Introduction to Ethics -- Arguments for and against affirmative action Essay

Introduction to Ethics -- Arguments for and against affirmative action - Essay Example It seeks to create an environment where race and gender will not stand against someone’s ability to move up the hierarchy if one has the necessary skills and credentials for the job (Libertella, Sora & Natale, 2007). It is meant to correct the wrongs that have been created against the people of a specific gender, race, or religion. While the intentions were right, over time the imposition of AA started showing signs of reverse discrimination where the rights of the majority were at stake. Based on the policies of AA, people started giving preference to members of the target group without merit and the quotas for minorities were filled up carelessly. All these resulted in the White males being deprived of their basic rights. Thus Affirmative Action, while trying to provide equal opportunities to all, ends up in discriminating the Whites, and hence unethical. There will always be two sides to an argument and whether it is fair to the Whites or not, remains debatable. At times, some sacrifices for the greater good of the society are better than no action. If this be true, AA is justified because the intention is to provide more opportunities to the minorities and women. Nevertheless, this amounts to social segregation. Arguments again abound that social segmentation exists in every society based on religion, race and economic differences. Such segregation or discrimination might work for some time for social good. People have tried to justify that AA helped to make up for past wrongs. Instead of doing justice it violates the rights of the Whites for equal consideration (Stanford, 2005). Besides, discrimination on the basis of a belief that one race or sex is inferior is wrong because it violates the moral right to equal respect (Himma, 2001). Decision need to be taken based on character and abilities and not on stereotype. In a democratic system,

Dr Jack Kevorkian: Disrupting The Universe :: essays research papers

Dr Jack Kevorkian: Disrupting the Universe   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dr. Jack Kevorkian did something that most people would never even think of doing or think that someone would do such a thing. He really did disrupt the universe by taking the whole world by surprise. Jack Kevorkian was the first person in the United States to assist in suicides in a big way. He started in 1990 by placing a newspaper add for assisted suicide. He then developed a device he called the Suicide Machine, which injected deadly drugs into the bloodstream. Once the shock passed over, the issue was brought up that he did not commit any crimes, or he is a murderer. Most people think very strongly in one way or the other. Myself and many other people believe that Jack Kevorkian has not done anything wrong and he should not be punished.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He has been present at 46 suicides since 1990. He has been to jail numerous times , but always let off on bail or another technicality. 38 times he has not even gone to court for his assisted suicides. Assisted suicides are still illegal in every state, but he has gotten off on technicalities or some other issue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All of the people he assisted in suicides either were terminally ill or they wanted to be killed due to other serious medical problems. There have been reports of a person beating her son in tennis one week before she killed herself with the help of Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine, but she was terminally ill and Dr. Kevorkian would not help kill people unless their life was in danger or they were not living comfortably. Kevorkian was previously a doctor dealing with terminally ill people and death counseling. From this experience he knew that for some people suicide was the only Solution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the other hand, some people believe that what he started was a terrible thing. Just the other day there was a article in the newspaper that a man who was sick was planning to kill himself, so he had a party with all his friends as sort of a going away celebration.

Media Studies Mass Media

hAbstract: This essay explores what the media, mass media and mass communication is. As well as a major focus on the hypodermic needle theory also known as the magic bullet theory on the reception analysis, the passive audience and the encoding and decoding model with reference to relevant theorists and statements and examples from Africa and other countries. In conclusion this essay states that the reception analysis and the hypodermic needle theory both are important and complex in understanding the media and the active and passive audience.The hypodermic needle theory and the reception analysis is a complicated theory in the media world. These two theories explore how the media affects its audiences, both active and passive. This essay will explore through relevant examples and ideas from theorists, the hypodermic needle theory and the reception analysis, what they are and what role it plays in the media world and how the media affects the passive audience. The media is â€Å"a d iverse collection of industries and practices, each with their methods of communication, specific business interests, constraints and audiences† (Briggs and Cobley, 2001 ;1).And mass media according to TheFreeDictionary is, â€Å"A means of public communication reaching a large audience. † The media is almost everywhere in societies today and people view or listen to so much types of media every single day. As a result the media that is taken in affects its viewers and listeners subconsciously and are not aware of the impact that the media has on them. Mass communication thus, is the â€Å"process of transforming a message created by a person in a group to large audiences or market through a transforming device which is the medium† (J. Baran, Introduction to Mass Communication).As Connell (1984 :88) says that it is common that media’s message is distorted and misunderstood by society. Thus it effects the society subconsciously buy the way they act. The aud ience plays a vital role in the media world, because if the audience did not exist neither would the media. (Hanes) The media sends out information to the audience and the audience is there to receive it. â€Å"Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are. (Abercrombie 1996, 140). Hence, the message received by the audience and how they interpret that message will depend on the background of the audience members, such as their values and beliefs, their attitudes and their circumstances. Furthermore, there are two types of audiences that are seen to take in media, the active audience and the passive audience. The active audience interacts with the media given to them, and they have the knowledge to challenge the messages that the media gives to them.The uses and gratifications model that was first expressed in the United states in the 1940s (Moores 1993) believed that audiences were active and that they had a choice as to the texts they received, and that they were able to choose the one that would satisfy their needs. The passive audience, as seen by the hypodermic needle theory just accept all the information given to them. â€Å"Passive audience an audience that does not interact with the media and†¦ it has no control of the medias influence on them†¦ † (Unknown. www. aber. c. uk. ). The hypodermic needle theory assumes that â€Å"the audience is passive in receiving and interpretation of media texts. † (Hanes, 2000). The media is seen to directly affect the passive audience and that it will have the power to directly influence the audience, because the audiences just take in and accept what the media gives to them. Children are often seen as a passive audience because they do not fully understand what they are viewing, thus are affected subconsciously and often act out what they have s een on TV.Teenagers often try to copy their celebrity role models and lose sight of what is real and what is fantasy (Manali Oak) The hypodermic needle theory which was explored by the Frankfurt School also known as the magic bullet theory is a famous theory that states that the media is a needle or magic gun and that it â€Å"injects the message into the audiences mind and it causes changes in the audience’s behaviour†¦ towards the message. †(Unknown. poundedmonk. wordpress. com ). The audience is passive and as a result the message is injected into their mind without their knowledge.Harold Lasswell was a well known theorist of the hypodermic needle theory stated that â€Å"the new mass media could directly influence and sway public influence. † Meaning that when the audience (which is passive) views something on the television or hears something on the radio, it affects the audience directly and unconsciously, and could possibly change the way the audienc e views a certain subject. For example, in 1930 Orson Wells created a fake news bulletin about an alien invasion in an American city called Grover’s Mill.He broadcasted this message on a Radio Station program called â€Å"The War of the Worlds†, and it reached about twelve million American people. Due to this broadcast the whole country was in chaos. (Taken from :communicationtheory. org) Additionally the Hypodermic needle theory’s supporters believed that because the audience is passive in that they receive and accept the messages given to them by the media texts that, they put a great emphasis on the text itself and the power that it has on the audience.However because that information about the texts are so readily available and very easy to access, that the Hypodermic needle theory is generally disregarded by many other theorists when they consider the audiences response to the media . (Idea taken from: Phillip J Hanes) an example of this is when apartheid c ame into action in South Africa, the white government controlled the media and showed the black people as weak and inferior to the white people and that they are the dominant race and should be in charge.Most of the white viewers believed and accepted this information and as a result treated the black people like they are inferior to the white people, and thus some of the black people began to believe that they are inferior to the whites. (International Afro Mass Media) However the hypodermic needle theory â€Å"was not based on empirical findings†¦ rather it employed assumptions†¦ about human nature. † and that â€Å"People were assumed to be†¦ controlled by their biological instincts†¦ † (Lowerg and Delfleur, 1995 . p. 400).As a result the Hypodermic effects model is â€Å"considered to be an inadequate representation of the communication between media and the public, as it does not take into account the audience as individuals with their own bel iefs, opinions, ideas and attitudes. † (Unknown: www. aber. ac. uk). Hence the quote above shows the complications that were aroused by other theorists when it came to the hypodermic needle theory of how information was just accepted by the passive audience. In addition the reception analysis plays a major role in the media.The reception analysis is the way in which the audience receives, accepts and interprets the message given to them in the media (www. museum. tv. com). The way that an audience will receive and interpret a message in the media usually depends on their â€Å"socio-economic position, gender, ethnicity and so forth. † For example if four people from different people from different societies, watch the same programme, each of them will have a different view on what they have just watched, showing that the way they receive a message will be etermined by their own individuality. (Journal of Communication, 1990, vol,40, no1, p. 73) The theory on audience re ception has taken into account â€Å"the individual members of the audience. It realises there is a preferred meaning in the text, but also places emphasis on the audience in the process of constructing a meaning. † (Hanes: www. aber. ac. uk/media) meaning that the reception theory does not just look at the audience as whole, but as well as the individuals in an audience and how the medias messages affect the individuals.In South Africa, research has been done, that shows that they youth in South Africa is very influenced by the media received from North America. Teenagers watch reality shows and believe that in order to be popular and liked by their peers they have to look, act and be a certain way. Hence showing that the youth, depending on their demographic that they are in are heavily influenced and effected by the messages that they receive from the media. (M. Way: Journalism and Mass Communication). Hals encoding and decoding model draws up on Abercrombie’s (1996 ) â€Å"dominant text view and the dominant audience view. The dominant text view states that the text is more important because the audience is passive they will be influenced by the messages given by the media. Whereas the dominant audience view states that the audience is more important because it â€Å"is up audience to analyze and interpret the text. † (Hall; 1980). The advantage of the encoding and decoding model is that â€Å"it realises that the meaning made by the audience is affected by various other factors – including socio/economic frameworks and past experiences, but also involving the context in which the media message is consumed. † (Hanes: www. aber. ac. uk/media).This statement means that if one person watches television while being distracted by two children will receive a different from another person who is watching the same television programme but is concentrating on what they are watching. The reception analysis views on how the audience receives the message and how the audience interprets the messages received by the media. Thus we can see that because everyone has different ethnicity, gender, socio-economic backgrounds and political views, that they will view the messages that they receive completely differently to any other person, showing that there is individuality in audiences.For example, a Zulu woman who is a domestic worker who lives in a black township who watches ‘Carte Blanche’ will interpret the message differently to a white business man who lives in a mansion in Northcliff who watches the exact same thing. â€Å"Due to different backgrounds and experiences,  each person has  his or her  own way for decoding messages, and  people could even form different interpretations toward the same message† (stereotypebyinternet. wordpress. om) Furthermore, because there are so many types of media being given to us as the consumers of the media, we become numb to many of the informatio n given to us that we begin to just accept the information and messages. The messages that are in many of the television programs that are consumed that they begin to affect the viewers subconsciously, and the viewers will eventually act out and behave like the people on the programs that they watch and begin to think that everything that they view on the television is acceptable and that, that is how normal or even popular people should behave. The first effect of reality TV deals with†¦ teenagers. Already with self-esteem and acceptance issues, adolescent youth that frequently watch television shows that are advertise as being ‘reality', most likely will have the delusion that their appearance should mirror the people they see on the shows. Like with magazines and tabloids that historically have caused harmful†¦ trends in teenagers, such as anorexia and bulimia, reality TV foster facades that are readily accepted by our youth. † (D.Watkins, 2008) In conclusio n one can see that the media, mass media, mass communication play an important role and are important to the hypodermic needle theory, the reception analysis, and in the encoding and decoding model. This essay also shows how the audience, passive and active play an important role in the theories mentioned in this essay, and that media consumption is a very complex activity. Bibliography Abercrombie, Nicholas (1996): Television and Society. Cambridge: Polity Press Branston, G and Stafford, R. 1999). The Media Student’s Book. London: Routledge (pp. 410-420). Cruz, J. & Justin Lewis (1994): Viewing, Reading, Listening: Audiences and Cultural Reception. Boulder, CO: Westview Gillespie, M. (2005). Media Audiences. Maidenhead: Open University Press (pp. 26-50) Hanes, Philip J (April 2000) The Advantages and Limitations of a Focus on Audience in Media Studies. Retrieved April 29, 2012 from: http://www. aber. ac. uk/media/Students/pph9701. html Hart, Andrew (1991): Understanding the Media: A Practical Guide.London: Routledge Koufie-Amartey, I, (2010) Hypodermic Needle Theory. Retrieved April 29, 2012 from: http://amartey1. blogspot. com/2010/04/hypodermic-needle-theory. html Nightingale, Virginia (1996): Studying Audiences: The Shock of the Real. London: Routledge O'Sullivan, Tim, Brian Dutton ; Philip Rayner (1994): Studying the Media. London: Edward Arnold Seiter, Ellen et al. (Eds. ) (1989): Remote Control. London: Routledge Strelitz, L. (2002). Media consumption and identity formation: the case of the ‘homeland’ viewers.Media, Culture ; Society, 24(4), 459. Taylor, L and Willis, A. (1999). Media Studies. Texts, Institutions and Audiences. Oxford: Blackwell (pp. 168-183). Watkins, D. (2008): The effects of reality TV. Retrieved April 30, 2012 from http://www. helium. com/items/933893-the-effects-of-reality-tv Way, M. Strelitz, Larry. Mixed Reception: South African Youth and their Experience of Global Media. Retrieved April 26, 2012 from: http:// findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_7081/is_1_26/ai_n28420075

America s War On Drugs - 1539 Words

On June 17th, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be â€Å"America’s Public Enemy #1† in a press conference in which he called for an â€Å"all out offensive† against this enemy, an initiative that would later be known as America’s War on Drugs. By giving this speech, thus starting â€Å"The War on Drugs,† President Nixon created what would eventually become one of the most catastrophic failures in United States political history. Analysis of the historical events surrounding Nixon’s declaration reveal ulterior motives behind the initiative, providing context to the reasons for its failure, which were based short term in its moral failure, and long term in its failure of efficiency and results. The War on Drugs has lasted for generations and continues to be responsible for policies that criminalize non-violent drug offenders at the expense of taxpayers, contributing to a devastating mass incarceration dilemma in the United States that perpetuates a disproportionate marginalization of low-class, particularly African American citizens. The declaration of a â€Å"War on Drugs,† upon surface inspection, addressed the American public in its entirety. The issue that the speech and the coinciding initiative sought to resolve was drug use in American society, which was becoming an increasing problem, particularly in African American communities and among Vietnam War protesters. The speech occurred in 1971 during the Vietnam War, and just after the resolution of the Civil RightsShow MoreRelatedAmerica s War On Drugs1306 Words   |  6 Pagesas eugenics. One of the primary focuses of America s War on Drugs has always been the controversial drug Marijuana. 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It entirely about scientific based facts on what the effects or risks of the drugs, rather who was associated with the use of the specific drugs. For example, the anti-cocaine laws in the early 1900’s were directed at black men, and the