Geography final project ( analysis of articles and question summary.) Research Paper

Geography final project ( analysis of articles and question summary.) - Research Paper Example The counter-contention is that if open arrangement can quicken development in medium-measure development focuses, and if critical parcels of the extra profits head off to expanded amounts of transients from slacking hinterland ranges, at that point this system is effective from a national perspective (Skop and Li). Decentralization of centermost government managerial exercises and open ventures from the biggest urban communities Movement to urban communities additionally evacuates repetitive work from horticulture; in spite of the fact that gainfulness may be flat and falling in the over-burden tertiary division of numerous urban areas, it is still higher than gainfulness in agribusiness. Furthermore living arrangement in the city lays open the vagrant to modernizing impacts and enhances his shots to get aptitudes, however unassuming. Due to the self-improving nature of squatter settlements the United Nations Center for Housing, Assembling, and Planning now focuses on the acknowledge ment and underpin of their longer run being and of sufficient preplanning for their fate advancement. Then again, it is affirmed that endeavors to clear such settlements ordinarily squander panic open assets and irritate the issues of the individuals concerned. Meeting of Japanese prefectural for every capita salaries began to show up around 1961 and proceeded in parallel with the most elevated rate of monetary development. This wonder seems to have been brought about by joining in pay rates around distinctive parts of the economy, which in turn came about because of tightening of work markets. Asians immigrants in New York State In spite of the fact that Asians remain a generally minor part of the aggregate populace, right now less than 5 percent-they are around the quickest developing racial/ethnic minorities in the United States today. In connection, the aggregate U.S. populace developed by 13 percent throughout the 1990s, from 248.7 million to 281.4 million. Fast and sizable pop ulace development is attributable basically to the way that Asians now explain just about one-third of all movement to the United States. In the most recent some decades, the mix of modifying worldwide economies, geopolitical settings, and movement approaches has set in movement new and noteworthy streams of relocation from Asia to the United States (Bergman). Workers from India and China, particularly, are decently ready for, and fit into, the occupation needs of the globalizing U.S. economy. Transients from the aforementioned two nations are actively selected by both the U.S. government and U.S. multinational partnerships for their specialized know-how, entrepreneurial abilities, and business associations with quickly developing abroad showcases. Information from the Citizenship and Immigration Service (once in the past the Immigration and Naturalization Service) demonstrate that India and China are the heading supporters of both work based outsiders (al-for the most part 39 perce nt of the U.S. add up to in 2002) and H-1b makeshift laborers (with a heightened of practically 60 percent in 2001) (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service 2003). Therefore, numerous Asian Indian and Chinese migrants land in the U.S. with the abnormal amounts of training, expert preparing, or money related assets

The Practice Of Ethical Behavior By Managers Marketing Essay

The Practice Of Ethical Behavior By Managers Marketing Essay Nowadays the practice of ethical behavior by managers and the high position jobs are dramatically decreasing due to the irresponsibilitys of these people towards the society. But there are some other companies that maintain to act as ethical behavior and choose to keep their role in society. The unethical behavior of companies are arising from the east till the west and these acts can be prevented by business leaders such as drive ethical behavior into the cultures of their organizations and create an environment in which every individual takes personal responsibility for doing the right thing in the right way (Ryan, 2009). The ethical behavior should be implemented from the higher level of organization such as CEOs and board of directors in order to be modeling for the lower level of position jobs. The company which did a lot of unethical behavior in the recent years towards its customers is Toyota Motors Co. that there were problems in accelerators stick and brake problems. On the other hand, a company like BMW Motors Co. does a lot of ethical behavior which was selected in 2009 as one of the most ethical companies among 99 firms that was ranked by Ethisphere Institute (Edmunds Inc, 2009). The company considers the safety issues in a lot of terms such as the brake system and airbag system which have derived the company to be among the most ethical behaving firms. Also it behaves in an ethical behavior toward its employees. The BMW Company has chosen four styles for its leadership such as visionary, empathetic, humble servitude and moral/ethical issues (Karlgaard, 2010). II. History of Toyota: Toyota Motor Company was invented by Sakichi Toyoda on 28th August 1937 after seven years of funding on a research and development of automobile (European University Institute, 2010). In 1947 after the Second World War the company started to export the first vehicles to Okinawa and Egypt (European University Institute, 2010). But the company started to sell the vehicles internationally by 1957 with establishing its headquarter in Hollywood (Allpar LLC, n.d.). The most influenced president who changed the position of Toyota in the world were Eiji Toyoda from 1967-1982, Shoichiro Toyoda from 1982-1992 and Akio Toyoda who took control over the company in 2009 (Allpar LLC, n.d.). III. History of BMW: The formation of BMW Company starts from 1913 when Karl Rapp formed Rapp-Motorenwerke Company and in 1922 merged with Bayerische Flugzeugwerke the producer of aircraft engines. After the emerge of these two companies formed BMW(Bayerische Motoren Werke). In the early years the company was producing only the aircraft engine and some motorcycle engines. The production of cars by BMW Company started to begin in 1928 when the company bought a car factory in Eisenach. Since that time the company became one of the best companies and ethical behaving in the world and the current president of the company is Norbert Reithofer. Part 2 Body paragraphs-Toyota I. Paragraph 1: One of the unethical issues that the Toyota Company did towards its customers was that the company did not aware its customers about the accelerators stick. According to Ewing (2010) the Toyota Company has stated that it never knew about the electronic defect that was causing the unintended acceleration. But Toyota recently mentioned that there were just only the mats and accelerator sticks problem which in the recent month have been claimed by the customers. However this problem is backed to 2002 when an official bulletin from Toyota was issued to dealers that mentioning there were some electronic malfunctions in 2002 Camry models (AOL Inc, 2010). The service was stating that the problem may exhibit a surging during light throttle input at speeds between 38-42 mph (Ewing, 2010). The problem was only for the 1 MZ-FE engine models which specifically was used for the Camry models (AOL Inc, 2010). In the beginning of 2010 the report was brought to light by two of the Congressman in the US, Bart Stupak, D-Mich and then was followed by the U.S. House Energy Subcommittee in late February 2010 which was first reported by Automotive News (AOL Inc, 2010). And then the actual document was reported on 22 March 2010 by the CNN on its website and through the aired channel program (AOL Inc, 2010). In addition, the Toyota Company has stated that the link between the surging Toyotas and its electronic systems is unfounded (AOL Inc, 2010). Also it was mentioned that the issue was only related to the mats floor and accelerator pedals sticky problems which is solely are related to the mechanical problem and there is nothing related to the electronic one (AOL Inc, 2010). After all of these justifications from Toyota officials, one of the Congressman Bart Stupak said that it does not believe the companys statement (AOL Inc, 2010). Later Stupak stated there is an electronic problem rather than a mechanical problem which the Toyota Company did not address it (AOL Inc, 2010). In fact, there is a gremlin in this electronic system which is making these cars accelerate unexpectedly, and unfortunately, it has resulted in some serious accidents and deaths (AOL Inc, 2010). But in one of the Toyotas recall websites company said that the internal investigation is going on and Toyota is confident that there is no defects exist in ECU (AOL Inc, 2010). In fact, the complaints began in early decade when Toyota moved a lot of its primary throttle components to electronic controls (AOL Inc, 2010). These changes in technology were considered to be a high improvement for the 2002 Camry Models in which used the an accelerator pedal sensor, a throttle control motor, a throttle position sensor and the engine control module (AOL Inc, 2010). These upgrading were done in order to improve the reliability, efficiency and safety of these cars throttle components to electronic (AOL Inc, 2010). According to 7days newspaper (2010) the Toyota saved more than $100 million by pursuing the US regulators in order to agree a cheap installation of involuntary acceleration problem increased the criticism over the companys president Akio Toyoda following the meeting on 24 February 2010 to the United States Congress (7days, 2010). In February the US regulators bought the Lexus ES 350 from a Tennessee woman and said it will test the vehicle after the owner of the vehicle said that she lost the control of the car when it accelerated automatically and the car toped speed by 100 miles per hour and then after travelling of six miles the car slowed down which was happened in 2006 (Rhonda Smith 2010 cited in 7days 2010). In 2006, after the issue the owner took the car to the local dealer but could not find any problem (Rhonda Smith 2010 cited in 7days 2010). However in 2007 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the problem was related to the floor mates that was jamming the accelerators pedal (7days, 2010). After all of these unethical behaviors of the company towards its customer the US authorities have announced recently that it is going to fine a hefty amount which is more than $16 million after it failed to report the defects problem within four months. This announcement came after 70,000 pages of evidence being uncovered by Department of Transportation (7days, 2010). Ray LaHood the US Transport Secretary said we now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations (7days, 2010). The Toyota Company could avoid this fine by investigating the issue at the beginning and fix those faulty at that time. II. Paragraph 2: The second unethical behavior that the company did towards its consumers in the current year is that it did not inform the consumers about the brake problems of Toyota Prius 2010 models. Due to this problem the US Transportation Department has started investigation when there was an announcement from the Toyota that had brake problem with the Prius Models and fixed that in January by changing the softwares brake system (BBC News, 2010). The investigation is looking into the problem that the brake is losing its capability while traveling on a disrupted road surface and on speed breakers (BBC News, 2010). Recently, there were 124 complaints about this issue which leaded to four crashes in the United State but there was no any issues reported in the United Kingdom (BBC News, 2010). Till now there is no any recall for the Prius Models, but the company is planning to recall those vehicles which were made and sold in South Africa (Toyota Companys spokesman 2010 cited in BBC News 2010). How ever there are being seen by the company that there are some clashes between the anti-lock brake system (ABS) and regenerative braking which it needs more investigation to be done in order to decide whether to recall those cars or not (Toyotas managing officer, Hiroyuki Yokoyama 2010 cited in BBC News 2010). Currently the Companys admission is looking into 200 reports about braking problem from customers in the United State and Japan but there was no any problem in Europe. In addition, the Japanese Government is pressuring on the Toyota Company in order to investigate the problem (BBC News, 2010). In the Northern Ireland there was a case that a customer bought the car in July last year, after two weeks the customer noticed that the brake is performing inconsistently. The problem was happening when pressing the brake pedal before reaching at a traffic light or a junction the brake releases for seconds. Then the car stops after rolling six to eight feet before it reapplies. But Toyota UK have stated that after the customers reports an investigation went under way and they did not find any fault in brakes. It was blamed on the drivers and stated that it is the way that the brake system works in Prius Models. So far the company has recalled more than 8.5 million vehicles in recent months due to the unintended acceleration and brake problem which was affecting the glitch in Prius Models and other models including a recall of 3120 Sequoia and Avalon cars by Al Futtaim in the UAE (7days, 2010). The regulators in the United State said that there are five deaths and 29 fatality accidents are reported due to unintended acceleration (7days, 2010). A recent internal document which is related to 2009 that was discovered by the authorities that there was a saving of more than $100 million by Toyotas Washington DC staff and satisfied the regulators in order to end up with an investigation which was about the unintended acceleration complaints and cheap floor mat recall (7day s, 2010). There is a big debate now whether the company ignored or missed the complaints about the unintended acceleration and whether the US safety regulators were serious enough about the problem (7days, 2010). But in the document were clearly seen that there was a slow response from Toyota to the problem, said the US Department of Transportation (7days, 2010). The launch of a publicity campaign in the last month by Toyota Company was to satisfy the customers that the company is addressing the problems (7days, 2010). In January there was a dramatic decrease of 16 percent in the US sales and estimated there will be a total cost of $2 billion due to the recent recall (7days, 2010). It appears that the Toyota problem varies in many models. In February it came into view that there are steering problems in the Toyota Corolla, which is known as the most popular car in the world, was the latest issue about the problem (7days, 2010). The investigation began in the United State after 129 c omplaints were made by drivers about the steering problems (7days, 2010). III. Effect of unethical behaviour: The effect of unethical behavior of Toyotas Company was a hefty amount and damaged its reputation in the market. There were a lot of automakers that were badly hit by the economic downturn but with the recall of millions of Toyotas due to safety issues, those companies have regained from this situation (7days, 2010). General Motors is leading the opportunity by offering money to Toyota owners in order to by the GM models, while the GM was toppled in two years ago by Toyota as the worlds biggest automaker, and the company went through a bankruptcy and the US government helped the company to be reinvented (7days, 2010). It is a real problem for Toyota Company as the numbers of recalls are huge and is going to lose its biggest market share in the US and Europe (Frank Schwope 2010 cited in 7days 2010). Also there are other automakers that are gaining from this opportunity such as Honda, Nissan and Ford Company (7days, 2010). Last month, after the beginning of trouble, the GM was offering a tempting discount of $1000 to the owners of Toyota with the exchange of a GM model (7days, 2010). In fact, the Toyota Company should do respond to these faults if the company wants to reduce the impact of lose and regain back some of the share market (7days, 2010). According to a recent research, the Toyota sales fell by 16 percent while the GM and Ford Company have increased by 14 and 25 percent respectively (7days, 2010). In fact, there were some roots that caused of unethical behavior such as character, information, expectation and judgment of the Toyotas managers and CEOs because these people were the most responsible people in the company that ignored the safety of the customers. In reality, the cost of unethical failures by Toyota is estimated to be a lot that some of them are considered to be the loss of business, fines and penalties, loss of company reputation, loss of employee morale, recruiting difficulties and employee turnover. Part 3 Body Paragraphs-BMW I. Paragraph 1: On the other hand, BMW Motor Company has done many ethical behaviors toward their customers by improving the safety issues such as installing and developing the Anti-lock Brake System (ABS). The brake system that the company is using is one of the greatest and most advanced when compared to the other cars model. The ABS is an advanced technology with a sensor that helps the driver to prevent the locking of the brake in cases that the driver uses the brake instantly with the full power in a sudden case (BMW Group, n.d.). The system also helps to maintain and balance the speed of rotation of wheels in a rainy, icy or on uneven road surfaces when the driver uses the brake in an instant case and helps the driver to easily turn the steering and avoid the accident (BMW Group, n.d.). Also in cases that when one side of the vehicle is on the icy or rainy road and the other side is on the pavement, it prevents the vehicle from rotating by balancing on the reduction of the rotation of the whee ls (BMW Group, n.d.). Moreover, the system allows the highest pressure while the wheels are rotating in a controlled way (BMW Group, n.d.). The system minimizes the pressure of the brake in order the wheel to rotate in a controlled way and steer the vehicle, when there is a feel that the wheel is going to be locked or already is locked (BMW Group, n.d.). The second safety issue which BMW Company considers about is the airbag system. Statistics show that the airbag reduces the number of deaths by 30 percent when there is a direct front collision. In cases when an airbag is not activated in case of fatal accident the company pays one million dirham compensation and damages to the owner of the car because of this faulty. A new generation of child seat and occupant detect system (SBE2) has been developed by the BMW Company (Lu et al 2001). The system detects according to pressure profile measured by a force sensitive sensor array and the change of electrical field recorded in capacitanc e (Lu et al 2001). This system is purely based on two subsystems, FDS which is based on the capacitive principle and OC is based on the pressure subsystem (Lu et al 2001). II. Reason Benefits of BMW success: There are some reasons that the BMW Motor Company became the leader of luxury vehicle seller. The company adapted four types of leadership visionary, empathetic, humble servitude and moral/ethical issues (Karlgaard, 2010). The visionary leadership style in BMW is that the company changed and retooled its brands from the normal and economic car to luxury one (Karlgaard, 2010). It developed its vision till that the company became the biggest seller of luxury cars and overtaking the Mercedes-Benz which once owned the position (Karlgaard, 2010). The second leadership style that the company follows is empathy (Karlgaard, 2010). The company is full of empathetic leaders that the company is successful in its field of business because there are inspiration and engagement between the employees and leaders of the business which resulted to have the best vehicles and on the other side to have the most satisfied customers (Karlgaard, 2010). The other leadership style that the company follows is the humble servitude in which states that at first the businesses should listen to customers and then establish a form of service for the company (Karlgaard, 2010). The last leadership style that the company follows is moral/ethical issues in which the company states that every employee should follow a set of golden rule when dealing with any customer of the company which can be known as the most powerful tools towards the human frailty (Karlgaard, 2010). These types of leadership style can avoid any unethical behavior in businesses and if the Toyota Company was considering these types of leadership style in its business it could avoid the deaths of a lot of its customers and maintained the good reputation of the business worldwide. Also the company used the core of managerial mystique which contains subsystems such as decision-making prowess, functional rationality and substantive rationality. After 1980s, the BMW Company has developed more safety technologies as it compared to oth er automaker which have leaded to the saving the lives of a lot of drivers and passengers of these cars. BMW Company has gained a lot of advantages as a result of following ethical conduct. The advantages are varied; such as competitive advantage, customer loyalty, enhanced reputation, positive work environment, employer of choice and employee retention as it is compared to its rival companies in the world. Part 3 Conclusion In conclusion, the Toyota Company should do more in order to improve the ethical behavior within the business and toward its customer. These acts that the Toyota Company did in order to save the cost and make more profit but these profits are for the short-run and after that there will be a hefty amount of loss as the company is facing currently. In addition, it will damage the reputation of the business in the market. The Toyota Company should look at the BMW Company how it follows the ethical behavior within its business and towards its customers. By following ethical behavior the companies can avoid cases that now Toyota Company is facing. If all companies around the world think about the safety and quality of their product, then there would be less number of deaths due to defect of their products. In addition, the companies should follow ethical behavior in order to avoid the legal action towards their company and increase the productivity by applying the ethical dilemma within t he business. Part 4 Bibliography List 7days., 2010. Could five deaths have been avoided? Claims that Toyota saved $100 million with a cheap fix to be investigated. 23 Feb. p.17. 7days., 2010. Toyota boss to face music: Toyoda heads to the US to stand before Congress. 21 Feb. p.16. 7days., 2010. Toyota is set for record fine. 07 April. p.14. 7days., 2010. Toyotas recall has left rival car firms smiling. 08 Feb. p.19. 7days., 2010. US to test Lexus ES 350 after driver testifies she lost control of car. 28 Feb. p.14. Allpar, LLC. Toyota history: corporate and automotive. [Online]. Available at: http://www.toyoland.com/history.html [accessed 5 April 2010] AOL Inc. 2010. Toyota identified and fixed electronic throttle surging problems in 2002. [Online]. (Updated 23 March 2010) Available at: http://autos.aol.com/article/toyota-throttle-warning-2002/ [accessed 04 April 2010] BBC Online., 2010. US to probe Toyota Prius brake problems. [internet]. 4 February. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8497471.stm [accessed 05 April 2010] BMW Group. Anti-lock Brake System (ABS). [Online]. Available at: http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/technology_guide/articles/anti_lock_brake_system.html [accessed 07 April 2010] Edmunds Inc. 2009. BMW, Toyota Named Among Most Ethical Companies. [Online]. (2010) Available at: http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/04/bmw-toyota-named-among-most-ethical-companies.html [accessed 3 April 2010] European University Institute, 2010. The History of Toyota: A short overview. [Online]. (2010). Available at: http://www.eui.eu/Personal/Researchers/ae86_project1/history.htm [accessed 5 April 2010] Ewing, S, J. 2010. Toyota reportedly knew about unintended acceleration issues caused by electronics in 2002. [Online]. (Updated 23 March 2010) Available at: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/23/report-toyota-knew-about-unintended-acceleration-issues-in-2002/3 [accessed 04 April 2010] Gee, T, S., 2010. A Brief History of BMW Motor Cars. [Online]. (2010) Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-History-of-BMW-Motor-Carsid=1419687 [accessed 5 April 2010] Karlgaard, R., 2010. Four Styles of Leadership. (SIGN publication 20) [internet]. New York : SIGN (Published 2010) Available at: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1102/opinions-rich-karlgaard-digital-rules.html [accessed 3 April 2010] Lu, Y. Marschner, C. Eisenmann, L. Sauer, S., 2001. The new generation of the BMW child seat and occupant detection system SBE2. BMW Groups [Online] 3 (2), p. 1,4. Available at: http://society.kisti.re.kr/~Eksae/_notes/data/pdf/v3n2_2.pdf [accessed 07 April 2010] Ryan, G., 2009. It is important to drive ethical behaviour. [Online] 3 July., Available at: http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2009/07/06/editorial3.html [accessed 3 April 2010]

Cognitive Traditions and Communities in Technological Change :: Technology Essays

Cognitive Traditions and Communities in Technological Change ABSTRACT: Many efforts have been made to discover some paradigm-like changes in mathematics, the social sciences, arts, history, etc. Gary Gutting forcefully criticizes the tendency of over-constraining the original conception that mostly led to insignificant analogies. But some applications may fall between correct isomorphic utilization and insignificant analogizing. The paradigm conception of technological change emerged in the early 1980's. This paper shows how fruitful the analogy has been for developing the idea of technological 'paradigms.' But a technological paradigm shows decisive differences which concern the values (which are not only cognitive ones) of technologies, the hierarchical systemic communities, the partly different nature of crises (through 'presumptive anomalies,' by Constant), and the necessarily integrated nature of technological knowledge leading to successful artifacts linked to goal-oriented research. Technological-paradigms-thinking became an established part of evolutionary economics also. According to this, paradigms rival conceptions that show further changes in comparison to the original Kuhnian approach. I conclude by discussing the nature of scientific change from the viewpoint of technological paradigms. Following Kuhn's seminal work paradigms were claimed to be discovered in many scientific fields including sociology, economics, psychology, mathematics, even literature, arts and history. It is well known that Kuhn himself was astonished to see that, for him unexpected, escalation. Garry Gutting rightly emphasized 198O that most of the applications of the paradigm conception led to nowhere but to insignificant, relatively trivial analogies, to assertions that "supertheories" exist. (1) But some application may have overcome trivial analogies. The story of technological "paradigms" is one case for this. The trial to apply the paradigm conception to technological change came 1O-15 years later then the applications to other fields. (2) In an important case study for history of technology (published 198O), E. W. Constant II set up a general model for technological change. (3) In this model technological change is represented by knowledge change and put into an evolutionary epistemology perspective, overtaken from D. Campbell. Constant exploits philosophy of science, mainly Kuhn's paradigm conception. He finds a community structure in technological practice, traditions of practice, normal technology with its puzzle solving character and technological changes initiated by recognizing two types of failure. He claims that, from time to time, technological changes are technological revolutions. "We define a technological paradigm as an accepted mode of technical operation. . . . It is the conventional system as defined and accepted by a relevant community of technological practitioners.

Wgu Hat Task 3

Environmental and Global Health EEEeeCommunity Health Nursing EE Community Health Nursing Environmental and Global Health- ­? HAT Task #3 Lynn Senfelds Western Governor’s University Environmental and Global Health Task A- ­? 1 The Communicable Disease Outbreak of Avian Influenza 2 Communicable diseases account for approximately 1/4th of worldwide mortality, contributing to more than 15 million deaths each year (Kierny, Exclor, and Girard, 2004). There have been three pandemics of Avian Influenza in the last century- ­? 1918, 1957, and 1968. There have been worldwide outbreaks of Avian Influenza among poultry over the years. It is ot easily passed from birds to humans. The first outbreak of Avian Influenza A (H5N1) in humans was in Hong Kong in 1997. In March through May of 1997, a die off of poultry was reported, due to a highly virulent disease. Research revealed it was from Avian Influenza (H5N1). In May, a three- ­? year- ­? old boy died of â€Å"complicationsâ⠂¬  from H5N1. In early December, three more deaths occurred as a result of Avian Influenza infection, ages 60, 54 and 13. Five more cases involving varying ages were confirmed by mid December. A two and three year old were cousins to a five year old who became ill. There were 18 confirmed cases and deaths related to the H5N1 strain of influenza by the end of the year. The age range was one to sixty. The infection was acquired by humans directly from chickens. According to Butcher and Miles (2004), on December 28, 1997, the Hong Kong Department of Agriculture Fisheries ordered a slaughter of all chickens for a total of 1. 3 million chickens. Exports from Mainland China were halted temporarily. A2- ­? The Epidemiological Indicators Associated with Avian Influenza Since the China outbreak of avian influenza H5N1, the virus has become endemic in Asia, and has caused outbreaks in Europe and Africa. Despite detailed study, ittle is known about the epidemiology of the virus. The freque ncies of human infection Environmental and Global Health have not been determined, and we urgently need seroprevalence studies. The expanding geographic outbreaks in Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan indicate that more human populations are at risk (Avian Influenza, 2005). The fatality rate in China in 1997 was higher in people over age 13. The case fatality rate was 44%. There was a 57% mortality rate in the patients over age 13 and all of those had 3 severe clinical disease. Patients younger than age five had mild symptoms with one death from complications from ReyesSyndrome. Of the seven patients over age 18, six died (88% mortality). Seven of the 18 cases had direct or indirect contact with poultry (Butcher & Miles, 2004). There are vaccinations for H1N1 and H3N2. Human trails for H5N1 are in progress. Qualitative indicators include awareness of available immunizations, early treatment with antivirals and prevention. Prevention includes chemical agents and physical environments su ch as soaps, alcohol and chlorination. Influenza A virus is readily inactivated by a variety of agents. Secondary prevention is available for those who have been exposed. The World Health Organization has a reserve mount of oseltamivir for a possible pandemic, which is an effective antiviral to extinguish or delay the spread of the virus. There are safe, inactive immunogenic vaccinations that have been developed (Avian Influenza, 2005). Awareness and availability will impact the incidence of an outbreak. The China outbreak was not well understood; therefore, preventative measures were not yet in place. Many were exposed and infected but were not developing clinical disease, and only seven of the 18 cases had direct or indirect contact with poultry. Universal precautions and practicing good hygiene is the best way to prevent the spread of nfluenza. Hand Environmental and Global Health washing for 15- ­? 20 seconds, covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing and avoiding touching the mouth, eyes and nose will be effective in 4 controlling the spread of the virus. Accessibility to health care, health care facilities, and education will affect future outbreaks. Access to services, the percent of people who receive coverage and quality of service as defined by those that follow standard guidelines will be the best definers of qualitative indicators. Services must be equally distributed and compliance should be monitored. A3- ­? Analyze the EpidemiologicalData The Hong Kong outbreak of avian influenza resulted in 18 human cases and eight deaths. This represents a 44% case fatality rate. According to the World Health Organization (April, 2011), there has been a widespread reemergence in 2003 and 2004 and the virus has spread from Asia to Europe and Africa. This has resulted in millions of poultry infections and several hundred human cases with a high case fatality rate. This is consistent with the Hong Kong outbreak. Ongoing H5N1 viral infections in po ultry continue to pose a threat to public health. They have the potential to change into a form that is more easily transmissible mong humans. Outbreaks of avian influenza raise global health concerns. This is related to the virus’s potential to cause serious illness in people and it’s pandemic capacity. The risk factors associated with the Hong Kong outbreak were those who had direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry. A contaminated environment was also a consideration. Possible human- ­? to- ­? human transmission was indicated because a two and three year old were cousins to a five year old who became sick. 100% of the patient’s over age 13 had severe clinical disease with a Environmental and Global Health 57% mortality rate (Butcher &Miles, 2004). Many more people were exposed and 5 infected but did not develop clinical disease. The data indicates that those at risk for contracting the virus and sustaining disease were people with com orbidity and those with an already compromised immune system. A4- ­? Route of Transmission Avian influenza is a viral infectious disease of birds. Most of these do not infect humans. Influenza viruses are believed to cycle from birds to swine then swine to humans. The H5N1 strain of the virus has infected humans. Direct avian to human transmission is the major means of infection. The exact mode and sites of viral acquisition into he respiratory tract are not fully understood. Handling of infected live or dead poultry during the week before the onset of symptoms appears to be the greatest risk factor. Most patients acquire the virus from raising poultry inside of outside of their homes. Consuming raw or undercooked diseased poultry, handling or preparing diseased poultry and playing with sick poultry have all been indicated as potential risk factors (Avian influenza, 2005). Some possible transmission routes include contact with virus- ­? contaminated fomites or with fertilizer th at contains poultry feces. The respiratory tract is then self- ­? inoculated or nhalation of airborne excreta may occur. Human- ­? to- ­? human transmission remains unclear, however, respiratory secretions and all other bodily fluids should be considered potentially infectious. Environmental and Global Health A5- ­? Graphic Representation of Outbreak 6 H5N1 infects foreign exchange student while visiting a China family farm 100% infection of poultry , 18 human infections Students mother has traveled to Africa for a humanitarian visit after contact with daughter 100 cases in Africa Student flys home and has a two hour lay- ­? over in Chicago, then arrives home in Madison. 10 cases in Chicago, 5 cases in MadisonWithin 9- ­? 10 days of contact with student, there is a 61% fatality rate of those between ages 10- ­? 19. Student goes back to university classes. Within 7 days student develops a fever & difficulty breathing Environmental and Global Health A6- ­? How the Outb reak Could Affect my Community The H5N1 virus does not currently spread from human to human efficiently. The fact that all influenza viruses have the ability to change leads health care 7 professionals to be prepared for a potential pandemic. There is little to no immunity against the virus because humans are not usually infected. If there were an outbreak in my community, steltamivir for people one year and older and zanamivir for people five years and older are two antiviral medications that may be effective treatment options. According to the CDC (2012), prophylaxis with these medications should be started within 2 days of known contact/exposure to a suspect case for a period of seven days. The community would need to assess high- ­? risk groups. High- ­? risk exposure groups are household members or close family members. Health care personnel who have contact within six feet of an infected patient are at moderate risk. The use of approved personal protective equipment will d ecrease risk of nfection. There are many people in the population at risk for complications that would need to be screened; diabetics, asthmatics, people with heart conditions, adults ages 65 and older, pregnant women and children under age two to name a few. Current knowledge in global health initiatives in order to protect our communities from communicable diseases is necessary. 60% of 600 human cases from 15 countries have died from H5N1 infection (CDC, 2012). This high mortality rate indicates a need for health care professionals to stay alert to early signs of potential infection such as fever and difficulty breathing. Screening questions uch as recent travel is a key factor in early detection. Protecting the vulnerable Environmental and Global Health populations, education and early diagnosis and treatment are also key factors to prevent the spread of avian influenza in any community. B- ­? Community Health Nurse/SARS The community health nurse has a responsibility to be awa re of communicable disease trends regarding incidence, prevalence and mortality in their areas due to 8 the potential for spread of disease worldwide. Health care providers are required to report cases of SARS to the state or local health department. Some communities have infection control

Religion Definition Essay

1. What is a religion? You’ve read our textbook author’s definition; use that definition as a starting point to go further. The word â€Å"religion† is such a broad word that to this day there is no one definition that can satisfy all religions. For the time being, it is better to simply be open to many possible definitions, without embracing any single one. Different people especially in different religions will all have a difference in opinion when trying to use very few words to define religion. The traditional definition of religion is a system of belief that involves worship of a God or gods, prayer, ritual, and a moral code. Religion is important to many people because it gives them something to believe in. Religion helps human deal with their mortality. As human beings, we look to religion for answers to life’s unexpected or unknown questions such as death, pain, afterlife, or rebirth. Religion has a way of helping us deal with death and offers comfort. Religion also helps us be creativity and express ourselves through music, dance, and art. It gives us a sense of viewing life as something beautiful and lively. People who have a religion usually are more happy knowing that they life can reflect something of the supernatural that they do not understand. Through art, we get to express how we are feeling on the inside. Many people use music, dance, and art to show others what they cannot express through words. Religion gives them a sense of confident. 2. Discuss some of the characteristics that religions have in common. Some characteristics that religions have in common are: belief system, community, central myths, ritual, characteristic emotional experiences, material expression, and sacredness. Not all religions will consist of all elements but rather some of these characteristics are commonly accepted. Many believe in a worldview were all things in the universe and human being has a place in it. Humans need of belonging helps them seek out for a community where they can belong too and share their ideals and practices. Many religions have this so people can rely on one another. Other characteristics that are shared in religions are passed down from generations to generations through stories or reenactment of major events in the religious group. Each religion has its own myth that is central to the religion. Not only are myths passed down but rituals as well. These beliefs are enacted and made real through ceremonies. Also, ethics are passed down which are set guidelines for the group of people; these are viewed as being revealed through a supernatural realm. Religions also allow people to express themselves emotionally and give a sense of inner peace that cannot come from outer resources. Material expression allows religions to make use of astonishing variety of physical elements. Each religion has a source of sacredness that is distinctive from the ordinary. Ceremonies express the distinction through different language, clothing, and architecture. Each tradition exhibit most of these characteristics but for those who practice them will manifest them in different ways and at different times. 3. In addition to characteristics in common among religions, there are some patterns with regard to beliefs, world views, etc., that are exhibited by most religions. Discuss these patterns. There are three different patterns that we look for to see similarity and difference among religions. The first pattern is views of the world and life. Religions must offer answers to life’s great questions that are asked. All questions are the same, but the answers very depending on the religion. Because of the great variety of worldview each answer is different and must be examined close to get a better understanding of why it is the way it is. Some religion view the universe as being created by a Creator while others believe it has no beginning and no ending. Some view nature as the realm of evil where it needs to be overcome. Others believe that humans are called to shape it. Each view differs from religion to religion. The second pattern is the focus of beliefs and practices. There are three concepts that are practiced, although one may be more dominant than the other depending on the purpose of importance. Sacramental orientation emphasizes carrying out rituals and ceremonies regularly and correctly as the path to salvation. Some believe that correct ritual influences the processes of nature. Prophetic orientation implies that a human being may be an important intermediary between the believer and the sacred. This is prominent in Judaism, Protestant Christianity, and Islam. Mystical orientation seeks union with something greater such as God, nature, the universe, or reality as a whole. Upanishadi Hinduism, Daoism, and some Buddhism stress the importance of this. The third pattern is the view of male and female. As human being the role of men and women are very important and religion has had much to say about the roles of men and women on earth and in the divine realm. Today many influential religions consider the male as dominate; the sacred and full-time religious specialists are usually males. Although this may not be completely true, in the past, female divinities once played an important role in many culture and religion. 4. Having discussed in last week’s Discussion Board postings your own reasons for taking this World Religions course, discuss some of the benefits of studying the major religions of the world cited by our textbook author. Studying the different religions around the world allows for a better understanding of each religion and helps educate and improve one’s experience of other related subjects. When studying other religion it allows insights into the religious traditions such as values, relationships, personalities, and human creativity. Not only that but it gives the outsiders an appreciation for the things that are not obvious to the insider. Other benefits include insight into everyday life. Religions influence everyday life in many ways. Many people use religion for moral issues, on buildings, comic strips. The study of religion with help a person recognizes the religious influence everywhere. For someone who has no religion or is on their religious quest, understanding and studying the many different religions will help them find a place to belong too. Knowledge of the different religion will aid a person in their journey of life. Short Answer Questions: 5. What is the origin and meaning of the word â€Å"religion†? The origin of the word â€Å"religion† comes from the Latin roots re-, meaning â€Å"again,† and lig-, meaning â€Å"join† or â€Å"connect.† The translation would then mean â€Å"to join again,† or â€Å"to reconnect.† This word suggests the joining of our natural, human world to the sacred world. 6. What is the meaning of â€Å"sacred†? Sacred is a God or gods that is set apart because of its holiness. These deities are considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion. 7. Define and contrast monotheism and polytheism. Monotheism is the term that means a belief in one God. Those who believe in God believe that He is all powerful, pure spirit, and not fully definable in words. Polytheism on the other hand means worship of or believing in many coexisting gods. These multiple gods may be fairly separate entities, each in charge of an aspect of reality, or they may be multiple manifestations of the same basic sacred reality. 8. Define and contrast atheism and agnosticism. Atheism is the denial of the existence of any God or gods. Agnosticism is to argue that the existence of God cannot be proven. 9. How are symbols used in religion? Symbols are important in religion because religions are so varied in their teachings and in conflict with each other that symbols help express truth. Symbols are fairly concrete, ordinary, and universal that represents and helps human beings intensely experience something of greater difficulty. 10. What is a sacrament? Give two or three examples of sacraments in a religion with which you are familiar. A sacrament is a religious rite or act seen as way of receiving God’s grace. In some mysterious way God uses physical things to bring about spiritual changes and give His grace. As a Christian, a few sacraments that we hold are: baptism, communion, and fasting. These are all important in receiving God’s grace. 11. Contrast linear and cyclical time in the study of religion. Linear time place an emphasis on creation, religions that believe in this is Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, time is very important. Linear time means moving in a straight line from the beginning of the universe to its end. In cyclical time, the universe simply moves through endless changes, which repeat themselves over grand periods of time. Buddhism believes time is cyclical and is not as crucial because ultimately the universe is not moving to a final point.

Ballparks Then and Now essays

Ballparks Then and Now essays Ballparks are becoming more advanced and fan friendly. There has been six new stadiums built in the last three to four years, and 8 more are on the way. Does it have something to do with the stadiums falling apart or just the fact that fans need something new? Some new stadiums try to stay with some of the same features from their old stadiums and some go to something totally different. What has changed in the style of the inner and outer parts of ballparks? Have the changes, the use of technology and art in the ballparks bettered the overall environment of the game of baseball. Stadiums of the old have special items about them, like the green monster in Boston or the ivy on the wall in Wrigley but also have things that people hate. With the new parks built, the environment is supposed to change for the best baseball experience possible. A few big baseball cities have all gone from old parks with lots of problems to beautiful stadiums that people awe over. Boston has the oldest stadium currently being used in the majors. It has been in use since 1912, when it was built, by Osborn Engineering (ballparksofbaseball.com 1). It took one year to complete and it was built on concrete and steel. Originally it was one level and very plain inside. The only appealing thing in the stadium was the mammoth left field wall called the green monster (ballparksofbaseball.com 2). The outside of the building was a large red brick facade that has never changed. Another thing this stadium is known for is its construction of its wall and its messed up dimensions that make up its home run territory. It has a very low left field fence that is very close compared to most parks. Many players around the league frown upon this because of the bad collision as the fence takes out the players at the hip (Enders 32). The last major thing the stadium is known for is the famous Landown Street. This street runs behind the green mons...

Politically incorrect essays

Politically incorrect essays Report: Politically correct is such an innocent term. How can anyone be against something so friendly, something that is supposed to encourage harmony and peace between all people? My answer is Ha! Although I do agree that kindness, respect, and courtesy in our everyday life are to be promoted, it seems to me that they lose much of their meaning if they are oppressively forced upon us by political correctness. That is why there are no examples in modern times that are quite so hopeless to me as political correctness. We are becoming increasingly censored in what we can say, write, or do because of this thing we call political correctness. Racial and minority groups are slowly but surely dictating what the rest of us can say, how we can say it, and where we can say it. Some changes brought by political correctness seem long overdue, such as eliminating the widespread use of offensive racial slurs. Other proposed modifications, such as calling a female hero a "she-ro", instead of a heroine, or labeling the white race a "mutant albino genetirecessive global minority" are sillier sounding than politically sensitive. According to the B.C. comic strip, "person-person" is the politically correct term for "mailman." Political correctness hasn't gotten out of hand just here in the United States, either. Two comedians from Vancouver, British Columbia, open their act by asking the audience to stand and sing the Canadian national anthem. They lead the group in singing the first two words -"O Canada"- then stop and motion for everyone to stop singing and sit down. The two then explain that "O Canada" is the only phrase in the song that will not offend anyone: * "Our home and native land" is offensive to immigrants. * "True patriot love" irritates those liberals who see patriotism as fascism. * "In all thy sons command" angers women. * "From far and wide" offends people of large size. ...

Compose a Narrative Essay or Personal Statement

Compose a Narrative Essay or Personal Statement This assignment will give you practice in composing a narrative essay based on personal experience. Narrative essays are among the most common types of writing assignmentsand not only in freshman composition courses. Many employers, as well as graduate and professional schools, will ask you to submit a personal essay (sometimes called a personal statement) before even considering you for an interview. Being able to compose a coherent version of yourself in words is clearly a valuable skill. Instructions Write an account of a particular incident or encounter in your life that in one way or another illustrates a stage of growing up (at any age) or of personal development. You may focus on one specific experience or on a sequence of specific experiences. The purpose of this essay is to shape and interpret a particular incident or encounter so that readers may recognize some connection between your experiences and their own. Your approach may be either humorous or seriousor somewhere in between. Consider the guidelines and suggestions that follow. Suggested Readings In each of the following essays, the author recounts and attempts to interpret a personal experience. Read these essays for ideas on how you might develop and organize the details of your own experience. Ritual in Maya Angelous Caged BirdQuality, by John GalsworthyA Hanging, by George OrwellTwo Ways of Seeing a River, by Mark Twain Composing Strategies Getting Started. Once you have settled on a topic for your paper (see the topic suggestions below), scribble anything and everything you can think of concerning the subject. Make lists, freewrite, brainstorm. In other words, generate lots of material to begin with. Later you can cut, shape, revise, and edit. Drafting. Keep in mind your purpose for writing: the ideas and impressions that you want to convey, the particular traits you want to emphasize. Provide specific details that serve to satisfy your purpose. Organizing.  Most of your essay will probably be organized chronologicallythat is, details will be reported moment by moment according to the order in which they occurred. In addition, make sure that you complement this narrative (at the beginning, at the end, and/or along the way) with interpretive commentaryyour explanations of the meaning of the experience. Revising. Keep your readers in mind. This is a personal essay in the sense that the information it contains is drawn from your own experience or at least filtered through your own observations. However, its not a private essayone written only for yourself or for close acquaintances. Youre writing for a general audience of intelligent adultsusually your peers in a composition class. The challenge is to write an essay that is not only interesting (vivid, precise, well-constructed) but also intellectually and emotionally inviting. Put simply, you want your readers to identify in some fashion with the people, places, and incidents that you describe. Editing. Except when youre deliberately mimicking nonstandard speech in quoted dialogue (and even then, dont overdo it), you should write your essay in correct standard English. You may write to inform, move, or entertain your readersbut dont try to impress them. Cut out any needlessly wordy expressions. Dont spend a lot of time telling how you feel or how you felt; instead, show. That is, provide the sort of specific details that will invite your readers to respond directly to your experience. Finally, save enough time to proofread carefully. Dont let surface errors distract the reader and undermine your hard work. Self-Evaluation Following your essay, provide a brief self-evaluation by responding as specifically as you can to these four questions: What part of writing this essay took the most time?What is the most significant difference between your first draft and this final version?What do you think is the best part of your paper, and why?What part of this paper could still be improved? Topic Suggestions We have all had experiences that have changed the directions of our lives. Such experiences may be momentous, such as moving from one part of the country to another or losing a family member or close friend. On the other hand, they may be experiences that did not appear particularly significant at the time but have since proved to be important. Recall such a turning point in your life, and present it so as to give the reader a sense of what your life was like before the event and how it changed afterward.Without getting too sentimental or cute, recreate your childhood perspective of a particular family or community ritual. Your purpose might be to highlight the division between the childs perspective and the adults, or it might be to illustrate the childs movement toward an adult perspective.Sometimes a significant relationship with someone can help us to mature, easily or painfully. Recount the story of such a relationship in your own life or in the life of someone you know well. If this relationship marked a turning point in your life or if it provided you with an important change of self-image, present enough information so that readers can understand the causes and effects of the change and can recognize the before-and-after portraits. Write a reminiscence of a place that has had considerable significance for you (either during your childhood or more recently)positive, negative, or both. For readers who are unfamiliar with the place, demonstrate its meaning through description, a series of vignettes, and/or an account of one or two key people or events you associate with that place.In the spirit of the familiar saying, Its the going, not the getting there, that matters, write an account of a memorable journey, important either because of the physical, emotional, or psychological experience of travel; or because of the phenomenon of leaving somewhere for an unknown experience.Additional Topic Suggestions: Narration

Stelios Haji And Him Air Carrier Easyjet.com and Easycar.com Essay

Stelios Haji And Him Air Carrier Easyjet.com and Easycar.com - Essay Example Another year after easyCar was the fastest growing car Rental Company in Europe. Pleased with the exceptional performance of the company, Stelios resorted to an expansion mode. Two new sites each week in 2003-04 were targeted as the goal and to allow fresh inflow of capital, an IPO (Initial Public Offering) policy worth 250 million pounds was planned. At the beginning of the year 2003, easyCar already opened its outlets in 17 cities across five European countries (Lawrence and Solis, 2004). Stelios is one of the most flamboyant entrepreneurs of Europe picked up the pulse of the European consumers rightly. With the presence of car rental companies like Avis, Europcar, and Hertz, launching a rental car company and making the profit was not an easy task. Stelios realized the necessity of pulling something exceptional out of the scratches. From the very beginning, the emphasis of easyCar.com was to cut operating cost and provide its customers a unique price band in terms of its low level and unmatchable by any other organization operating in the market. Stelios also concentrated on product differentiation, as he understood that a perfect blend of the lower price with higher luxury (Dudik, 2000) could only make easyCar survive in the market. Moreover, the cost cut needs to be done in every aspect. As mentioned earlier that cost cut and thereby providing the customers a cheaper price is the main business strategy of easyCar.com. This cost cut has been achieved through a combination of four strategies, namely, locational strategy, operational strategy, and informational strategy. At the beginning of the year 2003 among the 55 sites spread in 17 cities across 5 European countries, only 9 were near the airport. The rest were either a railway station or a bus stop. Leasing land to open a site is far costlier near an airport than near a railway station or a bus stop.

Loans. Variable interest and fixed interest loans Essay

Loans. Variable interest and fixed interest loans - Essay Example There are many reasons why comparable short term loans have various degrees of risk. One of the primary reasons is the existence of variable term loans. A variable interest loan can change in payment on a monthly basis based on the current interest rate in the marketplace. Fixed loans are much different because these loans have a fix payment rate until maturity. A secondary reason why short term loans have different levels of risk is due to credit history of the individual or business entity. People that have excellent credit pay less than people that have bad credit. The reason people with bad credit pay more on short term loans is because they represent a high risk. A third reason why the terms of loans are different in terms of interest and risk is because each financial institution has different earnings expectations. Some banks are willing to earn less than others. 2. Granting credit to a firm or person with bad credit can result in a positive NVP. There are a lot of people that have bad credit that are not at fault. Some people lose their good credit because they co-signed for a friend or family member that defaulted on a loan. The lack of responsibility of the person that defaulted places the person in a tough situation because they are forced to pay a debt that is not theirs. Another reason why banks may earn positive NPV from people with bad credit is because they charge these individuals or business institutions a higher interest rate. 3. The credit score of a person is very influential in the terms of the credit the borrower receives. There are three credit agencies that evaluate the person. The three agencies are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. You are correct in your assumption that the amount of credit experience a person has influences the credit score of the individual. The three credit agencies utilize different criteria to evaluate the person. My father recently applied for a loan and he was denied because one of the agencies rated him as a 560. It was strange that another one of the agencies gave him a 716 score. 4. I have always preferred to have a variable interest loan than a fixed interest loan especially in long term loans. The market fluctuates a lot and a variable interest loan can enable a person to negotiate better terms of credit if the market conditions become favorable. Some people on the other hand prefer fixed loans because of the security of knowing the exact amount you have to pay on a monthly basis. When the interest rate goes down it is better to have a flexible interest loan, but when it goes up the fixed payment loan is the best alternative. 5. The types of financial institutions that deal in very short term loans such as 15 to 30 loans have a lot of business because everyone every so often faces an emergency that requires instant cash. People also on many occasions are not able to keep up with the budget and the run out of cash. You need cash for daily food expenses and transportation cost to go to work. Due to the risk involved in these types of loans it is justified for these firms to charge a high interest rate. Also these firms have to charge a high interest rate because they do not enjoy the benefits of compound interest like other banks due to the fact that the debt is settled in a very short term. Banks make a lot of interest money during the first part of a long term loan. Shorter loans generate less interest revenues. 6. It is true that when people are faced with an emergency that requires instant cash they do not care about the terms of the agreement. In our world there are people that take advantage of the necessities of the poor by becoming loan sharks. Loan sharks are people that create an illegal lending operation which charges on my occasions upwards of 10% per week. People borrow money from these loan sharks when they have nowhere else to turn. Short term lending institutions that deal 15 day and 30 day loans are the legal equivalency of a loan shark. They c harge 30% to 50% yearly interest on short term loans. 7. The credit score

Case Law Study in Ratio Decidendi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Case Law Study in Ratio Decidendi - Essay Example After this the type of effect that this case has on the Magistrates' Courts of Queensland is discussed and explained. Subsequently, the question of law that the court had to address is discussed, along with the reason as to how the Court reached its decision. After this the steps that the police could have taken in their investigation are discussed. Finally, the far reaching results of this decision and the events of this case are discussed. Throughout the discussion relevant case law is discussed to elucidate the subject matter. In the case of R VS AS, in the early hours of the 10th of November 2001, a male person entered Ms W's residence in Lowood and made an attempt to rape her. However, she was successful in repulsing his attacks and her attacker after punching her in the eye, escaped from that place. Ms W described her attacker as being a tall aboriginal wearing a yellow T shirt and pants which were of some heavy material like jeans. Further, she stated that she had seen this person in the driveway of the flats and that she had been informed his name as being AS prior to being attacked. After being attacked she went to Ms D's premises for help. Later on Jason Crowther the police sergeant arrived and he described the morning as being overcast with drizzling rain. He also stated that espied a man riding a bicycle and wearing a cream coloured shirt and identified him as being A. However, his notes did not refer either by name or as being an aboriginal. On the very same day Ms W identified A after seeing a photo board at the police station of young aboriginal males. During cross examination she stated that she had based her identification on the fact that she had seen A in her neighbourhood. It was also revealed that W generally wore glasses and that her eyesight was so weak that even in the courtroom she was not able to clearly distinguish the features of the counsel cross examining her. It also came to light that at the time of the assault she had not been wearing spectacles. After being punched in the face her eye was so swollen that she made no attempt to wear glasses and consequently, she was not wearing them while seeing the photo board at the police station. She also admitted that at the time of the assault it was quite dark in her room. She stated that she confirmed her identification of the rapist only after seeing the photo board. Furthermore, the Crown did not give any evidence as to how they had selected the particular photographs that were shown to W and she stated that she had only obtained a glimpse of the assaulter's rear while he was escaping through a gap that he had made in the screen door. The other evidence was restricted to making an attempt to establish that AS was seen in that particular neighbourhood at that time. In addition to sergeant Crowther, the ambulance driver also stated that he had seen a tall aboriginal in a yellow T shirt walking in that area. One Yacoob Moola, the owner of a Service Station in that area also identified this person who had come to make purchases at that early hour. His son Ahmed Moola saw AS riding a bicycle around that time. Similarly, Douglas and Peggy Heathcote also deposed that they had seen a young Aboriginal standing in the

Hazardous waste management #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hazardous waste management #2 - Essay Example There are agencies that are given the responsibility of handling such situations. The city councils are government departments that have the directive of having specialists cater to these situations. Marine life is affected in the sense that, any untreated water from the storm water system is transferred to lakes, rivers, stream, or coastal water (Debo & Reese, 2003). Challenges may arise to areas and people in these regions if they do get to use this polluted water sources. Swimming pools, fishing areas, and drinking water may be infected, and thus; all life sustained by such water may be potentially harmed. Material recovered from this site should be disposed of depending on its nature. Battery contents tend to have a high percentage of acidity. If this is exposed to the environment through the water system, there are bound to be dangerous results for all those involved (Debo & Reese, 2003). In this case, a basic solution that can counter the effects of the acidity in the water may be appropriate. There is no perfect way or technique of disposing of the acidity. This, however, may work to decrease its impact toward the immediate environment. A city landfill will not be an appropriate avenue to dispose of this waste. There are metals that are present in the landfill and this waste is likely to corrode any of the waste present. Sulphuric acid, present in car batteries, are likely to ignite and spatter which makes this a highly dangerous reactive material. Pouring the waste through absorbent material may not be a necessarily exceptional idea. These acids tend to react and produce fumes once in contact with different material. Specialists need to identify what is needed, and when it is needed (Debo & Reese, 2003). This may prevent further contamination of the surroundings, hence; protecting human and animal life. There are

The Transition From Youth to Adulthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Transition From Youth to Adulthood - Essay Example It is a journey adddressed in both The All-American Poem, by Matthew Dickman, and This is Our Youth, by Kenneth Lonergan The All-American Poem is a collection of poetry that describes a variety of experiences had by a young adult, most centered around either awakenings or memories. This Is Our Youth takes us along as two young men attempt to make a drug deal with a stolen fortune. Though the language is very different – The All-American Poem is lyrical and image-rich, This is Our Youth rough and conversational – they both reach a common conclusion: youth does not die easy. Both works characterize the transition from youth to adulthood with a period of denial, when a young person responds to an adult situation, or to the transition itself, in a childish way. Is Our Youth, for example, begins with a literal physical split between Warren and his father. Tired of Warren's pot habit, his father kicks him out of the house. Warren responds with a casualness that marks him as m ore childlike than he would care to admit: â€Å"...'there's some cash, now pack up your shit and get out before I beat your fuckin' head in. And I was like, â€Å"Whatever.' So he went on a date with his whore, and I packed up my stuff and left.† (Lonergan I.i) The leaving of one's childhood home is perhaps the most literal transition to adulthood, and here Warren responds with a shrug and one-word response worthy of any teenager. Although the langauge is less rough, a similar situation plays out in the poem â€Å"V† in The All-American Poem. The narrator is fantasizing about a girl, but the images of his fantasies are extremely childlike. â€Å"I could show her my comic books/And PlayStation. We could pull out/My old D&D cards/ and sit in the basement with a candle lit.† (Dickman 33) The contrast here between an adult action and youthful pastimes suggest that, like Warren, the narrator has not yet departed childish attitudes. Although these lines are mixed wi th references to physics and math, the lack of many adult references in this portion of the poem suggests that the narrator's thoughts are, like Warren's, more childish than he knows. The difference between the two characters, however, is that the poem's narrator engages in childlike thoughts and adult actions. Warren's situation plays out in an opposite way; the action of leaving home is adult, but his reaction to that leaving betrays a childish mindset. Childish thoughts aside, however, these situations describe the brink of adulthood in a way that becomes more obvious when the scales begin to tip. On the following page, the language of â€Å"V† becomes significantly more adult, with many sexual and physical references and stark language that startles in its transition from the poem's earlier innocence. Dickman writes, â€Å"It's been talking sleazy to all of us/And there's nothing about the hydrogen bomb/That makes me want to wear a cock ring,† and â€Å"Maybe she wants to be measured beyond/The teaspoon shadow of an anus†. (34) The more adult themes appear abruptly, invoking the image of a quick and violent change. Unsurprising because This is Our Youth is significantly longer than â€Å"V,† Warren's attitude takes longer to change. At first, he responds to his exile by stealing money from his father, with the same casual attitude: â€Å"....hopefully he'll think one of his cohorts ripped him off. Or, like, his slut did it.† (Lonergan I) But when he and his friend Dennis decide to take the money and buy

Discuss the reasons for the recent weakness of the US Dollar Essay

Discuss the reasons for the recent weakness of the US Dollar - Essay Example It still rules as the de facto world currency. Foreign Exchange market is liquid where investors and players participate freely... Its daily turnover in 2004 as per the Bank of International settlements was reported to be$1.9 trillion. London was the biggest foreign exchange market followed by New York â€Å"Somewhere between 40 to 60 percent of international financial transactions are dominated in dollars. For decades the dollar has also been the world’s principal reserve currency. In 1996, the dollar accounted for approximately two thirds of the world’s foreign exchange reserves† (255) writes Robert Gilpin in his ‘Global Political Economy: Understanding Economic Order (2001) The exchange rate of dollar against many currencies in the world has fallen down leading to depreciation of dollar value exchange rate of euro, yen and Indian rupee from January 2007 to June 2007 shown below.. Dollar depreciated by 9% against Indian rupee, and by 1.2% Rate against euro The dollar-pound exchange rate that was settled at 0.6 to 0.64 in 1999 is set at 1.999 in July 2007 i.e. dollar has depreciated by 217% against sterling pound in the same period from 1999 t0 2007 July. Apart from the introduction of Euro in 1999 that squeezed the strength of dollar the Iraqi war turned to be dampener for US dollar. The heavy burden on US economy for fighting the war had an adverse impact on the domestic prices and psychology of other nations. The value of dollar is very much indirectly proportional to gold price in the international market. The following table shows gold price has raised by 135% over 1999 prices. This is one of the principal reasons for dollar price depreciation. The dollar deprecated by 25% against euro from the level of one in 1999 to 0.744 in July 2007. The acute adverse balance of trade and burgeoning debt of America added fuel to the fire. The America’s balance of payment is highly critical. There is a persistent

The Transition From Youth to Adulthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Transition From Youth to Adulthood - Essay Example It is a journey adddressed in both The All-American Poem, by Matthew Dickman, and This is Our Youth, by Kenneth Lonergan The All-American Poem is a collection of poetry that describes a variety of experiences had by a young adult, most centered around either awakenings or memories. This Is Our Youth takes us along as two young men attempt to make a drug deal with a stolen fortune. Though the language is very different – The All-American Poem is lyrical and image-rich, This is Our Youth rough and conversational – they both reach a common conclusion: youth does not die easy. Both works characterize the transition from youth to adulthood with a period of denial, when a young person responds to an adult situation, or to the transition itself, in a childish way. Is Our Youth, for example, begins with a literal physical split between Warren and his father. Tired of Warren's pot habit, his father kicks him out of the house. Warren responds with a casualness that marks him as m ore childlike than he would care to admit: â€Å"...'there's some cash, now pack up your shit and get out before I beat your fuckin' head in. And I was like, â€Å"Whatever.' So he went on a date with his whore, and I packed up my stuff and left.† (Lonergan I.i) The leaving of one's childhood home is perhaps the most literal transition to adulthood, and here Warren responds with a shrug and one-word response worthy of any teenager. Although the langauge is less rough, a similar situation plays out in the poem â€Å"V† in The All-American Poem. The narrator is fantasizing about a girl, but the images of his fantasies are extremely childlike. â€Å"I could show her my comic books/And PlayStation. We could pull out/My old D&D cards/ and sit in the basement with a candle lit.† (Dickman 33) The contrast here between an adult action and youthful pastimes suggest that, like Warren, the narrator has not yet departed childish attitudes. Although these lines are mixed wi th references to physics and math, the lack of many adult references in this portion of the poem suggests that the narrator's thoughts are, like Warren's, more childish than he knows. The difference between the two characters, however, is that the poem's narrator engages in childlike thoughts and adult actions. Warren's situation plays out in an opposite way; the action of leaving home is adult, but his reaction to that leaving betrays a childish mindset. Childish thoughts aside, however, these situations describe the brink of adulthood in a way that becomes more obvious when the scales begin to tip. On the following page, the language of â€Å"V† becomes significantly more adult, with many sexual and physical references and stark language that startles in its transition from the poem's earlier innocence. Dickman writes, â€Å"It's been talking sleazy to all of us/And there's nothing about the hydrogen bomb/That makes me want to wear a cock ring,† and â€Å"Maybe she wants to be measured beyond/The teaspoon shadow of an anus†. (34) The more adult themes appear abruptly, invoking the image of a quick and violent change. Unsurprising because This is Our Youth is significantly longer than â€Å"V,† Warren's attitude takes longer to change. At first, he responds to his exile by stealing money from his father, with the same casual attitude: â€Å"....hopefully he'll think one of his cohorts ripped him off. Or, like, his slut did it.† (Lonergan I) But when he and his friend Dennis decide to take the money and buy

Fiduciary Responsibility Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Fiduciary Responsibility - Research Paper Example It reveals how the board can busy themselves with governing its corporate, financial planning by controlling budget values and not the budget members. In addressing the thesis statement of comparing and contrasting Corporate Fiduciary Responsibility and Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, we will draw attention to the significant of the two concepts. Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Verse Corporate Fiduciary Responsibility Holt (2008) indicates that the Sarbanes –Oxley is based on the legislative and administrative, whereas corporate fiduciary responsibility, although, based on the statutory, it is established from the equity and is created by judges. According to Kieff and Paredes (2010), the corporate fiduciary responsibility under the state law practices has fluid standards and duties based approach. Whereas Sarbanes –Oxley adopt a rule based approach to corporate governance. According to Hopkins (2011), fiduciary responsibility requires board members of exempt corporate to be objec tive and should act for its excellent and betterment, rather than for their personal benefit. Sarbanes –Oxley indiscriminately imposes significant compliance cost on the corporate due to the inflexible rules that are applied to corporate regardless of the situation. According to Kieff and Paredes (2010), fiduciary relationship arises in the context of complex and constantly evolving long-term arrangements. Thus, do not provide themselves with easy, clear line rules or detailed regulations. However, Sarbanes –Oxley does not involve the complexities of the corporate environment. It deals with setting wide standards and allowing corporate a chance in determining how best to comply with those standards. The occurrence of corporate misconduct provides essential insights about the manner that board members demonstrate compliances with their fiduciary responsibility. Kieff and Paredes (2010) indicate that trustee responsibility is limited in that the fiduciary who agrees to t ake control of plan assets may appoint an investment manager. If the investment manager is appointed, the trustee is not accountable for that the investment manager’s acts. Meanwhile, he or she is not under any obligation to invest or to manage any plan asset that is subject to the management of the investment manager. Moreover, a plan may expressly provide that the trustee is subject to follow the ways of listed party who is not a trustee. According to Kieff and Paredes (2010), a trustee is subject to proper directions of that named fiduciary. Since this duty does not relieve the trustee from determining whether the direction of the named fiduciary is prudent, it does not considerably limit a trustee’s responsibility. In additional, where plan assets are detained by more than one trustee, trustee is only accountable for an act of a trustee own trust. Meanwhile, co trustees may agree to allocate responsibilities, obligations and duties among themselves in case such agr eement is authorized by the trust instrument. According to Kieff and Paredes (2010), a trustee will not be accountable for a loss to the plan arising from the acts of another trustee to whom responsibility has been allocated. However, in the Sarbanes –Oxley the corporate are seeking to reduce the cost of ongoing compliance while maximizing benefits (Holt, 2008). Meanwhile, the act does not authorize corporate to change audit firms periodically, but recommends essential

Star Newspaper Business Study

Star Newspaper Business Study COMPANY BACKGROUND Companys history The Star was first published regionally in George Town, Penang on the 9th of September, 1971. The Star went to become a national newspaper on Jan 3, 1976, when it set up an office in Kuala Lumpur. To adapt a growing staff and a new press incorporating the latest technology, it moved its headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to its present premises in Petaling Jaya in 1981. The Star created histor y on June 23, 1995 when it became the first Malaysian newspaper and the third in Asia to launch a World Wide Web edition. In addition to that, The Star also achieved a new milestone in its corporate history in the same year by being listed on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. In the year 2000, The Star relocated in stages to its very own 17 storey premises, Menara Star in Section 16, Petaling Jaya. In January 2002, The Stars new printing plant, Star Media Hub was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi in Shah Alam, Selangor. The Star also has a new office and printing plant, Star Northern Hub in Bayan Lepas, Penang. About The Star and Sunday Star The Star weekday paper is packaged as a 4-in-1 paper, comprising the Main Paper, StarBiz and StarTwo. The Main Paper covers the latest in regional, national and as well as international news while StarBiz offers a comprehensive coverage of local and international financial news such as market trends, financial reports and latest market updates. StarTwo features articles on lifestyle, entertainment, health, parenting, social issues and et cetera. Every Sunday, there is an additional section known as Sunday Star. For the Sunday Star, it covers current local and as well as worldwide news. Apart from that, Sunday Star also contains an educational section where careers, further education, exams tips and various comments are featured within. Board of Directors The current Executive Deputy Chairman of Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad is Dato Clement Hii Chii Kok whereas the Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer is Datin Linda Ngiam Pick Ngoh. There are two Executive Director in the company which is Tan Sri Datuk Seri Kamal Mohamed Hashim and Mr. Ng Beng Lye. And the Group Editorial / Education Advisor is Dato Ng Poh Tip. Groups Financial Highlights The revenue of the company as at 31 December 2008 is RM 831,040,000. Profit before tax is RM201, 463,000 whereas the profit after tax is RM138, 701,000 which show that the tax expense is RM 62,762,000. Political and Legal Environment There is one law in Malaysia that protects media freedom that is Article 10 of the Constitution. It also notes that there are limits to this freedom, and that these limits are, generally, defined by the Government. The constitution provides freedom for speech of the press. However, some important legal limitations exist. According to the government, it forced restrictions on the media to protect national security, public order, and friendly relations with other countries. The law that provides legislation in the interest of security or public order may restrict freedom of speech. Example, Sedition Act prohibits public comment on issues sensitive such as racial and religious matters. Government used Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, criminal defamation laws, and other laws to limit and threaten political speech. As for Printing Presses and Publications Act, it requires local and foreign publications to apply annually to the government for a permit. This is to make publication of wicked news a punishable offense and authorized the minister of internal security to ban or restrict publications believed to threaten public order, morality, or national security. Besides, it also prohibits court challenges to delay or revocation of publication permits. According to the government, these conditions make sure that the media did not spread twisted news and were necessary to preserve harmony and promote peaceful in a multiracial country. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail, a fine, or both. This is along with the government power over annual license renewal and other policies inhibited independent or investigative journalism and resulted in widespread self-censorship. Government had banned some foreign newspapers and magazines and, occasionally, covered up foreign magazines or newspapers. Furthermore, you could point to the guarantees under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) if you want to impress the crowd which covers broadcasting and Internet. The guarantees under this act are no monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves and nothing in the Act is to be regarded as censorship of the Internet. No monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves is that no group of companies should own enough of the radio and television stations to prevent listeners and viewers from having a choice of material. So far is all good but they have not seen it put into practice as yet. As for censorship of the Internet, it is a bit more of a problem. Although there is not any censorship or control of the Internet under this Act, doesnt mean there isnt any censorship of the Internet. Internet access was widely available and internet subscriptions totalled approximately 13.5 million at the end of 2006. However, criminal offence and preventive detention laws generated some self censorship from local Internet content sources. Examples are bloggers, Internet news providers and NGO campaigners. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) shut down 11 Web sites for breaking rules and regulations concerning the publication of information on the Internet. Neither the MCMC nor the government released the names of the 11 Web sites. The CMA requires certain Internet and other network service providers to obtain a license. Previously, the government stated that it did not intend to enforce controls on Internet use but that it would punish the misuse of information technology. The CMA permits punishment of the owner of a Web site or blog for allowing content of a racial, religious, or political nature that a court deems offensive. Besides that, almost all the newspaper companies are under a political control. This is where the politician uses the publications to spread their news to the public. The biggest press group was Media Prima which is owned by Malaysia Resources Corporation Berhad which has close ties with the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and government. Media Prima owns the leading English-language newspaper The New Straits Times, the second biggest Malaysia-language paper Berita Harian, Malay Mail, Harian Metro and the ShinMin Daily News. In addition, Media Prima owns four terrestrial TV channels. However, the acquirement of Nanyang from MCA two years ago which is 2005 has since setup its monopoly in Chinese media. Sin Chew Media Group was being owned by the timber tycoon, Tiong Hiew King. He already corners about 90% of the Chinese language newspaper market, with his control of Sin Chew ,which publishes Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily, and Nanyang Holdings, which has Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press. As for The Star, it was owned by MCA while MIC owned Malaysia Nanban. Economic environment 2009 will bound to be a very challenging year for Malaysia, although Malaysias economy is holding up pretty well this year. The first half of 2009 is expected to be a very tough period for Malaysia. The impact on Malaysia this year has somehow been cushioned but many are beginning to feel the economic downturn towards the year-end. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, much has been said and published about its economic and financial impact, but relatively little has been said about the socio-economic impact. While it is not difficult to observe the direct and often immediate unpleasant social impact of the crisis, little is known about their indirect and long-term effect on the countrys human development and social capital potential which are increasingly acknowledged in developing economies as a critical factor for sustainable development. Economic pressures are becoming the primary forces determining the behaviour of Malaysian newspaper companies. It is increasingly clear that the responses of some newspaper managers are affecting journalistic quality, producing practices that reduce the social value of newspaper content and that redirect the atten ­tion of newspaper workforce from journalism to activities primarily related to the business interests of the press. This situation has promoted encouraged self-interested behaviour aimed at exploiting market potential, and there is a growing conflict between the role of newspapers as servants of readers and the exploitation of readers to seek additional com ­mercial gain. It should not be surprising that the public increasingly sees the press as just another business that is more concerned with its own economic interests than with the broader interests of those it purports to serve. This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent. The graph above shows the overall performance of Malaysian in economy. We can see the economy started to drop from the middle for second quarter of 2008 till 2009. (Source: CIA World Fact book, September 17, 2009) The print media is already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Newspaper adex has fallen for four consecutive months from October to January 2009. In January, newspaper adex declined 4% year on year to RM258.6 million while total adex for the media industry as a whole (TV, radio and print) inched up 2% year to year. This means that newspaper companies suffered a bigger blow than other media channels. As an open economy, Malaysia was badly affected by the global financial crisis and economic downturn. The major decline in exports, in turn, affected domestic demand. Thus, economic growth contracted 6.2% in the first quarter of 2009. However, the decline narrowed to 3.9% in the second quarter, assisted by speedy and effective operation of stimulus packages as well as monetary easing. Economic performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year, supported by counter-cyclical measures and reinforced by stabilization in the global economic environment. As such, the economy is expected to turn around in the fourth quarter, though for the year it is estimated to contract 3%. The current environment exists as the Malaysian newspaper industry faces an uncertain future because of inactive markets, increasing competition from other media for audience attention, use by progressively smaller portions of the population and changes in advertiser media choices. It is a common view that the newspaper business is elastic because people read the papers every day, regardless of the economic climate. People want to know the latest happenings in good times and bad. It is expected to see a slowing down in adex in this year, 2009, with the absence of any major events, together with the weakening economic climate. The lower economic growth forecast has an effect on the newspaper industry including advertising. Last years growth was driven by worldly TV adex (up 20%), newspaper (8%), radio (21%) and point-of- sale (28%). Malaysia Advertising Expenditure Trends Year 1997 to 2008 Circulation Generally, there is a total newspaper circulation rise since 1998. The actual figure in appendix for 2008 should have rose higher though if the data from Nanyang, Malay Mail and Weekend Mail are included. Newsprint has not dead yet and will co-exist with online media. The circulation growth has been steadily all these years which contributed by the increase of the population and the knowledge of society. There are a few online news portals which without print circulation have been gaining huge popularity since last year. This creating a strong competition in online space compared to the print circulation. In English newsprint, The Star is still far ahead of everyone. As for The Sun, it considers that it offers free controlled circulation. Competition in Malay circulation is only reserved for the big three which similar to the online scenario shown in figure 2 at appendix. Harian Metro is gaining popularity in recent years. This had posed a challenged to Utusan Malaysias top position. Another famous trend in the Malay segment is newspaper sales on weekends are generally much higher than working days. Societal About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year, according to comScore Media Metrix (digital marketing research company). While the figures quoted in May edition of OnMedia, OmicomMediaGroups industry newsletter, were based on average daily readership for the online news sites over the past year from March 2008 to February 2009. In total, the average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiakini led online English news sites with 91,943 average daily visitors over the past year. In second place was The Star Online with 74,417 readers a day. Malaysia-Today.net registered 12,948 readers daily, putting it in third place. The New Straits Times Online came in fourth with an average of 16,871 readers a day. However, in fifth place was theedgedaily.com, the website of The Edge Malaysia, which averaged 3,844 readers daily over the past year. However, according to Google Analytics which monitors online site traffic, since its relaunch in March this year as theedgemalaysia.com, the site has averaged around 14,000 readers daily. For the Malay-language online portals, Utusan Malaysia Online led with an average daily readership of 70,641 over the past year. It was followed by Berita Harian Online which averaged 55,764 readers a day for the past year. myMetro (the website of Harian Metro) averaged 51,767 readers daily, placing it third. ChinaPress dotCom was the most popular of the Chinese-language online news portals with an average of 29,950 readers a day. It was closely followed by nanyang.com which averaged 27,168 a day, and Sinchew-i which received an average of 23,779 readers a day. Key points that emerged from the study, if price were not a factor and if their choice was restricted to paper, online, e-paper and mobile devices. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of respondents would pick traditional newspapers as their first choice for news consumption. While, twenty-nine percent (29%) would make online sources their first choice, with the remaining twenty percent (2%) opting for e-paper or mobile devices first. The gap between traditional newspapers and online was, however, significantly smaller for younger respondents. Both consumers and advertisers have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for high value, topic-specific publications than they would for newspapers providing general news only, wrote authors Marieke van der Donk and Marcel Fenez in the reports executive summary. Financial readers were willing to buy financial online content for 97% as much as they would pay for a traditional paper. Meanwhile, sports fanatics would pay as much as 77% as they would for a traditional paper, for an online edition that focused on sports. The study showed newspapers are still the major sources of news and information for consumers, with survey respondents listing almost equally television, the Internet, and newspapers (free and paid) as their main source of news and information. Moreover, all 4,900 respondents were willing to pay for the general print news content. This is not to say that newspapers should not make the move online, said the report. Over 60% of respondents were willing to pay for general online news. Furthermore, based on the reports findings, a key future trend is the willingness of younger readers to pay for online content. According to the report, newspapers have been able to earn readers trust and loyalty, thus giving them the opportunity to both lead and follow audiences as they migrate online and into the use of portable electronic media like mobile devices. It also noted that although the rapid adoption of the Internet and mobile technology have created a market for mobile devices, especially for those under 35, they are low on the list of preferences for accessing information because of the difficulty of reading content on these devices. Malaysians are not giving up newspapers for the Internet. This research based on the data sourced from Nielsen Media Index from 2006 to 2008. It shows that newspaper consumption levels held steady all through 2008 despite the rise in Internet consumption. Malaysian newspaper consumption holds steady despite Internet. Its written by Emily Tan, Tuesday, 01 September 2009 at 11:24.While the average time a Malaysian spends online has increased by 24% from three hours a day in 2006 to three hours and 46 minutes a day in 2008, the average time spent reading a newspaper has held steady at 49 minutes in the same time span. There is no sign that Malaysians are shifting from newspapers to the Internet, said the report published in PHDs August newsletter — PHD Pioneering. PHD is a media service agency under the Omnicom Media Group. The PHD study found that Malaysians over the age of 30 spend more time reading newspapers and its about 50 minutes daily, while the teenagers and young adults read for about half an hour on average per day. A few online news portals that without print circulation have been gaining a huge popularity since last year, creating a stiff competition in online space compared to the print circulation. As for English newsprint, The Star is still well ahead of everyone, considering The Sun offers free controlled circulation. Newspaper readership in Peninsular Malaysia for the fourth quarter of last year (4Q08) grew about two percentage (2%) points to 55% from 52.9% in the same period in 2007, possibly in tandem with population growth of those aged 15 and above. Bahasa dailies seemed to have gained the most from the slight increase in newspaper readership, growing from 26.8% to 29.3% in the fourth quarter. English dailies saw marginal growth of 0.3 percentage point while Chinese and Tamil dailies saw a drop of 0.2 and 0.4 percentage point correspondingly. This is written by Aznita Ahmad Pharmy, Thursday, 05 March 2009, at 17:44. Technology On the other hand, the media industry is challenged by the rapidly changing environment, birth of new digital technologies and advertising money diverting to new media platforms on the internet. The local media industry has yet to capitalize on the full potential of the internet which will remain the fastest and the next powerful media platform, globally. Largely driving this change is technological development but the industry is also being affected by the impact of globalization of media ownership, the phenomenal growth of the internet, and other ambient media such as outdoor, point of sale, television, bus and taxi sites. The process of creating media strategies has become more complex and dynamic with the introduction of very highly developed software designed to optimize media selection against an unending range of criteria. There is a growing movement away from the use of simple age sex demographics for most media assumptions and an increasing appreciation of the need for a more holistic understanding of current and potential customers, including characteristics such as media usage, buyer behaviour, attitudes, lifestyles and interests. According to Nielsen Media Index, while mainstream media continues to control the Malaysian media scene, the internet is fast catching up. There was a double growth in internet penetration which reaching up to two out of ten people compared to five years ago. The executive director for Nielsen Media Research Malaysia, Andrea Douglas said that internet will become a more important part of the media mix with its continuous growth in the market. She added that Malaysians are decided to go on online news for faster and constant updates. This can be seen by the 35% growth in online newspaper readership over a year, reaching one million readers. Those who only read news online exclusive online newspaper readers, it grew from 55,000 to 70,000 in 2008. The index signified a 21% increase in internet users with almost four out of ten users spending one to two hours on the internet every day. Increasing internet penetration goes hand-in-hand with increased Internet usage. However, news seekers have not abandoned the traditional medium as nine in 10 readers still obtain their news through a hard copy. Apart from more common features such as email, surfing and information gathering, the popular activities for citizen are online TV/music/games (47%), followed by message/chat/blogging (45%) and reading newspaper/magazines (35%). Within the Top 10 categories, nine categories advertised online but the spending only between less than 1% and 3% of the total budget online. Newspaper industry players have to constantly evolve themselves to stay ahead by improving technology and addressing readers preferences. The second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop urged the industry to play actively its role by involving themselves in developing the digital medium instead of ignoring it. He said it in his keynote address at the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association forum. Nor Mohamed said that with the online global reach, publish news about the countrys development became faster and easier. He added that to promote Malaysia as a developing and stable nation to potential foreign investors, information reported must be accurate. This image would be able to attract more foreign investments and visitors in Malaysia. As for Group M chief executive officer, Henry Tan said that as technology drove change, consumers, media, media agencies and clients were changing as well. New generation was created by new technology while new media structure and ownership will strengthen competition. The role of media agencies has expanded to more than just planning and buying media spots. Agencies also have to recognize changes in clients and deal with each one differently. Dow Jones Asia-Pacific sales director, Mark Hollands said change was not uncommon in the print media which comprised it to be better and more efficient. Potential new revenue stream and the branding improvement from a strong online presence in the combination of global trend, these have seen that local traditional news organizations begin to put more resources on the online platform. Besides, they also hired people who recognize the benefits of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking site Facebook, and Twitter, the so-called SMS of the Internet. The growing popularity of online news sites where readers can read for free is one reason decision-makers at traditional news organizations find it very hard to raise cover prices for their printing product. A drop in circulation numbers directly impacts the advertising rate which a publication commands. According to the On Media newsletter, the circulation numbers from Nielsen Media Research signified online news portals have not affected print newspaper that much though online readership has increased rapidly over the past year. At present, online news sites still do not enjoy the level of loyalty and commitment shown by readers to newsprint. Online readership tends to change based on economic, political and social events, said the newsletter. Based on Nielsen Media Research and Com Score, the newsletter concluded that readers spend less time reading online news than print. About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year according to ComScore Media Metrix, a digital marketing research company. The average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiankini led online English news sites average daily visitors over the past year. As for The Star Online was placing second. Utusan Malaysia Online led Malay-language online followed by Berita Harian Online. As for the Chinese-language online news portals, ChinaPress dotcom was the most popular. There are more on societal changes. Managing director of Omnicom Media Group, Andreas Vogiatzakis said that newsprint have little to fear from online news portals. He said that newspapers must learn to pull on their online portals to add value and enhance their offerings to the consumer. The industry has seen a decline in newspaper adex over the past three years, from 58% in 2006 to 54% 2008 said the Nielsen Co Malaysia executive director Andrea Douglas. She said that the reasons for these changes are difficult to said but some categories have changed their spending patterns. There has been a decline in residential ad spending due to the economic downturn and this category is almost fully print advertising. The web has introduced new advertising potential and new media that could be eroding the traditional print share. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 65 per cent below 40 and 35 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 62 per cent below 40 and 38 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. The readership of age above 55 years old in 2006 increases 3.5% compared with the readership of age 55 years old in 2005. The old generation between the age of 55 and above are still enthusiastic supporters of newspapers while the younger generation appear to be much in tune with computers and the internet. The newspapers are not only challenged by online websites but also the electronic media having regular updates in the news bulletin. Many youngsters enjoyed reading serious news on the internet rather than from the newspapers. Hence, newspaper publisher should focus on public from the age of 55 and above. According to a statistic from Department of Statistics, Malaysia, the population of Malaysia is increasing. The population of age 15 and below is decreasing every year. The decreasing rate of year 2002 to 2004 is 0.3% whereas the decreasing rate of year 2005 to 2008 is 0.2%. The population of age 64 and above is increasing every year by 0.1 % except for the year 2005 and 2006 which remain same at 4.3%. The same pattern of readership frequency could also be observed among the respondents with different educational backgrounds. According to The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000, the frequency of newspaper readership continued to be the highest among those with tertiary education where 60.0% of them read the newspaper daily. This was followed by those with secondary education (44.1%) with the lowest frequency (28.1%) among those with primary or lower education. In terms of locality, The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000 also revealed that 49.3% of the urban respondents read the newspaper daily compared to those in rural areas (39.8%). On the frequency of readership, the opposite situation could also be observed in the other categories (a few times a week, once a week, or seldom). For example, about one-third (32.1%) of the rural respondents and similarly about 34.4% of the urban respondents read newspapers only a few times a week. Identify the rivalry currently exists in the industry in which the company is operating. Are there many competitor or just a few competitor or no competitor? There are many competitors around Star Publication. For instance, Berita Harian, Guang Ming Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sun Daily, Utusan Malaysia, and also New Straits Times. The largest Star Publication newspaper competitor is the New straits Times. The sell recommendation of analysts on Star Publications (M) Bhd are the countrys largest and most profitable print media group and as well as other media stocks, such as Media Chinese International Ltd and The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, shows the current negativity on the industrys earnings prospects in the coming quarters, if not years. The Nielsen Media Report shows that Stars gross adex dived 20.6% y-o-y in January. Citi Investment Researchs analyst Alyson Shin has noticed that the page count for classified advertisements, which make up 25% of Stars advertising revenue, has fallen 33% to 40 pages from 60 pages in better times. Alyson Shin mention that Star has raised its advertising rates by an average 4% for both classified and display advertisements for the heavier days which is Wednesday to Saturdays. However, this is unlikely to be sufficient to offset the drop in adex in FY (Financial Year) 2009. Factoring in the 4% ad rate hike, we still forecast adex to contract 12% in FY2009, Alyson Shin comments in a February research report. Over the past two decades, Star has grown by shooting up and bounds in terms of earnings as well as manpower, after its English daily, The Star, overtook its main rival New Straits Times. The groups fixed operating costs have blown up. Its total operating costs that inclusive of printing and the newsprint have been above RM600 million in the past three years. This ascend to RM651.2 million in FY (financial year) 2008 versus revenue of RM831 million and net profit of RM138.9 million. The high fixed cost structure is a blessing for the group when advertisers are fighting for space in the newspaper because of the profit margin is getting bigger as the advertisement relative amount rises. Star has been the case this for over the past 10 years. It is the countrys most profitable newspaper with a handsome pre-tax profit margin of 24.2%, compared with its rival NST (New Strait Times) which manages only 9.5%. NSTP lost much of its thump over the past 25 years, especially on two separate occasions. During Operasi Lalang in October 1987, Star Publications (M) Bhds licence was revoked under a plan to crack down on the opposition leaders and social activists. After Star got back its licence, its readership and circulation surged. According to Nielsen Media Research, as at end-2008, NSTPs flagship newspaper New Straits Times had a readership of 308,000 while New Sunday Times readership stood at 263,000. As at end-June last year, New Straits Times circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, stood at 136,530 while that of New Sunday Times was 156,910. These figures cannot rival that of its main competitor, Star Publications, which had a readership of more than one million for both its daily and Sunday paper. Stars circulation was over 300,000 daily. Are the products/ services offered by company very much different from its competitors in terms of price/feature/others. KUNTUM An educational monthly in Bahasa Malaysia for children ages 6 to 12. In keeping with its Learning is Fun motto, the Kuntum Club organises many fun activities and ho Star Newspaper Business Study Star Newspaper Business Study COMPANY BACKGROUND Companys history The Star was first published regionally in George Town, Penang on the 9th of September, 1971. The Star went to become a national newspaper on Jan 3, 1976, when it set up an office in Kuala Lumpur. To adapt a growing staff and a new press incorporating the latest technology, it moved its headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to its present premises in Petaling Jaya in 1981. The Star created histor y on June 23, 1995 when it became the first Malaysian newspaper and the third in Asia to launch a World Wide Web edition. In addition to that, The Star also achieved a new milestone in its corporate history in the same year by being listed on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. In the year 2000, The Star relocated in stages to its very own 17 storey premises, Menara Star in Section 16, Petaling Jaya. In January 2002, The Stars new printing plant, Star Media Hub was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi in Shah Alam, Selangor. The Star also has a new office and printing plant, Star Northern Hub in Bayan Lepas, Penang. About The Star and Sunday Star The Star weekday paper is packaged as a 4-in-1 paper, comprising the Main Paper, StarBiz and StarTwo. The Main Paper covers the latest in regional, national and as well as international news while StarBiz offers a comprehensive coverage of local and international financial news such as market trends, financial reports and latest market updates. StarTwo features articles on lifestyle, entertainment, health, parenting, social issues and et cetera. Every Sunday, there is an additional section known as Sunday Star. For the Sunday Star, it covers current local and as well as worldwide news. Apart from that, Sunday Star also contains an educational section where careers, further education, exams tips and various comments are featured within. Board of Directors The current Executive Deputy Chairman of Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad is Dato Clement Hii Chii Kok whereas the Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer is Datin Linda Ngiam Pick Ngoh. There are two Executive Director in the company which is Tan Sri Datuk Seri Kamal Mohamed Hashim and Mr. Ng Beng Lye. And the Group Editorial / Education Advisor is Dato Ng Poh Tip. Groups Financial Highlights The revenue of the company as at 31 December 2008 is RM 831,040,000. Profit before tax is RM201, 463,000 whereas the profit after tax is RM138, 701,000 which show that the tax expense is RM 62,762,000. Political and Legal Environment There is one law in Malaysia that protects media freedom that is Article 10 of the Constitution. It also notes that there are limits to this freedom, and that these limits are, generally, defined by the Government. The constitution provides freedom for speech of the press. However, some important legal limitations exist. According to the government, it forced restrictions on the media to protect national security, public order, and friendly relations with other countries. The law that provides legislation in the interest of security or public order may restrict freedom of speech. Example, Sedition Act prohibits public comment on issues sensitive such as racial and religious matters. Government used Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, criminal defamation laws, and other laws to limit and threaten political speech. As for Printing Presses and Publications Act, it requires local and foreign publications to apply annually to the government for a permit. This is to make publication of wicked news a punishable offense and authorized the minister of internal security to ban or restrict publications believed to threaten public order, morality, or national security. Besides, it also prohibits court challenges to delay or revocation of publication permits. According to the government, these conditions make sure that the media did not spread twisted news and were necessary to preserve harmony and promote peaceful in a multiracial country. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail, a fine, or both. This is along with the government power over annual license renewal and other policies inhibited independent or investigative journalism and resulted in widespread self-censorship. Government had banned some foreign newspapers and magazines and, occasionally, covered up foreign magazines or newspapers. Furthermore, you could point to the guarantees under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) if you want to impress the crowd which covers broadcasting and Internet. The guarantees under this act are no monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves and nothing in the Act is to be regarded as censorship of the Internet. No monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves is that no group of companies should own enough of the radio and television stations to prevent listeners and viewers from having a choice of material. So far is all good but they have not seen it put into practice as yet. As for censorship of the Internet, it is a bit more of a problem. Although there is not any censorship or control of the Internet under this Act, doesnt mean there isnt any censorship of the Internet. Internet access was widely available and internet subscriptions totalled approximately 13.5 million at the end of 2006. However, criminal offence and preventive detention laws generated some self censorship from local Internet content sources. Examples are bloggers, Internet news providers and NGO campaigners. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) shut down 11 Web sites for breaking rules and regulations concerning the publication of information on the Internet. Neither the MCMC nor the government released the names of the 11 Web sites. The CMA requires certain Internet and other network service providers to obtain a license. Previously, the government stated that it did not intend to enforce controls on Internet use but that it would punish the misuse of information technology. The CMA permits punishment of the owner of a Web site or blog for allowing content of a racial, religious, or political nature that a court deems offensive. Besides that, almost all the newspaper companies are under a political control. This is where the politician uses the publications to spread their news to the public. The biggest press group was Media Prima which is owned by Malaysia Resources Corporation Berhad which has close ties with the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and government. Media Prima owns the leading English-language newspaper The New Straits Times, the second biggest Malaysia-language paper Berita Harian, Malay Mail, Harian Metro and the ShinMin Daily News. In addition, Media Prima owns four terrestrial TV channels. However, the acquirement of Nanyang from MCA two years ago which is 2005 has since setup its monopoly in Chinese media. Sin Chew Media Group was being owned by the timber tycoon, Tiong Hiew King. He already corners about 90% of the Chinese language newspaper market, with his control of Sin Chew ,which publishes Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily, and Nanyang Holdings, which has Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press. As for The Star, it was owned by MCA while MIC owned Malaysia Nanban. Economic environment 2009 will bound to be a very challenging year for Malaysia, although Malaysias economy is holding up pretty well this year. The first half of 2009 is expected to be a very tough period for Malaysia. The impact on Malaysia this year has somehow been cushioned but many are beginning to feel the economic downturn towards the year-end. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, much has been said and published about its economic and financial impact, but relatively little has been said about the socio-economic impact. While it is not difficult to observe the direct and often immediate unpleasant social impact of the crisis, little is known about their indirect and long-term effect on the countrys human development and social capital potential which are increasingly acknowledged in developing economies as a critical factor for sustainable development. Economic pressures are becoming the primary forces determining the behaviour of Malaysian newspaper companies. It is increasingly clear that the responses of some newspaper managers are affecting journalistic quality, producing practices that reduce the social value of newspaper content and that redirect the atten ­tion of newspaper workforce from journalism to activities primarily related to the business interests of the press. This situation has promoted encouraged self-interested behaviour aimed at exploiting market potential, and there is a growing conflict between the role of newspapers as servants of readers and the exploitation of readers to seek additional com ­mercial gain. It should not be surprising that the public increasingly sees the press as just another business that is more concerned with its own economic interests than with the broader interests of those it purports to serve. This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent. The graph above shows the overall performance of Malaysian in economy. We can see the economy started to drop from the middle for second quarter of 2008 till 2009. (Source: CIA World Fact book, September 17, 2009) The print media is already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Newspaper adex has fallen for four consecutive months from October to January 2009. In January, newspaper adex declined 4% year on year to RM258.6 million while total adex for the media industry as a whole (TV, radio and print) inched up 2% year to year. This means that newspaper companies suffered a bigger blow than other media channels. As an open economy, Malaysia was badly affected by the global financial crisis and economic downturn. The major decline in exports, in turn, affected domestic demand. Thus, economic growth contracted 6.2% in the first quarter of 2009. However, the decline narrowed to 3.9% in the second quarter, assisted by speedy and effective operation of stimulus packages as well as monetary easing. Economic performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year, supported by counter-cyclical measures and reinforced by stabilization in the global economic environment. As such, the economy is expected to turn around in the fourth quarter, though for the year it is estimated to contract 3%. The current environment exists as the Malaysian newspaper industry faces an uncertain future because of inactive markets, increasing competition from other media for audience attention, use by progressively smaller portions of the population and changes in advertiser media choices. It is a common view that the newspaper business is elastic because people read the papers every day, regardless of the economic climate. People want to know the latest happenings in good times and bad. It is expected to see a slowing down in adex in this year, 2009, with the absence of any major events, together with the weakening economic climate. The lower economic growth forecast has an effect on the newspaper industry including advertising. Last years growth was driven by worldly TV adex (up 20%), newspaper (8%), radio (21%) and point-of- sale (28%). Malaysia Advertising Expenditure Trends Year 1997 to 2008 Circulation Generally, there is a total newspaper circulation rise since 1998. The actual figure in appendix for 2008 should have rose higher though if the data from Nanyang, Malay Mail and Weekend Mail are included. Newsprint has not dead yet and will co-exist with online media. The circulation growth has been steadily all these years which contributed by the increase of the population and the knowledge of society. There are a few online news portals which without print circulation have been gaining huge popularity since last year. This creating a strong competition in online space compared to the print circulation. In English newsprint, The Star is still far ahead of everyone. As for The Sun, it considers that it offers free controlled circulation. Competition in Malay circulation is only reserved for the big three which similar to the online scenario shown in figure 2 at appendix. Harian Metro is gaining popularity in recent years. This had posed a challenged to Utusan Malaysias top position. Another famous trend in the Malay segment is newspaper sales on weekends are generally much higher than working days. Societal About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year, according to comScore Media Metrix (digital marketing research company). While the figures quoted in May edition of OnMedia, OmicomMediaGroups industry newsletter, were based on average daily readership for the online news sites over the past year from March 2008 to February 2009. In total, the average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiakini led online English news sites with 91,943 average daily visitors over the past year. In second place was The Star Online with 74,417 readers a day. Malaysia-Today.net registered 12,948 readers daily, putting it in third place. The New Straits Times Online came in fourth with an average of 16,871 readers a day. However, in fifth place was theedgedaily.com, the website of The Edge Malaysia, which averaged 3,844 readers daily over the past year. However, according to Google Analytics which monitors online site traffic, since its relaunch in March this year as theedgemalaysia.com, the site has averaged around 14,000 readers daily. For the Malay-language online portals, Utusan Malaysia Online led with an average daily readership of 70,641 over the past year. It was followed by Berita Harian Online which averaged 55,764 readers a day for the past year. myMetro (the website of Harian Metro) averaged 51,767 readers daily, placing it third. ChinaPress dotCom was the most popular of the Chinese-language online news portals with an average of 29,950 readers a day. It was closely followed by nanyang.com which averaged 27,168 a day, and Sinchew-i which received an average of 23,779 readers a day. Key points that emerged from the study, if price were not a factor and if their choice was restricted to paper, online, e-paper and mobile devices. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of respondents would pick traditional newspapers as their first choice for news consumption. While, twenty-nine percent (29%) would make online sources their first choice, with the remaining twenty percent (2%) opting for e-paper or mobile devices first. The gap between traditional newspapers and online was, however, significantly smaller for younger respondents. Both consumers and advertisers have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for high value, topic-specific publications than they would for newspapers providing general news only, wrote authors Marieke van der Donk and Marcel Fenez in the reports executive summary. Financial readers were willing to buy financial online content for 97% as much as they would pay for a traditional paper. Meanwhile, sports fanatics would pay as much as 77% as they would for a traditional paper, for an online edition that focused on sports. The study showed newspapers are still the major sources of news and information for consumers, with survey respondents listing almost equally television, the Internet, and newspapers (free and paid) as their main source of news and information. Moreover, all 4,900 respondents were willing to pay for the general print news content. This is not to say that newspapers should not make the move online, said the report. Over 60% of respondents were willing to pay for general online news. Furthermore, based on the reports findings, a key future trend is the willingness of younger readers to pay for online content. According to the report, newspapers have been able to earn readers trust and loyalty, thus giving them the opportunity to both lead and follow audiences as they migrate online and into the use of portable electronic media like mobile devices. It also noted that although the rapid adoption of the Internet and mobile technology have created a market for mobile devices, especially for those under 35, they are low on the list of preferences for accessing information because of the difficulty of reading content on these devices. Malaysians are not giving up newspapers for the Internet. This research based on the data sourced from Nielsen Media Index from 2006 to 2008. It shows that newspaper consumption levels held steady all through 2008 despite the rise in Internet consumption. Malaysian newspaper consumption holds steady despite Internet. Its written by Emily Tan, Tuesday, 01 September 2009 at 11:24.While the average time a Malaysian spends online has increased by 24% from three hours a day in 2006 to three hours and 46 minutes a day in 2008, the average time spent reading a newspaper has held steady at 49 minutes in the same time span. There is no sign that Malaysians are shifting from newspapers to the Internet, said the report published in PHDs August newsletter — PHD Pioneering. PHD is a media service agency under the Omnicom Media Group. The PHD study found that Malaysians over the age of 30 spend more time reading newspapers and its about 50 minutes daily, while the teenagers and young adults read for about half an hour on average per day. A few online news portals that without print circulation have been gaining a huge popularity since last year, creating a stiff competition in online space compared to the print circulation. As for English newsprint, The Star is still well ahead of everyone, considering The Sun offers free controlled circulation. Newspaper readership in Peninsular Malaysia for the fourth quarter of last year (4Q08) grew about two percentage (2%) points to 55% from 52.9% in the same period in 2007, possibly in tandem with population growth of those aged 15 and above. Bahasa dailies seemed to have gained the most from the slight increase in newspaper readership, growing from 26.8% to 29.3% in the fourth quarter. English dailies saw marginal growth of 0.3 percentage point while Chinese and Tamil dailies saw a drop of 0.2 and 0.4 percentage point correspondingly. This is written by Aznita Ahmad Pharmy, Thursday, 05 March 2009, at 17:44. Technology On the other hand, the media industry is challenged by the rapidly changing environment, birth of new digital technologies and advertising money diverting to new media platforms on the internet. The local media industry has yet to capitalize on the full potential of the internet which will remain the fastest and the next powerful media platform, globally. Largely driving this change is technological development but the industry is also being affected by the impact of globalization of media ownership, the phenomenal growth of the internet, and other ambient media such as outdoor, point of sale, television, bus and taxi sites. The process of creating media strategies has become more complex and dynamic with the introduction of very highly developed software designed to optimize media selection against an unending range of criteria. There is a growing movement away from the use of simple age sex demographics for most media assumptions and an increasing appreciation of the need for a more holistic understanding of current and potential customers, including characteristics such as media usage, buyer behaviour, attitudes, lifestyles and interests. According to Nielsen Media Index, while mainstream media continues to control the Malaysian media scene, the internet is fast catching up. There was a double growth in internet penetration which reaching up to two out of ten people compared to five years ago. The executive director for Nielsen Media Research Malaysia, Andrea Douglas said that internet will become a more important part of the media mix with its continuous growth in the market. She added that Malaysians are decided to go on online news for faster and constant updates. This can be seen by the 35% growth in online newspaper readership over a year, reaching one million readers. Those who only read news online exclusive online newspaper readers, it grew from 55,000 to 70,000 in 2008. The index signified a 21% increase in internet users with almost four out of ten users spending one to two hours on the internet every day. Increasing internet penetration goes hand-in-hand with increased Internet usage. However, news seekers have not abandoned the traditional medium as nine in 10 readers still obtain their news through a hard copy. Apart from more common features such as email, surfing and information gathering, the popular activities for citizen are online TV/music/games (47%), followed by message/chat/blogging (45%) and reading newspaper/magazines (35%). Within the Top 10 categories, nine categories advertised online but the spending only between less than 1% and 3% of the total budget online. Newspaper industry players have to constantly evolve themselves to stay ahead by improving technology and addressing readers preferences. The second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop urged the industry to play actively its role by involving themselves in developing the digital medium instead of ignoring it. He said it in his keynote address at the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association forum. Nor Mohamed said that with the online global reach, publish news about the countrys development became faster and easier. He added that to promote Malaysia as a developing and stable nation to potential foreign investors, information reported must be accurate. This image would be able to attract more foreign investments and visitors in Malaysia. As for Group M chief executive officer, Henry Tan said that as technology drove change, consumers, media, media agencies and clients were changing as well. New generation was created by new technology while new media structure and ownership will strengthen competition. The role of media agencies has expanded to more than just planning and buying media spots. Agencies also have to recognize changes in clients and deal with each one differently. Dow Jones Asia-Pacific sales director, Mark Hollands said change was not uncommon in the print media which comprised it to be better and more efficient. Potential new revenue stream and the branding improvement from a strong online presence in the combination of global trend, these have seen that local traditional news organizations begin to put more resources on the online platform. Besides, they also hired people who recognize the benefits of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking site Facebook, and Twitter, the so-called SMS of the Internet. The growing popularity of online news sites where readers can read for free is one reason decision-makers at traditional news organizations find it very hard to raise cover prices for their printing product. A drop in circulation numbers directly impacts the advertising rate which a publication commands. According to the On Media newsletter, the circulation numbers from Nielsen Media Research signified online news portals have not affected print newspaper that much though online readership has increased rapidly over the past year. At present, online news sites still do not enjoy the level of loyalty and commitment shown by readers to newsprint. Online readership tends to change based on economic, political and social events, said the newsletter. Based on Nielsen Media Research and Com Score, the newsletter concluded that readers spend less time reading online news than print. About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year according to ComScore Media Metrix, a digital marketing research company. The average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiankini led online English news sites average daily visitors over the past year. As for The Star Online was placing second. Utusan Malaysia Online led Malay-language online followed by Berita Harian Online. As for the Chinese-language online news portals, ChinaPress dotcom was the most popular. There are more on societal changes. Managing director of Omnicom Media Group, Andreas Vogiatzakis said that newsprint have little to fear from online news portals. He said that newspapers must learn to pull on their online portals to add value and enhance their offerings to the consumer. The industry has seen a decline in newspaper adex over the past three years, from 58% in 2006 to 54% 2008 said the Nielsen Co Malaysia executive director Andrea Douglas. She said that the reasons for these changes are difficult to said but some categories have changed their spending patterns. There has been a decline in residential ad spending due to the economic downturn and this category is almost fully print advertising. The web has introduced new advertising potential and new media that could be eroding the traditional print share. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 65 per cent below 40 and 35 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 62 per cent below 40 and 38 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. The readership of age above 55 years old in 2006 increases 3.5% compared with the readership of age 55 years old in 2005. The old generation between the age of 55 and above are still enthusiastic supporters of newspapers while the younger generation appear to be much in tune with computers and the internet. The newspapers are not only challenged by online websites but also the electronic media having regular updates in the news bulletin. Many youngsters enjoyed reading serious news on the internet rather than from the newspapers. Hence, newspaper publisher should focus on public from the age of 55 and above. According to a statistic from Department of Statistics, Malaysia, the population of Malaysia is increasing. The population of age 15 and below is decreasing every year. The decreasing rate of year 2002 to 2004 is 0.3% whereas the decreasing rate of year 2005 to 2008 is 0.2%. The population of age 64 and above is increasing every year by 0.1 % except for the year 2005 and 2006 which remain same at 4.3%. The same pattern of readership frequency could also be observed among the respondents with different educational backgrounds. According to The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000, the frequency of newspaper readership continued to be the highest among those with tertiary education where 60.0% of them read the newspaper daily. This was followed by those with secondary education (44.1%) with the lowest frequency (28.1%) among those with primary or lower education. In terms of locality, The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000 also revealed that 49.3% of the urban respondents read the newspaper daily compared to those in rural areas (39.8%). On the frequency of readership, the opposite situation could also be observed in the other categories (a few times a week, once a week, or seldom). For example, about one-third (32.1%) of the rural respondents and similarly about 34.4% of the urban respondents read newspapers only a few times a week. Identify the rivalry currently exists in the industry in which the company is operating. Are there many competitor or just a few competitor or no competitor? There are many competitors around Star Publication. For instance, Berita Harian, Guang Ming Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sun Daily, Utusan Malaysia, and also New Straits Times. The largest Star Publication newspaper competitor is the New straits Times. The sell recommendation of analysts on Star Publications (M) Bhd are the countrys largest and most profitable print media group and as well as other media stocks, such as Media Chinese International Ltd and The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, shows the current negativity on the industrys earnings prospects in the coming quarters, if not years. The Nielsen Media Report shows that Stars gross adex dived 20.6% y-o-y in January. Citi Investment Researchs analyst Alyson Shin has noticed that the page count for classified advertisements, which make up 25% of Stars advertising revenue, has fallen 33% to 40 pages from 60 pages in better times. Alyson Shin mention that Star has raised its advertising rates by an average 4% for both classified and display advertisements for the heavier days which is Wednesday to Saturdays. However, this is unlikely to be sufficient to offset the drop in adex in FY (Financial Year) 2009. Factoring in the 4% ad rate hike, we still forecast adex to contract 12% in FY2009, Alyson Shin comments in a February research report. Over the past two decades, Star has grown by shooting up and bounds in terms of earnings as well as manpower, after its English daily, The Star, overtook its main rival New Straits Times. The groups fixed operating costs have blown up. Its total operating costs that inclusive of printing and the newsprint have been above RM600 million in the past three years. This ascend to RM651.2 million in FY (financial year) 2008 versus revenue of RM831 million and net profit of RM138.9 million. The high fixed cost structure is a blessing for the group when advertisers are fighting for space in the newspaper because of the profit margin is getting bigger as the advertisement relative amount rises. Star has been the case this for over the past 10 years. It is the countrys most profitable newspaper with a handsome pre-tax profit margin of 24.2%, compared with its rival NST (New Strait Times) which manages only 9.5%. NSTP lost much of its thump over the past 25 years, especially on two separate occasions. During Operasi Lalang in October 1987, Star Publications (M) Bhds licence was revoked under a plan to crack down on the opposition leaders and social activists. After Star got back its licence, its readership and circulation surged. According to Nielsen Media Research, as at end-2008, NSTPs flagship newspaper New Straits Times had a readership of 308,000 while New Sunday Times readership stood at 263,000. As at end-June last year, New Straits Times circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, stood at 136,530 while that of New Sunday Times was 156,910. These figures cannot rival that of its main competitor, Star Publications, which had a readership of more than one million for both its daily and Sunday paper. Stars circulation was over 300,000 daily. Are the products/ services offered by company very much different from its competitors in terms of price/feature/others. KUNTUM An educational monthly in Bahasa Malaysia for children ages 6 to 12. In keeping with its Learning is Fun motto, the Kuntum Club organises many fun activities and ho