In November of 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment reported the hackers attack and leaking the private information regarding studio stars, private conversation, and unreleased films. In spite of the fact that the whole film The Interview produced by Sony Pictures was not released by hackers, the incident was characterized as a cyber crime.
It was associated with the planned release of The Interview scheduled on December 24, 2014 (Donnelly par. 2). The problem is in the films content because the film presents a story of the hypothetical killing of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The reaction of the North Korean authorities to the film production was negative.
Therefore, the further hackers threats to organize terrorist attacks in cinemas where The Interview would be released were associated with the activities of the North Korean authorities ( The Interview par. 3). From this point, it is important to discuss the cases of The Interview and Sony Pictures hackers attacks in the context of the U.S. media law and compare the main aspects of the U.S. laws with the media law in the UAE to explain the U.S. authorities and publics reactions to these incidents.
Sony Pictures Response to Hackers Attacks and The Interview Case
The hackers attacks on Sony Pictures led to significant financial losses for the company because of disrupting the plans regarding the release of several films. Focusing on the threats of terrorist attacks associated with releasing The Interview, Sony Pictures faced additional financial problems because the leading cinema chains in the USA rejected releasing the film. However, in spite of changing the initial plans regarding the film release, Sony Pictures chose to sell the film online and demonstrate it in small cinemas.
As a result, the strategy of the company resulted in the fact that The Interview became the leading Sony Pictures film sold online. The Internet promotion of the film and high sales became possible only with the focus on Barack Obamas support in discussing the case of The Interview (Ruche par. 2).
Although there was no full financial recovery for the studio, the politicians and the public demonstrated the focus on the U.S. laws guaranteeing the freedom of expression in the media, protection from cyber invasions, and violation of copyright laws. In this context, President Obama proposed to revise the existing laws in the area of media to prevent further possible cyber attacks.
The other important issue to discuss is the invasion of privacy. As a result of the situation that Sony Pictures private documentation was leaked, many studio employees and actors became the victims of the invasion of privacy. The financial details of the work of Sony Pictures with such stars as Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence became publicly available (Donnelly par. 3).
Although such cases are controlled according to the privacy protection acts in the USA and Sony Pictures prohibited publishing any private information regarding the companys financial, strategic, and human resources data, the media actively published the data received from the cyber criminals, violating the legal norms in this case.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was referred to as the main source of legal norms in relation to the case. From this perspective, the existing U.S. media law is rather ineffective to protect citizens from the invasion of privacy.
The U.S. Governments Reaction to The Interview
Barack Obama did not support the decision of Sony Pictures to change the release plans and sell the film online because such actions were considered as the concession to cyber criminals. Such claims were also supported by other authorities who stated that the film is a comedy, its content is satiric in its nature, and it does not intend to offend the views of the North Korean citizens ( The Interview par. 4).
In this context, the main reference is to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and to the laws regulated the freedom of expression in the sphere of media coverage. From this perspective, the film was allowed and supported by the U.S. government because the existing media laws cannot be discussed as restrictive regarding the content of films produced by studios (Overbeck, Belmas, and Shepard 129). In this case, the censorship is rather limited in the United States, and it is related mainly to the cases of privacy invasion.
The U.S. Media Laws
The media industry in the United States develops basing on the legal regulations formulated as a result of reading certain cases in courts. The main acts that regulate the work with the information are the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the U.S. Video Privacy Protection Act. Furthermore, the media activities are also protected with references to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
According to the First Amendment, the censorship in the USA is prohibited, but the media companies are inclined to follow the self-censorship principles. These laws and regulations are directed to protect journalists and media representatives from violating the speech rights and citizens from violating their privacy (Overbeck, Belmas, and Shepard 134). In most cases, the media laws are inclined not to limit publishers, journalists, and authors in their rights to express freely, but to protect citizens from being abused by the published data.
Therefore, the production of The Interview as the film provoking the instability in foreign relations with North Korea could not be prohibited according to the First Amendment and the U.S. acts, but the actions to prevent the cyber crimes in relation to Sony Pictures were guaranteed.
The Comparison of the Media Laws in the USA and the United Arab Emirates
If the U.S. laws regulating the media can be discussed as based on the idea of freedom of speech and expression, the media laws in the UAE can be viewed as rather strict. Today, the media in the UAE is regulated with references to the copyright law, the publishing law, the telecommunications act, and the cyber-crime law.
In addition, it is typical for the UAE media to address certain criteria regarding the published and broadcasted content. In spite of the fact that the freedom of expression is guaranteed in the UAE, the laws prohibit promoting the information that is not correlated with the publics cultural expectations (Duffy Arab Media Regulations 4). According to these regulations, journalists in the UAE should focus on the content of their messages in order to avoid violating the privacy or religious and cultural visions.
Comparing the legal principles in the UAE with those ones applied to the media industry in the United States, it is important to identify two main differences in these countries legal approaches. First, the U.S. laws prohibit any type of censorship except self-censorship. Focusing on the fact that the media content in the UAE should be checked according to certain criteria, it is possible to state that there is censorship of a certain type in the country.
Second, the U.S. media representatives operate the First Amendment while speaking about the freedom of expression. In the UAE, the freedom of expression is rather limited with certain legal and ethical norms (Duffy Revised Media Law par. 6). From this point, the situation of producing the film with the content similar to The Interview is more typical for the U.S. environment than for the Emirati one.
However, it is important to state that both countries strictly regulate the cases of cyber crimes and invasion of privacy. Therefore, the governments of both countries work to develop more laws in order to control the sphere of media and electronic communication. In this context, the United States and the United Arab Emirates have equal chances to improve the media legislation base and to address frequent cases of hackers attacks and cyber crimes.
Conclusion
The case associated with releasing The Interview in the North America provoked political debates, social discussions, and the legal discourse related to the necessity of improving media laws currently followed in the United States. Hackers attacks at Sony Pictures stimulated the active discussion of the new cyber crime laws. The leaks of the private information made the authorities speak about the necessity of improving the privacy regulations.
In addition, the international reaction to the film provoked discussing the aspects of the freedom of expression in the United States. The comparison of the U.S. legal base with the media laws in the UAE indicates the areas for revisions. Referring to all these data, it is possible to state that the existing media laws and regulations should be improved in order to prevent the further cyber crimes and international, as well as intercultural, controversies.
Duffy, Matt. Arab Media Regulations: Identifying Restraints on Freedom of the Press in the Laws of Six Arabian Peninsula Countries. Berkeley Journal of Middle East and Islamic Law 6.2 (2014): 1-15. Print.
Progress in technology development has a significant impact on nearly every sphere of life. During recent decades, technology came to serve the task of heritage preservation through the process of digital archiving. It is applicable to both digitalized and born-digital content (Van Malsen 71). Digitalization of audiovisual collections for preservation has certain benefits compared to physical storage. Thus, digitalized content is more available, which also expands the group of users (Bressan 12).
Also, original material can be fragile or heavy, and digitalized copies help to protect the original from possible harm in case of handling. Moreover, digitalization allows sharing of audiovisual resources among institutions and empowers the creation of digital collections (Bressan 12).
Different institutions apply a diversity of tools and strategies to preserve audiovisual materials. For example, the National Archives of Australia, which collects and preserves government records, and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia both integrate Mediaflex as a tool for managing and preserving their assets ( National Archives of Australia ). This paper analyses the case of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) and its use of Mediaflex, a system that empowers the management of archived collections, both analog and digital.
Background
NFSA is a living archive that possesses a collection of more than 2.3 million audiovisual resources ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). These resources comprise all kinds of film, television, radio, and recorded sound formats and the related content such as photographs, scripts, lobby cards, costumes and memorabilia ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). Although the heritage of audio and video content is just more than one century old, it prevails in the contemporary media environment. Thus, audiovisual archives, in addition to collection and storage, accomplish educational, cultural, and historical functions providing access to a variety of digital resources.
Objective
Contemporary audiovisual archives are usually concentrated on the preservation of resources for the future. This process is easier with present-day content, which is already digital. It should be mentioned that archives are significant for the contemporary digital culture because they preserve their products (Amenta 15). However, digitalization is applied to preserve fragile samples created with the use of analog technology.
For example, tape-recorded audio files are digitalized and thus make available using digital delivery ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). At present, the objective of NFSA is to change the legacy collection management system that has been functioning for decades in favor of a more contemporary system Mediaflex. It is explained by the fact that the first system is more oriented towards analog content, while the second one has the potential to manage both digital and analog materials effectively. This shift to a new system was expected to simplify the collection and preservation of audiovisual materials as well as their distribution.
Moreover, it allows collecting diverse types of audiovisual materials and make them available to the audience. Therefore, the major goal the NFSA hoped to achieve was to apply a system that would allow managing the growing digital collection as well as meet the increasing demand for broader access to the audiovisual collection through digital tools.
Strategy
With the collection exceeding two million objects, the NFSA needed an effective system to manage its assets. The materials stored by the NFSA include a diversity of works such as commercial release documentaries, feature films, and sound recordings; websites relevant to the audiovisual industry; newsreels and broadcasts; television and radio productions of all genres including advertisements and many others ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). All of the mentioned objects of the audiovisual industry context are of high cultural or historical value and interest.
The shift to a new system that implied digitalization was a continuous process. As the first part of the NSFA plan, the institution started collecting born-digital materials which had no analog copies. Another aspect of this stage was the initiation of the digitalization process of the NFSAs own assets with the use of specially developed digitalization programs. This part of the plan allowed preserving the objects stored on unstable and fragile media such as tape. In the process of collection of objects in digital formats, the system applied by NFSA proved to be inefficient and unable to cope with the increasing digital collection ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ).
Thus, the second stage of the plan included the introduction of alternative systems able to manage the existing digital assets. Therefore, such systems as Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Media Asset Management (MAM) were considered by NFSA, and they proved to have the necessary capabilities for managing digital resources ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). Still, the plan also included the collection of analog resources simultaneously with their digitalization.
It allowed creating unique databases and improving the availability of collections to anyone who is interested in audiovisual heritage. On the whole, the plan includes a gradual decrease in collecting analog items, digitalization of both existing and new analog materials, and rapid acquisition of digital audiovisual assets. However, despite the focus on digitalization, the NFSA paid much attention to preserving and taking care of the analog materials to ensure that in case their digital copies are lost, there would be an opportunity to make another copy.
Execution
The execution of the plan presupposed three major options. Thus, the NFSA intended to create a new system from scratch which would allow managing both analog and digital resources using the tools of one system. Secondly, the NFSA preserved the functioning system that it had been using for decades to manage analog assets. Simultaneously, the institution introduced a DAM/MAM system, which empowered the management of digital objects with their following integration of both systems to make them equally functional and effective. Finally, the NFSA came to reorganizing a DAM/MAM system to manage analog as well as digital items.
Speaking in more detail, the institution had a thoughtful approach to resolving the issue of managing both analog and digital assets. The analysis of the problem proved that building an absolutely new system could be too expensive and time-consuming.
Therefore, the NFSA concentrated on the other two points of the implementation plan. The study of systems available in the market led to a conclusion that some DAM/MAM products were affordable and could satisfy the need to manage both analog and digital objects ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). Thus, the institution made a decision to acquire a DAM/MAM system for managing their archive.
Aftermarket testing, the use of MAM system for digital assets, and preservation of the existing system for analog ones with their further integration proved to be too complicated. Therefore, the only possible option for the NFSA was to acquire a new system for both types of audiovisual items. A tender was opened and, after some time, its winner got an opportunity to replace the system at the NFSA. TransMedia Dynamics (TMD), the company that won the tender, suggested applying one of the MAM products, Mediaflex.
Realizing the lack of the resources to digitize all-analog items of the NFSA and being aware of the necessity to preserve analog items and keep them available any time, TMD suggested developing a new design of Mediaflex for the NFSA to make it applicable for both digital and analog assets ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). The NFSA accepted this approach and received an effective system to collect, preserve, and handle both types of audiovisual items. The new system was suitable for managing digital items and also addressed the necessity to handle analog items, which was frequently ignored in other systems. A peculiarity of Mediaflex was its employment of both physical and intellectual description of an item.
The system applies a multi-layer approach, which resembled the one used in the NFSA for analog resources. Moreover, this feature resulted in greater flexibility of Mediaflex, which was useful for the institution due to a diversity of items that needed preservation. It was particularly important for audiovisual content that had more than one version and allowed more rational storage.
Results
The implementation of Mediaflex as a system to manage archive items at the NFSA proved to be a successful solution, which led to the following results. First of all, the major outcome of the case is the acquisition of an effective system to collect, store, and manage archive audiovisual items by the NSFA. The fact that Mediaflex was adjusted to meet the needs of the NFSA made it suitable for work with all the diversity of items that were supposed to be archived ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ).
However, the new system was beneficial not only for the NFSA but for the country as a whole. Being a national heritage collecting institution, it acquires diverse information and has to process it. Therefore, a multi-functional system was a great contribution to the process of collecting and preserving all the significant items and allowed saving both material and human resources. Another result of Mediaflex implementation was the simplification of the loan procedure.
Thus, it became easier to provide the necessary materials to external clients due to more effective management of the loan process. In addition, the new system empowered the search engine provided by the NFSA. It is called Search the Collection and is similar to Google allowing the public to find the necessary materials ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). Thus, Mediaflex simplified the import of data about collections to the search system and made the search results more relevant.
The major positive outcome of Mediaflex implementation was the digitization of workflows. Mediaflex supports DIVArchive, a hierarchical storage management product, which was integrated into the system used by the NFSA before ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). The benefit of Mediaflex in this aspect is that it is applicable to all phases of the digital preservation process. These phases include extraction of the analog item from its permanent storage location, the creation of the preservation copy, and its placement in the Digital Repository. Finally, Mediaflex was adapted to provide support for mass migration methodologies ( National Film and Sound Archive of Australia ). It allowed the mass transformation of analog format items such as audio or videotapes to digital files.
Conclusion
On the whole, the issue of digital archiving is a complex one and implies well-developed technologies. The variety of tools and instruments suitable for digitalizing audiovisual items allow archiving institutions to choose those that correspond to their primary goals. The major challenge faced by the contemporary achieves the necessity to store a continuously increasing volume of assets as well as organize digitalization of the existing items to preserve them and make them available for broad audiences.
The case of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia is an example of a careful approach to the selection of a system able to meet the needs of the archive. Their experience proves that contemporary technology provides opportunities able to manage both analog and digital resources. Moreover, an effective system simplifies digitalizing processes as well as enhances access to the stored materials.
It is particularly important for such organizations as the NFSA because apart from its initial function to collect and preserve audiovisual materials significant for the country, they fulfill educational and cultural functions. Thus, archives need management systems that support all of those functions. The choice of the NFSA resulted in many benefits for the institution because it empowered the process of digitalization of analog items as well as organized collecting and preservation of digital assets. Therefore, the experience of the NFSA is applicable for other institutions fulfilling similar functions in archiving and preserving audiovisual items.
Works Cited
Amenta, Laura. Building a Future from the Past: The Sustainability of Digital Archiving Processes in Audio-Visual Cultural Heritage Organizations. Master Thesis, Utrecht University, 2014. UU, 2014.
Bressan, Federica. The Preservation of Sound Archives: A Computer Science Based Approach to Quality Control. Dissertation, University of Verona, 2013. UOV, 2013.
National Archives of Australia Audiovisual Asset Management and Preservation System. TransMedia Dynamics, n.d.. Web.
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Case Study. TransMedia Dynamics, n.d. Web.
Van Malsen, Kara. Planning beyond Digitalization: Digital Preservation of Audiovisual Collections. Web.
Spreadsheet: Monthly Cash Budget from January to June
Charts
Purchases, total costs (expenditure) and total revenue (receipts)
Closing cash January to June
Why and how WASS Film and Media should look for new ways to use information systems for competitive advantage
WASS Film and Media should look for new ways to use information system to gain competitive advantage over other similar businesses. The new ways to use information system will allow the WASS Film and Media to use innovation technologies. According to Olson (1982), use of new technology will ensure that things in the shop are done in a better, faster, and more efficient way (p.81). Change to the new ways of using information will be necessary to both the shop and employees. The change will relive employees from constraints and pressures.
On how to implement the new ways in WASS Film and Media firm, the management should be ready to follow all business processes involved with the new technology innovation. Great changes to both the employees and the processes used may occur. New technologies may require that new resources and the business to be ready to either increase resources or reduce them (Parsons 1984, p. 47). It is important for the business to asses the risks involved in new technologies and new ways of using information system for such will prepare managers and the owners of WASS Film and Media to face and deal with any risk in the best way possible. Assessing the risk will also allow them to predict the outcomes of new technology.
For better handling of the new systems and technologies, the firm should make use a group of people in the special units. The group will be able to scan the environment and sense any dangers associated with the new technologies. It will also be able to asses the business and advice WASS Film and Media firm on the best technologies to use for development within the firm. The special unit team lists the technologies down and the best technology that matches and fits with the challenges of the business wins. Implementation of the best technology then takes place and by that time, the team is able to asses the new technology in the way it works.
The risks involved
It is risky for the shop to look for new ways, which involves the emerging technologies because of the disadvantages that are associated with new modern technologies. Most of the new technologies are unstable compared to the traditional technologies. Moreover, it is expensive for the company to upgrade new technologies, and it could have a negative financial effect on the company. The advantages associated with use of innovative information could be short-lived for the company because technologies can change at any time. This includes competitive advantage over other companies. Therefore, it is not advisable for all companies and businesses to use innovative systems because the advantages may only last for a short time. WASS Film and Media can make use of the new technology in their business if they find themselves in a competitive environment (Golda, & Philippi 2007, p.101). Using of the new technology in a highly competitive environment will help the business to stay ahead of competitors. Although the risk involved in the use of new information systems is high, the advantages and the rewards associated with the same are numerous and thus worthy the risk.
Reference List
Golda, J., & Philippi, C., 2007. Managing New Technology Risk in the Supply Chain. Intel Technology Journal, 11(2), pp. 100-102.
Olson, H., 1982. New Information Technology and Organizational Culture. MIS Quarterly, 6(4), pp. 80-83.
Parsons, G., 1984, Information technology: a new competitive weapon. McKinsey Quarterly, 2(1), pp. 46-49.
Nowadays, it became a commonplace practice among conservative politicians to suggest that the key to Americas greatness is the citizens endowment with the sense of a commercial industriousness. Nevertheless, even though that there is a certain rationale to this suggestion, there are also a number of good reasons to believe that it is due to the American citizens earlier mentioned psychological trait that their country periodically finds itself standing on the threshold of an economic collapse.
The analysis of what caused the outbreak of the Great Depression, during the course of the thirties, and what triggered the financial crisis of 2008-2009, confirms the validity of this statement. Apparently, contrary to what the proponents of neo-liberalism strive to make us to believe, peoples preoccupation with trying to generate a commercial profit, as the main point of their lives, cannot be regarded as such that represents the value of a thing in itself.
This is because the notion of peoples commercial industriousness is synonymous to the notion of a blind moneymaking greed, which in turn is synonymous with the notion of immorality. In my paper, I will explore the legitimacy of this suggestion at length, in regards to what account for the morally dubious ethics of many characters in the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross by James Foley and in the Jane Smileys 2003 novel Good Faith.
As of today, the majority of progressive political scientists in America never ceases pointing out to the fact that the biggest problem, faced by the American society, is racism. However, it is not racism, which accounts for the countrys little dirty secret, but rather classism. That is, the measure of just about every citizens worthiness is being accessed in regards to the sum of money that she or he happened to have in the bank regardless of the actual source of this money.
There is a memorable scene in Glengarry Glen Ross, where the character of Blake (Alec Baldwin) delivers a speech in front of real-estate agents, while insisting that it is namely the volume of ones monetary assets that reflects the concerned individuals true worth, and that there simply cannot be a good enough excuse for these agents to justify their professional unsuccessfulness: I made $970,000 last year.
How much you make? You see pal, thats who I am, and youre nothing. Nice guy? I dont give a shit. Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids. You want to work here close! (00.11.56). Apparently, Blake firmly believed that, in the field of a real-estate business, there could only be two categories of professionals winners and losers. Everything else is irrelevant.
It is needless to mention, of course, that the Blakes suggestion, in this respect, implies that contrary to the assumption that the American economys functioning has very little to do with the principles of a wild capitalism, this is far from being the actual case.
Just as it used to be the situation even as far back, as a hundred years ago, the extent of just about every American entrepreneurs successfulness reflects the measure of his or her emotional comfortableness with the law of jungle, based upon the Darwinian principle of the survival of the fittest.
However; whereas, in the animal kingdom the practical manifestations of this principle being at work are concerned with the process of carnivorous predators catching and eating herbivores, in human societies they are concerned with the process of cynically minded individuals taking away money from those who happened to be little too trustworthy.
This provides us with an insight into the discursive significance of Blakes commandment: They are (buyers) sitting out there, waiting to give you their money. Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it? (00.12.27). Being deprived of any illusions, as to the fact that it is possible for people to conduct an ethical business, this character knew perfectly well that it is specifically the entrepreneurs willingness to deceive their business-partners, which creates objective preconditions for them to be able to succeed in commerce.
As Geva noted: Business is expected to do whatever is necessary in order to succeed, and is not expected to be concerned with abstract morality. Business is a one-dimensional, purely profit-seeking enterprise. Profit is not just prioritized; it is elevated to the exclusion of all other interests (585).
It will not be much of an exaggeration, on our part, to suggest that in the world of a corporate business, the main ethical rule is if you have not been caught doing anything illegal, you are considered an upstanding citizen, even if everybody knows that you are in fact a con-master.
The soundness of this statement can be well illustrated in relation to the psychological inclinations of one of the Smiley novels main characters a land-developer Marcus Burns. The first thing we learn about him is that he used to work for the IRS. The second thing that we learn is that Burns used to take pride in the fact that, while working for the IRS, he figured out how to steal money without facing the consequences: The tax code is transforming before your very eyes, and everyone is perfectly happy to see it happen&
Accountants are in the business of making sure the books balance. Thats all. You could steal a company blind, but if the books balanced, the accountant would have done his job (Smiley 101). What is especially ironic about this character is that, as it appears from the novel, Burns never ceased considering himself a thoroughly moral individual.
In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that, just as it happened to be the case with many of the novels characters, involved in real-estate trading, Burns was raised in the family of Protestant Bible-thumpers. As such, he was naturally inclined to consider speculative moneymaking to be the noblest pursuit of all according to the Protestant doctrine, ones financial well-being is the foremost proof that he or she is in favor with law-imposing (rather than with mercy-granting) God.
As opposed to what it is being the case with Catholics, Protestants consider the Old Testament being just as valid as the New One. Yet, the foremost idea that it is being promoted throughout the course of the Old Testaments entirety, is that there are Gods chosen people, on the one hand, and infidels, on the other, and that it is fully permissible for chosen people to deceive the latter, when it comes to making money.
Partially, this explains why Burns used to make a point in maintaining the observable respectability of its physical appearance: He (Marcus Burns) was very neat, almost formal. Even though the weather was hot, he was wearing a light blue shirt, a navy blue tie, and a sport coat.
The shirt collar had a starchy sheen and lay smoothly against his neck. The cuffs emerged a half inch from the sleeve of his jacket (58). Apparently, this was nothing but the extrapolation of Burns deep-seated irrational belief in his own infallibility, as someone who enjoyed the privilege of being able to steal and extort money from others, without sustaining any harm to its reputation, as a result
The full soundness of suggestion can also be shown, in regards to a Burns genuine conviction that is indeed possible to enjoy a nice living, while paying for all the expenses with essentially non-existing money: The simplest legal way that takes no cheating and no creative bookkeeping and passes every audit& You live on borrowed money. You sell the property piece by piece to pay the interest and you keep borrowing more (153).
Formally speaking, this Burns idea does make a certain sense. After all, why does one need to be required to apply an effort into producing any factual products and services, when he or she can invest into some real-estate property, wait for a year or two, and to resell it for twice as much hence, having made money out of the thin air?
Burns outlined the philosophy behind this line of reasoning rather frankly: More people mean scarcer resources, scarcer resources mean inflation, and inflation means property and interest-bearing capital have a higher value and work has a lower value. Its as simple as that (149). Yet, this way of thinking is clearly unethical.
After all, it is a namely peoples willingness to indulge in financial speculations in the real-estate market that create objective prerequisites for the outbreaks of financial crises, such as the one of 2008-2009.
Throughout the course of the decade, prior to the outbreak of this crisis, the majority of less than upstanding Americans rushed into applying for easy down-payment loans. Yet, even though these people were clearly incapable of sticking to the terms of the contract, banks were still qualifying them for credits just as real-estate agents were willing to go as far as to overlook the mental inadequacy of many of potential house-buyers.
There is another memorable scene in Glengarry Glen Ross, where after having bragged about selling the $82.000 real-estate unit, Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon) is being told by John Williamson (Kevin Spacey) that the buyers were in fact mentally ill: Theyre (buyers) nuts. They used to call in every week& Theyre nuts& The people are insane. They just like talking to salesmen (01.32.12). Despite being a professional real-estate agent, Levene still could not figure it out.
The reason for this is simple he has been trained to only care about accomplishing closures, regardless of whether these accomplishments were ethical or not. This also explains why, as it is being shown throughout the film, it represents a commonplace practice among real-estate agents to lie to their clients in the most blatant manner, without giving a thought that there could be anything wrong about it.
This simply could not be otherwise, because up until comparatively recently, the very functioning of a real-estate business was fueled by the involved parties willingness to generate lies and to resell these lies to each other in the form of financial obligations. As Burns noted: A big loan is an asset.
All those deposits& are the liabilities, and those loans are assets. (We need) to transform the savings and loan from a money loser to moneymaker, to make the books look good& (to make) make big loans, which go on the asset side and cover old loans that arent making any profit (152).
Again, even though that the above quoted statement seems thoroughly logical, it is highly immoral. Apparently, while referring to loans in terms of an asset, Burns was promoting the idea that the practice of capitalizing on derivatives (financial contracts between two parties, backed by the third partys financial obligations, which could be bought and sold in the open market) is fully appropriate.
However, as we are now well aware of, this practice created a paradoxical situation while individual risks in the real-estate market were being continuously lowered, the overall risk for the whole financial system to lose its stability kept on growing evermore heightened. Therefore, it was only the matter of time, before the real-estate bubble would blow (which happened in 2008) hence, instantly impoverishing millions and millions of ordinary Americans.
It is needless to mention, of course, that those that are obsessed with making money at any cost are naturally inclined to adopt a positive attitude towards the notion of a so-called victimless crime, as nothing short of a driving force behind the free-market economys proper functioning.
This is the reason why, while talking about the prospect of stealing Glengarry leads in the film, the characters of Dave Moss (Ed Harris) and George Aaronow (Alan Arkin) never made any mentioning of the fact that theft is a highly immoral deed. All they seemed to be concerned about was whether their thieving intention could be considered thoroughly safe or not: Moss: Robery& is a crime. Thats right. Its also very safe (00.43.50).
After all, if one assumes that it is fully appropriate to make money out of the thin air, then there could be only a few obstacles on the way of the concerned individual coming to assume that there is nothing unethical about the concept of a robbery, as it fits rather well within the discursive framework of speculative moneymaking.
However, it is not only that in both: the novel and the film, the characters moral ambivalence is being reflected by their willingness to participate in semi-illegal scheming in the real-estate market, but also by the very essence of their existential attitudes, in general.
For example, while expounding on the subject of what should be considered the right way to live, the films character Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) states: Theres an absolute morality? Maybe. And then what? If you think there is, go ahead, be that thing. Bad people go to hell? I dont think so (00.40.26). Even though that the above-statement appears being of a general nature, there can be only a few doubts, as to the fact that the person who uttered it is more than capable of acting anti-socially.
Essentially the same can be said about the novels narrator Joe Stratford. Even though that Stratford is being represented as a socially established individual who adheres to the provisions of conventional ethics, he nevertheless appears fully comfortable with the idea that, in order for just about anyone to be able to succeed in life, he or she will need to bend these provisions, if circumstances call for it.
For example, the novels context implies that Stratford considered withholding certain information about the real-estate property from clients, as the main precondition for this property to be successfully sold: The house was listed for $89.900, a kitchen and two large rooms down, four bedrooms, a bath, and a sleeping porch up&
They (buyers) offered $81,000& I was sure the seller would take it because the property was starting to deteriorate (39). As this excerpt denotes, the real-estate item was sold to buyers, without the latter having been informed about the state of affairs with the items actual condition.
As it was mentioned earlier, because of their preoccupation with profit-seeking, as the foremost purpose of their lives, the majority of the featured characters in Glengarry Glen Ross and Good Faith were naturally growing to adopt strongly cynical attitudes towards the surrounding societal reality. In its turn, this affected these characters private lives, as well. This explains the utterly graphic references to sex in both pieces.
For example, while addressing the subject of happiness in his conversation with James Lingk (Jonathan Pryce), Roma states: Im in bed& she brought me cafe au lait, gives me a cigarette, my balls feel like concrete (00.41.39). As this Romas remark implies, it was due to the concerned womans behavioral submissiveness that he was becoming sexually aroused.
We can well speculate that Romas chauvinistic attitude towards women indirectly derived out of his strive to remain in control, while working with clients. This simply could not be otherwise, because peoples continual successfulness in suppressing others intellectually and emotionally (as real-estate traders act towards their clients) naturally cause them to assume themselves being superior and, those who believe in their superiority strive to be surrounded by servants.
The fact that working in the real-estate sector causes people to overlook the rules of conventional ethics can also be shown in regards to the graphically depicted sexual escapades between Stratford and Felicia in Good Faith, such as the following: We kissed and kissed. I could feel the palm of her hand glowing against the back of my neck, her fingers pushed up into my hair. My hands were somewherethe small of her back, her cheek.
And I could feel my cock pressing against her belly through our clothes, coats and all (21). Given the Felicias status of a married woman, Stratfords adulterous affair with her can hardly be considered ethical. Yet, even though that in the novel, the narrator positions himself as a mildly religious person, it never occurred to him to think that by pursuing a sexual relationship with Felicia he was acting sinfully.
One of the reasons for that is that individuals, involved in speculative trading/selling, are being perfectly aware of the fact that it is specifically peoples animalistic instincts that make them tick and not their rationale-based moral predispositions.
This also explains the novels subtle hints as to the fact that, despite the skin-deep layer of respectability that covers real-estate business, this business practitioners are driven by their utterly irrational sense of greed. Hence, these peoples strong fascination with money, as not only the mean of ensuring the effectiveness of commercial transactions, but as something that represents the metaphysical value of a thing in itself.
The full soundness of this suggestion becomes self-evident in light of how Burns used to talk on the subject of money: Theres money everywhere! Money, money, money!& Reported income is like cockroaches. For every dollar you see, there are a hundred more in hiding. And its looking for a home! (183).
This statement cannot even be discussed within the conceptual framework of ethics, because the person who came up with it seems to have suffered from being not entirely adequate, in the psychological sense of this word. At the same time, however, it did not prevent him from being considered an upstanding citizen, right until the novels very end.
This again highlights the foremost message, conveyed by this novel it does not make much of a sense to believe that the considerations of ethics play even a small role, within the context of how real-estate traders go about addressing their professional challenges. All that matters for those who do business in the real-estate market is the prospect of generating a monetary profit even at the expense of destroying the societys integrity from within.
I believe that the deployed line of argumentation, as to what should be considered the discursive significance of how Glengarry Glenn Ross and Good Faith tackle the subject of ethics, fully correlates with the papers initial thesis.
Apparently, there can indeed be very little reason to think that, while left on its own, peoples sense of greed is capable of creating economic miracles. Therefore, there is nothing too surprising about the fact that, as of today, the economic paradigm of Socialism is again becoming ever more appealing to people in traditionally capitalist countries.
Works Cited
Geva, Aviva. Myth and Ethics in Business. Business Ethics Quarterly 11.4 (2001): 575-597. Print.
Glengarry Glenn Ross. Dir. James Foley. Perfs. Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin. New Line Cinema, 1992.
Smiley, Jane. Good Faith. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2003.
Whats Cooking is a movie directed by Gurinder Chadha and shot in Los Angeles, United States. It looks into the lives of families living in a multi-ethnic part of the city. The setting is timed at a period when Los Angeles was experiencing a high influx of foreign nationals mainly from the African-American, Latino, Jewish and the Asian communities.
It is set during the Thanksgiving celebrations, these are times when families gather at their homes, get to spend times together and sort whatever issues that might be affecting the family, and welcome new additions to the family structure.
The movie is about experiences of four ethnically diverse families who grapple with their own integration problems during Thanksgiving. It starts with a shot of a Latino man on his way to the grocery store to do some shopping, meets his exiled father who had left them a long time ago to lead his own life after separating with the mother. He invites his father home for dinner after catching up briefly with one another.
The mother does not like the idea of inviting the father for the festivity because of the existing differences but after being convinced by the family, she takes advantage of the opportunity to reconcile the huge family. She makes less of the situation as the family members engage in the all day preparations.
Elizabeths college student daughter comes home with his Asian boyfriend, Lee, to introduce him to the family. Ethnic toleration is brought to the frontlines by this situation since the boyfriends family have no knowledge of his presence at their home, he had to lie that hes going to be in school to catch up with his school work just to get an excuse to visit his potential in- laws.
The second family is introduced, Lees family is Vietnamese and his mother is preparing traditional dinner for her family. She does not appear happy with the course that their children have taken in life. Her daughter (Kristy) has a white boyfriend and this raises arguments during the preparations.
The Vietnamese consider themselves as a conservative society who sees the American social fabric as being too loose and lenient on the children making them rebellious, their fear was that the children might get assimilated to the American way of life.
The third family headed by Ronald (Dennis Haysbert) is introduced. He is an African- American spin doctor working for The Republican Politico. He has invited his mother to dinner but she does not approve of the daughter in law. His wife, Audrey is trying to put her best in the menu but it seems the kitchen battles with the mother in law cannot end, she detests her culinary skills.
She does not like the way she raises the children either. Another problem with this family is that the son has refused to come for thanksgiving dinner because of the existing differences on career choice and political affiliation with the father.
The fourth is a Jewish family who has reservations about their daughters roommate. They see her as not just an ordinary roommate because of her behavior and the existing relations with the daughter. Despite the realities that the families discover that they have to live with during the thanksgiving celebrations, they manage to handle all the issues in a dignified manner, appreciate each others views of the world, and are able to practice tolerance as a source of peace in their families.
During the celebrations and feastings, details are revealed about the personal lives of the characters, reality dawns on the Jewish family that their daughter, Rachel is a lesbian and she goes to an extent of bringing her partner, Carla home to meet them. The Vietnamese immigrant family struggles to get into the lives of their assimilated children.
Nguyen discovers a gun in her sons room as she was doing her rounds in the house. She is infuriated by this discovery but it gets worse when she finds condoms in her daughters jacket. In her mothers eyes, that was a sign that she had already gotten spoilt by the white boyfriend.
The reading summary
The history of Thanksgiving goes back in the colonial times when the Americans were still being considered as a refuge for most refugees who were driven out of their ancestral lands. There were Pilgrims who came from England escaping the persecution carried out at the time, they initially moved to Holland but did not like the place. On arrival in America, they settled at Massachusetts with the help of American natives.
They immediately adopted a means of livelihood by planting corn and rearing turkey. When they received their first harvest, they were in a celebratory mood because of the peace they were experiencing and the abundant food. They then celebrated their first Thanksgiving as a feast to give back to the community for their generosity and acceptance. Since then, Americans have always recognized that day.
Thanksgiving was initially not a welcome idea among other groups of people since the Pilgrims who started it were believed to be following a specific doctrine. Most of the migrant communities from England settled at New England, the Puritans living at the region did not observe thanksgiving as they thought it was associated to other faiths.
Special thanksgiving observances were issued by the government and these were compulsory to anyone such as celebrations of military victories, celebration of a bumper harvest, or the welcoming of the rainy season signaling the start of cultivation. The Puritans just prayed and congregated together during these days. However, no specific day was set aside by then for thanksgiving.
Little is known about the components of thanksgiving in the ancient times, however, turkey stood out as the main delicacy that formed a bond across different cultures and people in America as families would share it out. The difference in style was the accompaniment that was taken by it and this varied from place to place like the people of New Hampshire had ham with roast turkey while people from Connecticut had turkey and chicken.
In the early nineteenth century, thanksgiving was still an optional celebration held just when there were special achievements made by the government and its people. For example, George Washington called for thanksgiving when the American Constitution was adopted after successfully passing through a referendum. However, the real push for adoption of Thanksgiving as a nationwide celebration was a brainchild of Sarah Josepha Hale.
She published books and other editorial pieces that discouraged the practice of slavery and the need for recognition of basic human rights. These fictional novels changed the peoples perception towards other disadvantaged communities who were used by the whites to give manual labor in farms and industries.
She also talked about the value of Thanksgiving to her audiences, emphasizing on the benefits including a moment for families to interact with one another, shared meals creates strong bonds among families and it provides an opportunity for the disadvantaged to feed and be supported as a method of promoting reconciliation.
Despite the restrictions on publications of political pieces, she continued to produce her publications occasionally crossing paths with the authorities. She eventually started the campaign to make the day a national holiday marked on the last Thursday of November, in 1846. She did this by writing to presidents and governors in every state.
She also mobilized other magazines to help in the campaign even though this was a difficult task because the presidents were still rigid about the idea. She believed the day provides an opportunity for Americans to pull together their efforts in alleviating regional differences and economic disparities.
By 1860, thirty states in United States of America celebrated Thanksgiving due to the pressure from the citizens and lobbyists. It was also observed by Americans living abroad. The eventual success came in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared the day a national holiday. However, some historians still thought that the push for Thanksgiving by Hale did not consider the original ideologies of English settlers.
Comparison between the movie and the reading summary
The movie, Whats Cooking is a celebration of diversity in cultures and it promotes the idea of tolerance among the different cultures. This is seen in the way the four families grappling with the issues of assimilation in their young ones eventually accommodate their views on life and take a rejuvenated role of handling their childrens concern.
The reading material tells about the history of Thanksgiving, the English on their voyage from Holland through the Atlantic landed in Massachusetts where they were welcome by the natives. After settling there for a while and getting their first harvest, they decided to celebrate with the natives irrespective of their ethnic affiliations.
In both the movie and the reading, turkey is the main meal that is used as a symbol of Thanksgiving; this was adopted during the inception of the day back when there was initial push to make the day a national holiday. It became the central meal since it was big enough to be shared by the members of a family.
The original intention of Thanksgiving was to make it a moment for people from different regions but living in one place for example, the slaves who worked in the farms and their masters celebrating a harvest as is stated in the reading. However, the movie dilutes the significance of this day by setting the plot in individual family units and not the society in general.
The reading summary tells more about the process that led to the recognition of Thanksgiving as a national holiday while the movie Whats Cooking shows the modern day reflection on the day and shows how the days perception has evolved over the years.
Spreadsheet: Monthly Cash Budget from January to June
Charts
Purchases, total costs (expenditure) and total revenue (receipts)
Closing cash January to June
Why and how WASS Film and Media should look for new ways to use information systems for competitive advantage
WASS Film and Media should look for new ways to use information system to gain competitive advantage over other similar businesses. The new ways to use information system will allow the WASS Film and Media to use innovation technologies. According to Olson (1982), use of new technology will ensure that things in the shop are done in a better, faster, and more efficient way (p.81). Change to the new ways of using information will be necessary to both the shop and employees. The change will relive employees from constraints and pressures.
On how to implement the new ways in WASS Film and Media firm, the management should be ready to follow all business processes involved with the new technology innovation. Great changes to both the employees and the processes used may occur. New technologies may require that new resources and the business to be ready to either increase resources or reduce them (Parsons 1984, p. 47). It is important for the business to asses the risks involved in new technologies and new ways of using information system for such will prepare managers and the owners of WASS Film and Media to face and deal with any risk in the best way possible. Assessing the risk will also allow them to predict the outcomes of new technology.
For better handling of the new systems and technologies, the firm should make use a group of people in the special units. The group will be able to scan the environment and sense any dangers associated with the new technologies. It will also be able to asses the business and advice WASS Film and Media firm on the best technologies to use for development within the firm. The special unit team lists the technologies down and the best technology that matches and fits with the challenges of the business wins. Implementation of the best technology then takes place and by that time, the team is able to asses the new technology in the way it works.
The risks involved
It is risky for the shop to look for new ways, which involves the emerging technologies because of the disadvantages that are associated with new modern technologies. Most of the new technologies are unstable compared to the traditional technologies. Moreover, it is expensive for the company to upgrade new technologies, and it could have a negative financial effect on the company. The advantages associated with use of innovative information could be short-lived for the company because technologies can change at any time. This includes competitive advantage over other companies. Therefore, it is not advisable for all companies and businesses to use innovative systems because the advantages may only last for a short time. WASS Film and Media can make use of the new technology in their business if they find themselves in a competitive environment (Golda, & Philippi 2007, p.101). Using of the new technology in a highly competitive environment will help the business to stay ahead of competitors. Although the risk involved in the use of new information systems is high, the advantages and the rewards associated with the same are numerous and thus worthy the risk.
Reference List
Golda, J., & Philippi, C., 2007. Managing New Technology Risk in the Supply Chain. Intel Technology Journal, 11(2), pp. 100-102.
Olson, H., 1982. New Information Technology and Organizational Culture. MIS Quarterly, 6(4), pp. 80-83.
Parsons, G., 1984, Information technology: a new competitive weapon. McKinsey Quarterly, 2(1), pp. 46-49.
One way to look at justice in the contemporary world is to think of it from religious texts. The natural rights theory sees human beings as possessing certain moral rights for liberty, life and property.
What can happens if people violate these moral rights? Does the aggrieved party have the right to revenge as a way of soliciting for justice on his or her part? The paper explores the answers to these questions by presenting the meaning of justice and vengeance in the contemporary world as set out in the films To Kill a Mocking Bird, Hamlet and The Stoning of Soraya, as well as the New York Times article Justice? Vengeance? You need both.
Peoples exercise for their fundamental rights ought to have a limitation in case they turn out to violate other peoples rights. Perhaps this brings vengeance justice into perspectives.
Is the believe eye for an eye morally right? Should people have permission to take the law in their own hands? The legal justice is somewhat largely inadequate. According to Rosenbaum, another inadequacy of the legal justice lies within its outright failures (1). However, advocating for vengeance justice may introduce many constraints especially leading to injustices especially on the wrongdoers part.
This is particularly significant since emotions and feelings, which lack substantial evidence, more often control and propel revenge. Consequently, the alleged wrongdoer lacks the right for a fair hearing. This is perhaps why the government warns the citizens not to take justice into their own hands, insisting that the state alone has the duty and the right to punish wrongdoers-pursuit to the social contract (Rosenbaum 1).
However, application of this warning makes people largely discontented. For example, what would wrongdoers such as the man admitting to have intentionally murdered 76 people, many of them being children, deserve? Many would at this point proclaim a death sentence.
One can think of justice as the state of conferring one what had been deprived of hi/her to restore the grieved party to state that he or she could have been initially. However, one wonders whether 76 lives can equal to one life. Consequently, revenge does not necessary mean the achievement of justice.
People have different perceptions as to what constitutes ample moral justice in the contemporary world. According to Rosenbaum, the actual difference between vengeance and justice is not significant as people think (1).
The variation of the distinctions between time and space is as valid as cultures. Some of these concerns are more often evident in the literarily works of different genres ranging from poetry, short stories, autobiographies, films and novel among others. A good example of these genres includes Killing a mocking bird, Hamlet and Soraya.
Produced by Alan Pakula and Directed by Robert Mulligan, Killing a mocking bird is a peculiar cinema masterpiece set within Alabama town. In particular, the movie raises interrogatives on issues pertaining to justice. This setting is perhaps eloquent since the film reflects the depression that existed in Alabama.
Its main themes and subthemes conform to the themes contained in the book killing a mocking bird, which forms the basis of the movie. The director addresses issues such as poverty amongst some segregated members of the society. The situation is even aggravated by the eminent racism instance raised by the film. Watching the film compels the audience to think of the priory discussed morality principles whether religiously constructed or based on philosophical theories (Fox and DeMarco 23).
Perhaps congruent with these two theories, the film makes it clear that the main function of ensuring justice is to enhance equality of all members of the society irrespective of their religious inclinations or their racial characteristics. In this context, justice in the contemporary world needs to foster the achievement of magnificent good to the wider society. This leads to the utilitarian view of moral justice.
Atticus Finch, a black man, assaults a white girl. Though innocent, Finch is entrenched through a myriad of racial power paradigms evident in the old south coupled with harsh taboos guarding the society against interracial sex. Worse still, the white girls family is full of modest racial pride that is even aggravated more by violence nature of the family.
Atticus Finchs children are hounded in school with the chief reason being that their father is involved in raising defense against a black man. Additionally, the children can only listen to the proceedings of hearing from a balcony within the courtroom specifically reserved for the black people. As the case proceeds, the children along with their father face real danger.
The duo story lines happen to meet at some common juncture: exacerbation of injustices, as the film story hits climax. Peck (Finch) emerges as an enormous hero who, irrespective of the tough and challenging encounter, devotes himself to the course of what is strictly right and sound. As Boeder reckons, he is intelligent and modest, a soft spoken man of unquestionable integrity devoted to the cause of justice (Para.5).
The movie gives a subtle capacity of innocence to enhance the conversion of evil to right. However, it appreciates that true moral justice is a tricky and challenging ideal that is often hard to realize in the contemporary world: sometimes not possible to realize. Somewhat most sentimental call in the movie is that placed to the better angels of our nature (To Kill a Mocking Bird Mulligan). In terms of justice, the movie gives an insight of where people ought to target though they may fail to strike the real target.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, the film Hamlet forms one of the amazing screenplays, which accomplishes its purpose of pinpointing some societal disparities in according moral justice in the contemporary world. The film predominately dwells on issues such as love and sex, madness, revenge, ghosts, politics among other things. All these central concerns are either figurative or else real. However, the mode of telling these concerns is so humorous that the audience sticks to the screen with laughter.
The central themes of the film Hamlet cut across the various dilemmas that face people on a daily basis such as love and sex. In this context, it would serve to uphold the spirit of justice, if all the decisions for people to subscribe to whatever one wishes in terms of whom to love or even what to politic, are left on the person in question (Resnik 57). In this context, justice takes the twist for ensuring that people have the freedom of choice.
This perhaps makes the audience reflect on the natural rights theory in which human beings have certain moral rights that they must strictly respect if justice is to prevail within the society. The film incorporates phrases such as The lady doeth protest too much and To be, or not to be, that is the question (Hamlet Branagh).
This makes the audience contextualize existence of some biasness in the way some genders have responsibilities that make other people refer them as the superior gender in the gender insensitive world. Arguably, these insensitivities raise alarms for the likely hood of moral injustices that prompt the existence of inequalities.
On the other hand, Soraya immensely addresses and raises alarms for the eminent humanity dissonance within the societal platforms. Zahra has an ample story to narrate to Friedoune. Soraya, Zahras niece, goes through a challenging relationship propagated by her husband Ali. Ali seeks for a divorce so that he can have all his time with a much younger woman.
Although, Ali is fully aware that Soraya has remarkably little income, not enough to cater for the four children, he is not a bothering type. To make the matter worse, some false charges are raised against Soraya, bringing her infidelity into introspection (The Stoning of Soraya Nowrasteh).
The film sheds slight on flagrant mishandling of affairs of women that make them denied of justice. Accordingly, justice means ending the deprival of justice. Otherwise, calls for revenge would mean extending the unjust acts to the opposite gender. People would interpret this as amounting to acts of injustice. Revenge, consequently, is not a way of enhancing justice within the society.
Conclusively, justice within the contemporary world infers that people deserve equal rights. It curtails the circumstances that may propagate acts of seclusion of some people for the wider sphere of freedoms of choice. This includes the rights of a fair hearing and shunning from false accusations such as the ones Soraya encountered or even prejudiced hearings such as the ones that surrounded the black man in the film To Kill a Mocking Bird. Moral justice infers treating your neighbor as you would like him/her to treat you.
The first half of Imitation of Life deals with the question from a feminist perspective of what it means to be a woman living in a male-dominated society, while the second half deals with how women of color are affected by racism. Heung notes that it is a story about imitation and pretending to be untrue. Lora Meredith, a white woman, widow, and aspiring actress, always pretends. The motive for this behavior is to avoid the hassle of raising his only daughter, Susie, alone with very little money. Although Lora defies stereotypes by not letting any man control her or interfere with her success, she upholds the proper standards of a good mother.
In turn, Susies imitation of life is how she pretends to be a daughter, receiving all the love and affection from someone other than her mother while at the same time desperately showing her love to a man whose love is unrequited. Another heroine, Sarah Jane Johnson, spends her entire life imitating, pretending to be white when she is actually black. Annie Johnson, Sarah Janes mother, is a black woman who lives her life with the feeling of always seeing herself through the eyes of others.
Thus, all these female characters are role models in their performances. An exception is only Annie, who, although she lives under the prism of someone elses opinion, nevertheless accepts the burden of the reality of what it means to be a black woman in a world that does not accept race. However, in the case of Lora, Susie, and Sarah Jane, authenticity is punished in a male-dominated and anti-female world.
It is noteworthy that with her self-deception, Sarah Jane challenges the limitations of her personality and a womans role in those times. Refusing to be a real lady or a real black, Sarah Jane plays a series of impersonations throughout the film. On the one hand, she matches the images of a rich musician, which she demonstrates for her white boyfriend. On the other hand, she is a sultry singer for sleazy nightclubbers.
Works Cited
Heung, Marina. Whats the Matter with Sara Jane?: Daughters and Mothers in Douglas Sirks Imitation of Life. Cinema Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, 1987, pp. 2143.
Movies about racial tensions and the effects of significant tragic events take up a large portion of cinematography. Their creators send a particular message through films using verbal and silent visual signs. The movie Crash is an example of a media piece with a strong anti-racism message while showing how ingrained it is in every community even those who face it themselves. It has a diverse cast of characters that hold their own biases against other groups and even members of communities to which they would say they belong. The use of verbal and nonverbal communication in Crash creates the picture of post-9/11 America plagued by mistrust, hatred, and fear, which is intensified by peoples inability to see their own prejudices.
Communication Model, Co-culture Interactions, and Biases in Verbal Communication
The variety of racial and class distinctions between the characters creates an opportunity for many co-culture interactions and problems during communication. The movie features young and older adults, black, Hispanic, Latino, white, and Middle Eastern characters with low-, middle-, and high-income lifestyles. According to the communication model, the person sending the message encodes it, and the recipient of this message has to decode it to gain its meaning. Each step in this process is influenced by ones relationship, culture, knowledge, attitude, communication skills, noise, and much more (Jandt 71). As a result, one message can be encoded and decoded in seemingly endless ways.
A simple explanation of the problem can turn into an argument and a perception of a threat. In Crash, characters often start arguing due to their inability to encode and decode messages. For example, Farhad is a Persian-American man with limited English skills. Due to his appearance and speech, most locals perceive him as an Arab foreigner, and they show hostility spurred by the recent September 11 attacks. He is similarly tense and aggressive towards anyone who doubts his American identity. However, his inability to speak English also leads him to misunderstand any negative news as a personal attack. When Daniel Ruiz, a locksmith, tries to explain to Farhad that the man needs to change the door rather than the lock to protect his shop, Farhad is confused, which leads to him suspecting Ruiz of being a scammer. In this case, the unsuccessful process of decoding a message leads to conflict.
However, messages can be specifically coded to show belonging to or distancing from a group. For instance, one can compare the speech of Anthony, Peter, and Cameron. These characters are black, but Anthony and Peter are low-income young men, and Cameron is a famous and rich television director. One can see that Anthony and Peter often use constructions and terms from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), while Cameron does not use AAVE and uses mostly standard English grammar. Here, the correlation between class and culture is posed both as a stereotype imposed on characters and something they continue to uphold as a part of self-identification. When a white colleague of Cameron notes that one of the actors does not speak black enough, Cameron initially protests but then gives in as he fears being fired (Crash). The internal conflict between enforcing a stereotype and losing his status is based on verbal communication. Similarly, Anthony and Peter may use AAVE unintentionally, but their speech reflects their identification with African-American culture supported by their view of intragroup and intergroup crime.
Biases Shown in Nonverbal Communication
Apart from language barriers and intentional language use, the film also shows how aspects of nonverbal communication create barriers between people. The most notable examples in the movie come from interactions between characters of different races. In the beginning, as Anthony and Peter walk through a predominantly white neighborhood, they see a visibly affluent white couple, Jean and Rick Cabot. While Jean and Rick walk at a distance from one another, Jean moves close to Rick and holds his hand when coming closer to the young black men. Anthony notes that this behavior is a clear sign of mistrust from the woman, and she feels threatened by their presence without them initiating any conflicts. According to the theory of proxemics, she both moves into the intimate space of her husband to feel protected and removes herself as far as possible from the area where the black men are situated (Jandt 252). It is a sign of fear that Jean later confirms through her dialogue. Here, the woman expresses her biases against African-American people without any words.
Impression and Conclusion
The examples discussed above touch only on a small portion of all conflicts covered in Crash. In the movie, people of all races, genders, and economic classes have a variety of biases against one another, and most of them refuse to overcome their open or latent hostility. Crash makes a strong impression as it shows how implicit bias can be as dangerous as apparent hostility and that all people have the capacity to be both hateful and open-minded, depending on their actions and circumstances. The movie also demonstrates that even minor communication differences can affect the outcome of any event. It teaches that, on the one hand, it is crucial to understand ones own identity in the conversation to encode messages. On the other hand, the culture of recipients cannot be ignored when starting a dialogue, as it shapes the interaction as well. These conclusions can help guide the practice of a future Certified Intercultural Communicator (CIC).
Works Cited
Crash. Directed by Paul Haggis, Lions Gate Films, 2005.
Jandt, Fred. E. An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community. 10th ed., SAGE Publications, 2020.
It is important to note that gender equality is among the most critical pillars of a fair society based on social justice, equity, and diversity. The given analysis will primarily focus on understanding the current state of representation of women in stories and showings, as well as their creators. The observations in the area of residence reveal that there is a significant underrepresentation of women in terms of the number of characters, their roles, the creators, and emphasis.
In order to properly and thoroughly discuss the subject of interest, it is useful to understand what constitutes a representation and why it is relevant to gender inequality. The latter is a global phenomenon reinforced through religion, gender roles, socialization, oppression, sexism, family structure, and media. If gender inequity manifests most crudely and harshly in the nations struggling with poverty, then in more developed countries, such as the US, the gender gap in income takes place (Social Problems 159).
In order to counteract these powerful forces aimed to indoctrinate women to be inferior to men in accordance with patriarchy, women need to be represented in all areas equally. Representation has a direct impact on an already oppressed group of women as well as future generations, who are able to observe and see their gender and sex being represented without patriarchal strings attached. In other words, representation matters for all groups, including women.
In Columbus, Ohio, the major showings and movies are Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Black Adam, and The Menu. The former is about a fictional African nation fighting for its liberty and sovereignty. The director is an African American male Ryan Coogler, and the writer is Joe Robert Cole, whereas the producers are Nate Moore and Kevin Feige. However, the cast is equally distributed between male and female actors, and the main character is Shuri, played by Letitia Wright. Therefore, the creators are predominantly men, but a positive trend can be observed among actors, who matter the most when it comes to representation since they are the visible elements of the story.
I observed how Black Panther: Wakanda Forever showcases the achievement of the civil rights movement by going against the norm of the overrepresentation of white men. In the case of gender, the movies major characters are still mostly men, but the central character is still a woman, which brings some balance. The African American race dominates the film because it is meant to embrace and celebrate their African heritage, which is why representation in this manner is a positive occurrence. Age, ability, and sexuality are rather poorly represented in the movie, but they are still present in smaller traces.
In conclusion, the observations in the Columbus, Ohio, area reveal that there is a significant underrepresentation of women in terms of the number of characters, their roles, the creators, and emphasis. One needs to be able to understand the current state of representation of women in stories and showings as well as their creators. The main reason is that it is vital to note that gender equality is among the most critical pillars of a fair society based on social justice, equity, and diversity. Representation has a major impact on an already oppressed group as well as future generations, who are able to observe and see their uniqueness being represented. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever showcases the achievement of the civil rights movement by going against the norm of the overrepresentation of white men.
Work Cited
Social Problems: Continuity and Change. University of Minnesota, 2015.
