Atomic Bomb Essays (93 words) - , Term Papers

Atomic Bomb Was Atomic Bomb Necessary? August 6th, 1945, 70,000 lives were ended in a matter of seconds. The United States had dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Today many argue over whether or not the US should have taken such a drastic measure. Was it entirely necessary that we drop such a devastating weapon? Yes, it was. First, we must look at what was going on at the time the decision was made. The US had been fighting a massive war since 1941. Morale was most likely low, and

The Impotence of Proofreading

The Impotence of Proofreading The Impotence of Proofreading The Impotence of Proofreading By Daniel Scocco Its a fact that a spell checker will not catch all the mistakes on your text. More specifically, it will not catch misspellings that form other valid words. So how do you solve this problem? Proofreading, of coarse! Just read again through youre text trying to spot words that dont fit, and make sure to not loose the focus while you do it. Proofreading is sometimes more important then using the spell checker itself. You should proofread virtually any written piece, from emails to blog posts. Proofread your homework as well, since you dont want to drive the principle of your school crazy. Lets be honest, misspelled words are defiantly a sign of ignorance. The simple act of proofreading will have a great affect on the quality of your material, and I am sure that youll earn more complements from people. Their you go my friend, and take this advice seriously. After all, you dont want to look dumb in front of the general pubic! P.S. Can you find all the mistakes? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowUsed To vs. Use To50 Synonyms for â€Å"Villain†

See instruction Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

See instruction - Term Paper Example The company expects less first year total revenue with the opportunity to increase revenue of second year exponentially because of Valentines Day sales (excluded in the first year due to April opening). The area will have nearly 1400 residents at the time of opening the Castleberry Hill. Studies indicate that a population of 9,000 is necessary to support a traditional retail florist and therefore it is important to point out that Shades of Blue will not be a usual retail florist. In the first three years of Shades of Blue’s development, the company will not depend on retail traffic, but will instead use advanced technology and smart marketing programs to target repeat buyers in more than 1,500 targeted businesses in Atlanta office buildings. The company’s business is to provide flower delivery services to customers who want to gift their loved ones with fresh flowers. Shades of Blue will target men who are more accustomed to spending money on loved ones. Shades of Blue is scheduled to open in April. The total space for the shop will be approximately 800 sq. feet. The shop will be located alongside the main street with one-fourth of the space would be allocated for retail use, and remaining space would be used for workspace and storage. At this time, there are no other planned florists in the Castleberry Hill that can act as a competitor. Free parking is available for the shoppers who visit the shop. However, majority of Shades of Blue’s revenue will be generated from routinely delivered floral arrangements outside of the Castleberry Hill area. Shades of Blue will be open for six days (Monday – Saturday), and will remain close on Sunday and on other public holidays. Hours of operation will be 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday - Friday, and from noon - 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Hours might get extended during the holidays. The vision statement of the company informs the customers about the business of

Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) - Research Paper Example Because of its dedication to fight the global climate change, BNP Paribas created its coal-fired power generation policies last September 20113. Being the 4th European bank† that has issued CSR policy on projects related to coal-fired power plant4, BNP Paribas’ policy objectives is to â€Å"integrate climate change issue in coal-fired power generation sector by taking into account greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions† and â€Å"avoid investing in companies with low environment and social standards†5. BNP Paribas set a minimum efficiency standard of 43% in high-income countries and 38% in low-income countries for its generic greenfield CFPP projects and a maximum emission requirements of not more than 550 CO2/kWh in high-income countries and 660 CO2/kWh in low-income countries for other greenfield CFPP projects6, 7. For brownfield CFPP projects, BNP Paribas require the applicants to comply with â€Å"IFC Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines for Thermal Pow er Plants† to meet the required level of emission and/or at least 10% increase or improvements from the required level8. CFPPs projects that were not in compliance with BNP Paribas’ policy on coal-fired generating projects were purposely turned down (i.e. projects in Turkey and Vietnam in 2011 and India in 2012)9. As of 2011, BNP Paribas avoided additional 70 MteqCO2 each year10. 2.2 Credit Agricole Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank is Europe’s 4th biggest bank and the world’s 5th biggest bank which aims to serve client’s investment banking needs11. Credit Agricole’s policy on CFPP projects are based on the guidelines set by the Climate Principles initiative, Environment Health and Safety Guidelines, IFC Performance Standards, International Energy Agency (IEA), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Kyoto protocol, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the World Coal Association12. Before gra nting a financial support to CFPP projects, Credit Agricole will analyze a set of its ESG criteria which includes the plant location, quality of coal utilized in generating electricity, compliance with national and international regulatory frameworks, technology used in generating electricity, limit in the emission of pollutants, etc.13, 14. 2.3 Citibank Citibank is a US-based banking corporation. For the past 200 years, Citibank managed to establish a strong connection in more than 1,000 cities and 160 countries around the world15. Back in 2003, Citibank implemented its Environmental and Social Risk Management (ESRM) Policy16. Unlike the other banks and financial institutions, Citibank has been recognized as one of the biggest financiers of CFPP projects worldwide17. Since 2008, Citibank was able to finance almost 150 CFPP projects in US alone18. Even though Citibank plans to sell its shares in the Indonesian coal producer of Adaro Energy, Citibank is very much decided not to remov e or cut down its active participation in the financing process of new CFPP projects19. 2.4 Societe Generale Societe Generale is a French multi-national banking and financial institution that is currently operating for more than 149 years in history20. As part of its environmental sector policy, Societe Generale created its E&S laws and regulations which require all clients to comply with their requirements.

Assessment Referrals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Assessment Referrals - Essay Example According to Deiner (2003), â€Å"Communication is the process by which information is transmitted between two or more individuals† (pp. 273). Before making a referral for additional assessment in determining whether or not a student has a communication disorder, thorough amounts of interventions should be completed—as well as copious note-taking and recording evidence of a student’s behavior. Two strengths of observational assessment are: 1) that a teacher can physically see with his or her own eyes what problem or problems the student is dealing with; and then 2) record these observations for further discussion at some point in the future. The limitations of observational assessment are that: 1) there is no feedback provided by the student unless verbal or written; and 2) there is no way to know, short of asking, what the student’s viewpoint is during the assessment. Anectdotal records would be preferable to keep records—and then later on, the sch ool psychologist might be able to take such notes and go down a checklist of his or her own about what these behaviors together might mean. According to Boyles and Contadino (1998), â€Å"Poor communication skills can interfere with every aspect of the childs life. Learners with communication disorders quickly fall behind in school. Vocabularies dwindle, memories fail, and problem solving becomes difficult† (pp. 158). Therefore, if the diagnosing individual can pinpoint what the student is having difficulty with, that might make the student be able to more effectively handle his or her

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay

Media And Communication Studies Problems In Encoding Media Essay Introduction Communication is the basic instinct of human being. The interaction and communication process is complex. It directs the researchers to understand the way the cognition works. Latest researches have become more advanced in the context of encoding. CDA (critical discourse analysis) and DA (discourse analysis) have been prerequisite to understand the encoding process. Objectivity, especially in the field of journalism is of great concern. The factors influencing the cognition and the process of encoding have been of the great concern for the communication scholars. Encoding is an integral part of the communication process. With out encoding and decoding it is not possible to communicate and being communicated. If we exclude the encoding the concept of communication is not possible. Mass media in Pakistan like any other media across the globe is working under the lines of responsibility but it is essential to understand the problems in encoding. Process of encoding and decoding is part of everyday communication. Anchormen, news reporters and producers play an important role beyond many others in communication field. Agenda setting, opinions building for a particular purpose have been the major area of interest for the communication experts and the journalists. It is obvious in our daily news media that some hot issues summarily go beyond the surface and the new one take their place to mold the attention of the public from one point to an other. This may go successful in one way when the message is encoded perfectly and then the receiver of the message decodes it in the way the sender wants it. For the successful and objective communication certain studies have been conducted by the communication and language experts focusing especially to the problems in the encoding process. PART II Encoding Definition: Encoding is the translation of purpose, intention, or meaning into symbols or codes. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Mostly these symbols are in the form of numbers, letters or words. These symbols work like bricks in forming the structure of any language. Other shapes of the encoding can be a photograph, motion picture, musical note or in the form of any sound. Encoding is such a process which demands deep attention to understand. It is the part of our routine life. Communication is the vital part of our life. We can not remain in isolation and feel relief when we express our intentions and feeling to any other person. The process of communication involves the most important factor that is encoding. Encoding basically occurs in mind. In other words it is the process of mind in which our intentions and what so ever we want to communicate is converted or shaped into the form of words which may be in the written or spoken form or can be any kind of gesture. We do the encoding on the basis of our knowledge and our past experiences. It is prerequisite for the journalists and communication experts to understand the encoding and its impact on the objectivity of the news or the message being conveyed. Encoding and the Society: Communication works like blood in the body. The process of interaction and transmission of the intentions and ideas from one to other person requires the cognition to come in work. With out the encoding it is impossible to deliver ones intentions to the other. The process of the encoding and decoding follow each other. A person encodes the message in reaction to what he/she decodes. Encoding process is available at every stage. In the field of communication from interpersonal to mass communication; each level has encoding in the process of dissemination of the information. At the mass communication level media disseminate the information to diverse societies. In the societies electronic journalism has a great role in providing the information about daily happening. The general public is regularly exposed to news channels and construct the opinion on the basis of what they watch and listen. Opinion of a society plays important role in the power play at social and national level and even impacts the international power structure. Keeping in mind the importance of the social opinion, it has been the concern of the communication scholars to ensure the objectivity at every stage of news and information dissemination. The process of delivering the information at this level passes through various stages. From the ordinary witness at the crime scene to the reporter, from reporter to the news desk, from news desk to the anchor person and from anchor person to the audiences, the process of encoding is involved at each stage. To ensure the transparency in the information distribution, making it objective and to provide the reality till the audience, certain studies have been conducted by the communication scholars. In the latest studies the scholars have conducted the Critical Discourse Analysis to study the way social power abuse; dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. It thus want to understand, expose and ultimately to resist the social inequality. Additionally the scholars have conducted the Discourse Analysis- a general term for a number of approaches to analyze written, spoken, signed language use. Encoding and the Language: In the process of encoding, language plays an important role. A group of students of the language which is called General Semanticists have worked over the encoding. They also have identified some characteristics of the language. These characteristics are essential to understand in understanding the encoding and the problems in its process. To understand the process of encoding in our society, individuals of the society and the media experts including communication experts and journalists it is essential to be known about these characteristics of the language. Media experts and journalists themselves go through the process of the encoding to shape their selections and intentions and the reality of the world around, and this afterwards again shaped by the minds of individuals in the society. At this point to save the objectivity and the purity of news and the affairs about the world around is the major concern. The misuse of the language takes the communicator or the person being communicated to certain amalgamations of the problems. Following are characteristics of the language identified by the General Semanticists: Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic: Words themselves do not change over the period of time, yet the world around us is full of change. In the process of the evolution it is the natural phenomenon that certain species are not permanent in their shape and structure but they keep on developing time to time. In this case it is fact that we use the same fixed limitations and the words to describe any event or the world around. We use some specified words and attributes for certain things and events but with the passage of time their importance and area of influence keep on changing. Mass media communication experts especially the journalists use a specified vocabulary and terms to convey daily happenings. In the developing countries like Pakistan, the journalists in mass media field are not literal to the level essential for their work and the media here is in the developing stage; which has the potential risk to objectivity and the true tackling of the matter of the encoding in the sense of obtaining the information and imparting it to the masses but with the gradual rise in the education towards the importance and the responsibility in the news dissemination process is bringing a positive change. Language is Limited; Reality is virtually Unlimited: According to Wendell Johnson (1972) there are 500,000 to 600,000 words in the English language and they are to represent millions of individual facts, experiences and relationships. The people generally use limited vocabulary for their conversation in daily life. Miller (1963) says that vocabulary for telephone conversation is 5000 words and for novel are 10,000 words. Journalists and communication experts generally have the limited vocabulary. They come across various events in their daily life which they finally encode and give the shape of words and voice and broadcast for the audience and viewers. According to this characteristic of the language they can not show the exact reality of the event. This aspect in other words compromises the objectivity required in the news dissemination process. Due to having the limited vocabulary it becomes hard to convey the true picture of the reality. Language is Abstract: According to General Semanticists in the abstraction process we select some details about anything and leave rest of the details. Every language contains some abstractions. It is one of the most important features of the language. It allows us to think in categories. Much of the human knowledge is bound up in the process of categorizing and classifying. As the words become more abstract their correspondence to the reality becomes less and less direct. In the process of encoding especially according to the journalism perspective, objectivity is the foremost thing to consider. It has adverse effects if the audiences are not conversant to the encoding and abstraction processes. Assumptions Built into the Language: As General Semanticists say; the structure and vocabulary of the language contains many assumptions about the nature of the reality. Wendell Johnson observed that the language we use not only puts words in our mouths, but it also puts notions in our heads. Many folk languages contain certain assumption which are influenced by the culture and norms in which the speakers of that language live. Our mind is like a room which is colored by our experiences and cultures and when we speak in native or foreign language, that language builds assumptions in our mind besides putting words in our mouth. Misuses of the Language: General Semanticists have identified some misuses of the language due its static limited and abstract nature. They have identified four common misuses. Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection Dead-Level Abstracting: This concept, described by Wendell Johnson (1946) refers to getting stuck at one level of abstraction. The level could be high or low. High level abstractions are words like justice, democracy, freedom, mankind, and communism, peace with honor, and law and order. The low level abstraction can be like, some one recounting every detail of his or her day. An effective message contains generalizations at a high level of abstraction, but there are also specific details at a low level of abstraction. One effective technique for doing this is to give a lot of examples. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) By Werner J. Severin James W. Tankard, Jr Undue Identification: General Semanticists have described the undue identification as, the failure to see distinctions between members of a category or class. This term points out that they are seen as identical or identified. Another term for this is categorical thinking. In everyday discourse, it is sometimes referred to as overgeneralization. One common kind of undue identification is stereotyping. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) Two Valued Evaluation: This is also known as thinking with the excluded middle. According to this, there are only two possibilities of any thing and there is no third possibility of being something at the middle. For example: Right or Wrong Day or Night The General Semanticists have advised the way to eliminate such kind of misuse of the language by having the multivalued evaluation. In other words, to think that there are a range of possibilities of anything. Unconscious Projection: According to the General Semanticists the unconscious projection is a lack of awareness that ones statements are to a degree statements about oneself. Wendell Johnson (1972) went so for as to claim that basically we always talk about ourselves. William Shakespeare said, Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so. It is the I behind the eye that does the seeing. The seeing goes on inside our heads and inside our nervous system. What we see is our response to what we look at. (Communication theories: Origins, Methods, And Uses in Mass Media 3rd Edition) PART III Literature Review Stuart Hall: Stuart Hall has worked over encoding. His paper encoding/decoding was published in 1973. Many of the terms set by Hall remained influential in the field of cultural studies. Hall explored this work during his stay at Birmingham. Hall worked on that how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed. His essay challenged three major things in the communication process. He argued that; Meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender. The message is never transparent. The audience is not passive recipient of the meaning. According to him, distortion is built into the system. It is not the failure of the producer or the viewer. He argued that there is lack of fit between two sides of communication exchange. That lack of fit is between the moment of the production of the message and the moment of its reception. In other words, there is lack of fit between encoding and the decoding process. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall developed the reception theory. This theory analyses that how readers (audience) receive the literary text. This is basically a textual analysis approach that focuses on the range of negotiation and opposition concerning to the audience. According to this theory the text in any form is not accepted passively but the audience or the readers interpret the meanings in their cultural backgrounds and the past experiences. As per this theory, the process of encoding going on in any persons cognition is always influenced by his cultural background and the past experiences of the life. General Semanticists: In the world of communication, encoding has been the matter of the great concern. A group of students of language which was named as General Semanticists, have worked on the problems of encoding. This group was at first led by the Alfred Korzybski, a Polish who later migrated to United States of America. Encoding as being the basic element in the communication process which deals with the work of cognition is unavoidable in the process of analyzing the communication and the interaction of human beings with each other and its effects. In the process of accounting the importance of the encoding we can not put aside the role of the language. The language as being the central tool in the process of the communication affects the whole process of sharing the ideas and interaction with each other. Focusing on the vitality and the role of the language in encoding, they have identified some characteristics of the language that make the encoding difficult-especially in the language. These scholars have been in concern with the role of language in our daily life and its effects over our mental health. They have suggested to use the language in the way as the scientists use, to avoid the problems generated by the misuse of the language. Describing the characteristics of the language which make the encoding difficult, they identified the language as; Language is Static; Reality is Dynamic Language is Limited; Reality is Virtually Unlimited Language is Abstract Assumptions Built into Languages Misuse of the language causes the wrong encoding of any purpose or intention which takes the person being communicated, away from the reality. The person who gratifies his needs for information and news is on the stake of the key performers in the information dissemination process such as media producers, anchor-persons and the news reporters. General Semanticists have also identified some misuses of the language. Wendell Johnson has the prominent work in this regard. The misuses of the language are; Dead-Level Abstracting Undue Identification Two Valued Evaluation Unconscious Projection According to Wendell Johnson, getting stuck to a level of abstraction, and basically we always talk about ourselves, are the matters of the great concern. The field of journalism like other communication activities requires more attention towards these findings by the General Semanticists. The element of the objectivity has been of great concern. S. I. Hayakawa (1964) discusses three kinds of statements focusing the objectivity. Reports Inferences judgment According to him, the statement which is capable of verification is called the report. He describes the inferences as the statements made about unknown on the basis of known and finally he discussed the judgment as an expression of approval or disapproval for an occurrence, person or object. Journalists are sometimes challenged for their objectivity and unveiling the true picture of reality. For this the Hayakawa has advised to follow the report method of the statements and avoid inferences, statements and slanting. Encoding and Mass Media in Pakistan: Mass media in Pakistan has been playing active role in dissemination of the information to the audience at every newsworthy occasion. Certainly there is no scarcity of the hardworking journalists working in the whole process of the communication and the news dissemination. At the present stage there is great competition going on among various TV channels, of which most of the channels are newly emerged. Being the first in the broadcasting race some times the violation of the standards and ethics of news reporting is obvious. Some of the channels have been showing the videos of such a brutal incidents which would never be shown under the codes of ethics. Whether it is print or the electronic media, loopholes in the process of information gathering, processing and distributing stages are apparent. Government has established PEMRA to regulate the media but it too has been kept under the influence of the interests of the governing body in the past. In the print media there are a number of news stories available at the news desks which are firstly encoded by the reporters in the words on the paper, which sometimes are not written properly due to limited vocabulary of the language held with the reporter. There are gatekeepers at various stages of the news production which practice their influence on the word structure of the news. Sometimes a few newsworthy stories are left behind due to unavailability of the space in the print and the time in the electronic media and that reserved space is due to the immense influence of the advertisers, through which mass media generate the revenue. In such above mentioned conditions, the objectivity is the element of great concern in the whole process of the mass media. There have been no work done over the issue of encoding by the mass media of Pakistan and there is no research held over the audience way of the encoding in Pakistan. There are a few channels (TV, Radio) and newspapers which are never influenced by the rivalry of the circumstances and tried to provide the objective news to the audience and vied to unveil the reality. But to analyze the way the mass media in Pakistan encodes the messages and to analyze the way the audience further encode the messages, is the matter of great concern. PART IV Hypothesis To analyze the objectivity and the encoding process by the news media it is essential to set a hypothesis. Under the hypothesis we will discuss the level of objectivity and the way how mass media especially the news media (print and electronic) of Pakistan and the audience encode the news. Statement of the Hypothesis News media (print and electronic media) in Pakistan politicize the news PART V Analysis Mass media in Pakistan has diverse outlets. It is not merely confined to the print media or in the other words the newspapers. There are news agencies, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV channels, internet and the movie industry under the title of the mass media in Pakistan. Debating on the issue of the encoding we will pass through the performance of the all kinds of media in Pakistan focusing on the issue of politicizing of the news elements by the media industry. Pakistan as being one of the developing countries is passing through the process of the evolution in the field of industry, economy and the media field. Where there are various TV channels are getting approval for the start of the broadcast, there many newly born newspapers are sacrificing for there erectness and stability in the corporate culture of the present Pakistan. Besides this there is one more way of recreation, learning and information for the audience and that is radio listening. The radio Pakistan enjoys the vast area coverage with respect to other FM radio stations having a limited area for broadcast. Internet too is full of blogs and WebPages. Society in Pakistan is divided into urban and rural population. The urban population is being exposed to diverse media outlets than the rural population. The emerging news media in Pakistan has been influenced by the political economy being practiced by various corporate and the political bodies. The newly emerging media whether in the form of print or electronic have to vie for their existence and their existence can not be assured with out generation of the revenue. The struggle to generate the revenue some times put these media industries on the way other than the objectivity. The objectivity has been the great concern for the communication experts and the scholars. It would be the foremost responsibility of the mass media to provide the accurate picture of the reality and do not keep the audience away from the reality. Encoding of the news is blurred by the various key players in the media industry due to their affiliations with the corporate world and the political body. Corporate sector influences the media by using the advertisement tool and the political body cares for its interest and if the media go against, it puts the sanctions through the governmental media regulating bodies. This way, the corporate and the political bodies control the contents of the news and other media messages and make the reporters, news editors, columnists, anchor persons and the news producers to think in the way they want. As the general semanticists identified, due to the limited aspect of the language the reporter sometimes can not describe the reality of the incident in the way as it should be. The assumptions built in the language makes the key performers in the media industry to think in the way that is influenced by their culture and past experiences. As the Wendell Johnson said, the opinions of the columnists are to some extent the talks about themselves. These are basically their opinions and not necessarily the reality of something. The element of the judgment according to the Hayakawa is also visible in the opinions given in the news articles and the columns. Reports are the only the way to come up with the reality for the audience. There are the reports that can only be verified and are credible thats why the emphasis is given on the report (a type of statements according to Hayakawa). The audience as per the uses and the gratification theory gratifies their needs from the mass media in the form of the news and the entertainment. And if they gratify their needs on the basis of the news encoded by mass media under the influence of any corporate or the political body, they will live with the wrong picture of the world around them in their brain and that will effect their reaction in the social life. Agenda setting aspect of the mass media is also applicable in this regard. The influential bodies and sometimes the personal bias of any of the key performers in the mass media molds the structure of the news in a particular sense generating collection of words which causes to set a particular agenda in the public. Sometimes the political influence of the political body being the major provider of the advertisements to the mass media makes news media to make an issue over particular news in the media and bury the other news which however may cause any harm to the political body. The contents of the news in the media are also affected by the advertiser which buys large space or the time in the news media and this way controls consciously or unconsciously the news flow and its encoding. Some of the events have been given more than the due time and rests of the important events are kept at the stand by although the newsworthy incidents keep happening all the time in any of the corners of the country. The news is not merely encoded by the news media but it is further encoded by the audience and it then further travels to the rest of the audience through their opinion leaders in the public sphere. If the encoding at any stage in the news media is of that other than reality and away from the objectivity, the travel of the information at any stage will not be fruitful for the audience. PART VI Findings News media in the Pakistan are encoding the news messages for the audience. Those media that are strong are practicing better encoding of the news and focusing on the element of objectivity than those which are newly born and needs revenue from advertisements for their strength building in the media market. The threat to the objective encoding is expected in the talk shows where the anchormen conclude the discussion and give inferences and judgments. This aspect is also visible in the news articles and columns which are basically their own opinions about the reality. Audiences further encode the messages based on what kind of encoding done by the news media they come across. They remain away from the reality if they are gratifying from the inobjective encoding by the news media. Thanks With Best Regards M Bilal Bhatti MS 1 Media Communication Studies IIUI, Islamabad

Mini-ethnography On Gamer Culture Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"Man, Fragged by the LPB Sniper again!!!† That may sound like nonsense to the average person but to the seasoned Counterstrike veteran it speaks volumes. Today, millions of people of all ages are coming together on the Internet to compete against each other in a variety of online games. The most popular of which is an online modification of the game Half-life entitled Counterstrike. Counterstrike itself is comprised of players broken up in to two teams, terrorists and counter terrorists, who then compete against each other to achieve a range of goals in a variety of levels. People from anyplace in the world can log in to one of the hundreds of Counterstrike servers running on the Internet and team up with and play against anybody anywhere. To play the game players manipulate their characters movements inside the simulated scenario they see on their monitor. They do so by using the keyboard and mouse in tandem to move around the level, find opposing players and then â€Å"frag† or kill them with whatever weapon they currently have, there by eliminating them for the remainder of the round. However, in most cases the teams’ goals are more complex than just eliminating the other team. For instance, in one level one player assumes the role of the V.I.P. and his counter terrorist teammates try to escort him to a helicopter on the other side of the level. The terrorist teams objective is to find and assassinate the V.I.P. before he is able to escape. This and other missions like it create an exciting and adrenaline filled environment that are part of the reason gamers just can not quit. For the most part people team up with and compete against people they haven’t met and probably never will meet in a face-to-face manner. This yields some very interesting results. I was able to observe two peers of mine playing Counterstrike online in the same room on their separate computers on several occasions for extended periods. Also, I installed Counterstrike on my computer here in my dorm room and played online myself a number of times. The first thing that I noted and the first I am going to talk about is the player’s ability to create and maintain their own online identity. Every player in an online game of Counterstrike or any other game for that matter has his or her own handle or call sign. They are nicknames that the players come up with themselves and adopt as names ... ...10 dollars to gain access to an online server that acts as a simulated finite world for each person to place their character in. Players manipulate their character and basically live that person’s live in that finite simulated world that contains other players. They buy property, get a job and interact with other players. I was unable to actually observe anyone playing Everquest or play it myself. However it seems to take the level of interaction to new levels. For obvious reasons I find that a little unsettling. I think that is safe to say that many people actually prefer their simulated online personas and friends to their real life ones. That may pose new problems in the future. At the pace that technology is currently developing I think that soon the number of people who find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their â€Å"cyber lives† will only grow. Also, to speculate a little I think that in the future it will probably be possible to immerse yourself in a to tally simulated environment. Will be people totally isolate themselves and spend years inside life simulations oblivious to the real world but still perfectly content to live out their days in a Matrix like cyber dreamscape?

Left Wing Extremism Essay

Six years back, when on November 4, 2004, the Prime Minister proclaimed Left Wing Extremism as the biggest threat confronting the nation that had to be dealt at ‘war footing’, it had a ring of resolve of a freshly elected government to take the bull by its horns. However, when he repeats the same now, it carries an air of helpless lamentation. The efforts at war footing notwithstanding, during the last six years, the area under Naxal influence has nearly doubled extending to nearly 203 districts in fourteen states. The strength of armed guerrillas has swelled from less than 7,000 then to somewhere around 13,500 now. Left extremists, today, have many more and much sophisticated weapons; (estimated to be nearly 14000 as against 5500 in 2004) and have upgraded their tactics, field craft and skills in handling weapons and explosives manifold. They raise funds nearly to the tune of Rs. 1,200 Crore a year, which in an impoverished area of their dominance is a huge amount to create instability and enables them to pay regular monthly salaries to their armed cadres. Economic conditions of the people have by and large remained unchanged despite sizeable developmental outlays – most of the funds either misused or siphoned off by the corrupt. It would be erroneous to infer that the government took no initiatives both at security and developmental fronts to deal with the situation. However, in terms of results achieved, the efforts made have failed to achieve the expected results. It makes it a case less of error of intention, and more of lack of capability, which in a national security paradigm is a cause of much greater concern. The matter that needs to be pondered over is why a country of India’s Comprehensive National Power is unable to cope with an existentialist threat from an ideology that has been defeated and discredited world over, is unable to counter an offensive by under-resourced and ill trained tribals and despite being world’s biggest democracy is unable to mobilize its civil society in its fight against the extremists, whose agenda is patently anti-national. The first requirement for designing an effective response is to accept the realities as they are and to make a hard assessment of the enemy – his mindset, doctrines, capabilities and goals. One can not win unless one fights and one can not fight till one is able to define the enemy – boldly and bluntly. One major reason why we, as a state, have often gone wrong in our responses and not derived full value out of our efforts and sacrifices is our fear to face the hard realities as they exist, notwithstanding the compelling evidence. What needs to be accepted by all those in power and those who aspire for it is that Left Wing extremism is pure and simple terrorism that fully meets the conventional definition of the term i. e. Use of violence to terrorise people for achieving political objectives’. Their armed struggle is for acquiring and then retaining political power through barrel of the gun and both in theory and practice they have not deviated from this goal. While often advanced causative factors –developmental, social, political etc. – may have ample justifications on their own merit, for Maoists they are only instrumentalities to seize political control. In pursuance of this end, they are prepared to make a common cause with all those who are inclined to give expression to their dissent through violence. They support everything that negates Indian nationhood – may it be the secessionists in J&K, insurgents in North East, radical Islamic groups or armed ethnic groups. In an interview in 2007 Ganapathy, the Secretary General of CPI-Maoists asserted â€Å"We see the Islamic upsurge as a progressive anti-imperialist force in the contemporary world. It is wrong to describe the struggle that is going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya as Islamic fundamentalism. Our Party supports the Islamic upsurge†. Commenting on 26/11 massacre of Mumbai, Bimal, Polit Bureau Member was quoted in Hindustan Times that â€Å"We do not support the way they attacked the Victoria station, where most of the victims were Muslims. At the same time, we feel the Islamic upsurge should not be opposed as it is basically anti-US and anti-imperialist in nature. We therefore want it to grow. † Varavara Rao referring to North East insurgencies stated on May 13, 2007 that â€Å"This is a time for all revolutionary, democratic and nationality movements, like the ones in Kashmir and the Northeast to unite, and something will come out of this unity†. They stand against India’s sovereignty, unity, democratic polity and civilisational values and hence will have to be fought and defeated at all planes – ideological, political, and physical. Any dilution in accepting this basic character of the threat will only compound the problem and prolong the national agony. Having settled the goal, the next stage is working out the strategy to achieve it. It is obvious that the policy of ‘blow hot blow cold’ does not work and only betrays the confusion indecisiveness of those in power. It also demoralizes the security personnel. Indecisiveness is a consequence of fear and needs to be shunned. The security apparatus of the country, given the right resources, empowerments and leadership is quite strong and resilient to take on the Left Extremists. They need to be provided best of weapons, vehicles, communication equipment, armoured personnel carriers, night vision devices, portable gen-sets, direction finders etc. There is also an urgent need to improve their living conditions, making safe their work places and keeping their morale high. Most importantly, tactical plans should be well deliberated upon by senior and experienced officers and wherever possible duly rehearsed. It is particularly necessary where central forces have to work along side the local police forces. Maoists are great political analysts who carefully work-out their long term strategy and tactical plans. Maoists in their political estimates assess, and probably with some justification, that the political class in the country, irrespective of the brand names that they carry, are fast losing their legitimacy and credibility. The elected representatives hold their positions more by virtue of legality of the process that catapultes them to power than the moral authority, trust and respect of the people that they claim to represent. The credibility of the governmental apparatus to provide a sense of security and justice to the people, redress their basic grievances, assure development and assure dignity is at a low ebb. Most of the extremist actions analysed in strategic terms are aimed at exploiting this in firmity and indulging in acts will further erode the legitimacy and credibility of the system. Their attacks on police and para-military forces are aimed at demonstrating that the coercive power of the government is a myth as it is even unable to protect itself. Their holding Jan Adalats, imposing fines and dictating terms for talks are calculated to undermine the government’s ability to enforce its writ and authority and gave credibility to their propaganda that government is only a ‘paper tiger’. On the contrary, the state has been able to do little to demolish the contrived self image of the Left Extremists as saviors of the people. The discordant voices within the government and display of confusion and indecisiveness immensely boost their moral. While the far flung tribal areas are in the news because of incidents of violence what is lesser known is their fast spreading influence in urban suburbs, among the trade unions, unemployed youth etc. much beyond the tribal areas. To meet this grave challenge the political class first needs to do a serious introspection and subordinate their party interests if not for the larger national interests than at least for their own self interest. All political parties need to realize that they face an existentialist threat as the political power, the booty of the war, has to be seized from them. This is a classical model of Fourth Generation Warfare-(4GW) – a warfare where the enemy is invisible and the battle is for the control of civil society – through coercion, controlling the hearts and minds of the people or delivering results by redressing grievances of the people. The modern day guru of Fourth Generation Warfare, William Lind aptly observes that, â€Å"If nation states are going to survive, people in power must earn and keep the trust of the governed. Addressing the American Council of Foreign Relations he said â€Å"The heart of Fourth Generation Warfare is a crisis of legitimacy of the state†. How true to the Indian model when he added that, â€Å"The establishment is no longer made up of ‘policy types’- most of its important functionaries are placemen. Their expertise is in becom ing and then remaining members of the establishment. Their reality is covert politics and not the competence or expertise†. When the 4GW will visit them their response would be to â€Å"close the shutters on the windows of Versailles†. Majority of the people in Maoist affected areas and even their supporters and cadres have little to do with Maoism at ideological level. They are only alienated and angered people with real of perceived sense of injustice, oppression and indignity. Maoists are cleverly exploiting this sentiment to their advantage – caste conflicts in Bihar, resentment against landlords in Andhra, discontent against forest laws in tribal areas, unemployment amongst youth and radicalism among Muslims are all given prescription of capture of power through gun as the ultimate solution of all their problems. While the local grievances need to be effectively addressed through improved governance and ruthless accountability, there is also a need for creating mass awareness of the ultimate designs and consequences of what the extremists stand for. Maoist propaganda must also be effectively countered, particularly at the political level. Democratic political parties have plenty of political arguments and facts in their favour to demolish the subversive propaganda of the Left extremists. They also have reach and access upto village levels with intimate social networking that needs to be arnessed. This task cannot be undertaken by the government agencies or the police. Additionally, through a concerted, credible and sustained psy-war offensive contradiction in their ideologies and practices, tales of their brutalities, collaborations with the rich to collect funds, incidents of moral turpitude etc. should be highlighted. The local and national media, think tanks and NGOs operating in the region could be leveraged for the purpose. Some of their front organizations, masquerading as think tanks and NGOs engaged in subversive propaganda also need to be tackled effectively. At tactical level the most important advantage of 4GW warriors is the advantage of invisibility. Only quality operational intelligence can make them visible for counter tactical operations aimed at pre-empting, preventing and punishing the depredators. It is also the only instrumentality through which they can be tactically surprised and their advantage of speed and surprise neutralized. The tendency to raise additional battalions without corresponding accretion in operational intelligence capability creates little pressure on the extremists and only provides them more targets to hit at. State Police forces, with their intimate knowledge of the terrain, language and local people are best equipped to develop ground intelligence. They need to be resourced and trained for intelligence work. Diversion of at least 30% of central modernization grants to state police for intelligence up-gradation should be made mandatory. Money is one of the most important factors helping extremists to acquire weapons and explosives, raise their cadre strength by recruiting youth on regular salaries and carrying out mass mobilization programmes. They are reportedly collecting Rs. 1,600 crore a year, which is a big money for carrying out armed insurrection in an impoverished area. With a determined effort and much lower risk, the governments can take stern actions against business houses paying protection money, transporters paying levies, contractors giving taxes and corrupt government officials sharing the loot from the developmental funds. Most would be willing to cooperate if provided sense of security and protection which can be achieved at a much lesser cost. There is no doubt that this menace ultimately will be contained and countered. A finely chiseled strategic response is required only to minimize its cost to the nation in terms of valuable lives lost, growth and development stalled and innocent people falling prey to malicious propaganda of the extremists. The civil society and opinion builders have a vital role to play in this. They should create right pressures on the politicians and create broad spectrum awareness among the people to help bring about a convergence in national response.

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