Analyzing The Moral Panic Of Media Media Essay

Analyzing The Moral Panic Of Media Media Essay Thompson(1998) describes 5 key elements in a moral panic. It is something or someone who is defined as a threat to values and interests; the threat is depicted in an easily recognisable form by the media, with use of aspects such as Exaggeration, distortion, prediction and symbolisation. This then causes a rapid build up of public concern. Newspaper coverage and news broadcasts are commonly known to exaggerate issues in society which then encourage the public to react timorous to the concerns. Lastly, moral panics are continuously used to result in; a response from the authorities or opinion-makers. Thus, this included changes made evident from law enforcement, the councils and general charity organisations. The final element is that panic recedes or results in social changes. There are many issues that are often subject to moral panics such as Youth Crime/Gun Crime, Binge Drinking, child abuse, sex and violent behaviour, drug abuse, paedophilia, the law and asylum seekers and immig ration policy. A moral panic can be defined in several ways, one definition is a kind of short-hand for public hysteria, by definition irrational, and is almost always held to be indicative of someone elses behaviour rather than our own (Critcher, 2003). The media directs its judgments and perspectives at members of society that are classed as unacceptable or deviant. In his book Moral Panics and the Media, Chas Critcher explains that Moral panics involve a  ¿Ã‚ ½heightened level of concern over the behaviour of a certain group or category and the consequences that the behaviour presumably cause for the rest of society(Critcher,2003,pg 23). A moral panic must be manifested in concrete ways in other words there must be a public commentary in the form of media; such as newspaper coverage and news broadcasts. In relation to Thompsons description the media then proposes legislation and social movement activity. The media is acting as a voice for the public; some may argue that it offe rs biased/distorted views of issues which therefore cause a moral panic. Conversely, it can also be argued that the media plays a crucial role in establishing a moral panic as a way of creating awareness to the public; thus without media involvement this is not possible. A key subject that is continuously making heavy appearances in tabloid newspapers and news broadcasts daily; is Gun/Knife crime which is commonly affiliated with youth culture/youth gangs. To understand how Thompsons, Critchers and other theorists concept of moral panic works, analysis of media coverage is critical. The media has developed and distorted representations of British youth for a long time, and certain coverage in British cinema, documentaries, press coverage and broadcasting have made it evident that the representation of  ¿Ã‚ ½youth ¿Ã‚ ½ is seen as a threat to many. However the coverage differentiates from different forms of media. The coverage of moral panics in broadcasting differs to press; tel evision news broadcasts, are described as unbiased and therefore have a minor affect on moral panics as the impact might have not been on such a large scale. However in major moral panics they tend to have the same large amount of coverage on daily.

Communication and Leadership in the Workplace Research Paper

Communication and Leadership in the Workplace - Research Paper Example The communication process involves interchanging messages between the source and the receiver. The source is the person that sends the information, while the receiver is the person that listens to other person talking. Maintaining good communication between the employees of a company is important because doing so can help a firm improve its productivity. Managers that maintain good communication are able to gain the trust of the employees. For communication to be effective in the workplace it must follow the proper communication channels. The communication channels are the pathways used to transmit information. Some examples of communication channels are emails, telephone, cellular phones, written letters, memos, and face to face meetings. A good mechanism that often enhances the communication process is feedback. Feedback is a reaction or response to something another person has done or said (Dictionary, 2012). A popular method of feedback that is often used in the corporate world i s 360-degree feedback. This method forces different people including peers and supervisors to evaluate the performance of an employee. Communication can be either verbal or non-verbal. Talking to another person is a form of verbal communication. Three examples of non-verbal communication are body gestures, facial expressions, and eye contact. Communication must be effective to ensure that everyone understands the message. Speaking in a concise matter helps improve the communication process. A skill that enhances communication is active listening. Five key elements of active listening are: Pay attention Show that you are listening Provide feedback Defer judgment Respond appropriately (Mindtools, 2012). Improving the communication between co-workers can help reduce misunderstandings. Good communication can also help prevent conflicts in the workplace. There are forces that inhibit communication such as cultural differences, lack of feedback, and noise. Ethnocentrism occurs when one cu lture believe their values are superior to another culture. A lack of feedback is counterproductive because the person that does not receive feedback cannot take any corrective action to improve his behavior. Noise hurts the communication process because it interferes with the ability of people to listen to the message being sent. Companies must learn about new communication technologies. New communication tools such as Skype allow workers to have video chats and conferences. Face to face dialog is one of the most effective communication methods (Stryker & Santoro, 2012). Organizations need leadership in order to guide the efforts of the company. The managers of the company are the employees that are supposed to exert leadership, but leadership can come from any employee in a firm. When leadership comes from an employee that is not in a managerial position that form of leadership is called informal leadership. Some of the top companies that utilize leadership to their advantage are IBM, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, Aditya Birla, and Colgate-Palmolive (Cnn, 2012). A company that has a reputation for having good leaders is better able to attract young talent into the firm. Good leadership in an organization helps a firm increase the motivation of its employees. Employees that are motivated perform better and have greater job satisfaction.  Ã‚  

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 68

History - Essay Example Discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus also made people question existing view of geography by Ptolemy (the world is flat). These discoveries spawned a scientific revolution as it spurred new questions to be asked. There was much resistance to new discoveries because the people were skeptical of these discoveries and would rather stick with their old beliefs. But perhaps more importantly, resistance came from the Catholic Church because ideas from the scientific revolution challenged their hold on the masses by using faith and superstition. In other words, scientific discoveries threatened the social, economic, and political order based on religion, as Christianity was often the central coherent ideology in many European societies. The people would naturally tend to question the authority of the Church because there were now being offered scientific explanations based on reason and logic for many natural phenomena like lightning (just a form of electricity) and not an act of God. The scientific studies by Copernicus in 1543 theorized the Sun to be the center of the solar system and not the Earth as had previously been taught. This striking departure from past beliefs made people realize not to accept dogma as truth anymore; science started to challenge the many ideas of religion. The Enlightenment is also called as the Age of Reason and it was influenced by the Scientific Revolution in the sense every observable natural phenomena has to have an underlying scientific, logical explanation for it. The Industrial Revolution was similar to the Scientific Revolution because it altered the way people think and perceive the natural world. In other words, it was a big paradigm shift for them and society in general. In particular, capitalism destroyed the old feudal order in which the wealth of a person was derived from ownership of vast tracts of land with many people or serfs serving in bondage as peons. The old pattern or business model (paradigm) of