Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Paper instructions:

Review the stages of interpersonal relationships and the types of messages associated with each stage in the textbook and in the learning activities.
Review interpersonal relationship types and the theories of interpersonal communication in the textbook and in the learning activities.
Think of one relationship from a television show or movie that has conflict and one that does not.
Write a three to five-page paper analyzing those two relationships.
Your paper should include a discussion of the stages of interpersonal relationships and the types of messages associated with each stage, as well as interpersonal relationship types and the theories of interpersonal communication. Include links to clips or refer to specific episodes or time markers in the show(s) or film(s).

Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Paper instructions:

Critical Thinking Report: Problem Solving [Worth 80 points]

Review the website “The Problem Solving Process” at http://www.gdrc.org/decision/problem-solve.html.

Apply the 6 steps in the process to a complex workplace or personal problem you (or someone you know) experienced.

Write about your process of applying each of the 6 steps to the problem.State whether you feel that the process resulted (or will result) in a satisfactory resolution to the problem. 

The completed assignment should be approximately 500 words (2 pages).

The assignment should follow guidelines for clear and organized writing:

·        Include an introductory paragraph and concluding paragraph.

·        Address main ideas in body paragraphs with a topic sentence and supporting sentences.

·        Adhere to standard rules of English grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and spelling.



The assignment should follow these APA Style formatting and citation requirements:

·        Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.

·        In-text citations and the References page must follow APA Style format.

·        Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Compare/contrast two computer programs

Letter of recommendation

Re: recommendation for singer_______

Dear event manager:

I am writing this letter on behalf of singer_____ who is a good singer and holds good communication and interaction skills. I have known this singer for a good while now and many people are impressed by her music, poems and videos. Last year during the Disney awards, the singer was the major performing artist and impressed many people. I saw her perform and I can guarantee you she is a best performer and a good singer. Her songs are well composed and are appealing to most people even those who listen to them for the very first time.

The singer has a positive attitude and is able to interact with people. She is a good plus a humble person who entertains people to the best. Her performance is entertaining and captivating since singing is her major talent. She is a performer at major national and cultural events since her music and performance are exemplary excellent. She ensures that her performance pleases people since she is appealing to the audience. She dresses in an appropriate dressing code depending on the event and performance. She is a graduate with a degree in music production which enables her perform excellently.

The singer performs well at low costs. Unlike other singers, she aims at entertaining people without demanding high payments. She utilizes her talent excellently even without demanding high payments unlike other singers. This has made many people like her and her music. She is invited in many major events which have ensured she is both a local and international icon. She is known globally since her music is entertaining, calm and attractive.

I am humbled to recommend this singer to you and I am sure you will not get disappointed. In case of any question and clarification you may contact me using the address above. Thank you.

Best,

__________

 Briefly explain the Shannon’s (1948) model of communication process using an appropriate brand/ product example to illustrate your answer.

This is a modern type of a communicating model which not only shows the success of communication but also how a communication system at times fails. The issue of time affects communication in organizations for example in advertising a cigarette brand. This was clearly shown in the United Kingdom where cigarettes were advertised by cinemas. Shannon model of communication breaks the communication process in to eight different processes. The person initiating the communication must be present. This is the initiator of the message. A transmitter is also a necessity which is the method used to deliver the message (Gallistel, & King, 2009). For example in advertisement of the cigarette brand the cinemas are the transmitters while the manufacturers are the initiators of the message. The transmitter should be effective and maintenance of face to face communication is also important. In case the communication or advertisement is face to face the transmitter must maintain eye contact and gestures. Televisions, cinemas and radio use signals in order to act as good transmitters. Advertising the cigarette brand is effective through use of cinemas as customers are able to see the product being advertised (Anttalainen, 2003).

Signals are important as illustrated by Shannon model. Different signals are produced depending on the mode of transmission used. To enhance communication process a channel must be included mostly in form of electricity. Electricity makes it efficient for transmitters to transmit the information from the sender to the receiver and back to the sender for a feedback. Communication process can be challenged by some barriers including noise. Noise can lead to failure of the communication process and which should be avoided. A receiver must be present to make the communication process effective. The receiver includes antennae in the cinemas which act as transmitters (Anttalainen, 2003). Destination is the final stage in Shannon model. In the example of the cigarette brand the destination is to customers who will give feedback to producers.

References

Anttalainen, T. (2003). Introduction to telecommunications network engineering. Boston: Artech House. Introduction to telecommunications network engineering. Boston: Artech House.

Gallistel, C. R., & King, A. P. (2009). Memory and the Computational Brain: Why Cognitive Science will Transform Neuroscience. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

The media in United States

Introduction

Media is an important topic in America that’s why it is necessary to be studied as it keeps the public updated on current political news as according to the weekly standard newspaper in America. The information from the media is very useful to the people of America as it help them to learn more about the national politics. American news is taken from three types of media which are print media including newspapers and magazines, broadcast media including radios and televisions and the famous one which is the internet. For example the weekly standard keeps people updated on the current political news and they do it by remaining non partisan as opposed to other non traditional Medias who remain partisan.

The most media used in America is the broadcast media especially the televisions since their news reach many people and covers a lot of topics which are widely viewed and affecting the public politically. Radios are too used to update people on the current political news while newspapers are too sources of information and are preferred since they are well and comprehensively written (Chapter 6). The media is well spread in America and have rights to broadcast political news which are non partisan and cannot contribute to any misunderstandings among the people.

The non traditional media cannot be depended on by the people on the current political news since it is so partisan for example the internet (Chapter 6).The media is not democratic at only and only favors certain politicians of given ideologies. The traditional media learns to the left politics since it is non conservative in nature and cannot be termed as nationalist. This is not fair to the public as it can contribute to misunderstandings.

Conclusion

The media traditional media in America is termed as right politic media while the non traditional is termed as left politic media since it is very partisan. The media should always remain non partisan for the public to get the required right information.

Works Cited

www.weeklystandard.com

Chapter 6

Is Google alone sufficient for effective information retrieval?

Introduction

            Humans have in all years been looking for method that would in essence reduce their work load. This has led to centuries upon centuries of discoveries as well as inventions that in one way or the other make human existence on earth a little less tiresome. The computer and the internet are among the most recent combination of inventions created by man that seek to lessen humanity’s workload. Despite these great strides made by man, until two decades ago, the gathering of information was a cumbersome activity to humans. This was especially in cases where that particular information was not found in one source.

            Enter Google. Google was created in order to create a list of websites relating to a particular topic on one page. This enables users to be able to key in particular words and receive thousands of websites on that particular topic. This has enabled web-users to be able to navigate through thousands of results. For a century or so, Google, that became a technological phenomenon, has been able to successfully dominate the search engine market due to its ability to produce results. In fact Google became so essential that other companies such as Bing came up with similar concepts.

            Despite its success, Google has in recent years come under scrutiny as to its effectiveness as a search engine. In fact, the success rate of Google as far as searches are concerned is reflected in a number of researches conducted in as to the quality of available search engines. These studies are carried out according to, among other categories search quality as well as popularity. In fact, as of June this year, studies indicated that while Google was still the most popular search engine, garnering a whopping 66% of the market, yahoo was found to be the most effective in getting users to click through to another website. In fact, research found that the success rate of searches resulting was highest with yahoo at 81%. Google on the other hand came in third with just a 67% success rate. This has brought on the question of whether an individual can use Google alone and be able to experience effective information retrieval (Goh & Foo, 2008, p.21).

General search engine information retrieval

            The general duty of any search engine company is to produce the best information retrieval system there is. The search engines need to be evaluated during both the development process as well as when the system is running. Such evaluations are important for them ultimately to improve the quality of search results. Search quality has been able to be classified in four major quality factors (Rowlands et.al, 2008, p.299)..

Index quality

            This is the area of quality measurement that focus on the importance that search engine databases play in the retrieval of results that are both relevant and comprehendible. The quality measurements always focus on general web coverage, country bias and the freshness of the information being sought after.

Quality of the results

            Here classic retrieval methods are put to test. In this case, what is usually considered is the measure as far as quality is concerned. The quality should be able to satisfy the needs of then user as well as satisfy the unique character of the search engine.

Quality of search features

An adequate set of search features and a sophisticated inquisitor language should be offered and should function reliably for a search engine to be able to satisfy quality search feature.

Search engine usability

            Here, the main question is whether the user is able to interact with the search engine in a way that is both efficient as well as effective.

A combination of the four sets of features determines the scale of which any search system, Google included, can be measured to be able to determine the results. Most of these features can be examined either individually or as a set to be able to determine quality results. However, as far as effective information retrieval is concerned the most important feature to examine is search engine quality. The rest of the features while important to the determination of quality can ultimately be derived from the results of the search engine quality.

Google as far as search engine quality is concerned

Search engine quality research, as an area of interest, draws its importance not only from a general interest of information science in the performance of search systems, but also from general society’s wider discussion on search engines. Currently, as indicated, Market figures show that there is a dominance of Google in markets all over the world (Hersh, 2003, p. 76). The main question however comes in when one wants to determine whether Google is really providing good search engine quality or if the company’s popularity is due to its brand name only. If the answer to that is the latter, is there a search engine that is better as far as search information quality is concerned. For if Google is the only search engine that provides quality search results, then it would only be right if users were to exclusively use the search engine. On the other hand, if the quality of searches provided by goggle is of lower standards then it is only fair that the users do not use the engine exclusively as far as effective information retrieval is concerned.

One of the firms that recently did a research on the effectiveness of search engines in the market came to a conclusion of the fact there there is still a problem as far as the effective information retrieval was concerned even in Google’s case. The research firm highlighted that "The share of unsuccessful searches highlights the opportunity for both the search engines and marketers to evaluate the search engine result pages to ensure that searchers are finding relevant information". This indicates that indeed there is a problem and that people cannot solely rely on one search engine to efficiently provide the entire information one seeks but rather that it would be wise to use a couple instead maximizing on the strengths of each (Ellis, 1996, p.43).

Reasons why users prefer Google to other search engines

           Apart from the main reasons associated to users’ preference of Google over other search engines other than the brand name, there have been other research reasons that have come to light. Some of these researches touch on the system’s ability to effectively retrieve information. Studies indicate that while other search engines are able to deliver a variety of searches, Google ultimately delivers the largest amount of relevant results. There is nothing more annoying than being presented with a lot of information that is not relevant to one’s subject of inquiry. While Google uses the same search engine as all its competitors, its identification of relevant parts of the document works better than that of its competitors. The down side to this leading advantage is however the fact that most of the many results that the system will presented are more often than not irrelevant results.

            Generally, a user does not systematically evaluate the results presented but rather just clicks on a couple of results. Because of the large number of results found by the search engine it is less likely that the user will miss at least one result that is relevant to their search. Therefore it is important to note that while the user is interested in finding as many results on the topic as possible, relevance plays an important role in the search process. Quality will always trump quantity as far as a good search is concerned.

            The ranking of the results similarly plays a very important role as far as effective search engines are concerned. It would make absolutely no sense for the most relevant search results to be placed in the middle or at the bottom of the ranking more so in cases where thousands or even millions of results were able to be retrieved.

            Result descriptions also play a very important role where search engines are concerned because it is the results description that will influence the users’ judgment. In most cases, relevant descriptions should be able to yield relevant results. Although in some cases, irrelevant descriptions yield relevant results. In such cases, then the search engine has been able to reach very quality levels.

            Finally, it is important that the search engine provides diversity of sources. While diversity within the result set may not be enough, it should always be presented on the first result screen in order to give users an overview of different sources that have information on a particular topic. Providing three of four similar sources more so on the front page may create a sense of monotony as far as result finding is concerned. Diversity of sources is relatively simple to measure, as the higher the number of sources presented on the first result screen, the better.

            However, diversity of sources does not measure whether the question results cover all aspects of the underlying information need. When aspects are collected in the results collection phase, these aspects can be extracted from the documents found and compared to the former. Thereafter, the number of results a user must view in a certain search engine until all aspects of the topic are displayed can be measured. Even if this appears to be too strict of an approach and it can be argued that users rarely require access to information on all different aspects of a topic, measuring aspects can be a good way of identifying search engines that produce relevant results, but where these results are too similar to each other.

References

Ellis, D. (1996). Progress and problems in information retrieval. London, Library Assoc.

Goh, D., & Foo, S. (2008). Social information retrieval systems: emerging technologies and applications for searching the Web effectively. Hershey, Information Science Reference. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=315017.

Hersh, W. R. (2003). Information retrieval: a health and biomedical perspective. New York [u.a.], Springer.

Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., ... & Tenopir, C. (2008, July). The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future. In Aslib Proceedings (Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 290-310). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Portrayal of Women In The Media

Introduction

 The portrayal of women in the media is an issue that has gained a lot of concern. Mass media takes the form of broad cast media, printed media and outdoor media. Media has been seen to have a lot of effect on the lives of individuals which is an increasing factor as the days go by. Media is a powerful tool that provides us with information and entertainment. It is a reflection of the society that we are and it greatly influences the way we think. The portrayal of the different gender varies and this contributes to the behavior of the growing generation that tends to emulate what they are exposed to by the media and it can be both bad and good. The media has however been seen to do more harm to the development of girls due to the poor portrayal of women in the media.

The portrayal of women in the media can be classified in terms of quality and quantity .In terms of quantity the media has not yet reflected the reality in terms of the women who are seen in the media. The media has given minority roles to women while the majority of the population is women. This has caused young girls to lack role models who they can look up to since there are limited numbers of female characters. This has also generated greatly to the popularity of men characters and the girls have opted to idolize them contributing to the mix up of roles that the girls should take up as they grow.

In terms of quality the media has been seen to portray women as the weaker sex whose value is measured in terms of their usefulness to others and their main roles are described to be domestic rather than leadership roles. The media has also portrayed the women as less likely than male characters to achieve their goals. This images are likely to be accepted as normal by the girls and this will consequently affect their ideas in terms of careers choice and the roles they choose to take in the society with a majority shying of from powerful and leadership positions since this reality is rarely visible (Durham, 210).

When a woman is seen in power, such as female boss, the media portray the woman to be cold- hearted, detached career woman with tendencies that are not common with the men who are in power. This shares the ideologies that a powerful woman sacrifices a healthy relationship, family and at times even her own sanity so as to be in a competitive position and become powerful and influential. This discourages the young girls from aspiring to become influential and powerful in the society and those bold enough to dream they lack role models to guide them through their dream.

The media has also been seen to direct women and girls energies into narrow channels to define their concerns preoccupation and aspirations within an imposed feminine frame work. Apart from physical looks and dressing there is stress of development of women’s mental faculties and behavior that allows male domination in the social structure. In most of the stories in the media, women are depicted with the life ambition of getting a right man and keeping him at all cost. They are also seen to engage in activities that are meant to please men at the cost of their happiness. This affects the romantic and love life of girls, since they feel that they should be there to please men and their main function is to please men even by engaging in activities that will injure them psychologically and physically (Judith, 31).

The media has also been seen to define beauty that has been used as a benchmark that the young girls use to compare themselves with. The media has portrayed beauty as perfect. The media mainly portrays beauty as a size 0, perfect skin and curvy girl. This idea is portrayed since the models used are fabricated to accommodate these qualities. The girls exposed to this images lack the discerning eye of the deception in these images and this leads them to the road of destructive self (Kettles et al, 66).

The description of a women’s relevance and importance in terms of her body is known as objectification of the women where they are made to feel that their bodies define them .In regard to this perception girls tend to feel ashamed and anxious if they do not meet beauty standards promoted in the various media channels.( Klenke, 127)

The definition of beauty of the media has been seen to be attainable among many young girls but they have been constantly seen to engage in activities that would help them attain the rating that would make them be described as beautiful. This has led to eating disorder since the girls are reducing the amount of food consumed so as to get the slim curvy bodies. There have also been seen to be an increased number of psychological disorders such as dysmorphic disorder, where girls obsess over perceived flaws in their appearance. This order can lead to depression, disability and even suicide.

In advertising, particularly in print publications, a women’s body is dismembered to sell a product. This means that only one body part is focused mainly a body part that is sexual in nature. The separated part of the body is then related to the product. (Greening, 4). This doesn’t allow women to view their bodies as a whole; they instead view the body as a composition of separate areas and one area of imperfection that makes it impossible for the rest of the body to be classified as beautiful.

When women are able to see each part of their body separately, it makes it easier to compare their parts to the women on display in the media. Such a comparison is unrealistic and doesn’t allow any woman whose look deviates from the popular images to see themselves as attractive. Media images play a bigger role than do the opinions of friends and family when it comes down to heterosexual women’s formation of their body image (Risska, 2).

The media has also portrayed the aging of women as lose of beauty and for any woman to remain beautiful they must remain youthful and young. This is exhibited by the ladies who are made to look younger and yet play the roles of elderly women. This tendency increases the sale of beauty products that are fashioned to keep an individual from showing the symptoms of aging. This has a negative effect on the girls since they leave in a constant fear of aging which consequently leads to the consumption of anti-aging products by this girls and surgeries that would revert any symptom of age (Wells, 553).

The media is also seen to sexualize girls mostly in fashion and advertisments that are displayed to girls to see in the media. The pressure on girls are exacerbated by the media increasing tendency to portray girls in sexual ways and hyper-sexualization of very young girls, most notably in fashion and advertising, is a disturbing trend given that these stereotypes make up most of the representations of themselves which girls and women see in the media.

The pressures on girls are exacerbated by the media's increasing tendency to portray very young girls in sexual ways. The media exposes a lot of sexuality to young girls and images that portray women to be powerless, passive victims. This contributes greatly to the growth of the girls and the decisions made on their clothing and behavior with most of the girls choosing clothing’s that portray them sexually and girls are now engaging in sex at a younger age which has increased teen pregnancies, STDs, and the number of girls reporting abusive partners. These behaviors are contributed greatly to the sexual images exposed to the girls that make them feel that they are sexual beings and there is no harm in engaging in sexual behaviors.

The pornography industry has also been seen to portray women as sexual objects that serve as objects that are meant to be used for the satisfaction of their male counterparts. The pornographic materials are also seen to show various violent acts against women and acts that would hurt women to be part of the normal sexual life that a omen should endure. This creates a negative mentality among the young women that they should be objects of pleasure and that violent acts against women are normal (Baron et al, 297).

The media is also seen to expose the young girls to materials that show violence against the women for instance, violence against women is publicized in form of rape that is reported in the news. The characteristics of the cases portrayed are those that highlight minority men in singular incidents of rape, involve strangers and those that involve gangs in which in reality are rare. Such emphasis on non typical violence towards women has the effect of minimizing the daily domination and violence that women and girls face ((Baron et al, 298).

When the salience of rape is increased in girl’s minds it tends to affect negatively on the girl’s self-esteem, trust and sense of self-control. The exposure to such violence tends to desensitize girls to such violence with girls tending to rate such imagery as less degrading. It also tends to make girls less sympathetic to a victim in a mild sexual graphically violent condition and they perceive it as normal which should not be the case.

Works cited

 Baron, Robert A.; Richardson, Deborah R :Human Aggression. Plenum Pub Corp, 2004. Print.

Durham, Meenakshi G. The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2008. Internet resource.

Greening, K.(2006). The objectification and dismemberment of women in the media. Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences. Vol 5

Judith worell. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender. Sex similarities and differences and the impact of the society on gender l-3. Volume two, Elsevier

Kettles, Michele, Colette L. Cole, and Brenda S. Wright. Women's Health and Fitness Guide. Champaign, ll: Human Kinetics, 2006. Print.

Klenke, Karin. Women in Leadership: Contextual Dynamics and Boundaries. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub, 2011. Print.

Risska, R.(1998). SF state researchers release study about women, the mass media, and the development of body image.

Wells, Alan. Mass Media & Society. Greenwich, Conn. [u.a.: Ablex Publ, 1997. Print

Assignment 1

Discuss the areas in which Walter Lippmann though journalism was flawed.

            Walter Lippmann was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the cold war. He was also responsible for coining the term stereotype in modern psychology. In his work, he tried to reconcile the tensions between liberty and democracy. Based in his research, he published an article titled ‘A test of the news’ that observed that the press was partial, biased, and inaccurate in its coverage.

            Walter believed that the press was biased in its coverage. He identified the tendency of journalists to generalize about other people based on fixed ideas (Lippmann et. al 1920). He argued that people, including journalists, are quicker to believe "the pictures in their heads" than come to judgment by critical thinking. He wrote that Humans condense ideas into symbols, and journalism, a force quickly becoming the mass media, is an ineffective method of educating that public.

            Even if journalists did better jobs of informing the public about important issues, Lippmann believed that "the mass of the reading public is not interested in learning and assimilating the results of accurate investigation." Citizens, he wrote, were too self-centered to care about public policy except as pertaining to pressing local issues. He therefore believed that given the biased nature of the press the information they fed the citizens would be inaccurate (Lippmann, 1991).

            Walter did not assume that news and truth are the same. For him, the “function of news is to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.” Therefore, journalist’s version of the truth is prejudiced to how he constructs his reality. The news, therefore, is “imperfectly recorded” and too fragile to bear the charge as “an organ of direct democracy.”(Lippmann, 1989)

Sources

Lippmann, W. (1989). The public philosophy. New Brunswick, U.S.A: Transaction Publishers.

Lippmann, W. (1991). Public opinion. New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A: Transaction Publishers.

Lippmann, W., Liffmann, F., & Merz, C. (1920). A test of the news. N.p.

Assignment 2

Describe how journalism does or does not fit in with our concept of the learned professions. (You should discuss what the learned professions are)

            Learned professions are described as vocations that are founded from specialized educational training whose purpose is to supply objective counsel to others, for compensation. In the past only three occupations were referred to as profession, these were divinity, medicine, and law. This concept has however changed over the years with more occupations meeting qualifications of being termed as professions.

            Most of these professions arise from the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members, and some degree of monopoly rights (Bullock & Trombley, 1999). Therefore, one can classify journalism as a profession because it meats all the standards set to established to classify a vocation as a profession.

            Journalism as a profession has professional bodies that are responsible for regulating it. These bodies are usually in charge of defining, promoting, overseeing, supporting and regulating the affairs of their members.

            Journalism is also autonomous. This means journalists have control over their decisions and can make independent judgments about their work (Bayles, 1981). This usually means the freedom to exercise their professional judgment. These two traits mainly illustrate that journalism indeed can be termed as a profession.

Sources

Bayles, M (1981) Professional Ethics. Belmont, California CA : Wadsworth.

Bullock, A & Trombley, S (1999), The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. London: Harper-Collins.

Assignment 3

Describe the social responsibility theory of the press as outlined in Four Theories of the press and as amplified by the Hutchins commission

            Social Responsibility provides for private ownership of mass media in exchange for responsible use of that media. This theory is tied to a form of government that is based on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Social responsibility theory allows free press without any censorship but at the same time the content of the press discussed in public and media should accept any obligation from public interference or professional self-regulations or both. The theory lies between both authoritarian theory and libertarian theory because it gives total media freedom in one hand but the external controls in other hand.

            The Hutchins commission on the other hand was formed during a period when the public did not trust the press for they believed that the media was biased at the time. The commission was the first to come up with the social responsibility of the press. This theory proposed that the media take it upon themselves to raise society's standards by providing citizens with the information they needed to govern themselves. The commission warned that it was in the best interest of the media to do this for if they did not, the public would demand that the government regulate the media.

Sources

Blanchard, M. A. (1977). The Hutchins Commission, the press and the responsibility concept.        Lexington, Ky: The Association for Education in Journalism.

Siebert, F. S., Schramm, W., & Peterson, T. (1984). Four theories of the press: The            authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and Soviet communist concepts of what      the press should be and do. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Assignment 4

In class, we discussed how the press may be biased to the east coast. Describe other specific ways in which the press in this country may be biased.

            There are many forms of bias associated with the American media. This bias stems from personal and public opinions of few or many individuals and their thoughts on issues critical to the country.

            A profit motive bias is a result of the U.S. Medias’ pressure to create a stable and profitable business. This means that the news is always geared towards America’s corporate interests. This bias involves reporters and especially editors sharing and acquiring values with corporate elites in order to further their careers. Those that do not comply usually get weeded out or marginalized.

            Liberal bias occurs when liberal ideas have undue influence on the coverage or selection of news stories. On the other hand, Conservative bias in the media occurs when conservative ideas have undue influence on the coverage or selection of news stories. A survey conducted to prove that some media channels were inclined towards liberal ideologies than others. The survey found that most of these journalists were Democratic voters, whose attitudes were well to the left of the public on a variety of topics, including such hot-button social issues as abortion, affirmative action, and gay rights. The other Medias seem to promote the conservative party and their ideologies. These media houses do not air issues that they deem not to be conservative in nature. This type of bias is also observed in the coverage of presidential elections by the different media houses.

Sources

Noam, E. (2009). Media Ownership and Concentration in America. Oxford: Oxford University    Press, USA.

Ruschmann, P. (2006). Media bias. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

Sloan, W. D. (2007). Media bias: Finding it, fixing it. Jefferson, NC [u.a.: McFarland.

 Communication in Business Article Review

First Article

The name of the article is Powerful Leadership Communication and is authored by John Baldoni. The article talks mainly of communication and its importance in a company. It points out the need for communication among the all stakeholders in a company as well as the processes, which constitutes efficient communication and types of communications that are there. It also explains the benefits a company stands to gain from efficient communication.

The author did in fact prove his point in his article. An article titled Leadership Is a Conversation in the Harvard business review magazine in June 2012, concurred with the author. In this article written by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind , the importance of communication especially by leaders in a company is clearly outlined. The authors arrived to their conclusion while conducting a recent research project that focused on the state of organizational communication in the 21st century. Over more than two years, they interviewed professional communicators as well as top leaders at a variety of organizations—large and small, blue chip and start-up, for-profit and nonprofit, U.S. and international. At the end of the research, they had spoken with nearly 150 people at more than 100 companies. The participants mentioned their efforts to “have a conversation” with their people or their ambition to “advance the conversation” within their companies.

They concluded in their research that Smart leaders today, engage with employees in a way that resembles an ordinary person-to-person conversation more than it does a series of commands from on high. Furthermore, they initiate practices and foster cultural norms that instill a conversational sensibility throughout their organizations.

This article is beneficial to the knowledge in communication in business because it shifts the approach formally taken by businesses. Communication need not be too formal an affair in running the business. The right approach in communication can yield more success in the running of the business.

Second Article

The name of the second article is ‘When Gossip is good; The Social Value of Tigers Transgressions’. Nicholas Difonzo writes it. The article talks of gossip and the effect it has on people. It also points out the advantages of gossip, which include the fact that it can act as an instrument of moral instruction. According to the author, gossip may hurt people but it ends up teaching them lessons.

Prof. Frank T. McAndrew, a social psychologist, wrote in his book titled ‘Information Coalitions: mastering the hidden dynamics of organizational change’ that “… gossip is a more complicated and socially important phenomenon than we think…” he goes on and explains that much as gossip is viewed as a bad habit, there are some good traits that can be achieved from gossip.

He states that some of the advantages of the gossip include the trust implicit in sharing gossip with another person and the bonding effect of sharing secrets with others. Gossip can also be used as a means of learning the unwritten rules of social groups by helping to resolve ambiguities about cultural norms. He also believes that gossip can be used as an efficient way of reminding group members about the importance of the group’s norms and values and, a way of deterring deviant behavior and of punishing anyone who breaks established norms and values

Though this article mostly focuses on psychologically, a business student can learn a lot from it. Gossip is part of the human nature therefore; it is bound to occur at the business place through employees. There is always the need to communicate at the place of work. For example, gossip at the work place can help a new employee who their leaders and what they like.

Sources

(2013, 03) Leadership Is a Conversation. Retrieved 03, 2013, from http://hbr.org/2012/06/leadership-is-a-conversation/

Rodgers, C. (2007). Informal coalitions: Mastering the hidden dynamics of organizational change. Basingstoke [England: Palgrave Macmillan.

  The Tweeter profile assessment of Miranda Kerr

Overall summary of her Twitter activity

Miranda Kerr is a female Ausii supermodel, Victoria’s Secret Angel, founder of KORA Organics & author of Treasure Yourself. She has 1,688,746 twitter followers and 630 twitters that she follows. So far, she has tweeted 1,658 tweets in her account. Over the past two weeks, from the 11^th march to 24^th of March 2012, Miranda has tweeted eighteen times with an average of two tweets in some dates such as on the 13^th and 11^th of March. On some other dates such as the 12^th and 16^th of March Miranda does not tweet at all.

Analysis of the type of Twitter activity

Professional commentary

Miranda posted a picture of her and promotional product on 14 March as well as mentioned going to work. This particular tweet received 421 re tweets as well as was a favorite of 469 people. She also posted her Vogue and Rebook photo shots. This ensures that all here tweeter followers are able to follow her modeling career. To illustrate this point we look at her tweets on the 15 and 24 respectively where she tweeted “Thank you @vogueoz” for the former date, and “Thanks again @reebok http://instagram.com/p/XQUQp6kMAK/” on the 24^th .

Personal updates

Miranda seems to have been sick while in los angels. This is illustrated in her tweets on March 11 where she stated that she was “Loving the sunshine in LA ☀”, and the tweets from some of her followers who wished her to get well soon. She replied on the 13^th to her followers and told them she was doing much better and was going back to work. She also seems to love nature and flowers as shown in her “Rose from my garden chriscolls alexandraagoston ❤” tweet.

Criticism of issues and use of language

In the past two weeks, Miranda’s take on most critical issues has been inactive. She has not talked about any critical issue. However, occasionally, like the march 20, she posts an inspiration via a picture link to her followers. Here use of language is impeccable, as noted through out all her tweets and does not shorten her words when tweeting.

How the Twitter activity contributes to the overall public image of Miranda Kerr

Miranda’s twitter activity does in fact contribute to her overall public image. Through tweeter, one establishes that Miranda is not only Australian but also a Supermodel. We are also able to establish that in her modeling career she has been able to land a job as Victoria Secrets angel, has had a photo spread for vogue magazine, and more recently has been involved in the Rebook campaign. She mostly posts here modeling career as well as the different jobs she does on here tweeter page for her fans to follow.

Through her tweeter account, we discover that she was suffering a kind of ailment that her followers kept on sending her get-well massages. The confirmation of the ailment is in the mainstream media such as the Daily Mail, where we learn that Miranda had recently suffered a neck injury.

Based solely on her twitter account we can therefore conclude that Miranda is a humble person who does not like the spotlight. This is based on the number of people she follows on twitter. On the other hand, she has so many twitter followers, which shows that many people admire here. She likes here fans and takes the time to thank them for their support. She also enjoys her modeling career and makes the effort of updating her fans and followers of all the projects she is working on.

Recommendation/s to the employer/management

Based on here tweeter profile only then Miranda is a good model to hire. Her account profile shows that she has worked with several big names in the modeling industries such as Victoria’s secret, vogue and more recently rebook. This is because she utilizes her twitter account in reaching her fans. She seems not to post tweets about her own personal live but rather her modeling career. This is established by the fact that many of her tweets are concentrated on the different products she models for rather than on her personal life. She enjoys flowers and nature as is seen in her many tweets and has her own organic skin and body care products line. These make her a perfect candidate for our product, which is also organic, based.

Here image seems to be impeccable as there is not much controversy mentioned by her twitter follower, on the contrary, her twitter followers seem to praise and complement her. Her followers like here and closely follow her career. If she endorses our product then it is sure that her many twitter followers will be able to see our product through her twitter profile.

She is a reserved person who does not share a lot of her personal life on twitter, in fact, the only thing that one can establish through her twitter profile is that she loves flowers and nature and she has written a book titled ‘Treasure Yourself’. This book which is about how the current generation can achieve better health and happiness has manages to get good reader rating. This also illustrates that she is also a good entrepreneur for publishing and selling a book as well as owning a cosmetics line.

Her twitter profile does not however show us the more of the human side of Miranda. Other than her demonstrated love of nature and flower, we do not see the human side of Miranda. She does not show us what she dislikes and likes or who are the people she treasures a lot. She does not five her opinions on anything nor does she criticize anything on twitter. Other than the thanks, she gave to her twitter followers, she does not say much. In fact, we are only made aware of the fact that she had injured her neck by the fact that her followers wishing her a quick recovery and other media sources.

It would therefore be concluded that based solely on her twitter account then Miranda’s modeling career is doing well. This however, and her entrepreneurial skills are the only sides of Miranda we can see. Based on the twitter account only we cannot glimpse at the human side of Miranda and therefore cannot categorize her personality, however, judging from her followers reactions to her, Miranda, is a warm person who sticks out as a role model to all her fans and twitter followers. Based on all this facts, Miranda is a good model to hire for our specific product.  

References

Chambers, D. (2013). Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship. New York, NY. Palgrave Macmillan

Diaz-Ortiz, Claire. (2011). Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time. Jossey-Bass.

Hutchins , Rowe. (2012). Sport Beyond Television: The Internet, Digital Media and the Rise of Networked Media Sport. New York, NY:CRC Press

Lee, N. (2013). Facebook nation: Total information awareness. New York, NY: Springer.

Passive and active measurement: 12th international conference, PAM 2011, Atlanta, GA, USA, March 20-22, 2011 : proceedings. (2011). Berlin: Springer.