Modern News Programs as the Embodiment of Infotainment Principle

Information is power: those who possess actual knowledge of current events can easier find themselves in the complicated stream of everyday life, as well as classify their understanding of what is going on, make appropriate conclusions, and undertake corresponding action.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Modern News Programs as the Embodiment of Infotainment Principle specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Curiosity for information lies deep in human nature, and for centuries on end people have involved in the process of information sharing. Nowadays, the task of rendering the most actual and up-to-date information lies on the institute of mass media, and one of the key genres of information delivery is TV news programs. Originally designed for the purposes of mere informing of key current events, news programs are observed to have evolved into more entertaining events. A special notion of ‘infotainmentâ €™ appeared, that designates the deviation of news from their informative function into the sphere of entertainment. Pursuing the objective of commercial profit, modern news programs embody the principle of infotainment in both their contents and presentation style. Debate on television news programs losing their professional quality and rolling down into the sphere of popular entertainment events dates back to the late 1980s, when the term ‘infotainment’ was first coined reflecting the genre mix of information and entertainment in news and programs on current affairs. The word turned out to be so catchy and appropriate for what was happening in the contemporary media, that by 1992 it had already been included into Roget’s Thesaurus (Thussu 7). Consequently, infotainment entered still more dictionaries and is now defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as â€Å"broadcast material which is intended both to entertain and to inform†, and in Key Concepts in Political Communication as â€Å"the combination of the words information and entertainment, suggesting a practice of blending together of their presentation within the broadcasting of news and current affairs† (as cited in Thussu 8). Therefore, infotainment reflects a trend in contemporary mass media to place more importance on the presentation form rather than content of their news product. As such, the tendency towards infotainment is not totally new. Providing an in-depth excursion in the historical development of the press, Harrison remarks that although criticism of the popular mass media tendency to entertain rather than educate has risen relatively recently, ‘commercialization of news’ was already observed as early as in the eighteenth century (55).Advertising Looking for research paper on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The trend to make news more thrilling for the general public by introducing exciting stories led to the situation that â€Å"then, as now, blood and sex reigned supreme in the pages of the popular press† (Cranfield, as cited in Harrison 55). As the costs of publishing soared, press agencies had to compete fiercely for the reading audiences. Political news was moved aside and reduced to very small items that were reported in a way attractive to popular interest. Aiming at large circulations, reporters developed the style of their story presentation to increasingly dramatic and catchy, with headlines enlarged and more attention given to interviews, sports, and descriptions of personalities. Thus developed the ‘new journalism’ style (Harrison 56–57). How does this ‘new’ presentation style look today? On the one hand, the representatives of news to public are of major importance: those often are either expert ‘personality’ correspondents who possess enough charisma and acting skills to keep the attention of the audience in an entertaining way, or celebrity presenters who attract the public simply by being generally acknowledged celebrities. On the other hand, not only the presenters but also the news studios have been fit to the demands of the entertainment principle: the wall screens have been added that allow reporters to operate videos in support of the news presented, so that the story can be told by walking from one side of the studio to the other. This dramatization of news allows presenting events to the public as an exciting â€Å"walk into the story of the day† and thus attracting interest and retaining a larger audience (Harrison 168). The modern situation in the world of news programs has been brilliantly summed up by Daya Kishan Thussu, who accentuates that the source for modern concept of infotainment lies in the vision of American media companies: â€Å"This news cannibalizes visual forms and styles borrowed from contemporary TV commercials a nd a MTV-style visual aesthetics, including fast-paced visual action, in a post-modern studio, computer-animated logos, eye-catching visuals and rhetorical headlines from an, often glamorous, anchor person. Such news, particularly on the rolling 24/7 channels, appears to be the answer to attracting the ‘me’ generation of media users, prone to channel hopping and zapping as well as more inclined towards on-line and mobile news. This style of presentation, with its origins in the ratings-driven commercial television news culture of the US, is becoming increasingly global, as news channels attempt to reach more viewers and keep their target audiences from switching over.â€Å" (8)Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Modern News Programs as the Embodiment of Infotainment Principle specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition to the aforementioned external factors of news ‘entertainisationâ⠂¬â„¢, one can observe the entertaining principles in the programs content as well. As Hamilton comments on the situation which was observed already in the early 1990s, â€Å"the popularity of entertainment programming also affected the news product† as more attention was placed on soft news, crimes, scandals, and celebrity stories that would secure the channels’ popularity among the viewers (175). Reflecting Thussu’s comment on infotainment as oriented at â€Å"media users, prone to channel hopping and zapping†, news programs involve short, disconnected episodes on a whole variety of topics that are changing each other fast enough not to bore the audience (8). The information is presented in a ragged scrappy style that corresponds to the general trend in modern perception. Nowadays people are getting so much information from the environment that in order to protect themselves from this information tsunami, they try to scan and skim the information resour ces to get only the key facts and not the details. In its turn, such ‘express’ approach to presenting and receiving news bears the jeopardy of superficiality and shallowness of perceiving the world. The over-informed audiences are satiated with information and do not have the time or wish for serious consideration of whatever they are informed of. Struggling to catch their ever-eluding attention, TV channels represent information in such amounts and manner that can be compared to the motley kaleidoscope of a carnival. Instead of instigating the audiences to ponder over the information they receive, modern news programs rather present â€Å"electronic media spectacles where narration or the simple accumulation of anecdotes prevails over reasoned solutions to the problems† (Garcia Canclini, as cited in Thussu 9). Critical assessment and reflection on the presented content is hampered by both the presentation style and pace. The superficiality of modern news program s has been widely criticized as degrading. Researching human communication in the light of the means involved in it, Neil Postman refers to the idea formulated by Marshall McLuhan, â€Å"the medium is the message† (as cited in Erion 193). Based on this idea, Postman develops a theory that it is impossible to preserve the serious and fundamental character of information presented by means of modern television. By its nature, television simply has to be entertaining since it involves exciting and moving imagery that distracts the audiences from thoughtful contemplation of the information they obtain: â€Å"On television thoughtful conversation about serious issues are reserved only for the lowest-rated niche programs†.Advertising Looking for research paper on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Even when interlocutors meet in a discussion format, the discussion as such does not occur, since the show happens according to an a priori devised scenario which does not consider any personal input, reaction, or contribution from the participants. The moderator of the discussion program keeps an eye on the conversation to go exactly the way it has been pre-planned, and restrains any digression, which makes the logical flow of discussion impossible. As Postman observes, the typical roundtables which seem to follow the purpose of discussing and finding a solution to an issue, actually have â€Å"no arguments or counterarguments, no scrutiny of assumptions, no explanations, no elaborations, no definitions† (as cited in Erion 198). Otherwise, a thoughtful conversation would not be entertaining; it would simply bore the audience and make them switch over to a more exciting program. In order to break away from the sticky web of entertainment that impoverishes human intelligence o riginally designed to analyze and seek answers to problems, it is essential to understand what lies in the basis of the infotainment trend. Tracing the possible results of such media policy, Alex S. Jones anxiously predicts that if the nation’s press is â€Å"mostly tabloid, advocacy, or entertainment† primarily aiming at sole â€Å"profit rather than the public good combined with profit†, there is little hope for the nation preserving its rational core (51). The ultimate aim of mass media is also in the center of concern of modern journalists who assemble to discuss the way out of the situation during the Sixth Forum of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. Among them, a Los Angeles correspondent for CBS News, Bill Whittaker, expressed concern not just for the entertainment trend in the news, but in the fact that â€Å"bottom line is everything†: â€Å"†¦ one of the bad things that 60 Minutes did was that it made money, and that for the first tim e, news producers and news divisions came to see that news could make a profit. Before then it wasn’t expected to. Those pressures were taken off of news. It was supposed to be a loss leader and you did it because it was a good thing to do and your anchor was your prestige person up in front. Now all news operations and broadcasts are expected to make money.† (as cited in Mueller n.p.) The solution of the problem is seen by journalists not in rejecting the entertaining nature of news, but in choosing the right items to cover and transforming the news from mere brief nomination of superficial pseudo-entertaining facts to an exciting coverage that would provoke thinking audiences to assess and analyze the information they get (Mueller n.p.). In this sense, the comedy shows that parody ‘real’ news turn out to be much more successful in presenting the public with a more realistic picture of the world than the ‘real’ news programs (J. Jones 219). Mo dern news industry seems to be experiencing a crisis since the trend towards infotainment that bases on desire for profit makes news degrade to superficial statement of irrelevant facts. In order to protect their audience from intellectual degrading, mass media need to rethink the coverage items and volume and thus spur the audience to think, assess, analyze, and act. Works Cited Erion, Gerald J. â€Å"Amusing Ourselves to Death with Television News: Jon Stewart, Neil Postman, and the Huxleyan Warning.† Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. 6th ed. Eds. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2009. 191–200. Print. Hamilton, James T. All the News that’s Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. Print. Harrisson, Jackie. News. Oxon: Routlege, 2006. Print. Jones, Alex S. Losing the News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy. N ew York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Jones, Jeffrey P. â€Å"’Fake’ News versus ‘Real News as Sources of Political Information: The Daily Show and Postmodern Political Reality†. Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. 6th ed. Eds. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2009. 201–222. Print. Mueller, Bret. â€Å"Has News Been Abdicated for Entertainment?† Sixth Forum of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, Session 1. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California, 4 March 1998. Web. Thussu, Daya Kishan. News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2007. Print. This research paper on Modern News Programs as the Embodiment of Infotainment Principle was written and submitted by user Sons of the Tiger to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Consequences of World War I

The Consequences of World War I World War I was fought on battlefields throughout Europe between 1914 and 1918. It involved human slaughter on a previously unprecedented scale- and its consequences were enormous. The human and structural devastation left Europe and the world greatly changed in almost all facets of life, setting the stage for political convulsions throughout the remainder of the century. A New Great Power Before its entry into World War I, the United States of America was a nation of untapped military potential and growing economic might. But the war changed the United States in two important ways: the countrys military was turned into a large-scale fighting force with the intense experience of modern war, a force that was clearly equal to that of the old Great Powers; and the balance of economic power began to shift from the drained nations of Europe to America. However, the dreadful toll taken by the war led U.S. politicians to retreat from the world and return to a policy of isolationism. That isolation initially limited the impact of Americas growth, which would only truly come to fruition in the aftermath of World War II. This retreat also undermined the League of Nations and the emerging new political order. Socialism Rises to the World Stage The collapse of Russia under the pressure of total warfare allowed socialist revolutionaries to seize power  and turn communism, one of the world’s growing ideologies, into a major European force. While the global socialist revolution that Vladimir Lenin believed was coming never happened, the presence of a huge and potentially powerful communist nation in Europe and Asia changed the balance of world politics. Germanys politics initially tottered toward  joining Russia, but eventually pulled back from experiencing a full Leninist change and formed a new social democracy. This would come under great pressure and fail from the challenge of Germanys right, whereas Russias authoritarian regime after the tsarists lasted for decades. The Collapse of Central and Eastern European Empires The German, Russian, Turkish, and Austro-Hungarian Empires all fought in World War I, and all were swept away by defeat and revolution, although not necessarily in that order. The fall of Turkey in 1922 from a revolution stemming directly from the war, as well as that of Austria-Hungary, was probably not that much of a surprise: Turkey had long been regarded as the sick man of Europe, and vultures had circled its territory for decades. Austria-Hungary appeared close behind. But the fall of the young, powerful, and growing German Empire, after the people revolted and the Kaiser was forced to abdicate, came as a great shock. In their place came a rapidly changing series of new governments, ranging in structure from democratic republics to socialist dictatorships. Nationalism Transforms and Complicates Europe Nationalism had been growing in Europe for decades before World War I began, but the wars aftermath saw a major rise in new nations and independence movements. Part of this was a result of Woodrow Wilson’s isolationist commitment to what he called self-determination. But part of it was also a response to the destabilization of old empires, which nationalists viewed as an opportunity to declare new nations. The key region for European nationalism was Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where Poland, the three Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and others emerged. But nationalism conflicted hugely with the ethnic makeup of this region of Europe, where many different nationalities and ethnicities sometimes lived in tension with one another. Eventually, internal conflicts stemming from new self-determination by national majorities arose from disaffected minorities who preferred the rule of neighbors. The Myths of Victory and Failure German commander Erich Ludendorff suffered a mental collapse before he called for an armistice to end the war, and when he recovered and discovered the terms he had signed onto, he insisted Germany refuse them, claiming the army could fight on. But the new civilian government overruled him, as once peace had been established there was no way to keep the army fighting. The civilian leaders who overruled Ludendorff became scapegoats for both the army and Ludendorff himself. Thus began, at the very close of the war, the myth of the undefeated German army being stabbed in the back by liberals, socialists, and Jews who had damaged the Weimar Republic and fueled the rise of Hitler. That myth came directly from Ludendorff setting up the civilians for the fall. Italy didn’t receive as much land as it had been promised in secret agreements, and Italian right-wingers exploited this to complain of a mutilated peace. In contrast, in Britain, the successes of 1918 which had been won partly by their soldiers were increasingly ignored, in favor of viewing the war and all war as a bloody catastrophe. This affected their response to international events in the 1920s and 1930s; arguably, the policy of appeasement was born from the ashes of World War I. The Largest Loss: A Lost Generation While it is not strictly true that a whole generation was lost- and some historians have complained about the term- eight million people died during World War I, which was perhaps one in eight of the combatants. In most of the Great Powers, it was hard to find anyone who had not lost someone to the war. Many other people had been wounded or shell-shocked so badly they killed themselves, and these casualties are not reflected in the figures.

Outline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Outline - Essay Example This statement to a great extent brings out the basic idea of the service learning and also highlights the basic foundation of service learning. Hence this will be the attention getting statement of the speech. The main aim of the research is to identify companies in the local area of Denver Colorado which support service learning. The research will focus on the companies that support and implement service learning. The statement for preview will be the explanation by Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction: â€Å"Service-learning is a teaching and learning methodology which fosters civic responsibility and applies classroom learning through meaningful service to the community. The strongest service-learning experiences occur when the service is meaningfully immersed in ongoing learning and is a natural part of the curriculum that extends into the community† (Public Instruction). The main reason this has been chosen is that it provides an excellent foundation and explanation of the concept of service learning. In conclusion, it is essential to note that there are a number of companies that adopt and support service learning to a great extent. It is also essential to understand that service learning helps in better interaction with others and also helps in spreading the knowledge in a more effective manner. Denver, Colorado has in fact become a hub of service learning and more companies each day adapt service learning or also support it. The success rate of service learning within this area is high and effective. Thank you, now my friend XXXXXX will continue with the

Religious Practices of the Masses During the Renaissance Essay

Religious Practices of the Masses During the Renaissance - Essay Example Some significant advances that are famous that time are in the elements of paintings through the introduction of linear perspective painting and the reformation of education which was gradual and widespread. This intellectual revolution period was said to be the connection between Middle Ages and Modern Era. Their influences were seen in science, literature, politics, art, philosophy, religion, and other intellectual inquests. Some of the noblest works of religious art, like the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, Madonnas by Raphael and those of Fra Angelico and Grunewald were products of the Italian renaissance. Participants studied the great civilizations of ancient Rome and Greece, and realized that their art and civilization were related to those of the distant past. Their thinking was also persuaded by the importance on human thoughts and worth as an individual or it is simply called humanism; and one's intellectual growth relies on classic education. These said teachings depended on various disciplines including poetry, history, rules on writing, and moral philosophy. The Renaissance is also the age where there are conflicts between the Church and other religious sects such as the Reformists and Humanists, with regards to their beliefs, practices, and dogmas. The English word religion has been used since the 13th century which means "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety, the res divinae (for the service of God)." (Wikipedia, Religion) It is also said that it is a way of life or signifying the attitude towards life. With that, religion covers the various human behaviors on beliefs, practices, moral codes, values, tradition, institution, and rituals that have the function of addressing the basic questions of human identity, ethics, death and the existence of a Divine being. Religion's definition has an immensely great extent that it is sometimes hard to perceive that medieval people are part of a religion. However, the Church became the "source of education entertainment, most social occasions, and of course, faith." (Louis Dudley 3) Although the southern humanists were preoccupied redefining the relationship between God and humans, the Northern Europeans still took the Church's practices seriously. Ther e transpired various religious practices that the Church performed during the ancient times that were sources of "re-categorization" and reformation to some amount. These are usually in the form of the Sacraments, which are visible to the paintings and architectural designs of artists among them are famous painters Michelangelo, Leonardo. One of the religious practices is the rituals. Rituals are said to be set of actions that are performed either on a regular basis or on certain occasions. These acts, suggested to have symbolic implications, are the performances of which is prescribed by a certain religion or culture. Baptism is one form of practice of the Church, in which a person is briefly submerged in water with the implication of cleansing him of the original sin. Simply stated, this is a purification rite. During the 16th century, while various Reformers challenged most of the Church beliefs, they re-categorized the sacraments except baptism and the Eucharist. This religious rite was portrayed in a fresco painting on the catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter at Via Labicana in Rome, Italy. As time progresses, minor changes of the ritual took place especially on the setting to which the immersion transpired. Before, several adults are immersed together in a Baptismal pool which is usually a pond or a lake, until the said pool was reduced to a smaller basin-like vessel and

Hypothetical situations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hypothetical situations - Assignment Example Personal honesty is a moral standard that should guide committed and devoted engineers. With personal honesty, civil engineers will construct bridges not with the greed of making money but with the honesty of using appropriate proportionality of the required material that will enhance reputation of the engineers, longevity of the structure and safety of the users. Secondly, engineers distinctively should practice with the mindful care of the environment. Since their area of practice and exploration is the natural environment, therefore it would make more sense if they cared for it more as a form of long-term investment. If their exploration is guided by short time gains and personal interest, then the environment is at risk of being over-exploited. This will leave the future generation with serious risks (Aristotle & Reeve, 2014). It is, therefore, arguable that the two virtues have a bearing on a wider scope of significance and inside them, there is a host virtue that will be put into practice such as avoiding bribery, ensuring public safety, fairness and conflict of interest. Q2. In the present time of arrogance, people who have humility and full of virtues are considered as weak and timid. One of my acquaintances who had excelled in his A-level examinations had full-blown arrogance as the happiest of all the candidates who sat for those final examinations. At the same time, a classmate that did averagely on the exam was happy that he had gone through the system, which he out rightly considered as not strategic for him. He had great ideas of entrepreneurship that made him get the breakthrough. With humility and his humble stature, he employed a number of the poor and paid them honestly. In the fullness of time, the brightest student of our time went through the system with every holiday working as the part-timer on the business empire that the failure had developed. On reflection,

The Hotel New World Collapse Commerce Essay

The Hotel New World Collapse Commerce Essay Public relation officers agencies are very important people to any organisation as they are the ones who in my opinion keep the ball rolling day in day out. Being a public relations officer, he or she must learn how to handle the media learn how to get clients to keep the business running and most importantly learn how to manage a crisis. There was crisis which took place in 1986, the Hotel New World collapse. 15 March 1986, at approximately 11.25 am The Hotel New World, which is also called the Lian Yak building, located at the junction of serangoon road and owen road, collapsed killing 33 people with 17 survivors. This collapse was a major factor why buildings in Singapore now are much more versatile and less likely to collapse. This was a major disaster which could also be classified as a crisis. And I believe there could have been more effective ways where they could have reacted better and save more lives. 2. Crisis management First and foremost what is crisis management? Crisis management, also known as firefighting, is where you know how to avoid the crisis if its possible and appropriately react to the crisis if it cannot be solved (Bernstein, 2011). During a crisis having a crisis team would be essential. Also the members of the team should be able to tell the higher officials in their organisation what to do during a crisis with no fear. The team members should consist of two spokesperson who are the mouth. One will be a backup. A leader who is the brain, someone who will make the important decisions and are accountable for those decisions, such as the CEO or owner of the organisation. And a lead in-house professional and the full PR agency team also known as the hands, for breadth of reach and redundancy reasons (Anthonissen, 2008). The spokespersons, also known as the mouth are representatives of an organisation. How many spokesperson an organisation needs depends on the size of the organisation as they might have many outlets in many countries. But the basics are two spokesperson. The first one would be the primary spokesperson. He or she would represent the company while handling the media. The second one would be a backup He or she will represent the company if the first spokesperson is not available or if is need to explain the crisis in another location. Also these spokesperson need to be media trained. They should know how to handle the media as its the organisations reputation which is at stake. Thus making a wrong move in front of the media would further add to the crisis hence the spokesperson need be a specialist but must be able to handle the media well. Next is the brain which is the crisis committee. This crisis committee is led by the leader who might be the CEO or owner of the company. The committee`s first job is to make a decision on how will they be operating during a crisis. A very simple way to operate is to make sure majority of the team agrees on the decisions made. But this might not be the best option as ex British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher said, Consensus is the negation of leadership. The team must co-operate with the leader to make it an effective committee. Also in the team one person has to be in-charge of all the communications taking place during the crisis This person has to be responsible for- getting the team together during the crisis Communicating the needs of the committee to the mouth Approving all communication messages before they go live Reporting the situation as it develops to the crisis committee Reporting the total crisis once it`s all over (Anthonissen, 2008). Usually the people who are in charge of communications point are the lead in-house communications professionals. During the crisis having a media contact team is also vital. As during the crisis calling up the media and updating would be time consuming thus this team would handle the information being given to the media. The team will need to inform he media about press conference etc. To have a good media contact team they must- Have good press contacts Have a clean and updated full media list at any given time Understand how journalists and editors from different news media work Be practised at media tools Have facilities to translate documents and provide simultaneous translations at a press conference or media interview, if required Have ability to move very quickly(Anthonissen, 2008). Therefore having these qualities would make the media contact team much more useful and essential to update the media about the crisis. Thus that would be one burden of the shoulders of the leader and therefore concentrate on how to resolve the crisis much more efficiently. A good public relations officer will not think that crisis would not happen in his or her organisation and would be well prepared for it. Therefore they must be well prepared for a crisis by looking into what could be the possible areas that might cause a crisis. Next they must come up with a crisis plan. A good public relations officer will plan out everything in detail on what to do when a crisis occurs. This crisis plan can include information such as what are the steps to take by the staffs, crisis management team members. Lastly they must implement the action plan. Planning for a crisis is one thing. But facing a real crisis will be very stressful and it will be a much tensed environment thus no matter how hard an organisation plans out a crisis plan it would be tougher when faced with a real crisis. Therefore it is important to select members of a crisis team for their ability to remain calm and in control while under pressure (Ali, 2011). Also during the crisis every member of the crisis management team should have a copy of what the crisis plan is. Also they should know what their roles are during a crisis. Therefore ensuring a smooth crisis management during a crisis. There are three types of crisis. They are creeping crisis, slow-burn crisis and sudden crisis. Creeping crisis is where a crisis is foreshadowed by a series of events that decision-makers dont view as part of pattern. An example of a Creeping crisis is when the steps take to save a persons life in an emergency situation is not clear. Slow burning crisis is where the signs or warning has been given about the situation but it has not caused any damage to the organisation yet. An example of slow burning crisis is when the organisation goes thru a lawsuit, discrimination complaints or when the organisations reputation is at stake. Sudden crisis is where the damage has been already inflicted and the crisis will get worst if the damage is not contained well. An example of sudden crisis is when a fire breaks out in the building or when the building collapses. The Hotel New World disaster is classified under the category of sudden crisis as it the building collapse was an unexpected event which took place too quickly for anyone to react in time. 3. Analysis The Hotel New World crash shocked everyone in Singapore. It killed a total of 33 people. The crisis is considered to be one of the worst in Singapore history. Before the collapse the building was also in the headlines as it left 35 hotel customers unconscious in August 1975 due to a carbon monoxide leak. The building came down within less than a minute. It was completely demolished. There were 17 people stuck in under rubbles still alive who were eventually the survivors. The building was occupied by an industrial and commercial bank and a night club. But major parts of the building were taken up by The Hotel New World. On 15 march 1986 at approximately 11.25 the lian Yak building came crashing down to rubbles. The building was brought sown within less than 60 seconds. The first call to the SCDF was made at 11.33 sending out their men to the area. First to arrive at the scene was station officer Abu Bakar. He was in charge of the first two fire engines which arrived at the scene with the thought of just nothing more then just a fire outbreak. Upon reaching at the location he then realise its way worst then what he had expected. There was not enough time for anyone inside the building to have escaped in time. Once the rescue team had arrived at that place they started planning on how to operate this mission as this building collapse was the first of its kind in Singapore thus the rescues team were not well trained for this situation and also the equipments were not the appropriate ones used for this type of rescue mission. By noon most of the ministers had arrived at the scene too and almost all the available rescue officers were deployed in order to help the survivors escape thru the rubbles. On first 2 days they tried removing the rubbles first then finding for people. After that on the second day the rescue officers consulted experts whom were at that time tunnelling for the MRT lines in Singapore. Then with their assist the rescue team had work intensively to find for survivors. On 19 march 1986, the rescue mission was called off. A total of 50 people were trapped under the rubbles of the building. 33 people died at the scene. There were only 17 survivors. Then president, Mr Wee Kim Wee had then set-up a group on 22 march to investigate why the building crashed without any warning. This team which was assembled consisted of Mr Justice L. P. Thean, Dr A Vijiaratnam, Professor S. L. Lee and Professor Bengt B. Broms. On 16 February 1987 the final report was submitted to the president. It gave the full details about the building the building owners and especially on why the building crashed was revealed. The main cause of the collapse was in the structural design. According and to the Report of the inquiry into the Collapse of Hotel New World, Analyses of the structural design showed that the dead weights of many structural elements were underestimated and that a large number of individual structural members were grossly under-designed. This is quoted directly from the report. This shows that the building is in fact a ticking time bomb. And the mistake was indeed made 15 years ago when the drawings of the building were made was the. Next w as the construction. The quality of the way the building was being constructed was unsatisfactory according to the report. Reinforcements were less than what was stated in the R.C drawings. Also there was no professional supervision in the construction site which was one of the many factors leading to the collapse. And finally three of the pillars in the building had cracked thus bringing the Lian Yak building down on 15 March 1986. It could stand its own weight because the building was like a time bomb waiting to collapse and when there were new installations placed in the roof the Lian Yak the building it could not hold any longer thus collapsing. The inquiry also brought to light that the managing director of Lian Yak Realty was the one who was the overall in-charge of the building. But unfortunately he had died in the collapse. It was revealed that he had actually used draughtsman to build the building. And the engineer did not calculate the weight of the building properly thus making the building collapse. Also after this incident, the Singapore government had made all their constructions of building rules much more tighter, did checks on existing buildings and find out which buildings were at risk and also they gave the power of authorising and inspection of the buildings to the Ministry of National Development. In my opinion this disaster could have been easily avoided. It was due to carelessness which caused 33 people lives. First and foremost I believe the managing director should not have overseen the construction of this building alone and they should have had group or a team which represents the Lian Yak realty company. Also I believe the communication process which went through the organisation was poor as in the end the managing director was at fault for hiring draughtsman to build the building. This shows that the organisation did not check what was the managing directors doing or who he was employing at the construction site. This is where a public relation officer would be vital. As they can come with a check list on what can be done when there is a crisis. What are the minor and major things to take note during a crisis. Also in my opinion I believe the government could have done their part by ensuring all the rules and regulations for construction were followed strictly. The recommendations that were given in the report could have been implemented earlier. They should have learnt from past disasters such as the collapse of Broadways Grandest Hotel which took place in the year 1973. Also they could have better prepared the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) in theses type of crisis. They could haves sent them for training overseas instead of taking the hotel new world collapse as a lesson. This crisis clearly shows that nobody was prepared and had the mentality that the building will never collapse thus in my opinion a contributing factor for so many deaths. 4. Evaluation There are ways that could prevent this kind of sudden crisis. There are a lot of measures to be taken to avoid such crisis would be vital in life and death situations. Thus one must be prepared to face all kinds of situation. The definition of being prepared here is having a plan ready to be executed when there is a crisis (Anthonissen, 2008). This firstly there must be a check list created on what to do when a crisis occurs. When creating the check list the public relation officer must think of all possible crisis and what are the steps to avoid the crisis or escape the crisis. Like I earlier mentioned one must not be too complacent and think to themselves that the crisis would not happen. As a public relation officer we must expect the unexpected. Thus creating a check list would be beneficiary to anyone who uses it during a crisis. Also like earlier mentioned having a crisis management team would be very vital. Successful managers are those who work with successful teams (Hunsaker, 2001). Not only that the team should consist of people from various departments thus they would be aware of what to do when a crisis situation occurs. Thus it would be easier for them to escape during a sudden crisis compared to only one person handling the whole situation. This causes more stress on that individual this sharing the workload would be the best thing to do therefore having a crisis management team is definitely a positive impact. There also ways where we can prepare the people by having drills to for a sudden crisis would be a good solution to better prepare them and make sure they know what to do when having a crisis. There are three types of crisis drills. They are Tabletop exercises, Drills and Full scale exercises (Bernstein, 2011). Firstly the tabletop exercises. These exercises are usually done with the people sitting around a table. Its a discussion where the key manager explains the roles of the people during a crisis (Bernstein, 2011). Next is the Drill. Drills are where a specific department might be put to test to see how they would react when in crisis. External officers might sometimes do the evaluation. Finally the Full-scale exercise. As the names says it full-scale exercise, the organisation, the people working in that building will be put to test when they re-enact a crisis situation and would then see how quickly they escape and checking if their crisis management has been successful The Hotel New World collapse could have been a crisis avoided but the collapse has now educated the people the relevant authorities on how to improve their crisis management skills. The SCDF got experience on how to manage a sudden crisis like The Hotel New World collapse. The Singapore government came down hard on the rules of buildings. From a PR point of view, in my opinion the Lian Yak Realty failed in handing this sudden crisis. Yes this was a lesson but I believe the Lian Yak Realty should have been better prepared and should have at least done their part in the aftermath of the collapse. I am sure this crisis should have been avoided if there was a proper organisational structure in Lian Yak realty. This was an incident which changed the future of Singapore in terms of how the buildings were constructed and how to handle a crisis.

Wedding Speech - Best Woman or Maid of Honor :: Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches

Wedding Speech – Best Woman or Maid of Honor For those of you that don't know me I'm Misa's cousin Lucy. I've decided not to tell any embarrassing stories because it would also be embarrassing to me... and our parents probably don't know about most of them. I've known Misa my whole life so I thought it would be appropriate to make a short poem on our lives up until this point. MISA I've known you forever; it's been over 27 years Although we've had good times, there've also been tears. With getting into trouble over the time I consider you not only my cousin but my partner in crime. When ever I was in trouble there would be no doubt You'd be there by my side bailing me out. You've snuck me into bars and we've told a few lies But hey what the hell they were all ugly guys. As teenagers, we were wild; no one would ever believe. But honestly Aunt Norma, Misa had it all up her sleeve. I'm so happy for you both, on your special day My wish has come true, what more can I say. In 70 years when I take a look back at the very end Not only were you my cousin but you were my best friend. Misa you're a terrific friend and as close as a sister as I'll ever get and

The Nurse Managers Role

The nurse manager is vital in creating an environment where nurse-physician collaboration can occur and is the expected norm. It is she, who clarifies the vision of collaboration, sets an example of and practices as a role model for collaboration. The nurse manager also supports and makes necessary changes in the environment to bring together all the elements that are necessary to facilitating effective nurse-physician collaboration. Many authors (Alpert, Goldman, Kilroy, & Pike, 1992; Baggs & Schmitt, 1997; Betts, 1994; Evans, 1994; Evans & Carlson, 1993; Keeman, Cooke, & Hillis, 1998; Jones, 1994) have indicated that nurse-physician collaboration is not widespread and a number of barriers exist. The following will discuss the necessary ingredients for creating a nursing unit that is conducive to nurse-physician collaboration and supported through transformational leadership. The first important barrier according to (Keenan et al. (1998) is concerned with how nurses and physicians have not been socialized to collaborate with each other and do not believe they are expected to do so. Nurse and physicians have traditionally operated under the paradigm of physician dominance and the physician†s viewpoint prevails on patient care issues. Collaboration, on the other hand, involves mutual respect for each other†s opinions as well as possible contributions by the other party in optimizing patient care. Collaboration (Gray, 1989) requires that parties, who see different aspects of a problem, communicate together and constructively explore their differences in search of solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of what is possible. Many researchers have argued (Betts 1994; Evans & Carlson, 1993; Hansen et al. , 1999; Watts et al. , 1995) that nurses and physicians should collaborate to address patient care issues, because consideration of both the professions concerns is important to the development of high quality patient care. Additionally, effective nurse-physician collaboration has been linked to many positive outcomes over the years, all of which are necessary in today†s rapidly changing health care environment. One study by (Baggs & Schmitt, 1997) found several major positive outcomes form nurses and physicians working together, they were described as improving patient care, feeling better in the job, and controlling costs. In another study (Alpert et al. , 1992) also found that collaboration among physicians and nurses led to increased functional status for patients and a decreased time from admission to discharge. Along with improved patient outcomes, nurse-physician collaboration has several other reasons why it has become significant in today†s health care environment. Several examples of which are, as identified by (Jones, 1994) the cost containment effort, changing roles for nurses and physicians, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations focus on total quality management, and emphasis by professional organizations and investigators have focused attention on this area. The challenge of creating an environment for patient care in which collaboration is the norm can be difficult and belongs to the domain of the nurse manager. In order to create a collaborative work environment several conditions must be achieved and several natural barriers to nurse-physician collaboration must be overcome. In creating this environment for collaborative practice, (Evans, 1994) identified several more barriers to overcome. She expresses that the most difficult to overcome is the time-honored tradition of the nurse-physician hierarchy of relationships, which encourages a tendency oward superior-subordinate mentality. Keenan et al. (1998) found that nurses expect the physicians to manage conflict with a dominant/superior attitude. They also found that nurses are oriented towards being passive in conflict situations with physicians. A second barrier to collaboration is a lack of understanding of the scope of each other†s practice, roles, and responsibilities. Evans (1994) feels that one cannot appreciate the contribution of another individual if one has only limited understanding of the dimensions of that individual†s practice. It is equally true that appreciation of one†s own contribution is blurred if the understanding of one†s own role is limited. A third constraint to collaborative practice might be related to this perceived constraint on effective communication. Although there might be individual differences causing restraint in communication, the organizational and bureaucratic hierarchies of most hospitals hinders lines of communication. Several final factors cited by (Evans, 1994) as barriers to collaborative practice include immaturity of both physician and nurse groups, coupled with unassertive nurse behavior and aggressive physician behaviors. Factors that promoted collaboration between nurse and physicians were identified by (Keenan et al, 1998). She explained that nurse education was sighted as one of the most outstanding variables that promoted collaboration. The more educated a nurse was the more likely they were to take action in disagreements with physicians. Additionally, when nurses expected physicians to collaborate and to not exhibit strong aggressive behaviors or controversial styles, they were more likely to approach and discuss patient conditions with them. Researchers also found that male nurse were more likely than female nurses to confront physicians and not avoid dominant or aggressive behavior. Expectations for physicians to collaborate and to not handle situations aggressively appeared to be a stronger predictor of nurse-physician collaboration than any expected normative beliefs. The first step a nurse manager should take in the process of achieving a practice environment that facilitates collaboration is to conduct an assessment of the presence or absence of barriers leading to collaborative practice. According to (Evans, 1994), the environmental and role variables to assess include role identification and the professional maturity of both the nurses and physicians, communication patterns, and the flexibility of the organizational structure. By assessing the work environment for barriers and facilitators to collaborative practice, the nurse manager can achieve a general idea of how ready the unit is to begin a collaborative practice. The next step would be to plan an effective way to initiate a collaborative practice model of delivering health care on the unit. This can be done by establishing what is called a Joint Practice Committee, and including nurses and physicians to be a part of this work group. Its purpose would be to examine the needs assessment results of the unit†s readiness for collaborative practice, designing, implementing, and evaluating the process of transforming the unit. This step is an integral part of the process of establishing a collaborative practice and was identified by the National Joint Practice Commission (NJPC) as a necessary element in the process. The NJPC began in 1971 and the commission was dissolved in 1981. The commission†s work resulted in the publication of guidelines for collaborative practice in hospitals. The NJPC defines a joint-practice committee with a composition of equal number of nurses and physicians who monitor the inter-professional relationships and recommend appropriate strategies to support and maintain those relationships. The NJPC identifies four other structural elements necessary for a collaborative practice as primary nursing, integrated patient care records, joint patient care reviews, and emphasis on and support of nurse independent clinical decision making. These elements are an important cornerstone for creating a successful collaborative practice unit. In addition, several other factors have been identified by the NJPC as beneficial to maintaining an effective support systems when developing a collaborative practice such as appropriate staffing, committed medical leadership, standardized clinical protocols, and most importantly communication. Although a successful collaborative practice model has is a planned event. According to (Evans, 1994), it is important to realize that a collaborative relationship cannot be legislated, dictated, or mandated by anyone. It must be agreed upon and accepted by individuals who share responsibility for patient care outcomes. The third step in the process would be to empower the nursing staff with beliefs that fulfill their higher order of needs such as achievement, self-actualization, concern for others, and affiliation. Because of nursings normative behavior as passive, caring, and subservient the staff must learn to overcome expectations to identify with this role expectation. The nurse manager must support, coach, and instill a sense of empowerment into her staff in order for them to depart from those stereotypes. The idea is to fill the nursing staff with a sense of self-confidence and to lose thoughts of self-doubt, inequality, and subservience. To implement this new paradigm of nurse empowerment can be a challenge for the nurse manager within any typical hospital beaurocracy. That is why it is important to choose the correct style of leadership to guide the staff through this process of empowering or transforming. The leadership model best suited for this type of task and the most congruent with empowerment is the transformational model. Transformational leadership is a process in which leaders seek to shape and alter the goals of followers. Cassidy & Koroll (1994) describe the process as incorporating the dimensions of leader, follower, and situation. The leader motivates followers by identifying and clarifying motives, values, and goals that contribute to enhancing shared leadership and autonomy. Transformational leaders are usually charismatic so they enhance energy and drive people towards a common vision and shifting the focus of control from leaders to followers. It is the transformational nurse manager that will be able to empower her workers to facilitate nurse-physician collaboration, for the common good of the patient. The nurse manager using transformational leadership would set the direction for the rest of the unit to follow. She would be able to charismatically appeal to the medical staff as well as the nursing staff and create collaboration beyond the daily frustrations of arguing about to which domain a certain patient care issues belong. Further more the nurse manager would have to work hard at decreasing the seeds of distrust and disrespect that have been planted between our colleagues in medicine, and vice versa with nursing. Corley (1998) described several behaviors that the transformation nurse manager would need to exhibit in supporting her staff in such a role transition. The behaviors are as follows: stimulate creativity, establish an environment that facilitates team work and learning, implement change, motivate staff to assume increased responsibility, help develop employees† awareness of organizational goals, delegate responsibility appropriately, communicate openly and directly with staff, and collaborate with peers. The significance of these behaviors in facilitating empowerment is seen as fundamental to creating collaborative practice environment. The final step in the process is to evaluate its effectiveness. In order to provide a clear and concise evaluation of the collaborative process one must look at all structural elements and all indicators of collaboration as previously discussed. Once accurate measures are identified and assessed the collaborative practice committee can discuss their outcomes and effectiveness. Over time, nurses and physicians may be able to articulate more clearly the changes in their practice and beliefs that have been affected by collaborating on patient care. Several of these key areas to examine would be: length of stay, patient and provider satisfaction, number of return visits, and changes in supply costs. Improvements in any of these areas could be due to favorable results from collaborative practice between nurses and physicians. In conclusion, many problems related to nurse physician collaboration are typically blamed on physicians. However the reality is that many of the barriers can be traced back to nursing as well. Collaboration is a process by which members of various disciplines share their expertise. Accomplishing this requires that these individuals understand and appreciate what it is that each professional domain contributes to the â€Å"whole†. The nurse manger plays a pivotal role in establishing an environment that is conducive to collaboration among the disciplines. Although it is a difficult road to follow the benefits of an effective collaborative unit out-weigh the difficulties of establishing such a practice. However, the nurse manager has an excellent vehicle for which to begin her journey and that is the use of transformation leadership, an empowering tool for change.

The Electric Chair essays

The Electric Chair essays The Debate over the merits of capital punishment has endured for years, and continues to be an extremely indecisive and complicated issue. Adversaries of capital punishment point to the Marshalls and the Millgards, while proponents point to the Dahmers and Gacys. Society must be kept safe from the monstrous barbaric acts of these individuals and other killers, by taking away their lives to function and perform in our society. At the same time, we must insure that innocent people such as Marshall and Millgard are never convicted or sentenced to death for a crime that they did not commit. Many contend that the use of capital punishment as a form of deterrence does not work, as there are no fewer murders on a per- capita basis in countries or states that do have it, then those that do not. In order for capital punishment to work as a deterrence, certain events must be present in the criminal's mind prior to committing the offence. The criminal must be aware that others have been punished in the past for the offence that he or she is planning, and that what happened to another individual who committed this offence, can also happen to me. ut individuals who commit any types of crime ranging from auto theft to 1st-Degree Murder, never take into account the consequences of their actions. Deterrence to crime, is rooted in the individuals themselves. Every human has a personal set of conduct. How much they will and will not tolerate. How far they will and will not go. This personal set of conduct can be made or be broken by friends, influences, family, home, life, etc. An individual who is never taught some sort of restraint as a child, will probably never understand any limit as to what they can do, until they have learned it themselves. Therefore, capital punishment will never truly work as a deterrent, because of human nature to ignore practised advice and to self learn. There are those who claim that capit ...

Yield to Maturity Essays

Yield to Maturity Essays Yield to Maturity Essay Yield to Maturity Essay In economics yield to mature is the internal rate of return from the flows of cash of fixed income security, especially from bonds. Yield is paid if the bonds or other securities are to be held until their maturity. Yield to maturity is a measurement of the return from the bonds. Yield to maturity gives investors the opportunity to calculate the fair value of financial instruments. Yield to maturity applies exactly to a zero coupon bond. The reason is that this bond has no interest to be reinvested. (Yield to Maturity) Yield to maturity assumes that all interests and dividends are reinvested. It takes also into account losses and gains in case of difference between the purchase and redemption price. Economists say that yield to maturity is a projection of future performance, because yield to maturity has to assume a reinvestment and the rate of yield to maturity itself. In other words, yield to maturity â€Å"an implicit function that can only be evaluated by the method of successive approximations†. To achieve the quoted yield to maturity is easy when a zero coupon bond is to be help until maturity. Yield to maturity is mostly quoted in terms of â€Å"bond-equivalent yield†. (Yield to Maturity) For example, let’s consider a zero coupon bond that is 30 years. Its face value would be $100. The bond would cost $5.73 today if it is priced at a yield to maturity of 10%. The annualized return would be 10% over the thirty years, because the price would advance to $100. Let’s suppose that during first 10 years the interest rates would decline. In the result the yield to maturity would fall to 7%. After 20 years of maturity the bond price would be $25.84. Nevertheless even in such situation the yield to maturity for bond would be just 7%. The bargained yield to maturity for the moment of bond buying was 10%, the earned return over the 10 years would be 16.26%. But it doesn’t mean that the bond holder will earn 16.26 annually over the remaining 20 years. His annual income would be only 7%. It will be found that over the 30 years period the annual return would be 10%. (Bond Yield to Maturity) References â€Å"Yield to Maturity: Definition†. (2005). Retrieved September, 17, from investorwords.com.

Can The Mediterranean Diet Reduce Heart Disease Research Paper

Can The Mediterranean Diet Reduce Heart Disease - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that among the different types of diets that have become popular to help people lose weight, the Mediterranean diet is one that has been able to maintain its fame when it was first introduced until at present. Nonetheless, this type of diet has been studied by medical researchers and its association with some very common diseases in the society. Consisting of highly available products in the market, the Mediterranean diet is one that is rich in fish, nuts, vegetables, and fruits. Additionally, the consumption of olive oil, non-refined bread, and cereals, as well as a low intake of dairy products, fresh and processed meats, sweets, and wine are included. Although it may seem just as any food being consumed by everyone, the key components of Mediterranean diets is basically a healthy eating habit consisting at least two of these attributes inconsistency – a high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fat, low to moderate red wine consum ption, high legume consumption, significant grain and cereal consumption, significant consumption of fruits and vegetables, high fish consumption along with low consumption of meats and meat products, and moderate consumption of milk and dairy products. The most recent study conducted regarding this diet was its role in reducing the risk of obtaining heart disease. In 2003, the PREDIMED or Prevencià ³n Con Dieta Mediterrà ¡nea study was first conducted in Spain over a seven-year period, which aims to prevent cases of cardiovascular diseases.

Event Evaluation -Netowrking Event Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Event Evaluation -Netowrking Event - Essay Example How long did planning the event take? Well the answers were explained in the following context. The following factors were help to illustrate clearly how they planned for the big event within the allotted time. The plan is the event! The key aspect that was considered when in the course of planning for the event was its ability to be successful. This is at the very best considered basing on virtual realities and constraints. Obviously, there were a number of hurdles and numerous challenges that would make the entire plan a nightmwere. To be able to truly achieve their target, they should be able to ensure that all elements were managed at various levels whereby it would be easier to control inputs and outputs. The core factor when they were considering time is to establish the goal of the entire arrangement and then proceed to draw the framework for the work to be done. Acquire adequate service orientation:-This would enable them to device the scenarios involved in acquiring the righ t services and it is worth creating a more definite organizational structure and from then they could build a more flexible planning technique (Ramsborg et al. 2008). With substantial inclusion of various requirements such as acquiring accessories, getting logistical information and assembling the necessary themes for the event, all schedules were correlated through the approximated layout scheduling process. Define organization capacity and flexibility: - The obvious approach to their organization is their ability to operationalize and internalize all the activities with due diligence and to easily get the right way towards establishing the right attributes. In that, they were be able to make all important aspects regarding the plan without having to get any difficulty as the entities needed for the events were always listed basing on important interests. Additionally, the planning process is exponentially maintained within the required capacity whereby the energy and interest is e xplained and recreated to enhance optimum arrangements as required by the resources available and the amount of services needed by the client. The good thing here was that in the Performance Hub, there was an ideal venue for the creation of music, dance or drama, as well as being suited to conferences and corporate events. The Performance Hub is a highly flexible venue and this was evident in the way the organisation of the event was tailored to showcase the capacity and organizational flexibility due to its tailor made state of the art facilities especially made for such events. For instance to show how versatile the event organizational capacity was, there was the options of several venues that included the following: The Black Box Theatre: The Black Box Theatre is one of the best-equipped small theatres in the country. Ideally suited to small performances, the theatre features a raked seating area and high quality acoustics. The 108 seat venue is fully equipped with lighting and sound equipment to support your performance. The theatre has double height loading doors allowing you to bring your set directly into the venue. The Performance Hub can also offer support with a functional box office and catering provision on request. Technical support can