Shakespeares Hamlet is both Madman and Genious Essay -- essays resear

Madman or Genius? Scholars have been disputing the sanity of Hamlet, for over four hundred years, in the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Is he an insane madman or a vengeful, devious, genius? There are many contradictory ideas and theories on Hamlet’s so called psychosis, his procrastination in avenging his father’s death, and his actions towards his mother. In the first act Hamlet seems to be in a perfectly sane state of mind. It is the second scene where the reader begins to see a change in Hamlet’s character. Ophelia meets with Polonius and recalls the meeting she previously had with Hamlet. She tells her father that Hamlet came to her disheveled, and in a traumatized state of mind, speaking of "horrors." (Act 2 Scene 1 lines 83). Polonius immediately believes that he is "Mad for thy love?" (Act 2 Scene 1 lines 84). Ophelia answers a question posed by Polonius in which she responded that she had told Hamlet that she could not see or communicate with him any more. Polonius makes reference to Hamlet's madness once again by pronouncing what his daughter said, "... hath made him (Hamlet) mad." (Act 2 Scene 1 lines 109). This is where the argument of whether Hamlet is insane due to of his love for Ophelia begins, but a more confusing and complex situation is the struggle within Hamlet's mind. His personal struggle is revealed to the reader in scene one of the third act in the first of Hamlet’s several soliloquies. In this scene Hamlet recites his famous "To be or not to be, that is the question:" (Act 3 Scene 1 lines 57) speech. As Eric Levy puts it, â€Å"Though Hamlet is linked with the vulnerability of reason to emotion, he nevertheless displays extraordinary emotional control, despite extreme... ...o have fallen victim to their deceit†(Richardson 124). Also the fact that Hamlet thought that Polonius was Claudius adds to the evidence that Hamlet was in fact going insane. Hamlet's madness at times is justified, and at other times is pure insanity. At first Hamlet seems to be going mad over the fact that Ophelia is not allowed to see him. Subsequently it seems that Hamlet is going mad over the fact that he is overwhelmed with his father's death, and begins to fight with himself over the thought of suicide. He is then determined to avenge his father’s death and goes about torturing Claudius in a systematic and genius manner. Finally, Hamlet is caught up in his feelings about mother’s actions, which brings him back to the point of insanity. In conclusion, Hamlet is torn between two worlds, that of the rational and that of the distraught and insane.

Mental illness and prison

From the 1960’s to the 1980’s, the deinstitutionalization movement demanded that the mentally ill be treated in the community, using new drug therapies that appeared to control even the most extreme behaviors of the mentally ill.   This liberation of psychiatric patients was reinforced by court decisions that awarded certain legal rights to the emotionally ill.   But few community-based programs were developed to treat psychiatric patients effectively.   Released to the community without adequate support and treatment services, the mentally ill gravitated to criminal confinement facilities for offenders, particularly the jail but also to the prisons of the United States. It is estimated that about 15 percent of offenders imprisoned at any time have severe or acute mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, manic-depression illness, and depression.   Approximately 10 to 15 percent of persons with these three illnesses die by suicide.   Yet current treatment is extremely effective, if given.   Prisoners tend to be in poor mental health and about 80 percent of male prisoners and 80 percent of female jail inmates will, over their lifetime, have at least one psychiatric disorder. The greater the level of disability while in prison, the more likely the inmate is to receive mental health services.   In practice, proportionately more female prisoners use mental health services than do males, and whites are more likely to seek or secure prison mental health services than others.   At least half of the inmates who need such treatment go without it (Sigurdson, 2001). While the U.S. Supreme Court has not found that inmates have a constitutional right to treatment, it has ruled an inmate’s constitutional right to medical treatment includes the right to treatment for serious emotional illness.   The correction system is caught in the middle.   Institutions are not required to provide services simply because their clients are criminals, and thus have shifted critical funds to other uses, such as increased security staffing.   The threat of potential litigation has meant that some revision and provisions of mental health services for seriously ill inmates is necessary. As the mentally ill become a larger segment of the population in jails and prisons, professionals in the mental health field became essential to the correctional administrators.   The ratio of mental health practitioners to inmates remains much too low, there has been some progress.   Because many institutions must deal with mental health issues on a priority basis, few to no services are provided for the majority who do not exhibit violent or bizarre behavior.   It is a practical fact that in corrections â€Å"the squeaky wheel gets the grease† (Steadman, 1991). For some inmates, the impacts of prison life overwhelm their usual coping patterns.   Some factors that lead to prison psychosis include the routine of prison, fear of other inmates, forced homosexual behavior, assault and fear of assault, deteriorating in affairs and circumstances of family on the outside of prison and depression.   When the psychological crisis comes, correctional administrators frequently transfer affected inmates to prison infirmaries or psychological treatment words, or initiate inmate transfer to a mental health system. Long-term and intensive psychotherapy for mentally ill inmates is believed to be rare.   Treatment for episodic mental crisis tends to remain at the first aid level in many states.   Death rows do not usually contain a large proportion of a prison’s population but subsume a disproportionate share of the per inmate cost due to the demands of observing, caring, and maintaining death row.   That includes a lower staff-inmate ratio, mail processing, death-watch officer workload, closer custody during recreational periods and so on.   Some inmates on death row become mentally ill and as such cannot be executed (Ford v. Wainright, 106 S. Ct. 2595, 1986). The state has an additional burden of determining if the death-row inmate is insane, establishing some procedure to restore the inmate to sanity, and then certifying the sanity of the patient-inmate.   Because this would be tantamount to a death sentence and not a favor for the inmate, it is unlikely mental health physicians would undertake that process alone or with any great enthusiasm.   It remains for the states to develop procedures for identifying, diagnosing, treating, and certifying the sanity of death row inmates who claim to be insane (Steadman & Monahan, 1984). For the extreme behavior cases, there are special units for more intensive treatment, such as the one in Washington State.   That unit is a model of how to deal with extreme mentally and behaviorally disordered prisoners.   Unfortunately, that facility can handle only 144 inmates.   The figure is only about one-tenth of the commonly recognized population of inmates who could use more intensive mental health services.   One quickly finds that only the really severe cases are able to be referred to the Special Offender Center. It appears that the relationship between crime and mental disorder has no real cause effect.   It is essential for society to learn more about distinguishing between different kinds of mental illness and their impacts on safe and secure administration of correctional institutions.   It is important to remember that the real link to look for is one that indicates the potential for harm to the mentally ill person and others.   It may be a long time before such options are available to the already overcrowded corrections system in the United States (Wessely & Taylor, 1991). There are two justifications that defendants can invoke in an attempt to relieve themselves of criminal responsibility for a criminal act.   The first is not guilty by reason of insanity and the second is incompetent to stand trial.   In the first instance, offenders do not deny the commission of the act, but assert they lacked the capacity to understand the nature of the act or that it was wrong. The second instance is based on the common law criterion that defendants must be able to understand the charges against them to cooperate with their counsel in the preparation of their own defense.   The procedures for determining competency vary considerably among jurisdictions, but most make it a court decision based on psychiatric testimony.   If defendants are found incompetent to stand trial, then they are usually committed to a mental institution until declared competent (Hans, 1986). Psychiatric judgment of mental abnormality enters into the criminal law in three ways.   Aside from fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility, if an individual is convicted, psychiatry is often consulted in designing a custodial or treatment program for him or her. One problem in the use of psychiatry in the legal system is that there are vast and irreconcilable differences in the legal standards; fairness is achieved by responding to a specific act with a specific type of reaction while ignoring a mass of details about the accused. On the other hand, in the mental health approach of psychiatry the whole personality of the accused is relevant in determining the state’s response to criminal behavior.   Psychiatry is an applied science, but legal practice makes no such claim.   Clearly, as long as a judge and jury have such important roles in the court process, convicted criminals cannot be treated primarily according to scientific standards.   While it is customary for a judge and jury to participate in the legal process, we would find their dealing with matters of mental health bizarre and while the legal process is typically open to scrutiny by all people affected, the procedures of psychiatry are almost never made public.   The types of accountability of the legal and mental health systems are quite different. If a court correctly describes the facts of a case and chooses the correct legal response to these facts, the court is never held accountable for any negative consequences flowing from its actions, such as the suicide of a convicted offender.   What ultimately happens to the convicted offender or whether the offender’s family must go on welfare is not the court’s concern.   The judge is not bound to such utilitarian considerations.   However the judge is bound by law to a specific range of responses.   Psychiatry, on the other hand, is responsible for how its decisions affect the individual in the future (Galliher, 1989). With the advent of legal insanity and legal incompetence as defenses against criminal conviction caused the development of special asylums for the criminally insane, in most cases just another form of prison without due process protections.   In more recent years those claiming to be not guilty by reason of insanity have been the subjects of considerable debate.   President Nixon sought to have the not guilty by reason of insanity defense abolished.   More informed criminologists point to such problems with the insanity defense as excessive media coverage, suspicion of malingering by the defendant, and conflicting and suspicious testimony by mental health professionals testifying for either the defense or the prosecution. The insanity defense is used in less than 1 percent of all felony cases and of those only one in four are found to be not guilty by reason of insanity.   One study found only the most emotionally and behaviorally disturbed defendants to be successful in their plea and that the successful petitioners had committed more serious offenses.   The decision to acquit is more frequently made in court b y prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the judge, and less frequently by jury members.   Persons acquitted by the not guilty by reason of insanity are generally found less likely than their cohort offenders to commit crimes after release (Hans, 1986). Prosecutors often hope that those accused offenders acquitted through the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity will be institutionalized for a period sufficient to reduce their dangerousness, and to provide both public and safety and some retribution.   The debate continues.   Perhaps the most reasonable solution would be to determine guilt first and then sift the issue of diminished capacity or insanity in that case to the sentencing or case disposition state.   The American Psychiatric Association, following the attack by John Hinckley on the life of President Reagan, recognized that position. As a response, by 1986, twelve states abolished the insanity defense entirely then created guilty by mentally ill statutes in its place.   Under those statues, an offender’s mental illness is acknowledged but not seen as sufficient reason to allow him or her to escape criminal responsibility.   If convicted, offenders are committed to prison.   Some states will provide mental health treatment in the prison setting, but others may transfer the offender to a mental health facility for treatment.   In Georgia, defendants who entered insanity pleas but were determined guilty by mental illness received harsher sentences than their counterparts, whose guilt was determined in trial suggesting increased punishment for the disturbed offender (Callahan, McGreevy & Cirincione, 1992). Persons with mental disability, such as mentally disturbed or disorders, were once scorned, banished, and even burned as evil.   But in more enlightened times we have built backwoods fortresses for them to protect ourselves from contagion.   They have been executed as witches, subjected to exorcism, chained or thrown into gatehouses and prisons to furnish a horrible diversion for the other prisoners.   Before the Middle Ages persons with a mental illness were generally tolerated and usually cared for locally by members of their own family, tribal system, or primitive society. However widespread poverty, disease, and religious fanaticism seemed to trigger intolerance for any unexplainable deviation from the norm.   The mentally disturbed were thought to be possessed by devils and demons and were punished harshly because of it.   The first insane asylum was constructed in Europe in 1408.   From that date until recently the asylum was a dumping ground for all the mentally disordered people that could be neither understood nor cured. In the United States, one after another of the individual states responded to that compelling method of ridding society of misfits, and built numerous institutions during the mid 1800’s.   The inflated claims of cures for mental illness could not stand up against the process of institutionalization and long-term commitments sometimes for a lifetime and not cures became the rules of the day (Ives, 1914). Asylums became yet another invisible empire in America with the punitive excess and lack of care or caring ignored by society. â€Å"Out of sight, out of mind† was the catch phrase of these unfortunates.   With the discovery of tranquilizing drugs, these places became a place where patients were put into a controllable stupor, until a cure could be found.   Because of longer and longer periods of institutionalization usually by family members finally got the attention of the courts. In the 1960’s the rights of all citizens, including the mentally ill and convicts, were being re-examined at every level. The abuses in the back wards of the asylums were brought to light and the counter-reaction was extreme.   In the early 1970’s, state after state adopted policies under the Community Mental Health Act that swept the country.   The essential goal was to release all inmates of the asylums who were not a clear and present danger to themselves and society.   This act flooded the central cities of America with tens of thousands of mentally impaired street people and created poorhouses.   The response by most jurisdictions has been to transfer the problem to the criminal justice system, filling the jails and correctional institutions of America, a process known as transintitutionalization (Arrigo, 2002). There appears to be some confusion between physical disease and mental disease.   Because physicians have made great strides in gaining knowledge about physical disease, it is assumed by some people that this is also true of physicians’ knowledge about mental disease.   That is the tendency is to apply the same standards of competence to both areas of practice, even though this is hardly warranted. The distinction between crime and mental illness is unclear.   Some of the writers assume that nearly all criminal behavior is a manifestation of mental disease.   It seems that the reason for both of these ambiguities is that we really do not know what mental illness is, and that is the reason we cannot distinguish between mental illness and physical illness on the one hand and mental illness and crime on the other.   It is unfortunate that the long indeterminate sentences often given to mentally disordered offenders reflect a fear that those committed might be a problem in the future. It is the expectation that someone is capable of predicting criminal inclination that makes so questionable the programs for treating the mentally disordered.   So, one can see the paradox of requiring psychiatrists to predict behavior and to attach a label to offenders, when that might result in an indefinite or even lifelong commitment to a mental institution for someone who is not really dangerous, such as a false-positive prediction.   The individual is then labeled for custody and treatment in a special area within that institution.   When you consider the wealth of folklore surrounding mental institutions, it becomes clear that a dreadful lifelong stigma accompanies the label of criminally insane.   While the public remains upset by the gaping loophole in the net of justice, the courts continue to seek out equitable ways to deal with the offender who has diminished mental capacity. Reference: Arrigo, B. (2002). â€Å"Transcarceration: A Costructive Ethnology of Mentally-Ill    Offenders†.   Prison Journal 81(2), 162-186. Callahan, L., McGreevy, M., & Cirincione, C. (1992).   â€Å"Measuring the Effects of the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Guilty but Mentally Ill Verdict: Georgia’s 1982 GBMI Reform†.   Law and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Human Behavior 16(4), 447-462. Galliher, J. (1989).   Criminology: Human Rights, Criminal Law, and Crime.   N.J.:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prentice Hall. Hans, V. (1986).   â€Å"An analysis of Public Attitudes toward the Insanity Defense†.   Criminology 24(3), 393-413. Ives, G. (1914). A History of Penal Methods.   London: S. Paul. Sigurdson, C. (2001).   â€Å"The Mad, The Bad and The Abandoned: The mentally Ill in   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prisons and Jails†.   Corrections Today 62(7), 162-186. Steadman, H. (1991).   â€Å"Estimating Mental Health Needs and Service Utilization Among   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prison Inmates.†Ã‚   Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law    19(3), 297-307. Steadman, H. J. & Monahan, J. (1984).   Crime and Mental Disorder.   Washington, D.C.:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   U.S. Department of Justice. Wessely, S., & Taylor, P.J. (1991). â€Å"Madness and Crime: Criminology versus   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychiatry†.   Criminal Justice

Deception in Shakespeare’s MacBeth Essay

‘Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.’ (Shakespeare 1.5. 64-66) Throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth, things are not always as they seem. Deception in this play is always present, especially with the main characters – Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is the most skilled at persuading others, especially her husband, into believe things that are not true. The above quote, spoken by Lady Macbeth to her husband, shows exactly how manipulative and deceiving she can be. She is telling Macbeth to look and act pure, but to be evil inside. Macbeth, evidently led by his wife, but also by his own ambitions, is likewise guilty of deception. He deceives his best friend Banquo, King Duncan, as well as his public. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth also try to use denial and rationalization to deceive themselves. This self-deception leads to grave circumstances for them both. Macbeth is forced into further and further lies, making life difficult and unbearable. Lady Macbeth is also caught in the depths of deception and eventually kills herself. Therefore, it is obvious that the main characters of Shakespeare’s Macbeth are all negatively affected by the recurring theme of deception. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth uses her ability to mislead others in many ways. First of all, she decides to use deception to push her husband’s ambition to be king. †¦Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round†¦(1.5.25-28) Lady Macbeth believes that, to be successful in his ambitions, Macbeth must rise above his goodness and accept her evil ways. She knows that the process of making her husband believe what she wants may not be easy. Lady Macbeth has to be cunning, and she is up for the challenge. The thought of being in power – the King and Queen of Scotland – drives her and she cannot be stopped. Lady Macbeth often has to reinforce her immoral beliefs to her husband, giving him a boost. Was the hope drunk, wherein you dressed yourself? hath it slept since, and  wakes it now, to look so green and pale at what it did so freely? From this time such I account thy love. Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour, as thou art desire? Wouldst thous have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ Like the poor cat I’the adage?'(1.7.35-42) Lady Macbeth implies that Macbeth is being cowardly by not going after what he wants. She preys upon her husband’s pride to remind him of his ambitions. Once she has schooled her husband in the art of deception, she must help him uphold this image and the lies. This deceit always results in hazardous outcomes. Although Lady Macbeth is the most talented deceiver, Macbeth is also lead into committing his own deceptions. He begins to learn from his wife, and, in turn, proceeds to deceive many others. Deceiving his friends becomes a frequent habit, and Macbeth is forced to continue his lies and stories. Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends; I have a strange  infirmity, which is nothing to those that know me. Come, love  and health to all; then I’ll sit down. – Give me some wine: fill  full: – I drink to the general joy of the whole table, and to our  dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; would he were here. (3.4.84-91) This falsehood is evident, as Macbeth is trying to fool his dinner guests about the reasons for his strange behaviour. Pretending that everything is fine eventually does not work, and as the play continues, so does the deception on many different levels. Deceiving others may seem difficult, but deceiving oneself leads to even bigger problems. Lady Macbeth is so occupied with trying to mislead others,  while rationalizing the deception to herself and her husband, that she does not notice how much the guilt is building. She finally gets so caught up in the deception game, that she cannot take it anymore. Lady Macbeth’s worry that people are no longer falling for their deceptive ways, comes out in one of her mad ramblings in front of the doctor: ‘†¦What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?'(5.1.35-37). Though she is trying to be bold, saying that she does not care who knows what they have done, the statement proves that she does fear being detected. In the end, Lady Macbeth’s guilt over all of the lies gets the better of her. She goes mad, sleepwalking and rambling about the murders. ‘Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale. – I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried: he cannot come out on’s grave.'(5.1.58-60) The deception that Lady Macbeth once prided herself on, lead to the self-deception, which then lead to her death when she committed suicide. Macbeth is also in over his head, and his mind starts to play tricks on him on more than one occasion: Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.(2.1.33-36) †¦art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?(2.1.37-39) Macbeth’s state of mind is not that of a normal man. He is trying so hard to go against his nature, convincing himself that deception is the only way to be King. The deceit does take its toll: ‘O! full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!'(3.2.36) Macbeth becomes imprisoned by his illusions caused by the build up of denial and self-deception. Banquo’s ghost is an example of these illusions. ‘†¦Take any shape but that [Banquo’s] and my firm nerves shall never tremble: or , be alive again†¦'(3.4.103-104) Macbeth’s inner struggle is coming out and, because his mind is in such a state, he can no longer control his behavior. Like his wife, Macbeth’s own inner deception has made him crazy. Macbeth goes from being a noble warrior with honest ambition, to someone that cannot even control his own thoughts anymore, due  to all of the deception. From the end results of the play, we can clearly see how deception ruins lives. Shakespeare shows the audience that misleading others – and oneself, is not honorable nor the way to get ahead. Lady Macbeth’s ability to seduce her husband into having immoral thoughts, leading to immoral actions to gain power, does not pay off. Macbeth’s learned evilness and deception also affects him negatively, and the quest to be king is tragic. Self-deception is the worst kind of deceit, as we can see that the guilt becomes overwhelming, causing insanity. Evil deception of any kind is clearly harmful and a valid moral lesson can be taken from this play. BIBLIOGRAPHY Shakespeare, William. MACBETH. England: Longman Group UK Limited, 1986.

Media Globalisation and its Effects

Media Globalisation and its Effects Free Online Research Papers The globalisation of media has had a drastic effect on media systems globally and the production and dissemination of information and culture. The following paper will outline how the globalisation of media restructures relations between different media corporations/providers. It will further address the impact of media globalisation on culture through examination of the two central discourses surrounding the cultural impact of media globalisation; homogenisation and hybridisation. The media and communications sector is perhaps the sector where globalisation has had its most prolific impact. Globalisation of the media has facilitated a complete restructuring of media systems into a single global media system. Robert McChesney (1999, p.260) claims that where â€Å"previously commercial media systems were primarily national†¦ [Recently] a global commercial-media market has emerged.† Organisations such as the World Bank, World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary fund have helped to facilitate media globalisation through encouraging states to deregulate markets in order to attract foreign investment. According to McChesney (1997, p.1) â€Å"the global commercial system is a very recent development†¦until the 1980s media systems were generally national in scope†¦ [however] pressure from the IMF, World Bank and US Government to deregulate and privatize media systems coincided with new satellite and digital technologies resulting in the rise of transnational media giants.† This demonstrates the three factors which have, and continue to, enable media globalisation are the deregulation of media ownership laws, the privatisation of previously state owned media outlets, particularly in Asia, and the proliferation of new media technologies. A pertinent example of how deregulation and privatisation facilitate media globalisation was evidenced in China. Prior to 1999 China had been opposed to privatisation and deregulation of its media sector in order to allow foreign investment. However, in 1999 it was offered entry into the WTO on the condition that it â€Å"allow foreign investors to hold up to 49 percent of certain telecommunications companies, including internet firms† (Head 2001, p.414). The Chinese ‘communist’ government agreed this condition and deregulated its media sector. The decision by China illustrates the lure of being accepted as part of the global free-market, Lyons (2005) posits that â€Å"the admittance into the World Trade Organisation was a benefit that outweighed the past reluctance towards foreign investment.† This move toward deregulation of markets is a trend that has been evidenced increasingly throughout both the North and the South. The globalisation of media has resulted in the concentration of media ownership into a handful of transnational media corporations (TNMCs). This arose out of series ‘mega-mergers’ between several large media corporations until finally, according to McChesney (1999, p.260), â€Å"the global media market has come to dominated by the same eight TNCs that rule the US media: General Electric, ATT/Liberty Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News Corporation, Viacom and Seagram.† The creation of this global media oligopoly has resulted in a vast restructuring of the power relations between media organisations. The concentration of media ownership has centralised power amongst media organisations into the hands of a small minority both within states and globally. Lee Artz (2003, p.8) claims that â€Å"globalization has redistributed resources within nations to the domestic elite and internationally to the TNCs.† Artz (2003, p.8) claims that â€Å"TNCs merge with loc al entities to circumvent regulations or disfavour† and that the national elites which constitute these entities â€Å"have adopted the mantra of deregulation, privatization and commercialisation.† Hence it becomes evident that the neoliberal economic policies that drive globalisation facilitate the reordering of power within the media sector both nationally and internationally. Although the global media system is largely dominated by the eight dominant TNMCs, behind these corporations there exists what McChesney (1997, p.2) refers to as â€Å"second tier† corporations, â€Å"these firms tend to have national and regional strongholds or to specialize in global niche markets.† Although these second tier corporations are usually national or regional, according to McChesney (1999, p.265), â€Å"they are hardly oppositional to the global system, this is true as well in developing countries.† In saying that, second tier corporations are not necessarily compatible with the TNMCs. Lyons (2005) posits that â€Å"there is fierce competition taking place between the first and second tier corporations† because the second tier corporations â€Å"dont want to loose market share to the larger multinational corporations.† In short, the second tier firms strive to become TNMCs by globalising while the first tier corporations attempt to consume the second tier firms into their empires. This process again has a restructuring impact on existing power relations amongst media enterprises. Whilst the second tier firms attempt to globalise, the balance of power still remains with the TNMCs and their virtually unassailable grip on the global media system. There are two processes by which TNMCs globalise; these are vertical and horizontal integration. Vertical integration refers to the process by which TNMCs gain ownership of both the intellectual property (media content) and the means of distribution. For instance McChesney (1999, p.260) cites the fact that nearly all Hollywood studios are owned by one of the major TNMCs which, in turn, also own the cable television channels which distribute their content. Horizontal integration describes the situation where TNMCs own a large portion of a specific media sector. An example of horizontal integration is News Corporation’s domination of the Australian newspaper industry, owning the most popular (tabloid) newspaper in every capital city and the only national broadsheet. Vertical integration affects the power relations between media enterprises significantly by diminishing competition. If the same parent corporation owns both the content and means of distribution of that content they possess the power to price any potential competitor out of the market. This suppression of competition in the global media system further centralizes power amongst media organisations towards the major TNMCs and away from other, smaller media organisations. Horizontal integration of media organisations has a detrimental effect on the diversity of content within certain sectors of the media system. That is, if the same TNMC controls several different media outlets within the same media sector it may deliver the same content through every outlet. Horizontal integration also has the effect of pushing smaller media outlets out of certain sectors as they do not possess the relevant resources to compete with the TNMCs, further perpetuating media ownership concentration and therefore further centralizing power within the global media system. Media globalisation also has also had a significant impact on the production and reproduction of culture. Two dominant discourses exist in relation to the impact of media globalisation on culture; these are homogenisation and hybridisation. In rudimentary terms, homogenisation refers to the dissemination of one particular culture globally through media flows and hybridisation refers to the idea that media globalisation is actually disseminating a range of new, hybrid, cultural concepts. Discourses espousing the homogenisation theory are critical of media globalisation and find their roots in political economy theory. Chris Barker (1999, p.37) posits that â€Å"one strand of the homogenization argument stresses the global reach of capitalist consumerism.† This theory proposes that the TNMCs that largely control the global media system as a result of globalisation disseminate a homogenous form of culture based on an ideology of capitalist consumerism. The negative view political economy theorists take toward this concept is â€Å"posed in terms of a loss of cultural autonomy and diversity in a process dubbed cultural imperialism† (Barker 1999, p.37). Artz (2003, p.17) claims that â€Å"capitalist hegemony needs parallel media hegemony as an institutionalized, systematic means of educating, persuading, and representing subordinate classes to particular practices within the context of capitalist norms†, indicating that the global media system is merely vehicle through which the capitalist ideology of the TNMCs is disseminated to ‘subordinate classes’. McChesney (1999, p.266) claims, similarly, that â€Å"the global media system is better understood as one that advances corporate and commercial interests and values and denigrates or ignores that which cannot be incorporated into its mission.† Another, similar, concept often espoused by those critical of media globalisation from a political economy perspective is that not only is the homogenous culture one of capitalist consumerism, but that it is also a specifically American or Western brand of culture. Barker (1999, p.38) asserts that â€Å"homogenization is regarded primarily as the spread of Western capitalism and culture.† This claim is problematic for two reasons; firstly, there is no single Western or American culture, hence how can global media flows disseminate a non-existent monoculture. Secondly, as Barker (1999, p.38) asserts, â€Å"it is the case that that the global flows of cultural discourses are any longer constituted as one-way traffic from the ‘west-to-the-rest’.† Furthermore, this argument presupposes that capitalism and consumerism are strictly Western concepts. There can be no doubt that the global media system is based on capitalist ideology as it requires the existence of a global free-market to operate. Similarly the global media system, by nature, disseminates consumerism as it is largely dependant on advertising, however to say that media globalisation has created a homogenising of global cultural flows toward a Western or American monoculture is problematic. Cultural studies theorists claim that the homogenisation discourse looks at media globalisation in too narrow terms. The cultural studies discourse surrounding media globalisations states that, the global media system does not disseminate a single homogenous culture but actually allows the hybridisation of cultural flows globally, Floya Anthias (2002, p.628) claims that hybridisation is a â€Å"process of redefinition’ which challenges the idea of the homogeneity of dominant cultures†. Anthias (2002, p.622) describes hybridisation as â€Å"the ways in which forms become separated from existing practices and recombine with new forms of new practices†, indicating that hybridisation is not merely the production of new types of culture from thin air but the merging of different cultural practices to create hybrid cultural forms. One of the arguments that cultural studies theorists cite in their claim that media globalisation has a hybridizing effect on cultural flows is that the creation of diaspora media flows. These diaspora media flows are examples of what Karim Haiderali Karim (p.51) calls â€Å"decentralized global narrowcasting.† These media flows are produced by migrants who create media flows for people of similar culture within their host country (and sometimes in other countries), usually in their native language, Karim (p.51) claims that these media flows are â€Å"neither homogenizing nor all-encompassing†. Such media flows are an example of hybridisation because â€Å"they are produced with varying relationships to both their homelands and their host land† (Karim, p.51). These diaspora media flows are an ever growing trend, particularly among minority ethnic groups in Western countries and clearly illustrate how globalisation can create hybrid cultures. Another argument espoused by cultural studies discourses surrounding the hybridisation of culture through media globalisation concerns the concept of ‘active audiences’. In opposition to the political economy discourse that the global media system disseminates a homogenous culture, cultural studies scholars claim that all audiences to which culture is exported will not interpret media content in a homogenous way nor will they necessarily accept it. Lyons (2005) claims that â€Å"the audience is now fragmented, know and addressable. This new audience is engaged and active in participation.† An example of the concept of ‘active audiences’ was evidenced in India. Australian media mogul James Packer gained part ownership of Star TV, a company that distributes satellite television in India. When Packer attempted to air American television programs on Star TV they were not accepted by the audience. In fact, â€Å"Star TV only succeeded after it hired an Indian television executive who created Indian soap operas† (Lyons 2003). This example demonstrates that even if homogenous media content is disseminated by the global media system it will not necessarily have a homogenous effect on culture as audiences are not a blank slate on which culture can be impressed but rather an active consumer group that will interpret, accept or reject content accordingly. The globalisation of media, primarily since the Second World War, has had an unprecedented impact on the structure of power relations within the media sector and the way in which culture is produced, reproduced and disseminated globally. The immense concentration of media ownership as a result of media globalisation through deregulation and privatisation of media markets and the proliferation of new media technologies has centralized power amongst media organisations. The concentration of media ownership has resulted in the creation of a global media oligopoly; this process has reordered power relations within the global media system almost exclusively toward this group. Due to the creation of this oligopoly the diversity of media content disseminated through global media flows has been diminished, with huge cultural implications. A dialectic has emerged whereby the global media flows have two, seemingly contradictory, effects on culture. While the global media system disseminates capitalist consumer culture globally and uniformly having a homogenizing effect, it simultaneously has the effect of creating new hybrid cultures as a result of global flows of people and the interpretation of media flows. However, neither homogenisation nor hybridisation attempt the preservation of traditional cultures, homogenisation attempts to suppress them whilst hybridisation may subvert by incorporating them into new hybrid cultures. It is the future of traditional cultures to which the proliferation of media globalisation poses the greatest threat and how such cultures can be preserved will be an important question for future theory on media globalisation. Reference List McChesney, R. 1999, ‘The New Global Media’, The Nation, USA, November 29 1999. McChesney, R. 1997, ‘The Global Media Giants’, Extra, USA, November 1997. Siochrà º, S. 2004, ‘Social consequences of the globalization of the media and communication sector: Some Strategic Consideration’, Policy Integration Department Word Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, Geneva. Ainger, K. 2001, ‘Empires of the Senseless’, New Internationalist, April 2001. Artz, L. Kamalipour, K. 2003 (ed.), The Globalization of Corporate Media Hegemony, State University of New York Press, New York. Barker, C. 1999, ‘Global Television Culture’, in Television, Globalization and Cultural Identities, Open University Press, Buckingham. Anthias, F. 2005, ‘New hybridities, old concepts: the limits of ‘culture’’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 619-638. Haiderali Karim, K. 2003, The Media of Diaspora, Routledge, New York. Lyons, J. 2005, ‘Media Globalization and its Effect upon International Communities: Seeking a Communication Theory Perspective’, Global Media Journal, Vol. 4, Iss. 7, June 2, 2007, Head, S. W., Spann, T., McGregor, M. A. 2001, Broadcasting in America, ed. 9, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston Research Papers on Media Globalisation and its EffectsRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenDefinition of Export QuotasMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaTwilight of the UAWOpen Architechture a white paper

How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy Youll Actually Use (Template)

How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy Youll Actually Use (Template) Does it feel like youve spent tons of time creating a thoughtful content marketing strategy, only to have it fall to pieces in a month or two because of shifting priorities? This is the problem with most content marketing strategies they arent flexible. After all, it’s impossible to know in January what your organization’s situation will look like in June. So, your team needs to be agile. And your strategy needs to be adaptable. In this post, we’ll cover exactly how to create a content marketing strategy that will: Keep your team focused and organized, so you can plan your work, then work your plan. Ensure your content is aligned with real goals that’ll make an actual impact on your business. Stay flexible and adjust according to what’s working (and what isn’t). Plus, well touch on how makes it easy to plan and execute your entire content marketing strategy with the best marketing suite on the Internet. Start With Your Free Content Marketing Strategy Template Best of all, we won’t just tell you what to do. We’ll actually show you how to document your content marketing strategy. And well even give the template youll need to get it done completely free! Download it quick below, and then well move onto planning your strategy.How To Build A Content Marketing Strategy You'll Actually Use Table of Contents: What is Content Marketing Strategy? Why Should My Business Do Content Marketing? Which Content Marketing Tools Do I Need? Ten Steps To Creating Your Content Marketing Strategy Assemble Your Content Marketing Team Establish Your Mission Statement Establish Your Content Marketing Goals Audience and Persona Development Determine Content Types Choosing Content Promotion Channels Writing and Designing Your Content Define Your Content Creation Process Create Your Content Promotion Strategy Make a Plan to Measure Your ResultsWhat is Content Marketing Strategy A content marketing strategy is: â€Å"An in-depth marketing plan that highlights the topics, processes, and standards that each piece of content a marketing team creates must meet.† How do you define content marketing strategy? Why Should My Business Create a Content Marketing Strategy? Creating a content marketing strategy is vital to the success of your overall content marketing. Why? Because it gives your content team the direction they need to create remarkable content, measure your success (and failures) and stick to the plan you’ve designed. Still don’t believe a documented strategy works? According to our own data, marketers who document their strategy are 538%  more likely to report success. According to data from @, marketers who document their strategy are 538% more likely to...And that’s just the beginning. Check out this infographic for more statistics and data to help convince you to add content marketing to your overall marketing strategy: Sources: 1-2. https://.com/marketing-statistics 3-4. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blogging-frequency-benchmarks 5-9. https://.com/marketing-statistics 10-12. oracle.com/webfolder/mediaeloqua/documents/Content+Marketing+Kapost+Eloqua+ebook.pdf 13-14. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/know-like-trust-content/ 15.   https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics Some of the statistics and data from the infographic above can help you begin to fill in the content marketing strategy template that you downloaded earlier. Which Content Marketing Tools Do I Need? The fact of the matter is, content marketing can be a bear to handle. Using the right tools can help your team stay on track and organized. The question is, which tools does your team need? Content Management System A content management system is a must for managing and publishing content. WordPress is one of the most popular options out there, especially for creating company blogs. However, here are some other options you may consider: ExpressionEngine. Great for managing content on small websites. Drupal. Another option similar to WordPress, but with a less blogging-heavy focus. Sitecore. A powerful feature-rich enterprise solution. Joomla.  A free and open-source content management system for publishing web content. Squarespace. A software as a service provider for website building and hosting. Wix. A cloud-based web development platform Analytics Platform Analytics platforms make it easy to gather data and measure performance for your content and social media marketing efforts. Google Analytics is one obvious option here. However, there are tons more out there you might want to consider, too. They include: Matomo (formerly Piwik). This is an open-source alternative to Google Analytics. Open Web Analytics. Similar to Piwik. Clicky. Another option that's popular with bloggers. Adobe Analytics. An enterprise analytics solution. Angelfish Actual Metrics. A more affordable, alternative to Adobe. Chartbeat. Analytics for Editors. CoreMetric. Used by e-commerce websites. Content Marketing Editorial Calendar Calendars are essential for planning ahead, managing deadlines, and giving your team full visibility on all the content you're publishing. We recommend The Content Organizer (as you may have guessed) as the top choice for a content marketing platform. Here's a quick look at what we're all about: Social Media Scheduling Tool Social media is an important part of any content marketing strategy. That's both for promoting content  and creating awesome native social content. 's Social Organizer makes it easy to create and schedule social media posts for each of the top networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+). Plus, here are some other cool things you might not know about: With ReQueue, you can reshare your best posts automatically. And with Best Time Scheduling, you can make sure every post publishes at the ideal time, too. Plus, with our WordPress + social integrations, you can create and share content all in one place. even has a monitoring tool to help you stay on top of all your social media conversations. Every time we create a piece of content, we use each of the features above to spread it to our audience (and beyond). SEO Tools To get your content found in organic search and measure its performance, you'll need a solid set of SEO tools. Here's what we use at : Ahrefs. This platform is awesome for keyword research, link analysis, rank tracking, site auditing, and more. Moz. This platform is similar to Ahrefs and offers powerful functionality. Google Keyword Planner. It's more of a PPC tool, but still useful for keyword research in a pinch. Google Search Console: This free tool is vital for monitoring the health of your website. Marketing Project Management Tools Keeping a content marketing team in line can feel like herding cats. That's where project management tools come into play. Tools like Wrike and Asana are popular options. Here at , we use the Work Organizer to: Wrangle tasks  with Task Templates (which are reusable project checklists). Measure team productivity with Team Performance Reports. Discussions (built-in comment threads right inside our marketing calendar) to make communication and project management super easy. See and track daily tasks of the whole team with the Team Management Dashboard. Overall, what separates is that it's built specifically for marketing teams. That's why we use it ourselves (and the results speak for themselves). Once you have your tools selected, record them in your template: Which content marketing tools do you use to plan and execute your strategy? Ten Steps to Building Your Content Marketing Strategy The next ten steps are going to walk you through how to fill in the template you downloaded earlier and create your content marketing strategy. Step One: Assemble Your Content Marketing Team The first step in your content marketing strategy process is to document the team that will be working on the content from start to finish. Each team may look a little different, but some familiar roles are: Each member of your content team has a vital role to play. Remember that the role a person plays on a content marketing team may not necessarily match up to their title. Record your team members, their role and their responsibilities in your template: Recommended Reading: How To Structure Your Marketing Team To Create The Best Content Step Two: Establish Your Mission Statement The first part of the template that you need to fill out is the mission statement of your company. Your mission statement should be the promise that your organization wants to fulfill for your audience. Here’s a template to help you get started: The mission of [Insert Organization Name] is to provide our customers with [service one] and [service two] through [action one], [action two] and [action three].

Globalization of Financial Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Globalization of Financial Reporting - Essay Example Globalization of Financial Reporting As such, the structure should be â€Å"contingency based, taking into account the variables of that particular system at that specific point in time.† The most important variables to consider are the firm’s strategy, size, technology, and environment of those countries in which the country operates. In addition, other relevant variables that affect the company’s operations are: geographic dispersion, time differences, language, culture and business practices. These could actually be classified according to resources (man, materials and market), the processes, the controls and incentives and the culture of the organization as well as that of the host country. These variables interact consistently to ensure that the global company maximizes the utilization of its resources and assure its profitability. Thereby, each and every component or variable is important in defining the success of the firm’s international operations. In this regard, this essay is written with the objective of proffering the ways in which globalization has affected one of the critical areas in an organization’s operations – its financial reporting. In addition, as the process of globalization continues, the discourse would determine The effect of globalization to organizational structure, particularly financial reporting and accounting practices are tremendously being evaluated triggered by the need to standardize reporting concepts and practices for international users.

The Rise and Fall of the HP Way Case Study Essay

The Rise and Fall of the HP Way Case Study - Essay Example What was the HP Way? In the HP Alumni Association, Inc. (2012), it was revealed that the HP Way had five clearly stipulated corporate values to wit: â€Å"We have trust and respect for individuals. We focus on a high level of achievement and contribution. We conduct our business with uncompromising integrity. We achieve our common objectives through teamwork. We encourage flexibility and innovation† (HP Alumni Association, Inc. 2012). The date stipulate for these corporate values to be designed, instituted and implemented within the organization is in 1992. Accordingly, the HP corporate objectives designed as early as 1966 focused on seven explicit goals: (1) profit, (2) customers, (3) field of interest, (4) growth, (5) employees, (6) organization, and (7) citizenship (HP Alumni Association, Inc. 2012). ... Governance under Carly Fiorina Case facts revealed that Carly Fiorina was a former sales executive that was hired to shake up HP. She was reported to become HP’s Chairman and CEO in 1999, three years after the death of one of its founders, Dave Packard. It was specifically noted that she was hired from external sources and was instrumental in changing various corporate values that were identified to be an integral part of the HP Way. From among the tranformations attributed to Fiorina were: (1) mishandling of lay-offs; (2) valuing profits more than people; (3) creating a ‘cult of personality’; and (4) creating a culture of fear (Dong, 2002, p. 1). To expound on the aspect of laying-off employees, according to Jaime Ash, a retired engineer who stayed with HP for more than 28 years, the HP way that employees and management had been talking about focused on â€Å"co-workers (who) were reassigned to new jobs rather than fired; how the company for a time implemented a shortened work week for all employees so certain individuals would not lose their jobs† (Dong, 2002, p. 1). In sum, the differentiated practices under Fiorina’s helm and the HP Way are detailed below: Corporate Practice HP Way Fiorina’s Helm Firing/lay-offs Job reassignment Laid-off 6000 employees Corporate culture Trust, respect Distrust, fear Motivational program Motivated by hugs Motivated by fear Management practice To be part of the team; Distant and aloof; decentralized top-down approach Communication practice Open, sharing information Close, secret, discreet Mistakes that Led to HP’s Near Collapse From the information and assessment of the facts, one could