William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the traditional ballad Sir Patrick Spence, two very different literary works in terms of format, story, and style, have common threads in their usage of story time to create suspense and narrative desire. Each piece provides the reader with am idea of what’s to come in the rest of the plot, but doesn’t give away enough to cause the reader’s curiosity to be fulfilled. By the middle of each text, we are given what seems to be the end, and yet some how we still want to read on to see for ourselves. The two texts rely on their seemingly immediate action and desire for hindsight to drive their stories forward.
Both texts place a huge emphasis on the present tense. Traditional ballads, by nature, push the language as much in to the present as possible, even if it is something that has already happened. For instance, in Sir Patrick Spence, the line to describe how the king wrote a letter goes “The king has written a letter”. In normal language today we would say “the king wrote a letter” but the traditional ballad keeps as much as possible in the here and now.
By keeping the events of the story so immediate, the traditional ballad brings it’s audience in to the action. It is not a story that happened and is being looked back upon, but a story that is happening as they speak it (since they would have originally been passed along orally). The present tense format also allowed storytellers and bards to put in small enactments of the actions being described so that the audience would visually see the characters’ actions. Since the audience was in a loose sense watching the action as well as listening to it, present tense was more suitable.
Ballads also used scene (dialogue) as much as possible to describe the events, which kept things in real time as much as possible. When dialogue wasn’t present, a summary would occur to fill the audience in and then progress to the next scene. As dialogue in a story is the closest you can get in the written world to actual time, dialogue keeps the story in the present, giving the audience or the reader the feeling that the story is unfolding right as it is read or performed.
The lack of the exposition also emphasizes the seeming present tense of the story. There is no introduction or back ground information of past events with the king, or with Sir Patrick Spence and his journeys to explain why he is the best sailor. In the first two lines of the poem we are informed the king is sitting and drinking in “Dumferling toune”, and immediately after he speaks.
Traditional ballads also tend to focus on a small amount of time. Unlike epic ballads such as The Odyssey in which Homer covers arguably the entirety of Odysseus’ life, Sir Patrick Spence only covers one specific moment in time. The small amount of time covered leaves little time for digression and the story is kept hurtling forward to its, and Sir Patrick Spence’s, untimely end.
Macbeth does of course dwell mainly in the present as well as it is in play format and therefore all of the action is revealed through scene. Macbeth has no ordained narrator as some plays do, so all information presented to the audience is done so through conversation or by monologues and soliloquies.
However, Macbeth is pushed into the future many times, since much of the action either depends or is at least catalyzed by the Witches’ predictions of what the future holds for Macbeth. We are greeted in a sense with the future in the first scene, since the witches seem to be our window into it. The Witches, or Weird Sisters, speak mainly in riddles of the future. Their representation as three woman is symbolic of their dealings with time as well. In Shakespeare’s time, references to “weird sisters” were not indicating stereotypical hocus-pocus witch craft, but referring to Greek mythology and the three fates. Each sister of the Fates represented or ruled over one of the three domains of time: past present and future. Later, however, they became more of a symbol of future knowledge. Humans know what happened in the past, and they are already experiencing the present, so the sisters were called upon to reveal the future. In mythology they rarely did so, as revealing a man’s coming fortune was supposed to bring on disaster. In Macbeth’s case, perhaps this is an accurate conclusion.
The play begins with the Weird Sisters. It does not open with the battle that is later describe to the audience, or with Macbeth himself, even though he is the title role of the story. In stead we are greeted with three women who speak of the future. We see this of course in present tense, as it is very hard to present a play in any other tense, but they speak in terms of what will, not what is. Shakespeare even starts off the sisters’ dialogue with a question about future time, "When shall we three meet again?". Our desire as either audience members or readers of this play is sparked already, since by human nature we are always thinking ahead and waiting for the future to become the present. The sisters’ frequent use of future tense verbs and forecasts of what’s to come pulls that to the forefront of our minds.
Within three scenes we know that Macbeth will be king of Scotland. Some would argue that giving away key events of the plot wrecks the suspense of the story as it takes away the necessary resistance in order to create narrative desire, but I would argue that it adds more suspense, as you do not know the means by which each event comes to pass. It is not like a friend telling you the end to a movie you are about to see. In the case of the movies, you would know the end whilst the characters wouldn’t. In the case of Macbeth, you are no smarter than Macbeth himself. The audience may have ideas as to the true meaning of each of the witches’ riddles, but so may Macbeth, although he does he doesn’t seem to acknowledge them if he does.
Sir Patrick, on the other hand, does seem to know of his coming doom. “O quha is this has don this deid, this ill deid don to me?” he asks, wondering why he should be sent out to see by the king at a bad time of the year. If he is worried, the best sailor that sails upon the sea, than the audience will probably become concerned as well, keeping their attention and their wonder as to what is next. Soon after, one of his sailors announces a storm. This foreshadowing of impending fate keeps up the desire to see what happens.
In Macbeth, foreshadowing is one of the key dramatic devices that is used to ignite suspense, but not only in the prolepsis in the Witches’ speeches to Macbeth. They state at the very end of their first appearance, the first scene of the play, “Fair is foul and foul is fair”. That line sets the tone for the entire play. Every single foretelling is true and yet false. The Weird Sisters’ themselves are often presented on stage as foreboding and even hideous creatures, creating even more of a sense of evil doings a foot.
The revealing early on of Macbeth’s destined royalty early in the show fuels into the narrative seduction of the plot. Whether it is because you do not have faith that they prediction will be fulfilled or if you are intensely curious as to how and what it causes, or both, The reader is pulled into the story by Macbeth’s providence, and needs an explanation or elaboration. The wish to know the entire story, and not just the apparent end (Macbeth is king of Scotland and dies before producing an heir) keeps the reader’s attention. You could say that the narrative seduction leads into the narrative desire. You are seduced in by Macbeth’s seeming good fortune, and the desire to see the fortune occur propels the story.
Phyllis Rackin views Macbeth's reign at king as a pause in time, at which moment the sun ceases to rise and darkness engulfs Scotland. It is an interesting dynamic to grasp when you factor in the fact that most readers are in great anticipation of what will happen by the end. To think of the majority of the story as a pause of time pushes against all the desire to see the end through. This creates part of the necessary resistance that goes part and parcel with narrative desire. If there is no resistance, tension and suspense cannot build up. Interestingly enough, Macbeth actually creates more resistance by trying to remove his. The more he killed to remove anyone and anything that stood in his way, the more people tried to stop him. The delay of final destiny, the resistance, makes the final ending more tragic; delay is not just a condition of narrative, but also a condition of meaning. At the death of Macbeth and the end of his sovereignty, Macduff actually pronounces, "time is free". The resistance is released and the show is over.
The desire to see the first prediction fulfilled is cut short, since the murder of Duncan occurs quite early in the play. However, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are hosting other quests, and the next object of desire within the plot is to know whether accusations of treason and murder are heard from the guests. Soon after that, Macbeth visits the Weird Sisters again, and they give us the final end to the show. It is the same system as the first prediction, and much of the rest of the play is fuelled by the desire to know whether or not the Witches’ prophecies are true. The first one is, so why not the second? Why not just close the book right there and assume you know Macbeth gets away with everything since the weird sisters got it right the first time. The second prediction doesn’t seem to make sense however (Macbeth can not be killed by any man of woman born) and so there is reason to read on and see what the sisters might mean.
The wonder cause by these prophecies is what Peter Brooks calls "the motor forces that drive the text forward, of the desires that connect narrative ends and beginnings, and make of the textual middle a highly charged field of force. Because narrative desire is ultimately desire for the end, reading practices have often looked to closure for narrative meaning. In investigating the inevitable relationship between the sense of a beginning and the sense of an ending, Brooks finds in the primacy given to endings an "apparent paradox".
In contrast to the generous gifts of foretelling and foreshadowing in both stories, there are also abundant summaries and ellipsis’s. In both pieces, many crucial events in the plot are not actually shown or at least not shown through scene but summary. Duncan’s death is not staged in Macbeth, but Macbeth does describe the deed to Lady Macbeth. In both cases the focus for the reader or audience becomes not the event of murder or tragedy that is the point of the story, but rather the consequences and after math. The lack of bloodshed shown onstage in Macbeth also aids in the build up or tragedy. Though the action of the story is no less bloody in the beginning than the end, it is only shown progressively towards the end. The first bloodshed shown on stage isn’t until Banquo is killed, and the play is increasingly bloody after giving a greater sense to the mounting disaster.
Sir Patrick Spence also uses a lack of fully disclosed information to bring tragedy to the forefront. It takes one line to say indirectly that the ship sunk, “Thair hats they swam aboone”, but spends three stanzas afterward describing the scene of aftermath. We do not know if the ship is struck by lightning from the “deadlie storme” of if they were bashed on they rocks or any other possible untimely end. We do know, however of the ladies of the lords are described, waiting for the ship to return with gold combs in their hair. The ship’s position fifty fathoms under the surface of the coast is disclosed, but the actual scene of the ship sinking is completely left out.
It’s very cinematic, as you can almost imagine those described events as camera shots; hats floating on the water, ladies waiting by the window perhaps looking out to sea, and then a shot of the coast, and perhaps then down under the water’s surface down to the ship wreck. The rapid flashes of images and scenes occur throughout the poem, such as the jump from the king and his court to Sir Patrick walking along the sand.
Considering traditional ballads are characteristically economic in language and discourse, there must be a reason for the disproportion of the climax and the consequences, or for the “leaping and lingering” as it is now referred to in literary terms.
One reason for the summary of many key events in ballads is to add to the mystery, a common theme found in traditional ballads. In The Carpenter’s wife, as in Sir Patrick Spence, the exact cause of the final tragedy is left unknown. “He’s tane her by the milk-white hand and he’s thrown her in the main; and full five and twenty hundred shifts Perished on the coast of Spain”. How exactly did all those ships meet their end? As a storyteller myself, I believe those details were (and still are) often left a mystery so that the audience would leave full of wonder. If all the loose ends were tied up, there is not as much reason to keeping thinking about the story afterward. That still does not explain the extra lingering found in Sir Patrick Spence. The intent to create mystery justifies the leap, but not the linger.
Leaping through what can be considered the climax of the poem and lingering on the repercussions of the event causes the audience to see more of the tragedy in what the event triggered. The consequences of any tragedy are what make the event of story tragic and giving more discourse time to those consequential events puts that in the forefront of the reader’s mind. Tragedies are mainly about the chain reaction of events that is caused by one awful incident. The lingering is where the true tragedy comes to light.
In Macbeth, not as much time is given to the aftermath of Macbeth’s end as in Sir Patrick Spence. But I would argue that the leaping of the plot occurs in Act scene when Macbeth announces to his wife he has murdered Duncan. They play, especially by Shakespeare’s standards, has barely begun and already the King is dead. The rest of the play deals with the spiralling results of that one deed. It is of course not the same cinematic concept as the leaping and lingering displayed in Sir Patrick Spence, but merely a similar pattern.
Although neither stories really touch on hindsight within the context of the plot, hindsight is still a highly significant concept within these suspenseful narratives. It is our desire as audience members and readers to be able to look back and understand the story as a whole that keeps us going. Our “anticipation of retrospection” as Peter Brooks puts it is the momentum behind the two stories.
In Macbeth, we wish to see what the Sisters’ prophecies mean, like how no “man of woman born” can kill Macbeth. As it does not makes sense to us when it is first disclosed, our need to arrive at the end of the story and look back at everything when all the pieces can fall into place is more apparent. In Sir Patrick Spence we are wondering what it means when Sir Patrick laughs at the kings letter, and whether or not the best sailor around can withstand going to sea during the stormiest season of the year, but in Sir Patrick Spence our desire to understand what exactly is going is not fulfilled, which is often the case. The story in a sense is left in perpetual linger since each time you read it you will still be left with a mystery that leaves you wondering.
The manipulation of the story and time passage within the story provides the resistance necessary for a story to create suspense, the resistance that is necessary also to give us a sense at the end that the narrative has reached a proper closure—that feeling of "ah yes, of course!". The simple chronological progression of our lives, by contrast, rarely affords us the same feeling of proper fullness or correctness, which may be one reason we feel compelled to keep telling stories that re-order events in more satisfying narrative ways. "The sense of a beginning, then, must in some important way be determined by the sense of an ending. We might say that we are able to read present moments—in literature and, by extension, in life—as endowed with narrative meaning only because we read them in anticipation of the structuring power of those endings that will retrospectively give them the order and significance of plot".
Macbeth and Sir Patrick Spence are both manipulations of story time by prolepsis and ellipsis so that we know what is going to happen and yet since certain seemingly pedantic details are left out we race through the story in desire to understand it as a whole. Their strong hold in present tense brings out that extra desire to move forward that is constantly present in our own everyday lives, but is not so urgent. Their climaxes and conclusions come abruptly, and immediately cause the audience to look back to begin their process of understand, a natural human reaction in both the world of literature and the world of real life.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Shakespeare's Macbeth Major Theme
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth guilt is a major theme that I found through research. Guilt shows up in the play in many forms blood, mental status of the Macbeth’s, and Lady Macbeth’s role in the play.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth don’t seem so strong in the beginning, and their mental status is obvious. Lady Macbeth is the strongest; Macbeth is timid before the murder of Duncan. Macbeth wants to be king, but he feels like there are other ways of getting what you want besides murder. He is faced with the struggle within Macbeth between his ambition and his sense of right and wrong. In the play it is shown that lady Macbeth is a strong woman. She uses Macbeths manhood against him to give him ambition to kill Duncan. Right after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth washes his hands, even after the blood is obviously gone from sight he continues to wash his hands from guilt, in his mind the blood is still there. As the play progresses Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking and washes her hands because she has all the guilt inside of her, it is overwhelming her and she’s keeping it all inside. After Macbeth murders Duncan, he is remorseless, and Lady Macbeth is the one with the guilty conscious. So starting out Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth to kill Duncan so he could become king, and now that Duncan has been murdered the roles have changed. Macbeth now, has become obsessed with murder and anybody who comes in his way, is going to die. Next, Macbeth murders his best friend, Banquo. In Macbeths mind, murdering the people that are threatening to him leaves him threat less in the end. After Macbeth murders Banquo, he hallucinates that he sees him at the banquet. Macbeth is obviously trying to deal with his own guilt, and the hallucination is just his guilty conscience.
Blood is the symbol used to show guilt in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Before the murder of Duncan takes place Lady Macbeth is talking to the spirits and asks “make thick my blood”, which is Lady Macbeths plead that she will be remorseless for taking part in killing Duncan. After killing Duncan, Macbeth continues to see blood all over his hands, although the blood is washed away. “will great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood of my hands” he keeps washing his hands and in his mind he still sees them covered in blood. Lady Macbeth later has an obsession with bloodstains on her hands. She washes them continuously and talks about how the stains won’t go away, through sleepwalking. When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, the ghost is bloody, which is a symbol of the guilt Macbeth feels for killing his best friend, and also shows that Macbeth is going insane.
Lady Macbeth greatly shows her guilt. Towards the end Lady Macbeth becomes a vent, through which Macbeth’s guilt is shown. Which only makes Macbeth more relentless. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth gets worse as the play progresses, and the murders are taken place. A doctor diagnoses her mentally ill, though Macbeth knows that she is washing her hands clearly from the overwhelming guilt. After killing Duncan, while Macbeth was washing his hands and telling her he couldn’t wash the blood off, Lady Macbeth said “a little water clears us of this deed”. If that was true then why did her guilty conscience lead her to sleepwalking and washing her hands of the blood? Lady Macbeth’s guilt later leads her to committing suicide.
In trying to acquire everything, the Macbeth’s tragically lose everything instead. Shakespeare showed the power of murder and guilt very well in the tragedy of Macbeth. Blood, Murder and guilt are all obvious signs of guilt, and result from guilt. Without the obvious reoccurrences of guilt in this play, it would have turned out very differently. Which is why after research, guilt is the major theme I found in the tragedy of Macbeth. Although there are many other themes, and people that have read Macbeth will argue that other themes were more important.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth don’t seem so strong in the beginning, and their mental status is obvious. Lady Macbeth is the strongest; Macbeth is timid before the murder of Duncan. Macbeth wants to be king, but he feels like there are other ways of getting what you want besides murder. He is faced with the struggle within Macbeth between his ambition and his sense of right and wrong. In the play it is shown that lady Macbeth is a strong woman. She uses Macbeths manhood against him to give him ambition to kill Duncan. Right after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth washes his hands, even after the blood is obviously gone from sight he continues to wash his hands from guilt, in his mind the blood is still there. As the play progresses Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking and washes her hands because she has all the guilt inside of her, it is overwhelming her and she’s keeping it all inside. After Macbeth murders Duncan, he is remorseless, and Lady Macbeth is the one with the guilty conscious. So starting out Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth to kill Duncan so he could become king, and now that Duncan has been murdered the roles have changed. Macbeth now, has become obsessed with murder and anybody who comes in his way, is going to die. Next, Macbeth murders his best friend, Banquo. In Macbeths mind, murdering the people that are threatening to him leaves him threat less in the end. After Macbeth murders Banquo, he hallucinates that he sees him at the banquet. Macbeth is obviously trying to deal with his own guilt, and the hallucination is just his guilty conscience.
Blood is the symbol used to show guilt in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Before the murder of Duncan takes place Lady Macbeth is talking to the spirits and asks “make thick my blood”, which is Lady Macbeths plead that she will be remorseless for taking part in killing Duncan. After killing Duncan, Macbeth continues to see blood all over his hands, although the blood is washed away. “will great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood of my hands” he keeps washing his hands and in his mind he still sees them covered in blood. Lady Macbeth later has an obsession with bloodstains on her hands. She washes them continuously and talks about how the stains won’t go away, through sleepwalking. When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, the ghost is bloody, which is a symbol of the guilt Macbeth feels for killing his best friend, and also shows that Macbeth is going insane.
Lady Macbeth greatly shows her guilt. Towards the end Lady Macbeth becomes a vent, through which Macbeth’s guilt is shown. Which only makes Macbeth more relentless. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth gets worse as the play progresses, and the murders are taken place. A doctor diagnoses her mentally ill, though Macbeth knows that she is washing her hands clearly from the overwhelming guilt. After killing Duncan, while Macbeth was washing his hands and telling her he couldn’t wash the blood off, Lady Macbeth said “a little water clears us of this deed”. If that was true then why did her guilty conscience lead her to sleepwalking and washing her hands of the blood? Lady Macbeth’s guilt later leads her to committing suicide.
In trying to acquire everything, the Macbeth’s tragically lose everything instead. Shakespeare showed the power of murder and guilt very well in the tragedy of Macbeth. Blood, Murder and guilt are all obvious signs of guilt, and result from guilt. Without the obvious reoccurrences of guilt in this play, it would have turned out very differently. Which is why after research, guilt is the major theme I found in the tragedy of Macbeth. Although there are many other themes, and people that have read Macbeth will argue that other themes were more important.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Visual Analysis of Vincent van Gogh’s Vineyards at Auvers
Through most of his life Vincent van Gogh suffered greatly from some form of mental illness, according to writer Philip Vickers the illness “was probably epilepsy.” Because of this illness van Gogh lived in the small French village of Auvers where he spent the last months of his life, while creating some his most monumental works that include Starry Night, Wheat Fields Under Clouded Ski, Wheat Field with Crows, The Church at Auvers, and Vineyards at Auvers. Vincent stayed in Auvers at the Ravoux Inn until his suicide in July of 1890.
Vincent had the unique ability to paint things as he they were viewed through his psyche. He had an emphasis on what was relative to his mind although not so to others who viewed these paintings. Many images of van Gogh are inanimate objects that possess characteristics normally not associated with a church, cypress tree, or night sky.
Vineyards at Auvers an oil on canvas is a Post-Impressionistic work measuring about 16 X 22 inches, and like many of van Gogh’s works it gives a remarkable look at the French countryside; however, this image is conveyed in less than traditional style. The passionate use of the brush creates an extremely rough and unfinished look while viewing the work closely. Beautiful greens and browns are used to accent the foreground of grasses and pastures while a meandering picket fence seems to stroll across the countryside like a weary traveler seeking refuge from the elements.
The fence gives both dimension and motion to the work. It begins in the foreground near heraldic left of the painting angling toward the center and then taking a subtle line toward the heraldic left once again before disappearing off the canvas. Another fence or stonewall crosses the center of the panting again breaking up the different crops and grasses of the landscape. This wall does have character, but does not possess the human emotion conveyed thru the picket fence.
The greens and browns used to signify the vineyards look more like a series of dots and dashes not dissimilar to those used in Morse code. Other examples of brushwork bear a striking resemblance to the “axe cut strokes” used in different forms of Asian Art.
Along the heraldic right of this painting is a very tall area of underbrush or some sort of living fence frames this portion off from the winding road trailing off into the city of Auvers. Cottages with thatch roofs dominate this portion of the work before following the road into the background where cottages and other buildings take hold of the work while improving its depth of field. Southern Frances rolling hills are visible in the distance. This has two possible influences, perhaps has a reminder of where this work was painting is staged and the influence southern France had on van Gogh’s life, or a less personalized influence from the Monumental painting style.
Many art historians have shown interest in the area of France near Auvers because of its historical significance to the life and death of van Gogh. Over one hundred years after van Gogh painted Vineyards at Auvers Philip Vickers wanted to see if the subject of this as well as the sites painted in other works by van Gogh from 1889-1890 were still in existence. Upon his arrival to this area Vickers discovered that almost nothing had changed in the last century in Auvers. The church that van Gogh painted with a “living thing, pulsating with spiritual life” still exists, but has one addition. A tiny sign with an arrow reads: Tomveau de Vincent van Gogh leads one behind the church to the cemetery where sits the ivy covered last resting place of Vincent van Gogh. How fitting that a man with such passion for his works can now have immortality thru one of his most popular images.
Vineyards at Auvers is a unique van Gogh because it does not show distorted people working the land as in so many other landscapes he painted. It also does not contain the crows Vincent often painted thought his life. Incidentally, this work does show the masterful craft of van Gogh during a time of his life where his pain was very clear in his works. Vincent thought he had lived has a failure; however the images of the demons that haunted him will never be cloaked in failure again because of his legacy as an innovator in the world of art.
Vincent had the unique ability to paint things as he they were viewed through his psyche. He had an emphasis on what was relative to his mind although not so to others who viewed these paintings. Many images of van Gogh are inanimate objects that possess characteristics normally not associated with a church, cypress tree, or night sky.
Vineyards at Auvers an oil on canvas is a Post-Impressionistic work measuring about 16 X 22 inches, and like many of van Gogh’s works it gives a remarkable look at the French countryside; however, this image is conveyed in less than traditional style. The passionate use of the brush creates an extremely rough and unfinished look while viewing the work closely. Beautiful greens and browns are used to accent the foreground of grasses and pastures while a meandering picket fence seems to stroll across the countryside like a weary traveler seeking refuge from the elements.
The fence gives both dimension and motion to the work. It begins in the foreground near heraldic left of the painting angling toward the center and then taking a subtle line toward the heraldic left once again before disappearing off the canvas. Another fence or stonewall crosses the center of the panting again breaking up the different crops and grasses of the landscape. This wall does have character, but does not possess the human emotion conveyed thru the picket fence.
The greens and browns used to signify the vineyards look more like a series of dots and dashes not dissimilar to those used in Morse code. Other examples of brushwork bear a striking resemblance to the “axe cut strokes” used in different forms of Asian Art.
Along the heraldic right of this painting is a very tall area of underbrush or some sort of living fence frames this portion off from the winding road trailing off into the city of Auvers. Cottages with thatch roofs dominate this portion of the work before following the road into the background where cottages and other buildings take hold of the work while improving its depth of field. Southern Frances rolling hills are visible in the distance. This has two possible influences, perhaps has a reminder of where this work was painting is staged and the influence southern France had on van Gogh’s life, or a less personalized influence from the Monumental painting style.
Many art historians have shown interest in the area of France near Auvers because of its historical significance to the life and death of van Gogh. Over one hundred years after van Gogh painted Vineyards at Auvers Philip Vickers wanted to see if the subject of this as well as the sites painted in other works by van Gogh from 1889-1890 were still in existence. Upon his arrival to this area Vickers discovered that almost nothing had changed in the last century in Auvers. The church that van Gogh painted with a “living thing, pulsating with spiritual life” still exists, but has one addition. A tiny sign with an arrow reads: Tomveau de Vincent van Gogh leads one behind the church to the cemetery where sits the ivy covered last resting place of Vincent van Gogh. How fitting that a man with such passion for his works can now have immortality thru one of his most popular images.
Vineyards at Auvers is a unique van Gogh because it does not show distorted people working the land as in so many other landscapes he painted. It also does not contain the crows Vincent often painted thought his life. Incidentally, this work does show the masterful craft of van Gogh during a time of his life where his pain was very clear in his works. Vincent thought he had lived has a failure; however the images of the demons that haunted him will never be cloaked in failure again because of his legacy as an innovator in the world of art.
Biography Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was a child prodigy and a rebel teenager born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. He has come to be known as the most influential artist of the twentieth century. In his career as an artist, lasting more than 75 years, Picasso went through many different periods, the major ones being the “blue period,” the “rose period,” and the cubism period. Picasso was also a sculptor, a printer, and ceramist who worked in realism, caricature, cubism, and many other styles. Critic Hughes states, "There was scarcely a 20th century movement that he didn't inspire, contribute to or--in the case of Cubism, which, in one of art history's great collaborations, he co-invented with Georges Braque--beget".
The blue and rose periods of Picasso’s career were named that because of, obviously, the colors he used in his works. During the “blue period,” which lasted from 1901 to 1904, all of his painting had a bluish tone. These works of art were painted during Picasso’s repeated location changes between Barcelona and Paris, and were focused on outcasts, beggars, and prostitutes. La Vie, created in 1903, was Picasso’s most moving “blue period” piece. What started as a self-portrait transformed into a portrait of his childhood friend, Casagemas, who had committed suicide. In 1905 and 1906, Picasso’s color tone changed. Influenced by the circus’ acrobats and clowns, he started painting in pinks and grays, often highlighted with even brighter colors. This was known as the “rose period.” In 1907, Picasso met Georges Braque, and together, they created Cubism. Picasso and Braque stayed in contact. Picasso, in 1917, painted the set and made the costume design for a ballet titled “Parade.” During the 20’s, Picasso continued his work in theater sets, Cubism, Classical, and Surrealism, and worked in iron sculpture. His famous painting, Guernica, was done in 1937 in response to the bombing in Guernica, Spain. During World War II, Picasso turned to ceramics and print-making to release his energy. In the 1950’s, he painted many variations of older successful paintings. In the 60’s, Picasso created a towering, 50-foot sculpture for the Chicago Civic Center. He also donated over 800 pieces of his work to the Berenguer de Aguilar Palace Museum in Barcelona in the 70’s. The masterminded, famous, and talented, Pablo Picasso, died on April 8, 1973 in Antibes, France at the age of 93.
Pablo Picasso was born into a family that greatly influenced him. His parents’ names were Don Jose Ruiz Blasco and Dona Maria Picasso y Lopez. Picasso was always interested in painting over learning, starting at an early age. His teachers knew not to put too much effort into teaching him. Pablo and his father often compromised, for he never liked receiving instructions. As an art teacher and painter, Jose Ruiz realized Picasso’s talent in painting. Picasso worked on drawing skills and went to work in his father’s art studio frequently. However, Picasso painted what he wanted to paint, already showing his seditious side.
Spanish heritage also greatly influenced Picasso’s art. He studied the famous artists Diego Valequez and El Greco and kept up with current events in Spain. His Spanish culture is evident in many of his works with cultural symbols like bulls and bullfighting. Picasso attended a few art schools before the age of nineteen. He studied in La Coruna, at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, briefly, in 1897, and in Corundona’s studio. He was also accepted into Barcelona’s La Llonja Art School’s advanced classes, under his father, while he was fifteen.
After his studies, Picasso went to France in 1900. There, he met and befriended Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Fernand Leger. He was also influenced by artists such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Gauguin. Many of Picasso’s paintings from around this time resemble works from these artists, however, they all have a unique “Picasso look” as well.
You always seem to hear about famous people, in particular, artists, who had a very hard childhood and bad parents. Both Pablo’s mom and dad were big influences on him and his artwork. Maria Picasso was not an artist herself, but she was always present in Picasso’s emotional maturity. And Jose Ruiz, as I have already said, realized Picasso’s talent and encouraged him to paint. I am so glad that his parents helped him along the way to success. Without them, he might have not made it as an artist because possibly no one would have realized his gift as his father did.
Pablo Picasso’s L’Italienne, in my opinion, is an extremely creative piece. He used his cubist style to create an image that leaves the observer confused and with many questions.
Picasso’s use of color and shape is extraordinary in this piece. However, the people are confusing and indefinitely people. When I first glanced at the piece, I only saw one person, a shocked lady, it seemed. However, when I studied the painting, I noticed three more figures which are, quite possibly, people. The second one is in the main focus’ arms, most likely a baby. The third person is a small figure, coming up to about the woman’s middle. The fourth is a tall, dark figure behind the woman. This figure gives off the appearance that he is doing something bad behind the woman by the way he is portrayed in all black, and also by the expression on the woman’s face.
When I look at a picture like this, I notice depth and creativity. It is not easy to create a piece that may leave different ideas in minds about what the picture means or what it is of. I see four people when I look at L’Italienne, however, I do not know what other people see. The picture is very balanced in colors, shapes, and sizes. The use of the greens, reds, and black are equally distributed throughout the whole piece. Also, because the style of the painting is cubism, mostly the whole piece has cube-like shapes, giving the painting even more of a balanced look.
L’Italienne and the Three Musicians are two of Picasso’s famous pieces. The Three Musicians was created in 1921. There are many variations to this piece, but in doing research, one in particular variation of the piece always was shown, so that is the piece that I am using. The painting’s focus, made quite obvious by the title of the artwork, is three musicians. They are so artistically created that only someone as imaginatively successful as Picasso could ever create such a fabulous work of art. Even though Picasso used the cubist style to create both of the pieces, there are many ways that the painting can still differ. One way is color. However, one of the reasons that I chose these two pieces to compare is because they are both so alike in color. Both L’Italienne and Three Musicians use green, red, and black. Nevertheless, Three Musicians also uses a lot of white throughout the piece. I think this is successful because the red on the floor and green on the ceiling balance each other, and the white and black both interspersed throughout the painting balance each other. The absence of blue in both of the paintings is very noticeable.
Another element of the paintings that could be different is the focus. Yet, the focuses in both of the paintings are people. The difference in that could be the amount of people, what they are doing, or how they are arranged in the picture. In Three Musicians, there are three people in comparison to L’Italienne’s four. Also, in the Three Musicians, all of the men are holding, working with, or doing something with an instrument. The musicians are standing next to each other, as opposed to in L’Italienne, how they are all mounted on top of one another.
Based on design, I have to say that I like Three Musicians just a little bit more than I like L’Italienne. The picture, to me, is just all around more interesting to look at than L’Italienne. Three Musicians is actually one of the Picasso pieces that I could have named right off the bat as Picasso’s work before starting on this report. Maybe it’s the way the people are created or something else, but something has just always interested me about this piece.
Honestly, the reason I chose Picasso as my artist was because I was more familiar with his work than with work of another artist. I’ve seen artist’s work such as Georgia O’Keefe’s, Frida Kahlo’s, and Salvador Dali’s, but I definitely knew more about Picasso and his work than any of the others. Picasso, I feel, is just one of those artists that people always tend to use as an example, and also one that you just know about from basic knowledge. For my final project, I know I am going to work in cubism like Picasso did. I think I may want to work in more than one medium as well. I am thinking about drawing something that Picasso would have drawn in the “rose period,” like clowns or the circus, but giving it cubist features. I also want to give it a blue wash so it connects to Picasso’s “blue period” as well as his “rose period” and cubism stage.
The blue and rose periods of Picasso’s career were named that because of, obviously, the colors he used in his works. During the “blue period,” which lasted from 1901 to 1904, all of his painting had a bluish tone. These works of art were painted during Picasso’s repeated location changes between Barcelona and Paris, and were focused on outcasts, beggars, and prostitutes. La Vie, created in 1903, was Picasso’s most moving “blue period” piece. What started as a self-portrait transformed into a portrait of his childhood friend, Casagemas, who had committed suicide. In 1905 and 1906, Picasso’s color tone changed. Influenced by the circus’ acrobats and clowns, he started painting in pinks and grays, often highlighted with even brighter colors. This was known as the “rose period.” In 1907, Picasso met Georges Braque, and together, they created Cubism. Picasso and Braque stayed in contact. Picasso, in 1917, painted the set and made the costume design for a ballet titled “Parade.” During the 20’s, Picasso continued his work in theater sets, Cubism, Classical, and Surrealism, and worked in iron sculpture. His famous painting, Guernica, was done in 1937 in response to the bombing in Guernica, Spain. During World War II, Picasso turned to ceramics and print-making to release his energy. In the 1950’s, he painted many variations of older successful paintings. In the 60’s, Picasso created a towering, 50-foot sculpture for the Chicago Civic Center. He also donated over 800 pieces of his work to the Berenguer de Aguilar Palace Museum in Barcelona in the 70’s. The masterminded, famous, and talented, Pablo Picasso, died on April 8, 1973 in Antibes, France at the age of 93.
Pablo Picasso was born into a family that greatly influenced him. His parents’ names were Don Jose Ruiz Blasco and Dona Maria Picasso y Lopez. Picasso was always interested in painting over learning, starting at an early age. His teachers knew not to put too much effort into teaching him. Pablo and his father often compromised, for he never liked receiving instructions. As an art teacher and painter, Jose Ruiz realized Picasso’s talent in painting. Picasso worked on drawing skills and went to work in his father’s art studio frequently. However, Picasso painted what he wanted to paint, already showing his seditious side.
Spanish heritage also greatly influenced Picasso’s art. He studied the famous artists Diego Valequez and El Greco and kept up with current events in Spain. His Spanish culture is evident in many of his works with cultural symbols like bulls and bullfighting. Picasso attended a few art schools before the age of nineteen. He studied in La Coruna, at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, briefly, in 1897, and in Corundona’s studio. He was also accepted into Barcelona’s La Llonja Art School’s advanced classes, under his father, while he was fifteen.
After his studies, Picasso went to France in 1900. There, he met and befriended Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Fernand Leger. He was also influenced by artists such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Gauguin. Many of Picasso’s paintings from around this time resemble works from these artists, however, they all have a unique “Picasso look” as well.
You always seem to hear about famous people, in particular, artists, who had a very hard childhood and bad parents. Both Pablo’s mom and dad were big influences on him and his artwork. Maria Picasso was not an artist herself, but she was always present in Picasso’s emotional maturity. And Jose Ruiz, as I have already said, realized Picasso’s talent and encouraged him to paint. I am so glad that his parents helped him along the way to success. Without them, he might have not made it as an artist because possibly no one would have realized his gift as his father did.
Pablo Picasso’s L’Italienne, in my opinion, is an extremely creative piece. He used his cubist style to create an image that leaves the observer confused and with many questions.
Picasso’s use of color and shape is extraordinary in this piece. However, the people are confusing and indefinitely people. When I first glanced at the piece, I only saw one person, a shocked lady, it seemed. However, when I studied the painting, I noticed three more figures which are, quite possibly, people. The second one is in the main focus’ arms, most likely a baby. The third person is a small figure, coming up to about the woman’s middle. The fourth is a tall, dark figure behind the woman. This figure gives off the appearance that he is doing something bad behind the woman by the way he is portrayed in all black, and also by the expression on the woman’s face.
When I look at a picture like this, I notice depth and creativity. It is not easy to create a piece that may leave different ideas in minds about what the picture means or what it is of. I see four people when I look at L’Italienne, however, I do not know what other people see. The picture is very balanced in colors, shapes, and sizes. The use of the greens, reds, and black are equally distributed throughout the whole piece. Also, because the style of the painting is cubism, mostly the whole piece has cube-like shapes, giving the painting even more of a balanced look.
L’Italienne and the Three Musicians are two of Picasso’s famous pieces. The Three Musicians was created in 1921. There are many variations to this piece, but in doing research, one in particular variation of the piece always was shown, so that is the piece that I am using. The painting’s focus, made quite obvious by the title of the artwork, is three musicians. They are so artistically created that only someone as imaginatively successful as Picasso could ever create such a fabulous work of art. Even though Picasso used the cubist style to create both of the pieces, there are many ways that the painting can still differ. One way is color. However, one of the reasons that I chose these two pieces to compare is because they are both so alike in color. Both L’Italienne and Three Musicians use green, red, and black. Nevertheless, Three Musicians also uses a lot of white throughout the piece. I think this is successful because the red on the floor and green on the ceiling balance each other, and the white and black both interspersed throughout the painting balance each other. The absence of blue in both of the paintings is very noticeable.
Another element of the paintings that could be different is the focus. Yet, the focuses in both of the paintings are people. The difference in that could be the amount of people, what they are doing, or how they are arranged in the picture. In Three Musicians, there are three people in comparison to L’Italienne’s four. Also, in the Three Musicians, all of the men are holding, working with, or doing something with an instrument. The musicians are standing next to each other, as opposed to in L’Italienne, how they are all mounted on top of one another.
Based on design, I have to say that I like Three Musicians just a little bit more than I like L’Italienne. The picture, to me, is just all around more interesting to look at than L’Italienne. Three Musicians is actually one of the Picasso pieces that I could have named right off the bat as Picasso’s work before starting on this report. Maybe it’s the way the people are created or something else, but something has just always interested me about this piece.
Honestly, the reason I chose Picasso as my artist was because I was more familiar with his work than with work of another artist. I’ve seen artist’s work such as Georgia O’Keefe’s, Frida Kahlo’s, and Salvador Dali’s, but I definitely knew more about Picasso and his work than any of the others. Picasso, I feel, is just one of those artists that people always tend to use as an example, and also one that you just know about from basic knowledge. For my final project, I know I am going to work in cubism like Picasso did. I think I may want to work in more than one medium as well. I am thinking about drawing something that Picasso would have drawn in the “rose period,” like clowns or the circus, but giving it cubist features. I also want to give it a blue wash so it connects to Picasso’s “blue period” as well as his “rose period” and cubism stage.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Economic Legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Great Depression had a devastating impact on the American economy and the American people. President Hoover’s inactivity and belief in waiting things out left the United States in economic turmoil and in search of a new more dynamic leader. That leader was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who took over the presidency on January 20, 1933. This was without a doubt one of the most difficult and critical times to assume that office. The depression had hit its peak, our economy was in total collapse, unemployment rose to 30%, inflation was high, and GDP was down by 50%. But, inspired by optimism and hope, FDR brought a new plan into light. Contraire to Hoover’s classic economic beliefs, Roosevelt focused on “pump priming” economics, based in the Keynesian economic philosophy. President Roosevelt felt it was crucial to invest in the people and to instate government programs in order to boost the economy. In accordance with this philosophy, he added that the economy had to be built from the bottom up and not the top down. Roosevelt would achieve economic growth and stability through submitting large quantities of legislation which came to be known as the New Deal.
When FDR took over the presidency in 1933, there was much controversy about which type of economic intervention he should pursue in order to combat the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover and many of the presidents that came before him followed the laws of classic economics. Hoover’s ideas were largely based on Say’s Law or supply creates its own demand. For this reason, Hoover was very slow to use any government intervention when the nation’s economy fell into a depression. It was his belief that in time the economy would recover on its own; by simply generating goods and services, the willingness to consume those and other goods and services would be generated. Franklin D. Roosevelt was of a much different thinking of that of his predecessors. In 1933, the United States was in urgent need of coordinating supply and demand. FDR had a new economic vision which ultimately generated governmental responsibility in the performance of the economy. The president would achieve this goal by requiring the federal government to formally accept responsibility for promoting maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. By passing legislation that allowed government intervention in the economy; And, in the true form of Keynesian economics, Roosevelt was able to increase aggregate spending without raising the price level.
In 1932, while still campaigning for the presidency, FDR noted, “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest on the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power . . . that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” At the time of this speech, America was still in the midst of the Great Depression and a time leading up to the New Deal, government had often been the handmaiden of business, and many presidents had shared the values of businessmen. Roosevelt, on the other hand, made it clear that he did not share those same values. FDR believed that big business was not what would save the country from the Great Depression. It was much more important for the United States to focus on the lower classes of society and start rebuilding the economy from the bottom. In his inaugural speech, given on March 4, 1933, President Roosevelt said, “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.” In saying this, he was not referring to America’s businessmen; rather he was talking about the farmers, the industrial workers, and the simple man. The president went on to add that definite efforts to raise the values of agriculture products would, in turn, increase the power to purchase the output of our cities. This would be the economy basis for the “New Deal” that he would use to stimulate and rebuild the American economy.
During the first 100 days of his presidency, FDR pushed numerous pieces of “New Deal” legislation through Congress. These economic measures were taken in order to attack the problems of the Great Depression on three separate levels. First, emergency measures, such as social relief programs and make-work programs of all kinds were instated. This would give urgently needed jobs to millions of Americans and prevent them from literally starving. For the first time, the United States had established a concept of minimum wage, insurance for the unemployed, healthcare for all classes of society, abolished child labor, and allowed for work unions to be established. Secondly, the president and Congress passed legislation focused on reconstructing and developing the country’s totally ruined infrastructure. Most noted is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an agency created to build dams in the Tennessee River valley, creating jobs, more stable irrigation, and cheap hydroelectric power. Lastly, reform measures were taken to avoid another depression and insure citizens against returning economic disasters. With this, FDR set up permanent agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), designed to monitor stock market activity and ensure against fraud, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to insure depositors money. More widely known is the Social Security Act, which allows for the elderly of our society to always be provided enough money to survive.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered the presidency at an extremely trying time for the American economy. It was up to him to turn this nation around and bring it out of the Great Depression. FDR did exactly that, and he did it at a dizzying pace with economic policies that paid no respect to standard rules or previous economic wisdom. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” along with Keynes’ “pump priming” economics led this country out of the Great Depression and into a new era for the economy and society. Today, we have come to the realization that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. President Roosevelt gave this country that economic security and independence with the New Deal. In doing so, he armed the American people with a right to a job, a right to minimum wage, a right for every family to live in a descent home, a right to adequate medical care, a right to a good education, and most importantly a right to protection against the economic fears of old age and unemployment. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic legacy lives on. He delivered this nation from the Great Depression and gave the American people a “New Deal”, a deal which allows us to live under the economic “freedoms” we still enjoy today.
When FDR took over the presidency in 1933, there was much controversy about which type of economic intervention he should pursue in order to combat the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover and many of the presidents that came before him followed the laws of classic economics. Hoover’s ideas were largely based on Say’s Law or supply creates its own demand. For this reason, Hoover was very slow to use any government intervention when the nation’s economy fell into a depression. It was his belief that in time the economy would recover on its own; by simply generating goods and services, the willingness to consume those and other goods and services would be generated. Franklin D. Roosevelt was of a much different thinking of that of his predecessors. In 1933, the United States was in urgent need of coordinating supply and demand. FDR had a new economic vision which ultimately generated governmental responsibility in the performance of the economy. The president would achieve this goal by requiring the federal government to formally accept responsibility for promoting maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. By passing legislation that allowed government intervention in the economy; And, in the true form of Keynesian economics, Roosevelt was able to increase aggregate spending without raising the price level.
In 1932, while still campaigning for the presidency, FDR noted, “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest on the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power . . . that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” At the time of this speech, America was still in the midst of the Great Depression and a time leading up to the New Deal, government had often been the handmaiden of business, and many presidents had shared the values of businessmen. Roosevelt, on the other hand, made it clear that he did not share those same values. FDR believed that big business was not what would save the country from the Great Depression. It was much more important for the United States to focus on the lower classes of society and start rebuilding the economy from the bottom. In his inaugural speech, given on March 4, 1933, President Roosevelt said, “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.” In saying this, he was not referring to America’s businessmen; rather he was talking about the farmers, the industrial workers, and the simple man. The president went on to add that definite efforts to raise the values of agriculture products would, in turn, increase the power to purchase the output of our cities. This would be the economy basis for the “New Deal” that he would use to stimulate and rebuild the American economy.
During the first 100 days of his presidency, FDR pushed numerous pieces of “New Deal” legislation through Congress. These economic measures were taken in order to attack the problems of the Great Depression on three separate levels. First, emergency measures, such as social relief programs and make-work programs of all kinds were instated. This would give urgently needed jobs to millions of Americans and prevent them from literally starving. For the first time, the United States had established a concept of minimum wage, insurance for the unemployed, healthcare for all classes of society, abolished child labor, and allowed for work unions to be established. Secondly, the president and Congress passed legislation focused on reconstructing and developing the country’s totally ruined infrastructure. Most noted is the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), an agency created to build dams in the Tennessee River valley, creating jobs, more stable irrigation, and cheap hydroelectric power. Lastly, reform measures were taken to avoid another depression and insure citizens against returning economic disasters. With this, FDR set up permanent agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), designed to monitor stock market activity and ensure against fraud, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to insure depositors money. More widely known is the Social Security Act, which allows for the elderly of our society to always be provided enough money to survive.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered the presidency at an extremely trying time for the American economy. It was up to him to turn this nation around and bring it out of the Great Depression. FDR did exactly that, and he did it at a dizzying pace with economic policies that paid no respect to standard rules or previous economic wisdom. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” along with Keynes’ “pump priming” economics led this country out of the Great Depression and into a new era for the economy and society. Today, we have come to the realization that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. President Roosevelt gave this country that economic security and independence with the New Deal. In doing so, he armed the American people with a right to a job, a right to minimum wage, a right for every family to live in a descent home, a right to adequate medical care, a right to a good education, and most importantly a right to protection against the economic fears of old age and unemployment. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic legacy lives on. He delivered this nation from the Great Depression and gave the American people a “New Deal”, a deal which allows us to live under the economic “freedoms” we still enjoy today.
Banning Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering provides ways of altering these genes to make them function differently in some way. There are those who believe that genetic engineering is morally and ethically wrong, others believe that it can be used as a great tool for the benefit of mankind. Genetic engineering is already being used in providing treatments for certain types of illnesses. The food industry is also utilizing genetic engineering in the production of food, making more nutritious foods that are resistant to herbicides. Other industries like mining and waste management use genetically engineered bacteria. Therefore, genetic engineering should not be banned because it has many practical uses in medicine, food production, and industry.
Genetic engineering was first experimented with in the early 1970’s. The first to do experiments of this sort was scientist Paul berg. Berg found that by chemical means he could take a gene from a monkey virus that has the ability to cause cancer in mice and insert it into an entirely different strand of DNA. Later, there were other scientists who found means of doing this on a mass scale. With experimenting in genetic engineering, it came to be known that any kind of DNA could be inserted into any other kind of DNA, even plant DNA with animal DNA. From these experiments is where today’s genetic engineering evolved.
The main reason not to ban genetic engineering is because of the possible advancements that can be made in the field of medicine. Genetic engineering has already been used to treat and prevent certain illnesses, and many more many have the potential to be cured in the future. Genetic engineering has the possibility to eliminating most all human diseases that have genetic origin, like cancer and AIDS. And many others that don’t have genetic roots may be cured in the future. If genetic engineering were to be banned, then it would be closing the door to so many advances that can be made in medicine to save people’s lives.
Right now there are several diseases being targeted by genetic engineering to hopefully one day find a potential cure for them. The disease PKU is one that many people are afflicted with. With PKU, there is a lack of a certain chemical that aids in the breaking down of the amino acid phenylalanine. Without this chemical, phenylalanine can begin to build up in the body. As of now, there is no know cure for the disease, and over time it can lead to mental retardation. People can however live with PKU if it is detected early in life. There are special diets that can be used that are low in phenylalanine. This will allow people to live a normal life, but a much easier solution may be available with genetic engineering.
Scientists are now looking at genetic engineering as a treatment for PKU. By using genetic engineering to switch out the defective genes in the cells that should produce the proper chemicals, with genes that function normally, relief may finally be possible for those coping with the illness. Therapy, such as this, can be dangerous if not first properly tested. But, with the implication of certain regulations and guidelines, genetic engineering does not have to put the public health at risk.
Another disease hoping to be cured by genetic engineering is cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that causes thick mucus to obstruct breathing passages in the lungs as well as the digestive track. The disease causes difficulties with breathing as well as repeated infections of the lungs. Many people afflicted with the disease often die during the early years of adulthood. By using techniques in genetic engineering, physicians administer inhaled particles to patients with cystic fibrosis, that carry the corrected gene that is not present causing the disease. The gene then implants itself into the cells of the lungs that produce the excess mucus. This technique has allowed for some relief for patients who are suffering from the disease. With more time and research, new methods can be developed that might be even more effective and lead to a life long cure of the disease.
The field of medicine has many other uses for genetic engineering. T-PA is an expensive substance that is used to aid with heart attack victims. Since it is so expensive and hard to produce, the amounts of it are scarce. New methods in genetic engineering allow for it to be produced in large amounts at only a fraction of the cost. These methods have allowed for T-PA to be more readily available when it is needed. Vaccines are also being produced by genetic engineering that purer and more effective.
Scientists are working also on developing edible vaccines. Certain genes will be spliced into the cells of plants to allow them to function as vaccines. These vaccines could be introduced into countries that have low economies. They could be used to cheaply vaccinate large numbers of people. Other substances such as insulin could be genetically engineered. The gene that produces insulin in humans can be spliced into the DNA of a goat or a pig to produce the insulin necessary to treat diabetic patients. Insulin such as this would be better because there would be less chance of allergic reactions than there are with synthetic insulin.
The banning of genetic engineering would also end the studies being done with the use of genetic engineering in food production. Already, many advances have been made with genetic engineering concerning food production. For a while, selective breeding has been used to breed in desired traits into plants and animals. But with selective breeding, the traits that may have taken several seasons of breeding before they would take hold. Genetic engineering has presented an alternative to selective breeding.
Genetic engineering, as opposed to selective breeding, is more convenient because instead of several seasons for traits to take effect, they can take effect in as little as one season. When using selective breeding, only traits from the same species could be bred. With genetic engineering, traits from any species could be interchanged with one another. Not only that, but the DNA of plants and animals can be spliced together to get the traits that are desired.
Genetic engineering is being used now to increase the yields of crops. Also, plants are being engineered to have more protein and more nutritional value. More plants are being produced that will last longer without spoiling, and are better tasting. Plants are being genetically engineered to be resistant to disease and freezing, and to grow much faster. Animals, such as cows, can be made to gain weight faster and to grow larger. Most all of the foods that have been genetically engineered have been approved and labeled as safe for human consumption.
Another development from genetic engineering is the ability for plants to produce their own pesticide. A certain gene has been spliced into the DNA of a potato allowing the potato to produce a chemical that would act as a biopesticide. If techniques such as this could be perfected, then it would greatly reduce the need for chemical pesticides to be used. Other plants are being engineered to be resistant to herbicides. This would allow for less herbicides to be used to avoid harming the environment.
Other techniques are used to produce cooking oils with less fat. Others are allowing coffee beans to bean grown without caffeine to eliminate the need to decaffeinate them. Also, plants can be produced to recycle nitrogen to produce their own fertilizers. Cheeses are also being made using genetic engineering. An enzyme known as rennin is necessary for the production of cheese. Rennin is also very hard and expensive to obtain because it had to be extracted from the stomachs of cows. Scientist spliced a gene from a cow that would produce rennin, into bacteria. The bacteria would produce the rennin and it was exactly the same. This has way lead to a quick and cheap way to produce rennin.
Other industry also has applications for genetic engineering. Microorganisms have already been produced through genetic engineering that have an appetite for oil. These organisms have been use to remove oil from the oceans after major oil spills. This technique is easier and cheaper to use than traditional techniques. Other organisms have been engineered that have appetites for metals. These organisms would be especially helpful in the mining industry to remove metals from rocks.
Other organisms could be produced that would consume waste materials and produce energy. The organisms would consume the garbage and produce a gas from it. This gas can then be burned to produce energy. If properly perfected, this technique would be especially helpful due to the oils wells that are rapidly being drained. This technique would enable people to produce energy while keeping our waste under control.
The writer has shown that genetic engineering should not be banned for its applications in medicine, food production, and industry. If genetic engineering were to be banned, the doors for breakthroughs in medicine would be closed. There are so many diseases that have the potential to be cured. Many vaccines could be developed so that many diseases would never be contracted. Later research could lead to the discovery of a cure for cancer. People would no longer have to fear dying of cancer, as so many do today. Other diseases such as diabetes, that may have genetic roots, may one day be cured through means of genetic engineering.
Other breakthroughs have been made with genetic engineering, and many more can potentially be made. The food industry has utilized this tool extensively to produce more nutritional, longer lasting foods. Industry as well is using genetic engineering to develop alternate energy sources. Genetic engineering is a very helpful branch of science that can be used for the benefit of mankind.
There are, as there is with most everything, certain risks involved when using genetic engineering. But it is believed by the writer that certain standards can be set up to monitor genetic engineering. Regulations can be set to ensure the public’s safety in the matter of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering should not be banned because it does not have to be a safety issue if used properly. So much is yet to be discovered that could potential eliminate most all life threatening illnesses. The writer believes that genetic engineering is a very valuable tool, and therefore, should not be banned.
Genetic engineering was first experimented with in the early 1970’s. The first to do experiments of this sort was scientist Paul berg. Berg found that by chemical means he could take a gene from a monkey virus that has the ability to cause cancer in mice and insert it into an entirely different strand of DNA. Later, there were other scientists who found means of doing this on a mass scale. With experimenting in genetic engineering, it came to be known that any kind of DNA could be inserted into any other kind of DNA, even plant DNA with animal DNA. From these experiments is where today’s genetic engineering evolved.
The main reason not to ban genetic engineering is because of the possible advancements that can be made in the field of medicine. Genetic engineering has already been used to treat and prevent certain illnesses, and many more many have the potential to be cured in the future. Genetic engineering has the possibility to eliminating most all human diseases that have genetic origin, like cancer and AIDS. And many others that don’t have genetic roots may be cured in the future. If genetic engineering were to be banned, then it would be closing the door to so many advances that can be made in medicine to save people’s lives.
Right now there are several diseases being targeted by genetic engineering to hopefully one day find a potential cure for them. The disease PKU is one that many people are afflicted with. With PKU, there is a lack of a certain chemical that aids in the breaking down of the amino acid phenylalanine. Without this chemical, phenylalanine can begin to build up in the body. As of now, there is no know cure for the disease, and over time it can lead to mental retardation. People can however live with PKU if it is detected early in life. There are special diets that can be used that are low in phenylalanine. This will allow people to live a normal life, but a much easier solution may be available with genetic engineering.
Scientists are now looking at genetic engineering as a treatment for PKU. By using genetic engineering to switch out the defective genes in the cells that should produce the proper chemicals, with genes that function normally, relief may finally be possible for those coping with the illness. Therapy, such as this, can be dangerous if not first properly tested. But, with the implication of certain regulations and guidelines, genetic engineering does not have to put the public health at risk.
Another disease hoping to be cured by genetic engineering is cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that causes thick mucus to obstruct breathing passages in the lungs as well as the digestive track. The disease causes difficulties with breathing as well as repeated infections of the lungs. Many people afflicted with the disease often die during the early years of adulthood. By using techniques in genetic engineering, physicians administer inhaled particles to patients with cystic fibrosis, that carry the corrected gene that is not present causing the disease. The gene then implants itself into the cells of the lungs that produce the excess mucus. This technique has allowed for some relief for patients who are suffering from the disease. With more time and research, new methods can be developed that might be even more effective and lead to a life long cure of the disease.
The field of medicine has many other uses for genetic engineering. T-PA is an expensive substance that is used to aid with heart attack victims. Since it is so expensive and hard to produce, the amounts of it are scarce. New methods in genetic engineering allow for it to be produced in large amounts at only a fraction of the cost. These methods have allowed for T-PA to be more readily available when it is needed. Vaccines are also being produced by genetic engineering that purer and more effective.
Scientists are working also on developing edible vaccines. Certain genes will be spliced into the cells of plants to allow them to function as vaccines. These vaccines could be introduced into countries that have low economies. They could be used to cheaply vaccinate large numbers of people. Other substances such as insulin could be genetically engineered. The gene that produces insulin in humans can be spliced into the DNA of a goat or a pig to produce the insulin necessary to treat diabetic patients. Insulin such as this would be better because there would be less chance of allergic reactions than there are with synthetic insulin.
The banning of genetic engineering would also end the studies being done with the use of genetic engineering in food production. Already, many advances have been made with genetic engineering concerning food production. For a while, selective breeding has been used to breed in desired traits into plants and animals. But with selective breeding, the traits that may have taken several seasons of breeding before they would take hold. Genetic engineering has presented an alternative to selective breeding.
Genetic engineering, as opposed to selective breeding, is more convenient because instead of several seasons for traits to take effect, they can take effect in as little as one season. When using selective breeding, only traits from the same species could be bred. With genetic engineering, traits from any species could be interchanged with one another. Not only that, but the DNA of plants and animals can be spliced together to get the traits that are desired.
Genetic engineering is being used now to increase the yields of crops. Also, plants are being engineered to have more protein and more nutritional value. More plants are being produced that will last longer without spoiling, and are better tasting. Plants are being genetically engineered to be resistant to disease and freezing, and to grow much faster. Animals, such as cows, can be made to gain weight faster and to grow larger. Most all of the foods that have been genetically engineered have been approved and labeled as safe for human consumption.
Another development from genetic engineering is the ability for plants to produce their own pesticide. A certain gene has been spliced into the DNA of a potato allowing the potato to produce a chemical that would act as a biopesticide. If techniques such as this could be perfected, then it would greatly reduce the need for chemical pesticides to be used. Other plants are being engineered to be resistant to herbicides. This would allow for less herbicides to be used to avoid harming the environment.
Other techniques are used to produce cooking oils with less fat. Others are allowing coffee beans to bean grown without caffeine to eliminate the need to decaffeinate them. Also, plants can be produced to recycle nitrogen to produce their own fertilizers. Cheeses are also being made using genetic engineering. An enzyme known as rennin is necessary for the production of cheese. Rennin is also very hard and expensive to obtain because it had to be extracted from the stomachs of cows. Scientist spliced a gene from a cow that would produce rennin, into bacteria. The bacteria would produce the rennin and it was exactly the same. This has way lead to a quick and cheap way to produce rennin.
Other industry also has applications for genetic engineering. Microorganisms have already been produced through genetic engineering that have an appetite for oil. These organisms have been use to remove oil from the oceans after major oil spills. This technique is easier and cheaper to use than traditional techniques. Other organisms have been engineered that have appetites for metals. These organisms would be especially helpful in the mining industry to remove metals from rocks.
Other organisms could be produced that would consume waste materials and produce energy. The organisms would consume the garbage and produce a gas from it. This gas can then be burned to produce energy. If properly perfected, this technique would be especially helpful due to the oils wells that are rapidly being drained. This technique would enable people to produce energy while keeping our waste under control.
The writer has shown that genetic engineering should not be banned for its applications in medicine, food production, and industry. If genetic engineering were to be banned, the doors for breakthroughs in medicine would be closed. There are so many diseases that have the potential to be cured. Many vaccines could be developed so that many diseases would never be contracted. Later research could lead to the discovery of a cure for cancer. People would no longer have to fear dying of cancer, as so many do today. Other diseases such as diabetes, that may have genetic roots, may one day be cured through means of genetic engineering.
Other breakthroughs have been made with genetic engineering, and many more can potentially be made. The food industry has utilized this tool extensively to produce more nutritional, longer lasting foods. Industry as well is using genetic engineering to develop alternate energy sources. Genetic engineering is a very helpful branch of science that can be used for the benefit of mankind.
There are, as there is with most everything, certain risks involved when using genetic engineering. But it is believed by the writer that certain standards can be set up to monitor genetic engineering. Regulations can be set to ensure the public’s safety in the matter of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering should not be banned because it does not have to be a safety issue if used properly. So much is yet to be discovered that could potential eliminate most all life threatening illnesses. The writer believes that genetic engineering is a very valuable tool, and therefore, should not be banned.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Media Analysis
The United States of America advanced a sporting event into worldwide media frenzy. On January 26, 2003 individuals worldwide received information and entertainment for Super Bowl XXXVII. The setting was Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego; the teams playing are insignificant to the true capital venture of the game. From Super Bowl I to Super Bowl XXXVII the actual victor of the game has been lost in the sea of media that surrounds the venue.
Super Bowl XXXVII saw every form of mediation used to attract, inform, advertise and entertain people throughout the world. The game can be separated into three categories, the pre-game, actual competition and post-game. The pre-game and post-game are covered by all forms of media, from television, radio, internet, newspaper, magazine, fliers, word-of-mouth and all other imaginable forms of media. These two categories surround the actual game and are produced by agencies that hire credible authors, broadcasters and analysts to narrate. The information provided in the pre-game consist of predictions, along with information surrounding the teams and entertainment during the game, such as, half time shows and advertisements. The post-game media simply recaps the event and in some areas discussing how the audience and the economy will be affected by corporate advertisement that took place during the game. The game is the reason for media hype and publication. During the event media is narrowed to real-time forms of mediation, including television, radio, attendance and Internet. The event itself is portrayed to the largest audience through means of television broadcast.
The American Broadcast Channel had the sole rights to Super Bowl XXXVII broadcast. The American Broadcast Channel (ABC) outbid the big broadcasting companies such as FOX, NBC and CBS to earn these rights from the National Football League. ABC puts on a huge production, with a production crew of over 300 individuals working during the game. The agency reserves the right to view to their audience based on the notion of making profit: by showing game clips, fans, commercials and half-time shows. The large price tag for the venue is derived from the estimated 800 million television viewers worldwide. The audience in the United States alone shows an average of 88.6 million viewers and 136 million total viewers.
With large portions of television viewers watching Super Bowl XXXVII, ABC takes full opportunity to make profit on advertisement. For the event sixty-one commercial advertisement spots during the game lasting 30 seconds had a price tag of $US2-2.2 Million. This does not include the pre-game that starts four hours prior to kickoff and a post-game presentation following the game. It is considered to be the biggest day of the year for football as well as for marketers, spending an average of over $US200 Million on ads before, during and after the game. From Media Life Magazine, “A 1999 study cited in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that 68 percent of Super Bowl viewers say they pay attention to the commercials and, suggesting a high level of recall, more than half say they discuss the ads the following day”. This statistic clearly shows that the American Broadcast Channel is clearly marketing to a demographic audience who is motivated by the advertising more than the actual event. This is why the agency chooses to view a large amount of commercials during the game. ABC has the ability to use unlimited television timeouts when there is complete stoppage in the game in order to fulfill the contracts to advertised commercials. In many cases killing the momentum of the game being played on the field. American Broadcast Channel uncovers motives for broadcasting in what material they choose to be viewed by the audience. The football game is not the main concern for the televised media, it is purely advertising products and services.
With any live event broadcasted on television we as the audience only view what the agency wants. In this case ABC works very hard to sensor or represent only the glamorous and non-controversial issues that surround the event. An editor for PC Magazine writes about interviews with athletes prior to the game, “lots of canned questions with reporters told in advance what not to ask. They assiduously oblige, lest they lose their privileges”. Before the event we see great effort by the ABC to give the audience only the basic questions and stay away from controversial issues that may draw away from commercial advertisements. Evidence is seen in the representation of the missing all-pro center for the Raiders who vanished one-day before the game. The audience had little understanding of why the athlete was not participating in the competition. Dvork writes about the skewed commentary of ABC, “Most obvious was the poor job done by Al "OJ is Innocent" Michaels, who had John Madden right next to him in the broadcast booth, but never once asked the ex-Raider coach what he might know about Robbins”. A showing of how the broadcasting agency wanted to focus the audience on the drama on the field and the material goods running through the commercial instead of an emotional story about an individual. The agency does sensor what is projected to the people, although the visual stimulus viewed by the audience inevitably keeps attention.
Super Bowl XXXVII was the first sporting event to use High Definition television for their entire broadcast. From sound to sight it was crisper and more realistic to enhance the experience for the audience. Tim Cuprisim of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quotes,
“From beads of sweat glistening on Warren Sapp's forehead to blades of grass being stomped on at Qualcomm Park, football has never before been as intimate a viewing experience… the overall broadcast was stunning, especially the sprinkling of high-def ads that were aired in the format with booming CD-quality sound.”
The American Broadcast Channel represented the event to the audience as if the game took place in your living room or pub. The agency for the first time planted microphones on several of the athletes on the field to get the sounds of the game. All the technological extras to entice the audience to stay tuned during the entire event.
The profit-making ploy is covered by dramatic representation of the game. Commentary depicts the event as an emotional war between two well traveled teams. By showing heroic visual clips accompanied by music that inspires the audience. ABC wants people to view the athletes as valiant heroes, an icon every individual strives to become. The audience becomes emotionally attached through representations to these individuals. The American Broadcast Channel has accomplished their goal of ratings and inevitably a large profit from the event.
The biggest event for football occurs year after year. The audience grows with each passing year to view the event and more importantly become amused by the new and intriguing advertisements. All forms of media are used surrounding the game, but television is the main attraction, by use of technology, innovation and entertainment it captures the largest audience.
Super Bowl XXXVII saw every form of mediation used to attract, inform, advertise and entertain people throughout the world. The game can be separated into three categories, the pre-game, actual competition and post-game. The pre-game and post-game are covered by all forms of media, from television, radio, internet, newspaper, magazine, fliers, word-of-mouth and all other imaginable forms of media. These two categories surround the actual game and are produced by agencies that hire credible authors, broadcasters and analysts to narrate. The information provided in the pre-game consist of predictions, along with information surrounding the teams and entertainment during the game, such as, half time shows and advertisements. The post-game media simply recaps the event and in some areas discussing how the audience and the economy will be affected by corporate advertisement that took place during the game. The game is the reason for media hype and publication. During the event media is narrowed to real-time forms of mediation, including television, radio, attendance and Internet. The event itself is portrayed to the largest audience through means of television broadcast.
The American Broadcast Channel had the sole rights to Super Bowl XXXVII broadcast. The American Broadcast Channel (ABC) outbid the big broadcasting companies such as FOX, NBC and CBS to earn these rights from the National Football League. ABC puts on a huge production, with a production crew of over 300 individuals working during the game. The agency reserves the right to view to their audience based on the notion of making profit: by showing game clips, fans, commercials and half-time shows. The large price tag for the venue is derived from the estimated 800 million television viewers worldwide. The audience in the United States alone shows an average of 88.6 million viewers and 136 million total viewers.
With large portions of television viewers watching Super Bowl XXXVII, ABC takes full opportunity to make profit on advertisement. For the event sixty-one commercial advertisement spots during the game lasting 30 seconds had a price tag of $US2-2.2 Million. This does not include the pre-game that starts four hours prior to kickoff and a post-game presentation following the game. It is considered to be the biggest day of the year for football as well as for marketers, spending an average of over $US200 Million on ads before, during and after the game. From Media Life Magazine, “A 1999 study cited in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that 68 percent of Super Bowl viewers say they pay attention to the commercials and, suggesting a high level of recall, more than half say they discuss the ads the following day”. This statistic clearly shows that the American Broadcast Channel is clearly marketing to a demographic audience who is motivated by the advertising more than the actual event. This is why the agency chooses to view a large amount of commercials during the game. ABC has the ability to use unlimited television timeouts when there is complete stoppage in the game in order to fulfill the contracts to advertised commercials. In many cases killing the momentum of the game being played on the field. American Broadcast Channel uncovers motives for broadcasting in what material they choose to be viewed by the audience. The football game is not the main concern for the televised media, it is purely advertising products and services.
With any live event broadcasted on television we as the audience only view what the agency wants. In this case ABC works very hard to sensor or represent only the glamorous and non-controversial issues that surround the event. An editor for PC Magazine writes about interviews with athletes prior to the game, “lots of canned questions with reporters told in advance what not to ask. They assiduously oblige, lest they lose their privileges”. Before the event we see great effort by the ABC to give the audience only the basic questions and stay away from controversial issues that may draw away from commercial advertisements. Evidence is seen in the representation of the missing all-pro center for the Raiders who vanished one-day before the game. The audience had little understanding of why the athlete was not participating in the competition. Dvork writes about the skewed commentary of ABC, “Most obvious was the poor job done by Al "OJ is Innocent" Michaels, who had John Madden right next to him in the broadcast booth, but never once asked the ex-Raider coach what he might know about Robbins”. A showing of how the broadcasting agency wanted to focus the audience on the drama on the field and the material goods running through the commercial instead of an emotional story about an individual. The agency does sensor what is projected to the people, although the visual stimulus viewed by the audience inevitably keeps attention.
Super Bowl XXXVII was the first sporting event to use High Definition television for their entire broadcast. From sound to sight it was crisper and more realistic to enhance the experience for the audience. Tim Cuprisim of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quotes,
“From beads of sweat glistening on Warren Sapp's forehead to blades of grass being stomped on at Qualcomm Park, football has never before been as intimate a viewing experience… the overall broadcast was stunning, especially the sprinkling of high-def ads that were aired in the format with booming CD-quality sound.”
The American Broadcast Channel represented the event to the audience as if the game took place in your living room or pub. The agency for the first time planted microphones on several of the athletes on the field to get the sounds of the game. All the technological extras to entice the audience to stay tuned during the entire event.
The profit-making ploy is covered by dramatic representation of the game. Commentary depicts the event as an emotional war between two well traveled teams. By showing heroic visual clips accompanied by music that inspires the audience. ABC wants people to view the athletes as valiant heroes, an icon every individual strives to become. The audience becomes emotionally attached through representations to these individuals. The American Broadcast Channel has accomplished their goal of ratings and inevitably a large profit from the event.
The biggest event for football occurs year after year. The audience grows with each passing year to view the event and more importantly become amused by the new and intriguing advertisements. All forms of media are used surrounding the game, but television is the main attraction, by use of technology, innovation and entertainment it captures the largest audience.
Microeconomics Analysis
Unions play an important role in many businesses, such as airlines, and often aid in decision-making. Such is the case in the article “United Machinists’ Union Approves Pay Concessions”, by Edward Wong from the May 1, 2003 New York Times. Since the airline is in danger of bankruptcy, the union “members are providing United Airlines with the means and opportunity to successfully restructure and avoid liquidation.” In order to do so, the machinists’ union voted to give the company a total of $794 million a year in wage and benefit concessions over the next six years. As a result, wage cuts range from nine percent for flight attendants, thirteen percent for machinists, and thirty percent for pilots.
Airlines are an oligopoly in the United States. Oligopolies are market structures where a few firms distribute a product, either standardized or differentiated. Entry into this market is often difficult, and a firm has limited control over product price because of mutual interdependence, and there is typically non-price competition. There are a few large airlines that get most of the traveling business, and differentiation is limited. Since September 11 however, business has been slow, with most people opting not to travel by airplane. As a result, many airlines, including United Airlines, have been close to bankruptcy.
Airlines have tried lowering prices to get business. Price leadership, one firm announcing a change in price, resulting in other firms announcing similar changes, is prominent however, and it was difficult to get business. As a result, United Airlines and United Machinists’ Union has decided to cut wages. As the article explains, other airlines such as Delta, recently proposed cost cuts. This move is similar to price leadership, except dealing with wages.
United Airlines recently had the highest unit-labor costs of all airlines. Since United won concessions from workers however, Delta Air Lines, who now has the highest unit-labor costs, topped them. Unit-labor cost or the cost per unit of output effects how much the business spends and as a result, the amount of revenue they bring in. United Airlines is not presently in the position to spend a lot, and as a result, needed to bring down their unit-labor costs.
United Machinists’ Union is a craft union, organized on the basis of occupations and skills. A union’s main goal is to increase wages for union members, however United Machinists’ Union’s goals do not end there. For example, they want to raise the standards of and increase recognition of all their members. Also, they work for better benefits, working conditions, and respect for all members. While voting for the concessions, 70% supported them. Although the union members do not want wage cuts, etc, they know that they must help out the business for job security.
Many of the union members also voted for the concessions because of the present threat of a representation takeover by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Organization. This union is similar to the United Machinists’ Union, and there will be a vote for all union members at United to choose which union they would like to be in.
The United Machinists’ Union has greatly aided United Airlines by agreeing to wage concessions. As Glenn F. Tilton, chief executive of United said in a written statement following the voting, he “appreciates the tough choices and sacrifices all” the “employees are making to help ensure United emerges from bankruptcy and succeeds for the long term.” Unions do not only seek benefits for themselves, but also consider what is best for the business.
Airlines are an oligopoly in the United States. Oligopolies are market structures where a few firms distribute a product, either standardized or differentiated. Entry into this market is often difficult, and a firm has limited control over product price because of mutual interdependence, and there is typically non-price competition. There are a few large airlines that get most of the traveling business, and differentiation is limited. Since September 11 however, business has been slow, with most people opting not to travel by airplane. As a result, many airlines, including United Airlines, have been close to bankruptcy.
Airlines have tried lowering prices to get business. Price leadership, one firm announcing a change in price, resulting in other firms announcing similar changes, is prominent however, and it was difficult to get business. As a result, United Airlines and United Machinists’ Union has decided to cut wages. As the article explains, other airlines such as Delta, recently proposed cost cuts. This move is similar to price leadership, except dealing with wages.
United Airlines recently had the highest unit-labor costs of all airlines. Since United won concessions from workers however, Delta Air Lines, who now has the highest unit-labor costs, topped them. Unit-labor cost or the cost per unit of output effects how much the business spends and as a result, the amount of revenue they bring in. United Airlines is not presently in the position to spend a lot, and as a result, needed to bring down their unit-labor costs.
United Machinists’ Union is a craft union, organized on the basis of occupations and skills. A union’s main goal is to increase wages for union members, however United Machinists’ Union’s goals do not end there. For example, they want to raise the standards of and increase recognition of all their members. Also, they work for better benefits, working conditions, and respect for all members. While voting for the concessions, 70% supported them. Although the union members do not want wage cuts, etc, they know that they must help out the business for job security.
Many of the union members also voted for the concessions because of the present threat of a representation takeover by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Organization. This union is similar to the United Machinists’ Union, and there will be a vote for all union members at United to choose which union they would like to be in.
The United Machinists’ Union has greatly aided United Airlines by agreeing to wage concessions. As Glenn F. Tilton, chief executive of United said in a written statement following the voting, he “appreciates the tough choices and sacrifices all” the “employees are making to help ensure United emerges from bankruptcy and succeeds for the long term.” Unions do not only seek benefits for themselves, but also consider what is best for the business.
Being Successful as an Incoming College Student
In today’s society a college education is a must. Unfortunately, when you arrive at college you may find that you are vastly unprepared to undertake the future educational prospects ahead of you. In fact, you may find that other college students that you’ve talked to have informed you that college is primarily a place for fun and games. Many students who fall into this trap normally come to the realization that they’ve been caught in it when they find out that they are either failing multiple classes or just plainly doing horrible in them. There are many expectations imposed upon college students, and everyone generally expects you to know and understand them. Even though they have never actually came out and told you what they are and how to succeed at them, they still expect you to excel.
To succeed in college you first need to learn your primary responsibilities as a student. The main responsibility you should hold in this area is complete whatever homework is assigned to you. In college, teachers no longer assign “busy work,” they assign homework that is relevant to what will be discussed in class. A good majority of what will you do and what you will read in your homework assignments will show up on your tests and quizzes.
Another one of your primary responsibilities in college is attending your classes. Most students initially marvel at the idea that they do not need to attend their classes if they do not want to. Hopefully you will not fall into this dire trap also! In class, you will learn a plethora of information that you don’t already know. If you miss those critical hours of instruction can make a detrimental impact on your grade, and could mean the difference between passing and failing that course. College teachers also tend to spend a lot of time in class on topics they believe are important, which means the information presented will most likely make an appearance on a test or quiz that you will eventually take.
Now that we’re done taking a look at the educational aspect of school, we must take a look at the social aspect. The most important thing after education in college is making new friends. It may not seem all that important to you, but it prepares you for the working world where you get ahead by making connections.
One of the most important things you can do to facilitate the social process is maintaining a recognizable “style.” Having a specific style makes it easier for other people to distinguish you in a crowd. There are also fewer restrictions on what other classmates will find acceptable about your appearance than there were in high school. One example of something others would dislike is a person who wears the same clothing day in and day out. Most people would not want to be around them because it gives them an aura of not caring.
Another major factor in your social growth is the ability to pick the correct friends. As much as we downplay cliques in college, some very basic groups will still exist and it would help you immensely if you could find friends who shared similar interests. Once you’ve found a set of friends you feel comfortable with to fall back on, it will be easier to make friends with people that you normally wouldn’t have talked to in high school.
Now that you have an idea of what college is really all about, you can go out and rule the campus. If you excel in your schoolwork and find that you feel like you’re on the set of Cheers because everyone knows your name then you can say you’ve been successful and have accomplished the primary goals that all college students should complete.
I chose this topic because I felt that many college students could potentially benefit from it. Not many people come straight out and tell you how it is, and for some people it could take a semester or two just to start to fit in or to start to accomplish the goals they had set forth for themselves. I was misled into believe a lot of things about college that aren’t true, and I felt a need to prevent others from falling into the same potential trap. My only saving grace was that I had somebody set me on the right path before the consequences could have had the potential to become devastating.
Within the paper, I realize, I left a lot of information about college out. Most of the experience you gather becomes a form of tacit knowledge and most students should understand the basic functioning of what the college life should be like. Most people just need to be gently nudged onto the right path again so they’ll perform the way they’re supposed too. I also left out a lot of information that I believe could’ve been intrinsically detrimental to the student reading this. If I would’ve included information about how much fun you can have at parties and how there’s always a way to obtain an alcoholic beverage, the student would have the potential to actually consider that track more intensely and would have a chance of being grabbed by the misfortune of most students.
The information that I chose to include about the academic side of school is prevalent to me because most students are misled into believing that you don’t have to do homework in college and that you don’t have to go to class in college. The other information about school I included (the social aspect) was to appeal to the quieter and shyer students coming out of high school. Most of those students would tend to be the same in college as they were in high school, but if they could receive a reaffirming nudge, they’d be able to become a “social butterfly” and talk to more people.
All-in-all, this paper was meant to appeal to whatever student might be coming into college and give them an understanding of what’s to come. The one thing that keeps ringing in my mind, though, is that I’m not a junior or a senior, so I’m not sure how much I’d actually recommend this paper be read by other students. We will all make mistakes, but we will try to keep them as small and few in number as possible.
To succeed in college you first need to learn your primary responsibilities as a student. The main responsibility you should hold in this area is complete whatever homework is assigned to you. In college, teachers no longer assign “busy work,” they assign homework that is relevant to what will be discussed in class. A good majority of what will you do and what you will read in your homework assignments will show up on your tests and quizzes.
Another one of your primary responsibilities in college is attending your classes. Most students initially marvel at the idea that they do not need to attend their classes if they do not want to. Hopefully you will not fall into this dire trap also! In class, you will learn a plethora of information that you don’t already know. If you miss those critical hours of instruction can make a detrimental impact on your grade, and could mean the difference between passing and failing that course. College teachers also tend to spend a lot of time in class on topics they believe are important, which means the information presented will most likely make an appearance on a test or quiz that you will eventually take.
Now that we’re done taking a look at the educational aspect of school, we must take a look at the social aspect. The most important thing after education in college is making new friends. It may not seem all that important to you, but it prepares you for the working world where you get ahead by making connections.
One of the most important things you can do to facilitate the social process is maintaining a recognizable “style.” Having a specific style makes it easier for other people to distinguish you in a crowd. There are also fewer restrictions on what other classmates will find acceptable about your appearance than there were in high school. One example of something others would dislike is a person who wears the same clothing day in and day out. Most people would not want to be around them because it gives them an aura of not caring.
Another major factor in your social growth is the ability to pick the correct friends. As much as we downplay cliques in college, some very basic groups will still exist and it would help you immensely if you could find friends who shared similar interests. Once you’ve found a set of friends you feel comfortable with to fall back on, it will be easier to make friends with people that you normally wouldn’t have talked to in high school.
Now that you have an idea of what college is really all about, you can go out and rule the campus. If you excel in your schoolwork and find that you feel like you’re on the set of Cheers because everyone knows your name then you can say you’ve been successful and have accomplished the primary goals that all college students should complete.
I chose this topic because I felt that many college students could potentially benefit from it. Not many people come straight out and tell you how it is, and for some people it could take a semester or two just to start to fit in or to start to accomplish the goals they had set forth for themselves. I was misled into believe a lot of things about college that aren’t true, and I felt a need to prevent others from falling into the same potential trap. My only saving grace was that I had somebody set me on the right path before the consequences could have had the potential to become devastating.
Within the paper, I realize, I left a lot of information about college out. Most of the experience you gather becomes a form of tacit knowledge and most students should understand the basic functioning of what the college life should be like. Most people just need to be gently nudged onto the right path again so they’ll perform the way they’re supposed too. I also left out a lot of information that I believe could’ve been intrinsically detrimental to the student reading this. If I would’ve included information about how much fun you can have at parties and how there’s always a way to obtain an alcoholic beverage, the student would have the potential to actually consider that track more intensely and would have a chance of being grabbed by the misfortune of most students.
The information that I chose to include about the academic side of school is prevalent to me because most students are misled into believing that you don’t have to do homework in college and that you don’t have to go to class in college. The other information about school I included (the social aspect) was to appeal to the quieter and shyer students coming out of high school. Most of those students would tend to be the same in college as they were in high school, but if they could receive a reaffirming nudge, they’d be able to become a “social butterfly” and talk to more people.
All-in-all, this paper was meant to appeal to whatever student might be coming into college and give them an understanding of what’s to come. The one thing that keeps ringing in my mind, though, is that I’m not a junior or a senior, so I’m not sure how much I’d actually recommend this paper be read by other students. We will all make mistakes, but we will try to keep them as small and few in number as possible.
Society Views
Scientists play a major role in society today, in that they are trying to find solutions that will eventually help out the society and improve the worth of living. It has been this way since the idea of science was started, and science will most likely continue having a major affect on the society as new ideas and discoveries are made. Society is directly affected by science because as new ideas are being thought up and tested it can bring negative or positive outcomes to the people they were discovered for. As science evolves and gets more and more complicated, so does the society and it can bring major drawbacks along with it.
Galileo was a scientist who had a lot of trouble dealing with his society. His society was very uneducated and did not want to hear anything about change or advancements. The society back then was stubborn and would not even care to listen to Galileo. Galileo was looked at as a tyrant and a bad man, for putting ideas in people’s heads that were originally thought of as crazy. His findings, we know now, cannot be any truer, but because of the way of the society his comrades did not accept his ideas and discoveries. In Galileo’s case, the society merely just delayed the advancement of science and made Galileo’s life much harder than it should have been. In one of the letters from his daughter it is shown how awfully he was punished for his ideas.
“Just as suddenly and unexpectedly as word of your new torment reached me, Sire, so intensely did it pierce my soul with pain to hear the judgment that has finally been passed, denouncing your person as harshly as your book.”
As you can see he was not only denounced for his discoveries, but also for himself as a person. He did not do anything that would give reason for the society to ridicule him as a person, but because they did not agree with his work they found him to be a radical person altogether.
As science has advanced, so has the relationship between it and the society. The society is no longer able to ignore the fact that we are evolving and can no longer disagree with a discovery that has been proven. A major issue that science directly affects nowadays is the issue of genetic engineering to help aid world hunger. World hunger is a major issue in the society, but many people feel science is taking advantage of the problem and using it towards their benefit. The potential benefits of genetically engineered foods, like expanding food supply and helping to alleviate world hunger, are exciting, but at the same time of some concern. There are real concerns on biodiversity, the ecosystem, and people’s safety if such food has not been tested properly and guaranteed to be safe. The reason that we still question if genetically engineered food could be dangerous is because there has been no adequate testing to ensure that extracting genes that perform an apparently useful function as part of a plant or animal is going to have the same effects if inserted in totally unrelated species. It may be that in the long term, genetically engineered food could provide us with benefits and be a safe alternative, but the society feels we cannot know at this time due to lack of testing.
Genetically engineered food could be a great resource in the future, but as of right now the society looks at it as a danger. They feel it is just providing people who can already afford food more food. The poor people who cannot afford food would still not be able to afford the food even though there is more. They also feel that the health risks are unknown due to a lack of testing, and do not feel safe with the product.
As you can see, society is nervous about the advancement of science because they feel it could be very harmful to them as well as others. Scientists do not really take the time anymore to explain everything to the society. This angers the society and just creates more questioning and problems when testing is started. The main affect society has on science is slowing it down. If the society just went along with their everyday lives and ignored the science part of life, science would be able to move at a more rapid pace.
Nabakov is another scientist who was affected by the society. Many people disagreed with his form of research and still do not agree with what he did. They did not like how he took live specimens of animals and used them as guinea pigs. The society had a major problem with this because of the chance of extinction. Nabakov was capturing very rare types of species and using them for his benefit. Society looked badly towards him and slowed his work down mightily.
The difference between Nabakov and genetic engineering is that Nabakov was not affecting the society directly. His form of work did not hurt the lives of any individual human person, it mainly just affected animals and human morals. The reason society had a problem with it was because of the way it feels towards all matters of life. Also, the entire society was not against Nabakov. Some people had no problem with his research and this made for controversy. With genetic engineering the affect is directly on the society, and there is much more concern towards it. People feel that if there is a risk issue, the testing should not go on. The thing the people don’t realize is that there is always a risk factor involved.
The society not only affects what scientists are able to do, but it also encourages people to enter the profession of being a scientist. Barbara McClintock, Oliver Sacks, and Don Asher are three scientists who entered the profession of science because of the people around them. The three were raised in environments that were full of science. They had family members who were part of the profession and therefore they decided to do something in their lives that related to science. The society in this case was the families of the three scientists. Without their society being science based as they grew up they would most likely not be in the science profession.
Science and society work hand in hand together. Whether the society has a positive or a negative enforcement on science is totally up to what is being tested or created. Society today is much more apt to accepting what scientists do because it has seen what wonders it can do towards improving conditions in life. A few hundred years ago society was more obtuse and did not want anything new to come along. They did not want change in the society, but as has been proven it cannot happen. As science zooms off into the unknown, society holds on to the tail of it and tries to help steer it in the right direction. Society should be looked on as a good affect to the advancement of science because it helps make sure the danger is taken into account. It sometimes gets too involved with the logistics of the science, but most people feel it is for the better of the world. Science needs society to keep them on track with what they are doing, and in the same respect, society needs science to help them have a better condition of life to live with. Science is a wonderful thing that helps our society in so many ways. Without the two of them working together the world would be a less entertaining place to live in. It gives people something to do with their lives and increases the quality of life just as well.
Galileo was a scientist who had a lot of trouble dealing with his society. His society was very uneducated and did not want to hear anything about change or advancements. The society back then was stubborn and would not even care to listen to Galileo. Galileo was looked at as a tyrant and a bad man, for putting ideas in people’s heads that were originally thought of as crazy. His findings, we know now, cannot be any truer, but because of the way of the society his comrades did not accept his ideas and discoveries. In Galileo’s case, the society merely just delayed the advancement of science and made Galileo’s life much harder than it should have been. In one of the letters from his daughter it is shown how awfully he was punished for his ideas.
“Just as suddenly and unexpectedly as word of your new torment reached me, Sire, so intensely did it pierce my soul with pain to hear the judgment that has finally been passed, denouncing your person as harshly as your book.”
As you can see he was not only denounced for his discoveries, but also for himself as a person. He did not do anything that would give reason for the society to ridicule him as a person, but because they did not agree with his work they found him to be a radical person altogether.
As science has advanced, so has the relationship between it and the society. The society is no longer able to ignore the fact that we are evolving and can no longer disagree with a discovery that has been proven. A major issue that science directly affects nowadays is the issue of genetic engineering to help aid world hunger. World hunger is a major issue in the society, but many people feel science is taking advantage of the problem and using it towards their benefit. The potential benefits of genetically engineered foods, like expanding food supply and helping to alleviate world hunger, are exciting, but at the same time of some concern. There are real concerns on biodiversity, the ecosystem, and people’s safety if such food has not been tested properly and guaranteed to be safe. The reason that we still question if genetically engineered food could be dangerous is because there has been no adequate testing to ensure that extracting genes that perform an apparently useful function as part of a plant or animal is going to have the same effects if inserted in totally unrelated species. It may be that in the long term, genetically engineered food could provide us with benefits and be a safe alternative, but the society feels we cannot know at this time due to lack of testing.
Genetically engineered food could be a great resource in the future, but as of right now the society looks at it as a danger. They feel it is just providing people who can already afford food more food. The poor people who cannot afford food would still not be able to afford the food even though there is more. They also feel that the health risks are unknown due to a lack of testing, and do not feel safe with the product.
As you can see, society is nervous about the advancement of science because they feel it could be very harmful to them as well as others. Scientists do not really take the time anymore to explain everything to the society. This angers the society and just creates more questioning and problems when testing is started. The main affect society has on science is slowing it down. If the society just went along with their everyday lives and ignored the science part of life, science would be able to move at a more rapid pace.
Nabakov is another scientist who was affected by the society. Many people disagreed with his form of research and still do not agree with what he did. They did not like how he took live specimens of animals and used them as guinea pigs. The society had a major problem with this because of the chance of extinction. Nabakov was capturing very rare types of species and using them for his benefit. Society looked badly towards him and slowed his work down mightily.
The difference between Nabakov and genetic engineering is that Nabakov was not affecting the society directly. His form of work did not hurt the lives of any individual human person, it mainly just affected animals and human morals. The reason society had a problem with it was because of the way it feels towards all matters of life. Also, the entire society was not against Nabakov. Some people had no problem with his research and this made for controversy. With genetic engineering the affect is directly on the society, and there is much more concern towards it. People feel that if there is a risk issue, the testing should not go on. The thing the people don’t realize is that there is always a risk factor involved.
The society not only affects what scientists are able to do, but it also encourages people to enter the profession of being a scientist. Barbara McClintock, Oliver Sacks, and Don Asher are three scientists who entered the profession of science because of the people around them. The three were raised in environments that were full of science. They had family members who were part of the profession and therefore they decided to do something in their lives that related to science. The society in this case was the families of the three scientists. Without their society being science based as they grew up they would most likely not be in the science profession.
Science and society work hand in hand together. Whether the society has a positive or a negative enforcement on science is totally up to what is being tested or created. Society today is much more apt to accepting what scientists do because it has seen what wonders it can do towards improving conditions in life. A few hundred years ago society was more obtuse and did not want anything new to come along. They did not want change in the society, but as has been proven it cannot happen. As science zooms off into the unknown, society holds on to the tail of it and tries to help steer it in the right direction. Society should be looked on as a good affect to the advancement of science because it helps make sure the danger is taken into account. It sometimes gets too involved with the logistics of the science, but most people feel it is for the better of the world. Science needs society to keep them on track with what they are doing, and in the same respect, society needs science to help them have a better condition of life to live with. Science is a wonderful thing that helps our society in so many ways. Without the two of them working together the world would be a less entertaining place to live in. It gives people something to do with their lives and increases the quality of life just as well.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Violence and Media
At birth, a baby's brain has approximately 100 billion nerve cells. These cells are not yet fully mature and lack the critical connections that determine an individual's emotional, social, and intellectual make-up. Most of these gaps disappear by the time the child is six years old, but the brain remains greatly impressionable well into teen years. By the age three, a child's brain has twice as many synapses as an adult's brain. This suggests that children are biologically primed to learn in the early stages of life. The material and environment children are exposed to during this crucial stage builds the standards of right and wrong. If a child lives in an environment where violence appears to be acceptable, the child will form a connection and often accept the behavior as appropriate.
When a child establishes a connection, and the connection is reinforced in the early years, it becomes permanent. A connection that is used rarely, or not at all, is unlikely to survive. For example, studies show that a child who is rarely spoken to or read to in the early years may have difficulty mastering language skills later in life. Similarly, a child who is exposed to violent acts on a regular basis often experiences a wide range of side effects as a child, and also as an adult.
Violence has always made an impression on children. The Academy of Pediatrics Media Violence Policy states, “The strength of the correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior is greater than the correlation between calcium intake and bone mass”.
Before the days of advanced video games, television, and movies different forms of violence impacted children. It is documented that Hawaiian teachers perceived an extreme increase in violent play after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
With advances in technology, children can now watch the destruction of Pearl Harbor on DVD on a daily basis. The media has become a major influence on the minds of children. Profits from a single movie reach well into the multi-million dollar range. Over 219 million televisions, and 144 million computers are owned within the United States alone (CIA Factbook). The media has become increasingly available to children in recent years. Television, movies, and video games are produced and marketed to appeal exclusively to children. In order to maximize profits, this specialized media is often interlaced with violence.
The movie industry alone creates a large amount of violence-saturated films. These films are then marketed to appeal to youth. Dartmouth University conducted a study in which they asked if 5,456 children and teenagers had seen 50 selected top box office movies. These movies had been identified to contain the most violence out of the top 600 box office films. They contained scenes of sadistic rape, sodomy, brutal or ritualistic murders, and cannibalism. On average, each subject had seen 28% of the violent rich movies. The lead Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School stated, “Demand for seeing violent movies is spurred by the adverting practices of the media industry. Through movies adolescents are being exposed to brutal and often sexualized violence”.
This sort of violence is presented to children not only in movies, but on a daily basis through television. Violence is no longer isolated to post bedtime hours but floods prime time television. Ladies Home Journal estimated that the average American child observes the destruction of 13,000 human beings between the hours of 4 and 9. It is estimated that 3-5 acts of violence are shown in ever hour of prime time television. This number grows dramatically to 25-30 acts of violence when viewing a full hour of children’s cartoons. These cartoons, which are often seen as harmless, can produce long-term problems. Children who watched the popular cartoons “Road Runner” and “Starsky and Hutch” on a regular basis were found to be more violent in adulthood nearly 15 years later. Similar results exist for children who were exposed to a variety of television programs for extended periods of time. A recent study analyzed data of 707 people over a period of 17 years measuring television viewing habits and aggression at various times. The study went on to find the 6% of the 14 year olds who watched less than one hour of television a day went on to engage in threats and violent acts, in comparison to 29% who watched more than three hours a day. The average American child watches between 4.5 – 5 hours of television per day.
The daily consumption of violent media is also boosted by the prevalence of video games. Approximately 70 % of children from third to twelfth grade own a video game player. Of the 70%, 45% state they play the games in their room the majority of the time. Video games are the newest and possibly most dangerous wave of media violence. Games with violent images gross large profits. “Streetfighter” made 1.3 billion dollars in 1993. Furthermore, the bloodier Sega version outsold the less gruesome Nintendo version 7 to 1. Video games such as “Streetfighter” are considered a greater threat to the mental health of children because children take an active part in the violence being demonstrated. A study at the University of Utrecht was conducted on students while they watched a violent 10-minute excerpt from “Rambo.” Results of students who held a remote were compared to those who did not. The gory scenes much less affected the subjects who held the remote. The ones who controlled the violence taking place in front of them were numbed to it (Leeds). Practices like these are comparable to what it used to desensitize soldiers in preparation for combat. David Grossman, an army psychologist stated, “One of the most effective and widely used simulators developed by the US Army in recent years us nothing more than a modified Super Nintendo game. In fact it closely resembles the game Duck Hunt”. The desensitization video games create has been measured in a recent study. Researchers in Indiana measured the effects of “WWF Smackdown” on the players brain. The study monitored the parts of the brain involved in emotional control and inhibition of behavior. The anger portion of the brain showed amplified readings, while the buffer, or restraint part of the brain became less active.
The effects of video games have been linked to crimes such as the Colombine and Jonesboro shootings. In both cases gunman were owners and devoted players of violent video games. Dozens of other cases have been connected with video games. In Flint, Michigan a 6 year old boy shot a 6 year old peer. The boy learned gunmanship from point and shoot video games.
The effects of violent media has on children are measurable and long lasting. A joint statement made by the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Association states that there are well over a thousand studies based on over 30 years of research proving the harmful effects of exposing children to violence. It is important that the intake of television, movie, video game and other forms of violent and potentially violent media are monitored in order to foster the development of youth.
At birth, a baby's brain has approximately 100 billion nerve cells. These cells are not yet fully mature and lack the critical connections that determine an individual's emotional, social, and intellectual make-up. Most of these gaps disappear by the time the child is six years old, but the brain remains greatly impressionable well into teen years. By the age three, a child's brain has twice as many synapses as an adult's brain. This suggests that children are biologically primed to learn in the early stages of life. The material and environment children are exposed to during this crucial stage builds the standards of right and wrong. If a child lives in an environment where violence appears to be acceptable, the child will form a connection and often accept the behavior as appropriate.
Violence has always made an impression on children. The Academy of Pediatrics Media Violence Policy states, “The strength of the correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior is greater than the correlation between calcium intake and bone mass”.
Before the days of advanced video games, television, and movies different forms of violence impacted children. It is documented that Hawaiian teachers perceived an extreme increase in violent play after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
With advances in technology, children can now watch the destruction of Pearl Harbor on DVD on a daily basis. The media has become a major influence on the minds of children. Profits from a single movie reach well into the multi-million dollar range. Over 219 million televisions, and 144 million computers are owned within the United States alone. The media has become increasingly available to children in recent years. Television, movies, and video games are produced and marketed to appeal exclusively to children. In order to maximize profits, this specialized media is often interlaced with violence.
The movie industry alone creates a large amount of violence-saturated films. These films are then marketed to appeal to youth. Dartmouth University conducted a study in which they asked if 5,456 children and teenagers had seen 50 selected top box office movies. These movies had been identified to contain the most violence out of the top 600 box office films. They contained scenes of sadistic rape, sodomy, brutal or ritualistic murders, and cannibalism. On average, each subject had seen 28% of the violent rich movies. The lead Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School stated, “Demand for seeing violent movies is spurred by the adverting practices of the media industry. Through movies adolescents are being exposed to brutal and often sexualized violence ”.
This sort of violence is presented to children not only in movies, but on a daily basis through television. Violence is no longer isolated to post bedtime hours but floods prime time television. Ladies Home Journal estimated that the average American child observes the destruction of 13,000 human beings between the hours of 4 and 9. It is estimated that 3-5 acts of violence are shown in ever hour of prime time television This number grows dramatically to 25-30 acts of violence when viewing a full hour of children’s cartoons. These cartoons, which are often seen as harmless, can produce long-term problems. Children who watched the popular cartoons “Road Runner” and “Starsky and Hutch” on a regular basis were found to be more violent in adulthood nearly 15 years later. Similar results exist for children who were exposed to a variety of television programs for extended periods of time. A recent study analyzed data of 707 people over a period of 17 years measuring television viewing habits and aggression at various times. The study went on to find the 6% of the 14 year olds who watched less than one hour of television a day went on to engage in threats and violent acts, in comparison to 29% who watched more than three hours a day The average American child watches between 4.5 – 5 hours of television per day.
The daily consumption of violent media is also boosted by the prevalence of video games. Approximately 70 % of children from third to twelfth grade own a video game player. Of the 70%, 45% state they play the games in their room the majority of the time. Video games are the newest and possibly most dangerous wave of media violence. Games with violent images gross large profits. “Streetfighter” made 1.3 billion dollars in 1993. Furthermore, the bloodier Sega version outsold the less gruesome Nintendo version 7 to 1. Video games such as “Streetfighter” are considered a greater threat to the mental health of children because children take an active part in the violence being demonstrated. A study at the University of Utrecht was conducted on students while they watched a violent 10-minute excerpt from “Rambo.” Results of students who held a remote were compared to those who did not. The gory scenes much less affected the subjects who held the remote. The ones who controlled the violence taking place in front of them were numbed to it. Practices like these are comparable to what it used to desensitize soldiers in preparation for combat. David Grossman, an army psychologist stated, “One of the most effective and widely used simulators developed by the US Army in recent years us nothing more than a modified Super Nintendo game. In fact it closely resembles the game Duck Hunt”.
The desensitization video games create has been measured in a recent study. Researchers in Indiana measured the effects of “WWF Smackdown” on the players brain. The study monitored the parts of the brain involved in emotional control and inhibition of behavior. The anger portion of the brain showed amplified readings, while the buffer, or restraint part of the brain became less active.
The effects of video games have been linked to crimes such as the Colombine and Jonesboro shootings. In both cases gunman were owners and devoted players of violent video games. Dozens of other cases have been connected with video games. In Flint, Michigan a 6 year old boy shot a 6 year old peer. The boy learned gunmanship from point and shoot video games.
The effects of violent media has on children are measurable and long lasting. A joint statement made by the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Association states that there are well over a thousand studies based on over 30 years of research proving the harmful effects of exposing children to violence. It is important that the intake of television, movie, video game and other forms of violent and potentially violent media are monitored in order to foster the development of youth.
When a child establishes a connection, and the connection is reinforced in the early years, it becomes permanent. A connection that is used rarely, or not at all, is unlikely to survive. For example, studies show that a child who is rarely spoken to or read to in the early years may have difficulty mastering language skills later in life. Similarly, a child who is exposed to violent acts on a regular basis often experiences a wide range of side effects as a child, and also as an adult.
Violence has always made an impression on children. The Academy of Pediatrics Media Violence Policy states, “The strength of the correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior is greater than the correlation between calcium intake and bone mass”.
Before the days of advanced video games, television, and movies different forms of violence impacted children. It is documented that Hawaiian teachers perceived an extreme increase in violent play after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
With advances in technology, children can now watch the destruction of Pearl Harbor on DVD on a daily basis. The media has become a major influence on the minds of children. Profits from a single movie reach well into the multi-million dollar range. Over 219 million televisions, and 144 million computers are owned within the United States alone (CIA Factbook). The media has become increasingly available to children in recent years. Television, movies, and video games are produced and marketed to appeal exclusively to children. In order to maximize profits, this specialized media is often interlaced with violence.
The movie industry alone creates a large amount of violence-saturated films. These films are then marketed to appeal to youth. Dartmouth University conducted a study in which they asked if 5,456 children and teenagers had seen 50 selected top box office movies. These movies had been identified to contain the most violence out of the top 600 box office films. They contained scenes of sadistic rape, sodomy, brutal or ritualistic murders, and cannibalism. On average, each subject had seen 28% of the violent rich movies. The lead Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School stated, “Demand for seeing violent movies is spurred by the adverting practices of the media industry. Through movies adolescents are being exposed to brutal and often sexualized violence”.
This sort of violence is presented to children not only in movies, but on a daily basis through television. Violence is no longer isolated to post bedtime hours but floods prime time television. Ladies Home Journal estimated that the average American child observes the destruction of 13,000 human beings between the hours of 4 and 9. It is estimated that 3-5 acts of violence are shown in ever hour of prime time television. This number grows dramatically to 25-30 acts of violence when viewing a full hour of children’s cartoons. These cartoons, which are often seen as harmless, can produce long-term problems. Children who watched the popular cartoons “Road Runner” and “Starsky and Hutch” on a regular basis were found to be more violent in adulthood nearly 15 years later. Similar results exist for children who were exposed to a variety of television programs for extended periods of time. A recent study analyzed data of 707 people over a period of 17 years measuring television viewing habits and aggression at various times. The study went on to find the 6% of the 14 year olds who watched less than one hour of television a day went on to engage in threats and violent acts, in comparison to 29% who watched more than three hours a day. The average American child watches between 4.5 – 5 hours of television per day.
The daily consumption of violent media is also boosted by the prevalence of video games. Approximately 70 % of children from third to twelfth grade own a video game player. Of the 70%, 45% state they play the games in their room the majority of the time. Video games are the newest and possibly most dangerous wave of media violence. Games with violent images gross large profits. “Streetfighter” made 1.3 billion dollars in 1993. Furthermore, the bloodier Sega version outsold the less gruesome Nintendo version 7 to 1. Video games such as “Streetfighter” are considered a greater threat to the mental health of children because children take an active part in the violence being demonstrated. A study at the University of Utrecht was conducted on students while they watched a violent 10-minute excerpt from “Rambo.” Results of students who held a remote were compared to those who did not. The gory scenes much less affected the subjects who held the remote. The ones who controlled the violence taking place in front of them were numbed to it (Leeds). Practices like these are comparable to what it used to desensitize soldiers in preparation for combat. David Grossman, an army psychologist stated, “One of the most effective and widely used simulators developed by the US Army in recent years us nothing more than a modified Super Nintendo game. In fact it closely resembles the game Duck Hunt”. The desensitization video games create has been measured in a recent study. Researchers in Indiana measured the effects of “WWF Smackdown” on the players brain. The study monitored the parts of the brain involved in emotional control and inhibition of behavior. The anger portion of the brain showed amplified readings, while the buffer, or restraint part of the brain became less active.
The effects of video games have been linked to crimes such as the Colombine and Jonesboro shootings. In both cases gunman were owners and devoted players of violent video games. Dozens of other cases have been connected with video games. In Flint, Michigan a 6 year old boy shot a 6 year old peer. The boy learned gunmanship from point and shoot video games.
The effects of violent media has on children are measurable and long lasting. A joint statement made by the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Association states that there are well over a thousand studies based on over 30 years of research proving the harmful effects of exposing children to violence. It is important that the intake of television, movie, video game and other forms of violent and potentially violent media are monitored in order to foster the development of youth.
At birth, a baby's brain has approximately 100 billion nerve cells. These cells are not yet fully mature and lack the critical connections that determine an individual's emotional, social, and intellectual make-up. Most of these gaps disappear by the time the child is six years old, but the brain remains greatly impressionable well into teen years. By the age three, a child's brain has twice as many synapses as an adult's brain. This suggests that children are biologically primed to learn in the early stages of life. The material and environment children are exposed to during this crucial stage builds the standards of right and wrong. If a child lives in an environment where violence appears to be acceptable, the child will form a connection and often accept the behavior as appropriate.
Violence has always made an impression on children. The Academy of Pediatrics Media Violence Policy states, “The strength of the correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior is greater than the correlation between calcium intake and bone mass”.
Before the days of advanced video games, television, and movies different forms of violence impacted children. It is documented that Hawaiian teachers perceived an extreme increase in violent play after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
With advances in technology, children can now watch the destruction of Pearl Harbor on DVD on a daily basis. The media has become a major influence on the minds of children. Profits from a single movie reach well into the multi-million dollar range. Over 219 million televisions, and 144 million computers are owned within the United States alone. The media has become increasingly available to children in recent years. Television, movies, and video games are produced and marketed to appeal exclusively to children. In order to maximize profits, this specialized media is often interlaced with violence.
The movie industry alone creates a large amount of violence-saturated films. These films are then marketed to appeal to youth. Dartmouth University conducted a study in which they asked if 5,456 children and teenagers had seen 50 selected top box office movies. These movies had been identified to contain the most violence out of the top 600 box office films. They contained scenes of sadistic rape, sodomy, brutal or ritualistic murders, and cannibalism. On average, each subject had seen 28% of the violent rich movies. The lead Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School stated, “Demand for seeing violent movies is spurred by the adverting practices of the media industry. Through movies adolescents are being exposed to brutal and often sexualized violence ”.
This sort of violence is presented to children not only in movies, but on a daily basis through television. Violence is no longer isolated to post bedtime hours but floods prime time television. Ladies Home Journal estimated that the average American child observes the destruction of 13,000 human beings between the hours of 4 and 9. It is estimated that 3-5 acts of violence are shown in ever hour of prime time television This number grows dramatically to 25-30 acts of violence when viewing a full hour of children’s cartoons. These cartoons, which are often seen as harmless, can produce long-term problems. Children who watched the popular cartoons “Road Runner” and “Starsky and Hutch” on a regular basis were found to be more violent in adulthood nearly 15 years later. Similar results exist for children who were exposed to a variety of television programs for extended periods of time. A recent study analyzed data of 707 people over a period of 17 years measuring television viewing habits and aggression at various times. The study went on to find the 6% of the 14 year olds who watched less than one hour of television a day went on to engage in threats and violent acts, in comparison to 29% who watched more than three hours a day The average American child watches between 4.5 – 5 hours of television per day.
The daily consumption of violent media is also boosted by the prevalence of video games. Approximately 70 % of children from third to twelfth grade own a video game player. Of the 70%, 45% state they play the games in their room the majority of the time. Video games are the newest and possibly most dangerous wave of media violence. Games with violent images gross large profits. “Streetfighter” made 1.3 billion dollars in 1993. Furthermore, the bloodier Sega version outsold the less gruesome Nintendo version 7 to 1. Video games such as “Streetfighter” are considered a greater threat to the mental health of children because children take an active part in the violence being demonstrated. A study at the University of Utrecht was conducted on students while they watched a violent 10-minute excerpt from “Rambo.” Results of students who held a remote were compared to those who did not. The gory scenes much less affected the subjects who held the remote. The ones who controlled the violence taking place in front of them were numbed to it. Practices like these are comparable to what it used to desensitize soldiers in preparation for combat. David Grossman, an army psychologist stated, “One of the most effective and widely used simulators developed by the US Army in recent years us nothing more than a modified Super Nintendo game. In fact it closely resembles the game Duck Hunt”.
The desensitization video games create has been measured in a recent study. Researchers in Indiana measured the effects of “WWF Smackdown” on the players brain. The study monitored the parts of the brain involved in emotional control and inhibition of behavior. The anger portion of the brain showed amplified readings, while the buffer, or restraint part of the brain became less active.
The effects of video games have been linked to crimes such as the Colombine and Jonesboro shootings. In both cases gunman were owners and devoted players of violent video games. Dozens of other cases have been connected with video games. In Flint, Michigan a 6 year old boy shot a 6 year old peer. The boy learned gunmanship from point and shoot video games.
The effects of violent media has on children are measurable and long lasting. A joint statement made by the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Association states that there are well over a thousand studies based on over 30 years of research proving the harmful effects of exposing children to violence. It is important that the intake of television, movie, video game and other forms of violent and potentially violent media are monitored in order to foster the development of youth.
Media and Democracy
The public sphere or what can often be termed the public domain can be characterized as the images that are presented by the mass media through advertising, television, popular newspapers, magazines, photography and the Internet. Whilst all of these are important instruments of the media, for the purpose of clarity and word limitations most will only be acknowledged not addressed “The popular media of the modern world is the place where and the means by which the public is created and has its being.”
Throughout this essay it will be shown that the mass media are not only beneficial to a democratic public sphere but at times can also be characterized as detrimental to that public domain. However within any democracy the mass media are definitely a fundamental component in the process of governmental accountability.
The right to public communication and debate lies at the centre of all democratic processes and is an essential element of all democracies. Citizens of a democracy not only require but also demand access to all sources of information and all opportunities to participate in debates from which political decisions ultimately flow.
This can be illustrated by the way in which major campaigns are fought for the political support of the general public during both State and Federal elections. Australian politics is often influenced by the way in which the news media corporations present issues to the Australian public.
Politics as we know it is inconceivable without the news media. They are the central channel of communication between governors and the governed, the most important link between the actions of the state and the citizenry, the major arena in battles between political groups for public support.
Governmental accountability, freedom of speech and informed public opinion are issues, which are considered to be crucial to the public sphere and in what ultimately constitutes a truly democratic state. The American Constitution can be seen as the clearest example of a document that truly enshrines citizen’s rights and liberties in such a clear and precise manner. In the First Amendment, of the Bill Rights there is an indisputable right to free press often characterized as an extension of the right to freedom of speech. However, this right is undoubtedly “an enforceable limitation on government, when that government infringes upon a freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.”
There is no such equivalent affirmation within the Australian Constitution, however the concepts of governmental accountability, freedom of speech, and informed public opinion are to a greater extent taken for granted. Through classic liberal ideologies that argue that “the primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watchdog, overseeing the state.” This can often be characterized by revealing abuses conducted at the hands of government authority, or by facilitating a general debate regarding the function and accountability of government.
The classic liberal ideology of having the media as an ultimate watchdog is often said to prevail over the importance of all other functions of the media. It is perceived that influential empires with strong political affiliations for example: the Murdoch and Packer empires that control a substantial proportion of the Australian mass media industry should not monopolize the press as is often the case within Australia.
In recent decades the media have demonstrated that they possess the ability to extract policy favours from both major arms of government. It is interesting to note that governments believe that by curtailing to the media empires, their electoral interests will be represented at the next election with favourable coverage and ultimately political success.
The next election is in two years… I’m sure Howard will need some help then from a media proprietor… Every election cycle costs the government in respect of free and tangible gifts to media proprietors, half a billion dollars per election cycle.
However according to classic liberal ideology it is preferred that the mass media should be secured within the free market thereby ensuring the media’s complete independence from government. Consequently as can be illustrated above a “press that is licensed, franchised, or regulated is subject to political pressures when it deals with issues affecting the interests of those in power.”
However the huge establishing costs, the concentrated supply, distribution expenses, and the advertising revenue have all contributed to oligopoly that is established within the media empires of Australia. It has been decades since a successful daily newspaper not linked to a major media chain has been established with Australia, this only reiterates that the mass media industry is a monopoly dominated by those that can afford to play. “The outstanding feature of the contemporary media is not just its commercial nature but its sheer size and concentration.”
Whilst the media in Australia may be instrumental in the democratic process, and may be crucial in upholding the traditional foundations of what a democracy is said to represent that does not always mean that their corporate interests always coincide or are beneficial to the major public interest.
The news media is the only quasi-institutional check in a representative democracy, whose achievements are measured by commercial success. Its head is in politics while its feet are grounded in commerce.
The influence that the media has over the government does not represent a truly democratic model that is beneficial for the public sphere.
A significant illustration of the mass media being influenced and subsequently driven by governmental agenda is the ongoing controversy surrounding the events of September 11 2001. The ‘war against terror’ crisis as it has become known has been sensationalized by the mass media to create a wave of hysteria within the public domain. “Television has long been established as the primary source of news for the Australian public.” It has been television that has been used to deliver explosive headlines and short television frames of planes flying into buildings, thereby the media have created and developed a devotion to the ‘war against terror’.
The events surrounding September 11 2001 have continuously been reiterated over a space of time by the mass media for the public domain. This has been a concerted effort to gain wide spread support in Australia for the Howard government’s decision to support America by committing the people of Australia in the fight against terrorism. It would be naпve to assume that the mass media during this period would not push the government’s agenda or deliver a truly unbiased opinion.
It became clear in the 1970’s that a new form of terrorism was emerging, characterized as “media-orientated terror.” Since the events of September 11 2001 it has become apparent that the mass media have been used as an effective tool in driving fear into the hearts of the Western world. This could not of been more successful than through the use of the Western worlds own source: the mass media.
Terrorist attacks are often carefully choreographed to attract the attention of the electronic media and the international press… Terrorism is aimed at the people watching, not at the actual victims…
In most terrorist cases the media serve as the sole source of information and interpretation for the public domain, therefore by redefining the images of September 11 2001 the public become dependent on the mass media for information and interpretation.
Before September 11 2001 it would be correct to assume that the majority of the public domain within the western world did not have any form of established or informed opinion of terrorism. However in the months following September 11 2001 through television presentation and continuous coverage of dramatic features of the event, people within the public domain have become easily influenced into believing what the mass media is continuously generating.
As has been illustrated above the type of power that the mass media wields over international and even national affairs is specific. In recent decades this power has been used to dominate what the public thinks about and what the prescribed popular opinion is. Thereby setting the agenda for public discussion regarding public affairs instead of determining public opinion. “the media influence what the people think about more than what they think.” September 11 2001 illustrates that the media have significantly contributed to the public opinion that unrestricted revenge against those responsible for September 11 2001 is justified.
In the months following September 2001 the public discussion centered around the events and activities of September 11 2001. Whether that discussion was precipitated by the events, or the mass hysteria that was sensationalized by the media is irrelevant. The mass media used their power to create the public hysteria surrounding September 11 2001 and the events that are the direct consequences of that day have become the ultimate news of the new millennium.
A more recent example of the mass media using their power to influence public opinion at the bequest of governmental agenda has been through the current ‘refugee crisis’ currently encapsulating Australia.
The mass media have again sensationalized the issues surrounding the arrival of refugees in Australia. This has been consistently achieved by dramatizing the figures surrounding the actual number of arriving refugees within Australia. During the recent months September 11 2001 has been used as the catalyst for statements by both arms of the Australian government that the refugees that are arriving do not have a checkable backgrounds which is essential for the granting of refugee status.
Thereby the scenario has been created and established by the government with the assistance of the mass media that the events of September 11 2001 could occur within Australia if the government accepts all refugees that arrive.
The images of planes flying into buildings are again depicted across television screens and newspapers and the discreet undertone of the ‘west verses the rest’ is reiterated for the masses. This consistently reinforces the opinion that by allowing and accepting refugees from war torn states, Australia is opening the floodgates to terrorist attacks on the same scale of events that occurred on September 11 2001.
As has been shown the mass media within Australia contribute enormously to the process of political socialization through influencing and often setting the agenda for public discussion regarding public affairs. The media’s potential to influence and shape cultural and political attitudes, reiterates the power and influence that is concealed within the everyday functioning and running of the public sphere.
However within the confines of the mass media there is the incentive to be responsive and responsible to the public domain. It is true that Australians in recent years have become significantly better informed regarding political agendas and policies that were ever available to the public in the preceding decades.
Overall the mass media are a fundamental element of democracy allowing for greater accountability of government, and freedom of speech thereby establishing that mass media is ultimately beneficial to the public sphere. The mass media have ultimately ensured that the government of the day is to a greater extent accountable for the formulation of policies and innovations affecting everyday Australians.
However what must ultimately be determined is are the mass media truly providing a informed and unbiased opinion that is considered essential for a true democracy, or are the media simply just another player in the government game of convincing the public domain?
Throughout this essay it will be shown that the mass media are not only beneficial to a democratic public sphere but at times can also be characterized as detrimental to that public domain. However within any democracy the mass media are definitely a fundamental component in the process of governmental accountability.
The right to public communication and debate lies at the centre of all democratic processes and is an essential element of all democracies. Citizens of a democracy not only require but also demand access to all sources of information and all opportunities to participate in debates from which political decisions ultimately flow.
This can be illustrated by the way in which major campaigns are fought for the political support of the general public during both State and Federal elections. Australian politics is often influenced by the way in which the news media corporations present issues to the Australian public.
Politics as we know it is inconceivable without the news media. They are the central channel of communication between governors and the governed, the most important link between the actions of the state and the citizenry, the major arena in battles between political groups for public support.
Governmental accountability, freedom of speech and informed public opinion are issues, which are considered to be crucial to the public sphere and in what ultimately constitutes a truly democratic state. The American Constitution can be seen as the clearest example of a document that truly enshrines citizen’s rights and liberties in such a clear and precise manner. In the First Amendment, of the Bill Rights there is an indisputable right to free press often characterized as an extension of the right to freedom of speech. However, this right is undoubtedly “an enforceable limitation on government, when that government infringes upon a freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.”
There is no such equivalent affirmation within the Australian Constitution, however the concepts of governmental accountability, freedom of speech, and informed public opinion are to a greater extent taken for granted. Through classic liberal ideologies that argue that “the primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watchdog, overseeing the state.” This can often be characterized by revealing abuses conducted at the hands of government authority, or by facilitating a general debate regarding the function and accountability of government.
The classic liberal ideology of having the media as an ultimate watchdog is often said to prevail over the importance of all other functions of the media. It is perceived that influential empires with strong political affiliations for example: the Murdoch and Packer empires that control a substantial proportion of the Australian mass media industry should not monopolize the press as is often the case within Australia.
In recent decades the media have demonstrated that they possess the ability to extract policy favours from both major arms of government. It is interesting to note that governments believe that by curtailing to the media empires, their electoral interests will be represented at the next election with favourable coverage and ultimately political success.
The next election is in two years… I’m sure Howard will need some help then from a media proprietor… Every election cycle costs the government in respect of free and tangible gifts to media proprietors, half a billion dollars per election cycle.
However according to classic liberal ideology it is preferred that the mass media should be secured within the free market thereby ensuring the media’s complete independence from government. Consequently as can be illustrated above a “press that is licensed, franchised, or regulated is subject to political pressures when it deals with issues affecting the interests of those in power.”
However the huge establishing costs, the concentrated supply, distribution expenses, and the advertising revenue have all contributed to oligopoly that is established within the media empires of Australia. It has been decades since a successful daily newspaper not linked to a major media chain has been established with Australia, this only reiterates that the mass media industry is a monopoly dominated by those that can afford to play. “The outstanding feature of the contemporary media is not just its commercial nature but its sheer size and concentration.”
Whilst the media in Australia may be instrumental in the democratic process, and may be crucial in upholding the traditional foundations of what a democracy is said to represent that does not always mean that their corporate interests always coincide or are beneficial to the major public interest.
The news media is the only quasi-institutional check in a representative democracy, whose achievements are measured by commercial success. Its head is in politics while its feet are grounded in commerce.
The influence that the media has over the government does not represent a truly democratic model that is beneficial for the public sphere.
A significant illustration of the mass media being influenced and subsequently driven by governmental agenda is the ongoing controversy surrounding the events of September 11 2001. The ‘war against terror’ crisis as it has become known has been sensationalized by the mass media to create a wave of hysteria within the public domain. “Television has long been established as the primary source of news for the Australian public.” It has been television that has been used to deliver explosive headlines and short television frames of planes flying into buildings, thereby the media have created and developed a devotion to the ‘war against terror’.
The events surrounding September 11 2001 have continuously been reiterated over a space of time by the mass media for the public domain. This has been a concerted effort to gain wide spread support in Australia for the Howard government’s decision to support America by committing the people of Australia in the fight against terrorism. It would be naпve to assume that the mass media during this period would not push the government’s agenda or deliver a truly unbiased opinion.
It became clear in the 1970’s that a new form of terrorism was emerging, characterized as “media-orientated terror.” Since the events of September 11 2001 it has become apparent that the mass media have been used as an effective tool in driving fear into the hearts of the Western world. This could not of been more successful than through the use of the Western worlds own source: the mass media.
Terrorist attacks are often carefully choreographed to attract the attention of the electronic media and the international press… Terrorism is aimed at the people watching, not at the actual victims…
In most terrorist cases the media serve as the sole source of information and interpretation for the public domain, therefore by redefining the images of September 11 2001 the public become dependent on the mass media for information and interpretation.
Before September 11 2001 it would be correct to assume that the majority of the public domain within the western world did not have any form of established or informed opinion of terrorism. However in the months following September 11 2001 through television presentation and continuous coverage of dramatic features of the event, people within the public domain have become easily influenced into believing what the mass media is continuously generating.
As has been illustrated above the type of power that the mass media wields over international and even national affairs is specific. In recent decades this power has been used to dominate what the public thinks about and what the prescribed popular opinion is. Thereby setting the agenda for public discussion regarding public affairs instead of determining public opinion. “the media influence what the people think about more than what they think.” September 11 2001 illustrates that the media have significantly contributed to the public opinion that unrestricted revenge against those responsible for September 11 2001 is justified.
In the months following September 2001 the public discussion centered around the events and activities of September 11 2001. Whether that discussion was precipitated by the events, or the mass hysteria that was sensationalized by the media is irrelevant. The mass media used their power to create the public hysteria surrounding September 11 2001 and the events that are the direct consequences of that day have become the ultimate news of the new millennium.
A more recent example of the mass media using their power to influence public opinion at the bequest of governmental agenda has been through the current ‘refugee crisis’ currently encapsulating Australia.
The mass media have again sensationalized the issues surrounding the arrival of refugees in Australia. This has been consistently achieved by dramatizing the figures surrounding the actual number of arriving refugees within Australia. During the recent months September 11 2001 has been used as the catalyst for statements by both arms of the Australian government that the refugees that are arriving do not have a checkable backgrounds which is essential for the granting of refugee status.
Thereby the scenario has been created and established by the government with the assistance of the mass media that the events of September 11 2001 could occur within Australia if the government accepts all refugees that arrive.
The images of planes flying into buildings are again depicted across television screens and newspapers and the discreet undertone of the ‘west verses the rest’ is reiterated for the masses. This consistently reinforces the opinion that by allowing and accepting refugees from war torn states, Australia is opening the floodgates to terrorist attacks on the same scale of events that occurred on September 11 2001.
As has been shown the mass media within Australia contribute enormously to the process of political socialization through influencing and often setting the agenda for public discussion regarding public affairs. The media’s potential to influence and shape cultural and political attitudes, reiterates the power and influence that is concealed within the everyday functioning and running of the public sphere.
However within the confines of the mass media there is the incentive to be responsive and responsible to the public domain. It is true that Australians in recent years have become significantly better informed regarding political agendas and policies that were ever available to the public in the preceding decades.
Overall the mass media are a fundamental element of democracy allowing for greater accountability of government, and freedom of speech thereby establishing that mass media is ultimately beneficial to the public sphere. The mass media have ultimately ensured that the government of the day is to a greater extent accountable for the formulation of policies and innovations affecting everyday Australians.
However what must ultimately be determined is are the mass media truly providing a informed and unbiased opinion that is considered essential for a true democracy, or are the media simply just another player in the government game of convincing the public domain?
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