Teens And Problems Essays - Abnormal Psychology,

Teens And Problems It is important not to overreact to isolated incidents. Young people will have problems and will learn, at their own rate, to struggle and deal with them. But it is critical for parents and helping adults to be aware of the factors that put a youth at particular risk, especially when stressful events begin to accumulate for these vulnerable individuals. A good starting point for identifying and intervening with highly troubled and depressed young people is the careful study of suicidal adolescents. Family history and biology can create a predisposition for dealing poorly with stress. These factors make a person susceptible to depression and self-destructive behavior. History of depression and/or suicide in the family Alcoholism or drug use in the family Sexual or physical abuse patterns in the family Chronic illness in oneself or family Family or individual history of psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders, schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, conduct disorders, delinquency Death or serious loss in the family Learning disabilities or mental/physical disabilities Absent or divorced parents; inadequate bonding in adoptive families Family conflict; poor parent/child relationships Personality traits, especially when they change dramatically, can signal serious trouble. These traits include: Impulsive behaviors, obsessions and unreal fears Aggressive and antisocial behavior Withdrawal and isolation; detachment Poor social skills resulting in feelings of humiliation, poor self-worth, blame and feeling ugly Over-achieving and extreme pressure to perform Problems with sleeping and/or eating Psychological and social events contribute to the accumulation of problems and stressors. Loss experience such as a death or suicide of a friend or family member; broken romance, loss of a close friendship or a family move Unmet personal or parental expectation such as failure to achieve a goal, poor grades, social rejection Unresolved conflict with family members, peers, teachers, coaches that results in anger, frustration, rejection Humiliating experience resulting in loss of self-esteem or rejection Unexpected events such as pregnancy or financial problems Predispositions, stressors and behaviors weave together to form a composite picture of a youth at high risk for depression and self-destructive behavior. Symptoms such as personal drug and alcohol use, running away from home, prolonged sadness and crying, unusual impulsivity or recklessness or dramatic changes in personal habits are intertwined with the family and personal history, the individual personality and the emotional/social events taking place in a person's life. It is not always easy for one person to see the "whole picture." That's why it is essential that people who have "hunches" that something is wrong take the lead to gather perspectives from other friends, family members and professionals who know the young person. It is all too often true that the survivors of an adolescent suicide only "put the pieces together" after the fact, when they sit together and try to figure out what happened. How fortunate a troubled young person is to have a caring adult take the initiative to look more closely before something serious happens! The University of Minnesota Extension Service has two additional publications that can be helpful: Supporting Distressed Young People (FS-2786), by Ron Pitzer Helping Friends in Trouble (FS-2787), by Joyce Walker Several common themes run through these two. First, young people must learn and practice coping skills to get them through an immediate conflict or problem. Coping strategies must emphasize self-responsibility to find positive, non-destructive ways to find relief. Second, communication skills are important. This involves being able to talk and selecting a good listener. It is important to express feelings, vent emotions, and talk about the problems and issues. Peers are good sympathizers, but it often takes an adult perspective to begin to plan how to make changes for the better. Third, young people need help to learn problem-solving skills. Sorting out the issues, setting goals and making plans to move forward are skills that can be taught and practiced. Ultimately, most young people will develop and assume the responsibility for their own protection and peace of mind. But during the years of learning and practice, parents, teachers and helping adults need to be aware of the signs and patterns that signal danger. Awareness of adolescent stress and depression opens the door for adults to begin constructive interventions and stimulate emotional development.

An Inspector Calls Essay Essays

An Inspector Calls Essay Essays An Inspector Calls Essay Essay An Inspector Calls Essay Essay Essay Topic: Literature A play typical of this time period. Written in 1946 after the Second World War. Named â€Å"An Inspector Calls† and set just before the First World War in 1912. An Inspector calls is a play where drama and tension help create an atmosphere of suspense. Priestly wanted to convey that people’s actions can affect other people’s lives. The author was influenced by his involvement in the First World War and his experiences of living through the Second World War. Also he being a victim of gas attacks and narrowly avoiding death influenced his writing of the play. It is a play about the idea of consequences and how the rich have no consequences as we see when their actions force a woman to a horrific death. Priestly creates a relaxed atmosphere at the start of act one. He does this by introducing a dinner party to celebrate the engagement of Sheila to Eric. The stage directions on page one ‘A decanter of port, cigar box and cigarettes,’ this creates a sense of relaxation because when people are unwinding from the end of a celebration. Another stage direction ‘the lighting should be pink and intimate until the inspector arrives, and it should be brighter and harder. This stage direction creates a relaxed atmosphere because pink is a soft and calm colour. Combined with happy celebrations of the family it creates a soothing atmosphere. The stage direction ‘Edna goes out, they now all have all glasses filled. Birling beams at them and clearly relaxes,’ this shows that the whole family is ready for a toast towards th e engagement of Eric and Sheila, they are happy and relaxed. Birling, as the head of the household, is chilled out and calm. The quotation on page eight where Gerald says ‘You seem to be a nice well-behaved family,’ shows that he is delighted to be engaged with Sheila and he has no worries about any dislikes that the rest of the family may have of him. This adds to the relaxed atmosphere that the author is trying to create. Also it creates the ides that they are civilised people and have a good reputation is also developed. The stage direction on page one that describes the Birling household is ‘The general effect is substantial and heavily comfortable, but not cosy and homelike. This stage direction gives the impression that the Birling house isn’t peaceful as it can be and there is an underlying atmosphere of fear and regret. Eric says ‘I don’t know really-suddenly I felt that I had to laugh,’ this shows that Eric has a fearing conscious and is forced to go along with the families actions. The idea that he has a fearing conscious, shows that he is afraid of u psetting the family through his actions. He doesn’t want to ruin his relationship with Sheila and her family. Mr Birling shows that he doesn’t know about situations of conflict and tension when he says ‘You’ll hear some people say that war’s inevitable. And to that I say – Fiddlesticks! The Germans don’t want war. ’ We as a modern audience know that in 1914 the outbreak of war takes place. This quotation shows that Mr Birling doesn’t know about global tension and leads to the ides that he doesn’t know about tension within his family. Another quotation on page 10 shows that Mr Birling is selfish and doesn’t believe in socialists. Where everybody should look after themselves and others. Mr Birling shows this when he says ‘By the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive-community and all that nonsense. ’ It creates tension because he doesn’t believe in socialism so he only knows or cares about himself and his own family. This kind of attitude seems dated and traditional, it can be linked to Margaret Thatcher said in 1987. She said â€Å"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. † This saying means that everyone should look after themselves and there is no society. During Act One there is an event that disturbs the relaxed atmosphere. This takes place when an inspector arrives at the Birling house. The entrance of the inspector is shown to the audience by a doorbell. ‘We hear a sharp ring of a front doorbell,’ this doorbell interrupts the relaxing atmosphere because it’s sharp and when people hear it, it interrupts their actions. To create tension a new character is expected to be introduced. It links to Inspector Goole’s approach and attitude because it intrudes on the family, as does the inspector style of questioning. Mr Birling is very surprised by an inspector arriving at the door when he says ‘An inspector? What kind of inspector? ’ This shows that Mr Birling is frightened to see that someone is looking for him in the middle of a joyful event. This disturbs the relaxed atmosphere because everyone in the family is forced to change from being relaxed to curious. This also adds tension because all the characters are curious to see who it is, this takes place when the bell rings and Edna comes in. When Mr Birling seems surprised it shows that he is worried about something, and makes him look suspicious towards the audience. The stage direction that is used to describe the inspector’s entrance is ‘The inspector need not be a big man, but he creates at once an impression of massiveness and purposefulness’ and ‘He speaks carefully, weightily and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking. ’ These stage direction’s interrupt the relaxed atmosphere because they make the inspector seem like a threatening and influential figure that brings fear to the family. It also brings tension because as soon as the bell rings, just before the family are very curious to see who it is. When they find out it’s the inspector, they become more frightened and tension is built. Inspector Goole contributes to the tense atmosphere throughout the play. In the beginning of the play he says ‘Two hours ago a young woman died in the infirmary. She’d been taken here this afternoon because she’s swallowed a lot of strong disinfectant, Burnt her inside out, of course’ when he is talking about Eva’s death. This describes the death as a slow and painful death, also he is very graphic on the description. Also it tells us the reason why the inspector calls at the Birling house. When the inspector conducts his enquiry, he is determined to speak to each person separately in an organised and fair way. An example of this is when he says ‘It’s the way I like to work. One person and one line of enquiry at a time. Otherwise there’s a muddle. ’ When the inspector shows the photograph to each person separately, this builds tension because the person may feel guilty and no-one to relate to discuss their feelings. The stage direction expresses this ‘Inspector takes a photograph, about photograph size, out of his pocket and goes to Birling. Both Gerald and Eric rise to have a look at the photograph, but the inspector interposes himself between them and the photograph. ’ Another way in which the inspector adds to tense atmosphere is by his name. The name Goole reminds of the mysterious word ‘ghoul’. This word conveys sinister and mysterious spirit associated with death, This is related to his purpose in the play which is to do an investigation about a girl’s death. And by the end of the play the characters are confused to whether he was a man or a ghost, who act as a conscience for the characters. This also adds to the writer’s aims which were to get the idea that people should care about others in society. The inspector could symbolise the guilt which haunts people when they know they are in the wrong. There are many examples in the play that show different reactions to the Inspector. Mr Birling says ‘We were having a nice little family celebration tonight. And a nasty mess you’ve made of it now, haven’t you? ’ This shows that Birling is not at all happy that the inspector has come to his house. He shows anger and distress through this speech. Another speech by Birling ‘Look here Inspector, I consider this uncalled for an officious. I’ve half a mind to report you. ’ This shows a lot of anger within Mr Birling it seems like it is building up and he is starting to hate the inspector. It shows the discomfort of Mr Birling in the presence of the inspector. He seems to be hiding something and may be worried that inspector might get out of him. When Sheila says ‘Well, Gerald? ’ she is trying to point the inspector attention towards Gerald. This shows that she might be hiding something too. She is also showing fear of the inspector as well as Mr Birling. Another view of Sheila would be that she seems to be sympathetic towards Eva smith’s death when she says ‘Oh-how horrible. Was it an accident? ’ This also is shows that she starts to care, and she also then starts asking more questions to know more about the girl. This is a contrast to the quotation mentioned above. In one of Birling long speeches, He says that the titanic is unsinkable and the Germans didn’t want war. Both of these theories are wrong because the titanic sank in 1912 and World War One started in 1914 (two years later). The play was written both World Wars were over. This gives the reader dramatic irony. The lack of understanding of worldly affairs shows that Mr Birling lacks knowledge and understanding about his family too. This can also lead to the surprise reactions of Eva smith’s death. The irony would have been effective because the audience knew that the future and what actually happened. When Mr Birling says ‘Still, I can’t accept any responsibility,’ it shows that he is dismissing any accusations against him and doesn’t accept being responsible. He later feels that he also had a part to play in the death of Eva smith. Priestly integrated social and moral messages into the play. Priestly himself was from a working class background and wanted to convey the idea that working people like Eva Smith in the play were being exploited by people like Mr Birling. He had the idea that employers shouldn’t treat their workers harshly. When Mr Birling says ‘A man has to make his own way-has to look after himself-and his family too,’ this shows that Mr Birling is self minded and Priestly is showing through this character that people should not only look after them but to look after all other people around them. A contrasting quotation would be ‘But these girls aren’t cheap labour-they’re people. ’ This is said by Sheila on page 19, it shows that everyone has their own rights and should be treated no different from others. This also is stated through the Inspector when he says ‘I’ve often thought that it would do us all a bit of good if sometimes we tried to put ourselves in the place of these young women. ’ This play has some good ideas behind it that I quite liked. The idea that all people should be equal was one of the main ones brought through the main plot of the play. I think that the Inspector in a way represents justice or truth in the play. Priestly does create tense moments in the play and this would be done to make the plot more interesting and to keep the audience alert. I would say the most effective moment of tension is where the Inspector rings the door and comes into the play. This is because no-one is expecting this and it builds a lot tension.

Hiv / Aids And Discrimination Essay -- AIDS, HIV, Immunodeficiency, Tube

5/3/16 English Professor HIV/AIDS and Discrimination Today AIDS still affects both men and women, predominantly African American women. AIDS was originated in Africa. As of today people can live with AIDS as opposed to years before they had the proper medication to treat AIDS, but keep in mind their is still no cure as of yet. It has been a worldwide disease that federal officials and associations tried to make up laws and ways to prevent the transmission of AIDS. According to HIV/AIDS website, HIV is a virus that attacks cells in body’s immune system. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. The transmission of HIV can be transmitted through sexual intercourse both anal and vaginal sex without using a condom. Also another way to transmit HIV is by sharing needles for drugs or any use of injections in the blood. Unlike some viruses HIV cannot be rid of, you have it for life. Untreated HIV can result to the disease of AIDS ( acquired immunodeficiency disease). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are app roximately 36.9 million people worldwide who are living with AIDS at the end 2014. The disease AIDS has caused the federal government, along with the Olympic Organization, and Sport Organizations change the antidiscrimination laws. The changes have resulted in the creation of the American Disability Act, Rehabilitation Act applying to athletes, and providing education programs. The athletes Earwin â€Å"Magic† Johnson, Tommy Morrison, and Greg Louganis. These athletes are HIV positive and faced discrimination because of the disease. After Magic’s announcement that he was HIV, the discussion was if he would continue to play basketball. Fellow basketball players discussed ... ... middle of paper ... ...ad an AIDS specialist come to educate and provide training for the teams. In some of the professional leagues a rookie is required to attend an orientation, that discusses financial management, handling the media, and HIV/AIDS. Magic Johnson helps to end discrimination amongst athletes and spokesman of AIDS prevention. Therefore, players that are being educated of HIV/ AIDS will understand the precautions of transmission and the knowledge will be taken throughout their careers. In conclusion, there should be no discrimination against athletes who are HIV/AIDS infected. Athletes who are infected are capable to participate in competitions, but will always be risk of transmission, although it 's possible to keep the risk very small for the other athletes who are not infected. The laws that were created to protect every individual to avoid being turned away by anyone.

Motivation Assignment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motivation Assignment - Case Study Example These aspects can determine the level of motivation among employees (The Certified Accountant, â€Å"Expectancy Theory†). There are several disciplines in the field of motivation and one of them is the expectancy theory. This theory is devised by Victor Vroom. He assumed that motivating an employee requires making a connection between effort, performance and inspiration. The productivity of employees depends on aspects like employee behavior, ability, knowledge, experience and proficiency. Vroom’s expectancy theory is made on the basis of three attributes which are Valence, Expectancy and Instrumentality (The Certified Accountant, â€Å"Expectancy Theory†). Valence: It is the emotional direction which employee embraces with respect. The desire of employee can be extrinsic benefits like higher income, job promotion, free leisure time or intrinsic benefits like job satisfaction. Organizations need to determine the acts that can make an employee more grateful. Expectancy: Expectancy deals with the faith of employee about his/her ability. Each employee possesses dissimilar expectations and degree of confidence about their capability. Expectation is illustrated as the strength of an employee’s faith if a particular task is achievable or not. Organization must find out the materials, training and administration requirement of employee for a particular task. Instrumentality: Instrumentality is the idea of gaining something after completing a task. An employee always thinks that if he/she performs well, a worthy result will be gained. Thus, it is the perception of employee that whether he/she will gain the expected result even it is assured by the organization. It is the responsibility of organization to make sure that promised compensations are realized. The following figure shows the relationship between Valence, Expectancy and Instrumentality. The instrumentality is impacted by the belief among

Parenting Model Metaphor Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Parenting Model Metaphor - Assignment Example Parents must be strong, patient and flexible travelers who would adjust to the situation given to them. Later towards the end of the journey, the parents would see in their golden years what kind of travelers they were. There is no course or learning program for people who would be parents one day that is why it is difficult to assume the role. It is a wonderful adventure yet quite fearful since many unexpected things can happen along the way. The important thing is to be prepared that is why married couples planning to have children must be able to settle their individual differences and adjust to each other before having a child. Each parent have different family background and experiences unless they share similar cohort ( classmates, next-door neighbors, childhood sweethearts) whose lives have been fused by their growing up experiences( Chapter 12). Nevertheless, they have their own individuality that would highly influence their decisions as they have witnessed and experienced from their collective efficacy. In short, the traveler’s backpack is already filled with their individuality that would soon come out along the journey of parenting. As they pull-out from their bags their own experiences to deal with situations (i.e. my mother taught me that the best way to cure fever†¦..) their child would absorb from them such ideas and experiences too. A bag filled with bitter, resentful, and painful life experiences would make the journey hard for the parent unless he/ she use them to teach life’s lessons and give hope to their children. The traveler’s also need to bring with them food on the journey to nourish their children with. These food are the family rituals, celebration, traditions and routine which according to Friesen helps † families establish habits that can help them succeed and connect on a regular basis. The familiarity of repeated activities and

Energy Drinks Market in Denmark Essay Example for Free

Energy Drinks Market in Denmark Essay 1. Introduction Danish soft drinks sales have recorded positive volume growth in recent years. Strong volume growth was recorded in energy drinks sales attributed to the aggressive marketing and new product launches. Some of the major players in the Danish energy drink market are Burn and Red Bull. Accordingly, the main aim of this report will be to identify and analyze the possible ways for Burn energy drink product to compete with the world famous energy drink Red Bull which has recently entered into Danish energy drink market in 2009. 1. 1 Problem Description In 2009, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration approved the increase of caffeine level in energy drink. This has given a wide-open-door for beverage companies to develop in this segment. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Red bull the world’s most famous energy drink company, started to compete within the Danish energy drink market. On the other hand, Coca-cola Denmark also considered it as an opportunity to further develop product chain of its energy drink Burn. In Denmark, Burn has been dominating the energy drink market so far but now with the entry of Red Bull into the market it will now have to strategically develop its marketing mix to find a better way to compete with Red Bull and maintain its dominant position. 1. 2 Problem Statement We define the problem question for our research as follows: How could Burn compete with Red Bull on the Danish energy drink market? To support main question we have formulated some sub questions. They are as follows: 1. 2. 1 What is the preference of customers between Burn and Red Bull? 1. 2. 2 How should Burn products be developed and how should they be priced? 1. 2. 3 How should Coca-cola Denmark promote and distribute Burn? 1. 3 Definitions 1. 3. 1 Energy drink Energy drink can be defined as a drink or the beverage that contains higher doses of caffeine and other stimulating agents that give you instant energy. The doses of the caffeine and the stimulants are legally approved by the government health authorities. The main purpose of drinking an Energy drink is to get an instant energy to your body. 1. 3. 2 Burn energy drink. Burn Energy Drink is a functional beverage, mixture of 14 ingredients that come in a 16 ounce can and is available at almost every grocery store or convenience store across Denmark. It is one of the products of Coca-Cola Company. 1. 3. 3 Red Bull energy drink Red Bull Energy Drink is a functional beverage, specially developed for periods of increased mental and physical exertion. It can be drunk in virtually any situation: during sports, at work, whilst driving and during leisure activities. 1. 4 Demarcations (Scope and limitation of the study) As every report has its limitations, this report is also subject to various limitations. This report is based on two products, Burn and Red Bull which are the products of The Coca-Cola Company and The Red Bull Company respectively. These two companies have various product categories; however this report will be focused only on those two products among wide category of energy drink in energy drink sector. As far as the market place is concerned, this report is limited to the Danish market. Most of the consumers of energy drinks in Danish market are mainly the younger people aged 18-25. Considering this fact we have selected this age group as our target group. 2 Theoretical Background. This section of the report helps to provide the broad theoretical framework used for interpreting the research presented in this report. Various marketing theories have been applied as a background in this report. Theory of Market segmentation is used to analyze Burn and Red Bull in the Danish Market. To analyze the competition between Burn and Red Bull, Competitor Benchmark Analysis is used. Finally Using the theory of Marketing Mix (4 Ps), recommendation to Burn has been made to successfully develop its marketing campaign so that it can increase its sales and compete with Red Bull. 2. 1 Market segmentation. Market segmentation will be identified by taking into consideration the demographic variables (like gender, different age group and life style) and geographical locations (various cities of Denmark) like Center of Copenhagen, Sj? lland, Fyn and Jylland 2. 2 Competitive Benchmark Analysis Competitive benchmark of Burn will be made with its direct competitor, Red Bull. For this we will take various factors which are flavor, taste, brand, price, place (convenient to buy), packaging and effectiveness of the products. During our group discussion these factors came up as the most relevant criteria for making competitive benchmark. Accordingly, respondents were asked to rate and evaluate both Burn and Red Bull on those factors during the online survey. 2. 3 Marketing Mix (4 Ps) Marketing Mix i. e. 4 Ps will be taken as theoretical base for providing recommendation to Burn after the analysis of data and findings are presented. Accordingly, Product, Price, Place and Promotion Strategy will be presented in order for Burn to successfully compete against its rival Red Bull. Then after, the conclusion will be made. 3 Methodology Description This section of the report gives information about the stages that we went through while doing the research and writing the report. 3. 1 Research Design We chose exploratory design as our research design. We have a research problem which is unstructured. We do not have enough information about our topic for which we have to investigate more on our topic. Both Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are used. To gain more and more information and insights about the problem topic, Qualitative research design was chosen. Using qualitative data collection method, it became easier for us to change translate and reformulate our unstructured questions. Quantitative method is also used in order to check the validity of the results obtained from qualitative method. For quantitative data collection we tried to get as many respondents as possible who can represent the total population. 3. 2 Primary and secondary data collection For this research we have chosen both Qualitative and Quantitative data collection method for primary data. Similarly, wherever required, we have also used secondary data from the articles, publications and website of the company as well as blogs and other relevant news articles. 3. 3 Qualitative data collection To collect the qualitative data, a focus group interview was conducted. We prepared the interview guide for the focus group which is attached in the appendix. The focus group contained 11 members who are the students from 2nd semester class at Niels Brock. After the completion of interview process we also took a blind test among the focus group interview participants plus 15 other students. Students were chosen randomly. Each of them were given to drink two glasses, one filled with Burn and another filled with Red Bull and were asked which one they like and how they taste. The responses from the participants were used for the analysis. 3. 4 Quantitative data collection To collect quantitative data, we prepared structured questionnaire. It consisted of 15 questions (open and closed ended questions). We posted our research questionnaire in the Facebook blogs and invited 600 Facebook users through simple random method. We got only 116 responses and of which only 77 respondents answered all questions of questionnaire. So in this research 77 respondents are our total number of observation. In other words our sample size is 77 which represent the total population of energy drink customers in Denmark. 4 Presentation and analysis of data The presentation and analysis of data has been categorized as Market segmentation and Competitor Benchmark. 4. 1 Market Segmentation of energy drinks 4. 1. 1 Analysis of Focused group interview: During the focused group interview, 11 participants were asked about the consumption of energy drink every week. Among the participants, 1 participant consumes 5 or more cans per week. 4 respondents consume 3 to 4 cans and 1-2 cans as well. Whereas, 2 respondents consume less than 1 can of energy drink. Thus their consumption habit is around 1-4 cans per week. When there was a discussion about the occasions during which they consume the energy drink, most of the answers was during workout, training or going to sports and when mixing with alcohol. There was also a discussion about having coffee instead of energy drink when one is tired. 6 participants said that they prefer coffee whereas others preferred energy drink. Regarding price, most of the respondents voted for cheaper one, less than 20 DKK and between15-17 DKK. 4. 1. 2 Analysis of Online questionnaire survey The willingness of various age groups towards energy drink is illustrated in the diagram below. It shows that 56% of respondents from age group 18 to 25 years are interested in energy drink. Figure 1 Willingness of various age-groups towards energy drink Source: Appendix 4 Similarly, 20% of respondents from the age group below 18 and 26-35 years age group showed their interest in energy drink. But only 4% of the elderly respondents are interested in energy drink. Thus, it can be seen that the highest number of people from the age group 18-25 years are interested in the energy drink. Figure 2 Willingness towards energy drink by gender Source: Appendix 5 The above figure shows that 68% of male population is interested in energy drink whereas only 32% of female population is interested in Energy drink. Figure 3 Willingness towards energy drink by location Source: Appendix 6 According to the above figure, most of the respondents from center of Copenhagen are interested in energy drink. 68% respondents from the Copenhagen region and 32% respondents from Sj? land region showed interest in energy drink. While analysisng the age wise consumption of energy drink which is illustrated in the figure below it has been seen that the data is bit conflicting. Figure 4 Age wise consumption of energy drink Source: Appendix 7 As shown by the diagram, those who almost never drink energy drinks are higher in age group 18 to 25 years. But again, those drinking from 1-2 cans per week are also higher number in age category 18-25 years but less compared to those who never drink. But what can be concluded that those who drinks energy drinks they normally consume 12 cans per week and are higher in 18-25 years category. Analyzing the preferred occasions when customers usually like to drink energy drink, the research show that customers usually prefer it to mix with alcohol as their first preference and then drinking when they are tired. Figure 5 Occasional preference of Energy Drink by gender Source: Appendix 8 The above graph shows most of both females and males consume energy drink when they mix with alcohol. 22 females out of 35 female respondents (63%) and 19 males out of 42 male respondents (45%) said they consume it when they mix with alcohol. Similarly 43% of female and 40 % of male respondents answered that they take energy drink when they are tired. Likewise, 11% female and 33% male said that they take it when they go to sports. 14% of female and 21% of male chose energy drink when they are thirsty and 6% of female and 7% of male chose for other occasions. Figure 6 Customers willingness to pay for the energy drink Source: Appendix 9. Relating to the price it can be clearly seen from the figure above that 18-25 years age group which is the target customers for energy drinks are willing to pay 16-20 DKK for the energy drinks where as 26-35 years age group are willing to pay 10-15 DKK for the drink. 4. 2 Competitor Benchmark (Burn and Red Bull) 4. 2. 1 Analysis of Focused group interview: During the focused group interview, 8 out of 11 participants preferred Red Bull. Only 3 preferred Burn. When there was a discussion of product features like taste, flavor and effectiveness of the products; participants said that effectiveness of the product is important. During the blind test 26 participants were made to taste both Burn and Red Bull drinks blindfolded. Table 1 Preference of product by tasting without knowing the product (Blind Test) BurnRed BullBoth Total no. of participant (26)9152 The research showed that Red Bull was highly preferred by the participants with 58% appreciating the taste of Red Bull. Burn was preferred by only 35% of the participants. 4. 2. 2 Analysis of Online questionnaire survey The illustration of various measures to which the consumer gave importance when buying energy drink is shown in the figure below. Figure 7 Customers’ emphasis when buying energy drink. Source: Appendix 10 We found data of customers according to the importance they give to various measures or elements when they want to buy an energy drink. The above graph shows that 53% of the total respondents said flavor is very important when they buy energy drink. About taste, 60% said it is very important. None of the respondents said that it is not important at all. Talking about brand, only 19% said very important, 34% said important, 30% said not so important and 17% said not important at all. About price, 51 %( more than half population) said that it is very important. Only 5% said not so important and no respondents said that it is not important at all. So far as convenient place to buy is concerned, 29% said very important, 54% said important. When packaging is concerned 16% said very important, 29% said important 39% said not so important and 16% said not important at all. When it is about effectiveness, 44% said it is very important, 38% said important. Thus the analysis shows that flavor, taste, price, convenient buying options and effectiveness of the drinks are important for customers where as brand and packaging are not that important in buying decision. Based on the various factors to which the consumers give preference when buying energy drinks, comparative analysis between Burn and Red Bull has been carried out. This can be described from the figure given below. We asked the respondents to evaluate Burn and Red Bull giving them 4 options (Very Good, Good, Bad, Very Bad). But here in the analysis we have taken only two options as we think these two options are sufficient for comparative analysis. Figure 8 Comparison of Burn and Red Bull based on the various factors Source: Appendix 11 The above figure shows the customers preference between Burn and Red Bull on the various factors which are important for their buying decision. 34% of the total respondents said the flavor of Burn is good and 23% said very good while 48% and 29% said the flavor of Red Bull is good and very good respectively. Similarly, 39% and 13% of the total respondents said the taste of Burn is good and very good respectively while 52% and 29% respectively chose good and very good for the taste of Red Bull. As far as brand is considered, 39% and 26% said the Burn brand is good and very good respectively while 42% and 45% said Red Bull brand is good and very good respectively. When it is about price, 27% and 12% chose good and very good for Burn while 16% and 12% for Red Bull. 35% and 23% of total population said Burn is good and very good respectively when considering convenient to buy whereas for Red Bull it is 38% and 17% respectively. About packaging 36% and 22% answered good and very good for Burn while for Red Bull its 45% and 18%. Finally for the effectiveness of the product, 39% and 18% respectively chose good and very good for Burn while it is 45% and 25% for Red Bull. Thus the analysis shows that customers highly prefer Red Bull while relating to flavor, taste, and brand. On the other hand, with relating to price, convenient to buy and nice packaging, customers seemed to prefer Burn. So far as the effectiveness is concerned, Preference towards Red Bull is high but the difference is not so much. 5 Findings and summary of the analysis According to the analysis presented above, it can be seen that the energy drink market segmentation is more concentrated on the costumers between age group of 18-25 and that the customers are dominantly male rather than female. Looking at the geographic distribution the market segment is undoubtedly concentrated on Copenhagen with to some extent also in Sj? land. However, the other fact is also that since Copenhagen is the largest city with dense population this result is quite obvious. The other important findings of the study regarding the life style of the customers relating to the consumption of energy drinks is that energy drinks are excessively consumed as a mix in alcohol and then it is consumed while people get tired. Also energy drinks are often consumed just 1 or 2 cans per week. Normally customers are willing to pay 16-20 DKK for the drink. The analysis shows that in general the customers give high importance to the flavor, taste, price, effectiveness and buying convenience while making their buying decisions of energy drinks and that the brand and packaging are not of importance for the customers. Keeping this in mind the competitor benchmark of Burn and Red Bull Red Bull clearly shows that though Red Bull being a new entrant in the Danish market it has succeeded in taking good share of energy drink market in Denmark. Red Bull is preferred by customers in terms of its flavor, taste which are important factor in general for customers while making their buying decisions. Similarly, with the effectiveness as well Red Bull is preferred by customers in comparison to Burn. Burn is preferred by customers in packaging which not of important factor for customers. But Burn still dominate Red Bull in terms of its easy availability at stores which is due to the fact that it is distributed by Carlsberg Brewery which is considered to have a very strong distribution channel in Danish market. (footnote) Again at price Burn is rated better owing to the fact that they are cheaper than Red Bull. Of course with the brand Red Bull is rated much better as it is an internationally recognized brand. 6 Recommendations Based on above findings following recommendations have been suggested for Burn to improve its products, promotion and pricing strategy. The recommendations will be based on the marketing mix (4 Ps) which is product, price, place and promotion. 6. 1 Product Since the research findings show that Red Bull has dominant preference by customers in terms of flavor, taste and effectiveness, therefore Burn has to come up with innovative product development in order to provide added value to its product so that customers preferences divert towards Burn. Therefore, considerable amount of resources and time should be spent on research and development of variety of flavors and appealing taste with its product. Since the market segment of the energy drink is mostly 18-25 years old and that they consume it as mix in alcohol so the taste preference of these age group should be taken into consideration and the flavor and taste should be developed which is appealing while mixing with alcohol as well. 6. 2 Price Relating to the price, Burn is cheaper that Red Bull and realizing the fact that Red Bull is gaining market share it is wise to maintain its low price strategy. 6. 3 Place The research show Burn with strong placement but since strong distribution channel is its one of core competencies it has to fully utilize this competences to move ahead form Red Bull to place its products at all the convenient stores. The major priority should be given to Copenhagen since it’s the main market segment but again taking advantage of its well managed distribution channel it should also focus on other cities where Red Bull are not able to reach due to lack of experience with the Danish market. 6. 4 Promotion A well planned advertising strategy should be developed mainly targeting on the 18-25 years age group and again the male customers who are the major customers of energy drinks. Though Red Bull is world recognized brand, Burn also has its brand reputation as it is a product of world class Coca Cola Company. Thus advertising campaign should also be focused to create awareness of the Coca Cola brand among the customers while promoting Burn which can positively influence customers’ choice. 7 Conclusion Based on the research analysis and findings, it can be concluded that within the Danish energy drinks market Burn is definitely getting a tough competition from Red Bull despite the fact the Red Bull is a new entrant in Danish market. Its global brand recognition has provided Red Bull with competitive strength which can be a serious threat to Burn in coming future. Therefore it is a must for Burn to take timely action and initiate necessary marketing strategies to compete with Red Bull. Burn has low price advantage as well as strong distribution channel which provide Burn with an edge in the competitive market and therefore it needs to look more into product development and promotion strategy in order to compete with Red Bull and thus gain success in the competitive energy drink market. 8. References Books David Jobber. (2007). Principles and Practice of Marketing. UK. McGraw-Hill Education Pervez GH, Kjell Gr. (2005). Research Methods in Business Studies. UK. Pearson Education Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007). Business Research Methods. 2nd Ed. UK. Oxford University Press Burns, A. C. and Bush, R. F. (2006) Marketing Research, 5th ed. , Prentice Hall Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2006) Marketing Management, 12th ed. , Prentice Hall Svend Hollensen, (2007) Global Marketing – a decision-oriented approach, Websites http://www. euromonitor. com/Soft_Drinks_in_Denmark http://advantageaustria. org/dk/news/local/Red-Bull-und-Shark. en. jsp http://www. aeofooddrink. com/34. php http://www. dietspotlight. com/burn-energy-drink-review/ http://www. redbull. com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Products/Red-Bull-Energy-Drink-021242751115866?p=1242745950125#/product-FAQ 9 Appendices Appendix. 1 Questionnaire Dear respondents, we make this survey in order to obtain more comprehensive knowledge about the energy drink sector in Denmark, particularly the two big brands: Burn and RedBull. So we would highly appreciate if you spend a few minutes answering our questionnaire. Your information will be treated anonymously! 1. How interested are you in energy drinks? oVery interested oInterested oNot very interested oNot intererested at all 2. How often do you drink energy drinks? oAlmost never oFrom 1 2 cans per week. oFrom 2-5 cans per week oMore than 5 cans per week 3. ON WHAT OCCASIONS DO YOU DRINK ENERGY DRINKS? oWhen Im tired oWhen Im thirsty oWhen I go to sports oWhen I mix with alcohol oOther (please specify in the box below) 4. Where do you often buy energy drinks? oIn the super markets oIn the bars oIn Seven Eleven oIn small shops (eg: gas station, kiosk etc) oOther (please specify in the box) 5. How much would you like to pay for an energy drink? o10 15 Kr o16 20 Kr o21 25 Kr oMore than 25 Kr 6. How important are the following factors when you buy energy drinks? Very important Important Not so important not important at all Good flavor Good taste Good brand Reasonable price Convenient to buy Nice packaging The effectiveness of the drinks 7. Which of these brands do you know? oBurn oRed Bull oNone of them 8. Which one of these brands do you prefer? oBurn oRed Bull oNone of them 9. How do you evaluate RED BULL in the following factors? Very goodGoodNot good-not badBad Very bad Brand Taste Flavor Price Convenient to buy Packaging Effectiveness 10. Do you have any recommendations for RED BULL to better meet your satisfaction? oI dont know oIm already very satisfied oI would recommend as follows: 11. How do you evaluate BURN in the following factors? Very good Good Not good-not bad Bad Very bad Brand Taste Flavor Price Convenient to buy Packaging Effectiveness 12. Do you have any recommendations for BURN to better meet your satisfaction? oI dont know oIm already very satisfied! oI would recommend as follows: 13. What is your age? oYounger than 18 years old oFrom 18 25 years old oFrom 26 35 years old 14. What is your gender? oMale oFemale 15. Which part of Denmark do you live in? oCenter of Copenhagen oSj? lland oFyn oJylland Appendix 2 Interview guide for focus group What criteria do people choose when they buy energy drink products? Are different flavors important? What occasion do they drink energy drink? Eg: when they’re tired, or mix with strong alcohol, etc. What product name(s) do they like? Why? Do they know Burn/Red Bull? Where do they buy? Do they like Burn/Red Bull products? How much should a can of energy drink cost? Appendix 3 Fokus gruppe analyse 2. Semester klasse Niels Brock Lien, Niraj, Silas og Michelle Market research Alle kender begge 11 deltager 8 ud af 11 kan lide red bull Dog viste det at 6 ud af 11 faktisk kun valgte Red Bull efter blinde smagning Smagen er bedre, burn er for sodt. (inden smagning af begge m? rker) Hvor mange energidrinks drikker du per uge? 1 drikker 4-5 cans a week 4 3-4 cans 4 1-2 cans 2 mindre end 1 Hvornar drikker du energidrinks? Sprut, tr? ning, Det er meget i forhold til det at man drikker alkohol. Enighed blandt minimum 8 af deltagerne Dog drikker mange det ogsa hvis de er tr? tte eller skal til tr? ning efter en lang dag i skole. Kaffe frem for energi drink hvis man kan lide det hvis man er tr? t og skal videre, dette mener 6 ud af 11 af deltagerne hvor de andre ikke kan lide kaffe eller mener at en energi drik er bedre†¦ Hvor meget vil du betale for en energidrink? Ikke mere end 20kr, mellem15-17kr ca er de fleste villige til at betale Men ville kobe den billigste hvis de stod mod hinanden pa hylden i super marked. Energien er mere vigtig end smagen. Irriterende reklamer – for meget nogenhed – provokerende reklamer – mener 2 af deltagerne, Red Bull promoverer ikke sadan (I Dk hvert fald).

Cosbys Ebonics :: essays research papers

Cosby on Ebonics In 1996, the Oakland School District proposed the inclusion of what is known as "Ebonics" into its curriculum. Ebonics, or Black language, has been referred to in various ways over the years: "African American Vernacular English," "Pan-African Communication Behaviors," "African Language Systems," or "West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems." By any name, Ebonics, when studied over the years, has been proven to be a real language with its own phonology, syntax, morphology, sentence patterns, and double interpretations of words. The pattern that Ebonics speakers in the United States speak is highly similar to the patterns seen in both the Caribbean Creole and the West African languages. No one would have thought that comedian Bill Cosby would have an opinion on this subject, but as I read through essay I realized the logic and validity behind his paper. In his essay Bill Cosby states that, "Ebonics be a complex issue," and it is, also he feels that it should not be taught in schools without studying the problems that could grow from teaching "an urbanized version of the English language." Cosby has a PhD in education, which increases his credibility. Cosby, being a black man, should not affect how his essay is read but it may be an issue to some. His use of humor makes the subject easier to comprehend and the entire piece more interesting. There is always a serious way and a lighter way to address any problem that affects many people and Cosby's choice to use humor makes more sense considering who he is in the public eye. Ebonics is a difficult issue to deal with, and Cosby makes a valid point that it should not be taught in school. Cosby's credibility is not weakened because of his PhD in education if nothing else it is heightened. Being that he has this degree, he is more likely to obtain all the facts before forming a strong opinion on the subject. Having to teach Ebonics to anyone and everyone would be a problem and some people may not want to learn a new version of the language that has been taught for how many years. Cosby’s education creates a feel of an educated person making an educated opinion, not just anyone with a personal opinion. A black man has just as much authority to discuss Ebonics as a white or Asian-American person. Just because Cosby is black does not affect the way Ebonics would be encountered in everyday occurrences.

“Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture” Essay

In this early epistle, first published in 1712 as â€Å"To a Young Lady, with the Works of Voiture,† Pope addresses his friend Teresa Blount through the work and name of the early seventeenth century French poet and letter-writer Vincent de Voiture. In this indirect address of a female friend facing an uncertain marriage market, Pope resurrects a writer renowned for his raillery and charm in order to demonstrate the capacity of language to supersede its historical and social context. As a female member of a once powerful Catholic family, Teresa Blount’s only career choice was to marry within an aristocratic Catholic community in decline. Through the mediating space of Voiture’s work, Pope invites Teresa, as well as the reading public, to engage in a literary practice that hastens the arrival of a political community within the confining space of the private sphere. Since Pope re-published this epistle in 1735 as an address to Teresa’s younger sister Patty, it seems clear that he always had a broader public in mind when he made his call for the perversion of the private sphere through language. In the course of this epistle’s double address, Pope evacuates himself as the author by joining the Blount sisters and a larger community of readers. While every letter may imply a wider audience in addition to an individual addressee, Pope’s epistle takes the unification of these two audiences as its subject. In the process, Pope uncovers the potential for an epistolary community to persist beyond the boundaries of the present. From the perspective of this epistle, the subordination of women represents a literary problem whose solution lies in the opening this exclusion provides into an epistolary community that exists only at the margins of early eighteenth century English life. Although it is not clear whether Pope ever sent this epistle to Teresa Blount, its epistolary form demands that one read it as a part of an important female practice in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century  England. While men of this era â€Å"lived gregariously, in the company of their fellows in the coffee houses and inns of the city,† women, particularly unmarried ones, were confined largely to the private or domestic sphere.[1] In coffee houses, inns, and workplaces, men of equal or at least friendly classes had the ability to freely socialize with one another. As objects on the marriage market, it was not considered respectable or pragmatic for women to participate in these â€Å"centers of social exchange† (Perry 69). According to the diary of an early eighteenth century man, whom Ruth Perry quotes in her study of epistolary fiction, women who appear in public loose value on the marriage market since men inevitably â€Å"grow tired and weary† of their â€Å"beauty or other less qualifications† (Perry 69). Without access to the social sphere of life, women turned to writing letters â€Å"which were at once a way of being involved with the world while keeping it at a respectable arm’s length† (Perry 69). In addition to providing a way to privately manage courtship, letters allowed women to constitute a community of acquaintances and friends. With the establishment of the national Post Office in 1660 and the improvement of its service in the latter half of the century, letters became a reliable means for women to overcome the physical absence of friends imposed upon them by custom. The epistolary form of Pope’s poem situates it within a practice that was not only acceptable but encouraged among women of the period. When Pope composed his â€Å"Epistle to a Young Lady, with the work of Voiture† in 1710, he wrote from the perspective of a man feminized by disease and emasculated by anti-Catholic laws. Although the epistle was considered more publicly oriented than a letter in prose and was practiced frequently by writers of both genders, Pope’s marginal status as a physically disabled Catholic suggests the relevance of the female tradition of letter writing to his published epistles. Despite his sometimes virulent attacks on women, most notably in the later epistle â€Å"Of the Character of Women,† Pope’s Catholicism and chronic ill health â€Å"combined to bar [him] from the full enjoyment of the privileges reserved for men in his society.†[2] The exclusion of Catholics from owning property, attending university, or holding public office limited Pope’s access to the public sphere. Unlike other English Catholics, Pope could not escape this â€Å"internal exile† through retiring to rural family life (Rumbold 4). Pope suffered from Pott’s disease, a tubercular infection of  the bone that rendered him, at least in his own mind, physi cally unfit for marriage. â€Å"Less than five feet tall and deformed by a curvature of the spine, he [Pope] was acutely conscious of being ‘that little Alexander the women laugh at’† and refused offers of marriage on more than one occasion (Rumbold 4). In a letter to the Blount sisters in 1717, Pope reports that his friend Lord Harcourt proposed that he marry a relative of his in financial need. Pope declined the offer since he â€Å"did not care to force so fine a woman to give the finishing stroke to all my deformities, by the last mark of a beast, horns.†[3] Pope’s sense of his monstrous appearance highlights the importance of his epistles and letters to women since they represented a form of friendship freed from the immediate concerns of the body. In these written addresses to women, Pope develops a literary practice that exploits the poetic possibilities in his limited position within both the public and domestic spheres of English society. His epistle to Teresa Blount is an attempt to exemplify the strategy that he proposes in heroic couplets to negotiate a subordinate social position through language. After discussing the work and life of Voiture in the first stanza, Pope transitions into a discussion of liter ary genres as distinct styles of being. In the only rhyme break of the poem, Pope speaks of his life: â€Å"Let mine, an innocent gay farce appear, / And more diverting still than regular† (lines 25-26).[4] The break in rhyme between â€Å"appear† and â€Å"regular† playfully marks a departure from the metric structure of the poem in order to reinforce the narrator’s hope that his life appear â€Å"more diverting than regular.† Through hoping that his life â€Å"appear† as â€Å"an innocent gay farce,† Pope introduces a conception of life as a construction that one always performs before a public. Rather than being inherently â€Å"an innocent gay farce,† Pope’s narrator seeks to fabricate this appearance for an audience that will presumably be entertained. As a dramatic form whose â€Å"sole object is to excite laughter,† the narrator’s desire to style himself as an â€Å"innocent gay farce† manifests Pope’s need to control the laug hter that his body elicits.[5] Pope’s conception of life as a poetic object in the second stanza of his poem provides a context for the struggling Blount sisters and the public to understand the notion that the subjection of women is a literary problem. Pope opens his third stanza with the couplet, â€Å"Too much your sex is by their forms confined, / Severe to all, but most to  womankind† (lines 31-32). The smooth transition from discussing life in terms of genre to the subjection of â€Å"womankind† obscures the profoundly radical nature of the notion that a limitation of â€Å"forms† constitutes this state of subjection. Given the context of this couplet, the plural noun â€Å"forms† signifies both the rules of social propriety and the standards of a particular literary genre. The following line, â€Å"Custom, grown blind with age, must be your guide,† completes the effacement of the distinction between these two connotations of form (line 33). â€Å"Custom† simultaneously describes a literary and social confinement that is â€Å"severe to all, but most to womankind.† Pope’s discussion of these â€Å"formal†¦chains† within verse form suggests that his epistle seeks to exemplify a strategy for living within this state of confinement (line 42). In declaring his desire to shape his self according to the rules of â€Å"an i nnocent gay farce,† Pope provides a model for responding to the confining â€Å"forms† of a repressive society. With the personal pronoun â€Å"your† in the phrase â€Å"your sex,† Pope directly engages both his addressee and the public who reads their seemingly intimate exchange. The pronoun â€Å"Your† marks a shift in the poem from the more abstract portrait of Voiture and the narrator’s imitation of his form of life to the more immediate subject of the reader’s fate. Through introducing this personal pronoun in its possessive form, Pope posits a common sense of belonging among its audience to a particular â€Å"sex.† Since the poem culminates in a triumphant â€Å"our,† the phrase â€Å"your sex† at the opening of the third stanza reveals the developing constitution of a community defined in part by its confinement. The caesura in the second line of this couplet, â€Å"Severe to all, but most to Womankind,† emphasizes the increasingly level of specificity in Pope’s imagining of this community. While â€Å"all† may be readers and imitators of Voiture, only a particular sex, â€Å"your sex,† suffer the most from â€Å"severe† forms. The emergence of Pope’s audience as a subject of the poem through the possessive pronoun â€Å"your† raises the question of election which the second line of this couplet appears to answer. The third stanza of Pope’s epistle culminates in a call for this elected audience to reject the role of â€Å"virtuous wife† and embrace a retired community that preserves the â€Å"free innocence of life† through its poetic practice (line 46 and 45). After his transformation of the audience into a part of the poem, the emotional intensity of the stanza  builds into the exclamatory couplet: â€Å"Ah quit not the free Innocence of Life! / For the dull glory of Wife!† (lines 45-46).[6] Pope uses â€Å"innocence† in the first stanza to describe Voiture’s â€Å"wisely careless† and â€Å"innocently gay life† (line 11). In the second stanza, Pope vows to imitate Voiture in constructing a life that appears as â€Å"an innocent gay farce† (line 25). The word â€Å"Innocence† returns in the third stanza in the form an appeal to the reader not to abandon a state of paradise that they already inhabit. The construction â€Å"quit not† situates the reader within a state of purity analogous to the biblical vision of a Garden of Eden. Through opposing this state of moral purity to the â€Å"dull Glory of a virtuous Wife,† Pope suggests that a â€Å"virtuous† life is a confining form made necessary by pride. â€Å"Made slaves by honor,† women pursue the position of wife to achieve the status of virtue bestowed upon them by a patriarchal English society (line 36). The crucial negation â€Å"quit not† implores the female reader to withdrawal from her virtuous and honorable position in society in order to realize â€Å"the free innocence of life† within an epistolary community of friends. Following the emotional climax of the exclamatory couplet, Pope offers a more subdued and prescriptive image of a state of Epicurean retirement. With extensive knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman poetry, Pope is certainly aware that his portrait of a retired life of ease invokes the Horatian notion of otium as well as the related legacy of the Epicurean garden. In response to the tyranny of marriag e, Pope’s speaker advises the reader, â€Å"Nor let false shows, or empty titles please: / Aim not at joy, but rest content with ease† (lines 47-48). A comma marks the caesura in each line after the fourth syllable, which creates a sense of equivalence between the two negations â€Å"Nor let false shows† and â€Å"Aim not at joy.† This equivalence associates â€Å"joy† with the â€Å"false shows† that lead women to unknowingly contribute to their own servitude in their stubborn pursuit of fame. The narrator asks the reader to â€Å"rest content with ease,† or a more stable sense of pleasure founded on a withdrawal from rather than a fulfillment of physical desire. Pope’s conception of a virtuous withdrawal from a life of servitude echoes Epicurus’ advice to his younger friend Menoeceus to reject the â€Å"pleasure of the profligate† and embrace the â€Å"simple life† in which â€Å"the body is free from pain and the mind from anxiety.†[7] In the absence of pain and anxiety, Menoeceus can seek to cultivate a stable  and just experience of pleasure that Epicurus terms ataraxia. Pope’s injunction to â€Å"rest content† expresses the foundation of this state of â€Å"ease† in a withdrawal from the social position of a â€Å"virtuous wife.† In asking his reader to â€Å"rest† or â€Å"remain† within a state of â€Å"free innocence,† Pope reveals the exemplary function of a poem that must show how one accesses this already existing freedom of life. Since Pope makes his appeal for a retired life of ease in a published epistle in heroic couplet form, it appears that his conception of a withdrawn community is not entirely separate from the political sphere. Although he primarily discusses Pope’s later, satiric epistles, William Dowling’s argument that Augustan poets politicize the private sphere through their epistolary practice in fact holds most true in Pope’s early epistles to ladies.[8] â€Å"In a world threatened by fragmentation and alienation,† Dowling explains, Pope resurrects the memory of an innocent community â€Å"by writing not merely epistles but verse epistles, poems in which the isolation symbolized by epistolary solitude is then opposed and redeemed by verse as an institutionalized mode of public utterance† (Dowling 11). From a state of solitude intensified by his status as a physically disabled Catholic, Pope provides his friend an example of how to engage with the public without becoming subjected to it. The formal structure of his epistle â€Å"redeems† his solitude by inscribing the reading public or the â€Å"epistolary audience† as a â€Å"presence† within a private letter to a friend (Dowling 12). While the formal structure of the â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture† undoubtedly addresses a public audience, it interpellates this audience not necessarily as members of a pre-capitalist â€Å"traditional society,† as Dowling believes, but rather as potential constituents of an always possible epistolary community (Dowling 15). As a result of his overly rigid conception of the opposition between â€Å"solipsism† and â€Å"community,† Dowling fails to appreciate that the solitary withdrawal from which Pope writes acts as a condition of his imagined or interpellated community’s possibility. In his epistle to Miss Blount, Pope appeals to the public through his advice to a young lady troubled by her precarious position within the marriage market. He implores her to reject  the role of â€Å"virtuous wife,† which would subject her to a â€Å"tyrant† and obstruct the constitution of literary friendships (lines 46 and 40). Pope’s portrait of Pamela, a young woman who succeeds in the marriage market, in the fourth stanza of this epistle depicts the stifling confinement of marriage as an obstacle to any form of literary self-fashioning. Through the fulfillment of her â€Å"prayers,† Pamela is cursed with the â€Å"false shows† and â€Å"empty titles† o f a successful young woman (lines 49 and 47). Pope emphasizes the paradoxical nature of her accomplishment in the following couplet: â€Å"She glares in balls, front-boxes, and the Ring, / A vain, unquiet, glittering, wretched thing!† (lines 53-54). Pamela’s status as a married upper-class woman allows her to appear at dances, plays, and the fashionable â€Å"ring† in Hyde Park without any damage to her reputation. The verb â€Å"glares† establishes the importance of vision to a couplet that culminates in transforming Pamela into a purely physical or seen object. Through gaining her right to see and be seen in public places of entertainment, Pamela unknowingly submits to her own objectification. By the second line of the couplet, Pamela no longer â€Å"glares.† The list of adjectives, â€Å"vain, unquiet, glittering, and wretched,† appears to simultaneously describe the public venues identified in the first line and the â€Å"thing† that concludes the second. As the wife of a wealthy man, Pamela exists within these public spaces as an â€Å"Ornament,† or a â€Å"proud declaration† of her husband’s ability to â€Å"maintain† her in a state of idleness (Rumbold 1). Although each of these arenas should offer the opportunity for reciprocal gazing, it seems that the power of the male gaze in the public sphere transforms the once glaring Pamela into nothing more than a â€Å"wretched thing.† Without the capacity to look, and hence interpret the world, Pamela looses her ability to fashion herself as a subject. The cautionary tale of Pamela who fails to follow Pope’s strategy of simultaneous withdrawal and engagement with the world would have been immediately relevant to Teresa Blount, the poem’s original addressee. Pope composed the â€Å"Epistle to a Young Lady, with the Work of Voiture† in the same year that Teresa’s father died and it â€Å"became clear that the [Blount] estate could not meet the obligations laid in his will†¦Ã¢â‚¬  for his daughters’ dowries (Rumbold 60). Within a Catholic community that â€Å"felt its persecution most keenly in financial terms,† Teresa’s lack of a dowry that reflected her family noble’s heritage limited  her marriage prospects to men from less dignified backgrounds (Rumbold 58). During this period, Teresa and her sister Patty participated in an epistolary game with fellow Catholic aristocrats that was modeled on the Rambouillet salon of early seventeenth century Paris. In letters inspire d by the charming raillery of Voiture, who was one of the most well-known members of this salon, the eligible children of a persecuted aristocracy practiced the art of courtship. Pope’s portrait of a young woman â€Å"cursed† by the fulfillment of her â€Å"prayers† undoubtedly pleased Teresa since she had only remote odds of succeeding in her game of courtship. As a â€Å"landless cripple,† Pope was not a part of this game and thus had a sense of isolation from the marriage market in which some of his friends were actively engaged (Rumbold 53). In her analysis of Pope’s â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount,† Valerie Rumbold suggests that it was â€Å"tempting† or desirable for Pope to undermine the â€Å"vested interests of more fortunate men† with his scathing critique of marriage (53). While this may indeed have been true, it appears rather cynical to allow this to be the primary means of interpreting his call for a community constituted by a new form of human relations. In the fifth stanza of the poem, Pope conceptualizes the poetic practice that will bring this community of friends into existence as â€Å" good humour† (line 61). Pope reconfigures â€Å"good humour,† which was conventionally understood at the time as exhibiting a proper form of behavior or disposition, into a literary practice of establishing friendships through letters. If the reader falls victim to the marriage god Hymen, the speaker advises: â€Å"Good humour teaches charms to last, / Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past† (lines 61-62). After warning his audience not to trust its â€Å"now resistless charms,† Pope posits â€Å"good humour† as a means to â€Å"teach† or train charms â€Å"to last† (line 59). When read out of context, this conception of â€Å"good humour† may appear as practical advice for a wife who needs to establish a lasting relationship with her spouse. Within the context of a poem framed by an invocation of a dead author, Pope’s reconfiguration of â€Å"good humour† must be read as form of writing that creates a certain temporal confusion. The adverb â€Å"Still† that begins the second line of this couplet emphasizes the lasting quality of writing, which continually establishes friendships with new readers. The new â€Å"conquests† of good humou r occur within the present as a result of its  preservation in language. Following the dictates of â€Å"good humour,† Pope gives space to the past in order to allow it to become the present. Through resurrecting the past in the name of Vincent de Voiture, Pope exemplifies the practice of â€Å"good humour† through which he hopes to constitute a new community of friends. The couplet that follows the discussion of the necessity of good humour in marriage marks an abrupt departure from what may have appeared as practical advice for a young married woman. Pope begins the next stanza, â€Å"Thus Voiture’s early care still shone the same, / and Monthausier was only changed in name† (lines 69-70). The adverb â€Å"thus† equates the preceding conception of â€Å"good humour† as the only means to secure a relationship with Voiture’s epistolary love for his married friend. With the continuity between these two stanzas, Pope seeks to accentuate the literary quality of â€Å"good humour.† Voiture’s â€Å"early care† refers to his life-long devotion, much of it expressed in letters, to the daughter of the noble Madame de Rambouillet. As an untitled son of a wealthy wine merchant and therefore a part of the bourgeoisie, it was not possible for Voiture to publicly consummate his love for Julie de Rambouillet. When Julie finally consented to marry an eligible long-time admirer, the Duc de Monthausier, at the age of thirty-two, she left behind a devastated Voiture with whom she maintained an active epistolary friendship until his death in 1648. The publication of an English translation of Voiture’s Familiar and Courtly Letters in 1696 and again in 1700 created a sensation in England that gave new life to the epistolary relation of these two lovers.[9] Pope gives space to the life of Voiture by first invoking his past love and then allowing him to love again in the perpetually innocent and living field of language. After Julie de Rambouillet becomes the property of the Duc de Monthausier, Voiture’s love or â€Å"early care still shone the same† because he had established a literary bond with the object of his devotion. In the second couplet of this stanza, Pope shifts to a present tense and a plural subject to describe the reanimation of this epistolary love: â€Å"By this, ev’n now they live, ev’n now they charm, / Their wit still sparkling and their flames still warm† (lines 71-72). Pope marks his shift from Voiture’s past with the â€Å"By this,† which allows Voiture’s letters to â€Å"make new conquests† in the name of a loving community in the present. The repetitive construction of the first line of  the couplet emphasizes the presence of these lovers in the present. Pope’s hospitality to the names and hence memory of these lovers allows them to â€Å"live† and â€Å"charm† in the present. The repetition of â€Å"still† in the second line of the couplet reinforces the sense that the â€Å"care† and â€Å"charm† these lovers exhibited constituted â€Å"good humour.† The â€Å"still† attributed to â€Å"good humour† returns to depict the continual warmth and â€Å"sparkling† wit that allows this epistolary love to not only live again, but also expand within the community of the present. In hosting the name of Voiture within his epistle to Miss Blount, Pope exemplifies a form of literary friendship that both preserves and promotes a poetic community. The exemplary nature of Pope’s epistle consists in resurrecting and joining this community rather than unearthing Voiture as an exemplum of epistolary love. From the perspective of Pope’s epistle, Voiture’s letters demonstrate a misplaced desire to physically possess Julie de Rambouillet. In one of his translated letters to Julie, Voiture demonstrates his complete lack of ease with the desperate plea: â€Å"Do not think that our love is a whit the more private, for the pains we take to conceal it; the Dejection which is visible in my Countenance, speaks plainer than anybody can do. Let us then lay aside Discretion which cost us so dear, and give me, after Dinner, an opportunity of seeing you, if you would have me live † (70). Since Voiture confesses in another letter to Julie that â€Å"all my words [to her] will bear a double construction,† his threat of publicly disclosing their illicit love affair should be as at once playful and menacing (70). According to the logic of Pope’s epistle to Miss Blount, the problem with this plea is not the intensity of its passion, but rather the use it makes of the letter form. In her study of the development of epistolary fiction, Ruth Perry notes that letters always gesture elsewhere because â€Å"the climactic events† they discuss remain â€Å"beyond words† (86). While Voiture uses this attribute of letters in hopes of provoking a physical encounter with his loved object, Pope employs his epistle as a means of constituting a community made possible by the physical absence of its members. The impossibility of Voiture’s love for Julie and its resulting confinement within the field of letters explains why Pope chooses to address Miss Blount and the broader public through the work of this slighted lover. As a bourgeoisie man with â€Å"a stature three inches below the middle one,† Voiture was restricted, perhaps against his own intentions, to practicing the â€Å"good humour† of an epistolary lover (21). Through appealing to the internal audience of first Teresa and then Patty Blount with the work of Voiture, Pope interpellates them as his epistolary lovers in the mold of Julie de Rambouillet. In a letter written only a few years after the original composition of the â€Å"Epistle to a Young Lady, with the Work of Voiture,† Pope asks the unmarried Betty Marriot to â€Å"Cast your eyes upon Paper, Madam, there you may look innocently.†[10] Rather than seeking to provoke a physical consummation of his passion, Pope implores Betty to indul ge in a love restricted to the boundaries of the page. In his epistle to the Blounts, Pope further abstracts himself from his addressee by offering the â€Å"lines† of Voiture as a mediating space in which epistolary lovers can meet. The opening couplet of Pope’s â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture† evacuates his self through a reanimation of the â€Å"lines† and life of Voiture. Pope immediately shifts the attention of the reader away from his relationship to the addressee: â€Å"In these gay thoughts the loves and graces shine, / And all the writer lives in every line† (lines 1-2). The preposition â€Å"in† begins the poem through establishing its location â€Å"in† the thoughts stimulated by the work of an author shared by the Pope and his audience. As a widely read writer of letters, Voiture represented an institutional figure that Pope draws on to situate his poem within a space that is irreducible to either writer or reader. Since the â€Å"loves and graces shine† in â€Å"the gay thoughts† that Voiture continues to inspire, this opening couplet configures the entire poem as an effect of Voiture’s work. â€Å"All the writer lives in every line† refers therefore to both the widely published work of Voiture and the particular verse epistle to follow. The association of light with the verb â€Å"shine† communicates a sense of vitality that Pope reinforces with the verb â€Å"breathe† that concludes his opening stanza. In the final couplet of his opening stanza, Pope emphasizes the always  potentially living nature of language by situating his epistle within the experience of reading and thus living with Voiture. The impetus for Pope’s conception of an epistolary community lies in the transformation of â€Å"death† into â€Å"breathe† in the following couplet: â€Å"The smiles and loves had died in Voiture’s death, / But that for ever in his lines they breathe† (lines 19-20). Voiture â€Å"played the trifle, life, away† through an epistolary practice that enabled his charms to exist within a linguistic space that is always potentially living (line 12). Pope establishes a number of breaks in the awkwardly constructed final line of this stanza to isolate and hence highlight â€Å"they breathe.† Since Voiture consecrated his love in letters, it can forever be reanimated by the admiring breath of later readers. In the final stanza of his epistle, Pope returns to the communal experience of reading Voiture in order to triumphantly reveal the power of his loving community in letters. Pope concludes his â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Work of Voiture† with a corporeal conception of reading that appeals to his double audience to join an abstracted or retired community of readers. The affective exchange between Voiture and â€Å"you† in one of Pope’s final couplets offers an image of reading that threatens to dissolve the very category of the reader. Pope writes, â€Å"Pleased, while with smiles his happy lines you view, / And finds a fairer Rambouillet in you† (lines 75-76). Miss Blount, or any other reader, physically reflects the â€Å"happy lines of Voiture† with â€Å"smiles† that mark her material participation in the continuing existence of these â€Å"lines.† Through hosting the work of Voiture within his own epistle, Pope enables it to assume agency within the present. Voiture’s charming good humour returns to interpellate Miss Blount and the broader epistolary audience as a â€Å"fairer Rambouillet.† While Voiture’s desire to possess Julie had obstructed the complete transformation of his love into language, his â€Å"ghost† capitalizes on the distance of death to find an even more innocent love in the eternally available present (line 74). In identifying Voiture’s present reader as a â€Å"fairer† or more innocent object of his devotion, Pope crystallizes the paradoxical logic of an epistle that measures hope by the amount of distance it can establish from the present. Pope relinquishes ownership over his self in order to provide his guest, Voiture, with a space to breathe within the crowded field of language. Through this act of self-effacement, Pope exemplifies the poetic process through which one transforms oneself into a member of an epistolary community. In the final couplet of his poem, Pope announces the coming of a new community of friends: â€Å"And dead as living, ‘tis our author’s pride, / Still to charm those who charm the world beside† (lines 79-80). The shift from the pronoun â€Å"you† in the previous couplet to the collective â€Å"our† marks the accomplishment of his interpellation of a new epistolary community. His interpellation of both Miss Blount and the broader public as readers of Voiture acts as the condition of this community’s possibility since it is guaranteed by a collective ownership over the language of the past. As readers of the same â€Å"happy† lines, these interpellated or called for individuals share an affective bond that allows them to claim a collective ownership over Voiture. Once the interpellated individual acknowledges his claim for Voiture’s always living â€Å"charm,† he can demonstrate this responsibility through the literary practice of good humour. The â€Å"fairer Rambouillet† thus â€Å"charm[s] the world beside† in recognition of the past which she simultaneously honors and perpetuates in her own epistolary production within the present. Pope surrenders all claims to his self in the â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Work of Voiture† in recognition of his place within a community founded by its hospitable relationship to the past. The address of first Teresa and then Patty Blount with this epistle represents an act of friendship that asks these unmarried women to realize the poetic potential within their exclusion from the centers of social life in early eighteenth century England. With his acknowledgement of the presence of a broader reading public, Pope seeks to begin the process of constituting a community in which he can join the Blount sisters as a loving friend. As a community made possible by the confining forms of a fragmented and patriarchal society, Pope’s vision of an epistolary collective necessarily resides at the very margins of life. ———————– [1] Perry, Ruth. Women, Letters, and the Novel, New York: AMS Press, 1980: page 69. [2] Rumbold, Valerie. Women’s Place in Pope’s World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989: page 2. [3] Pope, Alexander. â€Å"Letter to Teresa and Martha Blount,† Alexander Pope: the Major Works, ed. Pat Rogers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006): page 151. [4] Pope, Alexander. â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture,† Alexander Pope: the Major Works, ed. Pat Rogers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006): pages 46-48. All citations refer to this edition unless otherwise noted. [5] Oxford English Dictionary. â€Å"Farce,† Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. [6] Pope, Alexander. â€Å"Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture,† Alexander Pope: Minor Poems, Twickenham Edition, ed. Norman Ault and John Butt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954): pages 62-65. Although they both claim to have incorporated the 1735 revisions, there is a discrepancy in this couplet between the epistle in the â€Å"Minor Poems† collection and the â€Å"Major Works of Pope.† I have quoted the former in deference to its greater authority and my preference for it. [7] Epicurus. â€Å"Letter to Menoeceus,† Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings, trans. Russell M. Greer (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1964): page 57. [8] Dowling, William. The Epistolary Moment: the Poetics of the Eighteenth-Century Verse Epistle, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. [9] Voiture, Vincent. Familiar and courtly letters written by Monsieur Voiture to persons of the greatest honour, wit, and quality of both sexes in the court of France, trans. Mr. Dryden and Mr. Dennis (London: Printed for Sam Briscoe, 1700). [10] Pope, Alexander. â€Å"Letter to Miss Marriot,† The Correspondence of Alexander Pope: Volume 1, ed. George Sherburn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956): page 205-206. Quoted by Rumbold, page 50.

Use of New Media in Political Campaigning

ng Introduction of New Media and It’s Effects on Political Campaigning Ammara Mahmood 997652455 POLD51H3 Abstract In the campaigning of all United States, Canada and Britain for the elections 2008/2010/2011, the role of new media was vital. It started off with Obama’s campaign in 2008 and is still carried on in elections after that. This paper looks at the use of new media by parties in the three countries and how their use of media differed in the dated elections. For this, the paper explores three key concepts of new media that have affected politics: 1- What was the party’s goal or strategy? – How did the party execute its goal or strategy? 3- In what way was each party’s strategy a success or failure? With the use of quantitative and qualitative data, the hypotheses shows that new media’s introduction in political marketing has impacted and evolved the campaigning strategies since 2008. It shows new media has been a major component of cam paign strategies for educating voters, informing citizens about electorates, party’s ideals and resolutions and how the use of mass media though still present has declined due to the arrival of new media.The findings suggest that new media has been a major source of campaign financing in US while in Canada, it has been a way of educating voters. Contrary, in Britain, it has more been used as a side tool where mass media is still a major component of campaigning. Introduction of New Media and It’s Effects on Political Campaigning Living in new digital reality means that citizens must accept the changes it will bring to their culture and society. While the mass media provided people with a platform to raise their voice and be heard, the new media has given people a chance to interact.The need of humans to constantly be conversed, heard, and feel valuable is what the new media provides. These qualities of new media has enabled it to move from the basic realm of our daily lives to other important aspects of our lives of which one is, the arena of politics. With the introduction of the new media and its varying forms, politics and the idea of interaction with leaders and parties has revolutionized. This paper argues that the use of new media has changed the notion of politics, with the leaders and parties now bounded to learn new ways to interact and stay connected if they are to leave a mark and succeed.This will be shown through the differing use of new media in relation to party’s goals and strategies, their execution and success or failure in United States of America (USA), Britain (UK) and Canada for the elections of 2008/2010/2011. New Strategies With the dramatic changes in telecommunication technology, the way people interact and the way politics functions have been transformed. There have been several new media strategies to engage voters and money in the three countries. Firstly, with the expansion of broadband technology, and the int roduction of smart phones, the world of politics has become more interactive.New media has provided people with a cheaper method to constantly interact with their leaders, parties and be informed about them without having to physically travel to attend debates or political rallies. Also, this has allowed for web-accessible information to the public where there is no more need for pamphlets, brochures or posters to be accessed and dropped off at people’s houses. People can now sit in the comfort of their homes and get all the information they need about their candidates, and parties.The paper, Reform in an Age of Networked campaigns mentions, â€Å"Broadband has acted as a force multiplier in the creation of a more distributed computing environment† (Corrado, Malbin, Mann & Ornstein, 2010). Secondly, the new media has allowed for different types of political organizations and networked communities where people can mobilize and act together around a certain issue or poli tical point of view through use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The candidate campaigns are now more engaged with either the number of donations being tracked or the number of visitors to the sites being noted, digital communication makes t easier to identify and manage supporters. It also allows parties to expand their databases for use in subsequent elections. Thirdly, new media has allowed for innovation and an increase in donations for campaign financing. An example of this is the MyBO site for Barrack Obama which set a new standard to recruit and engage financial supporters. â€Å"Individuals who made a contribution were regularly solicited by email and often were asked to make an additional contribution that would be matched by another donor.Contributors could sign up for a â€Å"recurring gift† program that allowed them to make donations of as little as $25 on regular basis by charging the amount to a credit card. † This emphasis on small donors instead of a few large donors proved very successful for Obama’s campaign and this was only possible due to his wise use of new media techniques. New Media is a 21st Century catchall term used to define all that is related to the internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound (Socha & Eber-Schmid, 2012). The elections before 2008/2010/2011 were untouched by new media.It was with Facebook’s launch in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006 that ever since, new media became a vital component of politics. USA election 2008 The 2008 US Presidential election were the start of what was to come in politics. The use of new media and the significance it was about to have in the politics, started in the year 2008 with Obama and McCain campaigning against each other. These elections were the first one where political candidates possessed a huge media presence then any candidates ever in the political history.Both the candidates of the Republicans and the Democ rats, McCain and Obama had not only websites that kept people aware of their campaigns but they were also virtually present on almost all of the social networking platforms. New Media was used as a new, cheap, â€Å"grassroots† (a golden word for campaigns of any kind) way for candidates to shore up support, and McCain and Obama have jumped in with gusto; both candidates were on Facebook (McCain has 214,482 supporters listed, Obama 1,380,827), and both had MySpace pages (McCain has 64,644 friends, Obama 457,188); both were also on LinkedIn, Digg, Twitter, Flickr, and Eventful (McCracken, 2008).The individual websites for both the candidates were MyBarackObama. com and McCainSpace (see Appendix A for snapshots of websites). The registration process were similar for both sites with each asking you to explain the reasons of your choice and general info like name, date of birth etc and once you entered the site, you could perform activities like writing blog posts, sharing videos , status or tweets to engage and remain informed. Obama’s site attracted a lot more people due to its catchy and unique outlook then that of McCain.The site also had a financial aspect to it where people could make donations online allowing people to feel valuable and participatory even if the donation was a small amount. McCainSpace—like his entire website—had a clunky, blase feel to it. MyBarackObama. com, though scarcely more in others resting or entertaining than McCainSpace, did at least feel more comfortable in its own skin; the style and typography was cohesive, easy to navigate, and it seamlessly fit into Obama’s larger site (McCracken, 2008).The Republican as their general top down, hierarchical approach in elections seemed to be resistant in using the new media because they were reluctant to move of the traditional message conveying system giving the power of message into the hands of outsiders. Contrary, Democrats were more flexible in the appr oach handing control to people outside of formal party members and representatives. This allowed them to make use of new media tools by not obsessing with message control. For example, The first was the Obama Girl video titled â€Å"I Got a Crush†¦ On Obama. The three-minute video, made by independent filmmakers unassociated with the campaign, featured a seductive young woman singing about her â€Å"crush† on Senator Obama. The second, also unassociated with the campaign, was a video montage of Barrack Obama edited to appear as if the candidate were performing with musician Will. i. am. Titled â€Å"Yes We Can,† that video became a rallying cry for the Obama campaign. Those videos were watched 11. 6 and 13 million times respectively (Metzgar & Maruggi, 2009).Overall, Obama clearly due to his bold and innovative strategies was more successful in campaigning using the new media then McCain was which might have played a role in him being elected as President as well . Britain election 2010 Compared to USA, Britain has been more subtle in their use of the new media. The 2010 elections marked the first time that new media was introduced and used in Britain’s politics. From the televised debates to the online involvement through social media sites, the 2010 elections were a revolutionary change in the country’s politics. The most impact that new media had in the year’s elections were behind the scenes.The parties used it to mobilize and organize supporters and campaigners to increase their database and garner continuous support. Parties used email to connect with potential voters on a regular basis. The strategies used by parties varied though. For the Lib Democrats it seems to have been a largely internal and campaigner-focused affair but the Conservatives were much more prolific with regular (often more than daily) emails arriving in the inboxes of members and supporters from David Cameron, George Osborne, Eric Pickles and W illiam Hague(Williamson, 2010).Compared to these two, Labour party’s strategy was somewhere in between with them being public oriented having face to face contact then Liberal Democrats but not being as professional and subtle as the Conservatives. One Labour insider described a mass email from Lord Mandelson as ‘utterly boring’ and said they could not read beyond the first paragraph (Williamson, 2010). As successful as email service proved during elections, what was shocking was the failure of party’s websites to engage voters. While the main party websites did not gain much support, spoof websites for the Conservatives like mydavidcameron. com proved successful.This was set up by an individual as a response to the ‘airbrushed’ images of the Tory party leader appearing on billboards around the country. The website allowed anyone to download templates, create their own spoof Conservative election posters and then upload them (Williamson, 2010) . The Liberal Democrats launched their site labservative. com and the Labour party also created a website with web content including a viral of YouTube videos. The Conservatives went ahead of the two parties with anyone entering key words or phrases into Google being given a link to their website at the top of the page and usually a YouTube video to accompany it.The most important aspect of the 2010 elections was the introduction of American like Presidential debates that the Britain saw for the first time. The debates were a huge success with around 9. 4 million people (Bamieh, 2010) tuning in to watch the debate. The new media then acted as a side tool with people tweeting and posting statuses. Tweetminster reported 184,396 tweets relating to the first debate, averaging over 29 tweets per second (and peaking during the debate at more than 41 tweets per second) (Bamieh, 2010). Conservatives:Facebook: 108,000+ Fans Twitter: 36,000+ Followers Youtube: 2,970,000+ Views Liberal Democra ts: Facebook: 90,000+ Fans Twitter: 22,500+ Followers Youtube: 135,000+ Views Labour Party: Facebook: 59,000+ Fans Twitter: 19,000+ Followers Youtube: 1,684,000+ Views (Bamieh, 2010) The table (see Appendix B for data on blog posts) and the stats clearly suggest that the Conservative party took the lead on the social media front whether it was Twitter, emails, Facebook, blog posts or YouTube which played a role in their victory in elections. Canada election 2011Following on the steps of the 2008 elections in their neighbor country, Canadian parties and politicians made vital use of new media in the country’s elections in 2011. In Canada, the social media outlets have been utilized by parties to generate dialogues, channel electorate’s attention, educate voters, instigate online activity on portals, and connect with supporters. The Liberal party’s approach in the elections was to go all out and imaginative and make use of every possible social outlet to engage vo ters and mark their presence.The Liberals linked Ignatieff ’s Facebook page with discussion groups and also offered readers the chance to ask questions, which few seemed interested in doing (Taras & Waddell). In contrast, the Conservative Party, which greatly increased its use of digital media from 2008, used a funneling strategy focusing on channeling the electorate’s attention and online activity to the party’s online portal, Tory Nation also using its portal as its primary means of connecting with supporters (Natalie, 2008).The NDP used new media to educate its voters to increase its vote share while constantly emailing supporters. It also made use of Smartphone applications wisely by introducing an iPhone application named ‘Jack Layton’ which informed supporters about upcoming political events while also linking photos and videos of their leader’s tours regularly. Similarly, the Green Party also introduced an application and tried to educ ate its supporters about the party.Unlike the other more recognizable parties, the Green Party was faced with the task of establishing itself as a legitimate alternative party and political force in Canadian politics and so its extensive use of digital media usage stemmed from its need to build awareness and to communicate its message outside mass media (Natalie, 2008). While, all the parties made use of Twitter vastly, the usage of Facebook and YouTube was surprisingly limited in their strategy. Most of the candidates including Stephen Harper and Ignatieff jumped and made use of the tweeting bandwagon.Facebook didn’t attract nearly the same amount of media attention as Twitter, perhaps because parties and candidates used it mostly like any other one-way means of communication. Candidate and party Facebook sites were used primarily to distribute messages to voters but generated almost no debate and interaction with them about policies (Taras & Waddell). The party’s str ategies in the 2011 elections in use of new media were not as bold and widely used to that of USA.The parties used the new media as a side tool with all the parties doing a little but none of them doing enough to utilize the new media’s strengths fully. Conclusions In the three countries, the use of new media overall has allowed to facilitate a sense of community and a stronger connection between individuals and candidates. However, the extent and degree to which the parties in each country have utilized new media varies. While the USA has been the predominant leader due to its brave and innovative use of new media, Canada and Britain have been slowly accepting and dealing with this phenomenon.Also, in the three countries, new media strategies are being used as old strategies in new and advanced forms. Email, websites and social media all played important roles but they were not game changers, simply additional tools that could be successfully deployed alongside other, more t raditional methods (Williamson, 2010). Earlier, mass media played a similar role of interaction and engagement in politics. Now, new media allows for a greater extent of individual involvement and engagement through use of social media sites, online networking communities etc in the arena of politics.This can also be portrayed from the idea that other factors in politics such as charisma, race, and identification still matter and have in fact become more important after the innovations and enhancements to media. For example, in the election of 2008, it was not just the smart use of new media that allowed for Obama’s success. Rather, it was a combination of his charismatic personality, his appearance as the first to be black President and his use of new media that led to his commendable success that year. In conclusion, new media is vital to the changing world of politics today.It has transformed how we interact and stay informed about parties and their leaders. The new media has both its pros and cons and is widely used in America, Britain, and Canada. Thus, we all must accept the new media and incorporate it in our lives to better stay informed and connected. References Bamieh, M. (2010). British general election 2010 — learn social media by example. Retrieved from http://blog. thoughtpick. com/2010/05/british-general-election-2010-learn-social-media-by-example. html Campaign Finance Institute. 2010. Reform in an Age of Networked Campaigns. Pp. 1-16. http://www. finst. org/books_reports/Reform-in-an-Age-of-Networked-Campaigns. pdf McCracken, B. (2008). new media as election strategy: How Obama and McCain court the Net Generation. UCLA'S journal of cinema and media studies, Retrieved from http://www. tft. ucla. edu/mediascape/Fall08_Mccracken. html Metzgar, E. , ; Maruggi, A. (2009). Social media and the 2008 u. s. presidential election. Journal of New Communications Research, IV(1), Retrieved from http://fralincm. files. wordpress. com/2011/06/s ocialmedia_08election. pdf Roebuck, Natalie. Use of the Internet in the 2008 Canadian Election.M. A. paper. Blackboard. Socha , B. , ; Eber-Schmid, B. (2012). What is new media?. Retrieved from http://www. newmedia. org/what-is-new-media. html Taras, D. , ; Waddell, C. (n. d. ). The 2011 Federal Election and the Transformation of Canadian Media and Politics. Retrieved from http://www. aupress. ca/books/120205/ebook/04_Taras_Waddell_2012-How_Canadians_Communicate_IV. pdf Williamson, A. (2010). 2010: The internet election that wasn’t. Political Insight, Retrieved from http://www. politicalinsightmagazine. com/? p=397 Appendix A (McCracken, 2008) Appendix B (Bamieh, 2010)