Hot-Button Issue Paper Essay

Nowadays one of most concerning topic in today’s media is sex and violence. Determining what’s â€Å"too much† for children is not an easy task, because every parent has their personal preferences about such matters. But determining the actual effects of media violence on children gives rise a problem in itself, as it’s quite tricky to actually determine what â€Å"violent media† means to the children (Cutler, 2002). There were many children friendly shows back in the days, shows that taught some useful lessons to the children in a non-violent manner. Shows like Ducktales or Darkwing Duck are examples of such shows that children not only could enjoy, but also learn some valuable lessons from. Even vintage video games like Super Mario was just a fun seeking game that children could enjoy and parents didn’t have to worry about their effects on their children too. But if we look at the TV shows, movies and games in the present, it’s quite obvious that the use of excessive violence has crawled its’ way into almost every form of media. Another problem is the increase of usage of sexual acts in the media. There are open discussions of sex and enactments of sexual activities in almost all the TV shows and movies. In the past, TV shows mostly showed two persons getting into bed and the next scene took us to the next day. There were no enactments of sexual activities in the shows. But today, almost every show on every premium channels show fully nude persons or even the acts of having sex. The media industries have been strongly resisting such arguments that the usage of scenes containing sex, violence, and drug usage in TV, music, radio and movies is directly related to the increasing cases of negative behavior buildups in the society, (Anderson, 2002). Canceling such shows is the only way to get rid of sex from the TV. But doing so creates the possibility that children will grow up without the knowledge of sex. They might grow up and have to face the big bad world without anyone to properly guide them into making the right decisions. So it’s essential for them to learn the correct decisions at an early age, so  that they don’t make any decision that could destroy their life forever. You might be able to control the TV shows on their usage of sex and violence; but what about other for ms of media such as magazines, internet, books, music, and movies? Nowadays media has an array of methods to attract peoples’ eyes. They can target audiences of any age or group by tempting their senses. Teenagers are often attracted by violent acts, and by using this they can easily influence them. It doesn’t matter if it’s TV or the movies or the internet, violence is everywhere and trying to shut down all of them is simply not possible. Imagine yourself in a scenario where you’re changing through channels on the TV and you can’t find any shows with violence, shooting or sexual scenes. What would you do in that case, keep on watching the TV or turn it off and do something else? Doing the later would cause the viewer ratings of TV networks to go down and thus giving them the impression that they need to show more violence and sexual acts to attract the audiences. There’s no point in denying that sex and violence attract people or â€Å"sell†, so to say. Although almost 60-70 persons out of 100 say that there’s excess use of sex and violence on TV, they have to firstly watch such usage to find that out. Imagine a show that you watch on a regular basis, and you’d realize by yourself that sex and violence sell. Not a single person can be found who hasn’t seen or doesn’t know of a show that uses violence or sexual references, at the very least. Just as a children mig ht want to smoke if they see their parents smoke, they also might have the inclination towards committing crime if they see their favorite TV character commit a crime. Recently several methods have been developed to control or even block specific shows at specific times. A parental control, that gives the parents the power to block certain TV shows, is offered by every cable provider. But still, it’s the parent that must decide whether to block or not. The V-chip is a recent controlling method developed to restrict sex and violence scenes from being showed on the TV and it’s done by incorporating a small chip in the TV. But to some extent, this seems to be violating the first amendment. What someone wants to watch on their TV is their personal choice; why should they be restrained from watching something they want? It’s understandable that children shouldn’t be exposed to such shows that negatively impact their sense of judgment, but what about someone who’s an adult and willing to watch those shows? Whether you allow play in  shows containing sex and violence in your household premises is a decision that you should make, not the government. If there are children in the house, the parents should be responsible for keeping them away from shows that contain sex or violence. Another point is that most of these shows are aired at nighttime, and it’s safe to assume that children should be in the bed by that time. If kids are staying up at nights to see such shows, it’s not the networks’ fault that they are airing these shows, but it’s the parents’ fault that they can’t fulfill their responsibilities as a parent. On average, a child in the USA watches almost 28 hours of TV shows per week. Also, by the age of eleven, before finishing elementary school, a child views about 8000 murders on these TV shows. And the most terrifying fact is that in almost 75% of the cases shown in the TV, the criminal is shown to get away without being caught and feeling no remorse for their violent acts. This creates a false impression on children about violence. They often get an impractical idea about the acts of violence. Some of them feel no affect of violence whatsoever and even think that it’s cool, while other few become scared of everything around them. In 2009, the National Organization of Women reported that the most violent shows that were being aired were- Alias of ABC, Law & Order: SVU of NBC and WWE: Smackdown of CW (NOW, 2009). When children watch TV shows that show someone committing a crime and getting away with it, it creates an impression on their mind that even they can get away without suffering the consequences of their actions. It’s also possible to link violent movies to several cases of assault, robbery and other anti social behaviors. People, particularly teenagers, often confuse things they watch on TV or movies with reality. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine shooters, are a perfect example of such delusional cases. They tried to du plicate scenes from the movies The Matrix and Basketball Diaries and even dressed up in trench coats and armed themselves with guns to depict those scenes. But just watching violence on TV and movies is not the entire story, there are several other factors that shape the thoughts of persons. Information obtained from several social research studies prove that what a child learns from what he/she watches is greatly affected by his/her surrounding environment (Anderson, 2002). For instance, if a child grows up seeing domestic violence in his/her household, he/she is more likely to think that these acts of violence is acceptable in the society. He/she would  be more prone to act according to what he/she saw when growing up, thus giving him/her a completely false sense of what’s acceptable and what’s not. To those who are mentally handicapped, these effects are much more severe. Since they often have problems differentiating what’s right and what’s wrong, exposure to these sexual acts and violence change the way they think about the world and often clouds their judgments. Watching people commit crimes in the media might give them the impression that it’s okay to do such acts. In one of her studies, Sue Bailey declared that people would of ten enact scenes they saw in the media, even if those scenes were to contain violence or sexual exploitation (Anderson, 2002). This is in fact the main reason why we see so many copycat criminals nowadays. This reminds us of the Bandura’s theory of modeling (Sparks, 2013). Children often idolize these TV and movie characters and watching their idols beat someone, sell drugs, and committing crimes makes them want to do the same. The act of violence and their rate varies in every society, but what’s alarming is that the USA has a horrifying rate of killings and suicides in the 15 year age group. In 1995, the combined death toll of children among 26 countries was at 2872. Out of these 2872 deaths, 1446 were in the USA alone and compared with the other 25 countries; this rate was almost 5 times higher. A child’s personality also plays an important role in their vulnerability to these violent acts. From an early age, some children might have the tendency to be temperamental. Watching violent acts in the media might increase their tendency to act violently. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to acts of violence increases their chance to act according to what they see in the media. Showing sexual acts and violence in TV can, in many ways, negatively impact the society. But the most argued point is the belief that a persons’ behavior is affected by what they watch. But this seems likely only if someone was to watch only these type of shows at all times. Watching such acts on TV or movies once or twice is not going to affect someone’s personality or turn them into violent sexual offenders. Moreover, the choices someone make is their and theirs’ only to make. No one else can be blamed for their personal faults. To conclude all this discussion, today’s TV can’t be compared with the TV from 30 years ago. Today’s shows cover a more wide range of topics, represent different cultures and languages and they’re targeted for every age group. The increase in sexual scenes and acts  of violence in the media reflects the change our society has undergone in the past years. This change can’t be denied and sooner or later society has to accept that these shows are a part of this change. So rather than demanding to stop this change, it’s practical to demand that these shows should be aired at a certain t ime, thus enabling the viewers to choose what they see and what they allow their children to see. References Anderson, C. A. (2002). Violent Video Games and Hostile Expectations. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/02BApspb.pdf Bandura, A. (2006). Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-learning.html Cutler, Maggie: Research on the Effects of Media Violence on Children Is Inconclusive†. Is Media Violence a Problem? James D. Torr, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press 2002 National Organization of Women. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.now.org/organization/conference/resolutions/2009.html Sparks, G. G. (2013). Media Effects Research (14th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook.

Big Two-Hearted River

What do we know about Ernest Hemingway’s story, â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River,† and what do different reviewers have to say about the story. Many of the reviewers felt that the story links the author, Ernest Hemingway to his main character, Nick Adams when the author uses words, such as â€Å"up† to associate a good mood and â€Å"down† to refer to feelings of depression. One can easily look into the depths of Ernest Hemingway’s writing and discover pieces of his own personality, both good and bad. What can we learn about Ernest Hemingway as we read about the fictional character; Nick Adams?(Gibbs, 1975) Robert Gibbs tells us that â€Å"He made him up. † â€Å"Big, Two-Hearted River† begins with a train dropping off Nick Adams near the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We can easily visualize Hemingway riding on the train on his way to the Upper Peninsula. What follows, we find is a straightforward narrative of one of his da ys camping alone near the river, thinking about Nick Adams. Must we rationalize that Hemingway, much like Nick Adams, spent many of his own days alone by the river? That is the impression that the story leaves.It is easy to imagine Hemingway sitting by the river in Michigan Why is Nick intrigued by the river, which he uses to provide food for himself and much more? I understood that he finds healing through the river. We are told in the story, â€Å"Big Two-Hearted Riverâ€Å" that â€Å"Much like Hemingway, himself, Nick Adams finds himself continually haunted with frightening flashbacks to his past suffering and grief. As he alludes to in other stories, Nick turns to fishing (especially fishing with grasshoppers) to release his mind from the terrible pressure of his life.As he makes coffee, for instance, he is reminded of his old fishing buddy and oil tycoon, Hopkins, who Hemingway suggests took his own life a few months before, after receiving a disturbing telegram, perhaps ab out his lover. Other disturbing flashbacks in â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River† include a tragic execution scene where the man waiting to be hanged loses control of his bladder. Throughout â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River,† as Nick constructs his tent, fishes in the nearby river and cooks his catch, Hemingway describes his mood in two ways-up and down.If he stands up or climbs up a hill (on his way to build his tent, for example), he is in good spirits; but if he sits down (as he thinks about Hopkins, his friend who committed suicide, for instance) or descends, his mood is falling. Thus Nick’s mood follows his actions-form follows content. We are able to gather much information from this book concerning the story, â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River,† as we learn about Hemingway’s own mood swings, from low extremes, to high. The author is able to display his own feelings in this story and perhaps he was able to obtain therapy from his own writing.With the descriptio n that Ernest Hemingway gives in his book, (Benson, 1975) Benson tells us that, â€Å"He made him up. † Maybe, Benson doesn’t think that there is any association between Hemingway and Nick Adams. Hemingway writes that â€Å"The train went up the track out of sight, around one of the hills of burnt timber. Nick sat down on the bundle of canvas and bedding the baggage man had pitched out of the door of the baggage car. There was no town, nothing but the rails and the burned-over country.The thirteen saloons that had line the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground. † (Hemingway, 1924) Hemingway writes that â€Å"Nick looked at the burned over-stretch of hillside, where he had expected to find the scattered houses of the town and then walked down the railr oad tracks to the bridge over the river. The river was there.It swirled against the log spires of the bridge. Nick looked down the clear, brown water, colored from the pebbly bottom, and watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins. As he watched them they changed their positions again by quick angles, only to hold steady in the fast water, again. Nick watched them a long time. † We can see the importance of the water, to Ernest Hemingway. He seems to associate water with day dreaming and is able to have flashbacks about a different time in the character’s life and possibly his own.On another very enlightening website, we are told more about the story, by Ernest Hemingway. (Svoboda, 1996) At least part of the subtext of â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River† unfamiliar to present readers but likely to have been known by at least some readers at the time the story was written–and almost certainly known to Hemingway from his years of s ummers in Northern Michigan–involves the history and legends of Seney, a logging town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Hemingway describes the burned-down town, surrounded by blackened timber. †We further ourselves in believing that Ernest Hemingway had personal strings attached to the town of Seney, and are more settled in the belief that Hemingway is speaking from his own experience about his own life. (Baker, 1959) â€Å"The implication is that Nick Adams had sometime earlier seen and had expected to return to an intact Seney, had once counted the thirteen saloons (an ominous number) and had perhaps stayed at the Mansion House Hotel. Now he seems to have returned after a recent fire to what seems more like a fought-over battlefield than a welcoming place of comfort.Civilization has disappeared with the train that has disappeared behind one of the â€Å"hills of burnt timber. † Nick sits. † This implication of earlier experience may well be appropri ate in the context of a piece of fiction in which, as Sheridan Baker first noted, Hemingway transplants a different river’s name to the prosaically named Fox, the actual stream which runs through Seney, eventually to join the Manistique and empty into Lake Michigan. We should not take that implication to represent a biographical truth about Hemingway, of course. Nor should we ignore Hemingway’s skill in creating a fictional world.† The summary tells us to not associate Hemingway’s own past life experiences with Nick Adam’s, but it would be hard not to. Hemingway is so descriptive about the geography of the town of Seney and the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, that it’s almost impossible not to associate Hemingway’s life with Nick Adam’s. (Baker, 1959) Baker says that Nick’s fishing â€Å"becomes something symbolic of larger endeavor†(153) What is the larger endeavor? We are told in Hemingway’s writing that Nick Adams awoke as his tent heated up in the morning. He was excited, but he knew he should have breakfast before he started fishing.He started the fire and put water on for coffee. Then, he went to collect grasshoppers in a jar for bait. He took only medium-sized ones. He went back to his camp and made buckwheat griddle cakes with apple butter. He packed one in his shirt pocket and ate two more. He also made onion sandwiches, which he put in his other pocket. Then, he looked through his fishing equipment. With all of his fishing equipment attached to him, he stepped into the river. The water was very cold. It is clear that Hemingway was on an endeavor to relive the events in his life that hurt him the most.We are able to get a better idea about what Hemingway is trying to express to us, about his own life in his story when he related words, places and times to his own personal life through Nick Adams. (Benson,) tells us that â€Å"In the lengthy passage that was Hemingway’s or iginal ending to â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River,† Nick Adams, having caught â€Å"one good trout† Hemingway was expressing his thoughts in the story â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River† as he clearly associated himself to the main character, Nick Adam’s, and just like Nick Adams, Ernest Hemingway caught â€Å"one good trout† which means that he accomplished one huge success.Svoboda, Frederick J. , 1996, Landscaping Real And Imagined: Big Two-Hearted River, Hemingway Review, University of Michigan, Volume 16, Number 1 Baker, Sheridan, Winter, 1959â€Å"Hemingway’s Two-Hearted River† Michigan Alumnus, Quarterly Review 65, 142-149, Report in Benson, 150-159 Gibb, Robert, 1975, â€Å"He Made Him Up† â€Å"Big Two-Hearted River as Doppleganger† Hemingway notes Report in Reynold’s, p. 254-259 Benson, Jackson J. , 1975, The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: Critical Essays, Durham, NC, Duke UP, Hemingway, Ernest, 1924, The Big Hea rted River

A poem about a house on a windy day Essay

When you start to read wind you get the impression that it is going to be a poem about a house on a windy day. However this is not the case. The author is trying to illustrate how fierce Mother Nature’s army can be. He is making it seem as though the wind is fighting the house and it’s human inhabitants. The wind is trying to scare the people, by isolating it, from the rest of civilisation, for the night. â€Å"The house has been far out to sea all night†. As the wind travels across the countryside it’s destructive qualities become apparent, scaring the people almost to death. † The woods crashing through the darkness†. The wind is using the surrounding hills to its advantage by making impacting noise that seems to echo across the valley. â€Å"The booming hills†. As well as all this the wind continues it terrorising by stamping like a herd of elephants under the windowsills in the flowerbeds. â€Å"Winds stampeding the fields under the window†. The poet tries to illustrate the winds power and strength by saying that the house had become adrift overnight and the wind had carried it to a new location. â€Å"The hills had new places†. As the wind moved ad danced in the air it gave off colours that surrounded the little house, making it difficult to see past the garden. â€Å"Luminous black and emerald, flexing like the lens of a mad eye.† At midday one of the inhabitants bravely went outside to investigate the extent of the damage, caused by the overnight wind. As the person looked up in to the wind they had to turn away quickly, because of the shear force acting on their eyes. â€Å"Once I looked up through the brunt of the wind that dented the balls of my eyes†. The strength of the wind overpowered the hills; they could not endure any more beatings from the wind. They could no longer protect the house from the full force of the wind. â€Å"The tent of the hills drummed and strained on its guy rope†. Fearing the return of the wind overnight the whole of the scenery began to change and prepare for the onslaught before them. â€Å"The fields quivering, the skyline a grimace, at any second to bang and vanish with a flap†. Even the birds cannot understand the force of the wind. â€Å"The wind flung a magpie away and a black- back gull bent like an iron bar slowly†. I know that the people are because the poet has written about the house being as fragile as a great green goblet, ringing † in the note that at any second would shatter it â€Å". The people try to shut out the wind by sitting together in the living room and ignoring it. â€Å"Now deep in chairs, in front of the great fire†. Although they are trying to shut out the wind it is not working because they cannot concentrate on anything except the wind. â€Å"We grip our hearts and cannot entertain book, thought, or each other†. As the wind continues its attack the inhabitants learn to except it and ignore it, if slowly. â€Å"We watch the fire blazing, and feel the roots of the house move, but sit on, seeing the window tremble to come in, hearing the stones cry out under the horizons†. The poet does an outstanding job of promoting the winds excellence at its job, to terrorise the inhabitants of the house. He creates the impression by using metaphors, similes and adjectives, that make you feel as though you are really there, experiencing it for yourself. He has constructed the poem well because the sentences run into the next verse. This is effective because it is not used in many other poems. This intrigues the reader into continuing and reading right to the end. The writer uses a lot of hyperbole to exercise his points, such as â€Å"the hills drummed and strained on its guy rope†. He has created the impression well and I have enjoyed the poem, although I needed to read it through a few times to fully understand it.

Reflection on assessment feedback Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Reflection on assessment feedback - Essay Example I had made slides for my students in a simple manner that even a layman could understand solely because I dint know the audience at all hence could not judge whether they would be from a nursing background or not. Based on my previous efforts in giving a slide based lecture, I minimized the use of visual aids since they tend to distract the audience away from the topic. These slides gave general information about spinal cord compression that might help any adult responsible for health education and increase there knowledge about this complication and how to prevent it. Although it was a hard job for me not to include nursing jargons, I managed it by using various websites that gave me non-technical terminologies. The students were given reading exercises where they had to comprehend the general patient information and present their individual’s group work by the end of the session. Since each group will take responsibility for each section in the educational session, the learning and comprehension of the information will increase manifold as compared to if the information was just fed to them. Acting and group based learning, according to me, is vital for student participation, confidence and learning. My real role began after this when I had to act my role in front of the students. I asked the students to form themselves into groups and decide on a topic that they would like to present. Making these groups was the most difficult part for me here since this was an entirely new experience for me. When I tried to force one person to go to a group, there would be wide protests maybe because some people weren’t conformable forming groups with certain people (Hunter, 1995). After using various combinations, groups were formed and I made a mental note that I would have to practice this before another one of these group formations arrive. After each section was assigned to the groups, I opened the discussion where I explained

FIN 352 (1) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

FIN 352 (1) - Essay Example One of the major OBS activities is the issuance of guarantees. This may be called by a bank to take place at a future time, and the dedication to lend at a forthcoming time if the borrower wishes. This may prompt the result of a contingent risk which may be out of the control of the financial institution. A duration of a zero-coupon bond is a bond that does not pay any interest in its maturity life. That is; its maturity is equivalent to maturity because hundred percent of its present value is made by the payment of the nominal value at maturity (Lee & Alice 316). The relationship that exists between duration and maturity in bonds is that the longer a bond takes to mature, the greater is its duration or volatility. Duration changes each time a bond makes a coupon installment. After some time, it abbreviates as the bond nears maturity. Elsewhere, the relationship between duration and yield is that the higher a bond yields as it nears maturity, the lesser is its duration. This is because the present value of the inaccessible cash flows gets to be dominated by the value of the closer installments. Also, the relationship between duration and interest rates is that the higher a coupon bond is, the more interest it generates and vice versa. The financial significance of duration is the mea sure of a bond’s correspondence to the interest changes in the economy. Value at risk is method used to quantify and measure the level of financial related vulnerability inside an association over a determined duration. Its approach to the market risk is based on measuring three variables that are the level of potential risk, the probability amount of the specified level of risk and the time frame. Value at risk is closely related with the normal distribution. It measures portfolio risk along the normal distribution curve. The curve was developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss hence the name