Audience Analysis

The ACA Open Knowledge Online Guide Tyrone L. Adams, Ph. D. [[email  protected] edu] D’Aquin Professor of Journalism and Communication Department of Communication University of Louisiana, Lafayette and Peter A. DeCaro, Ph. D. [[email  protected] edu] Department Chair and Associate Professor of Communication Department of Communication California State University Stanislaus The Significance of Audience Analysis: Strategically Considering Your Target Populace It cannot be said often enough: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!Knowing your audience—their beliefs, attitudes, age, education level, job functions, language and culture—is the single most important aspect of developing your speech. Your audience isn’t just a passive group of people who come together by happenstance to listen to you. Your audience is assembled for a very real reason: They want to hear what you have to say. In public speaking, the audience is the entire reason This module helps you understand: Th e critical importance of understanding your audience. The various methods used in analyzing a given audience.The five layers of any given audience analysis. you are giving the speech; thus, the audience is the most important component of speechmaking. We analyze our audience because we want to discover information that will help create a link between the speaker and the audience. We call this link identification. Aristotle loosely called it â€Å"finding a common ground. † This isn’t a one-way process between the speaker and the audience; rather, it is a two-way transactional process. When you ask an audience to listen to your ideas, you are asking them to come partway into your experience as a speaker.And, in return, it is your obligation to go partway into their experience as an audience member. The more you know and understand about your audience and their needs, the better you can prepare your speech. For example: Bob Mullins, a local bank officer, was preparing fo r a speech at the Rotary Club in Dallas, Texas on â€Å"finding the right loan† for a diverse ethnic audience. He knew his topic extremely well, had put a lot of hard work into his research, and had his visual aids in order. One of the things he had not completely considered, however, was the audience to which he would be speaking.On the day of the event, Mr. Mullins delivered a flawless speech on car and home loans, but the speech was not received well. You see, on this particular week, a major segment of the audience consisted of the â€Å"Junior Rotarians† who wanted to hear about â€Å"personal savings accounts† and â€Å"college savings plans. † It was a critical mistake. Had Bob considered the full nature and makeup of his audience prior to the event, he might not have been received so poorly. A hard lesson learned. This module is dedicated to understanding how a speaker connects with an audience through audience analysis.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3. 0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3. 0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. I. How Do I Analyze My Audience? Whenever thinking about your speech, it is always a good idea to begin with a thorough awareness of your audience and the many factors comprising that audience. In speech communication we simply call this â€Å"doing an audience analysis. An audience analysis is when you consider all of the pertinent elements defining the makeup and characteristics of your audience. There are many elements to consider, too, such as: age, gender, education, occupation, language, ethnicity, culture, background knowledge, needs and interests, and previously held attitudes, beliefs, and values. Of course, this is not an all-inclusive list. But, it does help you get a good general understanding of the demographics shaping up whom, precisely, you will be addressing.From the Greek affix demo (of the people) we come to understand that demographics are detailed accounts of human population characteristics. These accounts are usually rendered as statistical population segments. Demographics are widely used by advertising and public relations professionals to analyze specific audiences so that their products or ideas will carry influence. However, all good public speakers consider the demographic characteristics of their audience, as well. It is a, if not the, fundamental stage of preparing for your speech.So now you may be saying to yourself: â€Å"Gee, that’s great! How do I go about analyzing my particular audience? † Well, first you need to know that there are three overarching methods (or what we like to call â€Å"paradigms†) for doing an audience analysis: (1) audience analysis by direct observation, (2) audience analysis by inference, and (3) audience analysis through data sampling. Once you get to know how these methods work a bit better, you should be able to select which one (or even combination of these methods) is right for your circumstances.Audience Analysis by Direct Observation Audience analysis by direct observation, or direct experience, is, by far, the most simple of the three paradigms for â€Å"getting the feel† of a particular audience. It is a form of qualitative data gathering. We perceive it through one or more of our five natural senses—hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling. Knowledge that we acquire through personal experience has more impact on us than does knowledge that we learn indirectly. Knowledge acquired from personal experience is also more likely to affect our thinking and will be retained for a longer period of time.We are more likely to trust what we hear, see, feel, taste, and smell rather than what we learn from secondary sources of information. All you r eally need to do for this method of observation is to examine the broad composition of your audience working in its natural state. If you are lucky enough to be able to do this before speaking to your audience, you will be able to gather some basic reflective data that will help you arrange your thoughts and arguments for your speech. One excellent way to become informed about your audience is to ask them about themselves.In its most basic form, this is data collection. In the classroom situation, you should have had ample time to get to know your fellow classmates and become familiar with who they are on a personal level. Through class conversations—and your unmonitored small-group conversations before and after class—you will be able to get to know and appreciate each class member as both a human being and an audience member. You will come to understand what interests them, convinces them, or even makes them laugh.Do not discount even a simple form of data collection such as distributing a three- or four-item questionnaire before class. You might arouse interest and curiosity in your topic while you also gain valuable data. Knowledge acquired from personal experience is also more likely to affect our thinking and will be retained for a longer period of time. Clearly this cannot be done in every speaking situation, however. Often, we are required to give an unacquainted-audience presentation. Unacquainted-audience presentations are speeches where you are completely unfamiliar with the audience and its demographics.In these cases, it is always best to try and find some time to sit down and talk with someone you trust (or even multiple parties) who might be familiar with the given audience. These confidantes can be very constructive in helping you understand the context in which you will be speaking. You see, not understanding the basic demographic characteristics of an audience, or further, Who is it that I am going to be talking to? that audienc e’s beliefs, values, or attitudes about a given topic, makes your presentation goals haphazard, at best.Look around the room at the people who will be listening to your speech. What types of gender, age, ethnicity, and educational-level characteristics will you be appealing to? What expectations does your audience have for your presentation? These are all important questions you should be asking yourself before you begin doing your research and drafting your outline. Who is it that I am going to be talking to? What, exactly, makes them, as listeners, tick? Audience Analysis by Inference Audience analysis by inference is merely a logical extension of your observations drawn in theWhat, exactly, makes them, as listeners, tick? method above. It is a form of critical thinking known as inductive reasoning, and another form of qualitative data gathering. An inference is when you make a reasoned tentative conclusion or logical judgment on the basis of available evidence. It is best used when you can identify patterns in your evidence that indicate something is expected to happen again or should hold true based upon previous experiences. Do you need to learn how to interpret information and draw conclusions? Absolutely! We make inferences—or reasonable assumptions—all the time.For example, when we hear someone speaking Arabic, we infer that they are from the Middle East. When we see this person carrying a copy of The Koran, we infer that they are also a follower of the Muslim faith. These are reasoned tentative conclusions that we make based upon the evidence available to us and our general knowledge about people and their traits. When we reason, we make connections, distinctions, and predictions; we use what is known or familiar to us to reach a conclusion about something that is unknown or unfamiliar for it to make sense. Granted, of course, inferences are sometimes wrong.Here’s a familiar example: Some of your classmates recommend a part icular course to you, telling you that it is relatively simple. You’ve heard similar things from other students, so you take the course and discover that they were, indeed, right. These same classmates recommend another course allegedly just as trouble-free as the last one. Only this time, you discover the opposite to be true. The course was insanely difficult. You inferred, or made a reasonable assumption based on information from your fellow classmates, that the course they recommended would be easy. Hey! You aren’t alone in this regard.Everybody makes these types of mistakes. It’s a normal part of processing information. Audience Analysis by Data Sampling Unlike audience analysis by direct observation and analysis by inference, audience analysis by data sampling uses statistical evidence to quantify and clarify the characteristics of your audience (data is the plural form of datum). These characteristics are also known as variables, and are assigned a numeric al value so we can systematically collect and classify them. They are reported as statistics, also known as quantitative analysis or quantitative data collection.Statistics are numerical summaries of facts, figures, and research findings. Audience analysis by data sampling requires you to survey your audience before you give your speech. You need to know the basics of doing a survey before you actually collect and interpret your data. The Basic Questionnaire There are a great number of survey methods available to the speaker. However, we will cover three primary types in this section because they are utilized the most. The first type of survey method you should know about is the basic questionnaire, which is a series of questions advanced to produce demographic and attitudinal data from your audience.You can easily gather information from your audience, using questions similar to these below: My academic level in college: I currently have: no children 1 child 2 children 3 or more ch ildren I can best be classified as being: Caucasian Black or African American Hispanic of Asian descent other My marital status is: single married divorced/separated widowed These questions probe more deeply into the psyche of your audience members, and will help you see where they stand on certain issues. reshman sophomore junior senior My age is: less than 18 years of age between 18-21 years of age between 21-25 years of age over 25 years of age Clearly, audience members should not be required to identify themselves by name on the basic questionnaire. Anonymous questionnaires are more likely to produce truthful information. Remember, all you are looking for is a general read of your audience, you should not be looking for specific information about any respondent concerning your questionnaire in particular. It is a bulk sampling tool, only.While you can gather basic demographic data (as shown above) easily, we need to adjust our questions a bit more tightly, or ask more focused qu estions, in order to understand the audience’s â€Å"predispositions† to think or act in certain ways For example, an attitudinal extension on the basic questionnaire might ask some of the following questions: I regard myself as a: conservative liberal socialist independent I believe that: there is a God there is not a God there might be a God, but I’m unsure none of the above These questions probe more deeply into the psyche of your audience members, and will help you see where they stand on certain issues. Of course, you may need to change these questions a bit to get to the heart of your specific topic. But, once you do, you’ll have a wealth of data at your disposal which, ultimately, will tell you how to work with your target audience.I believe that abortion is: wrong, and should be illegal wrong, but should remain legal okay, but should be illegal okay, and should remain legal none of the above Value Hierarchy by Ordered Categories Another method of finding out your audience’s value set is to survey them according to their value hierarchy. A value hierarchy is a person’s value structure placed in relationship to a given value set. The way to determine a person’s value hierarchy is to use the ordered categories sampling method. In ordered categories, the surveyor lists a number of values on a piece of paper, and asks the respondent to order them on another piece of paper, according to their importance to the respondent (the respondent is the person who fills out the questionnaire).What occurs is that the respondent takes a series of values and, in turn, develops them into a concrete self-ordered The way to determine a person’s value hierarchy is to use the ordered categories sampling method. list. Each response is different, but when analyzed by the speaker, common themes will present themselves in the overall data. Accordingly, the speaker can then identify with those common value themes. See the exa mple below for a given speech on â€Å"homeland security initiatives:† Targeted Value Set Life Liberty Safety Freedom Justice Family Faith Patriotism Democracy Likert-type Testing of Attitudes The final method of assessing your audience’s attitudes deals with Likert-type testing.Likert-type testing is when you make a statement, and ask the respondent to gauge the depth of their sentiments toward that statement either positively, negatively, or neutrally. Typically, each scale will have 5 weighted response categories, being +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2. What the Likert-type test does, that other tests do not do, is measure the extent to which attitudes are held. See how the Likert-type test does this in the speech example on â€Å"unsolicited email† below: UNSOLICITED EMAIL 1. Unsolicited email should be illegal 2. Making unsolicited email illegal would be fundamentally unfair to businesses 3. Making unsolicited email illegal would be a violation of the First Amendment (Free Speech) 4. I usually delete unsolicited email before ever opening it 5.I sometimes open unsolicited email when I am bored Strongly Agree 1 Agree Neither agree nor disagree 3 Disagree Strongly Disagree 5 Ordered Value Set 1. Freedom 2. Democracy 3. Liberty 4. Safety 5. Justice 2 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 A small Likert-type test will tell you where your audience, generally speaking, stands on issues. As well, it will inform you as to the degree of the audience’s beliefs on these issues. The Likert-type test should be used when attempting to assess a highly charged or polarizing issue, because it will tell you, in rough numbers, whether or not your audience agrees or disagrees with your planned advocacy. †¦ re your audience members literally â€Å"speech captives† who have somehow been socially or systematically coerced into hearing you? II. The â€Å"Five Layers† of Audience Analysis No matter which of the above inquiry methods you choo se to do your audience analysis, you will, at some point, need to direct your attention to the five â€Å"layers† of audience analysis. These are the five layers through which you will learn to better appreciate your audience. Let’s now examine these layers and understand the variables and constraints you should use to estimate your audience’s information requirements. Layer 1: The Situational Analysis The situational audience analysis layer considers the situation for which your audience is gathered.This layer is primarily concerned with why your audience is assembled in the first place. Are they willingly gathered to hear you speak? Have your audience members paid to hear you? Or, are your audience members literally â€Å"speech captives† who have somehow been socially or systematically coerced into hearing you? These factors are decisively important, because they place a major responsibility upon you as a speaker, whichever the case. The entire tone an d agenda of your speech rests largely upon whether or not your audience even wants to hear from you. Many audiences are considered captive audiences in that they have no real choice regarding the matter of hearing a given speech. In general, these are some f the most difficult audiences to address because these members are being forced to listen to a message and do not have the full exercise of their own free will. Consider for a moment when you have been called to a mandatory work meeting. Were you truly happy to listen to the speaker, in all honesty? Some might say â€Å"yes,† but usually most would rather be doing something else with their time. This is an important factor to keep in mind when preparing your speech: some simply do not want to listen to a speech they believe is compulsory. The voluntary audience situation, in stark contrast, is completely different. A voluntary audience is willingly assembled to listen to a given message.As a rule, these audiences are much easier to address because they are interested in hearing the speech at hand. To visualize how this works, reflect upon the last speech, concert, or show you’ve attended of your own accord. While the event may or may not have lived up to your overall expectations, the very fact that you freely went to the occasion speaks volumes about your predisposition to listen to—and perhaps even be persuaded by—the information being presented. There’s something else to be said about captive versus voluntary audiences, as well. Modern communication researchers have found that captive audiences are more heterogeneous and that voluntary audiences are more homogeneous.In other words, when captive audiences are gathered, the audience is typically heterogeneous or characterized by many demographic differences among individuals. On the other hand, when voluntary audiences assemble, by and large, they are populated by homogeneous groupings, or, audiences which are characteriz ed more by their demographic similarities than their differences. Sometimes audiences are mixed in their situational settings, too. For instance, take the everyday classroom situation. While college is pronounced to be a voluntary listening situation in that students choose to attend higher education, many people in the college classroom environment sadly feel as if they are still â€Å"trapped† in school, and would rather be elsewhere. Obviously, this erception colors how information is being processed—and in some cases, not being processed. On the other hand, some students in college are truly there by choice, and attentively seek out knowledge from their teacher-mentors. What results from this mixed audience situation is a hybrid captive-voluntary audience, with those who are only partially interested in what is going on in the classroom and those who are genuinely involved. Of course, this leaves you with a difficult set of circumstances when preparing for your cla ss speeches. Both you and your professor are well aware that the audience you will be speaking to Would you be more inclined to talk to issues bearing upon id not enroll in the course to hear from you, specifically. However, this difficulty of speaking to a hybrid captive-voluntary audience does present you with an excellent opportunity: you will have the good fortune of speaking to people who do and do not, fully, want to hear from you. What a prospect! You literally get to hone your speech skills on both types of audiences, thereby learning a skill set that many never get to exercise. You should begin this wonderful opportunity by considering ways to inform, persuade, and humor a mixed situation audience. Think of it as a learning occasion, and you’ll do just fine. Layer 2: The Demographic Analysis those gender, age, and race qualities?The second layer of audience analysis is demography. As mentioned before, demographics are literally a classification of the characteristics of the people. Whenever addressing an audience, it is generally a good idea to know about its: age, gender, major, year in school, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, et cetera. There are two steps in doing an accurate demographic analysis: (1) the gathering of the demographic data, and (2) the interpretation of this demographic data. Sometimes, this information is gathered by the questionnaire sampling method, and is done formally. On other occasions, this information is already available in a database and is made available to the speaker.Some noteworthy speakers even have â€Å"scouts† who do demographic reconnaissance on an audience prior to a speaking event, and make ad hoc interpretations on that audience based upon key visual cues. For example, congresspersons and senators frequently make public appearances where they use stock speeches to appeal to certain audiences with specific demographic uniqueness. In order to know what type of audience he or she will be addr essing, these politicians dispatch staff aides to an event to see how many persons of color, hecklers, and supporters will be in attendance. Of course, doing ad hoc interpretation of demographic characteristics is, indeed, more an art form than a science. Still, it is a common practice among many professional speakers.Consider for a moment how valuable knowing that your audience will be mostly female, between the ages of 25 and 40, predominantly married, and Caucasian, could be to you as a public speaker. Would you change your message to fit this demographic? Would you be more inclined to talk to issues bearing upon those gender, age, and race qualities? Or, would you keep your message the same, no matter the audience to whom you were addressing? Frankly, the smart speaker would shift his or her message to adapt to the audience. And, in a nutshell, that’s the purpose of doing demographics: to embed within your message the acceptable parameters of your audience’s range of needs.This, of course, raises an extremely important ethical issue for the modern speaker. Given the ability to do demographic data analysis and interpretation of an audience, does a speaker shift his or her message to play to the audience entirely? Or, on the other hand, does a speaker not shift his or her message so as to remain true to his or her motives? It is a delicate balancing act, for certain. Demographic information not only has the ability to truly enlighten a speaker, it also has the ability to modify a speaker’s original intent. Only you will be able to alleviate the tension between a speaker’s need to adapt to an audience and his or her need to remain true to form.Some political critics have even argued that our modern leadership no longer â€Å"leads,† it merely speaks according to demography and issue polls. Layer 3: Psychological Description: On Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values Unless your selected speech topic is a complete mystery to your aud ience, your listeners will already hold â€Å"attitudes, beliefs, and values† toward the ideas you will inevitably present. As a result, it is always important to know where your audience stands on the issues you plan to address ahead of time. The best way to accomplish this is to sample your audience with a quick questionnaire or survey prior to the event. This is known as the third layer of audience analysis, or psychological description.There are three things you seek to identify when performing a description: the audience’s (1) attitudes, (2) beliefs, and (3) values. They are your calculated allies †¦ it is always important to know where your audience stands on the issues you plan to address ahead of time. in understanding how your audience thinks. 1. Attitudes What exactly is an attitude? In basic terms, an attitude is a learned disposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a person, an object, an idea, or an event. Attitudes come in different forms. You are very likely to see an attitude present itself when someone says that they are â€Å"pro† or â€Å"anti† something.But, above all else, attitudes are learned and not necessarily enduring. Attitudes can change, and sometimes do, whereas beliefs and values do not shift as easily. Let’s examine a sample list of attitudes below: Pro-war Anti-affirmative action Pro-choice Pro-business Anti-discrimination Anti-war Anti-slavery Pro-gaming Anti-government Pro-capital punishment Pro-diversity Pro-life Anti-gambling Anti-drugs Anti-capital punishment These are just a small range of issues that one can either be â€Å"for† or â€Å"against. † And, while we are simplifying the social scientific idea of an attitude considerably here, these examples serve our purposes well. Remember, attitudes are not as durable as beliefs and values.But, they are good indicators of how people view the persons, objects, ideas, or events that shape their world. 2. Beliefs Beliefs are principles. Beliefs are more durable than attitudes because beliefs are hinged to ideals and not issues. For example, you may believe in the principle: â€Å"what goes around comes around. † If you do, you believe in the notion of karma. And so, you may align your behaviors to be consistent with this belief philosophy. You may not engage in unethical or negative behavior because you believe that it will â€Å"come back† to you. Likewise, you may try to exude behaviors that are ethical and positive because you wish for this behavior to return, in kind. You may not think this at all, and believe quite the opposite.Either way, there is a belief in operation driving what you think. Let’s now turn to examine some sample beliefs: – The world was created by God. – Marijuana is an addictive gateway drug. – Ghosts are all around us. – Smoking causes cancer. – Anyone can acquire HIV.  œ Evolution is fact, not fiction. – Marijuana is neither addictive nor harmful. – Ghosts are products of our imagination. – Smoking does not cause cancer. – Only high-risk groups acquire HIV. 3. Values A value, on the other hand, is a guiding belief that regulates our attitudes. Values are the core principles driving our attitudes. If you probe into someone’s attitudes and beliefs deep enough, you will inevitably find an underlying value.Importantly, you should also know that we structure our values in accordance to our own value hierarchy, or mental schema of values placed in order of their relative individual importance. Each of us has our own values that we subscribe to and a value hierarchy that we use to navigate the issues of the world. Truth be known, we really aren’t even aware that we have a value hierarchy until some of our values come in direct conflict with †¦ we make decisions small and grand, based from our value hierarchi es. each other. Then, we have to negotiate something called cognitive dissonance, or the mental stress caused by the choice we are forced to make between two considerable alternatives. For example, let’s assume that you value â€Å"having fun† a great deal. You like to party with your friends and truly enjoy yourself.And, in this day and age, who doesn’t? However, as a young adult now experiencing a significant amount of independence and personal freedom at college, you have many life options at your disposal. Let’s also say that some of your close personal friends are doing drugs. You are torn. Part of you wants to experience the â€Å"fun† that your close friends may be experiencing; but, the more sane part of you wants to responsibly decline. In honesty, you are juxtaposed between two of your own values—having â€Å"fun† and being responsible. This real life example is somewhat exaggerated for your benefit. Realize that we make dec isions small and grand, based from of our value hierarchies.Let’s look at some basic values common to people around the world: Accomplishment Aesthetics Authority Competency Creativity Learning Flexibility Health Independence Intellectual stimulation Leisure Material Status Peace Power Security Teamwork Layer 4: Multicultural Audience Analysis Demography (as outlined in Layer 2) looks at issues of race and ethnicity in a basic sense. However, we believe that in our increasingly diverse society, it is worthy to pay particular attention to the issue of speaking to a multicultural audience. Odds are that both your classroom audience and any real world audience that you encounter will have an underlying multicultural dimension.As a speaker, you need to recognize that the perspective you have on any given topic may not necessarily be shared by all of the members of your audience. Therefore, it is imperative that you become a culturally effective speaker. Culturally effective speak ers develop the capacity to appreciate other cultures and acquire the necessary skills to speak effectively to people with diverse ethnic backgrounds. Keep these issues ever-present in your mind: Language: Many people speak different languages, so if you are translating words or phrases, make sure that your translations are correct and that you are using concrete language instead of slang or jargon, which can be confusing.Advancement Affiliation Broadminded Competition Economic Return Family Freedom Helping others Influence Intellectual status Loyalty Moral fulfillment Physical work Prestige Self-expression Variety Adventure Appearance Community Cooperation Education Fast Pace Friendship Honesty Integrity Leadership Management Order Pleasure Recognition Travel Wisdom Cognition: Realize that different cultures have different cultural-cognitive processes, or means of looking at the very concept of logic itself. Accordingly, gauge your audience as to their diverse ways of thinking and be sensitive to these differing logics. Ethnocentricity: Do not assume that your culture is dominant or better than other cultures. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own culture or ethnicity is superior to others. Remember that, in many cases, you will be appealing to people from other cultures. Ethnocentric viewpoints have the tendency to drive a wedge between youKnowing that culture does play a major role in interactions between you and your audience is a good step in becoming an effective communicator. and your audience. Values differ greatly: Not only do individuals have value systems of their own, but societies promote value systems, as well. Keep in mind the fact that you will be appealing to value hierarchies that are socially-laden, as well as those that are individually-borne. Communication styles differ greatly: While you are trying to balance these language, cognition, cultural, and value issues, you should also recognize that some cultures prefer a more anima ted delivery style than do others.The intelligent speaker will understand this, and adapt his or her verbal and nonverbal delivery accordingly. Audience Analysis and the Multicultural Audience Today’s speakers face many cultural challenges. These challenges include ethnocentrism, stereotyping, verbal and nonverbal misinterpretations, differences in information processing, and translation difficulties. Ideally, it would be wonderful to be able to master every culture and language, but we cannot be superhuman. Still, there are some universal cultural attributes you can identify through audience analysis that will give you a basic understanding about your multicultural audience.Knowing that culture does play a major role in interactions between you and your audience is a good step in becoming an effective communicator. The key is for you to find alternative approaches to delivering your message, with both verbal and nonverbal elements of communication, that are more in line with your audience’s cultural instincts. There are three areas of cultural orientation we will explore: (1) cognitive styles: how we organize and process information; (2) decision-making: what we accept as evidence; and (3) communication patterns: how we communicate verbally and nonverbally. 1. Cognitive Styles The word cognitive means thought. So, â€Å"cognitive styles† refers to thought patterns.Studies of cognitive styles suggest that people fall into open-minded and closed-minded categories. The openminded person seeks out information before making a decision. They are more likely to see the â€Å"relatedness of issues. † They admit that they don’t have all of the answers, and they need to learn more before they can draw a conclusion. The closed-minded person has tunnel-vision—he or she sees only a narrow range of data and ignores the rest. They accept information only if it conforms to their established mindset. Another aspect of cognitive styles is how people process information. We divide such processing into associative and abstractive characteristics. A person who thinks associatively is filtering ew data through the screen of personal experience, such as in direct observation. New data can be understood only in terms of similar past experiences. This person’s mind is generally closed to all information that does not reflect established values. Individuals that display abstractive characteristics think very analytically, and concepts are abstracted quickly. Innovation often takes precedence over tradition. So you can see how understanding these differences will help you develop your speech. And a third cognitive process is how we actually link information in a chain to come to a conclusion or decision. Generally, there are two types of thinking: linear and systemic.Linear thinking means that we process information by creating an associative link, that is, we first begin with A, then go to B, then to C, and so on, until we have created a chain of reason in order to come to a conclusion. Individuals who process information systemically consider all of the information at one time, mulling it over. This type of person may holistically consider A, B, C, and D, at the same time in order to come to a conclusion. Each type of cognitive process requires a different style of organization and delivery of your speech. The trick is to know how If they think that you are a credible speaker, chances are you can influence their decision-making process. and when to use both styles, and that’s where audience analysis comes in. 2.Decision-making Members of different cultures arrive at decision-making in different ways. These ways can be described as faith, fact, and feeling. The person who acts on the basis of faith is using a belief system which can be a religion or political ideology. Presenting facts in your speech that do not reflect religious or political beliefs can be a waste of time. His or her faith operates independently from facts. People who believe in facts want to see evidence to support your position. They can be the most predictable to persuade. People tend to accept scientific evidence rather than question or reject it. And finally, people who believe in feelings are the most common throughout the world.These are the people who â€Å"go with their gut instincts. † If they think that you are a credible speaker, and they develop a â€Å"liking† for you, chances are you can influence their decision-making process. 3. Communication Patterns Verbal Communication Each culture has a system for communicating. Hall has indicated that these systems can fall into two categories: low-contextual communication and high-contextual communication. Cultures that express themselves in a high-context communication system emphasize how intention or meaning can best be conveyed through the context (e. g. , social roles or positions) and the nonverbal channels (e. g. , pa uses, silence, tone of voice) of the verbal message.The high-context system is also known as an indirect verbal style, or indirect communication, verbal statements tend to camouflage the speaker’s actual intentions and are carried out in a softer tone of voice. Rules for speaking and behavior are implicit in the context. What this means is that much of the communication is expressed through nonverbal behavior—a slight nod of the head, a simple hand gesture as acknowledgement, a brief smile. Compare this to a low context communication system, where exchange of facts and information is stressed. Information is given primarily in words and meaning is best expressed explicitly. The lowcontext system is also known as a direct verbal style, or direct communication, verbal statements tend to reveal the speaker’s intentions with clarity and are enunciated with a forthright tone of voice.Generally speaking, low-context communication (LCC) refers to communication patterns of direct verbal orientation: straight talk, nonverbal immediacy, and sender-oriented values (i. e. , the sender assumes the responsibility to communicate clearly). In the LCC system, the speaker is expected to be responsible for constructing a clear, persuasive message that the listener can decode easily. In comparison, high-context communication (HCC) refers to communication patterns of indirect verbal orientation: self-humbling talk, nonverbal subtleties, silence, and interpreter-sensitive values (i. e. , the receiver or interpreter of the message assumes the responsibility to infer the hidden or contextual meanings of the message).In the HCC system, the listener or interpreter of the message is expected to â€Å"read between the lines,† to accurately infer the implicit intent of the verbal message, and to decode the nonverbal subtleties that accompany the verbal message. Nonverbal Communication As the global village continues to shrink and cultures co-mingle, it is essen tial for public speakers to become more sensitive, more aware, and more observant to the nearly limitless numbers of motions, gestures, and body language that surround us every day. And as we cross over cultural borders, we should learn to respect, learn, and understand more about them. Nonverbal communication is a powerful form of human expression. It is everywhere.People all over the world use their hands, heads, and bodies to communicate expressively. Nonverbal messages are often the primary means of relating our emotions, our attitudes, and the nature of our relationships with oth- Eye contact is an important channel of communication. ers. Nonverbal messages can express what verbal messages cannot express and are assumed to be more truthful than verbal messages. Some major areas of nonverbal behaviors include: eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture and body orientation, proximity, paralinguistics, and humor. Eye contact is an important channel of communication. It si gnals interest in others and for some, eye contact with your audience increases the speaker’s credibility.You’ve heard the statement â€Å"Look at me when I’m speaking to you,† or you are taught in public speaking to make â€Å"eye contact† with your audience. This is another culturally dependent orientation. Among the Japanese, one way to show that you are listening is to close the eyes in contemplation and nod the head slightly, up and down. The Japanese are not ignoring the speaker nor are they taking a nap. It is one way to show concentration and attentiveness. The Japanese prefer indirect eye contact; they avoid direct or prolonged eye contact as mush as possible. Making eye contact with your audience is important, but knowing who to make that eye contact with is equally as important.Remember, some audience members expect you to look them directly into their eyes, while others may prefer indirect eye contact. What about something as simple as a hand gesture – say the â€Å"thumbs up† with a closed fist? In the U. S. it can mean support or approval, â€Å"O. K†. or â€Å"Good Job! † It is also used for â€Å"hitch-hiking† in the U. S. In France this same gesture means zero. In Japan it means money or coins. In Nigeria it is a rude gesture. In Australia, if pumped up and down, is an obscene gesture, and in Germany and Japan it is the signal for â€Å"one. † Here’s where you walk a fine line—if you fail to gesture while speaking, you may be perceived as boring, stiff, and unanimated.A somewhat lively and animated delivery may entertain your audience and demonstrate your confidence about your knowledge of the speech material. On the other hand, if you emphasize certain nonverbal gestures that one or more segments of your audience find offensive, you may wind up alienating them. We can make some general assumptions about Low-Contextual and High-Contextual cultures. The e xchange of facts and information is stressed with members of Low-Context cultures. Information is given primarily in words and meaning is expressed explicitly. There is a stress on task performance, and the communication style is considered to be unemotional and impersonal, with a high degree of objectivity.Low-Context individuals are also informal communicators, where dispensing with ceremony and rigid protocol is accepted, if not the norm. Reasoning is deductive; based on theory and logic. And members prefer analytical thinking, which breaks problems into small chunks. Direct eye contact is expected from both the speaker and audience. In High-Context cultures, shared experience makes certain things understood without them needed to be stated explicitly. Rules for speaking and behaving are implicit in the context, as is the preference for implicit communication. The communication style is emotive and personal, with a high degree of subjectivity and a stress on relationships. There is a high emphasis on protocol and social customs.Reasoning is based on experience and experimentation, with a preference for holistic thinking that is focused on the big picture and interrelationships between components. Indirect eye contact is expected from both speaker and audience. Remember that no two people behave in precisely the same way. Nor do people from the same culture perform exactly the same gestures and body language uniformly. For almost any nonverbal gesture there will probably be someone within a given culture who might say, â€Å"Well, some might attach that meaning to it, but to me it means†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and then they will provide a different interpretation. It is not only what you say in your speech that is important, but it’s how you say it that can make a difference to a multicultural audience.Gestures and body language communicate as effectively as words, and at times, even more so. Do we expect other cultures to adopt our customs or are we willing t o adopt theirs? We may not have time to study a language, but taking time to learn the nonverbal signals is a powerful communicator. We want to create a safe, inclusive environment for all audience members. Even though we have these cultural differences, people come together because they share similar interests. The success of your speech depends upon you, your research, and the quality and accura- †¦ you want to put your best work forward, and let your audience see your confidence and preparation shine through. cy of your information.Remember, communication always takes place between individuals, not cultures, but understanding cultural orientations will always help you become an effective speaker. Without nonverbal communication, our world would be static and colorless. Layer 5: â€Å"Topic Interest† and â€Å"Prior Knowledge† Analysis Finally, you want to query your audience for their interest in, and prior knowledge of, your topic. If the goal of your speech i s to deliver a unique and stirring presentation (and it should be), it would make perfect sense to know ahead of time if your audience: (1) is interested in what you have to say, and (2) has any prior knowledge regarding your topic.It stands to reason that you do not want to give a boring or trite speech. That much is clear. Instead, you want to put your best work forward, and let your audience see your confidence and preparation shine through. And, it also stands to reason that you don’t want to make a speech that your audience already knows a lot about. So, your job here is to â€Å"test† your topic by sampling your audience for their topic interest and topic knowledge. Defined, topic interest is the significance of the topic to a given audience; oftentimes related precisely to the uniqueness of a speaker’s topic. Likewise, topic knowledge is the general amount of information that the audience possesses on a given topic.These are not mere definitions listed fo r the sake of argument; these are essential analytical components of effective speech construction. Unlike multicultural audience analysis, evaluating your audience’s topic interest and topic knowledge is a fairly simple task. There are two ways to go about doing this: (1) through informal question and answer dialogue in class, or (2) more formally through an actual survey. Either way, it is best to have some information, rather than none at all. Imagine if you will, the laundry list of topics that people have heard over and over and over, ad nauseam. You can probably name some yourself, right now, without giving it much thought.If you started listing some topics to yourself, please realize that this is the point of this section of this module; your audience is literally thinking the same exact thing you are. Given that, topic preparation is strategically important to your overall speech success. Again, do not underestimate the power of asking your audience whether or not you r topic actually interests them. If you find that many people are not interested in your topic, or already know a lot about it, you have just saved yourself from a potentially mind-numbing exercise. After all, do you really want to give a speech where your audience could care less about your topic—or even worse— they know more about the topic than you do yourself? Not at all!The purpose of this section is to help you search for the highly sought-after public speaking concept called uniqueness, or when a topic rises to the level of being singularly exceptional in interest and knowledge to a given audience. We know that you wish to excel in giving your speech, and indeed you shall. But first, let’s make sure that your audience is â€Å"turned on† by your topic and hasn’t already heard the subject matter so much that they, themselves, could give the speech without much (if any) preparation. One final note: There’s an old adage in communication studies that reasons: â€Å"know what you know; know what you don’t know; and, know the difference between the two. In other words, don’t use puffery to blind your audience about your alleged knowledge on a particular subject. Remember, there is likely to be someone in your audience who knows as much about your topic, if not more, than you do. If you get caught trying to field an embarrassing question, you might just lose the most important thing you have as a speaker: your credibility. If you know the answer, respond accordingly. If you do not know the answer, respond accordingly. But, above all, try and be a resource for your audience. They expect you to be something of a de facto expert on the topic you choose to address. Conclusion Obviously, when thinking about what kind of topic you are going to select, it is compulsory for you to keep your audience in mind.Not doing so will put your speech at risk of not corresponding â€Å"Fail to plan, plan to fail. † with the information needs of your audience and further jeopardize your credibility as a speaker. In this module, we have covered (I) how to analyze an audience and (II) the five layers of audience analysis. In sum, this information equips you with the foundational knowledge and skill-set required to ensure that your topic complements your audience. And, after all, if we are not adapting to meet the needs of our audience, we are not going to be informative or convincing speakers. There’s a contemporary maxim that runs strong: â€Å"Fail to plan, plan to fail. We, your authors, believe that if you have failed to fully consider the nature, make-up, and characteristics of your audience, you are—for all intents and purposes—neglecting the spirit of the public speaking exercise. Confidently speaking to audiences can be somewhat addictive. The experience, when properly executed, can be empowering and help you succeed personally and professionally throughout your life . But, you must consider whom you are addressing first, and take their every requirement into account. We are linked to, joined with, if not bound by, our audiences. And, your main speaking ambition should be to seek identification with them, and for them to, likewise, seek identification with you. Works Consulted Bem, D. J. (1970).Beliefs, attitudes, and human affairs. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. Benjamin, B. (1969). Demographic analysis. New York: Praeger. Caernarven-Smith, P. (1983). Audience analysis & response (1st ed. ). Pembroke, MA: Firman Technical Publications. Clevenger, T. (1966). Audience analysis. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Colburn, C. W. , & Weinberg, S. B. (1981). Listening and audience analysis (2nd ed. ). Chicago: Science Research Associates. Gibson, J. W. , & Hanna, M. S. (1976). Audience analysis: a programmed approach to receiver behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall. Hayes, A. (1994). The role of culture in demographic analysis: a preliminar y investigation.Canberra: Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences. Jastrow, J. (1918). The psychology of conviction; a study of beliefs and attitudes. Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin. Jaszczolt, K. (2000). The pragmatics of propositional attitude reports. Oxford; New York: Elsevier. McQuail, D. (1997). Audience analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Nelson, N. , & De Saulles, T. (1993). Signs and symbols. New York: Thomson Learning. Pressat, R. (1972). Demographic analysis; methods, results, applications. Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Rokeach, M. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values; a theory of organization and change (1st ed. ). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Ting-Toomey. S & Chung, L. C. (2005). Understanding intercultural communication. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing. Tucker, K. T. ; Weaver, II, R. L. ; Berryman-Fink, C. (1981). Research in speech communication. Englewood Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall. Youga, J. M. (1989). The elements of audien ce analysis. New York: Macmillan. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3. 0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3. 0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Daiwa Bank

A Case Study| | Background and History Daiwa Bank, or Osaka Nomura Bank as it was first called, was founded in 1918 in Osaka, Japan by Tokushichi Nomura. It was created mainly to take advantage of the new capital Japan had amassed from foreign commercial ventures and domestic industrialization. Its securities division experienced huge growth in volume and profits that it almost functioned as different entity. Japanese industry spectacularly grew in the 1930s, but after the war the Allied occupation forces enacted a variety of laws aimed at decentralizing the industry.Part of this was that the bank was forced to change its name to Daiwa Bank, Limited. In 1948, Daiwa Bank established a foreign department and the following year it was authorized as a foreign exchange bank. Daiwa opened representative offices in New York and London in 1956 and 1958, respectively as it was also gaining stronger presence in Tokyo. The bank opened more overseas offices, in Los Angeles in 1970, Frankfurt in 1971, Hong Kong in 1976, and Singapore in 1979.It established a new trust headquarters in 1985 to reinforce its position in trust banking, promote fee income, and demonstrate its ability to accommodate the increasingly diverse needs of Japanese society. Daiwa, like most Japanese banks, made its profits through lending, but failed to implement appropriate oversight procedures when it turned to high-volume securities trading. It was not until 1980s that Daiwa’s entry to trading securities would lead to a scandal with longtime repercussions.In September 1995, the news reported that one of its New York bond traders, Toshihide Iguchi, had embezzled funds and altered bank records in order to conceal 11 years of losses than amounted to $1. 1 billion. Five years later, Daiwa was still enduring the impact of the New York scandal when a Japanese court ruled on the shareholder suit when a number of former and current management officials were ordered to pay $775 million in damages to sh areholders for failing to properly oversee Iguchi's trading.Occurrences of Fraud Toshihide Iguchi is a Kobe, Japan-born US citizen who majored in psychology at Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield. He joined Daiwa’s New York branch in 1977. There he learned how to run the small back office of the branch’s securities business. Traders say that he had traded as much as $1billion in a day, striving to affect the prices through big positions, yet his reported profits averaged $4 million a year over the past decade, never exceeding $10 million in a single year.When Iguchi lost a few hundred thousand dollars early on in his trading activities, he was tempted into selling off bonds in the Bankers Trust sub-custody account to pay off his losses. As money was lost in trading mostly short-term Treasury bills, he covered the losses by selling US government securities owned by Daiwa, allegedly forging documents to hide their sale. He concealed his unauthorized sales fr om the custody account by falsifying account statements so that the statements would not indicate that the securities had been sold. He was able to forge some 30,000 trading slips, among other documents.When customers sold off securities that Iguchi had already sold off on his own behalf, or when customers needed to be paid interest on long-gone securities, Iguchi settled their accounts by selling off yet more securities and changing yet more records. Eventually about $377 million of Daiwa’s customers’ securities and about $733 million of Daiwa’s own investment securities had been sold off by Iguchi to cover his trading losses. By the early 1990s, it was difficult for Iguchi to continue to hide them particularly after 1993 when Daiwa made limited efforts to split up its trading and back-office functions.Yet he managed to survive for another two years before engineering his own day of reckoning. Why Violations Occurred When Iguchi was promoted to become a trader in 1984, he did not relinquish his back-office duties. All in all, he supervised the securities custody department at the New York branch from approximately 1977 right through to 1995. This lack of segregation, a relatively common feature of small trading desks in the early 1980s but already a discredited practice by the early 1990s, led to Daiwa’s downfall. Iguchi’s very own words were â€Å"To me, it was only a violation of internal rules.I think all traders have a tendency to fall into the same trap. You always have a way of recovering the loss. As long as that possibility is there, you both admit your loss and lose face and your job, or you wait a little – a month or two months, or however long it takes. † Daiwa and its internal auditors never independently confirmed the custody account statements. Subsequent investigation showed that risk control lapses and cover-ups were part of the culture of Daiwa’s New York operation in the 1980s and early 1990s, to a farcical degree.For example, during the 1995 investigation of the Iguchi affair, the bank was also charged with operating an unauthorized trading area for securities between 1986 and 1993. Opportunities of Fraud Opportunities for fraud open the door for individuals and companies to behave unethically and commit fraudulent acts. Opportunity is created through the use of one’s position and authority, professional and personal pressures, and weak internal controls. Some of these opportunities are taken by Toshihide Iguchi in order to conceal a trading loss dating back to 1984, and additional losses throughout his career as CEO of Daiwa’s New York branch.In the late 1970’s, Iguchi was promoted to bond trader while still maintaining his duties as clerk in the securities deposit department. This allowed him access to two major responsibilities and to take advantage of each position and its authority. He learned the process of trading bonds, the paper work that was required to complete transactions, and how to seamlessly deposit securities. It was a perfect opportunity to learn each process and find holes in the system to conceal fraud.During this time, Iguchi’s financial transactions were not maintained or properly recorded as a financial institution or international financial institution. His process was to first trade then record trades manually on paper rather than on a computer. Trading transactions could not be over seen by the Daiwa corporate office due to this process. This created the ability to freely make trades and conceal and alter transactions when needed. In 1979, Iguchi became executive vice president and head of government and bond trading in the New York branch where he answered only to himself.His superiors failed to manage him properly and instead gave him full control of the New York branch. This allowed him to set his own schedule, standards, rules, and operate the branch how he deemed fit. In addition, I guchi was seen as a â€Å"trustworthy† employee due to his history with Daiwa, position, dedication, and sacrifices he made as a vice president and bond trader. This gave confidence to his superiors that they did not need to oversee Iguchi or question his actions. Iguchi’s expertise in the US government bond market was something that no one else in the company could match.Daiwa failed to train or hire another worker in the field which allowed Iguchi to take full control of its operations and responsibilities without another’s input of his actions. Daiwa Bank had numerous opportunities for fraud in its New York branch office. These opportunities for fraud could have been avoided in the past; however, creating a strong action plan will help deter opportunities for fraud in the future. Deterring Fraud in the Future Opportunities of fraud almost always lead to the occurrence of fraud. The best defense for this is the need for a strong action plan to deter fraud in t he future.Daiwa lacked in several areas including strong internal controls and conducting regular internal and external audits. Strong internal controls are essential to the proper management of a company’s operations and success. Daiwa did not exercise the separation of duties in its New York branch. Separating of duties can ensure that each positions process is efficiently executed by being checked by an independent party. The implementation of a separation of duties also prevents a single business process from being completely managed by a single individual.This increases the difficulty of successfully performing fraudulent activities which reduces them in return. Daiwa and Iguchi did not use a company system or computer system to track transactions made by employees. Requiring all banking transactions to be reported in a company computer system is beneficially to management and the accounting department. Activity of each employee and branch can be monitored which can ensu re duties are being fulfilled and fraud is not being performed. Daiwa’s Japan corporate office failed to supervise and over oversee Iguchi and the New York branch.Increased oversight of international branch’s and branch executives ensures that operations are in accordance to company objectives and processes, and abide by government laws and regulations. Daiwa depended solely upon Iguchi to trade bonds in the US market because the company failed to train or hire another individual with similar expertise. Employing more than one knowledgeable and skilled individual in a specialty field increases its effectiveness and decreases issues related to improper actions. Daiwa failed to conduct regular internal and external audits of company policies and financial statements.Regular internal and external audits can determine whether financial statements are in accordance with company policies and government standards. Audits can also disclose fraudulent transactions and discrepan cies. Daiwa Bank had numerous opportunities for fraud which lead to Iguchi’s ability to conceal trading losses for such an extensive period of time. In order to prevent a similar situation from taking place, it is essential to find why these violations occurred in the first place. Creating a proper action plan is essential to deter fraud in the future. ReferencesBizcovering. 2008. Retrieved on October 6, 2012 from http://bizcovering. com/business-law/toshihide-iguchi-and-daiwa-bank-securities-trading-scandal/ Case Study – Daiwa Bank. 2000. Retrieved on August 29, 2012 from http://202. 70. 81. 13/itd/OTH00009/Course%20Materials/Day%208/S1C%20-%20Case%20Studies/Case%20Study%20Daiwa%20Bank. pdf Funding Universe. 1996. Retrieved on October 2, 2012 from http://www. fundinguniverse. com/company-histories/the-daiwa-bank-ltd-history/ The Daiwa Bank Case. 2000. Retrieved on September 10, 2012 from http://dspace. lib. niigata-u. ac. p:8080/dspace/bitstream/10191/15002/1/34(1-2)_ 107-138. pdf The Independent. 1995. Retrieved on October 5, 2012 from http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/us-orders-daiwa-bank-shutdown-1537096. html The Key to Financial Management: Management. 2004. Retrieved from September 27, 2012 from http://fic. wharton. upenn. edu/fic/papers/99/9942. pdf The New York Times. 1996. Retrieved on October 5, 2012 from http://www. nytimes. com/1996/02/29/business/daiwa-bank-admits-guilt-in-cover-up. html Wells, J. T. (2012). Principles of Fraud Examination (3rd ed. ) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

IB HL Economics (Macroeconomic Policies) Essay

Deflationary fiscal policies and tight monetary policies will often be used in conjucture during times in which inflation is on the rise (perhaps a little too much), and when which the government aims to apply deflationary pressure to ensure that inflation does not rise too much. Deflationary fiscal policy is when government expenditure decreases and taxation increases. tight monetary policy is when the suppy of money is decreased and the interest rates are increased. Decreasing government expenditure will have the effect of limiting the amount of facilitation the government provides to society to consume/invest, pressuring society to decrease society’s consumption/investment/expenditure. likewise, low supply of money as well as high interest rates will apply a brake on firms and consumers expenditure as they now incur a higher opportunity cost in consuming/supplying/investing due to increased interest rates. Inflationary fiscal policy and loose monetary policy however, have the opposite effect on the economy, and this is because they are implemented at times when there is deflationary pressure on the price level (deflation). inflationary fiscal policy will increase government expenditure as well as decrease taxation, and loose monetary policy will increase the supply ofmoney as well as decrease interest rates. By increasing government expenditure you can now subsidise goods, lowering costs which will have the effect of increasing consumption, as well as provide training schemes to help those who are unemployed find a job. increasing the supply of money increase the amount of flow of money in the economy as there has been an increase in the liquidity in cash. low interest rates attract firms as well as consumers as the opportunity costs to invest/consume have been decreased. for instance, if car loans were previously at 7% during times of inflation (and the government implemented a tight monetary policy), but via deflationary pressure and central banks implementing a decrease in interest rates the car loan interest rate goes down to 5%, it would be much more economical for you to buy a car when it was at 5% than 7% (increase consumption, which would lead to an increase in the price level as overall demand increases)

Handgun owners Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Handgun owners - Essay Example The central tenet of this paper is the idea that carrying a concealed hand-gun does not, in point of fact, put the owner of that handgun at greater risk when confronted with a mugger, that carrying a concealed weapon actually makes someone safer when confronted with violent crime.There is a central problem with this paper, however, is that none of the following arguments or topics actually relate directly to the central thesis. After arguing that carrying a concealed hand gun makes one safer when confronted by a thug, the paper moves on to discussing concealed carry laws (without directly relating those to safety), before moving on to arguing that people who carry concealed weapons with permits are law abiding (again, not directly related to safety). The only argument actually related to safety is in the conclusion, when the paper quotes John Stossel without using a source to say that he says that maximum security felons avoid neighborhoods where they perceive a large number of gun o wners. 2. As mentioned above, little evidence is given directly in support of the thesis. There are two concrete pieces of evidence given: the number of permit carriers in the country (which the author uses to counter the notion that there would be lots of violence if there were a lot of gun carriers).).This doesn’t logically link to the argument, however, because a) the number given is very small compared to the population of the US and b) the author doesn’t try to argue that gun violence is rare

Humanities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Humanities - Essay Example nd noting their increasing wealth, decided to tax the military widows.(Fant 1982) Initially the women accepted this even though it was an obvious case of taxation without representation. However, by 195 B.C. this emergency was over and unlike the provinces, Rome refused to repeal this Oppian Law. Nevertheless, after a demonstration by thousands of affected women supported by sympathetic tribunes they did repeal it. Later in 42 B.C. again an attempt was made to impose similar taxation.(Letkowitz 1982)However, this time it was to pay for a civil war against a rebellious faction. Hortensia was the first female to speak at a Tribunal in the Forum, and was able to successfully argue that women should not be required to pay taxes to support killing of their husbands and fathers. and thereby significantly reduce the pool of women subject to the tax. Aside from Hortensia, the Sabine women must be considered as icons of Ancient Rome (historylink102.com). In fact legend indicates that but for them the Roman Empire may not have ensued. Initially mainly men settled in this rough city, so Romulus devised a plan to attract women to grow Rome’s population. He invited a nearby tribe, the Sabines to a festival inside the city, where the men were attacked and many killed and the women abducted and raped. The surviving Sabine men later returned to Rome under King Titus to retrieve their women, but they were happy with their new lives in Rome and negotiated a truce with the Sabines and Romans uniting and sharing power in Rome for years to follow. The Forum demonstrations illustrate how women even without legal powers were able to use their newly acquired economic leverage craved by the state to pressure it to enact policies more favorable to their interests. On an individual level, wives of high ranking officials, including the emperor, could also exert some influence, although sometimes as in the case of Agrippina, this could be for purely selfish, evil personal motives. (She

Rotterdam Rules Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Rotterdam Rules - Essay Example After coming into effect these changes are bound to reflect on different stakeholders in the maritime business. With an increase in business activities, all around the globe, the sea route has become very busy and active, thus generating more demand for regulations and expertise in Maritime law. Container and shipping industry is capital intensive business and requires huge amount of investment to start the business. Safety and environmental concerns obviously result in high levels of regulations for the industry. It took well over seven years for the U.N. Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and its Working Group III on Transport Law, to deliberate on the nuances of the new legislation for the shipping industry. Subsequently the Comit Maritime International (CMI) took another four years of preparatory work to pave the way for the United Nations to adopt the 'Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea' in December 2008 meeting (Sturley, 2009). The Rotterdam convention is bound to have an impact on different stakeholders in the maritime business in varying measures, depending upon a number of factors. The Cargo owners are certainly an important part in this business. With projections of the global marine industry to be worth $924.5 billion by the year 2013, registering an increase of 23.4 percent since 2008, the Rotterdam rules are bound to play a crucial role in the marine industry (Datamonitor, 2009). Futuristic projections say that the global marine industry is bound to witness a volume of about 21.7 in the year 2013, which makes the role of cargo owners all the more crucial. In fact Rotterdam rules are seen the first serious attempt to replace the age old maritime rules with a new set of modernistic guidelines to make the maritime business more attractive and less speculative. With trade volumes increasing as we move along in the 21st century, the global marine trade has been growing at a rapid pace. Research reports indicate that the rate of growth between 2004 and 2006 had been quite attractive, but subsequent years saw decline owing to the prevalence of all round recessionary trends. Though the recession is far from over yet, but the industry is witnessing higher volume of trade in the recent months. Rotterdam has got the honours of hosting the UN Convention because of its being one of largest ports around the world. In fact, the traditional competition for the best and largest has been between Rotterdam and Singapore. But, the phenomenal rise of China in global trade has made Shanghai as a tough competitor for being the number one port in terms of cargo handling. More movement of goods and services due to the trend amongst the MNCs to manufacture products in countries like China and then transport it back to the western world or Europe, implies greater opportunity for the shipping industry. As per the United Nation estimates, the shipping industry was able to move 8 billion tons of cargo in 2007. This amounts to about 80 percent of the volume of world trade. Oil comprised of the main cargo shipment followed closely by iron ore and coal (UN, 2009). The cargo owners have therefore a big role in carrying forward the globalisation and liberalisation regime. Rotterdam rules have brou ght about a series of changes in the existing framework while making provisions for emerging situations in the increased transportation of the goods around the world.

An ethical dilemma for the new CEO of Cheryl Tobin Essay

An ethical dilemma for the new CEO of Cheryl Tobin - Essay Example The CEO should lead this team that would be handpicked by her in order to ensure that the internal employees cannot hamper the investigations. This is because it should be remembered that the CEO has no concrete evidence of a fraud in the company and the basis of the CEO’s thoughts are largely based on reports reported from external sources that can be largely dubbed as rumors. Acting on rumors and engaging an external agency would not only harm the company’s reputation but would also take the CEO on a collision course with the other senior management members. Only if the initial inquiry reflects frauds, then an external agency can be hired so as to ensure minimal damage to the reputation of the organization. It would also ensure that the employees and the senior management would not vary of the fact that the CEO who has been hired from an external organization is not hell-bent on finding flaws and imposing her individual style of working in the organization. Moreover, the findings of the internal audit committee can be very well concealed within the organization so that remedial measures can be initiated and that there is no harm in the reputation of the organization. A hasty decision of conducting an external inquiry can only aggravate matters and can have disastrous implication on the business prospects of the organization. It would also reflect an autocratic leadership style of the CEO that would eventually not help in improving the situation and would make matters worse in the long run.... Since all the financial documents are to be signed by the directors any frauds reported within the company makes them personally liable to criminal prosecution (Ashcroft & Ashcroft, p.412). Moreover, with the CEO being appointed by the board of directors makes the CEO answerable to them. It also questions the ethical dimensions of the CEO as it is the duty of the same to report matters to the board. The powers vested to the CEO are largely for the purpose of acting on the behalf of the board and to make the CEO answerable for the day to day affairs of the organization. Hence the CEO was very correct in initiating a probe into the matter. Examples from real life also suggest unfair and corrupt practices should not be encouraged in any organization. These malpractices may give short term gains but it is clear from the history of companies like Enron that unethical practice if not checked can lead to a complete downfall of the organization (BBC News, â€Å"Enron Scandal at a Glanceâ₠¬ ). Issues like negative sentiments coming in the wake of an enquiry into the scandals should not pose as a hindrance or an obstacle to the enquiry process as it ignorance in the long term can have very serious implications. This can also be inferred from the manner in which Boeing had to pay huge amounts as a fine towards fraudulent transactions and activities of the company. However rather than suddenly taking a decision to hire an external agency for the investigation, first the CEO can carry out an internal monitoring and supervision of the books of accounts of the company. The CEO should lead this team that would be handpicked by her in order to ensure that the

Is apple iPhone really worth buying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Is apple iPhone really worth buying - Essay Example 2. Procedure In order to gather information for this report the method used was the review of books from academic libraries, online journals, newspaper articles and reviews given on IPhone and competing mobile devices. This is the most appropriate method bearing in mind the smart phone industry is very dynamic and the internet is the only reliable source of up to date information. Moreover, there being little time to carry out a primary research and the high expenses associated with it, literature review was the most appropriate secondary research method. 3. Introduction on IPhone Inc In 2007, Apple, under the leadership of Steve jobs introduced the IPhone which turned out to be one of the most revolutionary mobile gadgets of the century, over the course of the next two years; the IPhone 3G was also launched into the smartphone market (Richie, 2013). The devices offered better technology at significantly reduced prices and effectively took command of the huge portion of the smart pho ne market beginning the smart phone revolution that persist to-date. The smart phone evolution was taken up a level higher by the subsequent introduction of the IPhone 4 and 5 and Apple currently ranks as the second biggest producer and market of smartphones globally. The initial smart phone cost $499 and although the debut price was considerably high, it was not the priciest phone on the market and it cost substantially less than some of the older but less developed mobile device on the market. However, this price proved too high to penetrate the mainstream market and as a result, the phones were mostly limited to an upper and middle class corporate and personal clientele. The second IPhone flagship model was the IPhone 4 series that offered significant improvements from the earlier 3G, and through it Apple introduced optical lamination, an interplane switching effectively scaled over the matching display sizes offered by the completion (Richie, 2013). Despite the challenges the de vice faced in the marketing as well as some technical difficulties, it was stated as the best smart phone ever by many. The latest model of IPhone, IPhone 5 was introduced in 2012 September (William 2013), and it was bigger smarter, lighter faster and the firm had used the experience from the glitches in previous IPhones to make the new one as flawless as possible. Customers received it enthusiastically and although its sales did not match rival Samsung galaxy III, they still performed considerably well on selling their phone (Gruman 2012). 4. Challenges facing the IPhone 4.1 Radical and Regular Upgrades Apple releases a new IPhone every year but despite that, many customers do not upgrade, but a significant number of customers have retained their IPhone 4 models owing to economic or speculative reasons (Swift 2010). Therefore, this problem is likely to keep affecting many of the firm’s clients and when they decide to make a shift, they may opt to buy a phone from a different firm such as Samsung or Microsoft. Apple customers often have to struggle to catch up with the firm’s rapid and on occasion drastic hardware upgrades (Associated Press 2013). Apples upgrades vary form one model to the other; however sometimes, the changes can be very subtle such that the newer is only slightly different or

PTSD and Fluid deficit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

PTSD and Fluid deficit - Essay Example Nursing intervention therefore should include frequent explanation of treatment and treatment outcome to the patient, involvement of patient in some decision-making, detection of both behavioral and psychological changes in patient and administration of mild sedatives to help patients cope. Healthcare givers should also be ready to listen and talk to the patient and encourage the patient to talk about the stress factors or the burn experience which would enhance adjustment capability to the trauma. Severe burn cases have a great risk for fluid deficit. Most burn case patients die because of burn shock. During the first 2 or 3 days fluid and electrolytic balance is lost and the cardiac output is extremely low such that only fluid resuscitation can help prevent such shocks. This deficiency is mostly causes by fluid loss from unconventional sources, less fluid intake or enhanced need of fluid (eNurse Care Plan,2014). Health care givers need to primarily concerned about hydration and restoring the lost balance of fluid. Interventions need to include proper monitoring of vital signs and Central Venous Pressure, observation of urine output in terms of color and measure specific gravity, estimate losses from wound and detect any other physiological abnormality. The patient also needs to be weighed on a daily basis since hydration depends on individual weight and a record also needs to be maintained regarding the amount and type of fluid given to the

Social Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social Entrepreneurship - Essay Example It is antithetical to innovation, too political, wasteful, inefficient, and bureaucratic. Dees thinks that counting on independent social entrepreneurs provides society with more opportunities at a lower risk. Social entrepreneurs tend to be more inventive when compared to government in finding solutions to problems since they respond to failures by the government by creation of parallel tracks while inventing new models, which improve public, institutional performance. By that, he means that social entrepreneurs play a crucial role in supplementing or complementing government functions. Dees also feels that the use of charity as a means of dealing with poverty cannot be relied on since it avoids dealing with the real problem. Consequently, he believes that social entrepreneurs build sustainable refinement rather than offer temporary relief by use of charity. In Taking Social Entrepreneurship Seriously, J. Gregory Dees (2007, p. 25) writes, â€Å"While this focus on government as a social problem solver has led to some notable successes, such as increased access to education and health care for many, the experience also revealed the limits of government as the vehicle for social problem solving†. ... Social entrepreneurs do not place a limit on their activities because of the available resources. Rather, they first focus on the opportunity, then think about its implementation later. This is in contrast to the government administrative mindset, which is dependent on budget constraints that derail the planning processes and offer priority to projects, which are ready to go. Entrepreneurs mainly focus on developing their entrepreneurial idea, then start thinking of how to acquire the money to finance the venture. An entrepreneur willing to drill a borehole in Africa devotes time to identifying the area most in need, gets the residents involved, sets the wheels in motion, then finally looks for resources. On the other hand, government will have to fit in the project in its already stretched budget, which may see it given decreased priority. Social entrepreneurship came about, in part, because of the disappointment faced by entrepreneurs with projects run by the government. Recently, an Indian bank, Ecobank started offering savings for very low-income citizens after its partnership with government to offer credit, slowed down because of the government’s bureaucratic and rigid laws and regulations. Ecobank felt that private for-profit ventures have the ability to stimulate increased innovation and economic growth. Another issue that interests me and I would like to discuss from this article is that Dees (2007, p. 27) writes, â€Å"They aim to create sustainable improvements and are willing to draw on self-interest, as well as compassion to do it†. That is to say, social entrepreneurs, through motivation by self-interest, give their charity in order to establish

Critical reception of William Hogarth in the nineteenth century Essay

Critical reception of William Hogarth in the nineteenth century - Essay Example According to Gray (140), his contemporaries compared Fedotov who is a Russian artist with Hogarth; for instance, Druzhinin describing Fedotov drawing of a woman leading her drunken husband through the streets claims that Hogarth would not refuse a subject rich in dramatic and satirical potential. Although the two artists use romantic themes of the misunderstood, impoverished artist and enforce pathos of the situation with abundant symbolic detail. Druzhinin later lamented the loss of a man who in his opinion believes could have been Russia’s Hogarth because Fedotov had the potential to go beyond the achievements of the famous English artist. Other commentators of Fedotov did not encourage him to emulate Hogarth; for instance, Bryullov advised him not to be attracted by complexities of Hogarth but encouraged Fedotov to follow nature (Gray 140). Until 18th century, continental Europe set the artistic agenda with the first artist using true English style and sensibility being William Hogarth who exposed vice and corruption in the 18th century London (Else 69). While Hogarth satirized the society other artists were busy showing the best light of the society in the 18th century. Through the nineteenth and twentieth century there were various views; however in the Victorian time, Hogarth emerged as a popular figure as well as honest and patriotic Englishman (Bindman and William 13). Hogarth issues regarding artistic origins as well as background emerged in early 1780s with publication of the fourth volume of Horace Walpole’s Anecdotes of painting in England that dealt with contemporaries including Hogarth. Considering the role of Hogarth’s widow following his death, there is an indication of moral conversion in the widow through suppression of indecent print and she engaged with Rev.Dr Trusler in producing a [popu lar volume known as Hogarth Moralized in 1768.

Why Britain reduced its Empire between 1939 and 1964 Essay Example for Free

Why Britain reduced its Empire between 1939 and 1964 Essay Assess the reasons why Britain reduced its Empire between 1939 and 1964 In 1945 the Second World War ended, the next thirty years were to see rapid disintegration of the European empires and the creation of many new independent states. In this essay I will attempt to explain for what reasons Great Britain decolonised, and the effects this decolonisation had for those countries decolonised. As a result of victory after WWI several former German territories in Africa and Asia were added to the British Empire. The British Empire was among the largest Empires the world had ever seen. It consisted of various territories conquered or colonised by Britain from about 1600. The British Empire was at its largest at the end of WWI, consisting of over 25% of the worlds population and area; including countries such as India, Malaya, Kenya, Ghana, Cyprus, Greece, New Zealand. World War I brought the British Empire to the peak of its expansion, but in the years that followed came its decline. Britain had growing economic problems and couldnt afford to continue governing its enormous Empire. There were threats of Civil War in countries such as India; the threat of the spread of Communism from China into Malaya and the increasing problem of racism and prejudice in Britains African colonies. The Empire faded gradually into the Commonwealth from the 1930s onwards as one by one former British colonies and protectorates gained independence but retained this last link with the Crown. It was incredibly important for Britain to retain its trade links with countries that were/had been part of its Empire. Britain needed to change the face of its Empire, one reason for such a change was due to the view of the U.S they were opposed to Empires and Britain did not want the Anglo-American relationships to even slightly grow apart. At the beginning of end of the Second World War Britain had the largest empire, which spanned the whole of the globe. But in the next thirty years this was dramatically reduced in size. The first country to seek independence from Britain at the end of the Second World War was India. India was seen as the Jewel in the crown of the British Empire and was of key significance to Britain. Even before WWI it was evident that the Indian desire for freedom would prove increasingly difficult for Britain to contain and control. Although British officials dominated the key posts in the civil service, barely one per-cent of the civil population was British. There were many disturbances and large unrest throughout India, the British government made some concession to the demand for a greater share by Indians in the local affairs. It was too late by now and this offer was no longer sufficient; the total withdrawal of British rule was now the aim of Nationalists. The Indian society was made up of varying and often conflicting races, castes and religions India had no single nationalist voice. Until some sort of unity could be achieved Indian aspirations would be frustrated, this frustration found outlet in increasing violence. This came to an end and then it was non-violence that now became the chief factor in the advance of Indian Nationalism. The move was called Civil Disobedience and was thought up by an Indian man named Gandhi. Gandhi was the single most important influence in the growth of Indian Nationalism. Gandhi was a devout Hindu although he sought mutual respect and tolerance between all religions and races. Gandhi became a type of figurehead and identified with all castes. For a time he was even able to gain Muslim support. Although fearing that independence gained on Gandhis terms would lead to the subjection of interests in favour of the Hindu majority, the Muslim Nationalists preferred separate to collective action. It became a question of not whether Britain should withdraw but when they would withdraw. The Japanese War effort by Britain interrupted the Indian problem. Many Indians, during the war effort, tried to overthrow British rule but the police and the army remained loyal and British control was unbroken. At the end of the Japanese War it was obvious to see that to keep control of India against the wish of her peoples would stretch Britains resources too far, Britain could no longer afford to do so and the will to do so had largely gone. The Muslim League, led by Jinnah, was increasingly suspicious of the Hindus, represented by the Congress Party and its leader Nehru, an upper class Anglophile. A sizeable Sikh minority was equally apprehensive of being swamped in an independent India. To such groups, federation within a single sovereign state was not acceptable. Partition seemed to be the only solution that would make the dominant religious groups happy. After much haggling and arguing the Hindu Congress and Muslim League agreed to the partition proposals: India, the sub continent, was to be divided into two distinct states; India, overwhelmingly Hindu; Pakistan and East Pakistan predominatly Muslim. The British method of partition was to set a date for British withdrawal 1947, and then work up until this date to achieve a peaceful partition. When the partition was created making India a Hindu state and Pakistan a Muslim state many people found themselves in the wrong area and there was a lot of mass movement of peop le between the two areas. To Britain the most valuable dependency of all was Malaya, which is an example of what the British were willing to do where the Empire remained worth while. In the latter half of the 19th century Malayas economy assumed many of the major aspects of its present character. The output of tin, which had been mined for centuries, increased greatly with the utilisation of modern methods. Rubber trees were introduced (Indian labourers were imported to work the rubber plantations), and Malaya became a leading rubber producer. In 1948 its net dollar earnings amounted to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½170 million and it provided over half the USAs imports of rubber and nearly all imports of tin. In the difficult days after WWII Malayas exports were vitally important in keeping the Sterling Area solvent. The Sterling Area was formed in 1939 to maintain the pound sterling as an international currency. It included the whole of the British Empire and Commonwealth, with few exceptions. This meant that Malaya had to buy goods from within the Sterling Area, meaning their money was tied up in the Empire. Malayas economic character, as well as its geographic position, gave it great strategic importance. The British built their fortifications accordingly at Singapore. The Malayans, anxious to regain their independence, had first to face an unexpected challenge from Communist Guerrillas, mainly Chinese, who were anxious to acquire control of the many raw materials in Malaya. The Chinese were a minority in Malaya and not popular. The Malayans didnt want to fall under the control of their great neighbour, Communist China. They were willing to accept the assistance of British forces and the Guerrillas, after about five years were expelled. After the defeat of the communists Malaya moved quietly to independence. The Malayans united behind Rahman. Rahman was the kind of courteous conservative with whom the British had always felt able to do business. The federation of Malaya became an independent state within the Commonwealth on 31st August 1957. Britain controlled many countries in Africa including the following; Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. Kenya was one of the most important of the African countries. Strategically the Naval Base at Mombasa Port near to the Suez Canal was priceless. If the port fell into the hands of the Communists it would prove devastating. Climatically it was suitable for European settlement and the British saw it as a New Australia. British settlers went out in small numbers before and after WWI and in rather large numbers after WWII. Those that moved out there successfully introduced plantation farming of crops such as coffee and tea, the land was very rich. The British settlers believed that the country belonged to them and expected to evolve a government like that of Canada or Australia. Due to the large European population Britain didnt want to upset them, it was said that there would be an all white Kenyan Government. Despite this, the settlers received a major set back when they were told; Primarily Kenya is an African territorythe interests of the African natives must be paramount by the Duke of Devonshire, Colonial Secretary. Other than the European community there was another outside community within Kenya, an Asian community. The Asians were prosperous and sometimes became money lenders. They were hated by the Africans. Britain saw themselves and America as being superior to the Asian world and then again that the Asian world was superior to the Africans. The British did not think that the Africans were intelligent enough to be able to run their own country, this was seen as being a very racist and prejudiced viewpoint and there was a loss of confidence. The Kikuyu were farmers in the region where the capital of Nairobi had been established. They were more disturbed in the possession of their land than other tribes and they also came into contact with European ideas and European education. Jomo Kenyatta, later the leader of the Kikuyu, was first educated at a Presbyterian mission school. The first African organisation, the Kikuyu Association was formed in 1920 but was a very moderate body made up of the elders and the chiefs. In 1921 the Young Kikuyu Association was founded by the younger men, educated like Kenyatta himself in the mission schools, and was much more radical in temper. Kenyatta was abroad from 1929 to 1946. When he returned he found that the Kikuyu Central Association had been condemned as trying to undermine the Government during the war and that very little constitutional progress had been made. Only in 1952 were Africans elected to the Council and then by a complicated indirect system. The early 1950s saw the terrorist outbreaks known as the Mau Mau. With their fearsome oaths and occasional atrocities, they spread terror among the European community, although in fact most of the atrocities were against other Africans. It was unknown whether Kenyatta had any connection with the Mau Mau, he was arrested and banished to a northern part of the colony. The white colonists could not conquer the Mau Mau on their own and had to ask for troop reinforcements from Britain. This need for outside assistance ended any remaining thoughts that settlers might have had that they would be capable of running an independent state. During the Mau Mau troubles a new constitution was introduced into Kenya called the Lyttleton constitution. This was an extremely complicated system designed to allow the Africans to gain some ministerial experience. Many of the more die hard Europeans didnt like this at all. A new European Party was set up, the United Country Party, to work for a society which would be multi-racial yet would safeguard both the political and land rights of the Europeans. This was doomed, the tide was now firmly in favour of making Kenya an independent African country, although there were seats reserved in the Legislative Council for minority groups, including Europeans. There were now two main African parties, the K.A.N.U which drew its strength from the Kikuyu and Luo tribes and favoured a centralised system of government, and the K.A.D.U, supported by the Masai and a number of smaller tribes who wanted a more federal system of government. K.A.N.U, led by Kenyatta, won the 1963 election, the last before Kenya got independence on the 12th of December 1963. Economically Britain could not possibly to afford to maintain an Empire. It could not afford to defend its countries from outside attacking forces, let alone from enemies within. The threats of civil war, in terms of India, was a very dangerous one, it would have been impossible for Britain to control the entire population of India with its army. Britain without a doubt relied heavily on the trade links within its Empire, it couldnt afford to lose these links but it could not afford to keep them at the way things were going. By creating the Common-Wealth it made it possible for Britain to hand over Independence to countries, making them happy, as well as keeping them within a trading circle. Most of the countries in the Empire wanted Independence, Britain wanted the trade to remain, it was the best solution.