Advertisement gone too far Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Advertisement gone too far - Essay Example Many young girls are negatively affected by the increased sexualisation and objectification of women a factor that makes them try to imitate the models that appear in advertisements. Many companies have relied on highly sexualised advertisements to promote their products. For example, the American Apparel has a long history of sexualizing women in their advertisements. This paper will carry out a critical analysis of how women have been sexualized and objectified and how the American Apparel notoriously represented sexualized women as they promoted their products. The globe has witnessed an entire century of women depicted in the advertisement. The first depiction of a woman in the advertisement was in 1912 during the suffrage movement. During that era, many women activists advocated for their rights to vote. Marketers and advertisers sought to use the campaigns to their advantage. Therefore, they depicted women in the promotion of the Nebo cigarettes. The advertisements targeted men who were commonly disgusted or offended by the â€Å"sass† of a suffragette. The same advertisement was also appealing to women who wanted to indulge in smoking for the first time. Therefore, the advertisement supported the push for women to have equal rights. In 1923, Listerine launched an advertisement that featured a model named Edna. In its bid to promote the mouthwash, the advertisement emphasized that all women wanted to get married. However, factors, factors such as bad breath prevented them from becoming the bride. In 1925, women promoted the lucky cigarettes. Notably, smoking was still viewed as a habit for men and women who smoked were viewed negatively (Yan, Ogle, & Hyllegard 2010, p. 213). However, the Lucky Company focused on developing cigarettes that specifically targeted women. 1936 marked the emergence of the first nude woman in an advertisement for the Woodbury Soap. The Woodbury advert marked a new beginning that would see more and more

Issues in Family business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Issues in Family business - Essay Example A family business is different from a traditional business because the business stakeholders are related to each other unlike the conventional business where stakeholders are individuals and not related by blood. Secondly, in a family business there are three primary roles and they are family, ownership and business. The family means relationships, i.e. mom, dad, son etc, ownership means who owns the business (who are the primary stockholders) and business means people who work at the business. Since, the business is tied together with more than just professional attitudes the day to day functioning of the business is not as easy as it seems. Conflicts occur more in family businesses as compared to the traditional business and these conflicts are extremely hard to resolve especially if there are close blood relations (Family Business Conflict Resolution). With emotions playing a vital role in decision making, not everything is simple as it may seem. While traditional business success can be judged by a lot factors which include use of technology, level and capability of resources, growth opportunities, using electronic commerce for business, customer satisfaction, customer retention and the company’s market share (Top 7 critical Business Success Factors 2000). Family business can only be judged using special factors that take into consideration the dynamics of the family business. One of the most important factors in accessing the success of a family business is to determine whether work boundaries are specified or not. For the smooth running of a business it is necessary that the roles of individuals are well defined and communicated (Essentials for Family Business Success). In a family business it is easy that roles may often be neglected or might not even be defined. In such situations a single person gets overburdened with work while the others simply remain absent from work.

Academic debate Essay Example for Free

Academic debate Essay There has been considerable academic debate concerning the emergence and meaning of globalization with differing views ranging from those who believe that there has been no change to what already existed with previous trade and movement across nation states to those who believe that the consequences of globalization can be felt everywhere and that the sovereignty of nation states has been greatly diminished. It is argued by those such as Modelski that the world society today is global in direct contrast to all other historical societies and for David Held (1) globalization is about a significant transformation resulting in local communities linked to global actions (1). This paper does not delve into the debate about the theory of globalization, rather it focuses upon the infrastructure of the UN in terms of governance of world affairs. During his leadership as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought to define a new role for the United Nations at the centre of ‘global governance’ (Held and McGrew 1). In response to the onset of globalization there are those, including Rosenau (8) who believe that a new complex multilateralism is evolving as a system of global governance. In the absence of a world government Rosenau (8) believes that the concept of global governance is the most apt description of the system that decides who rules and governs across the international community. This evolution has been made possible following a number of significant events over the past two decades. Firstly the end of the cold war opened up opportunities for new ways of governing at the global level. Secondly there was a massive increase in global issues such as the environment (for example climate change), health (for example the HIV / Aids epidemic) and consumerism that was affecting the way that world affairs were being run. These changes to global affairs has convinced the advocates of global governance that the traditional geopolitical management of global affairs with its hierarchical forms of management is unsuited to the challenges and tasks that are now emergent and that new forms of global governance need to be introduced. The common arguments against global governance include the inequalities of power between states, the structural privileging of the interests and agenda of global capital and the technocratic nature of the global policy process (Held and McGrew 13). In general there are three principle explanatory accounts of global governance: liberal institutionalist, realist and neo-Gramsic. Each attempt to explain how governance works beyond the national state but there are considerable differences in their epistemological frameworks which are a reflection of their interpretations of the social world as well as difference assumptions about world politics. Liberal institutionalism argues that governance beyond the state is endemic (Held and McGrew 12) because of the important benefits that global institutions can bring to individual nations, for example the functional benefits of a global health organization. Liberal institutionalists believe that international institutions ‘empower governments rather than shackle them’ (Keohane 13) . Realism finds that governance beyond the nation state depends upon the policy interests of the most powerful states, which means that the global institutions can have little autonomy or power as their function is primarily to advance the interests of those more powerful states (Held and McGrew 12) and thus the inequalities of power between the states is highlighted. Neo-gramsican theories share the bases of the realism theory however they consider the structural imperatives of globalizing capitalism as the key component. This theory states that the conduct of global governance is underpinned by the expansion of globalizing capital through the dominant forces, i. e. the US and therefore the global institutions are merely instruments to obtain this objective at the expense of the welfare and environment of the global communities. There is concern that the there is an insurmountable deficit within the current capacity of global governance to address the pressing global issues of poverty, health, environment, security and welfare. In practice this can imply a criticism of how the United Nations is structured and functionally operates, and essentially makes the presumption that the UN is ineffective (Luard 1). The United Nations Organization (UN) is an international organization that brings together 191 states in a voluntary forum to consider all affairs – such as security, living conditions, affecting the global population. The structure consists of the General Assembly, the Security Council, The Economic and Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat and the UN System (www. un. org) . This paper focuses on the operations of the UN System. The United Nations has a number of organizations formally within its system as ‘specialized agencies’ – although in reality they are largely autonomous from the central UN, for example the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNESCO. These specialized agencies are linked to the UN through cooperative agreements have wide-ranging international responsibilities in the economic, social, cultural, educational, health and related fields. Some of them, like the International Labour Organization and the Universal Postal Union, are older than the UN itself (www. un. org) . All these organizations have their own governing bodies, budgets and secretariats. Together with the United Nations, they are known as the UN family, or the UN system. Together, they provide technical assistance and other forms of practical help in virtually all economic and social areas. The reform of the UN is an issue of constant debate, although only the member states have the power to implement any changes so it must be driven through them. It can be argued then that the UN is not a global organization, rather it remains an inter-governmental organization as it can only develop so far as the member states will allow and they will always weigh development against their own self interest. However this reality is in comparison with the global expectation placed upon the UN and Bernhard (213) believes it is this contradiction in reality and expectation that causes the UN to over stretch itself. Bernhard (213) presents three scenarios for the future of the UN. Firstly that the UN system will weaken, and ultimately fail in the members states withdrew participation and secondly that the UN could develop as a sort of world government with the institutions forming a central coordinating role of the global governance process and ultimately leading to the loss of nation state autonomy. The third scenario seems more plausible, that the UN will remain as an imperfect instrument in need of reform but also an important global organization. This itself requires examination of a number of issues, namely whether it takes on a role as actor in its own right or continues to be held to member state autonomy. The leadership of Koffi Annan as the Secretary General has had some impact on the pace of UN reforms. At the Millennium Summit in 2000 he called for members states to reorganize the UN so that it could be better equipped to meet the challenges that globalization brings . However in practice the extent of the UN reform appears modest and Bernhard (214) makes the distinction between internal reforms of the UN’s by-laws which are easier to achieve than constitutional changes, which would require changes to the Charter. The complexity of the UN system doesn’t allow for reforms to be made easily. Every amendment needs a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly and the ratification of two thirds of the member states, including the five permanent members. Therefore the permanent members have a high level of strength and can block any reforms, although to be fair they would need the agreement of more than 120 UN members for their own projects to succeed (Bernhard 242). Koffi Annan (Bernhard 243) drew attention to the institutions of the UN being unfit for the present day purpose as they had been created for an inter-national rather than global world. The UN system has resulted in a tradition of decentralization, along with a steady growth of new agencies. It is this situation that draws critics to argue that there are overlaps and duplication of effort and irrational allocation of resources (Ziring 464). There is no world budget to deal with economic and social affairs and each UN agency are responsible for their own budgets and programmes, subject to the limitations of the collective will of their members. Ziring (464) argues that the Economic and Social Council has not fulfilled its central coordinating function, being mainly consigned to discussion and liaison and he makes the important statement that the most formidable barriers to improved functional co-operation between the agencies are in fact political and budgetary, not organizational. This would then mean that the UN reforms should be focused on gaining the collective political and economic will of member states rather than introducing organizational changes alone.

The effectiveness of business information Essay Example for Free

The effectiveness of business information Essay Evaluate the effectiveness of business information and its communication as key contributors to the success of an organisation In order to grow and expand, a business needs to a good communication and information management that will help them apply their different strategies and reach their goals and objectives more efficiently. Tesco is big business that has excellent communication and information management system within their organisation. They use information and communication method efficiently in the way they operate and that is why they are one of the biggest retailers in the UK. Methods of written communication Letter Tesco uses letters as a form of written communication, to get in contact with various types of people who include staff members from the other stores, customers or staffs who are unable to attend work for health issues. An advantage of using letters is that they can easily reach and communicate with their customers about financial issues or bills. A disadvantage of using letter is that the letter might not get delivered to the specific place you want it or on time, this could cause problems. Another disadvantage of using a letter is that it might get lost in the post and never get in to the destination. Reports Tesco use reports as a form of written information to communicate with between staff members within the company. The advantage of them using reports is that they record and show information of what happened during an entire week or month in a store for example. A report often contains information, sales figures and bar graphs to show the overall performance of something. Tesco use report to convey information about how they performed annually every year to show people their profit/sales etc. A disadvantage of using reports is that writing involves gathering a lot of data sometimes and they are quite time consuming. It would take a lot of time to produce reports because you have to record every that has occurred and sometimes doesn’t provide the full information it is hard to acquire all information and note them down. Newspapers Notices Tesco use notices as a form of reminder of tasks that needs to be completed during the day, in a week or sometimes in the near future. An advantage of using notes it that it can help save time as well as reminding member of staffs efficiently and tell their employees/staff on upcoming events/activities The disadvantage of notices is that it can create a waste of paper and a mess when they are too many notes accumulating in one place all at once. For when the all the notes from the past days and future are all stacked in one place. Leaflets Tesco mostly use leaflets communicate to their customers by informing them and keeping up to date about what changes within Tesco. For example, they could use leaflets to inform customers about offers, competition, sales, special deals and bundles. Another advantage of Tesco using leaflets is that they can inform customers any new products or services they bring out. A disadvantage of Tesco using leaflets is that their customers might misunderstand the information they convey. Another disadvantage of using leaflets is that Tesco will have to spend time and quite a lot of money to design and make leaflets. Emails Tesco use E-mails to contact customers as well as other employees with the company. An advantage of this written communication method is that Tesco can contact the person whoever they want to contact efficiently knowing that the person they are trying to reach will receive the message. They can also use is as a way to keep in contact with their customers and update them about things like special offers and promotions to avoid losing them. The disadvantage of Tesco using E-mails is that some people don’t use their E-mail regularly and therefore won’t be able to respond to the message that has been sent to them on time. Another disadvantage to of using E-mails is that some customers will see Tesco messages and offers as a sort of spam which could be inconvenient sometime. Magazines Magazines are also another way for Tesco to communicate information to their customers such as promotional information about offers, deals, bundles and others. They can also use magazines to convey information about the latest product and services they bring out. An advantage of using magazines as written information is that it allows them to reach their customers easily and efficiently regularly. Another advantage of magazine is the cost of it, it is cheaper for Tesco to publish and communicate information through magazine than do it on TV and radio adverts. A disadvantage of Tesco using magazines as a written communication tool is that they may not reach all customers that way because not all customers like to read magazines. Methods of non-written communication TV Tesco use television as a method of on-screen information to advertise new products or services to their customers. The advantage of Tesco using television as a way of communication is that they can easily reach they target group through such technology since everyone own and watches the TV nowadays. The disadvantage of Tesco using television as a method of communication is that they will have to spend a lot of money for advertisements to be shown on TV for an adequate amount of time so that their target group can easily perceive it. Presentations Tesco uses presentation as a tool for verbal to share information about carious things concerning the company, their competitors, their plans and strategies for the future and the market they operate in. During these presentations, specific strategies to reach future goals are discussed and established. Plans to overcome competition and threats are discussed as well as ideas for future promotions are discussed. A disadvantage of presentation is that not all the staffs working at Tesco will take part to the presentation. This could pose problems because staffs who haven’t attended the presentation will be uninformed and therefore won’t be aware of the changes being made. Radio Tesco uses Radio as a tool for verbal communication to share information to their customers about things like offers and promotions. The advantage is that they are more likely to reach their target groups by doing so. The disadvantage of using radio is it might not be clear when you try contact someone and also you may contact the wrong person this is because radio had different channels. Face to face Tesco uses verbal information like face to face conversation because it allows them to communicate important information easily with each other within the company. Using face to face communication is the best way of communication Tesco can use to communicate verbally because there is less scope for miss-understanding in it. They also use face to face communication to communicate information with their customer personally to which they will obtain instant reply. One disadvantage of this non-written method of communication is that people don’t always get the time to meet and discuss thing face to face. It would also cost a lot of money for people from different place of work to meet and have face to face communication. Telephone Tesco uses Verbal information on the telephone to contact their members of staffs when there is a problem or it can be to check and clarify something for example. The advantage of using telephone for verbal communication is that staffs and colleges at the company can get in contact with each other when they are outside of work. Another advantage of using telephone for verbal communication is that customers can contact them for enquiries about products or complaints. One disadvantage of using telephone as a verbal communication tool that when the customer calls, the employee answering to the phone might not be trained to answer the phone, this could create complications between the company and the customer Video conference Tesco use videoconferencing as a tool of verbal communication to contact members of staffs from other stores across the country or even in different countries. The advantage of this is that they will be able to reach the colleges they are trying to join easily and without having to pay much which will save them the coast of travel. The disadvantage of this method is that when they contact other stores in other countries, there may be some connection problem which will cause understanding problems for both groups trying to communicate. Voicemail Tesco uses voicemails as a way of communication because they are another way to get in contact with other within the company when the phone can’t be answered or when the person being contacted is absent for example. Tesco use voicemail as a communication tool to contact their customers or even other staffs within the company. They use voicemails to contact customers when they need to remind them about their product deliveries for example or even to arrange a date to pick up an item for return. The disadvantage of voice mail at Tesco is that the voicemail system might have a failure and delete the voicemails or might just auto delete itself if the message left has been left untouched for too long. Audience requirements Age and Attention span Tesco in stores for example do have age restrictions on products targeted to mature or older audience. The y also require an id to purchase things like alcohol and cigarettes. The advantage of this is that it allows taco to protect minors from purchase adult materials. Gender and Ethnicity Gender and ethnicity is about representing people from all background when and all ethnicity with both gender equally when targeting an audience for products or services. When aiming advert at an audience, the audience is more likely to respond well if they feel included and connected to the message the business is trying to pass on. This is an effective method of communication for Tesco because when they produce adverts for their new products, they make sure the advert represents a balanced cross-section of their audience. This in turn helps them reach and attract more people from the target audience regardless of their gender or race. Special needs and Accessibility The advantage of Tesco adapting their communication to special needs and accessibility is that it helps anyone from the target audience to efficiently perceive the information being communicated by Tesco. This in return encourage a great response from the audience to communication being shared. Reading ability This is communicating information in a way that everyone can read and understand the information being communicated to the audience. The advantages of Tesco using simple language to communicate with their audience is that they can easily and efficiently reach them the audience and obtain good response in exchange. The disadvantage of Tesco using simple language is that more sophisticated and educated audience would expect information to be communicated through more technical language and terms. Legibility This refers to the material that makes the business information being communicated to audience easier to read and to properly understand the information being communicated to them. An advantage for Tesco using this method is that the will be in a better position attract customers with the information they communicate to them. Interests This is about grabbing the attention of the audience to which the information of the business is being communicated to. This can be achieved by the business through getting straight to the point of what they want to say so that they can keep their audience attention. The advantage of this method for Tesco is that they can easily attract the interests of their audiences when they are communicating information. A disadvantage of this method is that the business might need more effort to try and grab the interests of audiences straight away because it is not always easy to win the attention of people quickly. Distraction avoidance This method is about minimising distraction during a verbal presentation to an audience. To do so, before giving a presentation, you can ask the audience to switch their mobile phones off so that it doesn’t distract during the presentation if someone tries to call. Industry related experience and knowledge This a about know the audience to which to you are talking to when addressing an audience for your presentation. This is important to know because when you are talking to an experienced audience they will not need too much explanation whereas if you’re talking to people with no experience, you will have to explain the information you are communicating or they will be confused. An advantage of his is that it will help save tame and allow to prepare before the presentation as to how much explanation you will need to do during your presentation. Communication skills Formal /informal Formal /informal information refers to the format in which the information communicated within the business is in. When communicating information to audiences such as customers or even for business reports, information is communicated in formally and uses professional and technical language. Between staffs at Tesco, information is mostly communicated informal. An advantage of communicating information formally / informally is that share information efficiently to different types of audiences. Verbal/non-verbal Most information is often communicated verbally or non-verbally, verbal communication usually involves the voice and non-verbal information doesn’t. The most common for of b=verbal communication is phone, face to face, presentation, meetings, video conferencing etc Non verbal information is usually done through paper, screen or emails. An advantage of verbal communication is that it is always clear and cannot be misunderstood by any audience. A disadvantage of verbal communication is that it might coast money for it to be possible sometimes, for example when people from different places of the organisation need to meet and discuss about the business. Listening understanding Listening is mostly bout hearing and understanding the information and message that is being communicated to you. The advantage of listening to information and messages is that it allows people to understand. Seeking Clarification Seeing clarification is about making sure you fully understand the information that is being communicated to you. To do so, you can ask question and ask for more explanation if you are not sure. The advantage of seeking clarification is that it helps understand information properly which makes it to easily put t in practices later on. A disadvantage of that is that it can sometime be a waste of time going and over some information. Another one is that it can be tiring sometimes. Responsiveness Responsiveness is about making sure that the audience to whom you are communicating fully understand the message you are communicating to them. As a communicator if you feel that your audience does not understand your message, you need to respond by giving them more detailed information. An advantage of this method is that it helps audience to understand the message you are giving them which will lead to a successful communication. Eye contact Facial expressiveness Facial expressiveness is about the impression you face is giving to the audience to which you are communication information. The advantage of having a good face expression when communicating information is that it helps convince your audience. A disadvantage of not having the right face expression is that it can mislead the audient to which you communicate information even if you don’t intend to. Body language When presenting information, body language can help understand the message you are trying to communicate by giving away your thoughts and feelings. An advantage of using body language is that it allows information to be communicated and understood easily and efficiently. A disadvantage of body langue is that it may be misleading sometime. Use of appropriate professional language Formal and informal communication needs to be shared through different ways to be efficient sometimes. The advantages of Tesco using simple language to communicate with their audience is that they can easily and efficiently reach them the audience and obtain good response in exchange. The disadvantage of Tesco using simple language is that more sophisticated and educated audience would expect information to be communicated through more technical language and terms. Ability to adapt communication techniques to audience requirements This is about finding the right method to use when presenting information so that your audience will be suited to and to which they can easily connect. This is due to the fact that not all communication techniques will suit all audiences. An advantage of choosing a suitable communication method for your audience is that it will help you communicate successfully. A Disadvantage of this is that by choosing the wrong communicating method for your audience could lead them to be disinterested or misunderstand your message. Presentational skills Presentational skills refer to the things you can do in order to enhance the presentation you will be giving to your audience. Preparation and notes could help structure and improve presentation. An advantage of presentational skills is that they enhance the information being shared to audience in an efficient way. Ability to invite Commitment to shared goals This is about adding information and interests that will help persuade and convince the audience. To make sure this approach is done successfully, you need to make sure you clearly articulate arguments you make, demonstrate your information honestly and to be ready to answer any questions.

Impacts Of Social Networks On Social Behaviour

Impacts Of Social Networks On Social Behaviour Social network sites have become a global phenomenon that plays important roles in our society today. It is a social milieu that allows individuals to present themselves, communicate with one another and to maintain relationships. These SNSs (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace) are rapidly increasing visibly among the University students. Social network does not only influence students learning outcome but it also help the University students to attain social acceptance as well as adapting to University culture which may play central role towards improving their learning outcome. Several researchers revealed that SNS as technological tools can be used to effectively improve student-student and student-teacher interactions in higher institutions. In this regards SNS plays a prominent role in learning environment as a major conduit for getting resources, knowledge, and social support and also provides help for students preparing for or/ finding employment. On the other hand, many researchers observed that students spend several hours in a day attending to different social network sites even during lecturers and library sessions thus creating distractions and reducing the time to focus on their studies. This discourse therefore reviews the benefits and obstacles of social networks on social behaviour and academic performance of students. It also reviews the attitude of students towards the use of technology, SNS and how social network can improve learning style as it portends great promise towards enhancing their academic performance. 1.0 Introduction Academic institutions all over the world especially in developed countries have made tremendous investment in computer and internet infrastructure with the hope that this would result in the utilisation of web-based knowledge resources which may leads to significant increase in academic performance and productivity of students or staff (Oskouei, 2010) . However, this investment may not have yielded the desired goals of increasing learning quality and productivity of the students because these resources are used for both academic and non-academic works (Oskouei, 2010). It has been estimated that young adults are the highest computer and internet users in the world population today, about 46% of them uses it for completing school assignment, 36% for e-mail or instant messaging and 38% for playing computer games (DeBell and Chapman, 2006). Social network sites which are online communication tool that have existed less than a decade allows its users to create public and private profile thus enabling them to interact with people in the same network (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). Social networks can be defined as web-based activities that allow individuals to build public and/or semi-public profiles within a confined system; articulate and connects to list of other users with which they are connected; view and check their list of connections with the ones created by others inside the system(Boyd and Ellison, 2008, Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010). Examples of the new phenomenon of social networks are MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Facebook is the leading social network in many countries followed by Twitter and LinkedIn in popularity. It has been reported that Facebook have 901 million monthly users and more than 125 billion friends connected at the end of March, 2012 (Karpinski et al., 2013). The positive and negative impacts of social network on students social behaviour and academic achievement can be examined by their engagement, collaborative work, creativity, distraction, and grade point average (GPA). Research has shown that students participation on social networks have a positive connection to their engagement, and negative connection to their academic performance. Many researchers indicate that students academic performance can be increased by enhancing their engagement, and it has been stated that students engagement has a significant predictor of their academic performance (Wise et al., 2011). The relationship between students academic engagement and their academic performance is in agreement with (Junco, 2012). They reported that students engagements are powerful forces for psychosocial development and academic success. Social networks have the potentials of improving learning styles, as they provides alternative to traditional teaching format such as creation of online classroom community, and also enhancement of student-teacher and student-student interaction (Merchant, 2012) Social network increases social interactions and allows easy communication between, families, friends, neighbourhoods and global communities. Most social networks incorporate lots of communication tools like mobile connectivity, blogs, photos and video sharing which allows cross-posting to each other as desired by the users (Merchant, 2012) It has been reported that social network interactions allows quality relationships, connectedness, positive behaviours and also sharing of relevant information have been observed on social network sites (Martin Dowson, 2009). Forkosh-Baruch Hershkovitz, (2012), also reported that lecturers, learners, system/software designers, decision makers and students are coming to social network sites for significant educational activities, and also establishes new innovations using interactive and collaborative online journals. Griffith and Liyange (2008) reported that students use social network in their academic studies such group and team based works. In this regards social network plays a central role in learning environment as a major conduit for getting resources, knowledge, social support and socialization for learning distribution (Cho et al., 2007). It provides help for students preparing for or finding employment (Connelly, 2011). On the other hand, researchers have shown that high level of internet usage among adults of certain age group (16-24 years) for social and emotional advancement could be regarded as internet addiction or pathological internet users for the group (Odaci and Kalkan, 2010). Internet addiction is the inability to limit internet usage despite its detrimental effects on social behaviour and academic performance; and also cause of anxiety when internet accessibility is restricted (Odaci, 2013). Young adults that experience difficulties in communication skills in the real life have reported significantly reduction while using social network but in real life their social skill is inadequate and therefore problematic in social behaviour and academic performance (Caldwell Cunningham, 2010; Caplan, 2010; Odaci, 2013). Social behaviour is an indispensable constituent of social psychology that can either be positive or negative. It consists of social determinant such as attitude, self-concept, collaboration, communication, violent behaviour and conflict reduction etc (Bertram, 2009). Social network helps to provide information on direct friendships and also generates a better global modelling for social organisation which determines how individual patterns of social behaviour correlate to group characteristics. The behaviour of an individual can affect the behaviours of others within the same social networks. Social behaviour can, for instance, influence flow of information or behaviours throughout a group (Makagon et al., 2012). Social networks do not only provide an assessment of popularity, but they can also be exploited as a vehicle to gain or access important information (Fetta et al., 2012). According to Lewis et al., (2007), the mass movement of people to the use of social network has instigated researchers into investigating impacts of social networks. It may not be an exaggeration if we say that many modern day young adults, especially students, make use of social network on a daily basis (Boyd Ellison 2007). According to Bryant Bryant (2005), the internet possesses the capability to influence our young adults and students behaviour very easily. This researcher has had experiences with youths/students in the library and classes that spend most of their time chatting and watching sexually explicit resources that might produce negative effects on their behaviour. Arising from the fore going, this researcher intends to study the postgraduate students attitudes as regards the use of social network during formal classes and library in Heriot-Watt University. At the end of the research, recommendations will be made based on the students response. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter are chosen for this research study because of the large number of students that use these online social networks for chatting and sending messages (Cheung et al., 2010; Golder et al., 2007; Stutzman, 2006). It is essential for the academic institutions to know the positive and negative impacts of social network on students behaviour and academic performances. Benefits and obstacles of social network on educational system Social network sites (SNS) has become one of the useful tools that can revolutionized educational sector to suit requirement to improved knowledge for both student-student and student-teacher interaction. As an effective new culture of learning, social network site (SNS) offers students opportunity to use informal ways to communication, learn and collaborate independent of time and space (Zaidieh, 2012). It also helps teacher to keep constant communication and get feedback from students which improves learning efficiency. Social network sites play major role between students-teachers by allowing students to be in constant connections with other students, educators, alumni, administrators within and outside the academic environment (Jiang and Tang, 2010; Zaidieh, 2012). SNS has the ability to attract, motivate and engage students in meaningful academic practices, content exchange and other collaborations (Mills, 2011). SNS provides student-teacher flexibility in learning, teaching and also the ability to join groups in specific subjects or disciplines and enable them to connect, view photos, videos and instructional activities established by other users of the network (ELI, 2007). SNS gives students and teachers the possibility of repetition i.e to either retrieve information immediately or later which is hard when using traditional methods of teaching (Dobrzanski and Brytan, 2007). In contrast to SNS the non-SNS method such as blackboard and module are much focused and lack personal touch and network capacity of SNS. SNS has the potentials to actively encourage online community building and extend learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom (Smith, 2009; Brady et al., 2010). It provides unique opportunities for educators and instructors to facilitate a very strong sense of community within students and encourages creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence by personal interactions. SNS provides shared forum where students can post or share, and engage in collaborative discussion while sharing common sources like links, video and photos (McCann, 2009). It represents a defined shift towards social and community web-based application that can cultivate and sustain subject specific social networking. It does not only attract people but also hold their attention, propel them, to contribute and bring them back time without number all to get desirable qualities for educational purposes. SNS makes it easy and quick to access, review, update and edit learning materials any time and everywhere (Cheong, 2002) and allows students and teachers to select desirable materials from large quantity of course offered on online. It allows easy distribution of learning materials and reduces stress and increases satisfaction among students. It gives students opportunity to study at their own self-pace and allow them to join bulletin board discussion any time while visiting classmates and instructors remotely in chat room. It overcomes the limitations of space and time in education and allows accessibility of available materials in their sites and also helps to resolves time table conflicts (Zaidieh, 2012). The major challenges of SNS in education sector including lack of privacy, miscommunication and taking up times. Privacy is the major obstacles of SNS in education. Nissenbaum, (2004) described privacy as the contextual integrity which refers to the rules of appropriateness, in confines of the nature and types of information about different individuals within a given context, that is allowed, expected, or demanded to be revealed, and the rules of distribution, in confines of the movement, or transfer from one person to another. It simply means that in social network interaction; individuals have expectations concerning what information is deem appropriate to collect and circulate. Thus, specific types of information are appropriate for sharing among a certain groups of friends but may not be good to open to other social network users outside that group (Pai and Arnott, 2012). Its users express concern about privacy of their personal information and are most vigilant about safeguardin g it (Dwyer et al., 2007). In social network site (SNS), people have lots of friends and the quality and integrity of these friendship are always in question because they are not always 100% honest and reliable and cannot actually verify personal details (age and location) of their members. It also allows accurate and positive self-profile that can be potentially abused by the openness (Zaidieh, 2012). Miscommunication: In most cases, learner (students) face difficulties in expressing their ideas and views in writing as most of them prefer to express their ideas and views orally, the approach they are used to for many years of their studies. Face-to-face allows one individuals to perceive physical clues like tones, reflection, body language in an online environment (Zaidieh, 2012). Taking up time: Social network users spent much time in Internet, and more time online for their studies and works. Most times this causes lack of motivation towards learning and can be bored sitting in front of a computer for a very long time especially when the learning materials presented is free of audio and visual effects that can attract learner towards learning (Zaidieh, 2012). Lenhart et al., (2010) reported that half of the users are idled online for hours from time to time. This finding suggested that the more online time, the more SNS users, took their toll on information consumption through the social network platforms. According to Zhong et al., (2011), more than half of the social network users stated that reading information and watching videos online gave them short time for using non-SNS materials, such as broadcast and printed documents, indicating a move in trend of information from non-SNS to SNS, especially among students. Many researchers observed that students spend several hours in a day attending to different social network sites even during lectures and library sessions thus creating distractions and reducing the time to focus on their studies. For example, in the lecture or library, most students leave their mobile phone on and silently chat on the social network sites and when the lecturer sets an examination, with high expectation of good grades; majority of the students will not do well. This scenario is ominous for both the students involved and the society at large. If this situation is not put under control, it will affect the students focus towards academics and possibly increase the number of students dropping out of school. Pempek, et al., (2009) studied College Students social networking experiences on Facebook using 92 scholars. The study revealed that the students spend minimum of 1 hr. on daily bases with social network. The researchers reported that students spend more time reading the contents from their friends responses, uploading pictures and to keep in touch with friends. Other researchers however, observed that there is no relationship between time spent on the use of social network and students academic performance. Hunley et al., (2005) opined that there is no significant between the time spent on the social networks and the Grade Point Average (GPA) of students. This finding is in agreement with Kolek and Saunders (2008) which observed that social network usage and the GPA of Users have no relationship. On the other hand, Verden Boogart, (2006), reported that social network users have lower GPAs more than non-users. This finding correlates with the report by Flad (2010) that 32% out of 35% of the students that use social network have poor academic performance, and concluded that social network is good for students socialisation but negatively impact on their academic performance. Barratt et al., (2009), observed that many students log onto Facebook many times in a day, thus spending valuable time, if spent on their studies would lead to excellent academic performance. It is necessary to examine whether or not social network involvement by students improves their academic works and social behaviour. How Social network Improves learning style? In the world today, higher institutions explore emerging technologies such as social network sites as a new or improved tool to enhance teaching and learning. Social network sites support student, and boost the integration in the higher education classes. Even though the infrastructures to support social network presently exist in most universities, instructors are slow in adapting to the tools as an educational one. Recently, Sadaf et al., (2012) studied pre-service teachers beliefs about their intent to use social network in their future classrooms. The results opined that half (51%) were committed to the new technology as an instructional tool because it increases student engagement. Brady et al., (2010) studied the use of social network at North Carolina State University. Seventy percent agreed with the notion that SNS made communication skill possible between peers than a comparable face-to-face class. Nearly (82%) indicated that SNS help them communicate outside the class as we ll. Most users (74%) also agreed that SNS allows them to reflect and comments on other peoples work more effectively than a face-to-face class. In addition, Ajjan and Hartshorne, (2008), reported that Social network sites are viewed as useful tools to improve students satisfaction (32%) and also increased student-student interaction (56%). For instance, SNS enables scholars and teachers to remain current in their research areas, and also to explore recent approaches to teaching through networking with colleagues, interacting with different individuals, discussing their research/or work, and also expose their work or research interest to greater audiences. For example scholars use SNS such as blogs to support their scholarly endeavours. Researchers have identified that blogs are used; i) as a debate platform for scholars who seeks a live public intellectuals, (ii) for recording or sharing logs of pure research, (iii) as a type of tongue-in-cheek i.e water cooler to which analytical discussions of only scholarly experience can occur (Kirkup, 2010). Blog usage extends beyond research to include teaching endeavours (Deng and Yue n, 2011). Cho et al., 2007 reported that early Twitter users used Twitter for making instructional information and provide students with opportunities to communicate with professional communities outside the classroom. Future usage of social network In the past few years, social network sites have attracted the interest of researchers which examine the role this technology plays in higher education. Few of the work have showed the affective outcomes of social network site integration. Some of the studies examined learning outcomes and students achievement as related to the educational usage of social sites in college courses. King et al., (2009) described the recent development of an inter-professional team work in the healthcare field that shows how to integrate social networking. The researchers stated that in future integration of an educationally structured social network sites will facilitated growth toward the concept of effective communication which will overcome barrier of distance in learning. Some researchers have also reported that in future social network sites could foster scholarship that is social (Chong, 2010; Greenhow, 2009), conversational and open (Oblinger, 2010; Pearce et al., 2010). Social scholarship is the practice in which the use of social tools is an integral part of the research and publishing process that is characterised by openness, fast conversation, and collaboration, accessible, sharing, cheaper and transparent revision (Pearce et al., 2010). Social network sites which provide digital scholarship is more than just using information technologies and communication skill to research for materials; teach students and collaborate with other, but also to embrace the open values, ideologies and potentials of technologies essential for peer-to-peer networking and also a way of working in order to profit both the academic work and society at large. Picking up the mantle, Greenhow et al., (2009) suggested that todays student experienced different online identities due to new digital technologies at hand (for example; role playing sites, and virtual worlds). They opined that this new development presents a fundamental shift from the non-SNS to SNS and concluded that in future learners participation will be evidenced by inter-connections, content creation and participation attitudes in and out of the classroom. QUESTIONNAIRES A modified questionnaire instrument designed will be used in other to arrive at a general perception as regards to students opinion to the use social networks, behaviour to academic pursuit and social behaviour (Goodson et al., 2005; Pascarella et al., 2009). Considering the advantages of the quantitative approach, the researcher uses questionnaires to get many responses on the students behaviour towards the use social networks during classes and library sessions. There are 18 questions designed to elicit the participants opinion on the use of social network during classes and library sessions, social behaviour and time spent using social networks. Figure 1. Basic model of social behaviour and academic performance of students using social network (Adapted from Paul et al., 2012) The questionnaires measuring each of the following constructs; time spent on social network, predictors of behaviour, time management skills, academic competency, attention Span, student characteristics and academic performance were developed from literature and discussions with supervisor. For example, questions that best describe the factors which explain studentsonline networking behaviour were adopted from Cameron, (2010). Questionnaires that are related to factors such as academic competency, Information on GPA, time management skills, study strategies, student characteristics, etc. are adopted from Mizerski and Pettigrew, (2003); Sansqiry et al., (2004); Paul et al., (2012). The questionnaire adopted five point Likert scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree, Strongly Disagree (Ary et al., 2000). The adaptation of this method is to provide correct and simple grammar in other to achieve the research objectives and also provide answers to the research questions. CATEGORIES OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES There are many social network sites that exist today. The most popular sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn are free registration. All that is required from the prospective users is to provide their profile picture. Social network sites have several categories which are available in the World Wide Web (WWW) (Brown, 2011). Social network categories are the class given to a large groups based on certain functions, features, forms and meaning. Each of the social network categories has their specific focus and functions but all have common characteristics. They have features such blogs, videos, records of members, journal and many more (Othman et al., 2011). Thelwall (2009), reported that social network tools have three main categories as regards to friendship connections, (Fig1.2). The first Category social network is for social communication among members. Facebook, MySpace, twitter, etc. have this feature. Category two, with LinkedIn as example aims at searching for new contacts. Category three is the social navigation network through which specific types of information or resources can be obtained. Figure 1.2 shows about 22 categories available in social network like discussion, education, and library. Most of the website falls into more than one category such as MySpace which can be categories into music and friendship category. Facebook Facebook was originally introduced in 2004 as an online Harvard social network site which allows students living on University residential halls or students from other faculties of the University to register as users and communicate with their fellow students (Zywicas and Danowski, 2008). In 2006, Facebook was made public for everybody (Urista et al., 2009); and in December 2006 it had over 12 million users and at the end of December 2009, the active users increased to 350 million (Hew, 2011). Today Facebook is the most populated social network site in the majority of the countries with more than 400 Million users. In March 2011, Europe had the highest number of Facebook users 234.6 million followed by 163.9 million in North America (Karpinski et al., 2012). Facebook is a social network site in which individuals or groups can share photographs, personal information, and communicate with friends (Hew, 2011). Facebook is also considered as the leading social network site used among college students. For example, Ellison et al., (2007) reported that in USA, 90% of the Undergraduate students Participate on Facebook. In British undergraduate students, Facebook has also become the most popular SNS used (Madge et al., 2009). Munoz and Towner, (2009) suggested that Facebook can have positive impact on college students life, and further stated that students can use Facebook to communicate with other students concerning their assignments, group work or project, or teachers communicating their students regarding useful information on a specific course links. On the other hand, researchers have shown concern in regards to possible negative impacts of Facebook usage among college students. For example, Kirschner and Karpinski, (2010) reported that students spending hours on Facebook may adversely affect their academic performance. Facebook profile can be classified into four main groups: i) control elements, ii) referents elements, iii) preference elements, iv) contact elements. Control elements are fields like the gender of the user, length/period of Facebook membership, and their institutional status. Referents elements include hometown, residence and high school which are based on profile fields or common points of contact among the users. Preference elements are simply based on expression of personal interest and self-descriptive information of the user. For example, About Me, my interests, my favourite Music, favourite movies, favourite TV-shows, favourite books, favourite quotes, and my political views. Contact elements are profile fields such as e-mail address, instant messenger screen name, and the relationship status (Cain, 2008; Lampe et al., 2007). Facebook users can also create groups and become a fan of a particular page of their interest organization such as football clubs, and celebrities thus allowing users with common goal to get together and support the organization or the celebrity. Facebook also serve as sources of entertainment because of the availability of games and other applications. Examples of such games and applications are Crazy Taxi, My Fairyland, and Facebook for iPhone (Hew, 2011). MYSPACE MySpace is one of the popular social networks sites in the world today. It was launched in California in 2003 to compete with other networks like Friendster and Xanga etc (Anderson, 2007). It grew rapidly by taking advantage of Friendsters mistake and failure. According to Anderson, (2007) Indie-rock bands that were expelled from Friendster because of profile problems; moved to MySpace network and began to attract users. There were several advertisements by most popular clubs in MySpace. It is believed that music was not only the key issue that attracted users of MySpace but rather there were symbiotic association between music bands and fans that helped to expand MySpace beyond expectation. MySpace is unique because it allows addition of features based on the users interest (Boyd, 2006). Boyd said that teenagers started using MySpace in 2004 to connect to their friends and not just for the reason that they belong to the bands. MySpace site achieved its highest growth rates with three different groups, namely, the musicians, teenagers and undergraduate students. Among SNS, MySpace gives greater self-expression than the popular Facebook and Twitter. It allows the users to customize their virtual space through an open format in which the designed elements, like text, video, music, graphics and photographs can be used to display their users online personality. With this feature users can create self-image that can be communicated to the mass audience. MySpace also gives the users more anonymity by providing the option of using a nickname. (Kane, 2008; Boyle and Johnson, 2010). Twitter Twitter is a free social network site and micro blogging service which enables the users to read and post short text-based message that is not more than 140 words, called tweets. Some people tweet with micro-blog platform, while others regard it as a social networking site (Bake, 2009). A Web service which allows people to post brief messages to other users of the same service is micro-blogging. It derived its feature from Instant Relay Chat (IRC) including instant messaging and handsets. According to Bake (2009), Twitter is one of the social network web-based applications that allow its users to build their own profile either publicly or semi-publicly. Twitter uses the exact basic features like find people profile and uploading pictures on profile etc. The traditional contacts in twitter are followers and following categories. Twitter does not belong to only SNSs socializing category but also to networking with navigation, (Thelwall, 2007). This network allows you to follow users (following) and also followed by other users (followers) without any authorization. Messages sent are automatically published on the front page of the users (timeline) (Torreente et al., 2012). Any user may reply or retweet any tweet, which can generate public debate and conversation. Links can also be added to the tweets in order to create additional information beyond the 140 words. Some key potentials of Twitter are that it is a window to the unlimited source of information and can be regarded multi-focal. It gives the opportunity to create lists of manage tweets by themes, authors and tags which helps users to manage the information and also easier to follow a particular topic. It is an ideal tool to disseminate information and to broadcast live events such as conferences, and any event worldwide. Twitter is fast and viral i.e. anyone can tweet and the spread of information can be unstoppable. One of the features of Twitter is the ability to include links which makes it easier to move from particular content to another (Torreente et al., 2012). Influence of social network on social behaviour of students Social behaviour is a kind of influence from specific group of people which may positively or negatively affec

An Outsider’s View of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings Essay

An Outsider’s View of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences dealing with alcoholism will be revealed. Not only are statistics, like the facts mentioned before, important when dealing with an issue such as alcoholism, but personal accounts and information are often more powerful and influential evidence. Non-alcoholics should be allowed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous me etings for research purposes. There are two groups of people pertinent to this project. Members of AA will provide information through sharing their experiences in interviews to those that will read and learn from the project, such as future alcoholics, new AA members, college students, and everyone in between. The members of the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are the most valuable first-hand accounts, and will be the first to supply information with this project. Though a few members may be less than cooperative to provide personal information, most are more than willing to share their experiences in order to help others in any way possible. In the first visit to the AA meeting, several o... ...ld, and atheist. The importance of these people is that they are constantly contributing their own conversation to the topic of how alcoholism affects them, in their own personal way. This project plans to contribute in a different way: by providing all of these stories to a new audience. From a biological perspective, alcoholism is a disease that affects the brain’s functioning and AA is a route to sobriety. From a psychology major’s perspective, it is more than just a place for victims of alcoholism. It is an opportunity to observe how people go from drunk to sober with help from their AA friends. Works Cited Do You Think You’re Different? New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976. Dictionary.com..October 6th, 2004. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism .. October 6th, 2004. An Outsider’s View of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings Essay An Outsider’s View of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences dealing with alcoholism will be revealed. Not only are statistics, like the facts mentioned before, important when dealing with an issue such as alcoholism, but personal accounts and information are often more powerful and influential evidence. Non-alcoholics should be allowed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous me etings for research purposes. There are two groups of people pertinent to this project. Members of AA will provide information through sharing their experiences in interviews to those that will read and learn from the project, such as future alcoholics, new AA members, college students, and everyone in between. The members of the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are the most valuable first-hand accounts, and will be the first to supply information with this project. Though a few members may be less than cooperative to provide personal information, most are more than willing to share their experiences in order to help others in any way possible. In the first visit to the AA meeting, several o... ...ld, and atheist. The importance of these people is that they are constantly contributing their own conversation to the topic of how alcoholism affects them, in their own personal way. This project plans to contribute in a different way: by providing all of these stories to a new audience. From a biological perspective, alcoholism is a disease that affects the brain’s functioning and AA is a route to sobriety. From a psychology major’s perspective, it is more than just a place for victims of alcoholism. It is an opportunity to observe how people go from drunk to sober with help from their AA friends. Works Cited Do You Think You’re Different? New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976. Dictionary.com..October 6th, 2004. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism .. October 6th, 2004.

The Dynamic Duo in Volpone :: Volpone

The Dynamic Duo in Volpone While Mosca and Volpone, the "dynamic duo" in this play, share many similarities, they are still different enough to compliment one another. On one hand, both characters are alike in that they share a common lust for deceit, making their living by tricking others. They take delight in conjuring up and performing elaborate schemes in order to fool people. This becomes a game for the two of them, which they both enjoy playing immensely. Perhaps the common love of this game is what knits Volpone's heart so tightly to Mosca's. On the other hand, Mosca seems to be a little sharper and wittier than Volpone. Where Volpone tends to be slightly dull or slow, Mosca makes up for his lack by being ingenious for him. For example, in act 3.4, Volpone boils in frustration because he cannot successfully persuade or trick Lady Would-be into leaving his presence. He attempts to make her leave several times, but is ineffective. Finally, at the height of his despair, Mosca walks in, and with one breath, comes up with a brilliant falsehood that sends Lady Would-be running out the door. This unfailing ability of Mosca's to invent schemes while under pressure is what makes him so useful to Volpone and keeps the duo together. Mosca's quick thinking compliments Volpone's slow wit. Another characteristic that Mosca possesses in abundance that Volpone does not necessarily have is the ability to flatter. Throughout the play, Mosca displays a clever ability to play off of other people's pride by inflating their egos so that they will be consumed with their own vanity. Then, once the other person has his eyes solely on himself, he is vulnerable to fall for any scheme of Mosca's. This tricky character plays this game of flattery with almost every character in the play, including Volpone. Because Volpone is not witty enough to see that his side-kick treats him with the same craftiness that he uses on the clients, he is