Consolidation of mass-media essays

Consolidation of mass-media essays The most revered and respected of all rights we Americans share is the freedom of speech; moreover, the freedoms of a free press. These freedoms are basic necessities of a free and fare society. Walter Lippmann said that a free press should consist of many newspapers decentralized in their ownership and their management, and dependent for their support... upon the communities where they are written, where they are edited and where they are read(Blethen B07). Consolidation of our nations mass-media outlets threatens the essence of integrity in our nations free speech, and freedoms of a free press. Many would wonder why such a thing would be permitted, if the repercussions of such actions would be so damaging. In fact if you look back in time there was a concern to such a problem. Thus many laws were drafted to prevent such occurrences. For instance the Local Radio Ownership Cap of 1947 limited number of stations on company can own in a single market (The). The National TV Ownership law of 1941 stated that a company may not own stations that reach more than 35 percent of the national audience (The). The Dual Television Network rule of 1946 prevents one company from owning two of the top four television broadcast networks (The). The Duopoly rule of 1964 that a single company may own two television stations in a single market only if one or both of them is not rated among the top 4; moreover, that there will be at least eight remaining Independent stations after the acquisition (The). The Radio/TV Cross-Ownership Restriction of 1970 limits the ownership in the markets in regards to how many stations one company can own in a single market, and is different depending upon the size of the market (The). The Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Prohibition of 1975 states that broadcast companies may not buy newspapers in communities where they own stations (The). These rules and regulation...

Amazon versus Webvan

Amazon versus Webvan AbstractBoth Amazon and Webvan were well-funded Internet startups in the 1990's. Both focused on a business model that allowed consumers to order products online that would be delivered to the consumers home. In the article, we discuss why Amazon succeeded while Webvan failed.The Two Companies' BackgroundAmazon: Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com, Inc. is a Website where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon .com in 1990and in July 1995, Amazon.com, Inc. the Fortune 500 Company commenced its operations becoming one of the world most customer-centric company, and selling Worlds Biggest Selection. They offer their customers the lowest possible prices and highest quality. They sell millions of unique, new, used and collectible items in categories such as apparel and accessories, electronics, computers, kitchen and house wares, books, music, DVDs, videos, cameras and photo items, office products, toys, baby items and baby registry, softw are, computer and video games, cell phones and service, tools and hardware, travel services, magazine subscriptions and outdoor living items.Webvan Delivery VanThe Company organized its operations into four principal segments. 1. North America Books, Music and DVD/Video (BMVD); 2. North America Electronics, Tools and Kitchen (ETK); 3. International, 4. ServicesWebvan: Webvan was started in 1996 by Louis Borders and was established to sell groceries over the World Wide Web. George Shaheen resigned as CEO of Anderson Consulting to take advantage of the opportunity to become CEO of Webvan. Webvan, which originated as an online grocery service, delivers food (including its BestYet label, a co-brand with food distributor Fleming Companies) and non-prescription drugs to their customers' doors. Webvan's vision was to provide grocery-shopping solutions that would save consumers both time and effort, without sacrificing the quality, selection, and low prices of traditional brick-and-mortar s tores.Why Amazon...

How to Determine Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years

How to Determine Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years Have you ever been in an interview, or an annual performance review, and found yourself a little stymied by the very simple question, â€Å"where do you see yourself in 5 years?† It’s a question right out of the Interviewing 101 handbook, and the asker is probably more interested in making sure that your answer isn’t â€Å"following Phish around the country† than in hearing the nitty-gritty of your next 10  career steps. But that doesn’t make it any easier to answer, if you haven’t put much thought or energy beyond your next step. And it also doesn’t mean you should phone it in. 1. Why Have a Career Plan?2.  Okay, I Need a Plan- Now What?3. How Do I Figure Out What I Want to Do?4. Setting Your Goals5.  How Do I Come Up With a Strategy?6.  Be Ready to ReviseWhy Have a Career Plan?Even if you haven’t been called out on your long-term career plans directly, it’s an exercise worth doing for your own sake. What do you want out of your career? It can be so easy to get caught up in what’s happening now, or what’s happening immediately next. If you don’t have a career plan, no one’s going to blackball you as a slacker. Still, here are five irrefutable (okay, not easy to refute) reasons you should consider making a career plan for yourself.1. It gives you a foundation for your career.It’s good to have a base to come back to- a sense of what your purpose is. Coming up with a career plan lets you put specific goals around ones that might be a little on the vague side. â€Å"Become a manager† or â€Å"get promoted to VP† are great goals, but they’re short on specifics. The career plan can help you figure out the milestones you need to hit in the interim. This is especially true if you’re looking for a job, or are trying to break into a particular field. Knowing what you want ahead of time can help you figure out what the best opportunities a re.2. It’s not set in stone.A career plan can seem like a commitment, especially if you’re relatively new to your field. But this isn’t about putting a ring on it for good- it’s about sketching out your preferred outcomes, so that you can make your current and near-future actions more productive. You can change it up later, if you decide this career isn’t for you after all, or you want to take a totally different approach.3. Strategy puts you in more control of your own success. If you have an upcoming fantasy football draft, or you’re into hunting Pokemon, these hobbies have something in common: you have a strategy for success. Maybe you’ve obsessed over stats, injury reports, and sports gossip sites checking to see if that quarterback is going to bounce back from his rehab stint. Or you got a hot tip about where that rare Flareon is hanging out, and you want to figure out the best time to go hunting. Either way, you’re making a plan for success. Think of yourself as the general here. Are you guaranteed a specific outcome? Nope. But does your plan give you better odds of succeeding than wandering (or drafting) aimlessly would? Absolutely.4. You’ll learn more about yourself.Your values and priorities change over time- so assumptions and decisions you made way back when might not even be close to accurate anymore. If you put in the time to take stock of where you are now and where you truly want to go, it puts you in touch with your current self, rather than the self who was making career decisions years ago.5. All the cool kids are doing it.That reason never stops being valid, right?Okay, I Need a Plan- Now What?Here’s where the great idea of planning your career starts getting down and dirty- you need to start doing the actual work. According to Quora, this process can be broken down into a series of steps:Step 1: Conduct a self-assessment.What do you value most? What are your strengths and weaknesses as an employee? What skills and experience do you bring to the table?Step 2: Decide your career options based on the interests and strengths from that self-assessment.Once you have that snapshot of you as a professional person, the next part is hard: finding jobs that line up with your wants and needs. (More on that below.)Step 3: Name your career goals.What do you want to achieve at different points throughout your career? What about six months from now, a year from now, two years from now? You can spin this out as long as you want. (Bonus points if you pass Go.)Step 4: Develop your career strategy. How do you get to those goals? What smaller goals do you need to hit in the meantime to reach those larger ones?Step 5: Review and adjust that strategy as necessary.How does your career outlook change as your life changes? Remember, this is not a one-and-done exercise- you can change it as much as you want.How Do I Figure Out What I Want to Do?Some careers have very specific milestones, if The Sims taught me anything. For example, if you want to become a tenured teacher, first you have to get your degree, be a student teacher, possibly get your Master’s, get certified/licensed, and find a full-time teaching job. That’s pretty straightforward. If your goal is to be a VP of marketing somewhere, it’s less straightforward. Which industry are you marketing in? There may not be a direct line in your field, but rather a ladder of experience that you can gather from different places. If you know what you want to do but are a little unclear on the steps to get there, then internet searches are your best friend. Look for professionalRemember: Passion is Not a PlanWhen you’re making your plan (or even figuring out how to start), it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t need to use this planning process as an altar to your professional passion.Terri Trespicio, a branding strategist and life coach, talks about rejectin g the idea that you have one passion job or career in your life. Your career plan doesn’t have to be a tunnel vision view of your abiding passion in life- it can be as simple as an outline of the kind of experience you want to gain over the next few years. It’s not about limiting yourself to one track, it’s about giving yourself a lifeline you can follow even when things get rough (if you lose your job, if you hate your job, etc.). Think of this as a problem-solving exercise: what problems need to be solved for you to get to the next level?Quiz Your Way to a PlanThe self-assessment may be more than just your strengths and values- it might be even more basic: â€Å"What do I want to do when I grow up?† (If you’re anything like me, you ask yourself that question long after the point when no one would mistake you for not yet grown up.) There are lots of great resources out there that can help you narrow the wide world of careers into a manageable numb er of potential paths for yourself. These are tests, quizzes, and surveys online that you can do at your leisure, and not only offer insight, but recommendations on what you can do with your newfound (or newly confirmed) info.The Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorTruityPymetricsThe Johnson-O’Connor Career Aptitude TestThe MAPP Career Assessment TestThe O*Net Interest Profiler These resources (some free, some premium) can help you get a better snapshot of what you’re well-suited to do. The soul-searching about values and priorities has to come from within, but you can definitely get some outside help on how to translate your skills and abilities into a fulfilling career path, and a set of goals you can meet along the way.Setting Your GoalsAfter you figure out your strengths and what you’d like to do (in general), the next step is figuring out your goals. When you’re thinking about these goals, they should be:SpecificMeasurableAchievableRelevantTime-bound If you m ake your goals as specific and reasonable, and put a schedule around it (approximate is fine), you’re more likely to hit them. Goals that are vague or too difficult will quickly get left behind as you concentrate on other things.How Do I Come Up With a Strategy?The strategic plan is the result of that round of asking yourself questions (or using one of the online self-assessments as an oracle). And it involves†¦more questions.What additional skills/experience do I need to hit my goals?What kind of network will I need?What jobs or companies would help me achieve those goals?What weaknesses can I fix to meet these goals?What kind of experience would be most helpful to me?But at this point, your questions are getting more refined, and more centered around what you want to be doing. You’re ready to start writing down milestones (goals) and a few bullet points for each that provide more information.Be Ready to ReviseRemember, this plan is not an all-or-nothing document , which shall not be changed. You will change, your circumstances might change, and your field might change. All of the potential for shifts in your plan mean you need to be ready to keep thinking about your career plan, and whether it still works for you. Maybe it’s an annual check-in with yourself, with a yearly reminder set for a quiet Sunday. But once you’ve gotten in touch with where you want to be at various points in your career, it’ll be easier to keep the plan in your mind as you move forward with opportunities and make decisions.

Abnormalities in returns and gains in financial markets Assignment

Abnormalities in returns and gains in financial markets - Assignment Example Questionable interests have been raised as a means of gaining an insight in causes of the abnormalities in the financial market studies. Much of the interest raised has been directed towards understanding the nature of the gains on both the two major types of offers. It is important to know whether the gains are truly anomalous or whether they are communal with the firms that are nonevent with features that are connected to the average returns. According to Famar & French (1993), book to market equity and size are the two variables believed to have connection with the average stock return (ASR). The long term buy and hold returns only apply for the size and this may result to the outcome being affected by additional variables that are common with the average return. Famar and French’s research aimed at comparing the half a decade period buy-and-hold gains on initial public offers that had gains on portfolios that matched the initial public offers on size and book to market equ ity. The two types of public offers were not considered in the research. The study led to helpful findings. A half decade relative wealth increased from a percentage of seven to about a hundred percent. The study showed that buy and hold gains on securities equity discount are almost equal to the one produced by the non event portfolios with common size and BE/ME. Independent studies conducted by different researchers led to the deduction that the two types of public offers were minimal growth stocks.

Ethics in Modern American Corporate Environment Essay

Ethics in Modern American Corporate Environment - Essay Example Does the daily influx of media reportage of widespread criminal representation, tax evasion and a whole lot of fraudulent actions by the supposed men and women of our corporate environment cast a spell of doom on our corporate system Have our corporate environment being besieged by a bunch of infidel corporate leaders According to recent psychological findings, the human nature by its inherent weakness if left untrained can easily succumb to the pressures of misconduct. In order words, it should be understood that no corporate executive has ever been nor will ever be a model of celestial perfection. Much of the forces that influence group and individual behaviors are largely a result of the prevailing environment; the daily situations we encounter has the propensity to alter even the most well intended motives of an individual thus making us susceptible to unethical conducts. In our day and age, the corporate environment is undergoing a massive revolution with an attendant level of sophistication highly unprecedented in the annals of humanity. This increasing dynamism makes it difficult to conceptualism the traditional definition of ethics much less placing stringent judgments on its implementation. Does this exonerate the violators of corporate ethics Certainly not! It is in the light of this that this essay, seeks to present a holistic analysis of all the contending issues in this debate. It is expected that by doing this, the platform would be created to usher a succinct definition that is perfectly in tune with contemporary realities. Building on this definition, there can therefore be formidable streamlining of the loose ends that have created the pervasiveness that have characterized our corporate landscape. What constitutes an Ethical Conduct The advent of globalization and its attendant widespread sweeping reforms across all sectors of the human spectrum will provide the basis for the discourse in this section. In view of the complexities in our world today it has become somewhat difficult to reconcile the abstract features of traditional understanding of ethics to the changing realities of our time. In any case this limitation should not impede any effort to address the subject exhaustively. Rather than discarding what is already known about ethics because it appears obsolete there will be an attempt to restructure and extend the boundaries where it is necessary whilst in the same vein it will be prudent to pull down the needless elements also. It should also be noted that all attempts to legislate ethical conduct has being treated with hostility. The problem with any attempt to legislate ethics is that ethics in its imperative form is very abstract. To overcome this difficulty, it is prudent to look at within the context of describing ethics within the context of practicing decency in human conduct. For good reasons, it is understood that opting for decency makes it comparatively easier to address this subject. As an illustration, the desire to exhibit decency at all levels will guide the conduct of the individual in the work setting even if there is evidence that the person is undergoing a stressful mood swing or not. Moreover, decency in its absolute sense is dead unl ess it is backed by concrete or pragmatic steps irrespective of the emotional or

Management in Brazil Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management in Brazil - Assignment Example Most of these firms operate under the economies of scale. There is no use of state of the art advance management practices. The situation is no different from the government owned large cooperation. Most of the managers in these co-operations are educated and come for the high social class group. The managers in these large co-operations act like their counterparts in smaller institutions, lack the necessary education in commensurate management. Issues to do with culture and business size limit are the limiting facts to management and are evident in most organization in Brazil. The family owned business the management is centralized around the family. In the middle level cooperation’s, there is no in between levels and the top management is by the owners of the business. The private organizations show very small levels of departments. The structure makes management in Brazil to be very authoritarian. The management is paternalistic and exploits employees mainly in terms of their security, safety and physiological needs. As a result, labor unions are becoming stronger and stronger each day that passes. The unions are advocating better employee working conditions and servicers. The above development has given rise to more firms adopting human and resource management. However, the department is limited to employees alone. Their role makes them to be viewed more as agents of the employees rather than a member of the managing team of the greater organization. The role of women in Brazilian firm’s management is limited. Women have been sideline in management and the main reason given by John Theodor is the Brazilian culture. There are also few women in the professions that are considered necessary to make top management position in an organization. The human and resource department also lack policies to encourage women to join the management as affirmative action. Existing managers in Brazil

Company law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Company law - Essay Example The court of appeal upheld Chandler’s claims against Cape plc., and acknowledged that damages were available for the claimant from the parent firm. The liability was placed on the parent firm for which the claimant was an employee to its subsidiary. The subsidiary firm that employed Chandler had ceased operations by the time Chandler sued for damages. However, the High Court upheld Chandler’s claims, and so did the Court of appeal. Although corporate personality requires that a company within a group of companies should handle its liabilities independently, the court held that the parent company was liable for tortious negligence to Chandler. The decision made by the Court of appeal critically influences the legal provisions that govern corporate operations in more ways than just linking subsidiary liabilities to the parent firms as already seen in the Chandler v Cape plc case. Agency principles that relate to common law are often used in determining closely related cases that are filed on similar grounds. In this respect, parties that are relatively bound to benefit on the same ground as that realized by Chandler could file lawsuits against parent firms for liabilities that could have been rather carried by their subsidiaries. The corporate veil between the subsidiary and the parent firm was lifted on the ground that the parent firm best understood the working conditions that the subsidiary was subjecting its employees to. Legally, the court held that the parent firm was as liable as its subsidiary. However, the subsidiary was no longer operational, thus transferring the negligence liability to the parent firm. Duty of care existed between Chandler and the parent firm, through the employing subsidiary. Corporate veil prompts that the employees clearly understand the direct liable party in relation to whom they act for2. The obligations of all the