NUTRITION RELATED DISEASE Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 5

NUTRITION RELATED DISEASE - Research Paper Example There are two types of nutrients, macronutrients and micronutrients. Macro nutrients provide the bigger part of energy required by the organism’s metabolic functions, whereas micronutrients provide the required cofactors for metabolism to take place. The chart below indicates various sources of foods and nutrients. Food borne illness is also referred to as food poisoning. It is any illness that is resulting from consuming, viruses, parasites pathogenic bacteria, natural or chemical toxins which contaminate the food. On the other hand a nutrient related disease results from inadequate or excessive nutrient and food intake resulting to unhealthy conditions like rickets, obesity and kwashiorkor (Archeson, Thorpe, 2013). Food that is safe is important so as to avoid instances of food poisoning, spread of microbiological dangers which include bacteria such as Salmonella. Food contaminants are mostly responsible for spoiling or tainting food and they contain such microorganisms as bacteria, parasites and other toxic substances (Archeson, Thorpe, 2013). Food contaminants usually can cause serious issues and thus resulting in diseases that every year affects an approximately 76,000,000 million people in the US and at the same time leading to over 325,000 hospitalizations and over 500 deaths. Thus awareness of possible sources of foodstuff contaminants is a crucial element as far as good nutrition is concerned. A food additive is any stuff added to foodstuff. If it’s for a direct purpose the additive is known as a direct additive such as the low-calorie sweetener aspartame mostly used in beverages, yoghurt, puddings and chewing gum (Cliver, Rieman, 2002). Several direct additives are mostly found on the ingredient tag of foodstuffs. On the other hand, indirect additives become an aspect of foodstuff in small due to the way it is stored, handled and packed. Additives are important because they impart and maintain required

Marketing Anthropology Essay Example for Free

Marketing Anthropology Essay Anthropology and marketing (together with consumer research) were once described as ‘linchpin disciplines in parallel intellectual domains’ (Sherry 1985a: 10). To judge from the prevalent literature, however, this view is not shared by many anthropologists, who tend to look at markets (for example, Carrier 1997) and exchange rather than at marketing per se (Lien 1997 is the obvious exception here). For their part, marketers, always open to new ideas, have over the decades made – albeit eclectic (de Groot 1980:131) – use of the work of anthropologists such as Claude Levi-Strauss and Mary Douglas whose aims in promulgating their ideas on binary oppositions, totemism and grid and group were at the time far removed from the endeavour of marketing both as a discipline and as practice. Can anthropology really be of use to marketing? Can the discipline in effect market itself as an effective potential contributor to solving the problems faced by marketers? There is no reason why not. After all, it is anthropologists who point out that there is more than one market and that these markets, like the Free Market beloved by economists, are all socio-cultural constructions. In this respect, what they have to say about the social costs of markets, as well as about the non-market social institutions upon which markets depends and the social contexts that shape them (cf. Carruthers and Babb 2000:219-222), is extremely pertinent to marketers anxious to come up with definitive answers as to why certain people buy certain products and how to persuade the rest of the world to do so. At the same time, however, there are reasons why anthropology probably cannot be of direct use to marketing. In particular, as we shall see in the following discussion of marketing practices in a Japanese advertising agency, anthropology suffers from the fact that its conclusions are based on long-term immersion in a socio-cultural ‘field’ and that its methodology is frequently unscientific, subjective and imprecise. As part of their persuasive strategy, on the other hand, proponents of marketing need to present their discipline as objective, scientific, speedy and producing the necessary results. How they actually go about obtaining such results, however, and whether they really are as objective and scientific as they claim to their clients, are moot points. This paper focuses, by means of a case study, on how marketing is actually practised in a large advertising agency in Japan and has four main aims. Firstly, it outlines the organisational structure of the agency to show how marketing acts as a social mechanism to back up inter-firm ties based primarily on tenuous personal relationships. Secondly, it reveals how these same interpersonal relations can affect the construction of apparently ‘objective’ marketing strategies. Thirdly, it focuses on the problem of how all marketing campaigns are obliged to shift from ‘scientific’ to ‘artistic’ criteria as statistical data, information and analysis are converted into 1 linguistic and visual images for public consumption. Finally, it will make a few tentative comments on the relations between anthropology and marketing, with a view to developing a comparative theory of advertising as a marketing system, based on the cultural relativity of a specific marketing practice in a Japanese advertising agency (cf. Arnould 1995:110). The Discipline, Organisation and Practice of Marketing The Marketing Division is the engine room of the Japanese advertising agency in which I conducted my research in 1990. At the time, this agency handled more than 600 accounts a year, their value varying from several million to a few thousand dollars. The Marketing Division was almost invariably involved in some way in the ad campaigns, cultural and sporting events, merchandising opportunities, special promotions, POP constructions, and various other activities that the agency carried out on behalf of its clients. Exceptions were those accounts involving media placement or certain kinds of work expressly requested by a client – like, for example, the organisation of a national sales force meeting for a car manufacturer. Even here, however, there was often information that could be usefully relayed back to the Marketing Division (the number and regional distribution of the manufacturer’s sales representatives, as well as possible advance information on new products and/or services to be offered in the coming year). Marketing Discipline As Marianne Lien (1997:11) points out, marketing is both a discipline and a practice. The main aims as a discipline of the Marketing Division were (and, of course, still are): firstly, to acquire as much information as possible from consumers about their clients’ products and services; secondly, to acquire as much information as possible, too, from clients about their own products and services; and, thirdly, to use strategically both kinds of information acquired to develop new accounts. Marketing thus provided those working in the Marketing Division with the dispassionate data that account executives needed in their personal networking with (potential) clients whom they cajoled, persuaded, impressed and pleaded with to part with (more) money. Marketing Organisation In order to achieve the three overall objectives outlined above, the agency established a certain set of organisational features to enable marketing practice to take place. Firstly, the Marketing Division, which consisted of almost 90 members, was structured into three separate, but interlocking, sub-divisions. These consisted of Computer Systems; Market Development and Merchandising; and Marketing. The last was itself sub-divided into three departments, each of which was broken down into three or four sections. 1 Each section consisted of from six to a dozen members, led by a Section Leader, under whom they worked in teams of two to three on an account. These teams were not fixed. Thus one member, A, might work with another, B, under the Section Leader (SL) on a contact lens advertising campaign, but find herself assigned to worked with C under SL on an airline company’s business class service account, and with D under SL on a computer manufacturer’s consumer survey. In this respect, the daily life of members of the Marketing Note that, unlike the Marketing department in Viking foods discussed by Lien. Department was similar to that of product managers described by Lien (1997:69), being characterised by ‘frequent shifts from one activity to another, a wide network of communications, and a considerable amount of time spent in meetings or talking on the telephone’. Secondly, tasks (or accounts) were allocated formally through the hierarchical divisional structure – by departments first, then by sections – according to their existing responsibilities and perceived suitability for the job in hand. Each SL then distributed these tasks to individual members on the basis of their current overall workloads. At the same time, however, there was an informal allocation of accounts involving individuals. Each SL or DL could take on a job directly from account executives handling particular accounts on behalf of their clients. Here, prior experiences and personal contacts were important influences on AEs’ decisions as to whether to go through formal or informal channels of recruitment. The account executive in charge of the NFC contact lens campaign described in my book (Moeran 1996), for example, went directly to a particular SL in the Marketing Department because of some smart work that the latter had done for the AE on a different account some months previously. Mutual respect had been established and the contact lens campaign provided both parties with an opportunity to assess and, in the event, positively validate their working relationship. There were certain organisational advantages to the ways in which accounts were distributed in the manner described here. Firstly, by freely permitting interpersonal relations between account executives and marketers, the Agency ensured that there was competitiveness at each structural level of department and section. Such competition was felt to be healthy for the Agency as a whole, and to encourage its continued growth. Secondly, by assigning individual members of each section in the Marketing Department to working in different combinations of people on different tasks, the Agency ensured that each member of the Marketing Department received training in a wide variety of marketing problems and was obliged to interact fully with fellow section members, thereby promoting a sense of cooperation, cohesion and mutual understanding. This in itself meant that each section developed the broadest possible shared knowledge of marketing issues, because of the knowledge gained by individual members and the interaction among them. Marketing Practice Accounts were won by the Agency primarily through the liaison work conducted with a (potential) client by an account executive (who might be a very senior manager or junior ‘salesman’ recruited only a few years earlier). Once an agreement was made between Agency and client – and such an agreement might be limited to the Agency’s participation in a competitive presentation, the outcome of which might lead to an account being established – the AE concerned would put together an account team. An account team consists of the AE in charge (possibly with assistants); the Marketing Team (generally of 2 persons under a Marketing Director [MD], but sometimes much larger, depending on the size of the account and the work to be done); the Creative Team (consisting of Creative Director [CD], Copywriter, and Art Director [AD] as a minimum, but usually including two ADs – one for print-, the other for TV-related work); and Media Planner/Buyer(s). The job of the account team is to carry out successfully the task set by the client, and to this end meets initially for an orientation meeting in which the issues and problems relayed by the client to the AE are explained and discussed to all members. 2 Prior to this, however, the AE provides the marketing team with all the information and data that he has been able to extract from the client (a lot of it highly confidential to the company concerned). The marketing team, therefore, tends to come prepared and to have certain quite specific questions regarding the nature of the statistics provided, the target market, retail outlets, and so on. If it has done its homework properly – which is not always the case, given the number of different accounts on which the team’s members are working and the pressure of work that they are under – the marketing team may well have several pertinent suggestions for further research. It is on the basis of these discussions that the AE then asks the MD to carry out such research as is thought necessary for the matter in hand. In the meantime, the creative team is asked to mull over the issues generally and to think of possible ways of coping ‘creatively’ (that is, linguistically and visually) with the client’s marketing problems. Back in the Marketing Department, the MD will tell his subordinates to carry out specific tasks, such as a consumer survey to find out who precisely makes use of a particular product and why. This kind of task is fairly mechanical in its general form, since the Agency does this sort of work for dozens of clients every year, but has to be tailored to the present client’s particular situation, needs and expectations. The MD will therefore discuss his subordinate’s proposal, make some suggestions to ensure that all points are overed (and that may well include some additional questions to elicit further information from the target audience that has taken on importance during their discussion), and then give them permission to have the work carried out. All surveys of this kind are subcontracted by the Agency to marketing firms and research organisations of one sort or another. This means that the marketing team’s members are rarely involved in direct face-to-face contact or interaction with the consumers of the products that they wish to advertise,3 except when small ‘focus group’ interviews take place (usually in one of the Agency’s buildings). The informal nature of such groups, the different kinds of insights that they can yield, and the need to spot and pursue particular comments mean that members of the marketing team should be present to listen to and, as warranted, direct the discussion so that the Agency’s particular objectives are achieved. In general, however, the only evidence of consumers in the Agency is indirect, through reports, statistics, figures, data analyses and other information that, paradoxically, are always seen to be insufficient or ‘incomplete’ (cf. Lien 1997:112). Once the results of the survey are returned, the marketers enter them into their computers (since all such information is stored and can be used to generate comparative data for other accounts as and when required). They can make use of particular programmes to sort and analyse such data, but ultimately they need to be able to present their results in readily comprehensible form to other members of the account team. Here again, the MD tends to ensure that the information presented at the next meeting is to the point and properly hierarchised in terms of importance. This leads to the marketing team’s putting forward things like: a positioning statement, slogan, purchasing decision The Media Planners do not usually participate in these early meetings since their task is primarily to provide information of suitable media, and slots therein, for the finished campaign to be placed in. 3 A similar point is made by Lien (1997. 11) in her study of Viking Foods. Focus Groups usually consist of about half a dozen people who represent by age, gender, socio-economic grouping and so on the type of target audience being addressed, and who have agreed to talk about (their attitudes towards) a particular product or product range – usually in exchange for some gift or money. Interviews are carried out in a small meeting room (that may have a one-way mirror to enable outside observation) and tend to last between one and two hours. 4 2 4 odel (high/low involvement; think/feel product relationship), product message concept, and creative frame. One of the main objectives of this initial – and, if properly done, only – round of research is to discover the balance between what are terms product, user and end benefits, since it is these factors that determine the way in which an ad campaign should be presented and, therefore, how the creative team should visualise the marketing problems analysed and ensuing suggestions from the marketing team. It is here that we come to the crux of marketing as practised in an advertising agency (whether in Japan or elsewhere). Creative people tend to be suspicious of marketing people and vice-versa. This is primarily because marketers believe that they work rationally and that the creative frames that they produce are founded on objective data and analyses. Creative people, on the other hand, believe that their work should be ‘inspired’, and that such inspiration can take the place at the expense of the data and analyses provided for their consideration. As a result, when it comes to producing creative work for an ad campaign, copywriters and creative directors tend not to pay strict attention to what the marketing team has told them. For example, attracted by the idea of a particular celebrity or filming location, they may come up with ideas that in no way meet the pragmatic demands of a particular ad campaign that may require emphasis on product benefits that are irrelevant to the chosen location or celebrity suggested for endorsement. This does not always happen, of course. A good and professional creative team – and such teams are not infrequent – will follow the marketing team’s instructions. In such cases, their success is based on a creative interpretation of the data and analyses provided. Agency-Client Interaction If there is some indecision and argument among different elements of the account team – and it is the presiding account executive’s job to ensure that marketers and creatives do not come to blows over their disagreements – they almost invariably band together when meeting and presenting their plans to the client. Such meetings can take place several, even more than a dozen, times during the course of an account team’s preparations for an ad campaign. At most of them the MD will be present, until such time as it is clear that the client has accepted the Agency’s campaign strategy and the creative team has to fine-tune the objectives outlined therein. Very often, therefore, the marketing team will not stay on a particular account long enough to learn of its finished result, although a good AE will keep his MD abreast of creative developments and show him the (near) finalised campaign prior to the client’s final approval. But marketers do not get involved in the production side of a campaign (studio photography, television commercial filming, and so on) – unless one of those concerned knows what is going on when, happens to be nearby at the time, and drops in to see how things are going. In other words, the marketing team’s job is to see a project through until accepted by the client. It will then dissolve and its members will be assigned to new accounts. Advertising Campaigns: A Case Study To illustrate in more detail particular examples of marketing practice in the Agency, let me cite as a case study the preparation of contact lens campaign in Japan. This example is illuminating because it reveals a number of typical problems faced by an advertising agency in the formulation and execution of campaigns on behalf of its clients. These include the interface between marketing and creative people within an agency and the interpretation of marketing analysis and data; the 5 transposition of marketing analysis into ‘creative’ (i. e. linguistic, visual and design) ideas; the interface between agency and client in the ‘selling’ of a campaign proposal; and the problems of having to appeal to more than one ‘consumer’ target. When the Nihon Fibre Corporation asked the Agency to prepare an advertising campaign for its new Ikon Breath O2 oxygen-passing GCL hard contact lenses in early 1990, it provided a considerable amount of product information with which to help and guide those concerned. This information included the following facts: firstly, with a differential coefficient (DK factor) of 150, Ikon Breath O2 had the highest rate of oxygen permeation of all lenses currently manufactured and marketed in Japan. As a result, secondly, Ikon Breath O2 was the first lens authorized for continuous wear by Japan’s Ministry of Health. Thirdly, the lens was particularly flexible, dirt and water resistant, durable, and of extremely high quality. The client asked the Agency to confirm that the targeted market consisted of young people and to create a campaign that would help NFC capture initially a minimum three per cent share of the market, rising to ten per cent over three years. The Agency immediately formed an account team, consisting of eight members all told. Their first step was to arrange for the marketing team to carry out its own consumer research before proceeding further. A detailed survey – of 500 men and women – was worked out in consultation with the account executive and the client, and was executed by a market research company subcontracted by the Agency. Results confirmed that the targeted audience for the Ikon Breath O2 advertising campaign should be young people, but particularly young women, between the ages of 18 and 27 years, since it was they who were most likely to wear contact lenses. At the same time, however, the survey also revealed that there was little brand loyalty among contact lens wearers so that, with effective advertising, it should be possible to persuade users to shift from their current brand to Ikon Breath O2 lenses. It also showed that young women were not overly concerned with price provided that lenses were safe and comfortable to wear, which meant that Ikon Breath O2’s comparatively high price in itself should not prove a major obstacle to brand switching or sales. On a less positive note, however, the account team also discovered that users were primarily concerned with comfort and were not interested in the technology that went into the manufacture of contact lenses (thereby obviating the apparent advantage of Ikon Breath O2’s high DK factor of which NFC was so proud); and that, because almost all contact lens users consulted medical specialists prior to purchase, the advertising campaign would have to address a second audience consisting mainly of middle-aged men. All in all, therefore, Ikon Breath O2 lenses had an advantage in being of superb quality, approved by medical experts and recognized, together with other GCL lenses, as being the safest for one’s eyes. Its disadvantages were that NFC had no ‘name’ in the contact lens market and that users knew very little about GCL lenses or contact lenses in general. This meant that the advertising campaign had to be backed up by point of purchase sales promotion (in the form of a brochure) to ensure that the product survived. Moreover, it was clear that Ikon Breath O2’s technical advantage (the DK 150 factor) would not last long because rival companies would soon be able to make lenses with a differential coefficient that surpassed that developed by NFC. 5 On this occasion, because the advertising budget was comparatively small, the media buyer was not brought in until later stages in the campaign’s preparations. The AE in charge of the NFC account interacted individually with the media buyer and presented the latter’s suggestions to the account team as a whole. 6 As a result of intense discussions following this survey, the account team moved slowly towards what it thought should be as the campaign’s overall ‘tone and manner’. Ideally, advertisements should be information-oriented: the campaign needed to put across a number of points about the special product benefits that differentiated it from similar lenses on the market (in particular, its flexibility and high rate of oxygen-permeation). Practically, however – as the marketing team had to emphasize time and time again – the campaign needed to stress the functional and emotional benefits that users would obtain from wearing Ikon Breath O2 lenses (for example, continuous wear, safety, release from anxiety and so on). This meant that the advertising itself should be emotional (and information left to the promotional brochure) and stress the end benefits to consumers, rather than the lenses’ product benefits. Because the marketing team had concluded that the product’s end benefits should be stressed, copywriter and art director opted for user imagery rather than product characteristics when thinking of ideas for copy and visuals. However, they were thwarted in their endeavours by a number of problems. Firstly, advertising industry self-policing regulations prohibited the use of certain words and images (for example, the notion of ‘safety’, plus a visual of someone asleep while wearing contact lenses), and insisted on the inclusion in all advertising of a warning that the Ikon Breath O2 lens was a medical product that should be purchased through a medical specialist. This constriction meant that the creative team’s could not use the idea of ‘continuous wear’ because, even though so certified by Japan’s Ministry of Health, opticians and doctors were generally of the opinion that Ikon Breath O2 lenses were bound to affect individual wearers in different ways. NFC was terrified of antagonizing the medical world which would often be recommending its product, so the product manager concerned refused to permit the use of any word or visual connected with ‘continuous wear’. Thus, to the account team’s collective dismay, the product’s end benefit to consumers could not be effectively advertised. Secondly, precisely because Ikon Breath O2 lenses had to be recommended by medical specialists, NFC’s advertising campaign needed to address the latter as well as young women users. In other words, the campaign’s tone and manner had to appeal to two totally different segments of the market, while at the same time satisfying those employed in the client company. This caused the creative team immense difficulties, especially because – thirdly – the product manager of NFC’s contact lens manufacturing division was convinced that the high differential coefficient set Ikon Breath O2 lenses apart from all other contact lenses on the market and would appeal to members of the medical profession. So he insisted on emphasizing what he saw as the unique technological qualities of the product. In other words, not only did he relegate young women who were expected to buy the product to secondary importance; he ignored the marketing team’s recommendation that user benefit be stressed. Instead, for a long time he insisted on the creative team’s focussing on product benefit, even though the DK factor was only a marginal and temporary advantage to NFC. As a result of these two sets of disagreements, the copywriter came up with two different key ideas. The first was based on the product’s characteristics, and thus supported the manufacturer’s (but went against his own marketing team’s) product benefit point of view, with the phrase ‘corneal physiology’ (kakumaku seiri). The second also stressed a feature of the product, but managed to emphasize the user benefits that young women could gain from wearing lenses that were both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ (yawarakai). The former headline was the only way to break brand parity and make Ikon Breath O2 temporarily distinct from all other lenses on the market (the product manager liked the distinction; the marketing team disliked the temporary nature of that distinction). At this stage in the negotiations, the account executive in charge felt obliged to tow an obsequious line, but needed to appease his marketing team and ensure that the creative team came up with something else if at all possible, since 7 corneal physiology gave Ikon Breath O2 lenses only a temporary advantage. As a result, the copywriter introduced the word ‘serious’ (majime) into discussions – on the grounds that NFC was a ‘serious’ (majime) manufacturer (it was, after all, a well-known and respected Japanese corporation) which had developed a product that, by a process of assimilation, could also be regarded as ‘serious’; moreover, by a further rubbing-off process, as the marketing team agreed, such ‘seriousness’ could be attributed to users who decided to buy and wear Ikon Breath O2 lenses. In this way, both the distinction between product benefit and user benefit might be overcome. The copywriter’s last idea was the one that broke the deadlock (and it was at certain moments an extremely tense deadlock) between the account team as a whole and members of NFC’s contact lens manufacturing division. After a series of meetings in which copywriter and designer desperately tried to convince the client that the idea of softness and hardness was not a product characteristic, but an image designed to support the benefits to consumers wearing Ikon Breath O2 lenses, the product manager accepted the account team’s proposals in principle, provided that ‘serious’ was used as a back-up selling point. Soft hard’ (yawaraka hard) was adopted as the key headline phrase for the campaign as a whole. It can be seen that the marketing team’s analysis of how NFC should successfully enter the contact lens market met two stumbling blocks during the early stages of preparation for the advertising campaign. The first was within the account team itself, where the copywriter in particular tended to opt for the manufacturer’s approach by emphasising the product benefit of Ikon Breath O2. The second was when the Agency’s account team had to persuade the client to accept its analysis and campaign proposal. But the next major problem facing the account team was how to convert this linguistic rendering of market analysis into visual terms. What sort of visual image would adequately fulfil the marketing aims of the campaign and make the campaign as a whole – including television commercial and promotional materials – readily recognizable to the targeted audience? It was almost immediately accepted by the account team that the safest way to achieve this important aim was to use a celebrity or personality (talent in Japanese) to endorse the product. Here there was little argument, because it is generally recognized in the advertising industry that celebrity endorsement is an excellent and readily appreciated linkage device in multi-media campaigns of the kind requested by NFC. Moreover, since television commercials in Japan are more often than not only fifteen seconds long and therefore cannot include any detailed product information, personalities have proved to be attention grabbers in an image-dominated medium and to have a useful, short-term effect on sales because of their popularity in other parts of the entertainment industry. At the same time, not all personalities come across equally well in the rather differing media of television and magazines or newspapers, so that the account team felt obliged to look for someone who was more than a mere pop idol and who could act. It was here that those concerned encountered the most difficulty. The presence of a famous personality was crucial since s/he would be able to attract public attention to a new product and hopefully draw people into retail outlets to buy Ikon Breath O2 lenses. It was agreed right from the start that the personality should be a young woman, in the same age group as the targeted audience, and Japanese. (After all, a ‘blue eyed foreigner’ endorsing Ikon Breath O2 contact lenses would hardly be appropriate for brown-eyed Japanese. ) Just who this woman should be, however, proved problematic. Tennis players (who could indulge in both ‘hard’ activities and ‘soft’ romance) were discarded early on because the professional season was already in full swing at the time the campaign was being prepared. Classical musicians, while romantic and thus ‘soft’, were not seen to be ‘hard’ enough, while the idea of using a Japanese ‘talent’, Miyazawa Rie (everyone on the account team’s favourite at the time), was reluctantly rejected because, even though photographs of her in the nude were at the time causing a 8 minor sensation among Japanese men interested in soft-porn, she was rather inappropriate for a medical product like a contact lens which was aimed at young women. Any personality chosen had to show certain distinct qualities. One of these was a ‘presence’ (sonzaikan) that would attract people’s attention on the page or screen. Another was ‘topicality’ (wadaisei) that stemmed from her professional activities. A third was ‘future potential’ (nobisei), meaning that the celebrity had not yet peaked in her career, but would attract further widespread media attention and so, it was hoped, indirectly promote Ikon Breath O2 lenses and NFC. Most importantly, however, she had to suit the product. In the early stages of the campaign’s preparations, the creative team found itself in a slight quandary. They wanted to choose a celebrity whose personality fitted the ‘soft-hard’ and ‘serious’ ideas and who would then anchor a particular image to Ikon Breath O2 lenses, although it proved difficult to find someone who would fit the product and appeal to all those concerned. Eventually, the woman chosen was an actress, Sekine Miho, who epitomized the kind of modern woman that the creative team was seeking, but who was also about to star in a national television (NHK) drama series that autumn – a series in which she played a starring role as a ‘soft’, romantic character. Although popularity in itself can act as a straightjacket when it comes to celebrity endorsement of a product, in this case it was judged – correctly, it transpired – that Sekine had enough ‘depth’ (fukasa) to bring a special image to Ikon Breath O2 lenses. Once the celebrity had been decided on, the creative team was able to fix the tone and manner, expression and style of the advertising campaign as a whole. Sekine was a ‘high class’ (or ‘one rank up’ in Japanese-English parlance) celebrity who matched NFC’s image of itself as a ‘high class’ (ichiryu) company and who was made to reflect that sense of eliteness in deportment and clothing. At the same time, NFC was a ‘serious’ manufacturer and wanted a serious, rather than frivolous, personality who could then be photographed in soft-focus, serious poses to suit the serious medical product being advertised. This seriousness was expressed further by means of ery slightly tinted black and white photographs which, to the art director’s – but, not initially, the product manager’s – eye made Sekine look even ‘softer’ in appearance and so match the campaign’s headline of yawaraka hard. This softness was further reinforced by the heart-shaped lens cut at the bottom of every print ad, and on the front of the brochure, which the art director m ade green rather than blue – partly to differentiate the Ikon Breath O2 campaign from all other contact lens campaigns run at that time, and partly to appeal to the fad for ‘ecological’ colours then-current among young women in particular. This case study shows that there is an extremely complex relationship linking marketing and creative aspects of any advertising campaign. In this case, market research showed that Ikon Breath O2 lenses were special because of the safety that derived from their technical quality, but that consumers themselves were not interested in technical matters since their major concern was with comfort. Hence the need to focus the advertising campaign on user benefit. Yet the client insisted on stressing product benefit – a stance made more difficult for the creative team because it could not legally use the only real consumer benefit available to it (continuous wear), and so had to find something that would appeal to both manufacturer and direct and indirect ‘consumers’ of the lens in question. In the end, the ideas of ‘soft hard’ and ‘serious’ were adopted as compromise positions for both client and agency, as well as for creative and marketing teams. Concluding Comments Let us in conclusion try to follow two separate lines of thought. One of these is, as promised, the relationship between marketing and anthropology; the other that between advertising and marketing. 9 Although convergence between anthropology, marketing and consumer research may be growing, the evidence suggested by the case study in this paper is that huge differences still exist. Marketing people in the advertising agency in which I studied may be interested in anthropology; they may even have dipped into the work of anthropologists here and there. But their view of the discipline tends to be rather old-fashioned, and they certainly do not have time to go in for the kind of intensive, detail ethnographic nquiry of consumers that anthropologists might encourage. If anthropologists are to make a useful contribution to marketing, therefore, they need to present their material and analyses succinctly and in readily digestible form, since marketing people hate things that are overcomplicated. It is, perhaps, for this rather than any other reason that someone like Mary Douglas (Douglas and Isherwood 1979) has been so favourably received. In the end, marketing people aim to be positivist, science-like (rather than scientific, as such), and rationalist in their ad campaigns. They aspire to measure and predict on the basis of observer categories, if only because this is the simplest way to sell a campaign to a client. In this respect, they are closer to the kind of sociology and anthropology advocated in the 1940s and 50s (which would explain their adoption of Talcott Parsons’s theory of action, for example), than to the present-day ‘interpretive’ trends in the discipline, and thus favour in their practices an outmoded – and among most anthropologists themselves, discredited – form of discourse. So, ‘if anthropologists are kings of the castle, it is a castle most other people have never heard of’ (Chapman and Buckley 1997: 234). As Malcolm Chapman and Peter Buckley wryly observe, we need perhaps to spend some time entirely outside social anthropology in order to be convinced of the truth of this fact. Secondly, as part of this positivist, science-like approach, marketers in the Japanese advertising agency tended to make clear-cut categories that would be easily understood by both their colleagues in other divisions in the Agency and by their clients. These categories tended to present the consumer world as a series of binary oppositions (between individual and group, modern and traditional, idealist and materialist, and so on [cf. Lien 1997: 202-8]) that they then presented as matrix or quadripartite structures (the Agency’s Purchase Decision Model, for example, was structured in terms of think/feel and high/low involvement axes). In this respect, their work could be said to exhibit a basic form of structuralism. One of these oppositions was that made between product benefit and user benefit (with its variant end benefit). As this case study has shown, this is a distinction that lies at the heart of all advertising and needs to be teased out if we are successfully to decode particular advertisements in a manner that goes beyond the work of Barthes (1977), Williamson (1978), Goffman (1979) and others. Thirdly, one of the factors anchoring marketing to the kind of structured thinking characteristic of modernist disciplines, perhaps, is that the creation of meaning in commodities is inextricably bound up with the establishment of a sense of difference between one object and all others of its class. After all, the three tasks of advertising are: to stand out from the surrounding competition to attract people’s attention; to communicate (both rationally and emotionally) what it is intended to communicate; and to predispose people to buy or keep on buying what is advertised. The sole preoccupation of those engaged in the Ikon Breath 02 campaign was to create what they referred to as the ‘parity break’: to set NFC’s contact lenses apart from all other contact lenses on sale in Japan, and from all other products on the market. At the same time, the idea of parity break extended to the style in which the campaign was to be presented (tinted monochrome photo, green logo, and so on). In this respect, the structure of meaning in advertising is akin to that found in the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes of structural linguistics where particular choices of words and phrases are influenced by the overall structure and availability of meanings in the language in which a speaker is communicating. That the work of LeviStrauss should be known to most marketers, therefore, is hardly surprising. Marketing practice is in many respects an application of the principles of structural anthropology to the selling of products. 10 Fourthly, although those working in marketing and consumer research take it as given that there is one-way flow of activity stemming from the manufacturer and targeted at the end consumer, in fact, as this case study shows, advertising – as well as the marketing that an advertising agency conducts on behalf of a client – always addresses at least two audiences. One of these is, of course, the group of targeted consumers (even though they are somewhat removed from the direct experience of marketers in their work). In this particular case, to complicate the issue further, there were two groups of consumers, since the campaign had to address both young women and middle-aged male opticians. Another audience is the client. As we have seen, the assumed or proven dis/likes of both consumers and advertising client affect the final meaning of the products advertised, and the client in particular had to be satisfied with the Agency’s campaign approach before consumer ‘needs’ could be addressed. At the same time, we should recognise that a third audience exists among different members of the account team within the Agency itself, since each of the three separate parties involved in account servicing, marketing and creative work needed to be satisfied by the arguments of the other two. In this respect, perhaps, we should note that marketing people have spent a lot of time over the decades making use of insights developed in learning behaviour, personality theory and psychoanalysis which they then apply to individual consumers. In the process, however, they have tended to overlook the forms of social organisation of which these individuals are a part (cf. de Groot 1980:44). Yet it is precisely the ways in which individual consumers interact that is crucial to an understanding of consumption and thus of how marketing should address its targeted audience: how networks function, for example, reveals a lot about the vital role of word-of-mouth in marketing successes and failures; how status groups operate and on what grounds can tell marketers a lot about the motivations and practices of their targeted audience. Anthropologists should be able to help by providing sociological analyses of these and other mechanisms pertinent to the marketing endeavour. In particular, their extensive work on ritual and symbolism should be of use in foreign, ‘third world’ markets. Fifthly, most products are made to be sold. As a result, different manufacturers have in mind different kinds of sales strategies, target audiences, and marketing methods that have somehow to be translated into persuasive linguistic and visual images – not only in advertising, but also in packaging and product design. For the most part, producers of the commodities in question find themselves obliged to call on the specialized services of copywriters and art designers who are seen to be more in tune with the consumers than are they themselves. This is how advertising agencies market themselves. But within any agency, the creation of advertising involves an ever-present tension between sales and marketing people, on the one hand, and creative staff, on the other; between the not necessarily compatible demands for the dissemination of product and other market information, on the one hand, and for linguistic and visual images that will attract consumers’ attention and push them into retail outlets to make purchases, on the other. This is not always taken into account by those currently writing about advertising. More interestingly, perhaps, the opposition that is perceived to exist between data and statistical analysis, on the one hand, and the creation of images, on the other, parallels that seen to pertain between a social science like economics or marketing and a more humanities-like discipline such as anthropology. Perhaps the role for an anthropology of marketing is to bridge this great divide.

what Does it Mean to be a Good Person?

what Does it Mean to be a Good Person? Everyday across the world we are being told to be a good person, but what does that really mean? Is a good person in America the same as a good person in communist North Korea? I say yes; a good person is unlike the good citizen whose virtue is relevant to the regime in which they live; the good person is a good person no matter the regime while the good citizen is only representative of that which the state deems best. The good man can be good anywhere because he follows virtue, and finds happiness in that virtue. To illustrate this point I will first define the good man then the bad regime, and finally how a good man fits into the bad regime. The Good Man Socrates, while under trial, explained his definition of a good person in refutation of the charge that he was ashamed of pursuing a dangerous occupation that had the possibility of death. He responded You are wrong, sir, if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man  [1]  Here we have a very cut and dry explanation of the good man, he who does not concern himself with petty personal wants but only whether his actions are good and just. Aristotle sets out a clear boundary between what he considers a good man and a good citizen. For Aristotle the good man is the man that acts and lives virtuously and derives happiness from that virtue. And the good citizen acts to the best virtue of the state and each of these things are quite separate, The good citizen need not of necessity possess the virtue which makes a good man  [2]  The separation is clearly evident, the fact that what makes a good citizen does not qualify someone to be a good person. So being a good person does not mean you have to by association be a good citizen they are two distinctly different states, it is only in the best of regimes that the good person is also the good citizen. The nature of political rule is that rule of those similar in stock and free  [3]  As Aristotle argues if the virtue of a citizen is the capacity to rule and be ruled in turn, then the virtue of the good man is also to have this capacity in the best of regimes. The good in any animal or plant is the same as it is for humans: that to be and act in harmony with the virtue of that species. In a way this is a human participating in that which is most human, to act in harmony with rationality and virtue. The good in acting with the virtue of a human is the perfection of that which can only be described rationally such things as love and justice. To act unto these things is to act with virtue but there also stands limits to everything. To act with too great or too little emphasis in any act is to disrupt balance and pulls the good man from his path of virtue, too much love is obsession, too little disdain either extreme is undesirable to the good man. The good man lives by the Golden Mean that which is not too in excess in either direction. To bring together the definition of a good man, Socrates says he is a man who always considers his actions and acts in a good and just manner. Aristotle says a good man acts unto virtue and derives his happiness and pleasure from that virtue. So we have a man who is prudent, virtuous, and just. This man must now fit into a corrupt regime, a regime that does not follow all those things which make him a good man. The Bad Regime There were six different categories in which all regimes were placed as defined by both Socrates and Aristotle, those of tyranny, monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, democracy and polity. Of these regimes tyranny, oligarchy and democracy were all negative and corrupt regimes because the governing body whether it be a single person, small group or the many respectively only were ruling in their own interests and not to the benefit of all. In the good regimes it is those same forms of governing bodies yet they govern in the interest of the state as a whole. Of the bad regimes Aristotle had declared that tyranny was the most undesirable state as the citizens were reduced to nothing more than slaves. In a tyrannical government the governed are not looked after but only used to further the goals of the leader. The next two are defined in a similar manner men ruling by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many,  [4]  for an oligarchy and defining a democracy as where the poor rule.  [5]  To Aristotle an oligarchy was a twisted degradation of the good regime aristocracy, in the oligarchy it is not that few men govern it is that it is the wealthy class that rules creating a state in which all power resides in the upper class. .

The Influence, And Views Of Netanyahu On The Middle East Peace Plan :: essays research papers

The Influence, and Views of Netanyahu On The Middle East Peace Plan The middle east has many problems trying to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The peace process started about four years ago with the Middle East countries. Through the process many people have had major influence on it. One person who might have one of the greatest influences of the peace agreement is Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. The peace agreement is the biggest topic in the Middle East and he is at the head of one end. At the other end is another strong figure. The leader of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) is Yasir Arafat. In this report I will explain Benjamin Netanyahu's position in Israel and how he has affected the peace plan. I will tell about his views on what is going on. Benjamin Netanyahu lived in the United States for a few years. Netanyahu was a graduate of M.I.T. in 1975. Then he claimed duel citizenship with the United States and Israel. Netanyahu did so because his mother was born in the United States. He was a well-paid analyst with the Boston Consulting group. He left working there and went back to Israel in 1978. When he went back to Israel, he was there for about six years when he became the embassador to the united states for Israel. Later when he was an Israeli diplomat he renounced his American citizenship. In 1996 he became the Prime Minister of Israel. He now has the most influence from the Israeli side of things. Benjamin Netanyahu has done many interviews and addresses with the American people. One such interview he did to express his views was with Time Magazine. Time asked him if he were a Palestinian, how he would regard toward Netanyahu? He replies, "If I read the controlled Palestinian media, I would think that, as they call me, I am worse than Hitler."(Beyer, 1996, p.38) They then asked him if a Palestinian could see you for what you really are what they would see. He replied to that by saying, "I think they would regard me as a person who believes deeply in the necessity of peace and that we don't have an anther partner other than the Palestinian Authority. I think that any Palestinian mother reading this should understand that I am as deeply conscious of her pain of losing her child as I am of a Jewish mothers."(Beyer, 1996, p.38) Netanyahu goes on telling Time that he does not hate the man Arafat, but the two represent different perspectives and interests.

Disabled Children and Education Essay

A lot of disabled children nowadays are taking to American schools in the pursuit of quality education. Even if there is some semblance of community support, or even school-wide support, it is alarming to note that there is still much to be done. There is still a lack of good studies and research made on the unique needs of disabled children. Also, there is a continuous threat of non-school intervention in cases that sometimes warrant to the harassment of disabled children within school premises, and even the lack of school facilities that are specially created for the comfort and enjoyment of the school’s disabled student populace. Finally, even a recent study suggests that even given the support the disabled child has in the form of the alignment of IDEA and NCLB, they have to contend with the many changes it could bring to present attitudes, what they believe in, as well as what they hold dear in helping disabled students achieve the best in their educational lives. Introduction Students with physical disabilities – especially those who have opted to enroll themselves in institutions that are meant for â€Å"normal† students – have always been beset with a lot of challenges through every step of their educational process. see more:importance of school facilities to students From the choice of the school, to its environment, and available curricula, physically disabled students have always been limited to what they could choose that also basically suits them. Abend (2001) stresses the importance of the entire school experience for the disabled students and has reported about the current laws and regulations put in place that were meant to protect them. These include the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 that was later renamed as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act or IDEA in 1990, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. IDEA is a â€Å"refitted† version of the Education For All Handicapped Children Act, which has made it possible for disabled children to get equal educational rights. It was more concerned with knowing more about disabled children and focused on making special education and other related services available for them. IDEA on the other hand, with its amendments in 1997, made it possible for disabled students to be able to study with non-disabled students, and championed the said cause. Abend also tells of the Americans With Disabilities Act or ADA of 1990 that then enforces laws that made schools safer and more accessible for disabled students. The ADA is put in place for schools to either follow ADA Accessibility Guidelines or ADAAG or the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards or UFAS. Unfortunately, the UFAS and the ADAAG are designed not with the disabled children in mind, especially the disabled students of school age. Giangreco, Dennis, Cloninger, Edelman and Schattman (1993) also noted the issue of teachers who are teaching disabled children as well. It is considered important because, aside from the school environment, disabled students would also have to deal with teachers who could or could not deal with them efficiently like their normal counterparts. As the concept of allowing the disabled children to join their non-disabled classmates in general education courses is supported by a lot of educators, some are rather still doubtful as to what extent should this inclusion would be. Giangreco, Edelman, Luiselli and MacFarland (1997) have also reported about the use of instructional assistants that now serve to support the said implementation of allowing disabled children to be able to study together with their non-disabled counterparts on a classroom. As part of the new efforts of being able to actually complement the increase of disabled children to be accommodated, school administrators, teachers and instructional assistants alike are facing increasing pressure from the parents of such children to provide better care. Aside from making the school actually safe and its environment actually conducive to ensuring equal opportunities for education between disabled and non-disabled children, school administrators would also have to deal with the â€Å"hostility† of the normal students themselves, especially in taking to bullying disabled children in their own classes. Hergert (2004) has reported that bullying has been increasingly getting the nefarious attention that it deserves from the media as well as educational journals. The report does include other factors that lead to bullying aside from the children having been physically impaired in some way, such as being ethnically diverse, the children being bullied of different ages, and live in communities where a lot of the people who live there could single them out from being â€Å"different†, such as small or big cities, and even those living in suburban areas. In light of such problems, the National Council on Disability has taken measures in order to improve the educational opportunities of such disabled students. Frieden (2004) has presented a paper which details all the research that the NCD has undertaken, with the cooperation of several schools as well as integration with IDEA as well as the No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB, one of the most ambitious educational laws that were put in place that sought to enhance American education especially through reading and mathematics, measured by their own respective standardized tests. Statement Of The Issue To Be Investigated Students with physical disabilities are enrolling in public schools all across America at an increasing rate. As is already indicated by the recent studies, American lawmakers are striving to get a better grip of this problem and introduce laws which would enable disabled students to have an equal chance at education like their non-disabled counterparts. Frieden (2004) has created a report that shows how very determined the American educational system is in actually curbing that said issue. The issue in question, giving disabled students a clear chance at education, already has several laws to its credit, but as Frieden also already states, the recent study that they have has its many implications. On one side, a lot of educators and schools are very much concerned in providing better schools for these disabled children, but on another side, they are grappling with the fact that the problem is enormous, and schools and school administrators are still quite daunted by the fact that there simply isn’t enough understanding and readiness as of yet as to handle this unique problem. The schools themselves are also beset with other problems such as meeting the yearly â€Å"report card† on their annual performance, and the impact that it could cause on the students with disabilities if things did not go as planned. The report also focused on the teachers as well as the strategies that they would most likely employ, with respect and with the support of the school administrators in question. It also details current research that the NCD has with regards to how they are coping with the problem at the moment. Despite this however, even if disabled students are afforded opportunities for equal chances for good education right now, they are still beset with a lot of problems. The report entails the findings that they have to a certain point that which still needs to be addressed. Literature Review Abend (2001) reports the various laws that were put in place in order to assure that disabled students, especially children, have the same opportunities just like their non-disabled counterparts when it comes to quality education . These laws and guidelines he discussed included: †¢ Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142) †¢ Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) †¢ Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) †¢ Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards (UFAS) †¢ ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) There is also Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-112) that worked in close tandem with that of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Whereas the 1975 Act was more concerned with the services that are given to disabled children, Section 504 deals with whether or not the disabled children would have need of such services. However, as it was already discussed, the use of the UFAS or the ADAAG was more tailored to suit disabled adults more than it can be used for disabled students. Abend goes on to discuss one of the key factors of the success of an overall rehabilitation of the current stand on disabled students bid on education – how the school should be set up. Schools are considered as the second homes to students throughout most of their school lives, and it is important that disabled children should also be comfortable with how they would be willing to spend almost an entire day in such a facility. The school facilities in question should not only be the furniture that could be found inside a classroom – it also deals with the environment of the classroom (if it’s comfortable, too noisy, or too cramped), where the disabled students could go to after school hours (such as playgrounds and the school grounds), and the security of the school. Concerns about air quality are also aired because of the fact that disabled children are highly susceptible to fluctuation in air quality, especially if the child is to go to a general education school. Ensuring that disabled children could actually go around in a school that is also designed for their comfort actually helps a lot in the process of ensuring that they also get quality education. Other important factors that contribute to sound and quality education for disabled children include highly qualified teachers as well as highly qualified instructional assistants. Giangreco et al. (1993) and Giangreco et al. (1997) report on the many benefits that highly qualified teachers and instructional assistants could give to disabled children in the classroom setting. There are educators who feel strongly that disabled children should be able to join their non-disabled classmates in a normal classroom setting, but there are some who are still worried up to what extent should it be made possible. It is also the same with instructional assistants who serve as â€Å"extensions† of the teacher in a classroom, especially when coordinating with the teachers to also include them in class discussion and attending to the special needs of their â€Å"charges†. As they are tasked with the overall management of the classroom, they are also in charge of looking over what happens within that classroom, and sometimes it is more than just staying within the lessons. However, as Hergert (2004) relates, such disabled students’ incidents concerned with bullying by other children are traditionally a â€Å"hands-off† matter when it comes to school affairs. There are cases however that some schools also act upon complaints made by the students who are harassed. Hergert is concerned about, along with the problems of teachers and educational assistants of the best caliber to educate and attend to disabled students’ needs, how the school community still seems to deny the fact that bullying is such a huge problem and dismissing such complaints as overreactions from the students. However, with Frieden’s (2004) report, all such problems are then equated and are meticulously laid out, in response to such problems. Aside from ensuring sound school environments for disabled children to actually find themselves become part of the classroom experience itself, the report has also talks about what the schools can do in order to combat these problems. These are accomplished by strategies that are based upon what typically goes on in a school during their disabled children programs like counseling and the like. Common factors were discovered and goals were also set out, along with the best strategies that could help bring about it. Findings Frieden’s (2004) report has noted several findings on the educational crisis faced by America’s disabled children. Although there is enough reason to believe that disabled children nowadays have better opportunities in getting a better education, it still comes up short. Aside from the overwhelming responsibilities of implementing new and improved means of getting disabled children the education that they deserve, the NCD also has to look over problems of reducing the percentage of disabled children who drop out of schools, ensuring that there are more disabled children who graduate with high school diplomas, and look over available strategies that would ensure the success of a school’s disabled children educational program. Based on Abend and Hergert’s independent studies, the focus on the needs of disabled children through adequate school facilities and the bullying problem are either ill-fit for the children themselves or largely ignored by the school. There is still an inadequacy in trying to solve this problem, and is reflected in Frieden’s report. Also, the problem of finding the best educators for the disabled children themselves counts as another task that needs to be attended to. Lastly, the problem of implementing such improvements on a school-wide basis, mainly through following the guidelines set by the IDEA and NCLB alignment, also needs a lot of attention. Implementing such guidelines is an entirely different thing when it has to be maintained successfully, and this is what the Frieden report has sought to recommend for future studies and research on the matter. Discussion Getting quality education for disabled children is a daunting task. This is more so if the current stakes are too high. In correspondence with the integration of both IDEA and NCLB, the Public Schools of North Carolina (2005) has released guidelines and procedures that schools found statewide would have to implement with regards to the reauthorization of IDEA back in 2004. The guidelines include also the various responsibilities that the test coordinators would have to accomplish in order to disseminate information to North Carolina statewide schools with regards to documentation, job responsibilities, staff training, and other procedures and guidelines. As part of the results that came after the alignment of IDEA and NCLB, the guidelines are a clear sign of, in the given North Carolina example that American education is indeed in an upswing. However, NCLB has, at that time, not actually improved American education as a whole, but mostly benefited schools who were grappling with their own adequate yearly performance or AYP woes. Aside from this, Frieden also noted how it was difficult to keep up with all the assessments that are needed by the NCLB in order to correctly gauge their academic skills. Also, it was very difficult for school leaders to realign assessments as well as other requirements that would allow disabled children to fully become part of the classroom discussion and cope with their own academic performance. Strategies meant to complement disabled children education also come up a little short at that time, because of limited research. The studies that are available are either aimed at younger students not fit for other levels, the studies in themselves where done with limited student participation in numbers, the studies are only concentrated on one kind of disability, or there are no programs available that would help to alleviate the disabled student dropout rate. Also, even if some education programs are set in place, there is still a lot of concern in regards to a lack of support from administrators, the time and effort used in order to implement them, lack of materials, ill-fitting teaching styles, limited teacher understanding of the practice or even not remembering it at all, and ill-fit between what is considered as â€Å"safe† for implementing in a state with regards to their own local guidelines. Conclusion The scope of undertaking the problem of the quality education of disabled children is very different from what one could expect when tackling educational concerns of non-disabled children. This is not to say that one is clearly much more important than the other, but it means that what American education has for now for disabled children is still continuously undergoing a lot of transformation, and is still in serious need of continuous study and research. Frieden’s report basically sums up everything about the problems that disabled children education currently face, and leaves a daunting message that clearly states there is still a lot to be done yet. This concern is not just because of what schools must do in order to make the annual â€Å"report card grade† of their performance – it means that disabled students who are enrolled in their schools need to be attended to, and have different special needs than their non-disabled counterparts. Nurturing such students and giving them equal educational opportunities are the keys in which the school thrives and survives in situations that warrant what â€Å"best education† could be expected from schools. This, alongside with their commitment to bringing the best education and American child could possibly have, should serve as their goal. References Abend, A. C. (2001) Planning and Designing for Students with Disabilities. Retrieved September 15, 2008 from www. edfacilities. org/pubs/disabilities. pdf Frieden, L. (2004) Improving Educational Outcomes for Students With Disabilities. Retrieved September 15, 2008 from www. educationalpolicy. org/pdf/NCD. pdf Giangreco, M. F. , Dennis, R. , Cloninger, C. , Edelman, S. W. & Schattman, R. (1993) â€Å"Experiences of Teachers Educating Students With Disabilities† in Exceptional Children, vol. 5. Retrieved September 15, 2008 from www. uvm. edu/~mgiangre/EC9359(4)359-372. pdf

A History of Elizabethan Theatre Essay

* Stage Shape and Configuration: The size of amphitheatre varied up to 100 feet in diameter. The stage shape was octagonal, circular in shape having between 8 and 24 sides. The open air arena, called the ‘pit’ or the ‘yard’, had a raised stage at one end and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries with balconies overlooking the back of the stage. The stage projected halfway into the ‘pit’. The Stage dimensions varied from 20 foot wide 15 foot deep to 45 feet to 30 feet. The height of the raised stage was 3 to 5 feet and supported by large pillars. The floor of the Stage was made of wood. The rear of the stage was a roofed house-like structure, supported by two large columns. * Scenery: Elizabethan stages were sparser in terms of decoration when compared to the equivalent in later eras, but items such as furniture, including pieces like tables and thrones, were used to embellish a scene. In some cases, more elaborate sets were used; these included grassy banks, gallows frames and caves * Costumes: The costumes used in Shakespeare’s theater companies were perhaps one of the most effective forms of props employed, allowing actors to reflect changes in character and even gender with relative ease. Many of these costumes captured the historical setting of specific Shakespearean plays; for example, togas and breastplates were worn in performances of â€Å"Titus Andronicus.† Make-up, along with female clothing was used to depict women characters, since Elizabethan laws forbade women to act on stage. * Lighting: There was natural lighting as plays were produced in the afternoon. However there was some artificial lighting mainly intended to provide atmosphere for night scenes. * Sound: Musicians were used for music. Music was an extra effect added in the 1600’s. The musicians would also reside in the Lords rooms (best seats in the house). * Special Effects: Sometimes stage props served to recreate some special effect. Examples included fireworks, which were set off to replicate lightning in outdoor scenes, and actual pistols — without the bullets — which would be shot whenever military salutes or fighting needed to be shown. Even animals, such as dogs, were brought on stage in Shakespearean plays because creating a fake animal would have been more difficult. Trap doors would enable some special effects e.g. smoke. * Other Important Conventions: