and timely format. On Twitter, it is easy to quickly compose Tweets and messages aimed at those interested in your company or product. Twitter Following Becoming someones follower on Twitter accomplishes four goals: You identify Twitter accounts that will be relevant and interesting to you, your organization and your industry. You let people know that youre on Twitter, and encourage them to follow you back. Twitter is a great platform for engagement, so once you follow someone on Twitter you can work on starting a conversation. Guidelines for Following Find people to follow by importing your contact databases using tools that Twitter provides. Be sure to also follow people that your competitors are following. Do a search for experts in the field who are tweeting. If possible, try to make sure to follow back relevant people and companies that are following you. You dont want to upset scenario, customers or partners by not following them! Twitter provides easy search functionality so that you can find people that are talking about your company and your industry. Read the tweets of those you follow and search for tweets on keywords relevant to your product or service. Create lists. By creating a list you can easily segment people who you are following. Strategy to Make Your Tweets Engaging and Easy for a Follower to Retweet: Always use a URL shortened. You only have 140 characters, so make it count! Keep tweets below 140 characters, ideally under 100 characters. It makes retweeting easier to do. The symbol # on Twitter is known as a hash tag. These tags are used to affiliate a tweet with a certain topic and can be useful for tracking social marketing campaigns and connecting with customers. Avoid the temptation to use tools that send automatic direct messages. You can also engage Twitter followers and influencers by including @ mention in your tweets. You can do this when you post content you think will resonate with an influencer. Use Twitter lists to segment users by interest or group together brand advocates and your favorite twitter users. Keep in mind that when you add a user to a public list they are notified and the list is open and searchable to all users. Use Twitter during events and to promote things like contests. A great way to engage your Twitter followers is to create a contest that asks followers to contribute in some way you want your Twitter feed to be a mix of Tweets youve created, as well as replies and retweets. Promoted Tweets in Search Always see significant spikes in relevant Tweets during industry events. You decided to take advantage of that and use Promoted Tweets in search results during key B2B conference dates. This allowed us to be part of relevant conversations when the conversations are hot. Influencer Marketing on Twitter Twitter is a fantastic platform to learn who your influencers are. Because Twitter is designed for quick exchanges of information and shares, you can start to keep track of who is re-tweeting your content and engaging in conversations. Remember to reach out to your top sharers to create relationships. The more you engage directly with your top influencers, the more they will continue to promote your content. Promoted Tweets in Timelines A Twitter strategy we have used with great success is launching Promoted Tweets in timelines targeted to followers and users who are similar to our followers. Our Promoted Tweets contain timely and engaging content like contests for trips to industry events and links to thought-leadership pieces. We set up a series of three tweets per campaign and rotate them accordingly. For timelines, we run three tweets on one campaign for three days at a time Messaging To some, this may sound backwards or surprising, but do not use Twitter to only promote your company. Sure, calling out your companys new eBook or webcast is an important part of your tweeting. But if you never contribute to the conversations taking place, if you never offer something personal or fun or funny, you are missing the prime opportunity unique to Twitter. Twitter is about building relationships. Engage and be engaged. Remember, your content should create value and ultimately, be helpful to your network. In B2B marketing, retweeting material that will be helpful to your network is good, but writing your own informational material is even better. SOCIAL MARKETER Google+ Google+ is quickly becoming an essential part of any businesses social media strategy. Google+ had over 90 million users, this social network is going to grow very quickly as Google is making a Google+ account mandatory for all Gmail users. Google + is also playing a major role in SEO by making it easier for marketers to show up in search results. About Page An essential but often overlooked important first step, the about page is a fantastic opportunity to give a quick overview of what your business is all about. You can also link back to specific pages and services from this page directing potential customers to the most important pages on your website. Its important to have a balance of marketing savvy copy thats also SEO friendly. Make sure to include information that searchers will want to know about your company. Take advantage of the fact that Google+ allows you to use bullets in your description which makes it simple to create an easy-to-read list of your products and services. Google+ Events Google recently announced the Events feature which allows Google+ users to send out customized invitations to anyone regardless of whether or not they are Google+ users. It syncs beautifully with Google Calendar and shows up automatically when a user confirms for an event. The Party mode feature of Events allows everyone in attendance to instantly upload pictures to the same album using the Google+ mobile app, creating a living, real-time photo journal of a specific time and place. You can then show the photos off in sequential order as a slideshow all within Google+. Google+ Circles This functionality allows a marketer to segment their followers. Unlike other social networks, through Circles, marketers can develop audienc and communicate highly segmented messaging to each audience. This allows you to have a more authentic dialogue with your key prospects. Google+ Hangouts Use Google+ Hangouts for video conferencing. Again, the beauty here is that it is highly integrated with other Google applications. So, if you use Google apps for your business, Hangouts can be a quick and easy way to connect teams and get some face time with a prospect. The Business Benefits for Setting Up Google+ Authorship: Increases awareness of your overall Google+ profile page. Studies have shown that Google Authorship increases click through rates. Helps your content stand out from the crowded search page results. Adds a human element to your content and increases trustworthiness. Improves your chances of showing up in more personalized search results. Protects the original posts ranking position as higher than a post that has scraped or syndicated the original content.

Impact of Stereotypes in McQueens 12 Years a Slave

Impact of Stereotypes in McQueens 12 Years a Slave Introduction Stereotypes are a piece of our ordinary life. We hear Stereotypes consistently and all around. In some cases we can end up in a circumstance where we make Stereotypes for a vast gathering of individuals. Each individual, youthful or old, is named with either positive or negative Stereotypes. Every gathering is called by name, which does not so much fit to everybody in that particular gathering. Stereotypes influence individuals social lives, feelings, and how individuals interface with their surroundings. There are times that you are not all that open to the thought of meeting new individuals, and making new companions. You would prefer not to go outside, in light of the fact that we have put our own particular set of tenets in this world. We realize that we get censured about what we wear each and every day! We are scrutinized in which music we listen to, how we look like, how we act, and who we hang out with. We are likewise reprimanded on every other individual characteristic and blemish we have. We have put the bar far up high, perhaps excessively high for our possibilities. 12 Years a Slave Summary Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave stars Chiwetel Ejifor as Solomon Northup, a free dark man in 1840s America. He makes his living as a fiddle player, and his wife is an educator. He is shanghaied by a couple of evil white men, and soon ends up on a boat headed to New Orleans where he is educated he will be called Platt and is sold into bondage by a deceitful agent (Paul Giamatti). As he works away for the charitable yet clashed estate holder Mr. Passage (Benedict Cumberbatch), who perceives that Platt is both taught and a craftsman, he butts head with Fords subordinates, particularly the calmly pitiless Tibeats (Paul Dano). After they have a fierce quarrel, Ford fears for his slaves life and offers him to Mr. Epps (Michael Fassbender), a dipsomaniac cruel person who claims a cotton estate. Despite the fact that Epps peruses from the scripture to his property, as he often alludes to his slaves, he is himself not resistant to sins of the flesh. He has taken the youthful Patsey (Lupita Ny ongo) his best cotton picker as his significant other, and this doesnt sit well at all with his serious wife (Sarah Paulson), whose specific scorn for blacks and her envy energizes her numerous corrupting activities to Patsey. Solomon awaits his chance, endeavors to protect a pinch of self-confidence, and sits tight for the opportunity to recover his legitimate name and additionally his crew. Perry Seibert, Rovi. Stereotype in 12 Years a Slave You dont require $20 million and 134 minutes to say something that everybody knows and concedes to so absolutely that you cant even have a level headed discussion on it any longer, in particular, bondage is awful. English producer Steve McQueens 12 Years A Slave, which discharged in India a week ago, doesnt simply show that subjection is terrible and merciless and grisly and malicious however goes ahead to exhibit, on the off chance that you missed it the first run through, or the second time or the third or fourth or fifth time, that subjugation is awful and ruthless and abhorrent and fiendish and arent we happy that this is all over and we are such decent individuals on the grounds that we have the benevolence of heart and affectability of soul to be moved and bothered by the graphically delineated torment and enduring of estate slaves in pre-civil War America. 12 Years a Slave is not a simple motion picture to be discriminating about. Its got so huge numbers of the more evident th ings right that it’s hard to wrap your head around the not really clear ways it happened. The cinematography is incredible, the acting is extraordinary, the altering is tight, and the music is more than skillful. At the same time this specialized virtuosity winds up adjusting an aesthetic extend whose fakeness is surpassed just by its clichà © both covered sublimely by the alluring appeal of the medium. The fakeness and clichà ©, as is common of such endeavors, are halfway apparent in the films steadfast generation of each Hollywood stereotype about bigotry and subjugation: Black individuals enduring – tick; psycho-cruel person slave manager – tick; gut-agitating brutality – tick; white supporter – tick. Anyhow the stereotypes alone dont clarify the lacking honesty of this great motion picture, for Django Unchained (2012), an alternate film around a slave set in before the war America, ticks off all these account buzzwords but delivers the goods as a far prevalent film. Not at all like 12 years a Slave, Quentin Tarantinos Django Unchained has a point: to excite the viewer with a basic story of retribution. In the event that Tarantinos characters are highly contrasting, it is on account of satisfying sensational necessity of the story that needs personifications to capacity. McQueens film, then again, dazed on the virtue and honorability of its imaginative mission and the ethical certitude of its topic, sways from one scene of anguish and remorselessness to an alternate from a lynching to a whipping, from a beating to a wounding, from a slapping to a hanging to a lashing to an assaulting. The cam separates the last ounce of tasteful result for each second of cam time contributed, which is not through and through amazing given that McQueen comes to silver screen from workmanship school, having been a feature establishment craftsman before turning to filmmaking. Anyhow it is stunning that McQueens characters are as one-dimensional as Tarantinos, despite the fact that 12 Years a Slave, not at all like Django Unchained, is purportedly a genuine, straight, unfazed take a gander at bondage and slave-owning America. Stereotype in Today’s Society I for one disdain stereotypes. I aversion the way that individuals think I ought to act one route due to my sex, identity, or nationality. I detest that individuals think I ought to like games on the grounds that I am a man. I loathe that individuals think I ought to be cleric in light of my identity. I detest the greater part of this on the grounds that individuals are making an idea of me situated in what they see, yet not in who I truly am. Stereotypes are an enormous issue in our general public. It puts marks about how an individual ought to act or live as per their sex, race, identity, and different actualities. This could influence people who maybe like distinctive things or do diverse exercises, however feel embarrassed about doing as such due to stereotypes. Stereotypes like all men like games or ladies are not as solid as men, are among the most well-known in our general public. Stereotypes have made a twisting of how every individual ought to be. We as a feature of the era Y ought to know how these stereotypes could influence us as people. We ought to learn not to judge and prejudge about individuals due to what we think they ought to be similar to, and ought to change our perspective about the stereotypes that are profoundly established in our general public. The negatives impacts that stereotyping causes in individuals are numerous. A percentage of the negatives impacts are mischief, poor execution in distinctive exercises, and even wellbeing issues. As per the article Long Time Effects of Stereotyping distributed in psychcentral.com, Rick Nauert contends how individuals can be influenced by stereotypes even in the wake of being presented to them. Nauert built his contentions based with respect to an investigation of the University of Toronto that demonstrates how individuals get hurt on account of stereotypes, and how it could influence their execution in distinctive undertaking. Individuals are more inclined to be forceful after theyve confronted partiality in a given circumstance. They are more inclined to show an absence of restraint. They experience difficulty making great, reasonable choices. Whats more they are more inclined to over-enjoy on undesirable sustenances says Michael Inzlicht, who drove the examination. This shows how p eople are influenced in a contrary manner due to antagonistic stereotypes. In any case not just awful stereotypes reason negative impacts in people. Great stereotypes can likewise be destructive and cause new issues. They are far more atrocious in light of the fact that individuals are not mindful they are bringing about mischief. In the article Why stereotypes are terrible actually when theyre great', distributed in the site guardian.co.uk, Oliver Burkeman clarify how great stereotypes could make an alternate issues, for example, sexism and bigotry. This can be unsafe to numerous people. Burkeman contention is situated in a study by the Duke University that found that constructive stereotypes can be destructive in diverse circumstances without individuals acknowledging they are doing as such. In this study the members were presented to fake articles identified with dark individuals. The primary article was certain and demonstrated that dark individuals are better at games. In this first article the members didnt understand this was a stereotype. Next the members were presented to an antagonistic article about that dark individuals are more inclined to brutality. At the point when asked to gauge the likelihood that a theoretical arrangement of individuals with ordinarily African-American names may carry out a wrongdoing, individuals presented to the positive stereotype appraised that probability as higher than did those presented to a negative one. The constructive stereotype (great at games) evidently prompted stronger pessimistic convictions about dark individuals than the negative one (inclined to viciousness) (Burkeman). This shows how great and terrible stereotypes are just as awful on the grounds that it causes prejudgment and prompts more concerning issues. Book: Native Son by Richard Wright All through the novel, Wright delineates the routes in which white prejudice strengths blacks into an influenced and accordingly perilous perspective. Blacks are plagued with the hardship of monetary abuse and compelled to act subserviently before their oppressors, while the media reliably depicts them as bestial beasts. Given such conditions, as Max contends, it gets to be inexorable that blacks, for example, Bigger will respond with brutality and contempt. Nonetheless, Wright accentuates the horrible twofold edged impact of prejudice: however Bigger’s viciousness originates from racial scorn, it just builds the bigotry in American culture, as it affirms bigot whites essential apprehensions about blacks. In Wrights depiction, whites successfully change blacks into their own particular negative stereotypes of darkness. Only when Bigger meets Max and starts to see whites as people does Wright offer any expectation for a method for breaking this circle of bigotry. Just when thou ghtful comprehension exists in the middle of blacks and whites will they have the capacity to see one another as people, not only as stereotypes.

Macbeth was Sane Essay -- Macbeth essays

Macbeth was Sane      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although Macbeth may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, his suffering does not constitute insanity.   Macbeth was in a healthy mindset when he embarked on his murderous spree and treacherous rule of Scotland.   His actions and reactions prior to and throughout his tenure as King of Scotland were normal considering the circumstances.   The following evidence will prove that Macbeth was indeed sane.  Ã‚      The first thing I would like to point out is Macbeth's clear understanding of his motives and their consequences.   After he heard the prophecies of the weird sisters, his ambition got the best of him.   He immediately considered murdering Duncan and the morality of the murder.   Macbeth knew his thoughts were wrong and said to the stars, "hide your fears, let not see my black and deep desires (I.4.50-51)."   This acknowledgment of the sinfulness of his desires shows that Macbeth's mind was functioning properly.   Macbeth also acknowledges that there would be consequences if he murdered Duncan.   He thought to himself, " if the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch with his surcease, success (I.7.2-4)," the decision to murder Duncan would be easier.   These examples prove that Macbeth was not impulsive with his thoughts.   Instead, like anyone else, he realized the gravity of his desires.   If Macbeth was insane, he would not have tho ught twice about the murder and its consequences.    Macbeth also demonstrates guilty feelings when he considers murdering Duncan.   These guilty feelings came about when he analyzed the relationship between himself and Duncan.   Not only was he Duncan's subject and soldier, he was Duncan's host.   He realized that ... ... I firmly conclude that he was a sane man.   He acted the way any human being would if presented with the same situations.   I feel that his behaviors that seemed to be due to insanity were really the result of Macbeth's fears, anxieties, and stress.   Macbeth should be held fully accountable for his actions because he was not the victim of a mental illness.   He clearly understood what he was doing and the consequences of his actions.    Works Consulted: English 366: Studies in Shakespeare Introduction to Macbeth http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/eng366/index.htm Accessed June 2003       Shakespeare, William.   Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul  Ã‚   Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.        Shakespeare's Macbeth, a Play for our Time Found at   http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/mac/intro.html   Accessed June 2003

Summary of Educating Rita :: essays research papers

Main characters are Frank who is a university lecturer and Rita who is a hair dresser. Rita wants to be educated she decides to take an Open University course. The main theme of the play is to be educated. At the start of the scene we hear a conversation between Frank and someone else on the other end of the phone. We hear him arguing if he will go to the pub or not. â€Å"What do u mean I determined to go to the pub? I don’t need determination to go to the pub†. This shows his sarcasm. Showing that he doesn’t care this shows us that he doesn’t care about his partner and he’s a caring person. Frank also doesn’t want to teach at Open University he only does it for the money. He thinks there is no point in teaching Open University because all his students will be stupid. ‘Some silly woman’s attempt to get into the mind of Henry James’ this shows he is prejudice before he starts teaching. He thinks she is going to be stupid because she didn’t get enough education. He is only doing this for the money. He doesn’t care about the job, all wants is the money to go to the pub. Then we see Rita enter the room. She barges through the room because it’s jammed. She doesn’t use the correct grammar. ‘I’m comin in aren’t I’. She speaks in colloquial English, this makes us think that she doesn’t have a good education and shows that she is working class. She speaks in a scouse accent, she swears a lot showing that she doesn’t care about offending anyone, and she is loud and enthusiastic about learning. She wants to learn because she wants a change. When Rita tries to get into the room she can’t because the handle is jammed .she manages to open it and barge in. â€Å"it’s the stupid bleeding handle†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦you wanna get that fixed†. She doesn’t wait around to fix the problems she gets them done. She isn’t lazy she wants to move things along like in life. Rita doesn’t like her life so instead of waiting around she decides to change it and get educated. She is trying to get better in life but she has to struggle to get something in life you have to work hard. Whereas frank is ignoring his problems and is drinking instead of trying to fix his problems.

Findings Analysis Essay

I have found out my primary information about the idea of ‘slim-line kitchen electrical appliances ‘ by doing a quota sampling, which meant dividing the population into various age groups and backgrounds and carrying out questionnaires. In my results in source 14, which is my questionnaire, the first question shows the gender of the amount of people that help fill in the questionnaire. Out of 150 people that I questioned only 36.6% were males and females a greater percentage of 63.6(%). This shows that on average most of the people I questioned were females. Source 2 also supports this idea as it states that the majority of people living in England are females at 51%. Also the details in source 6 show the gender of people that purchase brown and white goods, the larger percentage goes towards the women at 54%. Also an evidence of this statement that there are more women than men in GB is illustrated in source 2, it shows that in 2003 there were more women than men- and that I think has increased during recent years because source 2 shows that women are at 51% of the population in UK, then source 6 shows women are at 54 and source 14 [the questionnaire] shows they are at 63 percent (you can see that in the chart below that shows these results), and I predict this is going to escalate far more in a years or so time; which means if S and S plc was to choose their target group then in my opinion women should be targeted not only for their percentage as a whole but as for the person that makes decisions about where the kitchen appliances go and what should be bought. The second question in the questionnaire asks for the age groups of the person that is filling in the questionnaire; the most widely held answer is the 45-54 age group. On a percentage out of 150 people 48% of the people come in that particular age group. Although my source 2 says that the majority of the people living in Great Britain are either between the age group of 35-44 or above 65, however my source is over 3 years old, which could make big difference as related to new market, but maybe the area that I was doing the questionnaire in; the majority of the people were between 45 and 54. The rest of the questionnaire still supports the idea of what S and S plc is trying to introduce. This means they have now got an idea of what the population’s wants and needs are. S and S plc need to confirm the target age group and then plan sale strategies. Question 4 asks the people what newspapers they read. Out of a variety of newspapers most of the people wrote their answer as ‘The Daily Telegraph’, 62% out of 150 people. This question is not completely pointless as it is a method of advertising for many companies including electrical stores such as Dixons, Comet and Currys. According to my source 12 quite a big percentage of the expenditure that a business is ready to pay for advertising belongs to the press area /newspapers. Out of 10 different electrical stores 76% of the money they spend on advertising is in the press column. Therefore it would be very beneficial for S and S plc to put their ads into the two top particular newspapers ‘Daily Telegraph’ being the top. Another quite high percentage of the advertising goes into the radio, which is also another method for S and S plc to attain more awareness. The next question asks the people how many people live in their household, majority of the people answered ‘4’ to the question. Out of 150 people 30% said ‘4’. Source 4 of my secondary data illustrates that 13.2% of the people out of 25,220 people have 4 persons living in their household and the majority of the people answered ‘2 persons’ out of the same audience 34.9% to be exact, however we know that my secondary information is about 2 years old which only shows me old data that is not accurate but as we know now the majority of the people have 4 persons in their household, because as times go on people make more decisions. This means that there are more people living in a single household now as opposed to 2 years ago, therefore white goods will be necessary for them in their daily life unlike single people living alone don’t need as much white goods because they won’t use it a lot. So if S and S plc were to get targets then goi ng for the more colonized houses because they will be a god idea and these will be their ideal customers. Question six asks the people what circumstances will aid them to consider buying slim white goods to replace them with the old. The choices included from ‘new models introduced’, ‘moving house’, ‘changing their kitchens’ and/or ‘when their old goods break down’. The majority of the people answered as when they move houses, 62.6% out of 150 people agreed to that. This gives S and S plc the opportunity to sell their products, if they know how many people are moving houses on average they can work out the amount of the kitchen electrical appliances that they need to produce, this will maintain the sale of the slim-line white goods as the results in source 5 show the statistics that, there are increasingly more people that either move or as a result separation move to another home alone. If S and S plc want to boost their sales they have to advertise it to the people that are moving houses [as white goods are very important in a househo ld, it is almost a necessity]. Source 3 also shows that the majority of the people in 1 household are 2 persons. And as more people move into the same house there is an even greater need of white goods, and as some houses are quite cramped slim-line white goods is the best option so that sort of people should be target to the S and S plc. Question seven enquires the people how long ago was the last time that they purchased/changed their white good. The majority of the people answered this question as last 5 years which sums up to be 48% out of the total of 150 people. This shows that the majority of people will not spend frequently on white goods as they are only replaced when they are damaged or too much out of date, this is simply because that the people are already used to the way that that particular white good works. Also another reason for people not to change their white goods purchased in last 5 years is that the white goods technology hasn’t changed much in the last 5 years so no reason to change their white goods, but as source 8 of my raw information shows that there is an increasing demand of new technology therefore sale for the slim-line white goods will produce profit to S and S plc as the â€Å"savvy consumers† is the prime driver of the market. The pie chart in the same source reveals th at the second highest percentage of consumers spending on electricals belongs to the household appliances this is a 23% of the expenditure. Question eight asks the people where they purchase their kitchen appliances; the applicants were given four choices out of which 3 were specialist retailers and one non-specialist. However you would expect a specialist such as Curry or Dixon’s to rule this sort of market, but the majority of the people’s answer was ‘other specialist retailer’ as these two retailers I mentioned are not experts and do not sell all brands that the people might be looking for. Some people have had good experiences with some brands that they wish to keep with. I predicted the majority of the shares should be owned by Dixon’s; this is also what my sources show namely source 11; it shows that the majority of the shares in the market belonged to these retailers in 2004. Source 9 of my raw information states that non-specialist such as ASDA and Tesco have a more constant product offering which is a step beyond WIGIG [when its gone its gone offer] that specialist retailers use as their sale strategies. These non-specialists sell varieties of brands and at a low cost too, thus increasing their sales. Source 9 also shows the statistics in the electrical retail market that this has caused. It has attracted customers from other markets such as PC and Audio-Visual markets because people would rather buy the same thing cheaper. This means that S and S plc should also increase and expand the variety of electrical goods the sell and do not necessarily have to be a specialist retailer for white/slim-line goods. This will increase their sales and give them a higher reputation in the electrical retail market. The ninth question in the questionnaire enquires if changes in the circumstances were to occur; [including those mentioned in question six], would they consider buying i.e. replacing them with slim-line versions of the goods. The majority of the people out of 150 answered â€Å"Yes†, this concluded to 86% the rest 14% answered â€Å"No†. People don’t find the urge to replace their existing electrical appliances as quick as any other item in the household, this is because these can be shared and it is only going to be a waste if you used it once and then dispose of it especially when it costs a lot. So as seen in question 6, most people will only replace their kitchen electrical goods when they move house. The idea of slim line appliances in kitchen is new so many people will not be too comfortable with using these, therefore sales for these will not increase soon after the promotion. According to the results I for this question it looks like quite a high percenta ge of people want to try it out and have a vision of what they will be when they buy them, because they know this will save space in their house no matter what the amount of people in the household. There are a number of reasons why people would want to purchase slim-line kitchen electrical goods. One that I think is different than any other is efficiency of the goods. If it saves the customers money, they will defiantly choose this item to last for a long time. Source 7 states ‘The largest amounts of customer spending go on housing/electricity/gas & other fuels’, so slim-line kitchen electrical goods were to decrease the money spent they would be able to buy more goods as they get more ‘disposable income’ SAY SOME STUFF ABOUT THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE !!. What S and S plc needs to do is to advertise their product so that it illustrates that it is efficient and takes less space they need to take this measurement in the plotting of the sale strategy, this could be S and S plc’s unique selling point, something that distinguishes S and S plc from other retailers. In source 7 [i.e. fig.11] you can see the statistics as to how much people spend on the men tioned factors. From the graph above you can see that even though the expenditures are increasing slowly if not very swiftly. This you can see in the tale where in the %change column you can see that even though expenditures were increasing as a percentage in midyear intervals for many years, it is slowly levelling out/decreasing. Question 10 asks the people if they were given a choice to own a slim-line kitchen electrical good would the replace it with their existing ones. 59.3% of the people answered yes. As I said, for replacement of kitchen electrical goods slim-line kitchen electrical appliances are best suited as they as well as being efficient this will also be more modern and will take less space, so this offers the customers an opportunity to work more efficiently and in a better/ bigger space. HELP!!! Question eleven is entitled to find out what the motivation is that leads the sales of kitchen electrical appliances in the market. The question was ‘ What motivates you to buy a new kitchen electrical appliance?’ We provided them with four possible answers these included the price, its capacity, brand name or energy efficient. A high percentage of people were motivated by looking at the appliance’s capacity, which is vital because if it has to be shared it must be sufficiently big. This added up to 21.3% of the people out of 150 that help fill the questionnaire. The higher percentage [48%] of the people said they were motivated by the price, so if it was cheap and had a big capacity more customers would purchase the product. Not much of the credit went to the brand name, although I would have guessed this would be a bigger motivation to the people because when many people have had experience with one brand they stick to it and pass on their reviews, then again it isn’t very often that people buy kitchen electrical appliances and it’s models changes from year to year. This means that when S and S plc rules the JnK plc companies in Asia, they won’t have much difficulty with introducing new products into the market and sell as much as possible. However more credibility goes to energy efficiency, so some people are interested in saving money per annual rather than once, at the purchase time, this answer was chosen by 12% of the total. This question too links to source 7 as it shows that more people are decreasing the amount of money spent on electricity, gas, & water etc. It shows that less people are ready to pay a lot of money for these appliances. The last question finishes off the questionnaire with asking the people if slim-line kitchen electrical appliances were in the market would the people buy them. The majority of the people chose to buy their goods only if their circumstances were to change. This means that even though slim-line kitchen electrical goods are a big success they will only be purchased when they need to replace them because people don’t want to change their kitchen appliances too frequently, only when they move or if the old one is broken. 42.3% of people chose this for an answer. This means that people are not desperate to own one but they reckon it is a good idea to own one Well this questionnaire gave S and S plc a good guidance on what the market is like and if slim-line kitchen electrical appliances would sell in that market and to choose their target and unique selling point.

Perception and/or Reception of the Naked Child and Teenage Body in Art and the Media

Introduction and Research Question: The topic, which, we will research, is the perception and/or reception of the naked child and teenage body in art and the media. The hypothesis that we have concluded is that ‘children and teenagers posing nude for art or in the media is seen as the cause for over-sexualization in children and teenagers’. The naked body has been a topic of art and seen in the media as an ongoing issue. Child and teenage nudity has been featured in art from the 14th and 15th century, as well as in renaissance art, controversially through Bill Henson’s photography and in modern fashion shoots featuring teenage celebrities such as Miley Cyrus. This research proposal will aim to find the viewpoint of University students when shown images of teenage nudity in art and the media. This issue is an important research topic as opinions have varied in society about the impact and appropriateness of teenagers featuring in these public platforms and whether this is a cause of over-sexualisation. The effect of this issue will rely on the individual opinions in society of the definition of art. The main people being affected by this issue are the teenage population who have access to any media forms and art. The artists, such as Bill Henson are also affected as they are accused of producing inappropriate art even though they are trying to portray youth. This topic interests a large percentage of the population including teenagers, parents, media viewers and media producers. To carry out this research a focus group will be held involving undergraduate Mass Communications and Media students from Murdoch University. The opinions, beliefs and attitudes will be gathered concerning the chosen topic to then be able to compile a research report based on the findings of the focus group. Literature Review: Child and adolescent nudity has taken commonplace in art throughout history, from Renaissance paintings and sculptures to religious masterpieces. As time has gone on and technology has advanced these depictions of child and teen nudity have changed, and are often frowned upon in today’s society; today photographs, artworks and media of teenagers and children naked are often challenged as being sexualized or pornographic and nudity has become a highly controversial area with regards to children. For centuries naked children have been depicted in religious painting and scenes in the forms of cherubs, which are usually naked, posed winged toddlers. In the 14th and 15th centuries these biblical children were not seen as ‘real’ children but as symbolic religious representations of children, and this distinction was very clear. In these depictions, presenting children nude was usually seen as presenting them in the form that God had made them and was done to highlight their purity. But with the development of realism and photography this line has now become blurred. Due to the realism of photography it has lead people to believe that it is ‘real’, and as a result there is confusion between iconic symbolic children, and the general child. Gittins 1998, 119) During the Italian Renaissance era nude boys were often featured in paintings, especially in those with biblical themes. However, centuries later many artists began to depict paintings of nude children that carried no religious reference or context. For instance, Henry Scott Tuke painted nude adolescent boys doing everyday activities and although these paintings were not overly erotic and showed no genitalia they were a step away from the traditional biblical naked children. Johnson 2005, 102-104) Just a century after Tuke started depicting nude children in everyday activities professional photographers presented photographic exhibitions and books of posed naked children and adolescents. When Bill Henson’s exhibition opened on the 22nd of May 2008 many articles were written expressing the controversy and public opinions of the featured child nudity. An article written by David L. Isaacs and Thomas G. Isaacs titled â€Å"Is child nudity in art ever pornographic† was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. This article discusses the important debate on censorship, which followed Bill Henson’s exhibition. This debate between the two authors resulted in the view that censorship laws regarding the depiction of children in art are needed to stop the exploitation of children. Yet a strong belief was evident that censorship is not needed to protect the public from being corrupted by viewing pornographic material. The knowledge and opinions of a pediatrician enables a professional opinion, which reflects the concern for childrens wellbeing. The opinion of a Fine Arts Honours graduate provides the knowledge of what art is and what role it plays within society. The focus group planned will effectively explore University students views on censorship. This literature provides an interesting debate, which our focus group will aim to further with a sample of students to give a broader opinion than what is present in this journal article. The month following Bill Henson’s controversial exhibition, June 2008, an Australian Government Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts released a report titled Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media. This Government document stated that the inappropriate sexualisation of children in Australia is an increasing concern. It acknowledged the complexity of defining clear boundaries and accepted that it is a significant cultural challenge. The research planned by our team will respond to the lack of research, which was acknowledge in the Government report, on the effect of child sexualisation in the Media by providing a current viewpoint of University students. University students will be able to express the viewpoints, which for ethical reasons cannot be acquired from minors. Since 2008 many photos of Miley Cyrus some intended and some not have surfaced on the Internet. Numerous articles of the Disney star who plays â€Å"Hanna Montanna† have appeared. In the June issue of Vanity Fair 2008 a photo of Miley topless, clutching a silk bed sheet to her chest, with only her bare back exposed featured. Factors of these photos lead to controversy, even though it was an artistic piece and she was predominately covered. The article titled â€Å"Miley Cyrus’ embarrassing photo shoot† written by Courtney Hazlett discusses how It didn’t take long for Miley Cyrus fans (and their parents) to become outraged over racy photos of the 15-year-old that appear in the June issue of Vanity Fair. â€Å" Miley has commented in the article produced by the MSN Entertainment that â€Å"I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed†¦ I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about. â€Å" There has been an increase with teenagers taking part in these â€Å"artistic† photo shoots but is it really art? Many reviewers argue that this is not, and that the teenagers are being taken advantage of by their parents making these decisions for them. Also stating that later on in life these photos could have a bad effect them. Psychologists are saying that it may bring on the over sexualisation of teenagers, by not giving them the opportunity to go through their teenage years naturally and mature with age not acting older than they are with sexual expectations that they are not ready for. (American Psychological Association). With the availability of the internet other personal photos of Miley were released where she is showing her green bra and also her stomach is out as she is wearing a midriff laying on a boy does this have a link to the Vanity Fair shoot and is it a result of the medias pressure taking a toll on her personal life as her parents where not happy with the nude shot. In Disney’s release of its own statement about the Vanity Fair story, the Disney Channel, which broadcasts Cyrus's series Hannah Montana, said: â€Å"Unfortunately, as the article suggests, a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines. However in the Vanity Fair issue â€Å"Miley knows best† Miley comments that the pose was Annie Leibovitz’s idea. The topless but demure portrait accompanying this article could be seen as another baby step, toward a more mature profile. â€Å"I think it’s really artsy,† Cyrus says. â€Å"It wasn’t in a s kanky way. And you can’t say no to Annie. She’s so cute. She gets this puppy-dog look and you’re like, O. K. † Leibowitz has chimed in, too, saying that it was never her intent to portray Cyrus in any negative light. â€Å"I’m sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted,† Leibovitz said in a statement released by Vanity Fair. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful. † (â€Å"Miley Cyrus’ embarrassing photo shoot† The Scoop 2008) Research Method: The research method of focus group interviewing has been assigned. This method entails qualitative research. The aim is to find out the opinions and attitudes of the interviewees, who are selected as a purposive sample of the target market. The focus group interviewees are lead with open-ended questions that will be asked through out the discussion. A focus group includes a role of a moderator and a researcher. The moderator conducts the focus group serving as discussion leader to the other members. The moderator is briefed by the researcher and provided with a moderators â€Å"discussion guide. † The role of the researcher involves many preparatory and other activities including, obtaining ethics and clearance of the project, finding suitable group members, they deal with all booking and hiring of the venues and moderator, they tape all audio/ visual recordings, analysis the data and prepare the summary report of findings. This process of interviewing and gathering research is a valuable way of collecting data, because it is a direct way of finding answers to specific questions, which may not be obtainable through other research methods. A structured interview is especially good when discussing controversial sensitive issues, such as the issue we are focusing on in our research question. From our group interview we are hoping to gain information and people’s views of teenage and child representation in art and the media today, and whether they think children are being sexualized or it is the natural and reasonable extension of art. Each person in our group focused on a specific area of our research question. Chelsea looked at the history of naked children and teens in art and the media. Millie focused on nudity and the sexualisation of children and teenagers in art today, using bill Henson as an example. Whilst Deanna looked at the sexualisation of teenagers in today’s media, focusing on the Miley Cyrus vogue photo shoot. Focus Group Draft Questions: Has society’s view on nudity drastically changed in the last century? Do you think one of the major reasons for these different views are the advances in technology eg mass communication, photography) Is society as a whole more sexualized than it was several centuries ago? Do you think Renaissance art was completely asexual as critics say it is, or do you think that perhaps even then there was a sexual element to the depiction of naked children? Is there any context in which you believe it is appropriate today to depict naked children? What do you define as being art? What do you define as being pornographic material? Showing a Bill Henson photograph of a young nude girl) In your personal reaction do you consider this photograph to be artistic or pornographic? And why? Do you believe parental consent should allow 12-13 year old to participate in nude photography? Do you believe that the children in these photographs will be affected by this experience in the future? Why or why not? Do you think that this photo of Miley is provocative or artistic? As Mi ley Cyrus is a child role model/ celebrity do you think it is a good idea for photos like this to be taking or do you think it sets a bad example for the younger children that admire her so much? When this photo shoot was taken Miley was 15 years of age do you think this photo is age appropriate for her? Do you think that the media has placed pressure on Miley to produce a photo like this at her age? When looking at this photo what age do you think Miley looks and what do you feel that the photo is portraying? References: American Psychological Association, Report of the APA Task Force. Sexualization of Girls, 2007 (accessed August 28, 2010) D, Isaacs, T, Isaacs. 2010. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Is child nudity in art ever pornographic? Blackwell Publishing Inc. www. scopus. com. prospero. murdoch. edu. au (accessed August 28, 2010) Grittins, Diana. 1998. The Child in Question. London: Macmillan Press LTD Johnson, Geraldine A. 2005. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, Commonwealth of Australia 2008 published June 2008. (accessed August 28, 2010) Annotated Bibliography: American Psychological Association, Report of the APA Task Force. Sexualization of Girls, 2007 This report was written by a task force which was created in the response to journalists, child advocacy organisations, parents and psychologists who have argued that the sexualisation of girls is a broad issue in society and that it is an increasing problem which harms girls. This report gave an overview of psychological theory to assist in the understanding of the psychological harms of the over sexualisation of young girls and teenagers. It defines sexualisation and gives examples of it appearing in society. D, Isaacs, T, Isaacs. 2010. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Is child nudity in art ever pornographic? Blackwell Publishing Inc. www. scopus. com. prospero. murdoch. edu. au This article written by David L. Isaacs and Thomas G. Isaacs titled â€Å"Is child nudity in art ever pornographic† was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. This article discusses the important debate on censorship, which followed Bill Henson’s exhibition. This debate between the two authors resulted in the view that censorship laws regarding the depiction of children in art are needed to stop the exploitation of children. Yet a strong belief was evident that censorship is not needed to protect the public from being corrupted by viewing pornographic material. Grittins, Diana. 1998. The Child in Question. London: Macmillan Press LTD This Book Focuses on children and their place in the past and in today’s society. The book focuses on the innocence of children and how that innocence has changed over time. It also explores the rights that adults hold over children and other theories that society has of children. Johnson, Geraldine A. 2005. Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press This Book focuses on Renaissance art and the part it played in European art. It does focus on particular areas of Renaissance art such as the techniques used and how stories were told through the art. The book draws on many famous Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts. Sexualisation of children in the contemporary media, Commonwealth of Australia 2008 published June 2008. The Australian Government Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts developed this report, titled Sexualisation of Children in the Contemporary Media. The report acknowledged the issue of the sexualisation of children in the media and the complexities of defining clear boundaries. This report has enabled us to acquire a Government perspective on the issue. The research carried out in this report outlined professional opinions of psychologists, pediatricians as well as the viewpoint of Australian parents.