Global Interdependence Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global Interdependence - Article Example l idea of Simon’s article is the worldwide sense of exhaustion, particularly in the Islamic world, as a result of local conflicts, interference by the US and terrorism. The Israeli-Arab conflict, its fallout on the relations between Syria & Lebanon, the 9/11 disaster leading to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the sanctions against Iran and the latest act of terrorism against Mumbai by suspected terrorists from Pakistan – all continuing disastrous events evading resolution, have been touched upon by Simon to point out that the world is exhausted and looking forward to a new messiah to bring these conflicts to an end. President-elect Mr. Barack Obama, according to Simon, carries this great ‘burden of expectation’ by the people across the globe. If trade or economic matters are the bye-words of globalization, the word Obamania is no less in a globally interdependent world. Mr. Obama assumes office as President on 20th January 2009, and the eagerly awaited change of course from the present administration’s policies. Without saying it in so many words, Krugman hints at the interdependency of the global economy and politics to suggest that expectations indeed run high on both counts at home and abroad. The end of the cold-war period signified by the fall of the former Soviet Union, gave rise to globalization as the solution to economic co-operation and growth. The USA promoted this approach aggressively and prompted most nations to fall in line. Indeed, many poor countries have been seeing the benefits of global marketing, by exporting cheap manufactured products into the rich markets of the western world. However, the success on the economic side has not been repeated in the political area. The decades old conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians continued without abatement and if anything, worsened into an all out conflict between the Islamic and non-Islamic (mainly Christian, Jewish and Hindu) faiths. Exhausted by the expensive wars on one side

Song of hummingbrd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Song of hummingbrd - Essay Example societies are usually divided into classes based on either economic and political affiliations or interests, with factors varying from one culture to the other. However, in the case of Aztec society, the hierarchal structures were strictly based on the social, political, and religious perspectives. With divisions into eight different social classes, the Aztec society was made of rulers, worriers, noble priests, poor, slaves, servants, and the middle class members of the society. Each of these individuals had a specific role that they played in the society. The worriers were a group of brave men trained and equipped with skills to combat war and battles. For the priests and the priestesses were bestowed with many responsibilities such as watching the planets and prophesizing, and divining incarnations for the gods among others. The servants and the slaves were owned by the nobility, with the only distinctive aspect between the two being that slaves were considered property while the servants were not considered property, with options of marrying. For middle, class whom also the largest of the society, comprised of lawmakers, accountants, and potters among other

TUI ( tuarism industry ) case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

TUI ( tuarism industry ) - Case Study Example Most of the countries in the European Continent have a pleasant weather throughout the year with rainfalls is summers and snowfalls and brisk winds in the winters. These countries therefore have a excellent features for attracting tourists. Many businesses in the tourism industry of UK and the rest of Europe depend upon tourism. These businesses are museums, cinemas, hotels, night clubs, restaurants, leisure parks, spas, resorts etc (Aston, 2009). The UK tourism industry is worth  £ 114 billion. The tourism industry of Europe is backed by the European Travel Commission (ETC), which is a non-profit making organization and has its main office in Brussels. This organization has 39 member organizations (European Travel Commission, 2009). The role of these organizations is to promote tourism internationally to European countries. These European countries have now started to focus on â€Å"Ecotourism† as mentioned in the European Travel Commission website. The focus on ecotourism and sustainable tourism was initiated when the tourism industries of Asian countries were booming and the Europe tourism industry was stagnated. The tourist destinations in Europe are not a booming business but they are very stable when compared to other tourist destinations of the world. The industry creates a lot of opportunities for the locals as they get more job creation and business opportunities. The single European market has been able to attract more tourists since the European Union (EU) came into existence (Pompl, 1993). The rich culture of the continent and the diversity makes it the most viable option for tourism whether it is for business reasons of for vacations. The general population in the world is tilting more towards family oriented fun and travel (FCCA, 2005). Individuals with families want to spend more time with their families on vacations and leisure time. The increase in youth activities together with their ability to

Analysis of Anselms Ontological Argument Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Anselms Ontological Argument Essay This premise does not state that God’s strengths as this argument is to prove his existence, not whether or not God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good. The second premise means this greatest possible being is either an imaginary being that one has thought of or, a being that we not only is not only thought of but also exists. The third premise and its sub premises states because existing in reality is greater than existing in thought, then the God we have thought of exists in reality or there must be a greater, or more perfect, being that does exist and that being is God. This leads to the conclusion, if you accept the premises then you accept the existence of the greatest being possible, God. This concept of God’s existence is also led with the idea that God is a necessary being, a being that is not dependent of something greater in order to exist. If God relied on another being, like how a children rely on parents to conceive them, then this being called God is not God because it would be imperfect. Therefore, there must be another to call God that meets all the requirements for perfection. One of the first popular objections was created by Gaunilo of Marmoutiers. The premise and conclusion to Gaunilo’s argument is identical to Anselm’s argument except with the replacement of the word â€Å"God† with â€Å"the Lost island† and the word â€Å"being† with â€Å"island†. As simple as that, though Gaunilo’s argument is completely absurd, Gaunilo’s reductio ad absurdum also proves to be as deductively valid as Anselm’s argument. However, this â€Å"Lost Island† could in no way exist. The absurdity and validity of â€Å"the lost island† quickly brought up questions as to how Anselm’s Argument cannot be absurd. Anselm’s argument was not proven invalid until Immanuel Kant, a german philosopher during the 18th century, proposed an objection that would be the decisive blow to the Ontological argument (Immanuel Kant. Wiki). Kant’s objection is how existence is not a predicate (Mike, screen 25). A predicate is used to describe something the subject (this being God in Anselm’s Argument) is doing. In Aselm’s Argument, Anselm premise rely on that being conceived and existing in reality is something that describes God. This rationality does not follow because to exist or conceive does not describe the subject, it only tells us whether it exist or not. Much like how fictional characters do not exist, describing cartoon for example would tell us details of what this cartoon looks like, what its habits are and common antics it goes through, but not whether it exists or not. The question of existence must fall in a separate argument that does not define the character. As there are Arguments to prove God, there are debatable arguments to disprove the God. The First version of â€Å"The Argument from Evil† goes as follow: 1. If God were to exist, then that being would be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. 2. If an all-PKG existed, then there would be no evil. . There is evil. [Conclusion] Hence, there is no God (Sober, 109) The first premise is the definition of what God would be if he were to exist. That is a being that has the power to do anything, had knowledge of everything throughout the span of time and is in all ways good. The second premise is created with the first premise in mind. To expand on the second premise i t states, if God were all-powerful he could stop any form of evil from happening, if he is all knowing then he has knowledge of when evil will occur and if he is all-good then God would stop all evil from happening. If god cannot stop all evil from happening then the definition of God must be incorrect. He then must not be powerful enough to stop all evil, and/or he doesn’t know when evil until it has already occurred and/or good is not all good in that God does not wish to stop all evils. The third premise is stating the fact that there is evil in the world. The conclusion derived since that there is evil, then is what may be defined as God must be lacking in one or two of his qualities and therefore God, by definition, does not exist at all. In order for God to be compatible with evil, God must only allow the evils that would, in turn, lead to a greater amount of good and must take the route that leads to the least amount of evil to gain the greatest amount of good. The soul building defense was created in mind that evil and God co-exist in our world. The defense is that without any evil in the world, our souls would not nurture, or, understand the concept of evil. This defense does not hold true because there has been many evils in the world that seem unacceptable, even though it may have been for the purpose of soul building. God, and all-good being, would then only allow the evils that are essential in soul-building. This would only mean that evil that man commits against man. The reason for this is because anything that happens in nature exceeds soul-building essentials. Another defense is God having given us free will, humans ultimately are the causes of this evil. That is true but the common objection to this is that human do more than enough evil to ourselves, it is going too far to have God throw tornados, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes at us too. At what point do human have such control over nature. The last defense is that God simply works in mysterious ways. Who can explain why natural events take so many lives and injure many others or why some children have to go through great deals of suffering and live through it? It is God’s way and ultimately, no matter how incomprehensible the evil is, it is for the greater good. Certainly the question to God’s existence has been pondered upon by philosophers for over a very long period of time with no progress as whether God exists or not. The ontological argument created by Anselm withstood a great deal of criticism until it was disproved by Kant over 600 years after the fact.

Politics Essays Media Political Protest

Politics Essays Media Political Protest Media Political Protest Politics And The Media Critically consider mainstream New’s treatment of political protest and new social movements. The late 1950’s and early 1960’s brought about political protests and social movements like no other, with martin Luther kings American civil rights movement being remembered as on of the most famous and successful social movements in history. The American civil rights movement gained a considerable amount of coverage from mainstream media resulting in people being largely familiar with the movement and its success. It was then clear that there had always been a dynamic relation between mainstream media, political protests, and new social movements. From the 1960’s onwards sociologists had began to study the theory around social movements and had developed many ideas and research on the relationship between mass media, protests, and movements. When faced with a question such as one discussing mainstream news media, protests and new social movements one would have to define those concepts in order to take into consideration their significance of each other. Mainstream media has always been designed to reach to an extremely large audience across a limitless geographic, it is popularly circulated information distributed by newspapers, television, radio, and magazines. Political protest or protests in general are a form of activism that involves individuals marching, demonstrating, for or against a political policy, action, or legislation. In protesting it is seen as a way of voicing opinion to further change a concept whether to influence public opinion or government policy. And finally new social movements are usually made up of groups of individuals or organisations that focus on certain social or political issues in order to influence social change, weather to cause, prevent or reform social change. The notion (new) social movement was given as they have only been largely recognised since the 1960’s. Diana,(1992) cited in ‘culture and politics in the information age’ byFrank Webster states that a way in which we could see social movements is: ‘A network of informal relationships between a multiplicity of individuals and organisations, who share a distinctive collective identity, mobilise resources on capital issues’. Most critics would agree that the relationship between mainstream media, social movements, and political protests is vital; however their relationship has never been easy and is still considered as difficult by many critics. Social movements need mainstream media for exposure in order to expand and become recognised on behalf of their cause. In some respects the media also needs social movements as a vital news source and it is not surprising that both would exceed to reach their goals as it is apart of their nature and they must exceed to survive. However despite the fact that social movements seem to be useful for the media and are considered to be vital or important to the political landscape, with their ability to intercede with political elites and citizens, it seems that they have a disadvantage compared to mainstream media. As mainstream media have an advantage and the upper hand over social movements. This is elaborated upon by Gamson Wolsfeild, (1993) cited in ‘Media society’’. They state that social movements need the mass media more than the mass media needs them, in publicizing their activities, mainstream media needs to cover social movements so that; they could gain support, validation as a major/important political players, and maximise the attention of spotlight of conflict to attract mediators or potential allies. On the contrary the media have alternatives to having social movements or protestors as a news source. This does not seem to be the only disadvantage movements have with the media. It is argued that political protests and new social movements are covered in a negative light the majority of time. Gamson’s The strategy of social protests cited in ‘socail movements’ states his study that found that groups were more likely to be successful if they were: ‘based on one issue, used violence, disruptive tactics, selective incentrees, and came from a centralized, in factionalized and bureaucratized organisation.’ However this would lead one to think that the coverage of a violent or disruptive protest would be extremely negative as even a non-violent protest gains a negative and violent label under mainstream Media’s coverage the majority of the time critics would argue. This is proven with actual studies such as Halloran’s study. Halloran et al, (1970) studied protestor’s portrayal in the media with focus on the protest against the Vietnam War, he discovered that although it was a predominantly peaceful protest media portrayal of the protest was not positive and conveyed it as violent. This was only one of many studies that revealed similar finding. Another study by Chan Lee, (1984) on the protests had found that the protestor’s weather being violent or non violent, un-peaceful, or peaceful were represented as being ‘the other’ or in a ‘them vs. us’ notion. However in some cases when protestors are not seen as extremely deviant and questioning of the ‘status quo’ they are sometimes covered in a fair light one example of this could be the stop the war coalition in 2003 against the Iraq war, The media can use this frame however more then often chooses not to. There are two main attributes that influence a social movement or a protest being covered. these are the extent to which the movement is ‘extreme’ i.e. challenging in terms of questioning the status quo and how ‘militant’ they are in their tactics McLeod Hertog, (1999) cited in ‘Manufacturing policies: the media’s role in the policy making process’ state that the more militant a social movement is the more negative and ‘critical’ the media coverage. In talking of the word militant one means how much a socail movement is how radical and milantly tactical a movement is. In general the idea is that protestors are more likely to be portrayed as deviant members of society rather than individuals who have a right to voice their opinions The treatment of social movements has not been all that better either some have been covered in a positive light i.e. the civil rights movement, however most would argue that for that past few decades social movements have not been particularly prioritised or covered in a totally positive light either some sociologists such as Marxists would argue that social movements are not covered as it is another way for the ruling elites to keep in control of their social and economical status above the masses and that social movements should be able to vocalise their causes and be recognised. ‘The modern media have become central to the life and death of social movements’.There have been many sociological theories upon the treatment of new social movements by the media. Many critics reemphasise the fact that the media is important for social movements, in particular Kelbowiz and Scherer (1988:72) cited in ‘Frames of protest: social movements and framing perpective’ state that: In some instances, social movements have to compete to legitimize their status and be recognised in the media. Givevitch Lay, (1985) cited in ‘frames of protest’ states that in contemporary societies societal groups such as social movements and ideologies compete for the definition and construction of social reality within the media. It is evident that it is more of a struggle for social movements to gain coverage let alone positive coverage; it is also evident that governmental organisations are far more likely to gain coverage easier and faster. One reason for this is that they are seen as a vital and official news source and that they are very much legislatively based. This is something that the media look to cover as the general population are concerned with and have interest in this aspect this is summarised by the following quote from sociologists who studied movement struggles compared to political organisations ‘In terms of access struggle, institutional sources and political authorities have an ‘increased upper hand or advantage as they are considered as strong news sources’ (White 1950; Galtung and Ruge 1965: Shoemaker 1991). Social movements are coming against a hard opposition which includes collective actors such as counter movements, the state, and the media placing them in a ‘struggle for cultural supremacy’ Tarrow, (1998). social movements struggle includes not one but two battles, the first one being determining mainstream media coverage and the second being the way in which the social movement and the story is formed. This is called framing, Framing is the way in which a story is covered or the way in which it is portrayed in the media. It also means the extent the frame and the interpretation of the movement has been taken over by the media and how favourable the journalistic description bias is. (McCarthy et al 1998, smith et al (2001) cited in ‘frames of protest’ sate that it is regarded as difficult for movements to both gain coverage and do so under an ideal. One concept that is seen as important for mainstream media is news value, social movements and political protest must offer high news value to be covered or framed righteously. They must be able to attain public interest and attention in order for the story to sell. This is because some aspects of journalism mainstream media in particular has become increasingly commercialised today and is more dependant on sales. Herman Chomsky, (1988) carried out research and came up with the propaganda model which consists of five filters that social movements or protest must survive in order to be covered. These include 1) the size, ownership, and profit the media could make from the story 2) advertising 3) sourcing 4) criticism and 5) anti-communist ideology, i.e. keeping the power in the hands of elites and serving their interests. This is seen as a way of emphasising news value and reinforcing authority by some marxist critics. Consecutive to the propaganda model, a lot of research was done into news selection, and it is evident that there is a lot of research indicating that the main priority for media institutions is profit and audience interest. Meyer, (2002) states that there is another filter which is called the rules of stage-managing which (as mentioned before) he says is based on how much the news can attract audience attention. The fact that it is difficult for social movements or protests to obtain coverage means that they have to think of other ways of obtaining coverage one example is through emotion management which includes using concepts that would encourage sympathetic feelings for example sadness. An example of this would be using pictures of victims of hurricane Katrina in 2006 or pictures of children affected by the Iraq war. This is just one of the concepts social movements have to use to gain media interest. Movements and political protestors have to develop all kinds of media strategies such as adopt public relations techniques and strategies to bypass the medias selection bias (Olivier Maney 2000: McCarthy et al. 1998; smith et al.2001; Miphial Schiveingraber 1998) ‘An effective media strategy requires – at least to some extent –a willingness to cater to the often warped priorities and short attention span of the news media’Despite what critics say about social movements having to change their techniques and this being bad, Salzman, (1998:3) in the media handbook for activists cited in ‘Media Society’ says: It is not only Salzman who comments on this, others feel that if social movements adopt proactive planning despite the fact it may alter movement messages, it could lead to favourable media coverage. Therefore sacrifices to social movement messages suggest that all in all the media wins and gains more based on what it needs. It also suggests that general consensus is important when trying to obtain coverage. However one concept that has helped social movement organisations or political protestor activists is of course (the World Wide Web). With independent media sites such as ‘Indymedia’ and ‘Schnews’, it has given social movements and activists the chance to function through the web enabling them to write their own journalistic stories and publicize their movements, beliefs, and causes with the possibility of more visitors every day. These internet sites also most productively enable social movements to be Trans global news sites, as people around the world can have access to their information mediums at the click of a button. Earl Schussman, (2003) cited in ‘Social movements and internetdiscourse’ state that the internet is incredibly useful to movements or activists organisations who want to log on to the web and publicize things such as protest information, they say that in general the internet can be seen as an ‘organisational tool’ for individuals optimistic for social change. Some critics feel that the internet has the ability to excel past mainstream media outlets and centered hierarchical forms of organisations Castello, (2000) says: ‘the net gives networks the capacity to decentralise and adapt the execution of tasks while coordinating purpose and decision.’ The more movements and political protestors go online the more sociologists studying them follow them up and theorise their activities. Almeida and Lichbach, (2003) cited in ‘social movements and internet discourse’ did a study comparing four mainstream media sources with activist based internet data in both their coverage of the anti WTO protests in late 1999. They found that activist based websites had reported a higher number of international protests then mainstream media; they also found that they were less influenced by intense concepts such as large numbers of participants or violence etc then the main media outlets. However they also found some limitations into the activist based websites which includes the variability of content and the necessity to confirm and legitimize occurrences. Therefore there are issues that suggest that while the internet is extremely useful for new social movements and political protests it also has its negatives. Another issue would be that people tend to get enough information from mainstream media outlets and tend not to look to other places for more information. Conclusion In general despite some social and political protest success stories with the media it is evident that mainstream news of political protests and social movements have not been completely positive within the few decades. Parati, (1986) cited in ‘media society’ once said in summary: ‘ discrediting techniques used by the media include down playing content in favour of emphasising the spectacle of an event, painting demonstrators as deviant and portraying under representative balance to a tiny number of counter parts, and undercounting the attendance at demonstrations’ have all determined negative coverage. Because of this it would be impracticable to say that all new social movements and protests could be covered more, or that they could be portrayed in a positive light from today onwards, it is evident the more movements and activists in general questions the status quo the less likely it will gain coverage or positive portrayal (framing). Mainstream media and political protests/social movements have always had a less then easy relationship despite the notion of freedom of speech being denoted in the western world. Marxists socialists critics would argue that one way that movements and activists would be able to voice their opinion more within mainstream media would be that they could fight against it and insist on a media reform i.e. a reconsideration of the way the media is conducted and the stories it publishes resulting in it being mandatory that new social movements and protestors capitalist or communists, right wing or left wing (aimed at positive social change) be recognised. Although un-likely this would enable movements to avoid adopting other messages or techniques to fit media needs. Hackett Carroll, (2004) state that it is about: ‘time for social movements to take collective action. To start with democratic media reform needs to be recast as an end in itself a public good not simply a means by which each movement can get its message out. This suggests that while it seems that mainstream media treatment of social movements and protest is not very positive or accepting, many critics feel that social movements and protests should be made known in the interest of ‘public good’ in order for people to be able to voice more opinions freely and create better chance of realizing Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. In terms of the internet, for activists websites to be more successful as a major information source and to be looked upon as much as mainstream media outlets, more money would have to be invested in them to ensure information is official and promotion ca be maximised. Perhaps the result would be a more balances media of information or people could be aware of hidden causes such as discrimination like unfair trade that some social movements try to publicise as much as possible as these issues are still on going. Bibliography 1, Croteau, D Hoynes, W (2000) ‘Media society  : industries, images, and audiences’.  Second ed, London, sage publication 2, Webster, F (2001). ‘culture and politics in the information age a new politics  ?’. London, Routledge. 3, Anderson, R Gray, J (2008). ‘battleground the media’ United States Of America, Greenwood Press. 4, Branston, G Stafford, R (2006). ‘the media student’s book’.London, Routledge. 5, Brahim, E ‘socail movements’ http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/social_movements/?nid=6789 accessed  : 27/03/06 6, Petit, C Social Movement Networks in Internet Discourse http://www.irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows25/irows25.htm accessed:27/03/08 7, Aton, C News Cultures and New Social Movements: radical journalism and the mainstream media Napier University, UK http://joblog.ru.ac.za/News%20cultures%20and%20new%20social%20movements%20-%20radical%20journalism.pdf accessed  :26/03/08 8, Smith J, Johnston, H Globalization and resistance: Transnational Dimensions of Social http://books.google.com/books?id=9UGLVh4JifkC accessed  :26/03.08 9, R.A. Hackett, W.K. Carroll, (2004) ‘Critical Social Movements and Media Reform’ Media Development, 10, Meyer, T. (2002). Media democracy: how the media colonize politics. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. 11, Barker, M (2005) ‘Manufacturing policies: the media’s role in the policy making process’ Australian School of Environmental Studies. Griffith University http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/jea.papers/Barker.doc accessed: 26/03/08 12, ‘socail movements’ www.wikipedia.com accessed 25/03/08 13, Chan, J. M., and Lee, C. C. (1984) The journalistic paradigm on civil protests: a case study of Hong Kong in A. Arno and W. Dissanayake (eds) The news media in national and international conflict, Boulder: Westview Press. 14, ‘mass media’ www.wikipedia.com accessed:25/03/08 15, (Kleahn. J), ‘A Critical Review and Assessment of Herman andChomsky’s ‘Propaganda Model’ Sage publications, London. 16, Halloran, J. D., Elliott, P. and Murdock, G. (1970) Demonstrations and communication: a case study, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Theories of Attention and Perception

Theories of Attention and Perception Moses Nhamburo How have psychologists sought to explain selective attention? To what extent have they been successful? According to Psychologists, selective attention is defined as an act where an individual tries to focus on a specific subject or object for a specific period of time, whereas at the same time ignoring several other irrelevant things which might be occurring around that person (Renninge et al, 2014). Such kind of situation occurs with everyone and every day. Psychologists have explained that since it is impossible for a normal human being to give attention to every stimulus in our environment, we tend to select or give attention to only those stimuli, which we believe is important for us. Psychologists have been successful in explaining the concept of selective attention to a larger extent. Their explanation is relevant to what we observe in our day-to-day lives. They have also explained that degree of selective attention can vary from one person to another, finally impacting their ability to focus or concentrate on some particular task. Distraction is one of the way through which psy chologists believe that selective attention can be minimised. For example, if one person is hungry, then he will probably focus more on his meal rather than checking an incoming call on his smart phone (Serences Kastner, 2014). Word count: 229 Compare and contrast two of the major theories of perception and evaluate their impact on psychologists understanding of how we perceive the world Two major theories of perception which can be used for this task is: Constructive aspect of perception Ecological aspect of perception. Joel Norman (2000), states that both these theories differ from each other, however both approaches towards perception can be considered as a valid definition of the perception, but they represent different aspect towards perception. In the constructivists approach, it is believed that the stimulus that reaches our senses are generally insufficient which triggers another perceptual system, and is considered to be intelligent (Warren Wertheim, 2014). It is important to understand that the perceptual system relies on a mechanism, which has inferential characteristics. Majority of the individuals face inherent equivocality associated with the stimulation, it can be said that the perceptual system enable an individual to overcome this equivocality. However this is in contrast to what several psychologists believe. Many psychologists believe on the ecological aspect of the perception further mention that information, which is present in the environment around us, is more than enough to fulfill the requirement of creating a perception and cannot be considered as equivocal in nature. That is why there is no requirement to pick any specific or relevant information. Psychologists who support the constructivists approach or perception believe that this theory of perception is multistage in nature where there are intermediate processes interlinking stimulation and perception. Or in other words this theory suggests that perception is indirect, whereas ecological theorists believe that perception is not a multi stage aspect but is single stage process, and can be considered as immediate and direct (Bevan Sparks, 2014). Psychologists supporting the constructive theory of perception believe that in formation of perception in this theory memory schema or metadata, which stores the past experience, play a critical role. On other hand ecological theory advocates the fact that in formation of perception there is hardly any role of memory and perception is generally formed on the basis of what a person experience at that very moment (Flom, 2014). It has been observed that people with constructivists approach excel in a process where analysis is involved, and there is certain mechanism of underlying perception. On other hand people who follow the ecological approach of perception excels at the analysis of the fact that how a stimulus might reach to the observer. Both these theories to a large extent have impacted psychologists in their understanding of how we perceive the world. Based on their experience psychologists believe that ecological approach of perception majorly parallels the dorsal system. Dorsal system is a system, which basically focuses on transformation of information, which is visual in nature into a framework, which is egocentric in nature, which allows the individual to grasp the object. On other hand constructivists approach parallels the ventral system (Stojanov Indurkhya, 2014). Ventral system is considered to be one of the most basic fundamental, which drives the entire visual processing in the brain. Ventral system is different from the dorsal system, as it transforms the visual information in such a form that it can be considered to be exocentric in nature. This in turn enables an individual to create a perception of the object and a relation with the real world is established. Thus it can be said that ecological theory of perception follows a dorsal system, which is focused more on seeing the motion such as a person grasping an apple to eat. On other hand the constructivists approach focuses on the ventral system, which is focused more towards understanding or knowing the environment rather than physically sensing the object. Word count: 598 Much has happened in the field of perceptual development since the early studies of Fantz, Bower, Gibson and Walk. Analyse how the nature/nurture debate today has been advanced by these early studies. Perceptual development can be defined as a process, which lays down a foundation through which we are able to interpret various types of events of the world-taking place in our environment. Much has changes after initial studies on perceptual development by Fantz, Bower, Gibson and Walk was done. Nature vs. Nurture debate to a large extent has advanced over a period of time. In this argument or discussion of perceptual development the basic argument that has existed since ages, that what exactly drive the process of perceptual development. There has been argument on the fact that whether it is nature, genetics, nurture or experience which his important for the sensory system of the human beings to operate (Augustinova Ferrand, 2014). Often it has been argued that in the process of perceptual development on one hand there is genetic position which is all required by the sensory system of the human beings and is considered to be the most critical factor of life, whereas on other hand it is considered that human beings are like a blank slates at the time of birth, and as we experience new things and aspects in life accordingly our perception is formed on that blank slate and we start perceiving things in life. Word count: 210 TAQ 5: Describe 2 pieces of research that has been used to investigate selective visual attention. Use the Stoop 1935 study and one more recent piece research, which use a more robust method than the original Stoop experiment. In psychology Stroop’s study in 1935 demonstrated that there could be possibility of interference in the reaction time of the task. For example when name of a color is printed in a color which is not denoted by the name, for example word ‘Blue’ printed in Red then in such situation it was found that naming of the word takes longer time as is prone to error. In Stroop’s experiment stimuli was divided into 3 groups namely: neutral, incongruent and congruent. Thus in a neutral stimuli in which only text or color is displayed (Ikeda et al, 2014). Congruent stimuli is the one in which the color of the ink and the word refer to the same color. Lastly in incongruent stimuli ink color and word both differ from each other. One of the relatively recent theories is Feature integration theory of attention, which was developed by Anne Treisman, and Garry advocated the fact that when a human being perceives a stimulus then in that process features are registered first in parallel whereas objects are identified separately. Thus according to this theory the visual attention goes through various stages from the point an object is seen till the point perception is made about the same. As per this theory first object is analysed, then its features are combined and ultimately perception is made. To a large extent this theory further substantiated the Stroop’s experiment with more logical explanation. The Animal Stroop task with children is a quite neat study. Evaluate both the piece of research. Why may the second piece of research be better than the original Stroop experiment Animal Stroop task was basically developed for kids, as the initial test on which Stroop’s experiment was based on the words and colors and due to limited reading abilities of the kids that test was not much successful when applied to the kids. Original Stroop task didn’t consider the visual aspect to a large extent (Anderson, 2014). It was more focused on how an individual reads a particular word and how he perceives that word on the basis of the color. It did not include the image aspect of the perception. On other hand the second experiment, which was based on the images of the animals, included both reading as well as visual perception. This tested the visual perception power of an individual as well. Unlike first test, which was purely based on how an individual perceives and interprets only the textual content, the second research also focused on testing of visual attention when images are displayed to the individual. It can be said that the second Stroop experime nt was more inclusive in nature as it included various other aspects as well, that is why it can be considered to be more comprehensive in nature and revealed more information about the perception making process in an individual Using the information from your answer above, explain how the research on selective visual attention has been applied practically in everyday life. As discussed in above sections, it can be clearly said that selective visual attention definitely has important role to play in our everyday life. Even though most of the time we don’t even realize that the phenomenon is taking place, but we do apply selective visual selection. Practically the concept is applicable in every possible aspect of life. For example you are scrolling through news feed of an online e-paper, however you will never read each and every line, but you will still be aware of that what the content is talking about. The moment we find some content, which we perceives as interesting we will stop scrolling, and start reading that content. Similarly, we are travelling by a local train, but we are not focused on our surroundings and are looking on our smart phone and ignoring the surroundings (Sperling Hsu, 2014). Thus this is a typical example through which it can be understood that how we are visually segregating our attention to only those things which we pe rceive as important. This capability allows human being to avoid getting distracting when the person is trying to focus on some important task. However distraction is the way through which the selective visual attention can be reduced as well. Word count: 707 References Renninger, A., Hidi, S., Krapp, A. (Eds.). 2014.The role of interest in learning and development. Psychology Press. Serences, J. T., Kastner, S. 2014. A multi-level account of selective attention.The Oxford Handbook of Attention, 76. Warren, R., Wertheim, A. H. (Eds.). 2014.Perception and Control of Self-motion. Psychology Press. Bevan, J. L., Sparks, L. 2014. The relationship between accurate and benevolently biased serial argument perceptions and individual negative health perceptions.Communication Research,41(2), 257-281. Flom, R. 2014. Perceptual narrowing: Retrospect and prospect. Developmental psychobiology. Stojanov, G., Indurkhya, B. 2014. Perceptual Similarity and Analogy in Creativity and Cognitive Development. InComputational Approaches to Analogical Reasoning: Current Trends(pp. 371-395). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Augustinova, M., Ferrand, L. 2014. Social priming of dyslexia and reduction of the Stroop effect: What component of the Stroop effect is actually reduced? Cognition,130(3), 442-454. Ikeda, Y., Okuzumi, H., Kokubun, M. 2014. Stroop-like interference in the real animal size test and the pictorial animal size test in 5-to 12-year-old children and young adults.Applied Neuropsychology: Child,3(2), 115-125. Anderson, N. H. (Ed.). 2014.Contributions To Information Integration Theory: Volume 1: Cognition. Psychology Press. Sperling, G., Hsu, A. 2014. Deriving the acuity and the capacity of visual spatial attention.Journal of Vision,14(10), 521-521. MOSES NHAMBUROPage 1

Blogging: Its for everyone Essay -- essays research papers fc

Recently, Merriam-Webster announced that, based on â€Å"online lookups,† the number one word of the year was â€Å"blogs† (Morse, Page 1). Their definition of a blog is â€Å"a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer† (Morse, Page1). This definition is inaccurate based on my research, as blogs are not always â€Å"personal† and can include more than one author. Throughout my research, many bloggers in the blogoshere have referred to websites as blogs that discuss business only, business and personal details, and more than mere â€Å"reflections† of a personal nature. As blogs become more popular and affect different forms of communication with a higher degree of magnitude, I am confident that the definition of blogs will morph closer to my definition of blogs (short for weblog, a web site that contains an online journal including, but not limited to, reflections, com ments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer(s)) than the Merriam-Webster definition. This paper will discuss blogs (what they are), bloggers (who they are), blogging (should you do it and is it profitable), and the impact of blogs on media. I will start by talking about how blogs started, and who some bloggers are. Next, I will discuss the amount of revenue that can be made, and how that revenue is made, from starting a blog. Finally, I will show the impact blogs have had on the mainstream media, specifically, the most recent Presidential Election. The culture of the internet has created a subculture of bloggers that, as evidenced by the number of persons looking to find a definition of the word (however inaccurate the definition may be), is growing in popularity and is therefore a prescient topic for persons to be informed about. Blogging started, albeit without a proper name and with an even more vague definition, as soon as the internet was invented. Just as writing a journal started with the first writers thousands of years ago, blogs arose at the same time as the medium of the internet was born. This created some new challenges to the conventional writer. According to The Handbook of Digital Publishing, the greatest strength of publishing online material is â€Å"displaying the interrelated nature of information connected with hyperlinks† (Kleper, Page 197). The use of hyperlinks is extensive in blogs... ... power of a blog, everyone now can own their own version of Leibling’s press, and the power of that concept is freedom at its highest form. Bibliography Ante, Spencer. â€Å"Blogging for Dollars.† www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_30/b3843096_mz016.htm 2004. Page 1. Brewer, Jay. â€Å"Shaving Blog.† www.shavingstuff.com 2004. Page 1. Bushell, Sue. â€Å"Blogging for Profit.† www.cio.com 2004. Page 1. Case, Karl and Fair, Ray. â€Å"Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly.† Principles of Microeconomics. Prentice Hall. 2004. Page 281. Gard, Lauren. â€Å"Blogging by the Numbers.†www.businessweek.com. 2004. Page 1. Kleper, Michael. â€Å"What Makes Web Site Visitors Come Back?† The Handbook of Digital Publishing. Prentice Hall. 2001. Pages 194, 196. McGann, Rob. â€Å"Blogging Tips† www.smallbusiness.blogspot.com 2004. Page 1. Meeker, Mary. â€Å"Annual Report 2004" www.smallbusiness.blogspot.com 2004. Page 1. Morse, Allan. â€Å"Home Page.† www.merriam-webster.com 2004. Page 1. Rowse, Darren. â€Å"To Blog or Not to Blog?† www.livingroom.org 2004. Page 1. Simpson, James. â€Å"L† Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations. Prentice Hall. 1988. Page 82.