ICT in Manufacture Essay Example for Free

ICT in Manufacture Essay Information technology has had a massive effect on manufacture over the past decades making job losses bigger and creating new jobs for machines giving manufacturing company managers easier jobs than before. In the early fifties manufacturing companies made items such as cars and stereo systems would have been made by hand by a large group of people. These people would have a different workstation with several people working on one aspect of the item. All these would have had to have the same qualifications to do this part. For now lets take something easy like the making of dolls like action man and Barbie. A conveyor belt would go across with one item to begin with and along the conveyor belt sat workers. These workers would each have a part that they would add to the doll as it went past them. And at the end the doll would have been made fitted with all limbs and clothes. One problem with this system was that when everyone had a tea break and lunch break at the same time stopping the line of manufacture and making hard for the workers to stick to a tight schedule. Now this problem has been solved because machines do all the work. There are no conveyor belts or rows of workers needed. The machines do all of the work. The few people you may find are those with clipboards walking around the machines monitoring how they are working. So with this new system when people have to take breaks there is no need for these machines to stop they just keep on working till the end of the day. One small problem with this system is that if one of the major components of a machine breaks down then you would have to shut down all the other machines so that the one that is broken can be fixed. This would result in a couple of hours lost for making the product. When these sort of manufacturing companies invested in computer technology to make their dolls not many jobs were lost. But when car companies started employing machines to make their cars instead of people less jobs were needed in that industry. Both the making and the designing of cars have changed via the use ICT. In the designing department drawings were made by hand and tests for aerodynamics and crashes were done in a special arena. But now ICT has changed all that. Drawings are made my computer with a special programme that reads the dimensions and put makes it out to be the shape of the car. With these dimensions they can then run simulations for aerodynamics and crashes and see if it scientifically possible to build the car. Down in the production unit of the car manufacturers people use to stand in big groups making parts for cars and adjusting them, parts such as body kits, engines and the main body. These people didnt have to really be qualified they just had to be trained in how to do the job at a certain workstation. So when machines were introduced in how to do these jobs many people were left unemployed and with no qualifications. This made it harder for them to get more jobs. Companies can also take as much of the blame as ICT. If the car manufacturers were willing to pay out a bit more money on training, their existing workers how to use and control these machines then they wouldnt have to cut down on workers. They also would leave several hundred workers readily employable with qualifications if they needed to be re-employed. The majority of car companies failed to do this, keeping the younger employees and firing the employees that had been there quite long and leaving in a position where some of them couldnt provide food for their families. Therefore ICT in manufacture has had a positive and negative effect on places all around the world.

Levi Strauss Case Study Marketing Essay

Levi Strauss Case Study Marketing Essay Levi Strauss is the worlds best-known jeans brand, but its hard to see much chance of the company regaining its former glory without a substantial overhaul. Iconic or not, what kind of future lies in store for a company which derives around 85% of its annual revenues from selling pants? And only really two sorts of pants at that, which are also sold by just about every other clothing manufacturer on the planet. Either Levi Strauss needs to diversify substantially, and bolt on other brands or more likely needs to sacrifice its long cherished but out-of-date independence and become part of someone elses larger multi-brand portfolio. These years of struggle against a vast array of competitors have merely added to the gradual erosion of the brand. The development of value line Signature has helped, but despite doubling in size during 2004, its contribution has steadily decreased ever since. In the late 1990s, Levis became a victim of their own success. Too involved in corporate restructuring, the company effectively ignore a seismic shift in the youth market. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Levis 501 jeans had managed to dominate the market for everyday clothing as a result of high quality manufacturing and smart marketing. There were many kinds of jeans, went the general perception, but Levis was the brand to which all others aspired. A brilliant marketing campaign, especially in Europe, reinforced the brands hip status. But in the late 1990s, Levis jeans suddenly became a victim of its own success. They were seen by the new generation of teenagers as the jeans my Dad wears, and that put them completely out of fashion. Fashions in cut came and went but Levis failed to respond, leaving the market wide open for competitors The companys biggest mistake, arguably, was to ignore the baggy cut, which rode in on the back of the mid-1990s grunge movement, and remained the leading fashion style for the rest of that decade. While Levis stuck rigidly with the 16-inch straight-leg cut that appealed to the now ageing market who had rediscovered the brand in the 1980s, even the least hip of US retailers began selling extreme-cut. Millers Outpost, Tommy Jeans, JNCO and even JC Penney and Sears were selling jeans with legs as wide as 23 or 40-inches. The fashion-conscious teenage market began buying their jeans from other manufacturers, while a new breed of retailers, led by The Gap, captured the middle ground. Protecting their premium status, Levis refused to chase the market and strictly adhered to their long-established policy of only selling through specialist outlets and avoiding discount stores including Wal-Mart. Although this held the brands perceived value it also restricted sales to only around half of the US retail market. Worse still, later that decade the market as a whole began moving away from denim altogether as combat and cargo pants became the new fashion Question 2) How could a sensitive and informative Marketing Information System (MIS) have helped Levis to identify these environmental variable and form future strategies ? THE NEED FOR MARKETING SUPPORT In 1986, Levis relaunched the 501 with the Launderette and Bath commercials. The tremendous success of these executions and the campaign that developed from them has been well documented. All of the commercials featured the 501 jean and most stated 501 specifically in the end frame. The advertising success was not restricted to the 501 alone. There was a halo effect on the whole Levis range. But naturally the 501 took on a dominant share of Levis business. This dominance was intended. The 501 was positioned as definitive. It is an anti-fit jean which is right for most people, and, in a sense, 501 for most people took fit out of the purchasing equation. Despite this, there were (and still are) a significant number of people who, for reasons of personal physique or style, did not consider the 501 as the right fit for them. For this significant minority Levis developed a range of other Red Tab fits. The range includes: Historically the strategy had been to sell these non-501 Red Tab fits in-store, via POS and retailer advice. Levis own retailer and consumer research indicated, however, that the non-501 Red Tab fits had been underperforming in the market. There were a number of reasons. l Many consumers were under the impression that Levis was really just about 501. They were unaware of the availability of other Red Tab fits. So if they tried on 501 and were not completely happy, they would try on another brand, rather than another Levis fit. Or if they knew from the start that they wanted a fit other than 501, they would go directly to another brand. 517: Regular Fit 518: Loose Fit 511: Zip Fly 536: Girls Fit l Many retailers were not directing failed 501 traffic onto other Red Tab fits. l Some retailers, in the absence of specific consumer demand for non-501 Red Tab fits, were deciding not to stock these fits at all. The above factors created a problem that reproduced itself Levis was losing out to competitive brands in this significant minority of the premium jeans market. And there was a risk that if no action was taken, the scale of the problem would spiral. Clearly the Red Tab range required marketing support, and advertising was deemed necessary. THE BRIEF We determined that there was a very specific role for advertising: to raise awareness of the multiplicity of Levis Red Tab fits. Advertising should make people understand that if they want something other than 501, it will be there in the store for them. They can discover exactly the right fit in-store. And we drafted a very simple proposition to address this task: Levis Red Tab jeans come in as many different styles as the people that wear them. THE ADVERTISING MINEFIELD This seems relatively straightforward. But in fact, in identifying these as the role for advertising and proposition, we had also identified what advertising could not do or say. Examination of previous competitive advertising relating to product ranges and fits indicated to us a series of problems and misconceptions both strategically and creatively. It was important that we map out for the creative team where these perils and pitfalls lay, in order that they could steer a clear path through the minefield. The 501 issue We were concerned that above-the-line support for fit numbers other than 501 would confuse people and dilute the definitive status of 501. We realised that we could not expect people to memorise a series of fit numbers and their definitions. It had taken a great deal of time and money to establish one fit number in public consciousness. Indeed, we did not want non-501 fit numbers to develop their own identify to the extent that they became sub-brands. The non-501 Red Tab fits could not approach the wealth of heritage and associated imagery commanded by 501. They could not really aspire to being brands in the same sense. More importantly we did not want to compromise in any way the definitive status of 501. Thus we specified in the brief that executions should avoid discussion of or comparison with 501s. Moreover, we determined that we could keep the Red Tab communication separate from 501 communication by adopting an entirely new medium for Levis: posters. More specifically, Adshels offered a street level impact, in keeping with our youthful target and within sight of most retailers. Since advertisings role was not to raise awareness of individual fit numbers, we decided its effectiveness should not be judged by peoples ability to recollect specific numbers, but by their awareness that Levis have a range of Red Tab fits. Range advertising Advertising a range of products is often strategically unsound and creatively uninspiring. People generally do not buy ranges; they buy individual products. A range campaign tends to proclaim the benefits of the range as a whole, or to highlight the differences within the range. But if people are interested in individual products, all they really want to know is what is good about that product. Moreover, a brief for range advertising can often lead to creative cul-de-sacs: a row of products and an invitation to the consumer to make his or her own choice etc. Consequently, although the objective of the advertising was not to establish individual fit identities, we did specify that each execution should feature one fit only and would talk about the benefits of that fit. Across a range of executions we aimed to establish a sense of the multiplicity of the fits, thereby addressing the key objective. Fit adverting Fit messages also pose a strategic and creative challenge. People choose different jeans fits for reasons both of personal physique and current fashion. If advertising addresses one motivation, it struggles to communicate the other. And the more obvious creative solutions tend not to be challenging or motivating. For example, a tight fit can be communicated by showing a thin person and a loose fit by showing a fatter person. But the latter expression clearly does little for loose fit. And what of the people who wear loose fit for style rather than physical reasons? Alternatively, a fit message can be conveyed by showing the overall style or fashion of the wearers of different fits. For example, a punk in tight jeans and a hip-hop fan in loose jeans. But youth fashion cannot easily be compartmentalised into discrete tribes with conveniently different jeans fits. Moreover, young people quite naturally recoil from any cynical attempt by advertisers to mirror their own street-level cultures. And, as with the above, what of the people who do not choose fits for fashion reasons? We concluded that these more literal expressions of fit were not worth exploring and we directed the team to seek out more lateral solutions. THE CREATIVE SOLUTION The creative team, conscious of the objectives of the advertising and the strategic and executional minefields to be avoided, came up with an innovative solution to the brief. They developed a range of executions each employing a black and white still from the respected photographer Bill Brandt to deal with one Red Tab fit message. They did not talk about fit in a literal way. Rather they implied the various fit messages. Moreover the images employed were not completely unrelated to fit. (They were not vegetables or fruit!) Rather all the executions focused on the human form, which is after all the basis of any fit choice. ADVERTISING EFFECT The poster campaign ran nationally for four weeks only in April 1993. Millward Brown tracking showed very high advertising recognition: over 40% of a sample of 17 to 29-year-olds recognised the posters. More importantly, spontaneous and prompted awareness of Red Tab rose from 35% to 45% and from 57% to 75% respectively. The percentage of respondents able to quote any non-501 fit number rose from 50% to 60%. We are unable to divulge actual sales data. SUMMARY The planners role does not only entail pointing the creative team in one particular direction; it can also involve illustrating to them the strategically unsound and creatively fruitless routes. In advertising non-501 Red Tab fits for the first time, Levi Strauss were entering a minefield. By identifying the best role for advertising and mapping out the geography of that minefield, the planner was able to play a part in the development of advertising which maintained Levis best standards of creativity and effectiveness. CREATIVE BRIEF Why are we advertising? To raise awareness of the range of Levis Red Tab jeans by demonstrating that Levis produce different fits to compliment different body shapes and personal styles. Who are we talking to? Boys and girls, 15 to 19 years old. They are aware of Levis advertising and recognise that 501s are the original, definitive jeans. In fact, they may already own a pair of 501s, but find certain aspects of 501s either inconvenient (ie button fly) or uncomfortable. They are at the middle end of the market (early/late adopters) and are often insecure and lack confidence. They therefore need to be reassured that they can buy into the imagery associated with 501s, while having a pair of jeans that fits comfortably and flatters their individual shape. What must the advertising say? Levis Red Tab jeans come in as many different styles as the people who wear them. And why should the consumer believe it? Levis make a range of different fits to suit your shape and tastes. What tone of voice? Confident, classic (ie timeless), cool and sexy. What practical considerations? The campaign must work as both posters and press. The campaign should avoid discussion of, or comparison with, 501s. This is not an opinion leader campaign, and is aimed at a younger, more mass-market consumer. Question 3) Analyse the importance of the various marketing mix elements in the success :failure of Levi, how important is design? Levis share of the denim market plummeted. In 1990, according to Tactical Retail Monitor, more than 48% of men chose Levis as their preferred choice of jeans. By 1998, this had tumbled to 25%, while Lee and Wrangler had risen from 22% to 32%, and private label brands including Gap from 3% to more than 20%. In sales terms the brand slipped from a 30% US market share to 14%. (Upmarket designer labels such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein got a great deal of publicity but never achieved more than around 7% of the market). The percentage of teenage boys who thought Levis was a really cool brand had dropped from 21% in 1994 to just 7% by 1998. Levis position has, for the most part stabilised since then, but competition remains intense The Levis brand now houses several sub-brands. Chief amongst these is Levis Red Tab, which includes the legendary 501 button-fly design. (The number 501 was originally the products stock number, first adopted in 1890; the red fabric tab was first used in the back pocket from 1936). Levis Vintage features a broader range of classic retro designs. In pursuit of the youth market, the company has tried to turn back the tide with more extreme cuts, such as Levis Engineered Jeans, introduced in 2000 and supposedly designed ergonomically to fit the bodys contours. Some cuts are even pre-stained with oil. Another stylised new design launched in early 2003 as Levis Type One. These offered exaggerated versions of traditional features such as rivets, stitching and the tab, blown up in size. However sales were slow to take off, especially in the US, despite high profile marketing, including a Super Bowl ad (which the company later claimed admitted was unsatisfactory). They, along with another st ylised line known as Silvertab, were replaced by the Levis Capital E line. Levis ICD, a partnership with Philips to market workwear with integrated electronic devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players etc, was withdrawn in 2002. The group also licenses out the Levis brand to other manufacturers for branded T-shirts and accessories. Combined sales of the core brand improved in 2007, reaching almost $3.2bn. Levis is primarily a menswear brand, with just under three quarters of all pairs sold bought by men. After its many attempts to introduce more stylized or fashion-oriented designs had failed, the company agreed to abandon its premium positioning and chase the mass-market as well. A new design, Levi Strauss Signature, launched in July 2003, initially available exclusively through Wal-Mart. By the end of the year it had become apparent that the new line was the much-needed hit for which the company had been searching. The group rebranded the range as Signature by Levi Strauss, extended distribution to Target Stores and Kmart in 2004, and also introduced the range into selected mass-marketers in Australia (including Coles Myers Target and Kmart), Japan and other Asian markets. It was also launched in the UK (through Asda), France (through Carrefour), Germany (through Wal-Mart) and Switzerland (through Migros), but performed poorly and was withdrawn in 2007. Yet after a strong start, sales of the Signature line have fallen steadily since 2005, declining from a peak of around $410m that year to $260m in 2007. Dockers, first launched in the US in 1986, is the companys khaki-based casualwear line. It was launched as something of a reaction to inroads into the market by Gap and others, serving as a halfway point between jeans and smarter dress pants. Dockers Slates, a sub-brand of dressier and more expensive trousers, was discontinued in 2004. Although it has been generally successful, Dockers remains very much the second string in the groups portfolio behind its jeans line. In 2004, Levi Strauss put the Dockers brand up for sale in order to concentrate on its still struggling core business, but failed to attract a suitable buyer. Sales of the brand were reported at $1bn for 2003, but had fallen to around $775m by 2005, with sales concentrated in the US. Since then it has repositioned itself as a wider casualwear brand, diversifying into shirts, sweaters and blazers, as well as a line of womens clothing. The unit was rewarded with an increase in revenues for 2006, its first for several years . For 2007, it generated sales were around $915m. The group also generates significant income from royalties on Dockers belts, footwear and other accessories manufactured by other companies under license. Levi Strauss has production facilities and customer service centres throughout the world. Until comparatively recently the company maintained a policy of manufacturing its goods in the regions in which they are sold, but rising labour costs and declining sales made this increasingly unfeasible. Production in the US and Europe began to be farmed out to cheaper regions in the late 1990s. Having already closed six of its US factories by 2003, the group announced that the remaining four in North America would also be shuttered by early 2004. The group supplies its products to around 60,000 retail outlets worldwide. It owns and operates around 200 of its own Levis or Dockers branded stores, and franchises around another 1,300. More than half of these stores are located in the Asia Pacific region. Otherwise sales are through department stores and national chains. There are three regional business units: Levi Strauss North America operates local subsidiaries in the US, Canada and Mexico, and accounts for almost 60% of revenues, or $2.5bn in 2007 (compared to a peak of $4.8bn in 1996). Levi Strauss EMEA is the second biggest market, but performance there took longer to recover than in other markets. Sales rose in 2007 for the first time in several years, finally returning above the $1.0bn barrier. Asia Pacific remains the smallest market for now, but has been the companys strongest performing region for several years. Sales rose by a further 6% in 2007 to $805m, with Japan contributing a little under half of all sales. Question 4) As a strategic marketing consultant, advise Levi about what now it should now do ? It is every businesss objective to maximize their profits and lessen their expenses. Levis has invested on one of the most important resource that a company could have its employees. Their corporate strategy has now been aligned with their human resource management which is valuing their employees due to high costs of recruiting and training new staff. It must be noted that losing an employee can be very expensive and high staff turnover can eventually ruin a business. The last thing that businesses need is for its competitors to benefit from the training, knowledge and experience that it has built within its workforce. It is suggested that employers give their people the opportunity to make their own benefits decisions. This way, employees will take a keener interest in their benefits. The traditional company benefits package often has a rigid one size fits all approach; it fails to consider the varying needs of individual employees. In addition, the traditional company benefits package may sometimes be complicated and difficult to manage. Thus, it is greatly recommended that companies like Levi Strauss and Co. implement a flexible benefits package to help reduce costs and provide a greater choice for their workforce. Furthermore, flexible benefits provide additional lifestyle choices along with traditional company benefits such as private healthcare and the company pension scheme which will allow employees to choose the benefits that they want which in turn will motivate them and make them more productive. It is also important that companies like Levi Strauss and Co. consider some of the following pointers: (1) the main goals of the companys employee benefits programme, the last time that the company last reviewed their benefits scheme, steps or initiatives undertaken to ensure that the companys benefits programme underpins their business strategy, knowledge of employees regarding the benefits that the company offers and how they benefits from it, issues like sickness and absence, healthcare and dental care, and (6) the extent of the relevance and significance of the recruitment and key staff in employers business and their industry.

Graduation Speech: God Has a Plan for You -- Graduation Speech, Commen

In "Surprised By Joy," C.S. Lewis tells of a mistake that he had observed regarding joy or what he calls "thrills." Lewis realized that what he had first thought to be joy, was actually not joy at all because it began to fade away. He had assumed that he was seeking after the "thrill" itself. He says, "And there lies the deadly error. Only when your whole attention and desire are fixed on something else ... does the 'thrill' arise. It is a by-product. Its very existence presupposes that you desire not it but something other and outer." He realized that when he focused his attention on obtaining the "thrill" of joy, that he was actually focused on himself. True joy is not experienced when one desires joy itself, but when one has his eyes on something else. As believers, the "other and outer" that we have the opportunity to look to is God! God draws us to Himself, our soul responds to Him and in return, He fills our soul with joy. That is portrayed in the words of the Psalmist who says in Psalm 43:3-4, "O send our Your light and Your truth, Let them lead me; Let them bring me t...

Retail and the Media :: essays research papers

Retail and the Media Today's media focuses more on a corporations mistakes and less on what the companies give back to the community, making it impossible for the public to see the truth. In every large corporation, there is going to be a fair share of so called ‘scandals’. Unfortunately, the media preys on these scandals to bring us, the public, juicy gossip to get through the day. In my opinion, most of the scandals brought to the public’s attention have no bearing on the products and services a company brings to the consumer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Low Pay rates One of the many topics retailers are hit for is low pay rates. A survey done in 2003, showed the average pay rate for workers in retail to be $6.49. Unfortunately what the media leaves out is â€Å"the relatively low pay of sales workers is strongly influenced by the large numbers employed in the retail trade industry† (Buckley, 2003, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9). It does not take a lot to run a register, stock a shelf, zone a side counter or unload a truck. You get paid for the job you do. Although the pay rate for a sales worker is low compared to the wage in other areas of interest, most retailers offer other benefits. These benefits include, but are not limited to, the following: 401k plans with company contributions; health care; stock purchase plans with company contributions; critical need funds for employees who come upon hard times; and some companies even offer college scholarships to employees and their families. Now as you move up in a company, your pay increases with the position. In the same survey done for the average wage of the sales worker, it shows the average rate for a manager is $33.26 (Buckley, 2003, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2). This tends to be something that is overlooked in the media. You can compare it to starting out in an office as a mail clerk. Sure, you work for a big corporation in a big building on Wall Street, but you still are not making the bank. But as you work your way up, your pay rate reflects it. In any job, you have to start out on the bottom and work your way up to career status. Here is an example of a mother who stuck with her low paying job and in the end got the pay off:

Finance Case

CASESTUDY: Goodweek Tires, Inc. After extensive research and development, Goodweek Tires,Inc. , has recently developed a new tire, the SuperTread, and must decide whether to make the investment necessary to produce and market the SuperTread. The tire would be ideal for drivers doing a large amount of wet weather and off-road driving in addition to its normal freeway usage. The research and development costs so far total about $10 million. The SuperTread would be put on the market beginning this year and Goodweek expects it to stay on the market for a total of four years.Test marketing costing $5 mil-lion shows that there is a significant market for a SuperTread-type tire. As a financial analyst at Goodweek Tires, you are asked by your CFO, Mr. Adam Smith, to evaluate the SuperTread project and provide a recommendation on whether to go ahead with the investment. You are informed that all previous investments in the SuperTread are sunk costs and only future cash flows should be conside red . Except for the initial investment which will occur immediately; assume all cash flows will occur at year-end.Goodweek must initially invest $120 million in production equipment to make the SuperTread. The equipment is expected to have a seven-year useful life. This equipment can be sold for $51,428,571at the end of four years. Goodweek intends to sell the SuperTread to two distinct markets: 1. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Market The OEM market consists primarily of the large automobile companies (e. g. , General Motors) who buy tires for new cars. In the OEM market, the SuperTread is expected to sell for $36 per tire. The variable cost to produce each tire is $18. 2.The Replacement Market The replacement market consists of all tires purchased after the auto-mobile has left the factory. This market allows higher margins and Goodweek expects to sell the SuperTread for $59 per tire there. Variable costs are the same as in the OEM market. Goodweek Tires intends to rai se prices at 1 percent above the inflation rate. Variable costs will also increase 1 percent above the inflation rate. In addition, the SuperTread project will incur $25 mil-lion in marketing and general administration costs the first year (this figure is expected to increase at the inflation rate in the subsequent years).Goodweek’s corporate tax rate is 40 percent. Annual inflation is expected to remain constant at 3. 25 percent. The company uses a 15. 9 percent discount rate to evaluate new product decisions. The tire market Automotive industry analysts expect automobile manufacturers to produce 2 million new cars this year and production to grow at 2. 5 percent per year thereafter. Each new car needs four tires (the spare tires are undersized and are in a different category). Goodweek Tires expects the SuperTread to capture 11 percent of the OEM market.Industry analysts estimate that the replacement tire market size will be 14 million tires this year and that it will grow at 2 percent annually. Goodweek expects the SuperTread to capture an 8 per-cent market share. You decide to use the MACRS depreciation schedule (seven-year property class). You also decide to consider net working capital (NWC) requirements in this scenario. The immediate initial working capital requirement is $11 million, and thereafter the net working capital requirements will be 15 percent of sales. What will be the NPV, payback period, discounted payback period, AAR, IRR, and PI on this project?

The beginning of the seventeenth century

The beginning of the seventeenth century was the time when the arguments between naturalism and classicism were to preoccupy much of the Baroque age. Perhaps the most successful integration of these ideas came in the work of the sculptor-architect Gianlorenzo Bernini. No other artist during the Baroque era so completely dominated his discipline as did this virtuoso, whose sculpted figure works came to personify the very spirit of the Counter-Reformation. Born in Naples, from an early age he possessed tremendous technical skill in modeling.His David (Fig. 1), of 1623-24, sculpted between ages of twenty-five and twenty-six, evokes comparison with the Davids of Donatello and Michelangelo. Each work encapsulates the ideal and aspirations of its days. The sinuous body and graceful gesture of Donatello’s bronze speak of the break with the stiffness and grim determinism of the medieval age. Michelangelo’s David is quintessentially heroic, his gigantic body and sensuous muscula ture the very idiom of human self-confidence in the High Renaissance.By comparison, Bernini’s sculpture, neither complacent nor particularly grand, takes on combativeness and an offensive posture; here the body appears to attack and defeat. Christopher Baker argues that Bernini revolutionized sculpture by â€Å"Contorting facial expressions and bodies, endowing skin and drapery with tactile sensuousness, making hair and features seem to move, and differentiating textures for colorist effects† (21) Indeed, the agitation of the area around the figure was in fact very new to sculpture, and its provocative engagement of the space amplified the viewer’s relationship to the art.This was the very essence of the Baroque. Bernini’s technical skill is also worthy of consideration, for here we can see the influence of Caravaggio (Loh). Bernini’s captivating use of light and shade through the technique of undercutting gave his cold marble figure an emotional v itality on a par with the very best chiaroscuro in painting. And to appreciate fully such an advance in sculpture, it is necessary to consider in greater depth stone carving as it was practiced in the seventeenth century.Michelangelo likened carving to liberating a figure from its stone captivity. If this was indeed a feeling shared by sculptors of the day, then perhaps, as Varriano suggests, Bernini’s figures â€Å"leapt from their prisons† (73). The emotional gestures and agitated surfaces give one the impression that the figures are indeed flesh and blood. The drama of the scene is caught entirely by the convincing portrayal of movement, produced by a series of deep cuts into the marble surface that catch and reflect light.These deep spaces of shadow are produced by a technique called â€Å"undercutting† – a method of manipulating the descriptive character of light on stone. Undercutting is a technique of creating deep cuts in stone which produce shado w; (Rothschild, 72) the result suggests movement and dynamism, as the surface is transformed by light and shade capable of expressing the most dramatic of gestures. In Bernini’s remarkable The Ecstasy of St. Teresa (Fig. 2) we are witness to the dramatic potential of such a development.Noteworthy is the way the draperies of the enraptured saint take on the lightness of cloth and the way scene itself is wrapped within a turmoil of lines created through the intensive use of shadow. Bernini was also well aware of coloristic possibilities afforded by marble and used striking variation of the pink, white, green, and black varieties to produce spectacular results. One such example is his execution of the Tomb of Alexander VII (Fig.3) of 1671-8, where traditional white marble figures are juxtaposed against colored marble drapery, striking black pedestals and the every present symbol of death – the skeleton. This is the Baroque sensibility in all its glory. Considering Bernini ’s rather formidable skill in engaging space and working materials, it was perhaps inevitable that he would embrace architecture as well. The most notable of his achievements was his design for the piazza of St. Peter’s in Rome. Relying on many of the techniques and innovations of Renaissance architects, Bernini nevertheless allowed his engaging sense of novelty to guide him.As a result, the unorthodox combination of Doric and Ionic orders and the dramatic sweep of the colonnade, which psychologically heightens the pilgrim’s anticipation of the Church (Marder, 112), appear very much in keeping with his quintessentially Baroque sensibility. Here, space is arranged for what can be described only as kinesthetic ends; Bernini’s deliberate manipulation of the viewer’s sense of rhythm and motion as they progress towards the steps of St. Peter’s is thus a logical extension of his sculptural strategy – space as a psychological tool.It is this notable departure in the construction of space from the relative stasis of Renaissance that perhaps epitomizes the rise of specifically Baroque architecture. Figure 1 Gianlorenzo Bernini David 1623-24 White marble 170 cm Galleria Borghese, Rome Figure 2 Gianlorenzo Bernini Ecstasy of St. Teresa, 1642-52 Marble Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome Figure 3 Gianlorenzo Bernini Tomb of Pope Alexander (Chigi) VII 1671-78 Marble and gilded bronze, over life-size Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican Bibliography: Baker, Christopher.Absolutism and the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1720: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002 Loh, Maria H. â€Å"New and Improved: Repetition as Originality in Italian Baroque Practice and Theory. † The Art Bulletin. 86. 3. (2004): 477+ Marder, T. A. Bernini and the Art of Architecture. New York, London and Paris: Abbeville Press, 1998. Rothschild, Lincoln. Sculpture through the Ages. New York: Whittlesey House, 1942 Varriano, John. Italia n Baroque and Rococo Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986

Mediated Modes of Communication and Its Impact to Society

As we bask into the Information Age, human communication is ongoing and transforming to become more interactive and accessible. As we all know, communication is dynamic, ongoing, ever-changing, and continuous. Simple communication entails the message being sent and the receiver perceives and accepts the message. Communication models find their origins in Greek antiquity. Aristotle recognized the speaker, speech, and audience as communication components. Five hundred years before Christ, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, observed that â€Å"a man (or woman) can never step into the river twice. The man (or woman) is different and so is the river† (Gortner et al. 1997, p. 36). Change and continuity are intertwined—as men or women step into the river—in a process of actions which flow through the ages. Communication is a process and flows like a stream through time. It is indubitable that technology has brought about gargantuan impacts to the past modes of communication, be it formal and informal. In an era of faxes, computers, and photocopying machines, communication challenges will emerge that are even more complex, demanding, and technical. Moreover, cell phones, e-mail, and telephone answering machines contribute to the narrowing of the gulf between formal and informal communication distinctions. Anthropologists already have researched on the relationship of conventional forms of verbal interaction and those mediated by new technologies such as the Internet, satellite transmissions, and cell phones. Crystal (2001) had revealed that the Internet constituted a new frontier in human social interaction on par with the inventions of the telephone and telegraph, and even print and broadcast technologies. Scholars of language use, language change, and ideologies of language must surely explore and interrogate the effects of these technologies on traditional modes of communication, the impact of our new capacity to communicate instantly anywhere in the world, and the meaning of language contact as it is taking place in cyberspace. Most of these technologies, notwithstanding constant new advances in computer-mediated graphics, are text or voice based. Thus, â€Å"if the Internet is a revolution, therefore, it is likely to be a linguistic revolution† (Crystal 2001, p. viii). Many observers allege that the Internet is changing society. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the novelty of the new digital media, there is little agreement about what those changes are. It is believed that it is important for sociologists to address these issues for three reasons. First, the medium’s rapid growth offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for scholars to test theories of technology diffusion and media effects during the early stages of a new medium's diffusion and institutionalization. Second, the Internet is unique because it integrates both different modalities of communication (reciprocal interaction, broadcasting, individual reference-searching, group discussion, person/machine interaction) and different kinds of content (text, video, visual images, audio) in a single medium. This versatility renders plausible claims that the technology w ill be implicated in many kinds of social change, perhaps more deeply than television or radio. Finally, choices are being made–systems developed, money invested, laws passed, regulations promulgated–that will shape the system's technical and normative structure for decades to come. Many of these choices are based on behavioral assumptions about how people and the Internet interact (Dimaggio, Hargittai, Neuman & Robinson, 2001, p. 307). As these technological innovations are revolutionizing information and entertainment delivery, these technology-mediated modes of communication have affected the transformation of people’s social lives and behaviors, even political institutions and the role of citizens within them. As people argue that the new technology of short messaging system (SMS), email, online discussions, on-demand information, and web-powered information diffusion and interest aggregation will lead to a more informed, engaged, and influential mass public. With this, will we live in a better informed and connected, more engaged and participatory society—or in a society of lonely ex-couch potatoes glued to computer screens, whose human contacts are largely impersonal and whose political beliefs are easily manipulated, relying on the icons of a wired or wireless society? Fact is that, Erbring and Lutz (2005) have indicated that when people spend more time using the Internet, the more they lose contact with their social environment. They cited a study that this effect is noticeable even with people using just 2-5 Internet hours per week; and it rises substantially for those spending more than 10 hours per week, of whom up to 15 percent report a decrease in social activities. Even more striking is the fact that Internet users spend much less time talking on the phone to friends and family: the percentage reporting a decrease exceeds 25 percent—although it is unclear to what extent this represents a shift to email even in communicating with friends and family or a technical bottleneck due to a single phone line being pre-empted by Internet use. Because of the accessibility of the new modes of communication, people have used these as tools to avoid confrontation that is emphasized in face-to-face communication. In fact, in   UAE and in Malaysia, cell phones have been used to end marriages by SMS-ing â€Å"Talaq, Talaq, Talaq† (â€Å"Divorce, Divorce, Divorce†). But then, this is not the first time technology has been used in officially terminating a relationship. Earlier, it was telephonic, postal and telegram divorces; now there are divorce via e-mail and SMS. Technology has changed the way people are courting, getting married and yes, also the way they are separating. â€Å"If people are meeting and dating on the Internet, why not divorces?† says Anuradha Pratap, principal of Al-Ameen Management College in Bangalore, India. â€Å"If weddings can take place using technology, why not divorce?† asked Ayesha Banu, a Bangalore resident. â€Å"There were telephone weddings nearly two decades ago. It’s only the technology that has changed, everything else has remained the same† (Kiran, 2 June 2003). On the other hand, Halliday (1990) noted that â€Å"when new demands are made on language †¦ [and when] we are making language work for us in ways it never had to do before, it will have to become a different language in order to cope† (p. 82). It is arguable that technology-based media present new demands which have the potential of promoting variations in language use Perhaps, the demands are not novel in itself, but it is rather the blurring, the amalgamation, of previous demands which may result in linguistic variations. Take, for instance, computer communication systems which have placed demands, often associated with spoken language, on the production of written language. This reassignment is most observable in synchronous computer-mediated communication such as MOOs (MUD Object Oriented), MUDs (Multi-User Domain), and Chat. While the language takes on a written form, it is constrained by temporal limitations which require immediate responses. Conversely, this type of synchronous communication, which can be considered an essentially oral language (Collot & Belmore, 1996), is also constrained by norms — including spelling and grammar norms — most often associated with written language. For example in SMS, people usually shorten their message to hasten the process. Like sending the message â€Å"Are you going to the party tonight?† would be shortened to â€Å"R U GOING 2 THE PARTY TONYT?† Indeed, grammar and spelling would be gravely affected, just to facilitate the convenience of a faster communication process. However, from a perspective of language change multimodal forms of communication, such as emails, text messages and chat rooms, are essentially new forms of communication. As used here the term ‘multimodal' refers to the way that texts use devices from a range of different communication systems at the same time. So, for example, you can send an email message to six of your friends simultaneously; previously you could only do this through speaking to them as a group. In other words writing takes on a characteristic which once belonged to speech only (Beard, 2004, p. 44). Emails are usually message exchanges between a pair of named individuals communicating on a single issue, chat-groups usually involve several people: they can be anonymous or use a pseudonym; their communication can be of an indefinite length; and they can cover a wide range of topics. Crystal (2001) uses the term ‘asynchronous' to describe groups where ‘postings' are placed on ‘boards' and ‘synchronous' to describe groups who ‘chat' in real time. The terms 'email' and ‘text message' both suggest a written form, but the terms ‘chat-room/ chat-group' suggest a form of talk; a form of talk – chat – that is traditionally seen as social rather than serious in its content. Although the terminology that labels new communication genres draws upon the traditional binary opposites of speaking/writing (mail/ chat), it is not very helpful to see such texts as products of these opposites. Instead each of the genres has its own unique methods of communication, and then each of the texts produced within the genre has its own specific context. So, for example, the idea of turn-taking, which is crucial to many kinds of vocalized talk, is achieved in very different ways in chat-groups. The acts of reading, thinking, replying and sending the reply, which is not necessarily received instantly, is being undertaken by each of the participants at the same time. This inevitably leads to a dislocation of the exchange in a way that does not happen with emails and text messages. Yet, participants within the process are well able to manage this complicated exercise in pragmatics. Another aspect of pragmatics involves the fact that whereas in face-to-face group conversation your presence is still registered, even if you are silent, this is more problematic in chat-groups. As Crystal (2001) notes: â€Å"in chatgroups silence is ambiguous: it may reflect a deliberate withholding, a temporary inattention, or a physical absence (without signing off)†. Indeed, technology is crucial in the development of the information highway that would link every home to a fiber-optic network over which voice, data, television, and other services would be transmitted. The internet’s architecture is determined by an informal group of U.S.-based software and computer engineers. The internet’s global scope and electronic commerce’s growth make its management an international policy issue. Analysts and government believe a hands-off approach is best (Cukier 1998, p. 39-41). People and organizations determine the course of the future, not computers. As a form of communication, the internet can be used by individuals, private corporations, and government agencies for good or bad, but it cannot influence the direction our society chooses to take. The internet only reflects the society that created it. The development and use of the telegraph and telephone provide a definitive pattern for how the newest form of networked communication, the internet, will be used in the future (Nye, Fall 1997). The lack of accountability and civility have increased as the anonymity in U.S. society has increased, states newspaper columnist Ellen Goodman. She cites the anonymous zones of talk radio and cyberspace among the fox holes for people who want to say anything and everything with impunity (Goodman, 5 September 1996). Despite the downside of the information highway, internet access has made communication between local government and citizens much easier nationwide. Public records access, personnel postings, permit applications, and legislative updates are available online in dozens of cities and counties (Bowser January 1998, p. 36). The technology of the internet may afford the masses access to much more information and many more options. So, internet technology is neither evil nor good. â€Å"Thanks to the internet and satellite TV, the world is being wired together technologically, but not socially, politically, or culturally,† concluded New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman (12 May 2001). â€Å"We are now seeing and hearing one another faster and better, but with no corresponding improvement in our ability to learn from, or understand, one another. So integration, at this stage, is producing more anger than anything else.† The new modes of communication educate people faster than any previous technology the world has known. However, the internet can just as easily infiltrate the minds of millions with lies, half-truths, and hatreds. Friedman (12 May 2001) deemed that â€Å"the internet, at its ugliest, is just an open sewer: an electronic conduit for untreated, unfiltered information.† The internet and satellite TV may inflame emotions and cultural biases, resulting in less understanding and tolerance. Government programs are built on political consensus. Legislation is enacted for the long term. Compromises are based on education, exchanges, diplomacy, and human interaction. However, due to the lack of face-to-face context and the lack of interactional coherence in e-mail and SMS, people need to be more explicit and concise in order to make their message as well as the purpose transparent to their audience, especially in initiated, not responsive, messages. If the message is not explicit enough, the receiver may not be able to provide an optimal response, or the message may turn into a lengthy sequenced exchange before a desired response is obtained. Thus, language use and structure are greatly affected but the intention remains the same. With the fear of the deterioration of language through these new technologies, it is only right that people should still be educated appropriately with regards to the correct structure and use language, so that they will not be confused when they utilize the normal modes of communication. Technology should enhance how society behaves and interact and not the other way around. Works Cited Beard, Adrian. Language Change. London: Routledge, 2004. Bowser, Brandi. Opening the Window to Online Democracy: www.localgovernment. com, American City & County 113.1 (January 1998): 36–38. Collot, M. and N. Belmore . Electronic Language: A New Variety of English. In S. C. Herring (Ed.), Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (pp. 13-28). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1996. Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001. Cukier, Kenneth. Who Runs the Internet? World Press Review, 45.5 (May 1998): 39–41. Dimaggio, Paul, Eszter Hargittai, W. Russell Neuman, and John P. Robinson. Social Implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology (2001): 307. Friedman, Thomas L. Global Village Idiocy, The New York Times, (May 12, 2002). Goodman, Ellen. Anonymity Breeds Incivility, Boston Globe, (September 5, 1996):17A. Gortner, Harold F., Julianne Mahler, and Jeanne Bell Nicholson, Organization Theory: A Public Perspective, 2nd ed. (Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace, 1997), pp. 135–141. Halliday, M. A. K. Spoken and Written Language. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1990. Kiran, Jyothi. SMS Divorces, Women’s Feature Service. (June 2, 2003). Nie, Norman H. and Erbring, Lutz. â€Å"Internet Use Decreases Social Interaction.† The Internet. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Nye, David E. Shaping Communication Networks: Telegraph, Telephone, Computer, Social Research, 64.3 (Fall 1997): 1067–1092.