Construction Economics Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Construction Economics Assignment - Essay Example Many people took out very large mortgages. In 1983, the average new mortgage was approximately 2.1 times annual average earnings. By 1989 this had risen to 3.4 times annual average earnings. House prices were rising uncontrollably and bringing considerable inflationary pressures to bear within the economy. As a result, the government increased rates and reduced government assistance to home ownership. The impact of these measures plus a worsening economic environment drove house prices down and the housing market into a state of recession (Williams and Holmans, 1996). In mid 1989 house prices started a downward trend for the next six years, falling by 12 per cent, before reaching a trough in July 1995.In the years 1990 - 1995 house prices fell by around 12.2%. Many people found themselves in a position of having negative equity on their property because the value of the mortgage now exceeded the property value. This meant many people were unable to move house without taking a loss. Then, in 1996, house prices began to rise again. The UK housing market started to recover with a 7 per cent increase in prices. The low interest rates enjoyed by UK homeowners have reduced mortgage payments as a proportion of gross earnings for the average purchaser from 22 per cent to just 15 per cent. Consequently, mortgage payments account for a smaller share of income than at almost anytime since 1983 and are well below the 36 per cent peak in 1990. Since May 1997, house prices have been on a steady rise. Many factors have contributed to this increase including growing population, rising employment, increasing number of households, limited supply of new housing properties and the emergence of alternatives like buy-to-let. Another important reason is the increase in popularity of real estate as an investment avenue. Fall in the level of confidence in traditional investments and increase in speculative avenues has contributed immensely to this. The fall in long-term real interest rates - the gap between inflation and interest rates on government bonds - has helped support property investments. The most complimenting factor, however, has been the short-term interest rate set by the Bank. The sharp fall in prices at the end of 1980s and early 1990s pushed the interest rates to very low levels in relation to rents and other assets and incomes. This, combined with the realization that lower interest rates were meant to stay, created a strong and steady rise. By 2001, though house prices were still below their long-term trend, the boom had begun to fade. Further to this, there followed a series of global events that ruptured the boom even further. In response to the bursting of the dotcom bubble, September 11 and the start of the Iraq war, the Bank cut rates, taking them all the way down to 3.5% during 2003. Then, however, the Bank switched into tightening mode, raising Bank rate five times between November 2003 and August 2004. The results of this on the housing market were significant, producing the famous 2004-5 pause in prices. Determination of equilibrium price and quantity The determination of price depends on the type of market organization the product belongs to. In a competitive market, the point of intersection of market demand and supply curves determines the

Hephaestus Made Up Story Essay Example for Free

Hephaestus Made Up Story Essay â€Å"Where am I?† asked Hephaestus, confused and hurt. â€Å"Why you’re on Lemnos Island, you took quite a hit. I’m guessing you did something to make Zeus distraught, am I right?† said Thetis, a Nereid nymph. And suddenly Hephaestus remembered it all. Seeing his mother, Hera, all tied up and Zeus madder than ever. As he began to go through all the emotions again he carefully disdained all of the bad thoughts and put an indifferent face on; there was no reason to scare his new friend away. â€Å"Something like that,† he barely replied. â€Å"Well, I’m sure you’re very crippled. I shall take you to the Sintian Men; they will be responsible of you, for now. Okay, Hephaestus?† said Thetis. There was no response. â€Å"Poor kid,† mumbled Thetis as she took him to the Sintian Men. The following day Hephaestus woke up in an unfamiliar place, full of unfamiliar people. â€Å"Who are you? What do you want?† Hephaestus entreated. â€Å"We are the Sintian Men, we mean no harm. We’re here to help you.† said one of the men. And from that point on the Sintian Men and Hephaestus became very close good pals. Hephaestus soon started to become very well known around the island, and everyone wanted to meet him. He was a celebrity, crippled but famous. I never had this much attention, he thought. I practically know everyone here, like my own heaven. And then with a whim he saw Aerdna, for the first time. A million of questions rushed to his head: who is she? Where is she from? Has she always been here? I need to get to know her. Shy and formidable Hephaestus quickly retreated and went home. There he made a plan, with guile included. He decided to woo her. Hephaestus, the god that had the special gift of building fine arts, gently made a beautiful scallop shell. He planned to give it to Aerdna as a token of his love. She gladly accepted it, for she too had feelings for him. Now, at this time, Aphrodite was about to get thrown out of the heavens. â€Å"I can’t go! I’ll do anything!† she pleaded to Zeus. Zeus just laughed and replied, â€Å"You must marry the son of my wife: Hephaestus. He is located on Lemnos Island. But, good luck with that. For I see he has found himself another woman.† Hephaestus with another woman? I don’t believe so. This won’t do. She thought to herself. When I see it, I’ll believe it. So, Aphrodite made a trip to Lemnos Island and found out that what Zeus said was true. â€Å"I am appalled! I shall change all of this, I will keep my spot as the goddess of beauty if it’s the last thing I do!† yelled Aphrodite. Quickly and cleverly, Aphrodite made a plan. She would lure Aerdna into a cave and kill her right then and there. Then she will go to Hephaestus and demand his hand in marriage. But, as we all know, not everything always goes as planned. Aphrodite successfully lured her prey into the cave but as soon as Aerdna caught the gist of what was happening she tried to run away. In the end, Aerdna turned into the scallop shell Hephaestus gave her; which later on would become a sign of Aphrodite. Aphrodite and Hephaestus later then got married. Aphrodite remained being a goddess and Hephaestus never really figured out what happened with his one true love.

Wheelchair Interfaces for Paralyzed Persons

Wheelchair Interfaces for Paralyzed Persons New method suggest some improvements regarding muscles to drive a wheelchair. People with disabilities such as Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis or tetraplegia experience problems while using traditional wheelchair-integrated joystick due to deformities of their limbs, amputees, tremor or because the are paralyzed below the neck. For them, different methods to use wheelchair have been invented. Among them, the most popular are voice command, brain command, eye tracking, face tracking and tongue tracking. In this project, the main emphasis is put on interfaces based on eye-tracking, head gestures and users habits. The eye methods are effective, but distracts patients view. The physiological background of Electro-Oculography is well understood among different eye movement research methods. Therefore, the report regarding this project is chosen to be described. voice command is too sensitive for the background noise, but has works quite fast. Tongue tracking is inconvenient, but less than eye tracking. Face tracking is sensitive for skin color, but quite efficient. Brain command is very successful, but difficult to adjust. 2.1. Eye-computer interfaces The authors of [1] present an electrooculography (EOG) based wheelchair interface. Beyond simple path guiding, this device has three other features: path re-routing, obstacle sensing and avoidance, and tilt detection. It is also worth nothing that the microcontroller is used in the wheelchair system instead of a laptop computer. Electrooculography is a bio-medical technique used for eye movements observations. It measures the resting potential of the retina. This potential comes from the fact that eye acts a dipole: it has a positive charge on the cornea (the front part of the eye) and a negative charge on the retina (the rear part of the eye). The measurements are conducted with electrodes applied onto the face skin. More important is the location of the electrodes which depends on the eye movements. If the patients gaze is in the horizontal direction, the electrodes have to be placed near the lateral canthi of both eyes. On the other hand, if eye movements are expected to vary in a vertical direction, then the electrodes have to be placed above and below the eye. Figure 2.1Electro-Oculography method It is particularly interesting that the constructors applied additional ultrasonic sensors into the wheelchair. These sensors, placed on the wheelchair body, send signal to detect obstacle and then receive the reflected wave. This back signal helps the microcontroller to choose the best path. The researchers designed the interface in that way that gaze directions like left, right, forward or back correspond with internationally understood directions like north, west, east and south. No pulse means centre. The microcontroller of so called User Instructions Processor (UIP) encodes upcoming signals in order drive to in a certain direction or to avoid collision with an obstacle. Finally, the tilt detection algorithm is realized by the gyroscope applied to Drive Control Module. It informs UIP about possible danger associated with breaking safe tilt limit, predefined for wheelchair. In this case, corrective measures is done by the user or the alert to the patients doctor/nurse is sent. 2.2. Head Gesture Recognition This method, described in [2], allows to obtain images of humans head in order to process them for certain commands. The equipment used for this application is called Gesture Cam. It is a Smart Camera which was modified with embedding a processing unit. This modification allows the device to process images at the high resolution. Moreover, due to this condition, the only mage feature that has to be processed, is the output of the camera. GestureCam is based on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which is supposed to process data from intensive video faster in real time than a traditional Personal Computer. Firstly, the authors took the video of the user. After that, they used Viola-Jones method in order to detect users faces. Figure 2.2 Viola-Jones method used for detecting nose. Figure 2.3Viola-Jones method used for detecting eyes 2.3. Anticipative Shared Control The researchers and at the same time the authors of presented a wheelchair navigation interface which enables the user to move from one room to another into an indoor place. The control over this interface is shared between the user and the computer. Therefore, it is called Anticipative Shared Control and the system POMDP (stands for Partially Observable Markov Decision Process). The main impact of the computer is that it uses data based on human habits, visited paths, time of the day etc. On the other hand, user can decide whether he/she wants to choose particular path, suggested by the interface or change settings. The main purpose of these operations is to complete users intentions and expectations as full as possible without increasing effort while operating the wheelchair. Tha advantage of that solution is that the wheelchair can take the user for longer trip without requiring more gestures. The authors notice that using interactive interfaces like eye-tracking or Electromyography (EMG) may be tiring for the human. The proposed design of the wheelchair interface is to use make fusion of head gestures and eye-tracking and to add more functions like winking, baring teeth, raising eyebrows or In this report various wheelchair interfaces were presented. The aim of their design is to improve life of persons who suffer from diseases causing. As far as eye-tracking is considered, many papers regarding eye-tracking systems were published. Generally, the advantage of eye-tracking over voice command is that eye can send accurate visible signal, for example, by gazing in certain direction. It is worth noting that eye-tracking method, described in , is very reliable. Moreover, it is simple to use in various applications. Because of the straightforward gaze detection, it is very reliable, accurate and, based on previous research, quite economic. The use of microcontroller reduces time of complex calculations, provides enough high level of intelligence and unweights the wheelchair because of replacing a laptop computer. The head gesture interface is quite effective and economic. However, it faces different ambiance conditions (such as changes in illumination or various objects in the background) as well as users appearance (face complexion, or glasses). [1] R. T. Bankar and Dr. S. S. Salankar, Head Gesture Recognition System Using Gesture Cam, in Fifth International Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies, Gwalior, India, 2015. [2] P. Pinheiro, E. Cardozo and C. Pinheiro, Anticipative Shared Control for Robotic Wheelchairs Used by People with Disabilities, in IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions, Vila Real, Portugal, 2015. [3] T. R. Pingali, S. Dubey, A. Shivaprasad, A. Varshney, S. Ravishankar, G. R. Pingali, N. K. Polisetty, N. Manjunath and Dr. K. V. Padmaja, Eye-Gesture Controlled Intelligent Wheelchair using Electro-Oculography, in IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), Melbourne, Australia, 2014.

Dionysius I of Syracuse Essay -- History, Dionysius

Dionysius I of Syracuse garnered a reputation as a warmongering tyrant who harmed his people with his oppressive regime. However many surviving sources that explore his rule were written by people who were ideologically opposed to perceived tyrants. It is therefore quite possible that aspects of Dionysius rule where left out or exaggerated to suit the author`s anti-tyrannical agenda. It is the intention of this paper to argue that Dionysius rule did in fact benefit Syracuse more than he harmed it during his lifetime. His domestic and foreign affairs will be explored in order to show how he in fact benefitted the Syracusan state as well as the majority of its people. It will however also be argued that his legacy did harm the Syracusan state but that overall Dionysius rule was beneficial in his lifetime. Sources tend to portray Dionysius rule in a negative light and seemingly avoid the latter part of his reign. L. Pearson suggested that the reason for this was because Philistus was in exile at the time (since many sources rely on him for a firsthand account) meaning there was a lack of information. Diodorus provides the most compressive surviving work of Dionysius rule but follows the anti-tyrannical tradition. According to Diodorus, Dionysius came to power by discrediting the military leaders` in order to have him appointed general with supreme power by the assembly (Diodorus 13.91-2, 95). Dionysius was now able to do whatever was necessary to win the war giving him virtually limitless power over the state. He also convinced the assembly to recall Syracusan who were in exile to help aid in the war, providing Dionysius with plenty of new supporters among the returning people (Diodorus 13.92). He then gained a bodyguard o... ...le benefited from his rule. The rulers building projects and preparations for war created many jobs that would last a number of years. Stabile employment was found by many people and projects such as the fortified wall saved them from a Carthaginian siege. Dionysius large army helped to protect the state as well as expand its influence in both Sicily and Italy. As time went on the oppressive aspects of Dionysius reign ebbed away as he sought to improve his image in order to gain powerful allies. This eventually bore fruit meaning Dionysus was able to elevate Syracuse to an international level. However his legacy was harmful to Syracuse as it led to the suffering of its people and the weakening of the state. During his life time however Dionysius did benefit Syracuse became it was ultimately left it in a better position than it was before he came to power.

Propaganda Throughout History

Propaganda has existed as a method of communication for a long time. It was originally a neutral term used to describe the dissemination of information in favor of any given cause. The redefinition implying its now negative connation arose because of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany's admitted use of propaganda favoring communism and fascism respectively, in all forms of their public expression. Propaganda under this connation still exists, however it’s evolution over the centuries has ensured its survival in the most unassuming ways.This paper will highlight the definitions of propaganda, the uses of propaganda in history through religion, Nazi Germany and the Cold War; its reappearance after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 1995 Canadian referendum, evolution into advertising and how society today has become almost indifferent to it. What is Propaganda? Traditional propaganda is defined as a systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally through the use of symbols, monuments, speeches and publications.Today’s â€Å"modern† propaganda is distinguished from other forms of communication in that it is consciously and deliberately used to influence group attitudes; with all other communication functions being secondary. Therefore, almost any attempt to sway public opinion, including lobbying, commercial advertising and even missionary work, can be broadly interpreted as propaganda. However propaganda, more often than not, is associated with political situations referring to efforts by governments and political groups.Propaganda itself can be categorized as White, Gray, or Black, depending on the accuracy of information and where source is credited – if it’s credited at all! White propaganda is defined as coming from a source that is identified correctly and contains information that tends to be accurate such as national pride messages. A message considered Black propaganda when the source is concealed or credited to a fa lse authority, and spreads lies, fabrications and deceptions. Gray propaganda falls somewhere between these two forms as the source may or may not be correctly identified, and the accuracy of the information is uncertain.Ultimately though, the success or failure of any propaganda depends on the receiver’s willingness to accept the credibility of the source and the content of the message. Religious Propaganda The first use of propaganda is credited to the Catholic Church with their creation of sainthood; which was created to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues. From the fourth century onwards, the church launched an immense propaganda campaign aimed at communicating the character, powers and importance of saints as a method of keeping the loyalty of their existing followers and as a tactic to gain new ones.The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Faith was responsible for the campaign in spreading this message. Through their monasteries, the church was abl e to target emperors, kings and upper noblemen with the message of the saints. Once the church had the buy-in of rulers, the reputations of these saints were given more validity to the general population and their shrines became protected as sacred places. It should be noted that during this period very few people outside the church were literate thereby making authentication of any information difficult.In order to spread the message of the saints, the church used relied on oral messaging and stories told through images such as in the stained glass seen today in cathedrals. For the average person, the church carried absolute authority as it was considered to be the leading source of knowledge. With this power, the church was easily able to bring their saints to life, so to speak. While the propaganda of saints was originally intended as a missionary tool, their resulting successes strengthen a variety of religious objectives.Saints helped reestablish the monastic movement after a p eriod of crisis by generating funds to complete cathedrals and gave the church a major tool for controlling popular religious trends. They also fueled the enthusiasm for the Spanish crusade; which is an excellent example of one of the church’s most immediate successful propagandistic campaign with its mission of bringing all together in Christendom. Spurred on by the words of Pope Urban II that Muslims had conquered Jerusalem, the Crusader’s mission was to recapture the ‘Holy Land’ and they dedicated their lives to this in return for the promise of redemption.Nazi Germany During the 20th century, the arrival of radio and television enabled propagandists to reach more people than before. In addition to the development of these modern medias, warfare and political movements had also contributed to the growing importance of propaganda in the 20th century. Of all the propaganda artists throughout history, no one is better known than Adolf Hitler. During his re in in Nazi Germany, he saturated schools, government and every part of German’s daily lives with propaganda.His keen and sinister insight into mass psychology contributed to Nazi Germany being noted for its psychologically powerful propaganda – much of which was centered on the Jews who were made the scapegoats for Germany's economic woes. Hitler was as a gifted speaker who, as history shows, captivated the masses with his beating of the podium and growling, emotional speeches. Authentic as they may have seemed, these speeches were full of propaganda and rhetoric which he used to appeal to the economic need of the lower and middle classes, while sounding resonant chords of nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism.Threatened by hyperinflation, political chaos and a possible Communist takeover, Hitler, offered Germans scapegoats and solutions. To the economically depressed he promised to despoil â€Å"Jew financiers† and to workers he promised security. He ga ined the financial support of bankers and industrialists with his hostility towards Communism and promises to control trade unionism. Shortly after coming to power, Hitler’s Third Reich established the Ministry of Propaganda, whose aim was to ensure the Nazi message was successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials and the media.Films in particular played an important role in disseminating racial Anti-Semitism, portraying Jews as â€Å"subhuman† creatures infiltrating an Aryan society. The Ministry successfully censored and/or eliminated any viewpoint it felt posed a threat to Nazi beliefs or to the regime leaving only the propagandistic message available to the masses. The Cold War Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union forced the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union into wartime cooperation despite their past tensions.However, from the start, the alliance between the world's leading eco nomic power, the world's largest colonial empire and the world's first Communist state was marked by mutual distrust and ideological tension. The Cold War began shortly after the end of World War II over disagreements on how postwar Europe should be rebuilt. While neither side ever â€Å"officially† fought the other, as the consequences would be too appalling with the Soviet Union’s Red Army and the Americans possession of the A-bomb, they did wage an incredible war of propaganda.Soviet propaganda focused mainly on overcoming such hardships as exploitation of the working class, racial discrimination and discrimination against women. Their propaganda described the Soviet society as a modern, progressive culture. While they relied upon a variety of resources for propaganda, their posters were the Soviet’s most influential pieces. These posters focused upon the achievements of Russian communists politically, economically and technologically.Domestically, these post ers aimed at increasing government support and building patriotism. Many posters focused upon anti-American sentiments. The American capitalist was portrayed as a large, plump old man dressed in a tuxedo and hat. Typical actions of the capitalist in Soviet posters included withholding grain from hungry peasants or running over children with his shiny car. These posters attacked the benefits of the wealth that result from capitalism, while other posters showed the effects of capitalism on poverty.In 1942 the United States created the Office of War Information (OWI), which was responsible for disseminating anti-communist propaganda in order to convince American's that the US was justified in this new battle. The anti-communist propaganda made American's fearful and strengthened the movement to support the United States' opposition to communist states. This propaganda saturated books, pamphlets, comics, films, and radio for nearly 30 years during the Cold War. Hollywood films became a common feature to further propagandize the communist platform with titles such as Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn and Dr. Strangelove .Among its wide-ranging responsibilities, OWI reviewed and approved the design and content of government posters and established the Voice of America, as a method of transmitting its messages to the masses. Voice of America still remains the official government broadcasting service of the United States today. Funded by the US government, it defines itself as an international broadcasting service boasting 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming weekly to a worldwide audience of approximately 115 million people†. Propaganda in North America Today 9/11 and the ‘War on Terrorism’In the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in 2001, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld quickly created a modern version of the OWI, with the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) to disseminate war information. In the critical â€Å"planning stages† leading up to an invasion of Iraq, the twisting of public opinion in the US, and around the world, was an integral part of their war agenda. Acts of war were proclaimed â€Å"humanitarian interventions† geared towards â€Å"regime change† and â€Å"the restoration of democracy†. Military occupation and the killing of civilians are presented as â€Å"peace-keeping†.In news reports on actual, possible or future terrorist attacks, the propaganda campaign exhibited a consistent pattern referring to ‘reliable sources’ or a ‘growing body of evidence’; and included key phrases such as terrorist groups involved had ‘ties to Bin Laden’ or Al Qaeda†. News reports unwittingly confirmed the America’s need to initiate â€Å"pre-emptive actions directed against these various terrorist organizations and/or the foreign governments that harbour the terrorists†. These types of news reports were also used to justify ethnic profiling and mass arrests of presumed terrorists.As it had done during the Cold War, the government also influenced the scope and direction of many Hollywood productions as immediately following 9/11. One third of Hollywood productions were war movies that reinforced the message of patriotism such as Black Hawk Down and Spy Game. In their book Propaganda and Persuasion , authors Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell suggest that overtly patriotic national celebrations are forms white propaganda. Celebrations such as the Fourth of July or Canada Day are designed to increase patriotism by bolstering national pride and glorifying ‘dying for one’s country’.In 1991, President Bush went to watch one of the US’ oldest annual Independence Day celebrations held in Missouri. Wearing an American flag in his pocket, he praised American troops who fought in the Persian Gulf saying â€Å"the war had made ever yone in the country proud to say ‘I am an American and I love my country’. † These types of propagandistic celebrations are crucial in times of war, drawing on the emotions of its countrymen in order for the government to gain support for its actions. My Canada Includes Quebec In 1995, Canadians faced the possibility of the province of Quebec’s separation from Canada.Since the referendum battle was over the hypothetical situation with complex facts and nationalist emotions, the most important fight of the referendum was for the minds and spirits of the Quebec voters. Spearheaded by the separatist Bloc Quebecois Party, Quebec residents were fed a continuous stream of negative images of federalism into their collective psyche. The majority of the propaganda during the referendum came from the Bloc Quebecois (separatists) and Party Quebecois (nationalists) who used a combination of party ideas, facts and images to spread the idea that rest of Canada would neve r recognize Quebec's distinctiveness.To that end, Nationalists launched the slogan that â€Å"a vote for the Non is a vote for the status quo†. However, the majority of their propagandistic campaign revolved around discrediting federalism as harming Quebec to help to reinforce their core nationalist support; presenting their images of a peaceful, easy separation and the inevitability of Quebec becoming a â€Å"normal† nation-state. On the flip side, Federalists launched their own campaign to counter the pro-separatist and nationalist propagandistic messaging.Federalists employed facts of the high cost of separation and the dangers of instability and ethnic conflict, as an attempt to for force the Nationalists into defending the need of an independent state. Today most of the propaganda in the North America comes from governments and ‘various private entities’. In this respect, propaganda is an ambiguous term that can often meaning the same as advertising. Radio, newspaper, posters, books, and anything else the government might send out to the widespread public can be considered, by definition, propaganda. Advertising as PropagandaIn the early 20th century, the founders of the growing public relations industry originally used the term propaganda to describe their activities. This usage died out around the time of World War II, as the industry started to avoid the word, given the negative connotation it had acquired. Whatever you call it, advertising is a form of propaganda as it is ever-present and the message it carries is a result of ulterior motives by people who want to make money and maintain the status quo. Alongside the news, advertising is a tool that shapes public opinion.Everywhere you look there is some form of advertising, whether you’re driving a car or taking public transit, there is advertising. Billboards, posters, newspapers, magazines – everywhere we turn we are exposed to some form of advertising pushi ng a product, concept or belief on to us. Advertising is a fiercely competitive industry with success won not necessarily by the best product, but rather with the best advertising. As advertising relies on the amount of coverage or penetration, coupled with the quality of the delivery, it is easy to see how it compares to propaganda.If a tag or a brand logo is reproduced enough to become recognizable by a large section of the community, it becomes part of the social landscape and instantly embedded into the mind. Advertising has evolved from its beginnings as a text-based medium highlighting a product’s merits into the marketing feelings, lifestyle and fantasy with advertising campaigns such as Calvin Klein’s Obsession, which feature highly sexualized images that convey beauty and virility though photographs of almost nude models.Consumers have become oblivious to the propagandistic qualities of advertising but are not immune to its effects. Look at the successful mark eting of Energizer batteries with its creation of its Energizer Bunny ®. Since 1989, Energizer has featured its bunny in their commercials, hammering the simple message ‘it keeps going and going†¦ ’ into the minds of consumers. Energizer is an excellent example of a company that has successfully ensured consumers understand their product message by employing the techniques of propaganda.When watching a commercial for Energizer, consumers now immediately associate the infamous pink bunny to the Energizer product. For it’s success, the Energizer Bunny ® campaign was recognized as one of the Top Five Advertising Icons of the 20th Century, and has received multiple television advertising awards. Conclusion Throughout history, propaganda has been used and misused to suit the needs of governments during times of crisis, such as war and political instability, and to garner support for private causes such as Christianity in the fourth century.With increased lite racy and information readily available to support and/or refute arguments, society is more alert to messages of government/political propaganda and what is strictly information dissemination than its forefathers. However, under the guise of advertising, propaganda continues to be an acceptable tool of persuasion – a multi-billion dollar industry in fact! Consumers are critical when analyzing information presented by governing bodies, yet readily accept the messages/promising conveyed in advertising. Would society be as indifferent to advertising if it were still called propaganda?The formation of watchdog groups, such as Adbusters, call attention of the propagandistic messages by questioning facts and parodying advertising campaigns with unpleasant product realities. With their proclaimed goal to â€Å"[get] folks to get mad about corporate disinformation †, Adbusters’ has created campaigns such as TV Turnoff Week, a method of mass protest against the inundation of commercial messages. While such watchdog groups call attention to advertising’s one-sided, self-serving message, it is up to consumers to pay attention to product messaging and its effects on our culture.

Postmodern Cultural Studies Essay

Cultural Studies and the Academy 1. Cultural studies in the academies of the advanced capitalist countries has transformed the object of studies in the humanities. In particular, in English departments, cultural studies has challenged the predominance of the governing categories of literary studies (the â€Å"canon,† the homogeneous â€Å"period,† the formal properties of genre, the literary object as autonomous and self-contained) in the interest of producing â€Å"readings† of all texts of culture and inquiring into the reproduction of subjectivities. To this end, pressure has been placed on disciplinary boundaries, the methods which police these boundaries, and modes of interpretation and critique have been developed which bring, for example, â€Å"economics† and â€Å"politics† to bear on the formal properties of texts. In addition, the lines between â€Å"high culture† and â€Å"mass culture† have been relativized, making it possible to address texts in terms of their social effectivity rather than their â€Å"inherent† literary, philosophical or other values. 2. The two most significant categories which have supported these institutional changes have been â€Å"ideology† and â€Å"theory. † Althusserian and post-althusserian understandings of ideology, which defined ideology not in terms of a system of ideas or â€Å"world view† but in terms of the production of subjects who recognize the existing social world as the only possible and â€Å"reasonable† one, made possible the reading of texts in terms of the ways in which the workings of ideology determined their structure and uses. Marxist and post-structuralist theories, meanwhile, focused critical attention on the conditions of possibility of discourses, and upon the exclusions and inclusions which enable their articulation. In both cases, critique becomes possible insofar as reading is directed at uncovering the â€Å"invisible† possibilities of understanding which are suppressed as a condition of the text’s intelligibility. 3. I support these efforts to transform the humanities into a site of ultural critique. I will argue that what is at stake in these changes is the uses of pedagogical institutions and practices in late capitalist society. If pedagogy is understood, as I would argue it should be, as the intervention into the reproduction of subjectivities, then the outcome of struggles over â€Å"culture† and â€Å"cultural studies† will determine whether or not the Humanities will become a site at which the production of oppositional subjectivities is made possible. Historically, the Humanities has been a site at which the contradictions of the subjectivities required by late capitalist culture have been addressed and â€Å"managed. † For example, the central concepts of post-World War Two literary criticism, such as â€Å"irony,† have the function of reducing contradictions to the â€Å"complexity† and â€Å"irrationality† of â€Å"reality,† thereby reconciling subjects to those contradictions. 4. However, these recent changes in the academy have been very partial and contradictory. They have been partial in the sense that much of the older or â€Å"traditional† modes of literary studies have remained untouched by these developments, or have only made some slight â€Å"accommodations† to them. They have also been contradictory in the sense that cultural studies has accommodated itself to existing practices, by producing new modes of fetishizing texts and preserving conservative modes of subjectivity. In this way, cultural studies continues to advance the ideological function of the modern Humanities in a changed social environment. . The right wing attacks these changes, charging–as in the ongoing â€Å"PC† scare–that the Humanities are abandoning their commitment to objectivity and the universal values of Western culture. My argument is that these commitments and values have been undermined by social developments which have socialized subjects in new ways while concentrating global socio-economic power within an ever-shrinking number of transnational corporations. The intellectual and political tendencies coordinated by cultural studies, then, are responding to these transformations by allowing academic business to go on as usual, and providing updated and therefore more useful modes of legitimation for capitalist society. 6. The contradictions of these changes in the mode of knowledge production need to be understood within the framework of the needs of the late capitalist social order. The emergence of â€Å"theory† and (post)Althusserian understandings of ideology reflected and contributed strongly to the undermining of liberal humanism (in both its â€Å"classical† and social-democratic versions) as the legitimating ideology of capitalism. The discrediting of liberal humanism, first under the pressures of anti-colonialist revolts and then as a result of the anti-hegemonic struggles in the advanced capitalist â€Å"heartlands,† revealed a deep crisis in authority and hegemony in late capitalist society. This discrediting also revealed the need for new ideologies of legitimation, free from what could now be seen as the â€Å"naivete† of liberal humanist universalism, now widely viewed as a cover for racist, sexist and anti-democratic institutions. 7. The institutional tendencies which have produced the constellation of practices which can be termed â€Å"cultural studies† have, then, participated both in the attack on liberal understandings and in the development of new discourses of legitimation. The liberal humanism predominant in the academy has increasingly been seen as illegitimate because it depends upon an outmoded notion of private individuality-that is, the modern notion of the immediacy with which the privileged text is apprehended by the knowing subject. In this understanding, literature is understood in opposition to science and technology, as a site where what is essential to our â€Å"human nature† can be preserved or recovered in the face of a social reality where this â€Å"human essence† (â€Å"freedom†) is perpetually at risk. However, the more â€Å"scientific† methods (like semiology) which have undermined the hegemony of â€Å"new criticism† in the American academy, largely through the use of modes of analysis borrowed from structuralist anthropology and linguistics, have themselves been discredited by postmodern theories as largely conservative discourses interested in resecuring disciplinary boundaries (for example, through the classification of genres) and protecting an empiricist notion of textuality. 8. Cultural studies, then, is the result of the combination of the introduction of â€Å"theory† and the â€Å"politicization† of theory enabled by these social and institutional changes. However, the postmodern assault on â€Å"master narratives† (â€Å"theory†) has responded to the discrediting of both structuralism and Marxism in a conservative political environment by redefining â€Å"politics† to mean the resistance of the individual subject to modes of domination located in the discursive and disciplinary forms which constitute the subject. This has opened up the possibility of a new line of development for cultural studies: one in which the local supplants the global as the framework of analysis and description or â€Å"redescription† replaces explanation as the purpose of theoretical investigations. I will argue that the set of discourses which have â€Å"congealed† into what I