Jesse Owens Annotated Bibliography

Student Resources in Context. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. This source provides information of how successful his running career was in the Olympics and in college. It shows how he had to quit running because he took money to run but even though his career in running was over he was forced to do plenty of other jobs. He worked with lots of young black children get out of the neighborhood by trying to help them get in athletics. He was a speaker for the Republican candidate and was good enough to start his own public relations firm. He was till an ambassador of sports.Elements, Matthew, and Mark Dryness. â€Å"Jesse Owens. † Undertaker. Encyclopedia of Alabama. 6 August 2007. 15 January 2015. This source proves that Jesse Owens not only was a great athlete but also that he was a winner off the track. He won tons of awards for speaking. He spoke to young teens all around the country and later on even started his own public relations firm. He was given the highest civilian award a person c an get in this country, the Congressional Gold Medal. He was an inspirational person to those in poverty ND a great teacher of those young athletes.He was a teacher that unofficially was a leader overseas and on the main land. Baker, William J. Jesse Owens: an American Life. New York. Collier Macmillan. 1986. Print. This source provides an insight into his life and the way he lived before and after all his great accomplishments. It shows how he changes the lives Of young athletes, a great speaker, and a great African American athlete that changed the sports world. He became a successful political man, talking for great political leaders in American history.Every part of his life was definitely an American, normal day life. Borden, Timothy. â€Å"Owens, Jesse. † Notable Sports Figures. 2004. Encyclopedia. Com. 19 January 2015. This source provides such information as to show that his personal feat in the Olympics was direct opposite of Doll Hitter's plan of racial superiority. He continued to give speeches of hard work, self-esteem, and dedication. He would later receive the presidential Medal of Freedom. His struggling times after the Olympics were tough but taught that no matter whatnot could succeed in life.

Business Plan – Convenience Store

Business Plan Buster’s A cozy Store that designed for your needs [pic] Business Plan by Lydia Chan CONTENTS[pic] 1. Executive Summary Buster’s is a convenience store specialized in servicing daily needs of occupants of the office building where it is located. It offers variety of products to satisfy customers’ daily needs including snacks, pre-wrapped sandwiches, bottle/canned beverages, stationery, greeting cards, newspapers, paperback books and small gift items. The first Buster’s Store was set up in 2007, a 1,000 square feet store located in the lobby of Empire Centre in Kennedy commercial district. This store is solely owned and managed by Lydia Chan. With fully focused and correct business strategy, Buster’s been able to get break-even in the eleventh month, and reaches to an annual revenue to US$300,000 last year. It has successfully built up an image of a convenience store that is friendly and customized to the occupants of the Empire Centre and the neighborhood buildings. With the proven success of the first Buster’s Store, Lydia is fully confident to expand the business by opening a second store with identical business strategy. The key to success is to find another perfect location. The golden opportunity is now appearing, there is a new office building, Sky Tower, will be opened by end of this year. Sky Tower is just two blocks away from Empire Centre. Besides the advantage of easy management derived from the close by location of the two stores, to make this location perfect for Buster’s is that Sky Tower is an A grade eighty-storey office building which create huge number of potential customers for Buster’s. 1. Mission The Mission of Buster’s is to provide friendly service and good quality of products to occupants of the buildings. Good mix of variety product items are perfectly meet customers’ needs in their daily work lives. 2. Objectives 1. To make Buster’s the preferred convenience store for the occupants of the building where it is situated and the neighborhood. 2. To break-even by the end of the first year. 3. To achieve a net profit of 5% by year three. 3. Keys to Success 1. Establish an image that Buster’s is â€Å"their† convenience store for the customers. 2. To turn over inventory an average of 15 – 20 times per year. 3. To provide friendly service and premium quality products. 2. Company Summary The first Buster’s store is owned and operated by the founder, Lydia Chan, in Sole Proprietorship. The concept of this new venture is a convenience store that specially services occupants of the office building where it is situated. The first store was set up in 2007 located in Empire Centre in Jordan district. It is a 1,000 square feet store in the lobby with 2 full time employees. In 2009, annual revenue of this store is US$300,000. With the earned capital and experiences from the first store, Lydia believes it is the mature time to expand her business by establishing a second store. In order to strengthen the financial and professional background, the second store will be in partnership set up. 1. Ownership The new Buster’s store is privately owned corporation in partnership basis. Lydia Chan owns 75% of the second store. She will work full-time in the store in the first year to ensure smooth day to day operation. In the second year and onwards she will be half day in the first store and half day in the second one. Carmen Chan owns 25% of the second store. Carmen is the elder sister of Lydia, she is a chartered accountant in Hong Kong Bank. She will provide financial advice and assistant for Buster’s. 2. Employees Base on the experience of the first store, we anticipate two employees are sufficient for the daily operational need. There are two full-time shop assistants in the first Buster’s store, Christine and Mina. Christine, high school graduated, joined Buster’s since it was launched in 2007. Her experiences in nurturing infancy Buster’s and daily operation are valuable to the second store. She will be promoted as shop supervisor and transfer to the new store. Christine will be responsible to coach and mentor the other new hired shop assistant, service customers, keep tract inventory/replenishment and report customers’ comments/complaints to Lydia for ensuring corrective action be taken. We will hire another shop assistant to work together with Christine. Criteria are High school graduate with 1-2 years retailing sales experience. 3. Financials 1. Start-up Finance Summary Anticipated start-up cost of the new store is US$200,000. The main cost of start-up will be inventory. It is estimated that the initial inventory purchase will be $100,000. In addition, $30,000 will have to be spent on fixtures and fittings for the store. Since it is a brand new building, there will be no maintenance needed before move-in. Funding will be come from the combination of the two owners from their own savings. Lydia Chan (75% ownership) – contributes US$150,000 Carmen Chan (25% ownership) – contribute US$50,000 2. Start-up Cost Summary This table shows a summary of start-up cost and expenses [pic] 3. 3 Anticipated Revenue and Operating Cost for the First Year pic] 3. 4 Pro-forma cash flow projection for the first year of operation [pic] 5. Break even Analysis The following chart and table show the break-even analysis for Buster’s [pic] [pic] 3. 6 Anticipated return on investment in the first three Years The following table provides the anticipated return on investment from the perspective of three years into the revenue [pic] 4. Marketing /Sales 1. Sum mary of Marketing and Sales Strategy Buster’s new store will be situated in the lobby of Sky Tower, a new office building in a concentrated commercial area, Kennedy District. Busters’ key customers are occupants of Sky Tower. According to the information from the Building Management office, 80% of the total vacant units were leased out and under interior fixtures and fittings stage. These companies will be moving in within two to three months which will secure customers flow when Buster’s is launched. 4. 2 Market Segmentation Occupants of the building are owners and employees of medium to sizable international corporations. They can be divided into 3 market segments : A) Aged 25 – 39 Male They require speedy service, just pick and pay. Half of them are wealthy Yuppies in managerial level, they do not mind to pay a little higher for the convenience and good quality. They are busy in work and social life, our fresh pre-wrapped sandwiches, popular bottled beverages and high end imported snacks will suit their needs. B) Aged 22 – 35 Female Same phenomenon as other prosperous cities, all ladies are keen to slim down their bodies and are cautious in selecting food. It is more obvious for this age group of ladies. They always search for healthy food and snacks. On every category of food, Buster’s will have a special corner for healthy food with notes on shelves for their easy perusal. Healthy food including vegetarian brown bread pre-wrapped sandwiches, low calories snacks, herbal tea and fruit juice types of bottled beverages and etc. These ladies may be secretaries or work in the administrative departments who are responsible to purchase stationeries for the offices. They will naturally select Buster’s for convenience while they are purchasing their own personal needs. This is a critical customers group for Buster’s. C) Miscellaneous This includes the middle-aged group, outsiders/visitors and etc that they have varied or unpredictable buying pattern. Continuous analysis of this group is required in a quarterly basis when Buster’s store is launched to ensure our service and products cover their needs. 3. Product Strategy Buster’s emphases are on friendly service and good quality of products that fit the requirements of people in their workplace. We do not just follow what selling in super markets or franchised convenience stores. We focus on customization. The following listed are the key categories for Buster’s. A) Pre-wrapped sandwiches : Homemade sandwiches with 4 different choices of fillings : egg and ham, beef, chicken breast and assorted vegetables. These are basic pre-wrapped sandwiches. In addition, we also provide small individual packed fillings such as chess, tomato, cucumber and eggs as supplements, so customers can design and make their own sandwiches in their offices. This will satisfied customers who are looking for variety of choices but without burdening our inventory. B) Bottled/Canned beverages The most popular bottled/canned beverages are available in Buster’s which including soft drinks, coffee, tea and milk. We also provide healthy drinks such as herbal tea, flower flavored tea, juice, Soya bean milk, flavored mineral water, and etc. C) Snacks Popular branded snacks of chips, chocolates, candies and gums are must items in the shelves. To take care of the needs for customers who are pursuing for healthy life, special selection of snacks such as sun-dried fruits, organic food, low calories/calcium crackers, sugar free candies/gums are also available in our â€Å"Healthy Corner†. D) Stationery and Greeting Cards To take care of the sudden or urgent needs of the office people, we will provide certain basic items of stationery and greeting cards but to cautiously control this category of goods occupying not exceed 10% of total display/shelf space. E) Gifts Small gifts can also be found in Buster’s. Regular items are gift sets of premium chocolates and tea bags which are appropriate round the year and for all occasions. Buster will display specialty gifts in front desk for festivals like New Year, Valentines’ day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas and etc. The specialty gift sets to serve both purposes of stimulating sales and decorating the store to lift up spirits. F) Newspapers & Magazine The top five Best selling newspapers are available in Buster’s. 6 – 8 different categories of magazines about fashions, accessories, entertainment, computers, automobiles to cover varied customers’ desires. 4. Pricing Strategy As mentioned in the product strategy section, most of the categories are not common products as other convenience stores because Buster’s emphasis is on premium quality food and drinks. She is comparatively not facing harsh price comparison as other franchise convenience stores for different target customers. Buster’s customers, occupants of Sky Tower, mainly are yuppies and office ladies, who are willing to pay a little more for convenience and better quality. Therefore, Buster’s price ranges for key products are : ? Pre-wrapped sandwiches US$4. 0 – US$5. 5. ? Premium quality and healthy snacks US$2. 5 – US$7. 0 ? Canned/bottled beverages US1. 2 – US$3. 0 ? Common products that are also available in other convenience stores : 5 to 10 percent higher than them. Target is to reach gross margin (sales deduct cost of goods) at 37. 5 – 38% 4. 5 Promotion Strategy Buster’s customer base is concentrated and close-by, they will pass by the store everyday when they go to work. Location is our best promotion tool. Occupants of Sky Tower will know the existence of Buster, so our focus of promotion is to attract them to stop by Buster’s and to experience the difference with other ordinary convenience stores. They will be impressed by our friendly service, wide ranges and unique food and beverages. Word-of-mouth will be our largest promoter. A) Flyers Flyers, an effective and inexpensive way to notify people in Sky Tower and neighborhood buildings that their store â€Å"Buster’s† is opening soon. Flyers will be passed around at the building entrance a week before grand opening. On face side of flyers is an attractive designer sketch of the Buster’s store (sketch is used to be more attractive than photo or words), and on the reverse side is a list of product items that will be available in Buster’s. Distribution of flyers will be continuous after Buster’s is opened. Distribution spots will also be increased to cover the neighborhood buildings. B) Buster’s Card For initial purchase exceeding US$10, a Buster’s Card will be provided with a Buster’s logo stamp on it. Each $10 purchase onwards will earn a stamp. When accumulated to 5 stamps, a free gift will be given. This is effective to stimulate customers to buy more, or to request their colleagues to consolidate the purchase (Word-of-mouth advertising). Gifts are selected products from the store such as snack, stationery, chocolate, etc and will be changed each month to maintain freshness of the game. . 6 Competition Despite of having the competitive edge of location, we anticipate Buster’s will face competition from 2 areas. A) Convenience Stores This competition will be from national franchises such as 7-11 and Circle K. They have established extensive network of chain stores and are well-known to Hong Kong people. People are almost pass by two to three these conveni ence stores in their everyday life. Due to consolidation of bulk purchase, these franchises obtain strong bargaining power with suppliers for both costs of goods and payment terms. There is one 7-11 store located in the main street, 8 minutes walking distance from Sky Tower, and one Circle K in the opposite corner to 7-11. It is inevitably Sky Tower people will pass by these stores. Buster’s strategy in competing with these stores is not pricing but differentiation. ? Product flexibility Franchise convenience stores are selling standardized products regardless of demographic/geographic needs. Buster’s customer base is concentrated and focused. Products are selected according to their lifestyle, habits and preferences. We are also flexible and prompt to alter products items base on customers’ and sales feedbacks. ? Unique and high quality food and beverages Buster’s target is to have 70% of product items not identical to those convenience stores. Our tasty homemade sandwich is a typical example while other stores are selling mass produced sandwiches. ? Customers’ relationship Buster’s customers are actually our neighbors that we are working in the same building. This benefits us to build close relationship while other convenience stores focus on speedy in-and-out service. B) Plagiarist Start-up capital of lobby convenience store is comparatively lower than other main street retailing stores or franchise convenience stores. Low entrance barrier will attract people who want a start-up venture by copying the same concept as Buster’s. 5. Operation 1. Location of the business The new business venue of Buster’s will be located in the lobby floor of Sky Tower, a new office building in No. 23 Harbor Road, Kennedy District, Hong Kong. When Lydia, owner of the first Buster’s store, decided to open the second store, she had gone through serious research and calculation because location is essential to be successful and profitable. The following listed are factors why Sky Tower is the right place. ? Scale and income level of Customer base Sky Tower is an A-grade commercial building, tenants are mainly big corporations in business relating to international trading, banking and investment, insurance, accounting and etc. Anticipated total occupants will be 3,000 to 4,000. Most of them are professionals and/or high income level employees. This creates a beneficial customer base for Buster’s. ? Close by location of the two Buster’s Stores Sky Tower is just two blocks away from the first Buster’s store, this creates advantage for the owner to manage the two stores in the long run. In addition, the two stores can help each other if there is urgency for products that are out of stock. Staff can deliver the urgently needed goods to the other store within 10 minutes. ? Surroundings Sky Tower’s surroundings are also commercial buildings, with some exclusive restaurants and casual cafe. No convenience store located in adjacent buildings, just two which are 8 to 10 minutes walking distance. All these neighbors are valuable and potential for Buster’s. 2. Operation of the business A) Hours of Operation The common working hours for offices (white collar) in Hong Kong is 9:00 AM to 6:00: PM, Monday to Friday, some work on Saturday 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. For Buster’s, business hours is 8:00 AM to 7:30 PM Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday. Opening at 8:00AM is to serve breakfast for customers. Close at 7:30 PM is to take care of the needs for customers who are required for over-time works which is very common in Hong Kong. To ensure Buster’s employees are not exhausted by long working hours, operation will be in two-shift. The 2 employees work from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and the shop manager (that is the owner) take the second shift from 10:00AM to 7:30PM. B) Service Procedures Friendly service is Buster’s emphasis and promise to our customers. This must be clearly shared with employees that without their efforts, Buster’s will not get success. They are required to follow the below listed service procedures to ensure a cheerful shopping experience to every customers. ? Greeting with smile Greet every customer with a friendly smile who enters the shop. For familiar customers, chat with them to build-up an on-going relationship. ? Serve efficiently and effectively For customers who have clear decision on what to buy, serve them efficiently. For customers who are browsing, hesitating what to buy or unfamiliar with Buster’s products, staff must to offer help by providing advices/recommendations or a brief introduction of Buster’s products according to customers’ desires. Nevertheless, no hard sale, customers are still welcomed without purchase. ? Interaction When customers prepare to pay and leave, we must to say â€Å"Thank you† and â€Å"Goodbye† with eye-contact and friendly smile. This is the last process step and interaction with customers in a transaction, it is vital to leave a cheerful image in their mind which can be deep-rooted. C) Inventory management Effective inventory management is essential for Buster’s to maintain wide variety of product items in limited space. Ultimate goal is to maintain a minimal but adequate stock and make replenishment in a weekly or bi-weekly basis depend on products’ feature and turn-over. POS system will be employed to control in-and-out systematically and to minimize human error. Cashier will input sold items automatically. Every end of the day, Christine (Shop’s supervisor) to generate and check inventory status report and pass to Shop Manager for analysis and deciding which items needed to replenish. Christine is also responsible to input data everyday when suppliers deliver goods to ensure inventory record is up-to-date. 6. Legal Issues The following listed legal documents and licenses will be well prepared and to ensure they are all completed and valid before the launch of Buster’s. Business license in partnership proprietor basis ? â€Å"Buster’s† trade mark registration ? Tenancy Agreement with Sky Tower Property Management Office ? Employment contract with the two Buster’s employees ? Purchase Medical insurance for employees ? Business Insurance Legal Consultant will be hired to ensure accuracy of legal documents and coverage . 7. Challenges A) Sustainability of Buster’s competitive edge Location is Buster’s competitive edge as we are close to the concentrated customer base. This edge will be threatened if there are any new retail tores open in the surrounding areas, they can be hypermarket or new concept food stores that tempting Sky Tower people willing to sacrifice the convenience but to walk a little bit far to try new shopping experience. B) Constantly excite customers Our customer base is young, high-income group; they have strong purchasing power that leads them to have extensive options. They pursue for premium quality and trendy commodities. It is an on-going challenge for Buster’s to keep having products that excite customers. – End –

Postmodernism, Hyperreality and the Hegemony of Spectacle in New Hollywood Essay

After the screening of The Matrix on its first release, a dear cousin of mine, film connoisseur and avid fan of classical movies, spontaneously made the following comment: â€Å"This is an entirely new cinema to me! † If anything, The Matrix is a clear marker of cultural change. A film with state-of-the-art production values like this is bound to elicit in us the belated realization of how slow our response has been to the cultural products of an entirely transformed film industry, that of New Hollywood. My cousin’s casual and unwitting remark reflects the embarrassment felt by both professional critic and layman alike in coping with contemporary movies, especially when we still tend to approach New Hollywood products with the standards of the Old Hollywood cinema. Because of our adherence to tradition, we still tend to look for those classical values of â€Å"development†, â€Å"coherence† and â€Å"unity† in narratives only to find with disappointment that narrative plots become thinner, that characters are reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes and that action is carried through by loosely-linked sequences, built around spectacular stunts, dazzling stars and special effects. Narrative complexity is sacrificed on the altar of spectacle† (Buckland 166) as today’s blockbusters turn out to be nothing but calculated exercises in profit-making, all high-concept, high-gloss and pure show. Similar cries of warning about the loss of narrative integrity to cinematic spectacle have been voiced at different periods, usually at times of crisis or change in the history of the American cinema. One could cite, for example, Bazin’s disdain at the â€Å"displacement of classicism† by the baroque style, marking the end of the pure phase of classical cinema. His coined term, â€Å"superwestern, †designates the â€Å"emergence of a new kind of western† (Kramer 290), that, according to Bazin, â€Å"would be ashamed to be just itself, and looks for some additional interest to justify its existence—an aesthetic, sociological, moral, psychological, political, or erotic interest† (150-1). Similarly, in 1957 Manny Farber, taking his cue from Bazin’s superwestern, laments the â€Å"disappearance of this [classical] roduction system and the closing of action-oriented neighborhood theaters in the 1950s†. He claims that directors like Howard Hawks â€Å"who had flourished in ‘a factory of unpretentious picture-making’ were pushed towards artistic self-consciousness, thematic seriousness, and big-budget spectacle â€Å"(Kramer 293, emphasis added). A decade later, Pauline Kael too expresses her fears at the disintegration of filmic narrative which she attributes to the abrasion of traditional film production in general. She laments not only the emphasis on â€Å"technique† â€Å"purely visual content,† and â€Å"open-ended, elaborate interpretations† of the experimental and innovative art film of the New American Cinema, but as Kramer puts it, she was equally critical of the experiences facilitated by Hollywood’s mainstream releases. The lack of concern for coherent storytelling on the part of producers and directors in charge of the volatile and overblown process of filmmaking was matched by the audience’s enthusiastic response to spectacular attractions and shock effects, irrespective of their degree of narrative motivation. 296) Voices of dissatisfaction were heard at another major turn in the history of Hollywood, that is in the late 1970s, when the â€Å"unprecedented box-office success of Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977), signaled Hollywood’s aesthetic, cultural and industrial re-orientation towards movies with more emphasis on special effects and cin ematic spectacle† (Kramer 301). Unlike the classical movies produced on the assembly line under the studio regime (films that respected narrative integrity and refined story ideas into the classical three-act of exposition, complication and resolution), the products of New Hollywood, says critic Richard Schickel, seem â€Å"to have lost or abandoned the art of narrative†¦. [Filmmakers] are generally not refining stories at all, they are spicing up ‘concepts’ (as they like to call them), refining gimmicks, making sure there are no complexities to fur our tongue when it comes time to spread the word of mouth†(3). Contemporary cinema has come to depend so much on shrewd marketing and advertising strategies that its pictures, as Mark Crispin Miller points out, â€Å"like TV ads, †¦ aspire to a total ‘look’ and seem more designed than directed† (49). The difficulty that critics nowadays face with films like The Matrix and the new situation in Hollywood, is not only unlike the layman’s inability to assess â€Å"any recent Hollywood film as a discreet textual artifact that is either ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the artifact produced under the studio regime,† Cook and Bernink note (99). It has also to do with regarding â€Å"the textual form of recent Hollywood as expressive of changed production circumstances that lead to a different kind of textual artifact†(ibid. ). In other words, as we move on in our globalized, high-tech age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to regard any single movie as a self-contained, autonomous text. On the contrary, as Eileen Meehan contends, it has become imperative to look upon any New Hollywood mainstream release â€Å"always and simultaneously as text and commodity, intertext and product line† (31). In order to revise our critical standards and respond effectively to the new status of the contemporary Hollywood movie, we need to grasp the dramatic changes that the American film industry has undergone in the post-classical period, which started right after World War II and culminated to a point of radical transformation in the post-1975 period, which has eventually come to best warrant the term New Hollywood. These changes have been lucidly described in a number of historiographic studies (Ray 1985, Balio 1985, 1990, Schatz 1983, 1993, Gomery 1986, Bernardoni 1991, Corrigan 1991, Hillier 1992, Wasko 1994, Kramer 1998, Neale and Smith 1998, Cook and Bernink 1999) which collectively shed ample light on the completely new situation defining New Hollywood. What has drastically changed is both the ways movies are made and the ways in which Hollywood has been doing business. After the government’s dismantling of the â€Å"vertically-integrated† studio system, the industry turned to producing and selling motion pictures on a film-by-film basis, resulting in the shift of power from studio heads to deal-makers (agents), in the rise of independent producers/directors, and in a more competitive and fragmented movie marketplace (Schatz 9). To the rise of TV and the emergence of other competing media technologies (VCRs, Cable and Satellite TV) Hollywood responded with a re-orientation towards blockbuster movies, â€Å"these high-cost, high-tech, high-stakes, multi-purpose entertainment machines that breed music videos and soundtrack albums, TV series and videocassettes, video games and theme park rides, novelizations and comic books† (Schatz 9). Despite the â€Å"increasingly fragmented but ever more expanding entertainment industry – with its demographics and target audiences, its diversified multimedia conglomerates, its global(ized) markets and new delivery systems†, the calculated blockbuster, as New Hollywood’s feature film, remains the driving force of the industry (ibid. ). This is testified by the monumental success of the blockbuster at the box-office. Schatz cites Variety’s commissioned study of the industry’s all-time commercial hits, in which only 2 movies of the classical period appear to have reached the top, whereas â€Å"90 of the top 100 hits have been produced since 1970, and all of the top 20 since Jaws in 1975†(9). The big-budget, all-star, spectacular hits of the late fifties and early sixties (such as The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Cleopatra, or Dr. Zhivago) have some sizable profits to show for (all in the vicinity of $25-to $50 million). By the standards of their age, they were considered colossal box-office successes; however, by today’s standards they seem quite puny contestants to the post-75 era of super-blockbusters which generate record-setting grosses, well beyond the $100 million barrier (always in constant dollars). And such a figure applies only to theatrical rentals, which accounts just for a percentage of the total revenue of a movie which also finds outlets in ancillary markets. he industry’s spectacular growth and expansion (its horizontal integration) is to a great extent owing to the take-over of the majors (Paramount, Fox, Columbia, MCA/Universal) by huge media empires (Warner/Time Communications, Murdoch’s News Corporations, Sony, Matsushita, respectively) forming multimedia conglomerates with diverse interests in the domestic and the global market, with holdings in movies, TV production, cable, records, book and magazine publications, video games, theme parks, consumer electron ics (both software and hardware). These huge corporations provide financial muscle for the multi-million production budgets of the blockbusters (since the production costs have themselves sky-rocketed), but also market muscle for promotion. Marketing and advertising strategies have been the key to the unprecedented success of the New Hollywood movie since Jaws: through pre-selling, usually cashing in on the popularity of a novel published prior to production, a movie becomes a media â€Å"event† by heavy advertising on prime-time TV and the press, as well as by the massive simultaneous release in thousands of mall-based multiplex theaters. Calculated blockbuster productions are carefully designed to ensure the greatest potential profit not only through extended theatrical rental (sequels, re-issues, remakes, director’s cut), but also though capitalization in ancillary markets: soon the movie will come out on videocassette, audio-cassette, novel, computer game, and the increasingly popular since the mid-nineties, DVD, let alone an extended market career through by-products ranging from the CD movie soundtrack to T-shirts and toys, which contribute to the impressive surge in profits. It becomes obvious thus why contemporary movies cannot be conceived of as individual entities and cannot be separately examined from their economic intertext that renders them part (or rather the driving belt) of a larger entertainment machine and advertising campaign. Expensive blockbusters, which in the early days of the post-classical period were the exception and now, as Schatz states, have become the rule, â€Å"are the central output of modern Hollywood. But what, aside from costs, are their dominant characteristics? How are they able to attract, engage and entertain millions of people? asks Warren Buckland (166). The blockbuster syndrome has also changed the movies’ mode of address. Designed around a main idea, what is called â€Å"high concept†, a blockbuster becomes increasingly plot-driven, increasingly visceral, kinetic, fast-paced, increasingly reliant on special effects, increasingly â€Å"fantastic† (and thus apolitical), and increasingly targeted at younger audiences. And significantly enough, the lack of complex characters or plot [as for example] in Star Wars opens the film to other possibilities, notably its amalgamation of genre conventions and its elaborate play of cinematic references. But while these movies enjoy a great popularity among younger audiences, as their huge box-office success indicates, the loss of narrative integrity to spectacle, and the sense of escapism and triviality usually associated with high-gloss, star glamour and dumb show, has driven most academics or old-cinema cinephiles to summarily shun or dismiss blockbusters as merely calculated exercises in shameless profiteering. Warren Buckland thinks that these arguments about the loss of narrative potential in the contemporary feature film are overstated and attempts to reverse the â€Å"unhelpful and hostile evaluative stance† (167) of the critics towards the blockbuster. Focusing on a typical action-adventure blockbuster, Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Arc heproposes adopting an analytical and descriptive approach to these films, an approach dubbed by Bordwell and Thompson â€Å"historical oetics. † Part of the argument he makes is that â€Å"historical poetics† can account for the popularity of movies with such a broad appeal (and allows us to take them seriously as aesthetic, cultural objects) â€Å"especially because movies are examined in terms of their individuality, including their response to their historical moment, in which style and composition respond to the historical questions posed in the culture in which the film is made† (168-169). In other words, the issue is not so much about the so-called death of narrative—because narrative is still alive and well—but the emergence of a new kind of narrative, whose meaning is conveyed not through traditional narration but by emphasis on spectacle and the visual impact of the pictures which provide additional narrative pleasure and have changed the patterns of viewer response. Thus Buckland’s concluding remark that â€Å"it is perhaps time to stop condemning the New Hollywood blockbuster and to start, instead, to understand it,† carries more merit than we have been ready to admit. My intention in this essay is to extend the argument about the narrative/ spectacle issue in the direction suggested by Buckland, but within a wider, cultural perspective. The supremacy of the visual and the spectacular over traditional narration in the textual form of contemporary movies is not only expressive of the changed production values and the text’s signifying practices; it is also reflective of the changed cultural patterns and lifestyle habits in postmodernity. Classical cinema favored traditional storytelling because it provided a univocal interpretation of life and reflected a uniformity in entertainment habits: cinema was the predominant form of entertainment, as â€Å"the movies attracted 83 cents of every U. S. dollar spent on recreation† (Ray 26). Its nineties counterpart, with its emphasis on the sensational and the spectacular, on episodic action and generic diversification, is a postmodern cinema entertaining the possibility of multiple signification and the hyperreality of the visual, subject to an increasing commodified experience. As Anne Friedberg puts it, â€Å"today the culture industry takes on different forms: Domestic electronics (fax, modems, cable television) follow the interactive model of dialogic telephone communications. The personal computer turns the home user into a desktop publisher, the microwave turns every cook into an instant gourmet, the Walkman transforms each listener into a radio programmer. Both production and reception have been individualized; the culture industry no longer speaks in a univocal, monolithic voice. 189) This proliferation of entertainment venues offered to the individual points to a general malaise often regarded as the central feature of postmodernism, what Featherstone terms â€Å"the fragmentation and overproduction of culture—the key-feature of consumer culture† (76). As Jameson says, â€Å"in postmodern culture, ‘culture’ itself has become a product in its own right; the market has become a substitute for itself and fully as much a commodity as any of the items it includes within itself† (1991 x). In the â€Å"cultural logics of late capitalism,† Jameson’s code-phrase for postmodernity, what is commodified is not simply the image, which has acquired central role in contemporary culture but lived experience itself. As Guy Debord diagnoses in The Society of the Spectacle, â€Å"everything that was lived directly has moved away into a representation (1983 np). Baudrillard, as Friedberg notes, also talks about â€Å"the same phenomenon—representation of the thing replacing the thing—and extends it into a mise-en- abime of the ‘hyperreal,’ where signs refer only to signs. Hyperreality is not just an inverted relation of sign and signifier, but one of receding reference, a deterrence operation in the signifying chain†(178). A part in this process of the commodification of the sign and the derealization of the real has been played by media technologies, especially electronics, as Vivian Sobchack points out: The postmodern and electronic â€Å"instant† †¦ constitutes a form of absolute presence (one abstracted from the continuity that gives meaning to the system past/present/future) and changes the nature of the space it occupies. Without the temporal emphases of historical consciousness and personal history, space becomes abstract, ungrounded, flat—a site for play and display rather than an invested situation in which action â€Å"counts† rather than computes. Such a superficial space can no longer hold the spectator/ user’s interest, but has to stimulate it constantly in the same way a video game does. Its flatness—a function of its lack of temporal thickness and bodily investment—has to attract spectator interest at the surface. †¦ In an important sense, electronic space disembodies.

Impact of trade on Inequality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Impact of trade on Inequality - Essay Example Mostly, this takes place because the usage and the application of various useful technologies in trade is only available to the highly skilled and trained people but not to the unskilled and the poor. During several previous centuries, inequality in world trade has been on the rise. Income within most countries has been rising and declining drastically. Specifically, it has been increasing in the developing countries and falling in the highly industrialized and developed nations. However, this trend is becoming reversed in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This implies that there is no global inequality trend for the previous two centuries. Therefore, almost all the rise in world income inequality has taken place due to the increasing gaps between countries rather than increase of gaps within countries. Meanwhile, integration in world economy has advanced. If this relationship meant causation, it would be that the increase in inequality among nations has been caused by globalization but inequality within nations has not been elevated. The effects of globalization and its result have gone both ways with respect to disparity within nations. This is accordin g to simple correlation between the perceived trends. The following conclusions can be deducted from the economic record of inequality: a) The disparity between incomes among countries has reduced. This has been the result of the globalization factor as well as commodity markets for the nations that have been integrated into the global economy. b) Inequality has also been lowered by opening up to the international business as well as the international factor movements within labor-filled countries. This has taken place within the past few decades. e) Global incomes would continue to be persistent especially under a complete global integration. This is similar to inequality in large integrated economies from a domestic perspective. This situation is lower in a completely integrated

How did certain factors encourage or inhibit the development of Essay

How did certain factors encourage or inhibit the development of certain types of the state systems in at least two geographical - Essay Example The rulers of the Persian Empire used autocracy, which was a practical tool to handle the vast and extremely social-culturally diverse empire. This is contrasted with the Greeks whose fierce sense of independence is meant that only through democratic systems could their state systems be maintained. Among these factors is that when the Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great, it consisted of a large number of peoples from different ethnic groups within it stretching from the borders of Greece in the west to India in the east. It was for this reason that this far-flung empire had to have four main administrative centers which were headquartered in the cities of Pasargadae, Babylon, Ektabana, and Susa. Because of the diversity of the of the peoples within the empire, the rulers of Persia allowed the various regions which they ruled some autonomy in the form of the satrapy system and this consisted of administrative units that were organized according to a geographical basis. The g eography of Persia proper was harsh, being mostly arid or semi-arid, and this was influential in creating a hardy race of people who had to look outside their own homeland to acquire the items which were necessary for their survival (Mojtahed-Zadeh 275). As a result of the geographical as well as the population diversity of the empire, the rulers of the empire tended to appoint regional governors known as satraps, whose duties included being a vassal king to the Persian emperor. This administrative system was developed in such a way that these satraps administered the region on his behalf and oversaw the recruitment of the military whenever the emperor had a need for it. For such a large empire to function well, it was necessary to keep accurate records so that all the administrative activities within it could be carefully scrutinized and organized. In order to fulfill these purposes, under the authority of the various satraps, there were often officials whose work was to ensure tha t all the records of the government of these units were well kept and maintained. The administrative system of the Persian Empire was highly autocratic and this was necessary because the Persians had acquired their empire through conquest (Mojtahed-Zadeh 273). This meant that they had to govern their acquired territories with an iron fist to ensure that any forms of rebellion within their empire were suppressed. Therefore, the Persian administration gave immense power to the emperor who had the power of life or death over all his subjects meaning that he was an absolute monarch whose authority could not be questioned. The forms of democracy which were prevalent in the Greek cities were absent in Persia, and this may have been a factor in keeping the empire unified since all the authority within it was vested in the emperor, who could either delegate it to individuals or take it away as he pleased. It can therefore be said that the Persian Empire developed its autocratic system of go vernment as a response to the diversity in the population within it and it is this, more than anything else which ensured that the empire remained stable for several centuries. Ancient Greece on the other hand consisted of several hundred city states which were completely independent of each other and the

Coming to Live in a Foreign Country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Coming to Live in a Foreign Country - Essay Example I was very excited when I got admission in a United States College. Though I had hoped for it, however, for it to come true so easily was very exhilarating. I was glad that I had been granted this opportunity, both by the college’s board of admissions and by my family who supported my decision to go abroad for higher studies. The delight at felt at being able to be on my own, and that too in a foreign land was indescribable. I constantly made plans regarding how I would go about settling in once I reached the United States. I was essentially entering a new phase in my life and was very keen and enthusiastic about starting this chapter of my life. However, once I reached the United States, in fact as soon as I landed at the airport, I felt a strange sense of trepidation. Everything I saw and heard was new to me. All of a sudden I was surrounded by sights and sounds that were very unfamiliar. There were lots of people at the airport, in fact, it would be right to say that there was a throng of people at the airport, yet I felt completely and utterly alone. Out of all of these people around me, I knew nobody. What is more, nobody knew me. I felt like an outsider as if I somehow did not belong in this multitude of people. I was scared that this feeling of loneliness might get too much for me to bear, causing me to be unable to enjoy anything, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that that was not the case. All of a sudden, the feeling of anxiety was replaced by a sense of excitement. If I were essentially an outsider, then everything I was seeing was a new sight for me. I looked at everything I passed by closely. From the airport till I reached the college campus, I tried to absorb as much as I could. Everything seemed novel to me, even the simple and mundane things like air vents in buildings and how people had a different voice cadence in the United States than in Nigeria seemed to excite me. There was a sense of newness to everything. I noticed even dull and routine details around me and became excited over them. Though at first I only noticed the newness with an excited mindset, yet soon enough that excitement changed to trepidation. I simply had not taken to account the fact that there will be quite a lot of cultural gaps and cultural differences that I will have to cross. It is a given that all countries have their own set of norms and the adage of â€Å"when in Rome, do as the Romans do† entails that one follows local customs. I did not want to offend anyone for my lack of knowledge regarding local customs. Soon enough, though, I discovered that there were quite a bit of similarities between the two cultures of Nigeria and United States. I was still, however, afraid of offending others for my lack of understanding or knowledge regarding local culture. It was soon clear to me, though, that United States has a more relaxed approach towards following cultural norms and one can fit in without having to change or adapt much. Although that is true, nonetheless, I still looked forward to learning new things about the culture of the foreign land I found myself in. Perhaps it seems like my feelings were that of a child who is brought to a toy shop and told to go on an

Letter to the editor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Letter to the editor - Essay Example Although police officers require sophisticated weapons and equipment there should be a limit on the type of arms that police officers should carry. The main reason why the country has both the police and the army is that the two forces have different responsibilities and training. Soldiers are trained to defend the country by eliminating the enemy through all possible means (Franceschi-Bicchierai web). On the other hand, police officers are expected to maintain law and order through sustainable public relations. The differences in duties of police and military officers indicate that the two officials require different equipments. Acquisition of military equipments indicates that police officers have neglected their duties or the police departments have misplaced priorities. Fighting crime is a significant duty of the police officers. However, the role prevents the police officers from concentrating on other duties that are critical to the public. For instance, a police officer is expected to ensure that people conduct their businesses without hindrance. Acquisition of heavy weapons indicates that police officers are more concerned with criminals than with the citizens. I think that the police departments would have considered acquiring more ambulances and fire fighting equipment instead of the military equipment. Through the acquisition of such equipments, the police department would show that its operations are of public interest. The other aspect demonstrated by the move, is the level of crime within different cities across the United States. In the last decade, crime level increased by 10% across major US cities. Armed robbery and drug trafficking are among the common crimes. According to the criminologist theorists, criminals respond according to the authority. This indicates that the move taken by police departments would have a similar response from the criminals. Criminals are likely to acquire

Strategic management of human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic management of human resource - Essay Example Competitive advantage in the case of employees comprises of unique talents including innovation, flexibility, high productivity, superior performance and personal customer service. These are ways employees provide critical ingredients in giving a firm an edge over its competitors in the market. HR departments can improve decision making of organisations on human capital. First HR can improve organisation’s compliance with labour law rules and regulation. HR can help improve talent management decisions with respect to how talent is selected, developed and managed. This can be done by providing unique insights about the connection between human capital and strategy and identifying key strategic success factors that facilitate attainment of organisational goals. HR should fully understand the direction an organisation is taking and should be able to provide support using competent HR tools. For organisations moving towards expansion, the HR department should create an organisation culture capable of absorbing diversified manpower with strong learning attitude as these are a necessary tool for competitiveness in the global market. For new organisations, HR strategy should focus on effective manpower acquisition and placement objectives as new organisations are inevitably driven by employee turnover both from recruitment and attrition point of view till they stabilise. The HR strategy can involve creating a more informal environment that will help build close knit teams with strong bonding between them to address attrition issues. New organisations may not be able to pay high salaries or devise reward schemes to retain manpower thus building teams with cohesive relationships will increase employee retention. Relatively stable organisations are not very vulnerable to small competition threats, and can afford to spend more time on employee development,

Teaching and Learning Through Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Teaching and Learning Through Technology - Essay Example They suggest that the teachers must be able to implement plagiarism detection systems to deter plagiarism, and they must hold the responsibility to discourage plagiarism by all means. Only that way they will be able to help the students in making the best use of their abilities. As an educational leader, I will make sure that my college has the best plagiarism detection system implemented, and that my staff is well trained in using such softwares, so that they may be able to deter plagiarism.I selected this study because it highlights the importance of technology-based learning in schools. I believe that teacher professional development is highly important for student learning, and this study focuses on teacher professional development through the use of technological advancements. The researcher has talked about the perspective of teachers about teaching through technology in a school in the United States. School teachers and a researcher participated in the study and discussed the importance of their community involvement as well as the professional development. A design frame work was discussed, which highlighted the design, implementation, and evaluation of the teacher professional development. The article talks about how student learning is made better through the use of technological tools and accessories. As an educational administrator, I would use this study to inform my teachers the importance of teaching through technology. I would make sure that my school has enough resources to afford sophisticated technological tools to aid the learning process in classrooms. I would arrange computer labs and assistants in my school so that students may be able to polish their computer-based learning.  

Concept tools Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Concept tools - Assignment Example In the present study, clinical judgment will be measured by measuring how nurses notice certain data on the patient, how they make sense of the data, and how they intervene in the patient’s issue. An effective measuring tool for clinical judgment that will be employed in the current study is Tanner’s Clinical Judgment tool. In this study, the tool will be used in a pre and posttest design for using clinical judgment in employing JNC guidelines in treating hypertension. Its validity, which is the other thing that makes it suitable for the current study, is underpinned by its wide use in different studies. The results of the tool are credible and this is seen in the reliability of the results of the studies that employed it previously. A limitation with Tanner’s Clinical Judgment model is that it might not capture some aspects of a patient’s condition (Modic, 2013). In summary, Tanner’s Clinical Judgment Model is the appropriate tool to use in the current study because it conceptualizes clinical judgment holistically and does not have many limitations that would hinder its accuracy. The tool has been validated by multiple studies. Ashcraft, A., Opton, L., Bridges, R., Caballero, S., Veesart, A. & Weaver, C. (2013). Simulation Evaluation Using a Modified Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric. Nursing Education Perspectives, 34(2):

Similarities and differences of Domestic Human Resources and Essay

Similarities and differences of Domestic Human Resources and Multinational Human Resource policies and practices - Essay Example y The third step would entail the differences between the two The fourth step would comprise of the evaluating assessment The final will provide a conclusion and sum up of overall report and the learning outcome from the entire work. Defining the two concepts: Prior to defining the two major types, it is important understanding and defining the generic manner and purpose for which human resource operations are undertaken. Human resource practices have been in voyage ever since there crept in a realization for the rights of workers and improving the overall working environment that would facilitate more benefits to the organization in terms of profits, customers’ relationship and employees well being (Ehnert, et al., 2013, 119). While each associates to handling and manoeuvring of the manpower and the resources at hand, the two differ with regard to their scope, applicability, resources, practices and outputs desired. These differences may come up in a tangible or intangible ma nner. Differences between the two modes of Human Resource Management practices: Tangible Differentiating factors: Apart from the scope of each, there are certain specific and tangible differences between the two kinds of human resource practices (Regis, 2008, 163). Multinational practices entail involvement of more than two partners. These partners are most across different set of region and geographical locality. Extent of cluster: The level of subsidiaries between the two icons differ in number with multinational resources involving more complex outlook and more extended subsidized pattern. Geographical consideration: The geographical consideration and factor is of value and distinction between the two forms, for multinational human resource practices, it is vital to understand and implement... Trainings are an essential component of the global Human resource management processes. Without it any mission is bound to fail based on the lack of experience and firsthand knowledge. Training allows equipping one’s self and mind towards the upcoming challenges, new scenarios, and new circumstance and this in turn, enables successful operations. Investing more in the training domain and providing training on all fronts ranging from technical to non and physical to psychological will help to save a lot of time and money that is otherwise spent on processes that may not yield any substantial output. It is the key and secret to the success of productive global HRM strategies and outcomes. All the major organizations that are operating at mass level across multiple countries and continents have training techniques and procedures in practice that allow the accomplishment of goals in the most desired manner.

Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages Essay Example for Free

Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks, and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages Essay Porter’s five-forces model reveals that the overall alternative beverage industry attractiveness is high. Some beverage companies, such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, have mastered the art of brand building in the alternative beverage market and have been rewarded with rapid growth rates. The rising population of health conscious consumers is increasingly leaning towards alternative beverages that are believed to offer greater health benefits. The strongest competitive force, or most important to strategy formulation, is the threat of entry of new competitors. Competitive pressure from rival sellers is high in the alternative beverage industry. The number of brands competing in sports drinks, energy drinks, and vitamin-enhanced beverage segments of the alternative beverage industry continue to grow each year. Both large and small vendors are launching new products and fighting for minimal retail shelf space. More and more consumers are moving away from traditional soft drinks to healthier alternative drinks. Demand is expected to grow worldwide as consumer purchasing power increases. Another strong competitive force is buyer bargaining power. Convenience stores and grocery stores have substantial leverage in negotiating pricing and slotting fees with alternative beverage producers due to the large quantity of their purchase. Newer brands are very vulnerable to buyer power because of limited space on store shelves. Top brands like Red Bull are almost always guaranteed space. This competitive force does not affect Coca-Cola or PepsiCo as much due to the variety of beverages the stores want to offer to the customer. As a result of this certain appeal, the two companies’ alternative beverage brands can almost always be found shelf space in grocery/convenience stores. Distributors, like restaurants, have less ability to negotiate for deep pricing discounts because of quantity limitations. The weakest competitive force is the bargaining power and leverage of suppliers. Most of the raw materials desirable to manufacture alternative beverages are basic merchandise such as flavor, color, packaging, etc. The suppliers of these commodities have no bargaining power over the pricing due to which the suppliers in the industry are relatively weak. Raw materials for these drinks are basic commodities which are easily available to every producer and have low cost which makes no difference for any supplier. Low switching costs limit supplier bargaining power by enabling industry members to change suppliers if any one supplier attempts to raise prices by more than the cost of switching.

Communication In The Hospitality And Tourism Industry Communications Essay

Communication In The Hospitality And Tourism Industry Communications Essay Communication is the most important and the most used of all skills in the hospitality and tourism industry. Managers spend the largest portion of their time in verbal or written communications with their employees or outside parties. Other staff member communicate among themselves , as well as their managers, frontline employees suppliers, and so on, to give and receive the information they need to perform their jobs. Communication has been recognized as the means by which both and people and the organization survive. When human beings lack the ability to cope with life, the source of the problem is often a lack of appropriate information. Incomplete and unorganized information place a heavy strain on the ability of people to make sense out of their existence. Their performance of a job depends on having necessary information, having the skills to do a job depends on the quality of communication during the skills acquisition period. Applying the definition of communication to this process, the role of the transmitter is to impart information, ideas, or feeling to another person. Encoding is the process by which information is organized into symbols, such as word, picture or gestures that can be conveyed to receiver. The transmitter subsequently uses a selected form of communication such as writing, speaking, faxing, gesturing, painting or advertising to impart the ancoded message too receiver. The receiver is the person or group of person to whom the message is being sent by the trasmitter. In the communication process, it is the responsibility of the receiver receive and decode the message. Decoding is the reverse of encoding. It is the process by which the symbols that the transmitter has conveyed to the receiver are interpreted and translated into meaninfullinformation. It is only after decoding that the receiver can respond to the perceived message. It is important to note that there are certain times during the communication cation process at which communication failures can readily occur. First, if the transmitter is not carefull during the encoding process, he may incorrectly encode the information, ideas, or feelings he intends to transmit. This would result in his transmitting an inaccurate message. The thing which usually happens are such as the message received by the last person in line differs markedly from the orginal phase. The primary reason for this discrepancy is that the massage has gone through many transmulations as it has been encoded and by each person in the line. Communication failure can also accur if a message does not reach the receive. It may reach no one or the actual receiver of the message may not be the person for whom the message was intended. However with this form of communication, there is no way to ensure this is the case. As stated earlier, how best to reach the intended receiver is an important consideration in selecting a form of communication for a particular message. Another potential source of trouble in the communication process is noise. Noise refers to any sort of distraction or interference that prevents the accurate transmitter and reception and reception of message. Three distinct types of noise have been identified such as external noise, physiological noise and psychological noise. External noise is any distraction or interference whose source is outside of the receiver. Physiological noise is interference caused by a biological factor such as loss of sight or hearing. Psychological noise refers to forces that eithe r cause a tranmitter to improperly encode a message or receiver to incorrectly decode a message. The frontline employees as the most important link between a company and its customer is a crucial first step in developing and implementing effective communication systems. The frontline employees have to ensure that they are fully aware of company policies and priorities insofar as they affect the job the employees are doing, they also have to know where and how to obtain information if required. The employees also have to react positively to the unexpected. They also have be confidence that management will support their reasonable action. They should know that reasonable suggestions will be acted upon. The staff also should be fully trained to carry out all of their job responsibilities. While communication with customers can be winning business strategy in the service sector. Repeating business can only ensure his customer keep coming back. Example of the communication process are (Transmitter Message Receiver). Conclusion Effective communication system are crucial to the success of organization in the hospitality and tourism industry. Without feedback from the customer and employees, it is imposible to assess the needs of consumers Question 2 Motivation is the key to keeping performing continuosly at the is highest standards. How organization motivate their employees to excel at their jobs. Introduction a vital managerial function in any organization is to motivate employees. This is because motivation is inextricably linked to employees satisfaction and ensures employees consistently excel at their jobs. Motivation is especially important in the hospitality and tourism industry, where employees satisfaction and competence are key determinants of service quality. Answer 2 For a company to succeed, it is necessary for employees to be competent, for the company to be organized in efficient ways, for the firm to provide the employees with necessary materials and resource to do the job, and for employees to have a desire to do their best. Motivation plays a major role in achieving high performance in the workplace, which is an important goal of management. However, just because an employees is motivated does not guarantee she will perform satisfactorily. Form the individuals perspective the desire to do well in ones work is primarily linked to ones desire to meet an internalized personal need. In other words, by engaging in certain behaviors the employee expects to meet some internal need. From an organizational perspective, an effective firm is a productive firm when it stimulates all its employees to behave in the manner desired by the organization, directs their behavior to accomplish the goals of the organization and develops programs to maintain the desired levels of performance. Example: (Ability + Direction + Motivation + Support = Effective Performance) A person might be motivated to work because she needs to earn money to buy food or shelter. Process theories, in contrast, describe how the individuals become motivated in the first time. A number of strategies for motivating employees are also discussed. At the group level, the Hawthorne effect is explained and at the organizational level, job enrichment and design and the Scanlon plan are reviewed. Individuals have a variety of needs they seek to satisfy. Several theories of motivation address the role needs play in stimulating behavior. Though motivational theories may stress different factors, they reveal a case regardless of whether the rewards is intrinsic. However a persons physical safety was suddenly threatened an angry customer threatened a hotel clerk with physical violence. This process would reoccur as event and conditions in the individuals life changed. A common error of manager is to attempt to motivate employees by addressing an unmet need that is a projection of the managers rather than the employees need. This is illustrated in the following examples. A manager of a travel agency had an employees who was not able to sell the companys service in a proficient manner. Employees need to developed and thus motivation are acquired, as people interact with their environment. Examples: (Achievement, Power, Affiliation) People with a high need for achiement tend to take personal responsibility for solving problems, be a goal oriented, set moderate, realistic, attainable goals, seek challenges, excellence, and individuality and take calculated, moderated risk. Some people with high need for achiement think about ways to do a better job. People need high power for to control the situation, want to influence or control over others, enjoy competition in which they can win, be willing to confront others. People with high need for affiliation seek close relationship with others, want to be liked by others, enjoy lots of social activities. As a part of a team some people desire satisfaction from other people, whom they work rather than from the task itself. Some gives allots of praise and recognition, delegate responsibility for orienting and training new employees to them. Motivation and individuals performance, is to improve towards work that can contribute significantly to improved performance. This implies that managers should be sensitive to individual different because what motivates one individual may not motivate another. Motivation and the work group establishing effective and productive work groups. It has been well established that employees behavior is affected by individuals needs. Organization need motivated employees to carry out the business of the firm and to ensure that organizational goals are achieved. Because of the crucial role motivation plays in individual and group performance, organizations must establish systems or programs to motivate their employees. Job enrichment which refers to the vertical expansion of jobs, raise motivation by making work more interesting and challenging for employees. Worker controls the planning, execution, and evaluation of his or her job. Complete activity, increases the employees freedom and independence, increases responsibility, and provides feedback. Job redesign is essentially the of doing it better by doing it differently. Experts can use time and motion to determine the way they should be done. Managers, who supervise the job, can suggest improvement based observed shortcoming in current job procedures. Knowledgeable about their jobs, can devise new and better ways to carry out their work. Conclusion Motivation refers to employees, which willing to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goal in the expectation that doing so will enable them to satisfy some individual need. Motivation is a necessary, but by itself not a sufficient, condition of effective performance. Manager should ensure that the reward system is perceived by employees as being fair. Bibliography -Human resource management in the hospitality industry. John Wiley sons, inc Hospitality industry OR Management. publisher- DAnnunzio-Green, Norma Table of content Question 1 Introduction Answer 1 Conclusion Question 2 Answer 2 Conclusion

The presentation of language through texts

The presentation of language through texts Presenting language through texts Texts have been used in language classrooms for many years. There are many reasons for teachers using texts. Firstly, they use texts as a linguistic objects. Secondly, they use texts as vehicle for information. And for the last reason, they use texts as a springboard for production. So texts in language teaching have played the important role in language learning and teaching. The most effective texts in learning process are authentic materials. Leaning English through authentic materials will make the learners feel like the are in the a real language situations. The atmosphere of the classrooms are alive. Research studies on the use of authentic materials reveal that it can promote the students motivation, positive attitude, involvement and interest on the subject. There are several kinds of authentic materials which are audio, visual, printed materials and multimedia materials. The multimedia materials are involved audio, video and graphic presentations. All of these materials are applied for communicating specific dispatches in real situations. Authentic audio materials: Music, news and other audio materials available on the internet TV programming including movies, commercials, quiz shows, cartoons, news and weather Radio including ads, music and sales pitches Taped or eavesdropped conversations, such as one-sided phone conversations Meetings, talks Announcements in airports and stores Professionally audio-taped short stories and novels Authentic visual materials: Images and graphs available on the internet photographs painting and drawings, childrens artwork wordless street signs pictures from magazines, postcards, wordless picture books stamps x-rays coins and currency clocks phones Halloween masks and other holiday decorations Authentic printed materials: web based printed materials available on the internet newspapers including articles, movies reviews and advertisements, astrology columns, sports reports, obituary columns, advice columns, classified ads reports, obituary columns, advice columns, classified ads lyrics to song restaurant menus street signs food product labels such as cereal boxes, candy wrappers tourist information brochures university catalogs telephone books maps magazines including TV guides, comic books, catalogs greeting cards, letters grocery coupons and flyer pins or t-shirt with messages bus schedules mail including bills , missing children flyers and junk mail flyers, posters, billboards school notices forms including leases, tax forms, applications, medical history forms Authentic multimedia materials: TV, Video programmes of various kinds podcasting on the internet we based programes involving multimedia use There are criteria for teachers to consider for choosing the authentic materials for classroom use. Firstly, the interest of the students, the teacher has to ensure that the chosen materials suit the age, interest and background of the students. Secondly, the purpose of language learning, teachers must consider the information in the chosen materials are of value to the learners. Thirdly, the cultural appropriateness, some materials are produced on the basis of the native speakers, the learners might not familiar with the culture of the contexts. Thus, the teachers should carefully select the appropriate second language contexts. Fourthly, the language level, the group of students are different levels like beginner, intermediate or advanced students .because the authentic materials are not made to fit the learning purposes so the teachers must choose the kind of comprehensible input which is slightly difficult in order to sustain their motivation. Lastly, the quality of the materials may be concerned. The chosen texts must have the quality of the text organization and the appropriate picture use. In the same time, the teachers must attentively check for errors and spelling mistakes of the texts. Using authentic materials have great benefits or advantages, specially for the second language learners of English. A large number of evidences of research studies have revealed a wide range of advantages. Firstly, the learners will expose to a wide range of natural language. Next, the reality and the meaningful interactive are brought into classroom. Then, there is a connection between the classroom and the outside world. The teaching and assessment focus on the 4 skills which the facts of language are not included. Moreover, the important objective is not a memorization for the examination but for the communicative proposes. For the next reason, the authentic texts can help the teachers accessing the ready, available, attractive and inexpensive resources of the texts as well as bring the variety to the classroom activities. So, the students have opportunities to practice the skills learnt in the classroom in the outside world when they meet them in the real situations. Using the authentic materials also have some problems. Some kinds of materials may include difficult language and unusual vocabulary items which are not being used in the daily life basis. These kinds of problems cause a burden to the teachers. So to solve the problems, the teachers should carefully pick the authentic materials by using the above mentioned criteria. For instance, the notices, bottled labels and reservation forms are used for the lower level learners. Whereas, the advanced levels need more complex materials. Thornbury claimed that language always happens as text and not as isolated words and sentences Therefore, the basis of foreign language teaching is handling texts for both written and oral. There are three acronyms that have been used to describe texts. Texts based activities presented in the course book Information Technology are marking the statements as true or false, filling in the gaps in the statements, linking each pair of actions ( donating cause and effect ) by a time clause, matching the terms in table A with the statements in table B, making a list of the key features of the facility ( device ) students are reading about, matching the reviews of the facilities to their titles, writing a brief evaluation of the phenomenon you have read about ( at least by listing its good and bad points ), trying to guess the meaning of the given abbreviations, trying to paraphrase the statements, linking each set of sentences to make one sentence ( corresponding to the descriptions given in the text ), completing the forms to record the main details of the problem described in the text, working in pairs, studying the diagram to explain how facility works, putting the described events in sequence, finding words or phrases in the table whi ch mean what is given in the statements below. From my experience as a teacher, I have been teaching young learners, mostly in the Phatom 1-3 students. And I have used several kinds of authentic materials in my class. For example, I use English songs and nursery rhymes when I would like to present new language to my students for promoting the motivation and engagement in learning of my students. Then, I use many pictures to present the new vocabulary in order to promote a better understanding of the meanings of the words. Sometimes, I have them read their favorable books from the bookshelf, so they can choose what ever they like.

Myth and the Modern World Essay -- Heros Journey, Hospitality

Since the beginning of time, people have been searching the universe looking for answers to the burning questions about what â€Å"it† all means. By looking to the past, we find parallels that help put our own modern lives into perspective. We mortals have an insatiable quest for knowledge about everything under the sun. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? What happens next? By analyzing the meaning of ancient Mythology and applying the lessons learned through the hero’s quests, we gain insight and perspective about our own place in the modern world we live in today. By visualizing and internalizing the lessons learned through the mythological hero’s journeys, we find relevance in the symbolism and metaphors that mirror our own struggles and inspire us to find the courage and determination to overcome them. I am not a deeply religious person but I do believe in â€Å"something†. What that something is, I am not entirely sure. However, like the characters in the myths we have read about this semester, I know that I am also on a journey that hopefully one day will reveal the answers to the questions I’ve been looking for along with the ones I haven’t even thought of yet. Life is a quest that begins at birth and continues until the day we die. Our quests resemble the hero’s journeys because in attempting to achieve our goals; we stumble, fall, get a little help if we’re lucky, then get up and try again. Sometimes I pray for supernatural help as I struggle to overcome obstacles along the way, but so far no gods or goddesses have materialized to help me out in my times of need. I guess that’s why we have family - those people in our lives we sometimes can’t live with but could never live without. They are the ones... ... process. Like the mythological characters we’ve been introduced to this semester, we travel through life and face obstacles that either make us stronger or shatter us into a million pieces. It’s up to us to choose how we put those pieces back together. Works Cited "Jason and the Golden Fleece." Ancient Greece Mythology. Copyright  © 2003-2012 University Press Inc. . Web. 11 Oct 2013. . Raffel, Burton . Beowulf. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1963. print. Gardner, John. Grendel. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1971. Print. Fagles, Robert. The Odyssey. Deluxe. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1996. Print. Encyclopedia Mythica. MCMXCV - MMXII Encyclopedia Mythica.. Web. 11 Oct 2013. . The Epic of Gilgamesh. Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, Web. .

The Tempest the Play by William Shakespeare Essay -- Tempest William S

The Tempest the Play by William Shakespeare Ruler’s in general face many problems, as is the nature of having power and authority. However rulers like Prospero face even more difficulties, as Prospero has the ultimate power of magic and can control and manipulate people and their actions, more so than a natural ruler. The first difficulty presented is an issue, which is dealt with throughout the play: the idea of how much or how little to intervene? From the beginning of the play we are told of how and why Prospero is usurped from his dukedom, â€Å"I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated/ To closeness, and the bettering of my mind/ With that which, but by being so retired, O’er-prized all popular rate, in my false brother.† Namely because he did not get involved in running the country and possibly felt that his job was not to intervene but to be a figure-head for the country and leave the country to run itself, a ‘laissez faire’ attitude to ruling. This short speech by Prospero raises the idea that perhaps we should remember that being a ruler involves both rights and responsibilities; Prospero wanted the former but not the latter. The idea of intervention and responsibility is presented in Act 2, Scene 1, where Prospero intervenes telling Ariel to wake Gonzalo before Antonio and Sebastian draw their swords and kill him. This issue, is particularly difficult for a ruler such as Prospero as he has the power to manipulate the situation to suit him self, raising moral as well as personal dilemmas? This raises yet another problem faced by rulers, specifically Gonzalo; of how much trust you can give your subjects or more appropriately those who are next in line to the throne? This idea of trust was .. ...have alcohol. Caliban gives his only power, knowledge of the island, as a pledge to his new masters. His hope is that by exchanging masters, he will be able to better his life. This continues the idea of trust and the problems faced by those ruler’s such as Prospero who have slaves who have an inherit need to be incarcerated by a ruler, but unfortunately by any ruler at all and are therefore not faithful. In conclusion, Act 2 reveals the difficulties faced by ruler’s such as Prospero, through cleverly interwoven narrative threads which are developed gradually throughout the play. This is especially true of the themes of trust and the fixed natures of characters, which both pose a problem for those in power. Prospero of course has the added dilemma of possessing supernatural powers which brings with it additional problems when placed in the role a ruler.

A need for old age homes in modern times Essay

It’s a shameful state of affairs that there has arisen a need for old age homes in modern times. Why do we need these homes? Why are we considering our older relatives as a burden on us? Not too long ago we used to have a strong joint family system. It was an unquestioned norm of the society to take care if of the elderly. It was considered an honour and a blessing. Sadly, joint families have become relics of the past. In this nuclear age, old people are considered a liability. Time is money. And time and money determine our priorities today. Why are old age homes a symbol of societal ingratitude? Obviously, the absence of near and dear ones and the lack of their love and affection are the causes. Definitely, old age homes stand out as sore thumbs in the society, symbolic of our negligence towards our aged parents. As Thomas Merton, a catholic author rightly said, ‘These people, who live the evening of their lives in old age homes live unloved and die unmourned. Death comes to them as a great reliever.’ Are we not negating the role they have played in catapulting us to what we are today? Can we be so mean and selfish? Do we ever realise how priceless senior citizens are to the nation because of their wide experience and wisdom? How can we overlook their sad forlorn faces and concentrate on our triumphs? Don’t you remember all those countless hurdles and sleepless nights they have faced? So why don’t we make a fresh start? Let’s work together to weave a web of love and compassion to shelter our elders who have been torch lights of guidance all their lives for us. The elderly of the world today are more in need of love, kindness, safety and comfort from their own children and family members than that coming from a stranger. They can do without the amenities and/or luxuries that any OLD AGE HOME, SANITARIUM or GERIATRIC HOSPITAL WARD can give them. You might very well be paying a high price to keep a domestic helper or cook for your elderly parent(s) or grand-parent(s) – but that is not what the elderly  really WANT. They need the aid of a helper in their daily lives, it is true – but it is for a smile, a kind, polite word, attention and love that they really crave for. They crave for somebody who will talk to them and laugh with them – people who will stay by their side when the darkness of night falls and the fear of dying alone creeps in. Whether you want to believe it or not, old people crave for a TRUE AND LOYAL FRIEND. An emotional and moral â€Å"SUPPORT SYSTEM† that comes from one’s own loving and ca ring family members has more curative value in the longer run than all the allopathic drugs and medicines put together. now a days our Indian society is intensely influenced by the western world.. & we have become obsessed with money so that we are gradually losing our morality. †¨its time to realise that Aged parents are like children. & we should take care of them†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¨finally i wanna say 1 thing that†¨WHATEVER WE GIVE IN THE PRESENT ONLY WE WILL GET IN THE FUTURE†¦.!!!†¨so it is preferable if possible and the children are willing to look after you. in case the children are not favourable then it is preferred to live in a good old age home who can take care of of you till your death. but the people who do not have their children then the preference is to live in old age home only old people are big support for the family. bcz they are our base and having better experinces den new age people. and bcz old age people we r kwn in the society.and they r the strength of the family. so don’t let dem to old age home keep them in family bcz in this age they need family support and care†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. well according to me everyone has right to live with their family happily †¦.. to days people are trying to avoid their responsibility †¦ they think old parents are only burden†¦there is no use of them†¦but i think if you got saperate by your old parents ..send them old age home.. then you are the next one who will suffer the same problem†¦. Can not agree with your view even with best effort. Did our parents think the same way when they spared time, attention and energy for us? The answer is no. If our parents could find time for us, surely we as well, can think the same way both for our children and parents. Provide quality time as also while we need to pay back even if it is at the cost of a few promotions less in job or making less money in other vocations. Being competitive was very much known to our parents as well and so was the rat-race, yet if they avoided we must appreciate that gesture. Of course few from â€Å"Rat-race† may realize of this being a differentiating factors to be called Human. my opinion Parents make great sacrifices for the care of their children. Day after day, parents protect their children from danger, attend to their cries, and reassure them after a bad dream. Parents give up necessities for their children everyday†¦.But when the children grown up and if they reach better postion in the society, they are forgetting their own parents†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦I cant able to undersatnd, how they(children) can forget their past lifehow they can avoid their own parents in their lifeIs it Good? that it’s shamefull that we have to discuss this matter as we are forgetting our culture which tell us that mother father are god in the world . I agree with your views that parents must be kept with us if required we can keep servent to tocare for them in our absence and after coming from work we can spend some time with them .This much will keep them happy . Our parents are taking too many difficulties or we can say they are sacrificing for the welfare of their children. Hence it should not be the right thing to leave them in the oldage homes. It is the duty of every one to keep their old age parents with them and should be taken care by their children. In case the old age parents are left in the homes by you, which will be watched by your own children and tomorrow you will meet the same thing by your children. Whether elderly people should live with their children and grandchildren or  in retirement homes depends on their personal choice and the circumstances in which they have been living till then.I personally feel elderly people must live with their children and grand children.†¨ The chief reason for my view is old people are like infants who need constant care and attention.Most of them have some or the other medical conditions which may require assistance from people around.Some people may or may not be financially sound to live in retirement homes.Above all,it is the primary duty of the children to take care of their parents at such an age For example,In India most of the parents live with their children in their older age.This develops bond between different generations and bridges the gap between them.Younger generation can learn a lot from the older generation where as older generation can know about the progress which the newer generations are making. Moreover living with the family creates a sense of security and warmth which might be lacking in any other type of residences.Finally,living with the family would be a better option. They did not ponder much about lack of privacy whenever we barged into their romantic rendezvous. They did it all for Us! Is this how we pay back? By dumping them in old age homes? i know Okay, times have changed. Now, both parents might have to work to run the home. Maybe, we don’t want to miss out on our promotions. After all, the money from that promotion will also be used to give parents a ‘better old age home!!’ And now-a-days, old age homes are all spruced up like hotels with all facilities including medicine and entertainment readily available. Fine, but pray tell me, if we have the time to party, if we have the time to watch television can we not find a little time for our parents at home? Is it too much to ask for? Old age homes may provide all material requirements but surely, we are wise enough( or are we?!) to understand that an old age home cannot fill in the vacuum of love and affection that only a family can provide. Even if we call them every other day, can the phone call fulfill the anticipations and expectation that a parent has to meet his/her son or/and daughter? Come on friend , I am telling you a little story † one day my friend’s father made a little mistake then my friend shout on them.. his father replied , son , when you were small (child) you made lot of errors but i never rebuked on you , you did several mistake but i always tried to show  you good manner to do that task. but today , when i am getting sick , my memory and body is not supporting me , you are not doing the same as what i did in past for you . Friends they are treasure for us, with lot of experience of life, with lot of love, with lot of honor . don’t loo se you wealth , they are root of your life , without root , you will not be strong and steady. I believe that they should live in family and with family.I believe that whatever we do we do it for our family.If we can manage our small kids who also want special care why not our parents.We dont send them to some other kid care center then why there is problem with parents.If one can afford them to old age home then it could also be managed, care and attention could also be provided at our home by arranging some professionals who will come to home and take care of them.Definitely it cost higher but I think they deserve it.They don’t need money,they need family and want to die in front of there loved one rather than some unknown professional. We should understand that no matter how high we rise in our life but we are in life because of them and we should help them to get the LOVE,RESPECT that they deserve. Here I want to post something that i recently gone through. Today I’m sharing something that is very close to us & also very true. We all go through this †¦plz read through†¦ At 4 Years†¨ My daddy is great.†¨ †¨ At 6 Years†¨ My daddy knows everybody.†¨ †¨ At 10 Years†¨ My daddy is good but is short tempered†¨ †¨ At 12 Years†¨ My daddy was very nice to me when I was young.†¨ †¨ At 14 Years†¨ My daddy is getting fastidious.†¨ †¨ At 16 Years†¨ My daddy is not in line with the current times.†¨ †¨ At 18 Years†¨ My daddy is becoming increasingly cranky.†¨ †¨ At 20 Years†¨ Oh! It’s becoming difficult to tolerate daddy. Wonder how Mother puts up†¨ with him.†¨ †¨ At 25 Years†¨ Daddy is objecting to everything.†¨ †¨ At 30 Years†¨ it’s becoming difficult to manage my son. I was so scared of my father†¨ when I was young.†¨ †¨ At 40 Years†¨ Daddy brought me up with so much discipline. Even I should do the same.†¨ †¨ At 45 Years†¨ I am baffled as to how my daddy brought us up.â € ¨ †¨ At 50 Years†¨ My daddy faced so many hardships to bring us up. I am unable to manage†¨ A Single son.†¨ †¨ At 55 Years†¨ My daddy was so far  sighted and planned so many things for us. He is†¨ one of his kind and unique.†¨ †¨ At 60 Years†¨ My daddy is great.†¨ †¨ Thus, it took 56 years to complete the cycle and come back to the 1st. Stage. Realize the true value of your parents before it’s too late†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Bye the way I want to thank the owner of this debate and to Disha.who gave me an opportunity to take part in this debate I don’t think people have time today even to take care of their own parents, I mean they are busy running behind money and creating better future for themselves but are forgetting who provided a better future for them in the first place, and even parents at times think that they don’t want to be a burden on their children and they themselves at times get registered to these oldage homes, as they are seeing whats happening infront of them and they dont want to be let down by their own kids infront of others I strongly feel that older people should spend rest of their lives with their children because there are some things that money can’t buy especially â€Å"LOVE†. Old age especially demands affection. Children are brought up by their parents since they are too young. Especially in a society to which I belong, Technology-integration in Old Age Homes in India A Status Paper Sugan Bhatia, Ph.D. President Indian University Association for Continuing Education Delhi 1.1 The elderly (aged 60 years and above) in India account for more than 9 percent of the total population. The National Population Commission estimated that the population of the elderly is expected to grow from 71 million in 2001 to 173 million in 2026. This demographic scenario appears to indicate a very precarious condition for the older persons in terms of their capability to enjoy the right to life with dignity. While those in the age group 60-69 years could be expected to lead a fairly healthy life and offer their services as volunteers for informal care giving to others in the two higher age groups, both the 70-79 years age group and the 80 + years age group would require critical social and medical healthcare support – both  informal care giving and formal care giving. 1.2 The growing incidence of elder abuse and severe fissures in the multigenerational family or household has forced many older persons to abandon their family home; some of them have also been â€Å"pushed out† and have thus been left shelter-less. Most urban areas appear to have a growing incidence of cases of abandoned elderly. A new culture of â€Å"peer group participation† being attempted by the old persons appears to be taking roots in many parts of urban India; Old Age Homes of various types are rapidly becoming a choice for many â€Å"abandoned†, â€Å"left out† or â€Å"neglected† old persons with or without survival resources. 1.3 The vision of â€Å"alternate shelter† for older persons, as enunciated in both national and global policy frameworks, includes Group housing for older persons, No physical barriers to mobility, Health care and nutritional support, Development of age-integrated communities, Recreation services, Age-friend ly, easy and safe accessibility to shopping complexes, community centers, parks and other services, and Provision of ramps†¦