A Case of identity Essay

Through a comparison of ‘A Case of identity’ and ‘The Stolen Cigar case’ discuss how successful Bret Harte is in parodying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  There are two forms of detective story: there is the ‘who dunnit’ idea in which gentlemen detectives are called upon in all sorts of impossible situations, but always manage to solve the crime. In this type, the reader has a good idea of who committed the ‘crime’; however, the characters in the story don’t. The other type of story is a mystery, in which neither reader nor investigators know who is responsible for the crime; together with the characters, the reader too is invited to figure out the sequence of events. In the Sherlock Holmes stories the focus is on the character of the detective himself (Sherlock Holmes) and follows the story of him solving a mystery. Sherlock Holmes (S.H) was a legendary figure as he was the very first fictional detective; his stories were written in the Victorian times by the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  The S.H stories have many common features. For example S.H is seen to be very well organised and by the end, his efforts have concluded in solving the mystery/crime. This has made it easier for Bret Harte to parody Conan Doyle’s style; he uses many similar features like the same old fashioned language and also in having Sherlock Holmes or Hemlock Jones (as he is called in the parody), portrayed as a very precise, eccentric detective. In the original story, we are told of how Miss Mary Sunderland goes to S.H to find Mr Hosmer Angel-her missing bridegroom-who disappeared on the day of their wedding. S.H manages to find this man, so uncovering the fact that it is her step-father in disguise!  In the parody; ‘The Stolen Cigar Case’, Hemlock Jones (H.J) accuses Watson of stealing his cigar case and constructs an elaborate/exaggerated story to prove his point, only to find he had misplaced it! In ‘A Case of Identity’ Watson is the narrator, who, as he is some what naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve, has to have things explained to him; this assists the reader. He tries to work out S.H’s process of deduction, often unsuccessfully, so S.H explains in a straightforward manner through Watson to the reader. He takes the role of the pupil and is a necessary link between Sherlock and the reader. As we look at things from Watson’s point of view we are able to see how S.H unravels the cases and solves the crimes. S.H is admired greatly by Watson; likewise readers also come to admire him as an exponent of ratiocination. Throughout the story, the impression is given that S.H’s previous clients have all been people high up in society as he had â€Å"a little souvenir from the king of Bohemia† in return for Sherlock helping him with a case. He has many valuable belongings, many of which have been gifts from wealthy clients of his such as his â€Å"snuff-box of gold†.  He also refers to similar cases to the ones he is working on â€Å"You will find parallel cases, if you consult my index, in Andover in ’77†. This also shows that he is an experienced detective with a powerful memory and someone in whom one can have faith.

What Effect Does Tourism Have on Jamaica

Extended Essay Jason Baugh School Number: 003311 Candidate Number: 003311-005 Supervisor: Mr. L. Holmes Name of School: Hillel Academy Session 2012 Subject Area: Geography Research Question: What effect does tourism have on Jamaica in relation to Social Friction and degradation on Natural Resources, specifically in the towns of Montego Bay and Trelawney? Topic Areas: Tourism, environmental degradation, social integration, cultural diffusion, development, globalization. Table of Contents Abstract3 Introduction5 Jamaica’s Hotel Industry6 Problem with Investors8 Cruise Tourism11 Jamaica’s Investment in Cruise Tourism13Trelawney as a Capitol City15 Integrating tourists and social friction17 Conclusion19 Abstract Jamaica is a much sought after tourist destination and has a booming tourist industry that is second to almost none. With our large musical influence around the world as well as being known as a home for Rastafarians outside of Ethiopia there are more than enough re asons to visit Jamaica. With a rocky economy, tourism is a necessity for Jamaica to develop and grow and earn more money. Development of hotels and facilities for increased visits from other countries, Jamaica relies more than ever on its natural resources that it is known for.Jamaica is accessible by air and water and caters to the contributors of over 50% of our GDP. But with the amount of people visiting, our country is susceptible to a number of problems resulting in an over To truly understand whether or not our islands natural resources are being degraded and if the nationals are being exploited or becoming violent and unlawful or experiencing trouble from the investments and developments in relation to tourism, we need to look at what is being done for the development of that sector and the level of tourism Jamaica receives.There are damages occurring to the environment as a result of the many activities that are now being instituted to raise funds that are generated by forei gn investment and tourism. The pollution and degradation of the land comes from the building of larger buildings and increased water activity. Although these facilities are causing harm, through government legislations and application and abide to conservation laws that have been put in place over the years to facilitate and match the rate at which they are depleting. IntroductionThis essay will look at the all of the tourist aspects of Jamaica. This means that it will need to focus the research on the northern coast of the island because it contains most of the tourism attractions and accommodation development on the island. Tourism is a means of globalization, opening countries to the knowledge outside of their own. Jamaica is a widely famous and known location for tourists to visit, giving it a famous reputation that precedes itself on many occasions. With tourism, there are both good effects and bad effects.With tourism being Jamaica’s main source of income, the resources exploited are under constant use and mean that they stand to suffer the most and experience negative effects from constant interaction. The main focus of the essay will be on the towns of Trelawney and Montego Bay. These two areas are undergoing a large amount of development and an increase in the amount of visitors that are being received. As mentioned above, there are several negative side effects and each of them is present in both of these areas of Jamaica Jamaica’s Hotel IndustryJamaica’s location geographically is the main attributor to its fame. Being of a tropical climate, the island attracts the type of people that are seeking a type of holiday that includes activities based around the natural resources that the island has to offer. Activities as such include tree top tours, river rafting, and coral snorkeling, anything that interacts with the exotic plant and animal life. The hotels that have been developed across the northern coast are built for the purpose of being central locations to activities like the ones listed above.The developments of the hotels are investments of the hotel brands. Whilst Jamaica has the benefit of the popularity of the hotel’s name and the development of the area around the hotels increases the amount of money gained, the hotels benefit from the location for building another branch of their business. The hotel chains use the location to fuel their business. The six main hotel areas for Jamaica are Montego Bay (9,307 rooms), Ocho Rios (8,202 rooms), Negril (7,574 rooms), Kingston (2,347 rooms), the South Coast (1,369 rooms) and Port Antonio (995 rooms). (Figures from the Vision 2030 Jamaica document. At present there are 160 hotels all over Jamaica, including mainly the larger more recognized hotel chains and leaving out the small enterprises around the island. The number of rooms easily exceeds 35,000 and seems to be increasing. Some hotels are easy to see that they have a large amount of rooms like t he chains Iberostar having up to 890 rooms currently, Riu Hotels currently at 701 rooms in the Montego Bay branch and even more at the 10 km long Ocho Rios branch with 856 total rooms, the large Gran Bahia Principe hotel in Runaway Bay with a total of 831 rooms and the Grand Palladium with 540 rooms total.At present, Jamaica has a total of 29,794 rooms across all hotels and the number is only increasing with more and more development. At this rate the hotels would need to expand in a way that would create more rooms but stay within the land that they own. In cases like these, it is common for the hotel chains to try and bend the conditions of their contracts, in an attempt to exploit the government. The company that is most known for this type of bending is the Riu Hotels chain. Problems with InvestorsThe first reported incident started in January of 2008, with their first offense being with the neighboring residents in Mammee Bay. The locals could tell that the water, since the beg inning of the building from 2006, almost two years ago, had been contaminated. Not only for neighboring residents but also in the beachfronts, there had clearly been contamination of the pristine waters. That are one of Jamaica’s claims to fame Continuing into the 22nd of April, Riu had â€Å"not responded to the charges† that was put against them and it left the chairman of Mammee Bay no choice but to take them to court.At first, it had just been a problem of contamination of water but by taking the hotel chain to court a large amount of violations in building code was found, not only ones that are recognized globally but that they specifically signed not to do in their contracts with the government. On May 1st, Riu decided to respond publically by saying that they would remove the ‘decorations’ from the roofs and even tried to put the blame on the Mayor of the time, Mr. Charles Sinclair, for not having the plans approved. Their negligence of the building codes and building rules of Jamaica had gotten to the point that even Prime Minister, Mr.Bruce Golding, had to speak out about it. He bluntly stated that Riu had to comply and demolish the floors that were not approved at the time or else they would face the â€Å"full brunt of Jamaican law. † Finally by May 22nd Riu finally succumb to the will of the government and â€Å"fired up† demolition equipment hired to take down the illegal floors. This case is a representation of the ways that companies try to accomplish their goals by illegitimate means. By using improper building methods, the hotel is lacking in the quality and safety it needs. Since the incident, Riu ad legally acquired more land and were able to spread out but during the first instance, this hotel was contaminating the waters that its costumers were to be using and what is attracting and making people want to visit the Mamee Bay. By contaminating even the waterfront of the hotel, the reputation of Jamaic a’s clean beach waters and clean white sand are immediately ruined and the new contaminated image remains with them. Had their system of development continue, the waters of the Mamee Bay would be an environmental nightmare and take years to get them back to a proper state.The case is also representative of the islands attitude towards its tourism sector, showing that they care for it greatly, by reacting quickly to the problems that were occurring and to get Riu to correct their procedures. This shows that the population understands the risks of polluting our resource and what impact it would have on our tourist industry. Jamaica’s tourism stems also from activities that would open up Jamaica to other interests, rather than having it cater only to a relaxing place for people to get away. Attractions include natural or man-made horticultural, cultural, historical, equestrian, aquatic, aerial, eco-tourism, recreational and environmental facilities for tourists. † ( Page 5, Vision 2030 Jamaica) Jamaica has many different types of attractions, ranging from water parks in Negril and other water activities, nature trails and hiking and canopy tours and other nature themed and adventure type parks, several Natural parks around the island and natural attractions like the blue mountains and the beaches and canopies, all of which are centered around different types of activities that hotels can build around and cater for.Because they are so spread out across the island, it would mean that a visitor would want to experience all of the attractions and travel island wide to experience them all. Cruise Tourism Tourism from Cruising is still a good contribution to Jamaica’s arrivals and shows for 38 percent of Jamaica’s arrivals. In 2008 it was recorded that 1. 1 million people arrived in on cruise ships and cruise passengers spent US$ 91 million in the same year. Mainly the ships that come in to the ports belong the cruise lines Royal Caribb ean Cruises and the Carnival Cruise companies.It is even thought that the main areas of our transport infrastructures are located in the expansion and improvements of our roads as well as in the airports and cruise line ports. The Ocho Rios port is shown to receive the most revenue but Jamaica also has a port in Montego Bay as well as Port Antonio. But even with the income from these ports, a fund known as the Tourism Enhancement Fund was introduced in 2005 where air passengers had to pay US$ 10. 00 and cruise passengers paid US$ 5. 00 through various means by the individual industries.The world cruise industry has experienced positive results in the past five years with the number of passengers steadily on the rise. In 2006 about 12. 1 million passengers took cruises to about 500 ports, and this increased to 13. 2 million in 2008. The Caribbean remains the main cruise destination, accounting for 38. 2% of all itineraries. Ocho Rios is the main port of call for cruise ships. It regu larly receives 679,247 cruise passengers annually 62. 2% of total cruise passenger arrivals for that year. In second, Montego Bay received 405,999 cruise passengers representing 37. % of the total. Growth has been seen over the years in the growth of the cruise industry in relation to the continuing improvement in accessibility of ports and the quality and speed of travel on cruise ships. The average percent age of the GDP growth was usually 4. 5% every year. In 2006, the transport authority noticed that there was a spike in the country’s GDP growth where it reached up to 10%. It was discovered that this was due to a series of natural disasters that affected Mexico as a vacation destination and leaving Jamaica as a default. †¦In 2007 and 2008 the growth rate fell to 0. 7 % and 2. 7 % respectively† (Page 13, Vision 2030 Jamaica) and this was due to both Mexico rebuilding themselves from their natural disaster but more importantly because in 2008 the world experience d the global recession crisis and this prohibited people from travel and especially discouraged them from travel and taking vacations. But even though this was true the increase in the attractiveness and appeal to travel to Jamaica that cause the improvement of the tourism sector of the island has seen an increase in cruise passengers.The number of arrivals grew from 29% in the earlier years of tourism development 1982 to 38 % of total arrivals in 2008. Jamaica’s Investment in Cruise Tourism Jamaica continues to have high levels of people coming in and welcomes over 1 million every year from cruise passengers come to visit our shores. This could be used as an indicator to show how much people think of Jamaica as a good tourist spot that we would be able to have record levels of cruise attendance even through an economic recession, further solidifying Jamaica as a destination of choice. In 2006 the country experienced a record 1,336,994 cruise passengers arrivals, over the 1,1 35,843 for 2005. † (Page 17, Vision 2030 Jamaica) These record visits did not go unrecognized and garnered Jamaica the awarded title Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Destination for 2 years in a row and The World’s Leading Cruise Destination for the first time from the World Travel Awards in 2006. These titles come with a comparable steady growth of the industry of an average 3. 2% growth annually over the past five years from 2004-2008. The government is looking into the cruise ship industry with hope and eagerness.They are so hopeful that the government put a lot of development into a new pier built into Falmouth to add to our already three existing piers. Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett made a prediction in March 3 of 2011 that Trelawney will become the tourism capital of Jamaica from the increase of people to be coming in from the pier. It was also announced that there is going to be an addition of 10,000 new hotel rooms for the parish over the next five years. Th is is in addition to the current thousands of rooms currently on the northern coast.By adding another capitol town with a new form of transport, Jamaica has made itself available to a new kind of tourism with larger quantities and expanding on what they already receive. With the opening of the pier in Trelawney brings new attraction abilities because of Trelawney as an old town. Tourists can be treated to artifacts from Jamaica’s history. Trelawney as a Capitol â€Å"We are going to make Trelawney the tourism Mecca of Jamaica. This parish, in the next five years will have 10,000 new hotel rooms. I went to Spain two weeks ago and put them back on track, the development at Oyster Bay†¦It is going to happen (and) watch over the next 12 months what is going to happen at Harmony Cove,† Bartlett told JLP supporters. (Jamaica Observer) The pier was estimated to hopefully bring in about US$ 500 million that will be able to be injected into the economy by the government. T he pier and the tourism from the pier have created a number of jobs for the local area. The Tourism Product Development Company had trained over 400 residents of Trelawney by February of 2011 in various aspects of tourism as the parish prepares for its debut in the rising and steadily increasing cruise shipping arena.All of these efforts were put in place in the hope that the government gets Trelawney ready for a new bustling area of tourism for Jamaica to invest in thanks to the Falmouth Cruise Ship Pier. Over US$ 50 million was spent on several aspects of the parish including training, aesthetic appearance, zinc fence removal, the creation of public parking areas and sanitary conveniences, the renovation of the historic Court House and many other improvements across the town of Falmouth to make it somewhere to visit again and more appealing. In addition to the training, over 1000 residents have been involved in tourism sensitization workshops.This aspect is very important aspect o f helping the tourists become more acclimatized to our culture rather than giving them a culture shock, an aspect that often leaves many visitors with bad first impression and can affect tourism. The enthusiasm behind our increasing cruise industry brings in the prospect of new investments. In 2006 the Port Authority of Jamaica and Royal Caribbean Cruise Limited (RCCL) signed a five year contract with each other, valued at over US$16. 5 million. This means that there will be a guarantee that the RCCL will provide a minimum of 2. million cruise passengers over the next five years and so gives us a dependable income. Additionally, the planned development of Falmouth as a brand new cruise port along with the planned expansion of the Port of Montego Bay are expected to boost the country’s chances of capitalizing from the changes in the industry. All of these changes in the ports will push the country to develop the other aspects to have a proper port like the marinas. Tourism Int egration and Social Friction Social friction causes many of the problems that come from ‘language’ barriers or rather problems that come from people not understanding each other.Another problem that arises is when tourists that come to visit get involved in the corruption or the horrible acts that people condone in Jamaica unfortunately. Also, bad impressions are also made when men are behaving inappropriately towards guests is something that would deter people from returning the island. Integration of the tourists into Jamaican society smoothly is a concern of many companies and can lead to many problems because of several reasons. The most apparent and anticipated one is the fact that not all people are comfortable with mixing with members of another race or are outspokenly racist.Jamaica’s majority is black and so the tourist that come in may not act respectfully towards the nationals. Jamaican culture is centered around mutual respect and so if they do not sh ow respect then the nationals don’t show any respect and the tourists, not understanding this, think that it is the Jamaican’s fault. This leads into the other problem that is cultural barriers. Jamaica’s culture is very strong and the people have a good sense of it. There are many beliefs and social norms that are different as would be visiting any country.Sometimes, unknowingly, a tourist may do something that is normal to them but is offensive to Jamaicans, especially in relation to homosexuals. Something that is known to bring women to the country is a service called ‘Rent-a-Dread’, where women will arrange from wherever they are to meet with a ‘dread’, a male escort that will be a companion for the women for as long as they have paid for. This is technically illegal because it is almost a form of prostitution. Unlike the weed services that are heavily advertised, this is kept more secret and is usually heard about from the friends of the women who have used it before.He problems that arise from this type of tourism is its conflict with sex trafficking laws and Jamaica’s laws pertaining to prostitution and the fact that it is illegal. Even though it can be portrayed as a tourist integration service, the participants are still using money in the transaction of pleasure from the â€Å"dread† to the woman. For Trelawney, from 2005, the feeling of crime increase coupled with the future plans for development made residents of the town uneasy and sentiments of interruption of the multi billion-dollar investment were shared among the community.Police statistics from 2005 showed an increase in the amount of shooting crimes in that area, increasing by nine to a total of 17. It was more worrying that this was all happening around the summer period. But of that same year there had been a decline in other forms of crime like break-ins or larceny. Even in the last year, 2011, Trelawney’s court had a fa ir share of crimes, most of which were reportedly sexually based crimes occurring very early within the year.But by the middle of the year the police force sought to correct the problems and made and effort to put in place a system that would help reduce crime. They employed the use of several classic methods, involving the community but mostly keeping abreast and alert to anything that was happening in the town to stay on top of it. In 2010 Trelawney had a record level of crime, dipping with 28 percent decrease in total crime for Jamaica, followed by 2011, which dipped by 27 percent by the March period of the year. Environmental DegradationOne of the main aspects of the environment that is damaged the most from interference of the tourist is the coral reef. As well as dealing with the tourist interaction, another aspect that is affecting the reefs are the increased levels of activity of the cruise ships coming in, especially with the addition of the Trelawney Pier. The coral reefs in the Caribbean are famous for how much life they have and for how clear it is. Untrained observers of the coral reef don’t understand the delicate balance of the reef and accidently throw it out of sync and cause the coral to start bleaching.A U. K. marine scientist M. J. C. Crabbe was quoted from his work Marine Environmental Research, which looked at Jamaica’s coral reefs and attributed the changes to several aspects of environmental interference in a bog known as the World Climate Report. His finding were entered in a September 13th 2010 entry by an admin of the blog, and was quoted as to saying that the corals state of health derived from Coastal development increase, overfishing, land being developed adjacent to reefs and the work being done on Jamaica’s north coast road development.He also went on to state that there had been improvement to the fringing corals in discovery bay at the end of 2008 and that there would have been hope but the fishermen of th e area did not implement the preservation tactics that were to be installed. Conclusion Jamaica spends a lot of money on the development of new facilities to generate more income. There are new attractions being built and put up all around the place. Construction and finishing of buildings and roads are happening fast and will be able to escalate our development in other areas of the country.A lot of the investments from foreign companies were not based on the best of contracts and so resulted in an exploitation of the country in the tax breaks and the cost of import for the foreign companies is lower, all done in hopes that it would create positive effects but it resulted in exploitation of the countries resources. There is hope that the resources will eventually gain stability and increase at a sustainable rate and continue into the future.With legislations and laws put in place to support sustainable development, Jamaica should be on the right track to being able to continue deve lopment on the tourist sector. The coral reefs are being protected by restriction s on aquatic traffic and sanctuaries. The building of hotels and attractions destroys the environment but with new legislations and building laws, they help support the environment and stimulate growth. I believe that Jamaica’s resources will be able to sustain development because of the current laws, legislations and systems put in place.Bibliography * http://statinja. gov. jm/ * http://www. visitjamaica. com/ * http://www. worldclimatereport. com/index. php/2010/09/13/coral-bleaching/ * http://www. vision2030. gov. jm/Portals/0/Speeches/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Overview%20of%20launch%20of%20Vision%202030%20Jamaica-%20National%20Development%20Plan,%20Popular%20Version. pdf * http://jamaica-gleaner. com/ * http://www. jamaicaobserver. com/ * http://jamaica-gleaner. com/gleaner/20050629/lead/lead4. html * http://jamaica-gleaner. com/gleaner/20110223/news/news91. html *

Behaviorism after the founding

Behaviorism as the third force in psychology have started out as a theoretical proposition of John B. Watson when he came out with â€Å"Psychology as The Behaviorist Views It† and have been known as the behaviorist manifesto (Benjamin, 1997). Watson proposed that psychology is the study of behavior and have put forth four major assumptions that form the tenets of behaviorism as a school of thought. The first assumption is that of evolutionary continuity which means that the laws of behavior are applicable to all living organisms. This assumption has substantiated the behaviorist’s use of animals in the study of human behavior.The second assumption is that of reductionism, this refers to the behaviorist’s belief that all behaviors have a physiological basis and that behavior is the body’s reaction to a stimulus. The third assumption is determinism, behaviorists support the idea that animals respond to external stimuli in specific ways and are inherently pr ogrammed into one’s brain from birth. The last assumption is empiricism which is one of the cornerstones of behaviorism and that it is the contention that only overt actions or behavior are measurable and observable and lend itself to the scientific method.Thus, to the behaviorist, psychology should be the study of overt behavior. B. F. Skinner was a self-confessed convert to behaviorism after reading Watson’s monograph; he was also influenced by the experimental studies of Ivan Pavlov (Bjork, 1997). Skinner developed a theory that was based on the classical conditioning paradigm of Pavlov and integrated it with his own definition of behaviorism. Skinner’s major work is his theory of operant conditioning, wherein he said that behavior can be conditioned through reinforcement and behavior diminishes when it is not reinforced.He borrowed from Pavlov the basic idea of conditioning, but instead of limiting it to a stimulus-response paradigm, he incorporated the impo rtance of rewards and punishment, which means that behavior is not only exhibited as a response to a stimulus but also as a form of association between the reinforcement given after the behavior. Skinner’s theoretical position made it obvious that he deviated from Watson’s radical behaviorism, because conditioning a she defined it involves cognition which Watson has strongly eradicated from his propositions.Moreover, the emphasis given to reinforcements and punishments hint at the need to acknowledge mental processes in the study of behavior. Skinner’s work was well received by the academic community much even that Watson’s initial paper was and this have spurned the interest of like minded psychologists who did support the methodological implications of behaviorism but was not receptive of the radical arguments of Watson. Skinner’s ideas made more sense because it did not advocated the idea that men are not thinking beings and were more able to ca pture how man behaves.Skinner’s kind of behaviorism somehow married the opposing views of mind and behavior and also gave importance to how environmental experiences and influences shape human behavior. Moreover, operant conditioning was applicable in a number of areas most notably education, child rearing and animal training (Skinner, 1966). Skinner’s behaviorism has also influenced other psychologists to study and conceptualize psychological phenomena using the principles of operant conditioning and indeed was the kind of behaviorism that has flourished for the last century or so in the field of psychology.Contemporary behaviorism have been identified as the study of social learning, wherein a behavior is learned through socialization and socialization is the process by which behavior is rewarded or punished by society (Smith & Woodward, 1996). The evolution of behaviorism from Watson to Skinner and to the present has been made possible by the vast research and theor etical models developed by psychologists who adhere to contemporary behaviorism. One of the hallmarks of behaviorism is the use of animals to study human behavior.Animal research has proven to be useful in understanding how man learns or can be trained to exhibit a certain type of behavior (Benjamin, 1997). Although animal behavior is limited, it nonetheless becomes necessary for behavioral scientists because ethical considerations in using a human subject in risky experiments are not permitted. For example, doing a research on the effect of light illumination to sleep deprivation is probably unethical to do on humans.Although animals are not exactly anatomically similar to humans, animal physiology and anatomy have been well studied and documented that tracing the reactions of mice to light will be easier and scientifically sound. The generalizations made based on this study is however limited but is an acceptable margin of error. Moreover, animals can be easily manipulated and sub jected to experiments than humans because they operate on an instinctual level and do not have to process the information given to them.The knowledge gained in studying animals is numerous but especially have been concentrated on learning and behavior and to some extent how drugs affect the brain or the body. Animal research can help us understand human behavior better because to some degree we share with them basic drives that are necessary for our existence and hence, learning how animals react to stress or hunger can give us the information needed to adequately explain behavior. Animals exhibit simple behaviors which humans share and have grown in complexity over the years but if analyzed is based still on simple behaviors.References Benjamin, L. (1997) A History of Psychology: Original Sources and Contemporary Research 2nd ed. New York: McGraw –Hill. Bjork, D. (1997) B. F. Skinner: A Life. Washington: American Psychological Association. Skinner, B. F. (1966). The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. 7th printing. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Smith, L. & Woodward, W. (1996). B. F Skinner and Behaviorism in American Culture. London: Lehigh University Press

The Death of Ivan IIych Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Death of Ivan IIych - Essay Example Ivan Ilych's life has been simple, because he lacks spiritual growth and lives like a philistine, and ordinary, because he experienced no suffering until his sickness and he relies on sycophantic decorum to fill his life; and the outcome of simplicity and ordinariness is a terrible life, because he learns that he has not fully lived intrinsically at all. Ivan Illych's life has been simple, because he lacks spiritual growth. Ilych measures the quality of his whole life through his material possessions and social status. He overly concerns himself with his belongings, because he desires to be perceived as a wealthy man: â€Å"†¦with his new and fashionable portmanteau, linen, clothes, shaving and other toilet appliances, and a travelling rug, all purchased at the best shops† (Tolstoy Ch.2). He believes that a wealthy man is more powerful and loved. Furthermore, his social relations are valuable to him, as they â€Å"†¦[inspire] general respect† (Tolstoy Ch.2). T his is similar to how I used to be concerned of the latest gadgets. I felt accepted when I had the most up-to-date technologies. I also have a friend, who is consumed with the desire of having social connections for the purpose of showing off. These are trite reasons for choosing how people should live. The absence of spiritual goals is all the more present in Ivan’s life. He lives for the pursuit of influence and wealth and he ultimately neglects the importance of developing his â€Å"inner hold† (Frankl 77). Furthermore, Ivan’s life is horribly simple, because he is a philistine. As a philistine, he has â€Å"no interest in culture, the arts, or fashion except as a show to others, but without authentic passion he can only define himself by the things he buys for himself† (Breakthrough Writing Lesson #2). He is materialistic and provides only the material needs for his family and himself. Frankl notes the facileness of such simple, material pleasures. He recounts the story of a woman, who discovered her â€Å"inner self† as she converses with a tree (75). She confesses to be a spoiled woman, but she changes completely when she realizes the importance of more complicated and deeper matters- the nourishment of her soul. As Frankl focuses on the significance of a spiritual life, which makes living more meaningful and complex, Ivan lives in the far opposite side of living, one that is simple to the point of being subhuman, because of the attendance to pure physical needs. Frankl understands the primitive nature of human existence: â€Å"It can be readily understood that such as state of strain, coupled with the constant necessity of concentrated on the task of staying alive, forced the prisoner’s inner life to a primitive level† (Frankl 36-38). Ivan is a prisoner of materiality, while the Holocaust victims were prisoners of human racism and xenophobia. Ivan Ilych's life has been ordinary too, because he experienced no suffering until his sickness, and he relies on sycophantic decorum to fill his life. He lives a comfortable life, up until his sickness. He focuses on material wealth and its accumulation. When he learns of dying, he abhors

Management accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Management accounting - Essay Example Those are financial perspective, customer perspective, internal perspective and learning and growth perspective. Financial perspective focuses on long term shareholder value. It is driven by cost efficiency and revenue growth. Performance of an organization towards the customer can be assessed on the price, service, brand, availability and quality. Regarding the internal perspective, it is based on the customer management process, operations management process, innovation process and regulatory and social process. For learning and growth, an organization should take care of human and organizational capital along with informational capital. Balance Score Card measure can be of four types. The lead indicator is an early warning measure, mainly used in learning and growth perspective. Lagging measure provides past data e.g. the data of previous year or previous quarter. It may not be reliable for future performance. The third measure is that of efficiency measure. It provides a clear vi ew about the functioning of a process. An example of this is the productivity measure. Last one is that of effective measure. It identifies the lack on the production and subsequently provides instruction on the quality. Management accounting is the process of preparing accounts and present all statistical and financial information required by the managers to take any short term decision. In case of management accounting, the targeted audience is the internal management unlike financial accounting that mainly serves for the external audience such as shareholders, creditors etc. It is also known as managerial accounting (Business Dictionary, n.d.). The management accountants are mainly involved in designing the business process, forecasting and budgeting and monitoring internal control. They even synthesize all the information to derive the economic value (IMA, 2008). Veolia Water is a leading water providing company in North

Answer the following questions#2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer the following questions#2 - Essay Example The model gives exact video guidelines that can be easier to understand for students, since they can see organs that are not seen during actual conversations, as these organs move inside the mouth. The model also provides examples of words for practice pronunciation, where learners can feel how these organs work together in providing a specific sound(s) for a specific letter. Phonetics_Focus/. It has many applications that help students learn the English language, such as the Phonemic Reader. It shows the actual sounds of the consonants and vowels. It can guide students in seeing each letter, not just physically, but also audio-visually, in a phonemic way. The application also offers several games, such as the Phonemic Pelmanism. It asks students to match the phonetic spelling with the real spelling. The game helps readers practice what they know about phonemics already. There are also plenty of mobile applications that help children learn sounds and letters. These applications test learning too, which provides automatic feedback and positive reinforcement once kids learn them. I can use them to help students reinforce learning in class by doing tasks that they can do at home at their own pace and time. Information gap tasks are done orally by asking learners to determine differences between pictures, ordering sentences in stories, and restoring missing portions of maps and charts. I can use this game to help learners think about the uses of words in context. The advantages of the task are contextual learning of language and interactive learning. The disadvantages are possible lack of writing reinforcement and some students with poor vocabulary will struggle with the tasks. An example of the task is making an appointment game. I can use this game to help young learners understand the concept of time and time management. The advantages of the task are helping students understand the meaning of words in actual settings and

Historical Context of One Nation under God (1993) Movie and Era for Essay

Historical Context of One Nation under God (1993) Movie and Era for the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement - Essay Example The proliferation of gay activism and same sex marriage debates that have dominated in media and political discussions in recent years have had a long standing history that dates several decades ago, when the wider society was still intolerant not only to the practice, but also to the idea of homosexuality. Fundamentalist religious groups such as Exodus International and moralists have never relented in their battles to rid society off this widespread social affliction that is homophobic sexual orientations, and have made sincere efforts to condemn the practice as a sin, and to restore individuals back to heterosexuality through curative therapies. This paper examines the themes highlighted in the documentary film One Nation under God of 1993 that was co-directed and co-produced by Teodoro Maniaci and Francine Rzeznik, both within the historical context in which it was created and within the documentary style it represents. The 1993 era provides both a historical context and a politi cal perspective of the gay rights movement back in time, when both the ex-gay movements and the religious right were equally gaining strength1. This period is very significant in the history of the gay rights movement because it marked a great check-in point for the current homosexuality tolerance and recognition of gay rights in the American society. Simply put, this period had a lot to do with the recent developments in the gay rights movement in the current era where some states have already ratified gay marriages; additionally, the federal government has recognized the union for tax reasons and issued a ban on ex-gay therapies that pervaded the ‘90s. One Nation under God (1993) documentary film highlights the pervasive confusion of male effeminacy and female masculinity with homosexuality in the perceptions of the two leading groups that were attempting to restore homosexuals to a more befitting place in society. The debates of the ex-gay movement feature prominently in a large portion of the movie, with interviews of the movement’s leaders such as Young, who was not only a transsexual, but also a homosexual with a history of sexual trauma, and Exodus International’s president. The documentary also features interviews of the main features Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper and their relationship, as well as fundamentalist Christian leaders, and psychiatrists who favored both sides of the debate in addition to, other ex-gays, and former ex-gays who fell on either sides of the debate too. The 1990’s era was pervaded by religious right wing proliferation of curative therapies for homosexuals2; today, this era gives an impressionable perspective of gay relations in the annals of history. The opening of the documentary presents off-the-street perspectives of homosexuality through interviews that reveal harsh oppositions to the practice due to its contravention of religious beliefs and societal morals. Interestingly, even in what would hav e been the most liberal places like New York City, a large proportion of people express bitter resentments towards homosexuality by condemning the practice as a sin and asking homosexuals to repent, thus indicating the high intolerance towards gays that pervaded America society back then. This documentary film was a resounding work at that point in time, due to the significance of its subject matter; the early 1990’s remain to be a significant point in the history of gay rights activism. AIDS had thwarted campaigns for gay rights and the gay political progress thoroughly in the ‘80s, resulting to a military ban on gays; this military ban resulted challenges to the subsequent

IT104 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

IT104 - Essay Example Without successful prioritization of tasks and responsibilities, online courses might turn-out to be a bad experience. Technology makes online classes possible, but they can also be a barrier to success in the online learning environment. One possible technological problem is having a computer that is not capable of delivering the content that the professors have developed for the course. Your computer may be incapable of streaming video, for example, because it is outdated or damaged. If the professor has lots of videos as a part of the coursework, then you will be out of luck due to a slow computer or internet connection. A final barrier to on-line learning is the problem of having a single computer to service multiple learners in the household. This is not an insurmountable obstacle, but it does require a fair amount of foresight and scheduling. Running out to buy additional computers is not in most people’s budgets. By creating a schedule of computer use, just as in a libr ary, everyone can use the computer to get what they need. Exercise 2 I expect this course to give me the skills and information needed for me to improve my teaching. I am currently teaching Aesthetics and have a strong desire to be the best educator possible. I know my subject matter very well, but am concerned that I might not always be using the best teaching techniques. I hope that through the course of this study, I will be able to learn better presentation skills and gain a better understanding of how adults learn best. I realize that teaching children and teaching adults is a very different process. What works for one does not always work for the other. As a result, I am often wondering if the lessons and assignments I am developing are more appropriate for younger learners than the age of student I have. I often have a nagging feeling that there is just more information and knowledge out there that would help me be such a better teacher. The problem is, I only am able to crea te lessons based on my existing teaching experience. I expect this course to broaden my educational understanding so that I will have more confidence in the lessons and assignments I develop. It is my hope that this course will inspire me to alter some of the less effective lessons I currently have developed and to develop new lessons based on my new understanding of how adult learners learn best. In essence, I expect this course to give me the additional skills and information necessary for me to be a more effective and interesting teacher of Aesthetics. My ultimate goal is to have my adult learners transfer their knowledge into their everyday lives. This is true for me in regards to this course as well. Exercise 3 This planner can be a very helpful tool because it helps the adult student returning to the classroom to organize their dreams into concrete plans. It also is very good at helping the student to imagine the far reaching effects of returning to school, gaining an educatio n and possibly changing jobs. Some of the affects might not be as positive as they imagine and I think it is important for adult learners to re-enter school with their eyes wide open. Most adult learners focus on the additional time schooling will take and the economic rewards they will realize with improved education. Rarely do they consider the profound changes

Leadership Assessment #3Group Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership Assessment #3Group - Essay Example Such a model was a response to the chronic shortage of registered nurses as it basically removes the umbrella of license differentiation which basically enables other nursing related professionals to take duties and responsibilities that was usually confined to Registered Nurses. Several concerns arise from the primary care to team care shift especially the conflict between license types. Tensions among them could arise due to the different way they care for patients. Putting people under one roof and making them follow the lead RN's style can be counterproductive as it can result to job dissatisfaction leading to physical and psychological withdrawal from the job. The Five South Transitional Care Center employs a care delivery system consisting of Registered Nurses, LPNs and CNAs. I belong to a team of 5 nursing staff headed by a preceptor nurse. Under the supervision preceptor nurse, we can initiate treatments or perform interventions ourselves. The nursing staff can basically assume a Registered Nurse's dependent and independent functions. The former are those that must be carried out under the orders of a licensed physician or dentist, including such duties as administering medications and changing dressings on wounds. Independent functions are those that nurses carry out based on their own professional judgment. Such duties include bathing patients, positioning them to prevent joint contractures, teaching people how best to care for themselves, and providing nutritional counseling. Supervision is necessary for the dependent part while there is much greater degree of freedom for the independent function. The team nursing model was a recent innovation of St. Mark's Hospital management in 2003 to comply with its goal of quality improvement. The Hospital aims at enhancing services and delivers excellent patient care through a Performance Improvement system. Under this program, every employee is encouraged to utilize their acquired knowledge and skills for the improvement of work processes so that excellent patient and health outcomes are achieved. It was also a measure, to a limited extent, to address the limited supply of Registered Nurses which I have already mentioned before. All of us, the preceptor nurse and my co-nursing staff, agree that the team nursing model is very effective because of the various positive feedbacks that we receive from the patients that we handled. These feedbacks were gathered by Patient surveys on discharged patients. The patients expressed their joy on how receptive and how rapid the nurses were on their concerns. This was due to the relatively low patient to nurse attendant ratio of 4 is to 1. It is not uncommon to find our station with flowers, cakes and cards sent by discharged patients. With regards to staff satisfaction, all of us have become friends because of the openness and the removal of license discrimination. Many of us are very glad of the learning opportunities that would have not been available to us if we were limited in what we can do. The only major concern is not on the model itself but on the attitude of some co-nursing staff to come late at work thereby delaying our much awaited rest period. Nursing models are evaluated primarily in patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. Generally, when positive feedbacks

The Global internet backbone industry analysis paper Essay

The Global internet backbone industry analysis paper - Essay Example This essay will examine the global internet backbone industry and how it is organized. Internet is an open worldwide network that helps to interconnect computer networks using a number of standardized protocols in order to allow the exchange of data among them. Internet backbone is used to designate the core physical infrastructure that carries Internet Protocol traffic. The leading players in global internet industry include some big companies, governments, network center internet exchange points and network access points. Internet is both a point-to-point and point-to- multipoint medium: it connects individuals but also speaks to and interacts with vast numbers of people simultaneously (Dwyer, 2010). Internet is provided at first hand by tier 1 which consists of very large network service providers that own their own fiber optic or satellite links across nations and around the world. Many of these tier one companies operate a number of internet service providers that sell services to final users, others focus mostly on the wholesale market, selling bandwidth to tier 2 and tier 3 providers (Castells, 2011). Tier 1 providers have access to the global Internet routing table but do not purchase transit from anyone. Tier 2 Internet service providers buy capacity from tier 1 providers for resale. Tier 2 have networks with a more limited geographical coverage. Most of Tier 2 have their own PoPs and backbone nodes. The customers of Tier 2 internet service providers tend to be final users and they include businesses and households. On the other hand Tier 3 operators that include small internet service providers provide services exclusively to end users and normally they cover a small geographical area. Tier 3 Internet service providers should connect to either Tier 2 or tier 1 provider in order to access the Internet through the latter’s backbones: they may also have to lease their PoP facilities. The industry

Literature review summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Literature review summary - Assignment Example Using social media for work: Losing your time or improving your work?  Ioannis Leftheriotis and Michail N. Giannakos  2013  Computers in Human Behavior. To examine whether employees utilize social media for work purposes, what principles boost this usage, and if that utilization is linked with their performance. 1799 employees Feedback in the insurance industry was used to scrutinize the effect of social media on work.   Questioners was the method used   and the questioners were distributed in three ways: (a) Researchers visit the participants work place and give the questionnaire on printed paper. (b) Researchers send an email containing the questionnaire in an on-line form to participants from distant cities. (c)The IIS Institute holds two large conferences all over the country with people from the insurance industry; links to the online questionnaire are distributed to the conference attendees  Results confirmed that in the case of social media for work, employees make extended use of them no matter their age. We found also that both utilitarian and hedonic values influence employees to use more social media for their work, at least in the insurance sector. Last but not least, this study confirms that there is an important relation between the use of social media and the work performance  only a small number of possible motivations based on the literature or experts were exploredThe consumption of the social media has an impact on the ability of the employee. As such the use within an organization is crucial to the employer.

The poem ‘But These Things Also’ Essay Example for Free

The poem ‘But These Things Also’ Essay Thomas has a very distinctive eye for the miniature of nature, often overlooked by others. Explore his appreciation of the natural world in the poem ‘But These Things Also.’ Thomas throughout his collection of works has a very clear and distinct appreciation for nature which he wishes to explore it in all its glory and becomes a recurring theme. He consistently urges ‘man’ to look at the beauty of nature and the effect it has on the natural world. He expresses his application through the words of a poet and tries to do the endless wonder that is nature justice. In ‘but these things also’ he especially highlights the impact nature has on the audiences’ life and gives his personal account of the relationship he has with nature and in particular spring. Written in 1915, Thomas has not yet enlisted this is important as although not directly about war, the comparison of winter and spring could be his suggestion that the seasons are more than just seasons but a symbolic representation of life and death, not just in the natural world but also within human life. This could be taken as Thomas commenting on how life and in a sense goes so quickly by like the seasons themselves, therefore liking it to the war and his confusion of whether to enlist. The tone of the poem on a whole is relatively pessimistic to mains appreciation of nature. He begins the opening line almost defining the characteristics of Spring, that he and spring are almost linked with the use of the world ‘also’, an attempted to glorify spring itself. It then moves onto something slightly more sinister in the grass is ‘long dead’ – something which is not normally attributed to spring itself which is seen as the coming of new life and rejuvenation. This is Thomas saying to the audience that is we do not see the beauty of nature then it may as well be dead to us like in ‘winter is was’ as it would have no purpose if the aesthetic is not glorified. The use of enjambment helps the poem to build in crescendo effect. For example ‘and starling flocks by chattering on and on keep their spirits up in the mist,’ this is done for two purposes. Firstly to expresses Thomas’ exasperation at humans for not noticing nature; he continues on his train of thought without taking a moment to breathe. Moreover he uses it to enable to the beauty of the ‘starling flocks’ to have an impact on the audience. He doesn’t just want the audience to notice nature he wants them to bask in it, and by using enjambment he is able to have the continuous train of thought so people can experience its beauty without interruption. It is also important to look at the reason for Thomas describing the birds as ‘chattering on and on’. This can be seen as a representation of the rest of the world’s complete disregard for its beauty. They do not take the time to just stop and look but continue on with their daily lives missing the important things i.e. nature. Furthermore birds are a reoccurring theme which Thomas uses throughout his body of works as a symbolism of the soldiers and of mankind as a whole. In words, a poem which has a lot of similarities to this as both emphasise the beauty and complexity of a ‘thing’, Thomas refers to the words as ‘nightingales’ in order to represent their freedom. This is similar this this poem as Thomas is showing the beauty and freedom of nature on a whole through the use of a bird. He uses the power of the second stanza to try and emphasize the things that he himself notices that are beautiful in the world. ‘The chip of flint and mite of chalk’ very menial things in the sense of the entire world but for Thomas they are the ones which matter the most, the minute detail as it is. He even shows his appreciation for ‘the small birds’ dung’ something which would never in a normal context be seen as something to look highly upon. However for Thomas it makes up the natural world. ‘a man mistakes’ shows Thomas imploring the audience to not always see these sorts of things as bad but look at them in the sense of art which is adding to beauty. This could also be seen as a representation of the blots on the world as a whole, a critic of them almost. The ‘splashes of white’ can be taken as the impurities that man himself carelessly inflicts on nature. The ‘ruins’ that the violets seek through are these impurities, and only that nature of beauty itself can purify them totally. Given the context this could be the blot of war but also symbolism for the blood shed from war and how it is dampening nature and losing it altruistic qualities. The symbolism of the violets is key in this poem. It links into to Thomas direct use of flowers/herbs and is used an imagery device. He does this similarly in the poem ‘March’ where he references the primroses, and in ‘Old Man’ were the initial is an herb in itself. Violets are the first flowers to bloom in spring time and are therefore the first hope of life. This is something which is a parallel with hat of March. It contrasts the darkness of winter with the light and hope of spring. ‘To pay winters debts’ is the flowers and therefore nature in spring time making up for the darkness and the gloom of winter. It almost a like a reference to pathetic fallacy, for spring has to bring him joy in comparison to the dark gloomy days that winter brings. The final line of ‘but these things also’ highlights the emphasis that Thomas wishes to place on the beauty of nature and how so many of us miss it in the everyday world. He is not just glorifying spring he is also glorying winter. ‘Springs here, winter not gone’ he is stating that the beauty of nature is regardless of the seasons and each one holds a new treasure which man must appreciate. This is similar to the poem ‘glory’ where he is trying to find the words to express his feelings towards nature but here he is saying that words nor seasons do not matter, nature in its full force is omnipresent. However this could also be read as the impacts of winters destruction and gloom are ever overshadowing the goodness of spring and the beauty of it. This can be translated into Tomas saying that man is missing out on the beauties of life; even when in full bloom spring cannot detract from the unhappiness in life, and especially war. It is his job therefore throughout this poem to try and make the audience see that there is so much goodness in the world and especially nature. In conclusion Thomas’ use of the theme of nature and his appreciation of it is one which is diverse. His main aim it to try and have an impact on the audiences view of nature and let them see that this is not always destruction in the world even if it may appear that way on the surface. He attempts to show them his view of nature and how it personal makes him feel, whilst also showing them some of the beauties of the world which they may miss in everyday life due to the all-consuming war. He effectively uses pieces of imagery to enable the audience to picture nature and have it at the fore front of their minds. He explores the themes of nature, war and destruction, which is in keeping with his other body of works.

Media And Ideology Understanding Politics Through Films Media Essay

Media And Ideology Understanding Politics Through Films Media Essay Mass media already became an inevitable dimension in present modern society. It is almost occupying our large time in everyday life. However, just as we are so familiar with the media products, it is particularly easy to overlook the questions which mass media has brought to us. In ordinary life, we are hardly to consider what impact has mass media generated to our life, social relations, politics, culture and other respects, and what the relations of media and other social institutions. Mass media is such a complexity that difficult to clarify it as a whole. Thereby, in this paper, the purpose is to concentrate on one specific media text- film, and to examine how it activates on politics. This paper begins with a brief introduction of media importance within peoples everyday life, who owns media, and the relation between media and government. Then, two relative items will be drawn out: ideology and representation. Ideology as a kind of fundamental theory could explain why media as w ell as film could serve for political dominance. And as for representation, which as an important function of mass media, it provides the possibility for ideology activating on media. In part two, there will be an introduction of the function and effects of film, and then three typical films are cited to interpret why and how those films in Reagan era could affect that time politics. In the last part, there will be a discussion about the effects of the historical films on present society. Media and Ideology Media Importance With the drastic development of high technology and consumption demands, media almost saturates every corner in our ordinary life. The role media playing in modern society is diverse, such as radio, television, magazines, movies, and books are all serving for it. Meanwhile, how many hours in our everyday life are occupied by these items? Probably after you waking up, the first thing is to open television or radio to hear news, and next on the way to work, you might buy a piece of newspaper to browser, during working time you possibly watch magazines or chat with your colleague about this days news, and then, when you lay on the sofa after finishing one days work, the best thing is to enjoy a television show or movies as you like. Why we are so depending on media? The best way to answer it is to invert this question as if without media, what situation our life will be. We will not know what happened around and outside ourselves, do not know say what with friends, and have nothing to d o after returning home. Maybe we will rest much many time to enjoy the beautifully natural views surrounding us, but, who really concern this in such a colorfully consumer society. As a result, the sources of entertainment and perception towards this world from various media means are extremely significant to us in contemporary society. However, apart from enjoying the happiness and amusement that media bring to us, have you thought about who decide or influence media contents in contemporary life? And what impact mass media are bringing about to our life and social relations? In order to clarify these two questions, we should research from the production and contents of media. Firstly, under the promotion of economic profits, the ownership of media has become concentrated (Bagdikian 2000). The key effect of concentration on the media products is homogenization, and to some extent, the government and certain executive access are likely to affect media products (Croteau and Hoynes, 2003). Government influence on media production is a general phenomenon, no matter in totalitarian societies or democratic societies. The distinction is, in democratic societies, the freedom of press and expression is protected by the law, however, this kind of freedom is under the structure which government organized (Croteau and Hoynes, 2003). Just as Bagdikian (2000) said that in the contemporary United State, a country that is intensely advocating democracy, its information system is largely controlled by private interests, rather than government. But normally, private and go vernment interests are consistent, because they are all standing for dominantly capitalistic interests. So this is why many media barons and politicians are both apt to use media to realize their political aims. On the other hand, the mass media similarly helps to witness and improve the regime of American politics, which refers to the media influence on politics. If in order to elaborate this idea, the term of ideology should be depicted here. Ideology and Representation The reason why so many scholars are interested to examine media products to uncover their ideology is ideology is a decidedly complicated term with different implications depending on the context in which it is used (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 159). It has extensive meanings including worldview, belief system, and values, and meanwhile, it also could help somebody define and even form these concepts implied in their own consciousness. In this context, the ideological analysis of certain specific media text is a useful way to understand the fit between the images and words in a specific media text and ways of thinking about, even defining, social and crucial issues (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 160). In addition, the ideology implied in media texts does not naturally exist, but must be given by someone for a certain interests. In the early ideological analysis about media products, there are two important theoretical roots that are still invaluable for contemporary ideological study. One is the early Marxist origin, and the other one is the concept of hegemony. For early Marxists, ideology was used by the dominant class for imposing their ruling worldview and values on the subordinate class, and consequently, ensuring their governing stable and permanent. So, in this discussion, ideology was considered linking with the concept of false consciousness, which was produced by and on the behalf of ruling class, rather than matching ones objective interests (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 164). From this perspective, ideological analysis is associated with political domination, power, and continually to focus on the issue of the ways certain groups fight to have their specific interests accepted as the general interests of a society (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 165). Even in contemporary society, the basic outlines of this early Marxist model are still constructive to analyze social relations, while the concentration has moved away from economic- class relations to the terrain of culture. With this perspective, famous Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsi (1971) has brought about a remarkable study of hegemony, which connecting hegemony to the notions of culture, power, and ideology. Firstly, Gramsi (1971) argued the functions of force and culture or ideology on maintaining power. It is doubtless that force is an effective way to remain state domination, due to it can affect by means of coercion, which require the application of institutions such as the military, police and other state administrative organs. However, in liberal democratic societies, force is not suited to be the primary means of state ruling. Because in modern society, liberalism, civil rights, and human peace are the mainstream. Besides, unreasonable and excessive force control is also the main origin of citizen resistant revolution. And then, in this context, Gramsi (1971) suggests that it is likely to convert the strategy to another terrain- culture, by which also can wield power and even more easily, because it can take place in peoples everyday life, the most important point is through this way people are actively and voluntarily obedient to the ruling. Gramsis theory of hegemony is working through the operation of consent, or we can call it common sense. The operating principle of common sense is the dominant class actively attends to make their worldview and values accepted by all social members (Gramsi 1971). Therefore, if dominant class could turn the idea that is on the behalf of their interests to universal consent, then they are able to achieve the ideological dominant on subordinate class. In this process, an essential notion of natural should be picked up to depict. Generally, when we say something is natural, normally because it is without human process, which is opposite to artificial. Consequently, we will not suspect the reality and legitimacy if something is defined as natural. For example, if it was propagated that homosexuality is a natural principle initially, and then maybe there is little debate of gay and lesbian relationship, due to they are not social problems rather natural order of things. Thus, hegemony operation of culture is going to generate commonsense assumption, and then converting this commonsense assumption to the uncontested level of natural. Schools, religion, and media all can be the efficient sites to help realize this process, because they are where could be controlled by dominant class to produce and reproduce ways of thinking about society. Stuart Hall (1982) has pointed out a crucial analysis of how mass media institutions are coherent with hegemony. First of all, he included media as his concept called the politics of significant, in which media identified has an unique function- representation, which is different from simply reflecting the reality of world, but implies the active work of selecting and presenting, of structuring and shaping; nor merely the transmitting of an already existing meaning, but the more active labor of making things mean (p. 64). Secondly, Hall (1982) explained why media representation is intertwined with ideology and hegemony. Like I mentioned, ideology could underlie certain worldview and values in different contexts, and as for media representation, which has capacity of making things mean, so, media can become the irrecusable approach of generating and propagating ideology. And if further connect this perspective to power and media ownership in the early part, it is clear that dominant c lass could instill its assumption into media, and plus media are places where certain idea could be circularly transmitted to public, in this way, the meanings which are on the interests of dominant power could become consent of every audience of the media. This is why almost every country is willing to regard media institutions as an efficient channel to animate its policy and governing. Film and Politics Film Introduction Many scholars are interested in focusing the ideological analysis of media products on specific medium or specific media texts that are within a specific historical period. The reason is, firstly, the term mass media is such a multiple and plural complexity that it is difficult to perfectly generalize the meanings of abundant media products as a whole; secondly, media texts are usually produced in specific historical context, responding to and helping frame the cultural currents of the day (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 173), so, concentrating on a specific historical media text is more helpful to understand the real meanings and reality represented within a media text under certain historical environment. Film as one of diverse media products, is an efficient media text because it is alive representation of different events, it has the ability to transport the audiences to a number of different times and places by its moving images. In addition, films could through the image representation of a certain time period generating impact on present audiences, to ask them if they were placed in the same situation what they would do (Sachleben, M and Yenerall, K 2004). Besides its unique performing format, film itself also has different types: silent films, black and white films, color films, documentary films and narrative films. The differences of these films are not only confined to the difference of techniques, but also can be seen from the messages transmitted by them. For example, after the color technique has been generally applied to film making, black and white film are still as an important art form existing in film products, a successful instance was Schindlers list made by Spielbe rg in 1993. Generally speaking, the application of black and white photography could help highlight the darkness of film subject on one hand, on the other hand, directors wonder use it to create dramatic effects. For another film type-documentary, which is suited to represent or reconstruct historical events, and helping understand politics. However, there were still a large number of politicians and directors who preferred narrative films to convey and propagate their political aims, due to narrative films is a kind of films that through stories to absorb audiences to follow its plots, and engage audiences to the evolvement of films contents. After understanding the fundamental functions and features of films, it is time to research the contents of films. Film as a media text, of course, it could make things mean, and serve for certain dominant class to transmit a specific way of thinking, worldview, or values. Due to the diversity of film contents, in this section, the research focuses on how films represent and impact politics during a specific historical period. Here, a concept should be clear that this paper is not to define what are political films, but to utilize a series of films during a particular time period to illustrate ideas and topics in politics under certain historical context. The Films In The Reagan Era Before the presidency of Ronald Reagan, American was in a tough condition: the darkness of Vietnam War failure, national threat from Soviet, and the economic decline. Just as Rupert Wilkinson (1984, p. 6) said, the 1980 election came at a post-imperial moment, when Americans were not at all sure what role they wanted or could obtain either for their presidents or for their country in world affairs, in that time Americans were lack of powerful spiritual root and national confidence. However, since Reagans main three political agenda, Americas spiritual strength has restored as well as its renewed responsible world role (Nixon 1992). Another important reason was Reagans own self-confidence did not been defeat by the introspection of the post-Vietnam era, and he even transferred his own self-confidence to the whole country, and accordingly restored the national self-confidence (Cannon 1991). In this respect, Hollywood film industry has played an important role. As we known, Reagan has e ver been a popular film star before he stepped on his political career. Consequently, he extraordinarily understood how influential and pervasive film is on the aspect of transferring and shaping meanings, thereby marginalizing or dismissing other opposite claims. So naturally, within his policies, movie material was a crucial component. Through analysis of the films made in Reagan era, we could comprehend how film represented politics in a specific historical and political setting. Anti-communism In the 1980s, the relationship of America and Soviet has entered the so-called New Cold War period. The international condition in that period, for Soviet Union, they were preparing the coming of new world war against America, and actively taking the preparation of nuclear and arms expansion, and implementing the highly centralization of state management. On the other hand, in the aspect of America, externally, Reagan advocated deploying the overall containment to Soviet Union from the aspects of politics, economic, military, diplomacy and ideology, towards domestic market, he insisted that human values can surpass any worthless technology and mechanization, highlighting the importance of human mind, which could become the best weapon within the competition against outside communism and mechanized devices. Under this kind of political context, there were three extremely popular films during the mid-1980s. The first one was The Star Wars, in which Luke Skywalker was shaped as a good individual, who depended on his own intellectual and mind power to defeat the dark technologized body- the evil Darth Vader. The second one was Rambo, in which portrayed a hardened American soldier character, who relying on his own mind and faith overbears foreign policy. The last one was Terminator, in this film the theme was anti-nuclear and hard-body mythology, it accentuated that humanity was the most powerful weapon that can defeat any enemy. Generalizing the main themes of these three films, we can find that they almost advocate a same idea by different narrative stories, which is consistent with Reaganism, that the mind is the best weapon, and depreciates the machine domination, which is similar with Soviet Unions arms expansion policy. If further anatomize the contents of these three films, we can fi nd that those bad guys in each, such as the technologized Darth Vader, the character of Sergeant Yushin- a Soviet version who also has the strong body as the same as Rambo, and completed mechanized, machine-made Terminator are all the reflections of outside forces which could potentially destroy all freedom of human being, in Reagans ideology are no different from Soviet communists. Then moving into the late-1980s, a new screen character was able to transcribe the Reagans pro-technology militarism at home, which consequently formed a comparison with the external negative feature of the Soviet Union, that was Robcop, a totally computerized, law-enforcement officer, who can eliminate all kinds of criminals. The difference between Robcop and the former mechanized character is, although they are all computer-programmed, their standpoints are different, Robcop was endued new conceptions-humanity and punishing crime. From this image, we can know that Robcop is the endorsement of revived R eagans military, it can eliminate any enemy including communism. Vietnam War Films One prevalent films genre in 1980s was return to Vietnam films, the most typical one is the series of Rambo, which depicts the hardened image of a Vietnam veteran, who returns to Vietnam again a couple of years after the Vietnam War in order to rescue American prisoners who were forgotten by the U. S. government. The research question in this paper is why these films were so popular in that period? And what kind of respond did these movies want from audiences? First of all, it is necessary to clarify the historical context in which these films took place. During the period of 1980s, American people were immersing in a condition called the Vietnam syndrome (Croteau and Hoynes 2003, p. 175), they were shameful of the defeat in Southeast Asia. In essence, the revival of national self-confidence was the primary mission in that time. As a result, the appearance of Rambo stirred up this important task, it through the power of mass media brought the United States citizens returning to the b attlefield of the Vietnam War, and it altered the end of the story. In this renewed battlefield, American soldiers were all good guys and victors, they won the pride, strength and glory for America. It is not difficult to find that these films were just the projection of Reagans political declaration in the 1980s, which called for a kind of redemption for the shame of loss in Vietnam, and helped American citizens move out from the Vietnam syndrome, to re-establish American pride and national image. Indeed, Americans did overcome the Vietnam syndrome in the late 1980s, which can be demonstrated by American peoples active support towards U. S. military action in Iraq, Panama, and the till now the events against terrorism (Croteau and Hoynes 2003). Apart from the impact of reviving American image, according to the statement of Susan Jeffords (1989), the representation of the Vietnam War was also an effective process of remasculinization of American society, which as well as another essential component of Reaganism. Above all, the social precondition of this process was, because of the defeat in Vietnam, the advent of feminism, and the generation gap occurring in American society, the stability of the traditionally social framework-patriarchy has been challenged, so, the primary mechanism for this renegotiation of patriarchal relations is through remasculinization, a revival of the images, abilities, and evaluations of men and masculinity in dominant U. S. culture (Jeffords 1989, in preface). There is the need to define the terms of patriarchy and masculinity referred here, it is relative to the analysis of the films characters in the later paragraphs. As Lerners (1986) conclusion, generally, patriarchy is the institutionalizati on of male dominancy over women, children, and even to the extent with the whole society. As for masculinity, which is a mechanism for the establishment of patriarchy, and is used to refer to the set of images, values, interests, and activities held important to a successful achievement of male adulthood in American cultures (Lerner 1986). Then, what can audiences get from the films returning to the Vietnam War? What meanings do these films represent to American peoples about remasculinization? In part one it is said that the representation of mass media could make new meaning on events, if plus the effect of narrative story, it may generate certain ideological resonance among audiences. The set films Rambo did successfully wield this point to represent the masculine American soldiers images on the screen, and to shape them as the victims of society, government and the war itself, in which even use the comparison between American soldiers unyieldingness with the governments weakness to set off Rambo and Braddocks masculine and heroic images. Following this kind of representation of the Vietnam War, audiences will normally resurrect the confidence and admiration on American soldiers. And consequently, it is largely effective to restore masculinity and male status in that time American society. Civil Rights and Social Justice Within Reagans political revolution, it was not enough to merely depend on hard body to manage a country well. He placed more emphasis on the unity and power of spirit. No matter in what kind of social system, all the dominant classes expect the citizens could enjoy and conform to its established civil rights and social justice, especially under the democratic regimes. In the late-1980s of America, there was another genre of films existing as well as the mid-1980s Vietnam films, which jointly formed the full heroism. There were many representative films in that period, in this section I picked out one of them to examine- Accused (1988), which is grounded in true occurrence that happened in 1983, six men gang- raped a woman on a pool table, and at that time no one of the onlookers stood out to rescue the victim. But after five years, when this crime was represented on the screen, a hero came out, who was the main male character- Kenneth Joyce, helping the victim-Sarah Tobias gain the victory of a justice war. This film from two aspects to indicate the powerful of justice system and the importance of civil rights. Firstly, through the comparison between Joyce with the rapists and onlookers, to enable audiences are easily to prefer and support Joyce, contrarily, to hate the rapists and onlookers, and hope them to be published by the law. Secondly, this film is able to bring audiences to think the questions as same as the characters. For example, besides Joyce, there was another person- Murphy, who also helped Sarah win the court case. In the early part of the film, the situation of Murphy is if she takes this case as a district attorney she maybe have the risk to defy her boss and lose the job, because in the district attorneys office no one is willing to try a case like this. So, at this time, audiences will have suspense whether or not Murphy will take the case for Sarah. Another question is about Joyce and his fraternity brother, who is one of the rapists. Most audiences maybe sustain a question that will Joyce accuse his best friend on the court to help a strange woman. The answer of these two questions is they do help Sarah to win the accusations, and the dynamic connecting them together is the justice system and the faith of defending self-right. It demonstrates the clear answers to audiences that civil rights can be protected no matter in what a tough situation, and in addition, justice and law could beyond any gap which including friendship and self-interest as well. Collectively, this perspective and the hard body image were both just the appeals of Reagans policy, for against the outside force, and shaping the powerfully national character, and turning back to the demotic condition, it relied on the morality and justice to maintain the country stability. Effects of Historical Films Through the demonstration in the former part, it is clear that some popular films are not simply used to entertain the masses, most time they are the representation of certain ideological meanings, political values and working to generate a kind of resonance. Majority material of films originates from real life and history, the main effectiveness of it is a sort of return, but the return possibly brings about different impact on audience in accordance with different era settings. For example, when the American citizens who were just under the period of Cold War and the Vietnam syndrome were watching Rambo, the feeling elevating from their deep heart was pride, excited and self-confident. However, if play these movies at the present, will it work as same as that in last century. So, there is a frequent question like what is the connotation of performing the past films in the context of modern society? And what is the impact on present politics? About this question, Fredric Jameson (1998) has raised a suggestion about contemporary historical films, which he called nostalgia films as well. In his respect, nostalgia films are necessarily based on the recognition by the viewer of pre-existing historical stereotypes, including the various styles of the period, it is thereby reduced to the mere narrative confirmation of those same stereotypes (p. 130). Maybe we can understand his words in this way: in modern society, we already know what events happened in the past, those nostalgia films thereby can do little more than offer the most predictable testimony features (Jameson 1998, p. 130), which means the collective perception and historical lessons that already existing in our mind. In a word, the function of this kind of historical films is apart from momentously political effectiveness, but concentrates on the pure application of visual images to represent the history by variously narrative story, in this process, the reality of history is substituted by symbolic images, the impact of the films of past genre for the present maybe more foregrounds a kind of propagation by means of abundant images (Boorstin 1961). According to this perspective, what the meanings of representation of history in contemporary films exactly is. The film genre relating with The Holocaust was a typical form of representation of history in the present society. It is effective to understand the question about historical films for contemporary people. The movies about the Holocaust mainly put weight on visual images and narrative truth to represent the horror of the Nazis final solution, and the innocent of victims (Hornstein and Jacobowitz, 2003). The contents of most these kind films generally emphasize two categories: one is to create a narrative story happened in the Holocaust or Auschwitz, and the other is the representation of a true historical story told by a survival who was witnessing the terrible disaster, in this way, the effects generating from these films are relative to absence and memory. For most people in present society, they are lack of the consciousness of the Holocaust, so, the representation of the Holocaust could offset this block of absence in their idea. And for majority viewers, what they get from these films are mainly a sort of ethical shock and moral education. Just as many scholars, in their reaches of the representation of the Holocaust, they all emphasize the term of memory, or we can say the Holocaust memory, which is a kind of memory cannot be forgotten (Apel, 2002; Adorno, 1995; Novik, 2000; Flinkelstein, 2003). However, among the various critique of the representation of the Holocaust, the statement of Flinkelstein (2003) is a little bit different from that of Jameson about the question of the historical films effects. Flinkelstein (2003) regards Holocaust memory as an indispensable ideological weapon, due to it not only effects on morality, but also has significant political meanings. It helps the United States successfully cast itself as a victim state. To sum up, maybe the statement of Jameson is a bit of passive, which is too focus on the passive effects of visual images of historical films to overlook the affects of films on ideology and the audience agency, by which could produce and instill a kind of worldview and social values among the present society (Hall et al., 1980). The various images here are consistent with that voiced by Debord (1995), which express the world autonomously, and mediate spectacle between people in todays consumer society. However, films are made by people and influenced by dominant culture, it therefore naturally serves for the interests of dominant power (Williams, 1980). For instance, the representation of Holocaust could arouse peoples consciousness of human rights and eagerness of racial equality, which is simultaneously acting on present political event anti-terrorism. As a result, maybe we can say that the effects of historical films in contemporary society are depending on the transmission of i deological propaganda to meet the political demands. Conclusion This paper is through the examination of films, which is one component of mass media, to elaborate that media is not a simple channel to provide entertainment for audiences, it also could transfer and generate certain ideological meanings in different contexts, and consequently produces a kind of impact on the social relations or ideological resonance among viewers. And in this process, representation has played an important role. The reason is that, representation as one fundamental function of media not only could reflect the world, but also be able to make things have new meanings, thereby, this capacity naturally has media served for politics and makes certain political ideas underlying films contents so as to achieve another effects of media, which is apart from providing amusement, but referring to a more broad domain including politics, culture and social relations. However, as we known, ideology has different implications relying on the different contexts it is used. Such as the films made in Reagan era most probably has different effects on that time people and present audiences. For contemporary society, the historical films have double effects, one is to remind the memory of present people and to commemorate certain historical events, the other one is to affect contemporary politics by means of the ideology embedded in those films.

What Is An Information Society Media Essay

What Is An Information Society Media Essay It is definitely hard to nail down the definition of an information society as one may argue that its definition is rather abstract and requires one to locate it in the context of time and space. Are we now still considered an Information Society? How do we quantify a shift to an information society? All these are problematic questions to consider.   1.1 Definitions First, I will list down a few definitions by scholars and see if there is a fundamental basis for the term Information Society: A society that organizes itself around knowledge in the interest of social control, and the management of innovation and change (Daniel Bell, 1976). A society where [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] information is used as an economic resource, the community harnesses/exploits it, and behind it all an industry develops which produces the necessary information (Nick Moore, 1977). A new type of society, where the possession of information is the driving force behind its transformation and development [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] where human intellectual creativity flourishes (Yoneji Masuda, 1980). The information society is an economic reality and not simply a mental abstractionThe slow spread/dissemination of information ends [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] new activities, operations and products gradually come to light (John Naisbitt, 1984). Societies that have become dependent upon complex electronic information networks and which allocate a major portion of their resources to information and communication activities (Melody, 1990). It is evident that the above definitions are based on preconceptions regarding which areas of life change significantly: some are centered on resources, others around products, industries, activities, or society and people. As such, in general terms, an  information society  is a  society  where the creation, distribution, diffusion, uses, integration and manipulation of  information  is a significant economic, political, social and cultural activity. 1.2 The Birth of the Concept The expression post-industrial society was first coined in 1914 in Great Britain by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Arthur J. Penty. It was later revived from 1958 in America (primarily by Daniel Bell) and from the end of the 1960s in French social sciences (by Alain Touraine). However, the collocation information society as it is now used first emerged in Japanese social sciences in the early 1960s. The Japanese version of the expression  (Joho Shakai)  was born during a conversation in 1961 between Kisho Kurokawa, the famous architect, and Tudao Umesao, the renowned historian and anthropologist.  In regard to technology, which forms the basis of production, the term automation (later cybernation), introduced by the automotive engineer of the Ford company D. S. Harder in 1946, facilitated the discussions for decades. Dozens of evocative terms were originated to designate the sweeping changes generated by the hurtling development of information technology; of these the most well-kno wn were the various manifestations of the computer and the scientific-technological revolution. A common characteristic of the above proto-concepts is that they isolated one of the components, i.e. a part of the rapidly changing socio-economic complex and suggested that it was sufficient to describe in both a descriptive and metaphorical sense the whole. As a result of this, several terms, each with a different approach, proliferated between 1950 and 1980. Around 1980 these terms merged into a comprehensive, joint umbrella term combining the concept of information and society: this new concept included and encapsulated all the previous partial concepts and preserved the expressive power, approach and attitude they represented.   1.3 Generic Timeline (1960s- Present) In the mid-1960s, when computing was known as data processing and the economies of the most advanced industrial nations were shifting from manufacturing to services, theorists proposed the emergence of an information society. This new society idea, based on the notion that the production of knowledge was replacing industrial production, was believed to have strong social implications.  With the introduction of the personal computer in 1981, the concept of the information society received new impetus. The computer and electronics industry went through a period of rapid restructuring and global growth as it promoted the notion of a computer in every home. These developments influenced the restatement of visions about a new kind of post-industrialism in which societies with high levels of knowledge skills, or the capacity to develop those quickly, held competitive advantage and the capacity to transform themselves into more open and responsive societies. From the early 1990s, the rapid convergence of computers with private and public telecommunications networks placed a new emphasis on instant and universal access to vast banks of information and on rapid information exchange across geographic, social and cultural boundaries. The intensified commercialization of the World Wide Web from 1994 appeared to have given the information society a specific shape and form.  In the past few decades we have seen various scholars debating on the concept and in recent years, other scholars and politicians have discussed more on the implications and the uses of ICTs; bringing in the political dimension. The  International Telecommunications Unions  World Summit on the Information Society  in Geneva and Tunis (2003 and 2005) has led to a number of policy and application areas where action is required. These include promotion of ICTs for development; information and communication infrastructure; access to information and knowledge; building c onfidence and security in the use of ICTs; cultural and linguistic diversity; and ethical dimensions of the information society. 2. Information Society Debate Among researchers and scholars, there is no consensus about what the information society is or even that it exists. For instance, Daniel Bells theories have numerous critics among others like Webster, 1995; Marvin, 1987; and Schiller, 1981 (Susan Trench, 1999). In particular, Bells claim that an information society exists when the information workers (clerks, teachers, lawyers and entertainers) outnumber the other workers is highly contentious because every occupation involves information processing of one kind or another. On the basis of the growth of information flows and technologies, information society theorists argue that the changes underway represent not just quantitative but qualitative social change transforming almost every realm of social life, including households, communities, education, health, work, surveillance, democracy, and identities. Together, these changes are seen as constituting a new form of society, comparable to the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society. Rather than tightly defined, the scope of information society debates ranges widely and overlaps with other approaches to understanding contemporary social change. Information society theorists can be broadly categorized in terms of those who see technology as the driving force behind the change, versus those who see social factors as shaping technology and history. This debate, technological determinism versus the social shaping of technology, lies at the heart of the sociology of technology. While sociologists have been concerned to refute technological determinism, countering the common, everyday way of conceiving of the relationship of technology to society, much work on the information society remains at least implicitly technologically determinist, while in the sociology of technology there is a growing interest in the constraining capacity of technology. Another key issue in the debate is whether and when quantitative changes (e.g., increasing flows of information, a larger information sector of the economy, or growing levels of ownership of IT devices) constitute qualitative change (the emergence of a new form of society, even an IT revolution). In other words, there is a debate about whether the situation is radically different from the past, or merely the continuation of long-running phenomena or tendencies. A further distinction is between optimists and pessimists, on which count the debate is remarkably polarized: for some (notably Daniel Bell), the information society is a progressive development, characterized by greater freedom and  fulfillment   whereas others (Herbert Schiller, Frank Webster) point to the continuation or exacerbation of long-running inequalities and patterns of control. Some contributors to the debate are normative in their writing, slipping into a mode of endorsing the changes that they identify as underway. Different theorists focus on different strands of the debate, notably the growth of technology, the transformation of the economy, the changing nature of work, new patterns of connection across time and space, and the coming to the fore of mediated culture.   2.1 Closely Related Concepts Post-industrial society (Daniel Bell) Post-Fordism Post-modern society Liquid modernity (Zygmunt Bauman) Knowledge society Network society (Manuel Castells) New Information Society (Frank Webster) The above terms and concepts carry similar and often overlapping meanings; while for some social theorists, different labels like late modernity, post-modernity, or globalization better characterize contemporary social transformations. Even those who focus on the information society use the term to refer to different social processes. In this Wiki-project, I will not attempt to cover all the various discussions on information society but will focus on a few scholars instead. 3. Alvin Toffler- Future Shock (1970) and the Third Wave (1980) In 1970, the futurist Alvin Toffler, without explicit reference to the information society, painted a dramatic transformative theory based on the power of new technology. Technology was changing society, as it had done historically, from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution. But the pace of change had accelerated beyond anything previously experienced or imagined. New social, economic and political relations were rising as rapidly as old ones were falling. In advanced societies, he argued, many people were suffering from future shock the disease of change, caused by the stresses and disorientation of too much change too quickly. Future shock was not an abstract condition; it was real and had actual psychological and biological effects on its sufferers.  Those who felt it most acutely were people who tried to cling onto the old ways and resist the new. Technology was driving changes, and people had to adapt to them. A decade later, during which time his confidence in the transformations had swelled, Toffler presented the notion of the third wave. The first wave of social transformation was the agricultural revolution; which prevailed in much of the world after the  Neolithic Revolution, which replaced  hunter-gatherer  cultures. The second wave was the industrial revolution which began in Western Europe with the  Industrial Revolution, and subsequently spread across the world. Key aspects of Second Wave society are the  nuclear family, a factory-type education system and the  corporation. The third wave was still in its early phase. It was characterized by a move away from manufacturing to the provision of services and information. Around this, new social, political and economic relations were forming. Toffler argued that distance was becoming irrelevant in the third wave, mass production was giving way to customization, and national borders, cultures and identities were being eroded . Many of these ideas have re-emerged in the much later discussion of information society. Toffler left open both the question of what the outcome of the transformation of the structure of democracy was to entail, as well as the question of what kind of world order would supersede the order of nation-states. 4. Yoneji Masuda The Information Society as Post Industrial Society, Johoka Shakai (1980) In Japan, Yoneji Masuda likened the impact of information technology on the modern economy to that of steam power in the industrial revolution. The book published by Yoneji Masuda in 1980 refers to a higher stage of social evolution- from post-industrial society to information society. Masuda tells of the birth of an era of information; focusing on computer technology, which operates in conjunction with communications technology. He  hypothesizes that the future information society would be a highly integrated society, like an organism. It would be a complex multi-centered society in which many systems are connected and integrated by information networks. Overall, the innovative technology would change the social and economic systems through the following three phases: Phase 1 technology does the work previously done for humans based on automation. Phase 2 technology enables the possibility of work that man could never do before, i.e. knowledge creation. Phase 3 socio-economic s tructures are transformed into new social and economic systems, a result of the first two phases of development. The information society will form a new societal model with a different framework from the industrial society, which is keen on the exploitation of information as a resource fundamental to the development of new innovations. The table below summarizes Masudas work. Table 1: Comparison of the characteristics of the industrial and information society by Yoneji Masuda Source: Masuda, 1980 5. Daniel Bell The Coming of Post-industrial Society (1973) Genealogy of the information society concept is usually traced to a term post-industrial society- a term first used by sociologist Daniel Bell (1973). He states: In the pre-industrial society life is a game against nature where one works with raw muscle power (Bell 1973 126); in the industrial era where machines predominates in a technical and rationalized existence, life is a game against fabricated nature. In contrast to both, life in the post-industrial society based on services, is a game between persons. What counts is not raw muscle power or energy but information (127).  Bell formulates that the main axis of this society will be theoretical knowledge and warns that knowledge-based services will be transformed into the central structure of the new economy and of an information-led society. He argued that western economies had de-industrialized, by which he meant that they had a declining percentage of the workforce working in the manufacturing sector and growing employment in the service and information sectors.  Figure 1  indicates the transformation which lies at the heart of his thesis. Figure 1:  Four-sector aggregation of the US workforce, 1860- 1980 Source:  Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited by  Bell (1980: 521) The dominant mode of employment was crucial to explaining economic, social and political changes, and technologies were crucial to explaining changes in the dominant mode of employment. Society had evolved through two distinct phases, agricultural and industrial, and was evolving into a post-industrial phase. In the postindustrial phase came new forms of innovation and social organization and practices. By the 1980s, Bell was using the terms post-industrial society and information society interchangeably. He surveys the characteristic differences reflected by the social- historical phases simplified into three main periods along nine distinctive aspects. The table below shows the distinctions. Table 2: Dimensions of the information society according to Daniel Bell (1979) Source: Bell, 1979 Daniel Bell is remarkably optimistic, seeing the post-industrial society as one in which everyone will enjoy access to the worlds traditions of art, music, and literature. Post-industrial society means the rise of professional work, professionals are oriented towards their clients, and society becomes transformed into a more caring, communal society. While Bells analysis fuses data and argument about the economy, employment, and knowledge, underlying his work is a clear technological determinism. He epitomizes the information society literature by according technology a central role in social change: technological innovation is seen as resulting in social change.   By contrast, sociologists of technology reject the notion that technology is somehow outside society and that technological change causes social change. Rather, they have been concerned to explore how particular social formations  give rise to  (or shape) the development of specific technologies.   6. Manuel Castells The Information Age: Network Society (1996, 1997, 1998) Castells description of the new information age attempts to show the way out of the theoretical maze of the value driven, intricate information society. He proposes a conceptual model of a network with which the most recent phenomena of modern societies can be explored. At the end of the 1990s he finally legitimized the information society as an academic field of research. Manuel Castells three-volume opus (1996, 1997, 1998), as reflected in the title -The Information Age, is a comprehensive scientific work supported by secondary sources and one which originates new concepts. Castells attempts to surpass traditional reasoning by offering a compact and multilayered foundation linking economic-and political, as well as cultural theory. His concern is to provide a cross-cultural theory of economy and society in the information age, specifically in relation to an emerging new social structure. While Castells uses a different term, his work resonates with the tenor of information society debates. Like Bell, Castells documents the demise of traditional, labor-intensive forms of industry and their replacement by flexible production. His account fuses the transformation of capitalism (the growth of globalization) with changing patterns and forms of identity. He argues that, with the rise of the informational mode of development, we are witnessing the emergence of a new socioeconomic paradigm, one with information processing at its core. For Castells, the issue is not information as such, but the informational society the specific form of social organization in w hich information generation, processing, and transmission become the fundamental sources of productivity and power, because of the technological conditions (Castells 1996: 21). In other words, the issue is not simply that information is central to production, but that it permeates society. 6.1 Networks In the informational economy, networks are the new social morphology. Organizations are transforming from bureaucracies to network enterprises, responding to information flows, with economic activity organized by means of fluid project teams. Economic activity becomes spatially dispersed but globally integrated, reducing the strategic significance of place, but enhancing the strategic role of major cities.  Manuel Castells explains the origins of ICT from the perspective of social developments. He argues that the network is the dominant structure of society in the information age: power, money, information and society itself is reproduced in networks. ICT enabled the management of these network structures. In the last quarter of a century, three independent processes came together, ushering in a new social structure predominantly based on networks: 1) the need of the economy for management flexibility and for the globalisation of capital, production and trade; 2) the demands of society in which the values of individual freedom and open communication became paramount; and 3) the extraordinary advances in computing and telecommunications made possible by the micro-electronics revolution. Under these conditions, the Internet became the lever for the transition to a new form of society the network society and with it to a new economy.  Networks have extraordinary advantages as  organizing  tools to coordinate and manage because of their flexibility and adaptability, which allows them to survive and prosper in a fast changing environment. Networks are proliferating in all domains of economy and society. The new economy is based on unprecedented potential for productivity growth as b usinesses use the Internet in all kinds of operations. Within a network society there are territories where valuable nodes of wealth and knowledge tend to form. Innovation tends to be territorially concentrated, and major cities throughout history have been important in cultural creativity and technological innovation.   6. 2 Time and space In contrast with earlier time-space arrangements, there is in terms of flows no distance between nodes on the same network. In other words, geographical distance is irrelevant to connection and communication. So there are fundamental changes to the nature of time and space, with time compressed and almost annihilated; and space shifting to the space of flows: places continue to be the focus of everyday life, rooting culture and transmitting history, but they are overlaid by flows. The network of flows is crucial to domination and change in society: interconnected, global, capitalist networks organize economic activity using IT and are the main sources of power in society. The power of flows in the networks prevails over the flow of power which might be read as some kind of flow determinism. The Internet and computer-mediated communication are seen as transforming the fabric of society though Castells explicitly rejects technological determinism. 6.3 Identity and culture The other main strands of Castellss argument are about identity and culture. The transformation of economies has been accompanied by the decline of traditional, class-based forms of association, particularly the labor movement. At the same time, state power has been eroded and new forms of collective resistance have emerged, notably feminism and environmentalism. The explosion of electronic media, specifically the development and growth of segmented audiences and interactivity, means the growth of customized cottages (as opposed to a global village) and a culture of real virtuality. Although he acknowledges growing inequality, social exclusion, and polarization, Castells, rather like Bell, sees at least the possibility of a positive future, of new forms of communication and the network society offering democratizing possibilities. 6. 4 Discussion on Bell and Castells While Bell focuses his analysis very much on the economy, and Castells provides a remarkably wide-ranging account, the work of these two key analysts of the information society addresses what can be seen as the four core themes of the information society, or of information society debates.  First is the new patterning of work and inequality. This includes debates informed by Bell regarding the decline of manufacturing in western economies, and the growth of information and service sectors; the deskilling debate and the restructuring of work; and the growth of e-commerce. It also includes debates about the growing gulf between the rich and the poor, and social exclusion the digital divide. There is debate about the extent to which lack of access to information is a cause, rather than merely a reflection, of social exclusion. Second is time-space reconfiguration, compression, or convergence different authors use different terms. The shrinking of time and space, examined by Castells, is facilitated by instantaneous electronic communication. Globalization and digital information networks lie at the heart of information society debates. Some invoke McLuhans (1992) notion of the global village and develop this in relation to the Internet, and a large and growing body of literature examines Internet communities, for example those of national diasporas. Multi-channel television and global television flows are key components of global cultural communication. The erosions of boundaries between home and work and public and private are other aspects of time-space reconfiguration. Third is the huge growth of cultural activities, institutions, and practices. Culture has become increasingly significant in contemporary society, and with new ICTs the means to produce, circulate, and exchange culture has expanded enormously. The media and communications industries have a huge economic significance today, paralleling that of physical plant in the industrial era. Far from simply a matter of business and flow, culture connects closely with the constitution of subjectivity, with identity. Fourth, there is a set of issues about the transformation of state power and democracy with the growth of technologies of surveillance. Behavior in public space is routinely observed and recorded on video, while computer systems map personal movements, conversations, e-mail traffic, consumption patterns, networks, and social activities. At the same time, democracy is facilitated by the capacity for many-to-many communication (as opposed to the broadcasting model of one-to-many) and the increasing accessibility of growing amounts of information, with the development of the Internet. New patterns of communication across time and space enhance communication possibilities, and state control of the media is challenged by new technologies satellite but especially the Internet that easily cross national borders. 7. Webster Theories of the Information Society (1995) Frank Webster has a long-standing interest in the effects of new technologies and changes in information and communication. His teaching interests span contemporary societies, social change, sociology, and information, communication and society.   He notes that the information society advocates do not distinguish between quantitative and qualitative measures; they assume that quantitative increases (in information, information industries and occupations, and information flows) transform into qualitative changes in social systems. Webster believes the concept of information society is flawed as a description of the emergence of a new type of society. The criteria for distinguishing an information society are inconsistent and lack clarity, the use of the term information is imprecise, and claims that increases in information lead to significant social changes are based on faulty logic and inadequate evidence. His central objection is that these distinctions are an over-simplification of the processes of change. There are no clear grounds for designating what is an information society or when we will have reached it. If there is just more information, it is hard to suggest why the information society is something radically new. All societies and nation states can be called information societies in so far as they all even pre-Internet have had routines and procedures and means for gathering, storing and controlling information about people. Therefore, more information cannot in itself be held as a break with pr evious social systems.  Ã‚   As such, Webster does not believe we have entered a new information age even as he concedes various points that there have been big changes in society because of changes in technology, networks, and information flows. As a result of his stated biases, he sometimes comes across as more critical of other scholars who he does not agree (Bell, Castells, etc.). However, Frank Webster developed a typology to understand information society theories: five main distinctions have been put forward to characterize an information society: technological, economic, occupational, spatial and cultural.   7.1 Technological vision   From the technological perspective, we live in an information society since information and telecommunication technologies play a constantly expanding role in all fields of social existence, which has shaken the foundations of social structures and processes and resulted in massive changes in politics, economy, culture, and everyday life. Most of the attempts made to define information society approach the idea from a technological point of view hence the central question of such explorations sounds like: What kind of new information and communication technology was constructed in recent decades that determined the infrastructure of information society? The key idea is that the breakthrough in information processing, storage and transmission led to the application of information technologies (IT) in all societies, e.g. sale and usage of computers, cell phones, etc. Awed by the pace and magnitude of technological change, there is an assumption that the computer revolution will have an overwhelming impact on every human being on earth. Computer technology is to the information age what mechanization was to the industrial revolution. New technologies are one of the most visible indicators of a new age, and therefore are often taken as signals of an information society. The rapid growth of the Internet especially the information superhighway, and the spread of national, international and global information networks has been held as a key development. Many government studies have tried to track the growth in volumes of communication and information across these networks. They contend that ICTs represent the establishment of a new epoch , which despite short-term difficulties will be economically beneficial over the longer term.  The most important question, however, is the one that focuses on the relationship between technology and society. What is the optimum technological impact on social life that can achieve a qualitative change? Are we justified in relying on modernizing political initiatives and the theories of futurologists who claim that technology is the only means to change social procedures and the functioning of society, when their objective is to expand the use of technology in the public sphere? 7.2 Occupational vision Many OECD and EU documents on the information society focus on the occupational aspect of the information society. An emergence of an information society is measured by the focus on occupational change: the shift is towards the information work. Information society is seen in overwhelming members of clerks, teachers, lawyers, etc. vis-à  -vis the manual labours, such as mine workers, builders, farm labourers, etc. Labour market is today dominated by information operatives who possess the information needed to get things done. A clear emergence of white-collar society (Information work) and a decline of industrial labour (blue-collared workers).  Occupational change is often taken as another indicator of an information society. The occupational structure is examined over time and patterns of change are observed. Arguments here are based on the assumption that if most forms of work involve information we have achieved an information society. The decline of manufacturing or industria l work is taken as a further signal of change. This conception of the information society is quite different from the one based on technologies, since it suggests that it is the transformative power of information rather than of information technologies that is spurring change. 7.3 Economic vision   Technological innovation is central for increasing productivity and thus for growth of economics and competition between economies. It is commonplace today to contend that we have evolved into a society which accepts that knowledge had become the foundation of the modern economy. We have shifted from the economy of goods to a knowledge economy. The assumption is that knowledge and organization are the prime creators of wealth. Economy-based approaches track the growth in economic value of information-r