Should euthanasia be permitted in cases of terminally ill patients Research Paper

Should euthanasia be permitted in cases of terminally ill patients - Research Paper Example This ethical issue comes in view when a patient seeks death for himself/herself if the diseases are incurable, the cost is too high for the family to bear or he/she does not want to endure the pain any longer. This is not an easy decision for himself/herself and for the family as it accounts to a suicide. Euthanasia or the mercy killing therefore leads to opposing views from various sides, leading to controversy. Is mercy killing right legally, morally and ethically? Is it right or wrong? Types of Euthanasia: Euthanasia is derived from Greek term meaning â€Å"good death†. It has not gained acceptance because of legal and ethical issues involved with it. Euthanasia is classified into two types – the Active and the Passive Euthanasia. The term, Active Euthanasia is used when a patient’s life is cut short by the physicians at their own discretion, after the patients express their wish. Passive Euthanasia refers to withholding of treatment that would have helped the patient to survive in this world. Active euthanasia: The supporters of Active Euthanasia believe that the person is â€Å"better off dead† instead of continuing to live a life of â€Å"severely diminished quality† (Paterson, 2008). ... It might be viewed as homicide by skeptics, and is being condemned by the authorities and moralists around the world. Passive Euthanasia: Active Euthanasia might be unacceptable to the people on moral and ethical grounds but on the other hand quite a sizable number accept Passive Euthanasia. No doubt, a person undergoing Passive Euthanasia will experience some pain after the removal of life sustaining aids until he/she dies, but there are various reasons why it is accepted. â€Å"Firstly, treatment might simply be futile and hence incapable of benefiting the patient. Second, the treatment will be highly cost –effective.† (Garrard and Wilkinson, 2005). Thirdly the treatment should be withdrawn as it is excessively harmful. The fourth reason would be the patient may refuse to undergo treatment. Some treatment may have extreme pain or some may have a less probability of success, the failure of the treatment may cause extreme levels of burdens and poor quality of life. So u nder these circumstances the treatment refusal leads to passive euthanasia though the physician is aware of the effects of it. (Garrard and Wilkinson, 2005) Issues on Euthanasia: There is no major moral difference between killing a suffering patient and letting them to die. The Active Euthanasia is more or less killing and Passive Euthanasia is letting the patient die by removing the life sustaining aids. The first doctor, who was charged of Euthanasia, was Harold Blazer in 1935. He killed his daughter who was suffering from cerebral spinal meningitis. He killed her by placing a chloroform handkerchief on her nose till she stopped breathing. She was thirty when he killed her. In the trial he was acquitted on moral grounds. The first doctor to be found guilty was Joseph

Economics Incresing supermarkets chain profits by adopting different Essay

Economics Incresing supermarkets chain profits by adopting different pricing strategies in different markets - Essay Example This type of marketing strategy involves the introduction of market segmentation by the company, when the segments are introduced then the company is able to price different prices on the goods they sell in the market, higher income earners are charged higher prices while the low income earners example students pay less. Through price discrimination chain supply supermarkets are able to achieve higher profits from the same market. Premium pricing is another pricing strategy that is aimed at attracting high status conscious customers, a good is introduced in the market and its price is set at a higher level than other goods, the objective of these pricing strategy is to meet the needs of some consumers who believe that the high prices are a sign of quality, they believe that the high price on the product is as a result of high production costs which are incurred to make the product the best, for these reason they will buy the product at the high price. These customers also believe that purchasing such a product will be a symbol of self worth. Therefore the customer will buy the highly priced product because they are worth it. Penetration pricing is a pricing strategy aimed at increasing the quantity sold by a chain supply supermarket, this strategy involves lowering the prices of a product whose demand is highly elastic, this means that when the price is lowered then the demand for the product will highly increase. However this pricing strategy is applied when the price decrease will result into a high decline in costs as the sales volume increases. For this reason therefore the chain supply supermarket will reduce the price of a certain product leading to high decline in costs and therefore high levels of profits. Price skimming: Price skimming involves charging high prices on a product but then gradually lowering the prices over time, this strategy is mostly used by a chain supply company in order to recover sunk costs, the firm captures its customers surplus and hence high profits are attained in the process, however over time after the firm has gained it will lower prices gradually to the market price level. Promotional pricing: Promotional pricing involves giving a price cut on certain products for a short period of time, this is a strategy aimed at increasing the demand for a product and also attracting customers to take advantage of these offers, this strategy involves promotional discounts which aid in giving the chain supply supermarkets competitive advantage and increasing consumers turnout into their supermarkets and therefore increasing sales on the product and also other products. Price discounting: This is a strategy that is mostly used by chain supply supermarkets where they offer trade discounts, seasonal discounts and quantity discount, it is commonly used to attract more customers into the supermarket and also as a way to increase demand for its product through quantity discounts, this way the firm is able to maximise its profits by increasing its market area. Price lining: Price lining is a marketing strategy used by chain supply supermarkets and it involves product lining which aid in price lining, product lining involve offering products in the market that are related, a product line will may either have products of different sizes, types,

Linguistics - English relative clauses in dialects of the GB isles Essay

Linguistics - English relative clauses in dialects of the GB isles - Essay Example Herrmann builds her theory will be examined. In part two, I will examine the basic premise upon which Mr. Sag builds his theories. Part three will examine Ms. Herrmanns theory of grammatical construction and part four will examine the commonalities that the two theories have, by paying special attention to the concept of pied-piping. To begin, one must examine the basic premise upon which Ms. Herrmann built her grammatical constructs. In the â€Å"Relative Clauses in Dialects of English,† the author describes an extensive study of the British Isles. She divided the Isles into six broad sections - Central Midland, Central north, Central Southwest, East Anglia, Northern Ireland and Scotland. She concentrated on the prototypical relative clauses, or adnominal clauses, and she compared these clauses across the different dialects of the sections listed above, with an eye towards identifying the features that have become commonplace across different dialects, and also identified how the commonalities and differences across different dialects identified certain dialects as more closely related to Standard English than other dialects. Her study also can identify where different dialects intersect, which is known as dialectical levelling. (Herrmann 22). In the process, she also identified broad characteristics of the various dialects she studied. Central southwest, Central North and Northern Ireland have broad dialectical speech, ie, the speakers in these regions tend to speak in one dialect, while the speakers in East Anglia, Central Midland and Scotland have more heterogenous speech. (Herrmann 24). Central Southwest and Northern Ireland are almost entirely broad speakers. Broad speakers tend towards more non-standard features, which is gradually transforming into traditional features, and these are influencing Standard English as a whole. (Herrmann 22). The basic findings of the study were that the relative particles (zero, that, what

Explain and discuss Erikson and James Marcia's view of adolescent Research Paper

Explain and discuss Erikson and James Marcia's view of adolescent identity development - Research Paper Example The adolescent stage is named as â€Å"identity vs. role diffusion / fidelity†. Identity and identity crisis are phrases that embrace the notion of conflict in the comatose mind of an individual. This is a stage where children decide their identity and role. The child wants to discover his ego and self-assurance. It is worrying when he fails to settle in a particular environment. One’s friends and peers who fundamentally belong to diverse social groups now become more significant and powerful to him than his parents. In the words of Eriksson, the concept of identity develops may be expressed as follows – â€Å"Maybe the fact that I am immigrant to this country made me feel that the problem of identity holds a central position in the disturbances we encounter today. In other words, fully developed genitality is not a goal to be pursued in isolation.† (Evans, 1965, p. 29) Erikson observes that examination dwells at the center of the development of this stage . Identity crisis is the chief difficulty the individual deals with and therefore a rebuilding of one’s character is essential at this stage. According to Erikson, the detection of identity during one’s adolescence is also complemented by variations in one’s ego level and ability to cope with situations. The other symptoms include â€Å"subjective discomfort, confusion, mood swings, ego defenses, impulsivity, acting-out, and heightened physical and somatic complaints† (Kidwell, Dunham, Bacho, Patorino and Portes, 1995). Therefore the individual undergoing transition process is vulnerable at this stage owing to the challenges he faces. Under this circumstance, an individual undergoes â€Å"split of one’s image, loss of center and a dispersion† (Kidwell, Dunham, Bacho, Patorino and Portes, 1995). This crisis of identity is one of the most complex conflict one faces during his teenage when an individual thrives for identity development against confusion of his

Report will focus on analysing the existence of power Essay Example for Free

Report will focus on analysing the existence of power Essay Introduction This report will focus on analysing the existence of power, control and resistance within an organisation with particular reference toward Australia’s largest and most successful telecommunications provider, Telstra (Telstra, 2013). Applying widely recognised theoretical frameworks and concepts against these focus areas, a critical analysis has been conducted and assessed with the findings referenced throughout the report determining the positive and negative impacts each are having on Telstra the organisation and its stakeholders. The three focus areas of power, control and resistance are major influences within any organisation and critical to its success. Power and control can be perceived as being the same within an organisation, however there are key differentiators between the two that is important to identify and understand. Both power and control of an organisation can have various levels of influence on its stakeholders depending on a companies geographical or workforce size and culture. A level of power labeled as â€Å"Domination† identifies the way that an organisation can ultimately shape the preferences, attitudes and even political outlooks of its stakeholders (Sadan, 1997). The area of control stems from the introduction of â€Å"scientific management† introduced by (Taylor, 2007). Taylor’s methodologies of control are still predominant in many modern organisations that adopt various means to maintain a controlled workplace. Such means can consist of forms of surveillance such as email and phone scanning, remote working arrangements and segmentation of skills. Jermier, Knights, Nord refer to resista nce within an organisation as constituting forms of power that’s exercised by subordinates within a workplace. Example forms or â€Å"faces† of resistance are refusal, voice, escape and creation. With an understanding of the theoretical frameworks and concepts of these three focus areas, various stakeholders of Telstra have been interviewed to construct a comprehensive analysis on what impact power, control and resilience is having on the organisation and its stakeholders. Methodology Being one of the largest organizations in Australia, power, control, and resistance is spread throughout the companies multiple functions and sectors. It is these elements that aid in shaping the way Telstra operates. This fact has led to various methods being utilized to collect and critically analyse information on Telstra regarding these three aspects of organizational behaviour. Both primary and secondary research was conducted for this report. Primary sources include conversations with Telstra stakeholders in conjunction with online secondary research. Stakeholders include employees of Telstra as well as the customers themselves. By learning about their experiences with Telstra a better understanding of the organization was created as well as how power, control, and resistance are evident in Telstra. The use of primary and secondary research allowed for power, control and resistance to be critically analysed in Telstra. A number of theories were also addressed in the analysis of Telstra. Relevant aspects of power, control, and resistance were explored and applied to Telstra to develop this report. As power, control, and resistance are different elements of organizational behaviour, a range of theories needed to be used in order to properly analyse Telstra. This also led to the stakeholder interviews being less formal due to questions having to cover such as large industry and often transparent elements of organizational behaviour. To address the issue of power in Telstra, a number of cases were used to identify the scope of power itself in Telstra and how those in power are at times abusing it or using it as a tool for manipulation. In some cases, the extremities of Telstra are clearly shown. Alongside this evidence and research, the theoretical framework of the ‘four faces of power’ derived from Lukes (1986) and Foucault (1977) was used for analysis of the company. As Telstra is a very large company, appropriate control systems and management of control is essential throughout all the functions of the business. To analyse how control plays a critical role in Telstra, different functions of the organization and their appropriate control mechanism were explo red. This was done through researching into examples and cases of how Telstra has managed it’s control systems. Similarly to the use of the ‘four faces of power’, resistance was also analysed using a comparable framework. The framework used was the ‘four faces of resistance’. This framework helped to highlight areas where employees show resistance and how far they can take it. Research and cases gathered coupled together with the four faces of resistance aided in presenting and analysing the various issues of resistance and how it exists in Telstra. Organisational Power â€Å"Power is derived from owning and controlling the means of production and how this power is reinforced by organisational structures and rules of governance† (Weber and Marx, 1948) Telstra as an organization consists of management hierarchy comprising of numerous Directors and Executives that hold responsibility for the direction and public image of Telstra. These positions at times are extremely demanding as their everyday decisions can, and will have an effect on the business profits and customer satisfaction levels. Power is crucial amongst these ranks as it is required to make necessary changes and improvements to policy and procedure in the highly competitive industry of telecommunications. Ultimately the responsibility of the performance of Telstra resides with the CEO (David Thodey) and the supporting Directors (executive and non-executive). As the ‘Top-level manager’, David Thodey makes decisions affecting the entire company. He does not direct the day -to-day activities of the company; instead he sets goals for the organization and directs the company to achieve them. An example is the announcement of a strategy of market differentiation and a renewed focus on customer service and satisfaction (Telstra Website, 2009). Top managers are ultimately responsible for the performance of the organization (Simmering, 2007). Following the top-level management group is the middle-level managers, who set goals for their departments and other business units. Middle managers are charged with motivating and assisting first-line managers to achieve the company’s objectives. They also play an important role by communicating and offering suggestions to the top managers, as they are more involved in the day-to-day workings of the company. The next level of management is the first-level. This level is responsible for the daily management of the employees who actually produce the product or offer the service. Although first-level managers typi cally do not set goals for the organization, they have a very strong influence on the company, as they are the managers that most employees interact with on a daily basis. Telstra’s use of coercion internally has become evident in various situations. By assessing the four faces of power we can see how intimidation towards workers has resulted in a number of public outbursts. An unethical and undisclosed strategy was introduced by Telstra during 2008 whereby 15,000 employees were targeted to sign up to Australian Workforce Agreements (AWA) before the ban on agreements was to be imposed by the Government (Eastley, 2008). A confidential Telstra document showed that managers were given 29 pages of tips on how to best convince workers to signing up to AWA’s (Hawley, 2008). The document urged managers to use psychological profiling of employees when considering who to target and were rewarded with bonuses once successfully signing workers up to workplace agreements. This method of power is an example of coercion. Telstra has clearly done something unethically in this situation. The company’s actions have demonstrated a coercive environment that maximises pressure through psychological manipulation. Domination is a level of power that identifies the way in which an organisation can ultimately shape the preferences, attitudes and even political outlooks of its stakeholders Lukes (1986). Telstra’s domination of most communications markets and its ability to leverage market power across markets is a consequence of its structure. The result is the failure of competition affecting all consumer groups. The ideal solution is a form of structural separation of Telstra. This objective can be achieved through the creation of a regulatory package that delivers as much of the benefit as possible that would be derived from structural separation, while acknowledging the limitations of real separation to address the core incentives of Telstra to favour itself (Competitive Carriers’ Coalition Inc, 2005). Workplace bullying is a widespread issue that can only be resolved through an implementation strategy targeting all employees. Employers need to be held accountable and have a str ategy in place to protect the employees from this offence. Unfortunately this is not always the case, in some instances the employer is the one orchestrating the bullying. A recent case in which the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overruled Telstras decision not to pay compensation to an ex-employee for stress and psychological injury shows that it is possible to resist intimidation (Sdrinis, 2012). Mr Sami was successful in wining his compensation claim against Telstra for work-related psychological injuries and in particular in relation to bullying and harassment by his manager over a period of time. This case underlines that managements often-used tactics of subtle bulling and harassment to push people out the door has a human cost which the law is prepared to recognise. Within most major companies, including Telstra, workers have to live with the threat of losing their jobs and this case should encourage workers to stand up to workplace harassment and, if victimized, seek legal advice and compensation. Organisational Control In order to regulate and manage organisational activities and resources, so that accomplishing goals and objectives are possible, organisations need control. It is a significant part of running any business so that a targeted element of performance remains up to organisational standard. There is a considerable amount of responsibility that goes into managing control, as there are many different levels and areas in which organisations define control. Information Resources is an area of control in which include sales forecasting, environmental analysis and production scheduling. In a recent article, Telstra has reported a 12.9 per cent increase in net profit, reaching $3.9 billion, and an increase in revenue up two per cent to $26 billion (Bartholomeusz, Technology Spectator, 2013). Telstra chief executive officer David Thodey said it was the â€Å"third consecutive year of significant customer growth for Telstra mobile, driven by $1.2 billion of investment in the network during the y ear.† As profit results slightly bettered expectations, this can only leave a positive impact on employees, shareholders and the organisation itself. For instance, as a result of meeting organisational goals and objectives, employees get to keep their job, and keep the shareholders content. In any organisation, operations control is needed to control the processes used to transform resources into products and services. As Telstra is constantly aspiring to grow as a company and are faced with new business opportunities, changes in operational processes takes place as a result, workers find themselves jobless. The terminal decline of Telstra’s once-dominant telephone business and the rise of new business opportunities have forced the telco giant into a major operational restructure that will affect half the companys 30,000 strong domestic workforce (Bingemann, 2013). (Telstra Chief Operations officer Brendon Riley, is likely to see hundreds of jobs cut from the telco as i t transitions its operations and IT divisions from infrastructure-based businesses to more of a software and services future (Bingemann, 2013). Although this may mean good news for Telstra advancing as an organisation, this change in operations control is affecting the lives of 30,000 loyal employers and their families. Telstra’s financial control plan has an upside and a downside. Like most organisations, a budget control provides a way of measuring performance across different aspects within the company. Also control the financial resources as they flow into, are held by, and flow out of the organisation. Telstra while having generated some $2 billion in savings has punished workers by cutting 1,000 net local jobs over the past two and a half years (Bartholomeusz, Business Spectator, 2013). Although the savings are benefiting Telstra’s fast-growing mobile business, the price to pay is substantial for those 1,000 workers who need to make ends meet. Telstra has insisted that it can simultaneously cut costs while improving customer service b y reducing errors, queries and complaints that allow it to, for instance, reduce call centre staff (Bartholomeusz, Business Spectator, 2013). As technology advances, so does the way people do things. With the new possibilities of using apps and online resources to ask questions, queries and form complaints, the need for call centre workers reduces sizeable Organisational Resistance Within the multinational telecommunication company Telstra, numerous accounts of resistance both internally and externally have risen from management decisions by the company’s head. Several incidents have occurred in which the public and workers have raised their voice in resistance against some of the giant’s actions. By assessing the four faces of resistance, we can see typical and expected responses from the public and workers. One incident occurred earlier this year in February. Telstra slashed over 700 jobs from their Sensis network, which resulted in mass rallies and protests by union leaders and workers alike (Conifer, 2013). This method of resistance is an example of ‘voice.’ By publicly displaying and enforcing their dissatisfaction against the loss of their jobs, the union workers are resisting Telstra’s actions. The rally and protests have been constructed to highlight the unsatisfactory methods of Telstra. As Telstra grows as a company, many Australian jobs are being sent offshore, particularly to Asian nations. The rapid growth of the company forces management and corporate heads to expand the company to increase revenue and profits, at the expense of Australian jobs. In July of this year, over 170 jobs were sent offshore to India, which lead to widespread union outrage (Bingemann, www.theaustralian.com.au/business, 2013). The Communication, Electrical and Plumbing union, as well as the Community and Public Sector unions protested and demanded negotiations in regards to job losses. The fact that unions stood up and resisted to sacrifice their jobs highlights an internal voice of the company. This resistance from the unions demonstrates a type of power that workers have within their job, to stand up against unsatisfactory managerial decisions. (Bingemann, www.theaustralian.com.au/business, 2013) The third face of resistance represents the ‘escape’ side of work. This face is made up of three tools: cynicism, scepticism and dis-identification. Dis-identification refers to the disconnection from ones identity and the work environment. In an incident that occurred in April of 2007, a young girl committed suicide after been given unrealistic work goals and hassled by management staff of Telstra to return to work during her stress leave (Masanauskas, 2007). This amount of pressure lead to her suicide, and the change from her once â€Å"vibrant personality† was transformed into a â€Å"nervous wreck† (Masanauskas, 2007). The young women’s parents described the Telstra staff to be treating their daughter â€Å"like a machine.† From this tragedy, the union demanded realistic work goals and targets. The dis-identification from ‘human’ to ‘machine’ within the workplace highlights the third face of resistance, to escape work. However, this escape was much more serious and punishing, for it was not just a mental escape from work, but a suicide. Conclusion Throughout this report it is made evident that the three focal behavioral characteristics of organisations can have a major impact on its stakeholders. Although these impacts can be both positive and negative it is clear from the examples provided that a balance between what’s positive to both an organisation and its stakeholders remains a huge challenge to maintain. Telstra has been used as a case organisation due to its operational size and market reach throughout the country and spreading to different cultures internationally. Various methods were used to gather and analyse information specific to the affects of power, control and resistance from both internal and external stakeholders of the company which formed the basis of or report. Power of an organisation over its stakeholders is seen almost always as a negative characteristic but is critical to an organisations success. It was found that power in Telstra is delegated down through a hierarchal management structure to manage staff and performance. This lead onto analysing which control methods are being used within Telstra such as performance goals and project deadlines, which have been founded to be a major cause of many bully and stress related complaints. Due to the mismanagement of power and control various cases of industrial action and even suicide has been reported as a form of resistance from stakeholders. This resistance has a negative impact on the public image of the organisation and can potentially affect its market value. It is critical for organisations to achieve a balance between economic growth and ethical practices. Until this happens cases such of those highlighted in the report will continue causing restraint and harm to both the organisation and its stakeholders.

TV and Our Children Essay Example for Free

TV and Our Children Essay There is a long term debate about television affecting development of children, its positive and negative impacts, and possible consequences of excessive popularity of TV among young developing personalities. Critics argue on supportive and harmful influence of television on kids, and access the topic from different perspectives: scientific, which is observing of physical changes in child’s development, ethical, moral, and psychological. A number of experiments have been conducted in order to determine possible harmful effects of television on young minds, which indicated different and controversial results as for the issue. However, every study confirms that excessive time spending in front of television negatively influences various aspects of child’s development. see more:influence of television   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The extent of influential force of television of young developing personalities can be determined with the help of reviewing and investigating the results and outcomes of different experiments conducted on this matter. First of all, television can be determined as a representation of information in two senses, which are hearing and sight. Furthermore, television reproduces the sounds of a very poor quality to the human hearing, and the visual data contains flashing, unrealistically colored, fluorescent over-stimulating images to a human eye, which can be a threat to development and proper functioning of the sight and hearing organs (Poplawski 1998). Moreover, watching television can result in improper functioning of the vital multi-leveled sensory elements, which can deteriorate the process of children’s brains growth. Experiments, where children are left alone with limited interaction wit other personalities, accompanied only by the information retrieved form TV screen, show that such isolation tends to generate a decrease of child’s brain by approximately 25% (Healy 1990). Further experiments conducted on young developing animals, which assume confining an individual into a closed space with the ability only to observe the action of other animals, indicated the similar effect of brain decrease and its rate was proportional to the time spent in confines (Healy 1990). A full visual ability of a child and a three-dimensional vision pertained to an adult organism continue the development process until a child becomes 4 years old. Consequently, the visual data produced by television appliances blocks the full functionality of seeing abilities and limits it to the quality reproduced by the actual screen, which represents unfocused two dimensional data composing of a limited amount of dots of light, often referred as TV resolution and refreshment rate. The visual information appears on the screen due to the process of transmitting electrons by a cathode ray gun to fluorescent substances, phosphors. The product of phosphors is artificially pulsed light originated from its glow, and it is directly perceived by a human eye without stimulating the function neuron-endocrine system secretions (Mander 1978). The final product of a TV screen represents a fairly unfocused picture, in order to perceive which with clarity and sharp focus the eyes of a human have to strain and adjust to the lower quality visual product. Apparently, television negatively affects the physiological development of a young human organism, as well as adult organism can experience harmful effects of excessive watching television. Among some other arguments that support the idea of harmful influence of television are moral and ethical considerations, which can be quite controversial. As an example of these, there is an argument of negative affect provided by the information received from TV including violence, inappropriate social behavior, explicit use of language, scenes of sexual acts and sexual abuses. Furthermore, television may become a tool of promoting inadequate behavior of people, as well as stimulating different addictions both to TV and products promoted on TV. Another recognized problem of watching too much television is very critical to young personality’s mind development. Watching television prevents children from use of their imaginative thinking, as they perceive the message exactly in form it was transmitted by author of shown information. Neocortex, a part of the brain that stimulates the creation of images, pictures, and symbols, is partially or sometimes completely inactive while children watch TV. Imaginative thinking is a critical aspect of human development, as it is a foundation of such human characteristics as intuition, creativity, leadership, artistic features, learning abilities, and many more. Television puts a child in a position of a passive recipient of information, limiting the extent of his/her participation and the ability to influence the ongoing action. Probably, one of the most successful definitions of harmful affects of television on young personalities is its impairment of the three main human characteristics acquired during the first three years of a child’s life. During this period a child learns to talk, walk, and think. Television captures a child in the sitting position most of the time, prevents possible communication, and makes a child a passive recipient of information without providing an ability to analyze the information and think. In contrast to all the harmful effects of television and its severity, TV is a very useful educational tool during the first years of human life. Television provides a possibility to get acquainted with objects, organisms, and phenomena that are impossible to encounter in person. Different educational programs, promoting exemplary behavior of children on TV in masterly created scenarios and plays may significantly assist parents in teaching basic society norms, values, and understandings. Informational programs providing information about natural phenomena and different living species on earth helps children to get acquainted with what they cannot meet in their environment. Also, different programs stimulate children’s positive attitude, as well as sound effects such as music generates the ideas and senses of rhythm. In conclusion, television should not be completely removed from the child’s environment in the time of his/her development. However, watching TV should be regulated on the time, purpose, and body position basis in order to maintain the impact provided by television. Short-time uses and right body positioning is essential when watching television as it prevents from many harmful physiological effects on the child’s body and prevents young body muscles from lack of activity. Information provided by television should be specifically chosen to attempt to get as much of positive educational data from watching TV as possible, however, a child must still have relative freedom in choosing specific programs. Watching TV practice should be minimized to the most extent possible, replacing it by activities, which contain more physical and intellectual involvement of a child. Examples of these can be reading books, spending time with friends, outside in nature, etc. Nevertheless, any regulation of spending time in front of television will not eliminate all harmful effects provided by this activity. The goal is to create a balance, or to outweigh the negative impacts of TV by positive contributions to child’s development. Bibliography Buzzell, Keith. The Children of Cyclops: The Influence of Television Viewing on the Developing Human Brain. 1998 California: AWSNA. Davis, Kimberly. â€Å"TV and your child: how much is too much?† Ebony.   Oct, 2004. Everett, Miles. How Television Poisons Childrens Minds. California: Miles Publishing. 1997. Healy, Jane. Endangered Minds: Why Children Dont Think and What We Can Do About It. 1990 New York: Simon and Schuster. Mander, Jerry. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. New York: William Morrow and Co. 1978 Poplawski, Thomas. Losing Our Senses. Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education. 7:2, Fall 1998. Yarbrough, Marti. â€Å"Movies, music TV: can parents monitor their childrens entertainment?† Jet.  March 28, 2005.

Impact Of The Studio System On Filmmaking

Impact Of The Studio System On Filmmaking Examine the extent to which the Hollywood studio system nurtured or inhibited the artistry of film makers. This essay will be analysing to what extent the studio system has helped or possibly hindered the artistic nature and idea of filmmakers. The studio system can be defined under the idea that the studio owns and controls all aspects of the film creation. The largest and most prominent studios at this time were Warner Brothers, Paramount and MGM, they had final say over all decisions to do with the film (Filmsite, 2010). The Studio system was at its most prominent in the 1950s after having dominated the market from the 1920s to the 1940s, they made the final decision on all aspects of the film, and choose who they wanted to direct the film; this director would be given clear guidelines and rules to follow when creating the film. During the 1950s there started to emerge in Europe a belief that film should be more than just a story on the screen and that it was in fact an art form. This idea of the director taking control over the film to produce their own version, to show how they felt about the film carries into the theory of authorship. Authorship is when a creator of something puts their own stamp on what they are producing, from telling the story in a different way to shooting the film in a different style. The idea of authorship is seen in many texts over the centuries like Shakespeares Hamlet, where Hamlet speaks to the audience and in Jane Eyre when the main character addresss the reader in the first person. This idea is related to filmmakers because a film adopts the idea of literacy theory. During the 1950s a group of film critics in France created a magazine called Cahiers Du Cinema, to celebrate the film maker within the system, and to champion the cause of authorship. (Versobooks, 2009) From this the idea of Auteurism was born, whereby the director was given the control of the film making process to create their vision for the film. This theory is born out of the idea that film is art, and not just about making money, as was the conception to be the goal of the studio system during this time. The resulting flow of privately created artistic films that were created in Europe in this period, was known under the title of The French New Wave. This gained more momentum due to the magazine set up by Banzin, Chabrol, Truffaut, Rohmer and Godard, due to the growing idea of film as art through the theory of Autuerism. (Suite101, 2008) The French new wave was about legitimising cinemas as an art form, they believed that the idea of authorship was about the notion of a creative person, you are responsible for what you create and it will show in your art. They wanted to make films that were different from what most studios allowed. Most studios just made films that were based on novels and stories. A medium in which and by which an artist can express his thoughts, be they abstract or whatever, or in which he can communicate his obsessions as accurately as he can today in essay or novel (Unattributed B, 2010: 1) The French new wave believed that the director should be seen as a chief source of creativity, they believed that the idea the director comes up with has a huge impact on the film. It could be argued, that the Hollywood studio system has always tried to nurture the artistry of film makers, because even though the idea of film makers being seen as the director emerged slowly, studios did begin to see that directors has specialities in certain genres, and allowed them to build on that genre. John Ford was best known for his westerns, and Alfred Hitchcock was best known for his horror and suspense stories, this idea grew and allowed directors to grow in their own right. After the idea of the French new wave hit American it brought thought to studios, and they began to consider whether or not film should be seen as an art form. T.W. Griffiths film Birth of a Nation, was one of the earliest films that made studios question film as an art. His film brought the beginning to the golden age of Hollywood cinema, it shows that filmmakers tend to use film to make a point about what is going on at the time. Like Griffith many cinematic historians have examined stories from the past to suggest lessons concerning modern day controversies. (Toplin, R B, 1940: 18) The ideas that the Hollywood studios allowed the growth of creativity of film makers, is easy to see because, the auteur theory expresses the belief that a creative personality can surface through unpromising studio material, and in the end they make it their own. A film is seen as being unique because it does something only a film can do, it is an art form that can express a moment in time, and this idea is also called the holy moment. The idea of the auteur theory began to emerge from this, and it expressed a belief that some Hollywood directors could shape their material to something that meant something to them. It sought to establish individual creativity as the source of value in Hollywood ( Maltby, R, 2003: 46) the idea of the film maker being creative soon followed, and studios began to develop, with each studio having specialities like directors, MGM was good at creating musicals like singing in the rain, Warner brothers was good at making gangster film. One main person who believed that film makers like directors should be acknowledged more in a film is Alexandre Astruc, he was a film critic who was born in France and he argued that certain directors used the camera like a pen. The images themselves add nuance and develop the narrative as much as the dialog does (Unattributed C, 2010: 1) Using this idea and looking at American directors, it could be argued that as well as film makers being seen as authors with a creative process, there is an artistic value that results from their ideas and thoughts, allowing them to creatively express their imagination. The ideas of a film maker being creative, is all about whether they can create something amazing from not much that is given to them, and allowing themselves to work within the studio system. Sometimes auteurism is identified within specific genres and is linked to specialisation; each director has reoccurring elements that is found in all films they make. Alfred Hitchcock is one of the directors who makes each of his films with similar elements, and whose name always comes up when talking about auteur theory. His films are suspense films that keep audiences on their seats. Hitchcocks success didnt come from the type of genre the film was in. The skill which he exhibited in the filmmaking i.e. his treatment of the subject in terms of the shots he uses and how he combines them (Unattributed D, 2010: 1) However on the other hand it could also be argued that the Hollywood studio inhibited the artistry of film makers because, most film makers really only do what studios tell them, most work they do has to be checked by someone higher. The whole idea that Hollywood wanted to produce product not art is common because, under the studios rule the director is mainly a person hired to do what they want, he just puts the camera in the right place. Singing in the rain is a prime example of the way Hollywood saw its actors, directors etc, they were just hired. The ideas of auteur theory being a celebration of a directors freedom cant be understood by everyone because, it isnt just one person that works on a film it is a variety of people. More than one person will work on a film, so what makes the director more worthy of praise than, say, the scriptwriter or the camera operators? (Unattributed A, 2007: 1) Whether a film maker is creative or not in their film making process, may not even matter due to the fact that everyone sees things differently, what the person feels is not always what the audience sees. Due to the fact that films are made by studios, and the director isnt always the dominant one, most try to go independent but lose because, equipment used to make and produce films was expensive and not widely available. The idea of the independent American auteur is rare however, they do exist and they try to create a film that is away from the control of the studio system. Independent filmmaking consists of low-budget projects made by (mostly) young filmmakers with a strong personal vision away from the influence and pressures of the few major conglomerates that control tightly the American film industry (Daisies, G, 2010: 1) Independent film makers do work for studios as directors/ writers, and even actors for hire, just to make money to fund their project. Orson Welles is one of the film makers who pushed away from the studio system to make something he wanted. Welles embodies the concept of the tragic artist, he does everything an ideal film maker should do, he acts, writes, to raise money, but making his films he becomes a suffering artists. He wrote and starred in Citizen Kane which was about an investigation into the life of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane. Orson Welles did make many films after Citizen Kane, but his success in making independent films was very expensive and so he didnt make many big budget films, after twenty years in the studio he made another independent film called chimes at midnight. The fullest, most completely realized expression of everything [Welles] had been working toward since Citizen Kane. (Unattributed E, 2010: 1) No matter the financial problems at the end, Orson Welles remains the ideal film maker who fought against the studio systems control. In conclusion it is hard to try to discover whether or not the Hollywood studio system nurtured or inhibited the artistry of film makers, no matter how much the directors/film makers are seen as creative, most of them all are contracted by the studios. Followers of the French New Wave movement argue that, the studio system does hinder a director, as they think that films should be art and should be a representation of the directors views, and emotion towards the script. According to (Alfred Hitchcock: Auteur?, 2010) the idea behind the auteur director are done in terms of personal vision, the recurring themes, even a defined view of the world, and a degree of control over production, In auteur films, it is the director who controls the artistic statement, takes credit for the film and is responsible for attracting the audience. (Unattributed F, 2010: 1) Alfred Hitchcock was a major example of seeing a director as a auteur, as his films follow the necessary needs taking up by the French new wave, they have reoccurring themes which are done by a personal vision of his and will even shock audiences. So looking at American directors it is common to see that each one has a creative way to express their imagination. Studios throughout the 50s and onwards always had some control over the films production, when a director is hired and given a clear set of rules and guidelines to follow, and is not given full control of all aspects of the film, (such as stars of the film, setting or style) then they cannot possibly make their mark on the film. This may well be the case that the Studio system does hinder a director, and stop him from being an artist, but maybe this is not what the public want from films. This can be seen in the current situation we have where, although previously widely thought to be a hindrance to directors and their artistry, the studio system period is now being heralded in the media and by the public as the golden age of cinema. The idea of authorship takes hold in the film industry after the 1950s when film was seen as art not entertainment, however Hollywood had been in an era of a golden age, there reign caused many problem and in 1948 the US department of justice sued the ma jor studios for anti competitive practices. No longer could the film industry control (or monopolize) all aspects of film production, distribution and exhibition (Kliedie, 2007: 1) It seems that regardless of whether or not the studio system affects the artistry of filmmakers, it is now becoming more popular again, and some of the films from this period that are used to stereotype the studio system, are being heralded as classic films. So it would seem that despite films not being creative art and having complete authorship from the director, the mass public does not seem to mind watching studio system type films.