Media Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Media Studies - Essay Example This essay approves that newspapers existed on the earth in some form or other because of man’s innate tendency to know news and share it with other fellow men. People disseminated news by word of mouth, written correspondence or public notices before the development of printing technology. As more people learned to read and write, news reports became more. Ancient Rome had a particularly stylish system for spreading written news. The process of consolidation of the press and other tools of mass communication has been taking place in US and Canada in a big way. This process might spread to other parts of the world with the emergence of globalization as an unavoidable phenomenon in the world today. The number of newspapers in circulation keep on declining in most U.S. and Canadian cities. Many cities today have only one newspaper publisher. In Canada, only six cities are supplied by two or more independently owned newspapers. In more than 170 American cities, a solo publisher p roduces both a morning and an evening paper. Fewer than 30 U.S. cities have rival papers with different ownership. This report makes a conclusion that we are at the threshold of globalization, a phenomenon that is unavoidable. However, we need the systems in place to guard the values and ideals that man has developed over many years. To make the purpose of the press and other media as only providers of entertainment and statistical enumeration of data is a subservient role that we give to the media. Media has a much more important role to play in the world today as a remedial force and as a forum for engaging in healthy debates on cardinal issues of our times.

Death Of A Salesman Essay example -- essays research papers

Tragedy was a very controversial issue in literature until recent years. Recent figures in literature have set a clear definition for tragedy. Author Miller is one of these figures. Plays and novels have distinguished the definition of tragedy. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary tragedy is a serious piece of literature typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror. Miller’s explains that a tragic hero does not always have to be a monarch or a man of a higher status. A tragic hero can be a common person. A tragedy does not always have to end pessimistically; it could have an optimistic ending. The play Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, is a tragedy because it’s hero, Willy Loman, is a tragic figure that faces a superior source, being the American dream and the struggle for success. Loman also excites pity in the reader because of his defeat and his in ability to become a success or teach his children how to make their lives successful. Miller defines a flaw as â€Å"an inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what one conceives to be a challenge to one’s dignity†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Loman fulfills many of the requirements of being a tragic hero. Willy is not â€Å"flawless† in his actions, which by Miller’s standards make him a tragic hero. It is not wrong for Willy to have flaws and it does not make him a weaker man but a tragic figure. Miller designed the play so that Willy could be a tragic hero and for this he needs to have a flaw. Willy’s flaw is that he is unable to see things in a more realistic perspective. Charley says something in the play that sums up Willy’s whole life. He asks him, "When the hell are you going to grow up?" Willy’s spends his entire life in an illusion. He sees himself as a great man that is popular and successful. Willy exhibits many childlike qualities. Many of these qualities have an impact on his family. His two sons Biff and Happy pick up this behavior from their father. He is idealistic, stubborn, and he has a false sense of his importance in the world. The extreme to which he followed the dream brought him to disillusionment and a loose sense of reality. Willy created a reality for himself where he "knocked 'em cold in Providence," and "slaughtered 'em in Boston."(p.33) â€Å"Five hundred gr... ...nderstands. Willy could have still been successful if he was able to see the flaws in his ways and teach Biff the right way to be a success, which is in hard work. If Willy had not killed himself and taught Biff that working hard at anything would make his successful then Biff may have reached success for himself and make Willy a successful father as well. The reader must look at Willy’s suicide through Willy’s eyes. He killed himself in order to give Biff a better shot at being a success. Willy doesn’t understand that killing himself is wrong and he is not looking for any pity. Willy has sacrificed his own life so that Biff could have a better life. This truly does make him a tragic hero. Willy Loman is a tragic figure in the play Death of a Salesman. Willy faces a superior source in the play and puts his life on the line for his beliefs and the beliefs of others. He meets the requirements of Miller’s article for a tragic hero. Death of a Salesman also meets Miller’s requirements for a tragic play because of Willy’s role in the novel along with the other standards that Miller sets for a tragedy. The exploration of tragedy by people such as Miller helps to define it more clearly.

Economics in construction

1. Perfect competition maybe described as a theoretical form of market wherein no buyer or supplier has the capacity (or what is termed the ‘market power’) to control the market price. Regular definitions of perfect competition in economics describe it as a situation in which there is absolutely ‘efficient outcome’. The hypothetical situation of ‘perfect competition’ is primarily conjured to build the fundamentals of the supply and demand theory. Totally contrary to the ideas of a perfectly competitive market is the idea of a monopoly, which maybe defined as a continual market situation within which there is only one supplier of a particular service or an item. All monopolies are necessarily devoid of any economic competition and the utter deficiency of ‘substitute goods’. Often a monopoly is sanctioned by the state. Such a monopoly is called a ‘legal monopoly’ or a ‘government granted monopoly’ and is authorized by the government so as to encourage firms to take up a particularly ‘risky’ or ambitious project. Instead of allowing a certain firm to take up a venture in this manner the state might also keep the project all to itself. Such a situation will then be referred to as a ‘government monopoly’. (King, 126) Unlike in a monopoly in a perfectly competitive market there are a number of minor suppliers and buyers who operate at equal capacities in the market. Given their equal status neither of them manages to attain enough significance to influence the market in their favor. The firms in such a set-up are therefore price-takers rather than price-setters, as in the case of monopolies. Also, while a monopoly provides a particular, unique item or service to the market in a perfectly competitive market no firm enjoys any sort of individuality. Instead, each of their products is quite like the others such that there is no room for ‘product differentiation’. A monopoly remains the sole provider of a certain product or service by simply barring other similar firms to enter the market by some means or the other. Often such means include government authorization, like in the case of ‘legal monopolies’ discussed above. In case of perfect competition however no such entry barrier can be introduced. As a result any given firm can enter the market if it wishes to. Similarly, unlike in a monopoly in a perfect competition set-up all firms have access to the same kind of resources all of which are completely ‘mobile’. In a monopoly of course a particular firm controls (and occasionally even withholds) essential resources and production expertise. Given the large number of close substitutes available for the products/services sold by firms in a perfectly competitive set-up it is only obvious that no single firm or even a group of firms have any say about the ‘market-price’. The price of the products or services of firms in an arrangement such as this is duly decided instead by the market, which in turn depends on the behavior of the buyer. A monopoly however doesn’t remain obligated to the market in this manner. Instead, it effectively determines the market price simply by increasing or decreasing the quantity of its produce. Such independence is enjoyed by a monopoly simply because it faces no form of price pressure from opponents. However, there is a limit to which this liberty maybe pushed. Monopolies that raise their price far beyond permissible limits invite competition and may soon have to face rivals providing the same services/products either legally or even illegally. (Fletcher, 188) 2. The residential construction industry might pretend to be a single, solid, well defined industry but it in fact is far from being that. As anyone who has ever had a house made knows building a great house involves a number of things; great plumbing, great carpentry, great painting etc. etc. etc. Given the large demands of building a residential outfit the residential construction industry does not represent one single market, like it appears to be but rather a variety of sectors. However, not all of them need to come into play in every residential construction project. Often a particular house does not need all the facilities the industry is capable of providing it with. For instance if an environmentalist who feels strongly about the use of wood in his house decides to build a house tomorrow he is hardly likely to employ a carpenter, irrespective of how easily he can land one. Similarly a family who decides to paint their interiors themselves will not need painters, at least to the extent they are usually needed by new house owners. Also, in many cases residential construction involves repairing old structures. This obviously takes less effort and expertise than those required for building a house from scratch. As is obvious therefore there are a number of ifs and buts in the industry. We will take a look at some of these a little closely. Normally, specialist contractors who have long standing reputation in the field carry out residential constructions. These individuals take complete responsibility of building an entire building from scratch and cover everything from plumbing to painting. Once they achieve the contract however they duly sub-contract additional independent workers who assist and accompany their own crew. Contractors are often described as the king of the jungle in their own area. They are managers, salesmen, supervisors and directors all rolled into one. As a result of their unique capacity to bring in professionals of their own field under their wings these individuals soon turn out to be perfect monopolies by themselves. Often many of these professionals operate all by themselves in a given area, without any form of opposition or competition. Given their advantageous position they duly flex every possible monopoly muscle they possibly can and obviously determine the market price of the services they provide. Similarly special service providers in the industry, such as say wood engravers or carvers who are both sophisticated and rare in terms of their skill usually monopolize the market and set the market price by themselves. Unlike them plumbers or electricians, who are found in plenty and whose skills hardly vary can never really behave in a monopolistic manner. Instead, their circuit closely replicates what can be called a ‘perfectly competitive’. Much like them painters and carpenters can hardly afford to be choosy or ultra expensive since they are easy to substitute. A good illustration of this point is provided by the use of lumber in the industry in the past decade or so. The U.S. residential construction industry is, by all accounts the biggest consumer of softwood lumber. However, the amount of softwood lumber available to the industry fell dramatically following the restrictions that came to be placed on state and federal forests in the past few years. As a result of this unfortunate fall in supply a large chunk of the industry soon shifted to other alternatives available in the market. Amongst the 2,500 builders we surveyed for this particular study about 12.8% reported to have increased their use of alternative structural materials in the past decade alone. 99% of the respondents also confessed to having started to use at least one out of the long list of alternative structural materials that we provided them with. Till 1995 only 91% of the builders interviewed used substitute materials. (Kar, 145) While the decreased supply of lumber has obviously proved unfortunate for the lumber industry the construction industry itself has survived virtually unscathed. This is primarily due to the wide availability of materials such as reinforced concrete, plastic fiber, steel etc. which maybe easily used as a replacement for lumber. This example clearly proves the market for construction material itself therefore it maybe said to be a ‘perfectly competitive’ market. With easily available substitutes, easy entry into the market and hardly any product differentiation it fits almost every characteristic of the ‘perfect competition’ market to the tee. Unlike lumber and its alternatives however other important facets of construction are not as easily obtained. The expertise required to design a house for instance is far harder to replace than the construction material it is to be built with. Due to the utter importance of their job and how extraordinarily dependant on knowledge and skill it is, the architect and the whole engineering industry maybe described as a bit of a monopoly. It is of course difficult to enter their market, there are hardly any ‘substitutes’ available (since the level of skill and expertise of each engineer varies from the other) and the engineers themselves tend to determine the market price of their know-how. (Lamb, 243-245) Thus we see how the residential construction industry of U.S.A. is actually a mà ©lange of a wide variety of competitive markets and not a single market by itself. It is the proper functioning of each of these individual parts that ultimately allows the construction business to function properly. References: Fletcher, R; Economy: Beliefs and Knowledge; Believing and Knowing. (Mangalore: Howard & Price. 2006) pp 188 Kar, P; History of Indian Consumer Market Applications (Kolkata: Dasgupta & Chatterjee 2005) pp 145 King, H; Fiscal Fitness Today (Dunedin: HBT & Brooks Ltd. 2005) pp 126 Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata. (Wellington: National Book Trust. 2004) pp 243-245   

Perry Barbara 4MAT Review Parrot Essay - 1318 Words

Running head: 4MAT REVIEW, PARROT PARROT 1 4MAT Review of, â€Å"The Complete Guide to Marriage Mentoring† By Les Parrot and Leslie Parrot Barbara Perry Liberty University 4MAT REVIEW, PARROT PARROT 2 â€Å"The Complete Guide to Marriage Mentoring† By Les Parrot and Leslie Parrot Summary In this book, Parrot Parrot (2005) present a resource for setting up a marriage mentoring program. The book gives guidelines for mentors with successful marriages to incorporate in helping with building positive, effective marriages for others. It relates the awareness and vital skills needed to†¦show more content†¦It conveys purpose and selflessness as paramount to this growth. This unit closes with couples in distress and the crisis they face. It explains that addiction, infidelity, and major losses are some of the most common difficulties couples face. Recognizing unstable patterns and realizing when referral is necessary are covered here. Part 3 concentrates on the skills needed for being a marriage mentor. Parrott Parrott (2005) consider building an initial rapport with a couple as crucial to the relationship. Warmth, empathy, and team work are stressed as the most important skills necessary to being effective. It is suggested that identifying strengths, active listening, and asking meaningful questions are significant to good mentoring. This section concludes with an admonishment that mentors should simply be themselves. The appendices offer mentors, pastors, and mentor leaders tools for their programs. They include an application form for both mentors and mentorees, report forms, and a guide for structuring a program. They also include policy samples. Concrete Responses As I read this book, I was reminded of my mother having been a single parent. As a result, my brother and I grew up with no father as a role model. I had no idea what a healthy marriage should look like. This created many obstacles for me to overcome in my own marriage, though it made me a stronger person. I did not understand