SLP - 2 RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND RETENTION Essay

SLP - 2 RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND RETENTION - Essay Example The employees need to feel that they are part and parcel of the organization and to own its success as well as failures. This can be attained through sharing of bonuses or shares of the company in times of huge profits as well as increasing their remuneration and rewarding top performances in order to boost their morale. Making employees to own the organization will make them cautious on how they relate among each other and how they will handle the assets of the organization. Choosing the right reward for employees offers another approach to retention strategies (Dibble, 1999). The management needs to devise creative techniques of appreciating the performance of employees which is not only based on monetary terms but the inclusion of other incentives. Such may include time off, initiation of shifts, leave days or exclusion from work on certain occasions. It has been realized that some employees quit their jobs because of lack of proper treatment by their immediate managers who may not have the basic knowledge required to relate well with their juniors. Therefore another strategy of retaining employees is by investing in the line managers through training so that they can be well equipped to empower employees to success and growth. It is proper for the management to create more opportunities for the check-ins of employees with their respective managers as well providing avenues for both formal and informal interactions. Some of the retention strategies that are not appropriate for the organization to adopt include the use of strict supervision to ensure to ensure that employees comply with the laid down rules and regulations of the organization or setting stiffer penalties for employees who wish to resign from their positions. Some organizations do not allow their employees to exit at their own free will so that they can be retained in the organization which only serves to lower the morale of the employees thus reducing their performance. Another

Project 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Project 2 - Essay Example Modern society is filled with hollow people who worship power and materialism, and it is a bad situation because they cannot be redeemed, until their deaths, when they whimper with the sight of their own emptiness and darkness. â€Å"The Hollow Men† is about the modern society of hollow men because people are empty and dark without meaningful identities. They are empty because they are like Kurtz who are consumed with pursuit of power and wealth. The allusion to Kurtz in the epigraph says something about this pursuit: â€Å"Mistah Kurtz- he dead† (Eliot). The native who says this is lost after their master is gone, a master who nurtured them to believe that power and wealth are the only things important in the world. He is one of the hollow men with hollow gods. The repetition of â€Å"we† signifies the rise of the majority that has the same thinking: â€Å"We are the hollow men/We are the stuffed men†¦Headpiece filled with straw† (Eliot 1-2, 4). They are hollow because they have stuffed their heads with the thinking that modern life should be based on the accumulation of wealth and power. Furthermore, the hollow men are dark because they conform to meaningless social norms. The poem describes the way they move: â€Å"We whisper together /Are quiet and meaningless/As wind in dry grass/Or rats' feet over broken glass† (Eliot 6-9). ... The rats’ feet over the glass shards indicate the rat race that they run, and the glass is broken because they cannot see that materialism has dehumanized them completely. Their identities are empty, hollow without meaning in and after life. Aside from meaningless identities, the poem shows that the hollow men want to be redeemed, but they cannot achieve it because they fear the knowledge of their wasted lives. The allusion to Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy is present in the poem. The hollow men say: â€Å"Eyes I dare not meet in dreams/In death's dream kingdom† (Eliot 19-20). These lines can pertain to Dante who cannot look into Beatrice’s eyes yet because he is impure. In addition, the hollow men cannot be saved, until they die and see the depths of their emptiness and darkness. Eliot revises the children’s song on the mulberry bush: â€Å"Here we go round the prickly pear/At five o'clock in the morning† (70-71). The hollow men want re demption, as Christ died during this time. But they cannot be redeemed until their deaths: â€Å"This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper† (Eliot 97-98). The whimper comes from seeing their lives as Kurtz had- horrified at the emptiness and darkness of their hearts. â€Å"The Hollow Men† is a reflection of the dead on the living. It manifests their desire to know what led them to be hollow. The hollow men are real men in modern society. They want power and wealth for itself, and as it becomes a constant pursuit, they are dehumanized. They become hollow with gaping space of darkness and emptiness in their souls. The saddest thing is that they vastly multiply, for the whispers of power and wealth have taken easily over the lives of many women and men, ringing loudly, turning

Instructional Design | Definitions and Principles

Instructional Design | Definitions and Principles Section 1 – My Definition of Instructional Design According to the Internet Wikipedia, â€Å"Instructional Design, also called Instructional Systems Design is the practice of maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of instruction and other learning experiences.† The course of action to be undertaken is made up in a broad sense of deciding the state in which the learner is in as we see it, stating the end purpose of the teaching, and cause the existence of some light at the end of the tunnel so as to make the transition smooth. Andragogical and pedagogical theories of learning inform the instructional design process which may transpire in three settings; teacher-led, community-based and student-only. Instructional design may be measured scientifically, observable directly or hidden completely and assumed. As much as there may be so many models of Instruction design, most of them are based on the ADDIE model in which the different phases are analyzed; design phase, development phase, implementation phase and evaluation phase. Training is everything. The peach was once a biter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education (Mayer et al, 1996). In addition, Nadler (1984) postulates that training is defined as learning that is provided in order to improve performance on the present job. â€Å"Instructional Design is the systematic process of translating general principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials and learning† (Alessi Trollip, 1991). Most authors have looked at Instructional Design as a Discipline, a Science, and a Process and also as a Reality. â€Å"Instructional Design is the systematic development of instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It is the entire process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs. It includes development of instructional materials and activities; and tryout and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities† (Gentry, 1994). Instruction Design can also be explained as a Discipline. â€Å"Instructional Design is that branch of knowledge concerned with research and theory about instructional strategies and the process for developing and implementing those strategies† (Anglin, 1991). It can also be explained as reality. â€Å"Instructional Design can start at any point in the design process. Often a glimmer of an idea is developed to give the core of an instruction situation. By the time the entire process is done the designer looks back and her or him checks to see that all parts of the â€Å"science† have been taken into account. Then the entire process is written up as if it occurred in a systematic fashion† (Venezky, R. Osin, L., 1991). Instructional design is the systematic development of instruction by using learning and instructional research and theories, as well as established best practices, to ensure the quality of classroom/course materials (Learner, 1986). The entire process of analysis of what a group of learners needs, objective identification and development of learning objects constitutes instructional design. Instructional design cannot come to a standstill at some point then pick up again. It is an ongoing process. When instruction comes to a completion, there is evaluation and after this the instruction design starts all over again. From the many authors, I can say instruction design is a process in which instruction is followed up to its completion and also the means and ways the same could be achieved. In education, instruction is part and parcel of the system. It is therefore important that means to follow instructions by students is looked into. Research and observations has it that most students do not fail because there is anything wrong with them but they fail because everything is right with them but cannot follow instructions! Section2 – The principles of Instructional Design Before looking at the key principles of Instructional design, we need to list the most important of the principles and elements of the instruction design. They include; objectives, evaluation, the learner and methods. We are going to look at the most important elements of the four principles of instruction design and see how they fit in the instruction design models that exist. Under the elements of the instruction, for one to develop a good instruction design then we need to identify the people the instruction is being developed for. This gives us a starting point. It becomes clear immediately when we have the target audience. In this way, we can profile the targeted audience and out of the profiling, we may get a rough idea of how to design the instruction. It is also important to come up with a list of things that the people for whom the instruction is being developed for should be able to accomplish after going through the instruction. This also adds some meat to the skeleton of the design of the instruction we have from the profiling we did above after identifying the people the instruction is being designed for. This is like starting from the end in order to design the instruction. Once we have an idea of what a learner should have achieved by the end of the instruction then we can come up with the best ways in which to achieve the same for the learner. Some of the things we need to think about are the teaching methods or learning methods that could be employed so as to have the objectives achieved in the best way possible (Mayer, 2001). Activities to be included in the design and resources to be used are also very important factors that we should also look into. The way to look at them is to have an established plan of how to use the resources and the activities in order to achieve the objectives of the instruction design. Another element that needs to be looked at is a way of knowing whether the learner has been able to do the things the learner should be able to do once the instruction is complete. This is some kind of the examination of the design of the instruction. One wise man once said that an unexamined life is a wasted life. Examination in whatever we do is very crucial and so it is also very important in the design of an instruction (Newby et al., 1996). It is the examination that reveals whether something is working or not. It is also good for us to put measures in place so as to determine whether the design of the instruction has made the learner learn something. Evaluation of the learning characteristics, objectives of the instruction and the methods of instruction needs to happen before taking on the actual instruction design. Learner characteristics are one of the factors to put into consideration before designing an instruction. It is very important to run a background check on the level of exposure the learner has on the topic, the grades of the learner and also how the learner has been performing academically in the past not necessary in the instruction topic but in general. The social characteristics o rather personal characteristics have to be looked at. The learners work experience, age, the relation of the content of the instruction to the leaners life and the attitude as well. It is also good to put non-conventional learners into consideration. These may include the learners who have disabilities, learners from different cultures and also primary language learners. The style of the learner is also put into consideration. This means looking at the conditions the learner has to be in when learning. Lastly, we all know that when one is motivated, the motivation quickly serves as an ingredient for success (Sweller, 1988). The motivation of a leaner is also a point to look at. Some of the pointers are the students grade, a persons credit, the self improvement of a person, the salary one earns and also the advancement of ones status. Section 3- Models of Instructional Design ADDIE model The ADDIE model is the most common of all models. The acronym ADDIE stands for five words which make up the five phases of the ADDIE model. The â€Å"A† stands for analyze. The analysis is of things like the characteristics of the learner, the tasks that the learner should learn. The â€Å"D† stands for design where the learning objectives are developed and also an approach that is instructional in nature is chosen in this phase. The second â€Å"D† stands for develop where the training or the instructional materials are brought to existence. The â€Å"I† stands for a big word and the word is the â€Å"I† stands for is implement. Implementation in a nutshell involves the distribution of the materials containing the instructions. Lastly, the â€Å"E† stands for evaluate. In the evaluation phase, checking of how the materials distributed in the implementation phase affected the learner takes place (Saettler, 1990). It is in this phase that we a re able to know whether the goals for designing the instruction were achieved. Most models of instruction design have been modified from the ADDIE model. Rapid Prototyping Rapid prototyping is a model that was adopted from the ADDIE model. It is considered a simpler version of the ADDIE model b y many instruction designers. The heart of Instruction design is the analysis phase. This phase comes first. It is the doorway to the other four phases of instruction design (Seels Glasgow, 1990). It is after the analysis stage that we are in a position to choose the instruction design model that is most suited for the design of the instruction. This is because it is only after understanding exactly what we are dealing with is one able to pick the right bus to take him or her to the right destination. Analysis should be done thoroughly. Most instruction designers do not do a thorough job when it comes to analysis. The result of this is pretty much obvious. This is synonymous to expecting a very strong house to be sustained by a very weak foundation (Smith Ragan, 1993). The analysis is the foundation of the house called instructional design. It is therefore encouraged that at the analysis stage, a lot of time and keenness should be put into the analysis so as to gather as much information as possible. The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model In the book entitled The Systematic Design of Instruction, which was published in 1978, Walter Dick and Lou Carey came up with The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model. In this model, the instruction is not viewed as a breakdown of parts isolated but as a system. Its main focus is on the interrelationship between content, instruction, context and learning. â€Å"Components such as the instructor, learners, materials, instructional activities, delivery system, and learning and performance environments interact with each other and work together to bring about desired student learning outcomes† (Clark et al, 2006). The components to this model include instructional goal identification, instructional analysis conduction, learners and contexts analyzing, writing of performance objectives, developing of assessment instruments, developing of instructional strategy, developing and selecting of instructional materials, designing and conducting formative evaluation of instruction, revi sion of instruction and lastly, designing and conducting of summative evaluation. In the Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model, the execution of components is done in an iterative, parallel manner and not in a linear manner as in the Rapid prototyping. Apart from the above mentioned models, there exists the Instructional Development Learning System (IDLS), the Smith/Ragan Model and the Morrison/Ross/Kemp Model. Section 4- Relationships Between the Principles and the Models In this section we are going to look at the way the models have applied the key principles of instruction design. As we had seen in section two, the key principles of instruction design include; objective, evaluation, the learner and methods. Our goal in this section is to see how the models of instruction design have taken the principles of instruction design and blended than in the models of instruction design. We had also seen that the ADDIE model was broken down into five phases and these were analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation phase. At the analysis, all the blind spots to the problem are removed and this is where the goals and objectives are established. It is at this stage that the identification of the skills the learner needs is identified and the learning environment determined. The analysis stage in the ADDIE model goes hand in hand with the principle of objectivity. This shows that the ADDIE instruction model has used one of the principles of objectivity as per the analysis above. At the design level, the objectives determines in the analysis level are learnt. At the design phase, the instruments to be used to asses are determined, the content of the exercises to be done are also determined. Planning of the lessons as well as the selection of media is done here. This is consistent with the principle of methods. Under the methods principle, all the items looked at are more or less similar to the ones put into consideration under the design phase in the ADDIE model. Under the evaluation phase in the ADDIE model, there exist two sides to the coin; summative and formative. Formative has been there in each and every phase in the ADDIE model. However, Summative evaluation is specific to an identified area of problem from the learners. Under the lists of principles used in the design of an instruction, there is the principle of evaluation. This goes to show that the ADDIE is consistent with the key principles of Instructional design. If we were to look at Rapid prototyping, we can say that it is also consistent with the principles of instructional design. We can say this because it is a simpler version of the ADDIE model meaning it is very similar to the ADDIE model and since the ADDIE is compliant with the principles of Instructional design, Rapid prototyping also is consistent with the key principles of instructional design. So far, we have looked at ADDIE model and also Rapid prototyping in relation to the key principles of instruction design. The Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model is seen to have quite a number of components of which we are going to look at each and every component to see of it is consistent with the key principles of instruction design or not (Paas et al., 2004). This is the model that looks at instruction as a system and not a sum of isolated parts. The identification of a goal is consistent with the objectives principle. The conducting of the analysis of the instruction is rather on its own there. There seems to be no principle in tandem with the analysis of the instruction. The principle of objectivity is in line with the analysis of learners and contexts. Writing of performance objectives can be put under the objective principle. The developing of the instruments to be used in the assessment can fit quite well under the methods principle (Clark Mayer, 2002 Cooper Sweller, 1987). The development of the instructional strategy to be used when distributing the instructions can be out under methods. The evaluation of the instruction, revision of the instruction and the summative evaluation will all fall under the evaluation principle. We can safely say therefore that all the components of the Dick and Carey Systems Approach model all follow the principles of the key principles of the design of instruction. Most models adhere to the simple key principles of instruction design. Section 5-My Lesson Plan Subject Matter and Grade Level The subject matter I choose for my lesson plan is geometry for the 6th graders. The reason behind this choice is firstly because when I was in the 6th grade, geometry was not a smooth ride but when I moved to higher grades, I felt so stupid for not being able to understand the simple geometry the teacher always taught. I would tail the class in geometry and this was not a good feeling as it interfered with my ability to grasp other subjects confidently. I can easily identify with kids whom their teachers would clearly, loudly and publically say that they have given up on them. This is because they never get above a certain grade in some subjects. This is what my teacher used to say and I would feel so inadequate. I have narrowed down to geometry because most kids at this stage feel that geometry or anything mathematical such as college algebra is hard and is beyond their capabilities (Chandler Sweller, 1991). The truth is with the principles and models of instructional design, there is nothing that cannot be learnt! The lesson I want to design is the simple formula on how to get the circumference of a circle. This was also an area I used to be confused at. Firstly, the confusion came when choosing the figure to put as diameter and the figure to put as radius. There may be students who have no problem with this but my target is the students who have time and time again gotten this geometric question wrong. The Model The model I choose to work it is the Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model. I chose this model because I want to have a system approach to the instruction and not as a sum of little instruction bits and pieces. The goal of the instruction is to prompt the learner to give the circumference of a circle whether operating from the radius or the diameter. The instruction can either be wordy or delivered using the mathematical language. The Lesson The sixth graders analyzed cannot tell the difference between the radius and the diameter and this may be the reason as to why the question is failed so many times. The performance objectives are to see a bigger percentage of the sixth graders getting questions related to the circumference of a circle correct. In school, every single mark is important just the same way as in life, every small thing done to enhance your life counts. The assessment instrument to be used is a geometry test. The strategy in getting the objectives met is to make the learning process as interesting as possible. For example, instead of drawing boring shapes using chalk on the board, we use colorful shapes and abstract shapes so as to make learning less formal for the students to relate with the interesting shapes (Kemp et al., 1996). These will be the interesting instructing materials. The formative way of checking if the instruction did work is by looking at the marks to the geometry test. If the grades ar e higher than what they were then the instruction design process was a success. Relationships The model is consistent with my theory of learning because of the components. B following the components of the Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model, I already could feel how easy the learning process has been broken down. This is exactly what I believe learning is all about. It is about taking the â€Å"complex† stuff and simplifying it further into step by step basic components which can easily be digested by the learners whom you have already profiled. The model also allows for evaluation (Mayer, 1997). Whenever there is learning, the learnt information has to be examined for the instructor to know whether their way of instruction design helps or not. References Alessi, S., Trollip, S. (1991). Computer-based instruction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.. Anglin, G. (Ed.). (1991). Instructional technology: Past, present and future. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited. Chandler, P. Sweller, J. (1991). Cognitive Load Theory and the Format of Instruction.† Cognition and Instruction 8 (4): 293–332. Cooper, G., Sweller, J. (1987). Effects of schema acquisition and rule automation on mathematical problem-solving transfer.† Journal of Educational Psychology 79 (4): 347–362. Clark, R.C., Mayer, R.E. (2002). e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Clark, R. C., Nguyen, F., and Sweller, J. (2006). Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Manage Cognitive Load. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Gentry, C. (1994). Introduction to instructional development. Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co. Kemp, J., Morrison, G., Ross, S. (1996). Designing effective instruction. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Learner, R. (1986). Concepts and Theories of Human Development (2nd ed.). New York: Random House). Mayer, R.E. (1997). Multimedia Learning: Are We Asking the Right Questions?† EducationalPsychologist 32 (41): 1–19. Mayer, R.E. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mayer, R.E., Bovet, W. Bryman, A. Mars, R. Tapangco, L. (1996).When Less Is More:Meaningful Learning From Visual and Verbal Summaries of Science Textbook Lessons. Journal of Educational Psychology. 88 (1): 64–73. Mayer, R.E., Steinhoff, K., Bower, G. and Mars, R. (1995). A generative theory of textbook design: Using annotated illustrations to foster meaningful learning of science text.† Educational Technology Research and Development. 43 (1): 31–41. Nadler, Leonard (1984). The Handbook of Human Resource Development. New York: John Wiley Sons. Newby, T., Stepich, D., Lehman, J., Russell, J. (1996). Instructional technology for teaching and learning. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.. Paas, F., Renkl, A. Sweller, J. (2004). Cognitive Load Theory: Instructional Implications of the Interaction between Information Structures and Cognitive Architecture. Instructional Science 32: 1–8. Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science 12 (1): 257–285. Sweller, J., Cooper, G. A. (1985). The use of worked examples as a substitute for problem solving in learning algebra. Cognition and Instruction 2 (1): 59–89. Saettler, P. (1990). The evolution of American educational technology. Stolovitch, H.D, Keeps, E. (1999). Handbook of human performance technology. Seels, B. Glasgow, Z. (1990). Exercises in instructional design. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company. Seels, B. Glasgow, Z. (1998). Making instructional design decisions. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Company. Smith, P. Ragan, T. (1993). Instructional design. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice- Hall, Inc. Venezky, R. Osin, L. (1991). The intelligent design of computer-assisted instruction. New York: Longman. Furagin: Forced Degradation Studies Furagin: Forced Degradation Studies

Elwira Bauers Nazi Propagandist Childrens Book Trust No Fox on Green

Elwira Bauer's Nazi Propagandist Children's Book Trust No Fox on Green Meadow and no Jew upon his Oath In response to the factional society of the Weimar Republic, Nazism endeavored to create a new, more-unified society; an ideal national community, populated by an ethnically and culturally homogenous citizenry dogmatically obedient to the theories, laws, and policies of the central governing apparatus (the Nazi Hierarchy and ultimately Hitler). To attain its aims, Nazism employed a variety of tactics: laws were enacted to ethnically purify the population (e.g., the 1935 Nuremberg Laws), sentiments were propagated with the intention of uniting the population behind its leadership (i.e., the Fà ¼hrer Principle), and policies were instituted to ensure total cultural, political, and economic unity (e.g., the 1933 implementation of â€Å"Gleichschaltung†). In addition, Nazism utilized enormous amounts of written and oral propaganda to reinforce its principles and accompany its measures, rendering them more palatable to the public and consequently increasing their success,  "Local cooperation and leadership were essential to the success of Coordination. So was a bombardment of propaganda from party newspapers and publicists†¦[e.g., Dr. Goebbels, der Angriff, etc.]† (Bergen 65). The excerpt entitled â€Å"The Fà ¼hrer’s Youth† from Elwira Bauer’s 1936 Nazi propagandist children’s book Trust no Fox on Green Meadow and no Jew upon his Oath, exemplified the new ideal society envisioned by Nazism and reinforced Nazi theories and processes. The title of the book itself, â€Å"Trust †¦ no Jew upon his Oath,† reinforced Nazism’s principle that â€Å"non-Aryans† were inferior to â€Å"Aryans† and, consequently, supported Nazism’s position that an ethnically homogen... ...bably appeared in children’s stories written prior to the twentieth century and still in circulation today is not surprising in light of the fact that Hitler’s, and consequently Nazism’s, beliefs were unoriginal, â€Å"Adolf Hitler was not a brilliant, original thinker. There was nothing new about his views nor even in the way he combined them†¦.What was different was the intensity with which he held his views†¦his ability to captivate large audiences [and] the tremendous power he achieved after he became chancellor of Germany†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Bergen 40). Works Cited Bauer, Elwira. â€Å"The Fà ¼hrer’s Youth.† Nuremberg: Stà ¼rmer Verlag, 1936. Bergen, Doris. War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2003. Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

The Renaissance North And South

Southern Renaissance was more secular compared to the Northern. Northern focused solely on religion. Southern focused more on art, but did not disregard religion completely Southern Europeans during the Renaissance focused on art and religion, while the Northern Europeans created many institutions of higher learning, where they taught practical learning, science, and technology. The ‘Golden Age' as many call it, is believed to be the time in which Europe has finally started to enter the ‘Modern Age. The Southern Renaissance (in Italy) began during the 14th century while the Northern Renaissance is believed to have started during the 1 the century. The Renaissance has increased the popularity of works of art and other fields of stud including: architecture, literature, sciences, politics, and religion. There is quite a few differences between the Southern and Northern Renaissance, and it is also based on the concept of Humanism.Different artists from the south and the nort h have shown these differences in views in their works of art and their concepts in picturing the WA way person lives his or her life. The Northern part of Europe during those times was strongly attached to the teaching gas of Christianity. The church led power, and humanists pictured their society as being more close to God or nature as possible. The North held that Middle Ages belief far longer than their Southern counterpart, and that is also the reason why most of their works of art are about landscapes and the lifestyles of people.The Southern part of Europe (Italy to be more precise) has a very different outlook on how art should be viewed and appreciated. Their artists created paintings about Greg eek and Roman mythologies, about gods and goddesses, and they were always searching for something new and better to create. The colors that they also developed made the nettings seem alive but not in a sense where the painting is the only thing that a person can see. It's more like the viewer can see the object and let his imagination roam freely.The layout of the land might have also played a significant role on how the Renaissance took place in the Northern and Southern parts of Europe. Italy is a place were trade w abundant, and they were exposed to different cultures (Asians and the like). These GA them the option to develop and discover new things. Southerners think that religion I still important, but it is not the only priority that they should be focusing upon. Politic and other sciences were the things that people thought about during those days, and that also changed their way of living.Northerners, on the other hand, was not too exposed to these changes and still clung to their belief of Jesus Christ and the church. The Southern and Northern Renaissance might have a lot of differences, but they have one thing in common: They valued artwork. There even came a time when these artists met and shared their opinions WI the each other. These led to the cr eation of better works of art which are appreciated by t he world today. Summary: 1 .The Southern Renaissance began during the 14th century while the Northern Renaissance was believed to have started during the 16th century. 2. The Northern Part of Europe is strongly attached to Christianity and the church. 3. The Southern Part of Europe during the Renaissance is more focused on the improvement of different fields of science including literature, architecture, politics, a ND religion. 4. Artwork from the North are based on Humanism and Landscapes. 5. Artwork from the South are more about Classical Greek and Roman Mythologies.

Mexican American and Poem Legal Alien Essay

Ora is in the open poem form, it has no stanzas. It does have a few words that rhyme which are â€Å"English† (5) and â€Å"Spanish† (6) and also with â€Å"Mexicans† (14) and then with â€Å"Americans† (15). The poem also has rhythm, it is a low steady beat. It is a straightforward poem about how life is for a person with the same race/ethnicity as others and at the same time, different from others. The poem â€Å"Legal Alien† is about a woman of Mexican parents, who is born and raised in America. An American citizen established by law, but at the same time this person feels like an illegal alien because of how some people treat her. She is fluent in both, English and in Spanish. Feels American because she is, but at the same time she doesn’t. She is looked at by Americans (Anglos) as inferior, and looked at by Mexicans like she doesn’t belong. They make her feel like she is not one of them, like she doesn’t fit anywhere. â€Å"An American to Mexicans a Mexican to Americans a handy token sliding back and forth between the fringes of both worlds† (14-18).Wha Rosa PantojaPeriod 110/9/12Ms. HamptonAmerican literatureLegal Alien EssayThe beliefs of the contemporary time period is that the voices of all cultures, ethnicgroups, gender, and nationalities should be heard and poetry is universal and speaks to allpeople regardless of their background. In the poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, the literary devicesthat Pat Mora uses are metaphor and personification. These literary devices help reveal the author’s message to the audience which are the Mexican-Americans. The metaphor show thatbeing Mexican-American has its advantages and the personification shows the disadvantages of how people view Mexican-American.Pat Mora uses metaphor to reveal the message that being Mexican-Americans has anadvantage to the audience. In line 16 â€Å"a handy token sliding back and forth betwee. n the fringes of both worlds†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this is a metaphor because she is comparing herself to a token. She comparesherself to a token because tokens usually have two sides to it, and she is implying that she alsohas two sides because she is Mexican and American. P at Mora uses â€Å"handy token† because she says that it is an advantage because she can go between the borders of being Mexican andbeing American. Pat uses the word â€Å"fringes† instead of using the word border because the fringe is bringing both sides of the world together and a border separates the two worlds of Americans and Mexicans, and by her being Mexican- American she is bringing both of thoseworlds togethe.

Medical School Essays Creating a Masterpiece

Medical School Essays Creating a Masterpiece When it comes to graduate school, no program is more difficult in which to gain admission than medical school. Arduous, complex, and fiercely competitive, the medical school admissions process is not to be taken lightly. If you are considering applying to medical school, I encourage you to read the following information on medical school essays. Writing a medical school essay requires a tremendous amount of patience, passion, and perseverance. As you are competing against thousands of other students for admission, your medical school admissions composition must be a self- marketing work of genius. The medical school essay you create must effectively establish your fervor and commitment to the field of medicine, and positively distinguish you from the rest of the applicants. Regardless of where you apply to medical school, you will more than likely be asked to respond to a specific question in regards to your essay (i.e. Why do you want to be a doctor? How do you envision your practice ten years from now?). Considering that you and thousands of others will be responding to the exact same question, I recommend that you do all you can to make your essay stand out. Getting your paper professionally printed and bound is one way to enhance your medical school essay. Providing illustrations and/or personal photographs is another way. Regardless of how you choose to improve the presentation of your composition, make sure that your approach is professional and unique. There is no question that medical school essays are tough. That is why it is so important, in my opinion, to hire a professional admission essays editor to assist you. If you are interested in learning more about professional editing services or if you would like additional information on medical school essays or medical school personal statements, please dont hesitate to contact me. I understand how difficult the medical school admissions process can be and would love to make it easier on you!

Ebola Disease essays

Ebola Disease essays Severe fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates Named after a river in Democratic Republic of Congo One of the two members of the RNA viruses called the Filoviridae First three subgroups are known to cause disease in humans: Only subgroup to cause disease just in nonhuman primates: Exact origin, location, and natural habitat is unknown Originate in an animal host from Africa Mainly primates which carry it Ebola is usually spread within a health-care setting Cases of Ebola reported in: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sudan, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo. Infections with Ebola virus are severe No carrier state where the virus is located First patient becomes infected by contact with infected animal After the first person receives the virus, people can be exposed: from direct contact with the blood and/or secretions of an infected person. from contact with objects, such as needles, that have been contaminated with infected secretions - sore throat - stomach pain After initial symptoms, hemorrhagic rash appears over entire body Patient bleeds from mouth and rectum immune systems failure to produce antibodies Diagnosing Ebola is very difficult Many symptoms can occur in other diseases ...

A Social Partnerships in the New Millenium

There is also a huge amount being written about the issue, some Industrial Relations commentators have even hailed this as the most exciting thing to happen to UK industry in years. However, not every group completely agrees with this. For example, some groups believe that Social Partnership has had a very negative effect on British Trade Unions. At www.labournet.org.uk a group have named a bulletin board ‘Solidarity’. It is a page dedicated to ‘challenging social partnership’ and it’s apparent corrosive effects on union power. It is very typical of the types of arguments put forward by groups that are oh so against social partnerships. Stakeholders like the authors of solidarity believe that social partnerships tie unions to the coat tails of employers. What they want is a ‘new unionism’ which opposes subordination to the ‘global market’ and builds on the experience of the Liverpool Dockers. This group is completely opposed to any kind of privatisation and really wants more from unions than just a concern for working conditions. They want a break â€Å"..with the narrow work place concerns of ‘non-political’ trade unionism† and believe that unions should fight † for the interests of the working class and oppressed as a whole†. They also see a need for a repeal of all â€Å"anti-union† legislation and an end to state interference into unions, such as social partnership agreements. Taken from ‘Solidarity’, the journal that openly states it’s purpose is to challenge social partnerships in trade unions, here are some ‘facts’ that display how social partnerships have had a harmful effect on British trade unions: In Rover and the car industry, where the unions have identified the interests of workers with commercial success in the ‘global market’, they have been gravely weakened and meekly accepted massive job cuts. USDAW has reached a ‘Partnership Agreement’ with Tesco which takes away the right of the union members as a whole to vote on pay deals. The TUC has collaborated with a privatised utility in the Energy Industry and set up a company with them – Union Energy – thus effectively abandoning the fight for re-nationalisation. They are collaborating with a privatised utility which has decimated trade union members’ jobs. The unions have swallowed ‘Investors in People’ which identifies the interests of union members with the ‘business aims’ of private companies. The TUC and most unions have accepted that the increased competition of the ‘global market’ means unity with ‘our employers’ and competing with workers in other countries. Stakeholders like these aim to challenge social partnership by campaigning for complete independence of the unions from the employer. They reject globalisation and counterpoise to it a working class internationalism which recognises that workers have more in common with those in other countries than they do with ‘our own’ bosses. It is a very Marxist standpoint . They feel that for those in the unions who support their independence from the employers and the state, a systematic struggle against ‘social partnership’ in all its manifestations is a central task if they are to break the unions from the employers’ coat tails. They are insistent that this outlook has only been adopted by union leaders. It has though percolated down to many workplaces, reinforced by the fear of unemployment. This far left view contrasts greatly with those unions that actually see social partnership in a very positive, if slightly unclear light. Unions like FIET, The International Federation of commercial, clerical, professional, and technical employees see social partnership as a â€Å"new and challenging area of work for the union.† For unions that see the millennium as a time to accept social partnership, it will mean unions and companies learning to do things differently, rather than trying to campaign against this change. Some unions like FIET have accepted that we now have a government committed to promoting the partnership approach, and to ensuring that it becomes a permanent feature in the workplace. Unions like this have therefore accepted that social partnership is going to be around for a long time. I think that left wing reactions to social partnerships, like that of ‘Solidarity’ is very much a reactive one rather than considered. I think that those stakeholders set so strongly against this issue need to understand that the government’s political commitment to partnership goes far beyond the UK. We now have a new and positive approach to Europe and this social partnership model is at the heart of the EU’s approach to all Industrial Relations. Indeed Social Partnership does mean long term changes to the Industrial Relations scene in Europe and in Britain, all that unions need to work on is understanding what these changes will mean for their members and the companies that they work in. Looked at from this more positive, optimistic standpoint then social partnership has the potential to deliver some very real benefits: Potentially it means that employers will be working with the trade unions to bring about improvements in the quality of work. It means that employees, through their trade union, will be given a much greater say in how their company is run. Social partnership should give unions the opportunity to be consulted earlier, more often and on a wider range of issues than has happened before. Surely the growth in partnership at work can only be a welcome one, if not somewhat overdue? However, these encouraging and upbeat pointers can only be achieved if the unions get themselves involved in equal terms right from the beginning, otherwise employers could try to do things without the unions. As stakeholders like ‘Solidarity’ state I think that there is indeed a risk that social partnership may be used to try and undermine trade union organisation in the work place. Employers could potentially claim that they can have a partnership directly with their staff and do not require the union’s participation. If the unions are excluded in this way then not only could there be disastrous consequences for union members but social partnership will not work for employers either. Partnership can only be successful when employees as partners are properly supported and resourced through a dependable trade union. To illustrate this point further, let us consider what may happen if the retail sector tried to introduce partnership without trade union involvement : Most employees in this sector work part-time. There are increasingly complex and unsociable working hours in retailing which in turn means that most employees may have very little contact with anyone beyond their shift. In these circumstances employees have less of an opportunity to form a collective view. Simply meeting together can be extremely difficult in such organisations, let alone having the resources and confidence to develop their own ideas and concerns. Therefore it is clear that in most cases employees are unlikely to become equal and effective partners when they do not have the time or the means to generate their own agenda. A dependable and experienced trade union means that employees can enter into partnership properly supported and resourced. To achieve this, a real commitment is required from employers to supporting trade union membership, as the best way for their staff to be given a voice and more importantly the confidence to use it. Basically partnership needs partners. But how will social partnership actually change things in real terms for employees and the unions? By answering this question I will hopefully be able to assess if social partnership is a viable way forward in the new millennium. Firstly, unions need to take a positive approach, for them social partnerships should be about: Co-operation, not confrontation. Improving the quality of working life. Employers listening to and respecting unions and vice versa. Employees developing their own agenda through their trade union. If they agree on the above terms then hopefully it will mean: Moving away from the common practice of the union only talking to companies once a year. At the moment, even with companies with whom there exists a good relationship, unions often only talk to the organisation at the time of the annual wage negotiations. Many unions feel that the annual wage round sometimes becomes a little tired and predictable, with companies offering the lowest increase that they feel they can get away with. However, partnership is different. For the unions, it means talking to companies throughout the year. It means having a constant dialogue with employers about what is happening at all levels of the company. It should also mean that the union is consulted on a wider range of issues. Companies are used to contacting unions when they are implementing redundancies or sell offs. Mainly because there is a legal obligation on them to do this, but unions have not in the past been consulted on the overall direction of a company or about strategic decisions that may affect employees. A Social Partnership means that the union should be consulted on a far wider range of issues than they have been used to. It means earlier and better consultation sessions, theoretically no more being told about something when it has already been implemented. A Social Partnerships in the New Millenium There is also a huge amount being written about the issue, some Industrial Relations commentators have even hailed this as the most exciting thing to happen to UK industry in years. However, not every group completely agrees with this. For example, some groups believe that Social Partnership has had a very negative effect on British Trade Unions. At www.labournet.org.uk a group have named a bulletin board ‘Solidarity’. It is a page dedicated to ‘challenging social partnership’ and it’s apparent corrosive effects on union power. It is very typical of the types of arguments put forward by groups that are oh so against social partnerships. Stakeholders like the authors of solidarity believe that social partnerships tie unions to the coat tails of employers. What they want is a ‘new unionism’ which opposes subordination to the ‘global market’ and builds on the experience of the Liverpool Dockers. This group is completely opposed to any kind of privatisation and really wants more from unions than just a concern for working conditions. They want a break â€Å"..with the narrow work place concerns of ‘non-political’ trade unionism† and believe that unions should fight † for the interests of the working class and oppressed as a whole†. They also see a need for a repeal of all â€Å"anti-union† legislation and an end to state interference into unions, such as social partnership agreements. Taken from ‘Solidarity’, the journal that openly states it’s purpose is to challenge social partnerships in trade unions, here are some ‘facts’ that display how social partnerships have had a harmful effect on British trade unions: In Rover and the car industry, where the unions have identified the interests of workers with commercial success in the ‘global market’, they have been gravely weakened and meekly accepted massive job cuts. USDAW has reached a ‘Partnership Agreement’ with Tesco which takes away the right of the union members as a whole to vote on pay deals. The TUC has collaborated with a privatised utility in the Energy Industry and set up a company with them – Union Energy – thus effectively abandoning the fight for re-nationalisation. They are collaborating with a privatised utility which has decimated trade union members’ jobs. The unions have swallowed ‘Investors in People’ which identifies the interests of union members with the ‘business aims’ of private companies. The TUC and most unions have accepted that the increased competition of the ‘global market’ means unity with ‘our employers’ and competing with workers in other countries. Stakeholders like these aim to challenge social partnership by campaigning for complete independence of the unions from the employer. They reject globalisation and counterpoise to it a working class internationalism which recognises that workers have more in common with those in other countries than they do with ‘our own’ bosses. It is a very Marxist standpoint . They feel that for those in the unions who support their independence from the employers and the state, a systematic struggle against ‘social partnership’ in all its manifestations is a central task if they are to break the unions from the employers’ coat tails. They are insistent that this outlook has only been adopted by union leaders. It has though percolated down to many workplaces, reinforced by the fear of unemployment. This far left view contrasts greatly with those unions that actually see social partnership in a very positive, if slightly unclear light. Unions like FIET, The International Federation of commercial, clerical, professional, and technical employees see social partnership as a â€Å"new and challenging area of work for the union.† For unions that see the millennium as a time to accept social partnership, it will mean unions and companies learning to do things differently, rather than trying to campaign against this change. Some unions like FIET have accepted that we now have a government committed to promoting the partnership approach, and to ensuring that it becomes a permanent feature in the workplace. Unions like this have therefore accepted that social partnership is going to be around for a long time. I think that left wing reactions to social partnerships, like that of ‘Solidarity’ is very much a reactive one rather than considered. I think that those stakeholders set so strongly against this issue need to understand that the government’s political commitment to partnership goes far beyond the UK. We now have a new and positive approach to Europe and this social partnership model is at the heart of the EU’s approach to all Industrial Relations. Indeed Social Partnership does mean long term changes to the Industrial Relations scene in Europe and in Britain, all that unions need to work on is understanding what these changes will mean for their members and the companies that they work in. Looked at from this more positive, optimistic standpoint then social partnership has the potential to deliver some very real benefits: Potentially it means that employers will be working with the trade unions to bring about improvements in the quality of work. It means that employees, through their trade union, will be given a much greater say in how their company is run. Social partnership should give unions the opportunity to be consulted earlier, more often and on a wider range of issues than has happened before. Surely the growth in partnership at work can only be a welcome one, if not somewhat overdue? However, these encouraging and upbeat pointers can only be achieved if the unions get themselves involved in equal terms right from the beginning, otherwise employers could try to do things without the unions. As stakeholders like ‘Solidarity’ state I think that there is indeed a risk that social partnership may be used to try and undermine trade union organisation in the work place. Employers could potentially claim that they can have a partnership directly with their staff and do not require the union’s participation. If the unions are excluded in this way then not only could there be disastrous consequences for union members but social partnership will not work for employers either. Partnership can only be successful when employees as partners are properly supported and resourced through a dependable trade union. To illustrate this point further, let us consider what may happen if the retail sector tried to introduce partnership without trade union involvement : Most employees in this sector work part-time. There are increasingly complex and unsociable working hours in retailing which in turn means that most employees may have very little contact with anyone beyond their shift. In these circumstances employees have less of an opportunity to form a collective view. Simply meeting together can be extremely difficult in such organisations, let alone having the resources and confidence to develop their own ideas and concerns. Therefore it is clear that in most cases employees are unlikely to become equal and effective partners when they do not have the time or the means to generate their own agenda. A dependable and experienced trade union means that employees can enter into partnership properly supported and resourced. To achieve this, a real commitment is required from employers to supporting trade union membership, as the best way for their staff to be given a voice and more importantly the confidence to use it. Basically partnership needs partners. But how will social partnership actually change things in real terms for employees and the unions? By answering this question I will hopefully be able to assess if social partnership is a viable way forward in the new millennium. Firstly, unions need to take a positive approach, for them social partnerships should be about: Co-operation, not confrontation. Improving the quality of working life. Employers listening to and respecting unions and vice versa. Employees developing their own agenda through their trade union. If they agree on the above terms then hopefully it will mean: Moving away from the common practice of the union only talking to companies once a year. At the moment, even with companies with whom there exists a good relationship, unions often only talk to the organisation at the time of the annual wage negotiations. Many unions feel that the annual wage round sometimes becomes a little tired and predictable, with companies offering the lowest increase that they feel they can get away with. However, partnership is different. For the unions, it means talking to companies throughout the year. It means having a constant dialogue with employers about what is happening at all levels of the company. It should also mean that the union is consulted on a wider range of issues. Companies are used to contacting unions when they are implementing redundancies or sell offs. Mainly because there is a legal obligation on them to do this, but unions have not in the past been consulted on the overall direction of a company or about strategic decisions that may affect employees. A Social Partnership means that the union should be consulted on a far wider range of issues than they have been used to. It means earlier and better consultation sessions, theoretically no more being told about something when it has already been implemented.

Sharing Microeconomic Insights with Non-Specialist Audiences Assignment

Sharing Microeconomic Insights with Non-Specialist Audiences - Assignment Example On 26th February 2013 the New York Times presented an article titled, ‘Are We in Danger of a Beer Monopoly?’ From the article, it’s possible to learn more about formation, pricing, regulation and operation of monopolies. Most companies are established with the primary aim being to maximize profit. A monopoly is a profit maximizer, to do this they reduce supply of the products, and this raises the prices of the scarce products. For firm’s that operate near monopoly condition they enjoy economies of scale that enable them set their prices profitably, and they can control the prices of other smaller companies. In 1988 when Miller and Coors reduced their beer prices AB InBev also reduced the prices of its beer forcing Miller and Coors to abandon their price cut. This shows the firm’s dominance in this industry and all firms have to pay attention to this market leader. This further indicates AB InBev intention to scare away the small existing firms and hence force them to exit this industry. AB InBev has the powers to set its prices if the competitors reduce their prices it also reduces its prices to ensure it competes efficient. AB InBev aims to acquire Grupo Modelo’s Corona since it hinders it from setting high prices. The acquisition was it to happen will hence give AB InBev the powers to raise its price as it wishes and hence operate under monopoly conditions. AB InBev will hence be a price setter. There are different ways that a company can gain monopoly power. First is by government regulations prohibiting entrance of other firms in that industry, they can result from controlling a significant resource. Monopolies may also arise from economies of scale, availability of production technology and capital or mergers and acquisition. In this case AB InBev was developed on the concept of technological innovation and managerial efficiency. Since its establishment in 1999 the company has

Homeland Security Advisory System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homeland Security Advisory System - Essay Example This efficient system is used to create structure and context for national discussion regarding threats that oppose the homeland and help in taking proper measures that can play an appropriate role in protecting the country. This system seeks to facilitate and inform proper decision that rate to various levels of government and to local citizens present at work and home (Loeb, 2007). This powerful system was launched on March 11th 2002, by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3 as a way to secure the conditions after 11th September 2001. It has the initiative to provide a â€Å"comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to federal, state, and local authorities and to the American people." This was said by Tom Ridge, the assistant to the President for Homeland Security on 12th March 2002. However, the role of managing, implementing and developing the system was the duty of the U.S Attorney General (Loeb, 2007). On January 2003, a new department known as Homeland Security (DHS) started administering this system. Now, the decision to â€Å"announce the occurrence of threat conditions is performed by the Secretary of Homeland Security in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security.† (Homeland Security Presidential Directive-5) The Homeland Security Advisory System that binds the services various levels of government and other private sectors. In this system, there are five Threat Conditions that identify the description of the threat by the color they have. Each level of threat has a subsequent color which describes the intensity of the expected attack. Each level; from highest to lowest, following is the colors: This proves that the higher the level of Thread Conditions is the greater are the chances of terrorist attacks. The terrorist attacks include both; the reason why the attack is occurring and the potential

Organization behavior class in the news report Essay

Organization behavior class in the news report - Essay Example The author pointed out the openness of Grove to learn from his audience, his students. Being an educator at Stanford University, Grove have laid down a realistic case, very truthful indeed because it pertains to the future of his very own company. Tedlow used this incident to show his readers the leadership style of Grove. He wrote a brief biography of the CEO by accident, how, from being an engineer, he strove to become one of the most admired corporate leaders using his past experiences to as guides and educational tools. Tedlow also highlighted Grove's reliance on data during decision-making. He finally pointed out Grove's advocacy in independent thinking. Thinking for one's self using data and previous experiences (and mistakes) as references are cornerstones of Grove's leadership style. In the other article, "Peter Drucker On Leadership" Forbes author Rich Karlgaard used his personal interview with the management guru in plotting out the latter's basic leadership principles. The first point that the author raised is Drucker's emphasis on the question "What needs to be done" For Drucker, knowing what a leader needs to do, as opposed to the asking one's self "What do I want to do," is the key for successful management. Checking one's performance based on the things they ought to do is the next success factor of effective leaders. Drucker further emphasized that effective leaders are mission driven and are willing to turn down other irrelevant tasks to their mission. They also make clear what their current priorities are to their subordinates. A unique leadership style is also required. Focusing on strengths and delegating tasks you are weak at. To save time and money, Drucker also advised leaders to refrain from too much travelling and instead use the power of modern technologies to facilitate communication with subordinates. Karlgaard further warned leaders that misuse of charisma is detrimental to one's leadership. Better be a reliable silent leader than a deceitful charismatic one. Google's CEO Eric E. Schmidt narrowly focused strategy is what author Ben Elgin examines in his article "Google: A $50 Billion 'One Trick Pony'" in Business Week. Elgin showed how the search engine giant preferred to stick with its existing method of generating income than to diversify its advertising product line by exploring other income opportunities. The author commented that Google's singularity in its focus to its text advertisements might hurt the company in the future. Article Comparison These articles show three different perspectives on leadership. The first one is about the hands-on leadership principles accumulated by Andrew Grove. As a practicing business leader, Grove pointed out his first-hand wisdom on how to drive an organization to the top. Based on his past experiences of Grove's failures and successes, Tedlow gave us a picture on how the CEO riskily responded to the leadership problems that he encountered. The second article is more conservative and theoretical. It concerns more on the wisdom gained by an academe and business book writer, Peter Drucker. Drucker based his writings on his researches about CEO's. Being a business professor he gives us theoretical pointers rather than practical wisdom in leading an organization. Karlgaard's article is more of a commentary concerning the soundness of Schmidt's strategy. By limiting is focus on a single product line, Google has become a towering leader in that particular market. Despite these contrasts

Business Operations of Ford Motor Company Essay - 1

Business Operations of Ford Motor Company - Essay Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that today, Ford Motor Company is the second largest vehicle manufacturer in America and ranks fifth in the world. The company initially introduced Ford Fiesta in the American market during the 1970s. However, this new product failed to grab a large percentage of the automobile market. Although Ford Fiesta did not sell in the American market, the product grabbed a place in the market of Europe and its sales volume has been good for more than four decades now. The Fiesta car is changing the preference of buyers in fairly quicker rate. Particularly, in Britain, Fiesta car model has the largest market compared to other car models. Based on the results of recent researches that customers are more willing to buy low CO2 automatic and low-cost vehicle, Ford has used Fiesta strategy to accommodate these preferences. The Fiesta’s gearbox is different from traditional torque converters. It is a dual-clutch transmitter and t his enables it to drain less power, thus having a decent fuel economy. The Ford Fiesta car has a kinematic design. Ford Company uses this design to ensure minimal noise, harshness, vibration, and smooth ride. This product also has many features like 6-Speed Powershift Automatic Transmission (SPAT), Ti-VCT Engine (Twin Independent Variable Camshaft Timing), ESP (Electronic Stability Programme that has TSC (Traction Control System), fuel efficiency, easy fuel, seductive center console, and Bluetooth that has voice control. The company represents this new brand with a better warranty and services. The buyers of Ford Fiesta are given a 3-year warranty that is only valid when the vehicle is in the appropriate condition prescribed in the owners’ manual that is authorized by Ford Service Center.

Paternity civil case and calculation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Paternity civil case and calculation - Essay Example These include the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) markers used in DNA evidence. Butler (2006) indicates that markers were first described as an effective tool to ascertain human identity in the early 1990’s. Since then they have become important tools which have been employed in order to resolve numerous paternity testing cases. Identigene (n.d.) indicates that genetists developed this set of markers to ensure a level of consistency in identifying individuals and named them according to their chromosomal location. Each of the marker location shows two alleles (variation values) represented by the numbers in the table below. In this case Identigene (n.d.) indicates that the alleles are measures of short tandem reports (STR). One of the STR alleles is from the mother and one from the father. If at least one of the markers for each STR locus matches then there is assumed to be a high probability of a paternity relationship. On the oth er hand if at least one of the markers for each STR locus does not agree with the alleged father’s then this is an indication that there is no paternity relationship. A paternity index that is greater than 100 yields a CPI of 99.0000%; one that equates to 200, yields a CPI of 99.5%; and one that equates to 1000 yields a CPI of 99.9900%. Identigene (n.d.) indicates that immigration cases require a CPI value of 200 or better. The International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has a number of recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing. These include: the importance of a statement of a hypothesis; information on how the calculations are done, considerations for the possibility of mutations whenever a genetic inconsistency is observed; guidance relating to the possibility of a single allele in a tested subject; as well as the details that should be presented in test reports. According to Gjertson et al (2007) the International

Hilda Polacheck, I Came a Stranger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hilda Polacheck, I Came a Stranger - Essay Example The aspect of citizenship manifest strongly in the Hilda Polacheck of â€Å"I Came a Stranger.† The narration by Hilda about her life experiences gives us a view of the historical perspectives of citizenship in America. When arriving in USA with the mother and the siblings, Hilda Polacheck experienced the problem of gaining access to the American social system. Hilda narrates how the immigration officers in America confined her family and immigrants in a camp with deplorable conditions. The reason for the treatment was to prevent entry of people who become a public charge, and burden the government. The American authority of the time only allowed entry to immigrants who could support themselves. This experience by Hilda Polacheck helps us understand the history and significant of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 2008. A clause in the Act prohibits issue of citizenship to immigrants who can become a burden to the public. 1The immigration officials have the responsibilities to examine skills, financial resources, physical abilities, health status and education of the immigrants before allowing entry into the country. During the historic America, there was a belief that poor immigrants would flood the country with anticipation to enjoy the economic prosperity. 2To become an American citizen through naturalization is never easy or automatic. A person has to undergo various screenings, and must have stayed in America for longer time. The given immigrant applying for naturalization must proved with authentic documentation that they have stayed in America longer enough to warrant issue of citizenship. This aspect of citizenship is evident the narration of Hilda Polacheck. In the book, Hilda mentions that her father died without having gained citizenship despite having applied. The reason given for the reluctance by the US official was that the

Paternity civil case and calculation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Paternity civil case and calculation - Essay Example These include the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) markers used in DNA evidence. Butler (2006) indicates that markers were first described as an effective tool to ascertain human identity in the early 1990’s. Since then they have become important tools which have been employed in order to resolve numerous paternity testing cases. Identigene (n.d.) indicates that genetists developed this set of markers to ensure a level of consistency in identifying individuals and named them according to their chromosomal location. Each of the marker location shows two alleles (variation values) represented by the numbers in the table below. In this case Identigene (n.d.) indicates that the alleles are measures of short tandem reports (STR). One of the STR alleles is from the mother and one from the father. If at least one of the markers for each STR locus matches then there is assumed to be a high probability of a paternity relationship. On the oth er hand if at least one of the markers for each STR locus does not agree with the alleged father’s then this is an indication that there is no paternity relationship. A paternity index that is greater than 100 yields a CPI of 99.0000%; one that equates to 200, yields a CPI of 99.5%; and one that equates to 1000 yields a CPI of 99.9900%. Identigene (n.d.) indicates that immigration cases require a CPI value of 200 or better. The International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) has a number of recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing. These include: the importance of a statement of a hypothesis; information on how the calculations are done, considerations for the possibility of mutations whenever a genetic inconsistency is observed; guidance relating to the possibility of a single allele in a tested subject; as well as the details that should be presented in test reports. According to Gjertson et al (2007) the International

Climate and Polar Maritime Air Essay Example for Free

Climate and Polar Maritime Air Essay To what extent is the climate of the British Isles a product of the air masses that affect it? Climate is defined as the weather averaged over a 30 year period, with weather being determined by temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation. The climate in the British Isles is described as cool temperate western maritime climate, although there are regional differences in climate across the British Isles; with average temperatures ranging from -0.2 to 20.9 degrees Celsius. The climate of the British Isles is influenced by the movement of five major air masses. However, it is also influenced by other factors, including its topography, ocean currents, latitude, and weather systems. Firstly, it can be argued that air masses play a large part in the overall climate of the British Isles. Air masses are large bodies of air with reasonably uniform temperature, pressure and humidity throughout. There are five main air masses that influence the climate: tropical maritime(TM), polar maritime (PM), tropical continental (TC), polar continental (PC) and arctic maritime (AM). The direction of the air masses can be seen in the diagram below. Tropical Maritime brings warm moist air from the Atlantic Ocean. This warm air hits areas of high relief in western England and Wales, causing the air to rise, which means clouds form. Areas of high relief in the west of England include Dartmoor and Exmoor. The air is very moist as it is from the ocean, so there is lots of precipitation. This wind is warm, which means that is has a warming affect in the winter, however in the Summer because the land has a lower specific heat capacity, it heats up more than the Atlantic ocean. Therefore it has a cooling affect in summer. Tropical Continental air masses bring hot and dry air in summer. This causes high temperatures with very little precipitation, and is the reason for heat waves in the British Isles. For example the heat wave in July 2013, where temperatures reached 33.5 °C . Polar Maritime air masses bring cold moist winds as they originate from a north westerly direction, over the Atlantic Ocean. This therefore causes very cold wet weather in the British Isles, especially in the westerly parts of the British Isles where there is high relief causing precipitation. Polar Maritime air is dominant over the winter season. Polar Continental air masses originate from high latitudes such as Siberia so therefore bring very cold conditions with them, however as they come from land not ocean, the air masses bring dry conditions. Arctic air  masses originate over the Arctic Ocean where high pressure dominates. The air masses bring extremely cold temperatures, however is only dominant in winter, and sometimes in spring. However this air mass is more likely to affect the climate in Scotland, and northern England, as it has come from a northernly direction. Overall this shows that air masses do play a significant role in the overall climate of the British Isles, however some air masses are more dominant than others in different seasons, and some air masses are dominant in different areas of the British Isles. The climate of the British Isles is also greatly affected by weather systems such as depressions. Mid Latitude depressions are formed over the Atlantic Ocean on the Polar front. They move in an easterly direction across the British Isles. The depressions are low pressure systems that are formed when moist, warm â„ ¢ air meets drier, colder PM air. The warm, moist air is forced upwards, by the colder denser air. The Coriolis effect causes the air to rotate in an anticlockwise direction. The jet stream is also involved as it moves the depression from west to east. The climate associated with depressions is strong winds, clouds and precipitation. However the climate is dependent on which air mass is over the British Isles. Polar maritime air brings average temperatures for the season in winter, around 5 °C-8 °C in January, but cooler temperatures for the summer season, at around 16 °C to 18 °C in July. This air mass also brings lots of precipitation. Tropical maritime air brings humid and mild weather in winter, with temperatures averaging at around 12 °C-14 °C in January. Tropical maritime can also bring thunderstorms , due to the humidity and low pressure. An example of when a depression has greatly affected the British Isles was the Great Storm in 1987. This fast moving depression caused wind speeds of up to 81mph. The British Isles experienced lots of rainfall, and there was even an increase in temperature by 6 °C in places, where the warm front was situated. This shows how depressions can have great impacts on the climate of the British Isles, however this large depression is not common, so does not usually affect the climate. Overall, depressions have a great impact on the climate of the British Isles both in winter and summer, however it can be argued that air masses play an important role in the formation of depressions, so this also shows that air masses indirectly affect the climate. The British  Isles has a latitude between 50 °N and 60 °N. This has a great impact on the climate that it experiences, meaning that the latitude is another factor that will influence the climate of the British Isles. The latitude of an area will affect how much insolation it will receive. This is due to the angle of incidence, which can be see in the diagram below. A larger angle of incidence will mean that the insolation from the sun will only disperse over a small area, whereas a small angle of incidence means the same amount of insolation will be spread over a larger area. At a 30 ° angle, a one wile wide ray of insolation will be dispersed over a two mile radius, whereas an angle of incidence of 90 ° with the same ray of insolation will be dispersed over a one mile radius. Higher latitude have smaller angles of incidence, meaning that they will receive less insolation. Therefore the latitude of the British Isles means that there will be temperate conditions. It is not likely that the British Isles will experience a very hot climate due to the fact that id does not receive enough insolation to heat up the surrounding air and ground. This can be seen if you compare the average yearly temperatures of the British Isles compared to Somalia, which is found at a lower latitude of 2.03 °. The British Isles has an average temperatures ranging from 8.5-11 °C. In contrast Somalia has temperatures around 24-31 °C. This demonstrates how that latitude of an area can greatly impact the temperature, which means it affects the overall climate of the area. This shows that latitude is a factor other than air masses that will impact the climate of the British Isles. Altitude is another factor that influences the climate of the British Isles. On average the air temperature falls by 0.65 °C every 100m rise in altitude. This is due to the fall in pressure as the altitude increases, meaning molecules have less kinetic energy. For example Ben Nevis has a height f 1,344 metres, and has an average annual temperatures of -5 °C, compared to the British Isles which has an average annual temperature of around 8.5-11 °C. This shows that altitude has a direct impact on the temperature of the British Isles, so areas of high altitude in the west of the British Isles, such as Cambrian will have lower temperatures. The altitude of the British Isles will also cause precipitation, as when moist air masses move across areas of high relief, the air masses are forced upwards, where the  cool condense and form clouds. For example in Wales the Cambrian mountains receive over 100mm rainfall per month all year round. This is due to the tropical maritime and polar maritime winds bringing moist air. Overall this shows that altitude can have a large impact on the climate of the British Isles, however air masses are also involved in this, which demonstrates that air masses still play a significant role in the overall climate. Lastly, ocean currents are another factor that have a large impact on the climate of the British Isles. The most significant ocean current is the Gulf Stream, which . Gulf Streams are influenced In conclusion, the climate of the British Isles is a product of air masses so a large extent. Although there are many other factors that also affect the climate, air masses are also involved in these factors, such as the formation of depressions, or the movement of ocean currents. Therefore air masses so also indirectly influence the climate of the British Isles, meaning that they play the most significant role in affecting the climate.

The Media During Communal Riots

The Media During Communal Riots Communalism is a pervasive phenomenon in the public life of India and communal riots are the ugliest expression (Krishna, 1985). Communal riots have become an integral part of communalism in India. An event can be classified as a communal riot on two grounds. Firstly, if there is violence. Secondly, if two or more communally identified groups confront each other or the members of the other group, at some point during the violence (Varshney, 2002). The reason behind such communal riots can be superficial and trivial; though deep within there are political reasons behind such events (Varshney, 2002). India is not new to communal riots; the first recorded riots were in the year 1714, 1715, 1716 and 1750 in Ahmedabad (Rajeshwari, 2004). Bipin Chandra in his book Communalism in Modern India writes that the maximum communal riots in India took place during 1923-26. Communal riots in India are not spontaneous and are rarely due to any religious animosity. They usually arise due to conflicting political interests, which are often linked to economic interests (Rajeshwari, 2004). During the 1960s till the late 1980s, the local political and economic factors played a significant role in instigating the riots in major parts of India (Engineer, 2002). However, since then the emergence of Hindtuva1 politics has been the major cause of communal riots (Engineer, 2002). The role of news media in reportage of communal riots in India is a major area of concern. Everything is reported in the media, so are communal riots. The role of the news media has grown in recent years, perhaps because of the centrality of the news media in communal violence and conflicts (Wolfsfeld, 2007). Even the most casual of observers wont deny the increasing significance of news media under such crisis situations. The influence of the news media in peace processes is more subtle, in part because what is not reported in the media is in some ways more important than what is reported. This paper would look at the way Indian media covered and reported the two most horrific incidents of communal violence in India the 1984 Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat (Godhra) riots. On both occasions the media drew criticisms. The paper would discuss if the media has been objective in covering both riots and also as to what should be medias role in coverage of such future communal riots in India, if any. The Changing Face of News Media The global media sphere is changing with each passing second. New communications technologies such as camera enabled mobile phones and laptop computers are giving journalists an opportunity to gather and disseminate information with normal ease. This digitization of the news industry has led to compression of time and space and thus enabled us to see news and images of conflicts as and when they happen. The images broadcasted in our living rooms are not only informing the global audience of the horrific happenings but might also instigate further violence in an existing violent situation. As a result, the medias reporting of a conflict situation has become as central to the unfolding of the conflict itself. With the evolution in technology the tyranny of distance might have reduced but various hidden realities and factors still affect the reporting of conflicts. This is proved by a study done by Virgil Hawkings, who explains that the conflict in Africa which has been in the post-Cold war world responsible for nearly 90% of the worlds war deaths suffered a complete media blackout. Similarly, the coverage of the massive war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which resulted in over one million deaths in the year 2000, was almost insignificant (Hawkins, 2008). Since the media has a powerful ability to reach large number of people. It ignites the opinion building process and impacts the political decisions and audience reactions in the society. This eventually shapes the course of prevalent crises and conflicts (Ballantine, 2003). The Media, Religion and Politics With the planes hitting the Twin Towers on 11 September, 2001 the relationship between media and religion changed forever. Karim (2003) suggested that religion would become an important topic for the media and the way media covers events would be influenced by the religious undertones. It is arguable if the world and its religions have changed or not, but the media coverage of the same surely has. Within India, religion has a large impact on the personal lives of millions of people. The country practices almost every other religion known to the world and this is one of the most important facets of the country, so is politics. The politicians play on the religious issues every now and then, and media is used as the platform. The politicians communicate with the common mass through the mass media. The way in which we know and find about our politicians is through the media. It is the media that serves as the main channel of communication between the politicians and the public. Religion is one of the subjects in India which the politicians intelligently use to their advantage. Academic literature has covered the representation of conflict in religion as well as media and religion but not much has been researched on media, religion and conflict situations in context with each other, especially within an environment like India. It would be difficult to understand the relationship between religion, its construction, presentation and conflict situations covered in the media, without some reference to the broader political context within which it takes place, because in a nation like India, religion is certainly driven by political motives. In order to understand the role media plays and should play during communal clashes in India, let us analyze the two worst communal riots India has ever seen the 1984 Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. The 1984 Sikh Riots 4.1 The Events On 31st of October 1984, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. What followed was a complete mayhem and it led to a lethal anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi, India. Sikh homes were systematically singled out in the capital and brutally destroyed (Tatla, 2006). The Sikhs were hounded, tyres were put around their neck, and petrol doused on their faces and bodies set ablaze to brutal death (Mohanka, 2005). More than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in New Delhi itself. Two hundred Gurudwaras, the place where Sikhs worship, were burnt down and many Sikh owned shops were looted (Bedia, 2009). The situation worsened when the newly elected Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi was quoted, When a big tree falls, the ground beneath is sure to rumble. This gave a sense as if Rajiv Gandhi was giving a boost to the killers who were assassinating hundreds of Sikhs in the streets of New Delhi (Mohanka, 2005). Mrs. Gandhis assassinators were avenging the killings of Sikhs during the Operation Bluestar. In the June of 1984, Mrs. Gandhi, wanted to flush out few terrorists, led by Jamail Singh Bhindranwale, who were hiding in the precincts of the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs in India. On the 3rd of June, 1984 a 36 hour curfew was imposed in the Sikh dominated state of Punjab. All methods of communication and travel were suspended. Electricity supplies were interrupted, a total black out was created and Punjab was cut off from India and rest of the world (Brar, 1992). On the night of 5th of June, the Indian Army under the command of Major Gen. Kuldeep Singh Brar stormed into the Golden Temple. By the morning of the 7th of June the Indian Army had full control of the temple. The militant leaders were killed in the two day battle but along with it a large number of pilgrims, civilians and children also died (Ahmed, 1996). The Sikh community were agitated. Their holiest shrine was turned into a bloody battlefield and innocent lives were lost. Saran Singh, a retired bureaucrat and a famous member of the Sikh community in India quotes It was sacrilege to send troops inside, open fire and in the process kill innocent devotees gathered to observe the martyrdom (Mohanka, 2005). From June to September 1984 most members of the Sikh community nursed a festering wound only to blurt out in Indira Gandhis assassination. 4.2 The Indian Medias Coverage of Operation Bluestar and the Riots Media by its nature plays an extremely important role for any socio-political situation irrespective of the boundary it holds (Mohanka, 2005). The medias role in the riots of 1984 is an interesting case. Scholars believe that media can play a role in focussing on a cause much before it takes an ugly turn. In the case of Punjab in 1984, the local media was not supportive of the Sikh causes. Moreover, since the beginning of the problems in Punjab, the government had a strict control on the media and imposed a heavy censorship. Since independence until the invasion of cable television in India, the electronic media had served as the mouthpiece of the government (Das, 2009). Similar was the role of the electronic media in Punjab during the riots. The Government had such tight control over the media that the foreign correspondents trying to capture the horrific events were not even allowed in the local land. The Indian Government acted as a strict visible gatekeeper and made it impossible to approve journalist visas for foreign correspondents. The events of the 1984 riots thus suffered not only from biased media coverage but also selective coverage which projected one sided selected perspective (Das, 2009). The media blackout during the Operation Bluestar is a prime example of the same. The day before the actual invasion by the Indian Army, the Government ordered all press out of the state and restricted press coverage in Punjab. The press was allowed only a week later on special organised guided tours. The aftermath was later described by the press, as involving a small gang of criminals disliked by the majority of Sikhs and Indians. The press described the militants as petty political agitators, rather than leaders of a movement for a greater Punjab autonomy, as believed by a majority of Sikhs. Similarly, during the reportage of the 1984 riots there were discrepancy between the press release of data and images and the actual severity of the violent situation that prevailed in the streets of New Delhi (Das, 2009). This usage of selective information in the Indian media only contributed to the ambiguous image of Sikhs throughout the nation and failed to bring out their plight in the light. During the Sikh Movement the Government of India had passed the National Secu rity Act (1980), the Punjab Disturbed Areas Ordinance (1983), The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1983) and the Terrorists Affected Areas (Special Courts Act of 1984). These acts provided the police and army with sweeping powers. They could charge and curtail to the right to life under specific situations. The approach of the media during the crisis had been partisan to take into account all types of multidimensional problem, historical, political, socio-economic and ideological. The media only focussed on special restricted information and ignored a careful examination of all the issues and processes that had led to the mayhem, the riots. During 1984, Indian leaders were free to make up non-existent stories and broadcast through Government controlled radio and television channels. Since there was a major restriction on the foreign press, all foreign news correspondents were left with no choice but to take the twister news of the local government controlled media. The United States of America, The House of Representatives had a view point on the same. It said: As a result the outside world receives a biased one side view of what goes on in Punjab because the Indian Government has control over most of the domestic media. This contributes to the stereotype that all Sikhs are extremist radicals who are terrorising the predominantly Hindu nation and that is just not the fact. If the Indian Government has nothing to hide it should remove the news blackout and permit outsiders into Punjab. The free flow of information is essential to the prevention of rights and liberties in a democratic society and India claims to be the worlds largest democracy. So, they should act as the worlds largest democracy. This is the foundation for a democratic nation and is not too much to ask of India to respect the rights of all its people and not just the Hindu majority. It is not right for any government to deny 16 million of its own people the basic political and civil rights. India has a moral obligation to protect the Sikh community.2 The national newspapers reporting on the Sikhs made no distinction between a regional political party, a handful of militants, and the entire Sikh community. Even the senior editors and columnists of the national newspapers considered all Sikhs accountable for the assassination of Indira Gandhi and provided no sympathy to the community during the riots. Through the critical years of political crisis in Punjab before the horrific riots, the national dailies had not help resolve the issue. The Times of India, one of the leading national dailies and The Hindustan Times did more to incite hostility between Hindus and Sikhs than perhaps any other national English language newspaper (Das, 2009). The media was a part of the misinformation carried out in the public. The best example of the same would be when a national newspaper carried out an article reporting that huge quantities of heroin and drugs had been recovered within the Golden Temple complex and the same had been used by the militants to illegally fund their operations. Since, the foreign press was banned in Punjab; they picked up the story based on the 14th June Press Trust of India (PTI) news report from the government sources. This news was carried out in the major international newspapers. One week into the incident, the government retracted the official report on the grounds that the drugs had been recovered from the India-Pakistan border and not the Golden Temple complex. This retraction by the government was not picked up by most international news agencies and the damage done by the initial report falsely remained amongst the mass.3 Many scholars believed that the Indian media forgot to prioritize issues and failed to act upon them. Senior Indian journalist, Manoj Mitta along with H. S. Phoolka in the book When a Tree Shook Delhi writes that the media focussed on the assassination of Indira Gandhi and did not care enough about the Sikh murders during the riots. Mitta says: The media by and large went by the official line on the carnage. It focused on the happenings at Teen Murti Bhawan, where Indira Gandhis body lay in state and where from people around the world had come to pay respect. So photographers were flocking to that place and the killings that were simultaneously going on in the capital did not get recorded at all. Its bizarre but true. Not all were pleased by the Indian medias coverage of the 1984 Sikh riots. The 2002 Gujarat Riots The Events On the 27th of February 2002, the Ahmedabad bound Sabarmati Express train reached a small town in Gujarat named Godhra (Yeolekar, 2002). Instead of the usual stoppage for 5 minutes the train stopped for 25 minutes and then moved out of the platform. Before the train could run at its normal speed, the alarm chain was pulled to stop the train at Signal Falia, a Muslim inhabited locality. No one clearly knows what really happened but after few minutes the compartment S-6 was on flames. 58 passengers including 26 women and 12 children were burnt to death (Yeolekar, 2002). Among the passengers were the Kar Sevaks5 travelling from Ayodhya. There have been different theories believing that Muslims were behind this barbaric act. If this wasnt barbaric enough, what followed in the days to come shook the entire secular nation of India. During the next three days, from the 28th of February to 2nd of March, 2002 Muslims were butchered, massacred and burnt alive. Out of the 24 districts in Gujarat, 16 were entangled by organized mob attacks in which over 2,000 Muslims were killed, 200 mosques and religious and cultural monuments were sent to rumbles (Sawant et al, 2002). The Muslim community of Gujarat suffered an enormous economic blow with an overall loss of Rs 35 billion. 5.2 The Indian Medias Coverage of the Riots 5.2.1 The Television Coverage For the first time in the history of communal clashes in India, violence was carried live on television (Ninan, 2002) as the cameras brought across the horrific images to viewers home in Gujarat and elsewhere. There was no live coverage of the attacks against the Sikhs back in 1984 or during the Babri Masjid fiasco in 1992. Those were the era of print media and television was limited to Doordarshan, a state owned channel. It was only in 1996 when, Rupert Murdoch ventured into India with the STAR network and STAR News happened Indias first 24 hour news channel (Page Crawley, 2001). This addition to the television spectrum of India added a new visual dimension to politics, violence and public sphere in India. In 2005, the television newscape had turned dense with a large number of players entering the market; several 24 hour news channels were launched. This led to intense competitive brand of journalism, which was evident during the Gujarat riots. There were a large consortium of jo urnalists and television crews from various channels on the streets in Gujarat, each trying to outdo each other. When the Gujarat violence happened, the private television in India had been broadcasting for about 8 years and was easily accessible by 40 million amongst the 81.6 million Indians who owned television sets4. This option offered by the private television gave the Indian viewers unprecedented access to independent broadcasting. When the first pictures of Gujarat riots were telecast on Indian screens on 27 February, the three major news networks in India Star News, Aaj Tak and Zee News did not follow the guidelines formulated by the Press Council of India, a quasi-judicial watchdog organization (Mehta, 2006). The guidelines mentioned not to reveal the identity of victims or attackers in the news reports but all the news networks carried blaring headlines about the killing of the Kar Sevaks. The guidelines were against the mentioning of victims or attackers as Hindus or Muslims because they feared it could inflame passions and lead to revenge attacks. The television news networks with its striking visual images made this guideline redundant. While covering the riots in Gujarat, the television journalists openly identified the victims and the attackers. Varadarajan argues for the naming of communities. He states that not naming the communities increases a sense of suspicion and anxiety amongst the ordinary citizens not only in the riot affected area but throughout the nation. Then people tend to assume that the victims are their own while attackers are the other (Varadarajan, 1999). Famous Indian journalists, Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt of STAR News justified their stand of naming the communities. Barkha Dutt stated, Naming the community under siege in Gujarat was moot of the story. In fact it was the story, revealing as it did a prejudice administrative and political system that was happy to just stand by and watch. (Mehta, 2006). The bold and independent media coverage by the television media during the riots invited flak from the political actors in powers who were shown in bad light. Criticizing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindutva approach in the riots got STAR News and English newspapers like The Times of India and Indian Express bad press (Sonwalkar, 2006). The BJP was in power in the state of Gujarat and at the centre in New Delhi. After the initial violence, when the news coverage of the attacks against the Muslims in Gujarat started to reflect badly on the state and central government, the leaders came down heavily on the journalists and media personnel. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed the nation a day after the attacks, regretting the disgraceful violence. He later on added that the news media were presenting an exaggerated account of the situation in Gujarat6. The BJP and the state government under Narendra Modi singled out STAR News and banned cable operators from showing the channel in the state. The viewers in Ahmedabad, one of the worst affected regions in the riots, were left with blank television screens, unaware from the reality happening on the streets (Mehta, 2006). Cable operators received calls from local officials in Ahmedabad and other cities to completely black out STAR News, Zee News, CNN and Aaj Tak6. Dossiers and hitlists on journalists were reportedly prepared while the channels which dared to reveal the truth and were critical of the Chief Minister and his plan of actions were not invited to the press conferences and hence were denied the basic right to information by the state itself (Sardesai 2004). The main complaint of the BJP and its allies were that the news media did not cover and criticize those who were responsible for the Godhra train tragedy in which 58 Kar Sevaks were victims. This however remains untrue as the every news channels and major newspaper had covered the Godhra train tragedy exclusively, but the follow ups did not remain as the story of the day because the Union Budget followed on 28 February. The budget coverage was pushed aside when the mass killings and large scale retaliation against Muslims started in various parts of the state (Sonwalkar, 2006). Another criticism was that, the national media inflamed communal passions by providing graphic television coverage of the dreadful events. The journalists and the news professional came out against the criticism and said that the level of violence would have been much worse if only the news media brought out the real picture by the graphic images. The BJP and its allies also christened the media as Marxist-Mullah combine and the Secular Taliban for criticising the attacks against the Muslims. Members of the Editors Guild of India visited the affected regions in Gujarat and were told by a group of Hindutva supporters that the Hindu community has been defamed with the coverage only being from the Muslim perspective: They only listen to Muslims and ignore the Hindus (Patel et al, 2002). Sardesai explains the predicament faced by journalists in covering the riots: (If ) any reporter, whether print of television, sees large-scale violence being committed, is the journalist to ignore the hard reality and merely present the facts as seen through the government binoculars? If the Chief Minister says that the situation is returning to normal even while reports are streaming in of continuing violence in several parts of the state, are not the lies to be exposed? And if the government insists that the army is out on the street when the fact is that the army has been kept on stand-by and is waiting for transport trucks, whose version is to be broadcast? (Sardesai, 2002) 5.2.2 The Press Coverage If the graphic coverage by the television channels hit the headlines and raised criticisms, the nature of the press coverage also came under the hammer. The coverage by the print media makes an interesting study. There were two different approaches followed by the local and the national media. The local section of the press, including the Gujarati dailies Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, covered the events from a pro-Hindutva stand and justified the killings of hundreds of Muslims. While the national media, including The Times of India and the Indian Express, were overtly critical of the channelized attacks against the Muslims (Sonwalkar, 2006). The team of Editors Guild of India met several journalists, correspondents, editors, Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others to conclude that the English-language national press played an exemplary role in coverage of the riots. BJPs allegations of media playing an aggravating role in coverage of the riots have been dismissed by many scholars. Patel argues that the allegation was specious, self-serving and must be dismissed (Patel et al. 2002). The Editors Guild of Indias team observed that: Our finding is that the prompt and extensive portrayal by the national media of the untold horrors visited on innocent people in the wake of the Godhra carnage was a saving grace. The exposure of the supine is not complicit attitude of the State and manifest outpourings of communal hatred, stirred the conscience of the nation, compelled remedial action, howsoever defensively and belatedlyHowever, the role of the sections of the Gujarat media, specially the Gujarat Samachar and more notably Sandesh, was provocative, irresponsible and blatantly violative of all accepted norms of media ethics. This cannot be lightly passed over. (Patel et al, 2002) Gujarat Samachar is the largest selling daily in Gujarat with a circulation of nearly 810,000 followed by Sandesh with 705,000 (Sonwalkar, 2006). These two newspapers have a large readership and dominate the print market in Gujarat. A study by PUCL in 2002 found that there were several instances of distorted and false reporting in these two newspapers and also the circulation of Sandesh rose by 150,000 due to its pro-Hindutva stand. The coverage analysis found that when Muslims were at fault, their names were clearly mentioned and the perpetrators identified. However, when the Muslims were the victims of murders, loots, arsons, and other heinous crimes the attackers were unnamed. The study concluded: No sources were quoted for headlines, even when they were simply lifted from speeches by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (one of the Hindutva polical parties in the state). Headlines were also misleading, and often followed up by reports that did not substantiate, and even negated the headlines completelyThe anti-minority stand was obvious in the slant in news reporting. (PUCL, 2002) Sandesh was extremely provocative in its reporting. PUCL states Sandeshs usage of headlines was to provoke, communalize and terrorise people (PUCL 2002). On the 28th of Februrary, Sandesh carried a headline saying, 70 Hindus Burnt Alive in Godhra. Another report on the front page read, Avenge Blood with Blood, which was a quote from a statement made by one of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, but the newspaper used the words as a headline without mentioning the leader (Sonwalkar, 2006). On the 6th of March, the headline read, Hindus Beware: Haj Pilgrims return with a Deadly Conspiracy, when the fact remains that hundreds of Haj pilgrims were terrified by the happenings in the state and had retuned under police protection. PUCL emphasized in its study that most news in Sandesh post-Godhra violence began with the sentence, In continuing spiral of communal rioting that broke out as a reaction to the demonic/barbaric, etc Godhra incident. The comminatory adjectives used in describing the Godhra incident were strikingly absent when covering the post Godhra Muslim annihilation (PUCL, 2002). One of the reports mentioned that the breasts of two Hindu women had been chopped off by Muslim mobs during the crisis. This report turned out be false and the editor countered by saying that the information had been provided by the police. The papers editor told that it was against the policy of the newspaper to carry out corrections and clarifications for previously published articles (Patel et al, 2002). The Press Council of India later censured the newspaper for the fault (Prerna, 2003). Gujarat Samachar also heightened the tension through its pro-Hindutva stand in coverage of the events. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi openly praised Sandesh for its work, which was publishing false and rumoured reports with a pronounced pro-Hindutva and an anti-Muslim stance. In a letter to the newspapers editor, Modi writes: The newspapers of the state played a decisive role as a link between the people and the government. You have served humanity in a big way. It is the state governments primary duty to restore peace and security. It is noteworthy that the newspapers of Gujarat gave their full support to the state government in undertaking this difficult task.I am grateful to you. (Varadarajan, 2002: 286) The one regional newspaper that stood out amidst the Hindutva ideology was the Gujarat Today, notably started by few liberal Muslims in the state. The report suggested Gujarat Today regularly carried out positive news items highlighting interdependence of the communities involved (PUCL 2002). The two English-language national newspapers in India, The Times of India and the Indian Express were critical of the state government in their articles. However, these two newspapers also publish editions from Gujarat and a clear divide was evident between the two English-language dailies and the two regional editions (Sonwalkar, 2006). While the English-language version was sharp in its criticisms of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, the two Gujarati dailies propagated the need of Hindutva. Desai, an Ahmedabad-based correspondent of the Indian Express writes: Today, all the people who once used to look at me with respect question me and abuse me. They do this because I represented a publication whose medium is English and because I reported human misery in its right perspective.A friend said: All of you from the English language media have tarnished the image of Gujarat. Today, the common man in Gujarat hates the English language media. Even a section of the English language media hates the English language media. (Desai, 2004: 228) We find that there was a demarcation between the coverage of the national media and a section of the regional press. The national media did a commendable job but were criticised by a few. The Role of the Media during Communal Riots: The Road Ahead The result of multiple and complex interests of regions, states and/or various types of groups within them leads to economic, social and political conflicts. Such conflicts are difficult to handle and requires negotiations between the parties involved and in this amorphous age of media the governments are finding extremely difficult to handle such situations (Terzis, 2008). Despite the increased importance of communication, very few governments can speak about successful communication during conflicts because they fail to take into consideration the perception of the conflict in the minds of the common mass, the scientific analysis of the causable factors, the agendas of the parties involved and the changing nature of the conflict itself (Ballantine, 2003). The role of mass media in covering and resolving conflicts, especially those involving religious differences that leads to frequent communal riots in India, is extremely crucial. We are in the age where the basic principles of reportage of facts are sacred, comment free, get both sides of the story, double check your facts before writing, are not enough in reporting communal riots. There are enough challenges faced by a journalist and media personnel in such a situation. The guidelines for a reporter in covering communal riots should be to lookout for detailed background information, not continue with the stereotyping of communities, find residents who deal with both the communities, talk to victims from both sides, corroborate victims as well as polices accounts, discover the role of the police, the politicians and the media