Briefly comment on the communication research report Essay Example for Free

Briefly comment on the communication research report Essay With rapid advancement of new communication technologies, people currently can freely and actively express their own opinions in the new media. For example, the Internet has dramatically changed the ways in which some individuals receive news and information, this is very big different from the traditional forms of communication. However, there are some correlation links between traditional mass communication ways and modern new technology ways(Kotcher,1992;Rubin, 1994). Roberts M, Wanta, W and Dzwo, T (2002) examined one aspect of the Internet: electronic bulletin boards (EBBs). The objective of this study is to investigate if traditional news media sources have an agenda-setting impact on the discussions taking place on the EBBs. In other words, the purpose of the study is to examine the agenda-setting process and the role it may play on the Internet. The reports dominant methodology is quantitative. As we know, it is a critical issue that appropriate methodology should be taken depending on different research topic. Quantitative approach and qualitative approach have their respective advantages and disadvantages (Fowler, 1993). Quantitative research, through surveys, gathers data about peoples knowledge, opinions, attitudes and behavior. Quantitative research approach is used to generate new knowledge for evidence-based practice. Attention will be given to the advantages and disadvantages of Quantitative research designs for large group research, the principles of reliability and validity, the value of descriptive and inferential statistics and the importance of ethical research conduct. For the topic, it belongs to sociology category, so I think the researchers have used appropriate research approach (quantitative research approach) even though the approach has some disadvantages. This is because quantitative research approach for this topic has the following advantages: Large members of people can be studies; the method is relatively quick and relatively cheap; the results are reliable, and representative of a much wider population than that directly investigated, the personal influence of the research on the results is slight and the data can easily be expressed in statistical form. This enables comparisons to be made between different groups and populations. For this study, the researchers use Internet, its main advantages are low/moderate cost to design; low cost to send; quick to analyse data; easy for respondent to complete and can attach brochures, images, etc. However, Every survey methodology has its weaknesses, and online surveys are no exception. Not sure who is answering the survey. Like mail studies, it is difficult to insure the desired person actually answers the survey. Not representative of the population. The Internet population has a slight bias towards younger, more computer literate users, though this is changing all the time and becoming more representative of the population. Long surveys are more difficult. The personalities of todays online users makes it difficult to coerce respondents into completing long surveys. Not a mainstream research methodology, yet. With more experience and comparative analyses of online surveys versus mail and telephone results, online surveys should reach the same level of acceptance as other methodologies. For this research, the researchers use EBBs which has the above weaknesses too. For the researchs method, the researchers use five steps (Roberts, 2002, P456-458): The first step imperative examines whether traditional news media sources have an agenda-setting impact on the discussions taking place on the EBBs. They ask Do individuals take issue information gained from news media and pass information about this issue online to other electronic bulletin board users? The second step is selecting the sample. The third step deals with defining categories, time frames, coding units, and context units. The fourth step is content analysis and the final and fifth step of content analysis process is to analyze and interpret the data. The five steps are typical research method that is used by many researchers (McMillan, 2000) and they are very similar with the quantities analysis approach (the Scientific Method) which includes seven steps: Defining the problem; Developing a Model; Acquiring Input Data; Developing a Solution; Testing the Solution; Analyzing the Results and Implementing the Results (Render, 1982). The researchers use an ARIMA model cross-correlational test showed EBB discussions of three issuesimmigration, health care, and taxes-correlated with news media coverage, with time lags varying from 1 day to 7 days. In my opinion, the method is appropriate method for the topic. This investigation looks for a more powerful effect than previous agenda-setting researchers. Because of the Internets dynamic characteristic of transmitting information from senders to receivers, researchers currently assume that our traditional theories of mass communication can directly apply to online communication (Wimmer, 1994). The researches have an accurate research questions or hypothesis that are: how will the new online communication forms affect the agenda-setting process? Can we assume that the transfer of salience still follows the original hypothesis? How does the condensed and compressed environment of online communication affect what we know about time frame effects? All these questions are explored in their study. By quantitative research, the researchers concluded: The results demonstrate the usefulness of examining the rule the Internet plays in the agenda-setting process. Media coverage apparently can provide individuals with information to use in their Internet discussions. As the Internet continues to become an important source of information, it also will become an important area for mass communication researchers. (Roberts, 2002, P464). The report also recommended future research should link other mass communication theoretical approaches with Internet usage. Despite the research has some definite problems; online research has many more advantages than disadvantages. When surveying populations, which mimic the demographics of online users, online research can be a primary means of information collection. With other populations, online research can be effective as a supplement to more traditional survey approaches or as a quick impression of your customers (much like qualitative approaches are used). For outlook, as the Internet continues to grow in popularity, investigations of the content of information being sent online similarly will increase in importance. The study takes an important step in linking the Internet to a mainstream mass communication theory. References Kotcher, R. L. (1992). The technological revolution has transformed crisis communication. Public Relations Quarterly, 37(3), 19-21. Rubin, R. , P. Palmgreen, and H. Sypher (1994 eds. ), Communication Research Measures: A Sourcebook, New York: Guilford. Roberts, et al (2002), Agenda setting and issue salience online. Communication Research, Vol. 29 No. 4, August 452-465. Fowler, Floyd J. , Jr (1993). Survey Research Methods, 2nd ed. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. McMillan, S. J. (2000). The microscope and the moving target: The challenge of applying content analysis to the World Wide Web. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 77, 80-98. Render, B and Stair, R. M (1982). Quantitative Analysis for Management ( The Second Edition). New York: Library of congress Cataloging in Publication Data. Wimmer, R. D. and J. R. Dominick (1994), Mass Media Research: An Introduction, 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Scarface, Directed by Brian De Palma Essay -- Scarface Al Pacino

Scarface, Directed by Brian De Palma Tony Montana has taken just so much shit his whole life. He’s been oppressed and repressed and mocked and called a spic and turned on by his own country (Cuba) that he’s just not going to take any shit anymore. He’ll shoot someone just for pissing him off, which is almost admirable, or at the very least understandable. I’m not advocating violence; all I’m saying is that we all have our limits and if someone treated me the way Tony Montana had been treated his whole life – if they spit on me, and degraded me, and mocked me and doubted any power I might have, I might want to prove them wrong. Of course, it’s a movie, and we know it well; Scarface with Al Pacino as the Cuban immigrant turned drug lord with his mountains of coke and his beautiful but, basically dead, wife, Elvira, living what he believes is the American dream. Elvira, Tony’s wife, played perfectly by Michelle Pfieffer, is beautiful and so cool she’s ice cold, whose only job is to be an ornament, and who comes from somewhere in Baltimore, we’re told, and whose only goal, it seems, is to just be taken care of by all these rich and violent thugs. She doesn’t seem phased by all the guns and underworld thugs that hang around the house, but then, her nose is so packed full of coke that this is not really a surprise. Most of the time, she’s got this false cocaine-calm aloofness that lends itself to comparisons with a mannequin. Her power and her trump is that ultimately, we get the sense that it’s a role she’s chosen – not one that was ever put upon her. That it’s all within her control. Men like Tony Montana are brought to their knees by her cool beauty and icy aloofness. She’s like coke they can’t buy or trade or snort or get enough of, but surely as powerful . But ultimately, she’s just some middle-class chick form Baltimore who was probably really bored and moved to Miami for some excitement. She’s a bitch. As Tony says to her, â€Å"You got a look like you haven’t been fucked in a year.† And it’s true. Maybe she knows her power is in the withholding, but this can only last for so long; a tease works because ultimately, there has to be something at the end of it. If it’s all attitude and cock tease, after a while, that gets boring and the furthest thing from sexy. Something’s gotta give. Tony Montana wants, as he says, â€Å"what’s coming to me,† which is â€Å"t... ...e power of all this seduction so that at the critical moment we can say â€Å"No†. We choose power over fucking and engaging with another human being, and we do this because of fear. Because in this age of psychotherapy, were everything is a fucking issue (pun intended) as if our boyfriend cheating or leaving us would cause a complete breakdown, as it has and does for so many girls today. Girls today, with few exceptions, don’t get back out there like Carole King or Carly Simon and belt out our anger and pain in some healthy way in a song with scathing lyrics. Instead, young women today run for the shelter of pastel pills and their standby bottles of Xanax and Zoloft and frantic calls to their therapists and lock themselves in their Back Bay apartments with their cats because we’re all so fucking fragile. It’s pathetic. Carole King and Carly Simon and so many others went through the same heartache but they didn’t run away; they belted it out in songs like â€Å"You’re so Vain† or â€Å"Total Eclipse of the Heart† (sang by Bonnie Tyler by written by Meatloaf), and Abba and Fleetwood Mac who made a life-style of heartache and fucking – because that is life. These women seem a lot braver to me.

‘Fire and Ice’ by Robert Frost and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Don Mattera Essay

â€Å"The possession of power over others is inherently destructive both to the possessor of the power and to those over whom it is exercised.† George D. HerronThe modern industrialist society, in which we live, has been shaped by people in the possession of power, and the power of passion. The 20th and 21st century’s have illustrated clearly the deadly potential of power, and not just to the possessor of the power but also to those over whom it is exercised. The poem’s ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Robert Frost and Don Mattera respectively, perfectly convey the idea of the destructive nature of power, the poems are both concerned with Mortality of Age. The ideal readers of these poems are people old enough to understand how harsh and cruel this world can be. Furthermore, people who can appreciate the sense of grief portrayed in these poems, as both poets investigate deeply the potentially devastating capability of humans to destroy themselves and others. ‘Fire and Ice’, written by Robert Frost, is a carefully constructed poem, which carries a straightforward message that emotions become destructive when they are too extreme, destructive enough, even, to end the world. ‘Fire and Ice’ holds the theme of Mortality and Age, also the destructive power of passion, Robert Frost also describes humans as complacent, throughout the poem. Rather then telling a story or receiving an insight, Robert Frost simply expresses an opinion. While in the poem ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ Don Mattera is telling a story of a place called Sophiatown. This poem is a vivid retelling of the experience that Don Mattera went through, and thus is very personal. The main message delivered by this poem is that power can be very destructive, especially if it is used against people with little or no power themselves. Don Mattera illustrates the struggle of the Africans that lived in Sophiatown, when it was being demolished by white people to make a white settlement. The themes of this poem are Mortality and Age and some protest, which come under the main theme of alienation. Also just like Robert Frost he describe humans as being complacent. In the poem ‘Fire and Ice’, Robert Frost creates a speaker whose conjectures about the world’s ultimate destruction are designed to reveal the deadly potential of human passion. To address his theme, Frost cleverly manipulates  the imagery of the title, ‘Fire and Ice’. Frost requires the reader to think first about the destructive powers of fire and ice, and then relate this to desire and hate. In order to understand the poem’s warning about the equally ruinous potential of unbridled emotion. In the lines: ‘Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice’ (stanza 1, lines 1-2), Robert Frost shows two different ways that could lead to the World’s ultimate destruction. These lines relate to the theme of Mortality and Age, because there is an inevitability of death. He then follows on with, ‘From what I’ve tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favour fire’ (stanza 1, lines 3-4), Robert Frost describes the power of fire and its metaphoric companion, desire. In these lines, Frost, has his own opinion of how the world will end, this shows how personal this poem actually is. Robert Frost, thinks that the world will be destroyed from desire and greed. He goes as far as saying that greed itself most probably will end the world. From this we can take that he is writing this as the oppositional discourse, because surely the dominant discourse would deny greed as taking over the world. Without a doubt desire and greed are portrayed intensely in the poem ‘Fire and Ice’ but also in ‘The Day They Came For Our House’. Don Mattera who wrote the poem ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, had the intention to show how dangerous uncontrolled power can be, it can destroy peoples lives and cause serious pain. Don Mattera, just like Robert Frost is writing this poem as the oppositional discourse. This poem is deeply intertwined with that of a protest theme. Don Mattera protests about the arriving whites coming to demolish Sophiatown. He describes their arrival as, ‘Armed with bulldozers/they came/to do a job/nothing more/just hired killers/’ (stanza 2, lines 1-5). This quote represents how insignificant the Africans are perceived to be, by the white people coming to demolish their town. Don Mattera explains no emotion in this stanza. He has done this to show that the white people also had no emotion in what they were doing. In his eyes they didn’t care, it was just another job for them. The lines, ‘We gave way/there was nothing we could do/although the bitterness stung in us’ (stanza 3, lines 1-3). Clearly illustrates the African’s lack of power. They can’t do anything; this highlights the destructive nature of power, and relates to the theme of mortality and age. This is portrayed throughout this  poem, Don Mattera, explains how it is pointless for them to do anything because they have no power. The whites who demolished Sophiatown gave into ego and greed, and used their power against the black Africans. This is a perfect example of power being destructive to those over whom it is exercised. Don Mattera’s cultural background has influenced this poem drastically, because he grew up in Sophiatown, which at the time was a vibrant centre of South African culture. His poem is very personal; this makes it easier for the ideal reader to relate to. Fully understanding this poem requires the readers to understand the hardship and pain that the Africans went through. The lines, ‘We stood/Dust clouded our vision/We held back tears’ (Stanza 4, lines 1-3) exemplify’s some of the pain and suffering that the Africans of Sophiatown went through. The reader of this poem would feel sadness toward the Africans of Sophiatown, and most probably anger towards the white people who demolished their town. But unless they have been through something similar, will not be able to imagine the true extent of the emotions that Don Mattera and the other Africans would have experienced. Similar to ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, Robert Frost’s poem ‘Fire and Ice’ can only be fully understood when the reader can appreciate the grief portrayed in this poem. Although not as personal as Don Mattera’s poem, it is still a depressing poem to read. Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California. Because he is American his poem varies in the way he has chose to write it, compared to Don Mattera’s poem. In ‘Fire and Ice’, Robert Frost describes a personal apocalypse. He writes about the power of emotions such as desire and hate to destroy the world. Robert Frost would have witnessed greed and hate and heard of wars and all the hate that fills the world while he lived in America. Thus he has made an opinion of his own explaining how he believes the world will end if these emotions are not kept under control. But unlike Don Mattera and the Africans of Sophiatown he would not have had hatred against him from an apartheid government that evicted 60,000 people from Sophiatown and he would not have been undervalued. Therefore he would not have felt what he was writing about, unlike Don Mattera. This also makes it easier to relate to Robert Frost’s poem, ‘Fire and Ice’ compared to ‘ The  Day They Came For Our House’. ‘Fire and Ice’, is also a text that has a very sophisticated style. The poem is written primarily in rhymed iambic tetrameter, although three of the nine lines are in iambic dimeter. The use of such rhythmic patterns makes this poem more musical and memorable. Robert Frost also uses alliteration in his poem, such as ‘favour fire’ (stanza 1, line 4), which shows that Robert Frost is privileging the oppositional discourse because he believes the world will end from desire. Furthermore, ‘Some say’ (stanza 1, lines 1&2), is another example of alliteration. Compared to ‘Fire and Ice’, ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ is a poem that is less sophisticated, it is more of a free verse poem. In a way this emphasises the poet’s case, because it shows the poem has being unbalanced and less structured, which is what Don Mattera would have felt when he was being evicted from Sopiatown. Don Mattera also uses personification in his poem. It is illustrated in the lines, ‘The sun stood still/ in the sullen wintry sky’ Don Mattera has used this to show how Sophiatown was intertwined with the environment. He loved the surroundings of Sophiatown just as much as the people who inhabited it. This makes it a much depressing poem for the readers as it shows his love for Sophiatown, a place that was demolished to make way for a white suburb called Triomf which means triumph in English. In the poem, ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, the last lines sum up the poem’s themes, but also sum up Robert Frost’s poem ‘Fire and Ice’. The lines, ‘The power of destroying/the pain of being destroyed’ is essential to both poems because it demonstrates the underlying discourse that underpins the text. That is, in our modern industrialist society we are all shaped by power whether it is by people in possession of power or the power of passion. I chose the poems ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’, because they reflected the themes of 20th and 21st century very well, themes which are Mortality and Age and protest. Also both were wonderfully constructed poems and both poems appeared simple to read through at first glance. However, upon further reflection, they both presented different facets, which made them more complex and elusive. When I examined both  poems, I could relate more to ‘Fire and Ice’ compared to ‘The Day They Came For Our House’. I do not think I was an ideal reader of the latter poem, mostly because the poet was of a completely different cultural background. I could relate to it in some ways, although I felt almost guilty when reading the poem. I felt like I could not understand the full extent of pain and sadness that the Africans of Sophiatown went through. As mentioned above ‘Fire and Ice’ is a poem that I could relate to much easier, because I understood Robert Frost’s opinion of how desire, greed and hate would be the downfall of mankind. Furthermore it was not as personal compared to Don Mattera’s poem. ‘Fire and Ice’ and ‘The Day They Came For Our House’ by Robert Frost and Don Mattera respectively, through their poems, show the notion of Mortality and Age, protest and essentially Alienation. Although both the poems express the same themes, the authors have chosen different ways to illustrate their feeling towards the subject. Robert Frost uses ‘Fire and Ice’ to simply express and opinion rather than tell a story, which is how Don Mattera illustrates his ideas. His poem is a vivid retelling of the experience that he went through. Both poets position the reader to identify with their ideas. They illustrate the fact that â€Å"The possession of power over others is inherently destructive both to the possessor of the power and to those over whom it is exercised† (George D. Herron). Bibliography Information Obtained From:’Robert Frost’, 2000, The literature Network, www.onlineliterature.com/frost/, viewed 21st May 2008. ‘Don Mattera’, 2001, Wikipedia the free encyclopaedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DonMattera, viewed 21st May 2008. ‘The day they came for our house’, 1999, Don Mattera, http://www.saep.org/Sinethemba/Poetry/studied/Mattera/Mattera.htm, viewed 21st May 2008.

Personal Statement Of The Organization - 1725 Words

Description of the Organization I studied a traditional, conservative Seventh-day Adventist church that has approximately 200 members. It is a Filipino-American church that’s mission and vision is â€Å"to emphasize that every member develop a daily personal devotional live†¦to provide, through corporate worship, an uplifting, inspiring experience†¦to mentor and provide training for leadership†¦to enable all members to engage in active involvement†¦to establish a communication network which will recruit students with a Filipino heritage†¦and to reach out with the love of Jesus Christ to meet the needs of Filipinos and other people in the community.† This church grew from a desire by members to form a Filipino fellowship that provided a dynamic†¦show more content†¦He has an incredibly close, personal touch, yet, at the same time is naturally more quiet and withdrawing. Analysis of Leadership Dynamics Pastor X’s leadership theory is clearly a bottom-up approach; he avoids wrangling the conversation unfairly to his perspective, instead, he identifies himself as a component of the process, not the process itself. This instills in the members a trust in him that is remarkably deep. He also tends to seek out members for services that they provide (i.e. medical) in order that he can relate to them on a personal while simultaneously on a spiritual level. As I pointed out above, he empowers his members by giving them opportunities and allowing them to experiment, with the promise that he will be there to provide support if problems explode. However, this model allows problems to be resolved quickly and quietly and not spiral rapidly out of control. He averts empowering the members in the way of resources—what I am alluding to is that he is willing to acquire resources when needed, yet avoids seeking them out himself. He feels that it is best for individual leaders of departments to determine these decisions. His relationship with the church is uncommonly positive, in spite of a few differences. For example, during one nominating committee it was determined by the Filipino delegation, which is the vast majority of the church, that the number Caucasians and African-Americans who held leadership positions was rife and