Saturday, August 31, 2019

Information Processing And Implications To Teaching And Learning

In Journal 1, the research worker carefully examines the construction of the information treating theoretical account. This is done so that we can understand how each of the construction works and to see the connexion between cognitive schemes and tactic and how it influences the efficiency of acquisition. Learning is done in a assortment of ways. Some instructors would desire their pupils to memorise certain information, or even utilize some expressions like in topics like Mathematicss and Science to work out jobs or have the accomplishments to utilize certain equipment or tools to execute a undertaking. For case, the usage of power point for undertaking work, the usage of any musical instruments in playing music, usage of cock or wrench in mending occupations and so on. Therefore, the scholar shapes his cognition by retrieving, memorizing, practising and others. In both the diaries, they emphasize on the importance of Information-Processing Model and how or what happens when the information is received by the scholar. Harmonizing to Babadogan ( 1995 ) and Ozden ( 1998 ) in Ali Ozel ( 2009 ) , larning is the scholar ‘s ascription to the things go oning or environing the person like his past life, memory and theoretical account. The person is described as active and looking for information. The learner than interprets the information with his progress cognition and attempts to do a meaningful apprehension of the cognition he has gained. In Information-Processing Model, the chief accent is the scholar and the environment harmonizing to both diaries. The scholar interacts with the environment when the simulation activates the receptors. The information is so transferred to the short-run memory ( STM ) . It merely keeps of import information in STM with the aid of selective perceptual experience. In the Journal 2 by Ali Ozel ( 2009 ) , the research worker negotiations about larning schemes used and gives accent on them and on how to larn and what to larn to organize one ‘s ain acquisition ( Weinstein & A ; Mayer, 1956, Wittrock, 1986 ) . These larning schemes are the key points in forming of an single information processing theoretical account. The person ‘s cognitive tactics determines the signifier of storage like in the signifier of tabular arraies, diagrams, charts or images. These can be done by repeat, forming, remembering, directing knowledge consistently in order to better our ability to understand, retrieve and memorise the information for subsequently demands. In short, it helps in organizing the information received in a systematic manner. Both the diaries wrote about cognitive schemes and how these schemes help in bettering a more systematic acquisition signifier. A cognitive scheme is a combination of a figure of cognitive tactics.STAGE MODEL OF INFORMATION ProcessingShort-run memory is besides called working memory and relates to what we are believing about at any clip. In Freudian footings, this is witting memory. It is created by our paying attending to an external stimulation, an internal idea, or even both ( Huitt, W. ,2003 ) . Another major bound on information processing in Short-term memory is in footings of the figure of units that can be processed at any one clip. Harmonizing to Miller ( 1956 ) , he gave the figure as 7 + 2, but more recent research suggests the figure may be more like 5 + 2 for most things we are seeking to retrieve. Because of the variableness in how much persons can work with. For some persons it could be three and for some it could be seven. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate out of import information. If some pupils can merely treat three units of information at a clip, so as pedagogue we must do it a point to do them understand that of import three units of information. Each person has different reading of the information received. Therefore, it may differ from one person to another ( Gagne et al, 1993 ) . In the Short Term Memory, the information received corsets for a short period of clip like 15-20 seconds ( George Miller, 1956 ) . By transporting out coding and forming information good, the information in our Short Term Memory can be transferred to the Long Term memory ( LTM ) . In the Long Term Memory, the capacity is limitless and the continuance is much longer in maintaining the information. Here is where meaningful acquisition signifiers take topographic point. The theoretical account below proposes that information is processed and stored in 3 phases.Figure 2.1: The information processing attack to knowledge ( Huitt, W. ,2003 ) .It is critical that the scholar attends to the information at this initial phase in order to reassign it to the following 1. There are two major constructs for acquiring information into the Short Term Memory. First, persons are likely to pay attending to a stimulation if it has an interesting characteristic. We are more likely to acquire an orienting response if this is present. Second, persons are more likely to pay attending if the stimulation activates a known form. Students try to retrieve relevant anterior cognition. There are four major types of organisation that are most frequently used in instructional design: Component ( part/whole ) — categorization by class or certain facet ( e.g. , when learning a diagram or theoretical account ) Sequential — chronological ; ( e.g. , transporting out an experiment measure by measure ) Relevance – manage thoughts to do it meaningful. Transitional ( conjunction ) – words or phrases that is related and doing meaningful connexion with the alterations over clip ( Huitt, 2003 ) . Chunking is a major technique for maintaining information in short-run memory ; it is besides helps in hive awaying information into the long-run memory. Repeat or rote-learning is a technique we all use to seek to larn something. Simply memorising something does non take to larning. We all have anecdotal grounds that we can retrieve something we memorized, for illustration an essay or short verse form, but the truth is how much or are we able to retrieve it after some clip?3.0 Long TERM MEMORYLong-run memory is besides called preconscious and unconscious memory in Freudian term. Preconscious means that the information is easy recalled or remembered while unconscious refers to informations that is non available during normal consciousness. It is preconscious memory that is the focal point of cognitive psychological science as it relates to long-run memory. The two procedures most likely to travel information into long-run memory are amplification and pattern. There are several illustrations of amplification that are normally used in the instruction and acquisition procedure. Some illustrations are as below: Imaging – to be able to make a mental image. Method of locations-to be able to recover information which is good organized and located. Rhyming – information to be remembered is arranged in a rime. As information is stored in long-run memory, it is organized utilizing one or more constructions like indicative mood, procedural, or imagination. Declarative Memory is information that we can speak about. Semantic Memory are facts, problem-solving schemes and larning schemes. Schema / Schemata is about linking thoughts of a specific experience into a meaningful system. Script is a declaratory cognition that captures general information about a everyday series of events ( Stillings et al. , 1987 ) Program is a set of regulations that explains what to make in a peculiar state of affairs Model is a set of propositions that describes some facets of our experience. Episodic Memory is our personal experience. Procedural Memory is a accomplishment that we learn like driving a auto or siting a motorcycle. Imagination is from images4.0 REVIEW OF JOURNALSThe diaries reviewed are quantitative and qualitative diaries. Journal 1 is a qualitative diary whereby the research worker gives feedback on his reappraisals on information processing and its deductions to learning and larning. On the other manus, Journal 2 is a quantitative diary where the research worker negotiations about the pattern of information processing theoretical account in the instruction of cognitive schemes and examines which schemes are most normally used by primary school instructors. In Journal 1, gives a image of how information is stored and how an person can do a meaningful larning out of an effectual scheme used in hive awaying information. As mentioned earlier, both the research workers in both the diaries talk about the importance of environment and how it influences an person ‘s learning procedure. In Journal 1, the research worker says that each person has different ways of construing information received. For illustration, when utilizing the hearing stimulation, for one person, the sound of birds peeping may be fantastic and quieting but for another person the same sound may annoy him as he finds them upseting. Therefore the information received may differ from one person to another person. In Journal 1, the research worker besides talks about the procedure how information is transferred from the short-run memory to the long-run memory. The research worker explains the term cognitive tactics and cognitive schemes. Below is an illustration of what is cognitive maneuver used by a pupil who is fixing for an English scrutiny. In this instance, the pupil prepares for the Unified Chinese School Examination ( UEC ) . The pupil looks through all the past twelvemonth inquiries in order to fix for the scrutiny particularly looking at the composing subjects and the linguistic communication constituents tested in the past old ages. The pupil so tries to foretell inquiries that might come out for that peculiar twelvemonth by analysing the inquiries carefully. After that, taking the past twelvemonth inquiries, he will fix the replies for each inquiry by memorising what is already in the mention books or will seek to reply the inquiries by using the cognition that he has gathered from larning that peculiar subject. Hence, the scholar is transporting out rote-learning or memorizing and besides critical thought takes topographic point based on his prior cognition which he has assimilated throughout his acquisition procedure. Therefore, the scholar applies his cognitive scheme by transporting out all these tactics. A scholar has to make up one's mind which cognitive maneuver is suited to be used in certain state of affairss in order to hold a meaningful acquisition. Learning schemes processed harmonizing to the information processing theoretical account can supply a more meaningful and lasting acquisition. In journal 1, the research worker besides emphasizes the importance of meaning-making and understanding what is taught and learnt. As an pedagogue, it is our duty in assisting the scholars to develop information processing accomplishments and use them efficaciously. As it was mentioned in 3.0, there are a figure of techniques that a scholar can utilize in assisting to hive away information consistently and understand the memorized information good. Again in diary 1, the research worker has given importance and stressed on the usage of cognitive schemes in steering the scholars ‘ when thought, memorising and taking the most suited cognitive tactics that can be used. This is because a scholar has to cognize which maneuver is used for a peculiar state of affairs as non every maneuver is suited. This is where metacognitive is really of import because a metacognitive scholar will be able to supervise and look into his ain acquisition schemes and to look into if it works for him. Therefore it is of import for instructors to learn her pupils to utilize cognitive tactics metacognitively. However, harmonizing to Biggs ( 1988 ) and Schoenfeld ( 1987 ) , to utilize develop these accomplishments are non that easy and it takes clip. That is why it is of import for instructors to utilize assorted learning techniques that will assist their pupils with. This will heighten their apprehension, retrieval and problem-solving accomplishments. The deductions of information processing in instruction and acquisition have been summarized as below harmonizing to the diary reviewed: Learners will be metacognitively in control of their ain acquisition Learners are more motivated to larn because they have a clearer end. Good scholars will be able to utilize selective perceptual experience to larn the most of import things in a topic or subject. Good scholars will be able to differenciate between the more of import inside informations and the less of import 1s. Good scholars will cognize how to utilize information and when to utilize it. Metacognitive scholars will be able to invent cognitive tactics to assist them remember something easy.USING THE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH IN THE CLASSROOMPrincipleExample1. Derive the pupils ‘ attending. Use cues to signal when you are ready to get down like voice projection to bespeak you are get downing a lesson. 2. Bring to mind relevant anterior acquisition. Revision on the old twenty-four hours ‘s lesson. 3. Stress of import information. Provide handouts or compose on the board. 4. Information organized decently. Use logical sequence to constructs and accomplishments. Travel from simple to complex when showing new stuff. 5. Show pupils how to lump information. Present information in classs. Teach inductive logical thinking. 6. Give chances to pupils to lucubrate on new information. Connect new information to something already known. Expression for similarities and differences among constructs. Have group treatments. 7. Show pupils how to utilize coding when memorising lists. Use mental imagination techniques such as the keyword method, acronyms and etc. 8. Give chance for repeat of acquisition. State of import points several times in different ways during presentation of information ( STM ) . Have points on each twenty-four hours ‘s lesson from old lesson ( LTM ) 9. Give chances to larn of import concepts/skills. Drill on of import facts daily.Table 4.1: Using the Information Processing Approach in the schoolroom ( Huitt, W. ,2003 )In Journal 2, as it is a quantitative survey, the research worker surveies which learning scheme is spent more clip in organizing information processing, how clip intervals are spared for larning schemes and if there is a meaningful difference between the schemes at the facet of the clip for learning larning schemes? In this quantitative attack, the research worker had used a general study to see if there is a difference between the spared clip for learning larning schemes by category instructors in primary schools and organizing and treating information processing theoretical account. About 260 instructors in primary schools working in Istanbul Directory of Education were chosen based on convenience sampling. 51.9 % were females and 48.1 % were males. All of them were alumnuss from different subdivisions. A bulk of them have an experience between 6-10 old ages. The scheme learning tactics developed by Weinstein and Mayer ( 1986 ) and applied by Ozturk about learning larning schemes was used. The facets tested are attending, repeat, meaning, forming, callback, directing knowledge and instruction perceptual experience schemes. The study comprises two parts. The first portion is the clip span spared for learning larning schemes by instructors participated in the study. The 2nd portion is to find which larning schemes out of the seven tested has the most clip spared. The research worker used SPSS 7 bundle plan to find the meaningful differences of frequence, per centum and discrepancy. Data was collected utilizing the study method. Likert Scale of five was used to change over the replies into numeral informations. Harmonizing to the consequences of this survey, instructors spent more clip for repeat schemes ( 41.2 % ) and the least clip for forming. Teachers besides spend more clip to develop attending schemes ( 35.9 % ) . Therefore, the survey indicates that instructors want to organize an information processing profile related to attending schemes. They do this in every lesson and some instructors ne'er taught larning schemes at all from the survey conducted. Time spent for repeat and attending schemes were the highest because they provided pupils to organize a information processing theoretical account supplying them to mean their progress information with their anterior cognition at the facet of the clip spared for learning meaning schemes. From the research, it was besides found that there is a meaningful difference in instructors who spend more clip in learning schemes and instructors who spend less clip in learning schemes.DecisionThe decision after reexamining both diaries are, larning schemes should be taught to pupils in every lesson as they can steer in determining and organizing their acquisition consistently particularly when we use the learner-centered attack. Students should be taught to utilize organisation schemes and follow it decently. They should besides utilize the information processing theoretical account with the schemes that belongs to these tactics. The information processing theoretical accounts in learning and larning schemes should be developed and pupils should be encouraged to alter harmonizing to the current state of affairs and be independent scholars and minds. A good scholar will be able to utilize the information gathered and will cognize when and how to utilize it when they taught the effectual attacks of information processing. Information processing is of import and every instructor has to be familiar with this as by cognizing this, we can help our pupils in relation to retrieving things more efficaciously within the schoolroom scene. In information processing, the system involves the procedure of encoding, retrieval and storage whereby it explains how our centripetal registries and how the short-run and long-run operates. It is impossible to learn pupils new information in a short period of clip but we can learn them in â€Å" balls † to better their overall memory. This will assist pupils to be more focussed in their attending on acquisition by doing it more meaningful to them. It is besides of import to utilize acknowledgment in which instructor will demo their pupils how to utilize their imaginativeness or the procedure of association in order to retrieve new things. Encoding enables pupils to larn and retrieve and associate new information to old information. Use of images, concrete words and ocular AIDSs in the schoolroom will heighten this farther. Organization is a scheme used to better pupils ‘ memory and acquisition. This can be done by learning pupils an sum of information over certain period of clip. Rehearsing what has been taught is besides an effectual manner to increase memory. One could retrieve new stuff through practising, reiterating and associating new information to prior cognition. As an pedagogue, it is indispensable to ever happen new and interesting methods in assisting pupils retrieve new information that is taught to heighten their understanding better. As mentioned in Journal 2, clip spent more for repeat and attending schemes were the highest. However, it depends on the instructors ‘ lesson programs, course of study and instruction manners in order to run into the demands of single pupils. It is of import to utilize a assortment of schemes and attacks to assist pupils with retrieving what they have learnt particularly the new stuffs that they have learnt. It is a known fact that every pupils is able to larn and retrieve good if we provide them with the proper tools, techniques and counsel. Learning is an on-going procedure and every twenty-four hours in our lives we are larning new information. Therefore it is of import how we organize our acquisition and absorb new information on top of the old information that we already have.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Integrated Marketing Communication

During the last decade of the twentieth century, the concept of integrated marketing communications (IMC) received considerable attention from practitioners and academics alike, and that interest has continued into the new millennium (e. g. , Bearden and Madden 1996; Cornelissen and Lock 2000; Duncan, Schultz, and Patti 2005; Garretson and Burton 2005; Nowak and Phelps 1994; Schultz and Kitchen 2000a; Schumann, Artis, and Rivera 2001). As the marketplace has become more fragmented over the years, organizations have embraced IMC as a means to effectively and efficiently target and attract the splintering mass market through the transmission of a unified message across all â€Å"contact points† between organizations and their consumers. Whether the contact point is product packaging, a Web advertisement, or any other â€Å"information bearing experience that a consumer or prospect has with a brand† (Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1993, p. 1), the goal is to present a message to an audience that is consistent (Duncan 1993) and/or to generate valuable customer information (Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002; Yarborough 1996). In short, utilization and coordination of various promotion and communication tools is necessary to assure optimal market coverage (Stewart 1996) and to develop a strong marketing program (Nowak and Phelps 1994). Despite its potential contributions, debate still exists regarding the significance of IMC as a practice (e. g. , Cook 2004; Cornelissen and Lock 2000; Gould 2001). Questions pertaining to the prevalence of IMC in the marketplace (Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002) and regarding its differential applicability across product type (e. g. , Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996) remain. This study was designed to help answer these questions. In recent years, the concept of IMC has made its way into the mainstream of the marketing literature (Duncan and Caywood 1996; Nowak and Phelps 1994; Schultz 2003; Schultz and Kitchen 1997, 2000b; Zahay et al. 2004). This has occurred despite the fact that, in reality, there is no universally agreed upon definition of IMC (e. g. , Cornelissen and Lock 2000; Kliatchko 2005; Schultz and Kitchen 1997; Stewart 1996) and IMC appears to be an evolving concept (Duncan, Schultz, and Patti 2005). While a â€Å"working definition of integrated marketing communication is hard to come by† (Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1993, p. xv), one simple characterization of the phenomenon poses IMC as the coordination of communication tools for a brand (Krugman et al. 1994). Central to the concept of IMC is the notion that effective communication is accomplished by blending various communication forms–for example, advertising, publicity, sales promotion, and so forth–into a single, seamless entity (Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996). Furthermore, when it is well devised, IMC can generate information that can be used to identify and target different types of consumers with customized communication (Schultz 1997) and, ultimately, help to build a strong relationship with them (Duncan 2002). In a sense, then, IMC involves a process that is circular in nature–a sort of two-way communication between organizations and consumers that gathers and stores responses to communication and uses that information to effectively target consumers in future efforts (Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002; Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1993). A review of the phenomenon in practice performed by Nowak and Phelps (1994) uncovered three broad manifestations of integrated marketing communication: IMC as â€Å"integrated communication,† IMC as â€Å"‘one voice' communication,† and IMC as a â€Å"coordinated marketing-communication campaign. † While the distinction among the three manifestations is sometimes hazy, each one poses a slightly different approach that organizations may take to create messages that are uniform in tone and look (Duncan 1993). The â€Å"integrated communications† approach involves promoting brand image and direct audience behavior simultaneously by coupling devices such as brand advertising and public relations communications with consumer sales promotions and direct response tools within an organization's marketing-communication materials, particularly advertisements (Peltier, Mueller, and Rosen 1992). For instance, an ad that contains a direct-response tool (e. g. , a coupon), a public relations appeal (e. g. , support of an esteemed social cause), and brand advertising (e. g. depiction and description of the offering) would reflect the integrated communication form of IMC. A key outcome of this approach is the acquisition of consumer information that is captured when consumers respond to direct-response tools, sales promotions, and the like (Nowak and Phelps 1994). The â€Å"one voice† approach reflects a firm's focus on a single positioning strategy that emphasizes unity among brand/ image advertising, direct-response advertising, public relations, and consumer sales promotions at the outset of a promotional campaign (Reilly 1991; Snyder 1991). In this approach, the position, message, or theme is what ultimately guides an organization's IMC decisions, which ostensibly could be rendered independently by the firm's advertising, public relations, and sales promotion agencies (Nowak and Phelps 1994). The third approach, â€Å"coordinated marketing-communication campaigns,† stresses the need to integrate the activities of different marketing-communication disciplines (e. g. , sales promotions, advertising, and public relations) in order to reach multiple audiences with a synergistic effort (Rapp and Collins 1990; Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn 1993). The â€Å"coordinated marketing communication† approach differs from the â€Å"one voice† manifestation of IMC in that it does not simply focus on a single brand position; rather, multiple positions are the norm (Nowak and Phelps 1994), with a goal of targeting multiple audiences (Rapp and Collins 1990). A further comparison of the three forms of integrated marketing communication reveals that the â€Å"coordinated marketing-communication campaign† and â€Å"one voice† approaches to IMC involve an organization's communication activity at a broad level of application, whereas the â€Å"integrated communications† manifestation encompasses a more microlevel application. More precisely, the first two manifestations involve integration across communication campaigns, whereas the latter one entails integration within particular communication devices, such as advertisements. For example, early indications following Super Bowl XL suggested that the ads broadcast during the event were successful not only in terms of their brand advertising, but also in terms of direct response, as evidenced by the increased traffic to the advertisers' Web sites (Horovitz 2006). Of the three forms of IMC, it is the integrated communications† approach that appears to be the one most often utilized in practice (Phelps, Plumley, and Johnson 1994) and the one that is the focus of this study. One broad goal of our research is to discern how the â€Å"integrated communications† form of IMC is manifested in practice. Integrated Marketing Communication Research While the phenomenon of integrated marketing communications has received widespread attention over the past 15 years, there have been very few empirical investigations of its incidence and application. The scant research findings that are available suggest that IMC is perceived to be valuable by practitioners (Duncan and Everett 1993; Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002) and that its utilization seems to be increasing. For example, one early study found that approximately two-thirds of consumer product companies employed IMC in some manner (Caywood, Schultz, and Wang 1991), while a later investigation reported that 75% of the organizations surveyed had adopted IMC in one way or another (Phelps, Plumley, and Johnson 1994). A more recent investigation revealed that 95 % of Fortune 500 executives responding to an inquiry indicated that their company used IMC to some degree and that nearly the same percentage was at least somewhat satisfied with its results (Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002). It bears noting that most of these findings are based on respondents' perceptions and may not reflect IMC as actually practiced. In general, most of the examination of IMC has focused on its perceived value and beliefs regarding its potential among packaged or durable-goods marketers. By comparison, there is little documentation of the actual existence or prevalence of IMC in these or other market contexts (Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996). The scant published research on the actual practice of integrated marketing communication suggests that organizations involved in green marketing have been slow to adopt IMC principles in their advertising (Carlson et al. 1996). Meanwhile, retail and consumer service organizations appear to use media and message delivery elements associated with integrated approaches, yet lack strong coordination among these IMC components (Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996). In a further examination of IMC across different business firms (i. e. , business-to-business, retailing, services, and consumer product), it was discovered that coordination among IMC components does indeed exist, yet the selection of specific marketing communication activities differs significantly among the business types (McArthur and Griffin 1997). Given the contradictory results and scarce empirical research, there appears to be a need for further examination of IMC and marketers' activities to plan and execute its implementation (Duncan and Everett 1993; Roznowski, Reece, and Daugherty 2002). Integrated Marketing Communication and Product Type Based on the research results discussed above, IMC appears to be a practice that is used across business contexts, but in different ways (e. g. , McArthur and Griffin 1997; Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996). McArthur and Griffin observe, â€Å"different product-market situations demand different communication tools and techniques† (1997, p. 5). Hence, it is not surprising that a study of media usage within IMC programs revealed differential emphasis on some media when comparing services and retailing firms (Nowak, Cameron, and Delorme 1996) or comparing across services, retailing, business-to-business, and consumer product organizations (McArthur and Griffin 1997). There is even some indication that consumer product firms lag behind others in terms of the degree of attention they accord to IMC (McArthur and Griffin 1997). In addition, and as suggested by Duncan (2005), IMC may be particularly relevant within the services sector. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the nature of the product that an organization offers may affect the emphasis it places on IMC and its utilization of different communication materials. Further supporting the notion that the nature of the promoted product may be related to the adoption of IMC is a body of literature that indicates that the advertising of services differs substantively from the advertising of physical goods in several ways (e. g. , George and Berry 1981; Grove, Pickett, and Laband 1995; Legg and Baker 1987; Mittal 1999; Shostack 1977; Stafford and Day 1995). For example, since services are essentially performances (Gronroos 1990; Grove and Fisk 1983) and not things that can be displayed (e. g. , insurance, health care, an airline flight), it is difficult for organizations to communicate about them and for customers to grasp what it is they are likely to receive (Lovelock and Wirtz 2004; Shostack 1977; Zeithaml 1981). Many years ago, in her seminal paper establishing the nature of service products, Shostack (1977) stressed that marketers must strive to â€Å"integrate† evidence of service offerings to compensate for their innate intangibility. She argued that such an effort should involve controlling a broad range of potential clues to foster a concrete, â€Å"total impression† of the service. Essentially, that effort entails coordinating various communicative devices associated with a service and its delivery, including the content of service advertising. George and Berry (1981) similarly argue for the importance of presenting a uniform message as one of the six guidelines for advertising a service. From their viewpoint, â€Å"advertising continuity,† that is, continually using distinctive symbols, formats, and/or themes can reinforce a service's image and differentiate it from the competition. Ostensibly, the creation of a consistent and uniform perception of the service product might also be accomplished as one outcome of effective integrated marketing communications. Yet in a comprehensive overview of the services advertising literature several years ago, Tripp (1997) identified IMC as one of several phenomena related to service advertising's message structure and execution that needed further study. A recent examination of advertisements across various categories of services found a high incidence of IMC portrayed within the ads (i. e. , over 60% of the ads reflected IMC), yet argued that there was room for improvement in terms of the degree of integration that was present (Grove, Carlson, and Dorsch 2002). However, a comparison of advertisements for goods versus services with respect to incidence and character of IMC has yet to be performed, despite the potential applicability of IMC in the area of services promotion (Duncan 2005).

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Georgian Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Georgian - Research Paper Example Furthermore, the decision to go abroad will enhance the diversification plan outlined in its strategic objectives. Lastly, the company is branching out into Georgia due to family ties. The company intends to invest in Adjara, Georgia. Adjara is a rapidly growing destination that is experiencing an inflow of foreign visitors, businessmen, and delegations. Adjara is home to some of the magnificent and breathtaking locations in the Georgia (Sabanadze, 2010 ). Adjara has undergone an overhaul in terms of improvements, the location banks on its natural endowments to capture global interests. As such, it can gain positioning on the global map as a growing location of interest. Adjara is a region that has one of the highest rates of able-bodied young population. In addition, this population offers cheap or affordable labor force. Investing in this location will place the hotel in a better position in terms of enjoying cheap labor force as well as a hardworking one. Excellent natural resources make Adjara be one of the ideal locations for the tourism sector. The evergreen subtropical forests contribute to a great deal the overall fresh and attractive environment. Adjara is home to Georgia’s leading hydropower plant. As such, it offers a guarantee that the businesses located in this region are not likely to suffer from electricity or power related problems. Some of the existing threats include speculations of social problems by the nation’s opposition. These speculations do not offer favorable investment climate. However, on the contrary, the government is working to provide a conducive environment. The incumbent leadership has put in place measures that promote investment opportunities. Some of these opportunities include focusing on tourism. Due to the above reasons, tourism remains to be an important priority in Adjara. In fact, the region has a total of 41% of its investments in tourism. Its attractive nature draws internationally reputable brands in the

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Does Affordable Housing on Exception Sites impact on making rural Essay

Does Affordable Housing on Exception Sites impact on making rural villages sustainable or unsustainable - Essay Example Simply an approximate ten percent of the homes within rural segments are communal housing for rent, in contrast to the twenty percent within urban communities (odpm.com) The various Housing Corporations and partnerships, like the Chichester District, and the CDC in West Sussex aims to make certain that all and sundry have an occasion of a respectable home which they can manage to pay for, as well as to guarantee a sustainable local society within the several villages inside the principally agricultural district, by way of a high percentage of aged population is dedicated to helping deal with the housing requirement within rural regions moreover this help invigorated the rural strategy which is premeditated to notify as well as support this vocation. The one and only resolution specific strategy, was majorly inaugurated within the year 2001 and ever since then has been accountable for a spotlight on rural requirements as well as a intensification within our rural housing programme, which has more than amplified ever since the strategy was primarily pioneered. Throughout the National Affordable Housing Programme for the year 2004 till 2008, all the housing associations are offering supplementary new 5,500 fresh homes for the rent as well as low cost home possession within rural regions. The additional Regiona... At the grassland roots, associations have counterfeit the joint ventures with rural community councils, land holders as well as local communities to recognize the regional requirements as well as to mark the assets to convene with them (odpm.com). The outgrowth of these corporations are innovative housing association schemes within a lot of England's marketplace towns, villages as well as hamlets including minor proposals that make it potential, for instance, for the sons as well as the daughters of the rural communities to donate to their vivacity as well as their sustainability. This approach is premeditated to carry on as well as perk up their workings inside the rural regions moreover concentrates on: - forming as well as supporting the joint ventures to distribute a lot more reasonably priced housing for rent out as well as reasonably priced residence ownership in rural areas; sustaining and making the best use of the existing affordable housing in rural areas; - forming sustainable rural societies, skirmishing social prohibiting, as well as dealing with discrete shortcoming within rural regions; - looking for ground-breaking ways of escalating the supply of terra firma for rural housing at the same time as shielding the veracity of the landscape; - sustaining as well as encouraging stumpy cost home rights inside rural regions with suitable defense to make certain a supply of reasonably priced housing within the near future; - also, endorsing and encouraging a good quality design in addition to the utilization of locally resourced materials within housing association systems; and - making sure that all the homes are constructed within

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

White Collar criminals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

White Collar criminals - Essay Example The problem is that cognitive biases existing in the community prevent people from realizing that white collar criminals are potential threats to the society. Popular perceptions about what constitutes crime can be illustrated if one examines two instances of offenses, one that falls in the stereotypical notion and the other in the white collar crime category, as under: Scenario-1: A mugger waylays a person on a dark, desolated street and demands he parts away with his possessions. The man hands over his wallet and the thug empties it of its contents of 50 dollars and throws the wallet back at the man. He mutters some threats to him, stuffs the bills into his pocket, and sneaks into a murky alley. Terrified but grateful that he is unhurt, the man summons the police, files a report and goes his way, wondering how widespread crimes have become. Scenario 2: An employee of a heating and air conditioning firm attends a complaint at a home which has been damaged in a recent storm. The HVAC unit outside has been battered and the inspection reveals that it requires some minor repairs. However, the employee reports to the homeowner’s insurance company that the entire system needs replacement as it is completely damaged. Thus, his company gains a hefty profit, by fraudulent means. When one considers both these events, it becomes apparent that in the first episode, a thug waylays a person, robs him of 50 dollars. The victim recognizes this act as a crime, and the police register a case against the perpetrator. In the second instance, though the company has gained an undue benefit of a larger sum, the incident has neither been acknowledged as a crime nor has anybody taken cognizance of it. Thus, it transpires that white collar crimes do occur in the society, which is of much greater magnitude than normal crimes, but people hardly recognize this fact. As can be evidenced from the above

Monday, August 26, 2019

Computer-Based information system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Computer-Based information system - Essay Example The paper will also discuss the computer-based information system of AT&T were misused by employees. The cloud-based data store is one of the recent information systems that was developed by AT&T Telecommunication Company. An article that was published by computer world indicated that the system is designed to help enterprise-based developers in the usage of (IoT) Internet of Things apps, as well as services. The system is designed to allow collection and the analysis of data more comfortable from various remote devices that are interconnected to large businesses (Hamblen, 2015). AT&T Company has also developed Monitoring systems for organizations. Currently, organization performance has been the primary focus for most organizations. Managers have been struggling on how they can improve the performance of their organizations by increasing performance by increasing supervision with a slight budget line. Monitoring systems have played a significant role in improving performance of various organizations (Computerworld, 1983). Computer based information system of AT&T has significantly reduced the cost of operations to most organizations. For instance, the development of cloud data stores played a significant role in cutting down the cost of hiring employees for a considerable number of organizations (AT&T Tech, 2012). Initially, most computer-based information systems of AT&T were predestined to improve the performance of the organization by either cutting down the cost of resources or improving the quality of services. Conversely, most information based system has been misused by employees for their personal gain. For instance, monitoring systems are designed to either monitor the performance of employees by the supervisors. A great part of monitoring systems is a computerized collection, analysis, storage as well as reporting

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Individual Research Repor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Individual Research Repor - Essay Example It achieves that by various cost cutting strategies that hinders the human resource practices in Wal-Mart. It tries to builds its low cost on the employment policies by achieving extraordinarily low costs on the employment. In order to maintain its competitive advantage Wal-Mart incorporates various low cost HR practices. It has tried to cut down cost right from the time of hiring by recruiting large number of employees and not only that by violating cheap child labour and the minors. The cheap price of acquiring such labours give them more of cost competitiveness than its competitors. Wal-Mart has even been seen showing discrimination towards employees who has certain disabilities, though such people may have the appropriate skills but they would be more costly for the firm. Wal-Mart has set high demand standards which have forced the workers to work beyond their normal working hours. They even show discrimination towards women working in their organization by denying them promotion s, and at times even paying them less compared to men. They are even demoted if they complain just for the reason that Wal-Mart has to maintain cost reduction than its competitor. There is not an effective pay and reward model followed by Wal-Mart that would in turn help the employees to remain motivated. Wal-Mart follows its low cost strategy by cutting down the cost on wages every year. It pays very less wages to its Chinese labours. Wal-Mart maintains very low employee relation by not even providing them with proper healthcare facilities. The works have to pay 36% of the premium cost for the health insurance as the company does not bear any additional cost in order to follow its low cost strategy. Wal-Mart has down the line exploited its workers which in turn will reduce the dedication and loyalty of these employees towards the company. A less satisfied employee will not perform above the mark to deliver appropriate profits for the company. As Wal-Mart is on

Saturday, August 24, 2019

BUT WHY IS IT ART Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

BUT WHY IS IT ART - Essay Example A remarkable advancement in this field has been realized owing to these efforts. This knowledge has an aspiratory effect on those interested in arts as a career and works as a yard stick to making artwork finer. The field has experienced diversity in approach which has seen it transform lives and perception on skills relevant to it. Computerization of some procedure and mechanisms is worth mentioning as it brings about positive impact in art work. As such, an analysis of two artists who have exhibited interesting skills will be scrutinized in the sections to follow. In this essay, I will make my argument that marketing skills, critical analysis skills and communication analysis skills count as the most important fresh skills required by the contemporary artists. As such, I will use the work of Richard Schmid, Colin McCahon, Abdessemed and Pedro Cabrita Reis to demonstrate the reason as to why these skills are crucial. Diversity as a factor that cuts across the work of these artists will be considered so as to make its importance vivid. Richard admits of realizing lots of change in art work as a career. His work in painting reflects the change by modernity exhibited in every piece of painting. Despite his age, advancement is inevitable making him work towards attaining world class status in painting works. Just how he does this would be the most relevant question at this point. Transition through attitudes is one of the success skills adopted by Schimid in defining his identity in painting. This is in line with the twentieth century dogma which is looked into when considering painting and drawing as an art. Must adhere to ideologies of the time include idea expressiveness, inventions of unique ideas, and manipulation of space. Craftsmanship became overridden by extreme order and total distortion which dominates all through painting and drawing art work. He considers other

Friday, August 23, 2019

Explain how sociological and lay ideas about illness differ from those Essay

Explain how sociological and lay ideas about illness differ from those of biomedicine - Essay Example (1988), p142-143). The lay concepts blamed individuals for inflicting illnesses upon themselves and therefore, were forced to believe in these concepts. Individuals, all over the world, use a number of theories, models and concepts of health and illness. These concepts include lay concepts which are also known as folk concepts and other concepts or models put forward by biomedicine. These concepts are used by individuals explain the importance of maintaining ourselves and to give more information different kinds of illnesses. Lay concepts of health and illness are further explained through a number of theories including Biomedical, Humoral, Ayurvedic etc. Other theories used by individuals are locally developed and although these are not related to the major theories of health and illness, but they do explain the mechanisms of body and other related health issues. These lay concepts explain the immediate causes of an illness but furthermore, it also provides the appropriate treatment methods and procedures and also provides the level of severity and the explanation of the overall illness. These concepts provide ideas about the funct ioning of the body and the symptoms which are to be given importance. The lay concepts of health focus more on the why and the how of illness because it is believed that the causes of illness should be researched upon and this involves active participation of the patient himself. The lay concepts and theories about health and illness differ widely in various cultures and localities and also vary for different socioeconomic levels. A number of researches have been done to reveal the differences between these lay concepts of illnesses and those provided by biomedicine. A research conducted in the United States showed that individuals belonging to lower socioeconomic classes tend to give importance to these

The Movement of Travel Services Online Case Study

The Movement of Travel Services Online - Case Study Example of large call volumes and increase the number of varied types of calls throughout several sites which enhances the recording of customer interaction and eventually leads to general consistency in experience of customers, improved productivity of supervisors, increase in reservation sales and improvement of the quality of services offered. Another future strategic role that the call centers can perform is to improve the access of information. The overload of information makes it hard for customers to understand about the services and products offered in the various hotels. In that case, call centers will help to improve the marketing of the services and get to pass the right information to the hotel customers (Enz, 2010). It will then be easy to get and retain customers for a very long time especially in the competitive market. It is however recommended that hotels chains do some improvements on the positioning of the call centers. The call centers should be in strategic positions where customers can easily contact and be served efficiently. This will then increase customer satisfaction. Hotel call centers should be positioned where there is internet access. This will make the receipt and dissemination of information very effective and very reliable on the part of the customers. 2. According to (Enz, 2010), the shifting of hotel bookings from the initial use of agents to the use their own websites has proved to be more efficient and the initiative worked very well. Online booking from hotel websites increased the growth of transactions was modest due to the adoption of direct online transactions done by suppliers in hotels. The optimization of search engines and building of keywords made the online transactions very effective. The level of activities such as reservations cancellations and loyal guest were well catered for through online services. This was then a very wise move for hotels because it has increased the efficiency and effectiveness of

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Looking Deathworthy Essay Example for Free

Looking Deathworthy Essay Researchers Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Paul G. Davis Valerie J. Purdie-Vaughns, and Sheri Lynn Johnson studied whether being stereotypically black influences the probability of receiving the death penalty. Sociologist have previously proven that people quickly apply racial stereotypes to blacks who have the stereotypically appearance of a black person. This racial profile effects how people judge an individual and this judgment may very well influence how one is treated by others. This study is important because it shows how racial stereotypes can affect the sentence given to a defendant guilty of murder. The relationship of the different sentences of black on black murders vs. black on white murders is also slightly exposed in this study. For science, this shows a new perspective of how modern society views and profiles African-American men. These stereotypes have and influence on how people treat one another, in this case African-American murder defendants, which is changing society as a whole. Judgment plays a major role in how we interact with one another. The researchers had a very basic research design. There topic was if being stereotypically black influences the possibility of being sentenced with the death penalty. They defined there problem by stating how previous researchers have found a correlation between racial profiling and how people judge others. Researchers have also found that murders of white victims are more likely than murderers of black victims to be sentenced to death. The article Looking Deathworthy by the researchers that conducted this experiment, states that the researchers reviewed plenty of previous studies, theories, and cases. They conducted the experiment in two methods. The first method they showed pictures of 44 black males convicted of murdering white victims in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia during 1979 and 1999, and showing their pictures to raters. The raters where Stanford University undergraduates who were not told the men in the pictures where convicted murderers. They simply rated the men according to how stereotypically black they looked. The researchers found that the defendants who appeared to be more stereotypically black than the others were more likely to receive a death sentence. In the second method, they used the same databases and procedures to see if the same result would be obtained in the experiment if the victims were black. They found that the perceived stereo typicality of black defendants convicted of murdering black victims did not predict a death sentence. There were a couple of limitations made by these researchers that might have effect the outcome of the research. The researchers only used black defendants from the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia area. These changes make the research only correct for that area at that particular time. They should have broadened their case studies to all the states in the U. S. the researchers also only used raters from Standford University. There is a greater chance the people from the same area and same age group judge individuals with the same mentality. They should have used different age groups and people from different backgrounds as raters. T would have made the study more valid. I feel that this was an excellent theory to experiment and I agree that it is true. Capital punishment does give harder sentences for murder defendants who look stereotypically black. However, the study should have been broader. The researchers had variables that if they removed, would have allowed their findings to be more valid.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Media Representation On Political Changes Of Myanmar Politics Essay

Media Representation On Political Changes Of Myanmar Politics Essay A year after Myanmars first elections in 20 years, the country has taken important steps towards reforming its political system and its economy. It has surprised Myanmar citizens and the world with a series of important liberalizing measures. The 2011-2012 Myanmar democratic reforms are an ongoing series of political, economic and administrative reforms in Myanmar undertaken by the military-backed government. These reforms include the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and subsequent dialogues with her, establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, general amnesties of more than 200 political prisoners, institution of new labour laws that allow labour unions and strikes, relaxation of press censorship, and regulations of currency practices. As a consequence of the reforms, ASEAN has approved Myanmars bid for the chairmanship in 2014. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar on December 2011, to encourage further progress; it was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years. United States President Barack Obama visited one year later, becoming the first president to visit the country. Aung San Suu Kyis party, the National League for Democracy, participated in by-elections held on 1 April 2012 after the government abolished laws that led to the NLDs boycott of the 2010 general election. She led the NLD in winning the by-elections in a landside, winning 41 out of 44 of the contested seats, with Aung San Suu Kyi herself winning a seat representing Kawhmu Constituency in the lower house of the Myanmar Parliament. However, uncertainties exist as some other political prisoners have not been released and clashes between Myanmar troops and local insurgent groups continue. Background Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 to 2010. In 2008, the ruling Junta, State Peace and Development Council, announced the new constitution as a part of roadmap to democracy. The constitution, which reserves 25% of the Hluttaw legislatures seats for military, is seen by the opposition as a tool for continuing military control of the country. A constitution referendum was held in 2008 amid Cyclone Nargis. Observers criticized the referendum for voter intimidation, electoral fraud and advance voting. Nevertheless, on 15 May 2008, the junta announced that the constitution had been approved by 92.4% turnout in the two-thirds of the region that had held the vote. An election was held in 2010. The military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party declared victory. The United Nations and Western countries have condemned the elections as fraudulent. National League for Democracy Aung San Su Kyi popularly in Myanmar cannot be doubted. She is one of several candidates for the National League for Democracy (NLD). She has campaigned across the country, in a Western fashion, to the point of exhaustion in order to lock in voter support. The by-election are also a test for the NLD, contesting elections for the first time since it won a majority of seats in Myanmars 1990 elections, having refused to participate in a 2008 referendum on a new constitution and in the subsequent general elections. Reforms Nevertheless, the government has embarked reforms toward liberal democracy, mixed economy, and reconciliation although the motives of such reforms are still debated. Corruption In March 2012, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw passed a law that will increase the wages of all public sector employees, including soldiers, as additional cost-of-living allowance of 30,000 kyat ($38USD), along with a daily wage increase of 1,100 to 2,100 kyat ($1.40-$2.70) for full-time employees, purportedly to tackle corruption in the government. The law will be effective 1 April 2012, when the Myanmar by-election, 2012 take place. Political Reforms The pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest on 13 November 2010. After her release, she held a series of dialogues with President U Thein Sein and Minister U Aung Kyi. Although the discussions were not publicized, the state media reported that the two sides have agreed to set aside the differences and work together in matters of common interests that will really benefit the country and the people Aung San Suu Kyis ability to travel freely throughout the country is seen as an improvement compared to her trips in 2003 which met with a government sponsored massacre. Aung San Suu Kyis party, National League for Democracy boycotted the 2010 election. The election law enacted by the SPDC did not allow ex-prisoners to become members of registered political parties. If NLD decided to register, it would have to expel its members who were imprisoned. But in November, the government erased the clause in a parliamentary section. After the amendments, NLD leaders hav e unanimously decided to register for the by-election. How Myanmar Changed and What It Means Myanmar, which has been one of the most repressive states in the world for five decades, launched a sudden political transition in the past year. The government, run by President U Thein Sein, is preparing for by-election in April in which longtime dissident Aung San Suu Kyi will run. The government is inviting outside experts, observers, and even human rights activists to witness the elections. It is also apparently trying to end its numerous civil conflicts with ethnic minority armies and freeing a large number of political prisoners. This rapid shift has surprised many political activists in the country; only a year ago, most top U.S. officials argued the countrys generals would never voluntarily hand over power. At the same time, it is worth noting the almost negligible impact of US and EU efforts to sanction and pressure the regime over the past twenty years. Real reform? As importantly, the by-elections are widely seen as a critical indicator of the genuineness of the extraordinary process of political reform that has been gathering momentum in Myanmar for the past 12 months. The new, quasi-civilian Myanmar Government under reforming President U Thein Sein has publicly committed itself to an election process that is better than that of 2010, when ballot boxes were famously stuffed with early ballots which (unsurprisingly) favoured government-party candidates. To ensure this, they have for the first time ever invited international election observers from Myanmars ASEAN-plus network, including Australia. Clearly, the process of these elections is as important as the political outcomes. The election process will probably receive a mixed report, rather than an unqualified free and fair rating, as many relatively minor problems have already been reported (but not verified). A Political Opportunity The pace of change in Myanmar has sped up since national elections were held in November 2010. At the time, the international community condemned the polls as a way for the military to create a front government behind which it would continue wielding power. Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) declined to participate. Yet the elections do seem to have opened up some political space and provided a modicum of hope for change. The elections were followed by the installation of U Thein Sein as president and the creation of a civilian parliament. Since then, both the parliament and U Thein Sein have shown significant signs of reform, while former junta leader Than Shwe has vanished from public sight. Freed from house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi began a dialogue with U Thein Sein that resulted in the reintegration of her NLD into politics and the rebuilding of the party. The parliament, though dominated by former military men, has been unexpectedly active in questioning government policies. The government also has set up a national human rights commission, invited political exiles to return, and dramatically loosened censorship of the domestic media. Aung San Suu kyi and Myanmars small steps towards change Only two years after general elections in 2010, the world had been watching Myanmars by-elections to be held in April 2012. Although the results cannot change the overall political balance of power with only 45 seats contested, the attention is there for two reasons. First, to see if the election points to real democratic reform and second, to watch the Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi stand for election for the very first time. Aung San Suu Kyis new role Aung San Suu Kyi is a member of the National Assembly for the first time (but not in the government). She could continue to contribute actively but carefully to the new climate of public policy debate, criticizing government policy from time to time, but essentially from within the parliamentary system and without implying she is calling for the governments overthrow. Even without a government of national unity, the present informal understanding between President U Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to continue. It is conceivable they will cooperate from time to time. The reaction of the Myanmar Army to Aung San Suu Kyis presence in the parliament will also bear watching. At this point it seems unlikely that they would be tempted to stage a counter-coup. Although no Longer directly responsible for governing the country, the army still exercises certain reserve powers under the constitution, which it has not yet had to resort to. Nor is it absolutely certain that President U Thein Sein will continue indefinitely to enjoy sufficient support among his former military colleagues. But equally, there are no signs so far of active opposition to him, especially when the new policies are demonstrably so popular among Myanmar people. Myanmars first steps Whatever happens among all these firsts, Myanmars will have a new paradigm for its elections. They are a firm foundation for a transition to democracy, without foreshadowing what precise shape this might take. In the immediate future, some form of cooperation between Myanmars political leaders would help lend stability to the process of change and reform, as well as of nation building, that Myanmar badly needs. The History of Xinhua News Agency The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the Peoples Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in China. It is the largest news agency in China, ahead of the China News Service. Xinhua is subordinate to the State Council and reports to the Communist Party of Chinas Propaganda and Public Information Department. The Xinhua press agency was started November 1931 as the Red China News Agency and changed to its current name in 1937. Today, Xinhua News Agency delivers its news across the world in six languages: Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic, as well as news pictures and other kinds of news. It has made contracts to exchange news and news pictures with more than eighty foreign news agencies or political news departments. Xinhua is also responsible for handling, and in some cases, censoring reports from foreign media destined to release in China. The agency began to coverage its news and electronic media coverage and has increased its English coverage through its wire service and chinaview.cn web site. Xinhua acquired commercial real estate on New Yorks Times Square and is developing a staff of top-tier English-language reporters. Xinhua has started an English-language satellite news network. The Xinhua News Agency runs the prominent news website Xinhusnet.com, which provides news in six different languages. The domain xinhuanet.com attracted 430000 unique visitors between February 2008 and February 2009 according to a Compete.com survey Research Question To what extent does Xinhua News Agency website reported on the political changes in Myanmar? Did the media frame the Governmental transition positively or negatively? Statement of the problem (rational) Rationale and priorities While Western governments might be tempted to credit the sanctions they have imposed for the transformation of Myanmars politics, the changes have come out of an internal process, and have been influenced by domestic and regional realities. Myanmar has fallen far behind most other Southeast Asian countries in its socio-economic development. Its leaders may also have felt uneasy about their countrys increasing dependence on China. More specifically, the new government has apparently reassessed the countrys position in light of three priorities for the future. Firstly, Myanmar is due to hold the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2014, and wants to ensure that it can do so it was due to hold the position in 2006, but withdrew following international pressure. Secondly, for its economy to thrive it needs to ensure that it meets the conditions for joining the ASEAN free-trade area planned for 2015. Thirdly, the USDP wants to win the next elections in 2015. Mo re generally, there appears to have been a fundamental change of view and an acceptance that the best way to assure the security and stability of the state is through reform rather than repression. Objective This topic is going to present the way of news presenting by website xinhuanet.com concerning news of by-election held on 1st April, 2012, highlighting prominent political transformation of new Myanmar Government. The significant of political reforms of Myanmar being made by the Presidents, U Thein Sein, new government got not only interest of Myanmar people but also have been appreciated and watched by other nations around the world. Especially citizen want citizenships to know the actual conditions of his/her countrys political and economic sectors. The government has been obliged to disclose their processing transparently to the public from time to time. Moreover, the media should act as a bridge between the public and government and they should inform real transformation progress of the government to the public exercise of media laws and journalist ethic without any bias. As a mass media publication about the by election surged, public awareness and curiosity of whether this by-election will result in political change or not had been raised. Mass media publications on such political occurrences raise not only public interests and awareness but also valuable cooperation from the public. It is therefore very important to track and assess political transformation news that raises publics awareness and interest from time to time. Nowadays, more and more powerful and updated media have been used. So, news can be spread around the world immediately when it was on the web page. Therefore, the media should consider well and press important news such as Political and Economic news which can be effect to the public. Brief Literature Review Media plays an important role around the world and also in Myanmar. Today, Information Technology age, the power of media is biger and biger day by day and placed as one of the essential parts for every country. For the betterment of the country, people should apply media effectively. Media is mainly seperated into two main types; such as printed media and electronic media. Electronic media is the communication delivered via electronic or electromechanical energy. Communication today is fast-pace and interactive due to modern technology. Global audiences swap information though modern online technologies that are interactive and fast-changing. Developments in media and communication technology include interactive websites and use of videos and virtual enviroments insted of printed content to convey information. The new media, including the internet offer higher opportunities for interaction with the public participation, beyond the time and space constraints of traditional media. In additional, new media technologies easily by passing national and international boundaries, thus bringing citizens of each country into contact with diverse culture and distant events. In the middle and late time of 1990, internet becomes important in journalism. Internet user should know the believable website of the news sources. The website is the one kind of online journalism. Today, online journalism is popular in the world. The bulk of online journalism has been the extension of existing print and broadcast media into the web via web versions of their primary products. Online journalism is defined as the reporting of facts produced and distributed via the internet. As of 2009, audiences for online journalism continue to grow in 2008, for the first time, more Americans reported getting their national and international news from the internet, rather than newspapers, and audiences to news sites continued to grow due to the launch of new news sites, continued investment in news online by conventional news organization, and the continued growth in internet audiences overall, with new people discovering the internets advantages for convenience, speed and depth. A significant tools of online journalism are internet forums, discussion boards and chats, especially those representing the internet version of official media. The widespread use of the internet all over the world created a unique opportunity to create a meeting place for both sides in many conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the First and Second Chechen Wars. Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict, but often the internet is turned into the battlefield by contradicting parties creating endless online battles. The claim that online sources are less biased and more informative than the official media is often backed with the belief that online journalists are merely volunteers and freelancers who are not paid for their activity, and therefore are free from corporate ethics. But recently many internet forums began to moderate their boards because of threat of vandalism. Some online journalists have an ambition to replace the mainstream media in the long run. Some independent forums and discussion boards have already achieved a level of popularity comparable to mainstream news agencies such as television stations and newspapers. Internet radio and Broadcast are other growing independent media based on the internet. Covering political news Parliament and State legislature become major news centres when in session. The Government is bound to make all announcements in the house. Political news also comes from in and around the house in session as political parties express their views on various issues and the relative strength of various parties is tested in the house. There are moves and counter-moves by ruling and Opposition parties which find place in news columns. A reporter should know the rules and procedures of Parliament. State legislatures follow similar rules and procedures with a slight difference here and there. During inter-session periods there are conferences of presiding officers of all the houses presided over by the speaker of the House of the People. This makes rules and procedures more or less uniform. Political reporting: This could be called the most tricky area of reporting. Here one has to understand the political process and the actors involved in it. The assessment of the situation or personality mey go wrong and this may lead to embarrassment of the correspondent. A correspondent covering a political party should always locate key persons who matter in the party. Then he should cultivate some of them just by meeting them occasionally and discuss with them national or party affairs. Such meetings may yield news also but they will surely help the correspondent in making an assessment of the man and his role in the party affairs. The correspondent should also be on good terms with the office staff of the party. Sometimes these people can be of much help in getting information or a story. Many a time politicians try to use reporters. They may plant something with a vested interest in mind. A reporter should be careful about such moves of politicians. A reporter should have a broad field of contacts in a political party. If one has just one or two sources they are not enough. You have to keep on looking for news sources all the time. A political correspondent with deep understanding of party affairs can do interpretative reports. He should always be cautious while interpreting alignments and movement of various political forces within the party. Coverage of political party conventions or conferences requires advance planning. A team of reporters or correspondents is dispatched to the site of the conference. Normally a senior political correspondent does a curtain-raiser telling what may come up at the conference. Such conferences have a lot of routine speechs and resolutions to be covered but they provide an opportunity to political correspondents to meet and discuss various issues with promonent politicians of the party. Information or equations arising out of such conferences help in understanding the party politics and trends that may help in future. Many parties have a system of regular press briefings. The concerned correspondent should never miss such briefings. Sometimes these briefings may not yield much but on other occasions they may give crucial news stories. But a correspondent should not confine himself to official party briefings. He should try to contact other sources or groups to more information. Political correspondents can also attempt situationers on the health and dynamism of the political party and various trends and alignments within the party. Political correspondents have to deal withrelationships and political alignments of different political parties. When the legislatures are in session their strength and alignment may become crucial. During elections political correspondents have to travel to key constituencies where prominent leaders may be contesting and assess the situation. At times, based on quick surveys or assessments of various correspondents in different areas, a national interpretative story may emerge. (K.M.SHRIVASTAVA,2007) Method This study employed a content analysis to examine the websites coverage of the political changes of Myanmar (by-election). This is quantitative study. It will use a content analysis method to examine the websites coverage of the political changes of Myanmar. About sampling, available sampling will be used. Stories will be chosen from the website to get sufficient number that will help to make clear analyzation and generalization. This is important because the coverage is not daily and may be it could take many days difference between the two coverage. Data will be presented and analyzed quantitatively using mathematical guidelines like graphs and percentages. The findings will provide answers to questions about how news websites covered issues concerning Myanmars political changes with by-election.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Stigmatization Of People With Schizophrenia Social Work Essay

Stigmatization Of People With Schizophrenia Social Work Essay Schizophrenia is a mental illness with symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behaviour, and inappropriate emotions (Barlow Durand, 2009). These symptoms would distort an individuals living to a certain extent. For example, the irrational thoughts may result in communication problems. In fact, not only do the symptoms of schizophrenia affect an individual, stigmatization of people with schizophrenia also has profound effects on those people with schizophrenia. Stigma is the general negative attitudes towards a certain group of people (Schneider, 2004). Many scholars suggested that people with schizophrenia are highly stigmatized (Chang Johnson, 2008; Gingerich Mueser, 2006; Prior, 2004). They are generally described as depressed, unpredictable, violent, dangerous and aggressive (Chang Johnson, 2008; Schneider, 2004). Although these may be true for some cases, it is believed that there is overgeneralization of the situation. The situation would also be worsened by the media (Chang Johnson, 2006), which sometimes connect schizophrenia to violent acts. For example, a person with schizophrenia would be more likely to be a murder. These negative views would trigger discrimination on people with schizophrenia. Schneider (2004) suggested the labeling theory to explain why people with mental illness behave in the way that the general public describes as dangerous and violent. He explained that they act as dangerous and violent just because they are stigmatized and play out their assigned roles. Therefore, it can be seen that they may actually be socialized to behave in those ways instead of behaving naturally. It should be noted that people are not only stigmatized while they are suffering from schizophrenia. A research was done by Cheung and Wong (2004) with 193 people in Hong Kong on the perception of stigmatization on people with mental illness. The result shows that the majority agrees with the fact that most people believe that someone with a previous mental illness is untrustworthy and dangerous. Schizophrenia, being one of the mental illnesses, is of no exception. The implication of this research is that stigmatization on people with schizophrenia is a life-long issue, from the onset of the disorder until the end of ones life. Gingerich and Mueser (2006) suggested that stigma on people with schizophrenia may make others feel fear of and avoid interacting with those people. This fear and avoidance would in turn reduce the interaction between people with schizophrenia and the public and there would be less opportunity to change the stigmatizing beliefs (Gingerich and Mueser, 2006). Holmes and River (1998) introduced the concept of social stigma and self-stigma. The aforementioned are social stigma as the general public stigmatizes those with schizophrenia. Chang and Johnson (2008) suggested that there are social messages delivered in the stigma which may lead to self-stigmatization of an individual. This further stigmatization would cause even more negative effects on oneself. Effect of stigmatization on people with schizophrenia As suggested by Tsang, Tam, Chan and Cheung (2009), stigmatization prohibits mentally ill people from recovery. Regarding situations in Hong Kong, Tsang et al. (2009) found from a survey that 80% of respondents thought social stigma has negative consequences towards mentally ill people. Compared with the high percentage, much less respondents considered social stigmatization unacceptable. Which means quite a number of people tolerate or accept stigmatization even though they know the impact brought. Other figures found by Tsang et al. (2009) also revealed the severeness of stigmatization in Hong Kong. For example, one fourth of respondents are hesitate to accept people with mental illness and about 30% of respondents oppose mentally ill elderly into elderly home. These thoughts and stigmatizations contribute to the effects brought by schizophrenia and make it more serious in Hong Kong. There is no doubt that stigmatization poses negative consequences on people with schizophrenia throughout their life. Chan, Mak and Law (2009) confirmed the point above after reviewing a lot of literatures. Firstly, it imposes constraints in daily living on those with schizophrenia. Moreover, it may lead to lower self-esteem, reduced life satisfaction and social adaptation. It also hinders help-seeking behavior. Apart from the above impacts, Corrigan (1998) also suggested that stigmatization would lead to discrimination, followed by loss of social opportunities as members of society withhold the chances related to work or income. Thus lead to poor quality of life. It should be noted that the psychological, social and biological aspects cause the negative consequences and they are interrelated. Socially, negative attitudes towards people with schizophrenia inhibit the employment opportunities (Corrigan, 1998). The claim is also supported by the finding by the Equal Opportunities Commission (1997) in Hong Kong. It stated that the mentally ill peoples employment rate is low (around 30%). The unemployment problems may trigger a lot of other problems. It is obvious that unemployment causes financial problems. It also places burden on clients relatives. Moreover, as stated by Mowbray, Bybee, Harris and McCrohan (1995), employment offers opportunities for social interaction, builds self-esteem and identity, and is the best predictor of recovery and social integration. However, without a job, there may be disappointment and self-blame of being a burden to the family or being incapable to earn a living. The psychological aspect of the people is thus af fected and may reduce life satisfaction. Tsang et al. (2003) also suggested that stigmatization not only affect the individual but also his family or social network. An example illustrated is that a large number of people would change seats in public transport when sitting next to people who appear to have mental illness. When going out with the mentally ill people, their relatives or families would feel embarrassed. Thus their emotions are also affected. And because of the stigmatization of experiences that irritate the mentally ill people, they may isolate themselves. The family is also likely to conceal their illness because they feel ashamed of the schizophrenic people. This is particularly true in Hong Kong as Chinese stresses the importance of collective representation of families (Tsang et al., 2003). This further prohibits the individual from interacting with other people. Because of the isolation, the individual is not quite possible to seek help from other. Without social support and social resources, the schizoph renic people are hard to adapt to the environment. This forms a vicious circle and the situation may become worse. Biological aspects may also increase the seriousness of stigmatization. Age of onset of mental illness may be an important factor. If a person is mentally ill since he/she was young, his/ her social network would narrow down as there may be discrimination and isolation. Thus the support is limited. Moreover, if the person suffers from schizophrenia during college or secondary school, his/her education is not competitive enough in Hong Kong as there are more and more students receiving tertiary education (Census Department, 2005). With the mental illness and lower than average academic achievement, they face a lot more difficulties in employment. Interventions It can be seen that stigmatization causes many negative effects on people with schizophrenia. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the stigma on them. However, there should be some consideration when intervening in the situation. Chiu, Chui, Kelinman, Lee and Tsang (2006) pointed out that those interventions which focus on changing public attitude towards schizophrenia are actually isolating those stigmatized to be a group that deserves special treatments. This in turn reinforces the stigmatization. Chiu et al. (2006) also stressed that there may be the possibility of making those stigmatized more aware of the fact that they are being stigmatized. They may become hopeless about changing the current situation and just conform to the stigmatization. Hong Kong has actually taken some actions to intervene in the stigmatization on people with schizophrenia. However, it seems that the actions taken are not quite effective in reducing the stigma. For example, psychiatrists changed the Chinese term for schizophrenia from splitting of the mind to perceptual disorder (Chiu et al., 2006, p. 1694). However, Chiu et al. argued that the new term was re-stigmatized quickly after a short period of time. Besides changing the name, there have been anti-stigma programmes which promote a sense that schizophrenia is an illness like any other (Davies, Haslam, Read Sayce, 2006). Davies et al. (2006) pointed out that these programmes failed to reduce the stigma as they deliver the message that individuals cannot control themselves when they are suffering from schizophrenia. This makes the public feel that those with schizophrenia become even more unpredictable and thus increasing the stigma. As it has been mentioned, stigma on people with schizophrenia can be divided as social stigma and self-stigma. Therefore, interventions at both community and individual level are needed to reduce the stigma on people with schizophrenia. For the community level, Gingerich and Mueser (2006) suggested letting people understand more about the situation instead of changing how they think about the situation directly. One common but effective way is education (Gingerich Mueser, 2006). Education allows people to develop a better understanding on schizophrenia, for example, the cause, effects and treatments. They may be able to view psychiatric symptoms as understandable psychological or emotional reactions to life events, thus reducing the fear on people with schizophrenia (Davies et al., 2006). A research done by Chan et al. (2009) discovered that it is more effective in reducing stigma on schizophrenia if there is a lecture about schizophrenia followed by a video show which includes real cases of schizophrenia. They explained the effectiveness of the education-video model as allowing participants to get enough information and background before having deeper processing of the video. It is suggested that there was little or no organized advocacy by psychiatric patients to strive for their own interest (Chiu et al., 2006), like legislation and resource allocation on people with schizophrenia. Besides, it is suggested that poor treatment of schizophrenia may intensify the stigmatization of schizophrenia (Prior, 2004) because people may over-generalize those small group who are poorly treated and have adverse symptoms as the majority of people with schizophrenia. Advocating for the improvement of services for people with schizophrenia can thus help to reduce stigma by allowing better recovery. Besides, services like employment assistance can help integrate them in society and allow them to develop a social network (Prior, 2004). For individual level, treatments like medication, psychosocial education (Chang Johnson, 2008). In addition, family cares and supports are important to reduce stigma on an individual with schizophrenia (Chang Johnson, 2008; Gingerich Mueser, 2006) as it is the first system that the individual would situate. If the family is a supportive one, it is more likely that the individual would be less self-stigmatized. In conclusion, stigmatization poses great impacts on individuals with schizophrenia and their families. These impacts included reduced life satisfaction and social adaptation. Unemployment is also an important factor that affects social and psychological functioning of people with schizophrenia. On the other hand, interventions should not focus on changing publics attitude towards people with schizophrenia. Instead, it should focus on letting people understand more about schizophrenia and providing supports to people with schizophrenia. In the community level, there can be education and advocacy. In the individual level, there can be medication, psychosocial education and family support.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Liking your job :: essays research papers

Persuasive Essay How many of you think about what you want to be when you grow up? How many see themselves as an upper class citizen in a couple of years? Are you attracted to a particular career because of the money or the adventure? All of these are questions most of us are being faced with at this point in our lives. We have to ask ourselves, would we rather have a job that we love regardless of the money, or would we rather make a ton of money but hate what we do? My future job is going to be something that I love, something with adventure. I have been thinking about becoming a FBI agent. Mostly everything I have heard about the FBI has been interesting. Besides the grueling and arduous process of becoming an agent, the idea of knowing things and being involved with things that the normal person doesn’t have a clue about. Of course there are the basic downfalls, but if I love doing my job I will deal with them. A good example of my theory is my mother, who is a preschool teacher. She doesn’t make much money, compared to a doctor or lawyer, but she is very happy with her job. Her students love her, and to most of them she is their guardian. Her students are with her for most of the day. Often times the whole day. She accepts the responsibility of basically raising the kids in her class. Her job can be very rewarding, from seeing a child move on to kindergarten, to teaching a kid to tie his or her shoe. People have to go to work five days a week. For the most part, your job is your life. If you have a job that you dread going to every morning, sooner or later it will catch up with you and force you to make a career change. Although a huge

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Immigration To Canada Essay -- essays research papers

Immigration to Canada The first immigrants to the territory now constituting Canada were from Western Europe. The first great influx began early in the 19th century when large numbers of Europeans left their homelands to escape the economic distress resulting from the transformation of industry by the factory system and the concurrent shift from small-scale to large-scale farming. At the same time, wars, political oppression, and religious persecution caused a great many Europeans to seek freedom and security in Canada. The century following 1820 may be divided into three great periods of immigration to Canada. During the first period, from 1820 to 1860, most of the immigrants came from Great Britain, Ireland, and western Germany. In the second period, from 1860 to 1890, those countries continued to supply a majority of the immigrants; the Scandinavian nations provided a substantial minority. Thereafter the proportion of immigrants from northern and Western Europe declined rapidly. In the final period, from 1890 to 1910, fewer than one-third of the immigrants came from these regions. The majority of the immigrants were natives of southern and Eastern Europe, with nationals of Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Russia constituting more than half of the total. Until World War I, immigration had generally increased in volume annually. From 1905 to 1914 an average of more than a million aliens entered Canada every year. With the outbreak of war, the volume declined sharply, and the...

The Character of Dounia in Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment :: Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment

The Character of Dounia Crime and Punishment  Ã‚     Dounia's commitment to her brother is unfaltering. Even when she is presented with the ultimatum of Luzhin, she continues to endure in her dedication and loyalty to her irritable and rascally brother. She realizes that making sure Raskolnikov is there will probably secure her fate in that she will not marry Luzhin. She refuses to do so though if he does not accept his brother. Dounia's commitment and loyalty can be seen in her calm nature about the letter, her loyal response to it, and her actions when she goes to visit her brother--she regards his gestures and words with guarded skepticism, but realizes that he is at least "unfeigned" when grasping her hand. When Pulcheria shows Dounia the letter she doesn't let her emotions go awry, but she reads the letter like a military sergeant on the battle field, simply carrying out the next order in an entire chain. She decides that she must talk to Raskolnikov before answering Luzhin or making her decision. She stands calm and collected in face of the massive divide and rift that has now been created in her life--she has been presented with a dilemma, she is going to be forced to choose between the one she loves and the one she feels "esteems her". In the small garret of Raskolnikov, Pulcheria and Advotya go to see and confer with the now "well" Rodya. Dounia's main purpose is to give Raskolnikov the option of whether he would like to come to their house when Luzhin is there. When her brother responds that it is essentially the women's choice, Dounia is firm in her commitment that he must be there. She wishes to convince him that she is not doing it purely for his sake--but rather for her own. Raskolnikov's chastising of her is ironic because she is only doing less blatant forms of actions he has already committed. Dounia, even after admitting that her marriage to Luzhin will help her very much, still loyally insists that Raskolnikov must be present for th e meeting. She is willing to risk what she has professed is simply for her own sake. Her physical actions when she goes to visit her brother are an amalgam of compassion and skepticism. She is intelligent enough to realize that the things Raskolnikov is saying seem feigned, as if he had a script written for him.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

The “Now” Wedding Final Project

Running Head: WOW Wedding Final Project The â€Å"NOW† Wedding Final Project by A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements of MGMT505 Project Management Fundamentals November 2008 The â€Å"NOW† Wedding Lauren and Conner announced on December 31st that they were going to be married on January 21st. Conner had been notified that he was being deployed with the National Guard on January 30th. Lauren and Conner wanted to have a week for a honeymoon before the deployment. Lauren wanted to have a spectacular wedding and accomplish everything that needed to be accomplished so that everyone could attend and everything would be perfect.There was a tremendous amount of planning, organizing and tasks that needed to be accomplished for the â€Å"NOW† wedding to take place on time, in budget and for it to be perfectly memorable for everyone, especially Lauren and Conner. For Lauren to have the wedding that she dreamed of there were numerous tasks that needed to be accomplished immediately. The first task that needed to be accomplished was to secure the church and reception hall, until the address of the wedding is determined and secured the invitations could not be sent out.The invitations needed to be sent out a week before the couple decided to have the wedding to make sure that everyone could be there, however that was not an option. Dresses had to be made and altered as well as securing the wedding decorations, caterer and wedding party members. The major constraint the wedding couple faced was the time constraint, trying to pull all of the elements together in order to create the perfect wedding would have been difficult at best. The critical path is very tight and there could be no room for mistakes, misunderstandings, or delays.The resources required for this project were mainly people and money. The more people helping to bring all the elements together, the quicker everything could get done. The financial resources, controlled by the brides father, were necessary to move up the processing time especially where the brides dress was concerned. Figure 1. 1 utilizes a Gantt Chart to show the timeframe of the project to include sequencing of sub tasks: Fig 1. 1 [pic] The costs associated with the project are as follows: [pic] This risks for the budget are the following items:Maid of Honor Travel$1000. 00 Airfrieght 20. 00 Seamstress 240. 00 Invitation Incentive 20. 00 Invitations Help 40. 00 Possible Budget Overruns$1320. 00 The following fishbone diagram details all the current risks for the project: [pic] The method of tracking the progress of the â€Å"NOW† Wedding will be the Stop Light Chart, it is a very simple method of tracking what has been completed and what has yet to be started. Following is the Stop Light Chart which would be used at the beginning of the project: [pic] The â€Å"NOW† Wedding Case Study QuestionsPart A [pic] Creating the wedding schedule as outlined in the text it sh ows that the planning for the wedding should have occurred at least a month before it did. We would reduce the time it takes of the mother of the bride to put together the guest list by utilizing all available resources (manning) having all attendants present to create the list and a comprehensive address list (thereby minimizing the risk of one person having all this information). Invitations must be ordered on the 2nd of January with the guest list completed on the 1st.While the invitations are at print, the dresses would be designed on the 3rd with the materials being ordered immediately. The creation of a work flow chart would list out all of the tasks that must be completed assigning individual tasks to individual members of the wedding party. The budget needs to be set immediately and using the budget form above the wedding party has created the master list of objectives and goals. Utilizing the stop light will keep the project on track with constant updates as to the progress on each item.The Maid of Honor needs to be brought in immediately to participate in the planning and execution and to have measurements taken on sight to avoid the risk of the dresses not being made correctly. Part B There would be no conflict caused by the Chairman of the Vestry Committee not reducing the notice period from 14 to 7 days and I would not have recommended using the extra funds to reduce the notice period as the requirement for 14 days notice has been met by depositing the funds to secure the room on the 1st of January. Since the Wedding is scheduled for the 21st of January, there is no need to reduce the notice period.If the project were started on January 1, the Mother getting the flu would not have impacted the guest list completion as it would have been completed by January 2. Since this is the first stage of the entire project, the suggestions would have been made that the mother, bride and all of the attendants get together the night of the 1st and make a comple te list. It is not until this list is completed that any plans can be made including ordering the invitations, cakes, catering, etc†¦ Since the invitations would have been ordered on the 2nd of January, the Bride would have had an xtra few days in the delivery of the invitations. The extra day for print would be compensated for by reducing the addressing phase and rather than asking for paid part-time help, there would be another get together on the night of the 9th to get all of the invitations addressed thereby reducing the number of days down to one. When the material and lace were lost in transit then the recommendation would be to have the Bride cancel the order, receive the funds back from the lost order and take all bridesmaids and Maid of Honor to a local bridal store and purchase dresses.With a three day shipping time on dresses there would still be time to have fittings and alterations done. The lace can be replaced locally and fitted while waiting for the dresses to be delivered. ———————– Gantt Chart Invitations Guest List Budget Maid of Honor Location Dresses Well Defined Budget Responsible Party Complete list created Created ASAP Ordered Promptly Addressed & Mailed Design Pattern Ordered & Delivered Secure in Advance Address for Invitations Travel Arrangements Long Distance Dress