Media,
Public Opinion and Presidential Elections
Media plays important role in the life of society. People rely on media to get information about everything happening throughout the world. The democratic government is founded on the principle of freedom, including the freedom of media. However, the challenge is that journalists are expected to be objective in the coverage of the news and strive to avoid personal bias. The importance of media objectivity is especially vital for the news covering presidential elections. When the nation has to make a decision regarding the president of the United States of America, they form their opinion based on the messages they receive through media. Media has direct impact on the public opinion on presidential elections, debates and campaigns.
Background
As the presidential candidates try to reach the national audience, the media becomes the primary tool to achieve this goal. Media serves the informative function and people tend to believe in the information they are presented with through television news, shows, newspaper articles, and commentaries. It would be wrong to say that media has negative impact on the formation of public opinion about the presidential candidates but it would be incorrect to state that media has no influence over the choice. Undoubtedly, journalists are able to play with the words to deliver the message they want. As a result, the phrases spoken by candidates are taken out of the context or presented in another light.
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Posted
on March 11, 2012, 2:47 am,
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Sample essays.
Race
and Gender presentation in Shark tale
Being a part of the society means to interact with different people every day. We face different patterns of their behavior, appearance, language, culture, etc. Beyond there are groups of people, which differ from each other, but they are united basing on some criteria. Speaking about a certain group (not being a part of it) we all have a generalized idea about this group (based on our previous experience of interaction with members of that group, even if it was just a show on the TV). This idea might not be true for each member, but it is thought to be true about each member of the group. At these are stereotypes we are talking about. Cartoon Shark Tale shows us that these stereotypes are so strong and wide spread in the society and we do not even need to see the physical distinction of representatives of different social groups. It is enough to see behavior patterns, language distinctive features, patterns of their culture, etc.
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Corporate
Merger
Mergers and consolidations are common phenomena in the corporate world, yet these activities are often associated with legal and/or ethical complications. Many corporations extend their operations ‘by combining with another corporation through a merger, a consolidation, a purchase of assets, or a purchase of a controlling interest in the other corporation’ (Miller & Jentz, 2005, p. 628).
Mergers, consolidations, and purchases of assets or controlling interest have become more frequent than usually as the crisis deepened. Distressed corporations sometimes find that merger or sale of assets is the only option available to them. While mergers and acquisitions might be regarded as a desirable activity when more effective corporations are taking over least effective ones improving overall economic efficiency, there is a treat of a monopoly or oligopoly. In a monopolistic or oligopolistic market, competition is imperfect and distorted, therefore special legal provisions are in place to prevent markets from becoming a monopoly or oligopoly.
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Posted
on March 6, 2012, 11:07 pm,
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Sample essays.
The
homeland defense was considered to be traditional male occupation. Today women hold the same positions as men in the army, frequently do not only yield to men but pass ahead of them in dealing with physical and intellectual challenges. Last century of the past millennium has changed many of the stereotypes of social consciousness. In particular it was seriously refocused the role and place of women in society and the armed forces. The military is no longer given only to men. However, the role of women in the current contemporary operating environment challenges the validity of the current US DOD policy.
In January 2005, in one of the interviews with The Washington Times concerning the recent changes inside the Army and the war in Iraq, President Bush stated: „There’s no change of policy as far as I’m concerned. No women in combat“(Wise & Baron, 2006). Theoretically, there were not made any changes in the policy. However, since President Bush as the Commander-in-Chief has involved military power in the war against global terrorism, and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have begun, both men and women were engaged in combat (Fenner & Young, 2001). Read the rest of this entry »
Although
being long the smoking problem was never considered to be a social problem until the recent times, what lead to it is that the health problems in the population that are caused by tobacco smoking are nowadays closely correlated to the problems that sociology as a science deals with.
As sociology is a science that deals closely with the human behavior, it is vital to distinguish what the reasons for people are to take up smoking. The reasons can be different, at the early age, young people start to smoke because they want to look mature, to fit in with their peers, and to experiment something that is forbidden, it is very exciting for young children to get cigarettes and sneak away to smoke without being caught. Read the rest of this entry »
Hobbes’
Criticism
Hobbes claims that you are nothing more than your physical body (or your brain). If this is true, then you are exactly the same as your body (or your brain), so whatever is true of you must be true of your body.
But consider the following objection to Hobbes: “Although you can be morally blameworthy or praiseworthy, can we say that your body or your brain is morally blameworthy or praiseworthy? Although you can have wishes (for example, to do math) or thoughts (for example, about philosophy), does it make sense to say that your body or your brain has these wishes or thoughts? Although you can love God, isn’t it absurd to say your body or your brain loves God? Although it makes sense to say that you have a body, does it make sense to say that your body has a body?” Evaluate these criticisms. Read the rest of this entry »
The
age we are living in is characterized by rapid technology development and constant innovation. The health systems of almost all the world countries are developed to the point, when it becomes impossible for us to imagine that some illnesses, except for the apparently fatal ones, can not be cured. What is more, today, it is unattainable for us to picture that couple of centuries ago, people would die from a regular chickenpox, measles, scarlet fever, or mumps.
This is because we are so used to the fact that in childhood receive vaccines for all of these illnesses. Vaccine is the administration of antigenic material inserted into the human body to produce immunity to a disease, by preventing or ameliorating the effects of infection by a pathogen. Today, vaccination is considered to be the most effectual and cost-effective method of preventing infectious diseases. Thus, shortly after birth child is vaccinated from various types of diseases.
However, today more and more the question of whether vaccines are safe arises within the public. Moreover, there even those who link the appearance of autism in the child with the vaccination he/she had received earlier. This issue is very divisive and the consensus on this notion has not been reached yet. In my paper I would, first of all, define the concept of autism. Upon that I will present facts that speak for and against the links between vaccination (particularly measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine) and autism. In the conclusion I will analyze the discussed points and propose my personal opinion on the notion. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted
on February 26, 2012, 12:49 pm,
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Sample essays.
Love
I
have been wondering what real love is since I was a kid. I read lots of books, watched hundreds of movies and TV shows about love; I’ve seen lots of people in love, loved and loving, until I developed a definition of this phenomenon suitable for me. Millions of books, songs and plays were written, numerous movies were filmed about different kinds and aspects of this condition. The contemporary world seems to be gone mad on the topic of love. Love has become an object for sale, a social attribute that is prestigious to have. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted
on February 22, 2012, 1:34 pm,
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Sample essays.
“Beloved”:
Looking For Identity
“Beloved” by Toni Morris is the bright example of how the soul can be destroyed when the person is not taking responsibility for his own actions and is dependable on others. I am talking about the slavery through which the person experiences emotional, physical and spiritual devastation that is not easy to eradicate and cope with even the person is freed. Devastation impacts not just the present life, but also greatly diminishes the possibility of the happy free future. The influence of slavery upon personality and perception of self is truly tremendous, and multiple examples from the book just support and prove this claim. “A man ain’t nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that’s somebody”(23).
Slaves are people. They are people of the same sort that their masters are. They have the same feelings, experiences, hopes and beliefs. The only difference is social roles they have to perform. Slaves were not considered to be humans; they were more “subhumans” and were treated like staff or commodities. Many of them were born in slavery and therefore they never felt how it is like to be independent and to live a real life. They never experienced other kind of treatment and no one would teach them how to live when they are set free. Slaves cannot understand themselves, their true wishes and beliefs, they became alienated from themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Concepts
such as gender or race are social constructs, therefore they are rather fluid than rigid. Identities are rather dynamic than static: people reconstruct their identities, sometimes under the influence of political opportunities and economic inducements. However, this is not a process that is always occurring painlessly and smoothly. There were numerous attempts to suggest a method for integrating identities effectively. For example, the concept of ‘The Third Place’1 was elaborated to define a point of intersection where people possessing different racial or ethnic identities can interact freely and transcend their differences. The opposition between tolerance of difference and active participation in ‘otherness’ illustrates the limited nature of certain forms of interaction between people with different identities. The negotiation of ‘The Third Place’ between the self and the foreign is a prerequisite for mutually advantageous encounters.
It is often the case that the dominant groups are often reluctant to participate in any forms of cultural exchange that might affect their own ways and values, thus distancing themselves from truly understanding and experiencing ‘otherness.’ Current politics of identity arbitrarily creates static yet vague ethic categories, and such practice ‘undermines efforts to create more fluid cosmopolitan identities that transcend as well as tolerate differences and thus provide the basis for broad social solidarity’. Read the rest of this entry »