A Reflective Report on the Leadership of a Training Day for Classroom Essay

A Reflective Report on the Leadership of a Training Day for Classroom Assistants and Teachers - Essay Example The first part will focus on providing the readers with a clear description on how the leadership activity was conducted. Before describing the process on how the student went through the leadership activity, the student will first explain the activity’s main purpose, objectives, and success criteria. The second part of the study will provide a brief description of the evaluation technique used in the project in terms of measuring the student’s ability to meet the main purpose and objectives of the leadership activity aside from how the project has affected the leadership skills of the entire staff members as an organization and as a person. For the third part of the study, the student will reflect upon the leadership activity process and its outcome based on the theoretical frameworks and concepts that were tackled under the course E849 Leading and Managing for Effective Education. Eventually, the student will discuss her own preferred leadership strategy and style in terms of some issues related to the importance of teamwork as well as the organizational effectiveness and improvements. Using the student’s preferred leadership style, ways in which she could effectively influence the school organization regardless of the internal and external pressures will be thoroughly discussed. The last part of this paper will critically assess the significance of the first three parts of this study towards the student’s own leadership and management thinking and practice aside from its impact on my colleagues’ perception on effective leadership and management style.

Reflection Paper on The Global Idea of the Commons by Nonini Donald Essay - 1

Reflection Paper on The Global Idea of the Commons by Nonini Donald - Essay Example Despite all the differences in terms of cultural and religious beliefs, the early colonists made a wise decision to band together no matter what, against the threat of Indian raids and harsh winters. They had decided to help each other for the common good of everyone on the new colonies. Inherent in the concept of interdependency is the idea that all kinds of resources are to be taken cared of, that good stewardship of these resources should be undertaken for young or succeeding generations to likewise benefit from. This applies to material resources in early human history, such as forest lands and the resources found within it, clean and safe drinking water from rivers and lakes for human use and agricultural applications, the mineral resources that can be extracted from beneath the ground and all types of flora and fauna. The idea is that each resource should be maximized and given enough time, to replenish itself such that it can be used again and again without threat of depletion; example of this is fishing. People are also aware of the need to conserve non-renewable resources like oil so everyone can benefit. The availability of common-pool resources have existed since time immemorial but this has been threatened since the Industrial Revolution came about and the rise of capitalism, in which greed and individualism became paramount. Previously, people had devised ways or means by which to manage these resource through social or institutional arrangements for the long-term benefit of everybody without necessarily depleting these resources and thereby can manage to avoid the so-called â€Å"tragedy of the commons† by unfettered competition. This was done mainly through their cultural, social and maybe even religious practices by which most natural resources are only held in trust, as stewards, for the next generations to come. This is proven even in the marginal ecological zones over

Fat Substitute Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fat Substitute - Essay Example The U.S. Food and Drug Administration affirms the safety of using fat-substitutes, however, the warning on fat-modified food by P & G stating "Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools† raises health concerns over the use of such foods (Glausiusz, 2001). Keeping the obesity statistics in view, fat modified foods are less likely to impact human’s health than does the fattening food itself. Obesity is being identified as a cause of millions of deaths around the globe. Fat-modified food, on the other hand, is not considered to have any known side-effects causing major health issues. The abdominal cramps and upsets are found to be miscalculated and wrongly hypothesized when study of University of North Carolina was conducted over a span of 3200 samples. Akoh, on the other hand, produced low-fat diets that dissolve the fatty acid chains and are said to decrease cholesterol levels significantly. Hence, the different fat substitutes are functioning in various different ways that are not harming health of individuals but rather providing ways to improve their well-being and dietary inconsistencies. The claim on the viability and negative outcomes of fat-modified foods seem to be vague. None of the studies provide a significant and visible deterioration of health. However, in the short run, much of the research conducted shows positive impact on human health, reduced cholesterol levels and maintenance of people’s food cravings with the tastes that they ever admired. Hence, fat-modified food provides a substitute to the unhealthy and high-fat diets causing physical, mental, medical, emotional and social disruptions in the wider

Usage of English for Foreign Students within America Essay

Usage of English for Foreign Students within America - Essay Example The theory that applies to the students who are taught English when they are studying at the US universities and colleges is that this language will help them in coming times and their future lives would be secured financially since they could be easily hired by any company around the world. This is a pretty significant aspect and one that needs to be understood in the global scheme of things. This language might not help them within their local areas but on a national and/or international front, these students are sure to get help from the usage of English language. Thus the students must not think in a narrow minded manner and look to study this language with all the zest and enthusiasm that they could offer to it. It is for their own betterment that they are asked to study the English language and no one else apart from them would be the winner at the very end. What I think of the whole issue is that the students need to make an effort to learn and understand this global language which is followed by literally everybody on earth. There should be no hiccups in the learning of this language and students must make dedicated efforts to acquire the basics of this very language. English looks to provide benefits to one and all and there is no doubt to this ideology all said and done.

Fat Substitute Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fat Substitute - Essay Example The U.S. Food and Drug Administration affirms the safety of using fat-substitutes, however, the warning on fat-modified food by P & G stating "Olestra may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools† raises health concerns over the use of such foods (Glausiusz, 2001). Keeping the obesity statistics in view, fat modified foods are less likely to impact human’s health than does the fattening food itself. Obesity is being identified as a cause of millions of deaths around the globe. Fat-modified food, on the other hand, is not considered to have any known side-effects causing major health issues. The abdominal cramps and upsets are found to be miscalculated and wrongly hypothesized when study of University of North Carolina was conducted over a span of 3200 samples. Akoh, on the other hand, produced low-fat diets that dissolve the fatty acid chains and are said to decrease cholesterol levels significantly. Hence, the different fat substitutes are functioning in various different ways that are not harming health of individuals but rather providing ways to improve their well-being and dietary inconsistencies. The claim on the viability and negative outcomes of fat-modified foods seem to be vague. None of the studies provide a significant and visible deterioration of health. However, in the short run, much of the research conducted shows positive impact on human health, reduced cholesterol levels and maintenance of people’s food cravings with the tastes that they ever admired. Hence, fat-modified food provides a substitute to the unhealthy and high-fat diets causing physical, mental, medical, emotional and social disruptions in the wider

Global communication Essay Example for Free

Global communication Essay The explosion of the internet has improved global communication and created a significant impact in our lives. With the advent of broadband wireless internet access in Singapore, our adolescents are spending intensive hours in cyberspace everyday and everywhere to meet their educational, entertainment, social and emotional needs. While they are going through this transitional stage of their life in seeking the ‘Who am I’ answers, this article reviews and seeks to understand what they do on the internet. It was discovered that both U. S. and Singapore adolescents enjoy interactive cyber communication with their peers and sharing common interest such as on-line games and audio/video downloading. An action research on a group of 35 adolescents in Singapore has revealed some interesting patterns in their internet engagement. This emerging engagement cannot be ignored by parents and teachers as we discuss our roles in protecting and nurturing our adolescents. Literature Review Introduction The Singapore Government is systematically and strongly promoting the use of information technology. One of its strategies is to make it compulsory that 30% of the school curriculum to have an information technology component and to be computer-based by 2002 (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, 2000). Naturally, the advocacy of Internet use is part of this omnipresent attempt. Young Singaporeans are placed right in the midst of all these changes and soon Internet use will be commonplace given the Governments ubiquitous promotion. As an academic staff in the Polytechnic, my objective is to study what our adolescent students do on the internet. By having a better understanding of their engagement on the internet, it would help us as facilitators to identify their interests, needs and to understand what motivates them. This literature review covers some surveys on adolescents conducted in the United States, studies on the impact of the internet on adolescents’ behaviour and a regional governmental conference on cyber endangerment. United States Adolescents’ Engagement on the Internet As the U.S. adolescent internet usage grew exponentially in the last decade, a number of correspondent expectations have emerged (Gross, 2000). Gross performed a research to identify the activities that adolescents in suburban California engaged in on the internet and why they perform them. She discovered the following: (1) that gender predicts usage, i.e., boys spend more time online, surfing the web and playing violent games, while girls chat or shop online; (2) that internet use causes social isolation and depression, especially for teens; and (3) that adolescents use the internet for anonymous identity experimentation. By means of highly detailed daily reports of adolescents’ home internet usage and peer-related adjustment, the present research sought to compare these expectations with the actual experiences of early and mid-adolescents in 2000 and 2001. For the most part, adolescent boys’ and girls’ online activities have become more similar than different. On average, boys and girls alike described their online social interaction as (1) occurring in private settings such as e-mail and instant messages, (2) with friends who are also part of their daily, offline lives, and (3) devoted to fairly ordinary yet intimate topics such as gossiping with friends (Gross, 2000). This is an interesting article that relates the conflicts faced by adolescents. According to Erikson, adolescents are experiencing a transitional stage of their life between childhood and adulthood where they need to deal with the conflict between identity attainment and identity diffusion (Berk, 2002). Gross(2000) discovered that adolescents need to explore their identity through identity play and role experimentation. Apparently, the internet serves as an ideal platform for them to play an anonymous role in their email and instant messaging (IM) communications. They tend to take on a role of an older character in attempt to explore their future self and identity (Gross, 2000). Another of their interest at this stage is to relate to their peers more than their parents or teachers. They could engage in intimate and private relationship with their peers on the internet interactively and instantly. Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel and Thickstun (2005) attempted to study the effects of the internet on adolescent sexual behaviours. It was triggered by the fact that adolescents in the United States were engaging in sexual activity at early ages and with multiple partners. The mass media have been shown to affect a broad range of adolescent health-related attitudes and behaviours including violence, eating disorders, and tobacco and alcohol use. The authors wanted to explore the factors that contribute to adolescents sexual activity. It was found that the mass media plays a very influential role in shaping adolescents’ attitudes and behaviour towards violence, eating disorders, tobacco, alcohol and sex. Based on their survey, the internet is a significant media that the U.S. adolescents engage in (Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel Thickstun, 2005). In 2003, 60.8% of the U.S. household have at least one desktop computer at home. The adolescents spend 2 hours online each time for 4 days per week. Of the contact time on the internet, 61% of it is spent on surfing the internet. It is interesting to note that the adolescents consider 14% of what they do in the internet as activities they would not want their parents to know. The authors have summarised some pre-studies of the effects of media on adolescents. They have collected some useful statistics that describe the breakdown of adolescents’ exposure to the media, from radio, television, internet to magazines. The statistics in adolescents’ sexual behaviours have supported their linkages to adolescents’ exposure to sexuality in the media. Regardless of the measure of the correlation, one thing that is apparent is that the media does pose a significant impact on adolescents’ attitude and behaviour in various areas, including violence, eating disorder, tobacco, alcohol and sex (Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel Thickstun, 2005). How the adolescents were influenced by the media were also analysed in this article. Adolescents learn their behaviour through imitating a character they aspire to be (Bandura’s social learning theory). Other supporting theories include arousal, motivation and super-peer theory. In the latter, adolescents have a tendency to model people older than themselves. This resonates with the earlier findings by Gross (2000) that adolescents like to explore their self and future identity. Singapore Adolescents’ Engagement on the Internet The above studies have surfaced couple of gaps that I could address in my research. Firstly, we need to do a study in Singapore’s context. Secondly, I can learn from the challenges that the authors have shared. It would be an upstream task to measure the specific effects of the media on adolescents. Hence, the key objective of my research would be focusing on finding out and understanding adolescents’ usage of the internet. Moving closer to this region, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State and chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee talked about the internet and its impact on Asia (Ho, 2005). He suggested that as nations and governments become increasingly wired, its youths naturally become more in tune with the cyber world and its hosts of activities. Our youths surf the Internet for information and resources for their schoolwork. They play online games with faceless opponents for their leisure; or to enhance their social life, they may enter chat rooms and journal their thoughts in blogs and make new friends in cyberspace. These are creative and healthy online activities if done with the right motivations and values, and in moderation. But, as our youths become increasingly cyber-savvy, they are also becoming increasingly cyber-endangered. Hence we need to be cautious of the dark side of internet (Ho, 2005). Besides cyber addiction, we need to be aware that exposure to unhealthy materials on the internet such as violence imageries may lead to increasing violence and anti-social behaviour amongst youths. Apart from preparing our youths to be cyber-savvy and protecting them from becoming victims, we should also be mindful that they are susceptible to the temptations of cyber vices and may end up committing cyber crimes themselves. Once online, a whole new cyber world greets them. Therefore, proper education and programmes need to be in place in society in order to help our youths cope with making informed online decisions, and learning to surf the internet safely and moderately. Professor Ho has started a discussion on the double-edged impact of the internet on our youths. While the internet is a valuable resource basin for their learning and development, it could also pose a threat to their safety, social, emotional and moral developments. There is a need to protect and educate our youth on how they could use the internet safely and responsibly. He shared an important statistic in our youths’ usage of internet. 68% of Singapore youths have frequent access to the internet; that is 18% higher than the regional average of 50% (Ho, 2005). Hence it is critical that we take the leadership role in understanding our youths’ engagement in the internet and taking proactive measures to promote cyber wellness. Research Question The Research Question: What do Singapore adolescents do on the internet? Purpose Why do I want to understand adolescent usage on the internet? Firstly, it is the desire of adults including parents, teachers and mentors, to improve our communication with adolescents. By understanding what they do on the internet, we would be able to identify their interest and needs. According to Ho (2005), it is important that we understand the potential threat based on the activities they engage on the internet. Besides promoting their cyber wellness, it is also our desire as adults to determine effective channels to influence them positively and to support their development. Benefits The results of this survey would be useful for me as an academic staff whose primary role is to facilitate their learning and development in the polytechnic. By understanding their interest and internet activities, it would help me to improve my communications with them and strengthen facilitator-student bonding. I believe that this would in turn increase my effectiveness in preparing them for the industry as they graduate from the polytechnic. The second group of adults that would benefit much from this research are their parents. In the same way, by understanding the paradigm that their children live in, parents could better connect with them and improve family bond. Methodology Research Paradigm Our nation has arrived at this era where youths are playing a more critical role in leading our country. That is why our Ministry of Community Development has added in Youth as an additional portfolio that deserves increased focus and attention. In the recent general election in 2006, the incumbent People’s Action Party has recruited significant number of young leaders who were born after our independence in 1965 (Balakrishnan, 2004). The key reason is to equip the party with leaders who are closer to our youths and adolescents in communication and understanding of their needs and ideology. This group of citizens plays a pivotal role in shaping our future nation as they would be exercising their voting power in future elections, getting involved in national policies and ultimately replacing our current aging population in the long term. With the emergence of information technology and the internet, the learning curve of our adolescents has risen exponentially. As far as communication and information exchange is concerned, the size of our globe has shrunk and distances between countries have become irrelevant with the click of the computer mouse. The internet has emerged to be a major channel of media, especially among the adolescents. The researches done in the U.S. as discussed above have shown that internet pose a significant impact on adolescents. Considering the higher internet penetration in Singapore compared to the U.S. per household, we would not expect the impact of the internet on our adolescent to be any lower. Scope As discussed in the review of Article, it is important that I set a realistic scope of study considering the limited time and resources. As this is the first research, I would be focusing on finding out the activities that adolescents engage in on the internet. I have designed a survey that captures what adolescents use the internet for, the activities they engage in, how much time they spend on them. There were some qualitative question to understand their preferences, interest and reasons for engaging in the internet activities. Subjects and Materials The stakeholders were adolescents. I managed to survey 35 adolescents in my network, of which most of them are polytechnic students between 18 to 19 years old. The materials required for this survey were basically printed copies of the survey questionnaires. They spent about ten minutes each to complete the survey forms. Procedures As this is my first research on the adolescents, it would be practical for me capture a broad span of their activities as a foundation for future or follow-up focused activities. The model of action research used must support continuous improvement and leverage on past findings with an interpretive approach. Hence, the model which I choose to adopt is the Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model. The steps of Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model are: (1) develop a plan of critically informed action to improve current practice. The plan must be flexible to allow adaptation for unforeseen effects or constraints; (2) the group members act to implement the plan which must be deliberate and controlled; (3) this action is observed to collect evidence which allows thorough evaluation. The observation must be planned and the action process and its effects within the context of the situation should be observed individually or collectively; (4) reflection of the action recorded during observation is usually aided by collaborative discussion among the group members. Group reflection can lead to a reconstruction of the meaning of the social situation and provides a basis for further planning of critically informed action, thereby continuing the cycle. I designed a survey questionnaire and printed out multiple copies to the adolescents. Participation was purely based on voluntary basis and their identities were all anonymous. I explained the objectives of my survey clearly to them through both direct verbal communication and highlighting them on the survey form in print. Results and Discussions The Survey forms were given to adolescents in my network as planned. They responded positively and completed the survey with ease. The feedback was that the questions were clear. There were total 35 adolescents who participated in the survey. The gender groups were well represented with 16 males and 19 females. There were some triangulations of the reflection stage of this research as I spent some time after the survey to talk to some of the adolescents to clarify certain information pertaining to some websites or online games which I was not familiar with. It was a meaningful session as they were very open to share with me their interest such as why the males like to play challenging online games like Dota and Warcraft. I then compiled that information gathered into a spreadsheet and studied the pattern of their engagement in the internet. Activities on the Internet It is interesting to note that the adolescents spend more than one-third (an average of 9 hours per day) of their time on the internet. This is supported by the fact that internet access is highly available both at school and at home. First of all, the Polytechnic provides the infrastructure to support the use of Information Technology (IT) in learning. Every student is required to own a notebook computer for administration, curriculum-related communication, research, performing on-line tutorials and submissions of assignments. The entire campus is enabled to provide wireless broadband access. In line with the national adoption of internet access, all the students here have internet access at home. Internet access and cost of IT equipment have become so affordable that most of them (26 out of 35) have wireless broadband access in their homes. [pic] Note: IM : Internet Messaging Games: On-line games on the internet Blog : blogging on the internet Surf : Internet search for information Music : Downloading of audio files Video : Downloading of video files and watching video on-line Chart 1 : Adolescent Internet Usage It is apparent that the adolescents spend most of their time on the internet messaging and chatting. Comparing with the adolescents in the U.S. (Gross, 2000) who spend about 40 minutes in IM per day, Singapore adolescents spend 4.75 hours per day. That is an astounding seven times more. Next in line would be surfing the internet, followed by entertainment such as video and music downloads. Why do they spend almost 5 hours per day internet messaging? Based on the survey, the adolescent revealed that IM is the most convenient and fastest way for them to communicate with their classmates and friends. Besides, it is interactive and free. This is in line with Gross’s analyses of the rationale for adolescents’ affinity to IM (Gross, 2002). Adolescents like to move fast and do not have much patience to wait for response especially when they want to relate to their peers. IM is real-time. They could instantly chat with their peers online and express their emotions immediately. Similar to adolescents in the U.S. as studied by Gross (2000), I also discovered that the adolescent here do not use their real names in their IM image. They like to use emotive roles such as â€Å"I am so scared†¦test is coming†. This also reflects Erikson’s theory on adolescent anonymous identity which teenagers enjoy relating their emotions to their peers in role exper imentation (Suler, 2005). The second most common activity the adolescents engage in is in surfing the internet for information. This is not surprising as they are required to research for information as part of the requirement in projects and assignment in class. [pic] Chart 2 : Favourite Website With reference to Chart 2, it is not difficult to explain the frequent usage of Google and Yahoo as search engines for their studies. However, it is unanimous that Friendster is the most popular website that the adolescent visit. The reasons quoted for visiting this website are to connect with their friends and to update each other of their latest profile. This is in line with Suler’s findings on peer intimacy (Suler, 2005). During adolescence, humans experiment intensely with new intimate relationships, especially opposite sex relationships. They look for comrades and new groups where they can feel a sense of belonging. All these relationships become a big part of exploring ones own identity. Through communication website like Friendster and Livejournal, there is an almost limitless array of people and groups to interact with all kinds of people and groups with all kinds of personalities, backgrounds, values, and interests. The adolescents here are curious in discovering both their identity and that of their peers. To reinforce adolescents’ interest, Blogspot and Blogger take up 13.4% of the total favourite websites count. Of the 35 adolescents surveyed, 7 of them have their own blog site and 10 of them are active blogger. They enjoy expressing their emotions and sharing their social life with their peers. One popular site they like to visit, especially among the females is that of a flamboyant 21-year old female XiaXue. The girls like to her blog because it is funny and she shares her social life openly. This confirms that adolescents prefer to interact with people they can identify with (Berk, 2002). Another interest that is significant is that of video watching on the Youtube website. The adolescents’ favourite videos are humorous and entertaining like those of XiaXue and Mr. Brown who is famous for his local political jokes. Gender Comparison [pic] Chart 3: Gender Comparison of Internet Usage Chart 3 above is essentially a breakdown of Chart 1 by gender. It is interesting to note that males spend more time than females in IM. This is also related to their indulgence in on-line games and video downloading. Because of these common interests among their peers, the males derive a sense of achievement as they share information of the latest on-line games and videos using IM. In fact, the more knowledgeable or competent males would co-teach their peers on how they could excel in the on-line game. This phenomenon was highlighted by Suler(2005) in his study. He suggested that adolescents love the sense of mastery and accomplishment as they engage in peer teaching. While females prefer fantasy on-line games like Maple Story and Audition, males indulge in war, strategy and shooting games like Warcraft and Dota. The key reasons are that the males enjoy challenge and like to take risk. Besides, they are also intrigued in connecting with and challenging people in other parts of the world. Males spend substantial time in downloading video over the internet. Their favourites are comedy movies. For females, their favourite are MTVs of their idols. This resonates with the study done by Gross (2000) on adolescents’ tendency in pretending to be someone else. By idolising an older person such as a superstar, they are exploring their future identity (Gross, 2000). Recommendation First of all, as part of the Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model in action research, I would recommend a follow-up to the above research. We have achieved our objective of gaining a general understanding of what adolescent do on the internet. Of the various activities they engage on the internet, the most significant is in IM. Hence, I would propose to do a further action research on why and how they use IM. In doing so, adults could understand them better and even use IM in improving adult-adolescent relationship. Secondly, I would recommend to adults including parents and teachers of our adolescents to be aware of the above findings and take proactive actions to build strong bonding with our adolescents and to protect them from the potential cyber danger. As is true of all adolescent activities, they need at least some supervision to stay on track and avoid trouble (Suler, 2005). Getting involved doesnt just mean supervising in order to avert trouble. The world of computers also can become an excellent way for parents and adolescents to have fun together, to get to know each other better. There will be a part of the adolescent maybe even a part that they try to hide that will love this. Suler suggested a few anecdotes which I think could be applied in Singapore. First, adults could get knowledgeable of the internet and join in with the adolescents. To be most effective in supervising the adolescents cyberspace activities, the parent needs to know something about the topic. Parents could talk to their kids about cyberspace and join them in some of their online activities. They could even communicate occasionally with their adolescents through IM to keep in touch with them. It is encouraging to note that our government is supporting the formation of cyber wellness centre such as the PlanetCRuSH which was launched by TOUCH Community Services in August 2006 (Seow, 2006). During the official launch of the centre by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, some parents and their adolescents were playing on-line games together in the E-sports Carnival competition to promote family ties (Seow, 2006). Secondly, adults need to acknowledge the merits and threats of the internet. We should not vilify cyberspace that will only alienate the adolescent. Instead, we could talk to them openly about both the pros and cons. We should show an acceptance of their cyber life, but discuss some of the dangers and what steps they should take if they encounter unsavoury situations or people. Thirdly, adults should advocate and encourage a balance in cyberspace time and other activities. If theres something they really enjoy on the Internet, find a way to expand that activity into their in-person life. The idea is to integrate cyberspace into the rest of their life, and encourage them to develop non-Internet activities too. Conclusion Through the above article review and action research, I see Erikson’s psychosocial theory of adolescents’ behaviour in action. What adolescents do on the internet are manifestation of their identity experimentation and exploration, peer intimacy and belongings, separation from parents and venting frustrations. The common activities that both U.S. and Singapore adolescents engage in are IM, emails, audio/video downloads and online games. However, in terms of the length of engagement, Singapore adolescents spend 7 times more than their counterparts, especially in IM. This could be due to the higher broadband internet access rate and availability in Singapore. A further study on how adolescent use the IM is recommended to understand this intense engagement of activity. As parents and teachers, we need to be aware of the intensity of adolescent engagement in the internet and take proactive measures to protect them from cyber danger and be jointly involved in some of their internet activities such as IM and on-line games. By expressing our interest in their lives and communicating with them via their preferred platform, not only could we create a positive impact in their internet experience, we could also foster strong adult-adolescent bonding. Reference List Balakrishnan, V. (2004). Youth Mentoring Convention: Speech by Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Ag Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports. In MCYS [on-line]. Available WWW: http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/corp_speech_story.asp?szMod=corpszSubMod=speechqid=863 [2006 November 15]. Berk, L. E. (2002). Infants, Children, and Adolescents (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Escobar-Chaves, S. L., Tortolero, S. R., Markham, C. M., Low, B. J., Eitel, P., Thickstun, P. (2005). Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. In Pediatrics [on-line]. Available WWW: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/1/S1/303#F1 [2006 Sep 29]. Gross, E. F. (2000). Adolescent Internet use : what we expect, what teens report. In UCLA Digital Media Centre [on-line]. Available WWW: http://www.cdmc.ucla.edu/downloads/Adolescent%20Internet%20usepdf.pdf [2006 Sep 29]. Gross, E. F., Juvonen, J., Gable, S. L. (2002). Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 75–90 Ho, P. K. (2005). The Youth.Net: Developing Cyber Wellness In Conjunction With Asean + 3 Seminar On Urban Youth Work III at Orchard Hotel Speech by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State (Law And Home Affairs) And Chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime (IMYC), 26 July 2005. In [emailprotected] [on-line]. Available WWW: http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=1614type=4root=0parent=0cat=0 [2006 Sep 29]. Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2000). Broad-based approach to make Singapore the location for infocomm manpower and savvy workforce. In IDA [on-line]. Available WWW:http://www.ida.gov.sg/Website/IDAContent.nsf/dd1521f1e79ecf3bc825682f0045a340/7f1eda7f3c633fd1c825689800580dc9?OpenDocument Seow, E. (2006, September 30). Safe Fun and Games at New Cyber Wellness Centre. Keeping in Touch, p. 5.

Advertising Fast Food Product Placement Media Essay

Advertising Fast Food Product Placement Media Essay Product Placement is a term defined as the practice of integrating specific products and brands into filmed entertainment. Product placement was always evolved into the billion-dollar market of Hollywood. As the costs keep increasing for producing movies, studios become ready to make connections with big corporations, which are willing to place their products in a big, particular film. These big connections have big payments. For example direct payments for product placement (for instance in License to Kill Phillip Morris Tobacco paid $350,000 for Bond to smoke a Lark cigarette). Another good example is, In the biggest co-marketing deal in film history, Coca-Cola paid à Ã‹â€ 95 million to the producers of Harry Potter for the right o use the films logo on its cans in what will become a series of films; the first Harry Potter film cost à Ã‹â€ 75 million. It went on general release on November 2001 and is expected to be shown on a thousand screens in the UK. The movie was like the big bang as expected. Harry Potter products everywhere sold in huge amounts and consumers attacked to any product of the movie letting the industry behind the scenes to gain more power. Today all major US film studios seeking for brands to place into a film they are producing. Studios dont pay to the brand owner but the benefits of product placement advertisement are so big to the product name and the film itself that each side promotes the other. Even some smaller studios are seeking for product placement. These movies usually require the product owners to pay television and billboard advertisements. A small film cannot afford these types of advertisements but product placement can. Getting a product into a movie is a long and complicated process. Only the largest companies have direct connections with the large studios. Other companies need to contact to product placement agencies. These agencies try to attract companies with their promises of favorable placements. These agents contact to studios on the phone and look through the scripts with the studio to find someplace to fit their clients products. There are over hundred product placement agencies in the United States. One of the most famous ones is E.R.M.A. (Entertainment Resources Marketing Association), an agency with the slogan Let Us Put You In Movies. E.R.M.A. has a long list of member studios including 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, MGM, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. This agency also has a longer list of clients and under the food title E.R.M.A. has the most famous fast food brands as clients like Taco Bell, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, KFC and McDonalds. These lists are just examples and they are normally much longer. While time passes more and more companies are realizing the importance and effectiveness of product placement. Companies are searching for the right movie to place their products and taking advantage of the consumer capacity of the movies. Product owners and studios can use different techniques for placing a product. The best product placements are the ones that the product is needed for the movies storyline. But these placements are not common. Another good placement of a product is by letting the characters using the products. The best example of this type of placement is from the movie Forest Gump. In Forrest Gump, when Forrest goes to the All-American ceremony at the White House he drinks large quantities of Dr. Pepper. It does not come off as a shameless promotion because the consumption of the product creates the funny confrontation between Forrest and President Kennedy, as Forrest says, I got to pee. When people see a movie with product placement they tend to look for the products they see on screen to make these products a part of their lives too like the movie characters they watch. When the consumer see Forest Gump drinking Dr. Pepper and say The best things about meeting the president was you could drink all the Dr. Pepper you wanted. the consumer looks for the brands name everywhere. Instead of drinking orange juice with their sandwiches the consumers order Dr. Pepper with the sandwich. Or someone else sees the Harry Potter cups of Coca-Cola and forget about the juice and buy the cola. When a star uses a recognizable product, people in the audience will pat themselves on the back and say look how smart I am, Im using the same thing as the hero in the movie. Its the most inexpensive way to get visibility and sales power. One of the most famous movies of the director Steven Spielberg was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). The movie became famous for its cute alien, two cute little children, flying bicycles, interesting story and neat details that everyone who have seen the movie feels emotionally attached to E.T. Almost every review can be found about the movie is positive and this feels like a magic. The receipt from movies ticket sales worldwide shows $756,700,000. When we look at the list of top grossing movies of all time at the worldwide box office E.T. is number 10. That facts address an incredible success. E.T. is not only famous for these facts but it is also known as the movie that changed the world of the product placement. So how did E.T. change the world of product placement? By showing Reeses Pieces as the favorite food of the major character and after the millions of dollars of ticket sales and thousands of people watching the movie in theatres, noticing Reeses Pieces as the favorite food of the character who the viewers have emotional attachments to while watching the movie. E.T. increased the sales of Reeses Pieces by 70%. This amount was amazing and everybody was impressed. One interesting fact about this placement of the movie is how this all started. On the process of producing the movie suddenly the producers came up with the idea of asking for money from MM for showing MM products in the movie. But MM didnt like the idea so their answer was no. In the end everybody agrees that Reeses Pieces made the right decision to say yes to E.T. After the huge success of the product placement in E.T., advertisement gained even more power. Advertisers started to search for ways to carry their products out of the commercial breaks and move the product to the shows themselves. So the product placement became popular. Some of the most famous examples of product placement are James Bond Series perfect car BMW, Taco Bell in Demolition Man, FedEx in Cast Away and Ford in Jurassic Park. But the most famous products used in product placements are fast foods and the most famous brand would be McDonalds. Fast food restaurants biggest advantage is food is a product easy to fit in most movies and in most movies it is acceptable for a character to got to any fast food restaurant when the fact, that in every neighborhood at least one fast food can be found, considered. But McDonalds even made surprising attacks. In a movie about no technology, no electricity, nothing related to our world but only a world belongs to an era when dinosaurs were still around; McDonalds was looking for product placement. In the picture number1 you can see how McDonalds got into the movie Flintstones. In the movie, McDonalds wasnt only a restaurant that our heroes choose but also on the sign of the restaurant over 19 dozen sold joke is a flashback of the companys fast growth and power. Actually when we look at the picture carefully or while watching the movie we can easily notice that the scene McDonalds was used, in a way is a complete McDonalds commercial. Workers wearing McDonalds uniforms, a big sign telling how powerful McDonalds is getting, a sunny day, children running, laughing and playing, a full restaurant with happy people. This movies receipt from ticket sales worldwide shows $358,500,000. Most people who have seen the movie were children and the image of McDonalds for them is the restaurant their favorite characters choose. This image is a little scary even before we focus on the restaurants quality, health issues or morality. While McDonalds and Hollywood are getting richer and richer with these commercials nations get even more addicted to fast food. Young children (under the age of eight years) are very susceptible to advertisements. If an advertisement for a product attracts their interest, they will ask for it even if it is a product for which they have no need or use. (Theres the story of the five year old boy who was asked what he would choose if he had just one wish. His answer was A Tampax, because if I had that I could swim, ride a horse or do anything) Especially young children influenced to want to eat unhealthy, fatty fast foods. The techniques used in movies by product placement are not very different from the techniques used in fast food commercials to attract children. The messages are the same, having fun in the restaurants, the image of being cool and the tasty food served on these restaurants. These messages work easily on young children. An average child watches about 10,000 food advertisements in one year on television and most of these advertisements are for fast food. Today televisions negative side is not only commercials anymore, but also the movies, which used product placement, shown on television. Fast food companies attack children and adults, everyone, with any weapon they can find including Internet, magazines, even games. What impact is this having on youth? Recent statistics indicate that 14% of children are now seriously overweight. 60% of overweight children between the ages of 5-10 years of age already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, including elevated blood cholesterol, blood pressure or increased insulin, and type 2 diabetes. Even if the audience dont notice the products placed in the movies, that doesnt decrease the effectiveness of the placement. In their minds they still have the image of the product even if they have difficulty in recalling the brands name because they didnt pay much attention, they have the image stuck in their minds. One other fact is product placement is becoming an issue that people talk about. Did you notice that in Flintstones they used Burger King this time. In the first movie they used McDonalds. I wonder why. or I didnt understand why the major character was so upset in McDonalds scene. getting more common in daily dialogues. People would talk about these products even more often as the studios continue making movies like Bye Bye Love, a movie opens with an almost 10 minutes long scene at a McDonalds. But one fact is that these kinds of movies dont get good reviews by the famous critics like Roger Ebert. This quote is taken from his article about the movie from Chicago Sun-Ti mes, The movie opens at a McDonalds, in a long and shameless product placement. Bye Bye, Love looks, in fact, like a McDonalds commercial for its first 10 minutes, as the restaurant serves as neutral turf where ex-wives can drop off the kids for their ex-husbands visitation rights. Today product placement doesnt only exist in movies. It is finding new areas to place the products. For example Bill Fitzhugh, an American author, used product placement in one of his books Cross Dressing. Though the book doesnt feature any scene of people enjoying fast food or anything close to that, there are a few scenes involving cocktails. So the book has placement of little products. Though the book had really bad reviews because of the product placement Fitzhugh still fights for his book. One recent product placement deal took place between Intel and McDonalds. Sims Online, the internet-based continuation of The Sims, a franchise that has sold more than 19 million units worldwide deals with McDonalds to place the restaurant in the game. With this deal in the game players will be able to buy McDonalds kiosk, sell McDonalds products and eat the products to improve their standing within the game. Electronic Arts announced that before the release of the game there might be even more product placements and it is easy to insert additional product later because of the games online nature. Yet, Sims fans didnt like the idea of the placement and they are arguing on the issue on message boards. Today our world is surrounded by fast food companies attacks. Junk and fast food is a part of our lives even if we dont want them in our lives. The image shown to us is a happy, colorful life with fast food. The question is not Do we want it? The question is How far would they go to sell us their fast food? There is no place left to escape from these attacks and fast food is a part of our daily lives whether we want it or not. Fast food industry made people feeding dinosaurs, eat at McDonalds, it is hard to imagine what is next! As Ralph Nader complains Whats next? An entire sitcom shot in McDonalds? May be one day there will be people living in McDonalds.