To what extent do you consider Hamlet a play which presents a patriarchal society Essays

To what extent do you consider Hamlet a play which presents a patriarchal society Essays To what extent do you consider Hamlet a play which presents a patriarchal society Paper To what extent do you consider Hamlet a play which presents a patriarchal society Paper In order to understand a patriarchal Elizabethan society, we must first understand the social and historical context of the play. Elizabethan society was fundamentally male. Most roles of importance were assigned to men. The thought that a woman was to be given a post of responsibility would have caused much upset among male civilians. Even though there was a female monarch at the time, men essentially ruled the scene, with the queen as its figurehead. Shakespeare had to convey this situation fairly accurately, as a play in which women were empowered by male standards would have been frowned upon during that period in history. However, given the change in societys views on women since Elizabethan times, the play may not have been construed as patriarchal at the time of writing. It would have been viewed as an accurate representation of the monarchy and its hierarchy of power. It is known that Elizabeth was a fan of Shakespeares work, and for Shakespeare to present a society in which women were viewed entirely as sexual objects and nothing more would have been unacceptable in the queens eyes, which I believe results in the subtle hints at empowered women. Some film portrayals show Gertrude as very similar to Elizabeth I, a woman who uses and manipulates men in order to gain power. Others show Gertrude as a wine-swilling, rampantly sexual temptress, which I do not believe to be true. I believe that even though Gertrude marries her brother-in-law, and so soon after her Husbands death is not an act of sexual desire, rather an act of emotional need. Also, in the closet scene, she expresses remorse for marrying Claudius so early, and some believe that in doing this, she aligns herself with Hamlets quest for revenge, and shuns Claudius touch and bed. In the play, it can be considered that women are only disempowered in a male sense. They do not play major roles in the development of the play, but their interaction with the male characters can be seen as a form of sub-plot, additional to the main events of the play. To empower someone is defined by the English dictionary as to authorize, or enable someone. Throughout Hamlet, we see that this means women are not empowered in the play in terms of power in the literal sense, however are empowered in their dignity and actions. There are two views of female figures in Hamlet cunningly empowered, as one critic, Praveen Pillai, puts it, or as fundamentally weak figures, who are entirely disempowered. Both these views, I believe, are partially true. In one sense, women are cunningly empowered through death. Females in the play die in a gentle fashion, with Ophelia slowly drowning, surrounded by her dress, and the queen being poisoned by wine. This can be seen as a more empowered way to die than the male figures in the play, as most of them die violent deaths, through poisoning, being stabbed, and killed by other men. In a way, this is a triumph for the women in the play, especially as Ophelia, corrupted by her sexual desire for Hamlet, dies a virgin. This is empowerment in a feminine sense, as it does not fit with male views of empowerment. However, women can also be seen as fundamentally disempowered in the sense that they hold no real authority, and are merely seen as objects of desire by the men in the play. Ophelia is seen as the cause of Hamlets madness, providing women with a negative image. Some critics, such as Praveen Pillai, even say that Ophelias name has roots in sexual imagery, with Ophelia being likened to O-Phallus. Also, Hamlets sexual obsession with his mother further proves the fact that women are seen as sex objects and no more Incestuous sheets, Live in a bed of rank sweat. This lust seems highly derogatory, and jealousy of Claudius may be a contributing factor in Hamlets anger and madness, also shown in the quote Almost as bad as to kill a king and marry his brother. This Freudian view of Hamlet is widely accepted by many, and has become a fundamental part of analysing the play. One of the most powerful statements in the play clearly shows a male view of female disempowerment in the play Frailty thy name is woman. A powerful statement, which has its roots in the Elizabethan attitude towards women. It shows that women are viewed as fundamentally weak beings in the eyes of men. The scene between Hamlet and Gertrude in the royal bedroom acts as a sort of commentary on the male societys views of Elizabethan women. It shows the low amounts of respect given to women, and the way they are scorned through sexual relations with others. Loving a woman was seen as weak, and Hamlets lust for both Ophelia and Gertrude are seen as weaknesses contributing to his madness. Rebecca Smith states that because Claudius, his mothers second husband is the killer of his Father, Hamlets general outrage at women increases and spreads and that it Ophelias unexpected rejection of his love is also a trigger factor in this, her rejection being due to the order from her brother and father, that results from their one-dimensional view of a woman as a sexual object. I am not entirely sure that this is true. I do not doubt that the general view of the female characters in the play by male characters is that of sexual objects, but rather the order was given to Ophelia by her brother and father out of an unselfish and untainted love for her as a family member, in them wishing that she should not be associated with Hamlet, who they regard as Mad. In this way, Ophelia is empowered Gertrude appears in the play as a woman whose actions contribute greatly to the negative turns in the plot as Claudius puts it, Gertrude is both My virtue or my plague. She is shown as having poor judgement, as seen in Act 1 Scene 2, in which we realise she must be more sensitive to her sons feelings. However, Gertrudes own insensitive actions reveal a form of male disempowerment in the play Jealousy. Hamlets jealousy of his mother during the grieving period may be for two reasons one, that as her son, Hamlet should be given more attention than Claudius, and two the fact that his mother has just married his uncle O, most wicked speed, to post, With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! . During the scene in the royal bedroom, a symbol of sexuality in itself, one of Gertrudes main weaknesses shows. She has the opportunity here to face the issue head on and resolve it, however she is the type of person to put bad news to the back of their minds and pretend like nothing has happened. She gives no deep thought to the matter at all. Hamlets madness can be linked to his jealousy of Claudius in this scene, and the fact that the ghost of his father warned him to Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest The introduction of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by the King and Queen show a fundamental contrast in their characters, the Queen, representative of a female character wishes them to discover the roots of her sons madness so she can help him feel better, however the king, representative of a male character in the play, uses them for more sinister purposes, showing the great contrast between male and female characters in the play, and highlighting a form of empowerment for the women the mens underhand evil deeds lead to acts of revenge and violence, yet the female act of kindness leads to a form of peace and understanding. In this way, then we can definitely say that women are subtly empowered in Hamlet. Even though it is seen that Gertrude is an insensitive mother, in not showing her son compassion and understanding after his fathers death, while still being married to her Husbands murderer, there are certain parts of the play where she defends her son from Claudius, showing moral strength for example, when talking to Claudius about Hamlets murder of Polonius, she says that he Cries afterwards in an attempt to cover up the fact that he did not think anything of it. This is an outstanding act of compassion towards Hamlet, and proves her to be a loving mother, morally empowered. A form of female disempowerment is seen in the way that Gertrude cannot see through the deception of Claudius. He convinces Gertrude (perhaps too easily) that Hamlets sending away is to protect her, rather than the true reason, that Claudius fears for his life when Hamlet is still around. If Gertrude was empowered as a woman in this way, she would object, for fear of Hamlets life. This is a subtle element throughout the play that really stands out when the play is seen in terms of weakness, empowerment and disempowerment. Ophelia, the only other woman in the play, mostly shows female disempowerment throughout most of the play. One critic puts it well Amanda Mabillard says that Ophelia could become the tragic heroine of the play; instead she crumbles into insanity and becomes merely tragic. It seems that Ophelias purpose in the play is to show the dual nature of women Ophelias distinct purpose is to show at once Hamlets warped view of women as callous sexual predators, and the innocence and virtue of women. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes increasingly convinced that women are whores, shown by both women in the play Gertrude chose Claudius over her dead husband, and Ophelia chose her father over Hamlet. These both strike Hamlet as incestuous and add to his madness. Ophelias character is very one-dimensional and shallow; her main purpose is as an instrument through which other characters act, i. e. her father using her beauty to suit his underhanded needs, such as where she is told to spy on Hamlet to try and determine the cause of his madness. She gives Hamlet the opinion that the most innocent looking women are the worst corrupted with sexual desire, and throughout the play, we see that to an extent this is made true through Ophelias sex-crazed madness. Hamlet appears before Ophelia with no hat on his head, his stockings soiled, and round his ankles. This initially frightens Ophelia, and the fact that she confides in her father to tell him of her fear portrays her as a weak individual, unable to cope with her feelings, or her sexuality. This develops into a sex-fuelled insanity later on in the play, with her using blatantly sexual imagery in her speeches, such as when she sings By Cock. This may be untrue, as the slang word Cock may have not been used in Elizabethan times. However, in a modern context, this can be seen as a way for Ophelia to release her bottled-up emotions through her madness, much alike to Hamlets madness throughout the play. Gertrudes last acts show female empowerment in a nice way. During the dramatic final scene in which she drinks the poisoned wine, and realises that Claudius is guilty of killing her husband and attempting to murder her son, she valiantly warns her son against drinking the wine No, no, the drink, the drink o my dear Hamlet The drink, the drink! I am poisoned! It is unusual in this scene that Claudius does nothing to prevent Gertrude from drinking the poisoned wine, even though he murdered the King out of a sexual desire for her. Even though she is about to die, she still manages to show a final act of compassion for her son, and effectively renounces Claudius from her heart, giving Hamlet a final triumph, and easing his madness. In conclusion, I think the evidence shows that there are different types of empowerment and disempowerment, male and female scattered throughout the play, some blatantly obvious, some rather more subtle. After careful analysis of the play, I have come to my own personal opinion that women in Hamlet are essentially disempowered, for these main reasons : Firstly, there are more men than women in the play, showing that women play less important roles. Secondly, women are not involved in the real important parts of the plot, they only act as a sub-plot, a tangent from the storyline. Also, by the end of the play, neither of the women are seen to have any sort of peace of mind, and they both die tragically. Sources Used: Shakespeares Ophelia Amanda Mabillard Gertrude In Hamlet Orah Rosenblatt A Z of Shakespeare Charles Boyce Shakespeares Life And Times Oscar J Campbell Hamlet Commentary Granville Barker Hamlet Psychoanalysed. 1815words. W/Quotes 1703words W/out Quotes.

31 Fun Pipe Cleaner Crafts for Kids

31 Fun Pipe Cleaner Crafts for Kids SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Pipe cleaner crafts are one of the easiest and most fun types of crafts to do with children. In this guide, we’ve compiled 31 of the best pipe cleaner crafts for kids. They range from crafts that take only a few minutes and can be done by very young children, to crafts that are a little more involved but will produce toys that’ll last for many hours of play. For each of these easy pipe cleaner crafts, we include a description of the craft, a link to more detailed instructions, the difficulty level (easy, medium, or hard), and the materials needed. (Note that crafts labelled as â€Å"hard† are still absolutely doable; they will just likely require more adult help to complete.)These pipe cleaner crafts range from animals to jewelry to science experiments, and they can be done by children of a variety of ages. One tip before you get started: many of these crafts suggest you use white craft glue to get the pipe cleaners to stick to each other or other craft supplies like paper, plastic, etc. Craft glue usually isn’t strong enough for this, and the crafts often fall apart after a few hours. When gluing something to pipe cleaners or gluing pipe cleaners to another object, we recommend using a hot glue gun instead. Feature image source: Flickr/Nicole #1: Chameleon Difficulty Level: Medium These cute pipe cleaner chameleons are made by wrapping green pipe cleaners around a marker to make basic body and head shapes, then legs and eyes are added. The eyes can either be made by creating two small circles with pieces of orange pipe cleaner or (more simply) gluing on googly eyes. Materials Needed: PIpe cleaners (green, orange, and red suggested) Marker Felt Scissors Hot glue gun Googly eyes (optional) #2: Seashore Crabs Difficulty Level: Medium This crab pipe cleaner craft is a great way to use some seashells you picked up from the beach. You’ll paint a shell that’ll be used as the body, then bend and attach pipe cleaners to act as the legs and claws. Add two googly eyes and your crab is set. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (red or blue suggested) Small seashells Craft paint Googly eyes Hot glue gun #3: Finger Puppets Difficulty Level: Easy An easy pipe cleaner craft for younger kids, pipe cleaner finger puppets can be made in less than 10 minutes. Just take a pipe cleaner, wrap it tightly around your child’s finger or your pinky finger to make the body, adding loops for ears or arms if you like. Then, pull the pipe cleaner off your finger, glue the pom pom to where you want the head to be, and add some eyes. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Googly eyes Hot glue gun Pom poms #4: Crocodile Difficulty Level: Medium For these pipe cleaner crocodiles, you’ll wrap pipe cleaners around craft sticks to create the animal’s body. The craft stick makes these crocs sturdier than many other pipe cleaner crafts, so they’re easier to play with without damaging them. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (green color suggested) Popsicle/craft sticks, colored green Small googly eyes Black markers Hot glue gun Zig zag scissors White paper #5: Spring Flowers Difficulty Level: Medium Pipe cleaner flowers are a great craft if you’re looking for something less messy than planting regular flowers. The link includes instructions on how to make tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. These flowers can also be â€Å"potted† in little flower pots as a cute way to display them. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (variety of colors, including green) Pencil Scissors Ruler Hot glue gun Small flower pots (optional) Floral foam (optional) #6: Bracelets Difficulty Level: Easy Pipe cleaner bracelets are super easy to make, and if you have lots of colors of pipe cleaners, you can make yourself a whole collection of rainbow-colored jewelry. To make the bracelets, just twist two colors of pipe cleaners together, or you can braid several colors together. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Scissors #7: Coffee Filter Butterflies Difficulty Level: Easy If you’re looking for a craft that includes both painting and pipe cleaners, check out these coffee filter butterflies. The wings are made out of painted coffee filters, while the body and antennae are made from pipe cleaners. This is a great craft for younger kids to get creative painting their butterfly’s wings. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Coffee filters Watercolor paints and brush Hot glue gun Scissors #8: Plastic Egg Bugs Difficulty Level: Easy These plastic egg bugs are a cute pipe cleaner craft to do around Easter or anytime you have some plastic eggs around. The plastic egg (decorated with permanent marker if you wish) will be the body, and pipe cleaners will be the bug’s legs and antennae. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Plastic eggs Googly eyes Hot glue gun Permanent marker Scissors #9: Bead People Difficulty Level: Hard For this bead people pipe cleaner craft, you’ll create the â€Å"skeleton† of the body with pipe cleaners, then string beads along them. It can be a bit tricky to figure out the best way to get the beads on at first, but after a little practice you’ll have a bendable bead person to play with. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Wooden or plastic beads Scissors #10: Christmas Trees Difficulty Level: Easy Pipe cleaner Christmas trees are one of the quickest pipe cleaner Christmas crafts. Just zigzag a pipe cleaner to form the shape of a tree, add a gold star on top, and you have a pipe cleaner Christmas tree that can be glued to a card or displayed on its own. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (green color suggested) Cardstock or paper Gold star stickers Glue Glitter (optional) #: Bendable Monkey Difficulty Level: Medium These bendable monkeysare really fun for kids to play with and can be hung off the backs of chairs or on a finger. The body of the monkey is made out of paper, while pipe cleaners make the bendable arms and legs. Kids can draw the monkey’s face on with crayons or markers. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (brown or black colors suggested) Two shades of brown paper Hot glue gun Markers Scissors #12: Rainbow Difficulty Level: Easy This rainbow pipe cleaner craft is an easy way to teach kids about the different colors of the rainbow and have them create one of their own. Just grab one pipe cleaner for each color that you need, bend them in a bow shape, add some fluffy cotton ball clouds, and either leave it as is or attach it to thick paper or floral foam. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple colors) Cotton balls Glue Floral foam (optional) #13: Jellyfish Difficulty Level: Medium Kids will love the long, wiggly tentacles of pipe cleaner jellyfish. Use half a painted foam ball to form the body of the jellyfish, then wrap several pipe cleaners around pencils or another object with a long, thin stick shape. Pull the pipe cleaners off, stretch them out a bit, attach them to the flat side of the foam ball hemisphere, and decorate your jellyfish. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) 2  ½ inch styrofoam balls Knife for cutting styrofoam balls Paint Ruler Hot glue gun String Googly eyes Toothpick #14: Bookmarks Difficulty Level: Easy These fun pipe cleaner bookmarks are an easy way to get kids more excited about reading. Have the kids wrap, bend, and twirl the pipe cleaners to any shape they want, add googly eyes, and glue their creation onto a paper clip to create an easy and creative bookmark. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Colorful paper clips Googly eyes Hot glue gun Scissors Thin stick to wrap pipe cleaners around #15: Egg Carton Spy Glasses Difficulty Level: Medium With just some egg cups cut from an egg carton, pipe cleaners, and your choice of decorations, you can help your child create a pair of their very own secret â€Å"spy glasses.† The egg cups form the lens, and the pipe cleaners are the arms that go around your ears. Paint and beads make this a creative craft project. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Cardboard egg carton Plastic beads Craft paint Scissors Hot glue gun Toothpick #16: Ninjas Difficulty Level: Hard If your kids love ninjas or any other action figures, they’ll love pipe cleaner ninjas. The â€Å"skeleton† of the ninja is made out of pipe cleaners, which you’ll then put pieces of plastic straws over to create a body. A wooden bead will be the head, and you can add additional decorations to create fully bendable ninjas. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Colored drinking straws Scissors Wooden beads for the heads Plastic beads How glue gun Permanent marker #17: Snakes Difficulty Level: Easy By twisting two colors of pipe cleaners together, adding eyes and a tiny red tongue, you can quickly make a pipe cleaner snake. You can even turn this into a biology lesson and have kids look at pictures of different snakes and choose pipe cleaner colors to match a specific snake species. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (at least 2 colors) Small googly eyes Hot glue gun Red felt Scissors #18: Fall Fairies Difficulty Level: Hard These pipe cleaner fairies are a great craft to do during the fall, when you can use colorful leaves that have fallen to make fairy wings. Pipe cleaners and beads make the fairy’s body, yarn is used for the hair, and leaves (either real or fake) are stacked to create a colorful skirt. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Yarn Marker Scissors Leaves (fake or real) Wooden bead for head Plastic beads Hot glue gun #19: Christmas Wreath Difficulty Level: Easy These Christmas wreaths are another example of easy pipe cleaner Christmas crafts. You can also bows and small beads to the wreaths for additional decorations, and if you can find pipe cleaners with sparkles that will make them even more festive. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (red, white, and green suggested) Pencil to wrap pipe cleaner around. Small beads (optional) #20: Spider Difficulty Level: Medium Spiders are a classic pipe cleaner craft, and kids will love making the eight legs for their pipe cleaner spider. Although you can make the spiders with just pipe cleaners, you can also add pom poms, eyes, and beads for additional decoration (or paint if you want to make it clearly a garden spider or camel spider!). You can also make the pipe cleaner spider as an easy and slightly spooky Halloween decoration. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (black or brown suggested) Scissors Googly eyes (optional) Plastic beads (optional) Pom poms (optional) #21: Clothespin Dragonflies Difficulty Level: Easy When you make these cute dragonflies, you’ll use a clothespin for the body, then form the wings with four pipe cleaners to form the wings. Kids can get creative by painting the clothespin to make a colorful dragonfly and adding some googly eyes. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Clothespins Googly eyes Hot glue gun Paint Scissors #22: Crown/Tiara Difficulty Level: Medium Whether it’s your child’s birthday or they just want the fun of feeling like royalty, these pipe cleaner crowns will do the trick. After forming a circle for the base, add a variety of shapes formed from additional pipe cleaners to make your crown (triangles work particularly well). Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (gold suggested) Hot glue gun Scissors Beads, stickers, or pom poms for decoration #23: Pumpkins Difficulty Level: Easy These pipe cleaner pumpkins are a great craft for kids to do around Halloween. Orange pipe cleaners are used to make the actual pumpkin, and you can use green and brown pipe cleaners to form the leaves and stem. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (orange, green, and brown suggested) Scissors #24: Flamingo Difficulty Level: Medium If you have pink pipe cleaners lying around, use a few to make these cute pipe cleaner flamingos. Pink feathers will make them look more realistic, and you can pose the legs in a variety of shapes, just like actual flamingos do. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (pink and black suggested) Pink feathers Googly Eyes Hot glue gun Scissors #25: Dragons Difficulty Level: Medium These pipe cleaner dragons are fairly easy to make (although younger kids may need some help making the tight coils for the head and body), and once you add on some foam wings, they’ll be flying in no time. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Craft foam Popsicle sticks Googly eyes Hot glue gun Scissors #26: Fireworks Difficulty Level: Easy Pipe cleaner fireworks are a colorful and easy way to celebrate the 4th of July. This craft uses glitter and can get messy, but kids will love dipping their fireworks into a batch of glitter and seeing them emerge covered in sparkles. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (red, white, and blue suggested) White craft glue Glitter Scissors Thick sponge (for drying) #27: Magic Wand Difficulty Level: Easy Any child who wants to pretend to be a magician or fairy will want to make this pipe cleaner magic wand. By using a wooden skewer as the actual wand, kids can add all sorts of pipe cleaner additions, like those made into the shape of stars and hearts, until their wand is ready to work some magic. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (any color) Wooden skewer Hot glue gun Scissors #28: Snowman Difficulty Level: Easy Another great winter craft, these pipe cleaner snowmen are great to make once it starts getting cold outside and kids start looking forward to snow. After making the three circles of the body, you can use different colors to add a scarf and hat to your snowman. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (white, black, and red suggested) Popsicle stick/wooden skewer Hot glue gun Scissors #29: Shamrock Crystals Difficulty Level: Hard This pipe cleaner craft is a bit more involved than the others, but it doubles as a science experiment, and the shamrock crystals will look beautiful hanging in the window. After forming the pipe cleaners into a shamrock, you’ll submerge them in a borax solution overnight. The next morning, they’ll be covered in crystals and ready to display. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (green and white suggested) Borax Boiling water Mason jars String or yarn Pencil Food coloring #30: Fall Pom Pom Tree Difficulty Level: Hard This fall pom pom tree makes a great centerpiece for a Thanksgiving dinner, and kids can work on their fine motor skills by adding decorations to the pipe cleaner tree. You can have your kids go on a nature walk and collect their own acorns, leaves, etc. to add to the tree. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (brown, red, orange, and yellow suggested) Pom poms (red, orange, yellow suggested) Acorns, leaves, and other tree decorations Scissors Hot glue gun #31: Lion Mask Difficulty Level: Medium For this lion mask, tightly-curled pipe cleaners make the adorable mane, and a decorated paper plate is used for the lion’s face. This mask is great to use during a play about animals or a game of make-believe. Materials Needed: Pipe cleaners (yellow/orange and brown suggested) Paper plate Yellow paint Paint stirrer Marker Hot glue gun Scissors Summary: Crafts With Pipe Cleaners Pipe cleaner crafts are a cheap, easy, and fun way to entertain kids and get them to work on their creativity and fine motor skills. There are easy pipe cleaner crafts for kids of all age groups and of all difficulty levels, so whether you have only a few minutes or several hours to spend, you can find pipe cleaner crafts to suit your needs. What's Next? Are you also interested in science experiments for kids? Read our guide to see 37 of the most fun science experiments you can do with children. (coming soon) Teaching your kids Spanish, or are you learning yourself? We have a guide to the 71 body parts in Spanish you need to know. Want to learn more about clouds? Learn how to identify every cloud in the sky with our guide to the 10 types of clouds.

The Power of Public Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Power of Public Relations - Essay Example The roles of corporations have emerged to be criminal and obscene in nature that it becomes difficult to even consider proposing a change in their business conduct and culture.A clear, well-planned policy and public relations approach will rally the audience or the public to support the leader amidst the counter-campaign of opponents, not only political but also corporate in nature. This has become necessary in the US political landscape and mass communication due to the open encroachment of corporate actors in policy-making and informing the public. After all, the majority of the so-called mainstream media are corporate in nature and they tend to support their advertisers despite obvious negative actions they are committing against the majority of the public. In addition, the delineation between freedom and expression and controlled information has been blurred to a point where truth may be difficult to identify (Hall, 2007). To conclude, public relations for a political leader or c lient may prove difficult if one is on the side for the public good. A need to bargain with major actors becomes necessary to strike a balance and make the opposite side understand the importance of sustainability even in corporate dealings. Where a balance may be bargained, the problem will be on safeguarding an equitable implementation of policy. All these encompass the work of the public relations practitioner and should be considered carefully in their PR packages especially for politicians.

Treatment electronic media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Treatment electronic media - Essay Example Mary is weary and lost in pain. Billy, the charismatic head of the state house visit her to see how she is doing and show his interest in her. Mary’s lack of enthusiasm makes him sad, but he covers his anger with her current experience. Lost in grief and shock, Mary, is kept in the same residence with ANN, who is also a widow. Ann has already caught up with the new lifestyle. Due to stress and depression, Mary, who have eight months pregnant gotten early labor and she gives birth to a healthy, bouncing baby boy. The bond between the mother and baby is not so strong so ANN, hold the tiny baby boy and cuddles her. His name was BOB. Mary recovers slowly as week’s passes by and she accepts the new world she joined. The bond between mother and child starts to grow stronger day after and day. ANN gives Mary all support she needs from advice to help her in the house. ANN tells Mary all stories she knows or she has ever heard about the people in the state but Mary denies saying she must be exaggerating, it cannot be true yet the same people have saved her life. They stay together bonds the two like sisters. ANN plan to escape because they have been locked indoors for quite some time. They do not have vicinity to the real world. One night, Ann decides to escape from the state house at midnight, the same night she is shot dead. Mary is so horrified at the death of her only sister in the state house. Her agony returns and she take a refuge with relation with BOB. Whenever BOB wants to hear stories about his father Mary did not have the strength to explain him his father was dead. She lies to him that his father escaped to America several years ago, after he learnt that the president wanted him dead as he was a senior person in the government that time, and she was certain he will come to look after them. This lie helps her to heal the trauma of her husband. Billy visits and assign

Weibo And Chinese Society Essay Example for Free

Weibo And Chinese Society Essay The new media, different from television, magazines, books or paper-based publications, is a new form of mass communication, which contains technologies that enable digital interactivity. For example, websites, video games, Internet all belong to the new media. Currently, the new media is becoming increasingly popular and sharply changing people’s life. The advent of Weibo in China is one of the most prominent examples, which is also the topic I am going to analyze in this passage. Chinese Weibo, similar to twitter used worldwide, is a micro blog, by which people can post words, pictures and videos on the Internet. The general public or the organization can create their own account easily and share things with their followers so they can communicate freely with each other. Some celebrities and government officials also own weibo accounts and in this way, weibo helps to create a two-way communication between famous people and Chinese Internet users. Research showed that people spend at least one hour per day checking Weibo messages on their cellphones or on their laptops, while spend only fifteen minutes on reading newspapers. It is very common in current Chinese society to see people using weibo every day to check the latest news, share daily life, or chat with friends, etc. 1 Nearly fifty percent of the Internet users in China have Weibo accounts and use it regularly. Among these people, most of them are from the younger generation who are more open-minded to the new technology. This paper consists of two parts. The first part aims to understand the effects weibo has made ten years from now on Chinese society. The second part talks about Chinese government policy and the progress China has made reflected by the proliferation of weibo. Speaking of the impact of this new media, weibo has impressively changed the traditional mass media. Prior to the turn of the century, only journalists with an official degree can be reporters and public news, which they thought were newsworthy. However, in nowadays, with the advent of weibo, the general public can be the first one to reveal something important happened around them by posting weibo using only forty Chinese characters. Sometimes these posts can be the sources of the news on next day’s newspaper. For example, on March 2013 a man robbed a store and fell down on his way running. This accident was firstly recorded by a citizen who happened to pass by in that neighborhood. Then he quickly posted this on weibo and called the police. Immediately, this post was reposted thousand times and known to many people in this city. Later on, the newspaper bought the pictures taken by the weibo user and published as the next day’s headline news. In this way, the general public is helping professional journalists find newsworthy things happened around them and change the traditional humdrum way of publishing. 2 In addition, the extensive use of weibo is acting like a supplement of paper- version reports. Every famous news agency has their own weibo accounts, whenever there was an influential news, there would be a short post to give people a brief introduction of what happened. Also, weibo can be a place where the journalists post updates in a continuous event. For example, when the missing airplane MH370 accident happened this year, every progress the rescue group had made was posted through weibo. While we were waiting anxiously for the latest news–if there were survivors, how was their family numbers, where was the plane, what caused this crash, etc. several news agencies post the latest contents immediately when there were new discoveries. The general public simply need to refresh their weibo to look for the latest news, which makes it more convenient and quickly. The advent of weibo also has tremendous impact on the daily life of the general public. Firstly, weibo users can follow official accounts based on their interests–what kind of news they care about most, which celebrities they esteem and want to know more about. For instance, a person likes sports might follow soccer players and other sports news related accounts. A person cares about health might become a fan of Chinese Healthy Diet on weibo. In this way, the weibo users can conveniently receive information specifically 3 what they want to know by using the Internet. Moreover, by reposting these weibos, weibo users can share the interested news with other followers and show the support for the original weibo user. Besides that, weibo users can also follow private accounts, which consist of one’s family members, friends and co-workers. Even if people cannot meet each other every day, they can still keep in touch and let others know what happened in their life by posting weibo. In the current society, weibo is a good communication tool to help promote the interaction between people who are busy working or studying every day and cannot meet each other because they live far away. My own example can best illustrate this point. I study abroad, which means I can only meet my family members and friends once a year. But I regularly post on weibo about what I have learned, what I have done, how I feel, etc. My friends can like or comment on my posts so we would not feel so far from my life in a remote country. The use of the micro blog also provoked great repercussion on the whole society, especially on the political field. Since a two-way communication between government officials and the general public was built up based on the proliferation of weibo. Almost every civic servant in China has their weibo account and is required to post their weekly work publicly. If Internet users have problems with the policy or officials’ behaviors, they can comment under the post or send a private letter 4 through weibo. It is the government officials’ duty to reply in time to the citizens and explain every action they take until the askers receive a satisfied answer. Making sure that the general public has a clear understanding of what the government is doing is a task for government officials through their communication on weibo. It is also common for people to show their support to certain policy or government officials through the use of weibo. Due to the impressive influence it has on the whole society, once a post was sent by a civic servant or a department in the government, it would be repost at once by thousands of Internet users who advocate this proposal. Therefore, with the power of the weibo users, it is easy to distinguish if an action or policy by the government is welcomed to the public in society. On the other hand, weibo can dramatically help to supervise the political system  and other charitable organizations. Before the proliferation of weibo, it is relatively hard for the public to directly oversee the behaviors of the authorities and social groups. This kind of supervision is mostly achieved by the specialized department set up to keep an on the behaviors of the government officials. However, nowadays, people can freely post anything they discovered in their daily life and keep an eye on the celebrities what they have posted through weibo. The weibo users also supervise the misbehaviors of government officials in political field and urged the related to investigate. 5 Two examples happened in 2011 and 2012 Chinese society can best help to explain this point. In 2011, a weibo user with the account number Meimei Guo posted several micro blogs about her Maserati and big houses. And her title was the manager of the Chinese Red Cross, which was revealed in her weibo profile. This made the weibo users pretty confused: where did all her money come from? How can she afford such luxury? With more and more people paying attention to this young girl with such unusual background, the Red Cross was forced to response to this issue. Although that this organization clarified it had no connection with Meimei Guo, the public do not think that is the real truth. Also, the Public Security Bureau began to investigate the relationship between Meimei Guo and the Red Cross. Specially, they suspect this so-called manager had improper relationship with the chairman of the board, so she could have access to the money people donated to the Red Cross and used it for big houses and Maserati. Later after the Meimei Guo affair, the Red Cross was mistrust by the public for a long time and was required by the relevant department to reveal its budget to the society and become completely transparent. Another case happened in 2012 was triggered by one picture taken by a weibo user in a car accident scene. The post on weibo showed that in this kind of 6 occasion, the government official was smiling instead of grieving for the hurt people, which made the general public angry. Afterwards, this official was severely criticized by the people on weibo. People even found out all his other pictures taken in different occasions to see if he was eligible to be a civic servant. Eventually, people found that in many pictures, he wore different costly watches, which were not accordance with his income earned from his job. With more and more people doubted the sources of the money, relevant department began to investigate in this case. They found out that a large amount of the money of his fortune was from corruption. This official used the convenience of his position to make money for a long time so he had money to afford expensive watches and big houses. As a result, this official was â€Å"sent â€Å"by the weibo users into prison. Of course, the spread of weibo is a two-edged sword,which means it can also exert negative effects on society. For instance, there is a group of people who open weibo accounts only to sell products, which makes the Internet environment full of commercials. It is difficult to regulate these commercials because it is hard to tell if the product is of good quality based on the limited information weibo posts can provide. Also, the freedom people possess when they use weibo makes the online environment increasingly complex. Diverse people holding totally different opinions can equally and freely express on weibo. On rare cases, immoral people purposely release fake news to the public in order to tarnish others’ reputation or cause a society panic. The general public might get confused based on the complicated information they receive. 7 There was once a water company being framed by a piece of news in Beijing Daily. It reported that the water from Nongfu Company was not clean and could not achieve the water standard in China. Later on, this news was posted by several weibo users without testing its accuracy. Along with the spread of this breaking news all over the weibo environment, this company got stuck in trust crisis and had a significant decline in monthly sales. Thousands of Internet users showed their anger and disappointment to this water company and the news was reposted in a large scale. However, when Nongfu Company went to test its water in the Quality Supervision Bureau, the result showed Nongfu water was clean and had achieved the water standard. It turned out the news was distorted and afterwards misused by the weibo users. This example showed that it is equally easy for both the truth and fake news spread out through weibo and the latter would absolutely damage the social order to some degree. The spread of Weibo and its effects can be the introduction of the second part of this paper, which explains the Chinese society progress and the government policy. Because of the significant impact weibo exerts on Chinese society, the government has taken specific measures to regulate the weibo environment. Moreover, the policies, being increasingly flexible and allowing for more freedom, can reflect the Chinese progress in recent ten years. Fifty years ago, Chinese people were not used to freely speak in the public at all, nor were they allowed to criticize the government officials and the policy. In my 8 father’ generation, people who dared speak out the actual evaluation of one policy might even end up being caught into prison because they were considered too aggressive. Almost every thing they said or did was under the guidance of the government. People did not have a way to express their thoughts, not to mention giving advice to the government. Obedience blindly might be the best words to describe the people living in that period. However, in the new era, with more rights are given to the general public, people are changing their mind accordingly. They begin to say something in public instead of stubbornly listening to the authority. Weibo is an excellent tool to help achieve this transformation within this background. With the advent of weibo, people are having a channel to easily express themselves. They can set up an account and apply their personal design to the home page. They can post words and pictures. These weibo contents do not limit to their daily life about what they have done and how they feel which are mainly shared with their friends and family members. Weibo users can also use the micro blog to comment on recent events happened in China and in the international scale. For example, after the plane crash MH370, many weibo users criticized the inappropriate behaviors of the Malaysia government and airplanes. Another example would be the lawsuit in 2011. The driver, whose father is Gang Li–a government official, was interrogated in court because he triggered a car accident, which caused one people dead and one people severely injured. Hundreds of weibo users posted on Internet their complaints because they thought the court was treating this criminal inequity due to his special social 9 status. This case reflects a big progress which not only means the government is giving more freedom to people, but also means people are more willing to discuss the current affair and becoming the masters of their own country. Still, I cannot deny that there are restrictions on weibo use. Offensive words and pornographic contents are definitely not allowed to exit on Weibo. Besides, the regulation on political field is relatively strict compared to the policies used to regulate the Internet in other countries. However, even if there are certain amount of restrictions on the contents people can post, it is too a large degree progressive compared to before. The limitations are primarily in political area, especially when the reputation and safety of central government were threatened by aggressive speech on weibo. If happened, the relevant accounts might be suspended and the posts would be deleted as soon as being found. Moreover, this weibo user might even be arrested if the post had caused a severely negative effect within the whole society. This is a comparatively strict punishment compared to the policies made on pornographic or fake news. To the latter one, the account might still be used. Only the specific weibo contains pornographic or violence contents would be deleted by the administrator. The policies in sensitive period in China, (for example, when minorities groups were trying to split China) are harsh compared to that in normal times. The government is controlling weibo environment to stop the rumors, which aim to cause social panic. During that special period, Internet users even cannot post 10 weibos including sensitive words such as â€Å"split of China† †The independence of Tibet† or the names of the sensitive characters in the political fight. All in all, Chinese society is making progress in the new millennium, not only in terms of economics, but also in political and cultural area. The policy and laws enacted by the government guarantee freedom and democracy to the public. Chinese people’s minds are opening to the world and becoming more autonomous accordingly. They use weibo to share their life, enjoy the rights they are accorded to help master the country. It is not possible for the social organization or government to block a piece of news they do not want the public to know any more. With the extensive use of weibo, all the information around them and directly affect them would spread quickly and has a significant effect within the whole society. People have already stepped into a new era with the extensive use of weibo and the old days will never come back.

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â€Å"When flood waters from the Mississippi River and it’s tributaries surge down the river the volume of water is physically impossible to contain. In general, there is just to much Water!!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The â€Å"pools† behind the navigation dams have no effect in preventing or causing floods. Like a bathtub it doesn’t matter if the pools are empty or full when the floodwaters come. Within a very short time the excess water can create an over flow (Army Corps of Engineers).† What is a Flood? A flood occurs when water is poured over the land and the ground and rivers cannot cope with it (Waterlow 8). Once a basin has filled, water will overflow its rim and resume it’s downward progress. â€Å"Gravity ensures that water must drain the land into the sea (Allaby 12).† When snow melts from a divide it is joined by more snow, and it will eventually reach the low lands. Hills down below will also shed water into the same low lands and if there is enough of this it can result in a flood (Allaby 12). The Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio drain an area of 1,243,700 square miles, this goes from the Rocky Mountains to the Canadian boarder and Pennsylvania (Allaby 13). All of this watershed result in floods each year the snow up north melts. How a Dam Affects Flooding A dam is made to make pools at least 9 ft. deep so that barge traffic can navigate freely through out the river. A lock is made so the barges can move from one pool to another (Army Corps of Engineers). The combination of these two make up a lock and dam system. Between St. Anthony Falls, MN, and Granite City, IL there are 29 lock and dam systems. It is said, in the beginning of this page in fact, that dams do not control flooding. Dams weren’t made to control floods and they never will, because floods are so unpredictable and so uncontrollable (Army Corps of Engineers). What is a Dike A dike is an embankment built to control or hold back the water of a river, stream, sea, etc. (Waterlow 25). In building a dike you can use sandbags, dirt, or both put together. You will build up a wall, getting it as compact as possible, as high as you think is needed to hold back the floodwaters. In the Netherlands farmers have used dikes to protect their farms from floods for hundreds of years (Waterlow 25).

Cultural Differences Affecting Meaning and Understanding Essay

How do cultural differences affect meaning and understanding? In today’s business environment, the mechanics of global business seem to be working on a surface level. We can make quick money transactions by phone or by computer. Consumers can purchase products from all different countries in one transaction. Although trade barriers are still a major topic, they are slowly decreasing. As we sick below the surface, we will see that Global business is still in major jeopardy because of a newly emerging challenge: Cultural differences. Culture is the pattern of beliefs or expectations that inevitably shape the behaviours of individuals and teams within organisations. It is concerned with the basic assumptions, values, attitudes, food and feeding habits, dress and appearance, relationships, a sense of self and space and norms shaped by members of an organisation or country. These elements of culture are usually taken for granted and guide others perceptions, thoughts and actions. For example, the Culture at McDonald’s fast food chain emphasises efficiency, speed and consistency. It orients employees to company goals and charters and suggests the necessary behaviours for success. Many educated, business people may say â€Å"But we are getting closer and closer to each other, we don’t have any cultural problems’. Yes, it is possible to transcend cultural differences; however statements like this can be misleading to many people. (Funakawa, p18) Geert Hofstede, a successful cross-cultural management researcher, observes five different dimensions within a culture: Power/Distancing – This refers to the degree of inequality that exists and is accepted among people with and without power. High Power distancing cultures conclude that society accepts an unequal distribution of power and people understand â€Å"their place† in the system. Low Power Distancing means that power is shared and well dispersed. It also means that society members view themselves as equals. Application: According to Hofstede’s model, in a high Power distancing country like Malaysia, you would probably send reports only to top management and have closed door meetings where only a select few, powerful leaders were in attendance. Individualism – This refers to the strength of the ties people have to others within the community. A high Individualism society indicates a loose connection with people. In countries with a high Individualism society there is a lack of interpersonal connection and little sharing of responsibility, beyond family and perhaps a few close friends. A society with a low Individualism would have strong group cohesion, and there would be a large amount of loyalty and respect for members of the group. The group itself is also larger and people take more responsibility for each other’s well being. Masculinity – This refers to how much a society sticks with, and values, traditional male and female roles. High Masculinity societies are found in countries where men are expected to be tough, to be the provider, to be assertive and to be strong. If women work outside the home, they have separate professions from men. Low Masculinity societies do not reverse the gender roles. In a low Masculinity society, the roles are simply blurred. You see women and men working together equally across many professions. Men are allowed to be sensitive and women can work hard for professional success. Uncertainty/Avoidance Index – This relates to the degree of anxiety society members feel when in uncertain or unknown situations. High Uncertainty societies try to avoid ambiguous situations whenever possible. They are governed by rules and order and they seek a collective â€Å"truth†. Low Uncertainty societies indicate the society enjoys novel events and values differences. There are very few rules and people are encouraged to discover their own truth. Geert also observes that when people write about national cultures in modern society becoming more and more similar, the evidence cited is usually taken from the level of practices; people dress the same, use the same fashionable words in context, buy the same products and brands, they participate in global sports etc. These manifestations of culture are sometimes mistaken for all there is: the deeper, underlying values is often overlooked. (Funakawa p33) The value for cross cultural communication cannot be overemphasised. It is what enables any mission statement, vision or strategy, and affects meaning and understanding on every level.