The play Refund is a light and rollicking play Essay

The thread of the one act ‘Refund’ itself is very interesting.A man about 40 is returning to his old school and demands to refund the tuition fees paid by him 18 years back for the reason that the education gave to him never proved useful and he is now no good for anything. The play comprises only a few characters – the principal, the teachers and the protoganist Wasserkopf. Wasserkopf’s mistakes act as learning ground. The protoganist is an object of wrong doings and commits all sorts of mistakes and finally gives up in the hands of the principal and the teachers. 1. Wasserkopf has a negative value i.e. determination but in doing wrong things.He is ready to do anything just to prove that his school has taught him nothing and his knowledge is negligible. 2. The protagonist’s address to his masters shows to the role players and the viewers that how important the values of respect and accuracy are. No doubts viewers especially students will laugh on such utterance but ultimately as the play advances further, this behaviour is mere mockery over the pupils who are always ready to blame others and the system. The mistake committed thus is linked up with the chain of events which finally leads to a moral teaching. 3. Here the protagonist considers himself to be very wise. But in reality it is his mistake .True wisdom is shown in the form of the masters. They are insulted at the hands of this pupil as he addresses them as ‘old stick-in-the-mud, cannibal. Hypocrite, nitwit, ass etc but they show patience and self control in teaching him a lesson. 4.Wasserkopf never worked hard and he is fired from his job because of the same reason i.e. his inability to work hard. Well at the end of the play it is ultimately proved that no doubts this ex-pupil tried to prove that his school taught him nothing, but it’s only his education which made him capable enough to calculate the correct sum in a systematic way. Therefore Wasserkopf had to suffer due to his lies and corrupt values.

Face-to-Face versus Online Socialization Essay

Imagine how much human social interaction has been affected since the introduction of online communication. It has redefined the concept of socialization. Socialization is being with and a part of other people. It is enjoying and sharing other’s company, confiding in them, and working together towards common goals. There are two kinds of socialization methods. The first is face-to-face socialization, which includes going to church, joining a club, or hanging out with friends. The second method of socialization is online communication. This includes chatting on line, text messaging, communicating with e-mail, playing online games, or other virtual communications. Socialization banishes feelings of loneliness and promotes the sense of safety, belonging, and enjoyment that helps people to feel secure. Although face to face socialization and online socialization are competing to fulfill these goals, there are noticeable differences between them in the amount of real world experience they deliver, in how they are implemented in the teaching and learning process, in the level of threat they pose to teenagers, and on their size of geographical area coverage on socializing. Face-to-face socialization provides deeper personal connection to the real world than online socialization. In their entire life, people go through different types of face-to-face interaction with their families, friends, and other people around them. As they engage themselves in the community they live in, they communicate through their speeches, body languages, and facial expressions. The lesson they take from these interactions gives them the necessary knowledge to grow from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. For example, when a child makes mistakes, he comes to know what he does is wrong through the responses others give to his mistake. These responses are not limited to speech. They include body languages, facial expressions, and actions. He learns not only what is wrong but also how to correct them by observing the corrections others make to his mistakes. This makes the learning process fast and easy. The repetition of this learning process helps him in passing through the stages of human development to be a matured adult. On the other hand, online socialization depends on the virtual world, which represents what exists in the real world in a digital format. However, it is not possible to represent every aspect of society’s activity digitally. Society’s activities are full of feelings, emotions, and actions that are difficult to be expressed in speech or writing. The digital world is restricted to recorded information on a media. This makes it difficult for online socialization to provide all the social interactions that exist in the real world. For example, the feelings one gets while sitting with a lover cannot be totally substituted by text messaging or online chatting. These technologies transmit the written letters but not the feelings and emotions, which are easily expressed in the body languages and facial expressions. As a result, the transmitted message is not complete. In addition, online socialization has a negative effect on children’s maturity. Many children use inappropriate words in their online communication because no one is there to correct them. Hence, children who are entirely dependent on online communication sometimes behave out of the socially accepted norms and lack the necessary knowledge to pass through the natural process of maturity. It is also important to see how these two types of socialization are implemented in the teaching and learning process. Online classes and face-to-face classes are created for different reasons and administered differently. In face-to-face classes, instructors and students meet in a physical class room at scheduled time. This creates favorable conditions for transferring ideas. Instructors give lectures. Students comment or ask questions, interact with others in verbal discussion at any time in the class. Instructors provide feedback vocally, with body language or writing. By contrast, in online learning students have varied personal schedules and don’t necessarily need to be online at the same time with their instructors. In a typical online class, the instructor provides the necessary instructions in written and students follow the instructions to do what is expected from them. Writing is the primary form of communication in online classes. If students need explanations, they need to write their questions and wait for hours or even days to get a reply. If the reply is not clear, they need to go through the process again. For this reason, online students are expected to refer to more books and do most of the learning part independently. This is what makes face-to-face classes more favorable than online classes in most cases. Online classes, however, are more comfortable for adult working students who do not have the time to attend face-to-face classes. In addition, online classes are also good options for students with physical disabilities and for those students who are not comfortable with the face-to-face interactions for different reasons. The other major point for consideration in socialization is the threat associated with it on teenagers. In recent years, the effect of online predators on teenagers has become a serious issue for many parents. It generates unwelcome situations in to the teenager’s life that may have long lasting impact. Teenagers are more vulnerable because they are highly motivated to participate in online communities and are not mature enough to protect themselves. Online socialization is seen as a source of this threat because it gives access to the predators to gain the trust of vulnerable teenagers. In addition, controlling their children’s online communication is not an easy task for many parents since they communicate from their bedrooms at any time of the day. In contrast, face-to-face socialization doesn’t have much associated threat to teenagers because it is visible and more restricted to small geographical area by its nature. Hence, it is possible for parents to control their children’s communication easily. In general, in face-to-face socialization, parents can get to know their children’s friends, and how they spend their time together. The other main point for comparison is the geographical area coverage on socializing. It is possible to say that there is almost no geographical area limitation for online socialization. It goes across borders, oceans, and continents in an electronic speed. For example, a 13 years old girl from Pennsylvania can have an intimate friend in India. She may know what is going on in India more than what her parents know. In contrast, in face-to-face socialization we are practically restricted to the geographical area we live in, most probably, to the city. This unlimited geographical access, however, has both its own advantages and disadvantages. Even though it helps people to get more information and coordination to tackle community level problems, such as preventing the spread of a new computer virus, it also allows the spread of false and counterproductive information. Currently, face-to-face socialization and online socialization are the two competing available options for socializing. Most people are attracted to one option or the other. Competing School advertisements for face-to-face and online classes are common everywhere. Face-to-face socialization uses speech, body languages, facial expressions, and actions in the communication process, and it has deeper personal connection to the real world. On the other hand, online socialization is a new method based on technological advancements on specific methods of communication, such as written or voice. It is revolutionary, as it has eliminated many restrictions that are inherent in the traditional face to face socialization. However, it has also brought new concerns to our society. Thus, it is possible to say that the two socialization methods have noticeable differences. They are both needed to address different social problems. As technology advances, online socialization has got wider acceptance; however, like any other technology, it has its own inherent limitations.

Black Men and Public Spaces Essay

1. In â€Å"Black Men and Public Spaces,† Brent Staples the author, claims how he uncomfortable and bothered of how others view him, due to the fact he is African American. I believe the purpose of this essay is for the readers to realize that stereotypes don’t always have to be real. What I mean by this is that, if you are black you are not always going to be dangerous, wearing baggy clothes, and a gun inside your jacket. He is accused of many things that he doesn’t do just due to the fact he is a young black man, which white people are terrified off. He is an educated according to the reading and he doesn’t believe in violence. The purpose of this is to people to recognize that innocent lives are ending due to these stereotypes of discrimination and fake accusations. â€Å"Altering Public Space in Ugly Ways,† I believe that he uses his experiences and others that people are scared of people are assuming black men are potentially violent. An example in the book is with the young white lady, which he describes in the book as his first victim. This lady in front of Brent Staples was walking and he says she was not comfortable with the space he gave to her. She started walking faster and faster until, she eventually ran, and went away. She thought something bad was going to happen, but as Staples says he enjoys talking walks during the night due to his insomnia. He has never felt comfortable around people as they’re mind is basically survival of the fittest they will stay away to any possible harm, Brent Staples wants to avoid invading personal space. As he states, â€Å" I now take precautions to make myself less threating.† She is writing that during the nights of late evening he is walking with care around people. Questions on Writing Strategy: 1. The concept of Altering Public Space is abstract, but Brent Staples really convinces the reader that it occurs due to all this encounters he has in his essay. As it is formatted in 1st person, it grabs your attention that this all really occurred. He starts off with the woman at the beginning that ran from him, the one she describes as the first victim, then when he moved to New York he describes how people look at him in the subway after he changes from a suit to informal clothes, and how the women will hold their bags tightly as if he was there to rob them. This essay is sad, and he writes gloomy, the writer is expressing how it’s a shame that he is always viewed as a criminal. 2. In Staples essay he gives many examples, but in a great way, he avoided the piece sounding like a list of events. He talks in great detail about an event that occurred, than he changes his setting. For example when he used to live in Chicago then he uses transitions like â€Å" that was more than a decade ago.† And as well how changes the topic and explains his new role in that new city. He uses a lot of adjectives, and doesn’t write like a list.

Logistics Term Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Logistics Term Paper - Essay Example However, to realize these benefits, shippers must meet the growing task of dealing with customs and compliance issues surrounding their participation in free-trade agreements. Promoting key relationships with shipping and intermediary partners is a necessary strategy in cross-border transportation between the US and Mexico. As the growth of NAFTA cross-border traffic regulations for Mexico continues to drive trade growth between the two countries, compliance and security issues continue to challenge transportation and logistics providers as well as shippers (Villarreal 67). There are considerable impediments for the efficient good movement between the two countries. Major hurdles derive from transaction costs which reduce and often eliminate the benefits gained from the removal of tariffs resulting from NAFTA. Transaction costs in this paper refers to cost not linked with direct transportation expenses like freight rates, but those that emerge from complying with security, safety and customs procedures, delays at border crossings and those linked with extra handling of goods as a result of lack of a harmonized transportation system (Lederman, Maloney, and Serven 112). These costs increases prices for traded goods and affect the demand for goods manufactured in these countries. Transaction costs arise from regulatory and infrastructure issue that add costs to the movement of goods. According to Frittelli (36) their quantifying is hard given the wide range of factors that affect trade and transportation in North America. A recent study estimated the total delay costs along the U.S.-Mexico border, at nearly $80 million (Tsui 9). It is hard to distinguish costs as a result border security regulations from those that are due to poor infrastructure or lack of harmonization. Particularly, as security regulations continue to evolve as emerging

Design a Marketing Plan for a Tourist Attraction Essay

Design a Marketing Plan for a Tourist Attraction - Essay Example Many departments are there in the museum which showcases the collections from different nations. This museum is a public body. The expenses of the museum are sponsored by Department of Media, Culture, and Sports of UK. A huge number of visitors daily comes in British Museum. The accesses of this museum are from Goodge Street stations and Russell Square. British Museum is considered as one of the popular places in attracting tourists. The main purpose of this Museum is to provide knowledge to the visitors about different collections. This knowledge will help the visitors to understand many things about history and present environment. All the collections are well presented in the museum which attracts a large number of tourist from different places of the world. The British Museum also holds many educational programs and exhibitions. Learning facilities are provided by the museum to common people regarding different time, culture, and places. The museum is continuously improving its m anagement qualities for providing a better experience to the visitors. It is enhancing many facilities for encouraging curatorial endeavor. The museum has a wide range of target visitors. Students, tourists, professional people come to visit the museum. The main target market of this museum is mainly London. But people from all over the world come to the museum. To encourage the visitor's museum do not charge entry fees from the people. British Museum conducts different workshops for which it charges entry fees from the people. The ticket price of different workshops varies. The British Museum is perceived as a center of learning by many people. The visitors think that the museum has showcased all of its collecting in a very interesting and unique way. The museum has utilized its area effectively by blending history, technology, and modern culture.  

Government borrowing, government budgets and fiscal policy impact Assignment

Government borrowing, government budgets and fiscal policy impact - Assignment Example 2. The government often increases its spending to expand an economy. In this situation, the actual deficit for the year is less than the forecasted amount. This shows that the government spending was less than expected; however, the revenue was more than the forecasted value. This indicates a surplus in the budget, and this implies faster economic growth. Yes, this is a problem in trying to balance the budget as the forecasted amounts vary widely with the actual expenditure and revenues. 3. Poor economic growth resulting in things such as unemployment could be caused by contraction of the country’s economy this can be corrected by the putting an expansionary fiscal policy in place. This system enables the government to increase the amount of money being transmitted in the country by cutting on state taxes, increasing the amount of government expenditure while the central bank is regulating by increasing the amount of money being supplied in the country. This helps in increasing production while creating more jobs. Expansion of a business cycle creates inflation in the country. A contractionary fiscal policy seeks to attend to this problem by trying to decrease the amount of money spent by the government while increasing the amount of interest rates on loans offered as to discourage people from borrowing hence reducing the amount of money in supply in the country. 4. Crowding out effect is whereby there is shrinkage in the private sector economy due to an apparent increase in government interest rates. There will be a less crowding out effect if the government spending is reduced as this will see a decrease in interest rates and higher investments in the private sector. 5. When Marginal taxes are cut off by the government, people tend to spend more on buying of products as they seem to have more money to spend. While they spend more on marketing, the government tends to collect more money from

Environmental Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Environmental Issues - Essay Example The third issue discussed is the ecosystem pricing of goods and services. The fourth outlines the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's position against Precautionary Principle. The last and fifth issue discussed in the paper is paraphrasing the transition to organic agriculture. This paper, therefore, gives a clear and understandable summary of all the issues as discussed in the book. Issue 1 - Precautionary Principle In the book, the argument occurs between Nancy Myers who supports the issue while Goldstein Bernard argues negatively towards the issue. The outline of disagreement between the two principle contributors teaches more about the argument and acts as an analysis of the same. The first disagreement is the beliefs of Nancy Meyer about precautionary principle justifies that the people have a right to know the risks behind the choices intended to make and thus be cautious in exchange of benefits. This gives the people a chance to know as much as possible the dangers on any action. Accor ding to Nancy, the manufacturers increase the possibilities of choosing the options which aim at reducing the risks as a safer alternative to the consumers. On his side, Goldstein Bernard argues that precautionary principle cannot be classified as a threat to the toxicological science. He bases the argument on the fact that, most definitions lack when considering precautionary principle. Another disagreement between Nancy Meyer and Goldstein Bernard is on the risk assessment. There had been arguments in the past that precautionary principle is not needed by the people. Nancy Meyer, on the other hand, argues in a different perspective that risk assessment has been used to derail the application of the precautionary actions appropriately. According to Stein (2000), it is a fact that the assessments of the risks require the decision makers to gather enough information to make the decision. These norms end up in management of the risks rather than preventing them. Nancy’s words w ere once justified by Thompson (2001), who concluded that the standard risk assessment can only be useful in high conditions of uncertainty. This is because it can be utilized to in helping in establishment of better alternative to the technologies which are dangerous. In contrast to the views of Nancy, Goldstein Bernard argues that there are different actions that one can take as a move to precaution. He says that it would be advantageous for one to consider some of the actions under the prevention nomenclature. Goldstein Bernard classifies the prevention actions as primary and secondary prevention. The assumption of the primary preventions is that, there is no problem when starting e.g. a person starting smoking where no cigarettes are produced. He continues to argue that there are no initial problems reported at the initial stage and the primary prevention should, thus, aim in prevention of any action which might trigger problems later. On the other hand, Goldstein Bernard explai ns the secondary prevention to depend on the early discovery of the problems. For example, diagnosing the high blood pressure before the patients gets a stroke. Goldstein Bernard arguments boldly explain that the actions taken as a result of ecological risk assessment and management happens because of being secondary prevention. This is especially when the problem is related to the chemicals which are known to be toxic. There is another

Law & Morality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law & Morality - Essay Example We also ensured that at every meeting we had something new to discuss on. This called for preparation even on our own before we met. We encountered several problems as a team though. A top performer in a group can act as a motivator, was the realization just a few days before the debate. One of our team members had always participated in debates right from his early teens. His enthusiasm influenced all of us to such an extent that most of us realized the potential we carry both in terms of creative thinking and expression of thoughts. This motivated us to work harder towards our goal. Being a part of the team the outcome would depend upon the team dynamics. Working as a team was like a jigsaw puzzle of complimentary parts fitting perfectly together. Teams can bring skills and experience that far exceeds what an individual can do alone. Involvement of all team members encourages innovation and creativity through sharing individual knowledge. Fortunately our group was cohesive and being on the same wave length, communication was smooth. Just as things were going in the right direction, two of the members suddenly dropped out in the last three days without even informing us of their decision not to participate in the debate. Initially this was like a bombshell till we realized that conflicts and problems can have positive outcomes. Since we were disturbed due to lack of communication from their end, we had to postpone the debate by three days. Finally we emerged victorious as we learnt so many things out of the sudden departure of our group members. This conflict or disturbance urged us to work harder. Conflicts have been known to enhance performance and this is precisely what their sudden exit did to our group. Had they carried their personal stress to the team all of us might have been negatively affected. After this, we came closer as a team and decided to keep constantly in touch with each other both

Public Opinion (American Politics) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Public Opinion (American Politics) - Essay Example That is, the institutions and politicians shape all the elements of political issues known to the public. The school is one of the organizations that assist the state in shaping public opinion. In the school, the students would learn the political system values and carry it with them in their lifetime. The media passes information that influences the public opinion. The media is a common tool that the politicians use to influence their interests. In addition, opinion leaders have a role in shaping the public opinion. Since the leaders have a voice in the society, people tend to think that his opinion is the best one most of the time. Thus, they do not bother to find out the truth from other sources (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes 2009). Political ignorance could be beneficial to citizens. Discussing and following the opinions of the political leaders could be misleading. As stated above, many of those who follow politics closely are only interested in casting their vote in the right places. Many of those who do so for the sake of voting do not realise that their vote could not make a difference. Even those who do not participate in political opinions, still cast their votes. It is much cheaper to cast a vote than to follow all political proceedings to make a decision. Thus, for many people it is safe to avoid all the stress of political activities and concentrate on other useful activities that would improve their life. The level of political ignorance has been the same for years. However, the same opinions have existed for decades. The opinions  do  not prevent politicians from having their say. The politicians sway the public opinion to their advantage despite the level of political information to the public (Somin 2013). Opinion leaders have information on certain issues that are not clear to the public. It is their duty  to advise  the masses  on  the meaning of these issues. The

Supply chain management plan in construction project Coursework

Supply chain management plan in construction project - Coursework Example In the new multi-storey car park, emphasis is placed on the reduction of the inventory costs, timely availing of the construction items without delay of the required goods, least manpower wastage entailed in the process and professional management of the process. The plan dwells heavily on the design of the inventories, thus creating a tightly controlled and regulated internal inventories, proper and timely distribution of items, proper management of the internal production processes, and augmented communication between the store-keeping and constructions processes. The SCM) plan for the construction industry has huge consideration for the structural construction technique applied. For client CPI who has some of the contractors readily assigned and other yet to be vetted for tackling of the construction process it is highly relevant for the enacting of the entire construction plan. Facilitation of raw material logistics and movements begins from their various sources. Apart from pre-cast concrete that ICP manufactures at its plants other materials are supplied from their different source points. The standardization process from the ICP gives the ICP great hold of the quality generated from structural strength and durability of the materials. ICP finds it hard to assign to the contractor design and manufacture of the precast since the skill is little in the west Yorkshire. The precast also demands effective time and duration to cure well in a specific environment before use. All the materials will be collected at collection or storage points in the designed place in the facility. Proper and timely financing operations and excellent information gathering will lead into allocation of contracts to least and effective bidders to aid in having the low cost materials. According to the provided building projects deadline procedures or timeline management every product will be

WalMart and Target Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

WalMart and Target - Essay Example So when WalMart enters local market it meets little competition. The opposite of cheap WalMart is an "elite" or high rate Target chain. Further I will compare these two retail companies in terms of general companies' achievements, level of services and the last point - prices. Wal-Mart entered retail market in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. Through the next eight years company incorporated and went on public on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1971 Wal-Mart set sales record for retail sales - 1 billion in sales per year. Up to 1991 Wal-Mart continued expansion on the American retail market: Sam's Club philosophy was developed and first mega stores were opened. And in 1991 Wal-Mart shifted to the international retail market, starting with retail center in Mexico City. According to the official press release of Wal-Mart, it is today the largest retail sales chain in the whole world with turnover around $285.2 billion in sales. The company employs 1.6 million associates worldwide through more than 3,600 facilities in the United States and more than 1,570 units in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom. More than 138 million customers per week visit Wal-Mart stores worldwide. (http://www.walmartfacts.com/newsdesk/wal-mart-fact-sheets.aspx) As well as Wal-Mart, Target appeared on the re... In 1979 Target gained position of the Company's revenue top producer, in 1982 revenue reached - 5 billion USD. In 2000 Dayton Hudson Corporation changed its name to Target Corporation. According to Target Corporation annual report the Company had 45 billion dollars in sales. The company employs 0, 87 million associates in the United States and has 1308 trading facilities. More than 60 million customers visit Target stores weekly. (http://www.targetcorp.com/targetcorp_group/investor-relations/annual_report.jhtml) Level of Services Level of services is defined by three major factors: purchasing conditions, employees, cleanliness. When purchasing clothing and other products of the same group one has to choose style, quality, price and the like, plus the comfort and ease of shopping. On the psychological level people prefer elegance, a feel of free time and space. The service of Target permits this plus it provides the cleanliness around, which ensure satisfaction of a customer. Your comfort zone is satiated. Thus you make better purchasing decisions without that compelling urge to postponing a purchase. WalMart in-store atmosphere creates feeling of rush, it has no space for inner world of a customer. Of course prices in WaMart are lower but a customer has little time for choice as other customers are rushing trough store looking for a bargain. Even brand new WalMarts often looks dingy and dirty. Very few Target stores give off the "dirty" feel a customer has walking around a Walmart. Employees attitude to the customers are in very close dependence to the conditions created by the companies. In our situation Target employees are more friendly and attentive than in WalMart. Prices. A price comparative

Western Australia Essay Example for Free

Western Australia Essay While the Australian Warlpiri people of Western Australia need to live within the laws and values of the Australian Government, as do all citizens living in Australia, preliminary conclusions show their lives also relate strongly to their community values, which are based on ngurra-kurlu, the ‘five pillars of society’. The Warlpiri people first made contact with non-Aboriginal Australians in the late nineteenth century. By the time they were finally extracted from the bush, the missionaries were being replaced by communities. (Wikipedia) Most of the Warlpiri people were placed in an Aboriginal settlement called Yuendumu, about 290 km north west of Alice Springs, but because the settlement was becoming overcrowded, in 1948 the Australian Federal Government decided to erect an Aboriginal Reserve at a waterhole 600 km north at Catfish. (Ozoutback. com) Once the road to Catfish was finished, the Welfare ordered 25 Warlpiri people into a truck and took them as far as Hooker Creek where they camped. Because there was a bore and the water was flowing they decided to stay there instead of at Catfish, which was about 30 km further on and another 400 Warlpiri were transported there. Later, the Hooker Creek dried up, but by then the settlement was already established and a further 150 Warlpiri people were transported there in 1951. (Ozoutback. com) The people were not happy to be taken away from their relatives, their country (land) and its sacred sites, so they all walked the 600 km back to Yuendumu, whereupon they were driven back to Hooker Creek in trucks; they walked back to Yuendumu again and again they were taken back. This time people stayed and children were born, and they started to call the place home. In the late seventies the Gurindji tribe â€Å"handed over† the country and the ‘The Dreaming’ to the Warlpiri and it terminated as a welfare state and renamed Lajamanu. (Ozoutback. com) My friend Pam and I wanted to find out first hand, how life has changed for these people, and how they balance colonial values with their own. So we organized a field trip to outback Western Australia, where we spent a month living within a community of Warlpiri people in a place called Lajamanu. We engaged in participant observation, in an effort to understand as much as possible about the way in which they lived and gain an emic perspective of the values to which they lived by. Using this method, we were able to maintain detailed fieldnotes and conduct interviews based on open-ended questions. We hired a four wheel drive vehicle in Alice Springs and set out on the Tanami track, which crosses the Tanami desert and seemed to head for the horizon and evaporate into the sky. The road was not sealed – just dirt – red dirt – bellowing behind us like rust colored clouds. Although travelling in beating heat we were vigilant in our perusal of what was around us: large areas of ‘spinifex’ and ‘mulga’. 3 A number of enormous hawks and eagles were swooping around the carcass of a red kangaroo, a meter long snake slithered into one of the mulga trees, and masses of bits of rubber, stripped from the tyres of cars and trucks were strewn along the side of the track. We could only drive slowly and only able to drive about 80 kilometers a day, camping by the road at night. On the third day we drove into harsh and rough ground with more vegetation, and although still exceedingly hot the rain started to fall heavily. The car became more difficult to manouvre as water was accumulating in various parts unable to sink into the ground quick enough. Around midday on the fourth day we stopped the car near a small water hole to have something to eat and a cold drink from our ice box, and just as we were about to move on a dark figure with a mop of unruly black and curly hair, wearing nothing but a piece of cloth around his waist came out of nowhere, seemingly from the sky in the distance and walked towards us. He seemed very friendly but spoke in a strange language that we could not understand. He seemed to be asking or directing us to some place and he appeared to want to jump on board. With the use of gestures, arms and hands, we were able to ascertain that he wanted to ride with us, which was fine with us. The track fell into a dry creek and the sun was glaring all colors of reds and oranges into the sky; brightly colored parrots fluttered up from scrub, and as the sun became lower the rocks and boulders seemed to be on fire, glowing red from the heat. Flies were everywhere, buzzing around our heads, settling on our arms and legs and crawling into our eyes. It wasn’t long before he started to make directions off on a smaller track and we understood that this must be where he came from. We turned off and it was not too long before we came across a small community. We stopped the car and our new found friend directed us to his house. As we meandered along, we saw nothing but parts of cars left rusting in the heat, houses in disrepair, potholed streets strewn with rubbish and everything covered in red dirt. It was dusk and people were sitting around open fires; children were running around wearing very little if anything but happily playing in the dirt with the fire lighting up their faces; women were sitting around the fire openly breast feeding their babies or nursing them in their laps, lulling them to sleep. An extremely tall and thin man stood up from the circle around the fire and with open arms, smiled and much to our surprise said â€Å"How yer going whitefellas? Me Benny Jangala. † After setting up camp we were invited to eat and one of the women produced what seemed like a small crocodile but we were told it was a ‘goanna. ’ She placed it on the fire and kept turning it with a stick until it was cooked. She then broke the animal in pieces with her hands and handed some to us. Other delicacies, such as witchety grubs, snake and kangaroo were thrown onto the fire and cooked. These were served with an assortment of different berries and leaves. We later found out that they know over a hundred different species of flora and fauna, all of which are used for either food, medicine or in ceremonies. They keep everything they think they could use, such as animal sinews for binding weapons, bones for implements and feathers for ceremonial use. (Broom, 1983, p. 12) As night progressed we were shown to a small humpy that was to be our home for the next few weeks. We were impatient to start fieldwork and the very next day we started getting accustomed with our new surroundings and lifestyle, and observing how these aboriginals lived. We hired Benny as our guide and interpreter and he was very willing to assist us whenever needed. We found out that we were living with a small community of Warlpiri people in a place called Lajamanu. They spoke the Warlpiri language and tracked their ancestry to the country around the ‘granites’4 or had bonds to that same country through different family dreamings. These linkages by ancestry and dreamings entitled them to hunt in that area and required them to take care of its sacred places. Children often liked to visit us and they would usually come in to our humpy unannounced, rummage among our supplies and survey the room. They seemed to have no concept of privacy and seemed to consider our humpy open and available to all. One time two older girls were looking through each other’s hair for lice and invited Pam to sit with them so that they could search her hair. After a few days Pam was given the name Napangardi and I was given the name Jungarrayi, because Napangardi is normally married to Jungarrayi. After we were given these new names the children would call us by those names. At first, one small girl started laughing and flapping her arms around in the air, then she ran over to Pam and put her arms around her waist, screaming â€Å"Napangardi! you are my daughter! † The girl’s skin name was Nangala, which made her Pam’s mother, because Nangalas were mothers of Napangardis. This also made her my mother-in-law, to whom I was not allowed to talk to, according to Warlpiri taboo. (Ways of Thinking, p. 3 and 8) Later we were able to find out more about skin names. A group of Aboriginal people were sitting together talking as one mother was pointing to various people in the group; she was teaching her little girl their skin names. She told us that every Warlpiri person has a skin name and that name ordains how that person relates to every other person in the community. Everyone is born into the skin group related to their parents. There are eight skin groups and men’s skin names begin with J and women’s with N. The skin system is part of a more intricate kin system and they both relate the Warlpiri people to the sky, desert, trees, rocks, animals, plants and to the law, the dreaming, the rituals and a body of knowledge. (Ways of thinking, p. 4) One morning Benny introduced us to one of the tribe elders and we asked him about the different names they used; he told us that a Warlpiri person can have several names which include the relevant skin name, a bush name and a ‘whitefella’ first name. A Warlpiri person may be referred to as â€Å"X’s son/daughter†, which can sometimes cause confusion if â€Å"X† has more than one son or daughter, because each one could be referred to in the same way. As a child grows older they may also be given a nickname derived from a physical characteristic or some specific incident or mishap. (Smith, 2008, p3. 5) He also told us about a tribal law that does not allow a woman to speak directly to her son-in-law, nor the son-in-law to her. They must ask another person in the Warlpiri kin system, to speak for them. There is also what is referred to as ‘mother-in-law’ language, which is a kind of secret language which son-in-laws can use when speaking in ear-shot of their mother-in-law. (Ways of thinking, p. 4)

Impact of Recession on Movie Industry

Impact of Recession on Movie Industry Foreword Writing this dissertation was a long and exhausting process which included many setbacks and failures. Nevertheless it also was fulfilling and exciting as I was driven by my passion and interest in movies and cinemas in general. I always intended to work for the movie industry one day and hold well- grounded hopes of achieving this goal in the near future. Maybe this dissertation will help to convince the studios of my passion and capabilities. My thanks go to Mr Nick Bowen, who was an outstanding tutor and helped me through rough and inconvenient times with his competence and great sense of humour. I also would like to thank me interviewees Mr Arwed Fischer and Mr Jan Fantl, who provided me with many important information and an inside into the industry. Without them, a big part of the report would not have reached the standard it has now. Finally, I am very grateful for the help of my parents who made it possible for me to go to London and provided me with everything I needed in order to be successful and happy in the future. I do not want to forget to thank everybody else who supported me during this tough time and cheered me up after one of the occasional setbacks. Executive Summary Recently the film studios are experiencing a boost of attendances and ticket sales despite the financial crisis. This already happened in past recessions and therefore will be analysed in this report. One reason for that economical immunity seems to be the technological development such as sound and colour in the past or 3D cinema nowadays. Nevertheless there are some issues the industry has to deal with at the moment, e.g. piracy or substitution goods like videogames. Although 3D movies did fail continuously in the past in terms of economical success, the studios tried it again with an advanced technology and exceeded all expectations when Avatar was released. In this context factors such as rising ticket prices or the limited number of 3D capable cinemas play a big role as well in order to determine the future potential the 3D technology. A few companies already started to produce and sell 3D capable TVs which are supposed to the next economical success the movie landscape. IMAX cinemas suffered a long period of very low attendances and decreasing ticket sales until advanced 3D technology has been used to produce movies. Since then the IMAX group notes record breaking attendances and boosting profits. Two surveys have been analyzed and compared to each other. One, published in 2005 by Opinion Dynamics Corporation alre ady showed some curious facts on 3D cinema and its likely success in the future. The second one has been generated online by the author of this report in 2010 amongst a group of people from 10 countries. In terms of forecasting a success of 3D movies it is very hard for the studios to forecast the success of a single movie or even a whole new technology. They mostly try to find what is most appealing to the audience (unlike independent productions) and therefore have their analysts forecasting risks and returns. Nevertheless DisplaySearch 3D Display Technology conducted a forecast which is quite optimistic and expects increases in every sector of the movie industry (cinemas, home cinemas etc). The recommendations include the authors personal opinion of how the 3D technology will influence the cinema landscape and the options studios have to market it properly. By interviewing people from the movie industry the author gathered some inside knowledge which he tried to apply to his recommendations. Therefore it is expected that the boom of 3D movies will slow down slightly but continue to strengthen again. In the long term it is expected that the new technology will have a positive impac t on the movie industry. 1. Introduction According to Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, the upcoming 3D movie technology is the greatest innovation to occur in the movie business in 70 years. (CNN Online, 2008) This statement shows the hope of the whole industry for more attendances and a revolution in the movie market. An increasing amount of movie studios shift their productions towards the new technology. As a result this is discussed in a rising number of TV-shows, magazines and newspapers. Despite the fact that videogames are becoming more popular and the financial credit crisis has reduced average income, going to the movies still seems to be a big part of daily life all over the world. This happens even though the whole film industry seems to be in a crisis, as will be explained below. Initially 3D movies were produced using 2 separate projectors to produce one double image and running two separate rolls of film. Nowadays the technology is far more advanced which means that digital projectors are installed in cinemas producing sharper and steadier images. There also is a difference in production between real movies and animated ones. Animated movies are not produced with real cameras but use computers to create and render every single shot from two angles. Live action movies on the other hand are filmed by new dual lens digital cameras that are able to capture two points of view. (BBC news, 2009) Movie attendances in the United States decreased by 2, 6 %, falling to its lowest level since 1997, whereas revenues fell from $1,484 billion in 2004 to $1,364 billion in 2008. In the same period the amount of screens jumped from 35,993 to 39,476. To be able to show 3D movies, it is necessary to upgrade to digital screens; here the number increased from only 138 in 2004 to 4,576 in 2008, a rising trend. (Marche du film, 2009) Linking these data leads to the conclusion that the movie industry is keen to establish and invest in a new technology in order to make going to the cinema more attractive to its customers and increase attendances in the short and long-term. The following report analyses the current status of the movie industry and shows the likely economic impact in times of recession on the worldwide market. The industries main current issues and a forecast based on trends and profound market research are also examined. 2. Literature Review This chapter summarises and evaluates the related research of what has been written about the research topic. Opinions and data from many different people, working for the movie industry or being close enough to venture a forecast, have been taken into account and evaluated objectively. The chapter also defines and explains the new 3D movie technology, its history and its characteristics from different perspectives. Furthermore it covers several models and theories and talks about reports and how to estimate their importance. This is followed by an evaluation to point out weaknesses or gaps in the literature. The final part will consist of a link to the initial research question and what the plan for proceeding is. Overall, there are 3 main questions to be covered in this chapter: 1. How did big studios fight back in past recessions? 2. How have technical developments influenced business in the past in different markets? 3. What are current issues in the industry? It also is evident that due to the newness of the topic chosen, there are certain constraints in terms of what kind of literature is currently available. Therefore the main sources cited are websites as well as primary research. 2.1 Comebacks of the Studios in Past Recessions After the first big Wall Street Crash in 1929, admissions rose by 58% compared to the previous year. (Entertainment times online, 2008) According to John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners in America, this means that â€Å"In the past four decades there have been seven recession years in this country, and the box office has climbed strongly in five of those years,† (Entertainment times online, 2008) According to the Academy of Management Journal (1996), between 1936 -1950 property based resources such as long-term contracts with stars and theatres helped financial performance to stabilize. Contrary to the period of 1951-65, when knowledge- based resources such as coordination and production talent and budgets increased financial performance. (Academy of Management Journal, 1996, pp. 519-543) Asking some of the most important and powerful people in the U.S. and UK movie industry shows that the majority believes that the current recession either is an opportunity or even a reason for rising sales. But what is the reason for that surprising success in economic downturns? Besides new technologies, which unfortunately are not always released at the right time, the studios decide to publish more comedies and action movies, to help the audience to escape from their monetary problems. In the USA, three of the top-five movies in terms of gross profit of 2009 are comedies: Mall Cop, Hes Just Not That into You and Bride Wars. (CNN movies, 2009) This permits us to draw the conclusion that a recession does not necessarily lead to a break-down of sales in the movie industry. But did past recessions really have no impact or even a positive impact on the movie industry? Not everyone agrees with the theory of increasing sales in recessions though. Gerald Peary, a documentary filmmaker and critic in Boston, Massachusetts, believes that the market will be flooded with intellectually less challenging movies since they are the ones that are more likely to succeed on the audience with smaller budget. In his opinion The dumber the movie is, sometimes, the more money it makes, which states that Those movies are somehow both critic proof and depression proof. (CNN movies, 2009) Another point of view is represented by Basinger, the film historian who assumes that it is still too soon to predict any trends concerning the recession and movies. She points out that recessions leads to faster changes in the movie scene. Also for her, going to the movies is not highly affected by the crisis, as it still is [] the cheapest and fullest way to abandon your troubles and lose yourself in a story. (CNN movies, 2009) Even in some of the worst recessions, economy ever has experienced, the movie industry mostly has been of the few sectors that was able to maintain its position in the market or even increase admissions. This is due to peoples not changing consumer behaviour. Even though they got affected by economic downturns, most of them still wanted to escape from their misery for a few hours. It also is an opportunity for independent film makers to realize low-budget productions, as movie studios get more cost- conscious when their stocks fall during a crisis. Henceforth studios prefer to invest little money in innovative productions and directors hoping for a reasonable return of investment. 2.2 Technological influence on Business in the past Around 120 years ago, films were little more than drawings that seemed to come alive with motion. Then, in 1877 Emile Reynaud had patented a machine, the ‘Praxinoscope, which projected seemingly moving paintings onto a screen. An upgrade of his invention, the Projection Praxinoscope, which was a large-scale Praxinoscope, got patented in 1888 and was used for public projection. Reynaud started to screen his films, accompanied by music on a regular base. Yet that early atmosphere and technology were very similar to today screenings. (Kinogeschichte, 2009) Using spools to feed and take-up the extended picture band, sequences were no longer limited to short cyclic movements. This was the first and important step for commercial use which has been so essential for successful cinematography. (Exeter, 2000) Nevertheless, there were still many issues concerning films, amongst other things the length of them or the lack of sound. To compensate this problem, it was tried to create a more realistic, narrative and psychological atmosphere using on-screen text and a pianist accompanying the film. Back in 1927, after the introduction of movies with full sound, cinema attendances jumped up from 57 million to 90 million in 1930 (Shmoop statistics, 2009) and made them even more popular. This demonstrates that introducing a revolutionary technology can lead to soaring attendances and higher box office sales for the studios. Also the lack of colour on screen was tried to be compensated to improve the movie experience. One of the first ideas was to tint the film reels but later prising companies such as ‘Technicolor and ‘Eastmancolor, made it possible to use new ways of colouring and achieved the objective of a deeper and more intense atmosphere. (Inventors library) Nowadays black/white movies disappeared almost completely from the world of movies. Although, the success of films like ‘Schindlers List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) and ‘Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994) shows that it is still possible to achieve commercial and critical success with monochrome. (David Parkinson 1995, pg 112) After releasing the first full-colour, La Cucaracha (1934), coloured movies became more and more popular. In the late 1930s, the films,Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937, Disney), were a huge success. Last one still is considered a milestone as it was thefirstfeature-length animated film. (Filmsite, 2007) Introducing new, revolutionary technologies and giving them the chance to go to maturity stage of the product lifecycle always has been very profitable for movie studios. Be it the implementation of sound or the introduction of colour, people loved to spend their money on being amused in cinemas. 2.3. Current issues in the industry There are more problems and issues the movie industry has to deal with besides the current substantial crisis and recessions. These will be examined in the following sections. 2.3.1 Videogames as substitution goods Amongst many threats for the movie industry such as the highly developed internet, DVDs and an increasing amount of home activities, one of the main problems for the movie theatres and studios is the rising and durable success of videogames. First released in the 1980s, videogames have been designed for a significantly smaller target audience. This was attributed to the fact computers were still in the early stage of their product life cycle and thus the presence of computers in the average household was a much less common occurrence. The commercial use of computers was much more prominent during this period, than their household residential usage. Even with the introduction of platforms such as the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) in the 1990s, the Videogame industry was still viewed as a niche market. It was never anticipated to develop into a competitor of the movie industry as it is nowadays. Currently, the profit generated from videogames equates to that of their movie counterparts. Current trends indicate that consumers have a tendency to spend more on buying videogames as opposed to going to the movies which has been identified as a huge threat for the studios. Just recently, in the beginning of November 2009, Activision Blizzard Incs released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and anticipated more than $660 million in sales from 11-13 million sold units by the end of 2009. Also previous games were big hits in terms of sales as the table below shows. Top video games sales on their first day ( Reuters, 2009) Figure 1 These data can be compared to Top Hollywood worldwide opening weekends: ( Reuters, 2009) Figure 2 As aforementioned and illustrated by the tables (Figure 1 Figure 2) above, it is evident that data solidifies the trend that an increasing number of consumers are changing their consumer behaviour and purchasing videogames which they may enjoy at home. Another possibility for the rising success of videogames could be the fact of potential consumers rather staying home than spending money on transport for getting there and quite expensive snacks and drinks in the cinema. This data backs up the trend that more and more consumers tend to shift from going to the movies to buying videogames which they can enjoy at home. Even if they are more expensive (around $50/ unit depending on the platform) the duration of playing them is far higher than only two hours. This makes them a substitution good with which the studios have to deal with now and most likely even more in the future. On the other hand this also creates new opportunities for the movie and the game industry to work together and create profits by co-operating. This is already working in terms of converting movies to videogames but also the other way around. 2.3.2 Piracy Another very recent issue and problem for the movie industry is the rapid spread of illegal movie copies, also known as pirate copy. In 2007, downloads of movies rose by 50 % in Germany, mostly saved as digital copies. ( Welt online, 2009) According to The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), the cost of motion picture piracy is significant high and an essential threat to the studios and the whole industry. The loss for the movie industry was $6, 1 billion in 2006. Taking all industries into account that are related to the movies that number would add up to $20.5 billion annually. This means that not only the studios and related companies lose money. It also means that people are losing jobs. Piracy being absent, 141,030 new jobs would have been added to the U.S. economy in 2006 (IPI, 2006) Henceforth the studios are in an on-going war with the movie pirates trying to reduce losses. The enormous impact on U.S. and worldwide economy forced the industry to consider distinct strategie s to decrease or even stop piracy. Besides Ads, showing movie pirates chased by police and going to prison as for every other federal crime, the industry also adopted a hard line by suing them for compensation. This found its peak in sending four men to prison for one year and ordering them to pay $3.6 million of compensation to major film companies such as Warner Brothers, Columbia, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony BMG and EMI. (CNN Piracy, 2009) They operated a Swedish movie pirate website which has been judged of being illegal. In total, piracy and the recession have reduced DVD sales in the UK by around 10 % and in the US by even 13 %. The problem for the studios is that DVD sales are responsible for half a titles long-term profits and more than double the revenue than from tickets sold. (Independent Online 3D Revolution, 2010) Hence Hollywood always tries to find new ways of protecting their movies and anticipate copyright theft. Consequently they always need new technologies which cannot be hacked but according to Arwed Fischer (Fischer, 2010), it is almost impossible to find the perfect safety. Hackers are able to break any copy protection within days or hours. In fact, this made him quit the job as resources seem to be wasted on nothing. Critics on the other hand state that the way of how to calculate losses for the movie industry is neither transparent nor comprehensible. The studios claim that each single pirate copy is the same as one loss of attendance. This is one of the reasons why mentioned losses are extraordinary high. People that just downloaded the movie and never considered going to the cinema or buying it on DVD are not included in these statistics which makes them quite subjective. On the other hand, the new 3D technology makes studios feel quite safe at the moment as it yet is impossible to pirate 3D featured movies. Hence people who want to experience this new way of cinema must go to the m ovies and pay for their tickets. James Cameron also is aware of this unique selling point when he says: You can pirate a 3D movie but you cant pirate it in 3D, so you cant bottle that 3D experience. (New Yorker Online, 2009) Although this is a justifiable and legitimate objection, piracy remains one of the industries biggest problems. Even if not each ‘pirate can be considered a loss of attendance and ticket sales, it remains an act of stealing. The studios spend millions of Dollars to produce profitable movies which are linked to many jobs. That should not be undermined by downloading movies instead of going to see them in the cinemas and pay the entrance fee. 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction This chapter explains the approaches used to facilitate a precise and specific answer to the initial research question. In order to gather relevant and accurate information both, quantitative and qualitative data will be used. However the authors focus will be on qualitative data collection. The potential bias of primary is quite low due to a wide range of interview partners, all from different sides. Secondary data has been gathered under same criteria in order to minimise the risk of potential bias. Where, if possible, the author tried to look for alternative explanations and to show that he was aware of any potential bias. 3.2 Justification of Research Perspective Every research requires distinct methods recommended for structuring research programs. In this dissertation, it has been chosen to base all outcomes and results on actual data or professional forecasts like interviews, surveys and questionnaires. Copies of them can be found in the appendix. A high level of discipline was necessary and essential at the beginning of the research. Even though it got disappointing at some points, as the researcher took a wrong path, objectives from books by Mark Saunders (2009) helped the author to keep focused and motivated. According to Saunders * â€Å"Data are collected systematically * Data are interpreted systematically * There is a clear purpose; to find things out† (Saunders et al, 2009) 3.3 Primary Data Collection The author attempted to use all the important primary data collection methods such as interviews, networking and surveys in order to analyse the data objectively. This leads towards an accurate answer to the initial research question. Interviews with people from the movie industry such as former employees of copyright companies and cinema owners have given a deep insight into the topic. Interviewees are: * Arwed Fischer, former employee of X-Protect GmbH in Munich * Representative of the Kinopolis group, one of the biggest German cinema chains, who wants to stay anonymous. * Jan Fantl, producer, production manager and former director Several approaches for the interview structure have been considered and led to the following conclusion: Although unstructured interviews have the advantage of complete freedom in terms of content and structure ( Kumar R, 2005), the author of this report decided to mostly use structured or hybrid interviews for his research purposes. This represents a spot in-between the unstructured and structured interviews in Figure 3. That was given due to the fact that face-to face interview were not possible for a number of reasons such as travelling cost or lack of time of the interviewees. Nevertheless personal interviews would have given the author some advantages such as observing his interviewee as well as listening to him or the chance to gather the data more efficiently. (Hollwitz, J. Wilson, C.E. 41-52) Therefore it has been decided to make use of telephone interviews, which are far less costly than personal ones, and mail questionnaires which require accurate question design to match reading comprehension of the interviewees. (Using Structured Interviewing Techniques, 1991) Especially mail interviews have been proofed to be quite efficient because interviewees took their time to think about the questions before answering them. An online survey has been generated and distributed by the author of this report. 47 people aged 22- 50 and from 10 countries filled out this online survey which has been piloted before with 5 people in order to make it more precise and accurate for a wider audience. It was created on the 07.April 2010 and has been closed on the 07.May 2010 .To generate it the online platform www.surveymonkey.com has been used. The complete survey can be found in the appendix of this report. Due to easier access given times and resources it was not possible to have interviews in other countries like the USA or India. At a later point in this report it has been compared to another survey taken by Opinion Dynamics Corporation in 2005 before the 3D technology boomed yet. This will show the process and change of customers opinion on 3D movies. Also a questionnaire has been conducted by the author. It has been sent via to several people of the movie industry. The response rate was rather poor as asked peo ple seemed to be busy. Standard questions have been used in order to facilitate the collection of data and due to limitations in terms of time and resources. The questionnaire can be found in the appendices in section 8.1 As aforementioned, the potential bias has been considered in the evaluation process. Another option to be deemed is the use of a supervisor or mentor. He made sure that collected data was rather objective than subjective and could provide the author with constructive criticism. 3.4 Secondary Data Collection Thanks to a wider range of secondary data available, the author collected a lot of relevant information on the topic. He did this through a critical evaluation of literature, not only from the USA but also from Europe to accomplish a fair and accurate picture of the industry and its potential in the future. Parts of the research were also based on past and current trends and forecasts that justify arguments and recommendations. In order to sufficiently cut down the total amount of data, the author interpreted data sourced mainly from smaller subgroups rather than â€Å"all possible groups† (Saunders et al 2009, p 150 152)This method saves the author valuable time and also makes research and evaluation of data more efficient by using a smaller pool of information. As every other method, this one also has disadvantages, such as gathering the wrong kind of data or using irrelevant data which cannot answer the initial research question accurately. Also some academic literature such as the The Academy of Management Journal has been used to provide a different angle of the research question. A SWOT analysis on the current situation of the 3D Technology and outline possible threats and opportunities for the whole movie industry has been carried out. As a planning tool a SWOT analysis has many benefits like the simplicity of taking one. Nevertheless this can lead to problems like underestimating the value of a SWOT analysis or to an imprecise and weakly conducted analysis. (Ferrel Hardline, 2007, p. 119-120) More benefits can be seen in Figure 4: (Ferrel Hardline, 2007) Figure 4 3.5 Conclusion of Methodology Using all the aforementioned methods and approaches, the author attempted to find an accurate answer to the research question. Giving the reader a deep insight into the topic and a widespread view of the 3D Technology opportunities and risks has lead to a complete understanding of the subject. All data has been analyzed and evaluated neutrally so a conclusion has been objectively drawn. 4. Findings and Analysis This chapter starts with an explanation of the technical side of 3D technology used today followed by an overview of the history of 3D movies and a SWOT analysis. After that, the role of 3D movies in general and in combination with IMAX cinemas as well as the importance of Avatar will be discussed. The chapter will concluded with the comparison of two surveys (for further information please see research methodology) and a forecast. 4.1. How does 3D technology exactly work? First of all, the binocular vision system is based on the fact that the eyes of a human being are spaced 5 cm apart. Consequently each eye sees the picture from a different angle. At the same time the binocular vision system in a brain is using the difference to calculate the distance. The brain also has the ability to show a relationship between those images even though they are slightly different. The brain can choose objects in the two scenes and work out how far an object is between those images. (How Stuff works 3D glasses, 2010) The reason for wearing 3d glasses is to provide different images into your eyes. The movie screen in fact shows two different images and the glasses cause one of the images to go into one eye and the other one to enter the second eye. There are two widespread systems of doing it * Polarization: The majority of the big studios such as Disney or Universal the first choice are polarized lenses for the glasses because they allow colour viewing. Two synchronized projectors project two individual views onto the screen, each with a diverse polarization. The glasses only let one of the images to enter each eye because they hold lenses that are polarized as well. This is comparable with the polarization of sunglasses. (Filmindustry, 2009) * Red/Green or Red/ Blue. Since polarization cannot be used on a traditional TV screen (unlike on upcoming 3D TVs which will be dealt with later on in section 4.7) the red/green system is used. Again 2 images are displayed on the screen, one in red and one in blue/green. The filters of the glasses only allow one picture to enter each eye. The brain has to correlate those pictures as aforementioned. It is not really possible to use a nor

CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF HERITAGE TO THE UK TOURISM

CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF HERITAGE TO THE UK TOURISM In the growth of an economy there are those activities that contribute a lot to the growth; they act as the backbone of the economy. According to Boyd Timothy (2003) The UK has diversified such activities and tourism has contributed to huge earnings in the country that has gone ahead of other economic earning activities. Investing in heritage tourism has proved to pay dividends to the UK economy and has not disappointing since its inception. This paper critically evaluates the contribution of heritage to the UK tourism industry outlining the benefits that has come with it. Billions of pounds have been earned as income to the UK economy contributing a lot to the gross domestic products. It tackles the historical context of heritage, the value and role of heritage to tourism, the supply and demand of heritage and gives facts and figures on the issues. As explained by Davies Prentice (1995) numerous visitors have flocked to visitors the heritage sites such as museums to experience a taste of what UK has to offer. Heritage on the other hand consists of various types of tourism; these include events and festivals focused on heritage and traditions; physical attractions for instance museums and heritage centers; destinations that are associated with renowned people; holiday based packages e.g. tours to ancient sites; routes and journeys aligned to heritage place; themes in heritage; historic events; and traditional functions. The benefits that come along with tourism firstly include direct benefits such as businesses issuance of tourism products and services. According to the Deloitte Report (2008) there current contribution to the economy for direct benefits amount to  £52 billion which constitute 3.7% of the GDP. This figure has incorporated value addition to the tourism related products. There were also 1.36 million jobs in 2007 supported directly by tourism. These figures have risen to  £ 85 billion and  £86 billion in 2005 to 2007 (Deloitte Report, 2008). Secondly, is the contribution there is indirect benefits that include support given to tourism businesses. Thirdly there are spill over benefits that include retail, manufacturing and health and life services (Deloitte Report, 2008). In focus to the heritage tourism every tourist has his or her taste; this calls for various activities to tap every tourist to enjoy. The destinations, museums, tour operators have customized the heritage tourism to different levels which makes it possible for every tourist to be attracted in one way or the other. As stated in Light (1996) in Heritage Tourism and Historic Towns the development of tourist holidays where they are related to an aspect of tourism e.g. art history or historic railway development and touring heritage sites where tourists are guided to. Heritage tourism has been segmented in to three where the first are individuals who travel independently; groups who travel on shared heritage interests; and groups who travel together without a common interest in heritage (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2009). Developing ways to get attractions for these segments has played a significant role in the development of tourism since there are customized products developed to target each segment. Heritage has brought about various benefits and is very important to the economy of UK. Heritage tourism is a major attraction for tourists from other countries which provide jobs and earnings to locals (Nuryanti, 1996). It is also a major source of foreign currency. In addition it provides revenue that is used for various beneficial purposes such as conservation. It also enhances the image of the country making it a major tourist attraction for levelers. Heritage tourism is concentrated in London, historical sites such as the York, Lincoln, and Edinburgh; the Stratford-upon-Avon Shakespeare and Wordsworth Grasmere and other famous people; and famous sites e.g. Stonehenge (Davies, Prentice, 1995). The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has been involved in the development and investment of tourism in the UK. According to the HLF report released in 2010 heritage tourism had contributed to a massive  £20.6 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). This was higher than any other product or services industry such as advertising, filming, and car manufacturing in the UK. This highlights the need for increased investment so that there can be huge and better returns. It has also contributed to 195,000 full time equivalent jobs that has originated from historic buildings, the country side, parks, and museums (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). This means that the potential of heritage can be exploited to ensure the country grows and develops immensely from the earnings. Figure 1: heritage based visitor economy (Source: The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009) To critically analyze the earnings and activities in the industry there were more that 10 million trips made by tourists from foreign countries to the UK annually where 4 out of every 10 citing heritage as the key motivation behind the visits; this was more than any other single factor contributing to the trips. In addition, heritage tourism is worth  £12.4billion annually which is spent by the attracted visitors in heritage sites (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). This includes money spent in entrance fees to the heritage sites; and other purchases that are done connected to heritage products and motivation e.g. buying at curio shops, or restaurants and accommodation expenses for the tourists. Domestic tourism also known as staycation is also another source of income and part of the  £12.4billion earned (The Deloitte Report, 2008). An estimated 60% is obtained from domestic tourism where residents have supported their country grow though daily visits to such sites (The Deloitte Report, 2008). A whooping  £7.3billion has been spent in expenditure in the heritage industry where most of the money has gone to building, renovations and maintenances of heritage attractions, parks and museums. The GDP of the country has continued to benefit a lot from this investment where an estimated at  £7.4 billion annually has been earned as salaries and wages, profits ¸ and income by the tourism business community including hotels, curio shops, restaurants, and also the heritage sites included (The Deloitte Report, 2008). The addition of economic multipliers to the earnings such as proceeds earned by suppliers to the tourism dealings the annual total GDP contributed by heritage tour ism hits highs of  £20.6 billion annually. Figure 2: showing the sector contribution to the UK GDP (Source: The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009) It is with no doubt that these earning can be increased to higher figures in future through taping in to the high potential in heritage tourism. This means that the government in collaboration with the tourism departments must come up with more attractive policies that will ensure funding to tourism so that it has the framework that will support it have the best earnings (Nuryanti, 1996). In view of the fact that tourism is a fast growing industry and it can contribute maximally to those who invest in it; the unique part of heritage tourism should be advanced in the UK so that it becomes the leading figure in it. With such measures the countrys tourism sector will remain vibrant and sustainable presently and in future (The British Tourism Review, 2009). Heritage tourism is the 5th largest industry in the UK; this is contributed by the fact that the UK has a rich and vibrant heritage and very important not only to the numerous visitors who flock the country but also for the local, regional and national economies (Nuryanti, 1996). It has been revealed that a huge percentage of the visitors to the UK do so on the grounds of heritage, pageantry, history and culture. In tapping more to the potential of tourism through effective tourism weeks, marketing of the tourist sites and attractive holiday destinations the country stands to reap maximum benefits (The British Tourism Review, 2009). The HLF should enhance adaptability, welcome, place making, choice of goods and services, skills, quality, access, and information provision so as to ensure a successful industry (Nuryanti, 1996). The HLF should be driven by the fact that tourists spend on the basis of relative cost/bilateral exchange rates, destination attractiveness, overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP), consumer expenditure, and investment. There should also be effective management of factors such as security/safety, alternatives (availability/relative cost), taxation, globalization, incomes and inflation so that the visitors can have confidence in the trips to the country (VisitBritain, 2009). sSecurity is a major concern especially with the development of terrorism and many terror threats coming from terror groups that act as militia. Security may come as a threat in view of the London bombings and suicide bombings occurring globally targeted at developed countries. There must be more segmentation of tourist products to enable all people of different income levels are able to visit the sites; while taxation needs to be checked to ensure the participants in the heritage tourism industry are not affected negatively in their business. The HLF cannot do this alone but needs the help of all the stakeholders who must contribute to ensure an efficient tourism industry majoring on heritage as an asset. According to the Heritage Lottery Fund report, (2009) the HLF has the mandate to make this dream a reality because it remains very vicious and is achievable through proper mechanism. The most recent has been the investment of  £4.4 billion since 1994. The funding involved eight of the most attraction in England, twenty one of UKs world heritage sites and 14 national parks (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). Over the years there have been extensive studies on the progress of the investment where visitor surveys and economic impact studies. In the studies it has been found out that typical increase in the number of visitors by more than 50%; 88% of visitors rate the value for money of HLFs investment as either good or excellent; an estimated 32,000 jobs have been sustained in the tourism sector as a direct result of HLF funding; and every  £1million of HLF funding leads to an increase in tourism revenues for regional economies of  £4.2million over 10 years (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). The HLF focuses on enhancing heritage tourism through exploiting the potential in the strengths of the country which include natural/historical/cultural assets; the English language; accommodation; food and drink; and international connections (history and transport) (Boyd, Timothy, 2003). With these advantages on their side they are able to build a strong empire that contributes to vibrant growth in the economy and development of other vital sectors. There are weaknesses that make this exploitation a challenge which according to the The British Tourism Review, 2009 in the article Achieving The Full Potential Of The Visitor Economy include transport infrastructure; expense of visit not value for money (e.g. visitors pay the second highest amount of tax in the world); logistics (e.g. Visas) are expensive and complicated to attain compared with other countries; welcome and skills of people in the industry; and short summer seasons. In the Heritage Lottery Fund report (2009) it is estimated that 53% of people who make trips annually do so to experience what historic towns and cities have to offer; 42% make visits to the museums and galleries, translating to 40 million people annually visiting museums and galleries. 10 million trips are made to the historic parks, 1.2 billion visit the country side, 38 million visit historic buildings cathedrals and castles and an estimated 250 million visit the Britains inland natural features such as canals and waterways. Putting into consideration the high potential in the tourism sector can grow explicitly if developed; as cited by the HLF report Investing in success the tourism economy is estimated to grow by 2.6% annually between the years 2009 and 2018; this is a much higher estimate that the 0.8% estimated growth in retailing, manufacturing and construction sectors (The Heritage Lottery Fund report, 2009). In conclusion the potential in the heritage industry is immense and with the numerous gains there is need to ensure they are safeguarded from any destruction. More efforts are needed to make sure the full potential is achieved so that the economy can grow sustainable. Sustainable management should be key issues in the maintenance so that visitors can be encouraged to visit not just one time but numerously so as to increase income. The HLF has the challenge to make better policies that will ensure all the potential is exploited and also sustainable use of the resources. The UK government through HLF should make sure should develop policies that maximize on both volume and value; enhance adaptability, and support long term sustainable economic growth. A more efficient and effective heritage tourism industry should not only be the goal of the HLF and the government but also all stakeholders that benefit either directly or indirectly. There should also be very tactical measures that ensu re improved domestic heritage tourism which will not only make earnings but also teach the locals about their traditions and heritage.

The Growth of American Government from the End of Reconstruction and th

In the past, the nation’s government took the â€Å"laissez-faire† approach to dealing with the economy and/or free market affairs. The government intervened as little as possible, asserting the belief felt that if left alone, economic problems would be resolved without government interference. However, this approach was not guaranteed, and at times, the government had to put aside the â€Å"laissez-faire† approach of the past. The government had no other choice but to intervene in these instances to return balance to the economy and protect its citizens it served. The government changed both its approach and its size through programs initiated by the Industrial Revolution, New Deal programs during and following the Great Depression, and World War II, forever changing the relationship between Americans and their Government. During the Industrial Revolution with the massive railroad production across the country, the railroad executives were clever, strong-minded, mostly dishonest men who bribed congressmen, and conducted crooked financial deals who became known as â€Å"robber barons†. 1 As railroads expanded transportation across the country, it opened up a vast market for competition and over production of farm products. The railroad executives took advantage of the fact that the railroad was the only transportation that some farmers had to ship their products. Since the railroads had formed monopolies, they were free to charge whatever rates they saw fit and took full advantage of this by price discrimination. They offered discounts and rebates to big corporations with large loads which the individual farmer did not have. Nor did farmers have the political influence to fight the railroads on these matters.2 Therefore, in 1877, t... ... 11. American A Narrative History 8th Edition, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shir, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., New York 2010 book pg 1086-87 12. HI 1073 United States History 1877-Present Discussion Manual Spring 2011 CH 5 – The Interwar Years, 58. Social Security Act (1935). 13. American A Narrative History 8th Edition, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shir, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., New York 2010 book Page 1197 14. HI 1073 United States History 1877-Present Discussion Manual Spring 2011 CH 6 – World War II, 70. The GI Bill of Rights (1944). 15. American A Narrative History 8th Edition, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shir, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., New York 2010 pg 1209 16. American A Narrative History 8th Edition, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shir, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., New York 2010 page 1218

Womens Rights Versus Gods Will Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

Women's Rights Versus God's Will It seems these days that everyone is concerned with their rights. People feel that there are certain rights that they should have regardless of their race, religion, sex, and so forth. And rightfully so – everyone is entitled to basic human rights. Many belonging to specific groups – such as women, and homosexuals - feel that these basic rights aren't enough and that they need more. They feel that their group should be granted special "rights," which aren't really rights at all. The early advocates of women's rights started out with good intentions – they were fighting for the abolition of slavery, suffrage for women and equal pay for men and women, among other similar rights. The first major turning point in the advocates' battle was on July 19th and 20th of 1848. On those dates, the Seneca Falls Convention was held in New York. The men and women at the convention created a document called the Declaration of Sentiments, which they based on the Declaration of Independence. This document created a foundation, a source of where to go, how to go about getting the government to recognize the rights to which they were entitled. As time went on, woman suffrage advocates like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed organizations, such as the NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association) and the AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association). Eventually, after the formation of other organizations and after lots of support raising within states, women were granted the right to vote on August 26, 1920. Women's groups didn't stop at getting the right to vote. They worked toward receiving equal pay, equal educational opportunities, and equal job opportunities. In 1963, Congress passed a law req... ...ww.family.org/fofmag/sl/a0010612.html, February 13, 2002. "Ms. Herstory." (Online). Available http://64.29.220.68/msherstory.asp, February 12, 2002. "National Organization for Women (NOW)". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) "Roe v. Wade". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill. "The History of the Suffrage Movement." (Online). Available http://www.pbs.org/onewoman/suffrage.html, February 12, 2002. "The Path of the Women's Rights Movement." (Online). Available http://www.nwhp.org/legacy98/timeline.html, February 19, 2002. "Women's Rights". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) "Woman's Suffrage". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) Women's Rights Versus God's Will Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Women's Rights Versus God's Will It seems these days that everyone is concerned with their rights. People feel that there are certain rights that they should have regardless of their race, religion, sex, and so forth. And rightfully so – everyone is entitled to basic human rights. Many belonging to specific groups – such as women, and homosexuals - feel that these basic rights aren't enough and that they need more. They feel that their group should be granted special "rights," which aren't really rights at all. The early advocates of women's rights started out with good intentions – they were fighting for the abolition of slavery, suffrage for women and equal pay for men and women, among other similar rights. The first major turning point in the advocates' battle was on July 19th and 20th of 1848. On those dates, the Seneca Falls Convention was held in New York. The men and women at the convention created a document called the Declaration of Sentiments, which they based on the Declaration of Independence. This document created a foundation, a source of where to go, how to go about getting the government to recognize the rights to which they were entitled. As time went on, woman suffrage advocates like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed organizations, such as the NWSA (National Woman Suffrage Association) and the AWSA (American Woman Suffrage Association). Eventually, after the formation of other organizations and after lots of support raising within states, women were granted the right to vote on August 26, 1920. Women's groups didn't stop at getting the right to vote. They worked toward receiving equal pay, equal educational opportunities, and equal job opportunities. In 1963, Congress passed a law req... ...ww.family.org/fofmag/sl/a0010612.html, February 13, 2002. "Ms. Herstory." (Online). Available http://64.29.220.68/msherstory.asp, February 12, 2002. "National Organization for Women (NOW)". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) "Roe v. Wade". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill. "The History of the Suffrage Movement." (Online). Available http://www.pbs.org/onewoman/suffrage.html, February 12, 2002. "The Path of the Women's Rights Movement." (Online). Available http://www.nwhp.org/legacy98/timeline.html, February 19, 2002. "Women's Rights". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002) "Woman's Suffrage". Microsoft ® Encarta ® Online Encyclopedia 2001 http://encarta.msn.com (12 Feb. 2002)

Exploring the Past Essay

All of us have little secrets which we don’t want to share with others – things which we are ashamed of, things which are too intimate to tell or just things which happened in the past and we don’t want to tell them because they may hurt someone or they may cause troubles to us. I have the perfect example that exploring the past sometimes may be painful. I have a friend – Lora- which is very amorous and gives all of herself for her boyfriend. But her ex one didn’t understand that. Tom – her ex-boyfriend was very weird and he wanted to know all about Lora’s previous relationships. One day he asked her why she has broken up with her last boyfriend. At first she didn’t want to talk about that but he was urging her. So she told Tom that she has betrayed her last boyfriend and that was the reason of their parting. When she has been at a party at a friend of her she has got very drunk and a boy from the party has embraced the opportunity and got alone with her. In the morning she couldn’t remember anything but it has been too late. The lover had gone off. Her only fault was that she had drunk so much but she wasn’t guilty for the rest of the occurrence. But her then boyfriend didn’t understand that and he left her although she loved him very much. As for Tom he thought Lora could do that again. They have been together for two years and he chucked her up because she might repeat the same mistake again. It was such a stupid reason. She could correct her mistake but she loved Tom very much. He loved her too but feelings were obviously insufficient to keep them together. They both pined after each other for a long but they didn’t get together again. We can’t return the time and fix our mistakes, nobody can change the past. So it is extremely purposeless to explore the old times. It’s just a waste of time which we can spend in creating the future.

Global Media and Cultural Homogenisation Essay

In the 21st century, economic globalization has finally become an irresistible reality. Information, technology, goods, people, especially monetary capital are frequently exchanging worldwide unprecedentedly. The development and expansion of markets have effectively broken through the national, ethnic, cultural customs and ideological boundaries (Fairweather & Rogerson 2003). From multinationals, satellite TV, Internet to McDonald’s, Mercedes-Benz cars, cartoons, various cultures are now crossing huge distance and national borders, more densely implanted in different countries, and finally resulting in the phenomenon of cultural homogenisation. This essay is going to discuss whether globalisation implies cultural homogenisation, which will mainly focus on the role that global media has played in causing this phenomenon. To better understanding whether globalisation could lead to cultural homogenisation, this essay is about to define globalisation first. More specifically, globalisation is a terminology in economics, and scholars have three main kinds of explanation for globalisation: the first is that globalisation is Westernisation or Americanisation (Appadurai 2001), the second is that globalisation is the worldwide optimising allocation of economic and technical resources (McChesney 2001); and the third is that globalisation is to solve global problems such as environmental pollution, population explosion, drugs proliferation and transnational crimes, etc. (Mehlika 2013). In this essay, the meaning of globalisation is referred to the second explanation. When it comes to the effects of globalisation, it could be seen in various aspects, and living space of people has been associated with the world as a whole. For instance, London’s stock market or the European Football League is not a regional event, shockwave of these events quickly spread to every corner of the globe (Mehlika 2013). â€Å"Global village† is a more realistic word to describe the current world (Appadurai 2001). No matter international relations, political interests, social wealth distribution, cultural homogenisation or everyday life, globalisation has shown their significant role in those fields, and has contributed to profound consequences. Cultural homogenisation, which could be expressed as one of the significant impacts  of cultural globalization, that is local unique cultures all over the local culture will tend to become a single global culture, contributing to different lifestyles, values and beliefs of differing ethnics and communities are becoming increasingly similar (Mihailidis & Moeller 2010,). According to the view of Marxist (Mehlika 2013), the economic base determines the superstructure; economic and cultural globalization inextricably has linked and influenced each other. With the impact of the trend of globalisation, previously diversified culture has been influenced by the stronger culture and fashionable trend which are normally propagated by global commercial media system (McChesney 2001). In addition, McChesney (2001) holds the view that economic and cultural globalization arguably would be impossible without a global commercial media system to promote global markets and to encourage consumer values. Therefore, this essay believe that global media has played a crucial role in the development of globalisation and cultural homogenisation, and the following part of this article will mainly focus on the how global media has impacts on cultural homogenisation. At present, when reading newspapers or magazines, or turning on the TV, a confusing phenomenon could be the hom ogenisation of media culture, and sometimes similar entertaining programs could be seen in dozens of TV channels. Homogenization of media culture is very fast, often like a plague epidemic (Jan 2009). For example, a popular talent show called American Idol in the U.S. had a new name in China called Chinese Idol, which completely copied the main contents of American Idol. In addition, the successfulness of open copy experience has immediately provoked a chain reaction, almost all the local TV stations are following this trend, for a time, from national TV station (CCTV) to the local ones, and more than ten similar talent shows hurriedly came out. Another example is the Quiz Millionaire, this TV show has numerous versions in China, such as Happy Dictionary, Lucky 52, and so on. And there are various other TV programs in China are just Chinese version of famous TV programs around the world. In terms of the homogenisation of media culture, what most people may consider first is to criticize the lack of creativity of TV people or media workers. However, to explore further, more problems will involve in this problem. That is the globalisation of commercial media will unavoidably lead to the homogenisation of different cultures (McChesney 2001). A problem that may  be ignored is the convergent environment of media. More specifically, people tend to accept the fact of the homogenization of economic life; however, it is difficult to accept the homogenization of culture. The majority people still hold the view that different cultures should own their unique national, ethnic, and local characteristics (Fairweather, & Rogerson 2003). In other words, individuals could drive multinational or foreign designed automobiles, wear foreign produced perfume, but should remain vigilant when enjoy foreign films and television programs or other cultural products (Dumas, et al. 2010). However, little do these people know that the production mode of the media culture determines the globalisation of it, especially since the mid-twentieth century , new media and new media culture comes along with it, are emerging and developing in the international environment with relatively frequent exchanges (Appadurai 2000). That is to say, what we call the media culture of today is not entirely follow the traditional method that brought to the global market after its completion in certain developed countries, but gradually generated in the broader context of international exchanges which are contributed by the modern commercial media system (McChesney 2001). Taking the Hollywood films as an example, it is totally different form what it was half a century ago. Today’s Hollywood has a broader global context; its creators and performers are white, black or yellow from Europe, Asia or Oceania and other regions around the world. Additionally, technical means or electronic producing technologies of Hollywood films are also the most advanced, regardless of the technology are coming from the United States or from other countries. Another example could be the footboard culture, before the Western football culture was introduced to China, China does not have similar local cultural phenomenon about football. Because there is no similar local media environment of football in China, the popularity of football media culture in China is not resulting from the public choosing the Western media culture in the competition with local media culture (just like choose the team which that is liked best), but the decision has been make before individuals have the right to choose, or that the decision is made by the convergent media environment (Jan 2009). For the football culture in china, it is either existing or not existing; and once it exists, it would be derived from western culture. Here, the most difficult to imagine is the development of  China’s own local football culture. The development of culture cannot be delimited and designated by people in a relatively closed space (Bredin 2009). In other words, culture is not static, but dynamic, and acquiring development in the exchanges and communication with other cultures. Ethnic and local cultural could be regarded as closed culture in certain degree, but only with respect to the degree of globalisation and internationalisation (Bredin 2009). In fact any so-called ethnically local culture cannot grow in a completely closed environment, just like running water is never stale, any viable culture must obtain nutrients and support in the exchanges and communications with other cultures (Bredin 2009). For example, Chinese culture, which originated in the Yellow River Basin, but in the long years later, it is in contact with the south Chu culture and western culture it becomes vibrant. People may be sceptical for the single origin of Chinese culture, but they will not deny that the development and prosperity of Chinese culture is owing to the time after time collision and exchanges with other cultures. Cultural homogenisation may emerge during the exchanges and collision, which contains various types of convergence of this case (Fairweather, B & Rogerson, S 2003). For instance, some cultures could be complementing each other’s advantages. Additionally, there are weak cultures naturalised by the dominant culture, as well as the repression of strong cultural to weak culture. Besides, there are also new cultures created in the collision and interaction of differing cultures. All these situations discussed above exist in the development of today’s media culture; however, the convergence of media culture is obvious more than ever of any age. Here, admirations should be given to McLuhan’s prophecy of â€Å"earth village†, his conclusion was drawn from â€Å"media is the message†, rather than deduced from the globalisation of capital and markets (Jan 2009). Moreover, perhaps another deduction could be made that the globalisation of capital and markets are also a result caused by the modern media system in some degree. Besides, as what has been discussed above, global media will also contribute to cultural homogenisation. In fact, media culture reflect the conformity or group psychology of individu als, it could absorb essence and advantages from other cultures, and then turn into a form of global media culture. Therefore, from what has been discussed above, in order to find out whether the globalisation implies cultural homogenisation,  this essay has made the following discussions. On the one hand, the globalisation is an economic term which is promoted by global commercial media system. On the other hand, various studies has found out that it is the global media commercial media system that promoted the convergence of the media culture, and influence the national, ethnic and local culture through media values. Nowadays, individuals are deeply influenced by the wide broadcasted media systems, thus, more and more people have the tendency to pursue the latest fashionable elements, or other items to keep up with the time. Moreover, According to Appadurai (2001), the globalisation of culture is no the same as its homogenisation, however, globalisation involves the use of a variety of instruments of homogenisation. This also indicates that it is not the globalisation that completely leads to the cultural homogenisation. Cultural homogenisation is more likely to be regarded as a coexistence with the globalisation, which are caused by the increasingly homogeneous comm ercial media system. In conclusion, in order to investigate the relationship between globalisation and cultural homogenisation, and get a better understanding of both these items. This essay has defined the meaning globalisation and cultural homogenisation based on the previous studies. Moreover, this article has discussed the emergency and development of cultural homogenisation, and then finds out that the global commercial media system has played a vital role in causing this phenomenon. The following parts of the essay discussed the how the global media culture is formed and its impacts on the result of cultural homogenisation. Finally, this essay hold the view that, the fact of globalisation does not completely imply the emergency of cultural homogenisation, however, it is the increasingly homogeneous global commercial media system that plays a more important role in both causing the globalisation and cultural homogenisation. Reference list Appadurai, A 2000, ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’, in Frank Lecchner and John Boli (eds), The Globalization Reader, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 322-330. Dobewall, H & Strack, M 2011, ‘Cultural Value Differences, Value Stereotypes, and Diverging Identities in Intergroup Conflicts: The Estonian Example’, International Journal of Conflict and Violence, vol.5, no.1, pp. 212-223. Dumas, G, Madel, J, Soussignan, R, Martinerie, J & Garnero, L 2010, ‘Inter-brain synchronization during social interaction’, Plos one, vol. 5, no.8, e12166 Mihailidis, P & Moeller, S 2010, ‘New Frontiers in Global Media Education’, Communication Today, vol. 2, pp.6-13. Fairweather, B & Rogerson, S 2003,‘The problems of global cultural homogenisation in a technologically dependant world’, Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7-12, viewed 27 April 2014, < http://search.proq uest.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/docview/1011920977/C47C3B1C2CD642E3PQ/4?accountid=14245>. Bredin, M 2009, ‘Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, Politics’, Canadian Journal of Communication, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 765-767. Jan, M 2009, ‘Globalization of media: Key issues and dimensions’, European Journal of scientific research, vol. 29, no.1, pp. 66-75. McChesney, RW 2001, â⠂¬ËœGlobal Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism’, Monthly Review, vol. 52, no.10, pp.1-19. Mehlika, F 2013, ‘Globalization and its social-cultural-political and economic impacts’, viewed 26 April 2014, .