The Visual Feedback From Video Games Media Essay

The Visual Feedback From Video Games Media Essay Video games are electronic games that engage the user through an interactive interface. The interaction involves the use of visual feedback mechanism which is generated on a specially designed video device. Just like any other medium, the use of video games can be used as an effective communication channel. The content of the specific game is however the determinant of the specific ideology that it expresses. It has been proven through elaborate research that video games have a profound influence in the manner which an individual thinks and behave. Certain experimental and analytical data shows that the playing of video games has a direct influence on ones thoughts. The playing of violent video games has been proven to increase the level of aggressive and hostile thoughts (Anderson, Buckley, Gentile, 2007; Anderson, Carnagey, Flanagan, Benjamin, Eubanks Valentine, 2004).The engagement of a player in games that have positive content has also been proven to elicit positive outcomes. A perfect example is the playing of video games by children which has been proven to help in weight management. In this paper we explicitly investigate whether video games side with certain British political ideologies. In the recent past, researchers have questioned the validity of passing on political ideologies in videogames. This has always drawn the conclusion that the reputation of the video game industry despite being a disposable form of entertainment which serves a very wide audience does in fact have a degree of political discourse. This notion of political ideologies being encoded in the some games is true but has a degree of flaw. Thus notion for example overlooks the effort of certain independent game designers and developers. Games such as Super Columbine massacre RPG and Cutthroat Capitalism go to a large extent to dispute the notion of apolitical landscape in the industry of videogames. The level of success in the process of communicating the various political statements which incorporate military, social and economic issues just illustrate the political nature of these videogames. Video games by design and existence are a true example of cultural artifacts which bear a certain degree of political messages. It is a proven fact that even the simplest of the video games despite their low level of mindlessness can never fail to portray the politics of the underlying culture in which they are designed. The mainstream video which games do seem to lack political ideologies in actual sense have an implicit political undertone. The basic design of these games is not supposed to handle or tackle any form of political issue directly. The design also does not allow for the carrying of political messages covertly. The reality however is that the games do reflect the underlying social values and most of the popular ideologies of the resident culture in which the game was intended to be deployed in. Even in the conservative and economically centered eighties or even the liberal society, politics are in fact intertwined in the very underlying codes of the video games that we do enjoy Video Games and the Brain Researchers have in past conducted experiments to investigate the influence the mechanism and relationship that occurs in the brain when an individual is playing a computer game. The work of researchers published in Nature (1998) ,a British journal indicated that the brain secrets a special hormone called dopamine when one is laying a computer game. Dopamine is a pleasure inducing chemical that is secreted whenever an individual engages his/her mind in the playing f video games. The New brain research that was conducted years back (Bartholow, Bushman Sestir, 2006) was the first to show that the playing of violent video games results in bad health of the players. The emphatic responses of the brain to the simulation of certain real-life violence such as shooting with a gun and bombing are also elicited. It was also explained by Walsh (2004, 2006). That the exposure of a teenaged brain to video games results in certain violent long-lasting effects. A group of British researchers embarked on a research to understand the neurochemical outcomes of playing video games (Koepp et al. 1998).They measured the amount of dopamine hormone which gets released whenever subjects were engaged in playing a video game. The video games were of action genre. The action game involved the maneuvering through a battlefield full of landmines and tanks. Dopamine is a special neurotransmitter that necessitates the modulation of certain information that is passed from one brain area to another. The particular interest in dopamine was because of its role in the control and influence of a wide range of human behavior. Some of the behaviors that it influences are pleasure, learning and even addiction. An example is the fact that in most cases of drug addiction, pleasure is achieved by increasing the level of dopamine in the brain. By employing a special form of brain imaging technique called (Positron Emission Tomograph) the researchers were in a position to determine the effects of playing a video game on the level of dopamine that is released. The result showed a rapid surge in the amount of dopamine that was released in the brain. The areas that were most noted to have these dopamine surges/release are the areas that are attributed to learning and reward. The injection of amphetamines intravenously gave out comparable results. The observed surge in dopamine and its resulting implications are never well known but is a success in rats. This implies that dopamine may indeed be very crucial in the process of modifying the brain following a certain period of perpetual engagement in training activities. Bao Etal conducted a study using groups of rats. One group of rats was paired with the presentation of a certain tone of about 9-kHz.The observation made was that there was a particular expansion in the brain area that is devoted to the used tone. This was just in the rats that had concurrent of dopamine simulation. (Bao, CHan, and Merze nich,2001).Their conclusion therefore was that dopamine plays a very integral role in the process of learning. This was what caused the neural realignment in the rats. The conclusion from this experiment is that the large increase in the amount of dopamine that is observed when a person plays a video games has a role that is similar to the one in the rats. The dopamine released leads to a faster rate of learning and pleasure. The Dominant British political Ideology The term ideology was first made use of by French philosopher Destutt de Tracy in the nineteenth century. He used it to refer to the science of human ideas. However several definitions have been coined for the word. The term ideology is however used to refer to a certain particular set of ideas and assumptions that are necessary in the shaping of ones understanding of the world. It was however argued by Leys (1983:14) that ideology refers to any set of social ideas that become part of the operative assumptions of the general political practice of a certain particular social group. The very nature of an ideology is usually interpreted to be very coherent in that the main ideas within the specific ideology will usually tend to show a high degree of coherent with one another. The main ideologies that dominate the British way of life are conservatism, socialism and liberalism. Methodology Participants The participants were gathered from a certain popular social online video gaming platform. To explore the questions as to how often the participants engage themselves in playing video games and How this video games affect politics, the research was undertaken by interviewing six hundred participants of which the majority were male compared to females. There were 65% of males compared to 45% females. The participants were aged between eighteen years and forty years with the mean age being 25year and a standard deviation of 0.64. Procedure Data collection was done between the months of January and February the year 2010. The affair was random and after informing the officials of the underlying research it was on. The participants were recruited randomly through random sampling technique which was geared towards a generalized finding that gives a wider scope of views from the respondents, and avoidance of biasness. This was done to eradicate biasness and to get various views from different people who comes from all forms of employment. The main concern of the research was to analyze how people especially teenagers look up for political information online. Secondly there was a concern was how they had persuaded people into voting in elections; thirdly they sort to know how the people had been living informed on politics and other current affairs in the past six months, forth is whether they have stayed committed to their civic participation. And lastly the research sort to see how interested the participants are in polit ical issues around them. The research engage in analyzing both the activities and interests of the participant from that earlier ages because though teenagers do not always involve themselves in political issues as compared to their adult counterparts, they are at a critical age where experimentation are eminent that can help in the development of new political ideologies that give them certain political identities. Each person participating filled an anonymous survey questionnaire that was to give details of their attitudes towards videogames, what they know about them, how often they play and lastly, their perception of politics and how video games affects it. The participants were told that video games included any games played on a computer, video arcades, and handheld devices among others. The data collectors were also taught and trained the manner in which the survey was to be conducted. (Walsh, 2000) The research uses logistic regression and multivariate linear methods in their analysis between the participants background information variables and their civic quality in playing video games together with the above five concerns of the research on what the participants engage in. the games can then be categorized under various groupings such as those that tries to coin the thoughts of participants on moral issues, how they help people learn about problems in the society, how they help in influencing communities decision making procedures, and the nation at large. And lastly some are categorized on how they help in teaching about social issues. The above statistical methods are used because they assist in controlling factors such as how parent may influence the civil participation of the youths and also how participants incomes can affect their civil and political participation. The analysis due to past researches on the topic goes ahead to categorize influencing measures in four different categories that includes; the political characteristics of the games played which talks about how the participants and whether they have any civic experiences that influence political issues or supports them. Another is the social context of the games played which assesses the way the games are played. This could be in solitude or in groups. It also assesses the political behaviors and attitudes, this deal with the magnitude of involvement of the participants to gamming and their political involvement. Also there are demographic variables. They include analysis on age, gender, race and also household incomes. It also analyses the frequency of the games played. Therefore on this research our main concern will be on the variables listed below. Variables Amount of time spent on video games: the participants were asked how much time they spend playing their favorite video games. This time was categorized into week days and weekends which helped in calculating the amount of time people use in playing the video games weekly. Video games exposure: the participants were again asked to name at least three of their favorite video games. On each video game named the participants were expected to rate how often they play this game on a seven point Likert scale. Also the participants were asked to rate how the video game related to politics on the same Likert scale. On the scale it is interpreted that 1 represent a no relation to politics while 7 mean a higher relationship to politics. The video game political relation score was calculated. The participants were also asked to rate their video games relation on a 1 to 10 scale to show how much trends of politics in video games has changed in the past two to three years. Video game limit: the participants were again asked how often they limit themselves from playing video and the period of time they use in playing the video games. Underlying video game political inclination: The participants were asked to state the general mood that laying the game elicited as concerns the major British political ideologies. The model There exists broad based and multidisciplinary body of research work that deal with the effects of video games on various social phenomena, some borrow their relevance applications, game theory. DeGroot (1974) came up with a perfect self updating model , whereby persons adjust their personal belief regarding a certain event (also called the state of the world) by way of observing all persons with whom they have a common social tie and in effect taking an average of their friends averages. Political ideologies and beliefs do necessarily involve a certain level of personal stubbornness but is not explicitly explored by the model, however the DeGroot updating model is still relevant towards the process of forming a political ideology, especially when the aspect of social video gaming which is so connected and impressionable is concerned. In this research however, we do a slight modification of the DeGroots model in order to include an element of political judgment as well as a decreasing level of an individuals sensitivity to others views in a bid to capture the overall maturation state and solidification of the various political views and ideologies. For this purpose we begin by employing DeGroot model which has a simple stochastic configuration having the following parameters. The model is employed in gauging a persons view regarding the elements of British political ideologies that they derive or perceive to be entailed in the video games. The model is a follows. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.(1) Where n is denotes the number of direct links that an individual i has with certain other people j in the online gaming network. I reconfigured the model to incorporate some of the most observed realities of British political ideology acquisition. In the model we assume that a person maintains an autoregressive component in his or her ideology. The model then becomes as follows. . à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(2) Allowing the general political ideology to start out at time 1 as i b~ + e , in which ÃŽÂ µi is a random error term which is drawn from N(0,s 2 ) . The expectation of ÃŽÂ ²i, and 2 is b~ is arrived at by inspection, as the expectation ( ) i E b~ + e is b~ , Which leads us back to equation (2). Variance of ÃŽÂ ²i,2 is evaluated the equation Nis clearly decreasing. Therefore, one can boldly infer that more connections of n can lead to correponding ÃŽÂ ²s which quickly converges to the equilibrium of mb~ and to each other.2 This model however comes with a certain number of assumptions, some of which are more concrete than others. The initial assumption is that it does not take into account the weightings or a measure of the strength of the various different ties. Conclusion Video games have been proven to have profound effects on the players thoughts. Certain ideologies can also be passed or rather contained in the video games. The exact nature of the ideology that a particular game may pass varies significantly with the nature of the game. Certain games have specific political ideologies that dominate their main theme. The study reveals that a great degree of political ideology is encapsulated in the British games. The designers of various games area at times motivated by certain political ambitions in the process of designing the games. The main political ideology that is eminent in most games is conservationism and it is mainly expressed in terms of strategy of the games. Most British gamers enjoy playing games that replicate the old battlefields campaigns. Literature Review Many theorists have come up with similar and different arguments concerning the relations of video games, politics and culture of different regions of the earth. When participating in these social practices, players of the game have the opportunity to involve themselves in new identities. For example, while playing the game Sims Online a presidential political contest of Alphaville erupted between, Baynes who is 21 years old, and Laura who is a 14 year old girl. Political jockeying and voter fraud accusations emerged just like it would in a real political activity. These occurrences created learning opportunities to Laura and Baynes about the realities of real politics and what they entail. This very election attracted national attention as pundits engaged in debates on the significance of games where players could not only run political systems in their virtual lives, but could also engage in political debates and arguments. Lauras political campaign, platform and alliances were substantial enough to initiate a stronger police force and run an overhaul of the system of judiciary. This creates an understanding of how deep it can be to gain ex perience in online virtual worlds. These games contain very rich contexts for learning since players are able to have new and powerful identities and actually experiment on them.( Shaffer 2004) According to Terry Flew (2005) digital games are on the increase in society, a thing which has created social isolation especially teenage boys, who hide in bedrooms; thus fail to actively engage in the society. David Marshal (2002) agrees with Flew though he is against the effects of the out come of his research He found out that games are dynamically social and extensive social conversations emerge from online gaming in huge multi-player formats. For example, the Sims Online has created entire social and political structures in some communities that have adopted a social gaming prospect in their daily lives. These online gamers actively participate in various forms of communication which includes one-on-one correspondence. These kinds of games are massive, social and intimate. On the other hand, McArthur (2008) argues that the amount of time young people play, or the frequency of the plays are significantly related to most outcomes of both civic and political occurrences in pour daily lives. McArthur continues to emphasize that the gaming influence to games has increasingly persuaded others on the voting process, charity contribution, volunteer work, and also in growing interest as far as political views and events are concerned. MacArthur finds very little evidence supporting the aspect of videogames in the promotion of attitudes and behavior that undermine behavior as well as civic commitments. On the same note, there is also little evidence supporting an association of video game playing and that of a vibrant civic and political life. McArthur concluded that the frequency of playing games was associated with only two political and civics outcomes i.e. an increase in political interest and protesting with variations that only emerge according to the leve l of frequency a gamer has to play. Henry Jenkins, a prominent scholar in digital media highlighted potential participation of cultures that come up as a result of engagement with the digital media. Such participatory cultures are in support of communities that share the same interest and involve themselves in sharing and creating what they create with others. Those with experience join in to mentor those who are coming up. With the kind of report put forth by Jenkins, the newly created participatory culture presents more opportunities for gamers to, participate in community life as opposed to isolation, engage in civic debates, or to be leaders in politics. Extensive opportunities through participation may gradually change self perception and encourage social ties with other inhabitants. In order to be empowered, one is supposed to make meaningful decisions within a civic point of view. For example, citizenship skills are learnt through engaging into political acting in order to understand choices to be made in politi cal terms; all these require steps from watching political news and acting politically. This is more like having interest in politics acting in a game world and then acting politically in the real world. Henry Jenkins (2007) Developmental Psychologists concerned with adolescent behavior have suggested that nurturing is very important during the early years in life i.e. child and teenage years. This is the time that teenagers try to anticipate the lives of adulthood and work hard to understand who they are, who they want to be and how they relate to the society. Gibson (2003) notes that the development of sociopolitical orientations is very critical; therefore assessment of the importance to which young members of the society experiment with civic and political activities available to them is crucial in development of future participation. Brown and Thomas in their arguments in virtual worlds write that players learn to create new innovations within networked environments that are well suited to social interactions, problem solving and effective communication. For example, in world of warcraft, players generally come together to form guilds in which they associate together and coordinate in how to attack and destroy the enemy as well as plan to raid the enemy. When new members are recruited, they undergo training as well as ways of resolving conflict among the guild members. This calls for the establishment of an implicit or explicit code of conduct. This kind of interaction and social influence prepares young people on the future stance of their lives. Douglas Thomas (2008) Sasha Barab and Kurt Squire have qualitatively studied the content of the game Civilization IV. This is a game where players begin to join a group settlers living in an underdeveloped land. After joining the piece of land, they try to think deeply on how they will develop the land to the standards of a big city; they therefore send a number of scouts to go and explore the territories that surround them. In order to do this, they are expected to set up a group of warriors who are supposed to fight and protect their city. These players start their ways from the Stone Age period and keep moving until the modern twenty first century. This is a process where they have to develop ideas and make wise decision on how to introduce religion, reading e.t.c at the same time; trade negotiations take place as well as talks on governing their territories especially financially and politically. This kind of simulation enables players to have opportunities of learning about the dynamics of political, economical, as well as the legal system that are stipulated in a real government. This simulation also provides opportunity for players to acknowledge their civic identities due to their experience as civic leaders in the virtual world. Such cognitions and attitude coincide with the players behavior, thus help them develop and practice civic skills. With this study, Squire and Borab concluded that young people gain both civic and political knowledge through playing commercial video games such as Civilization IV. Borab and Squire (2004). There also have been games purely designed to be used within a basic education context. Games such as Quest Atlantis include a narration based on a storyline of young male and female protagonists. This is meant to initiate a proper understanding in pupils about the purpose of some of the activities they carry out in their daily prospects. This game has also helped students perform batter in their studies, especially in subjects like, language arts, social studies and science. For example, in social studies; students have developed and appreciated history and its relationship to their present lives and the adoption of various perspectives of making decisions. As far as gaming in an educational setting is concerned, studies show that players under the guidance and intervention of adults yield more productivity and worthiness as opposed to the players under the reflection of peer groups. Other arguments though state that games with more distinct design features can facilitate greater ci vic learning conditions without the intervention of an adult. Borab and Squire (2004). More literacy scholars have introduced the new versus the old literacy in this new technology era of global understanding. Meyer and rose (1999) interprets the old literacy concept based on the assumption that the basic carrier of information in our culture is the print and the most important knowledge is the ability of students to express and understand themselves through text. Right now technology is catching up, thus the new definition of literacy has changed to mean the ability of a student tot be able to express self through digital technology which is rapidly becoming the sole carrier of information. This is critical in todays education context. This education context requires the knowledge of print literacy; this call for both the old (print) and this new (digital) concept to enhance more skilled literacy. It simply shows that there is a perverse challenge of literacy in both the digital and the non-digital innovations of our daily lives. (Meyer Rose, 1999) Electronic games have actually been used in the classroom by teachers to associate the traditional ways of teaching. Young people have always been inspired by some character in the games. This invokes some sense of attention and concentration which are part of the teachers goals in the teaching process. After the digital game use, pupils begin to reveal some real enthusiasm for writing diaries, text, coloring and making drawings; this also motivate them to keep proper records for what they have learned and drafted in the classroom. They also go on to discuss their projects in broader perspectives, thanks to the games their teachers introduce to them in classroom. The game world in schools is particularly stronger in the United Kingdom for the sole contribution of contributing and advancing personal skills in innovation and creativity. These games develop intellectual and social skills that includes self confidence, ability to explore and cooperate, enterprise and initiative, responsi bility, independence e.t.c. (Meyer Rose, 1999) According to Zimmerman and Salen, games are forms of organized play with a set of rules and guide to players. If a game is well designed with a meaningful purpose, then the game will definitely yield positive results meaningful play which is a very good learning condition. This definition of meaningful play simply means the results of the relationship between the outcome and the action in a game which are integrated and discernable into the wider view of the game. When the real design focuses on meaningful learning results, then it is able to preserve playfulness which is deserved by children and at the same time serious learning. Games really motivate players to concentrate on mastering their tasks according to how the game is supposed to be played. The innovation of very distinct elements of game design such as rewards, goals, rules, multisensory cues, interactivity, and narrative context, have proven necessary to kindle the expected outcomes of learning. For example, EVE Online is an online game that one has to subscribe to in order to play. Its nature as a casual game doesnt in any way undermine the gain of knowledge while playing it. EVE Online is all about dominating a market by setting up a number of corporations. This game has attracted so many prominent personnel including, MBAs, city traders, economists, chief executives e.t.c. to gain knowledge of complex financial lessons that they can practice in the real world. One of the gamers was interviewed and explained that once one has managed to conquer a virtual corporation spanning the universe, you can then easily be able to manage a real corporation spanning the earth. (Zimmerman and Salen 2004) Games are interactive mediums with to fully understand becomes a core challenge. Within game worlds, players have the agency. These games are therefore inhabited by the gamers, within the theories of digital games, a reliable game should be able to constrain players through the narratives and the rules that they are bound to. It is also important that the players be given the actual control for entering the virtual world. Kreimeier, 2000 continues to explain that the game developers desire is always be able to design games that enable the players to fully engage themselves in the game world. In this way, games are constructions by both the players as well as the authors. For example, the Grand Theft is a game representing the inner L.A in a way that leads players to understand some of the limited choices urban youth have, this game also has a way of inviting them to try the personae of the black man in the inner city; and the experience the sensations of the urban culture and the lif e of an urban gang member. The Grand Theft game allows gamers to inhabit this for a particular view point and also help in the development of the identities within them. (Squire, 2004). Deux Ex is a very popular game design as a science fiction game. It contains characters of duplicitous leaders of the government, very powerful corporations and also full of terrorists who are sponsored by the government. Warren Spector who designed the game offers moral choices to the gamers on whether to trust organizations or to trust individual people. In a world where no moral decision is right, the player is left tot rethink of who he wants to joint the competing organizations such, as family royalties, government or corporations. This kind of game helps us know the must important things and choices to make; as well as what to ignore when making very important decisions. All these game are differently understood and interpreted by different player.(Black 2004) According to Tom Malone (1981), there is an intrinsic motivation of games to players through challenge, control, fantasy, curiosity and opportunities for competition, collaborative play and social interaction. He goes on arguing that games have a way of creating presence, or emotional immediacy which is one of their most appealing features; the core to this is that we are entering the word to this and not merely manipulating the screen pixels. Clinton (2004) says on the other hand that immersion is fundamentally built through the game world interaction. These verbs given to players- jumping, punching, running, diving and kicking through and over enemies and few other obstacles are the building blocks through which gamers become war lords, action heroes, or civilization leaders. Clinton maintains that the digital worlds cognition is mediated thoroughly by players action capacity. Thus the players actions become the players interface with the world. Clintons observations go on proving that the first thing a player does before playing a particular game is to familiarize him with the game controls. This action gives him total control of the characters body and what he can do in the virtual world. In the real world this helps a player to conform and find out his abilities that he can use to venture through his day-to-day

Current and Future Market Trends Essay

When thinking of wireless phone or internet service, the first company that probably comes to mind is Verizon Wireless. Verizon officially became a force to be reckoned with in the wireless market in 2000 when Verizon communications and Vodafone merged. Verizon states, â€Å"Verizon Communications Inc., headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wire line communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.† Since entering the market in 2000, Verizon has made itself popular by offering service in more areas than any other wireless network. Market Structure Within economics, four types of market structures exist. The four types are: monopoly, monopolistic competition, perfect competition, and oligopoly. Colander (2008) describes market structure as, â€Å"the physical characteristics of the market within which firms interact.† Verizon Wireless’ market structure can be defined by a combination of monopolistic competition and oligopoly. Colander (2008) defines monopolistic competition and oligopoly as, â€Å"a market structure in which there are many firms selling differentiated products and few barriers to entry—and oligopoly — a market structure in which there are only a few firms and firms explicitly take other firms’ likely response into account. The wireless industry is smaller that people think and not much competiton exists. For example: Cingular and AT&T are both wireless carriers, but Cingular is a part of AT&T. Essentially, when a consumer spends money with Cingular, it still goes to AT&T. Using an oligopoly structure has worked well for Verizon in the past and currently. Current and future market trends should not have any affect on the market structure of Verizon. New Companies Competition in the wireless industry has always been tough. It seems as though every month or few weeks, a new phone or new service is being unveiled by a well-know company or a company trying to get started. Besides  Alltell, Verizon is usually the company the competition seeks to compete with. To compete with Verizon most companies offer a service similar to Verizon for a cheaper price, or they offer a similar phone for a cheaper price. Verizon would not be affected heavily by any new companies entering the market, because Verizon is already established and consumers are already familiar with the brand. Aside from that, Verizon offers a number of services and slogans to keep their consumers interested. Some of the slogans used are: America’s largest and most reliable network, #1 in customer loyalty, and the worry free guarantee. Verizon does not have to worry about the competition, the competition should worry about Verizon. Prices One of the downsides to having wireless services and phones is the price. Since the introduction of cell phones, the price of phones and the price of service have risen significantly. On average, a contract for cell phone service with two lines would cost anywhere from $160 – $250, depending on the services the customer chooses. That price does not include the price of the phone which could be anywhere from $50 – $900. The prices to maintain the convenience of a cell phone are ridiculous, but it is a necessity that most individuals find it hard to live without. The current and future trend of the wireless industry shows the price of services and phones increasing. With that being said, despite the prices of phones and service, consumers will continue to pay the prices set by Verizon and other wireless companies. Technology Cell phones and services have definitely evolved over the years. Technology is one of the leading factors when consumers consider purchasing a phone or selecting a company as their wireless provider. Most cell phone users use text messaging, check email, and log onto social networking sites like facebook and myspace from their mobile phones. Like any other invention cell phones have evolved and become an important part of our lives. Televisions went from just being in homes to our cars. Computers were usually found in places such as: homes, offices, and libraries. Now cell phones are the more modern version of computers. Verizon has always made note of the changing trends when it comes to technology and the company has always delivered excellent products the consumer wants or needs. Productivity To maintain the position as the largest and most reliable wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless must spend money. The costs range from building the network, to maintaining the network. Costs include employees, equipment and technology needed to keep the company on top. The company makes decisions based on what the benefit will be in the long run. These decisions are made by researching trends and technology in the wireless market and changing tastes of the consumer. The company knows the catalyst of success is a strong network. The law of diminishing marginal productivity states as more of a variable input is added to an existing fixed input, eventually the additional output one gets from that additional input is going to fall (Colander 2008). I was not able to get information specific from Verizon Wireless that would help me graph out this law. The company has over 86,000 employees and made 56.8 billion dollars in profit for 2008 (about us 2009). Each year bonuses are given to employees based on individual performance and company performance. Last year the bonuses were based on the fact that the company made 12% in profits. In today’s economic times, the e profit achieved was outstanding and was above any other profits made in the wireless industry for 2008. Cost Structure Wages and Benefits Employees of Verizon Wireless are compensated well. The employees salary along with the benefits provided are above others employed in the wireless industry, according to David Brown an analyst at Verizon Wireless human resources. At Verizon Wireless a broad-banded structure is used to organize jobs and manage pay. There are six bands that range from A to F. Depending on the skills of the individual, he or she is usually hired in on the F band, which is a customer service representative, or assistant. The duties are usually task oriented. The next band is E, which is a coordinator or analyst, who are proven to work independently, usually on projects and technical functions. D band consists of level one managers, supervisors etcetera. C through A bands are the higher levels of management and CEO. Jobs are assigned to bands based on similar roles and levels of responsibility. The jobs themselves can be quite different in terms of what people do. Jobs in the same band are similar in terms of their impact on our business results, the decision-making authority of the employees who hold them, and the knowledge and skills required. VZW classifies a job as either salaried exempt or salaried non-exempt. Verizon Wireless provides medical, dental and vision benefits to employees at a reduced cost, but also provides at no cost an education benefit up to 8,000 per year, 401k contribution matching up to 6% and yearly performance bonuses as well as profit sharing if enrolled in 401k and a long term incentive program that is also based on company performance. Employees are a vital asset to Verizon Wireless and the salaries along with the benefits are designed to maximize performance. Cost Structure Fixed and Variable Costs Fixed costs are defined as costs that are spent and cannot be changed in the period under consideration (2008). Fixed costs for Verizon Wireless include buildings, warehouses used, and upkeep of cellular sites. Variable costs, or costs that change, include workers employed, contracts for equipment production, new technology etcetera. Verizon Wireless is a firm that sells produced goods to individuals, businesses and government (2008). The company’s main output is technology. The fixed costs dived by the variable costs equal the average costs of the company. As was stated earlier, last year Verizon Wireless made a 12% increase in profits from the year before. Most of the revenue occurred in the 4th quarter of the year with the release of the BlackBerry Storm touch screen device. The device was the answer to the I phone distributed by AT&T. Over 100,000 devices were sold on the first day of release alone. The cost of the device was 199.99, which is around 2 million dollars made in one day. The demand for the devices increased, and the company met the demand with more phones. According to the March 2009 newsletter given to the company for 4th quarter earnings, the CEO Lowell McAdam advised that Storm sales were the factor that  significantly raised the company’s profits and set the bar for future ventures. Price Elasticity of Demand The relation between the shift in quantity and shift in price of a product is known as price elasticity. â€Å"Price elasticity of demand is the calculation of the percentage change in quantity demanded divided by the percentage change in price† (Colander, 2008). Verizon Wireless has to make an effort to stay in synch with the pricing and offerings by their competition. Verizon Wireless must implement services and products that incorporate modern technology and are ground-breaking to compete in the wireless market and affordable in today’s economy. Impact of Government Regulations Verizon Wireless realizes the importance in ensuring that all regulations that are established by the Federal Communications Commission. Abiding by these regulations will guarantee that Verizon Wireless will keep providing long-standing benefits for the taxpayer and customers. Verizon Wireless trusts that the present structure â€Å"of auctioning spectrum licenses, with clearly defined, exclusive-use and flexible rights, is the right approach to spectrum policy† (Verizon Wireless, 2009). Although clear benefits towards allowing unlicensed use of spectrum is visible, that advance will not create the revenue for the United States Treasury or the best value for American economy. Broadband is one of the services provided by Verizon Wireless. Over the past ten years Broadband services have been used commercially. During that time the government has acknowledged the significance of implementing market-based motivations to persuade broadband usage and investment. â€Å"Rather than applying more-stringent regulations to telecommunications services and infrastructure, the FCC generally has applied an old wires, old rules; new wires, new rules philosophy towards broadband services and networks† (Verizon Wireless, 2009) By doing this, customers will reap in the benefits form the government’s decision to enhance incentives for broadband service providers to invest in better and superior broadband networks and services. â€Å"Investment and deployment in next-generation broadband networks – such as Verizon’s FiOS network – is happening at a remarkable pace, and consumers  now have more choices than ever before† (Verizon Wireless, 2009). Competitors Verizon Wireless has a substantial amount of competition in the wireless industry. Verizon competes with wireless companies such as T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T. Verizon Wireless became the largest wireless service provider by beating out AT&T. Nonetheless, Verizon’s landline industry is affected by the large opposition of modern technology and tends to confront challenges from various other competitors with high speed internet and cable companies such as Time Warner Cable. Verizon Wireless has to make an effort to stay in synch with the pricing and offerings of its competitors. The Wireless industry is so competitive, equipment can outdate within a few months. Companies must develop wireless devices that are affordable as well as reliable. Supply and Demand Analysis Even with today’s economic challenges, many opportunities to create innovative new products to meet customer demand still abound. In a bold new step the company introduced its line of netbooks, mini lightweight laptop computers that consumers can take with them anywhere. The netbooks have all the functionality of a laptop, with the convenience of a smaller wireless device. The smaller size and the low price the netbooks are offered, is what today’s consumers are demanding. Tapping into this market gives Verizon Wireless a piece of the notebook and laptop market that was only accessible in the past by offering mobile broadband cards. The added revenue from this market keeps Verizon Wireless ahead of the competition. Verizon Wireless also has the opportunity to expand its coverage globally with the 3G UMTS, Quad Band GSM networks. This means that business travelers as well as consumers will now have access to roam on more networks in over 250 countries across the globe. Verizon Wireless strives to produce the best most reliable wireless voice and data coverage in the industry. In order to obtain that goal the company will have to gain customers faster than the competition, widen the revenue lead and lead in profitability. As long as Verizon stays on the right track, the company should not have any issues presently and in the future. Reference Page Colander, D (2008).Economics, Fifth Edition. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York, New York, 10020 Verizon Wireless. (2009). Corporate History/investor relations. Retrieved June 26th, 2009 from www.verizon.com.

Close Reading Essay

Because if what people mean is: Can the love of lauguage be taught? Can a grft for storytelling be taught? thenthe enswer is no. Which may be why the’question is so often asked in a skeptical leng imFlying that, unlike the multiplication tables or the principles of auto mechanics, creativity can’t be tansmitted from teacher to student Lnagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help virh Paradire Lost,orKa{ka enduring d1s semirlsl in which his classmates irrforn. him thaq franklp they just don’t believe the part about the guywaking up one morning to find he’s a giant bug. VLrat confuses me is not the sensibleness of the question but tJre fact that, when addressed to me, it’s being asked of a writer who has taught writing, on and off, for almost twenty -What years. would it say about mq my students, and the hours’wete spent in the classroom if I said drat any attempt to teach the writing of fiction is a complete waste of timl? I should probably just go ahead and admit that lve been com mi tting criminal fraud. to f-l an creative *iting be taught? t ] rt† † r. â€Å"roo.6l† qu†Jtiorr, but no matter how -/ often I’ve been asked it, I never krrow guite what That’s the experience I describe, the answer I give to people who ask about teaching creative writing: A workshop can be usefirl. A good teacher can show you how to edit your work. The right dass can encourage you and form the basis of a community that will help and sustain you. But that dass, as helpful as it was, is not where I learned to write. *itirg ike most-maybe all-vriters, I learned to write by and, by example, from reading books. Instead I answer by recalling my owu most valuable experienee not as a teacher, but as a student in one of the few fietion workshops I have ever taken. This was in the 1970s, during ny brief careLr as a graduate student in medieval English literature, when I was allowed the indulgence of taling one fiction dass. Its generous teacher showed me, ,mong other things, how to line-edit my work For any writer, the abiJity to look at a sentetce and see what’s superfluous, what cen be altered revised, erpanded and, especially, cut, is bssential. It’s satisfring to see that sentence shrinl, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, e conomical sharp. Meanwhile, my classmates were providing me with my first real audience. In that prehistory before mass photocopying enabled students to distribute manuscripts in advance, Irre read our work aloud. That year I was b†g*ning what would become my first novel Arld what made an important d. ifference to me was the attention I felt in the room as the others listened. I was very dncouraged by their eagerness to hear’more 8  Long before 6e idea of a writer’s conference was a glimmer in anyone’s eye writers learned by reading the work of their predecessors. They studied meter with Ovid, plot consuuction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes; tl:ey honed their prose style by absorbing the lucid sentences of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson- And who could have asked for better teachexs: generous, uncriticel blessed with wisdom and genius, as endlessh forgiving as only the dead can be? Though writers have leamed from the masters. in a formal.  methodical way-Harrv Crews has described aking apart’a Graham Greene novel to see how many chapters it contained, how much time it covered how Greene handled pacin& tone, and point ofvieiv-the truth iS that this sort of education more often involves a kind of osmosis. A-fter I’ve written an essay in which lve quoted at length from great writers, so that fve had to copy out long passages of their work, I’ve noticed that my own work becomes, however briefly, just a little more fluenl In the ongoing process of becoming a writer, I read and reread the authors I most loved. I read for pleasure, firsg but also more aualytically, conscious of stylef of dicrion, of how sentences were formed and information was being conveyed, how the writer was structuring a plot, creating characters, employing detail and dialogue. And as’I wrotq I discovered that writing like reading, was done one word at a time, one punctuation mark at a ti-e. It reguired what a friend calls lputting every word on u-ial for its Lfe†, changing an adjective, cutting a phrase, removing a sqttrlna and putting the comma back in. I read closely, word by word, sentence by sentence, pondering each deceptively minor decision the writer had made. Arrd though I can’t recall every source of inspiration and instruction, I can remember the novels and stories that seemed to me revelations: wells of beauty and pleasure that were also textbooks? courses of private lessons in th†e term paper on the theme of blindness il Oedipus Rex and Kinglear. Newere supposed to go through the rwo tragedies and cirde every reference to eyes, light, darkness, and visiort then draw some conclusion on which we would assigned  a art of fiction. When I was a high school junio4 -our English teacher base our final essay. The exercise seemed to us dul! mechanical. We felt we were way beyond it AII of us knew that blindness played a starring role in both dramas StiL we liked our E. nglish teacher, and we wanted to please him. And searciing for everyrelevantword turned out to have ari enjoyable seasure-hunt aspect, a Were’s Waldo detective thrill. Once we started looking for eyes, we found them everywhere, glinting at us, winking from every page. Long before the idea of a writer’s conference was a glimmer in anyonds eye, writers leamed by reading their predecessors. Th*y studied meter with OYi{ plot construction with Homer, -omedy with Aristophanes. T’ong before the blinding of Oedipus or Gloucester, the language of vision and its opposite was prepariag us, consciously or uncousciously, for those violent mutilations. It asked us to consider what it meant to b6 dear-sighted or obtuse, short-sighted or prescieng to heed the signs and wamings, to see or deny what was right in front of one’s eyes. Teiresias, Oedipus, Goneril, Kent-all of them could be defined by the sincerity or falseness with which they mused or ranted on the subject of literal or metaphorical blindness. tacing those patterns and making those connections was fun. Like cracking a code that the playwright had em. bedded in the text, a riddle that existed just for me to decipher. I felt as if I were engaged in some intimate communication with dre writer, as if the ghosts of Sophodes and Shakespeare had been waiting patiendy all those centuries for a bookjsh  .attention to whatever each word or phrase is tr4nsmitti’. Word by word is how we learn to hear and then read† which seems only fitting, because that is how the books we are reading were written in the 6rst place. The more we read, the fasterwe can perform that magic trick of seeing how the letters have been combined into words that have meaning. The more we read, the more we comprehen{ the more likely we are to discover new ways to read, each one tailored to the reason why we are reading a particular book. At 6rsq the  thrill of our own brand-new expertise is all we ask or expect from Dick and Jane. But soon we begin to ask what else those marks on the page can give us. We begin to want information, entertainmeng invention, even truth and beauty. W’e concentrate; we skim, we skip words, put down the book and daydream, start over, and reread. We firrish a book and return to it years later to see what we might have Tissed, or the ways io which time and age have affected our understanding. As a child, I was drawn to the works of the great escapist chjldren’s writers. Especially if I could rerurn to my own bed in time to turn offtl:e lights,I Iiked trading my famiJiar sixteen-year-old to come along and fiad them. I believed that I was learning to read in a whole new way. But this was only pardy uue. Because in fact I was merely relearning to read in an old way that I had leamed; but forgotten. e all begin as close readers. Even before we learn to read, the process ofbeing read aloud to, and of listenirig, is one in which we are taking in one word after another, one phrase at a trme, in which we are payrng  world for the London of the four children whose nanny parachuted into their lives on her umbrella and who turned t}re mo$t routine shopping uip into a magical outing. I would have gladly followed the white rabbit down into the rabbit hole and had tea with the Mad Hatter. I loved novels in which children stepped through portals-a garden, a wardrobe-into an alternate uoiverse. Children love the imagination, with its kaleidoscopic possibilities and its protest against the way that children are always being told exacdy what’s true and false, what’s real and what’s illusion. Perhaps my taste in reading had something to do with the limitations I was discovering, day by day: the brick walls of time and space, science and probabfity, to say nothing of whatever messages I was picking. up from the culture. I liked novels with plucky heroines like Pippi Longstocking, the astringent Jane Eyre, and the daughters in Little Wonzw grls whose resourcefulness and intelligence donot automatically exclude them from the pleasures of male attention. Each word of these novels was a yellow brick ia the road to Oz. Some chapters I read and leread so as to repeat the dependable, out-of-body sensation of being someulzere ebe. I read addictively, constantly. On one-family vacation my father pleaded with me to close my book long enough to look at the Grand Canyon. I borrowed stacks of books from the public libraxy: novels, biographies, history anything that looked even remotely engaging. Along with pre-adolescence came a more pressing desire for escape. I read more widely, more indiscriminately, and mostly with an interest in how far a book could take me from my life and how long it could keep me there. Gone With rlze LVind Pearl Buck. Edna Ferber. f’at James Michener best-sellers with a dash of history sprinkled in to cool down the steamy love scenes between the Hawaiian girls and the missionaries, the geishas and the GIs. I also FtcTtoN rssuE 2006 lO THE ATLANTIC MoNTHLY appreciated these books for the often misieading nuggets of information they provided about sex in that innocent era, the 1950s. I turned the pages of these Page-turners as fast as I could. Reading was like eating alone, with that same element of bingeing. I was fortunate to have good teachers, and friend. s who  were also readers. The books I read bdcame more chal’ lenging, betterwritten, more substantial. Sieinbe& Camus. Hemingway, Fiugerald, TWain, Salingea Arrne Frank. Litde beatniks, my friends and I were passionate fans of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. We read . Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, and the proto-hippie classics of Herman Hesse, Carlos Castenada-Mary Poppiru for people who thought they’d outgrown the flying nanny. I-must have been vaguely aware of the power of language, but only dimly, and only as it applied to whatever effect the book was having on me.

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1434 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category Religion Essay Level High school Topics: Song of Solomon Essay Did you like this example? Unit 6 Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations Job was written by Moses and Job himself.   We find out that Job is a historical person because, he lived shortly after the   Flood. He lived an added 140 years after his 10 children were born. He also served as a priest for his family after he became a father. Job discussions the Mosaic laws or Gods authority or scriptures. The time set of the book of Job is in the day of the patriarchs. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Lamentations" essay for you Create order The book of Job is a wisdom book. The purpose of the book of Job is to teach us how to live our lives. It addresses the issues of suffering of people who are righteous. It is to teach the righteous how to deal with pain and suffering. Some think the book is to ask why does God allow His people to suffer?   In the prologue God is telling Satan that Job is a truly righteous man, Satan tries to convince God he can turn Job away from Him. God gives Satan a chance Satan rings down calamity upon Job taking everything away from him. He takes away his servants, cattle, camels, sheep, and children. Job did not curse God, instead he tears his clothes off shaves his head and prays to God. Satan than takes all his wealth and his health Jobs friends tell him it is because of sin, and he needs to confess. One-man Elihu criticized Job for justifying before God and told Job his friends did not know what they were saying. That sometimes suffering was to teach us something not to be as punishment. G od came to Job and Job response was of submission and surrender. God criticized the 3 friends for misrepresenting Job. Psalms: The book of Psalms was written by several authors, only two-thirds of the book have recognized authors. David is the author of   seventy-three books of Psalms making up the biggest part (he may have written some anonymously). A musician of Davids, Asaph, wrote twelve of the books of Psalms,   the sons of Korah wrote ten books; Solomon wrote two; Moses, Heman, and Ethan each wrote one. Psalms was written during the time of the Kingdom of Israel   and covered the time from Moses to the post exile times, which was a thousand years. The vast part of Psalms was written between the years 1030-930 B.C. The purpose of Psalms was to supply and the people of poetry and allow them is to praise and worship through song. Psalms is written as poetry, so it cannot be read or interpreted as everyday language. Poetry when read has rhyming and imagery, with parallelism and literary devices. Some Psalms have a historical basis, others have noted the occasion for which they are written, some the reasons why they are written. There are nine different categories of Psalms, but often each Psalms has elements of several categories in it. Messianic Psalms(e.g., Pss. 2,8,22,69,110) these are written about the person and the work of the Messiah. The Lament Psalms (e.g., Pss. 7,26,60) the writer cries out to God for help for himself or for the nation for some trouble they are in the writer will give a confession of trust to God. Testimonial Psalm   (e.g., Pss. 30,34). The writer tells others what God has done for him a declaration to God Psalms the writer reflects on life and how God helped him. Pilgrim Psalms (e.g., Pss. 120-134) song of ascent these are Psalms written about the journeys to   Jerusalem. Israelites used the Psalms to sing at their annual feasts. Imprecatory Psalms (e.g., Pss. 58,109) The writer of these Psalms has asked God to judge the wicked enemies of him and God. Penitential Psalms (e.g., Pss. 32,51) the Psalms was written to show a remorseful individual, who was grieving over his sin. T hese Psalms were for most the most part written by David. The Wisdom Psalms (e.g., Pss. 37,73) are for Gods people they give guidance to our daily lives in this ungodly world it is to live our lives with knowledge and understanding. The Historical Psalms (e.g., Pss. 78,105,106) The writer gives divine commentary on some of Israels history when writing about Gods dealings with the nation. The Nature Psalms (e.g., Pss. 8,19) God is the inspiration of these Psalms. The writer emphasis on Gods power and awesomeness. Psalms covers every situation and emotion possible in our daily lives it acts as a guide for us to help us through when we are lost and struggle to find a way to deal with the things we feel we cannot handle. King Solomon wrote most of Proverbs, chapter 1-29. The date given to the writing of the book is 950 B.C. Different authors wrote the last two chapters of Proverbs they were Agur and King Lemuel, but nothing definite was known about the two authors. Proverbs was written, so we could have wisdom and discipline in our lives (1:2-7). Solomon said man could not be close to God or have the right relationship with God   until he fears God. This means he lives the right life and views God properly and has the right relationship with God. Chapters 1-9 explains how man can live life with or without Gods wisdom: as a wise man who seeks the truth and receives it and become insightful. One can become one who is naive that that does not believe and is manipulated easily in life believing anything. The scoffer is one the does not believe anything they are rude and cynical to matters of the Lord making it impossible to live a spiritual life. The fool knows God but refuses to accept God they reject God. They are morally wicked and spiritually empty. Ecclesiastes the author of this book says he was the son of David, King of Jerusalem(1:1, 12). Solomon appears to have written the book at the end of his life and in the book,   he refers to himself several times as Koheleth or preacher. The date given for the books of Ecclesiastes is 931B. C after Solomon had died. The book of Ecclesiastes is a recording of the struggles to find purpose and reason for life. Everything written in the book is about the need for God in ones life that without a spiritual relationship with Him nothing else matters we are left empty.   Solomon writes that a true relation a spiritual relationship with God will bring a life of joy and satisfaction (e.g., 2:24-26; 3:12-15; 5:7;18, 8:12). Solomon also wrote in Ecclesiastes that as young people they should seek out God as early as they can in life, so they will not feel the spiritual void later in life. Song of Solomon King Solomon wrote the entire book of the Song of Solomon early during his reign, although some have questioned if he had written the book.   The scriptures show that Solomon was the writer (1:1), and the scriptures mentioned his name several times   (1:5; 3:7, 9, 11, 18:11-12).   The Song of Solomon is a poem dedicated   to marriage the intimate physical relationship between a husband and wife and the blessing given to them by God. Many Christians think the poem, because of the sexual content is about the church or the nation or Israels relationship with God, but there is no mention of either in the scriptures of the Song of Solomon to either reference. The Song of Solomon is a poem about Solomon and how he met and married his bride. He met ha poor girl and disguised who he was pretending to be an ordinary man. They fell in love at first sight, but he had to leave her, but promised to come back. When he came back, he revealed to her he was the King she went back to the palace and they were married, and he wrote about the wedding night and their passion for one another. With God and marriage, love is without guilt and shame. Lamentations by evidence from other scriptures in other books 2Kings 25 and Jeremiah 40-44 gives evidence that Jeremiah is the author of Lamentations. At the time when Jerusalem was burning to the ground Jeremiah was in Mizpah.   Lamentations is the sequel to Jeremiah it is a book of mourning after the destruction of Jerusalem. Jeremiah tries to warn Judah for 40 years to no avail, then God sends His wrath and destroys the city. The book describes the horrors of famine, starvation, cannibalism (2:11-12; 4:5-10). Through it all Jeremiah realizes that God is faithful and righteous, and He confesses the sins of his people to God and asks for forgiveness. (5:1-22) .