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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Essay on Human Nature and The Canterbury Tales -- Canterbury Tales Ess

Human Nature and The Canterbury Tales When Geoffrey Chaucer undertook the piece of writing of The Canterbury Tales, he had a long road ahead of him. He intend to tell two stories from each of thirty pilgrims on the way to Canterbury, and because two more from each pilgrim on the way back from Canterbury. Of these, he completed only twenty-four. However, in these tales, Chaucer depicts both the pilgrims and their stories with striking realism. In The Nuns Priests Tale, The Canons Yeomans Tale, The Friars Tale, The Reeves Tale, and The Clerics Tale, Chaucer demonstrates his strange insight into human nature. By comparing and contrasting these tales, one cigarette see the universality of human nature as shown by Chaucer. nonpareil human trait apparent in these selections is greed. Avarice drives the hearts of many a(prenominal) men, whether they may be a common miller or a summoner or a supposedly religious enactment, and Chaucer was aware of this. In the tales which take awa y these three characters, Chaucer depicts the greed of these characters. The Reeve tells his fellow pilgrims in his tale of a miller who was a thief ... of corn and meal, and sly at that his enclothe was to steal (Chaucer 125). The summoner in The Friars Tale drew large profits to himself thereby, and as the devil observes of him in this tale, Youre out for wealth, acquired no matter how (Chaucer 312, 315). The canon in Part 1 of The Canons Yeomans Tale, as well as the Yeoman himself, had been control by the goal of converting base metals into gold, and though we never realized the wished result we still went on raving in our illusion (Chaucer 478). The second canon of which the Yeoman speaks is many times worse than his own canon and master, using h... .... Works Cited Balliet, Gay L. The Wife in Chaucers Reevess Tale Siren of loving Vengeance. English expression Notes 28.1 (1990) 1-5. Baylor, Jeffrey. The Failure of the Intellect in Chaucers Reeves Tale. English Language Notes 28.1 (1990) 17-19. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. Baltimore Penguin Books, 1960. Dictionary of Literary Biography Old and Middle English. Ed. Jeffrey Helteman and Jerome Mitchell. Detroit Sale Research, Inc., 1994. Edden, Valerie. blessed and Secular in the Clerks Tale. The Chaucer Review 26.4 (1992) 369-376. Fehrenbacher, Richard W. A Yeerd Enclosed Al About Literature and fib in the Nuns Priests Tale. The Chaucer Review 29.2 (1994) 134-148. Whittock, Trevor. A Reading of The Canterbury Tales. Cambridge University of Cambridge Press, 1970.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Events That Led to the United States Involvement In World War II Essay

Events That Led to the United asseverates Involvement In populace struggle II public struggle II was a state of war that be to the world the awesome power of the United States. Many events led up to the U.S. involvement in the war, topped off by the Japanese snipe of Pearl Harbor. Many great people contributed to leading the United State to victory in the war. They include General Douglas MacArthur, General Dwight Eisenhower, and chair Franklin Delano Roosevelt. World state of war II also consisted of many major events including Operation master copy and the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Overall the United States played a major role in World struggle II and displayed their power through strong generals and their first and strong leadership in major events. Before the United States entered WW II, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a series of documents known as the Neutrality Acts. These acts were passed and followed betwixt the years 1935 and 1941 and were used to keep the U.S. out of the war.1 The Neutrality Acts limited weapons gross sales to countries not involved in the war, gave the U.S. power to keep its citizens off of ships of, or travelling to nations involved in the war, and outlawed loans to countries currently in war and countries who had not paid back previous loans.2 These acts also outlawed American ships to carry weapons to nations in the war. The U.S. believed that if a nation in war knew that a ship had weapons on it, this ship would be a prime luff for that country, therefor drawing the U.S. into another war. The Neutrality Acts helped keep the U.S. out of WW II until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, at which point the U.S. helped the British through a Lend-Lease Program. The Lend-Lease Program allowed the U.S. to give arms and... ...e pelt Pearl Harbor. http//historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm (4 Mar. 2000). Sequence of Events. Sequence of Events. Sequence of Events. World War II The cyclopaedia of the War years 1941-1945. World War II The cyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. World War II The Encyclopedia of the War Years 1941-1945. The Atom Bomb. http//www.rnv.u-net.com/ (5 Mar. 2000). The Atom Bomb.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Is the Survival of a society dependent on Fate or Human Choice?

thither is no enquiry that some societies ar more fragile than others. The subjective observation of a societies ability to succeed or fail cigarette sometimes be misleading when non all possible factors leading toward a societies final result, be considered. When an observer does non scrutinize a societies success or drop there of, chances are, the observer give endlessly grapple over whether the number of a bon ton was a result of fate, or human being choice. unneeded to say, through resources much(prenominal) as, Jared Diamonds book sever, and his movie Guns, Germs, and Steel as tumesce as, Jeffery Sachs book The End of Poverty, it is inevitable that both authors are confident in their revolutionary theories on a cabarets ability to succeed or fail. There is no question that the surroundings is the foundation for a societies future however, it is the human choices of how and what should be built on that foundation, which repair whether it will be constant and suc ceed or not. Jeffrey Sachs and Jared Diamond have contrasting ideas on the meaning of the environment and how it affects societies.While Jeffery Sachs seems to underestimate its significance, Diamond gives it too much credit. Jeffery Sachs gives sixsome reasons in his book, The End of Poverty as to why societies takeoff and develop, or, throw away on and remain in their poorly developed state. Some of the reasons mentioned by Sachs include social mobility, political factors and fertility rates. Sachs did include physical geographics as one of the factors as well although, wouldnt one say that geographics is at the root of all six of those revelations? At least, Diamond tycoon agree.When faced with harsh environmental conditions solely based on where you lie in in globe, poses a question. Does ones survival purely depend on where they are born in the conception? Sachs does address geography as an essential factor in a societies success however, he states that you can still h ave societal changes even if the geography does not allow for it. This is lucid in chapter three of Sachs book as he discusses eight points that set up whether a society will thrive or not, and the role that human beings are playing in failing societies. Some of these points include technology, trade, indwelling resource decline and population growth.When mass die from extreme poverty, it is because they literally had nothing. They dont need a lot to survive, but they do need a lot to start a process of economic development and thats where Sachs and I would differ. Theres a reason societies who are under extreme poverty, have not been able to rise and be successful environmental barriers. The environment can easily wipe out humans basic needs, which is the first whole step to survival in Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. It is evident that environmental determinism does play an definitive role in a societies ability to thrive or not based on where you are on the globe?However, does is it location and the environment that comes with it purely determine whether a society will last? easterly Island is a society that virtually collapsed in isolation receivable to environmental damage. A perfect example of whether the success of a society depends on lack of human choices or environmental barriers. Jared captures his insight of the phenomenon in his book, Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed with concrete evidence. Jared mostly recognizes the geographic and environmental barriers that support the analogy that Easter was doomed from the beginning.From his reading, it seems that even if the people of Easter Island had made the most suitable and sensible human choices as far as persisting with the environment to obtain their basic needs, they curtly would have been doomed to failure. Jared gives an example of how something so vital for survival such as water, would immediately seep into the island when their only water resource, rainfall, would come. A lthough I potently believe that the environment plays a large role in a societies ability to thrive or not, Jared overlooked and underestimated the severity of human choices, ( conclusion) and its tinct on Easter Islands failure.Deforestation was unfortunately one of the main impart factors in Easter Islands failure. Jared states that Easter Island is covered with an abundance of substantial statues due to an aggressive competition between chiefs of the island that were built to honor them. This way of culture proved to work against its society because many trees were deforested in order to change the massive statues. The history of Easter Island helps to reconfirm my opinion that a society is destined to failure or success through mostly geographic and environmental state and a pinch of a societies ability to manufacture wise decisions.Jared Diamond believes that there are three things that determine the outcome of a society Guns, Germs and Steel. The main conclusion I gathere d from watch this film was that societies developed in different parts of the world because of differences in environments. Jared struggles to answer a provocative question to a Papua impudent Guinean, why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own? Jared sets geography as the dominant factor, emphasizing, that, it is not the biological aspect of people that determine human history but rather the environmental context, which we have no control over. Diamond discusses his opinion on whether he believes in the elder presumption that the reason European civilizations were able develop and come up with advanced economies so fast, was because of their innate superiority. Jared believes we all moderately have the selfsame(prenominal) intelligence in every society, and that it is not based on genes or race. He was unable to accept the possibility that New Guineans are indifferent intellectually to E uropeans.I agree with Jared. I believe that the reason European society became more technologically and politically advanced was the fertile environment that these people were born into to. This environment would allow them to have food production, meek animals, and all other values that the New Guinea people did not have. at one time basic needs are met in a society, it is easier for a society to near up the ladder of success. It is therefore evident that the survival of a person is pure luck, based on whether you were born in an expanse where the environment works for you, and some human choices that are made to work with tte environment effectively.In conclusion, I wonder if developing counties in the world are doomed to failure and whether it is hopeless trying to make a sustainable society in those regions, and whether they should just be abandoned. The only advantage of having a co-operative environment is that it allows you to have all your basic needs, but will not nece ssarily help a society to advance further. erstwhile the foundation of a good environment is laid out, only consequently can human choice help a society climb up the ladder towards success.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Henry James started life in a wealthy family Essay

His grandfather was angiotensin-converting enzyme of the prime(prenominal) Ameri kitty millionaires. throng father was a theologian and his br a nonher(prenominal) was a psychologist. In feature, his brother, William James, was the pi mavener of psychoanalysis. Around the quantify that James wrote The contort of The distinguish (1897), lot began to think a lot to a greater extent(prenominal) ab out(a) the familiar workings of the mind. James seems especially interested in what it is that attracts humanes to star another and as to when sexuality begins to shape itself in a child. An sheath of this is shown in one of his early novels, Watch and Ward, in which a bachelor adopts a young girl with an intention to marry her.This is in addition shown in The Turn of The fill in, when Miles kisses the g everywhereness. The adversary of the governess, Peter Quint, has sexually do by Miles, continuing this psychological theme. Much of James work is centred on the ingenuousness o f the West and the corruption and wisdom of the East. When Henry James wrote The Turn of The bum, I believe his intention was to create a gripping, thought-provoking put of fiction to choose the endorser. He wrote entirely through the governess eyes so that the agree would involve the reader. in that location is also a prologue in which the reader is included in a circle of friends telling tone stories to one another. One man proclaims that he knows of this story and then the narrative begins in earnest. This immediately tells the reader what to expect from the story and how to approach it. However, the practice of hatful sitting round an open fire and entertaining each other with ghost stories is, sadly, not common and, if it occurs at all, people tend to meet anecdotes rather than ghost stories.James has created a tense novel he builds huge suspense by not immediately saying what is happening. He places the story as a journal the perceptions of the governess. This is or so similar to The backstop In The Rye by J. D. Salinger. In this the main character (Holden Caulfield) pours out all his thoughts onto paper. The governess writes in a similar way, but it is subtler and more change James is trying to make the reader live the appropriate.For instance, when the governess archetypical realises that Miss Jessel is standing on the opposite side of the lake from her, James does not merely present this fact, but instead goes through all the ideas thoughts and observations of the governess in minute detail and keeps the reader in continued suspense until the revelation. both(prenominal) people may have found this novel frightening in 1898 (its contemporary setting) but its setting is actually one of its downfalls in kindly to a modern listening. It is overly near to real life to suppli merchant shipt or frighten.The modern horror hearings taste has befit increasingly extreme so that horror films and books be more fantastical. eventide though the y atomic number 18 increasingly unrealistic, this makes them more frightening and somehow involves the interview more. The basis of the Turn of The derriere is horror invading everyday life. There is a lot more exposure to horror in the present day, so this dampens the effect that this novel has on people now. People mother cynical when they are over-exposed to something, such as advertising.Henry James wrote verbosely, victimization lots of imagery, which in most cases is profound. He subprograms many subordinate clauses, which brush aside make it difficult to understand i. e. This is written in the voice of the governess (as a journal entry) and the choice of vocabulary shows us that she is well educated (as does the fact that she keep write) but perhaps a bit nervous. It is as if she is acquiring hysterical just writing about the experience. This is perhaps because she is unfamiliar with the subscriber line and has never worked with children before. The old definition of hysteria wasA nervous affection, occurring only when in women, in which the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will force play correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of notional sensations, and often falls into paroxysm or fits. Websters Dictionary This is a reminder of how women were seen and their (expected) role in society at the time the book was written. In relation to The Turn of the Screw being a prospered ghost story for a modern audience, it may be slightly outdated and perhaps ill-received in our post-feminist society.Women are no longer seen as people who should only look after domestic matters. However, it can kick in the spell of the writing if you have to read a sentence in two ways to get the precise meaning of the writers idea. This can anticipate people from getting involved in the story and if you are not involved, you are not enjoying the story. The imagery is open to i nterpretation but I believe that if you look at some of James imagery and can explain it with the first thought that enters your mind, you do not have James meaning.For instance, when Flora runs off to the lake to be with Miss Jessel and the governess and Mrs. Grose go to fetch her The lake is a metaphor for Jessels reprehensible influence and power. The governess is saying that she believes Flora can be saved because Jessel does not have complete control over her yet. The lake is also described as a sheet of water and a sheet can be employ to hide things. Another use for a sheet which was more common in James time (the Victorian period) would be to cover unused furniture in ones second home.The practice of covering all furniture is fantastic in our time. This is another factor to consider when questioning whether The Turn of the Screw is an effective ghost story for a modern audience. There are also many references to the title of the book in some imagery such as, in the same ch apter, when Flora is sticking a mast in her toy boat. This again uses the governess non-description of the important part of the scene to build tension. almost of the imagery used still has relevance today.We are instilled with an inherent nonliteral belief that high is good and low is bad, as shown in the book with the varying positions of the governess and the spirits on the staircase. Also the metaphor turning the kip down is still an accepted term for increasing tension today. The language used may be difficult to understand for a modern audience and not many people can identify with the character, since thither is not much to need for home tutors and guardians now. Parents generally have much more soci fitting working hours and prefer to spend the money on something more necessary.In addition, children are now required to go to school (unless they are one of the rare cases of those tutored at home. ) Many people will not personally know a governess, let alone be able to empa thise with one. However, some people such as star parents (especially single mothers) may identify with feeling that sort of responsibility towards their children. The Turn of The Screw was effective in its contemporary setting. People were more superstitious at that time, because for many people life was hard, and they needed something to focus upon.More people believed in God, and for God to exist in that respect has to be some evil in the world. There was also no entertainment except that which people made for themselves. Parlour games, telling stories or reading books were common waste activities, since people could not just sit down in crusade of the television. Many of these stories were passed down from generation to generation and the most popular were ghost stories. We are fascinated with the supernatural and the unknown. It is one of the basic primal idolatrys the fear of the unknown that appeals to us.The industrial revolution brought about more education for raze to middle class people and this meant there was a growing audience for books and especially fiction. People felt the need to escape from the real world. In modern times we are discouraged from this way of thinking because experience has come a long way since the nineteenth century and there is no scientific evidence to suggest that these things can happen. However, fantasy books and films are popular, showing there is still an escapist desire in the human psyche, even though more people are educated and we are taught that ghosts do not exist.It seems that television has destroyed this silence and continuity. The story unavoidably to be retold. The haunting effect of a ghost story can now be disrupted more easily because we have electricity, with which comes impudent electric lights that can penetrate any unknown shadow. However, if you have a sufficiently romantic mind then the language could help involve you in the atmosphere. Also I think that people could identify with this b ecause there are similar (perceived) dangers today.Peter Quint is a paedophile and what happens in the novel is also the stuff of nightmares for parents in modern times. However, despite these factors, I do not believe that The Turn of the Screw is ultimately a successful ghost story for the modern audience. The situation, language and characters are too alien, yet everyday, to really involve an audience. Technology, science and education deal the concluding blow, destroying the audiences connection with the heart of the story. Ed Byford In your opinion, is The Turn Of The Screw a 25/04/2007 successful ghost story for a modern audience?

Monday, January 21, 2019

Effects of Methamphetamine on the Human Body What Cases Have Been Seen to Prove this and How It Leads To Addiction Essay

make of rubbishamphetamine on the Human Body What Cases Have Been Seen to Prove this and How It Leads To dependencyIntroductionPart A            What make does the over dep break offency to ice rink cause to the human body.            Are there any cases that have been subject to prove this and if yes which ones be they? scratch is a powerful, loftyly addictive stimulant that is a bitter tasting white crystallizingline powder stark of smell. In street language it is popularly known             as ice, chalk, crystal or meth with high solubility in water and alcoholic drink making it an easy target for packaging into sundry(a) forms. applesauce affects the exchange nervous system and once it is in the body system, it creates a compact exclusively intense rush and users start experiencing a feel of increase exertion, decreased appetite, and strong purports of well being, high energy levels and sense of much power with the feeling changeless from a period of 20 legal proceeding to 12 hours. When the effect start to where off, the user is left with a feeling of drained helplessness and depression this do leads to the user having a high craving for the medicate to maintain the state of euphoria. This craving for a sense of well being, hyper activity sense of power is what leads to addiction. Addiction to grump has to a large extent been sort out as a moral veer by the public while to medical practitioners it has as well gained clog as a medical issue.            Methamphetamine causes teaching of nerve effects which atomic number 18 increased activity, euphoria and decreased appetite with icing being more(prenominal)(prenominal) potent because it passes through the job brain barrier and enters the brain cells. The effects are more colossal lasting making it more stern on the important nervous system. It has been reported to have effects lasting as long as eight hours. This inquiry will center mostly on the scientific research that has been carried out on looking glass addiction, its look effects and how it causes them and any remedies.Part B            By the end of this revealing process, the hobby objectives should be met.Reasons that lead to use of sparkler should be clearly understood.The confused side effects should be well sketch and possible causes explained.Mechanisms involved and leading to methamphetamine addiction should be comprehended.            medically methamphetamine was developed for the treatment of nasal blockages and clearance of bronchioles in the lungs. late it has been used in low dosages for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disturb and too in weight loss programmes but in a controlled manner and prescriptions is usually not refilled.            Effects of methamphetamine vary and th ey mostly depend on the dosage type. For small drugs, the medicine causes strong and rapidly addiction, lack of relaxation, increased telephone circuit pressure, pulses and respiration with decreased reaction times. This effects leads to a desire for more and in large doses, it causes convulsions, overheating of the body, and in more severe cases stroke and even heart attacks. The side effects are groupinged into the following major categories (Methamphetamine in Jefferson County, 2008 p 3). material effects            The most noticeable are muscle promiscuousness, tremors and seizures dental decay, weight loss, anorexia, coughing, dry mouth , facial aging, brain damage kidney, heart and colorful damage, skin sores and infection and also increased risk of stroke.Cognitive effects            This effects lead to decreased ability to recognize and recall manner of speaking and pictures, make inferences alter information, learn from make love and users have the tendency to make out irrelevant informationPsychological effects            These effects are classified into devil depending on the duration for short marches effects users experience increased sense of euphoria, high confidence and increased alertness. The users arrive more talkative, they are not bored easily and have an increased conjure drive.            change magnitude confidence increase alertness change magnitude good caprice Increased. Long term effects include increased aggression, lack of sleep they become over anxious and are confused most of the time. Meth users become moody and they develop psychotic behaviours characterized by false delusions, they become paranoid and become suicidal.            When ingested by pregnant women, the methamphetamine dissolves in the blood stream and is able to pass through to the fetus. The effects on the unborn children are diverse and so serious since they affect the normal development of the child. The most common effects are premature child present and low possess rates for long time users, low birth weight since the mother does not eat enough food callable to poor appetite and in most severe cases brain damage. Nutritionally, the bollocks up is disadvantaged since the mother does not care a lot away from craving for the next fix.Mechanisms leading to methamphetamine addiction            Addiction to methamphetamine is caused by the drugs pharmacology mainly how it is ingested, absorbed in the body, broken in the body and excreted (Otero et al., 2006 p. 4). The pharmacology of the drug is quite a complex process which involves the peripheral and central nervous actions. The drug belongs to the group of drugs known as amphetamines with a structure closely related to that of epinephrine norepinephrine and dopamine (Kish, 2008 p. 2).            D ue to its structure which is close to that endogenous neurotransmitters the drug is classified as a sympathomimetic drug and as such(prenominal) it interacts with sympathetic receptors of the central nervous system. Specifically, methamphetamine interacts with pre-synaptic receptors and induces effects by war-ridden antagonisms.            There are different modes of methamphetamine usage and they determine how long the effects take to kick in and also increase the chances and ease of addiction. When ingested the effects may take up to twenty minutes to be effected while I snorting the effects set in much quicker as fast as five minutes. The two routes of usage are not so much addictive. Highest rates of addiction have been reported when the route of intake was intravenous injection and lung divine guidance through smoking. These last two routes potentiate risk of addiction since the drug is absorbed more rapidly in the brain.Effect on the central nervou s system            The amphetamines potent central nervous system wait as a result of the clitoris of biogenic amines from the nerve terminals. This enhance release of norepinephrine results in the anorexia effect of amphetamine and together with release of dopamine it creates a feeling of euphoria. When higher levels of dopamine are released to the mesolimbic system, it results in increased levels of serotonin which is responsible for mental disturbances and the psychotic behaviours.            When the high dose of reaches the brain, it leads to a decrease in the levels of dopamine and serotonin and this is achieved through the activity reduction of the enzymes used in their synthesis mainly tyrosine dehydroxylase and tryptophan hydroxylase respectively.The following table shows a list of websites that were visited for the purpose of this researchTitle of report Website Retrival dateMedication and behavioral treatments (2004) www. psattc.org11-11-2014Children at clandestine methamphetamine labs dower meths youngestVictims(2006) www.ojp.usdoj.gov10-11-2014NIDA Community medicine Alert Bulletin Methamphetamine (n.d.). www.drug debase.gov10-11-2014Methamphetamine Drug Facts 2005 www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov11-11-2014Parenting Children Who Have Been Exposed to Methamphetamine (n.d) www.orparc.org10-11-2014The sites used for this require are from various government departments, and organizations that carry out various health and substances abuse researches. From the websites, they end with either gov. or org. meaning they are esteemed websites. Hence, the information obtained from these websites is also reliable and thus they were considered for this paper. In addition, the sources have testify based reports where quantitative or qualitative research were used to drop a line the reports thus making the data included in this paper in truth reliable and viable.Part CData from various website sources on metha mphetamine and journals published online was used to come up with this report.Table showing the various side effects for methamphetamine usersPhysical effects Cognitive side effects Short term psychological effects Long term psychological effectsWeight loss Failure to recall pictures Increased good mood Mood disordersKidney and heart damage Failure to learn from experience Increased alertness Lack of sleep and increased uneasinessIncreased risk of stroke Decreased ability to make inferences Increased talkativeness Confusion and aggressionSkin sores and infections Decreased ability to manipulate information Increased confidence Increases psychotic behaviourTooth decay Increased sex drive Hallucinations and increased suicidal tendenciesIncreased transmission of human immunodeficiency virus due to sharing injecting needles Table showing usage of methamphetamine in terms of age (a 2003 survey on methamphetamine users among college discharge children and non-college attending children obtained from NSDH, 2005).Ages/ grades utilise at least once Used in the former(prenominal) category Used in the last 30 daysCollege students 5.8% 2.6% 0.6% schoolboyish adults(19-28) 8.9% 2.7% 0.7%Table showing use of methamphetamine in USA (NSDH, 2005 n.p)Used at least once Used in the gone year Used in the last 30 days12+ geezerhood 4.9% 0.6% 0.2%Table showing use of methamphetamine in school going children (NSDH, 2005 n.p)Grade Used at least once) Used in the past year Used in the last 30 dayseighth 2.5% 1.5% 0.6%10th 5.3% 3.0% 1.3%12th 6.2% 3.4% 1.4%Part D            Comprehensive data obtained from various government and non-governmental websites, show that methamphetamine abuse cuts across all ages and friendly classes with the high-risk groups being plenty with low self-esteem, societal pressure such as weight loss to gain an athletic or modeling body, depression, and those traumatised. While continued abuse leads to addiction, amount and in gestion routes are also determinants with smoking and injection contributing greatly to addiction. Though used medically for nasal and bronchial blockages, its abuse is the main concern due to the resulting side effects and the damages it causes.Journal            Methamphetamine side effects are as a result of it passing through the brain blood barrier into the brain cells, where its main action is to decrease extracellular monoamine neurotransmitters, peculiarly dopamine, via interfering with their reuptake and promoting their release at the nerve endings (Fleckenstein, et al., 2007 p. 687). Dependency on methamphetamine is a serious issue with major medical, psychiatric and social economic impacts in the society (Lapworth, et al., 2009 p. 383). Withdrawal from methamphetamine also results in impaired social functioning, fatigue and aggressiveness and more craving for the drug. This endanger affects most people and users should not be alienated but helped to cudgel the vice by taking them to rehabilitation centres.            While it has been used medically to solve medical conditions such as nasal and bronchial blockages, it debase is the main problem. Methamphetamine abuse cuts across all ages and social classes with the main contributing factors being low self-esteem, peer pressure, social pressure, depressions and even people suffering from traumas. The resulting side effects vary from person to person but prolonged abuse results to both physical defects such as tooth decay, weak limbs due to poor appetite, damages of organs especially the heart, kidney and liver and also psychological effects. The psychological effects are usually aggressive behaviors which endangers their lives and of those more or less them and psychotic behaviors which leads them in committing suicide.ReferencesFleckenstein A., E., Volz, T., J., Riddle, E., L., Gibb, J., W., and Hanson, G., R. 2007. New insights into the mechanism of action of amphetamines. Journal of yearly Review in Pharmacology and Toxicology. 47 681698.Kish, S., J. 2008.Pharmacologic mechanisms of crystal Methamphetamine. Journal of Canadian Medical Association, 178 (13)1679-1682.Lapworth, K., Dawe, S., Davis, P., Kavanagh, D., Young, R., Saunders, J. 2009. Impulsivity and positive psychotic symptoms influence hostility in methamphetamine users. Journal of Addictive Behaviours ,34 380385Methamphetamine in Jefferson County. 2008. Methamphetamine in Jefferson County. pinch the Impact of Methamphetamine Abuse Issue Paper and RecommendationsNIDA Community Drug Alert Bulletin. n.d. Methamphetamine. www.drugabuse.gov.Office of National Drug Control Policy. 2005. Methamphetamine. www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.Otero, C., Boles, S., Young, N. K., & Dennis, K., 2006. Methamphetamine Addiction, Treatment, and Outcomes Implications for Child Welfare Workers. bosom Abuse and Mental Health serve Administration Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Substance abuse department. 2008. National Survey of Drug Use and Health National Findings. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.US Department of Justice. 2004. Children at Clandestine Methamphetamine Laboratories. www.ojp.usdoj.gov.Source document

Thursday, January 17, 2019

A History of the Arab Peoples Albert Hourani Essay

Albert Houranis bulk A Hi bilgewater of the Arab people highlights the Arab history in general since the previous(predicate) beginning of Islam and even before that-, till the modern ages in the nineteenth century. The bulk is great for westerners interested in the Arabs and for Arabs, who be not long-familiar with their history. The book is a good add to any interested reader. hindquarters ground in constitution Lebanese-American historian Albert Tourane represent this book as an accession to his previous works discussing Arabs history and Arabian affairs such(prenominal)(prenominal) as, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1789-1939,which was first published in 1962.It would be a mistake to deal with this book as a pure history book. Its not depending only on dates and chronological extent of the Arabic people and civilization and this is a good manoeuvre to build our review on it. Summary Houranis book begins with the story of Ibn-Khaldon, the great Arab socialist. The foll owing chapter talks about the appearance of Islam and Muhammad and then his successors and the formation of the Islamic empire 3 . Next, the book talks about the Islamic society and its Koranic accounts 4 with the great revolution in translating acquaintance and Greek philosophy with the appearance of Sufism 5 .Islamic expansion and the interpretation of minorities equal Jews and Christians 6 followed. Life in countryside 7 and cities 8 and the rulers of the societies 9 were mentioned in later pages. delegacy of Islam 1o and The culture of the Ulema 11 are two chapters talking about the faith in Islam with sense of fellowship and low determination. The book also shows how culture was well correspond 12 and how the following Ottoman empire 13 sustained the Arab world, with a abbreviated description of Ottoman societies 14 .Chapter fifteen starts talking about the ordinal century 15 and the European powers in the Arabic areas 16 want French intervention in Algeria. Opening of Suez Canal and Zionism arose with Jews settled in Palestine 16 and how the culture of Imperialism 17 started to have a barefaced voice in the area. Word War One 18 and its act upon discussed in Chapter nineteen 19 with the modern life in Arabic societies 20 . Book show how the emergence of Israel started and the independent movements were held from French & international ampere British and The tragedy of the triple attack on Egypt on 195621.Chapter cardinal two 22 show a rapid change in Arabic societies and the Arabic culture extended 23 with the climax of Arabism started from fifties 23 . Final chapters of the book discussed the difference between Arabs, the sudden close of Nasser and the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel 24. final chapter states some major problems in the area, including Kurds make do for independence, Sudan problem and women issues. Number of twenty pages of maps followed, which make a great way to represent the places that was mentioned in the book.Eval uation of the book This book is well represented with all the illustration and maps introduced. The Index is well-written and helpful in finding any information directly. As mentioned before, the book couldnt be categorized as a history book its better expound as Social-history book and starting with the life of Ibn-Khaldun is such evidence. It represents a vast look on the Arabic societies through history, describing the life style, science, different religion and civilization.Many chapters described the same period of time but dealing with different subjects, like chapters twenty 25 two and twenty three 26 in the (1950s and 1960s). From the other point of view, this book skims some important details such as, the detailed pre-Islamic era, the great empires of Umayyad and Abbasid which was represented with partly amount of pages that doesnt pass by seven pages in some cases. Also the detailed life of seer Muhammad, which has a great impact on the Arabic societies. Also Crusaders wars werent well mentioned, although it has a very huge impact on Arabs in its time.Conclusion Dealing with the history of Arabs is such a great attempt and a hard game to play. This book tried to do the most of the job with a different way, which is representing history from the social point of view. I would recommend this book if one already has a minimum acquaintance and understanding of Arab history . Otherwise I recommend alternatives such as, chronicle of the Arabs from the earliest times to the present, of Philip Hitti. It would be useful for a good specialised historical reading.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Inside Islam notes Essay

Islam means tranquility and Submission (The heartsease that comes from submission, the attention to God that comes from peace.) Allah Akbar means God is heavy(p). Sunni = 85% of Muslim population Shia = 10% Sufi less than 5% Islam is non only a religion of the mall East largest population of Muslims is in India. Largest Islamic country is Indonesia. Of same faith tradition as both Christians and Jews Muslims & adenosine monophosphate Jews are both monotheistic, differ only on chiefly messianic theology Places of worship differ yet can coexist Spain fostered only three Abrahamic faiths during pre-Ferdinand and Isabella era (pre-1492) dower 2 of 9 Pre Muslim Mecca, Quraish tribe, Muhammads early years & angstrom first vision, Quran, initiative anchor shahadah, and start of second backbone prayer http//www.youtube.com/ assure?v=KtFkhC7DIIoMuslims descended from Hagar and Ishmael, who fled to the abandon Abraham, according to Muslim legend, built Kaba Quraysh tribe controlle d Mecca as trade city. Later put icons and statues of various tribal Gods inside Kaba so Mecca would become even to a greater extent important as a voyage site. Muhammad was born several generations later in 570 AD into a smashed family. His dad died, his grandfather sent him to live with trading caravans. As a young man he became a talented caravanier, married Khadijah Muhammad illiterate, so others recorded his recitationsQuran means recitation, a mix of poetry, stories, admonitions, advice and warnings.Part 3 of 9 second pillar (prayer) move, Muhammad gains conjoiners, conflict with Meccans, Hijra, to Ummayad dynasty beginning of third pillar http//www.youtube.com/ set?v=5h4bcCSsc9A&NR=1Muhammad gave sermons against polytheism to pilgrims arriving at the Kaba in Mecca was persecuted by Quraish Muhammad had no strong political ally, few followers initially. Journeyed to Yathrib (later bootd Medina, City of the prophet) to arbitrate dispute between city states. Became year 0 in Islamic calendar, 622 CE. Set up first Islamic community (Ummah)Meccans were enraged, attacked Medina to record Muslims. Battle of Badr, outnumbered by Meccans, yet Medinans won Muslims triumphed 630 AD Muslims returned to Mecca Cleansed Abrahams blessed temple (Kaba) of idols of pilgrims, kept the Kaba (lit. cube) as the central observation of monotheism Offered Meccans freedom for peace, many converted Arab tribes came to pay tribute to Muhammad and convert Umayyads 1st dynasty 750 Within a century of Muhammads death Muslims controlled more buck than the Roman EmpireTurkey to parts of China. Jews and Christians were exempt from renewing to Islam 3rd pillar Charity is heavily emphasized in the Quran, even more than the subordinate status of womenPart 4 of 9 3rd pillar, charity, continued quaternate pillar, Ramadan, Abbasid dynasty Crusades Mongols http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKsm3O23Itg&NR=13rd chromatography column Charity From everything you own you give 2.5% Al l money collected must(prenominal) be given to those in need One must follow the fast during the month of Ramadan as the 4th pillar Fast lasts from break of mean solar day till sunset Exceptions are made for the sick, weak, children, and the mothers who are expecting Its a time to intensify your efforts to build your relationship with God The festival of the great Eid (Lit. festival) of the breaking of the fast Shia split from the Sunni after the death of Hussein (680 AD) thither was a discrepancy of how loss leaders should be put in ramble Shia believed that leaders should be direct descendants of Muhammad Sunni believed leaders should be elective democratically8th century g dodderyen age in Iraq, Abbasid dynasty arose in Bagdad Abbasids valued learning, Greek philosophy and natural science. Algebra invented, decimals, exponents. Medicine developed, orthopedics, noetic illness treatment, surgery. Crusades Jerusalem is 3rd most sacred city for Muslims 1099 Christians slaughte rhouse 30k Muslims 1258 Genghis khans grandson & his Mongols plundered BagdadPart 5 of 9 Mongol era 5th Pillar, Hajj in Spain, interfaith cooperation http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWJDY8AsFo&feature=relatedThe Mongol Khan becomes a Muslim,Lesser pilgrimage can be taken to Mecca at any time of the year (min 030) Hajj, the greater pilgrimage, occurs only erstwhile a year a. Ihram1 = 2 white cloths in which you will be buried are worn during Hajj, significance is equality, Ihram2 is besides = peaceful way to accept all as brothers & sisters. b. Ablution (ritual washing) leads to first stage circumambulation 7 times God is the axis of ones life c. 2nd step is to march between 2 hills representing Hagars search for pee for Ismael represents ones struggle in life d. Next day they travel to the plain of Arafat. Pilgrims walk in quiet prayer confessing sins at Mount of Arafat. e. Next, to Mina to throw stones at 3 pillars representing Satan, sins are forgiven f. refinement e vent prayer service at KabaMuslim scholars continue writings from hordes 711 CE Muslims arrive at Gibraltar a. Called Moors, dwelled in Andalusia, cities of Cordoba & Seville b. Horticulture, math, sailplaning developedc. Muslim, Jewish & Christian scholars worked together became a ascendant for the RenaissancePart 6 of 9 Spain, ottoman Empire set out of women colonialism http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olUPtXRC6U&NR=1Reconquista, Christian re-conquest of Spain expelling Moors and forcing conversion or expulsion of Jews 1492 the Moors were kicked out of Spain 1453 Greek Constantinople pull down to Muslim military man name changed to Istanbul = Islam in Abundance Sultan was the ruler of Islamic poove society. Sultan means ruler Sultans Harem (Haram forbidden, taboo) company of concubines, in Western eyes they are dens of iniquity, but in Islamic practice they were centers of protection for women and sources for caucusing about political power Islamic polygamy all w ives need to be treated equallyPart 7 of 9 Suez Canal France colonizes Algeria WWI colonialism Wahabism, Jihad http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2lGUr7eJ4&NR=1Colonial sense of superiority disparaged Muslims France took over northern Africa and the northern part of the Middle East, discouraging Arabic language and Islamic faith. England expanded into Egypt after creating the Suez Canal, also taking the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, and Iraq. Ottomans sided with Germany in WWI, so England & France took Muslim lands when Germany upset (min 240) Muslim Brotherhood arose in Egypt in 1928Some Muslim states promote western style central authoritarian dictatorships Muslim Brotherhood resisted these. quest WW2 Muslims throughout European colonies rose up, demanding release from the European counties. Mohammad ibn Abdul Wahab became a leader in the Islamic world, preaching an ascetic, puritanical puddle of Islam Created Wahabism, founded Saudi State, get together desert warrior spirit with puritanical reform. Very fundamental and foundation form of IslamWas supported by Saud family, who would become rulers of Saudi Arabia Oil gave Saudis great riches allowing them to expand Wahabist beliefs. Giving the money to organizations has caused an even more radical conference of beliefs to arise Jihad = struggle. The greater jihad is the struggle of ones will against ones passions and weaknesses, an inner struggle. The lesser jihad is a defensive war, using just war criteria. Some groups called for a radical Jihad war against western nations The end justifying the means leads to terrorism.Osama Bin-Laden in incidentPart 8 of 9 Malcolm X Israel Iran hostage crisis, Iraq http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKHuc0ehFPcMalcolm X We (blacks) did not land on Plymouth Rock the rock was get on us Walhid Farad formed the farming of Islam Elijah Poole joined him changed name to Elijah Muhammad & took charge in 1934 Malcolm Little heard about Nation of Islam in Prison, changed n ame to Malcolm X Malcolm X What was your name before you lost it?Malcolm X came back from hajj inspired to join Nation of Islam to tralatitious Islam Gunned down By 1975, Elijahs son brought about Malcolm Xs dream changed name to World Community of Islam Louis Farrakhan continued in old ways of separation Israel made a state in 1948. In 6 Day War in 1967 tensions increased with Muslims 1978 Irans Shah fell to Shiite Ayatollah Khomeini US cast asGreat Satan Students took US embassy workers in Tehran as hostages for 444 days Sadat in Egypt assassinated he had sign(a) a peace treaty with Israel. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 coalition lead by US stopped him, imposed no-fly partitionPart 9 of 9 Suicide bombing Islamic sin & heaven wrap up http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTCPablawQ&NR=19/11 made people aware not only of radical fringe of Islam, but also of the peaceful Muslim neighbors. Even in heaven one cannot see God Pleas for peace Few stable & fair Muslim governm ents have replaced colonial governmentsPart 1 of 9 Intro and basic facts http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAjsu1ATrts Part 2 of 9 Pre Muslim Mecca, Quraish tribe, Muhammads early years & first vision, Quran, 1st pillar shahadah, and start of 2nd pillar prayer http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtFkhC7DIIo Part 3 of 9 2nd pillar (prayer) continued, Muhammad gains followers, conflict with Meccans, Hijra, to Ummayad dynasty beginning of 3rd pillar http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h4bcCSsc9A&NR=1 Part 4 of 9 3rdpillar, charity, continued 4th pillar, Ramadan, Abbasid dynastyCrusades Mongols http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKsm3O23Itg&NR=1 Part 5 of 9 Mongol era 5thPillar, Hajj in Spain, interfaith cooperation http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWJDY8AsFo&feature=related Part 6 of 9 Spain, Ottoman Empire place of women Colonialism http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6olUPtXRC6U&NR=1 Part 7 of 9 Suez Canal France colonizes Algeria WWI colonialism Wahabism, Jihad http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2l GUr7eJ4&NR=1 Part 8 of 9 Malcolm X Israel Iran hostage crisis, Iraq http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKHuc0ehFPc Part 9 of 9 Suicide bombing Islamic hell & heaven wrap up http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTCPablawQ&NR=1

Theodore Adorno’s notions of ‘standardisation’ and ‘pseudo-individualism’ might be applied to contemporary pop music

Basing your discussion on an analysis of at least 2 contemporary artists or bands, consider the ways that Theodore Adornos notions of standardisation and pseudo-individualism might be utilize to contemporary go finished medicament. Do you see any problems or shortcomings from this barbel?Popular Culture has enticed much research with the increase of media studies t here argon a number of minds picking apart what they see. With icons filing up and saturating mediums such(prenominal) as television, magazines, radio stations to name a close to, the celebrity make full effort is undoubtedly causing a stir amongst the masses.Theodore Adorno (1903-69) emigrated to England in 1934 to lack Nazism. He lived in the United States of America for 10 years, (1938-48) before move to Frankfurt, where he was a member at the Frankfurt Institute of fond Research. Theodore Adorno was a disclose figure in the study of favorite euphony and had intrinsic Marxist facial expression on the cap ital nature of decree. Adorno believed that the agri civilization manufacture is the central agency in contemporary capitalism for the production and satisfaction of false inevitably. (Adorno, T and Horkheimer, M. 1977, p349).He argues that popular harmony is a mass-produced and sh completelyow evaluate part of the civilisation industry. This would conjure that either aspects of popular unison including types of variants, song lyrics and parts of songs e.g. chorus, atomic number 18 all standardised. (Longhurst, B. 1995, p5).Popular medicament is therefore divided into particular categories or genres of music such as rock, pop, rap, heavy metal and reggae etc, however according to Adorno, all popular music is standardised consisting of verse, chorus, bridge, that are interchangeable from one song to another. The effects of standardisation are practically hidden by what the industry calls pseudo-individualisation. These are incidental differences, likewise k at a timen as frills that are gear up within a song to disguise that it sounds the a want(p).Adorno distinguishes sharply between pop music and serious music between high culture and petty(a) cultures. Serious music, which he regards as unpolluted, Beethoven or Mozart for casing, ferments to the pleasures of the image offer an engagement with the world, as it should be.Especially due to this separation his theories were often attacked for cosmos elitist. The comparison of pop music and serious music was a main topic for him. Adorno describes individuals who enjoy popular music corrupt by entrance and open to the domination of industrialised capitalist systems. (Longhurst, B. 1995, p8). This view answer fors for the emotional needs that popular music may fulfil as false and immature, kind of than deep and/or penetrating. Adorno continued to equate the form with Tin travel Alley and jazz orientated variations of it, ignoring the arising of rock and roll in the early 1950s. This undermined his critique and resulted in his views generally beingness strongly spurned by more contemporary rock analysts. (Shuker, R. 1994 23).Adorno claims that Popular music is churned into a production line where everything sounds similar, its an industry that exploits us for profit and brotherly control, to judge certain conditions ab let out the world in which we live by a capitalist society. It would be fair to say that to some extent this is true. We do live in a capitalist society and in the music industry the process of absorption is achieved by capitalism through publicize and grocery storeing of a product with a pop star or pop band. Everything about them move arounds a commodity, their clothes, image, likes and dislikes etc, transcends its immediate functional use to become a key symbol of a whole lifestyle. The argument implies that the rise of the popular music to mass status is a consequence of the symbolic strategies invested in it quite than the actual quality of the music.This essentially means that although the products of the culture industry are alike in intimately cases, some individuality is consciously added to make it divers(prenominal) from the rest even though essentially it is the same product. This is pseudo individualism. Adorno uses the Hollywood star system as an example, the more dehumanized its method of operation and content, the more diligently and successfully the culture industry propagates supposedly vast individual(prenominal)ities, and operates with heart throbs. (Adorn, T. 1991, p87).A modern day example can be seen in boy bands such as Westlife, Nsync, Backstreet boys and the most recent One true voice derived from Popstars the rivals, a spin of show produced earlier as Popstars in January 2001. Although the music is very similar in structure, key fruit and content, the customer can choose between several versions of these boy bands.It could be suggested, the culture industry produces culture, whic h the masses consume unthinkingly and are therefore confirmed as unthinking. It is a culture which produces satisfaction in the here and now, depoliticising the working class, limiting its horizon to political and economic goals that can be achieved within the oppressive and exploitive framework of capitalist society. (Storey, J. 1998 p188).The audience, through a selection process selected the new- do boy band, One received Voice over a number of weeks. A group of 5 males aged between 17 and 22, they do fit into a usual boy band category. They released a Christmas song called Sacred Trust which is actually a cover version of another male group the Bee Gees. Adorno would claim that we as masses consume everything the business churns out and on a personal level I would agree as this appears to be both standardised and contains pseudo individualism as it is sung by a new group with added frills however this has been evident in popular music for generations and make groups will c ontinue to use this method in order to arrive more sales. We live in a consumerist society where these manufactured groups are providing a helper for their audience. A major critique of this is that Adorno does not go to at the emotional response of the audience and how standardisation is also a form of pleasure. By this it means that standardisation is a form of pledge for the audience and this predictability is often welcoming.Adorno and other writers of the Frankfurt school, especially Herbert Marcuse (1898-1978) sees the process of the culture industry as a means of capitalist society to poise itself.Theodore Adorno claimed that popular music operates as a tool of social cement. Although his books was published in 1941, his delineates on popular music does not account for the complexities of recent popular music and popular culture. He is heavily criticised due to his unchanging elitist views and it would be fair to say that popular music is not as monolithic as Adorno cl aims.The perspectives offer a relevant scarcely quite pessimistic and what can be considered as narrow apt(p) views of popular music. They have offered foundations for interpretation and understanding of music however some theories since have built on how audiences contextualise and use the products of mass culture rather than what the culture industry does to the audience.Antonio Gramscis (1891-1937) work on Hegemony opened umpteen doors for thought, including ideas that members of society negotiate with the products of the culture. (Fiske, J. 1992, p309). Hegemony helps identify that popular culture is not only if impose on the subordinates by the bourgeoisie and that people are not simply passive and helpless mass incapable of discrimination and thus at the economic, cultural and political mercy of the barons of the industry. (Fiske, J. 1987, p309)Fiske suggests that audiences draw contrasting ideas from different text. bloody shame is a fine example where pleasure of the a udience is in the force out of a severely suboridatly subculture to make their own statements and own implication. (Fiske, J. 1987, p233)These theories have their strengths and differences in helping unpack the tapestry of music. One broker they all share is the acknowledgement that pop music has important social effects. Who are the main consumers of popular music? Youth are highest overwhelming marketing within pop music accounting for the highest percent of unity sales. Bradley (1992) accounted the significance with youths and music as reaction to post war stripling with an increase in disposable income and new position in society. throng Coleman (1961) highlighted the separateness of youth culture from adult society and its closeness to the market through consumption of popular music. Consumption has been linked to youth culture as far back as the 50s, where growing western markets created particularised products and goods for the teenager. (Wulff, H. and Taliai, A. 1995).A n example of success in popular music is bloody shame. She is a key figure in the pop industry as a induct for breaking conventions within gender and sexuality, and has been around for 3 decades, now in her 50s still appealing to the youth, However much debate on Madonna has taken place focusing on her image rather than her music. She has been perceived as the depressionest form of irresponsible culture a social disease and an inauthentic product of the culture industry who was involved of the exploitation of others of the watch of that industry. (Bryman, A. 2001).In relation to Adorno he may have perceived Madonna to be a cultural product, taking pseudo individualism to an extreme, which in turn made her very popular. Madonna moves from various genres of music and blends them unitedly she had a hit record with Dont cry for me Argentina a more operatic song very different to what is considered mainstream music. I feel that Adorno would have critiqued this as popular classical as she took something that can be considered elitist and brought it into popular culture.This view is contrasted with her comparison as an organic feminist who allows girls to see that the meaning of female sexuality can be in their control, can be made in their interests, and that their subjectivitys are not necessarily totally determined by the dominant patriarchy. (McClary, S. 1991.)McClary in her analysis of Madonna has found her to be colossal as a musician who has endured maintained an incredible amount of power as a successful female artist over 3 decades. A simple look at her back catalogue and it is apparent that she uses sexual power as a commodity alike many women throughout western history. Including seventeenth century composer Barbara Strozzie, who was one of a few women who broke through the elite circle of classical music, by be bare breasted for publicity. It would be very interesting to know what Adorno would account for that. (Rosand, E. 1986).Madonna however bri ngs hypocrisy to the surface and problematizes it. With publications of her book, sex and video discourses like in Bed with Madonna She takes a key role in the aggressor sexually. She connects the notions of power and sex and projects it back outwards into the main stream transfer on hips Gautier bust pointy and proud. Her intentions never simplistic, it is possible her representations aim to detach stigmas and notions of taboo to certain sexual matters. This may lead to greater tolerance for those tenanted in these perverted practices and a layered stream of meanings dipictable from her messages.Irony has been depicted as a key strategy in her possible master plan. In Like a Virgin her little girl voice and play with signs of renowned temptresses, her pouts, her coquettish nature and using traditional music signs of childish photograph projecting her knowledge that this is what patriarchy expects of her and also her awareness that this fantasy is crackbrained. (McClary,S. 199 1, p153).A principal factor in the understanding of Madonna messages is the speech communication of cultural experiences and perceptions that she speaks to her audience with. Madonna gives her audience standardisation in the mind that some of her music can be chopped and changed however she also gives her audience challenging and contrasting views about being a charr in straightaways society, that could be argued against Adorno as being engaging, testing and also plays to the pleasures of the imagination offering engagement to the world as it is now.Her audience within popular music are aimed specifically at the mass (for financial and wider circle of her messages) and as evidence in that she plays for the lowest common denominator-that she prostitutes her art an acknowledgment of her self. Prostitution is a service never the less, and it evident that she uses her role to play with traditional boundaries and identities. Madonna uses the tool of fantasy a mode typical of the c ulture industry, however she here compliance to the powers stop, as she twist notions within them. Her fantasies have been seen as ambiguous and unsuccessful for men and she has been compared to a authenticated Boy Toy as male interpretations and reactions to a majority are often that of anxiety and unease rather than appease. (Rolling stone 508 March 28th 1989). On the other hand, the power of Madonna is undoubtedly clear, her vast empire of her payoff Company, her own music label and a net value of 600 one thousand million speaks volumes about her nature as a business women as head as an artist and social figure.It is fair to say that that although popular music in todays generation can be considered as standardized, and to a great extent, manufactured music will always be so, Adornos views are out of date and biased as he had a very low opinion of popular music. Being a musician himself, his opinions were based on his own assumptions of high and low culture and although he di d make some substantial claims about standardization and pseudo individualization, popular music today has more important factors to be dealt with such as the messages it is portraying. One being that we do live in a consumerist society where essentially everything is a product, even classical music today, which Adorno would have considered high art is now commercialized and used as a commodity to sell through advertising. Through it all music captures a moment or intent that Adorno does not account for. Music is another form of expressing an emotion whether it is classical or pop music and it is there for enjoyment, to provide a service and an option to listen to whatever pleases the ear.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

The Haqqani Network: Terrorists or Insurgents

The definition of terrorism is broad and open to interpretation. Hoffman, in his obligate Inside act of terrorism, suggests that terrorism is the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear by violence or the threat of violence in the pursuit of semipolitical change. Schwartz, Dunkel, et al, define terrorism in their Studies in departure & international deoxyadenosine monophosphateere deoxyadenosine monophosphate terrorism article entitled Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective, as the deliberate targeting of civilian sites for attacks designed to result in destruction of those sites and/or the injury and death of noncombatant civilians. Together, these two perspectives coupled with someoneity scheme and will serve as the basis for an evaluation of the Haqqani mesh and their interrelationships and interactions with know terrorist root words such as the Taliban and al-Qaida as well as with Pakistans soldiers and government news show agencies.The Haqqani Network Who A re They and Why do We consider? The Haqqani meshwork is an Afghan and Pakistani radical of fighters that operates primarily in southeast Afghanistan as a semi-autonomous component of the Taliban with fold up ties to Pakistans Army and information agencies (Rassler et al. July 14, 2011, p. -2). The Haqqani meshs leadership body structure is hierarchical in temper with members of the patriarchs family filling top leadership mappings (Rassler et al. July 14, 2011, p. 7). This familial structure is an important cultural identicalness marker that can serve to further terrorist activities. Furthermore, Schwartz, Dunkel, et al address the family as it relates to upholding honor and avenging wrongs done to the family. This is interesting because even those who sympathize and support terrorism, but dont actually come in in it, ofttimes sh atomic number 18 the same level of social identity based upon their group affiliations.This tends to show how the Haqqani network is able to exert its trance over their colleague groups without actually having to be in control of them. It appears to be a symbiotic relationship w here the Haqqani network clearly benefits from bi-directional credibleness of link with the Taliban and al-Qaida. Rassler et al support this claim when they discuss the relationship between ranking(prenominal) Haqqani network leaders and their close operational relationships with the Taliban and al-Qaida, revealing that thither is often no distinction.This share identity-based connection legitimizes the Haqqani network with the segment of the Afghan conjunction that believes in radical Islam and jihad. This was evidenced when the Haqqani network helped sustain al-Qaidas relevancy and branding as the leader of the global jihadist movement. All in all, it appears the Haqqani network just wants their proverbial place at the table so to speak. Clearly, it must be working, as current assessments put the strength of the group close to 15,000 f ighters. The Haqqani Network Duplicity at WorkAmerican intelligence and military officials claim the Haqqani network is a proxy draw off used by the Pakistani intelligence service Pakistans Inter-Service Intelligence ISI agency to carry out grisly, high-profile attacks. The question here is whether this is a relationship of convenience or an alliance due to shared identity. The secret relationship with ISI coupled with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban clearly shows the need to solicit support (e. g. , material, financial, spiritual, etc. ) and ultimately rally the masses behind them.Furthermore, for decades, the Haqqani network has been a mentor to Arab, Uzbek, Chechen, Turkish, and Pakistani jihadists. These associations speak to the core of shared identity and the interactions among the groups, as check to Schwartz, Dunkel, et al social and cultural identity is form when members come together based upon common beliefs shared across the group, and individual identity represen ts personally chosen goals, values, and beliefs coupled with their perspectives of the universely concern around them.The engage of terrorism necessitates (according to Schwartz, Dunkel, et al) that we non only understand the effects of identity, but in like manner the interactions among these levels. In addition, we need to look at the importance of the wider community as Schwartz, Dunkel, et al put it, Without local, and sometimes international support, those engaged in terrorist attacks would set out it substantially more difficult, if not impossible, to conduct their activities. Working with the Taliban, al-Qaida, and Pakistans ISI is a duplicitous role that provides credibility within, and across, multiple dimensions of jihad (Rassler et al.July 14, 2011, p. 5) establishing the shared identity necessary to imbue respect and connectivity as part of an influential group dynamic. Why is all this important? The Haqqani networks credibility in the region, especially with the tribal groups of Afghanistan, helps extend the Talibans reach and because the Haqqani network is utile militarily, they act as a force multiplier for the Taliban. This puts the Haqqani network in a regional leadership position, and Schwartz, Dunkel, et al suggest that this leadership role would be considered admirable providing further social capital.The Haqqani Network Terrorist Threat or Insurgency? So with such a significant fighting force that is radicalized, is the Haqqani network a terrorist organization pitted against Western ideology, or is it only when an insurgency focused on eradicating outsiders who have forced their way into the Afghani homeland? According to the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the Department of State as of kinfolk 15, 2011, the Haqqani network is not listed as a foreign terrorist organization. Despite this, according to the Jamestown Foundation Terrorism Monitor, The U.S. military has long been frustrated by pestilent operations c arried out against its troops in Afghanistan by Haqqani Network forces. They excerpt U. S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as saying, We cannot have the Haqqanis coming across the bump into attacking our forces and Afghans and disappearing back into a safe haven in Pakistan. In between the rhetoric, the real reason they arent on the terrorist list is because there is a belief that, such a move would scuttle both chances that the group might make peace with Afghanistans government. To make our decision, it is demand that we not lose sight of the need to fairly evaluate this group from the point of view of that group and not from the Westernized framework we can slowly apply to it. Brannan, Esler, and Strindberg, point out that, Scholars insistence that terrorists are somehow not like us but, instead, abnormalinsane, power hungry, or a faction of bothis a classic exercise in out-group stereotypingwhich undermines the analytical return of the interpretations in use. Applying th is to the Haqqani network and to prevent us from being constrained by our (Western) cultural boundaries, it is incumbent upon us to look at the Haqqani network from their advantage point. The clearest and most-recent message came in September of 2011 when Sirajuddin Haqqani (the son of the groups patriarch, Jalaluddin Haqqani) told The wire in the United Kingdom via a telephone interview, There are sincere people in the Afghan government who are loyal to the Taliban as they know our goal is the liberation of our homeland from the clutches of occupying forces. With this, their actions, and their relationships, it is presumable that the Haqqani network is interested more in the local issues and having local diverge than it is in trying to wage a global jihad against the West. A such, their lack of inclusion from the list of terrorist organizations is still valid. Bibliography Brannan, David W. , Esler, Philip F. , and Strindberg, N. T. Anders. 2001. Talking to Terrorists Towards a n Independent analytical Framework for the Study of Violent Substate Activism. Studies In Conflict & angstrom unitamp Terrorism 24, no. 1 3-24. Goodspeed, Peter. National Post, About the Haqqani network. Last limited September 30, 2011. Accessed November 24, 2011. http//news. nationalpost. com/2011/09/30/about-the-haqqani-network Griffin, Emory. A First Look at conversation Theory. radical York The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1997. Hoffman, Bruce. Inside Terrorism. New York Columbia University Press, 2006. Mazzetti, Mark, Scott Shane, and Alissa Rubin. New York Times, Brutal Haqqani offense Clan Bedevils U. S. in Afghanistan. Last modified September 24, 2011. Accessed November 23, 2011. http//www. nytimes. com/2011/09/25/world/asia/brutal-haqqani-clan-bedevils-united-states-in-afghanistan. html? pagewanted=all.Rassler, Don, and Vahid Brown. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, The Haqqani Nexus and the development of al-Qaida. Last modified July 14, 2011. Accessed Novembe r 11, 2011. www. ctc. usma. edu. Shahzad, Faizul. Taliban deflect American Perceptions of the Haqqani-ISI Relationship. Terrorism Monitor. 9. no. 37 (2011) 1-2. http//www. jamestown. org/uploads/media/TM_009_Issue37. pdf (accessed November 10, 2011). Schwartz, S. J. , Dunkel, C. S. , &amp Waterman, A. S. (2009). Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective. Studies in Conflict &amp Terrorism, 32(6), 540. Websites Referenced http//www. cfr. org http//www. tc. usma. edu http//www. dawn. com http//www. foreignaffairs. com http//www. jamestown. org http//news. nationalpost. com http//www. nytimes. com/ http//www. state. gov http//www. telegraph. co. uk http//www. thedailybeast. com http//tribune. com. pk http//www. understandingwar. org/themenode/haqqani-network &8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212&8212 1 . Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside Terrorism (2nd ed. ). New York, NY Columbia University Press. p. 40. 2 . Schwartz, S. J. , Dunkel, C. S. , & Waterman , A. S. (2009). Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(6), 537-559. 3 . ibidem(p. 540)Identity theory for our purposes will cover up cultural identity, social identity, and personal identity. 4 . Rassler, Don, and Vahid Brown. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, The Haqqani Nexus and the Evolution of al-Qaida. Last modified July 14, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2011, www. ctc. usma. edu. 5 . The Haqqani networks patriarch and leader is Jalaluddin Haqqani, although it is reported that he may be in ill health, and his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is running the day-to-day operations. http//www. cfr. org/afghanistan/institute-study-war-haqqani-network/p26126 6 .Schwartz, S. J. , Dunkel, C. S. , & Waterman, A. S. (2009). Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(6), 542. 7 . Ibid. 8 . Ibid (p. 548) 9 . Much like the traditional phrase, guilt by association, I suggest there could be credibil ity by association. It is design that is often discussed in marketing whereby a person, product, or play along gains credibility by associating itself with a larger more recognized person, product, or company (e. g. , a computer with the Intel Inside sticker on it). 10 . Rassler, Don, and Vahid Brown.The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, The Haqqani Nexus and the Evolution of al-Qaida. Last modified July 14, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2011, www. ctc. usma. edu. (p. 40) 11 . Ibid (p. 43). 12 . http//tribune. com. pk/story/259314/sirajuddin-haqqani-dares-us-to-attack-n-waziristan/ 13 . Mazzetti, Mark, Scott Shane, and Alissa Rubin. New York Times, Brutal Haqqani aversion Clan Bedevils U. S. in Afghanistan. Last modified September 24, 2011. Accessed November 23, 2011. http//www. nytimes. com/2011/09/25/world/asia/brutal-haqqani-clan-bedevils-united-states-in-afghanistan. html? pagewanted=all. 14 .Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside Terrorism (2nd ed. ). New York, NY Columbia University Press. p. 199. 15 . Goodspeed, Peter. National Post, About the Haqqani network. Last modified September 30, 2011. Accessed November 24, 2011. http//news. nationalpost. com/2011/09/30/about-the-haqqani-network 16 . Schwartz, S. J. , Dunkel, C. S. , & Waterman, A. S. (2009). Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(6), 540. 17 . Ibid. 18 . Ibid (p. 548) 19 . Rassler, Don, and Vahid Brown. The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, The Haqqani Nexus and the Evolution of al-Qaida. Last modified July 14, 2011. Accessed November 12, 2011, www. ctc. usma. edu. (p. 13) 20 . Schwartz, S. J. , Dunkel, C. S. , & Waterman, A. S. (2009). Terrorism An Identity Theory Perspective. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(6), 550. 21 . The current list of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations contains 49 entries, but the Haqqani Network is not one of them. http//www. state. gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085. htm 22 . Faizul Shahzad , Taliban Reject American Perceptions of the Haqqani-ISI Relationship, Terrorism Monitor, 9, no. 37 (2011) 1-2, http//www. jamestown. org/uploads/media/TM_009_Issue37. pdf (accessed November

Monday, January 14, 2019

Reasons Why People Use the Internet

What is the network, and how does it work? The lucre, including the World Wide Web, is perhaps the wiz most important invention to impact on elementary, secondary, and higher training in todays world. If pargonnts are to understand how their children manipulation technologarithmies for learning, they must understand or so things ab push through the mesh and the Web. This section of the San Diego Public Library site offers selective entropy for parents on various aspects of this invention. What is the profit? The Internet, in simplest terms, is the large group of millions of computers nearly the world that are all machine- introductionible to ane anformer(a).These computers are connected by phone lines, fiber optic lines, coaxial cable, satellites, and wireless connections. When you log on to the Internet you are given access to many of the other computers that are connected around the world. Internet A global network connecting millions of computers. to a greater extent than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. Unlike online service, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by figure. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent.Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which topical anaesthetic services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. There are a variety of shipway to access the Internet. Most online services, such as America Online, offer access to some Internet services. It is also possible to gain access finished a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide.It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad align of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to accompaniment email. Top 10 Reasons People Use the Internet 1. Information The Internet is arguably one of the most successful and useful tools mankind has eer created.It is, in fact, the largest library ever created, and is growing daily. Although you require to always be careful of your sources, the Internet is THE modern source of information, de die hardred in multiple media written word, visual graphics and images, video, and audio have changed the way that we humans calculate for and find information. 2. Communication People use the Internet to communicate with one another. Software has made it possible to stream voice and video crossways the world with minimal delay, and email has become the main means of communication for many a mo dern person.Without the Internet, it would be both more big-ticket(prenominal) and slower to maintain personal and professional relationships. 3. Entertainment Many raft use the Internet to enjoy themselves and to engage in personal interests. In recent years, multiple player games and virtual worlds have engaged the clock and money of many. Plus, video and music are easy to find, stream and transferplus, the medium encourages feedback Indeed, Internet use can go too far. nevertheless how can you get along if youre addicted to the Internet? We list the criteria and signs of Internet addiction in the link above. 4.Work The Internet provides an alternative to 9-5 work years, as more and more race can work from home, or telecommute. Plus, a growing number of great deal are making a surviving from the Internet itself, wither becoming experts in how people search the Internet, providing IT or web development services, or specializing in Internet marketing. 5. School More and more elementary, high shallow and university curricula require use of the Internet for school work. 6. Relationships People use the Internet to find, maintain, or end relationships. But people can get addicted to social networks, too.More on how to know if youre a Facebook addict here. 7. Market People use the Internet to research, find and buy services and products. Or to target and remove to the eventual(prenominal) consumer. In effect, the Internet has become THE best way to buy and sell merchandise, as online stores are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 8. Sexuality Although it whitethorn surprise you, its no unknown that a real majority of search is centered around porn. So, people men use the Internet to view pornography and to engage their sexual instinct. 9. self expression People not only consume information on the Internet, they CREATE it.And in doing so, people are able to express themselves politically, artistically, vocally, socially, and so on and give voic e to what is important to them. The Internet is the ultimate forum on which you can discuss or monologue as you like. 10. Ask for champion The protocol for Internet use is one of private consumption without need for naming yourself. By virtue of the privacy and anonymity factor of cyber space, just about people use the Internet to ask for abet. People ask for help in the form of emotional support, medical advice, or even scarcely listening. If you think that you may be an Internet addict, there is help out there for you.If you want to explore the deeper emotional and psychological issues for compulsive use of the Internet, first start by asking for help from your family doctor. S/He may refer you to a mental health specialist or center for technology addictions in your area. Or, if there are no specialists that live in your area, you might even consider videoconferencing, a form of outstrip psycho therapy that is starting to help people, no matter where you are. Whatever the c ase, you may need help to uncover the real reasons behind your reliance on the Internet, and to learn how to cut back and monitor Internet use for a healthy mind.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Changing Media, Changing China

changing media, changing china This page deliberately left blank ever-changing MEDIA, CHANGING CHINA Edited by Susan L. fiddle 2011 Oxford University Press, Inc. , publishes works that further Oxford Universitys accusatory of excellence in re hunt club, scholar send off, and education. Oxford New York Auckland mantle T stimulate Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur nifty of Spain Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi move Siamesepei Toronto With makeices in Argentina Austria brazil nut Chile Czech Re habitual France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy lacquer Poland Portugal Sin feastore S let outh Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine VietnamCopyright 2011 by Susan L. avoid Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 capital of Wis determinesin Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www. oup. com Oxford is a registered brandmark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No pick of this normalation whitethorn be reproduced, stored in a retrieval body, or runted, in any form or by any means, elelectroconvulsive therapyronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or an modern(prenominal)(prenominal)wise, without the prior eachowance of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- normalation Data changing media, changing chinaw ar / edited by Susan L. Shirk. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-19-975198-3 978-0-19-975197-6 (pbk. ) 1. Mass mediamainland mainland mainland china. 2. Mass media and refining chinawargon. I. Shirk, Susan L. P92. C5C511 2010 302. 230951dc22 2010012025 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United put ins of the conjures on acid- dethaw paper capacitys 1. changing Media, changing chinaw ar 1 Susan L. Shirk 2. chinas Emerging Public Sphere The pertain of Media Commercialization, Professionalism, and the profit in an Era of Transition 38 Qian assort and David Bandurski 3. The record of the Business Media in mainland mainland mainland mainland chinaw be Hu Shuli 4. Between Propaganda and Commercials Chinese Television selfsame(prenominal) a shot 91 Miao Di 5.Environmental journalism in chinaw ar Zhan Jiang 115 77 6. Engineering gay Souls The Development of Chinese Military Journalism and the Emerging Defense Media Market 128 Tai Ming Cheung 7. changing Media, changing Courts 150 asa dulcis L. Liebman 8. What Kind of teaching Does the Public bespeak? Getting the News during the 2005 Anti-Japanese Pro rises 175 Daniela Stockmann 9. The Rise of Online Public Opinion and Its Political Impact 202 Xiao Qiang 10. changing Media, ever-changing Foreign insurance form _or_ system of government Susan L. Shirk Ack instantaneously directgments 253 Contri exactly ifors 255 Index 259 225 vi Content 1 changing Media, ever-changing china Susan L.Shirk ver the past thirty geezerhood, the tierceinghip of the Chinese commie P tricky (CCP) look at free their monopoly oer the instruction compass the humanity. off facility prin ting in 1979, they al humbleed smartswritten document, magazines, and television receiver strategy and radio post to documentation themselves by selling enunciatements and competing in the trade invest. Then in 1993, they funded the construction of an profit network. The frugal logic of these decisions was obvious requiring visual modality media ecesiss to ? nance their operations done moneymaking(prenominal)ized messageized activities would invest k unhealthy the establishments mightiness and help oneself modernize mainland Chinas economy.And the net would help catapult the foundationspun atomic number 18a into the ranks of technologic whollyy advanced nations. But fine clear is whether Chinas draws anticipated the profound governanceal repercussions that would follow. This aggregation of essays explores how transformations in the data environment ablaze by the potent combination of mercantile media and net ar changing China. The essays argon written by wolframern China experts, as well as by pioneering journa tilts and experts from China, who economise from personal experience round how television, passwordpapers, magazines, and entanglement- found mods sites navigate the manytimes undepend equal crosscurrentsO amidst the market and CCP envisions. Although they involve un identical dismantles of media, the essays shargon greenness themes and athletic fields the explosion of breeding made avail equal to(p) to the exoteric with with(predicate) market-oriented and net-based immatures pedigrees how mountain seek plausible study how the population collapse advised than ever in the beginningis making freshly demands on regimen how ex officios react to these demands the ambivalence of the attractionship as to the bene? s and risks of the free ? ow of development, as well as their natural and strenuous efforts to shape human race aspect by commanding content and the behavior of lifes in wh ich journalists and Netizens argon evading and resisting these controls. Following a brief retrenchment aft(prenominal) the Tiananmen crackdown on student demonstrators in June 1989, the commercializedisation of the f light-headedpot media picked up steam in the 1990s. 1 at picture, intelligence informationpapers, magazines, television stations, and watchword t pass water sex sites vie ? rcely for audiences and advertising r take(p)ue. After half a century of cosmos personnel office-fed CCP propaganda and starved of sincere information al nearly domestic and world- dewy-eyed reddents, the Chinese e rattlingday has a vulturine appetite for tidings cross-file. This appetite is around seeming(a) in the ontogenesis of network approaching and the clear,2 which stick multiplied the amount of information available, the mixture of desex-gos, the timeliness of the bargon-asseds, and the matter and trans guinea pig reach of the freshs.China has to a grea ter extent than 384 million profit employrs, much(prenominal) than any originator(a) expanse, and an astounding 145 million bloggers. 3 The virtually dramatic effect of the net income is how exuberant it hobo sp admit information, which in sour helps skirt decreed censorship. Be bowel movement of its speed, the Internet is the ? rst place news appears it sets the agenda for opposite media. Chinese Internet procedurers l substantiate to a greater extent than or slight right away closely subjects happening overseas and end-to-end China.Thanks to the major news mesh sites that compose articles from grams of sources, including television, newspapers and magazines, and online egresss resembling blogs, and disseminate them wide, a ototoxic waste site or depravation s tin enduredal in any Chinese city or a governanceal leaders ex gougeion in capital of Japan or Washington be obtains headline news across the coun search. Other complementary technologie s, much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as cell phones, amplify the uphold of the Internet. Millions of state bring news bulletins text withstand messaged automatic bothy to their cell phones. China is all the same noneffervescent a long way from having a free invoke.As of 2008, China stood twisting up to the bottom of world rankings of independence of the put forward 181 out of 195 countriesas assessed by the world(prenominal) non semipolitical relational organization (NGO) independence Ho wasting disease. 4 Freedom House as well as ca-cas a low 2 ever-changing Media, changing China score to Chinas Internet emancipation78 on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 world the worst. 5 The CCP detains to admonisher, censor, and manufacture the content of the press mediaincluding the Webalthough at a untold higher cost and less soundly than before the proliferation of news sources.During hot seat Hu Jintaos imprimatur term, which began in 2007, the society ramp ed up its efforts to manage this new information environment. What at ? rst looked like temporary measures to prevent destabilizing quetchs in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics and during the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown and early(a)wise political anniversaries in 2009 immediately seem to admit get down a permanent strategy. seemingly the CCP provide do whatever it takes to confound sure that the information reaching the universal through the commercial media and the Internet does non inspire peck to challenge company swayer.Information counselling has be source a source of serious friction in Chinas dealings with the United tell a plowsh bes and new(prenominal)(a)(a) Western countries. In 2010, Google, reacting to cyber attacks originating in China and the Chinese political scholarships intensi? ed controls over free deli really(prenominal) on the Internet, affrightened to pull out of the country unless it was leave behinded to operate an un? ltered Chinese voice discourse search engine. 6 (capital of Red China had ask Google to ? lter out satisfying the Chinese political sympathies conceptualizes politi expecty unsanded as a condition of doing line of reasoning in China. Nine geezerhood four-year-oldr, deposit of accede Hillary Clinton, in a speech slightly the Internet and freedom of speech that had been planned before Googles declaration and that did non focus on China or the Google lean, articulated Internet freedom as an explicit goal of Ameri give the sack unlike policy. 7 The Chinese establishment was stunned and alarmed by the Google announcement. Googles challenge did non just belittle Chinas planetary write up it in addition menaceened to unfold a vulnerable domestic backlash. A aged propaganda decreed I interviewed expressed write down that Google executives had made a high-pro? e threat quite of use the good kin the Propaganda Department had established with company exec utives. A capital of Red China academic heard a sr. ordained say that the political science was treating the Google crisis as the digital sport of June 4, referring to the Tiananmen crisis, which al intimately brought down commie companionship rule in 1989. In the ? rst twenty-four hours after Googles dramatic statement, angry and worked up Netizens crowded into chat rooms to clap Googles defense ever-changing Media, ever-changing China 3 of free information.Google has goodly a 2530 per centum shargon of the search engine phone line in Chinathe Chinese- commit Baidu has been favored by the governing body and most consumers exclusively Google is potently preferred by the members of the super enlightened ur ostracize selected. 8 To prevent the controversy from leadring up opposition from this in? uential aggroup, the Propaganda Department went to work. Overnight, the dominant assessment appearing on the Internet turned one hundred eighty points against Google and the United States. 9 The pro-Google messages disappe atomic number 18d and were replaced by accusations against the U.S. governance for colluding with Google to subvert Chinese sovereignty through its information imperialism, on that pointby creating suspicions that many of the new flockbills were bogus. The Propaganda Department asked heeded Chinese academics to conciliate supportive newspaper essays, and provided ghostwriters. Online news portals were conveyd to devote space on their look pages to the presidencys counterattacks. To defend itself against the threat of a king- coatd-scale movement of Google devotees, the CCP fly back on anti-Ameri set up bailiwickism.In establish 2010 Google followed through on its threat and travel its search engine to Hong Kong as a result, the Chinese establishment and non Google now does the ? ltering. De breach the unique features of the Google case, foreignististic as well as domestic con? icts over censorship are probably to be repeated as the fellowship fight backs to shape an increasingly pluralistic information environment. In her book Media Control in China, master copyly published in 2004 by the international NGO Human Rights in China, journalist He Qinglian lambasts the CCP for its limits on press freedom. She portrays Chinese journalists as dancing in shackles. Yet she as well credits commercialization with disruption a gap in the Chinese governments control of the news media. 10 Indeed, the ambition for audiences provides a strong motivation for the press to ascertain a news accounting before the propaganda political science can devour a expatriate on describe itand it has provided an peculiar space for protest, as was seen in the sign wave of pro-Google commentary. Caught surrounded by commercialization and control, journalists play a cat and mouse granular with the censors, a dynamic that is vividly depicted in the case studies in this book.Even partially relinquishing control of the cud media transforms the strategic inter doing amid rulers and the public in imperious political schemes like China. Foreigners run for to dwell on the way the Chinese propaganda cops are continuing to censor the media, nevertheless an equally of the essence(p) 4 ever-changing Media, Changing China part of the base is the exponential magnification of the amount of information available to the public and how this is changing the political game inside China. That transform is the subject of this book.OFFICIAL AMBIVALENCE As journalist Qian crime syndicate and his coauthor David Bandurski argue in chapter 2, Chinese leadhip involve a complex ambivalence toward the commercial media and the Internet they disclose its potential bene? ts as well as its risks. Xiao Qiang, in chapter 9, uses the same term to describe the attitude of Chinese government activity toward the Internet. By choosing to give up some layer of control over the media, the rulers of a uthoritarian countries like China crop a trade-off. most obviously, they gain the bene? t of economic exploitation the market operates more(prenominal) efficiently when large number draw better information.But they also are gambling that they volition reap political bene? ts that relinquishing control of the media will set off a dynamic that will result in the improvement of the governments implementation and ultimately, they hope, in change its pop support. The media improve governance by providing more accurate information regarding the preferences of the public to policymakers. subject field leadership also use media as a watchdog to monitor the actions of subordinate authorizeds, curiously at the leaveical anaesthetic anaesthetic level, so they can identify and try to ? x fusss before they provoke touristed un endure.Competition from the commercial media further drives the authorised media and the government itself to become more transparent to follow its bel ievability, the government moldiness release more information than it ever did before. In all these ways, the transformed media environment improves the responsiveness and transparency of governance. Additionally, a freer press can help earn international approval. On the early(a) go by, surrendering control over information realizes bleak political risks. It puts new demands on the government that it may not be able to satisfy, and it could reveal to the public the divisions behind the causeage of company unity.Diminished control also provides an opening for political opposition to emerge. What most worries CCP leadersand what motivates them to continue investing heavily in mechanisms to control media contentis the potential that a free information environment provides for organizing a challenge to their rule. The Chinese leaders solicitude of Changing Media, Changing China 5 free-? owing information is not spotless paranoia some comparative br new(prenominal)ly science explore evinces that allowing coordination goods like press freedom and civil liberties signi? antly reduces the odds for authoritarian regimes to pass away in power. 11 What is the connection amongst information and antigovernment corporal action? The more repressive a regime, the more chanceful it is to coordinate and engage in corporate action to change that regime. Each individualistic dares to participate totally if the risk of take part is outweighed by the potential bene? ts. maven way to minimize the risk is the namelessness afforded by jumbo meter. Standing on Tiananmen public firm use uping an antiregime sign is an act of political self-destruction if you are alone.It only makes sense to demonstrate if you love that a crowd will turn out. Even before the Internet was created, news stories could create focal points for mobilizing pile protests. Cell phones and the Internet are even more useful for coordinating group action as they provide anonymity to the prinkrs and facilitate two-way confabulation of many to many. In April 1999, approximately ten thousand devotees of the Falun Gong spiritual sect utilise cell phones and the Internet to secretly organize a sit-in that surrounded the CCP and government leadership compound in Beijing.A ten dollar bill before, the fax machine was the communication engineering science that made it possible for students to organize pro- nation protests in Beijings Tiananmen Square and more than 130 other cities. As the chapters in this book detail, in recent years a combination of newspaper reports, Internet communication tools, and cell phones has enabled student protests against Japan, demonstrations against cracker-barrel land seizures, and protests against environmentally damaging industrial projects.The political possibilities of the latest genial networking technologies like Twitter (a homegrown Chinese version is FanFou), Facebook (a Chinese version is Xiaonei), or the videosharing syllab us YouTube (a Chinese version is Youku) know only to be fully tested in China. 12 As Michael Suk- schoolboyish Chwe points out in his book Rational Ritual, media communication and other elements of culture make coordination possible by creating common knowledge that gives each person the knowledge that others ache legitimate the same message. 3 When all news was communicated through official media, it was used to mobilize support for CCP policies hence, the CCP had few worries nearly pop opposition. doubting Thomas Schelling made this point with a characteristically apt analogy The participants of a square trip the light fantastic toe may all be thoroughly dissatis? ed with 6 Changing Media, Changing China the accompaniment dances organism called, only as long as the caller has the microphone, nobody can dance anything else. 14 As the number and variety of microphones stool increase, so have the force of public sound judgement and the risk of bottom-up locoweed action.T he CCP propaganda authorities may have been variant Schelling A June 2009 bulks chance(a) commentary titled The microphone Era says, In this Internet era, every(prenominal)one can be an information channel and a principal of opinion expression. A ? gurative semblance is that everybody now has a microphone in front of him. 15 Examples like the 2009 antigovernment protests in Iran and the so-called color revolutions in author Soviet states, as well as their own experiences, make Chinese politicians a dismayed(predicate) that the free ? ow of information through the new media could jeopardise their rule.But it is worth considering the other adventure, namely, that the Internet might actually impede a successful revolutionary movement because release online is a safer option than taking to the streets and the de primaevalized nature of online communication splinters movements instead of integrating them into effective revolutionary organizations. 16 Nevertheless, Chinas leade rs are too nervous to risk totally ceding control of information. MASS MEDIA IN TOTALITARIAN CHINA In the prereform era, China had no journalism as we know it, only propaganda.Highly conscious of public opinion, the CCP given up a huge amount of resources to managing popular views of all essences. 17 In CCP lingo, the media were called the throat and tongue of the party their sole conclusion was to mobilize public support by acting as loudspeakers for CCP policies. 18 The Chinese public received all of its highly homogenous information from a lilliputian number of officially controlled sources. As of 1979, at that place were only sixty- nine newspapers in the immaculate country, all run by the party and government. 9 The standard template consisted of photos and headlines glorifying topical anaesthetic and national leaders on the front page, and invariably compulsive reports written in formulaic, ideological prose inside. topical anesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic ane sthetic anesthetic news stories of touch on much(prenominal) as ? res or crimes were almost never reported. What little impertinent news was provided had to be based on the dispatches of the governments Xinhua News Agency. populate read the masss Daily and other official newspapers in the good morning at work offices and factories were required to have subscriptions.The 7 p. m. news on Changing Media, Changing China 7 China Central Television (CCTV) simply rehashed what had been in the Peoples Daily. 20 newspaper towers and commentaries were read aloud by exigent voices over ubiquitous radio loudspeakers and therefore used as materials for obligatory political study sessions in the workplace. A buckram diet of propaganda depoliticized the public. As political scientist Ithiel de Sola kitty-cat observed, When regimes impose daily propaganda in large doses, lot stop listening. 21 CCP members, government officials, and politically sophisticated intellectuals, however, had t o remain attentive. To get the information they needed to do their jobsand to exit during the campaigns to criticize individuals who had made ideological mistakes that periodically swept through the bureaucraciesthe elite decode the coded language of the official media by reading amid the lines. Sometimes this esoteric communication was int stop as a charge from the top CCP leaders to subordinates somewhat an impend change in the official line. 2 Kremlinology and Pekinology developed into a high art not only in foreign knowledge agencies, only if also at heart Soviet and Chinese government ropes themselves. In chapter 8, Daniela Stockmann describes survey research that she completed which expresss that government officials and lot who work with the government continue to read the official press to undercut policy course of studys. A diet consisting totally of official propaganda left good deal longing trustworthy sources of information. 23 As in all totalitarian stat es, a wide information gap divided the top leaders from the public.Senior officials enjoyed ample access to the international media and an extensive system of internal intelligence gathered by news organizations and other bureaucracies (called neican in Chinese). But the vast absolute majority of the public was left to rely on rumors picked up at the teahouse and in-person observations of their neighborhoods and workplaces. (In modern democracies, the information gap between officialdom and the public has disappeared almost totally U. S. government officials remain television sets on in their offices and learn intimately international events ? st from CNN, not from internal sources. ) MEDIA REFORM low in the early 1980s, the structure of Chinese media changed. Newspapers, magazines, and television stations received cuts in their government subsidies and were driven to enter the market and to earn revenue. 8 Changing Media, Changing China In 1979 they were permitted to sell adv ertising, and in 1983 they were allowed to retain the pro? ts from the sale of ads. Because mass were eager for information and businesses complimentsed to advertise their products, pro? ts were good and the number of publications grew rapidly.As Qian rout and David Bandurski note in chapter 2, the commercialization of the media accelerate after 2000 as the government seek to streng accordingly Chinese media organizations to withstand competition from foreign media companies. By 2005, China published more than two thousand newspapers and nine thousand magazines. 24 In 2003, the CCP eliminated mandate subscriptions to official newspapers and ended subsidies to all but a few such papers in every province. Even across the country circulated, official papers like Peoples Daily, Guangming Daily, and political economy Daily are now sold at retail stalls and compete for audiences.harmonize to their editor in chief course of studys, Guangming Daily sells itself as a spiritual homel and for intellectuals Economics Daily markets its timely economic reports and the Peoples Daily promotes its authoritativeness. 25 intimately a dozen commercial newspapers with national circulations of over 1 million readers are printed in multiple locations throughout the country. The Confederate province of Guangdong is the headquarters of the cutting-edge commercial media, with tierce newspaper groups ? ercely competing for audiences. Nanjing now has ? e newspapers competing for the evening readership. People buy the new tabloids and magazines on the newsstands and read them at home in the evening. though almost all of these commercial publications are part of media groups led by party or government newspapers, they look and sound only different. In contrast to the stilted and formulaic language of official publications, the language of the commercial press is feelly and colloquial. Because of this difference in style, people are more apt to desire that the content of comme rcial media is true.Daniela Stockmanns research shows that consumers seek out commercial publications because they consider them more credible than their counterparts from the official media. correspond to her research, even in Beijing, which has a curiously large proportion of government employees, only about 36 percent of residents read official papers such as the Peoples Daily the rest read only semiofficial or commercialized papers. Advertisers and many of the commercial media groups buns young and middle-aged urbanites who are well-educated, rich consumers.But publications also seek to differentiate themselves and speak to to speci? c Changing Media, Changing China 9 audiences. The Guangdong-based publications use domestic break to pull in a business-oriented, cosmopolitan audience. Because they knife thrust the limits on domestic political reporttheir editors are ? red and replaced ofttimesthey have built an audience of better-looking-minded readers orthogonal Guang dong Province. According to its editors, Southern Weekend (Nanfang Zhoumo), published by the Nanfang Daily group under the Guangdong communistic Party Committee, considered one of the most circumstantial and politically in? ential commercial newspapers, has a larger news bureau and greater circulation in politically charged Beijing than it does in southern China. 26 The Communist Youth Leagues popular national newspaper, China Youth Journal, has been a commercial success because it appeals to Chinas yuppies, the style-conscious younger generation with money to spend. The national foreign affairs newspaper, Global Times, tries to attract the same demographic by its much sensational nationalistic report of international affairs, as I hold forth in chapter 10.Media based out of print, the journalistic capital of China before the communist gain in 1949, are comparatively very dull and quiet, according to Chinese media critics. The cause they cite is that the citys government has been slow to relinquish control. 27 affect audiences prefer Southern Weekend, Global Times, and Nanjings Yangtze Evening News to Shanghai-based papers, and Hunan television to their topical anesthetic stations. 28 Journalists now think of themselves as professionals instead of as agents of the government.Along with all the other changes referred to above, this image change began in the late 1970s. Chinese journalists started to travel, study abroad, and encounter corporeal journalists. The crusading former editor in captain of the magazine Caijing (Finance and Economy) and author of chapter 3, Hu Shuli, recalls that before commercialization, the news media were regarded as a government organization rather than a watchdog, and those who worked with news organizations sounded more like officials than professional journalists. But our teachers . . . go ond us to pursue careers as professional journalists. 29 Media organizations now compete for the best young talent, and outstand ing journalists have been able to promise up their salaries by changing jobs frequently. Newspapers and magazines are also recruiting and offering high salaries to bloggers who have attracted large followings. Yet most journalists still receive low base salaries and are remunerative by the article, which makes them susceptible to corruption.Corruption ranges from baseborn transportation subsidies and honoraria provided to reporters for describe of government and embodied news hosts to outright 10 Changing Media, Changing China corporate graft for confirming reporting and extortion of corporations by journalists with child(p) to write damaging exposes (see chapter 3). Establishing professional journalistic ethics is as arduous in Chinas Wild West version of early capitalism as it was in other countries at a similar stage of development. Some journalists also have crossed over to political advocacy.In one unprecedented collective act, the national Economic Observer and twelv e regional newspapers in March 2010 published a sharply worded pitht column concern on Chinas legislature, the act Peoples Congress, to abolish the system of household residential permits (hukou) that forces migrants from the countryside to live as second-class citizens in the cities. 30 The authorities banned dissemination and discussion of the editorial but only after it had received wide distribution. At the legislative session, government leaders proposed some reforms of the hukou system, but not its abolition as demanded by the editorial.MEDIA immunity AND GOVERNMENT CONTROL All authoritarian governments face hard plectrums about how much effort and resources to invest in controlling various forms of media. In China, as in many other nondemocracies, television is the most tightly controlled. As Chinese television expert Miao Di explains in chapter 4, because of televisions great in? uence on the public straight offit is the most important source of information for the m ajority of the population, reaching widely into rural as well as urban areasit remains the most tightly controlled type of medium in China by propaganda departments at all administrative levels. All television stations are owned by national, tike, municipal or county governments and used for propaganda purposes. Yet television producers must pay help to ratings and audiences if they deprivation to earn advertising revenue. As Miao Di puts it, television straightaway is like a doublegendered rooster propaganda departments want it to crow while ? nance departments want it to lay eggs. The way most television producers reconcile these competing objectives is to produce leisurely and right entertainment programs, not hard news or commentary programs.Yet exceptions exist Hunan television has found a niche with a lively nightly news show that eliminates the anchor and is reported at one time by no-necktie journalists. Changing Media, Changing China 11 In the print realm, the gover nment controls institution to the media market by requiring every publication (including news Web sites with original content) to have a license and by pass the number of licenses. Only a handful of newspapers, magazines, and news Web sites are completely item-by-item and privately ? nanced. The rest may have some private ? ancing but remain as part of media groups headed by an official publication and subordinate to a government or CCP entity that is responsible for the news content and bear downs the chief editors. The chief editor of Global Times, appointed by the editors and CCP commission of Peoples Daily, acknowledged this in my interview with him If we veer too off the beaten track(predicate) away from the general direction of the fastness level, I will get ? red. I know that. However, there is a degree of variation. For example, magazines are somewhat more by and large controlled than newspapers, presumably because they appear less frequently and have smaller reader ships.Additionally, newspapers focusing on economics and business appear to be allowed wider latitude in what they can safely report. The publication that set a new standard for bold muckraking journalism is Caijing (Finance and Economics), a privately ? nanced independent periodic business magazine with a comparatively small, elite readership. In chapter 3, former Caijing editor in chief Hu Shuli explains that the Chinese governments control of the economic news arena, both in terms of licensing and supervision, has been relatively loose when canvasd with control over other news . . so much so that even in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square event of 1989, economic news was little bear upon by censorship, while all other kinds of news were strictly monitored and controlled. Her analysis of the emergence of ? nancial journalism in China recognizes the pathbreaking use of goods and services of private entrepreneurs and professional journalists, but also credits the reform-m inded economic officials who instruct the importance of a free ? w of information for the effective functioning of a market economy. She notes that these economic officials didnt call out the CCP Propaganda Department even when Caijing stone-broke an embarrassing scandal about the bank building of Chinas IPO in Hong Kong at the very time when the National Peoples Congress was dimension its annual meeting this is considered a politically excitable period during which the propaganda authorities commonly ban all mediocre news. Evan Osnos, in his New Yorker pro? e of Hu Shuli, observes that the differences among senior officials on media policy may nurture Caijing the magazine had gone so uttermost already that conservative branches of the government could no longer be sure which other officials supported it. 31 12 Changing Media, Changing China In 2010, Hu Shuli and most of the staff of Caijing resigned in a con? ict with the magazines owners over editorial control and estab lished Caixin Media, which publishes a each week news magazine (Century Weekly), a periodic economic review (China Reform), and a Web site (Caing. com). Caixin is the ? st media organization in China to establish a Board of Trustees to sentry go its journalistic integrity. Caijing, its reputation damaged by the mass exodus of its journalists, is seeking to recuperate by publishing exciting stories such as one that urged that Hubei governor Li Hongzhong be ? red if he failed to vindicate for ripping a journalists tape rec commit out of her hand when she challenged him at a press conference with a question he didnt like. 32 The heated competition between the two media groups is likely to drive them to enter beyond business journalism with taboo-breaking stories that test the tolerance of the government.Although Chinas leaders have embraced the Internet as a necessary element of the information groundwork for a modern economy, as the size of the online public has grown, they hav e invested more and more heavily in controlling online content and containing its powerful potential to mobilize political opposition. The Internet offers individuals the means to learn about fast-breaking events inside and outside China, to write and disseminate their own commentaries, and to coordinate collective action like petitions, boycotts, and protests.The concept of the Netizen (wangmin) is ladle with political meaning in a system lacking other forms of parliamentary participation. 33 As Xiao Qiang, the UC Berkeleybased editor of China Digital Times, observes in chapter 9, The role of the Internet as a communication theory tool is especially meaningful in China where citizens previously had little to no opportunity for uncons ingenious public self-expression or access to free and unexpurgated information.Furthermore, these new freedoms have developed in spite of stringent government efforts to control the medium. From the standstill of the CCP leaders, the Internet i s the most potent media threat. Young and well-educated city dwellers, whose unwaveringty is polar for the choice of CCP rule, ? ock to the Internet for information, including information from abroad. 34 That is why the CCP reacted so defensively to the Google encounter and ? rmly refuses to permit un? ltered searches.Additionally, the Internets expertness for many-to-many two-way communication facilitates the coordination of collective action around the common knowledge of online information. at that place is no way for CCP leaders to call in whether virtual activism will serve as a harmless outlet for outpouring or a means to mobilize antigovernment protests in the street. Changing Media, Changing China 13 government activity controls include the with child(p) Firewall, which can axisk entire sites hardened abroad and inside China and talented technological methods to ? ter and inhibit searches for keywords considered disloyal. But as Xiao Qiang notes in chapter 9, t he governments indigenous strategy is to hold Internet swear out providers and access providers responsible for the behavior of their customers, so business operators have little choice but to proactively censor content on their sites. In addition, human monitors are paid to manually censor content. Ever since the monoamine oxidase Zedong era, the methods used by CCP leaders to impress political loyalty and ideological conformation have re? cted an acute sensory faculty that peer groups have a more powerful impact on individual attitudes than authority ? gures. It is for this reason that every Chinese citizen was required to undergo regular animadversion and self-criticism in small groups of classmates or coworkers. Todays propaganda officials are applying this insight to their management of the information environment created on the Internet. To subjoin its censorship methods and neutralize online critics, the CCP has introduced a system of paid Internet commentators called the Fifty-Cent Army (wu monoamine oxidase dang).Individuals are paid approximately ? fty cents in Chinese currency for each anonymous message they post that endorses the governments position on controversial show ups. Local propaganda and Youth League officials are particularly keen to adopt this technique. 35 These messages create the impression that the tide of social opinion supports the government, put social and psychological drag to conform on people with faultfinding views, and thereby presumably reduce the possibility of antigovernment collective action.The July 2009 regulation that bans news Web sites from conducting online polls on current events and requires Netizens to use their real names when posting reactions on these sites appears to have the same aim of disrupting antigovernment common knowledge from forming on the Internet. 36 The large commercial news Web sites Sina. com, Sohu. com, and Netease. com are probably the second most widely used source of informat ion in China after television, and the ? rst place better-educated people go for their news.These sites have agreements with almost every publication in China (including some blogs) and many overseas news organizations that allow them to compile and reproduce their content and make it available to millions of readers. They are privately owned and listed on NASDAQ , but they are politically compliant, behaving more or less like arms of the government. To keep their privileged monopoly status, they assemble closely with the State Council Information Office, which sends the managers of the 14 Changing Media, Changing China Web sites SMS text messages several times a day with guidance on which topics to avoid.The Information Office also provides a list of particularly independent publications that are not supposed to be featured on the front page. The news sites have opted to reduce their political risks by posting only hard news material that has ? rst been published elsewhere in Chin a. Although they produce original content about such topics as entertainment, sports, and technology, they never do so with respect to news events. Furthermore, with very rare exceptions, such as the 9/11 attacks, they never publish international media accounts of news events directly on the site.Despite the CCP hovering over it, the Internet constitutes the most freewheeling media space in China because the speed and de importantized structure of online communication present an insuperable obstacle to the censors. In Xiao Qiangs words from chapter 9, When one deals with the blogosphere and the safe and sound Internet with its redundant connections, millions of overlapping clusters, self-organized communities, and new nodes festering in an explosive fashion, total control is nearly impossible. In the fiddling time before a posting can be deleted by a monitor, Netizens circulate it far and wide so it becomes widely known.For example, speeches from foreign leaders, like President Obamas inaugural address, are carefully excerpted on television and in newspapers to cast China in the most positive light. Yet on the Internet you can ? nd the full, unedited version if you are motivated to search for it. There is no longer any hope for authorities to prevent the possibly objectionable statements about China by politicians in Washington, Tokyo, or Taipei, or the cell phone videos and photographs of vehement protests in Lhasa or Urumqi, from reaching and arousing reactions from the online public.Once news attracts attention on the Internet, the audienceseeking commercial media are likely to pick it up as well. Xiao Qiang argues that the rise of online public opinion shows that the CCP and government can no longer carry absolute control of the mass media and information, and that the result is a power sacking in Chinese society. HOW ARE THE mercenary MEDIA AND INTERNET CHANGING CHINESE governance? Like all politicians, Chinese leaders are concerned ? rst and f oremost about their own survival. A rival leader could try to oust them.A mass protest movement could rise up and reduce them, especially if a rival leader Changing Media, Changing China 15 reaches out beyond the inner circle to lead such a movement. If leaders lose the support of the military, the combination of an elite split and an opposition movement could surpass them. The trauma of 1989 came close to doing just that. Thousands of Chinese students demonstrated in Beijings Tiananmen Square and over 130 other cities, and CCP leaders disagreed on how to handle the demonstrations.The CCPs rule might have ended had the military refused to obey leader Deng Xiaopings order to use lethal force to disperse the demonstrators. In that same year, democracy activists brought down the Berlin Wall, and communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe began to crumble. No wonder that since 1989, Chinas leaders have worried that their own days in power are numbered. Because commercial journalism was still in its early childhood and the Internet had not yet been built, the mass media played a more small-scale role in the 1989 crisis than it has since so.During the crisis, students, foil by what they considered the biased slant of the official press, spread the word about their movement by giving interviews to the foreign press and direct faxes abroad. One market-oriented publication, the World Economic Herald, based in Shanghai, faced down Jiang Zemin, then the party secretary of the city, and published uncensored reports. The restive journalists at the Peoples Daily and other official papers, with the goodwill of some liberal-minded officials in the Propaganda Department, reported freely on the student movement for a few days in May.The Communist Party leaders were almost as worried about the journalists rebellion as they were about the students one. 37 After the crackdown, party conservatives closed down several liberal newspapers including the World Econ omic Herald and darned the crisis in part on the shitting controls over the press that had been introduced by former leaders Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang. 38 Since Tiananmen, Chinese leaders have paid close attention to the destabilizing potential of the media.The formula for political survival that they adopted, based on their 1989 experience, focuses on three key tasks39 Prevent large-scale social unrest Avoid public leadership splits Keep the military loyal to the CCP The three dicta are interconnected if the leadership group remains cohesive notwithstanding the competition that inevitably arises within it, then the CCP and the security law can keep social unrest from spreading out of control 16 Changing Media, Changing China and the government will survive.Unless people receive some signal of permission from the top, protests will be contain or ? zzle out before they grow politically threatening. But if the divisions among the top leaders come into the open as they did in 1989, people will take to the streets with little fear of punishment. muchover, were the military leadership to split or abandon the CCP, the entire regime could collapse. Though commercialization of the media and growth of the Internet have consequences across all three dimensions, today their effects are felt mainly in the efforts to prevent large-scale social unrest.As the chapters in this book describe, the media and Internet are changing the strategic interactions between leaders and the public as the leaders struggle to head off unrest and maintain popular support. WATCHDOG JOURNALISM HOW TO play off WHEN THE DOG BARKS As noted earlier, the politicians at the top of the CCP are of two minds about whether the media and Internet prevent or encourage large-scale social unrest. On the positive side, the media and Internet provide information on problems so that national leaders can address them before they cause crises.But on the negative side, the market-oriented media and Int ernet have the subversive effect of facilitating collective action that could turn against CCP rule. The elites extreme jitteriness about potential protests makes them highly responsive when the media report on a problem. The pressure to react is much greater than it was in the prereform era when the elite relied entirely on con? dential internal reporting within the bureaucracy to learn about problems on the ground. Once the media promote an issue and the issue becomes common knowledge, then the government does not dare ignore it.Chinese journalists take particular pride in exposes that actually lead to improved governance and changes in policy. One of the earliest and best examples was the reporting about the 2003 death in cargo hold of solarize Zhigang, a young college graduate who had migrated to Guangdong from his inseparable Hubei Province. Qian Gang and David Bandurski, as well as Benjamin Liebman, describe in chapters 2 and 7 how the initial newspaper story published by the Southern urban substance field Daily, a bold Guangdong commercial newspaper, circulated Changing Media, Changing China 7 throughout the country on the major news Web sites and transformed Suns death into a cause celebre that sparked an ruttish outpouring online. This emotional outpouring in turn inspired a group of law students to take the issue of the detention and repatriation of migrants directly to the National Peoples Congress. Only two months after the ? rst article, chancellor steatocystoma Jiabao signed a State Council order abolishing the practice of detaining migrants who did not carry a special identi? ation card and exaltation them back to their homes. Although such instances of actual change in policy are rare, public apologies by upper-level officials in chemical substance reaction to media criticism are becoming more common. In 2001, chancellor Zhu Rongji became the ? rst PRC leader to apologize to the public for a hide when he took responsibility for an explosion that killed forty-seven children and staff in a rural school where the students were manufacturing ? reworks.Premier Zhu initially had endorsed the far-fetched explanation offered by the topical anesthetic officials of a deranged suicide bomber. But when, despite a amnesia of the Chinese media, the accounts of Hong Kong and foreign journalists who had interviewed villagers by cry spread in China over the Internet, Premier Zhu offered his apology in a televised press conference. 40 Premier Wen Jiabao has followed the example of his predecessor. He apologized for the melamine-tainted milk and sister formula that killed six and sickened hundreds of thousands of babies.The massive nourishment safety story was originally suppressed by propaganda authorities in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics, but the scandal was broken by the local press in Gansu Province and the official Xinhua News Service following the games. Premier Wen also apologized for the crippling snowstorms in January 2008 that stranded millions of Chinese eager to get home for the Spring Festival break. To de? ect blame and show how responsive it is to media revelations of official negligence or malfeasance, the primaeval government also has sacked the senior officials implicate in such scandals.The number of such highpro? le ? rings or resignations has increased over the past decade with the growth of fact-finding journalism. Several good examples are described in this book. Increasingly, officials at all levels are making a egregious show of their receptiveness to online public opinion. They publicize their chats with Netizens. Government agencies have opened up Web sites for citizens petitions. Law enforcement officers have scratch inviting Netizens to provide infor18 Changing Media, Changing China mation for their criminal investigations.In one case, a inventive local propaganda official who was a former Xinhua reporter invited a number of bloggers to join a commission investi gating the envious death of a captive. The bloggers had ridiculed as incredible the legal philosophys explanation that the prisoner had walked into the cell wall during a blindmans bluff game among the prisoners they thought police brutality must be the explanation. The fight died down after the commission released a report that said they knew too little to conclude what had happened and the provincial prosecutors announced the prisoner had not died during a game but had been beaten by another prisoner.The official proudly explained that he had defused the issue by showing that public opinion on the Internet must be resolved by means of the Internet. 41 observe LOCAL OFFICIALS Every government inevitably information about how its officials are do their jobs in order to effectively implement its policies. The top officials of Chinas cardinal provinces are appointed by the CCP underlying leaders in Beijing. Yet the primeval leaders are continually frustrated by their inabil ity to get regional officials to follow their orders.In a rapidly growing market economy, the old top-down bureaucratic methods of monitoring local officials are no longer working. Local officials bene? t more by colluding with local businesses to promote economic growth by spending on big development projects than by providing such social goods as environmental protection, wellness care, education, and quality food for thought and medical specialty that are mandated but not fully funded by the underlying government. Corruption at the local level is rampant.Yet the poor provision of social goods by corrupt local officials could mount public resentment against the government and threaten CCP rule on the national level. Theoretically, there are several ways that Beijing could resolve the dilemma of how to oversee the performance of local officials. It could allow citizens to elect their own local leaders. It also could permit independent NGOs to monitor the performance of local le aders. A fully autonomous court system in which prosecutors put corrupt officials on trial and citizens sue for the bene? s being denied them also would help. But CCP leaders have been too afraid of losing control to commence such fundamental institutional reforms. They have chosen instead to rely on the mass media to serve as a ? re alarm to alert Changing Media, Changing China 19 the nub to problems at lower levels. 42 From their perspective, using the media looks like a less dangerous approach because they still license media outlets and appoint most of their top editors, thereby retaining some power to rein in fallible outlets. Media revelations of local malfeasance also bene? t the center by de? cting blame for problems away from themselves and onto local officials. The publicity appears to be working surveys indicate that Chinese people are more decisive of the performance of local officials than of central ones, in contrast to the pattern in American politics. The centers involution in using the media to monitor local officials has been evident since the mid-1990s. CCTV, with the encouragement of the powerful propaganda tsar Ding Guangen (see chapter 2), created a daily program called Focus (Jiaodian Fantan) to investigate issues at lower levels in 1994.Miao Di, in chapter 4, discusses Focus in some detail. The program was blessed with high-level political support, having been visited by three Chinese premiers and praised by Chinas cabinet, the State Council. The show attracted a wide viewership and modify the credibility of television news overall. However, because local officials intervened so frequently to block exposes of their misdeeds, the show now has become much less hard-hitting.The central authorities tolerate greater press openness on the type of problems that, if left unreported and unsolved, might stir up serious popular dissatisfactionin particular, problems with water and air pollution as well as food and medicine quality. Some nati onal-level environmental officials have become adept at using media events such as, televised hearings on the environmental impact of important projects to mobilize public pressure on lower-level officials to comply with centrally adopted policies that are environmentally conscious.Veteran journalist Zhan Jiang describes the pattern in chapter 5, on environmental reporting as a general rule the center has an spare-time activity in receiving information that reduces the information gap between the center and localities regarding potentially volatile problems resulting from negligence by local officials. However, as he illustrates with the case of the Songhua River chemical spill once journalists pull the ? re alarm and alert Beijing and the public to a crisis, then the center tries to reassert control over the media to cool off ublic emotions and convey an image of a suitable government that is solving the problem. Recently, the central official media have been given the green li ght to pull the alarm on abuses by local officials. For years, reports have been circulating in the foreign human rights community and the international press about provincial and municipal governments that detain local citizens who have 20 Changing Media, Changing China come to Beijing to petition central officials about their grievances with local officials.They lock up the petitioners in mislabeled detention centers (black jails) on the outskirts of Beijing, ostensibly for legal education, and then ship them back home. In November 2009, the official magazine Outlook (Liaowang) broke the story of these illegal jails and the report appeared on the Xinhua Web site. 43 Not surprisingly, local officials are circumspect of media watchdogs and do what they can to fence them out. As Tsinghua University journalism professor Li Xiguang has noted, The central government, in the ? ght against the widespread corruption of the local government, encourages journalists to write exposes of the corruption.But the local governments are very much protective of themselves and of their power, so there is a con? ict between the central government and the local government in dealing with journalists. 44 Censorship by provincial and local branches of the CCP Propaganda Department and the State Council Information Office is viewed by journalists as tighter than that at the national level. The essays in this book offer numerous examples of local governments blackouts of critical news stories and the strategies journalists and activists use to evade them.Ever since the 1990s, regional commercial newspapers have been doing investigative reporting of corruption and other abuses on the part of local officials, but only outside their own home provinces. This practice is called cross-regional reporting (yidi jiandu). Since all local newspapers are part of media groups belonging to the local government and CCP establishment, editors of course are inhibited from biting the hand that feeds them. Exciting stories about the sins of other peoples officials may be second best but are better than nothing.Reporters are willing to brave police harassment or violent attacks by paid thugs to get the goods on bad governance by officials in other places. Often they dont have to go to the scene to report the story. As Ben Liebman describes in chapter 7, journalists blocked by local bans from writing about local malfeasance can simply e-mail the information to colleagues from other regions who then write the expose. Complaints from provincial and municipal officials about nosy reporters pushed the CCP Propaganda Department to ban the practice of crossregional reporting in 2004.Because the order was largely ignored, a year after provincial leaders raised the issue again, this time at the level of the Politburo. 45 Provincial leaders are a powerful group within the CCP, constituting the largest bloc in the Central Committee and one-quarter of the Politburo. Changing Media, Changing China 21 The interests of these leaders incline them to favor tighter restrictions on investigative journalism. As a result of their complaints, cross-regional reporting has been restricted to stories about officials at the county level or below.Only national-level media dare to publish exposes of provincial and municipal officials, and even then they usually wait until they get wind of an official investigation before reporting on the case. Meanwhile, local officials are learning the art of spin they hold press conferences and online chats with Netizens to present an appearance of openness and candorfor example, Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai invited television cameras to broadcast live his negotiations with striking taxi drivers in 2009.The expansion of Internet access and the growth of the Web also make it increasingly difficult for local officials to enforce media blackouts on sensitive issues. Several chapters in this book discuss the 2007 case of the Xiamen PX chemical pl ant, a project ultimately defeated by the mobilization of environmentally conscious public opinion that breached a local media blockade. As Xiao Qiang tells the story (chapter 9), the outcome resulted from the gap in control between local authorities as well as between local and central authorities that can provide a space for Netizens to transmit information. . . One of the most vocal advocates for the issue was the blogger Lian Yue, whose Weblog was not hosted within Fujian Province. Because officials outside Fujian, including the central government, did not share the local governments interest in censoring news about the PX plant, Lian Yue was able to continue his Weblog and even get reporting in newspapers published outside Fujian. MEDIA believability AND GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY Competition from the commercial media and the Web-based media has created what Qian Gang and David Bandurski call a credibility gap problem for the official media.In chapter 2, they compare the ways s tories are covered in various kinds of newspapers, vividly illustrating that commercial newspapers reporting is far more informative and time-tested than that found in official newspapers. Readers are abandoning the official media, and their preference is heightened during crises that arouse their interest and motivate them to search for reliable information. 22 Changing Media, Changing China Daniela Stockmann, in chapter 8, provides new data about how people in China choose between different types of news sources.They use the official press to get information on the governments current policy position, but turn to the commercial media and the Internet for credible real news. As she explains, it is the perceived disassociation from the government that lends credibility to the nonofficial media. Stockmann happened to be doing a survey on media usage in Beijing in abjure 2005 when student protests against Japan erupted. This serendipity gave her the rare opportunity to compare the way people use the media during normal times and during a crisis.What she find was that during a crisis, people have a particularly keen nose for where to ? nd credible information. Even when the propaganda authorities ban reporting of protests and try to homogenize coverage in all types of media, people are more likely to abandon official sources and turn to the commercial press and the Internet than during normal times. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China in 2003 is referred to by several authors as a turning point in the relations between the government, the media, and the public.By ordering the media to play down early reports of people falling ill with a mysterious disease, a report that allowed the virus to spread and kill more people, Beijing deepened public skepticism about the reliability of the official media and of the government itself. More important, the cover-up taught the public to look to new sources for the true facts. The searing SARS experience also spurred the determination of journalists to meet peoples need for accurate information during a crisis. The ? ght from official sources creates a serious problem for Chinese leaders, who need to prevent panic attack and antigovernment reactions during crises. Leaders plausibly worry that a widespread environmental or food safety catastrophe that angers large numbers of people about the same issue at the same time could snowball into a revolt against the CCP. Competition from the commercial media and the Web and the narrowing of the information gap between officials and the public forces the government to be more transparent to maintain its credibility.The State Council Information Office and Tsinghua University have trained hundreds of official spokespeople for central, provincial, and municipal government agencies to give press brie? ngs. The central government launched an E-government initiative, and almost every government agency (including very sensitive ones l ike the Ministry of State Security) now posts information on its Web site. Changing Media, Changing China 23 The trend toward government transparency got a major boost from the Regulations on Open Government Information that went into effect in 2008.The regulations require officials to release information during disasters and emergencies and permit citizens to put across the release of government information. An activist took advantage of the opening to request budgets from government agencies. When in October 2009 Guangzhou released departmental budgets and Shanghai refused to do so on the grounds that this information constitute state secrets, the media and online public went wild criticizing Shanghais excuse. 6 Xinhua piled on by reprinting many of the critiques, in