Cultural studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Cultural studies - Essay Example Saddam’s death also brought to the fore the long and protracted problem that is the US-Iraq war, now fast losing popularity because of the failure of the Bush administration to locate weapons of mass destruction. These weapons they claimed, are the reason they launched an attack against Saddam a few years ago. But most importantly, the death sentence should provoke reflections on fundamental conceptual differences between peoples. We in the West take human rights for granted; we believe these are cherished ideals to be fought for, as they are the foundation of a robust democracy. On the other hand, in Islamic countries, libertarian values may not be as important. Order and religion is primordial, and individual rights must bend in favor of the stability of the State. We ask, which paradigm is more correct? But perhaps the more crucial question to ask is: who is to say which paradigm is the more correct? In a sense, the quotation â€Å"One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter† does not necessarily have to refer to a particular man. In its broad sense, it refers to divergent paradigms and disparate value systems, and to take it one step further, the tragedy that is wrought when these systems collide. This paper will discuss the conflict between Western perspective and Eastern perspective with regard to the crucial issue of human rights. Indeed, we have been quick to label those who advocate measures that to our minds are repressive, as dictators or terrorists or right wing conservatives, when in fact, they are merely acting in accordance with the cultural norms of their community. The converse of that, of course, is that far too many leaders justify brazen acts of oppression and injustice as a cultural norm and should thus fall outside the scrutiny of the international community. How indeed does one balance these competing interests? The concept

Strategic Business Plan for Bellway plc Assignment

Strategic Business Plan for Bellway plc - Assignment Example (Preece, 2003) A major part of Bellway Plc's plan of action must include following a strategy based on gaining competitive advantage as well as achieving sustainable entrepreneurial growth. Let us first examine competitive advantage to see how and where it will fit in with the overall growth and expansion of the Bellway Plc in securing buyers from the global market like Asia, US and other countries. This brings us to a discussion on the technicalities of the model proposed by Porter. Porter's Five Forces model provides suggested points under each main heading. When taken into consideration individually, each of these gives rise to the development of a broad and sophisticated analysis of competitive position. This may further be used during the creation of a strategy, plans, or even where making investment decisions about a business or organization is concerned. These five competitive forces determine industry profitability and attractiveness apart from being responsible for shaping the prices that firms can charge, the costs they have to bear, and the required investments to engage in industry level competition. We are concerned with the fact that Porter's essentially ahistorical approach cannot provide a full account of either a nation's competitive advantage and corporate strategies or the growth and development of industrial clusters. For this, let us first understand compet itive advantage. This has special relevance for the Bellway Plc, owing to the following reasons: The company needs to launch a full fledged expansion policy in international markets as well as the public sector in UK. It needs to zero in on out station resources which can be procured on easy and regular terms. There needs to a study of the marketing options in order to gain competitive advantage as there are many players involved here. Its competitors include Barrat Development, Taylor Wimpey and Berkley Group Holdings. Competitive advantage is the response of afirm to the pressing need to organize and perform discrete activities. While these needs may not be perpetually spelt out, it is the responsibility of the planners and executers of policies to foresee such situations when catering for growth and development of the firm n various levels. So this implies that the Bellway Plc needs to employ an individual

Play Based Learning and Teaching

Play Based Learning and Teaching This essay debates play-based and formal approaches to teaching and learning for 4-5 year olds (Foundation Stage children) and for Key Stage 1 pupils. The essay will begin by looking at what is expected of Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 level pupils, in terms of the desired learning outcomes, as framed by the Foundation Stage Profile assessments and the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1, and the various assessments this embodies. The essay then moves on to look at the factors that are generally agreed to be important in successful learning, and the various models of ‘play-based’ and ‘formal’ learning as applied to these ages of children, within the context of the Foundation Stage Profile assessments and the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1, and the various assessments this embodies. The essay concludes that whatever learning approach is used, other factors (such as age, gender and socioeconomic) are often more important in determining learning outcome s and that, as such, the methods that are employed in teaching children at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 are relatively unimportant: what is important is that children are taught, that children’s learning process is enabled through an adequate assessment of children’s abilities and preferred style of learning and that the teaching of children is attempted on as individual a basis as possible, given that children of this age all have individual learning needs, based on their specific developmental stage and other, external, factors that influence how well the child learns and how much motivation the child has to learn. In terms of what should be being taught at the Foundation Stage level, the document Curriculum Guidance for Foundation Stage (see DfEE, 2000) sets out six areas of learning that are intended to form the basis of Foundation Stage learning: communication, literacy and language; knowledge and understanding of the world; personal, social and emotional development; mathematical development; physical development and creative development (QCA, 2008). Each of these six areas of learning has a set of related early learning goals that the teacher should aim for completing, in terms of recording the child’s achievement on their Foundation Stage Profile (DfES, 2007). By Key Stage 1, children should have mastered all of the necessary early learning goals and should, through this, be enabled to begin the learning process that will take them through the programme of study as set out in the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 right through to their National Curriculum Assessments (see DCSF, 2 007). Thus, from an early age, children have an extremely structured learning pathway, in terms of the learning outcomes that are desired under the current National Curriculum framework for Key Stage 1 children and due to the Foundation Stage Profiles that need to be filled out for every Foundation Stage level child (DfES, 2007). How this learning pathway is delivered to children, and how these learning outcomes are achieved is, however, not so rigid and teachers are free to deliver these learning outcomes in the way in which they see fit, although in most Government-run places of education in the UK, this is usually performed under the framework of dependence on previous models of success (i.e., the long-established routes for achieving learning outcomes in children). The different modes of learning are usually labelled ‘play-based’ and ‘formal’ but this, however, tends to ignore the fact that there are many modes of learning. As Vosniadou (2001) argues, children learn in many different ways, through active learning, social participation, meaningful activities, by relating new information to prior knowledge, through strategic thinking, by engaging in reflective thinking, by restructuring prior knowledge, through understanding, not simply memorisation, and through practice, amongst other methods, all of which are subject to individual developmental differences. Choosing the ‘correct’ method for learning (i.e., the method most likely to achieve the desired learning outcome) is usually a case of matching the method of learning to the individual child in terms of their abilities, thus fostering an atmosphere of motivated learning. This approach can, however, be difficult in classrooms with children of mixed abilities, leading to situations of frustration occurring in the bright children, who do not feel sufficiently challenged, and in the less able children, who feel they cannot cope with the things that are asked of them and is difficult when there are so many assessments to prepare children for. One of the skills, therefore, that a good Foundation Stage or Key Stage 1 teacher needs to possess is the ability to match a child’s ability to the best learning method for them in order to achieve the most efficient mode of learning for each and every child. This can, however, in practice be very difficult, with teachers at these levels being pressed for time and under pressure to deliver certain learning outcomes, with the development of the new Foundation Stage Profiles (see DfES, 2007 and QCA, 2008), for example, which have basically set a curriculum for Foundation Stage children and through the National C urriculum which begins at Key Stage 1 level. Bransford et al. (1999) argue that the design of learning environments, however that learning is presented to children, needs to be based on what needs to be taught, how this needs to be taught and on how the success of the learning approach is to be assessed. As Bransford et al. (1999) argue, different learning goals require different learning approaches, and different learning environments should be developed according to the degree to which these environments need to be learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred or community-centred. For learning to be successful, three principles generally need to hold: i) that learning environments encourage children to be active, and thus effective, learners; ii) that learning environments encourage collaboration with other students and iii) that learning environments encourage the use of meaningful tasks and authentic materials (Vosniadou, 2001). Without such a learning environment, under whichever teaching regime (i..e, ‘pla y-based’ or ‘formal’), the child will fail to learn and the teacher will have failed that child (Bransford et al., 1999; Vosniadou, 2001). If the teacher decides to use child-initiated (‘play-based’) learning in the classroom, the three principles should hold. Child-initiated play should enable children to use resources in their correct manner within their correct settings and to behave in appropriate ways according to the particular setting and the role-play contexts that are being encouraged, whilst teaching them about responsibilities such as tidying up after themselves and sharing toys and spaces with other children (Vosniadou, 2001). As such, play-based learning can be a valuable learning tool but a tool that needs to be appropriately supported by teaching staff with adequate resources and support and systems in place for adequately monitoring, observing and recording how the children under their care play, and providing suggestions for modifications to their mode of play if their play is not responsible, for example, or is causing problems for other children under the teachers care (i.e., is accompanied by rowdy behaviour) (Vosniadou, 2001). Similarly, formal learning should be conducted on the basis of fostering the three principles, namely the encouragement of active learning, the encouragement of active sharing amongst children and the encouragement of meaningful tasks through authentic learning materials (see Vosniadou, 2001). In terms of the Foundation Stage Profiles and the National Curriculum Assessments for Key Stage 1 level children, it is perhaps seen as the easier option for teachers to use formal approaches to learning rather than play-based approaches, in terms of directing children’s learning in the ways that will fulfil the requirements of the assessments. Studies have shown that this is perhaps not the best way of fostering an atmosphere of motivation for learning, and such heavy slanting towards testing and fulfilling Curriculum ideals can actually actively de-motivate children, especially children so young as Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 levels (Strand, 2002). Strand (2002) concluded that continuous assessments of children does little more than de-motivate those children who are not attaining good scores on such tests, does not encourage motivation to do better on subsequent tests, does not increase overall attainment year-on-year and, as such, does little more than put a massive administrative burden on teachers and schools. Whatever the teaching method employed, many research studies have shown that attainment at Key Stage 1 is more dependent on factors other than school organisation and teaching methods, because background factors (such as gender, age, socioeconomic status) lead to variations in individual possibilities for attainment, in terms of expectations and motivations for learning (Sammons et al., 1997). These findings seem to suggest that the actual teaching method is often unimportant in determining learning outcomes as other factors have far more of a hold over a child’s educational achievements than the particular teaching method that is employed in the classroom the child attends. It has long been known, for example, that parental input in to a child’s education can convert in to higher educational achievement, thought to be due to the fact that this encouragement enables and facilitates confidence, which then translates to higher educational achievement (see, for example, Ho over-Dempsey and Sander, 1995 and Christenson and Sheridan, 2001), not only for ‘able’ children but also for those children with special needs, be these gifted children or children with physical or mental disabilities affecting how they are able to learn (see Will, 1986). This essay has debated ‘play-based’ and ‘formal’ approaches to teaching and learning for 4-5 year olds (Foundation Stage children) and for Key Stage 1 pupils. The essay began by looking at what is expected of Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 level pupils, in terms of the desired learning outcomes, as framed by the Foundation Stage Profile assessments and the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1, and the various assessments this embodies. It was concluded that, from an early age, children have an extremely structured learning pathway but that how this learning is delivered to them is, essentially, up to their teachers. The essay then moved on to look at the factors that are generally agreed to be important in successful learning, defining three principles for successful encouragement of learning and achievement of learning outcomes, namely that i) learning environments should encourage children to be active, and thus effective, learners; ii) that learning environments should encourage collaboration with other students and iii) that learning environments should encourage the use of meaningful tasks and authentic materials (Vosniadou, 2001). If these principles are followed, through whichever approach to teaching (i.e., ‘play-based’ or ‘formal’) and under whatever learning environment, then the child’s learning will be enabled to the maximum. The essay concludes that whatever learning approach is used, other factors (such as age, gender and socioeconomic) are often more important in determining learning outcomes (see Christenson and Sheridan, 2001) and that, as such, the methods that are employed in teaching children at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 are relatively unimportant. At these stages, and indeed throughout the child’s education, what is important is that the child’s own learning process is enabled through an adequate assessment of children’s abilities and preferred style of learning and, through this, that the teaching of children is attempted on as individual a basis as possible, tailoring the specific learning needs of the child to the specific learning outcomes that are desired. This is because children of this age all have individual learning needs, and preferred styles of learning, based on their specific developmental stage and other, external, factors that influence how well the chi ld learns and how much motivation the child has to learn (Bransford et al., 1999). A child’s learning should, ideally, be fitted to the style through which the child learns best (be this ‘play-based’ or ‘formal’), to facilitate the child’s learning: in this day and age, however, targets are more important than this fundamental truth, and so this is often not possible in the context of Government-run UK schools, which are more interested in testing than developing teaching plans suited to children’s individual learning needs. In this context, thus, more than ever before, parents have a shared responsibility to enable their child’s education. References Bransford, J.D. et al. (1999). How people learn: brain. Mind, experience and school. National Academic Press. Christenson, S.L. and Sheridan, S.M. (2001). Schools and families: creating essential connections for learning. DCSF (2007). National curriculum assessments at Key Stage 1 in England, 2007. DfEE (2000). Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. Available from http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/resources/downloads/5585_cg_foundation_stage.pdf [Accessed 29th February 2008]. DfES (2007). Foundation stage eProfile. Available from http://schoolsportal.suffolkcc.gov.uk/schools/FSP/FSPUserGuideV25.pdf [Accessed 29th February 2008]. Hoover-Dempsey, K. and Sander, H.M. (1995). Parental involvement in children’s education: why does it make a difference? Teachers College Record 1995. Hutchin, V. (2003). Observing and assessing for the foundation stage profile. Hodder Murray. Kyriacou, C. (1997). Effective teaching in schools. Nelson Thornes Ltd. Vosniadou, S. (2001). How children learn. International Academy of Education. Educational Practice Series, Number 7. QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) (2008). Foundation stage profile assessment. Available from http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_11958.aspx [Accessed 29th February 2008]. Sammons, P. et al. (1997). Accounting for variations in pupil attainment at the end of Key Stage 1. British Educational Research Journal 23(4), pp.489-511. Strand, S. (2002). Pupil mobility, attainment and progress during Key Stage 1: a study in cautious interpretation. British Educational Research Journal 28(1), pp.63-78. Will, M.C. (1986). Educating children with learning problems: a shared responsibility. Exceptional Children Feb, pp. 411-415. Wood, E. and Atfield, J. (1996). Play, learning and the early childhood. Paul Chapman Publishing.

gatjay F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Lessons from Jay Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby: Lessons from Jay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Novel The Great Gatsby, not many people really knew the man known as Jay Gatsby.   When he was rich and powerful, he was the man you "want to know."   But when he was dead, life went on without him. It seemed as if nobody cared that he was the man behind the parties and all the good times.   He was dead and nobody mourned.   This shows that the opinion of the great Jay Gatsby changed by the end of the story.   He was an icon of not only every man's image of the American Dream, but he was also apart of Americanism and the American Experience.   He was seen as the richest and luckiest man during his time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Unlike any of the other characters in the novel, Jay Gatsby does not change during the course of the story.  Ã‚   He as a person might not have changed, but the way that people perceived him certainly became different.   When he was alive and well, he was the perfect idea of the American Dream.   He had more money than he knew what to do with.   He could afford to have oversized parties every weekend.   Jay Gatsby was the person to know when it came to the Eggs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the beginning, he was only known as Jay Gatz.   He was a poor boy in the army.   He only had his charm to get him by.   This is how he meets Daisy.   She was a very rich girl, from a wealthy family.   They were in love from the beginning.   Unfortunately, Daisy believed that "rich girls don't marry poor boys."   From that moment on, Jay Gatz wanted one thing; to get rich so he could show Daisy that a poor boy could get rich.   This obsession ate up the real man inside.   Jay Gatz became Jay Gatsby.   This new man wanted to become the American Dream at an early age. He did what ever he could to get his money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the more puzzling things about Jay Gatsby is where did he come from and where did he get his money?   Nobody other than Daisy really knows where he came from.   When people were talking at one of Gatsby's first parties, nobody could really say where he was from.

On-Boarding, Socialization, Retention and Down-Sizing Essay

Chern’s has recently hired two new sales associates and have a need for an on-boarding and socialization strategy. Because organizations invest money in hiring new employees, the company has a need to get new hires off to a good start but need help doing so. Because turn-over’s occurs early, organizations can increase their retention rates by helping new hires adjust to their company and jobs. Out-boarding is the process of completing new hires employment paperwork, and providing them with all essential elements for their jobs. Companies also have the need to socialize their employees through planned and unplanned processes, formal and informal activities and experiences through which individuals acquire the attitudes, behavior, and knowledge needed to successfully participate as members in an organization and learn the organizations culture. On-Boarding and Socialization Strategies In order to incorporate Chern’s new hires into its organization several strategic programs, on-boarding and socialization have been recommended. Both of these programs are beneficial for Chern’s and its employees. This recommendation will help Chern’s employee’s transition into the company. The following strategies were recommended for Chern’s new hires; Orientation– will involve employees learning about the company, its culture, values, goals, history, mission statement, business, chain of commend and products. Orientation will encompass the company’s policy and procedures as well as the process of filling out the proper paperwork required to work at Chern’s. Through the orientation process employees will receive the tools they need to perform their duties, such as uniforms if required, keys, identification cards, computers, an e-mail address, business cards, telephone number and a work space (office or cubicle). Orientation will provide employees with their benefits information (booklet), 401 k plan, and IIP and retirement plan. Orientation will also include learning how to use the company’s intranet where they can find information about the company (financial facts), products and number of stores and their locations. The orientation process will allow the new hires to meet their co-workers, supervisors and managers. Through orientation employees can understand their roles, and their expectations. Orientation will accelerate the new hires learning process of Chern’s organization. Socialization—will give the new hires the planned, unplanned, formal, and informal activities and experiences to acquire the behavior, attitude and knowledge needed to participate as a member of the organization and learn the firm’s culture. Socialization programs that are recommended for its new hire’s are: A Staggered Program— This concept allows new hires to encompass information about Chern’s through a staggered approach, learning in increments instead of obtaining information all at once causing an overload. By learning in increments new hires will retain that information. Socialization activities can be performed through steps allowing new hires to interact with co-workers, supervisors, managers, and HR personal who are familiar with the company. Socialization can be in person as well as via online and classroom settings. Individual Programs— gives new hires the flexibility of socializing in a one-on one setting with a mentor or an apprenticeship. By using a mentor or apprenticeship each new hire can learn what is required, their expectations, and job performance rapidly. They experience on the job training through hands on experience and tend to socialize and learn more easily. Formal Socialization Programs—- will give new hires the opportunity to socialize with other entities outside of the company, an example would be a seminar where they can interact with other individuals on a professional level and learn new and innovating techniques, procedures and designed activities and materials. This process increase employees job satisfaction and reduce turnover. This gives new hires a chance to be proactive, ask questions, build relationships with others in the rganization and seek feedback while increasing job satisfaction and commitment. Sequential programs—allow new hires to follows a range of steps such as step 1—learning about the company. Step 2 –learn policy and procedures. Step 3—learn about the job and its requirements and. Step 4 perform well a so on. Each step leads to opportunities and possible promotions. Fixed Socialization Programs gives new hires information about their probationary status (how long) and their p erformance status with their job. Serial Socialization— incorporate new hires with mentors, these mentors guide the new hires through the steps needed to become successful on the job and serve as role models to the new hires. Each new hire will be expected to follow in their mentors footsteps. Investiture Programs—- will give each new hire the chance to reaffirm their confidence in them selves and their job performances. This process allows supervisors, managers and in some cases senior management to evaluate the knowledge, skills, and characteristics of the new hires. Investitures programs also evaluates what new hires can do in terms of helping the company move forward and make money from their new innovating ideals (Phillips & Gully, 2009). By making these recommendation Chern’s will continue to give its customers the service that lies at the heart of the company. Chern’s strategy can empower its new hires to excel in the company, while upholding its reputation for customer service, quality and selection. These recommendations will continue to give Chern’s a core value that is essential to its branding and culture, while contributing to its customers and building a long term relationship through shared value and customer care. Retention Plan A retention plan for Chern’s top performers is to create an environment, work style and management team that promotes, teamwork, cooperation and retention, which leads to successful delivery of products, customer services and values. Ultimately enriching the company, customers and workers. In order to retain its top performers Chern’s can initiate plans to keep top performers happy by offering great rewards that will be hard to resist. Generally the reason people stay with a company is often the same reason they became attractive in the first place. Implementing the following retention plan will keep Chern’s top performers with the company and reduce a need to hire new people. †¢ provide initiatives to establish and maintain the company’s goals. †¢ establish open communication between management, customers and staff. develop a working environment that encourages professional growth. †¢ match employees with challenging assignments that will lead to professional and career growth. †¢ create a climate of respect, fairness and trust with supervisors and customers. †¢ give employees work flexibility so that they can balance their work and life demands. †¢ provide competitive wages and benefits that are fair, introduce fitness and child care centers. †¢ give top performers bonuses when goals are meet, such as monetary, vacations or extra sick days. create a strong corporate culture for employees that they find attractive such as a mission Statement that appeals to customers and workers. This can help retain employees with the same or similar values. †¢ providing employees with support can also help retain employees, by monitoring their work load, managers can determine if they have the necessary tools to perform their jobs. Using these strategies will institute to recruit, retain and develop top performers.

Compare and Contrast the Social Responsibility Theory

COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE AUTHORITARIAN THEORY WITH THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY OF THE PRESS. The press also known as the fourth estate plays a very critical role in educating, informing, entertaining and bridging the gap between the mass community and the executive, judicial and legislative. Hence what is more essential is its stance on policy and choice of theory, which is a system of law like propositions and set of ideas that guide action or predict a consequence.The purpose of this research is to compare, that is to put side by side and to contrast, and that is state the difference between the Authoritarian theory with the social responsibility theory of the press. There is not much of a hint of comparison between the Authoritarian theory and the social responsibility theory, in that the heart beat of the authoritarian theory is designed to protect the status quo and existing social order mainly biased towards the ruling elite and those that are in authority.The authoritaria n press is under state control and heaps more thrust with the public media while the social responsibility of the press thrives on democracy and principles of public service media which seek to cater for minorities, the so called mass community and ordinary people. Unlike the authoritarian theory of the press, the social responsibility avenue directly gets its funding from the public through licensing and this is true mainly for the electronic media.The authoritarian on one hand regards the role of the press to be that of nation building and propaganda and as a mouth piece for the ones in authority, hence the main source of funding is the ruling elite and the government. Both the authoritarian and social responsibility theory seek to communicate to an audience, communication is absolutely essential to effective leadership and press. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message acr oss clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter.This is the true hummer and nail of the authoritarian set by political leaders due to the reality that repetition is the rule of long and deep lasting impressions. This is a propagandist mode of communication to drive home a particular message. The state sets up censorship boards and agents to regulate and monitor the operations of the media in the authoritarian theory, issues of censorship and punishment for diversion from rules that are set by political leaders and authorities are central in this theory.It thrives on censorship and repression of freedom of expression as exemplified by the enactment of the draconian laws such as Public Order and Security Act chapter 11:7 (POSA), the Access To Information and Protection of Privacy Act Chapter 10:27 (AIPPA), The Broadcasting Services Act Chapter 12:06 and the Criminal Law (Codification and reform) Act in the nation of Zimbabwe. Basically th ere is no diversity on coverage, which is catering for all tastes and interests. The social responsibility theory of the press however is not rigid and allows for freedom of expression and thus catering for all tastes and interests.The socially responsible press takes something complicated and makes it simple to understand to layman, compared to the authoritarian which propagandises all information and feeds the masses with what the ruling elite desires to propagate that is government policy. I would like to believe that the authoritarian believes audiences are passive partakers of information whereas the social responsibility adheres to the reality that people are active consumers and do have a choice of what media to consume.This is seen with the geographical universality of provision and reception, thus encouraging competition in programs and freedom to broadcasters, more over there is room for feedback and diversity; while the authoritarian to a lesser degree diversifies to push government policy and agenda. The major criticism against the authoritarian theory is that it does not create a viable atmosphere and environment for free expression and diversity which are essential elements for any democratic and free society; hence the principles for the social responsibility theory may differ from country to country.What is important to understand is that the public service concept is opposed to the authoritarian, propagandist mode. Radio dialogue and other community radio initiatives are using legitimate means of giving people a real taste of media diversity and thus getting them involved; They bring members of the community together, record their discussions and distribute this material on CD’s. When people hear themselves they get excited about media issues. Authoritarian control tended to be exercised in arbitrary, erratic ways.Sometimes, considerable freedom might exist to publicize minority viewpoints and culture as long as authorities don't percei ve a direct threat to their power. Unlike social responsibility theory, authoritarian theory doesn't prioritize cultivation of a homogeneous, national culture. It only requires acquiescence (compliance) to governing elite. This perspective also held that ruthless elites could use media as a means of gaining personal political power. These demagogues could manipulate media to transmit propaganda to fuel hatred and fear among a majority, unite them against minorities, e. g. s Hitler used the media to arouse hatred against the Jews. The Social Responsibility Theory of the Press, emphasize the need for an independent press that scrutinizes other social institutions and provides objective, accurate news reports. The most innovative feature of Social Responsibility theory was its call for media to be responsible for fostering productive and creative â€Å"Great Communities†. It said that media should do this by prioritizing cultural pluralism- by becoming the voice of all the peopl e- not just elite groups or groups that had dominated national, regional or local culture in the past.Dennis McQuail in 1987 summarized the basic principles of social responsibility theory as the following: 1. Media should accept and fulfil certain obligations to society. 2. These obligations are mainly to be met by setting high or professional standards of in formativeness, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance. 3. in accepting and applying these obligations, media should be self-regulating within the framework of law and established institutions. 4. the media should avoid whatever might lead to crime, violence or civil disorder or give offense to minority groups. . the media as a whole should be pluralist and reflect the diversity of their society, giving access to various points of view and to rights of reply. 6. Society and the public have a right to expect high standards of performance and intervention can be justified to secure the public good. 7. Journalists and media prof essionals should be accountable to society as well as to employers and the market. Social Responsibility theory has proved quite durable. Most journalists take seriously the central values of social Responsibility theory such as luralism and cultural diversity; However the state of affairs is not so with the authoritarian theory of the press. Unlike the Authoritarian theory, the social responsibility theory of the press takes hid and pays cognisance to people’s right to true information- the right of people to express themselves freely through the media of communication and the journalistic dedication to objective reality; – this aims to provide public with adequate material to facilitate the formation of an accurate and comprehensive picture of the world.The journalist’s social responsibility is also of the essence, this emphasizes the fact that journalistic information is social good not just a commodity. When it comes to the Journalist’s professional i ntegrity; dealing especially with rights not to work against personal conviction and other matters of personal ethics. The social responsibility theory of the press has respect for such, while the Authoritarian theory has no regard for such values and ethics. Ethics is a practise of moral behaviour by individuals, governments and social institutions.Ethics is more to do with principles concerning the rights and wrong of conduct, principles which have some reason theoretical basis which therefore apply objectively and impartially. Besley & Chadwich 1992 The Social responsibility theory of the press in contrast to the Authoritarian theory has respect for, Public access and participation, this includes the right of rectification and reply, respect for privacy and Human Dignity, respect for the Public interest.This relates to respect for the national community, in democratic institutions and public morals, respect of Universal Values and diversity of cultures. This calls for respect for human rights, social progress, national liberation, peace, democracy, elimination of War and other great evils confronting humanity. This calls for abstention from justifying aggression, arms proliferation, violence, hatred, discrimination, promotion of a New World information and communication order. This is directed especially at the need for decolonization and democratization of information and communication.After all said and done my conviction is that the Authoritarian theory in contrast with Social Responsibility theory does not encourage media practitioners to see themselves as front-line participants in the battle to preserve democracy in a world drifting relentlessly toward tyranny. This gives rise and room to fear amongst media operators and infringes on the right of freedom of expression, the list of people who have been arrested for exercising their right to freedom of expression is long.In December 2008, for example, Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Proje ct, was abducted and tortured. Members of Woman of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) are harassed, intimidated, assaulted and arrested on a regular basis. Okay Machisa, the Executive Director of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZIMRIGHTS) was arrested in March 2010 for organising reflections – an exhibition of pictures of victims of the 2008 political violence. Geoff Nyarota was arrested for exposing some foul play at the Mazda industry formerly Ford motors.