Influence of Government Type on Policy Making

Influence of Government Type on Policy Making When a country has a democratic government, the process of implementing a law is extremely tedious compared to a monarchy.  In a monarchy,  the rulers word is law, and that law is enacted precisely when the ruler says it is, saving a great deal of time and work. However, the trade-off  is necessary,  especially in complex policy issues,  such as  foreign policy,  that relate  to war. When  entering conflict with  a  foreign nation,  it’s crucial for the survival of a nation. War is an extremely costly operation, one  that can cause substantial  financial damage to  a  nation. A democratic political system,  such as  in  the USA,  specifically prevents a nation  from  entering wars  for any defensive  or offensive  purpose  that is not publicly approved, because a mistake in such decision will impact the survival of a  nation. Even though there is a loss of efficiency, it ensures the survival of a nation. However, the main reason why extensive checks on policy is necessary,  is because we humans suffer from our own psychological bias.  In the book The Nudge, the author describes  Ã¢â‚¬Å"we human  can be manipulated by savvy architects of choice â€Å".  Referencing  that we human,  and  politicians  of course,  will sometimes makes incorrect decision or irrational decision based  on  psychological manipulation. A check and balance system  extensively  prevents that from happening in our government.  By making single sided and quick decisions virtually impossible from our policy making process. Despite the obvious loss  of  efficiency, this trade-off of speed for balance is essential. The framers of the American constitution knew well the results of absolute rule  and structured the nation they founded very specifically to avoid such tyranny. A somewhat clunky government is the unavoidable price of a multi-faceted government. In turn, public participation is encouraged under such a system, as people are made to feel that their efforts can make a difference, as opposed to the sense that a distant and unconcerned  monarch  will simply do as he  or she  likes regardless of public opinion and action. Using the United States as an example, the  president, head of the executive branch of government and holder of the ostensive title of â€Å"head of state,†Ã‚  has virtually no power to draft new legislation. In fact, his (or her) authority in this matter is entirely limited to effectively asking nicely for  Congress (which constitutes the legislative branch) to introduce the desired law. Political allies in the House of Representatives will certainly comply, but their opponents are sure to question and criticize the new law to within an inch of its life, insisting on amendments and modifications if they allow it to move forward at all. Assuming some agreement – often  taking a long time to  reach  and achieved only after the requisite rounds of political scheming and posturing – can be reached, essentially the entire process must be repeated in the Senate, where the unique balance of  senators may bring the bills future into question yet again. We can see that by allowing discussion and exchange between  the  Senate and  House,  the public participation in the political matter increases  as well. As each citizen  recognizes  that we elected our own policy makers,  every citizen makes a difference,  as opposed  to a monarch,  who often distances  him  or herself from the public when making public policy,  thus discouraging  public participation. One way to allow the public participation is  allowing public to form  special interest group to maintain their position in the government by lobbying  to  influence other people to support the organization’s position.  These interest groups  often testify in legislative hearings,  donate to  political candidates  (Www.opensecret.org),  and donate money to candidate or organization to lobby  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  politicians.   When special interest effects certain elite groups, the candidate of the elite group can spread their ideas to the  public  at large,  which results in  a  change  in  public opinion, thus ensuring their ideas and objective are in place in the society. Special interest group  are  formed  by groups of individuals,  and  the group’s ability to drawn in large  numbers  of citizens directly impacts the quality of policy,  because when implementing a policy, to satisfy its members,  the policy drafting procedure must ensure a common understanding of the law, must be readable (not overly complex),  and it must  achieve  the group’s social, political,  and legal objectives,  which are the criteria of a good-quality policy.  Reading) ( Think tanks are a wide range of institution that provides public policy research, advice,and analysis, while operating independently. They are non-profit  and  operate  independently  from political partiesand government. Their main goal is to help government officials  understand and make rational decisions  on different issues.  They support policy developments by  conducting research on  complex issues  with their expertise and present their extensive findings to  government officials,  such as congress and other officials. Think tanks  act  as  an intermediary  between knowledge and politicians. However, think tanks approach different issues differently. A scientific approach requires extensive testing  of  theories about the policy effects. A professional approach requires analysis of the  opportunity cost of different alternatives. And lastly a political approach requires support of  the  left or right-wing party. Although the description above summarizes different approaches  for different think tanks, the underlying  simultaneous approach requires think tanks to understand complex issues and to provide research and advice to  funders  or  political leaders  and together draft a quality policy that can reach different objective. To explain the difference between political vs economic model we can look at democracy vs communism.  To begin with, democracy is entirely a political model. In  the American sense, democracy is no economic model. It is a system in which the people at large vote upon voluntary candidates who have asked to serve as representatives in a variety of capacities, and once winning election, to decide policy as they see fit. As this structure the  administration of the country, with no necessary commentary upon economics, it is a political model. By contrast, communism is an economic model, though its nature does tend to favour a political structure. Communism is an extreme flavour of socialism that emphasizes the dignity of the common worker, who is credited with building and maintaining all human societies. As such, communism purports to establish an economy free of financial inequality, in which the workers – constituting most of the population – are all equal social partners. It is in this manner that communism can be mistaken for a political model, as such tight controls on societal resources all but require a strong centralized government to oversee distribution. But this is a consequence of communisms economic ideal, rather than a prescription. Communism is an economic model. Again, an economic model as rigid as communism tends to demand a powerful government, but ultimately it is a nations political model – not its economic model – that determines the selection of policies. This is only sensible, as policy should be set by a nations leaders – even if, as in the U.S.A  example above, those leaders are none but the people themselves – and not by directly by economic factors. I believe economic model should dictate policy making, because  economic model is  a much effective and less costly  way to  drive changes in the country.  When  we look at the  example of increase  alcohol tax  led to decrease in alcohol purchase.  We can see that economic policy  clearly influences human behaviour. Not only it decreases drunk driving accidents, it increases  productivity  and health gains. In the past we have seen example of political models in place to ban alcohol  (18th  amendment), not only it did not decrease  incentive to purchase  alcohol, it increase power, corruption within a nation  which  cause  more  social damage to a  nation.  Economic model has proven itself as the best model to drive changes in a country  and human behaviour. References Keilman, John. Higher Booze Tax a Lifesaver?  Chicago Tribune. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. Top Donor Profiles.  Center for Responsive Politics. 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2014. www.opensecrets.org>.Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein.  Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, Conn.: Yale UP, 2008. Print.

The dotcom bubble and the stock market fall in 2000-2001

Summary of the main points covered in my essay. How did the dotcom bubble burst contribute to the economic crisis of the 2008? Could we expect the similar crisis and how can it be prevented? What are the lessons that should have been learned from the dotcom crisis? When the global financial crisis occurred in 2008, both experts and general public started heated discussion as everyone was eager to identify the reasons for such a calamity. It is clear that nothing happens with no reason at all. Let's consider the famous speech1 of Ben Bernanke, who is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System. In that testimony he tried to explain the causes of the recent financial and economic crisis to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, highlighting the vulnerabilities in different sectors of economics. The idea of inadequate risk-measurement that he focused on is very important for us, as this particular issue makes the recent crisis akin to the dotcom bubble we are about to examine in detail. (The same idea is one of the major issues of the next Ben Bernanke's speeches, where he underlines the importance of reasonable risk management and possible destructive effects of being too optimistic about the future of the economic system). To sum up, experts claim that flaws in evaluating the perspectives of new technologies in the 90ies caused the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, while the inadequate risk-measurement of the financial instruments connected to mortgages led to the global financial and economic crisis in 2008. Could we have predicted the economic disaster coming in 2008 and which lessons could have been gathered from the dotcom crisis? These are the questions that make the topic urgent and exciting to examine. To begin with, let's define the key term. What is a dotcom? Dotcom is a firm conducting its business mainly over the Internet. They usually possess a Web site intended for business use. The term is based on the â€Å"com† that forms the last part of the address for most commercial Web-sites. Now, what were the reasons for the dotcom bubble burst and what actually happened? (We should mention that this phenomenon is also referred as the Internet bubble and the Information Technology Bubble in many articles). It all started during the mid 1990is. The Internet was extremely popular those days and the Stock Market soared on technology and Internet stocks. Stock prices were rising and it seemed there was to limit for their value to expand. The masses believed there was a new world coming and the Internet was for sure to become the future of business. The steady confidence took place that the e-companies would turn future profits and there is no limit for technologies development. These expectations were reflected in the NASDAQ composite index. The NASDAQ composite is a stock market index of the common stocks and similar securities, which are listed on the NASDAQ stock market. The index reflects the performance of stocks of technology companies and growth companies. From January 1994 to February 2000, the it rose from 776. 80 to 4,696. 69, a 605% increase, and was influenced mainly by prices of high-technology stocks. But these expectations turned out to be far too positive. The market became overvalued. The Stock Market crashed. The culmination happened on March 10, 2000, with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132. 52 in intraday trading before closing at 5048. 62. (see the graph 1) Graph 1. NASDAQ composite dynamics2 The period when the bubble expanded rapidly was marked by the founding of many new small Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dotcoms. Many of them failed in 2000. A very specific phenomenon could be noticed at that time – the way for a new unknown company to become prosperous was just to add an â€Å"e-† prefix to their name or a â€Å". com† to the end. One of the authors called it â€Å"prefix investing†3, as the result of this simple renaming was the incredible growth of stock prices. I suppose that was one of the first indicators that something was wrong and the calamity was coming. But everyone considered it the steady development of the market that has big future. Alan Greenspan (an American economist, the Chairman of the Fed in 1987-2006) in 2005 said, that â€Å"this vast increase in the market value of asset claims is in part the indirect result of investors accepting lower compensation for risk. Such an increase in market value is too often viewed by market participants as structural and permanent†4. However, the situation isn't unique and appeared to happen again. When in 2003 nanotechnology became the â€Å"hot† thing, everyone started to add a â€Å"nano† prefix in their name. It seems that the lessons that should have been learned from the dotcom bubble burst were forgotten. Let's turn to the term itself in its theoretical sense. What is the bubble in financial markets? In a word, we say that a stock market bubble occurs when there is a rise or boom in the share prices of stocks of a particular industry. Meanwhile, the rise in prices usually bears little relation to the intrinsic value of the asset. The term â€Å"bubble† may be used with certainty only in retrospect when share prices have since crashed, as it happened in our case. An important basic characteristic of a bubble is the suspension of disbelief by most market participants during the â€Å"bubble phase. They fail to recognize that all of them are engaged in a speculative activity. That characteristic describes the dotcom crisis as well, as we already found out. It would be interesting to mention that financial bubbles have existed for centuries and one of the earliest crises of the type in known as the Dutch tulip mania. In the 17th century prices for tulip bulbs rose and finally reached extraordinarily high levels and then collapsed in the blink of an eye. The same happened to the stock of e-companies in the late 90ies. I suppose we can refer to this case as to â€Å"the dotcom mania†. The speculators who represent all the people in the economy that what to get high profits very fast, note the fast increase in value and decide to buy stock in anticipation of further rises, not taking into account that the shares are overvalued. Consequently the rise happens responding to the high demand for stock and many companies thus become grossly overvalued. When the bubble â€Å"bursts†, the share prices fall dramatically, and many companies are forced to leave the business. In order to be more precise, we can name five stages of any financial bubble5: First. Displacement. When people, especially investors, get enamored by a new paradigm, such as an innovative new technology or dotcom companies, as in our case, displacement occurs. That is the first stage of a financial bubble. Second. Boom. At this stage prices rise slowly at first, following a displacement, but then they gain momentum. More and more participants enter the market. All of them are determined to get prosperous as soon as possible. In case of dotcoms, a huge amount of small companies appeared on the market. The low interest rates in 1998-99 helped to increase the start-up capital amounts. Not all of them possessed innovative ideas, but they were sure that in the wave of e-companies they must succeed. No wonder they all had the same business plan of monopolizing their respective sectors through network effects. However it was clear that all of them wouldn't become successful as the competition was tough. For many of them the â€Å"get big fast† plan would fail. During this phase, investors become even more enamored by the asset, considering it once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that increases speculation even more. Mass media also played its role. American respected business publications such as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, encouraged the public to invest in risky companies in the wave of the wide-spread euphoria. As the result, many â€Å"ordinary† people became investors, some of them even gave up their job to become fill-time traders. Third. Euphoria. During this phase investors as well as the whole financial system forgets about prudence and asset prices skyrocket. During the dotcom bubble, the euphoria stage took place in the beginning of March 2000, when NASDAQ composite reached its top at 5132. 2 in intraday trading before closing at 5048. 62. This and the previous stages can be clearly revealed from the NASDAQ dynamics (see graph 1). Fourth. Profit taking. By this time the warning signs of coming debacle can be seen. This is the point when smart investors can make fortunes by selling out positions and taking profits. However, it is obvious that it's very difficult to estimate the exact time when a bubble is due to collapse. John Maynard Keynes once mentioned that â€Å"the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. As for the dotcoms founders, few of them made vast fortunes when their companies were bought out before the collapse. Fifth. Panic. In the panic stage, asset prices change direction and descend as rapidly as they had ascended. Investors and speculators are faced with margin calls, which are â€Å"demands on an investor using margin to deposit additional money or securities so that the margin account is brought up to the minimum maintenance margin†6, and the value of their holding plunge. Consequently, they want to liquidate them at any price. The supply overwhelms demand, and asset prices slide sharply. In 2000 the market index fell by almost 11% and NASDAQ fell by about 41%7. To explain the bubble applying the tools of mathematics, we'll apply the most common concept that shows the existence of bubbles8. Considering the most simple case of price of a single share, the mathematical definition of an asset price bubble uses the fair price of a financial asset as its starting point. The price of an asset is the present value of the future cash flows, generated by the asset. pt =Et(dt+1+pt+1)/(1+r), here dt is dividend, pt is the price of the asset at a certain time t, and Et(i) is the expected value of the expression in the brackets based on the information available at t time. If the interest rate (r) is held constant during the whole period, then share price at t time (pt) in a general form can be given as follows: The first part of the sum on the right, which is the discounted present value of dividends, is the fundamental value of the share (pt * ). The remainder (bt) is a deterministic or the stochastic component satisfying the condition bt = Et(bt+1) /(1 + r), which is the asset price bubble itself. So, if the price of an asset is formed as following: pt =p t*+bt, and if p =? p*, then in the mathematical sense an asset price the bubble is formed. To continue our analysis, let's describe the consequences of the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. Many small companies and some of the largest ones were forced to file for bankruptcy. Some of them ran out of capital, some of them were acquired, some were convicted of fraud in their financial statements. WorldCom, which was one of the leaders in the market was found practicing fraudulent accounting practices to exaggerate its profits every year. As it was revealed, it's stock price fell dramatically, and finally the company filed for bankruptcy. Other examples include NorthPoint Communications, Global Crossing, JDS Uniphase and many others. However, some of the e-companies managed to survive the calamity. Large companies, for example, Amazon. com and eBay, are quite successful nowadays. Google also survived the turmoil and became one of the market leaders. As many economists predicted, harsh recession began from 2001. The crash on the stock market of 2000-2002 caused the loss of $5 trillion in the market value of companies from March 2000 to October 2002: the market value of NASDAQ companies peaked at $6. 7 trillion in March 2000 and bottomed out at $1. 6 trillion in October 20029. The economic bottom was the followed by 9/11 terrorist attacks of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. CONCLUSION After the case of dotcom crisis the word â€Å"dotcom† started to be used with unfavourable inflecton. It is frequently used to refer to a poorly thought-out unsuccessful businesses. Experts claim that dotcom crisis was one of the events that preceded the global financial crisis in 2008. It was kind of a â€Å"rehearsal†, as the global crisis also contained a speculative bubble, though it embraced a much wider variety of securities. Luckily, the recession following the bubble burst of 2000-2001 was not as deep as it could have been thanks to very aggressive interest rates lowering. However, a deeper downturn in the financial activity is much harder to overcome. The Internet bubble is also similar to the recent downturn because they were both preceded by inadequate risk-measurement and agents' overconfidence. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 could have been predicted, if everyone was more prudent and learned a lesson from the 2000 dotcom case. In conclusion, I'd like to address the issue of a new Internet crisis that is predicted by some economists. Nowadays World Web companies place their stock at unbelievably high prices. Can a successful Internet project cost more than a huge transnational oil company? The common sense says definitely no, but investors have their own specific point of view. For example, the shares of Groupon, a famous discount service, we evaluated at $12,7 trillions, despite the company's loss of $400 trillions the previous year and gross debt equal to $420 millions. This estimation is not reasonable and very far from reality. Meanwhile, the expected IPO of social network Facebook is evaluated at $100 trillions. It can be the beginning of the Dotcom Crisis 2. 0. On the other hand investors are optimistic about e-companies, as they survived the recent global crisis, unlike huge interconnected firms in other fields, such as financial, machinery and so on. However, if the case of Groupon is not unique (which is so, judging by the investors' optimistic mood) the crisis can occur once again. The most important thing in preventing the possible debacle is being prudent. Investors shouldn't be too optimistic and should be sensible when acquiring assets. PR and advertising can be astonishing, however being reasonable means evaluating the real business indicators to make rational decisions. Risk-management is the field that shouldn't be ignored if we want to avoid new crises.

Family Guy Travesty Essay

Scholars express the concern that the image of an American family is transitively evolving through time. The conceptions of denigrating the styles and beliefs of racial-ethnic, immigrant, gay-lesbian, and single parent families has been contended in the early nineties to be that which is not encouraging the veracity of portraying an American family but rather offers the otherwise. Hence, little has been known on the context of the eminent portrayal of an American family in television. Family ideology shapes the consciousness and expectations of those growing up the margin of the mainstream; nevertheless, this leads to the manifestation that the image of the aforementioned member in the community transforms as the market of media simultaneously evolves as well (Greenblatt, 1990). In essence, media is one of the most surprising sources of information in the society. The potential of television to negatively or positively affect attitudes, social behaviors, and other sort of the like has been studied and thrilling results were gathered. Same is true for the portrayal of families, age, sex, and race-role socialization. As a matter of fact, studies show that the images seen on television by its viewers somehow serve as an educational tool, with this, the threat of getting the â€Å"wrong perspectives† is uncontrollable and so are the views of those who have been touched by the influence of media (Fabes, Wilson, & Christopher, 1989). This then connotes the perception that the portrayals aired on television are products of the evolving sense of simultaneous reaction over the media and the society. In simple logic, what the society wishes to see are given by the media, therefore, the portrayal of an American family in the television nowadays are depicting â€Å"reality† so to speak. Of course critics often spur a fight with whatever is served on the table that is not a new thing. How media portrays an American family is an issue that comes along with societal changes (Lasswell, 2002). More specifically, the rise of â€Å"reality TV shows† could attest to that matter. 1950: The Black and White Medium Media in the fifties were not as influential as it has been today. Perhaps the barrier on this is the connotation that there were only few who has television in their household because TV shows were then new to them. In the light of portraying American families, the issue on ethics and morality then surfaces the scenario. Americans were still â€Å"conservative† in some point that showing the â€Å"bedroom† or love scenes would be considered as pornography. Basically, what most viewers would love watching are news about the war, or the commercials which are basically done on live stream. The scarcity of technology and celebrities keep the audience up waiting for their favorite show to air. As critics and normal citizens would contend, they consider the shows in the fifties as strict and politically correct; perhaps because television wanted to portray an â€Å"idealistic† form of family to attract audience whom as commended are experiencing several financial and social problems during that time (Lasswell, 2002). Popular shows in the fifties Something unique sprouted during the 1950’s in the vortex of television shows – the heroes were young men returning from war to a nation ravished and ripe for one of the greatest booms in civilized history, and the love stories that utterly triggers romance among its viewers. Few of the shows who topped are The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and the Lone Ranger. These shows were among the pioneers of the quasi-comic, quasi-drama shows that contemporary media are now pursuing. For Nelson and Harriet’s reality show, it portrayed the reality of being in a middle class family in the eyes of the masses. They were in the limelight and the story mainly revolved to them. It was the politeness of David and Ricky which captured the hearts of young women, and what amazes the audience all the more were the practicality of the show since they were all representing their real lives and their real names. Similarly, the Beavers in Leave it to Beaver belonged to the â€Å"elites† or the middle-class families. They were the epitome of nice individuals and they were living in Pleasantville. Airing for ten years, I Love Lucy was the representation of a typical American family. Unlike that of the Ozzies, there is a husband who frantically hates his wife’s dream of becoming famous and being a movie star but never left her despite the opposing poles. Not only that, there was a bond between Lucy’s family and the Mertz, it showed that a typical American family is healthy inside and outside the corners of their house (Casconi, 2008). 1960: Batman, Gilligan’s Island and the Addams Family Conceivably, the sixties is considered as the rise of â€Å"superficiality. † This is because the shows which topped the charts were owned by fictional characters and imaginary families. There came Batman, Gilligan’s Island and the Addams Family. Among the rest, these are few of the shows which are carried on in the 21st century. As a matter of fact, up to date, these shows have several renditions—movies, cartoon shows and theatrical plays—all of which connote one thing, that their influence is flexible. American families in such shows showed determination, passion for life and love for family. Still, explicitness was not very much present due to the fact that there have been regulations on the content of the shows aired. However, the question needs further deliberation as there are media laws and other forms of rules but then again, these are not properly implemented since these are tolerated (Casconi, 2008). Empowerment: The positive effect of media in the current schema For every human services organization, the empowerment both of its members and of its target population is perhaps at the core of its every endeavor. A compact and lively human service can only be thoroughly and truly achieve under the condition where the members and participants in the provision of human services are active and empowered. There are many ways to achieve this end, and perhaps the most recent of these ways is the trend of using video files for informing the public and the members of the organization (Coontz, 1998). Since empowerment essentially means â€Å"bringing people who are outside the decision-making process into it (Rowlands, 1995, p. 102). † Thus, it can be said that the empowerment of people outside of the inner circle in the provision of human services can be achieved through the actual mode of absorbing these people right into the heart of the decision-making process. This can be achieved through the help of digital videos where a careful elaboration into the processes of the provision of human services is done through moving images instead of the conventional paper documents and slideshow presentations. For example, the group of people who does not fall among the ranks within the circle of decision-makers in the human service operations can be empowered by giving them a thorough and lively presentation of what they will be doing. By making them fully aware of their tasks, they can be empowered in terms of preparing for what they should expect from the actual operations or field work. Digital videos can help strengthen such a drive for empowering the other members of the human services organization through the creation of visually stimulating videos or documentaries which are rich in content but are not presented in a stale and conventional manner typical to that of formal business corporate meetings. By using videos to stimulate the active participation of the organization members who are not essentially part of the decision-making body can lead to a more vibrant campaign for providing services to people. For instance, in organizational operations such as information dissemination, the human services organization can arrive at certain decisions such as what specific information should be given to the audience and what specific information should given more emphasis and how it can be achieved by taking into consideration the perceptions of the other members (Lasswell, 2002). One way to spur these members to contribute to the decision-making process is by showing them what the organization and the people expect from them through videos. By the time the other members are informed and have become acquainted with the expectations, they can further replenish the tasks and operations of the organization by sharing what they know to the decision-making body which the latter may not be familiar with (Okwumabua, 1999, p. 154). For example, after playing a certain digital video documentary, other members who are very much familiar with the topic viewed can be stimulated by the desire to share what one knows for the awareness and betterment of the organization. The Underprivileged: Their Dose of an Ideal Family in the Fifties The scenario in the fifties showed the following: acutely and chronically ill children were cared for in hospitals and other institutions with severely restricted parental visiting privileges; moreover, children with chronic illnesses rarely survived. But the otherwise are shown today, advances in health care have prolonged and improved the lives of children with chronic illness, and the majority of children are cared for by their families in their homes and communities. The first merger movement at the turn of the century led to significant concentration in some manufacturing industries, and less conspicuous inter-corporate links through family connections, financial houses, and interlocking directorates probably reinforced the trend towards concentration. However, there seems to have been little trend toward increased concentration since then, although average concentration ratios, however measured, show modest increases since 1945. Whatever the measures used, it is clear that oligopoly is prevalent in about one-half of American manufacturing industry, and that there remain sharp distinctions in concentration levels among industries. This does not mean that there have been no recent changes 1950; problems of housing, medical services, education and employment. And so majority of the families were in dire need of a dose of fantasy in their lives (Lasswell, 2002). If they were living in the underprivileged level of the pyramid, then at least they witness how Lucy and Harriet lived a life of fame and fortune. Sixties and Crossing the Lines of Mainstream TV Meanwhile, the expansion of schooling combined with growing affluence contributed to the emergence of a youth culture separate and apart from the family. Late-Twentieth-Century Families In 1960, 70 percent of American households consisted of a go-to-workdad, a stay-at-home mom, and two or more kids. By the end of the twentieth century less than 10 percent of American households fit that profile. But what makes the sixties fascinating in the world of media and broadcasting were the rise of â€Å"adventure† flicks and creative stories. Apart from the â€Å"usual† types of stories—which in one point are considerably idealistic—they crossed the line and took the risk of introducing superficial characters, and superficial kinds of families. 21st Century Warning: Explicit Content The presence of media as a tool of information dissemination has increased largely because of the technological innovations consistently being introduced not only in advancing the productivity rate of media organizations but also in expanding the capacity of the various media outlets to include a wider range of topics (Hudson, 1986). With this expansion, the subjects incorporated into the mass media has also been augmented (Graber, 1980) such that former topics that were once rarely untouched have now been constantly infused with unceasing publicity such as those that tackle Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The changes made by mass media are evidently found on a series of notions due to consciousness, certain perceptions on reality and the palpable alterations of the masses’ individual lives concurrent on what had reconstituted by the mentioned technological change (Palmer & Young, 2003). Technological or digital innovation dwelled on to by human beings had been observed to have been conducting a protective bubble of fixed racial, cultural and ethnic identity resulting to a sense of detachment which lies on the physical state of the screen persona as well as with the transcends in the reality of social culture (Barker & Petley, 2001). To thoroughly understand the representation of media of an American family, one must be enlightened of the status of real-life events. With this, an assessment on the trend of the shows shall commence. Perceivably, the five major parts regarding on the family status includes married, separated, widowed, divorced and never married. Their study showed that there is an increasing number of adults who are not presently married due because of separation of the partners. As expected, there was a variation of the proportion of the numbers of separated people in different cities of the country. Florida exhibits the highest rate of divorce while in Boston and California got the lowest proportion. This can be explained because of the geographic differences (D’Antonio, 2004). Gradually, television shows nowadays such as those which have been mentioned are almost synonymous in context and manner. Furthermore, American families differ from those of more educated families who typically were studied with regard to family interactions and adolescent autonomy issues. Inner-city African American families may experience age-condensed generations such that the generational boundaries are not as clear. Because the boundaries between the roles of mothers and daughters may be blurred, the need for a struggle over autonomy issues may be less salient because the authority differences were never as strong (Lawler, 1997). Additionally, autonomy issues may not be as pressing in a context characterized by preoccupations with the representation of media in such forms of distinction. How they portray and American family is no longer boxed in a certain class—Americans, for that instance—but their target market includes global viewers. Nonetheless, the diversity of characterization of the shows is proof that freedom in the vortex of media and entertainment has lesser rules and the core virtue lies in the truth of fame (Fabes et al. , 1989).

What Role Did Socrates Play in Ancient Greece - 1494 Words

| What Role Did Socrates Play in Ancient Greece? | Natalia Gonzalez | | Mr. Pellegrini, 2A | 3/24/2010 | [Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.] | What Role Did Socrates Play in Ancient Greece? In the leading city of Athens 2,500 years ago during the Golden Age, a peculiar philosopher was born into the reign of Pericles. Socrates went against common religion, influenced social roles and people, and was the founder of the Socratic Method. Religious opinions affected Socrates’ life a great deal. Whereas most Athenians observed polytheism and†¦show more content†¦They were very popular but loathed at the same time because of the financial problems they were causing. For example, the most famous sophist was called Corax. He had a student called Tisias who refused to pay the fee for his classes, he said â€Å"Before I started, you promised you would teach me to persuade anyone to do whatever I wanted. Let me now persuade you not to ask for your fee. If you still demand it, you did not do what you promised, therefore I owe you nothing.† However, Socrates discredited this, â€Å"However, not one of these things is true; nor, if you have heard from anyone t hat I attempt to teach men and require payment, is this true.† (Plato, n.d.). Socrates irritated people by insisting things that could not be true. Critobulus, who was considered by many to be the most handsome man in Athens. However, Socrates, with his protruding eyes and large nose insisted he was more stunning than Critobulus. Socrates defended this by saying things such as â€Å"Because while yours see straight ahead, mine, by bulging out as they do, see also to the sides,† and â€Å"Mine, I consider, granting that Providence made us noses to smell with. For your nostrils look down toward the ground, but mine are wide open and turned outward so that I can catch scents from all around.† (Zannos, 2004). Another story of Socrates impacting the life of an individual is shown by the dialogue that he had with a young man he met at a wrestling school named Lysis. Socrates admitted toShow MoreRelatedWhat did it mean for a man in Ancient Greece to lead a good life, ac cording to Platos’s four dialogs in the Trial and Death of Socrates?1010 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿What did it mean for a man in Ancient Greece to lead a good life, according to Platos’s four dialogs in the Trial and Death of Socrates? In Ancient Greece, leading a good life is rather more complex than it is in today’s society. It is evidenced in Plato’s four dialogs in The Trial and Death of Socrates. Through the dialogues of Socrates we can learn that in Ancient Greece education, religion, society in general, law and values played a major role on a person’s way of living a good life. InRead MoreThe Persian Royal Road Improve Governing And Communism Essay1737 Words   |  7 Pagesto question his authority due to respect for their religion. According to the Behistun inscription, what role does divinity play in human affairs? Divinity plays a major role in human affairs because the gods let Darius rule Persia. According to the document of Xerxes from Persepolis, did Alexander the Great possess the desired qualities of a ruler? 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