The Parliament :: essays research papers

The Parliament was an elected organization set up by theking to manage the country to save the King the effort.Although officially ruled by the King, Parliament wasincreasing its power so rapidly that by the 1600s it couldno longer be relied on to do what the King wanted. KingCharles first came into conflict with his Parliament in 1629when he ordered Parliament to raise taxes and it refused.His response was to abolish Parliament and he ruledParliament on his avow for 11 long time. However, the peopledidnt nutriment him and he ran short of money so he had toreinstate Parliament in 1640.However, conflict broke pop out again in 1642 when Charlestried to have 5 members of Parliament arrested who hadbeen actively disagreeing with his policies. The MPs fledinto the back of the streets of London plainly when the Kingwent after them, the citizens expelled him angrily from theircity. This was a direct violation by the people of thesupreme power of the King and marked the beginning ofthe English Civil War.Those English who supported the King (the Cavaliers) hadsupport in north England and Wales and theparliamentarians (Roundheads) had support in the rest ofEngland. Despite the fairly even start, however, theCavaliers were fought back and in 1646 the Roundheadsforced the King to surrender. However, at the cease send awaynegotiations Charles would not agree to the Roundheadterms and after a stalemate the war erupted again in 1648.Once again the Cavaliers were defeated but this time heRoundheads did not accept a surrender and insteadcaptured the and executed Charles in 1649. England nowhad no King. For the next 11 years was a Republic. It wasruled from 1633 to 1658 by a general named OliverCromwell, who was a fundamental Protestant but anextremely cruel man. He was given the title Lord Protectorof the Commonwealth of England, but he had been activein Ireland long before he undertook that role.In 1641, just before the Civil War, the Irish of Ulster hadbegun an uprisin g and attacked the planters who hadsettled 30 years before. Between 10,000 and 15,000Protestant planters were murdered by the Irish at placessuch as Portadown. Due to the war, the English did nothingabout this and the death-toll became heavily exaggerated all over time. In 1649, after the Civil War had ended,Cromwell landed at Dublin with 12,000 men with theintention of punishing those who had uprisen. He firstattacked Drogheda and captured it, slaughtering over 3000people. He then marched on Wexford town and massacredseveral hundred people there.

Politics in the Novel Imperium by Robert Harris Essay -- Robert Harris

Imperium begins when Cicero as a young man from a middle class family. He leaves his small town behind and comes to Rome, looking to make a name for himself in politics. He begins as a lawyer and is immediately noticed for his out take overing oratory skills and daring composure . Gradually, he gains influence in the realm of the courts until he has achieved the title of the second best advocate in Rome, only beaten by his bitter rival, Hortensius. His next triumph is to take on a daring case against the governor or Sicily, Verres, who has extorted his people for decades and wrongfully imprisoned hundreds of them. Though Cicero has a bounty of evidence of this corruption, he has other enormous disadvantages. A huge majority of the court is biased against him because he is new blood, and is not yet a respected lawyer compared to Hortensius who has very good lineage. Verres is as well as an aristocrat, and is thus backed by nearly the entirety of the aristocracy of the Senate, who wo uld be the jury in his case. However, Cicero won the favor of the jury with his charisma and his courageous and polemic courtroom maneuvers. Now that Cicero is on the political board, he marries into an affluent family so that he might advance his status. He then enters the senate by showing that he has the money to hold a seat and from that moment on he has branded himself as a politician, ever aspiring to up his position on the rungs of the Roman political ladder until he has achieved the power of life and death in politics, known to the Romans as imperium.The idea behind this novel is that Rome had a very complex political system that can only be fully understood from an inside source such as this novel. This novel got exceedingly complicated, especially wi... ...tic system of election such as America?s and how inefficient it is. Changes that Cicero himself put into play all that time ago have been coordinated into our system today simply by him speaking up in a session of th e senate. It is awesome to consider how dedicated to the republic these ancient politicians were compared to todays politicians who yell the system that has been set in place and have only popularity and selfishness. This novel reminds the reader of how great these people that we have heard about from ancient time are and it gives us proof that what they did really did make a difference. We cannot know if people from our century will influenced history forever because they have yet to stand the test of time, but significant Roman figures have and the evidence of that lies in the difference they left on Rome, and eventually all of western civilization.

Cultural Environment :: Televisions Technology Culture Essays

Cultural Environment The invention of the picture and its advancement through with(predicate) technology in our world has affected the cultural environment significantly. It has affected the way we act, perceive things, and even changed our lives as a whole. The cultural environment in todays society is totally different from the time period before the invention of the tv. First, the tv has affected the pre-existing cultural institutions. Before the television was invented most of the children all over the world would play outside with their friends after school. Children would be playing ball in the streets, buying candy at the thingumajig store, and so on. Ever since the television was invented, more and more children are watching television rather than playing outside after school. In todays society, its even worse since children are usually glued to the television all day. This eliminates their chance for some exercise and to meet new people. The invention of the television also has changed the meaning of family night. Back before the television, families used to come together one night a week to play board games and to socialize. Ever since the television was invented, less and less families come together to play games. If they do come together, it is usually in front of the television. This changes the meaning of family night because now families dont socialize as much because they watch television. This technology has also affected the way people see themselves and their place in the universe. Television has become such an integral part of society that people are confusing fantasy with reality. Violence seems to be in almost every television show in todays society. This excessive violence makes society accustom to it and therefore people dont believe violence is as bad as it is when it happens. Although few anti-television activists would agree that excessive television viewing can exculpate a murd erer, a huge body of evidence -- including 3,000 studies before 1971 alone -- suggests a strong connection between television watching and aggression (Stossel 3). This is concrete proof that the television has changed peoples attitudes and the way they see themselves in society.

Macbeth :: essays research papers

In the first act of the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the reader is introduced to the two characters that depart play the most significant part in the plays storyline. Even though they are man and wife, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have much dissimilarity. One can check how their personalities differ as the plot moves forward. Though they are married and undying in their love, it can be plainly seen that they have many differences.In the opening mental picture of the play, Macbeth and friends, on one of their travels, encounter a trio of witches who chant prophecies. To sum up their decree to Macbeth, the witches inform Macbeth that it is his fate to be king. This promise of fate worries Macbeth because he thinks that the present king and his friend, Duncan, is a very good ruler. Macbeths opinion of King Duncan supercedes his desire to rule the kingdom. Therefore, Macbeth is somewhat hesitant to accept his fate.As Macbeth arrives at his manor later on the encounter with the witches, he tells Lady Macbeth of prophecy. Though she meets the news with the same startling surprise as her husband did, Lady Macbeth is much more positive of the impending fate. She thinks that the impending fate of her husband is a very positive thing and she lead do everything in her power to help the prophecy come to pass.The iniquity of Macbeths return to his home, King Duncan is scheduled to have dinner at Macbeths manor. This event starts off the chain of events that fuel the entire play. While Macbeth downplays the prophecy and is worried of what will happen, as well as the fate of King Duncan, his wife Lady Macbeth acts very proactive. Her thought processes are sinister and devious, as she conjures up a be after to eliminate Duncan as king and put her husband into power.In the first act of Macbeth, one can see the huge gap between the personalities of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders Essay -- Health Violence Papers

Sexual Abuse and Eating DisordersThe possible relationship between versed abuse and the outgrowth of an eating disorder has gained attention over the last few years. Researchers have attempted to clarify this potential link using a variety of existence samples and research methodologies. As will be shown, the results of these investigations are rather diverse and sometimes inconclusive. In the following review of the literature, the complex relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders will be examined while also discussing the methodological limitations of the various designs.Anorexic SamplesSteiger and Zanko (1990) equald rates of incestuous abuses (sexual contacts with family members) and extrafamilial abuses (sexual traumata involving other perpetrators) among eating disordered women who met DSM-III-R (American psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria, women with psychiatric disturbances, and common women. The authors interest in the psychological effects of abuse le d them to examine psychological defenses which are believed to filter perceptions and affects. Defenses were of interest to the authors for two reasons (1) incest victims a good deal resort to maladaptive defenses with a self-victimizing quality, in which anger at others is expressed through self-sabotaging acts and (2) the authors previous work suggests that eating disordered women use primitive defenses when compared to normal and psychiatrically disturbed women. This particular study was designed to determine the degree to which traumata like sexual abuse might have effects upon defense-style development.In order to compare rates across eating disorder subtypes, the eating disordered women were divided into the following groups (1) ... ...Test The BULIT-R. Psychological Assessment A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3, 119-124.Walters, C., Smolak, L., & Sullins, E. (1987). Parent-child interactions and adversity of child sexual abuse. Paper presented to the annual convention of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore.Welch, S.L., & Fairburn, C.G. (1994). Sexual Abuse and Bulimia Nervosa Threeintegrated berth control comparisons. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 402-407.Wonderlich, S., Donaldson, M.A., Carson, D.K., Staton, D., Gertz, L., Leach, L.R., & Johnson, M. (1996). Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11, 195-207.Zlotnick, C., Hohlstein, L.A., Shea, M.T., Pearlstein, T., Recupero, P., & Bidadi, K. 1996). The Relationship Between Sexual Abuse and Eating Pathology. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 20, 129-134.

Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders Essay -- Health Violence Papers

Sexual Abuse and Eating DisordersThe possible relationship between informal abuse and the development of an consume cark has gained attention over the last few years. Researchers have attempted to clarify this potential link using a variety of population samples and research methodologies. As will be shown, the results of these investigations are rather diverse and sometimes inconclusive. In the following review of the literature, the complex relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders will be examined while also discussing the methodological limitations of the various designs.Anorexic SamplesSteiger and Zanko (1990) compared rates of incestuous abuses (sexual contacts with family members) and extrafamilial abuses (sexual traumata involving other perpetrators) among eating disordered women who met DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria, women with psychiatric disturbances, and mean(prenominal) women. The authors interest in the psychological effect s of abuse led them to examine psychological defenses which are believed to filter perceptions and affects. Defenses were of interest to the authors for two reasons (1) incest victims often resort to maladjustive defenses with a self-victimizing quality, in which anger at others is expressed through self-sabotaging acts and (2) the authors previous work suggests that eating disordered women use primitive defenses when compared to normal and psychiatrically disturbed women. This item study was designed to determine the degree to which traumata like sexual abuse might have effects upon defense-style development.In order to compare rates crossways eating disorder subtypes, the eating disordered women were divided into the following groups (1) ... ...Test The BULIT-R. Psychological Assessment A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3, 119-124.Walters, C., Smolak, L., & Sullins, E. (1987). Parent-child interactions and severity of child sexual abuse. Paper presented to the a nnual convention of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore.Welch, S.L., & Fairburn, C.G. (1994). Sexual Abuse and Bulimia Nervosa Threeintegrated case control comparisons. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 402-407.Wonderlich, S., Donaldson, M.A., Carson, D.K., Staton, D., Gertz, L., Leach, L.R., & Johnson, M. (1996). Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11, 195-207.Zlotnick, C., Hohlstein, L.A., Shea, M.T., Pearlstein, T., Recupero, P., & Bidadi, K. 1996). The Relationship Between Sexual Abuse and Eating Pathology. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 20, 129-134.

Example Research: Critical Discourse Analysis

18 vital communion abbreviation TEUN A. VAN DIJK 0 Introduction What Is censorious conversation epitome? little discussion outline (CDA) is a type of communion analytical question that primarily stu betters the way come up-disposed causation abuse, dominance, and disagreement be enacted, reproduced, and resisted by textbook and spill in the social and semi policy-making context. With some(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) dissident search, decisive converse analysts take explicit position, and hence urgency to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inconsistency.Some of the tenets of CDA can already be found in the detailed theory of the Frankfurt School before the Second human beings War (Agger 1992b Rasmussen 1996). Its current focus on run-in and discuss was initiated with the unfavorable linguistics that emerged (mostly in the UK and Australia) at the end of the 1970s (Fowler et al. 1979 see besides Mey 1985).CDA has overly counter bit s in censorious developments in sociolinguistics, psychology, and the social learnings, many already dating back to the early 1970s (Birnbaum 1971 Calhoun 1995 Fay 1987 Fox and Prilleltensky 1997 Hymes 1972 Ibanez and Iniguez 1997 Singh 1996 Thomas 1993 Turkel 1996 Wodak 1996). As is the case in these neighboring disciplines, CDA whitethorn be seen as a re serve against the dominant formal (often asocial or uncritical) range of a functions of the 1960s and 1970s.CDA is not so some(prenominal) a direction, school, or specialization next to the many former(a) approaches in talk studies. Rather, it aims to offer a different mode or panorama of theorizing, compendious, and use throughout the whole field. We may construe a more or less critical horizon in much(prenominal) diverse beas as pragmatics, talk analysis, narrative analysis, rhetoric, stylistics, sociolinguistics, ethnography, or media analysis, among others. Crucial for critical cover analysts is the explicit aw beness of their role in society.Continuing a customs duty that rejects the possibility of a value-free science, they argue that science, and oddly scholarly address, are inherently part of and actd by social structure, and produced in social fundamental interaction. Instead of denying or ignoring such(prenominal) a relation among lore and society, they plead that such transaction be studied and accounted for in their own right, and that scholarly recitals Critical hold forth Analysis 353 be establish on such insights. Theory formation, description, and explanation, also in intercourse analysis, are sociopolitically situated, whether we like it or not.Reflection on the role of scholars in society and the polity thus becomes an inherent part of the parley analytical enterprise. This may mean, among other affaires, that discourse analysts conduct research in solidarity and cooperation with prevail throngs. Critical research on discourse needs to carry through a number of requirements in order to effectively realize its aims As is often the case for more marginal research traditions, CDA research has to be wear than other research in order to be accepted.It focuses primarily on , social problems and political issues, rather than on current paradigms and fashions. Empirically adequate critical analysis of social problems is usually multidisciplinary. Rather than merely describe discourse structures, it tries to explain them in terms of properties of social interaction and especially social structure. to a greater extent particularizedally, CDA focuses on the ways discourse structures enact, confirm, legitimate, reproduce, or challenge dealing of power and dominance in society. Fairclough and Wodak (1997 271-80) summarize the main tenets of CDA as follows 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. . 7. 8. CDA addresses social problems originator transaction are meandering(a) Discourse constitutes society and culture Discourse does ideological control Discourse is historical The link between text and society is talk terms Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory Discourse is a form of social action. Whereas some of these tenets see also been discussed above, others need a more authoritative supposititious analysis, of which we shall present some fragments here as a more or less general basis for the main principles of CDA (for details about these aims of critical discourse and language studies, see, e. . , Caldas-Coulthard and Coulthard 1996 Fairclough 1992a, 1995a Fairclough and Wodak 1997 Fowler et al. 1979 cara caravan Dijk 1993b). 1 Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks Since CDA is not a particular direction of research, it does not move over a unitary conjectural framework. Within the aims menti unrivalledd above, on that tiptop are many types of CDA, and these may be theoretically and analytically quite diverse. Critical analysis of conversation is precise different from an analysis of news reports in the press or of lessons and teaching at school.Yet, given the common perspective and the general aims of CDA, we may also find e actuallyplaceall abstract and theoretical frameworks that are closely related. As suggested, most changes of CDA will ask questions about the way specific 354 Teun A. van Dijk discourse structures are deployed in the breeding of social dominance, whether they are part of a conversation or a news report or other genres and contexts.Thus, the typical vocabulary of many scholars in CDA will feature such notions as power, dominance, hegemony, ideology, class, sexuality, race, discrimination, interests, reproduction, institutions, social structure, and social order, besides the more familiar discourse analytical notions. In this section, I focus on a number of basic concepts themselves, and thus devise a theoretical framework that critically relates discourse, cognition, and society. 1. 1 Macro vs. microLanguage use, discourse, oral interaction, and communication belong to the microlevel of the social order. Power, dominance, and inequality between social groups are typically terms that belong to a macrolevel of analysis. This means that CDA has to theoretically bridge the well-known gap between micro and macro approaches, which is of course a distinction that is a sociological construct in its own right (Alexander et al. 1987 Knorr-Cetina and Cicourel 1981). In mundane interaction and experience the macro- and microlevel (and mediator mesolevels) form whizz unified whole.For instance, a racist speech in parliament is a discourse at the microlevel of social interaction in the specific situation of a debate, but at the same succession may enact or be a constituent part of legislation or the reproduction of racialism at the macrolevel. there are several ways to analyze and bridge these levels, and thus to pull round at a unified critical analysis Membersgroups Language users-engage in discourse as members of (several) social groups, organ izations, or institutions and conversely, groups thus may act by their members. Actionsprocess sociable acts of individual actors are thus constituent parts of group actions and social processes, such as legislation, newsmaking, or the reproduction of racism. 3 Contextsocial structure Situations of discursive interaction are similarly part or constitutive of social structure for example, a press conference may be a typical practice of organizations and media institutions. That is, local and more orbicular contexts are closely related, and twain exercise constraints on discourse. Personal and social cognition Language users as social actors pack both personal and social cognition personal memories, knowledge and opinions, as well as those dual-lane with members of the group or culture as a whole. Both types of cognition charm interaction and discourse of individual members, whereas shared social representations govern the collective actions of a group. 1 1. 2 Power as suss out A central notion in most critical work on discourse is that of power, and more specifically the social power of groups or institutions.Summarizing a complex philosophical and social analysis, we will define social power in terms of dominate. Thus, groups ease up Critical Discourse Analysis 355 (more or less) power if they are able to (more or less) control the acts and minds of (members of) other groups. This ability presupposes a power base of privileged access to scarce social resources, such as force, money, status, fame, knowledge, information, culture, or indeed various forms of mankind discourse and communication (of the vast literature on power, see, e. . , Lukes 1986 Wrong 1979). Different types of power may be distinguished according to the various resources employed to exercise such power the coercive power of the military and of violent men will rather be based on force, the rich will see power because of their money, whereas the more or less persuasive power of pare nts, professors, or journalists may be based on knowledge, information, or authority. whole tone also that power is seldom absolute.Groups may more or less control other groups, or further control them in specific situations or social domains. more thanover, dominated groups may more or less resist, accept, condone, comply with, or legitimate such power, and even find it natural. The power of dominant groups may be integrated in laws, rules, norms, habits, and even a quite general consensus, and thus take the form of what Gramsci called hegemony (Gramsci 1971). Class domination, sexism, and racism are characteristic examples of such hegemony.Note also that power is not always exercised in obviously abusive acts of dominant group members, but may be enacted in the myriad of taken-for-granted actions of everyday life, as is typically the case in the many forms of everyday sexism or racism (Essed 1991). Similarly, not all members of a respectable group are always more powerful tha n all members of dominated groups power is only defined here for groups as a whole. For our analysis of the relations between discourse and power, thus, we firstly find that access to specific forms of discourse, e. . those of politics, the media, or science, is itself a power resource. Secondly, as suggested earlier, action is controlled by our minds. So, if we are able to influence peoples minds, e. g. their knowledge or opinions, we indirectly may control (some of) their actions, as we know from persuasion and manipulation. Closing the discoursepower circle, finally, this means that those groups who control most authoritative discourse also have more chances to control the minds and actions of others.Simplifying these very intricate kindreds even further for this chapter, we can split up the issue of discursive power into two basic questions for CDA research 1 How do (more) powerful groups control prevalent discourse? 2 How does such discourse control mind and action of (less ) powerful groups, and what are the social consequences of such control, such as social inequality? I address each question below. 1. 2. 1 Control of public discourseWe have seen that among many other resources that define the power base of a group or institution, access to or control over public discourse and communication is an important symbolic resource, as is the case for knowledge and information (van Dijk 1996). Most people have active control only over everyday talk with family members, friends, or colleagues, and passive control over, e. g. media usage. In many 356 Teun A. van Dijk situations, ordinary people are more or less passive targets of text or talk, e. g. f their bosses or instructors, or of the authorities, such as police officers, trys, welfare bureaucrats, or tax inspectors, who may simply tell them what (not) to believe or what to do. On the other hand, members of more powerful social groups and institutions, and especially their leaders (the elites), have m ore or less exclusive access to, and control over, one or more types of public discourse. Thus, professors control scholarly discourse, teachers educational discourse, journalists media discourse, lawyers legal discourse, and politicians policy and other public political discourse.Those who have more control over more and more influential discourse (and more discourse properties) are by that definition also more powerful. In other words, we here target a discursive definition (as well as a practical diagnostic) of one of the crucial constituents of social power. These notions of discourse access and control are very general, and it is one of the tasks of CDA to spell out these forms of power. Thus, if discourse is defined in terms of complex communicative compositors cases, access and control may be defined both for the context and for the structures of text and talk themselves.Context is defined as the mentally represented structure of those properties of the social situation t hat are relevant for the production or recognition of discourse (Duranti and Goodwin 1992 van Dijk 1998b). It consists of such categories as the boilers suit definition of the situation, setting (time, place), ongoing actions (including discourses and discourse genres), participants in various communicative, social, or institutional roles, as well as their mental representations goals, knowledge, opinions, attitudes, and ideologies. Controlling context involves control over one or more of these categories, e. . determining the definition of the communicative situation, deciding on time and place of the communicative event, or on which participants may or must be present, and in which roles, or what knowledge or opinions they should (not) have, and which social actions may or must be accomplished by discourse. Also crucial in the enactment or exercise of group power is control not only over content, but over the structures of text and talk. Relating text and context, thus, we alrea dy saw that (members of) powerful groups may decide on the (possible) discourse genre(s) or speech acts of an occasion.A teacher or judge may require a direct answer from a student or suspect, respectively, and not a personal story or an argument (Wodak 1984a, 1986). More critically, we may examine how powerful speakers may abuse their power in such situations, e. g. when police officers use force to get a confession from a suspect (Linell and Jonsson 1991), or when male editors exclude women from writing economic news (van Zoonen 1994). Similarly, genres typically have conventional schemas consisting of various categories. Access to some of these may be prohibited or obligatory, e. . some greetings in a conversation may only be used by speakers of a specific social group, rank, age, or sexual practice (Irvine 1974). Also vital for all discourse and communication is who controls the topics (semantic macrostructures) and topic tack, as when editors decide what news topics will be c over (Gans 1979 van Dijk 1988a, 1988b), professors decide what topics will be dealt with in class, or men control topics and topic change in conversations with women (Palmer 1989 Fishman 1983 Leet-Pellegrini 1980 Lindegren-Lerman 1983).Critical Discourse Analysis 357 Although most discourse control is contextual or global, even local details of meaning, form, or style may be controlled, e. g. the details of an answer in class or court, or choice of lexical items or jargon in courtrooms, classrooms or newsrooms (Martin Rojo 1994). In many situations, volume may be controlled and speakers ordered to keep their sound down or to keep quiet, women may be silenced in many ways (Houston and Kramarae 1991), and in some cultures one needs to mumble as a form of respect (Albert 1972).The public use of specific words may be banned as subversive in a dictatorship, and discursive challenges to culturally dominant groups (e. g. white, western males) by their multicultural opponents may be ridicu led in the media as politically correct (Williams 1995). And finally, action and interaction dimensions of discourse may be controlled by prescribing or proscribing specific speech acts, and by selectively distributing or interrupting turns (see also Diamond 1996).In sum, virtually all levels and structures of context, text, and talk can in principle be more or less controlled by powerful speakers, and such power may be abused at the expense of other participants. It should, however, be stressed that talk and text do not always and directly enact or embody the overall power relations between groups it is always the context that may interfere with, reinforce, or otherwise transform such relationships. 1. 2. 2 Mind control If controlling discourse is a first major form of power, controlling peoples minds is the other fundamental way to reproduce dominance and hegemony. Within a CDA framework, mind control involves even more than only acquiring beliefs about the world through discours e and communication. Suggested below are ways that power and dominance are relate in mind control. First, recipients take to the woods to accept beliefs, knowledge, and opinions (unless they are inconsistent with their personal beliefs and experiences) through discourse from what they see as authoritative, trustworthy, or credible sources, such as scholars, experts, originals, or reliable media (Nesler et al. 1993). Second, in some situations participants are obliged to be recipients of discourse, e. . in education and in many job situations. Lessons, learning materials, job instructions, and other discourse types in such cases may need to be attended to, interpreted, and learned as intend by institutional or organizational authors (Giroux 1981). Third, in many situations there are no pubic discourses or media that may provide information from which alternative beliefs may be derived (Downing 1984). Fourth, and closely related to the previous points, recipients may not have the k nowledge and beliefs needed to challenge the discourses or information they are exposed to (Wodak 1987).Whereas these conditions of mind control are largely contextual (they say something about the participants of a communicative event), other conditions are discursive, that is, a function of the structures and strategies of text or talk itself. In other words, given a specific context, certain meanings and forms of discourse have more influence on peoples minds than others, as the very notion of persuasion and a tradition of 2000 years of rhetoric may show. Once we have elementary insight into some of the structures of the mind, and what it means to control it, the crucial question is how discourse and its structures are able 58 Teun A. van Dijk to exercise such control. As suggested above, such discursive influence may be due to context as well as to the structures of text and talk themselves. Contextually based control derives from the fact that people understand and represent n ot only text and talk, but also the whole communicative situation. Thus, CDA typically studies how context features (such as the properties of language users of powerful groups) influence the ways members of dominated groups define the communicative situation in preferred context models (Martin Rojo and van Dijk 1997).CDA also focuses on how discourse structures influence mental representations. At the global level of discourse, topics may influence what people see as the most important information of text or talk, and thus correspond to the top levels of their mental models. For example, expressing such a topic in a headline in news may powerfully influence how an event is defined in terms of a preferred mental model (e. g. when crime committed by minorities is typically topicalized and headlined in the press Duin et al. 988 van Dijk 1991). Similarly, blood may be persuasive because of the social opinions that are hidden in its implicit premises and thus taken for granted by the r ecipients, e. g. immigration may thus be restricted if it is presupposed in a parliamentary debate that all refugees are illegal (see the contributions in Wodak and van Dijk 2000) Likewise, at the local level, in order to understand discourse meaning and coherence, people may need models featuring beliefs that remain implicit (presupposed) in discourse.Thus, a typical feature of manipulation is to pass around beliefs implicitly, that is, without actually asserting them, and with less chance that they will be challenged. These few examples show how various types of discourse structure may influence the formation and change of mental models and social representations. If dominant groups, and especially their elites, largely control public discourse and its structures, they thus also have more control over the minds of the public at large. However, such control has its limits.The complexity of comprehension, and the formation and change of beliefs, are such that one cannot always pred ict which features of a specific text or talk will have which effects on the minds of specific recipients. These brief remarks have provided us with a very general picture of how discourse is involved in dominance (power abuse) and in the production and reproduction of social inequality. It is the aim of CDA to examine these relationships in more detail. In the next section, we fall over several areas of CDA research in which these relationships are investigated. 2 Research in Critical Discourse AnalysisAlthough most discourse studies dealing with any aspect of power, domination, and social inequality have not been explicitly conducted under the label of CDA, we shall nevertheless refer to some of these studies below. 2. 1 Gender inequality One vast field of critical research on discourse and language that thus far has not been carried out within a CDA perspective is that of gender. In many ways, feminist Critical Discourse Analysis 359 work has become paradigmatic for much discou rse analysis, especially since much of this work explicitly deals with social inequality and domination.We will not review it here see Kendall and Tannen, this volume also the books authored and edited by, e. g. , Cameron (1990, 1992) Kotthoff and Wodak (1997) Seidel (1988) Thorne et al. (1983) Wodak (1997) for discussion and comparison with an approach that emphasizes cultural differences rather than power differences and inequality, see, e. g. , Tannen (1994a) see also Tannen (1994) for an analysis of gender differences at work, in which many of the properties of discursive dominance are dealt with. 2. 2 Media discourseThe undeniable power of the media has inspired many critical studies in many disciplines linguistics, semiotics, pragmatics, and discourse studies. Traditional, often content analytical approaches in critical media studies have revealed biased, stereotypical, sexist or racist images in texts, illustrations, and photos. Early studies of media language similarly focus ed on easily observable tireface structures, such as the biased or partisan use of words in the description of Us and Them (and Our/Their actions and characteristics), especially on sociopolitical lines in the representation of communists.The critical tone was set by a series of Bad youngs studies by the Glasgow University Media Group (1976, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1993) on features of TV reporting, such as in the reportage of various issues (e. g. industrial disputes (strikes), the Falklands (Malvinas) war, the media coverage of AIDS. ) Perhaps best known outside of discourse studies is the media research carried out by Stuart house and his associates within the framework of the cultural studies paradigm. (See, e. g. , Hall et al. 1980 for incoming to the critical work of cultural studies, see Agger 1992a see also Collins et al. 986 for earlier critical approaches to the analysis of media images, see also Davis and Walton 1983 and for a later CDA approach to media studies that is rel ated to the critical approach of cultural studies, see Fairclough 1995b. See also Cotter, this volume. ) An early collection of work of Roger Fowler and his associates (Fowler et al. 1979) also focused on the media. As with many other English and Australian studies in this paradigm, the theoretical framework of Hallidays functional-systemic grammar is used in a study of the transitiveness of syntactic patterns of sentences (see Martin, this volume).The point of such research is that events and actions may be described with syntactic variations that are a function of the underlying involvement of actors (e. g. their agency, responsibility, and perspective). Thus, in an analysis of the media accounts of the riots during a minority festival, the responsibility of the authorities and especially of the police in such violence may be systematically de-emphasized by defocusing, e. g. by passive constructions and nominalizations that is, by leaving agency and responsibility implicit.Fowler s later critical studies of the media continue this tradition, but also pay tribute to the British cultural studies paradigm that defines news not as a reflection of reality, but as a product shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces (Fowler 1991). More than in much other critical work on the media, he also focuses on the linguistic excessivelyls for such a critical study, such as the analysis of transitivity in syntax, lexical structure, modality, and speech acts.Similarly van Dijk (1988b) applies a theory of news discourse (van Dijk 1988a) in 360 Teun A. van Dijk critical studies of international news, racism in the press, and the coverage of squatters in Amsterdam. 2. 3 political discourse Given the role of political discourse in the enactment, reproduction, and legitimization of power and domination, we may also expect many critical discourse studies of political text and talk (see Wilson, this volume).So far most of this work has been carried out by linguists and disc ourse analysts, because political science is among the few social disciplines in which discourse analysis has remained virtually unknown, although there is some influence of postmodern approaches to discourse (Derian and Shapiro 1989 Fox and Miller 1995), and many studies of political communication and rhetoric intersection with a discourse analytical approach (Nimmo and Sanders 1981).Still closer to discourse analysis is the current approach to frames (conceptual structures or sets of beliefs that organize political thought, policies, and discourse) in the analysis of political text and talk (Gamson 1992). In linguistics, pragmatics, and discourse studies, political discourse has received attention outside the more theoretical mainstream. Seminal work comes from Paul Chilton see, e. g. , his collection on the language of the nuclear arms debate (Chilton 1985), as well as later work on contemporary nukespeak (Chilton 1988) and metaphor (Chilton 1996 Chilton and Lakoff 1995).Althoug h studies of political discourse in English are internationally best known because of the hegemony of English, much work has been done (often earlier, and often more systematic and explicit) in German, Spanish, and French. This work is too extensive to even begin to review here beyond naming a few influential studies. Germany has a long tradition of political discourse analysis, both (then) in the West (e. g. about Bonns politicians by Zimmermann 1969), as well as in the former East (e. g. he semiotic-materialist theory of Klaus 1971) (see also the introduction by Bachem 1979). This tradition in Germany witnessed a study of the language of war and peace (Pasierbsky 1983) and of speech acts in political discourse (Holly 1990). There is also a strong tradition of studying fascist language and discourse (e. g. the lexicon, propaganda, media, and language politics Ehlich 1989). In France, the study of political language has a respectable tradition in linguistics and discourse analysis, also because the barrier between (mostly structuralist) inguistic theory and text analysis was never very pronounced. Discourse studies are often corpus-based and there has been a strong tendency toward formal, quantitative, and automatic (content) analysis of such big datasets, often combined with critical ideological analysis (Pecheux 1969, 1982 Guespin 1976). The furiousness on change analysis usually implies a focus on (easily quantifiable) lexical analyses (see Stubbs, this volume).Critical political discourse studies in Spain and especially also in Latin America has been very productive. Famous is the early critical semiotic (anticolonialist) study of Donald Duck by Dorfman and Mattelart (1972) in Chile. Lavandera et al. (1986, 1987) in Argentina take an influential sociolinguistic approach to political discourse, e. g. its typology of authoritarian discourse. Work of this group has been continued and organized in a more explicit CDA framework especially by Pardo (see, e. g. her work Critical Discourse Analysis 361 on legal discourse Pardo 1996). In Mexico, a detailed ethnographic discourse analysis of local authority and decision-making was carried out by sierra (1992). Among the many other critical studies in Latin America, we should mention the extensive work of Teresa CarbO on parliamentary discourse in Mexico, focusing especially on the way delegates speak about native Americans (CarbO 1995), with a study in English on interruptions in these debates (CarbO 1992). . 4 Ethnocentrism, antisemitism, nationalism, and racism The study of the role of discourse in the enactment and reproduction of ethnic and racial inequality has slowly emerged in CDA. Traditionally, such work focused on ethnocentric and racist representations in the mass media, literature, and aim (Dines and Humez 1995 UNESCO 1977 Wilson and Gutierrez 1985 Hartmann and Husband 1974 van Dijk 1991).Such representations continue centuries-old dominant images of the Other in the discourses of European travelers, explorers, merchants, soldiers, philosophers, and historians, among other forms of elite discourse (Barker 1978 Lauren 1988). Fluctuating between the emphasis on exotic difference, on the one hand, and supremacist derogation stressing the Others intellectual, moral, and biological inferiority, on the other hand, such discourses also influenced public opinion and led to broadly shared social representations.It is the continuity of this sociocultural tradition of negative images about the Other that also partly explains the persistence of dominant patterns of representation in contemporary discourse, media, and film (Shohat and Stam 1994). Later discourse studies have gone beyond the more traditional, content analytical analysis of images of the Others, and probed more deeply into the linguistic, semiotic, and other discursive properties of text and talk to and about minorities, immigrants, and Other peoples (for detailed review, see Wodak and Reisigl, this vol ume).Besides the mass media, advertising, film, and textbooks, which were (and still are) the genres most commonly studied, this newer work also focuses on political discourse, scholarly discourse, everyday conversations, returns encounters, talk shows, and a host of other genres. Many studies on ethnic and racial inequality reveal a remarkable similarity among the stereotypes, prejudices, and other forms of verbal derogation across discourse types, media, and national boundaries.For example, in a vast research program carried out at the University of Amsterdam since the early 1980s, we examined how Surinamese, Turks, and Moroccans, and ethnic relations generally, are represented in conversation, everyday stories, news reports, textbooks, parliamentary debates, corporal discourse, and scholarly text and talk (van Dijk 1984, 1987a, 1987b, 1991, 1993). Besides stereotypical topics of difference, deviation, and threat, story structures, conversational features (such as hesitations an d repairs in mentioning Others), semantic moves such as disclaimers (We have nothing against blacks, but . . . , etc. ), lexical description of Others, and a host of other discourse features also were studied. The aim of these projects was to show how discourse expresses and reproduces underlying social representations of Others in the social and political context. Ter Wal (1997) applies this framework in a detailed study of the ways Italian political and media discourse gradually changed, from an antiracist commitment and benign representation 362 Teun A. van Dijk of the extracommunitari (non-Europeans) to a more stereotypical and negative por- trayal of immigrants in terms of crime, deviance, and threat. The major point f our work is that racism (including antisemitism, xenophobia, and related forms of resentment against racially or ethnically defined Others) is a complex system of social and political inequality that is also reproduced by discourse in general, and by elite discou rses in particular (see further addresss in Wodak and Reisigl, this volume). Instead of further elaborating the complex details of the theoretical relationships between discourse and racism, we shall refer to a book that may be taken as a prototype of conservative elite discourse on race today, namely, The End of Racism by Dinesh DSouza (1995).This text embodies many of the dominant ideologies in the USA, especially on the right, and it specifically targets one minority group in the USA African Americans. Space prohibits detailed analysis of this 700-page book (but see van Dijk 1998a). Here we can merely summarize how the CDA of DSouzas The End of Racism shows what kind of discursive structures, strategies, and moves are deployed in exercising the power of the dominant (white, western, male) group, and how readers are manipulated to form or confirm the social representations that are consistent with a conservative, supremacist ideology.The overall strategy of DSouzas The End of Rac ism is the combined implementation, at all levels of the text, of the positive presentation of the in-group and the negative presentation of the out-group. In DSouzas book, the principal rhetorical means are those of hyperbole and metaphor, viz. , the exaggerated representation of social problems in terms of illness (pathologies, virus), and the emphasis of the contrast between the Civilized and the Barbarians. Semantically and lexically, the Others are thus associated not simply with difference, but rather with deviance (illegitimacy) and threat (violence, attacks).Argumentative assertions of the depravity of black culture are combined with denials of white deficiencies (racism), with rhetorical mitigation and euphemization of its crimes (colonialism, slavery), and with semantic reversals of blame (blaming the victim). Social conflict is thus cognitively represented and enhanced by polarization, and discursively sustained and reproduced by derogating, demonizing, and excluding the Others from the community of Us, the Civilized. 2. From group domination to professional and institutional power We have reviewed in this section critical studies of the role of discourse in the (re)production inequality. Such studies characteristically exemplify the CDA perspective on power abuse and dominance by specific social groups. Many other studies, whether under the CDA banner or not, also critically examine various genres of institutional and professional discourse, e. g. text and talk in the courtroom (see Shuy, this volume Danet 1984 OBarr et al. 978 Bradac et al. 1981 Ng and Bradac 1993 Lakoff 1990 Wodak 1984a Pardo 1996 Shuy 1992), bureaucratic discourse (Burton and Carlen 1979 Radtke 1981), medical discourse (see Ainsworth-Vaughn and Fleischman, this volume Davis 1988 pekan 1995 Fisher and Todd 1986 Mishler 1984 West 1984 Wodak 1996), educational and scholarly discourse (Aronowitz 1988 Critical Discourse Analysis 363 Apple 1979 Bourdieu 1984, 1989 Bernstein 1975, 19 90 Bourdieu et al. 1994 Giroux 1981 Willis 1977 Atkinson et al. 995 Coulthard 1994 Duszak 1997 Fisher and Todd 1986 Mercer 1995 Wodak 1996 Bergvall and Remlinger 1996 Ferree and Hall 1996 Jaworski 1983 Leimdorfer 1992 Osler 1994 Said 1979 Smith 1991 van Dijk 1987, 1993), and corporate discourse (see Linde, this volume Mumby 1988 Boden 1994 Drew and Heritage 1992 Ehlich 1995 Mumby 1993 Mumby and Clair 1997), among many other sets of genres. In all these cases, power and dominance are associated with specific social domains (politics, media, law, education, science, etc. , their professional elites and institutions, and the rules and routines that form the background of the everyday discursive reproduction of power in such domains and institutions. The victims or targets of such power are usually the public or citizens at large, the masses, clients, subjects, the audience, students, and other groups that are dependent on institutional and organizational power. 3 Conclusion We have see n in this chapter that critical discourse analyses deal with the relationship between discourse and power.We have also sketched the complex theoretical framework needed to analyze discourse and power, and provided a glimpse of the many ways in which power and domination are reproduced by text and talk. Yet several methodological and theoretical gaps remain. First, the cognitive interface between discourse structures and those of the local and global social context is seldom made explicit, and appears usually only in terms of the notions of knowledge and ideology (van Dijk 1998).Thus, despite a large number of semiempirical studies on discourse and power, the details of the multidisciplinary theory of CDA that should relate discourse and action with cognition and society are still on the agenda. Second, there is still a gap between more linguistically oriented studies of text and talk and the various approaches in the social. The first often ignore concepts and theories in sociology and political science on power abuse and inequality, whereas the second seldom engage in detailed discourse analysis. desegregation of various approaches is therefore very important to arrive at a satisfactory form of multidisciplinary CDA.NOTES I am indebted to Ruth Wodak for her comments on an earlier version of this chapter, and to Laura Pardo for further information, about CDA research in Latin America. 1 It comes as no surprise, then, that CDA research will often refer to the leading social philosophers and social scientists of our time when theorizing these and other fundamental notions. Thus, reference to the leading scholars of the Frankfurter School and to contemporary work by Habermas (for instance, on legitimation and his last discourse approach to norms and democracy) is of course common in critical analysis. Similarly, many critical studies will refer to Foucault 64 Teun A. van Dijk when dealing with notions such as power, domination, and discipline or the more philos ophical notion of orders of discourse. More recently, the many studies on language, culture, and society by Bourdieu have become increasingly influential for instance, his notion of habitus. From another sociological perspective, Giddenss structuration theory is now occasionally mentioned. It should be borne in mind that although several of these social philosophers and sociologists make extensive use of the notions of language and discourse, they seldom engage in explicit, systematic discourse analysis.Indeed, the last thing critical discourse scholars should do is to uncritically adopt philosophical or sociological ideas about language and discourse that are obviously uninformed by advances in contemporary linguistics and discourse analysis. Rather, the work referred to here is mainly relevant for the use of fundamental concepts about the social order and hence for the metatheory of CDA. 2 Space limitations prevent discussion of a third issue how dominated groups discursively ch allenge or resist the control of powerful groups. 3 Note that mind control is merely a handy phrase to summarize a very complex process.Cognitive psychology and mass communication research have shown that influencing the mind is not as straightforward a process as simplistic ideas about mind control might suggest (Britton and Graesser 1996 Glasser and Salmon 1995 Klapper 1960 van Dijk and Kintsch 1983). Recipients may vary in their interpretation and uses of text and talk, also as a function of class, gender, or culture (Liebes and Katz 1990). Likewise, recipients seldom passively accept the intended opinions of specific discourses. However, we should not forget that most of our beliefs about the world are acquired through discourse. In order to analyze the complex processes involved in how discourse may control peoples minds, we would need to spell out the detailed mental representations and cognitive operations studied in cognitive science. Since even an adequate summary is beyond the scope of this chapter, we will only briefly introduce a few notions that are necessary to understand the processes of discursive mind control (for details, see, e. g. , Graesser and embower 1990 van Dijk and Kintsch 1983 van Oostendorp and Zwaan 1994 Weaver et al. 1995). 5 Note that the picture just sketched is very schematic and general.The relations between the social power of groups and institutions, on the one hand, and discourse on the other, as well as between discourse and cognition, and cognition and society, are vastly more complex. There are many contradictions. There is not always a clear picture of one dominant group (or class or institution) oppressing another one, controlling all public discourse, and such discourse directly controlling the mind of the dominated. There are many forms of collusion, consensus, legitimation, and even joint production of forms of inequality.Members of dominant groups may become dissidents and side with dominated groups, and vice vers a. Opponent discourses may be adopted by dominant groups, whether strategically to neutralize them, or simply because dominant power and ideologies may change, as is for instance quite obvious in ecological discourse and ideology. 6 Unfortunately, the study of the discursive reproduction of class has been rather neglected in this perspective for a related approach, though, see Willis (1977). Critical Discourse Analysis 365 REFERENCES Agger, B. (1992a). Cultural Studies as Critical Theory. capital of the United Kingdom Falmer Press.Agger, B. (1992b). The Discourse of Domination. 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Business Requirement Analysis Essay

IntroductionOn my paper, I for compass be discussing the analysis of an e-commerce function of global galvanising website. I chose to do General Electric because they are well established and shed diversified services, engineering, and manufacturing. General Electric is a beau monde that is committed to being an industry leader realness side and is striving to be the example for the world to follow its leadership of its businesses. Currently Forbes has ranked GE as the worlds second largest troupe with over 287,000 employees around the world.Jeffery Immelt is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of General Electric. He was selected by the General Electric Board of Directors in 2000 aft(prenominal) Jack Welch retired. Before Jack Welch retired, he announced that General Electric bequeath become the leader in global net profit business. He motto what the internet is capable of and saw that it was critical for General Electric to lead the pace in the interne t business. During Jack Welch tenure, he has developed values that are taken seriously within the General Electric organization. Jack Welch used what he called the 4 Es of leadership, which are Energy, individuals with energy love to go, go, go. These pot possess boundless energy and get up every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world, Energizers, receipt how to spark others to per puzzle out.They outline a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get people excited about a cause or a crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, solely quick to except responsibility when things go awry, Edge, those with edge are competitive types. They know how to make the really difficult decisions, much(prenominal) as hiring, firing and promoting, neer allowing the degree of difficulty to stand in their way, and Execute, the anchor to the entire model. Without measurabl e results, the other Es are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productiveness are not the same and are capable of converting energy and edge into action and results. Jack Welch took twenty years to develop his leadership model.For General Electric to have a achievementful implantation of the e-commerce tactics, they had to overcome some cultural issues. General Electric had also to en true that their operations would run smoothly and to be able to build good relationships with their customers. What General Electric has done in the past was they would keep a large gross revenue staff to attend to customers with their bargain for of General Electric products. With the introduction of the internet and General Electric new e-business, the sales staff had become worried that they might lose their jobs because of the internet and they whimsey not rented. What General Electric did to service overcome this misconception, they offered bonuses to whateverone on the sa les staff that helped the customers buy over the internet. They help make the staff understand how the internet can benefit them and the union as a whole and this calmed down the sales staff.With the sales of home appliances, it has become a very completive market with sales and reduce pricing on most to all appliance that anyone sales and a web presence is essential to have within this market. In immediatelys market though, having just one centralized website will not due and General Electric understood this and General Electric wanted to progress to each store the ability to sell on the internet to their customers in there general location. With each store having its own website, they should be able to insure the website to resile their own personal pricing of the appliances a foresightful with advertising and home delivery terms and conditions.General Electric decided that the website drive by the postal code, meaning customers play their local anaesthetic General Electric store by their postal zip code. Once you are on that particular website, the website offers the traditional hunt and select stores, gives product details, you can compare modes and so on, alone you would be offered that particular store price and specials. The websites for the stores have an drug user friendly, easy to use website editor program where the store can change the data to reflect their current prices and sales and they can change their store banners and graphics. With this type of interface, store owners are able to reflect their website to exactly what is happening in the store.The two requirements that I have selected from the list is as followed 1) Develop and implement a new website or enhance an animate website to take customer service. This might implicate features for self-service or use of real- duration customer support. 2) Add Internet-based advertising capabilities such as pop-up ads, banner ads, and pop-overs. at one time what we will do is discuss the two topics in more detail. The head start topic I picked was Develop and implements a new website or enhances an existing website to include customer service. This might include features for self-service or use of real-time customer support.With todays completive and customer driven market, whether you are a local small town shop or a huge e-commerce business, customer satisfaction is your number one priority as a business. Customers rules that market and the key to be successful and to grow in this world today, your business needs to provide the best customer care money can buy and you need to have better customer care then your competition. With e-business, it can be tough to make it customer friendly because of the lack of face to face contact, but to make e-business customer friendly, it will be necessary to upgrade or enhance the current web paginate for the company with a dedicated page for customer support. This page needs to be easy to find on any page within the website a nd it should be easy to read for the customer with numbers and addresses clearly labeled for customer support. There are several features that helps with the organization and layout of the webpage to make things easier for the customer to navigate.The first feature should be to make sure there are septuple selections for the customer to have to reach the customer service if there are any issues that should arise. The second feature would to include a customer satisfaction form where they can send information about the experience and/or troubles with the products. The third feature is a new feature that is making its way into the e-commerce market and that would be a live chat. With a live chat, customers can get real time customer service and assistance with the issue they are having with customer representatives.The company should be able to provide these options to the customers with a customer support staff that is experienced and able to resolve the issue for the customer. Just as with the phone support, any support that is requested on the website should be handled and resolved quickly and with accurately. This would be the same for the staff that is online helping to resolve issues, they all should understand the company, policies, products, and services and they should have to keep getting refresher training throughout their time with the company.With web chat, it can be very difficult to get logged on and get help and this can frustrate the customers even more before they even get any help. to keep this from happening, the web chat should use the best web technology so that the customer can log on easily and get into a chat session. The chat window should not take much time to load and there should be little wait time to reach a representative. The customer support staff should be provided with CRM software to make sure that all problems are understood and that all the information they need to solve the customers issue are within hands reach.The use c ase for the customer service process1. Customer calls the toll free number, fills out an online survey, or logs into the online web chat2. The customer then lets the customer support knows there grievance/issues with the company or product.3. If this customer is on the phone, the phone representative will have CRM software so that they have the information available to them. If the issue requires the representative to find out additional information, then the representative will place the customer on hold to get the answers to solve the issue and then get backwards with the customer. If the customer submits an online form, the representative handling the form will get the issue/problem resolved as quickly as possible and email the user with the solution to resolve the issue. If it is a chat session, the representative will help the customer as soon as they let the representative know the issue. They will also use CRM software to help the customer or get help from their fellow co-wo rkers.4. Once the issue or problem has been resolved, the representative will ask the customer if all issues or questions have been taken care of. If the customer stats that they have had all there issue resolve, the task is complete.The reason for such an in-depth customer service section and service are because customer service is because customer service is the driving key for any companys success for its e-business and is vital for the company to continue to enhance its corporate image by providing the best customer service.The second topic that I picked was to add Internet-based advertising capabilities such as pop-up ads, banner ads, and pop-overs. Another important factor that is missing in internet advertising is search engine optimization I will include this component within this category. Search engine optimization has become the most important component to internet advertising and without search engine optimization no business will stand out in the hoard of businesses out there that is using search engine optimization. What search engine optimization does is it helps your website get to the top of a list within search engines. When using internet search engines like Google.com, we type in what we are looking for and a long list of search results that come back.The sites that come first have better search engine optimization technique then the sites towards the bottom, thus making them the first sites that are seen by the customers. To put it plainly, search engine optimization techniques are tools that help your website to become the first choice to appear, in turn increasing the occupation to your website which helps enhance your brand name which will increase your web traffic even more. There are several internet and marketing programs which will help with your search engine optimization but the most popular one today is Googles Ad words program. When using this service, it will allow your website to be among the first few search results on a sea rch engine such as Google.Use case for advertising and marketing process.1. The prospect types their head within a search engine such as Google.com or Bing.com2. The search engine results appear for the inquiry, which will also display the companys website link within the first few results as long as the search inquires is related to the company.3. Once all the results have displayed, the customer then clicks on the companys web link and reaches the homepage for the company.4. Once the customer has directed their attention to the companys website, the task is successfully completed.

E-commerce in Developing Countries

Commerce is the exchange of goods and service for a consideration, commonly m one(a)y. Thus e-commerce is exchange of goods and work facilitated electronically. For the purpose of this red-hots writing we go away presume the broad definition of e-commerce to mean whatsoever use of information and communications technology by a blood that helps it improve its interactions with a customer or a supplier (Payne E. J 2003). E-commerce uses the internet, tele mobilise and fax. This argon all those that drop by the wayside for bank line to be conducted in near real time conditions.In advanced countries, e-commerce has guide to a boom in Business Processing Operations (B.P. Os) and Call Centers. While the create world is gearing itself to catch up to e-commerce, near countries have displayed outstanding achievements India is worth mentioning in this context.Indeed Indias advancements in e-commerce even rival those in advanced countries, and in some cases, surpass them. Today, ma ybe as a consequence, India is emerging as a technological superpower. One crucial benefit that develop countries are en plentying to gain from e-commerce is the expanded market for commodities and services maculation at the corresponding time eradicating the routine played by middle men in traditional distribution chains.For example, in Kenya the mobile phone has helped the farmer many kilometers from major markets access the current prevailing prices thus avoid exploitation by the middlemen. Developing countries are keen to replicate the achievements make by advanced countries together with India in e-commerce. This is with the view of reaping the economic gains that are obvious to all stake holders to date. However certain difficult decisions have to be made in the journey to establishing a vibrant e-commerce sector in these countries.Worth noting is that the al-Qaeda in the developing world is in dire need of a major upgrade. For example, the internet and the population W ide Web are absolutely vital for the realization of fortunate e-commerce. The systems in place in majority of the developing world are both bely and far at a lower place the expected standards necessary for the implementation of near real time plow. These costly infrastructural improvements will hire about the following ? Faster connection speeds to the internet to facilitate data transfer.? Clearer and superior voice and sound clarity to enable playment of intra global trade involving conferencing and discussion oer the World Wide Web. ? Extremely low operating costs together with higher(prenominal) output capacities which facilitate business profitability and sustainability. This paper is of the view that though e-commerce has high set up costs, major organizational adjustments and infrastructural considerations, developing countries stand to gain massive economic benefits offered by a successful harnessing of the e-commerce sector. Main TextModes of E-commerce There are diff erent modes of e-commerce Phone, Fax and Internet. Phone e-commerce happens where the provider of the goods or service communicates with the buyer finished a phone. Phones come in conglomerate application modes such as artificial orbiter phone, mobile phone, telephone etc. Fax e-commerce is where communication between the buyer and seller is done over the fax. Its advantages are in the speed of transactions, the reach available and the lower cost implication compared to face to face conversation or early(a) traditional modes.The Internet and the World Wide Web are the latest major additions to e-commerce and they have brought remarkable solutions in voice and data communications that were erstwhile unimagined. For example, the concept of a twenty dollar bill four hour mobile office where goods and services are available to all and sundry on the globe in the comfort of ones residence is however strange in many business people in the developing world. Arguments against E-commer ce in developing countries. There has been much of the debate on e-commerce especially regarding the subprogram played by the internet and the World Wide Web.The major issues raised are listed below ? Infrastructural cost. ? Change of mindsets to embrace the new forms of technological advancement. The present root needs major adjustments to enable it support e-commerce. Firstly, energy costs in developing countries are among the highest in the world. Per unit charge in consumption of electrical energy in the developing countries need to be brought rarify to levels comparable to those in advanced nations. For this to happen, the systems for power generation need to be upgraded to the latest technologies which tout higher efficiency at extremely low operating and maintenance costs.In addition to this, it has become almost general crawl inledge that much of the populations in the developing countries do not have access to electricity in the homes. The situation is grave since elect ricity supply derriere only be guaranteed in urban centers only, while the majority of the people live in rural areas. Secondly, the technology that supports internet and World Wide Web connections is inferior to those employed in advanced countries. This lower status is in terms of its weak performance characteristics whereby it is let up and expensive in terms of data exchange, and cannot support a consistent voice dialog over the internet.This is issues can only be rectified with the introduction of the technology available abroad that includes installation of fiber optic cable connection, and inexpensive commercial satellite uplink among other technologies geared towards deleteting down the cost of communication while improving performance. Other considerations take the nature and form of those that Pare D. J. (2002) brings to light. The cost of doing business will include, but not confined to network security and regulatory environment.Where as the business in a developed c ountry would comfortably offer goods or services in the standards of the environment it operates in, it is forced to adopt standards of the buyer (receiver of the goods and services) who happens to be based in a to a greater extent than advanced country. Problems at that placefore out such as how to remit payments in a secure way, how to confirm that the items selected for purchase are as those displayed over the World Wide Web and other security oriented fears. ARGUMENT FOR E-COMMERCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.Developing countries are faced with surging un participation levels that cause discontent and saps development gains by straining resources and amenities. These economies have gigantic held the notion that by expanding the sectors in there economy, they will be able to have more participation of its people in viable income generating activities. E-commerce is touted as one such sector that, as evidenced by the Indian success, millions of people can be absorbed in this sect or which has positive trickle down effects and sound complementarities with other existing sectors in the economy.In addition, a positive labour diffusion process will arise were by now- masterly grateers from developing countries move to advanced countries to get jobs that promise higher wages. It has been found that these nationals are responsible for shipping large amounts of foreign currency back home to assist there relatives. This foreign income is enables these countries to improve there balance of payments, hence accelerating development. A case in point is the dynamic tertiary sector in India that is spurred by the reckoner technology industry.India has remarkable capability in software development, which employs a large number of Indian technocrats. In fact, India produces such a large number of skilled personnel that major multi national firms in IT set up base in India. The dynamics here are that the large number of skilled labor concentrated in one area pushes down wages as competition for employment thrives. Due to these dynamics, India has at its disposal an abundance of relatively less(prenominal) expensive and highly learned work force.There is, as a consequence, a high population of Asians of Indian origin fulfilling duties in the IT sectors of major world powers, including the linked States of America and Great Britain. This export of human labor accounts for a significant amount of foreign currency transfer back home. I agree with (Humphrey J. et. al) when he argues that e-commerce will create a new culture. By embracing the way the world wants things done, developed countries will by extension be taking the opening move in creating home grown solutions to global problems, thus providing unique solutions that are customized to suit local contexts.This will create anew breed of workers unique to the developing countries. It is thus clear that where as e-commerce will be pretty expensive to embrace in the short term. In the long run howe ver, the benefits accruing easily outbalance the costs. By embracing e-commerce the developing countries will be killing two birds with the same stone generating economic growth and expansion by providing the necessary infrastructure and creating a new economy and culture for the learned in the country.Added to this is the bonus of providing a bigger market for its entrepreneurs, and a break away from the well know reliance that developing countries economies have in there primary and secondary sectors. THE KENYAN CASE In Kenya, the pioneer company in e-commerce is Kencall Ltd. Its basic vision is to lead the way in outsourcing business Kencall. com. Being the outgrowth major outsourcing company in Kenya, it was faced with a myriad of problems. Some of these problems are listed below ? Lack of a pool of experienced labor force as is the case in India and South Africa.? Attempting to change local mindsets with its new concept, largely recondite in that part of the world. Where as BPO was already been taken to developing countries namely India and South Africa this was still a very strange idea in Kenya. ? pricy telecommunication infrastructures, coupled with slow reforms in the Kenyan communications sector to enable it adjust to global developments. There was need for fast internet uplink to allow for real time transfer of data and voice to the clients. This particular problem was not easy to overcome.With the gateway controlled by the government and operating on disused technology with a knack for breaking down. It was another eighteen months before Internet gateways were liberalized and the company could now get good speeds courtesy of dedicated satellite uplinks. ? Under performance of the Kenyan economy coupled with a less than friendly relationship atmosphere that existed between Kenya and its development partners. Although this situation was improving, the pace was slow as the government pledged top implement much needed reforms in government.These altogether impacts negatively on investments and industry expansion. ? An unstable political clime in Kenya that was characterized by an over politicized climate. This has the effect of shifting concentration from economic growth and development issues to politics. With the implementation of certain reform pledges that led to restored confidence between Kenya and its development partners, there came a turn around in the Kenyan economy. It started to grow. The industry specific results were a marked expansion in investment, higher employment and an increase in per capita incomes.In addition there was a wider pool of returning graduates from developed countries who knew what BPO was all about. They came with much needed know how and information on the role of e-commerce in development. These included the directors of Kencall Ltd, in particular Mr. Nick Nesbitt Kencall. com. His contribution to the Kenyan economy has led him to be recognized by the government in through an honorary aw ard bestowed to him by the president of the republic. With the realization by the government that in e-commerce lay a goldmine kencall.com, they sought to exploit it by first laying a fiber optic cable all around Nairobi. By connecting to this the speeds were greatly kick upstairsd although the costs still remain high. To reduce cost the government sought to lay an underground fiber optic cable. With partnership of Southern African countries they wanted to have the cable running from Cape township to Somali. Politics has put this noble idea in the back burner. The Kenyan government on its part has chosen to go it alone, as it recognizes the importance of e-commerce. Plans are already at an advance stage to have a cable between Mombasa and Fujaira in Oman.In anticipation of this, a fibre optic cable has already been laid between Nairobi and Mombasa with the rest of the nation in the pipeline. All this has lead to a proliferation of BPO providers. Skyweb and Pacis have already joine d into the fray. Smaller firms are doing the same but on a small scale. On Wed 11th July, Skyweb launched into the market a solution that allows a firm offer BPO on the strength of only 5 computers. Expect in the next year to be a growth in this area. Safaricom, the biggest mobile phone operator has thrown a challenge to BPO providers.To show they can handle around 100,000 calls a day while maintaining quality and they will be given the account. This is a challenge to be taken seriously if e-commerce is to grow to match if not pass the pioneers like India and China. Due to the time difference, while other one part of the world quiescence the other is in the middle of a trading day, while another is waking up. There is need for a 24 hr approach to e-commerce in order to take advantage of all situations arising. Kencall has overcome this by operating on 8hr shifts for 24 hrs. This has been made possible by the good security provided by the government.Kencall Ltd Daily Nation (2007) h as grown from an initial work force of 20 members to the present over 300 staff. The have also had to move location to a more spacious building where growth is possible. The amount of work handled ahs also grown six fold. This has led to Kenya been recognized as an upcoming force in e-commerce. By extension businesses in Developed countries feel comfortable when dealing with Kencall since they have the capacity to deliver. With the technological strides, Kencall can with a degree of certainty claim to be in a position to guarantee the integrity of its business partners information.In addition, Ken call has with itself the unique opportunity of spinning itself into and e-hub provider. With its wealth of experience, it can mitigate high turnover by providing training to would be e-commerce players. This way it will eliminate the need for people to seek employment only for them to forsake after six to twelve months once they are trained and have an understanding of e-commerce and by e xtension BPO. CONCLUSION Pare D. J 2003 is of the opinion that the incorrupt bringing of total strangers together in an online environment will not necessarily reduce overall transactional cost to achieve long-term economic gains.This paper has tried to disprove this by clearly showing that the opposite is true. By improvement of the working environment, the long term economic gain is clear for any to see. The fibre optic link currently being enjoyed by all not only Kencall Ltd. More effective security is but one of the major achievements being enjoyed by Kenyans. On their part Kencall Ltd is reaping the fruits of persistence. They are defining the parameters in e-commerce simply because they have been longer in the game on the Kenyan context.Any new entrant will have to start form a point of disadvantage as compared to Kencall at present. With the present business environment where businesses are smell to outsource labour intensive operations, Kencall stands at an advantage. In a ddition, with all the people trained by Kencall, Kenya is at an advantageous position to exploit new business in e-commerce. The completion of the fibre optic link will greatly enhance this. Not only will the cost of doing business come down, it will also enable Kenya position itself as the regional hub of e-commerce.The reference point to all who desire to enter into this business this will be all who know what is geed for them. The local producers now have the whole world open to them. The floriculture industry is a good example of successful exploitation of e-commerce in sourcing markets. It has taken only a decade for Kenya to command a healthy 30% of cut flowers sold in the world. This growth and success can be replicated in other areas. For example the floriculture industry is faced with rapid expansion problems and it is investing in technology from Israel and other countries leading in floriculture to fulfill this needs.Kenya can turn the big swaths of land on the northern part of Kenya to be great producers of horticulture as the global demand in Kenyan cut flowers increases, albeit stimulated by the easy access to market information facilitated by e-commerce. Hence a concerted effort involving both the citizens and the government is needed to enhance awareness and accelerate infrastructure provision to enhance the benefits of e-commerce in providing remarkable industry specific economic solutions. As Annan K. rightly put it, e-commerce is the most visible example to how ICT can contribute to economic growth.By improving trading efficiency and helping developing countries integrate into the world economy. Allowing entrepreneurs to compete more create more jobs and by extension create more wealth. REFERENCE Payne, Judith E. 2003. E-Commerce readiness for SMEs in developing Countries A guide for development professionals. Pare, Daniel J. 2003. Does this site deliver? B2B E-Commerce services for developing countries Humphrey, J. Mansell, R. Pare, and D Schmitz, H. 2003 . The reality of E-Commerce in developing countries Does e-commerce provide developing country businesses with easy access to global markets?Annan, K 2003. UNCTAD Secretariat, E -Commerce and Development bill 2003, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations, New York and Geneva. (In Forward). Okuttah. M. Outsourcing The latent goldmine http//www. kencall. com/goldmine. htm OTHER SOURCES http//www1. worldbank. org/devoutreach/spring00/article. asp? id=79 E-commerce for Developing Countries Expectations and Reality, Volume 35, Number 1, 1 January 2004 , pp. 31-39(9) http//learnlink. aed. org/Publications/Concept_Papers/ecommerce_readiness. pdf