The Just Versus Unjust Essay Example for Free

The Just Versus Unjust Essay Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sophocles were three men who tried to show the world that unjust laws hurt all of society, and all three tried what they thought would be the remedy to such injustice.   King even gave his life to the cause of overcoming unjust laws.   I feel that all of them made good points and should be remembered for their great works, but I think that Antigone by Sophocles is the most effective because she actually gives her life for the cause that she feels is unjust.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the start of the play, Antigone states that she will die young. Leave me and my ill counsel to endure This dreadful doom. I shall not suffer aught So evil as a death dishonourable. (Sophocles Ll. 109-111) Antigone’s brother, Polynices  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   , has been killed while at war with his brother for the controlling power of Thebes.   Creon, Antigone’s uncle and now the king of Thebes, has decreed that Polynices cannot have a burial, unlike his brother, Eteocles.   His body must lie out in the open where the birds and the elements take a toll on his remains, and anyone who tries to burry him will be stoned.   Antigone is distraught, not only because of her brother’s death, but by this dishonorable deed decree which is now law.   Therefore she knows from the start that she will receive the ultimate punishment for what she knows that she has to do.   As Antigone explained to her sister, Ismene, while trying to convince her that she should also help with the burial, she must answer to higher powers than the king.   This is much like Dr. Martin Luther King’s philosophy. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. (King)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Antigone and King suffered from injustices bestowed on them by birth.   Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, who were not only man and wife, but mother and son.   She was cursed at birth for the atrocity of her parent’s sin.   King was born an African American during the time when prejudice was at the heart of the moral fiber in southern America.   They could not escape their trials.   Henry David Thoreau was born into privilege.   The few sufferings he endured were self imposed.   That does not mean that he was less of an honorable man.   He did choose to stand up for the injustice he saw in the laws of the land. He had never been a slave, and yet he went to jail because he refused to pay taxes to a government that would uphold the hideous institution of slavery.   Like Antigone, he made a conscious decision to break the law that he knew in his heart to be unjust.   If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good. (Thoreau)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Antigone, despite the order from her king, uncle, and future father-in-law, decides to give her brother an honorable burial even though her Ismene has declined to help her and to obey the law.   When it is discovered by Creon who the culprit of this crime is, she willingly admits to what she has done as do King and Thoreau when they are charged for their unjust crimes.   The major difference is that Antigone will face certain death.   She sees this as an act of love. There is no baseness in the act which shows our reverence for our kindred.(Ll. 564-5) King was martyred for his beliefs, however, he did not know with certainty that would be the outcome.  Ã‚   Thoreau knew that jail was inevitable, but death was never an issue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Creon, after a fight with his son, decides not to stone Antigone, but to entomb her alive so that she will suffer a slow death.   This sentence is unjust because she only buried her brother.   Creon does not see it as only a burial, but as a treasonous act because she has broken his law.   With all societies, the reason for the punishment of a crime is not for justice, but to make an example of the condemned and to strike fear in all who would seek to follow that same course. Antigone willingly takes her punishment.   She is adamant that her sister, Ismene, will not suffer the same fate as Creon has declared, not because she is concerned for Ismene’s well being, but she feels that Ismene does not deserve to die a martyr’s death since she did not help Antigone in the burial.   Creon decides to spare Ismene, and Antigone readily accepts her fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When the soothsayer of Thebes, warns Creon of the wrath from the gods that he will bring down on Thebes, he refuses to listen, and instead curses the old man.   He truly does not want to hear that he might not be in the right.   Many times in today’s society leaders are the same way.   They would rather go down and take a country down with them than admit that they were wrong. Creon, out of fear, orders that Antigone be released.   The sentry return only to tell him that Antigone has killed herself by hanging and that Haemon was also in the tomb mourning her.   Creon goes to the tomb himself and finds Haemon wailing about Antigone’s death.   He strikes at his father, but misses.   Then he turns the sword on himself and takes his own life.   Eurydice, Creon’s wife and Haemon’s mother, hears of her son’s suicide and stabs herself.   Creon is then told of his wife’s suicide and her body is brought before him.   He is so grief stricken that he prays for death. Woe! woe! alas! I shudder in my fear: Will no one strike   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1496 A deadly blow with sharp two-edgà ¨d sword? Fearful my fate, alas! And with a fearful woe full sore beset. (Ll. 1495-99) There are two major themes in Antigone as well as several minor ones.   One of the themes is that when an unjust law is permitted to exist, there are tragic results for all of the citizens of that society.   Many will pay the price for the atrocity.   Millions of slaves paid the price of slavery while thousands paid the ultimate price for civil rights in the nineteen sixties.   The other major theme is that it takes a brave soul to turn around the injustices of the law.   Antigone paid for the wrong done to her brother, but she also brought forth the sympathy of the citizens of Thebes. This gave them courage in the face of adversity.   Thoreau had only a few followers when he introduced the idea of civil disobedience but it has survived the test of time.   Since it was first published, numerous individuals and groups have looked to his teaching as an example of making their voice heard.   Of course King’s work brought the idea for civil rights for all people to the forefront.   The freedoms that all Americans hold dear today are possible in part because of his actions. Lead me, then, forth,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1524 vain shadow that I am, Who slew thee, O my son, unwittingly, And thee, too—(O my sorrow)—and I know not Which way to look. All near at hand is turned   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1528 Aside to evil; and upon my head There falls a doom far worse than I can bear.(Ll. 1524-30)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All three men, Thoreau, King, and Sophocles left their mark on the world when it came to resistance to unjust laws of society.   Over time they have inspired many to do the same.   Sometimes these ideas have been met with success, and other times they have been unsuccessful.   However, when a life is lost for a cause, the results are eternal and it is hard for the martyr to be forgotten.   That is why Antigone is the most effective example as the response to the unjust law. Works Cited King, Martin Luther, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. April 16, 1963, Nobel Prizes. June 7, 2007, http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html Sophocles. Antigone. 1909-14. Bartleby Harvard Classics. June 7, 2007, http://www.bartleby.com/8/6/1.html Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. 1849, The Art Bin Origo. June 7, 2007, http://art-bin.com/art/odisob.html

A Study On Media And Audiences Media Essay

A Study On Media And Audiences Media Essay With the coming of year 2010, the definition of â€Å"media† itself has changed the term of media now applies to many new communication technologies and many traditional media format has applied new technology to meet the needs of audiences. Thus technology and innovation have expanded media options for the public and audience, while the audience itself has changed in this new media age. The calling into question their role in democracy since many of these new media are essentially not â€Å"mass† any more (Sunstein, 2001). In light of this, â€Å"media use† should be re-conceptualized to include active and interactive, and not only passive, behavior on the part of the audience. The aim of this essay is to answer the question â€Å"In what ways do changing media formats and technologies present challenges to how audiences have been traditionally conceptualized?† author will answer the question by investigate the recent literatures and find out what resear chers recently consider the new audience and new media environment. The essay will go through the issues include the new media environment which focus on internet/online media; the notion of new audience whether the notion of audience has been changed, a comparison between historical audience and new audience will be conduct in the article; some audience theories will also be addressed in the essay such as reception theory and audience active theory, to take a look into these theory may be useful to analyse whether this theory still match the todays situation; challenge of new audience research will be the last part of the article, in this part, author will take an analysis based on the research work done by Livingstone (2004). It shows the challenges facing by audience and media research before and in the new age. By analyse those issues related with new media and new audience, there may be an answer to meet the question which be raised in the aim of the essay. Changing media environment We are in the midst of a digital revolution that is giving way to a â€Å"new information environment† (Bimber, 2003). We are facing the world with a moving target as once-new media become familiar and eve-never media emerge. The common feature of those new media is internet based. The internet made everything possible and changed peoples behavior after it emerged. Manuel Castells has argued that the flows dominate contemporary life in his book The Information Age, ‘our society is constructed around flows, flows of capital, flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interaction, flows of images, sounds, and symbols (Castells, 2000: 442) the emerging of new media or the new format of media accelerate the liquidity of the world. For media user, you can whether read news on newspaper on the way to work or open the mobile phone and connect to the internet and read the news you are most interested in and check your email box anytime you want. You can also whether check the program schedule on newspaper and waiting for the program broadcast on television or just open your laptop and go to BBC website and watch the favorite drama anytime and any episode. When your tutor suggest s you to purchase a text book, you can whether go the high street book store or just go to Amazon.co.uk to buy a book in relevant cheap price. Those available choices indicate that the media environment has been changed, Producer like government, business, broadcast institution or press industry are taking advantage of internet and new technologies as it can be more globalised and fast disseminate to audiences in every corner of the world. Its different from traditional mass media but a more interactive media, most importantly, converging with new media to create a complex media-rich and liquid environment. Online media environment With no doubt, we are in the internet age now. Even in the media industry, almost every traditional mass media format has a new internet based version, online broadcast, online journal, online TV, online newspaper, online news, online games, online advertising etc. it shows both producer and audience are highly demand on the new technology based media because of the common features of those newly medium have such as convenient, easy to access and of course interactivity. â€Å"Web 2.0† is one of most important technology in newly internet space or cyberspace. Pew gave a definition of Web 2.0 the ability of people to use a range of information and communication technology as a platform to express themselves online and participate in the commons of cyberspace is often heralded as the next phase of the information society. (Pew, 2007: 2) Web 2.0 enhanced the interactivity of audience when they use online media and made them more active when they consumption news or other information. The example of famous media website which takes advantage of web 2.0 is www.youtube.com. People can not only watch video clip on it but also they can rating and leave comments on it. The hot video clips on home page usually depend on the rate of click. Moreover, people can upload their own video to the website and share the video with friends or people all over the world. At this time, audiences convert to producers. The chart below presents the result of a survey conducted in 2004 for investigate whether people prefer online or offline media to obtain information. From the chart we may find out the advantages of online media. Sources: Frank Magid Association, Online Publisher Association, â€Å"Multichannel Media Brands,† 2004. www.online-publisher.org Although the data are gathered in 5 years ago, it dose shows the advantages of online media, people can find what they want easy and quick on internet rather than search on a news paper or television. However people in 2004 feels that use offline media are more enjoyable and satisfying. It indicates that traditional media cannot be replaced by the online media. One thing need to be mentioned is people consider both online and offline media are the same when they consider which is more reliable and trustworthy. It is different in my country, in China; most people prefer trust online media rather than offline media controlled by government. News media Take news consumption as an example. People traditionally obtain news and information from newspaper and TV News broadcast channel. But nowadays, the internet version of newspaper becomes more and more adoptable for audience. JOEY KA-CHING CHAN and LOUIS LEUNG (2005:7) suggested ‘online news media distinguish themselves from traditional media in a number of ways: they are interactive; they offer convenience, which embodies easy access, searchable features and the ability to cross-reference through hyperlinking; and they provide multimedia features. Being interactive is a important feature for new media, audience are not only passive receive messages but engage with the news event and trying to explore what happening behind news by search related news on the internet. Matt Carlson (2007) mentioned the rise of online news search engines allows users to set their own parameters governing the section of news according to personal preference. Matt took Google News as an example in h is article and states that Google news always reports a story from different side of view which may force the authority to be more democracy. ‘I want this to be a force for a democracy. One of the things that makes us objective is we show all points of view. Even if you disagree with one, we give you both the majority and the minority point of view. The ones you dont agree with are education. Its nice to know what the other side is thinking. Youll see left-leaning ones as much as much as you see right-leaning ones. Frankly, the software doesnt know the difference between left and right, which is good. (quoted in Kramer, 2003: n.p.) it just like King (1998: 26) argued that interactivity not only describe the high level of control and interactive with content but also present the increasing interactive with news producer such as feedback availability. Audience nowadays becomes more and more powerful in this new media environment. Audiences in historical perspective Before discuss the challenge of conceptualize new audience, it is necessary to take a look into audiences in history. Marie Gilespie (2005: 14) gives us a brief introduction of this perspective. He suggests in most research about media and communication in twentieth century, the researcher usually focus on todays media and todays audiences with the popular medium like television. However, the idea of the audience can be traced back to ancient times. And Marie think it is important to learn the lesson from history when something can be similar or entirely new ‘In history, audience means a face-to-face audience in the presence of a communicator or entertainer, whether at a political meeting, the theatre or a concert (Marie 2005: 14) Denis McQuail (1997: 3) use classical Graeco-Roman audience definition to identify the audiences feature today: Planning and organization of viewing and listening, as well as of the performances themselves Events with a public and popular character Secular content of performance-for entertainment, education and vicarious emotional experiences Voluntary, individual acts of choice and attention Specialization of roles of authors, performers and spectators Physical locatedness of performances and spectator experience We can find that some of the features of Graeco-Roman audience are similar with todays audience in mass media environment. The only obviously difference is mass media eliminated the limitation of co-location. Even in todays internet media background, some of the features above still match the todays audience, that is, no matter media environment changes, there are some characteristics will not change. This not means there will be no challenge to conceptualized new audience in new environment based on new technology. The aim of discussing the historical media audience is to find the link between history and nowadays society. Although the environment and technology has changed a lot, there are still many common features maintained from ancient time to mass media age and from mass media age to new media age. Changing audiences ‘From a coach potato to cybernauts is the title of Eugenia Siapera(2004)s article. The author analyse the change of television audiences to online audience. The article focuses on the broadcasters website such as BBC Channel to investigate the relationship of audience online and offline (TV broadcast). It is the fact that people gradually adopt into the new media environment. And it begins to change the notion of audience. Siapera (2004: 15) suggested the notion of audience has been expanded by the inter-media. The audience has been hitherto most interactive in the digital media age. (Rob cover 2006: 16) ‘Coach potato usually describe people who always sitting behind television and watch TV program. This image usually presents more passive way of people receive message from producer. However audience becomes more and more active. The new technology offers different platform for audience to interact with other audiences or the producer. Take fandom as example, Audiences no wadays can easily form or find a fan club on website such as blogging and forum, more over the broadcasts website usually design and develop the certain function to allow audience track their favorite star or program (Siapera 2004: 09) For example, ‘EastEnders (the BBCs soap opera and one of the most developed programme sites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/) has regular updates on what is happening in the soap, a chat room, newsletter, message board, and voting on what should happen to characters/storylines. The producer may be influenced by the audience opinions to adjust the storyline or what happened next to gain more audiences support. It is what I mentioned before that audience can interact and influence the producer in the new media age. The channel established by producer on internet made audiences more easily to send their feedback to the producer. The reason why producer take audiences opinions serious is because in todays world, the audience can be seen as consumer , ‘I suggested, is adopted by those who conceptualize the audience as a market (Livingstone 1998a) and the profitability of program is only standard to justify whether it should be continue or stop. Some American drama can continue make and broadcast for many seasons such as ‘Friends but some are not. ‘The ultimate power of internet fandom is in controlling the actual life and death of a series. For fans of a show, that power is usually in the hands of a network executive or, for a syndicated series, a production company. (Victor Costello and Barbara Moore 2007: 16) It depends on whether there are many audiences like it or not. It again, indicates that audience being more and more powerful which can influence both producer and context. Reception under new media environment The phenomena stressed above may challenge the traditional reception theory in mass media age. Reception theory points out that ‘Audience interpretations or decoding have been found to diverge depending on viewers socio-economic position, gender, ethnicity, and so forth, while the possibilities for critical or oppositional reading are anticipated, enabled or restricted by the degree of closure encoded into the text or genre.'(Marie Gillespie 2005: 40) Audience reception research towards television study revealed parallel connections between the conventions of television and viewers decoding strategies like the soap opera viewer builds up an understanding of the characters, puzzles over the secrets, eagerly anticipates the cliff-hanger, guesses the outcome of a subplot, recalls when appropriate the significant events from past episodes, etc., all in accordance with the conventions of the genre (Livingstone, 1998). It just like Cultural theorist Stuart Hall suggested in his theor y of encoding and decoding. He argued that audiences not just passive accept text but people can create their own mean of the text and the communication process should not be linear model such sender-message-receiver model rose by Shannon. The following chart is Halls Encoding and Decoding model, in the model, hall stressed the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. We may find that even the halls model neglected the relationship between sender and receiver. As I mentioned before, the audience nowadays can influence the producer. So I suggest that todays communication process is a loop which every element in the process can be influenced by other elements. And nowadays, with the internet developed, the relationship between the text and the reader may convert to between the text and reader and other readers. Take times online as example, reader may write comments towards specific news and share the comment with other reader. The interactions within those readers which may influence the result by interpret the meaning of text. The two step flow theory also has been challenged by new media age as the process of decentralized the authority. The internet enhanced the availability of information flow. If people may express their opinion on the public space on the internet, Twitter can be a good example; audiences are more and more interested in tracking what other peoples point of views. At the same time the power of opinion leader becomes more and more declined. It is one of the reason why Twitter and youtube.com being successful. Audience Selectivity and Involvement in the New Media Environment With no doubt, the newer media environment enables audience to be more active, it not only means that audiences have muti-channels on the new cable television but also suggests that audiences nowadays have a wide range of medium choice. Perse (1990: 3) argues there are two dimensions of audience activity. The first one is a qualitative component and describes type of activity. It includes selectivity, evolvement, and utility. Audiences can easily target what they want to receive from the new media such as internet. Take online news as example, www.bbc.co.uk allows audience to customize their own home page. People can choose the type of news or information they may interest in and put them together on the home page of BBC website like the picture below: It has been changed a lot from traditional ‘one to many model to ‘one to one model which means highly customized and personalized design based on the cookie technology and web 2.0. The new media technology can help you to filter what you may not like and try to enhanced personal relevance with their audiences. And audiences become more selective and evolve with the context they received. Livingstone (2004: 6) suggested that the new media environment expended the range of issue and arguments in ‘active audience theory. Audiences or the media user become more active which means they are more selective, self-directed. Can new media environment blurry the boundary of being a producer and receiver. Changing relationship between audiences and producers A growing number of ordinary citizens are actively producing media content, challenging these traditional notions. We have seen an unprecedented level of citizen participation in media content-making, with the prevalence and use of blogs, chat rooms, forums, and citizen journalism (Bowman Willis, 2005). The â€Å"former audience,† a term coined by Dan Gillmor (2006), is now actively participating in content generation for a greater variety of media on a scale we have never seen before. Those large numbers of people are able to be more involved in the news and content making process itself. Typical media use is more active and interactive than it has been in the days when a handful of companies controlled content and dissemination. Consequently, the once distinct roles of â€Å"the elite producers of content and the mass consumers of content† are shifting, and the â€Å"distinction between producers and consumers of content† is blurring (Howard, 2004, p.11). A Pew study found 57% of teens who use the Internet create content online (Pew, 2005). People use digital media to share their favorite news and information with others, by emailing or posting on other sites. Until May of 2008, youtube.com and facebook.com ranked 3rd and 4th most visited website on internet. This information indicates audience keen on produce their own video or context on internet and express themselves which also means there has been a shift in power from large media institution to ordinary people. Challenging of audience study in new media age Livingstone (2004: pointed out three main challenges which audience research facing for recent age. Those challenges include the gap between what people say and what people do in real life and the unclearly relationship between text and reader, for example the reception theory and the debate on the process of encoding and decoding and also the question of media effects which may influence audiences. Furthermore, the demographic factor should be considered in audience research just like other social science diversified audience from different demographic background may interpret the same message differently. Those challenges have been existed in mass media age. The question is dose the challenge will be modified in new media or their will be some new challenge towards internet/online media age? Livingstone (2004) gives us the answer in his article called the ‘challenge of changing audience he suggests that all the old challenges towards mass media research still exist, and in s ome extent the challenges has been magnified in todays internet media background. It is more and more difficult to find out what online audience practices in their private space such as their bedroom. What they said on online chatting room may totally different with their own behavior in real life. This type of real practices or experiences is hard to record compare with to investigate the audience in a public space such as Movie Theater. Even to research family television experiences in audiences living room is more achievable than to investigate the online audience as Livingstone argues that online audience and online experience is more personal and private. It leads to the difficulties when conduct observation and interview research. Despite the issue of privacy, the cookie may be a good tool to track online audiences behavior when they surfing on the internet. It may track what part or type of website are most frequently being click by online user, this technology now being widely used in website design, such as www.amazon.com, the most famous online book ret ailer, customized the home page when people login to the website. There will be some book on the suggestion list which based on you pervious practice like keyword scan or the book you being purchase. The second challenge raised by Livingstone is about the relationship between text and reader. He suggested when this challenge met the online media environment, it brings both practical and theoretical problem. Not like data collected from traditional mass media, new media researcher need to process uncountable data gathered from internet to analyse the relationship between the text and the audiences. In addition, large portion of data are temporary and mean less. More over the notion of text itself has been modified in some extent in online environment. For most of online user (include online media researcher), they have no idea with the hypertext. It is the source of the online content, producer or website designer develop the online world by this hypertext rather than the text we familiar with in real life. Again, the blurring of producer and audience also can be seen as a challenge to research in to the relationship between the text and receiver as the notion of receiver itself has been changed. The last point draw by Livingstone is about moral panic related with online media such as the question about whether internet will result harm to young people or children. This challenge has been inherited from television age. Researchers tried to identify the harm towards young audience caused by the violent movie, TV program, comics or other threatens factors. ‘At present, these moral panic centre on the internet, with anxiety expressed about violent, stereotyped, commercially exploitative or pornographic content and about the reinforcement of individualistic, lazy, prejudice, uncritical or aggressive actions. (Gillespie 2005: 12-13) Compare with traditional media, internet is more accessible for any resource on the virtual world. It is the reason why some researchers prefer to ban the online media rather than to take an in-depth research towards it. Take online game in China as an example. The famous MMORPG World of Warcraft is quite popular within Chinese player. 5 million accounts have been created in this online game in Chinese mainland. Many young people spent much time on playing online game in the virtual world. This phenomena draws socialist attention, they worries about those young people may be affected by the violence game like World of Warcraft, however most of them just want ban this online game in China without doing any research on other related area to investigate why young people addicted to this game. Some so called ‘psychologist even use electric shock to ‘help those young online game addicts. Doubtless, challenges faced by new media research can be trace back to history, however some new problems gradually out and beginning to be addressed (Hine 2000) Conclusions We are now in the liquid world. The new information environment, enabled by digital technology (internet), has changed the relationship between audience and media. Although the new audience still maintain some features from traditional audience, some new features of audience has been addressed by new media researcher. Audiences are becoming less passive and more in control of the use of media platform. They can be more selective and evolved with new media they can decide when, where and what type of the information they need to engages with. Audience now my decoding context better while they share their comments with other audience, also if they want, audience can convert to producer and create their own content on cyberspace. The classical audience theory need to be modified to suit the new environment such as the encoding and decoding process, as the audience becomes more powerful than ever before, they can influence the producer and messages producer created that is the communica tion process in new media age should pay more attention the interactive between producer and audiences. In addition, the two-step flow model has been challenged in online environment as audience nowadays are less influenced by opinion leader but peer review on internet offered by other audience. In the new media environment, the challenges, both old and new problems, which media researcher facing still exist. It is difficult for researcher to record online audiences practice and their experiences since the privacy of online behavior. In addition the new model of text hypertext becomes a challenge for explore the relationship between text and receive in new media environment. Moreover some researchers consider the online media can harm for young people and been a threat to society. It leads them to be more reluctant to do more complex research into this area. The analysis of the issue in this article suggests that even if most features of audience and media which addressed in past r esearch still suit todays situation, the changes in media technology and format do cause the challenges about how we conceptualize audiences. Reference Marie Gillespie (2004) Media Audiences, Open University Press, Chapter 1 pp40 Livingstone, S. (2003) ‘The Changing Nature of Audiences: From the Mass Audience to the Interactive Media User, pp. 337-59 The Blackwell Companion to Media Research. Oxford: Blackwell. Livingstone, S. (1998) Making Sense of Television: The Psychology of Audience Interpretation, 2nd edn. London: Routledge Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage. Hall,S.(1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding in Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A. and Willis, P. Culture, Media, Language, London, Hutchinson Bimber, B. (2000). The study of information technology and civic engagement. Political Communication. 17:329-333 Livingstone S. (2004). The Challenge of Changing Audiences: Or, What is the Audience Researcher to Do in the Age of the Internet? European Journal of Communication, Mar 2004; 19: 75 86. Livingstone, S, (1998a) ‘Audience Research at the Crossroads, European Journal of Cultural Studies 1(2): 193-217. Sonia Livingstone (2006) The Influence of Personal Influence on the Study of Audiences. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2006; 608; 233 ROB COVER (2006) Audience inter/active: Interactive media, narrative control and reconceiving audience history.New Media Society 2006; 8; 139 Joey Ka-Ching Chan, Louis Leung (2005). Lifestyles, reliance on traditional news media and online news adoption. New Media Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, 357-382. Frank Magid Association (2004). Online Publisher Association, â€Å"Multichannel Media Brands,† www.online-publisher.org Sunstein, C. (2001). Republic.com. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Pew Internet American Life Project (2007, May 7). A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users Bowman, S. C. Willis (2005). The future is here, but do news media companies see it? Nieman Reports, 59(4):5-9 Howard, P.N. (2004). Deep democracy, thin citizenship: The impact of digital media in political campaign strategy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 597:1-17. Matt Carlson (2007). BLOGS AND JOURNALISTIC AUTHORITY: The role of blogs in US Election. Journalism Studies, Volume 8, Issue 2 April 2007, pages 264 279 Kramer, S. (2003) ‘Google News Creator Watches Portal Quiet Critics With â€Å"Best News† Webby, Online Journalism Review 25 September, King, E. (1998) ‘Redefining Relationships: Interactivity Between News Producers and Consumers, Convergence 4(4): 26-32. Victor Costello and Barbara Moore (2007) Cultural Outlaws: An Examination of Audience Activity and Online Television Fandom. Television New Media 2007; 8; 124 ELIZABETH M. PERSE. (1990). Audience Selectivity and Involvement in the Newer Media Environment. Communication Research 1990; 17; 675 Eugenia Siapera. (2004). From couch potatoes to cybernauts? The expanding notion of the audience on TV channels websites. New Media Society 2004; 6; 155 Fernando Bermejo (2009) Audience manufacture in historical erspective: from broadcasting to Google.New Media Society 2009; 11; 133 Alexa Traffic Rank for YouTube (three month average). Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/youtube.com. Retrieved 2009-08-26. Accessed @ 15th Dec 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6900001.ece#comment-have-your-say Accessed @ 1st Nov 2009 http://media-ucn.co.uk/Lecture%20notes/EncodingDecoding%20Lecture.htm Accessed @ 6th Jan 2010

Intelligence failure is political and psychological organisation

Intelligence failure is political and psychological organisation Intelligence failure is political and psychological more often than organisational. Discuss in relation to at least two examples of intelligence failure. In this essay I will illustrate, through specific examples, the human condition and the psychological roots of surprise, the actions of policy-makers and an examination of organisational defects of agencies, and how they contribute to intelligence failures. However in order to understand what constitutes ‘intelligence failure, some contextual definition must be provided. The phrase intelligence failure often has highly negative connotations in terms of national security. Although it is also been used to describe situations such as the 1998 Indian nuclear weapons tests whereby U.S and Western policy-makers were surprised by the international incident that took place, even when that surprise caused minimal impact to their national security. Using the word failure to describe situations where negative consequences for national security are minimal may seem unusual however it highlights the imprecise meaning of the word. The amassing of, interpretation and eventual distribution of information to those in power is an ongoing process that can occasionally fail to depict events on the international scene accurately or adequately in-depth to provide them with either infallible information or total certainty.As a result, when surprises like Pearl Harbour and the 9/11 attacks occur, intelligence agencies bear the brunt of the scrutiny. It is interesting to no te that in a study conducted by Dr. Robert Johnston within the U.S. Intelligence Community in 2005 he interviewed several CIA officials and requested a definition of the term ‘intelligence failure from several of the interviewees. Some of the responses disavowed the existence of ‘intelligence failure while others placed the terms in the broader context of policy and decision making. It is apparent that one of the most difficult elements in intelligence analysis rests in measuring up enemy intention and removing the element of surprise. Surprise is essentially a psychological phenomenon that has its roots in human nature.This process is not made any easier if the intelligence gathered is unreliable, incomplete or just plain absent. Furthermore, knowledge about capability does not supply a perfect clue to intentionas will be demonstrated below. A common failing is to create an interpretation of the enemys intentions yet base it on the ideology or belief of the analyst and his home nation. Hindsight reveals that the element of surprise in the majority of large-scale wars fought since 1939 was unwarranted and a considerable amount of evidence of an imminent assault was available to the victims before the fact. In 1941 a number of high ranking administration officials expressed the belief that as long as the U.S maintained overall military advantage over Japan, war was unlikely to break out. All the evidence indicates that they are more afraid of war with the U.S. than anything else. U.S policy-makers remained firm in their belief that Japan would base its decision to wage war on military considerations. It has been argued that, as Japanese/U.S. relations were on a steady decline and with a large number of reports being received regarding possible Japanese aggression and aggressive intentions, U.S. officials had almost certain knowledge that war was at hand. Roberta Wohlstetter attributes the failure to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbour on the massive number of irrelevant material being accumulated regarding Japanese intentions, euphemistically termed ‘noise. In addition, not all intercepts were decoded and the intercepts that were, did not all travel along the same communication routes and so ended up not rising the chain of command; no single person or agency ever had at any given moment all the signals existing in this vast information network. Wohlstetter also believes that intelligence officers could perhaps have foreseen the attack years before, if the U.S. had concealed spies within Japanese military circles and expanded its code-breaking capabilities. Of course, it can be further argued that success in warning can be indistinguishable from failure. If, for example, the defender acknowledges a warning and responds in time with defensive preparations then the attacker may cancel the operation. Thus the original prediction would be rendered invalid. The Japanese task force en route to Pearl Harbour had orders to abort if the element of surprise was lost. During the week preceding the Yom Kippur war, Israeli intelligence officers accumulated a substantial amount of credible information indicating unusual Egyptian activities along the Suez Canal. A memorandum was circulated to Intelligence Command which concluded that there was a high probability that Egyptian manoeuvres were only cover for an impending attack. The intelligence indicated a readiness for an offensive however on the eve of war; the intelligence material did not affect the strategic thinking of Israelis decision makers. They attributed their own line of reasoning to the adversary. Overlooking the possibility that the enemy might not follow the same line of thought the Israeli leaders displayed a fatal lack of imagination that separated them from their opponent and in this case, aided by hindsight, it is clear that when tactical facts differ from that of strategic possibilities, the former should be given increased weight in the decision making process. As established above, the cause of intelligence failure can be a result of an analysts own psychological condition influencing data, reports or opinions of others, likewise policymakers can be guilty of the same. In this next example I will demonstrate how not only the psychological condition can result in an intelligence failure. Since the 9/11 disaster public discussion has been focused strongly on the human causes of the tragedy and asking the question ‘What went wrong? And one of the failures of the intelligence community that had been overlooked in the beginning was the organisational structure of both the FBI and CIA. On closer examination, it is evident that the Bureau and CIA suffered from a litany of organisational weaknesses that can be attributed to being a major component of the 9/11 disaster. The structural problems the FBI faced were exacerbated by the fact the bureau was part of an Intelligence Community that had been be in opposition to information sharing, the CIA and FBI having a long history of poor communication added to divided responsibility geographically which invariably led to vast gaps in coverage of territory. Whilst the CIA was among the agencies charged with tracking terrorists abroad, the FBI had responsibility for monitoring terrorist suspects within U.S borders. There was however no clear distinction of responsibility for monitoring movement of terrorist suspects between the U.S and foreign countries. The bureau was considered so peripheral that previous to 9/11 the CIA neglected to put the Attorney General on its distribution list for the Presidents Daily Brief, the most important Community-wide current intelligence report. Consequently, terrorists could operate freely across borders but the U.S Intelligence Community could not. Whats more, J. Edgar Hoover had created a specific picture of FBI agents in a large publicity campaign that soon agents themselves began believing; they were glorified agents, in everything from movies to play cards with the ultimate goal for a striving ambitious agent was to work criminal cases and not sit behind a desk, and so this had an unfortunate side effect an aversion to technology and analysis. As one agents describes the ‘old-school mentality after the 9/11 attacks, ‘real men dont type. The only thing a real agent needs is a notebook, a pen and a gun, and with those three things you can conquer the world. With that perspective in mind, greater emphasis was placed on the more tangible criminal conviction, as opposed to a very absent terrorist attack. To further the argument, organisational incentives supplemented this way of thinking with opportunities for analysts promotion to senior positions highly restricted if permitted at all. Moreover, in terms of techno logy, the FBI computer system was so outmoded that it took up to 12 commands to store a single document, this coupled with an almost pathological distain for counterintelligence operations meant that billions of records were simply kept in paper files in shoe boxes and if reports did come in, they were not assigned a high priority level. The CIA also suffered from similar failings in its internal structure. When the organisation was created, it was charged with conducting missions to collect covert intelligence, engage in covert action and it also publishes National Intelligence Estimates (NIE). Thus in similar fashion to the FBI ‘bi-polarity of having duel missions law enforcement and intelligence- these tasks cannot be suitably carried out and the intelligence analysis can end up politicised. The CIA had not been particularly strong on terrorism since the late 1980s. William Casey and Robert Gates Director and deputy director respectively falsely believed that the Soviet Union was responsible for every act of international terrorism and formed the Counter-terrorism Centre (CTC). Even after the failed plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in December 1999, the agencies did not heighten concerns over the ability of Al-Qaeda to strike inside the U.S. Everyone has someone they want to hold responsible for 9/11 and although different people have found different culprits, their point is the same: that individual leaders are to blame for the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks. It is however, dangerous to place the entire burden of responsibility on single individuals, though it may be understandable, as it is a natural human response after a great tragedy. It does however suggest the wrong causes of failure and thus the wrong remedies in tackling them. For instance, well-meaning ‘intelligence reform advocates including members of Congress and families, of 9/11 victims mistakenly fixed their sights on measure recommended by the 9/11 Commission, most notably the creation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It would be ridiculous to say that individual leadership is irrelevant; it would merely be more prudent to examine the less noticeable aspects of organisational life. If it was the case that leadership determin ed counterterrorism success and failure, then resolution to the problems encountered by the intelligence agencies would be easy. To conclude, it seems that the enduring defects in the FBI and CIA organisational structure, culture, and incentive systems proved to be a major debilitating factor once the Cold War was over and the terrorist threat emerged. These weaknesses ultimately prevented the agencies from exploiting 12 separate opportunities that might have disrupted the 9/11 plot. These agencies may be charged with preventing surprise but not all surprises can be prevented, such as the abrupt end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union. Furthermore it seems the danger of defining ‘intelligence failure by example resembling those above is that each case is contextually unique and can be argued with no end in sight. The important recurring element through the examples illustrated is the significance of surprise, regardless of if it is intelligence surprise, military surprise in the case of Pearl Harbour and the Yom Kippur war, or political surprise. Even if the intelligence community itself was not surprised by them, it was unable to convince the military and political consumers of intelligence, these events might occur; in which case it suggests the failure is one of organisational and specifically of communication and persuasion. Marrin, S., ‘Preventing Intelligence Failure by Learning from the Past International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 17/4 (2004) p. 657 Marrin, S., ‘Preventing p.656 Johnson, R. Analytic Culture in the US Intelligence Community: An Ethnographic Study (Centre for the Study of Intelligence 2005) ch. 1- https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/analytic-culture-in-the-u-s-intelligence-community/full_title_page.htm (accessed 18th March 2010). Harkabi, Y., Nuclear War and Nuclear Peace (Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 1966) p. 51 Kennan, G. F., Russia, The Atom and the West (New York 1957) p. 21 Betts, R. K., ‘Surprise Despite Warning: Why Sudden Attacks Succeed Political Science Quarterly 95/4 (1980) p. 551 Letter sent by Stimson to the New York Times February 11th 1940 Ben-Zvi, A, ‘Hindsight and Foresight: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Surprise Attacks World Politics 28/3 (April 1976) p. 389 Wohlstetter, R., Pearl Harbour: Warning and Decision (Stanford University Press 1962) p. 385 Wohlstetter, R., Pearl Harbour p. 193 Shlaim, A., ‘Failures in National Intelligence Estimates: The Case of the Yom Kippur War World Politics 28/3 (April 1976) p. 378 Betts, R.K., ‘Surprise Despite Warning p. 557 Ben-Zvi, A, ‘Hindsight and Foresight p. 393 Schiff, Z., October Earthquake Yom Kippur 1973 (Tel-Aviv: University Publishing Projects 1974) p. 27 Shlaim, A., ‘Failures in National Intelligence Estimates p. 363 Shlaim, A., ‘Failures in National Intelligence Estimates p. 395 Goodman, M.A., ‘9/11: The Failure of Strategic Intelligence Intelligence and National Security 18/4 (2003) p. 64 ‘Threats and Responses in 2001 9/11 Commission Staff Statement Number 10 (13th April 2004) p. 5 Zegart, A. ‘9/11 and the FBI: The Organisational Roots of Failure Intelligence and National Security 22/2 (April 2007) p. 167 Lichtblau, E. Piller, C. ‘Without a Clue: How the FBI Lost Its Way, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, (11th August 2002) p. 1 Cumming, A. Masse, T. ‘FBI Intelligence Reform Since September 11 2001: Issues and Options for Congress Congressional Research Service Report No. RL32336 (6th April 2004) http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32336.html (accessed 17th March 2010) p. 13 Federal Bureau of Investigation, ‘The FBIs Counterterrorism Program Since September 2001 Report to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US (14 April 2004) p.51 Goodman, M.A., ‘9/11: The Failure of Strategic Intelligence p. 62 TRACES OF TERROR: THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES; C.I.A.s Inquiry On Qaeda Aide Seen as Flawed New York Times 23rd September 1998 p. 11 Russell, R.L., ‘A Weak Pillar for American National Security: The CIAs Dismal Performance against WMD Threats, Intelligence and National Security 23/3 (September 2005) p. 478 Zegart, A. ‘9/11 and the FBI p. 179 Zegart, A. ‘9/11 and the FBI p. 165 Treverton, G. J., Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information (New York Cambridge University Press 2003) p. 32

ADHD Essay -- Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

ADHD Upon shadowing a fourth grade teacher at Deer Ridge Elementary School, I decided to talk with her about the students in her classroom. Mrs. Riley first set the scene of the school for me by stating that it was in the southwest suburban area of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and this particular school was not hurting for money. She then began to explain the different children in her classroom. There were twenty-eight students from a variety of different backgrounds. There were also two students with ADHD. My first thought was, "What exactly is ADHD?" and, "Would these two children stick out from the rest of the students in the classroom?". These questions are commonly asked by people who are unfamiliar with ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD children have specific symptoms, in which no one is certain as to what causes these symptoms to occur. Some ADHD children do have other problems associated with this disorder, for example behavioral and social problems. Children with ADHD might stand out from other children, only if they have not had the proper treatment prescribed for them. ADHD is the "developmental failure in the brain circuitry that underlies inhibition and self-control" (Barkley, 1998), or "inability to inhibit thoughts"(NIMH, 1996), that affects about five percent of school age children (McEwan, 1998). Loss of control and thought may be believed to be caused by certain impaired brain functions that are important for children to maintain attention. The prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and globus pallidus are three parts of the brain that are involved with regulating attention (Barkley, 1998). In a Scientific American article, entitled "Attention-Deficit Hypera... ...Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Available: http://www.sciam.com/1998/0998issue/0998barkleybox3.html. September 1998. Leutwyler, Kristen. Scientific American: Analysis Paying Attention. Available: http://www.sciam.com/0896issue/0896infocus.html. August 1996. Long, Phillip W., MD. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Internet Mental Health. Available: www.mentalhealth.com. 1995-2000. McEwan, Elaine K. The Principal’s Guide at Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc. 1998. National Institute of Mental Health. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Available: http://www.HIMH.com. number 96-3572. 1994. National Institute of Mental Health. Subtle Brain Circuit Abnormalities Confirmed in ADHD. Available: http://www.mhsource.com/hy/brainadhd.html. July 1996.

The Tragedy of War :: history

The Tragedy of War West Russia, World War II One winter day at dark down the artillery opened hurricane fire on the enemy’s positions. Soon came the squadron and geysers of soil and curls of smoke erupted from the earth. The front enemy’s dugouts were razed to the ground for the first ten minutes. White rockets occurred on the sky as though they were artificial constellations. Then the infantry began to shoot in order to destroy that which had been missed by the shells. The battle was won owing to one soldier – a slender, thin eighteen-year-old boy, named Sasha. There was an enormous machine-gun, skillfully hidden behind a stack of big stones. It starfed the whole road round a little bridge which was the only way to reach the fortification. No one was able to come closer and â€Å"dismantle† the private behind the cannon. If Sasha had not helped, enemy’s crafts would have come an hour later and would have killed all the soldiers on the battlefield. The commanders saw him among the cracks of the rocks. Then he disappeared. A few minutes later a bomb explosion was heard and the machine-gun ceased shooting. And there were no holdbacks for invasion. In the evening the chief commander of the companies called Sasha in his room. â€Å"You ignored my explicit instructions!† he cried. â€Å"That was the worst and recklessest thing to do!† The boy felt himself as the biggest traitor in the world. â€Å"But nevermind†, continued the commander. â€Å"I’ve decided to reward you with a seen-day-furlough for being so devoted to your country.† The boy smiled with satisfaction. â€Å"Where do you want to go?† asked the commander. â€Å"I’d like to visit my mother and father in Karanga.† â€Å"OK. I’ve provided you with a lorry to Petropavlovsk and from there you’ll have to catch up the train.† â€Å"Thank you, sir, thank you very much!† He went into the sleeping-hall and began to gather the things he needed. Then he called in at the field hospital to say â€Å"Goodbye† to his best friend Volodya. And Volodya gave him a little purse with money and asked him to deliver it to his wife in Petropavlovsk where Sasha was expected to catch up the train. At sunrise the next morning the young boy was already travelling with the lorry. In the cabin there were also two men – a driver and an ex-soldier – now an invalid because a shell had deprived him of his right leg.

HCS 483 Information System Briefing Essay

Information System Briefing Health Care Information Systems HCS 483 August 25, 2013 Information System Briefing Providing quality health care is rapidly becoming synonymous with health care organizations acquiring technology and information systems that are the most current. Success of the health care organization depends on the implementation of information systems that are designed to meet the standards of quality set by the organization and the health care industry. Acquisition and implementation of new or upgraded information systems pose big challenges. Understanding the organizations goals and the roles of the stakeholders will help in the process of choosing the correct information system for use by the organizations health care providers. Selection and Acquisition Creating a steering committee to start the process of selecting and acquiring is the first step for a health care organization when looking at implementing a new information system. Appointing a project manager to lead the committee to help give the appropriate information and guide the committee in making decision. The steering committee determines the process of implementing the new information system and conducts research to help determine the best information system for the organization’s needs. The steering committee must look at the needs of the organization for not only the current use but also how the system will grow with the organization into the future. Identifying the standards of care that the health care organization will help define the objectives the committee must meet and the scope of analysis to evaluate that the organization system requirements are met. Research Researching the vendors for products that will meet the needs of documentation and records storage is vital in acquiring the correct product. Contacting different vendors and setting up product demonstrations is the best way to compare products. This will provide for hands-on research for  ease of use and real-time questions to be answered by the representative. Collecting predetermined evaluation criteria from the members on the steering committee so that the selection process can begin. Collecting the individual remarks on the product must be done on the day of the presentation. Comparing the different information systems, this way will help with the selection process. Cost Analysis â€Å"The heightened awareness in recent years of the need to live within budgets in the health care sector would seem to create the perfect climate for cost-effectiveness analysis† (Russell, Gold, Siegel, Daniels, & Weinstein, 1996, p. 1). Cost analysis is part of the findings that the steering committee must submit in their findings while researching the different products. Cost is a driving factor in the selection of a new information system. If the new system does not integrate into established systems within the organization, there will be more cost associated with that product. Organizations Goals Upholding the health care organization’s goals in every aspect of the acquisition phase is first priority. Forming strategies that identify with the mission and goals set forth by the organization will help guide the recommendation from the steering committee. Involving other project leads from supporting departments such as Information Technology (IT) will be necessary. IT has the knowledge on the existing systems and will have the insight that is needed when adding or combining system products. It is probable that IT has projects that will need to interface with the new information system. Combining ideas and research may help lead to a better information system choice for the organization. Roles of the Stakeholders The stakeholder’s roles in the organization’s acquisition of new information system are from start to finish. There should be a stakeholder’s presence in the steering committee to put their skills and knowledge of the plans of the organization on the table to help influence decisions. The active stakeholder on the steering committee can report to other stakeholder’s on the progress and changes in the process of choosing the information system. The broad range of stakeholders is identified as anyone who holds interest  in the failure or success of the organization. This can range from Chief-Executive-Officer (CEO) to business managers and administrators, doctors to the nursing staff and even patients. Patients are a vital source of information because the patient is the owner of the data entered in to the information system. Stakeholders should have active input in the entire process of research, acquisition, and implementation of a new information system . For example, â€Å"The medical user may want an easy-to-use system releasing him or her from documentation tasks, while the administrative user wants a system enforcing complete documentation† (Ammenwerth, Graber, Herrmann, Burkle, & Konig, 2003, p. 5). Conclusion When considering the addition or expansion of a health information system the organization must conduct research with several vendors and a steering committee to make recommendations of the product that will best fit with the requirements set forth by the organization. The goals of the organization will help guide the decisions on what information system will fit the needs currently and into the future. The stakeholder’s involvement in the entire project gives unique insight from the different levels of stakeholders. Patients, nurses, doctors, management, and executive management are all stakeholders. Combining all of these elements will help in the process of acquiring the appropriate information system for the health care organization. References Ammenwerth, E., Graber, S., Herrmann, G., Burkle, T., & Konig, J. (2003, June 7, 2002). Evaluation of health information systems—problems and challenges. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 71, 125-135. http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1386-5056(03)00131-X Russell, L. B., Gold, M. R., Siegel, J. E., Daniels, N., & Weinstein, M. C. (1996, October 9, 1996). The Role of Cost-effectiveness Analysis in Health and Medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 276, 1172-1177. Retrieved from http://av4kc7fg4g.search.serialssolutions.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+role+of+cost effectiveness+analysis+in+health+and+medicine&rft.jtitle=JAMA&rft.au=Russell%2C+Louise+B&rft.au=Gold%2C+Marthe+R&rft.au=Siegel%2C+Jo

Crime and Prostitution Essay

Prostitution is known as the oldest profession in the world, however, many states in the U.S. outlaw it. The textbook definition of prostitution is the â€Å"act or practice of engaging in sexual acts for money† (â€Å"Prostitution,† Macmillan 805). Nevada is the first in the United States to legalize prostitution. Although the long term effects of legalized prostitution is uncertain, the short term effects have been economically beneficial. Prostitution should be legalized because not only could it financially benefit the country, but it could also reduce crime. There are many reasons why prostitution is illegal in 49 U.S. states today. First, and foremost, many people feel that prostitution should stay illegal in order to preserve morality. Parents do not want their children to grow up thinking that prostitution is acceptable. Worse yet, parents do not want to hear their children say, â€Å"When I grow up, I want to be a prostitute.† Christianity also looks down upon prostitution because according to their beliefs, the act of sex is only to be done when a man and a women are in love and married. Monogamy is to be practiced in the marriage, and any violation of this is considered a sin. Another reason why the preservation of morality is so important is that people’s morals shape the future of a nation. Many people feel that if prostitution is legalized, then its long term effects would be detrimental to the.