Thursday, January 30, 2020
Barack Obama and his Political Propaganda Essay Example for Free
Barack Obama and his Political Propaganda Essay The process of running for the United States presidency is no easy task. Like in almost any relationship, attraction is the key to provide the foundation for anticipation and expectations. In the beginning, one will always place his best foot forward, and contemplating on addressing issues which would appeal dramatically to other people. Running for the presidency is no less than different with pursuing a girl to have a relationship with you. It all starts with making her pay attention to what you have to say and to what you can offer despite many competitors.            Barack Obama came across the attraction stage with flying colors because he seemed to have captured the attention of most population in the American community, across varying groups and minorities (Martin, 2008, p.1). For one, he appeared to come prepared for what is known as a great battle to get Democratic nomination against Senator Hillary Clinton who is one tough competitor. Obama lacks the experience, and can be said as less popular than Clinton who has established her prominence during the presidency of her husband. However, the appeal in Obama’s candidacy defers the idea that he was only elected as Senator in 2005, and a very young player in the realm of politics.            This paper aims to explore the political propaganda used by Obama to ensure his future in the White House. For the purpose of the paper, we shall examine the different types of media used by Obama to gain votes and preferences, the manner by which he delivers his agendas, his target audience and supporters, and how this greatly affects his stance in the race to get the democratic nomination. It is certain that the race between Obama and Clinton’s nomination is very tight, but we shall take the time to assess how Obama’s political propaganda has delivered expected results in his leads on major polls and surveys worldwide as Democrats most preferred candidate. â€Å"Change we can believe in†It is a fact that most Americans are demanding change from future politicians in running the country. Many circumstances and events has led Americans hopeful for change and has been the pivotal driving force behind many political agendas. Obama is no exception. By using the ideology of â€Å"change†as a campaign slogan, he ignites the hope among idealistic men and women around the country to believe in what he regards as change (Obama 2008: Change we Believe In, 2008). Obama has a great advantage in speaking with eloquence and sensitivity, with emotions that has words fulfilled with hope and change, gives many people the self-identity they want to see change in the future administration, or in this case, in a democratic candidate for the presidency. This is a note worthy to be taken beforehand, so as to provide a basis on how we can assess Obama’s political propaganda.            Even before the decisive voting held on February 5, 2008, there has been a pronounced shift in favor for Obama of Illinois from opinion polls, surveys, campaign contributions and political and media endorsements (Martin, 2008, p.1). Obama, being a new player in the realm of politics used significant intervention from different political representatives to endorse his candidacy. For example, when Senator Edward Kennedy expressed his fervent support for Obama, it has generated significant contribution in uplifting Obama’s candidacy. As many critics saw it, Kennedy’s endorsement has become a signal of the Democratic Party’s consensus on his candidacy. Following this influential event led to many mass media endorsements of the event including newspapers published in California, Los Angeles Times and La Opinion, which the most widely-read Spanish-language daily.            After Kennedy’s endorsement, opinion polls showed Obama in strict ties with Senator Clinton for the democratic nomination (Associated Press, 2008). The strategy used governs many political advisers view to gain majority of delegates from key states to secure victory, and Obama did it with just one major political and highly-publicized endorsement.            The appeal of Obama’s political propaganda can be deemed into two significant standpoints. First, the on-going deep desire for social and political change is strongly used by the Obama campaign to hub an illusion, and to foster great support from the idealist (martin, 2008, p. 1). This s highlighted by the mass media by emphasizing that this change will come from someone from the African American community, a fundamentally groundbreaking event in American history if and when Obama wins as the first black President. However, Obama is not a clear product of any acts against racial oppression and civil rights struggles. He is a politician groomed to be of appeal to massive voters in the coming elections.            Obama’s political propaganda seeks to disengage and disassociate itself from the struggle of the elite and ruling class in running the country. More so, the critiques on Obama has seemingly less impacts because of a well-organized activities from the media who supports his candidacy and owes their respective professions to corporate bosses and financial institutions which have their own candidate as preferences. Even Obama’s appeal has penetrated the right-wing group with endorsements from Rupert Murdoch for example.            Also significant of the character of Obama’s political propaganda is the shift in campaign contributions from major business firms. More money means more capability in a candidate’s political machinery. Obama has been endorsed by different military institutions, then national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the United States. Other known mass media executives and corporate executives have also pledged significant amounts for Obama to continue his aspiration on the America presidency. Through continuous efforts from the Obama campaign wagon to instill their dedication towards real change, the Los Angeles Times broke their tradition of not endorsing any candidate with the promotion of Obama’s candidacy in their editorial (Martin, 2008, p.1 ).             As an observation, although generally the political propaganda of Obama is sufficient for him to gather and maintain support, it is also clear with biases to achieve voters support. For one, it sometimes resorts to Ad Hominem or the attack to his primary opposition and her arguments. In many cases, through debates and news reports, Obama responds to what Clinton offers on a negative tone. Although at times he emphasized their differences, he also had made several points of their similarities obvious to other people. By using change as a promotional concept and advocacy of his candidacy, he often appeals to authority which uses an ideal which is popular amongst people and grant their support for the ideology he used. He also often uses the appeal to prejudice on many public conventions and speaking engagements to evoke the sense of emotional value and goodness to benefit his character. Conclusion The Obama campaign has utilized effective marketing campaign strategies which efficiently used their connections and endorsements form media outlets and institutions. For the most part, Obama is following a political propaganda which is embedded to deny political differences and social classes but with emphasis on the economic differences between individuals in the society.            The Obama political propaganda strongly used news reports, radio, television and posters. It specifically and strategically used these media to indoctrinate various groups of audiences he wished to communicate with and to. Usually through this media, Obama used a directional method on how people can learn about more of his strategies, goals and principles. Through these methods, he intends to initiate individuals as information seekers, to recipients, to reinforcement and opinion leader in favor of his own. Works Cited: Associated Press (2008). â€Å"Obama comes up short on union support.†Hemscott Group Limited. Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=56416543358904 Martin, Patrick (2008). â€Å"US political establishment lines up behind Barack Obama.†International Committee on the Fourth International (ICFI). Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/obam-f04.shtml Obama for America (2008). â€Å"Obama 2008: Change we Believe In†. The Official Site of Obama’s Campaign. Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.barackobama.com/
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Discuss economic arguments for and against imposing substantially :: Economics
Discuss economic arguments for and against imposing substantially higher taxes on sale of alcohol. Governments interfere in markets and their working with the primary purpose of provision of welfare to people and preventing market failure. There are many methods of intervention such as - taxes and subsidies - buffer stocks - applying maximum and minimum prices - provision of public goods and services - provision of education and training - legislation and market reforms Applying taxes has two purposes: to generate revenue for the government and to discourage consumption and output of certain goods, usually demerit goods. Demerit goods are those goods that are usually over consumed by in a market system, and have social costs exceeding social benefit due to high negative externalities. They contrast merit goods which are desirable for the welfare of society, as positive externalities exceed negative externalities. Taxes out on goods such as alcohol are considered indirect taxes. Depending upon the price elasticity of a good, and its demand and market price, government places either - specific taxes that are of a specific number, e.g. 10 dirhams on every bottle of beer - ad valorem taxes that add a percentage of the market price onto taxes e.g. 5% of price of beer A government must analyze the effects of taxing, or increasing taxation on a good, whether or not the taxation satisfies the goals. The Social costs of alcohol involve the cost of production, cost of purchase and negative externalities such as alcohol poisoning and drunken driving deaths and violence. The social benefits are the profit made by producers, the utility gained by consumers and externalities such as prevention of heart diseases. The imposing of substantially higher taxes on the sale of alcohol may be good in two ways: Firstly, alcohol is regarded as a habit forming good. Hence it may be assumed that either it disobeys the law of demand (quantity demanded of a good is inversely proportional to change in price, all other factors remaining constant), or it is price inelastic (a percentage change in price causes a smaller percentage change in quantity demanded). Although imposition of taxes will increase the market price of alcohol, the change in demand would be substantially lower. Therefore the government would gain revenue, which it may use for provision of welfare. Secondly, alcohol is a demerit good. It has private benefits as an industry, and it provides utility and satisfaction to consumers. Its positive externalities include reducing coronary diseases, and providing amusement to others in social events. However, its negative externalities include addiction, drunken driving accidents and fights which result in property damage, and provide a burden to society. Its positive externality of preventing coronary diseases arises only from
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Presentation in History of the English Language Essay
When studying the development of English as a language, it can be argued that early modern English is perhaps the most vital point of reference. This period brings with it a richness in material that provided clues as to how the tongue developed phonetically and geographically from its roots as a secondary, regional language in an arena dominated somewhat by the French language, and largely by Latin. Although the amount of available information isn’t enough to paint a sufficient scenario of the linguistic lay of the land at the time, these materials are a great help in discerning the stages of development of the English language. During the latter age of transition from Middle English, the language was mostly spread about in regions. This period is â€Å". . . notoriously [known] as the time when linguistic variation is fully reflected in the written mode . . . †(Nevalainen 13). Due to the heavy presence of French and Latin as the dominant vernaculars, middle English didn’t have enough room to develop as a real language and was limited to regional variants that were shaped by the grammar rules of the more prominent languages at the time. This was, mostly, due to the lack of standardized spelling – it was difficult to come up with a fixed set of grammar rules if the people didn’t have any idea of how to spell the words to be used in each situation. This changed during the sixteenth century. With the shift to early modern English came the streamlined version of the language, thanks to major standardizations in the way words were spelled throughout various regions. But you can’t ever get rid of local variations in language, and the early form of modern English is no different. Most of the available materials from the period concern themselves mostly with grammar reforms and the instruction of the language. The most curious thing about these documents is that despite dealing with a language that was gaining more and more popularity as a serious vernacular, the method of instruction was still largely conducted in Latin. This proved to be difficult in unifying the language since the two tongues were different from each other both grammatically and in inflection. Alexander Gil wrote Logonomia Anglica in 1619 as an attempt to describe the chief variants of English according to region. These are the general, northern, southern, eastern, western and poetic variants. Interestingly, these are the same regional distinctions of middle English, save for the unifying general vernacular that could be similar to what we call standard English. The weakness in Gil’s study is his partiality to the northern style although this feature gives us an outstanding view of how the morphology of early modern English developed. His renditions of spelling and pronouncing some words are indicative of the Germanic roots of English, including the use of /v/ for /f/ (the example given by Nevalainen is vill for fill). Another method of dialectal segregation was recorded by George Puttenham in The Arte of English Poesie (1589). Here, Puttenham gives us a view of how early middle English was segregated according to social standing, and was focused mostly on improving the aesthetic appeal of the language by identifying the speech of the court and the aristocrats as well-sounding and favorable, as opposed to the speech of a craftsman, or that of the thieves (thieves’ cant). Still, the dominant tongue at the time remained to be Latin, and it was in Latin that the English grammar was taught and written. This was to accommodate foreigners who wished to learn English; these people learned English via the structure of Latin, whereas locals who already practiced English learned Latin through the structure of their mother tongue. The effect of Latin in the grammar manuals during the first part of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were apparent – the use of Latin categories, or at least a system derived from Latin, to describe English grammar left out a chunk of what formed the structural core of English, and while the regional dialects flourished, very little attention was given to them and the focus of learning instead went to the General dialect, which would eventually go on to become the basis for the structure of the language today. A lot of the development that transformed the English language occurred at this time. In Pamphlet for Grammar (1586), William Bullokar gives us insight to the transformation of the personal noun ye into modern-day you. He also noted the possible conversion of the suffix –eth ¬ (e. g. loveth) into the more economical –s pronounced with a /z/-like crescendo. The latter, incidentally, is an example of northern dialect curiosities that made it to the general dialect. The continuous development and popularity of English as a language both written and spoken led to the precursors of modern-day newspapers. Newsletters by eminent individuals were handwritten and sent out as manuscript circulations back in 1620 as a means of spreading important information around. A fair example is the Newdigate Newsletters that were addressed to Sir Richard Newdigate of Warwickshire from the Secretary of State’s office. A selection of the newsletters would go as follows: â€Å"The King of Poland desireing a nearer Correspondence with this Crowne then has been formerly and haveing sent Over to desire his Maty to be godfather to his Daughter, his Maty was preparing to send an Envoy ExtraOrdnary thither to stand for him, when the last post brought news ye young Princess was dead. †(21) This selection, in its original form, contains plenty of scripting nuances of the period – such as superscripts for the abbreviations – and resembled, in all intents and purposes, formal letters of the period. In closing, it is worth to note that while the instruction and growth of English as a language during the early modern period isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be, there really is no denying that this period yielded a huge wealth of material to study. Thanks to works like Gil’s Bullokar’s and the missives to sir Newdigate, we can continue to study and piece together the broken pieces of the puzzle of how today’s universal language evolved into what it is. WORKS CITED Nevalainen, Terttu. Introduction to Early Modern English, An. USA: Oxford University Press, 2006. 12-27
Monday, January 6, 2020
The Family Ties in Frankenstein, Metamorphosis and Mother...
Family Ties The idea of using a family based theme in literature has been around for a long time. When an author is writing a novel or even a play, it is very easy to include a strong family dynamic to it. The family is something that nearly every person can relate with in one way or another. This comfort springs forth emotions in the reader or viewer that make the story easier to follow along with. There are many examples of this throughout this course, but this paper will focus on how three of them use the family dynamic to connect with the reader: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children. One does not have to read far into Frankenstein to get a feel for this idea. The†¦show more content†¦Right from the beginning of the first chapter, we are given a history of Victor’s childhood and family life. We learn about how Victor’s father, Alphonse, and his mother, Caroline, became to know e ach other and eventually get married. We also learn about another character, Elizabeth, who eventually ends up being adopted into the family. It becomes clear that Shelley started out with this family information in order to draw the reader into the story. Although the entire story is completely lacking of a strong female character, we are still presented with the mother and the adopted sister, in an attempt to try and help the reader of the story connect with Victor and his childhood (Komisaruk). Later on in the story, Victor Frankenstein creates the monster. The monster eventually asks Victor to create a mate for him. He wants the feeling of a female monster to love and share his life with. Again, this is something that the majority of the readers can relate to. Shelley’s wants the reader to have an emotional connection with the monster. At first glance, one would not imagine that they would have anything in common with a homemade creature, but it is proven to be different upon further reading. Nearly everyone wants the felling of having someone to love and have them love you. The monster is no different, so maybe he is not too different from the reader after all? Overall, Shelley uses the family in an attempt to make the reader feel comfortable
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