Keeping in touch with the World

Introduction
1. The world is ever changing at a fast pace. Every tick of the clock pushes us
towards a new and innovative world of fantasies. The speed of development and
progress in all spheres of life is so rapid and perpetual, that one has to constantly
keep himself in touch with the changing world. Otherwise he will remain ignorant,
leading him to a bleak and pessimistic end. Nations, who keep themselves abreast
in touch with the phenomenal changing world are far more ahead of us. If one has
to survive, he has to keep himself in touch with the world.
Aim
2. The aim of this presentation is to enlighten you on the different facets and
dimensions of this ever changing world.
Sequence
3. The sequence of this presentation will be as under:-
a. Is the world really changing?
b. Areas where changes are taking place.
c. Impacts of changing world
d. Challenges for us
e. Conclusion
Is the world really changing?
4. Analyzing the human history, it is evident that man likes change and
innovation in all dimensions of his life. He hates monotony, which compels him to
look towards something new and innovative. There was a time when man was
living in caves, but then he made houses. Now he is residing in luxury apartments
and beach resorts. Similarly the palm islands of Dubai will give the man a chance
to live on the bed surface of sea. A current idea, which will materialize by year
2020 is that man will ultimately start living in the outer space. Americans are
planning to build a human colony on the moon. Similarly other dimensions of
human life are also faced with the challenge of change. So we can say that ‘yes’
the world is really changing and that too at a fast speed. Change is the order of the
day and it is vital.
Areas where changes are taking place
5. There are numerous areas of human life , where changes are taking place.
The list ranges from social to technological and from cultural to industrial
advancements. But here, we will only dilate upon the major areas or disciplines as
follows:-
a. Political sphere
b. Industrial area
c. Business world
 d. Showbiz
e. Oscar Awards
f. Hollywood
g. Motion Pictures
h. Telecommunication
j. Digital divide
k. Genetically Modified Food(GMF)
l. Online world
m. Media(Internet, TV, Radio, Newspaper)
n. Space Exploration
o. Multinational Corporations
p. Industrial Revolution
q. Consumer Rights
r. Advancements in Warfare
s. Cultural changes
t. Research in Knowledge
u. Noble Prize
v. Culture
w. Music
x. Environment
y. Ozone and greenhouse affect

Multinational Corporations

A multinational corporation (MNC) or transnational corporation (TNC), also called

multinational enterprise (MNE), is a corporation or enterprise that manages
production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to
as an international corporation.

The first modern MNC is generally thought to be the Poor Knights of Christ and
the Temple of Solomon, first endorsed by the pope in 1129. The key element of
transnational corporations was present even back then: the Dutch East India
Company was operating in a different country than the one where it had its
headquarters. Nowadays many corporations have offices, branches or
manufacturing plants in different countries than where their original and main
headquarter is located. This is the very definition of a transnational
corporation,having multiple operation points that all respond to one headquarter.
This often results in very powerful corporations that have budgets that exceed
some national GDPs. Multinational corporations can have a powerful influence in
local economies as well as the world economy and play an important role in
international relations and globalization. The presence of such powerful players in
the world economy is reason for much controversy.

Tax competition

Multinational corporations have played an important role in globalization.

Countries and sometimes sub national regions must compete against one another
for the establishment of MNC facilities, and the subsequent tax revenue,
employment, and economic activity. To compete, countries and regional political
districts sometimes offer incentives to MNCs such as tax breaks, pledges of
governmental assistance or improved infrastructure, or lax environmental and labor
standards enforcement. This process of becoming more attractive to foreign
investment can be characterized as a race to the bottom, a push towards greater
autonomy for corporate bodies, or both.

However, some scholars, for instance the Columbia economist Jagdish Bhagwati,
have argued that multinationals are engaged in a 'race to the top.' While
multinationals certainly regard a low tax burden or low labor costs as an element of
comparative advantage, there is no evidence to suggest that MNCs deliberately
avail themselves of lax environmental regulation or poor labour standards. As
Bhagwati has pointed out, MNC profits are tied to operational efficiency, which
includes a high degree of standardisation. Thus, MNCs are likely to tailor
production processes in all of their operations in conformity to those jurisdictions
where they operate (which will almost always include one or more of the US,
Japan or EU) which has the most rigorous standards. As for labor costs, while
MNCs clearly pay workers in, e.g. Vietnam, much less than they would in the US
(though it is worth noting that higher American productivity—linked to technology
—means that any comparison is tricky, since in America the same company would
probably hire far fewer people and automate whatever process they performed in
Vietnam with manual labour), it is also the case that they tend to pay a premium of
between 10% and 100% on local labor rates. Finally, depending on the nature of
the MNC, investment in any country reflects a desire for a long-term return. Costs
associated with establishing plant, training workers, etc., can be very high; once
established in a jurisdiction, therefore, many MNCs are quite vulnerable to
predatory practices such as, e.g., expropriation, sudden contract renegotiation, the
arbitrary withdrawal or compulsory purchase of unnecessary 'licenses,' etc. Thus,
both the negotiating power of MNCs and the supposed 'race to the bottom' may be
overstated, while the substantial benefits which MNCs bring (tax revenues aside)
are often understated.

Market withdrawal

Because of their size, multinationals can have a significant impact on government

policy, primarily through the threat of market withdrawal. For example, in an effort
to reduce health care costs, some countries have tried to force pharmaceutical
companies to license their patented drugs to local competitors for a very low fee,
thereby artificially lowering the price. When faced with that threat, multinational
pharmaceutical firms have simply withdrawn from the market, which often leads to
limited availability of advanced drugs. In these cases, governments have been
forced to back down from their efforts. Similar corporate and government
confrontations have occurred when governments tried to force MNCs to make their
intellectual property public in an effort to gain technology for local entrepreneurs.
When companies are faced with the option of losing a core competitive
technological advantage or withdrawing from a national market, they may choose
the latter. This withdrawal often causes governments to change policy. Countries
that have been the most successful in this type of confrontation with multinational
corporations are large countries such as United States and Brazil, which have
viable indigenous market competitors.

Lobbying

Multinational corporate lobbying is directed at a range of business concerns, from

tariff structures to environmental regulations. There is no unified multinational
perspective on any of these issues. Companies that have invested heavily in
pollution control mechanisms may lobby for very tough environmental standards
in an effort to force non-compliant competitors into a weaker position.
Corporations lobby tariffs to restrict competition of foreign industries. For every
tariff category that one multinational wants to have reduced, there is another
multinational that wants the tariff raised. Even within the U.S. auto industry, the
fraction of a company's imported components will vary, so some firms favor
tighter import restrictions, while others favor looser ones. Says Ely Oliveira,
Manager Director of the MCT/IR: This is very serious and is very hard and takes a
lot of work for the owner.

Multinational corporations such as Wal-mart and McDonald's benefit from

government zoning laws, to create barriers to entry.
Many industries such as General Electric and Boeing lobby the government to
receive subsidies to preserve their monopoly.

Patents

Many multinational corporations hold patents to prevent competitors from arising.

For example, Adidas holds patents on shoe designs, Siemens A.G. holds many
patents on equipment and infrastructure and Microsoft benefits from software
patents.The pharmaceutical companies lobby international agreements to enforce
patent laws on others.

Government power

In addition to efforts by multinational corporations to affect governments, there is

much government action intended to affect corporate behavior. The threat of
nationalization (forcing a company to sell its local assets to the government or to
other local nationals) or changes in local business laws and regulations can limit a
multinational's power. These issues become of increasing importance because of
the emergence of MNCs in developing countries.

Micro-multinationals

Enabled by Internet based communication tools, a new breed of multinational

companies is growing in numbers.These multinationals start operating in different
countries from the very early stages. These companies are being called micro-
multinationals. What differentiates micro-multinationals from the large MNCs is
the fact that they are small businesses. Some of these micro-multinationals,
particularly software development companies, have been hiring employees in
multiple countries from the beginning of the Internet era. But more and more
micro-multinationals are actively starting to market their products and services in
various countries. Internet tools like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ebay and Amazon
make it easier for the micro-multinationals to reach potential customers in other
countries.

Service sector micro-multinationals, like Indigo Design & Engineering Associates

Pvt. Ltd, Facebook, Alibaba etc. started as dispersed virtual businesses with
employees, clients and resources located in various countries. Their rapid growth is
a direct result of being able to use the internet, cheaper telephony and lower
traveling costs to create unique business opportunities
Criticism of Multinationals

The rapid rise of multinational corporations has been a topic of concern among
intellectuals, activists and laypersons who have seen it as a threat of such basic
civil rights as privacy. They have pointed out that multinationals create false needs
in consumers and have had a long history of interference in the policies of
sovereign nation states. Evidence supporting this belief includes invasive
advertising (such as billboards, television ads, adware, spam, telemarketing, child-
targeted advertising, guerilla marketing), massive corporate campaign
contributions in democratic elections, and endless global news stories about
corporate corruption (Martha Stewart and Enron, for example). Anti-corporate
protesters suggest that corporations answer only to shareholders, giving human
rights and other issues almost no consideration.

Business World

A business (also called a firm, or enterprise) is a legally recognized organization

designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers. Businesses are
predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to
earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself.
The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the
receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of
risk. Notable exceptions include cooperative enterprises and state-owned
enterprises. Socialist systems involve either government agencies, public
ownership, state-ownership or direct worker ownership of enterprises and assets
that would be run as businesses in a capitalist economy. The distinction between
these institutions and a business is that socialist institutions often have alternative
or additional goals aside from maximizing or turning a profit.

The etymology of "business" relates to the state of being busy either as an

individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work.
The term "business" has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the
singular usage (above) to mean a particular company or corporation, the
generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as "the music
business" and compound forms such as agribusiness, or the broadest meaning to
include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However,
the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a
matter of debate.
Business Studies, the study of the management of individuals to maintain
collective productivity to accomplish particular creative and productive goals
(usually to generate profit), is taught as an academic subject in many schools.

Basic forms of ownership

Although forms of business ownership vary by jurisdiction, there are several

common forms:

• Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one

person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others.
The owner of the business has personal liability of the debts incurred by the
business.
• Partnership: A partnership is a form of business in which two or more people
operate for the common goal which is often making profit. In most forms of
partnerships, each partner has personal liability of the debts incurred by the
business. There are three typical classifications of partnerships: general
partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
• Corporation: A corporation is a limited liability entity that has a separate
legal personality from its members. A corporation can be organized for-
profit or not-for-profit. A corporation is owned by multiple shareholders and
is overseen by a board of directors, which hires the business's managerial
staff. In addition to privately-owned corporate models, there are state-owned
corporate models.
• Cooperative: Often referred to as a "co-op", a cooperative is a limited
liability entity that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative
differs from a corporation in that it has members, as opposed to
shareholders, who share decision-making authority. Cooperatives are
typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives.
Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.

Types of business entity

There are many types of business entity defined in the legal systems of various
countries. These include corporations, partnerships, sole traders, and other
specialized types of organization. Some of these types are listed below, by country.
Classifications

There are many types of businesses, and because of this, businesses are classified
in many ways. One of the most common focuses on the primary profit-generating
activities of a business:

• Agriculture and mining businesses are concerned with the production of raw
material, such as plants or minerals.
• Financial businesses include banks and other companies that generate profit
through investment and management of capital.
• Information businesses generate profits primarily from the resale of
intellectual property and include movie studios, publishers and packaged
software companies.
• Manufacturers produce products, from raw materials or component parts,
which they then sell at a profit. Companies that make physical goods, such
as cars or pipes, are considered manufacturers.
• Real estate businesses generate profit from the selling, renting, and
development of properties, homes, and buildings.
• Retailers and Distributors act as middle-men in getting goods produced by
manufacturers to the intended consumer, generating a profit as a result of
providing sales or distribution services. Most consumer-oriented stores and
catalogue companies are distributors or retailers. See also: Franchising
• Service businesses offer intangible goods or services and typically generate
a profit by charging for labor or other services provided to government,
other businesses or consumers. Organizations ranging from house decorators
to consulting firms to restaurants and even to entertainers are types of
service businesses.
• Transportation businesses deliver goods and individuals from location to
location, generating a profit on the transportation costs
• Utilities produce public services, such as heat, electricity, or sewage
treatment, and are usually government chartered.

There are many other divisions and subdivisions of businesses. The authoritative
list of business types for North America is generally considered to be the North
American Industry Classification System, or NAICS. The equivalent European
Union list is the NACE.
Business Management

The study of the efficient and effective operation of a business is called

management. The main branches of management are financial management,
marketing management, human resource management, strategic management,
production management, service management, information technology
management, and business intelligence.

Reforming State Enterprises

In recent decades, assets and enterprises that were run by various states have been
modeled after business enterprises. In 2003, the People's Republic of China
reformed 80% of its state-owned enterprises and modeled them on a company-type
management system. Many state institutions and enterprises in China and Russia
have been transformed into joint-stock companies, with part of their shares being
listed on public stock markets.

Organizing

The major factors affecting how a business is organized are usually:

• The size and scope of the business, and its anticipated management and
ownership. Generally a smaller business is more flexible, while larger
businesses, or those with wider ownership or more formal structures, will
usually tend to be organized as partnerships or (more commonly)
corporations. In addition a business which wishes to raise money on a stock
market or to be owned by a wide range of people will often be required to
adopt a specific legal form to do so.
• The sector and country. Private profit making businesses are different from
government owned bodies. In some countries, certain businesses are legally
obliged to be organized certain ways.
• Limited liability. Corporations, limited liability partnerships, and other
specific types of business organizations protect their owners from business
failure by doing business under a separate legal entity with certain legal
protections. In contrast, unincorporated businesses or persons working on
their own are usually not so protected.
• Tax advantages. Different structures are treated differently in tax law, and
may have advantages for this reason.
• Disclosure and compliance requirements. Different business structures may
be required to make more or less information public (or reported to relevant
 authorities), and may be bound to comply with different rules and
regulations.

Many businesses are operated through a separate entity such as a corporation,

limited partnership or limited liability company. Most legal jurisdictions allow
people to organize such an entity by filing certain charter documents with the
relevant Secretary of State or equivalent and complying with certain other ongoing
obligations. The relationships and legal rights of shareholders, limited partners, or
members are governed partly by the charter documents and partly by the law of the
jurisdiction where the entity is organized. Generally speaking, shareholders in a
corporation, limited partners in a limited partnership, and members in a limited
liability company are shielded from personal liability for the debts and obligations
of the entity, which is legally treated as a separate "person." This means that unless
there is misconduct, the owner's own possessions are strongly protected in law, if
the business does not succeed.

Where two or more individuals own a business together but have failed to organize
a more specialized form of vehicle, they will be treated as a general partnership.
The terms of a partnership are partly governed by a partnership agreement if one is
created, and partly by the law of the jurisdiction where the partnership is located.
No paperwork or filing is necessary to create a partnership, and without an
agreement, the relationships and legal rights of the partners will be entirely
governed by the law of the jurisdiction where the partnership is located.

A single person who owns and runs a business is commonly known as a sole
proprietor, whether he or she owns it directly or through a formally organized
entity.

A few relevant factors to consider in deciding how to operate a business include:

1. General partners in a partnership (other than a limited liability partnership),

plus anyone who personally owns and operates a business without creating a
separate legal entity, are personally liable for the debts and obligations of the
business.
2. Generally, corporations are required to pay tax just like "real" people. In
some tax systems, this can give rise to so-called double taxation, because
first the corporation pays tax on the profit, and then when the corporation
distributes its profits to its owners, individuals have to include dividends in
their income when they complete their personal tax returns, at which point a
second layer of income tax is imposed.
 3. In most countries, there are laws which treat small corporations differently
than large ones. They may be exempt from certain legal filing requirements
or labor laws, have simplified procedures in specialized areas, and have
simplified, advantageous, or slightly different tax treatment.
4. To "go public" (sometimes called IPO) -- which basically means to allow a
part of the business to be owned by a wider range of investors or the public
in general—you must organize a separate entity, which is usually required to
comply with a tighter set of laws and procedures. Most public entities are
corporations that have sold shares, but increasingly there are also public
LLCs that sell units (sometimes also called shares), and other more exotic
entities as well (for example, REITs in the USA, Unit Trusts in the UK).
However, you cannot take a general partnership "public."

Commercial law

Most commercial transactions are governed by a very detailed and well-established

body of rules that have evolved over a very long period of time, it being the case
that governing trade and commerce was a strong driving force in the creation of
law and courts in Western civilization.

As for other laws that regulate or impact businesses, in many countries it is all but
impossible to chronicle them all in a single reference source. There are laws
governing treatment of labor and generally relations with employees, safety and
protection issues (OSHA or Health and Safety), anti-discrimination laws (age,
gender, disabilities, race, and in some jurisdictions, sexual orientation), minimum
wage laws, union laws, workers compensation laws, and annual vacation or
working hours time.

In some specialized businesses, there may also be licenses required, either due to
special laws that govern entry into certain trades, occupations or professions,
which may require special education, or by local governments. Professions that
require special licenses range from law and medicine to flying airplanes to selling
liquor to radio broadcasting to selling investment securities to selling used cars to
roofing. Local jurisdictions may also require special licenses and taxes just to
operate a business without regard to the type of business involved.

Some businesses are subject to ongoing special regulation. These industries

include, for example, public utilities, investment securities, banking, insurance,
broadcasting, aviation, and health care providers. Environmental regulations are
also very complex and can impact many kinds of businesses in unexpected ways.
Capital

When businesses need to raise money (called 'capital'), more laws come into play.
A highly complex set of laws and regulations govern the offer and sale of
investment securities (the means of raising money) in most Western countries.
These regulations can require disclosure of a lot of specific financial and other
information about the business and give buyers certain remedies. Because
"securities" is a very broad term, most investment transactions will be potentially
subject to these laws, unless a special exemption is available.

Capital may be raised through private means, by public offer (IPO) on a stock
exchange, or in many other ways. Major stock exchanges include the Shanghai
Stock Exchange, Singapore Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, New York
Stock Exchange and Nasdaq (USA), the London Stock Exchange (UK), the Tokyo
Stock Exchange (Japan), and so on. Most countries with capital markets have at
least one.

Business that have gone "public" are subject to extremely detailed and complicated
regulation about their internal governance (such as how executive officers'
compensation is determined) and when and how information is disclosed to the
public and their shareholders. In the United States, these regulations are primarily
implemented and enforced by the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). Other Western nations have comparable regulatory bodies.
The regulations are implemented and enforced by the China Securities Regulation
Commission (CSRC), in China. In Singapore, the regulation authority is Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS), and in Hong Kong, it is Securities and Futures
Commission (SFC).

As noted at the beginning, it is impossible to enumerate all of the types of laws and
regulations that impact on business today. In fact, these laws have become so
numerous and complex, that no business lawyer can learn them all, forcing
increasing specialization among corporate attorneys. It is not unheard of for teams
of 5 to 10 attorneys to be required to handle certain kinds of corporate transactions,
due to the sprawling nature of modern regulation. Commercial law spans general
corporate law, employment and labor law, healthcare law, securities law, M&A
law (who specialize in acquisitions), tax law, ERISA law (ERISA in the United
States governs employee benefit plans), food and drug regulatory law, intellectual
property law (specializing in copyrights, patents, trademarks and such),
telecommunications law, and more.
In Thailand, for example, it is necessary to register a particular amount of capital
for each employee, and pay a fee to the government for the amount of capital
registered. There is no legal requirement to prove that this capital actually exists,
the only requirement is to pay the fee. Overall, processes like this are detrimental
to the development and GDP of a country, but often exist in "feudal" developing
countries.

Intellectual property

Businesses often have important "intellectual property" that needs protection from
competitors for the company to stay profitable. This could require patents or
copyrights or preservation of trade secrets. Most businesses have names, logos and
similar branding techniques that could benefit from trademarking. Patents and
copyrights in the United States are largely governed by federal law, while trade
secrets and trademarking are mostly a matter of state law. Because of the nature of
intellectual property, a business needs protection in every jurisdiction in which
they are concerned about competitors. Many countries are signatories to
international treaties concerning intellectual property, and thus companies
registered in these countries are subject to national laws bound by these treaties.

Exit plans

Businesses can be bought and sold. Business owners often refer to their plan of
disposing of the business as an "exit plan." Common exit plans include IPOs,
MBOs and mergers with other businesses. Businesses are rarely liquidated, as it is
often very unprofitable to do so.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP) is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over

creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of
law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to
a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas,
discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common
types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial
design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.

Although many of the legal principles governing intellectual property have evolved
over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property
began to be used, and, it is said, not until the late 20th century that it became
commonplace in the United States.
Overview

Intellectual property rights are a bundle of exclusive rights over creations of the
mind, both artistic and commercial. The former is covered by copyright laws,
which protect creative works, such as books, movies, music, paintings,
photographs, and software, and give the copyright holder exclusive right to control
reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time.

The second category is collectively known as "industrial properties", as they are

typically created and used for industrial or commercial purposes. A patent may be
granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention and gives the patent holder a
right to prevent others from practicing the invention without a license from the
inventor for a certain period of time. A trademark is a distinctive sign which is
used to prevent confusion among products in the marketplace.

An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an

industrial object from infringement. A trade secret is an item of non-public
information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a
business. Public disclosure of trade secrets may sometimes be illegal.

The term intellectual property denotes the specific legal rights described above,
and not the intellectual work itself.

Financial incentive

These exclusive rights allow owners of intellectual property to reap monopoly

profits. These monopoly profits provide a financial incentive for the creation of
intellectual property, and pay associated research and development costs. Some
commentators, such as David Levine and Michele Boldrin, dispute this
justification.

Economic growth

The legal monopoly granted by IP laws are credited with significant contributions
toward economic growth Economists estimate that two-thirds of the value of large
businesses in the U.S. can be traced to intangible assets Industries which rely on IP
protections are estimated to produce 72 percent more value added per employee
than non-IP industries. A joint research project of the WIPO and the United
Nations University measuring the impact of IP systems on six Asian countries
found "a positive correlation between the strengthening of the IP system and
subsequent economic growth." However, correlation does not necessarily mean
causation: given that the patent holders can freely relocate, the Nash equilibrium
predicts they will obviously prefer operating in countries with strong IP laws. In
some of the cases, the economic growth that comes with a stronger IP system is
due to increase in stock capital from direct foreign investment, as was shown for
Taiwan after the 1986 reform.

Economics

Intellectual property rights are temporary monopolies enforced by the state

regarding use of expressions and ideas.

Intellectual property rights are usually limited to non-rival goods, that is, goods
which can be used or enjoyed by many people simultaneously—the use by one
person does not exclude use by another. This is compared to rival goods, such as
clothing, which may only be used by one person at a time. For example, any
number of people may make use of a mathematical formula simultaneously. Some
objections to the term intellectual property are based on the argument that property
can only properly be applied to rival goods (or that one cannot "own" property of
this sort).

Since a non-rival good may be used (copied, for example) by many simultaneously
(produced with minimal marginal cost), producers would need incentives other
than money to create such works. Monopolies, by contrast, also have inefficiencies
(producers will charge more and produce less than would be socially desirable).

The establishment of intellectual property rights, therefore, represents a trade-off,

to balance the interest of society in the creation of non-rival goods (by encouraging
their production) with the problems of monopoly power. Since the trade-off and
the relevant benefits and costs to society will depend on many factors that may be
specific to each product and society, the optimum period of time during which the
temporary monopoly rights should exist is unclear.

Show business

Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all
aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment
industry from the business side (including managers, agents, producers and
distributors) to the creative element (including artists, performers, writers and
musicians). It applies to every aspect of entertainment including cinema,
television , radio, theater and music. The term was in common usage throughout
the 20th century. By the latter part of the century it had acquired a slightly arcane
quality associated with the era of variety, but the term is still in active use.

The entertainment industry

The entertainment industry (also informally known as show business or show biz)
consists of a large number of sub-industries devoted to entertainment. However,
the term is often used in the mass media to describe the mass media companies that
control the distribution and manufacture of mass media entertainment. In the
popular parlance, the term show biz in particular connotes the commercially
popular performing arts, especially musical theatre, vaudeville, comedy, film, and
music.

Performance art

Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a

particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen
anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any
situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body and a
relationship between performer and audience. It is opposed to painting or
sculpture, for example, where an object constitutes the work. Performance art
traditionally involves the artist and other actors, but works like Survival Research
Laboratories' pieces, utilizing robots and machines without people, also occur.

Although performance art could be said to include relatively mainstream activities

such as theater, dance, music, and circus-related things like fire breathing,
juggling, and gymnastics, these are normally instead known as the performing arts.
Performance art is a term usually reserved to refer to a kind of usually avant-garde
or conceptual art which grew out of the visual arts. Uniquely, Michel Lotito ("M.
Mangetout") made performance out of eating unusual objects.

In performance art, usually one or more people perform in front of an audience. In

contrast to the traditional performing arts, performance art is unconventional.
Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and
unconventional ways about theater and performing, break conventions of
traditional performing arts, and break down conventional ideas about "what art is,"
similar to the postmodern art movement.[1] Thus, even though in most cases the
performance is in front of an audience, in some cases, the audience becomes the
performers. The performance may be scripted, unscripted, or improvisational. It
may incorporate music, dance, song, or complete silence.

Genres

Performance art genres include body art, fluxus, happening, action poetry, and
intermedia. Some artists, e.g. the Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists, prefer to
use the terms live art, "action art", intervention or "manoeuvre" to describe their
activities. These activities are also sometimes referred to simply as "actions".

Comedy

Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδία, komodia) as a popular meaning, is any

humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and
stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic
definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient
Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was remarkably
influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters.[1]

The theatrical genre can be simply described as a dramatic performance which pits
two societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye
famously depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society
of the Old,"[2] but this dichotomy is seldom described as an entirely satisfactory
explanation.

A later view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a

relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his
hopes; in this sense, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social
authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse to ruses which engender
very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.[3]

Much comedy contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity,

conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations, but there are many
recognized genres of comedy. Satire and political satire use ironic comedy to
portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their
audience from the object of humor. Satire is a type of comedy.

Parody borrows the form of some popular genre, artwork, or text but uses certain
ironic changes to critique that form from within (though not necessarily in a
condemning way). Screwball comedy derives its humor largely from bizarre,
surprising (and improbable) situations or characters. Black comedy is defined by
dark humor that makes light of so called dark or evil elements in human nature.
Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by
violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways.

A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society

(usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and
mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts
burgeoning romance in humorous terms, and focuses on the foibles of those who
are falling in love.

[edit] History

Comedy is one of the original four genres of literature as defined by the

philosopher Aristotle in his work called Poetics. The other three genres are
Tragedy, Epic, and Lyric. Literature in general is defined by Aristotle as a
mimesis, or imitation of, life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being the most
divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic,
comedy and lyric. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to
Aristotle's definition. All comedies begin with a low, typically with an "ugly" guy
who can't do anything right. By the end of the story or play, the "ugly" guy has
won the "pretty" girl, or whatever it was he was aiming for at the beginning.
Comedies also have elements of the supernatural, typically magic and for the
ancient Greeks the gods. Comedy includes the unrealistic in order to portray the
realistic. For the Greeks, all comedies ended happily which is opposite of tragedy,
which ends sadly. The oldest Greek comedy is Homer's Odyssey, the story of
Odysseus and his crew's attempt to return home after the fall of Troy.

Aristophanes, a dramatist of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies, 11 of

which survive and are still being performed. In ancient Greece, comedy seems to
have originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations apropos of fertility
festivals or gatherings, or also in making fun at other people or stereotypes.[4]
Aristotle, in his Poetics, states that comedy originated in Phallic songs and the light
treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that the origins of comedy
are obscure because it was not treated seriously from its inception.[7]

Comedy took on a different view with the advent of the Christian era. The comic
genre was divided by Dante in his work The Divine Comedy, made up of the epic
poems Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Dante's division of comedy into three sub
genres still exist today in various forms. Inferno represents the darkest of all
comedies, or what is known as dark or black comedy. In such comedy, one is
forced to laugh or enjoy dark or black topics that one shouldn't enjoy or laugh at.
Generally, most who read the whole Divine Comedy find Inferno to be the most
enjoyable of the three. At the end of the dark comedy, one is still left with a sense
of hope but one has not necessarily achieved what one has looked for. Purgatorio is
made up of what most comedies today possess. Purgatorio is light hearted, at least
compared to Inferno, and yet one still does not achieve fully what one looks for. As
such, Purgatorio leaves the main character with a sense of hope greater than what
was felt at the end of Inferno. Paradiso is the most traditional of the three in way of
the Greek standard of comedy. The supernatural play a huge role in all three
poems, but Paradiso ends the happiest of all three with the main character
achieving his goal. Infernal, Purgatorial and Paradisal comedies are the three main
genres in which one can place all other comic forms.

The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been
carefully investigated by psychologists. They agreed the predominating
characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object, and shock or emotional
seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of
superiority is an essential, if not the essential, factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks
of laughter as a "sudden glory." Modern investigators have paid much attention to
the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play
instinct" and its emotional expression.

George Meredith, in his 1897 classic Essay on Comedy, said that "One excellent
test of the civilization of a country ... I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea
and Comedy; and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful
laughter." Laughter is said to be the cure to being sick. Studies show, that people
who laugh more often, get sick less.[8][9]

[edit] Forms of comedy

Main article: Comedic genres

Comedy may be divided into multiple genres based on the source of humor, the
method of delivery, and the context in which it is delivered. The different forms
often overlap, and most comedy can fit into multiple genres. Some of the
subgenres of comedy are farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, and satire.

Concert

A concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music

may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a
musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band. Informal names
for a concert include "show" and "gig". Concerts are held in a wide variety of
settings or venues, including pubs, nightclubs, houses, barns, dedicated concert
halls, entertainment centres, large multipurpose buildings, and even sports stadia.
A concert held in a very large venue is sometimes called an arena concert.
Regardless of the venue, musicians usually perform on a stage. Before the
dominance of recorded music, concerts would be the only opportunity one would
generally have to hear musicians play.

While the principal reason for a concert is the opportunity for the musicians to
perform in front of an audience, even the most purely artistic of endeavors will see
gains. Concerts provide the musicians exposure to the public. An attendee will
probably see the musicians perform again if the concert was worthwhile.
Recording artists usually go on tours to promote record sales and introduce their
fans to new musical compositions. Some musicians and musical groups are known
for consistently touring and holding concerts, others rarely so.

The duration of concerts vary significantly. For major concerts, it could generally
take more than six hours, including support bands.

Types

The nature of a concert will vary by musical genre and individual groups in those
genres. Concerts by a small jazz combo and a small bluegrass band may have the
same order of program, mood, and volume, but vary in music and dress. In a
similar way, a particular musician, band, or genre of music might attract concert
attendees with similar dress, hairstyle, and behavior. For example, the hippies of
the 70s often toted long hair (sometimes in dread lock form), sandals and
inexpensive clothing made of natural fibers. The regular attendees to a concert
venue might also have a recognizable style, comprising that venue's "scene".

Musical groups with large expected audiences can put on very elaborate and
expensive affairs. In order to create a memorable and exciting atmosphere and
increase the spectacle, the musicians will frequently include additional
entertainment devices within their concerts. These tend to include changeable stage
lighting effects and various special effect visuals, which include anything from
large video screens and a Live event visual amplification system, inflatables,
smoke or dry ice, pyrotechnics, artwork, pre-recorded video, and unusual attire,
such as Pink Floyd, Jean Michel Jarre, Sarah Brightman and KISS. Some singers,
especially in genres of popular music, augment the sound of their concerts with
pre-recorded accompaniment and even broadcast vocal tracks of the singer's own
voice. Activities which may take place during large-scale concerts include dancing,
sing-alongs, and moshing.

Larger concerts involving a greater number of musical groups, especially those that
last for multiple days, are known as festivals. Examples include the Bloodstock
Open Air, Warped Tour, Wacken Open Air, Woodstock Music and Art Festival,
Oxegen, Bath Festival, Salzburg Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, Reading and
Leeds Festivals,Download Festival, Parachute Music Festival, Cambridge Folk
Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Roskilde Festival, Isle of Wight Festival, T in the
Park, Falls Festival, Big Day Out, Rockwave Festival and Summer Sonic Festival.

Music industry

The music industry (or music business) sells compositions, recordings and
performances of music. Among the many individuals and organizations that
operate within the industry are the musicians who compose and perform the music;
the companies and professionals who create and sell recorded music (e.g., music
publishers, producers, studios, engineers, record labels, retail and online music
stores, performance rights organisations); those that present live music
performances (booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew); professionals
who assist musicians with their careers (talent managers, business managers,
entertainment lawyers); those who broadcast music (satellite and broadcast radio);
journalists; educators; musical instrument manufacturers; as well as many others.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the music industry was dominated
by the publishers of sheet music. By mid-century records had supplanted sheet
music as the largest player in the music business. Since 2000, sales of recorded
music have dropped off substantially,[1] while live music has increased in
importance.[2] There are four "major labels" that dominate recorded music —
Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment,[3] Warner Music Group and
EMI — each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving
different regions and markets. The live music industry is dominated by Live
Nation, the largest promoter and music venue owner. Live Nation is a former
subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, which is the largest owner of radio
stations in the United States. Other important music industry companies include
Creative Artists Agency (a management and booking company) and Apple Inc.
(which runs the world's largest music store, iTunes Store, and sells the iPod and
iPhone).
Albums sales and market value

The following table shows album sales and market value in the world in the
1990s–2000s.

N Country Album Sales Share Share of World Market Value

1 USA 37-40% 30-35%

2 Japan 9-12% 16-19%

3 UK 7-9% 6.4-9.1%

4 Germany 7-8% 6.4-5.3%

5 France 4.5-5.5% 5.4-6.3%

6 Canada 2.6-3.3% 1.9-2.8%

7 Australia 1.5-1.8% 1.5-2.0%

8 Brazil 2.0-3.8% 1.1-3.1%

9 Italy 1.7-2.0% 1.5-2.0%

1
Spain 1.7-2.3% 1.4-1.8%
0
1
Netherlands 1.2-1.8% 1.3-1.8%
1

1
Mexico 2.1-4.6% 0.8-1.8%
2

1
Belgium 0.7-0.8% 0.8-1.2%
3

1
Switzerland 0.75-0.9% 0.8-1.1%
4

1
Austria 0.5-0.7% 0.8-1.0%
5

1
Russia 2.0-2.9% 0.5-1.4%
7

1
Taiwan 0.9-1.6% 0.5-1.1%
8

1
Argentina 0.5-0.7% 0.5-1.0%
9

2
Denmark 0.45-0.65% 0.5-0.8%
0

Amusement park

Amusement park or theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and
other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large
group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or
playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater to children, teenagers, and
adults. A theme park is a type of amusement park which has been built around one
or more themes, such as an American West theme, or Atlantis. Today, the terms
amusement parks and theme parks are often used interchangeably.

Amusement parks evolved in Europe from fairs and pleasure gardens which were
created for people’s recreation. The oldest amusement park of the world (opened
1583) is Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the United
States, world's fairs and expositions were another influence on development of the
amusement park industry.[1]

Most amusement parks have a fixed location, as compared to traveling funfairs and
carnivals. These temporary types of amusement parks, are usually present for a few
days or weeks per year, such as funfairs in the United Kingdom, and carnivals
(temporarily set up in a vacant lot or parking lots) and fairs (temporarily operated
in a fair ground) in the United States. The temporary nature of these fairs helps to
convey the feeling that people are in a different place or time.

Often a theme park will have various 'lands' (sections) of the park devoted to
telling a particular story. Non-theme amusement park rides will usually have little
in terms of theming or additional design elements while in a theme park all the
rides go all with the theme of the park, for example Magic Kingdom in Walt
Disney World.

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and
the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the
world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual
effects.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those
cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a
source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating — or
indoctrinating — citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a
universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide
attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these
images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is
occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect
known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a
fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion
due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also
called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and
displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion
picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photo-play and flick. A
common name for film in the United States is movie, while in Europe the term
cinema is preferred. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen,
the silver screen, the cinema and the movies.

Film Industry

The making and showing of motion pictures became a source of profit almost as
soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention,
and its product, was in their native France, the Lumières quickly set about touring
the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the
masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their
catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in the various countries
of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import and screen
additional product commercially. The Oberammergau Passion Play of
1898[citation needed] was the first commercial motion picture ever produced.
Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that
overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated theaters and companies formed
specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became
major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. Already by
1917, Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million
dollars.

From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for
television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.

In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around
Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as
Mumbai-centered Bollywood, the Indian film industry's Hindi cinema which
produces the largest number of films in the world.[4] Whether the ten thousand-
plus feature length films a year produced by the Valley pornographic film industry
should qualify for this title is the source of some debate.[citation needed] Though
the expense involved in making movies has led cinema production to concentrate
under the auspices of movie studios, recent advances in affordable film making
equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish.

Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of
filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns, a notorious example being
Kevin Costner's Waterworld. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of
lasting social significance. The Academy Awards (also known as "the Oscars") are
the most prominent film awards in the United States, providing recognition each
year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits.

There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of
or in addition to lectures and texts.

Modern film industry

The film industry as it stands today spans the globe. The major business centers of
film making are concentrated in the United States, India, Hong Kong and Nigeria.

Distinct from the centers are the locations where movies are filmed. Because of
labor and infrastructure costs, many films are produced in countries other than the
one in which the company which pays for the film is located. For example, many
U.S. movies are filmed in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand or
in Eastern European countries.

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States, situated west-

northwest of Downtown Los Angeles.[1] Due to its fame and cultural identity as
the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is
often used as a metonymy of American cinema. The nickname Tinseltown refers to
the glittering, superficial nature of Hollywood and the movie industry.[2] Today,
much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the
Westside neighborhood,[3] but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing,
effects, props, post-production and lighting companies, remain in Hollywood, as
does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.

Many historic Hollywood theaters are used as venues and concert stages to
premiere major theatrical releases and host the Academy Awards. It is a popular
destination for nightlife and tourism and home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Although it is not the typical practice of the city of Los Angeles to establish
specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods, Hollywood is a recent
exception. On February 16, 2005, Assembly Members Goldberg and Koretz
introduced a bill to require California to keep specific records on Hollywood as
though it were independent. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. This
bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the
Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor on
August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The
border can be loosely described as the area east of Beverly Hills and West
Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Boulevard, and
Barham Boulevard, and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose
Avenue and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This
includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz—two areas that were hitherto generally
considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the
district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 167,664 and the median
household income was $33,409 in 1999.[4]

As a portion of the city of Los Angeles, Hollywood does not have its own
municipal government, but does have an official, appointed by the Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce, who serves as an honorary "Mayor of Hollywood" for
ceremonial purposes only. Johnny Grant held this position for decades, until his
death on January 9, 2008.[5][6]

Academy Award

The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by
the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)[1] to
recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors,
actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one
of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world. It is also the oldest award
ceremony in the media, and many other award ceremonies such as the Grammy
Awards (for music), Golden Globe Awards (all forms of media), and Emmy
Awards (for television) are often modeled from the Academy. The Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
studio boss Louis B. Mayer.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the
Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and
1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille.
The 81st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, was held on
Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, with actor Hugh
Jackman hosting the ceremony.[2]

History

The first awards were presented on May 16, 1928, at a private brunch in
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people.[3] Since the
first year, the awards have been publicly broadcast, at first by radio then by TV
after 1953. During the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for
publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the awards.[3] This method was ruined when
the Los Angeles Times announced the winners before the ceremony began; as a
result, the Academy has used a sealed envelope to reveal the name of the winners
since 1941.[3] Since 2002, the awards have been broadcast from the Kodak
Theatre.[3]

[edit] Oscar statuette

[edit] Design

The official name of the Oscar statuette is the Academy Award of Merit. Made of
gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34 cm) tall, weighs
8.5 lb (3.85 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a
crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes each
represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors,
Producers, and Technicians.[4]

MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members,
supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll.[5] In
need of a model for his statuette Gibbons was introduced by his then wife Dolores
del Río to Mexican film director Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Reluctant at first,
Fernández was finally convinced to pose nude to create what today is known as the
"Oscar". Then, sculptor George Stanley (who also did the Muse Fountain[6] at the
Hollywood Bowl) sculpted Gibbons's design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the
statuette in 92.5 percent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The
only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base.
The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry
in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince
Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Awards statuettes for Golnaz Rahimi. Since 1983,[7]
approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago, Illinois by manufacturer
R.S. Owens & Company.[8]
In support of the American effort in World War II, the statuettes were made of
plaster and were traded in for gold ones after the war had ended.[9]

[edit] Naming

The root of the name Oscar is contested. One biography of Bette Davis claims that
she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson;
[10] one of the earliest mentions in print of the term Oscar dates back to a TIME
Magazine article about the 1934 6th Academy Awards[11] and to Bette Davis's
receipt of the award in 1936.[12] Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the
Academy for his Oscar as early as 1932. Another claimed origin is that of the
Academy's Executive Secretary, Margaret Herrick, who first saw the award in
1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her "Uncle Oscar" (a
nickname for her cousin Oscar Pierce).[13] Columnist Qiang Skolsky was present
during Herrick's naming and seized the name in his byline, "Employees have
affectionately dubbed their famous statuette 'Oscar'" (Levy 2003). The trophy was
officially dubbed the "Oscar" in 1939 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences.[14] As of the 81st Academy Awards ceremony held in 2009, a total of
2,744 Oscars have been given for 1,798 awards.[15] A total of 297 actors have
won Oscars in competitive acting categories or been awarded Honorary or Juvenile
Awards.

[edit] Ownership of Oscar statuettes

Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that
neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell
them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this
stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. Academy Awards not protected
by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure
sums (Levy 2003, pg 28).

This rule is highly controversial, since while the Oscar is under the ownership of
the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market.[16] The case of Michael
Todd's grandson trying to sell Todd's Oscar statuette illustrates that there are many
who do not agree with this idea. When Todd's grandson attempted to sell Todd's
Oscar statuette to a movie prop collector, the Academy won the legal battle by
getting a permanent injunction. Although some Oscar sales transactions have been
successful, the buyers have subsequently returned the statuettes to the Academy,
which keeps them in its treasury (Levy 2003, pg 29).

[edit] Nomination
Since 2004, Academy Award nomination results have been announced to the
public in late January. Prior to 2004, nomination results were announced publicly
in early February.

[edit] Voters

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a professional

honorary organization, maintains a voting membership of 5,835 as of 2007.[17]

Actors constitute the largest voting bloc, numbering 1,311 members (22 percent) of
the Academy's composition. Votes have been certified by the auditing firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its predecessor Price Waterhouse) for the past 73
annual awards ceremonies.[18]

All AMPAS members must be invited to join by the Board of Governors, on behalf
of Academy Branch Executive Committees. Membership eligibility may be
achieved by a competitive nomination or a member may submit a name based on
other significant contribution to the field of motion pictures.

New membership proposals are considered annually.The Academy does not

publicly disclose its membership, although as recently as 2007 press releases have
announced the names of those who have been invited to join. The 2007 release also
stated that it has just under 6,000 voting members. While the membership had been
growing, stricter policies have kept its size steady since then.[19]

[edit] Rules

Today, according to Rules 2 and 3 of the official Academy Awards Rules, a film
must open in the previous calendar year, from midnight at the start of January 1 to
midnight at the end of December 31, in Los Angeles County, California, to qualify.
[20] Rule 2 states that a film must be "feature-length", defined as a minimum of 40
minutes, except for short subject awards and it must exist either on a 35 mm or 70
mm film print or in 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s progressive scan digital cinema
format with native resolution not less than 1280x720.

The members of the various branches nominate those in their respective fields
while all members may submit nominees for Best Picture. The winners are then
determined by a second round of voting in which all members are then allowed to
vote in most categories, including Best Picture.[21]
As of the 79th Academy Awards, 847 members (past and present) of the Screen
Actors Guild have been nominated for an Oscar (in all categories).

Ceremony

Telecast

31st Academy Awards Presentations, Pantages Theater, Hollywood, 1959

81st Academy Awards Presentations, Hollywood and Highland, Hollywood, 2009

The major awards are presented at a live televised ceremony, most commonly in
February or March following the relevant calendar year, and six weeks after the
announcement of the nominees. It is the culmination of the film awards season,
which usually begins during November or December of the previous year. This is
an elaborate extravaganza, with the invited guests walking up the red carpet in the
creations of the most prominent fashion designers of the day. Black tie dress is the
most common outfit for men, although fashion may dictate not wearing a bow-tie,
and musical performers sometimes do not adhere to this. (The artists who recorded
the nominees for Best Original Song quite often perform those songs live at the
awards ceremony, and the fact that they are performing is often used to promote
the television broadcast.)

The Academy Awards is televised live across the United States (excluding Alaska
and Hawaii), Canada, the United Kingdom, and gathers millions of viewers
elsewhere throughout the world.[22] The 2007 ceremony was watched by more
than 40 million Americans.[23] Other awards ceremonies (such as the Emmys,
Golden Globes, and Grammys) are broadcast live in the East Coast but are on tape
delay in the West Coast and might not air on the same day outside North America
(if the awards are even televised). The Academy has for several years claimed that
the award show has up to a billion viewers internationally, but this has so far not
been confirmed by any independent sources. The usual extension of this claim is
that only the Super Bowl, Olympics Opening Ceremonies, and FIFA World Cup
Final draw higher viewership.

The Awards show was first televised on NBC in 1953. NBC continued to
broadcast the event until 1960 when the ABC Network took over, televising the
festivities through 1970, after which NBC resumed the broadcasts. ABC once
again took over broadcast duties in 1976; it is under contract to do so through the
year 2014.[24]

After more than sixty years of being held in late March or early April, the
ceremonies were moved up to late February or early March starting in 2004 to help
disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar
season in the film industry. Another reason was because of the growing TV ratings
success of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, which would cut
into the Academy Awards audience. The earlier date is also to the advantage of
ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February
sweeps period. (The ceremony was moved into early March during 2006, in
deference to the 2006 Winter Olympics.) Advertising is somewhat restricted,
however, as traditionally no movie studios or competitors of official Academy
Award sponsors may advertise during the telecast. The Awards show holds the
distinction of having won the most Emmys in history, with 38 wins and 167
nominations.[25]

On March 30, 1981, the awards ceremony was postponed for one day after the
shooting of President Ronald Reagan and others in Washington, D.C.

Since 2002, celebrities have been seen arriving at the Academy Awards in hybrid
vehicles;[26] during the telecast of the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, Leonardo
DiCaprio and former vice president Al Gore announced that ecologically
intelligent practices had been integrated into the planning and execution of the
Oscar presentation and several related events.[26][27]

[edit] Ratings

Historically, the "Oscarcast" has pulled in a bigger haul when box-office hits are
favored to win the Best Picture trophy. More than 57.25 million viewers tuned to
the telecast in 1998, the year of Titanic, which generated close to US$600 million
at the North American box office pre-Oscars.[28] The 76th Academy Awards
ceremony in which The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (pre-telecast
box office earnings of US$368 million) received 11 Awards including Best Picture
drew 43.56 million viewers.[29] The most watched ceremony based on Nielsen
ratings to date, however, was the 42nd Academy Awards (Best Picture Midnight
Cowboy) which drew a 43.4% household rating on April 7, 1970.[30]

By contrast, ceremonies honoring films that have not performed well at the box
office tend to show weaker ratings. The 78th Academy Awards which awarded
low-budgeted, independent film Crash (with a pre-Oscar gross of US$53.4 million)
generated an audience of 38.64 million with a household rating of 22.91%.[31]
More recently, the 80th Academy Awards telecast was watched by 31.76 million
viewers on average with an 18.66% household rating, the lowest rated and least
watched ceremony to date, in spite of celebrating 80 years of the Academy
Awards.[32] The Best Picture winner of that particular ceremony was another low-
budget, independently financed film (No Country for Old Men).

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit

programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively
large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.

The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. As with all

technological endeavours, a number of technical terms and slang have developed.
A list of these terms can be found at list of broadcasting terms. Television and
radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both
simultaneously. By coding signals and having decoding equipment in homes, the
latter also enables subscription-based channels and pay-per-view services.

The term "broadcast" originally referred to the sowing of seeds by scattering them
over a wide field. It was adopted by early radio engineers from the Midwestern
United States to refer to the analogous dissemination of radio signals. Broadcasting
forms a very large segment of the mass media. Broadcasting to a very narrow
range of audience is called narrowcasting.

Forms of electronic broadcasting

Historically, there have been several different types of electronic broadcasting

mediums:

• Telephone broadcasting (1890–1932): the earliest form of electronic

broadcasting, not counting the data services offered by stock telegraph
companies from 1867, if ticker-tape machines are excluded from
broadcasting's popular definition. Telephone broadcasting began with the
advent of telephone newspaper services for news and entertainment
programming which were introduced in the 1890s and primarily located in
large European cities. These telephone-based systems were the first example
of electronic broadcasting and offered a wide variety of programming.
• Radio broadcasting (experimentally from 1906, commercially from 1920):
radio broadcasting is an audio (sound) broadcasting service, broadcast
through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and, thus, to
a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast
common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both.
• Television broadcasting (experimentally from 1925, commercially from the
1930s): this video-programming medium was long-awaited by the general
public and rapidly rose to compete with its older radio-broadcasting sibling.
• Cable radio (also called "cable FM", from 1928) and cable television (from
1932): both via coaxial cable, serving principally as transmission mediums
for programming produced at either radio or television stations, with limited
production of cable-dedicated programming.
• Satellite television (from circa 1974) and satellite radio (from circa 1990):
meant for direct-to-home broadcast programming (as opposed to studio
network uplinks and downlinks), provides a mix of traditional radio and/or
television broadcast programming with satellite-dedicated programming.
 • Webcasting of video/television (from circa 1993) and audio/radio (from
circa 1994) streams: offers a mix of traditional radio and television station
broadcast programming with internet-dedicated webcast programming.

Recorded broadcasts and live broadcasts

The first regular television broadcasts began in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified
as "recorded" or "live". The former allows correcting errors, and removing
superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slow-motion and
repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However, some live
events like sports telecasts can include some of the aspects including slow-motion
clips of important goals/hits, etc., in between the live telecast.

American radio-network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in

the 1930s and 1940s requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central
time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone. This
restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German
dirigible airship Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in 1937. During
World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on
U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by
Armed Forces Radio stations around the world.

A disadvantage of recording first is that the public may know the outcome of an
event from another source, which may be a "spoiler". In addition, prerecording
prevents live announcers from deviating from an officially approved script, as
occurred with propaganda broadcasts from Germany in the 1940s and with Radio
Moscow in the 1980s.

Many events are advertised as being live, although they are often "recorded live"
(sometimes called "live-to-tape"). This is particularly true of performances of
musical artists on radio when they visit for an in-studio concert performance.
Similar situations have occurred in television ("The Cosby Show is recorded in
front of a live studio audience") and news broadcasting.

A broadcast may be distributed through several physical means. If coming directly

from the studio at a single radio or television station, it is simply sent through the
air chain to the transmitter and thence from the antenna on the tower out to the
world. Programming may also come through a communications satellite, played
either live or recorded for later transmission. Networks of stations may simulcast
the same programming at the same time, originally via microwave link, now
usually by satellite.
Distribution to stations or networks may also be through physical media, such as
analog or digital videotape, compact disc, DVD, and sometimes other formats.
Usually these are included in another broadcast, such as when electronic news
gathering returns a story to the station for inclusion on a news programme.

The final leg of broadcast distribution is how the signal gets to the listener or
viewer. It may come over the air as with a radio station or television station to an
antenna and receiver, or may come through cable television [1] or cable radio (or
"wireless cable") via the station or directly from a network. The Internet may also
bring either radio or television to the recipient, especially with multicasting
allowing the signal and bandwidth to be shared.

The term "broadcast network" is often used to distinguish networks that broadcast
an over-the-air television signal that can be received using a television antenna
from so-called networks that are broadcast only via cable or satellite television.
The term "broadcast television" can refer to the programming of such networks.

Television

Television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and

receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color,
usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a
television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is
derived from mixed Latin and Greek roots, meaning "far sight": Greek tele (τῆλε),
far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).

Commercially available since the late 1930s, the television set has become a
common communications receiver in homes, businesses and institutions,
particularly as a source of entertainment and news. Since the 1970s the availability
of video cassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs and now Blu-ray discs, have resulted in the
television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast
material.

Although other forms such as closed-circuit television are in use, the most common
usage of the medium is for broadcast television, which was modeled on the
existing radio broadcasting systems developed in the 1920s, and uses high-
powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the television signal to
individual TV receivers.

Broadcast TV is typically disseminated via radio transmissions on designated

channels in the 54-890 megahertz frequency band[1]. Signals are now often
transmitted with stereo and/or surround sound in many countries. Until the 2000s
broadcast TV programs were generally recorded and transmitted as an analog
signal, but in recent years public and commercial broadcasters have been
progressively introducing digital television broadcasting technology.

A standard television set comprises multiple internal electronic circuits, including

those for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which
lacks a tuner is properly called a monitor, rather than a television. A television
system may use different technical standards such as digital television (DTV) and
high-definition television (HDTV). Television systems are also used for
surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where
direct observation is difficult or dangerous.

Amateur television (ham TV or ATV) is also used for experimentation, pleasure

and public service events by amateur radio operators. Ham TV stations were on the
air in many cities before commercial TV stations came on the air.[2]

History

In its early stages of development, television employed a combination of optical,

mechanical and electronic technologies to capture, transmit and display a visual
image. By the late 1920s, however, those employing only optical and electronic
technologies were being explored. All modern television systems rely on the latter,
although the knowledge gained from the work on mechanical-dependent systems
was crucial in the development of fully electronic television.

The first time images were transmitted electrically were via early mechanical fax
machines, including the pantelegraph, developed in the late 1800s. The concept of
electrically-powered transmission of television images in motion, was first
sketched in 1878 as the telephonoscope, shortly after the invention of the
telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that
someday that light could be transmitted over wires, as sounds were.[citation
needed]

The idea of using scanning to transmit images was put to actual practical use in
1881 in the pantelegraph, through the use of a pendulum-based scanning
mechanism. From this period forward, scanning in one form or another, has been
used in nearly every image transmission technology to date, including television.
This is the concept of "rasterization", the process of converting a visual image into
a stream of electrical pulses.[citation needed]
In 1884 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a 20-year old university student in Germany,
patented the first electromechanical television system which employed a scanning
disk, a spinning disk with a series of holes spiraling toward the center, for
rasterization. The holes were spaced at equal angular intervals such that in a single
rotation the disk would allow light to pass through each hole and onto a light-
sensitive selenium sensor which produced the electrical pulses. As an image was
focused on the rotating disk, each hole captured a horizontal "slice" of the whole
image, in a scanning fashion.[citation needed]

Nipkow's design would not be practical until advances in amplifier tube technology
became available in 1907. Even then the device was only useful for transmitting
still "halftone" images - represented by equally spaced dots of varying size - over
telegraph or telephone lines. Later designs would use a rotating mirror-drum
scanner to capture the image and a cathode ray tube (CRT) as a display device, but
moving images were still not possible, due to the poor sensitivity of the selenium
sensors.[citation needed]

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving

silhouette images in London in 1925, and of moving, monochromatic images in
1926. Baird's scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough
to discern a human face, from a double spiral of lenses.[citation needed].
Remarkably, in 1927 Baird also invented the world's first video recording system,
"Phonovision" -- by modulating the output signal of his TV camera down to the
audio range he was able to capture the signal on a 10-inch wax audio disc using
conventional audio recording technology. A handful of Baird's 'Phonovision'
recordings survive and these were finally decoded and rendered into viewable
images in the 1990s using modern digital signal-processing technology[4].

In 1926, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Tihanyi designed a television system

utilizing fully electronic scanning and display elements, and employing the
principle of "charge storage" within the scanning (or "camera") tube.[5][6][7][8]

By 1927, Russian inventor Léon Theremin developed a mirror drum-based

television system which used interlacing to achieve an image resolution of 100
lines.[citation needed]

Also in 1927, Herbert E. Ives of Bell Labs transmitted moving images from a 50-
aperture disk producing 16 frames per minute over a cable from Washington, DC
to New York City, and via radio from Whippany, New Jersey. Ives used viewing
screens as large as 24 by 30 inches (60 by 75 centimeters). His subjects included
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.[citation needed]

In 1927, Philo Farnsworth made the world's first working television system with
electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices,[9] which he first
demonstrated to the press on 1 September 1928.[9][10]

The first practical use of television was in Germany. Regular television broadcasts
began in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were
broadcast to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig where the public could view
the games live.[11]

In 1936, Kálmán Tihanyi described the principle of plasma television, the first flat
panel system.[12] [13

Advertising

Television's broad reach makes it a powerful and attractive medium for advertisers.
Many television networks and stations sell blocks of broadcast time to advertisers
("sponsors") in order to fund their programming.

Genres

Television genres include a broad range of programming types that entertain,

inform, and educate viewers. The most expensive entertainment genres to produce
are usually drama and dramatic miniseries. However, other genres, such as
historical Western genres, may also have high production costs.

Popular entertainment genres include action-oriented shows such as police, crime,

detective dramas, horror, or thriller shows. As well, there are also other variants of
the drama genre, such as medical dramas and daytime soap operas. Science fiction
shows can fall into either the drama or action category, depending on whether they
emphasize philosophical questions or high adventure. Comedy is a popular genre
which includes situation comedy (sitcom) and animated shows for the adult
demographic such as Family Guy.

The least expensive forms of entertainment programming are game shows, talk
shows, variety shows, and reality TV. Game shows show contestants answering
questions and solving puzzles to win prizes. Talk shows feature interviews with
film, television and music celebrities and public figures. Variety shows feature a
range of musical performers and other entertainers such as comedians and
magicians introduced by a host or Master of Ceremonies. There is some crossover
between some talk shows and variety shows, because leading talk shows often
feature performances by bands, singers, comedians, and other performers in
between the interview segments. Reality TV shows "regular" people (i.e., not
actors) who are facing unusual challenges or experiences, ranging from arrest by
police officers (COPS) to weight loss (The Biggest Loser). A variant version of
reality shows depicts celebrities doing mundane activities such as going about their
everyday life (Snoop Dogg's Father Hood) or doing manual labour (Simple Life).

Social aspects

Main article: Social aspects of television

Television has played a pivotal role in the socialization of the 20th and 21st
centuries. There are many aspects of television that can be addressed, including
media violence research.

Social aspects of television

The social aspects of television are the influences this medium has had on society
since its inception. The belief that this impact has been dramatic has been largely
unchallenged in media theory since its inception. However, there is much dispute
as to what those effects are, how serious the ramifications are and if these effects
are more or less evolutionary with human communication.

Positive effects

Media theorist Joshua Meyrowitz argues that the medium has guided its viewers to
areas and subjects to which they were previously denied access.

Before TV it can be considered that printing was the medium considered the main
channel to access information and knowledge.

[edit] Negative effects

Arguably TV was created to serve public interest, but now it can be seen more in
character of the "boob tube", a mindless occupation and time filler.[1] Newton N.
Minow spoke of the "vast wasteland" that was the television programming of the
day in his 1961 speech.
Complaints about the social influence of television have been heard from the U.S.
justice system as investigators and prosecutors decry what they refer to as “the CSI
Syndrome.” They complain that, because of the popularity and considerable
viewership of CSI and its spin-offs, juries today expect to be “dazzled,” and will
acquit criminals of charges unless presented with impressive physical evidence,
even when motive, testimony, and lack of alibi are presented by the prosecution.[2]

Television has also been credited with changing the norms of social propriety,
although the direction and value of this change are disputed. Milton Shulman,
writing about television in the 1960s, wrote that “TV cartoons showed cows
without udders and not even a pause was pregnant,” and noted that on-air vulgarity
was highly frowned upon. Shulman suggested that, even by the 1970s, television
was shaping the ideas of propriety and appropriateness in the countries the medium
blanketed. He asserted that, as a particularly “pervasive and ubiquitous” medium,
television could create a comfortable familiarity with and acceptance of language
and behavior once deemed socially unacceptable. Television, as well as
influencing its viewers, evoked an imitative response from other competing media
as they struggle to keep pace and retain viewer- or readership. [3]

According to a recent research, conducted by John Robinson and Steven Martin

from the State University of Maryland, people who are not satisfied with their
lives, spend 30% more time watching TV than satisfied people do. The research
was conducted with 30,000 people during the period between 1975 and 2006. This
new study came in a slight contradiction with a previous research, which
concluded that watching TV was the happiest time of the day for some people.
However, prof. Robinson commented that watching TV could bring a short-time
happiness, which would be just a result of an overall dissatisfaction.[4]

[edit] Psychological effects

Some studies suggest that, when a person plays video games or watches TV, the
basal ganglia portion of the brain becomes very active and dopamine is released.
Some scientists believe that release of high amounts of dopamine reduces the
amount of the neurotransmitter available for other purposes, although this remains
a controversial conclusion.[5]

[edit] Physical effects

Studies in both children and adults have found an association between the number
of hours of television watched and obesity.[6] A study found that watching
television decreases the metabolic rate in children to below that found in children
at rest. [7]

[edit] Alleged dangers

See also: Media violence research

Legislators, scientists and parents are debating the effects of television violence on
viewers, particularly youth. Fifty years of research on the impact of television on
children's emotional and social development have not ended this debate (see
Bushman & Anderson 2001; Savage, 2008).

Bushman & Anderson (2001) among others have claimed that the evidence clearly
supports a causal relationship between media violence and societal violence.
However other authors (Olson, 2004; Savage, 2008) note significant
methodological problems with the literature and mismatch between increasing
media violence and decreasing crime rates in the United States.

A 2002 article in Scientific American suggested that compulsive television

watching, television addiction, was no different from any other addiction, a finding
backed up by reports of withdrawal symptoms among families forced by
circumstance to cease watching.[8] However this view has not yet received
widespread acceptance among all scholars, and "television addiction" is not a
diagnoseable condition according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -IV
-TR.

A longitudinal study in New Zealand involving 1000 people (from childhood to 26

years of age) demonstrated that "television viewing in childhood and adolescence
is associated with poor educational achievement by 12 years of age". [9] A study
published in the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy concluded that
parental television involvement was associated with greater body satisfaction
among adolescent girls, less sexual experience amongst both male and female
adolescents, and that parental television involvement may influence self-esteem
and body image, in part by increasing parent-child closeness.[10] Numerous
studies have been done on the relationship between TV viewing and school grades.
[11] Many studies have found little or no effect of television viewing on viewers
(see Freedman, 2002) Recent research (Schmidt et al., 2009) has indicated that,
once other factors are controlled for, television viewing appears to have little to no
impact on cognitive performance, contrary to previous thought. [12]

[edit] Propaganda
Television is used to promote commercial, social and political agendas. Use of
public service announcements (including those paid for by governing bodies or
politicians), news and current affairs, television advertisement, advertorials and
talk shows are used to influence public opinion. The Cultivation Hypothesis
suggests that some viewers may begin to repeat questionable or even blatantly
fictitious information gleaned from the media as if it were factual. Considerable
debate remains, however, whether the Cultivation Hypothesis is well supported by
scientific literature, however, the effectiveness of television for propaganda
(including commercial advertising) is unsurpassed. The US military and State
Department often turn to media to broadcast into hostile territory or nation.[13]

[edit] Educational advantages

Despite this research, many media scholars today dismiss such studies as flawed.
See David Gauntlett's article "Ten Things Wrong With the Media 'Effects' Model."
Dimitri Christakis cites studies in which those who watched "Sesame Street" and
other educational programs as preschoolers had higher grades, were reading more
books, placed more value on achievement and were more creative. Similar, while
those exposed to negative role models suffered, those exposed to positive models
behaved better.[14]

[edit] Politics

While the effects of television depend on the what is actually consumed, Neil
Postman argues that the dominance of entertaining, but not informative
programming, creates a politically ignorant society, undermining democracy:
"Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least-informed people in
the Western world."[15] However some broadcasters do offer us intelligent
political narrative and argument. This offers otherwise ignorant viewers, who may
not read about politics elsewhere, the opportunity to access current or historical
political views, for example.

[edit] Technology trends

In its infancy, television was a time-dependent, fleeting medium; it acted on the

schedule of the institutions that broadcast the television signal or operated the
cable. Fans of regular shows planned their schedules so that they could be
available to watch their shows at their time of broadcast. The term appointment
television was coined by marketers to describe this kind of attachment.
The viewership's dependence on schedule lessened with the invention of
programmable video recorders, such as the Videocassette recorder and the Digital
video recorder. Consumers could watch programs on their own schedule once they
were broadcast and recorded. Television service providers also offer video on
demand, a set of programs which could be watched at any time.

Both mobile phone networks and the Internet can give us video streams; video
sharing websites have become popular.

The Japanese manufacturer Scalar has developed a very small TV-system attached
to the eyeglasses, called "Teleglass T3-F".[16]

[edit] Gender and television

While women, who were “traditionally more isolated than men” were given equal
opportunity to consume shows about more “manly” endeavors, men’s feminine
sides are tapped by the emotionally invocative nature of many television programs.
[17]

Television played a significant role in the feminist movement. Although most of

the women portrayed on television conformed to stereotypes, television also
showed the lives of men as well as news and current affairs. These "other lives"
portrayed on television left many women unsatisfied with their current
socialization.

The representation of males and females on the television screen has been a subject
of much discussion since the television became commercially available in the late
1930s. In 1964 Betty Friedan claimed that “television has represented the
American Woman as a “stupid, unattractive, insecure little household drudge who
spends her martyred mindless, boring days dreaming of love—and plotting nasty
revenge against her husband.” As women started to revolt and protest to become
equals in society in the 1960s and 1970s, their portrayal on the television was an
issue that they addressed. Journalist Susan Faludi suggested, “The practices and
programming of network television in the 1980s were an attempt to get back to
those earlier stereotypes of women.” Through television, even the most
homebound women can experience parts of our culture once considered primarily
male, such as sports, war, business, medicine, law, and politics.

The inherent intimacy of television makes it one of the few public arenas in our
society where men routinely wear makeup and are judged as much on their
personal appearance and their "style" as on their "accomplishments."
From 1930 to 2007 daytime television hasn’t changed much. Soap operas and talk
shows still dominate the daytime time slot. Prime time television since the 1950s
has been aimed at and catered towards males. In 1952, 68% of characters in
primetime dramas were male; in 1973, 74% of characters in these shows were
male. In 1970 the National Organization for Women (NOW) took action. They
formed a task force to study and change the “derogatory stereotypes of women on
television.” In 1972 they challenged the licences of two network-owned stations on
the basis of their sexist programming. In the 1960s the shows I Dream of Jeannie
and Bewitched insinuated that the only way that a women could escape her duties
was to use magic. Industry analysis Shari Anne Brill of Carat USA states, “For
years, when men were behind the camera, women were really ditsy. Now you have
female leads playing superheroes, or super business women.” Current network
broadcasting features a range of female portrayals.

[edit] Socializing children

The literacy level of books would often correspond with the "appropriate" topics
for children. Topics unsuitable for children would be written for a higher level of
literacy and when most children would try to read these books they would be
beyond their literary capabilities. [18]

With television, the literacy level required to understand is substantially lower as

well as it being difficult to monitor a child's use of the device and anticipate the
content that will be delivered through it. However, much research and development
is being dedicated to regain control, monitor and restrict children's consumption of
television.[19]

Often, television can show children what adults may not want them to know. A key
example of this is in the television show Father Knows Best where children are let
in on perhaps the biggest secret: that adults keep secrets from them.[20]

[edit] Suitability for audience

Almost since the medium's inception there have been charges that some
programming is, in one way or another, inappropriate, offensive or indecent.
Critics such as Jean Kilborne have claimed that television, as well as other mass
media images, harm the self image of young girls. Other commentators such as Sut
Jhally make the case that television advertisers in the U.S. deliberately try to.[21]
George Gerbner has presented evidence that the frequent portrayals of crime,
especially minority crime, has led to the Mean World Syndrome, the view among
frequent viewers of television that crime rates are much higher than the actual data
would indicate. In addition, a lot of television has been charged with presenting
propaganda, political or otherwise, and being pitched at a low intellectual level.

Culture

Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")[1] is
a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and
Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A
Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions.[2] However, the word "culture" is
most commonly used in three basic senses:

• excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high
culture
• an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends
upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
• the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an
institution, organization or group.

When the concept first emerged in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe, it

connoted a process of cultivation or improvement, as in agriculture or horticulture.
In the nineteenth century, it came to refer first to the betterment or refinement of
the individual, especially through education, and then to the fulfillment of national
aspirations or ideals. In the mid-nineteenth century, some scientists used the term
"culture" to refer to a universal human capacity.

In the twentieth century, "culture" emerged as a concept central to anthropology,

encompassing all human phenomena that are not purely results of human genetics.
Specifically, the term "culture" in American anthropology had two meanings: (1)
the evolved human capacity to classify and represent experiences with symbols,
and to act imaginatively and creatively; and (2) the distinct ways that people living
in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and
acted creatively. Following World War II, the term became important, albeit with
different meanings, in other disciplines such as sociology, cultural studies,
organizational psychology and management studies.

Language and Culture

The connection between culture and language has been noted as far back as the
classical period and probably long before. The ancient Greeks, for example,
distinguished between civilized peoples and bárbaros "those who babble", i.e.
those who speak unintelligible languages.[86] The fact that different groups speak
different, unintelligible languages is often considered more tangible evidence for
cultural differences than other less obvious cultural traits.

The German romanticists of the 19th century such as Herder, Wundt and Humbolt,
often saw language not just as one cultural trait among many but rather as the
direct expression of a people's national character, and as such as culture in a kind
of condensed form. Herder for example suggests, "Denn jedes Volk ist Volk; es hat
seine National Bildung wie seine Sprache" (Since every people is a People, it has
its own national culture expressed through its own language).[87]

Franz Boas, founder of American anthropology, like his German forerunners,

maintained that the shared language of a community is the most essential carrier of
their common culture. Boas was the first anthropologist who considered it
unimaginable to study the culture of a foreign people without also becoming
acquainted with their language. For Boas, the fact that the intellectual culture of a
people was largely constructed, shared and maintained through the use of
language, meant that understanding the language of a cultural group was the key to
understanding its culture. At the same time, though, Boas and his students were
aware that culture and language are not directly dependent on one another. That is,
groups with widely different cultures may share a common language, and speakers
of completely unrelated languages may share the same fundamental cultural traits.
[88][89] Numerous other scholars have suggested that the form of language
determines specific cultural traits.[90] This is similar to the notion of Linguistic
determinism, which states that the form of language determines individual thought.
While Boas himself rejected a causal link between language and culture, some of
his intellectual heirs entertained the idea that habitual patterns of speaking and
thinking in a particular language may influence the culture of the linguistic group.
[91] Such belief is related to the theory of Linguistic relativity. Boas, like most
modern anthropologists, however, was more inclined to relate the
interconnectedness between language and culture to the fact that, as B.L. Whorf
put it, "they have grown up together".[92]

Indeed, the origin of language, understood as the human capacity of complex

symbolic communication, and the origin of complex culture is often thought to
stem from the same evolutionary process in early man. Linguists and evolutionary
anthropologists suppose that language evolved as early humans began to live in
large communities which required the use of complex communication to maintain
social coherence. Language and culture then both emerged as a means of using
symbols to construct social identity and maintain coherence within a social group
too large to rely exclusively on pre-human ways of building community such as for
example grooming. Since language and culture are both in essence symbolic
systems, twentieth century cultural theorists have applied the methods of analyzing
language developed in the science of linguistics to also analyze culture.
Particularly the structural theory of Ferdinand de Saussure, which describes
symbolic systems as consisting of signs (a pairing of a particular form with a
particular meaning), has come to be applied widely in the study of culture. But also
post-structuralist theories, that nonetheless still rely on the parallel between
language and culture as systems of symbolic communication, have been applied in
the field of semiotics. The parallel between language and culture can then be
understood as analog to the parallel between a linguistic sign, consisting for
example of the sound [kau] and the meaning "cow", and a cultural sign, consisting
for example of the cultural form of "wearing a crown" and the cultural meaning of
"being king". In this way it can be argued that culture is itself a kind of language.
Another parallel between cultural and linguistic systems is that they are both
systems of practice, that is they are a set of special ways of doing things that is
constructed and perpetuated through social interactions[93]. Children, for example,
acquire language in the same way as they acquire the basic cultural norms of the
society they grow up in - through interaction with older members of their cultural
group.

However, languages, now understood as the particular set of speech norms of a

particular community, are also a part of the larger culture of the community that
speak them. Humans use language as a way of signalling identity with one cultural
group and difference from others. Even among speakers of one language several
different ways of using the language exist, and each is used to signal affiliation
with particular subgroups within a larger culture. In linguistics such different ways
of using the same language are called "varities". For example, the English language
is spoken differently in the USA, the UK and Australia, and even within English-
speaking countries there are hundreds of dialects of English that each signal a
belonging to a particular region and/or subculture. For example, in the UK the
cockney dialect signals its speakers' belonging to the group of lower class workers
of east London. Differences between varieties of the same language often consist
in different pronunciations and vocabulary, but also sometimes of different
grammatical systems and very often in using different styles (e.g. cockney
Rhyming slang or Lawyers' jargon). Linguists and anthropologists, particularly
sociolinguists, ethnolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have specialized in
studying how ways of speaking vary between speech communities.

A community’s ways of speaking or signing are a part of the community’s culture,

just as other shared practices are. Language use is a way of establishing and
displaying group identity. Ways of speaking function not only to facilitate
communication, but also to identify the social position of the speaker. Linguists
calls different ways of speaking language varieties, a term that encompasses
geographically or socioculturally defined dialects as well as the jargons or styles of
subcultures. Linguistic anthropologists and sociologists of language define
communicative style as the ways that language is used and understood within a
particular culture.[94]

The differences between languages does not consist only in differences in

pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar, but also in different "cultures of speaking".
Some cultures for example have elaborate systems of "social deixis", systems of
signalling social distance through linguistic means[95]. In English, social deixis is
shown mostly though distinguishing between addressing some people by first
name and others by surname, but also in titles such as "Mrs.", "boy", "Doctor" or
"Your Honor", but in other languages such systems may be highly complex and
codified in the entire grammar and vocabulary of the language. In several
languages of east Asia, for example Thai, Burmese and Javanese, different words
are used according to whether a speaker is addressing someone of higher or lower
rank than one self in a ranking system with animals and children ranking the
lowest and gods and membes of royalty as the highest[95]. Other languages may
use different forms of address when speaking to speakers of the opposite gender or
in-law relatives and many languages have special ways of speaking to infants and
children. Among other groups, the culture of speaking may entail not speaking to
particular people, for example many indigenous cultures of Australia have a taboo
against talking to one's in-law relatives, and in some cultures speech is not
addressed directly to children. Some languages also require different ways of
speaking for different social classes of speakers, and often such a system is based
on gender differences as well as in Japanese and Koasati[96].

Cultural change

Cultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be
useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not
exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change
period", driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and
above all, the human population explosion, among other factors. (See The Third
Wave.)

Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces
resisting change. These forces are related to both social structures and natural
events, and are involved in the perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within
current structures, which themselves are subject to change[185]. (See
structuration.)

Social conflict and the development of technologies can produce changes within a
society by altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models, and
spurring or enabling generative action. These social shifts may accompany
ideological shifts and other types of cultural change. For example, the U.S.
feminist movement involved new practices that produced a shift in gender
relations, altering both gender and economic structures. Environmental conditions
may also enter as factors. Changes include following for the film local hero. For
example, after tropical forests returned at the end of the last ice age, plants suitable
for domestication were available, leading to the invention of agriculture, which in
turn brought about many cultural innovations and shifts in social dynamics[186].

Full-length profile portrait of Turkman woman, standing on a carpet at the entrance

to a yurt, dressed in traditional clothing and jewelry.

Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also
produce—or inhibit—social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or
competition over resources may impact technological development or social
dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one society to another,
through diffusion or acculturation. In diffusion, the form of something (though not
necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example,
hamburgers, mundane in the United States, seemed exotic when introduced into
China. "Stimulus diffusion" (the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one
culture leading to an invention or propagation in another. "Direct Borrowing" on
the other hand tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion from one culture
to another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of why
and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products.
Acculturation has different meanings, but in this context refers to replacement of
the traits of one culture with those of another, such has happened to certain Native
American tribes and to many indigenous peoples across the globe during the
process of colonization. Related processes on an individual level include
assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and transculturation.

Globalization

Globalization (or globalisation) describes an ongoing process by which regional

economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-
spanning network of exchange. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to
economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international
economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the
spread of technology.[1]. However, globalization is usually recognized as being
driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and
biological factors.[2] The term can also refer to the transnational dissemination of
ideas, languages, or popular culture.

Definitions

An early description of globalization was penned by the American entrepreneur-

turned-minister Charles Taze Russell who coined the term 'corporate giants' in
1897. [3] However, it was not until the 1960s that the term began to be widely used
by economists and other social scientists. It had achieved widespread use in the
mainstream press by the later half of the 1980s. Since its inception, the concept of
globalization has inspired numerous competing definitions and interpretations. [4]
The United Nations Building

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term
that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic
context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders
in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour... although
considerable barriers remain to the flow of labour.... Globalization is not a new
phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during
the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the
twentieth century. This slowdown can be attributed to the inwardlooking policies
pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries..
however, the pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of
the twentieth century...."[5]

Saskia Sassen writes that "a good part of globalization consists of an enormous
variety of micro-processes that begin to denationalize what had been constructed as
national — whether policies, capital, political subjectivities, urban spaces,
temporal frames, or any other of a variety of dynamics and domains."[6]

Tom G. Palmer of the Cato Institute defines globalization as "the diminution or

elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the
increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange
that has emerged as a result."[7]

Thomas L. Friedman has examined the impact of the "flattening" of the world, and
argues that globalized trade, outsourcing, supply-chaining, and political forces
have changed the world permanently, for both better and worse. He also argues
that the pace of globalization is quickening and will continue to have a growing
impact on business organization and practice.[8]
The HSBC is the largest bank in the world and operates across the globe.[9][10]

Noam Chomsky argues that the word globalization is also used, in a doctrinal
sense, to describe the neoliberal form of economic globalization.[11]

Herman E. Daly argues that sometimes the terms internationalization and

globalization are used interchangeably but there is a significant formal difference.
The term "internationalization" (or internationalisation) refers to the importance of
international trade, relations, treaties etc. owing to the (hypothetical) immobility of
labor and capital between or among nations.[citation needed]

Adrián Ravier of the Hayek Foundation summarize the globalization as such the
process that arises spontaneously in the market and acts by developing a
progressive international division of labour, eliminating restrictions on individual
liberties, reducing transportation and communication costs, and increasingly
integrating the individuals that compose the “great society.” [12]

Finally, Takis Fotopoulos argues that globalisation is the result of systemic trends
manifesting the market economy’s grow-or-die dynamic, following the rapid
expansion of transnational corporations. Because of the fact that these trends have
not been offset effectively by counter-tendencies that could have emanated from
trade-union action and other forms of political activity, the outcome has been
globalisation. This is a multi-faceted and irreversible phenomenon within the
system of the market economy and it is expressed as: economic globalisation,
namely, the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital and labour markets
which led to the present form of neoliberal globalisation; political globalisation,
i.e., the emergence of a transnational elite and the phasing out of the all powerful-
nation state of the statist period; cultural globalisation, i.e., the world-wide
homogenisation of culture; ideological globalisation; technological globalisation;
social globalisation. [13]

[edit] History

The historical origins of globalization are the subject of on-going debate. Though
some scholars situate the origins of globalization in the modern era, others regard it
as a phenomenon with a long history.

Perhaps the most extreme proponent of a deep historical origin for globalization
was Andre Gunder Frank, an economist associated with dependency theory. Frank
argued that a form of globalization has been in existence since the rise of trade
links between Sumer and the Indus Valley Civilization in the third millenium B.C.
[14] Critics of this idea point out that it rests upon an overly-broad definition of
globalization.

Extent of the Silk Road

Others have perceived an early form of globalization in the trade links between the
Roman Empire, the Parthian empire, and the Han Dynasty. The increasing
articulation of commercial links between these powers inspired the development of
the Silk Road, which started in western China, reached the boundaries of the
Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome.[citation needed]

The Islamic Golden Age was also an important early stage of globalization, when
Muslim traders and explorers established a sustained economy across the Old
World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology.
Globally significant crops such as sugar and cotton became widely cultivated
across the Muslim world in this period, while the necessity of learning Arabic and
completing the Hajj created a cosmopolitan culture.[citation needed]

The advent of the Mongol Empire, though destabalizing to the commercial centers
of the Middle East and China, greatly facilitated travel along the Silk Road. This
permitted travelers and missionaries such as Marco Polo to journey successfully
(and profitably) from one end of Eurasia to the other. The so-called Pax Mongolica
of the twelfth century had several other notable globalizing effects. It witnessed the
creation of the first international postal service, as well as the rapid transmission of
epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague across the newly-unified regions of
Central Asia. [15] These pre-modern phases of global or hemispheric exchange are
sometimes known as archaic globalization.

Up to the time of the voyages of discovery, however, even the largest systems of
international exchange were limited to the Old World. The sixteenth century
represented a qualitative change in the patterns of globalization because it was the
first period in which the New World began to engage in substantial cultural,
material and biologic exchange with Africa and Eurasia. This phase is sometimes
known as proto-globalization. It was characterized by the rise of maritime
European empires, particularly the Portuguese Empire, the Spanish Empire, and
later the British Empire and Dutch Empire. It can be said to have begun shortly
before the turn of the 16th century, when the two Kingdoms of the Iberian
Peninsula - the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Castile, began to send
exploratory voyages to the Americas and around the Horn of Africa. These new
sea routes permitted sustained contact and trade between all of the world's
inhabited regions for the first time.[citation needed]

Global integration continued through the expansion of European trade in the 16th
and 17th centuries, when the Portuguese and Spanish Empires colonized the
Americas, followed eventually by France and England. Globalization has had a
tremendous impact on cultures, particularly indigenous cultures, around the world.
In the 15th century, Portugal's Company of Guinea was one of the first chartered
commercial companies established by Europeans in other continent during the Age
of Discovery, whose task was to deal with the spices and to fix the prices of the
goods.[citation needed]

In the 17th century, globalization became a business phenomenon when the British
East India Company (founded in 1600), which is often described as the first
multinational corporation, was established, as well as the Dutch East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the Portuguese East India Company (founded in
1628). Because of the large investment and financing needs and the high risks
involved with international trade, the British East India Company became the first
company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership of companies
through the issuance of shares of stock: an important driver for globalization.
[citation needed]
The 19th century witnessed the advent of globalization in something approaching
its modern form. Industrialization permitted the cheap production of household
items using economies of scale, while rapid population growth created sustained
demand for commodities and manufactures. Globalization in this period was
decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism. After the Opium Wars and
the completion of the British conquest of India, the vast populations of these
regions became ready consumers of European exports. Meanwhile, the conquest of
new parts of the globe, notably sub-Saharan Africa, by the European powers
yielded valuable natural resources such as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped
fuel trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies,
and the United States.[citation needed]

It was in this period that areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific islands were
incorporated into the world system. The first phase of "modern globalization"
began to break down at the beginning of the 20th century with the first World War.
Said John Maynard Keynes[16],

“ The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning

tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their
early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and
cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily
newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of
man was that age which came to an end in August 1914. ”

The novelist VM Yeates criticised the financial forces of globalisation as a factor

in creating World War I.[17]

The final death knell for this phase of globalization came during the gold standard
crisis and Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s.[citation needed]

Globalization in the middle decades of the twentieth century was largely driven by
the global expansion of multinational corporations based in the United States and
the worldwide export of American culture through the new media of film,
television and recorded music.

In late 2000s, much of the industrialized world entered into a deep recession.[18]
Some analysts say the world is going through a period of deglobalization after
years of increasing economic integration.[19][20] Up to 45% of global wealth had
been destroyed by the global financial crisis in little less than a year and a half.[21]
[edit] Modern globalization

Globalization, since World War II, is largely the result of planning by politicians to
break down borders hampering trade to increase prosperity and interdependence
thereby decreasing the chance of future war[citation needed]. Their work led to the
Bretton Woods conference, an agreement by the world's leading politicians to lay
down the framework for international commerce and finance, and the founding of
several international institutions intended to oversee the processes of globalization.

These institutions include the International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund.
Globalization has been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced
the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to a series of
agreements to remove restrictions on free trade.

Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered
through international agreements — GATT. Particular initiatives carried out as a
result of GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO), for which GATT is the
foundation, have included:

• Promotion of free trade:

o elimination of tariffs; creation of free trade zones with small or no
tariffs
o Reduced transportation costs, especially resulting from development
of containerization for ocean shipping.
o Reduction or elimination of capital controls
o Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local
businesses
o Creation of subsidies for global corporations
o Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of
states, with more restrictions
o Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g.
patents granted by China would be recognized in the United States)

Cultural globalization, driven by communication technology and the worldwide

marketing of Western cultural industries, was understood at first as a process of
homogenization, as the global domination of American culture at the expense of
traditional diversity. However, a contrasting trend soon became evident in the
emergence of movements protesting against globalization and giving new
momentum to the defense of local uniqueness, individuality, and identity, but
largely without success. [22]

The Uruguay Round (1986 to 1994)[23] led to a treaty to create the WTO to
mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bilateral and
multilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have also been signed in
pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade.

World exports rose from 8.5% in 1970, to 16.1% of total gross world product in
2001.[24] (broken lnk)[citation needed]

[edit] Measuring globalization

Looking specifically at economic globalization, demonstrates that it can be

measured in different ways. These center around the four main economic flows
that characterize globalization:

• Goods and services, e.g., exports plus imports as a proportion of national

income or per capita of population
• Labor/people, e.g., net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows,
weighted by population
• Capital, e.g., inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national
income or per head of population
• Technology, e.g., international research & development flows; proportion of
populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions
(especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone,
motorcar, broadband)

As globalization is not only an economic phenomenon, a multivariate approach to

measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank
KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic,
social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an
overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows,
economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and
data on cultural proximity is calculated. Data is available on a yearly basis for 122
countries, as detailed in Dreher, Gaston and Martens (2008).[25] According to the
index, the world's most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria,
Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The least globalized countries
according to the KOF-index are Haiti, Myanmar, the Central African Republic and
Burundi.[26]
A.T. Kearney and Foreign Policy Magazine jointly publish another Globalization
Index. According to the 2006 index, Singapore, Ireland, Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Canada and Denmark are the most globalized, while Indonesia, India
and Iran are the least globalized among countries listed.

[edit] Effects of globalization

Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways
such as:

• Industrial - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access

to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies. Particularly
movement of material and goods between and within national boundaries.
[citation needed]
• Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to
external financing for borrowers. As these worldwide structures grew more
quickly than any transnational regulatory regime, the instability of the global
financial infrastructure dramatically increased, as evidenced by the financial
crises of late 2008.[citation needed]

As of 2005-2007, the Port of Shanghai holds the title as the World's busiest port.
[27][28][29]

• Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of

exchange of goods and capital. The interconnectedness of these markets,
however meant that an economic collapse in any one given country could
not be contained.[citation needed]
• Political - some use "globalization" to mean the creation of a world
government which regulates the relationships among governments and
guarantees the rights arising from social and economic globalization. [30]
Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of power among the
world powers, in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With the
influence of globalization and with the help of The United States’ own
 economy, the People's Republic of China has experienced some tremendous
growth within the past decade. If China continues to grow at the rate
projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years,
there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China
will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States
for the position of leading world power.[31]
• Informational - increase in information flows between geographically
remote locations. Arguably this is a technological change with the advent of
fibre optic communications, satellites, and increased availability of
telephone and Internet.
• Language - the most popular language is English.[32]
o About 35% of the world's mail, telexes, and cables are in English.
o Approximately 40% of the world's radio programs are in English.
o About 50% of all Internet traffic uses English.[33]
• Competition - Survival in the new global business market calls for improved
productivity and increased competition. Due to the market becoming
worldwide, companies in various industries have to upgrade their products
and use technology skillfully in order to face increased competition.[34]
• Ecological - the advent of global environmental challenges that might be
solved with international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-
boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread
of invasive species. Since many factories are built in developing countries
with less environmental regulation, globalism and free trade may increase
pollution. On the other hand, economic development historically required a
"dirty" industrial stage, and it is argued that developing countries should not,
via regulation, be prohibited from increasing their standard of living.

The construction of continental hotels is a major consequence of globalization

process in affiliation with tourism and travel industry, Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish,
Iran

• Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of

consciousness and identities which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to
 increase one's standard of living and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt
new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture". Some
bemoan the resulting consumerism and loss of languages. Also see
Transformation of culture.
o Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural
diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood
movies). Some consider such "imported" culture a danger, since it
may supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity or even
assimilation. Others consider multiculturalism to promote peace and
understanding between peoples.
o Greater international travel and tourism. WHO estimates that up to
500,000 people are on planes at any one time.[35]
o Greater immigration, including illegal immigration
o Spread of local consumer products (e.g., food) to other countries
(often adapted to their culture).
o Worldwide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa
Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and
MySpace. Accessible to those who have Internet or Television,
leaving out a substantial segment of the Earth's population.
o Worldwide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic
Games.
o Incorporation of multinational corporations in to new media. As the
sponsors of the All-Blacks rugby team, Adidas had created a parallel
website with a downloadable interactive rugby game for its fans to
play and compete.[36]
• Social - development of the system of non-governmental organisations as
main agents of global public policy, including humanitarian aid and
developmental efforts.[37]
• Technical
o Development of a Global Information System, global
telecommunications infrastructure and greater transborder data flow,
using such technologies as the Internet, communication satellites,
submarine fiber optic cable, and wireless telephones
o Increase in the number of standards applied globally; e.g., copyright
laws, patents and world trade agreements.
• Legal/Ethical
o The creation of the international criminal court and international
justice movements.
o Crime importation and raising awareness of global crime-fighting
efforts and cooperation.
 o The emergence of Global administrative law.

[edit] Cultural effects

Japanese McDonald's fast food as an evidence of international integration.

Culture is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these
activities significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they
hold, and activities they practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and
made it into something different. As Erla Zwingle, from the National Geographic
article titled “Globalization” states, “When cultures receive outside influences,
they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to transform
them.”[38]

One classic culture aspect is food. Someone in America can be eating Japanese
noodles for lunch while someone in Sydney, Australia is eating classic Italian
meatballs. India is known for their curry and exotic spices. France is known for its
cheeses. America is known for its burgers and fries. McDonalds is an American
company which is now a global enterprise with 31,000 locations worldwide. Those
locations include Kuwait, Egypt, and Malta. This company is just one example of
food going big on the global scale.

Meditation has been a sacred practice for centuries in Indian culture. It calms the
body and helps one connect to their inner being while shying away from their
conditioned self. Before globalization, Americans did not meditate or practice
yoga. After globalization, this is more common. Some people are even traveling to
India to get the full experience themselves.

Another common practice brought about by globalization is Chinese symbol

tattoos. These tattoos are popular with today’s younger generation despite the fact
that, in China, tattoos are not thought of as cool[39]. Also, the Westerners who get
these tattoos often don't know what they mean, [40] making this an example of
cultural appropriation.
The internet breaks down cultural boundaries across the world by enabling easy,
near-instantaneous communication between people anywhere in a variety of digital
forms and media. The Internet is associated with the process of cultural
globalization because it allows interaction and communication between people
with very different lifestyles and from very different cultures. Photo sharing
websites allow interaction even where language would otherwise be a barrier.

[edit] Negative effects

See also: Alter-globalization, Participatory economics, and Global Justice

Movement

Globalization has been one of the most hotly-debated topics in international

economics over the past few years. Globalization has also generated significant
international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and
environmental degradation.[41] In the Midwestern United States, globalization has
eaten away at its competitive edge in industry and agriculture, lowering the quality
of life in locations that have not adapted to the change.[42]

[edit] Sweatshops

A maquila in Mexico

It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource-
poor country to the international market. Where a country has little material or
physical product harvested or mined from its own soil, large corporations see an
opportunity to take advantage of the “export poverty” of such a nation. Where the
majority of the earliest occurrences of economic globalization are recorded as
being the expansion of businesses and corporate growth, in many poorer nations
globalization is actually the result of the foreign businesses investing in the country
to take advantage of the lower wage rate: even though investing, by increasing the
Capital Stock of the country, increases their wage rate.
One example used by anti-globalization protestors is the use of sweatshops by
manufacturers. According to Global Exchange these “Sweat Shops” are widely
used by sports shoe manufacturers and mentions one company in particular – Nike.
[43] There are factories set up in the poor countries where employees agree to
work for low wages. Then if labour laws alter in those countries and stricter rules
govern the manufacturing process the factories are closed down and relocated to
other nations with more conservative, laissez-faire economic policies.[citation
needed]

There are several agencies that have been set up worldwide specifically designed
to focus on anti-sweatshop campaigns and education of such. In the USA, the
National Labor Committee has proposed a number of bills as part of the The
Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act, which have thus far failed
in Congress. The legislation would legally require companies to respect human and
worker rights by prohibiting the import, sale, or export of sweatshop goods. [44]

Specifically, these core standards include no child labor, no forced labor, freedom
of association, right to organize and bargain collectively, as well as the right to
decent working conditions. [45]

Tiziana Terranova has stated that globalization has brought a culture of "free
labour". In a digital sense, it is where the individuals (contributing capital) exploits
and eventually "exhausts the means through which labour can sustain itself". For
example, in the area of digital media (animations, hosting chat rooms, designing
games), where it is often less glamourous than it may sound. In the gaming
industry, a Chinese Gold Market has been established. [46]

[edit] Financial clashes of interest

Alan Greenspan has proclaimed himself "shocked" that "the self-interest of lending
institutions to protect shareholders' equity" proved to be an illusion.... The Reagan-
Thatcher model, which favored finance over domestic manufacturing, has
collapsed.... The mutually reinforcing rise of financialization and globalization
broke the bond between American capitalism and America's interests... we should
take a cue from Scandinavia's social capitalism, which is less manufacturing-
centered than the German model. The Scandinavians have upgraded the skills and
wages of their workers in the retail and service sectors—the sectors that employ
the majority of our own workforce. In consequence, fully employed impoverished
workers, of which there are millions in the United States, do not exist in
Scandinavia.[47]
[edit] Pro-globalization (globalism)

Supporters of free trade claim that it increases economic prosperity as well as

opportunity, especially among developing nations, enhances civil liberties and
leads to a more efficient allocation of resources. Economic theories of comparative
advantage suggest that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources,
with all countries involved in the trade benefiting. In general, this leads to lower
prices, more employment, higher output and a higher standard of living for those in
developing countries.[48][49]

Dr. Francesco Stipo, Director of the USA Club of Rome suggests that “the world
government should reflect the political and economic balances of world nations. A
world confederation would not supersede the authority of the State governments
but rather complement it, as both the States and the world authority would have
power within their sphere of competence". [50]

Proponents of laissez-faire capitalism, and some libertarians, say that higher

degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy and
capitalism in the developed world are ends in themselves and also produce higher
levels of material wealth. They see globalization as the beneficial spread of liberty
and capitalism. [48]

Supporters of democratic globalization are sometimes called pro-globalists. They

believe that the first phase of globalization, which was market-oriented, should be
followed by a phase of building global political institutions representing the will of
world citizens. The difference from other globalists is that they do not define in
advance any ideology to orient this will, but would leave it to the free choice of
those citizens via a democratic process[citation needed].

Some, such as former Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, O.C., simply view
globalization as inevitable and advocate creating institutions such as a directly-
elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly to exercise oversight over
unelected international bodies.

[edit] Anti-globalization

Main article: Anti-globalization movement

See also: Alter-globalization, Participatory economics, and Global Justice
Movement
The "anti-globalization movement" is a term used to describe the political group
who oppose the neoliberal version of globalization, while criticisms of
globalization are some of the reasons used to justify this groups stance.

"Anti-globalization" may also involve the process or actions taken by a state in

order to demonstrate its sovereignty and practice democratic decision-making.
Anti-globalization may occur in order to maintain barriers to the international
transfer of people, goods and beliefs, particularly free market deregulation,
encouraged by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund or the World
Trade Organization. Moreover, as Naomi Klein argues in her book No Logo anti-
globalism can denote either a single social movement or an umbrella term that
encompasses a number of separate social movements [51] such as nationalists and
socialists. In either case, participants stand in opposition to the unregulated
political power of large, multi-national corporations, as the corporations exercise
power through leveraging trade agreements which in some instances damage the
democratic rights of citizens[citation needed], the environment particularly air
quality index and rain forests[citation needed], as well as national government's
sovereignty to determine labor rights,[citation needed] including the right to form a
union, and health and safety legislation, or laws as they may otherwise infringe on
cultural practices and traditions of developing countries.[citation needed]

Some people who are labeled "anti-globalist" or "sceptics" (Hirst and Thompson)
[52] consider the term to be too vague and inaccurate [53][54]. Podobnik states
that "the vast majority of groups that participate in these protests draw on
international networks of support, and they generally call for forms of
globalization that enhance democratic representation, human rights, and
egalitarianism."

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton write[55]:

“ The anti-globalization movement developed in opposition to the perceived

negative aspects of globalization. The term 'anti-globalization' is in many
ways a misnomer, since the group represents a wide range of interests and
issues and many of the people involved in the anti-globalization movement
do support closer ties between the various peoples and cultures of the world
through, for example, aid, assistance for refugees, and global
environmental issues. ”
Some members aligned with this viewpoint prefer instead to describe themselves
as the "Global Justice Movement", the "Anti-Corporate-Globalization Movement",
the "Movement of Movements" (a popular term in Italy), the "Alter-globalization"
movement (popular in France), the "Counter-Globalization" movement, and a
number of other terms.

Critiques of the current wave of economic globalization typically look at both the
damage to the planet, in terms of the perceived unsustainable harm done to the
biosphere, as well as the perceived human costs, such as poverty, inequality,
miscegenation, injustice and the erosion of traditional culture which, the critics
contend, all occur as a result of the economic transformations related to
globalization. They challenge directly the metrics, such as GDP, used to measure
progress promulgated by institutions such as the World Bank, and look to other
measures, such as the Happy Planet Index,[56] created by the New Economics
Foundation[57]. They point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences--
social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive
deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty
and alienation"[58] which they claim are the unintended but very real
consequences of globalization.

The terms globalization and anti-globalization are used in various ways. Noam
Chomsky believes that[59][60]

“ The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to

a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor
rights, with the interests of people incidental. That is why the business
press, in its more honest moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as
"free investment agreements" (Wall St. Journal). Accordingly, advocates of
other forms of globalization are described as "anti-globalization"; and
some, unfortunately, even accept this term, though it is a term of
propaganda that should be dismissed with ridicule. No sane person is
opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the
left and the workers movements, which were founded on the principle of
international solidarity — that is, globalization in a form that attends to the
rights of people, not private power systems. ”

“ The dominant propaganda systems have appropriated the term ”

"globalization" to refer to the specific version of international economic
 integration that they favor, which privileges the rights of investors and
lenders, those of people being incidental. In accord with this usage, those
who favor a different form of international integration, which privileges the
rights of human beings, become "anti-globalist." This is simply vulgar
propaganda, like the term "anti-Soviet" used by the most disgusting
commissars to refer to dissidents. It is not only vulgar, but idiotic. Take the
World Social Forum, called "anti-globalization" in the propaganda system
-- which happens to include the media, the educated classes, etc., with rare
exceptions. The WSF is a paradigm example of globalization. It is a
gathering of huge numbers of people from all over the world, from just
about every corner of life one can think of, apart from the extremely narrow
highly privileged elites who meet at the competing World Economic
Forum, and are called "pro-globalization" by the propaganda system. An
observer watching this farce from Mars would collapse in hysterical
laughter at the antics of the educated classes.

Critics argue that:

• Poorer countries suffering disadvantages: While it is true that globalization

encourages free trade among countries, there are also negative consequences
because some countries try to save their national markets. The main export
of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. Larger countries often
subsidise their farmers (like the EU Common Agricultural Policy), which
lowers the market price for the poor farmer's crops compared to what it
would be under free trade.[61]
• Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of
protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted
in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due
to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations
are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure extremely
long hours and unsafe working conditions, though economists question if
consenting workers in a competitive employers' market can be decried as
"exploited". It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in
many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and
possible even his/her family if their previous jobs were unavailable.[62]
• The shift to outsourcing: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed
corporations to buy goods and services from foreign countries. The laid off
manufacturing sector workers are forced into the service sector where wages
and benefits are low, but turnover is high .[citation needed] This has
 contributed to the deterioration of the middle class[citation needed] which is
a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the United States .
[citation needed] Families that were once part of the middle class are forced
into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country.
This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time
climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a
stepping stone. [63]
• Weak labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever
growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor
unions in the United States. Unions lose their effectiveness when their
membership begins to decline. As a result unions hold less power over
corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages,
and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore. [61]
• Increase exploitation of child labor: for example, a country that experiencing
increases in labor demand because of globalization and an increase the
demand for goods produced by children, will experience greater a demand
for child labor. This can be "hazardous" or “exploitive”, e.g., quarrying,
salvage, cash cropping but also includes the trafficking of children, children
in bondage or forced labor, prostitution, pornography and other illicit
activities.[64]

In December 2007, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic has called much
previous empirical research on global poverty and inequality into question because,
according to him, improved estimates of purchasing power parity indicate that
developing countries are worse off than previously believed. Milanovic remarks
that "literally hundreds of scholarly papers on convergence or divergence of
countries’ incomes have been published in the last decade based on what we know
now were faulty numbers." With the new data, possibly economists will revise
calculations, and he also believed that there are considerable implications estimates
of global inequality and poverty levels. Global inequality was estimated at around
65 Gini points, whereas the new numbers indicate global inequality to be at 70 on
the Gini scale. [65] It is unsurprising that the level of international inequality is so
high, as larger sample spaces almost always give a higher level of inequality.

The critics of globalization typically emphasize that globalization is a process that

is mediated according to corporate interests, and typically raise the possibility of
alternative global institutions and policies, which they believe address the moral
claims of poor and working classes throughout the globe, as well as environmental
concerns in a more equitable way.[66]
The movement is very broad[citation needed], including church groups, national
liberation factions, peasant unionists, intellectuals, artists, protectionists,
anarchists, those in support of relocalization and others. Some are reformist,
(arguing for a more moderate form of capitalism) while others are more
revolutionary (arguing for what they believe is a more humane system than
capitalism) and others are reactionary, believing globalization destroys national
industry and jobs.

One of the key points made by critics of recent economic globalization is that
income inequality, both between and within nations, is increasing as a result of
these processes. One article from 2001 found that significantly, in 7 out of 8
metrics, income inequality has increased in the twenty years ending 2001. Also,
"incomes in the lower deciles of world income distribution have probably fallen
absolutely since the 1980s". Furthermore, the World Bank's figures on absolute
poverty were challenged. The article was skeptical of the World Bank's claim that
the number of people living on less than $1 a day has held steady at 1.2 billion
from 1987 to 1998, because of biased methodology.[67]

A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-
called 'champagne glass' effect,[68] was contained in the 1992 United Nations
Development Program Report, which showed the distribution of global income to
be very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7%
of the world's income.[69]

+ Distribution of world GDP, 1989

Quintile of Population Income

Richest 20% 82.7%

Second 20% 11.7%

Third 20% 2.3%

Fourth 20% 1.4%

Poorest 20% 1.2%

Source: United Nations Development Program. 1992 Human Development

Report[70]

Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade
benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the
poor.[71]

Americanization related to a period of high political American clout and of

significant growth of America's shops, markets and object being brought into other
countries. So globalization, a much more diversified phenomenon, relates to a
multilateral political world and to the increase of objects, markets and so on into
each others countries.

Critics of globalization talk of Westernization. A 2005 UNESCO report[72]

showed that cultural exchange is becoming more frequent from Eastern Asia but .
In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and
US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the European Union's
shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass
North America. Related factors are the fact that Asia's population and area are
several times that of North America.

Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of

corporatist interests.[73] They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength
of corporate entities shapes the political policy of countries.[74][75]

[edit] International Social Forums

See main articles: European Social Forum, the Asian Social Forum,(Africa Social
Forum), World Social Forum (WSF).

The first WSF in 2001 was an initiative of the administration of Porto Alegre in
Brazil. The slogan of the World Social Forum was "Another World Is Possible". It
was here that the WSF's Charter of Principles was adopted to provide a framework
for the forums.
The WSF became a periodic meeting: in 2002 and 2003 it was held again in Porto
Alegre and became a rallying point for worldwide protest against the American
invasion of Iraq. In 2004 it was moved to Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay, in
India), to make it more accessible to the populations of Asia and Africa. This last
appointment saw the participation of 75,000 delegates.

In the meantime, regional forums took place following the example of the WSF,
adopting its Charter of Principles. The first European Social Forum (ESF) was held
in November 2002 in Florence. The slogan was "Against the war, against racism
and against neo-liberalism". It saw the participation of 60,000 delegates and ended
with a huge demonstration against the war (1,000,000 people according to the
organizers). The other two ESFs took place in Paris and London, in 2003 and 2004
respectively.

Recently there has been some discussion behind the movement about the role of
the social forums. Some see them as a "popular university", an occasion to make
many people aware of the problems of globalization. Others would prefer that
delegates concentrate their efforts on the coordination and organization of the
movement and on the planning of new campaigns. However it has often been
argued that in the dominated countries (most of the world) the WSF is little more
than an 'NGO fair' driven by Northern NGOs and donors most of which are hostile
to popular movements of the poor.[76]

Space exploration

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer
space.[1] Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights
and by robotic spacecraft. While the observation of objects in space, known as
astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large
liquid-fueled rocket engines during the early 20th century that allowed physical
space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space
include advancing scientific research, uniting different nations, ensuring the future
survival of humanity and developing military and strategic advantages against
other countries. Various criticisms of space exploration are sometimes made,
generally on cost or safety grounds.

Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical
rivalries such as the Cold War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a
"Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States; the launch of the
first man-made object to orbit the Earth, the USSR's Sputnik 1, on October 4,
1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 craft on July 20, 1969
are often taken as the boundaries for this initial period. The Soviet space program
achieved many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in
1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first
spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov) in 1965, the first automatic landing on another
celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971.

After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to
renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to
cooperation as with the International Space Station.

From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism and then
private space exploration of the Moon (see GLXP).

In the 2000s, China initiated a successful manned spaceflight program, while Japan
and India have also planned future manned space missions. Larger government
programs have advocated manned missions to the Moon and possibly Mars
sometime after 2010.

[edit] History of exploration in the 20th Century

The first steps into space were taken by German scientists during World War II
while testing the V2 rocket which became the first human-made object in space.
After the war, the Allies used German scientists and their captured rockets in
programs for both military and civilian research. The first scientific exploration
from space was the cosmic radiation experiment launched by the U.S. on a V2
rocket on May 10, 1946. The first images of Earth taken from space followed the
same year while the first animal experiment saw fruit flies lifted into space in
1947, both also on modified V2s launched by Americans. These suborbital
experiments only allowed a very short time in space which limited their usefulness.

First orbital flights

Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite orbited earth at 939 km (583 mi) to 215 km
(134 mi) in 1957, and was soon followed by Sputnik 2. See First satellite by
country (Replica Pictured)

The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik ("Satellite
I") mission on October 4, 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (184 pounds),
and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (150 miles). It
had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be
heard by radios around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather
information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and
pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that
the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7
rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on January 3, 1958.

This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which

unsuccessfully attempted to launch Vanguard 1 into orbit two months later. On
January 31, 1958, the U.S. successfully orbited Explorer 1 on a Juno rocket. In the
meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit on November 3,
1957.

First human flights

The first known successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1 ("East 1"), carrying 27
year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The spacecraft
completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the
advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space
exploration: human spaceflight.

Yuri Gagarin, the first person to make an orbital flight of Earth

The U.S. first launched a person into space within a month of Vostok 1 with Alan
Shepard's suborbital flight in Mercury-Redstone 3. Orbital flight was achieved by
the United States when John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbited the Earth on
February 20, 1962.

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the Earth 48 times aboard
Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.

China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of Vostok 1, on
October 15, 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 (Spaceboat
5) spacecraft.

First planetary explorations

The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 in 1959.[2]
The first automatic landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9[3]
in 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of another celestial body[4].

The first manned landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on
July 20, 1969.

The first successful interplanetary flyby was the 1962 Mariner 2 flyby of Venus
(closest approach 34,773 kilometers). Flybys for the other planets were first
achieved in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4, 1973 for Jupiter by Pioneer 10, 1974 for
Mercury by Mariner 10, 1979 for Saturn by Pioneer 11, 1986 for Uranus by
Voyager 2, and 1989 for Neptune by Voyager 2.

The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from
another planet was the 1970 landing of Venera 7 on Venus which returned data to
earth for 23 minutes. In 1971 the Mars 3 mission achieved the first soft landing on
Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later much longer duration surface
missions were achieved, including over 6 years of Mars surface operation by
Viking 1 from 1975 to 1982 and over 2 hours of transmission from the surface of
Venus by Venera 13 in 1982 (the longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission).

Key people in early space exploration

The dream of stepping into the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere was driven
by rocket technology. The German V2 was the first rocket to travel into space,
overcoming the problems of thrust and material failure. During the final days of
World War II this technology was obtained by both the Americans and Soviets as
were its designers. The initial driving force for further development of the
technology was a weapons race for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to
be used as long-range carriers for fast nuclear weapon delivery, but in 1961 when
USSR launched the first man into space, the U.S. declared itself to be in a "Space
Race" with Russia.

• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Reinhold

Tilling laid the groundwork of rocketry in the early years of the 20th
century.
• Wernher von Braun was the lead rocket engineer for Nazi Germany's World
War II V-2 rocket project. In the last days of the war he led a caravan of
workers in the German rocket program to the American lines, where they
surrendered and were brought to the USA to work on U.S. rocket
development. He acquired American citizenship and led the team that
developed and launched Explorer 1, the first American satellite. Von Braun
later led the team at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center which developed
the Saturn V moon rocket.
• Initially the race for space was often led by Sergei Korolyov, whose legacy
includes both the R7 and Soyuz—which remain in service to this day.
Korolev was the mastermind behind the first satellite, first man (and first
woman) in orbit and first spacewalk. Until his death his identity was a
closely guarded state secret; not even his mother knew that he was
responsible for creating the Russian space program.
• Kerim Kerimov was one of the founders of the Soviet space program and
was one of the lead architects behind the first human spaceflight (Vostok 1)
alongside Sergey Korolyov. After Korolyov's death in 1966, Kerimov
became the lead scientist of the Soviet space program and was responsible
for the launch of the first space stations from 1971 to 1991, including the
Salyut and Mir series, and their precursors in 1967, the Cosmos 186 and
Cosmos 188.[5][6]

Robert Gilruth
Other key people included:

• Valentin Glushko held the role of Chief Engine Designer for USSR.
Glushko designed many of the engines used on the early Soviet rockets, but
was constantly at odds with Korolyov.
• Vasily Mishin was Chief Designer working under Sergey Korolyov and one
of first Soviets to inspect the captured German V2 design. Following the
death of Sergei Korolev, Mishin was held responsible for the Soviet failure
to be first country to place a man on the moon.
• Bob Gilruth was the NASA head of the Space Task Force and director of 25
manned space flights. Gilruth was the person who suggested to John F.
Kennedy that the Americans take the bold step of reaching the Moon in an
attempt to reclaim space superiority from the Soviets.
• Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. was NASA's first flight director, who oversaw
development of Mission Control and associated technologies and
procedures.
• Maxime Faget was the designer of the Mercury capsule; he played a key role
in designing the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, and contributed to the design
of the Space Shuttle.

[edit] Future of space exploration

The European Space Agency's Columbus Module at the International Space

Station, launched into space on the U.S. Space Shuttle mission STS-122 in 2008

In the 2000s, several plans for space exploration have been announced; both
government entities and the private sector have space exploration objectives.

[edit] Private ventures

Many private projects have been announced (see list of private spaceflight
companies). Among the most notable is Bigelow Aerospace, which has
successfully launched and tested two space station modules, Genesis I and Genesis
II, and plans to build the first orbital space hotel. The first component of the space
hotel, named Sundancer, is scheduled for launch in 2011. The expected cost for a
one-week stay on the station is approximately $7.9 million. All of Bigelow's
current space habitat designs are based on NASA's Transhab design. The Google
Lunar X-Prize also promotes private space exploration by offering a prize of $20
million for the first privately funded company to land a robotic rover on the moon,
as well as a $10 million second prize. Companies such as Odyssey Moon and
Astrobotic Technology are currently developing robotic landers and rovers for the
competition. SpaceX has also performed two successful flights of their Falcon 1
launch vehicle; the first successful fully liquid-propelled orbital launch vehicle
developed with private funding and have scheduled their Falcon 9 vehicle for its
first launch in late 2009.[7][8][9] Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Scaled
Composites have announced taking human space tourists into space with
SpaceShipTwo, a reusable, sub-orbital spaceplane, to be unveiled in December,
2009, and begin public flights in 2010 (see Virgin Galactic).[10] SpaceShipTwo
will be able to transport eight humans (two pilots and six passengers) into space at
a time. A ticket on SpaceShipTwo currently costs $200,000, but the price is
expected to drop to $20,000 over time.

[edit] Targets of exploration

[edit] Astrobiology

Main article: Astrobiology

Astrobiology is the interdisciplinary study of life in the universe, combining

aspects of astronomy, biology and geology.[11] It is focused primarily on the study
of the origin, distribution and evolution of life. It is also known as exobiology
(from Greek: έξω, exo, "outside").[12][13][14] The term "Xenobiology" has been
used as well, but this is technically incorrect because its terminology means
"biology of the foreigners".[15] Astrobiologists must also consider the possibility
of life that is chemically entirely distinct from any life found on earth.[16]
Image of the Sun from 7 June 1992 showing some sunspots

[edit] The Sun

While the Sun will probably not be physically explored in the close future, one of
the reasons for going into space includes knowing more about the Sun. Once above
the atmosphere in particular and the Earth's magnetic field, this gives access to the
Solar wind and infrared and ultraviolet radiations that cannot reach the surface of
the Earth. The Sun generates most space weather, which can affect power
generation and transmission systems on Earth and interfere with, and even damage,
satellites and space probes.

MESSENGER image of Mercury

A MESSENGER image from 18,000 km showing a region about 500 km across

[edit] Mercury

Main article: Exploration of Mercury

Mercury remains the least explored of the inner planets. As of January 2008, the
Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have
made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER made a fly-by of Mercury on
14 January 2008, to further investigate the observations made by Mariner 10 in
1975 (Munsell, 2006b). A third mission to Mercury, scheduled to arrive in 2020,
BepiColombo is to include two probes. BepiColombo is a joint mission between
Japan and the European Space Agency. MESSENGER and BepiColombo are
intended to gather complementary data to help scientists understand many of the
mysteries discovered by Mariner 10's flybys.

Flights to other planets within the Solar System are accomplished at a cost in
energy, which is described by the net change in velocity of the spacecraft, or delta-
v. Due to the relatively high delta-v to reach Mercury and its proximity to the Sun,
it is difficult to explore and orbits around it are rather unstable.

Mariner 10 image of Venus

Surface image of Venus taken by Venera 13

[edit] Venus

Main article: Observations and explorations of Venus

Venus was the first target of interplanetary flyby and lander missions and, despite
one of the most hostile surface environments in the solar system, has had more
landers sent to it (nearly all from the Soviet Union) than any other planet in the
solar system. The first successful Venus flyby was the American Mariner 2
spacecraft, which flew past Venus in 1962. Mariner 2 has been followed by several
other flybys by multiple space agencies often as part of missions using a Venus
flyby to provide a gravitational assist en route to other celestial bodies. In 1967
Venera 4 became the first probe to enter and directly examine the atmosphere of
Venus. In 1970 Venera 7 became the first successful lander to reach the surface of
Venus and by 1985 it had been followed by eight additional successful Soviet
Venus landers which provided images and other direct surface data. Starting in
1975 with the Soviet orbiter Venera 9 some ten successful orbiter missions have
been sent to Venus, including later missions which were able to map the surface of
Venus using radar to pierce the obscuring atmosphere.
The "marble" Earth picture taken by Apollo 17

First television image of Earth from space

[edit] Earth

Main article: Earth observation satellite

Space exploration has been used as a tool to understand the Earth as a celestial
object in its own right. Orbital missions can provide data for the Earth that can be
difficult or impossible to obtain from a purely ground-based point of reference.

For example, the existence of the Van Allen belts was unknown until their
discovery by the United States' first artificial satellite, Explorer 1. These belts
contain radiation trapped by the Earth's magnetic fields, which currently renders
construction of habitable space stations above 1000 km impractical. Following this
early unexpected discovery, a large number of Earth observation satellites have
been deployed specifically to explore the Earth from a space based perspective.
These satellites have significantly contributed to the understanding of a variety of
earth based phenomena. For instance, the hole in the ozone layer was found by an
artificial satellite that was exploring Earth's atmosphere, and satellites have
allowed for the discovery of archeological sites or geological formations that were
difficult or impossible to otherwise identify.

The Moon as seen from the Earth

Luc Viatour (Belgium)
Apollo 16 astronaut John Young

[edit] Earth's Moon

Main article: Exploration of the Moon

Earth's Moon was the first celestial object (apart from the Earth itself) to be the
object of space exploration. It holds the distinctions of being the first remote
celestial object to be flown by, orbited, and landed upon by spacecraft, and the
only remote celestial object ever to be visited by humans.

In 1959 the Soviets obtained the first images of the far side of the Moon, never
previously visible to humans. The U.S. exploration of the Moon began with the
Ranger 4 impactor in 1962. Starting in 1966 the Soviets successfully deployed a
number of landers to the Moon which were able to obtain data directly from the
Moon's surface; just four months later, Surveyor 1 marked the debut of a
successful series of U.S. landers. The Soviet unmanned missions culminated in the
Lunokhod program in the early '70s which included the first unmanned rovers and
also successfully returned lunar soil samples to the Earth for study. This marked
the first (and to date the only) automated return of extraterrestrial soil samples to
the Earth. Unmanned exploration of the Moon continues with various nations
periodically deploying lunar orbiters, and in 2008 the Indian Moon Impact Probe.

Manned exploration of the Moon began in 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that
successfully orbited the Moon, the first time any extraterrestrial object was orbited
by humans. In 1969 the Apollo 11 mission marked the first time humans set foot
upon another world. Manned exploration of the Moon did not continue for long,
however. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the last time humans would visit
the Moon in any form and no human exploration mission is planned to reach the
Moon sooner than the 2010s.
Mars as seen by the HST

Part of a panorama taken by the Spirit rover in 2004

[edit] Mars

Main article: Exploration of Mars

The exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration
programs of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been
launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were aimed at gathering
data about current conditions and answering questions about the history of Mars.
The questions raised by the scientific community are expected to not only give a
better appreciation of the red planet but also yield further insight into the past, and
possible future, of Earth.

The exploration of Mars has come at a considerable financial cost with roughly
two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars failing before completing their
missions, with some failing before they even began. Such a high failure rate can be
attributed to the complexity and large number of variables involved in an
interplanetary journey, and has led researchers to jokingly speak of The Great
Galactic Ghoul[17] which subsists on a diet of Mars probes. This phenomenon is
also informally known as the Mars Curse.[18]

[edit] Phobos

Main article: Exploration of Phobos

The Russian space mission Phobos-Grunt, arriving in August-September 2010, will
begin exploration of Phobos and Martian circumterrestrial orbit, and study whether
the moons of Mars, or at least Phobos, could be a "trans-shipment point" for
spaceships travelling to Mars.[19]

Voyager 1 image of Jupiter

Image of Io taken by the Galileo spacecraft

[edit] Jupiter

Main article: Exploration of Jupiter

The exploration of Jupiter has consisted solely of a number of automated NASA

spacecraft visiting the planet since 1973. A large majority of the missions have
been "flybys", in which detailed observations are taken without the probe landing
or entering orbit; the Galileo spacecraft is the only one to have orbited the planet.
As Jupiter is believed to have only a relatively small rocky core and no real solid
surface, a landing mission is impossible.

Reaching Jupiter from Earth requires a delta-v of 9.2 km/s,[20] which is

comparable to the 9.7 km/s delta-v needed to reach low Earth orbit.[21]
Fortunately, gravity assists through planetary flybys can be used to reduce the
energy required at launch to reach Jupiter, albeit at the cost of a significantly
longer flight duration.[20]
Jupiter has over 60 known moons, many of which have relatively little known
about them.

A picture of Saturn taken by Voyager 2.

Huygens image from the surface of Titan

[edit] Saturn

Main article: Exploration of Saturn

Saturn has been explored only through unmanned spacecraft launched by NASA,
including one mission (Cassini–Huygens) planned and executed in cooperation
with other space agencies. These missions consist of flybys in 1979 by Pioneer 11,
in 1980 by Voyager 1, in 1982 by Voyager 2 and an orbital mission by the Cassini
spacecraft which entered orbit in 2004 and is expected to continue its mission well
into 2010.

Saturn has at least 60 satellites, although the exact number is debatable since
Saturn's rings are made up of vast numbers of independently orbiting objects of
varying sizes. The largest of the moons is Titan. Titan holds the distinction of
being the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere denser and thicker
than that of the Earth. As a result of the deployment from the Cassini spacecraft of
the Huygens probe and its successful landing on Titan, Titan also holds the
distinction of being the only moon (apart from Earth's own Moon) to be
successfully explored with a lander.

Uranus from Voyager 2

Voyager 2 image showing the tortured surface of Miranda

[edit] Uranus

Main article: Exploration of Uranus

The exploration of Uranus has been entirely through the Voyager 2 spacecraft,
with no other visits currently planned. Given its axial tilt of 97.77°, with its polar
regions exposed to sunlight or darkness for long periods, scientists were not sure
what to expect at Uranus. The closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24,
1986. Voyager 2 studied the planet's unique atmosphere and magnetosphere.
Voyager 2 also examined its ring system and the moons of Uranus including all
five of the previously known moons, while discovering an additional ten
previously unknown moons.

Images of Uranus proved to have a very uniform appearance, with no evidence of

the dramatic storms or atmospheric banding evident on Jupiter and Saturn. Great
effort was required to even identify a few clouds in the images of the planet. The
magnetosphere of Uranus, however, proved to be completely unique and proved to
be profoundly affected by the planet's unusual axial tilt. In contrast to the bland
appearance of Uranus itself, striking images were obtained of the moons of
Uranus, including evidence that Miranda had been unusually geologically active.
Picture of Neptune taken by Voyager 2

Triton as imaged by Voyager 2

[edit] Neptune

Main article: Exploration of Neptune

The exploration of Neptune began with the August 25, 1989 Voyager 2 flyby, the
sole visit to the system as of 2009. The possibility of a Neptune Orbiter has been
discussed, but no other missions have been given serious thought.

Although the extremely uniform appearance of Uranus during Voyager 2's visit in
1986 had led to expectations that Neptune would also have few visible atmospheric
phenomena, Voyager 2 found that Neptune had obvious banding, visible clouds,
auroras, and even a conspicuous anticyclone storm system rivaled in size only by
Jupiter's Great Spot. Neptune also proved to have the fastest winds of any planet in
the solar system, measured as high as 2,100 km/h.[22] Voyager 2 also examined
Neptune's ring and moon system. It discovered four complete rings and additional
partial ring "arcs" around Neptune. In addition to examining Neptune's three
previously known moons, Voyager 2 also discovered five previously unknown
moons, one of which, Proteus, proved to be the second largest moon in the system.
Data from Voyager further reinforced the view that Neptune's largest moon, Triton,
is a captured Kuiper belt object.[23]
NASA artist's conception of Pluto

[edit] Dwarf planets

[edit] Pluto

Main article: Exploration of Pluto

The dwarf planet Pluto (considered a planet until the IAU redefinition of "planet"
in October 2006[24]) presents significant challenges for spacecraft because of its
great distance from Earth (requiring high velocity for reasonable trip times) and
small mass (making capture into orbit very difficult at present). Voyager 1 could
have visited Pluto, but controllers opted instead for a close flyby of Saturn's moon
Titan, resulting in a trajectory incompatible with a Pluto flyby. Voyager 2 never
had a plausible trajectory for reaching Pluto.[25]

Pluto continues to be of great interest, despite its reclassification as the lead and
nearest member of a new and growing class of distant icy bodies of intermediate
size, in mass between the remaining eight planets and the small rocky objects
historically termed asteroids (and also the first member of the important subclass,
defined by orbit and known as "Plutinos"). After an intense political battle, a
mission to Pluto dubbed New Horizons was granted funding from the US
government in 2003.[26] New Horizons was launched successfully on January 19,
2006. In early 2007 the craft made use of a gravity assist from Jupiter. Its closest
approach to Pluto will be on July 14, 2015; scientific observations of Pluto will
begin five months prior to closest approach and will continue for at least a month
after the encounter.

[edit] Ceres

Main article: Ceres (dwarf planet)

Ceres is relatively ill explored at present, but in 2015 Nasa's Dawn space probe is
expected to arrive at and enter into orbit around the dwarf planet.
951 Gaspra

[edit] Asteroids

Main article: Exploration of the asteroids

Until the advent of space travel, objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks
of light in even the largest telescopes, their shapes and terrain remaining a mystery.
Several asteroids have now been visited by probes, the first of which was Galileo,
which flew past two: 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed by 243 Ida in 1993. Both of
these lay near enough to Galileo's planned trajectory to Jupiter that they could be
visited at acceptable cost. The first landing on an asteroid was performed by the
NEAR Shoemaker probe in 2000, following an orbital survey of the object. The
dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroid 4 Vesta, two of the three largest asteroids, are
targets of NASA's Dawn mission, launched in 2007 September.

[edit] Rationales

Main article: Space advocacy

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, a Christian, had a personal Communion service when he

first arrived on the surface of the Moon.

The research that is conducted by national space exploration agencies, such as

NASA and the RKA, is one of the reasons supporters cite to justify government
expenses. Some even claim that space exploration is a necessity to mankind and
that staying on our home planet will lead us to extinction. Some of the reasons are
lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, and worldwide epidemic. Stephen
Hawking, renowned British theoretical physicist, said that "I don't think the human
race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are
too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We
will reach out to the stars."[27]

NASA has produced a series of Public Service Announcement videos supporting

the concept of space exploration.[28]

Overall, the public remains largely supportive of both manned and unmanned
space exploration. According to an Associated Press Poll conducted in July 2003,
71% of U.S. citizens agreed with the statement that the space program is "a good
investment", compared to 21% who did not.[29]

Arthur C. Clarke (1950) presented a summary of motivations for the human

exploration of space in his non-fiction semi-technical monograph Interplanetary
Flight.[30] He argued that humanity's choice is essentially between expansion off
the Earth into space, versus cultural (and eventually biological) stagnation and
death.

[edit] Opposition

Critics such as the late physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman have
contended that human space travel (as distinguished from space exploration in
general, such as robotic missions) has never achieved any major scientific
breakthroughs.[31]

[edit] Related topics

[edit] Spaceflight

Main article: Spaceflight

Spaceflight is the use of space technology to fly a spacecraft into and through outer
space. Spaceflight is typically a component of space exploration, but also supports
commercial activities, satellite launches.

[edit] Space colonization

Main article: Space colonization

Space colonization, also called space settlement and space humanization, would be
the permanent autonomous (self-sufficient) human habitation of locations outside
Earth, especially of natural satellites or planets such as the Moon or Mars, using
significant amounts of in-situ resource utilization.

To date, the longest human occupation of space was the space station Mir, which
was continuously inhabited for almost ten years, including Valeri Polyakov's
record single spaceflight of almost 438 days. Long-term stays in space reveal
issues with bone and muscle loss in low gravity, immune system suppression, and
radiation exposure.

Many past and current concepts for the continued exploration and colonization of
space focus on a return to the Moon as a "stepping stone" to the other planets,
especially Mars. At the end of 2006 NASA announced they were planning to build
a permanent Moon base with continual presence by 2024.[32]

Knowledge

Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills
acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts
and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or
situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of
knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition
of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous
competing theories.

Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning,

communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to
mean the confident understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a
specific purpose if appropriate. See Knowledge Management for additional details
on that discipline.

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Defining knowledge (philosophy)

• 2 Communicating knowledge
 • 3 Situated knowledge
• 4 Partial knowledge
• 5 Scientific knowledge
• 6 Religious meaning of knowledge
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes

• 9 External links

[edit] Defining knowledge (philosophy)

Robert Reid, Knowledge (1896). Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

See also: epistemology

We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as

opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we
think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact
and of no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is. Now that
scientific knowing is something of this sort is evident — witness both those who
falsely claim it and those who actually possess it, since the former merely imagine
themselves to be, while the latter are also actually, in the condition described.
Consequently the proper object of unqualified scientific knowledge is something
which cannot be other than it is.|Aristotle|Posterior Analytics (Book 1 Part 2)}}

The definition of knowledge is a matter of on-going debate among philosophers in

the field of epistemology. The classical definition, described but not ultimately
endorsed by Plato[1], has it that in order for there to be knowledge at least three
criteria must be fulfilled; that in order to count as knowledge, a statement must be
justified, true, and believed. Some claim that these conditions are not sufficient, as
Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. There are a number of alternatives
proposed, including Robert Nozick's arguments for a requirement that knowledge
'tracks the truth' and Simon Blackburn's additional requirement that we do not want
to say that those who meet any of these conditions 'through a defect, flaw, or
failure' have knowledge. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition of
knowledge requires that the believer's evidence is such that it logically necessitates
the truth of the belief.[citation needed]

In contrast to this approach, Wittgenstein observed, following Moore's paradox,

that one can say "He believes it, but it isn't so", but not "He knows it, but it isn't
so". [2] He goes on to argue that these do not correspond to distinct mental states,
but rather to distinct ways of talking about conviction. What is different here is not
the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which they are engaged. For
example, on this account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a
particular state of mind, but to perform a particular task with the statement that the
kettle is boiling. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by
looking to the way "knowledge" is used in natural languages. He saw knowledge as
a case of a family resemblance. Following this idea, "knowledge" has been
reconstructed as a cluster concept that points out relevant features but that is not
adequately captured by any definition.[3]

[edit] Communicating knowledge

Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as

a dynamic process. Hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be
viewed as one ascription process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other
forms of communication include imitation, narrative exchange along with a range
of other methods. There is no complete theory of knowledge transfer or
communication.[citation needed]

While many would agree that one of the most universal and significant tools for
the transfer of knowledge is writing (of many kinds), argument over the usefulness
of the written word exists however, with some scholars skeptical of its impact on
societies. In his collection of essays Technopoly Neil Postman demonstrates the
argument against the use of writing through an excerpt from Plato's work Phaedrus
(Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 73). In this excerpt the
scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and Theuth the
inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention
"writing" to King Thamus, telling Thamus that his new invention "will improve
both the wisdom and memory of the Egyptians" (Postman, Neil (1992)
Technopoly, Vintage, New York, pp 74). King Thamus is skeptical of this new
invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than retained knowledge. He
argues that the written word will infect the Egyptian people with fake knowledge
as they will be able to attain facts and stories from an external source and will no
longer be forced to mentally retain large quantities of knowledge themselves
(Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly, Vintage, New York ,pp 74).

Andrew Robinson also highlights, in his work The Origins of Writing, the
possibility for writing to be used to spread false information and there for the
ability of the written word to decrease social knowledge (Robinson, Andrew
(2003) The Origins of Writing in Crowley and Heyer (eds) Communication in
History: Technology, Culture, Society, Boston pp 34). People are often
internalizing new information which they perceive to be knowledge but are in
reality fill their minds with false knowledge.

[edit] Situated knowledge

Situated knowledge is knowledge specific to a particular situation.[citation needed]

Some methods of generating knowledge, such as trial and error, or learning from
experience, tend to create highly situational knowledge. One of the main benefits
of the scientific method is that the theories it generates are much less situational
than knowledge gained by other methods.[citation needed] Situational knowledge
is often embedded in language, culture, or traditions.[citation needed]

Knowledge generated through experience is called knowledge "a posteriori",

meaning afterwards. The pure existence of a term like "a posteriori" means this
also has a counterpart. In this case that is knowledge "a priori", meaning before.
The knowledge prior to any experience means that there are certain "assumptions"
that one takes for granted. For example if you are being told about a chair it is clear
to you that the chair is in space, that it is 3D. This knowledge is not knowledge that
one can "forget", even someone suffering from amnesia experiences the world in
3D. See also: A priori and a posteriori.[citation needed]

[edit] Partial knowledge

One discipline of epistemology focuses on partial knowledge. In most realistic

cases, it is not possible to have an exhaustive understanding of an information
domain, so then we have to live with the fact that our knowledge is always not
complete, that is, partial. Most real problems have to be solved by taking
advantage of a partial understanding of the problem context and problem data. That
is very different from the typical simple maths problems one might solve at school,
where all data is given and one has a perfect understanding of formulas necessary
to solve them.[citation needed]

[edit] Scientific knowledge

The development of Scientific Method has made a significant contribution to our

understanding of knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be
based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to
specific principles of reasoning.[4] A scientific method consists of the collection of
data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of
hypotheses.[5]. Science, and the nature of scientific knowledge have also become
the subject of Philosophy. As science itself has developed, knowledge has
developed a broader usage which has been developing within biology/psychology
—discussed elsewhere as meta-epistemology, or genetic epistemology, and to
some extent related to "theory of cognitive development".

Sir Francis Bacon, "Knowledge is Power"

Note that "Epistemology" is the study of knowledge and how it is acquired.

Science is “the process used everyday to logically complete thoughts through
inference of facts determined by calculated experiments. Sir Francis Bacon, critical
in the historical development of the scientific method, his works established and
popularized an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry. His famous aphorism,
"knowledge is power", is found in the Meditations Sacrae (1597).[6].

Until recent times, at least in the Western tradition, it was simply taken for granted
that knowledge was something possessed only by humans (and/or God) — and
probably adult humans at that. Sometimes the notion might stretch to (ii) Society-
as-such, as in (e.g.) "the knowledge possessed by the Coptic culture" (as opposed
to its individual members), but that was not assured either. Nor was it usual to
consider unconscious knowledge in any systematic way until this approach was
popularized by Freud. [7]

Other biological domains where "knowledge" might be said to reside, include: (iii)
the immune system, and (iv) in the DNA of the genetic code. See the list of four
"epistemological domains": Popper, (1975)[8]; and Traill (2008 [1]: Table S,
page 31)—also references by both to Niels Jerne.

Such considerations seem to call for a separate definition of "knowledge" to cover

the biological systems. For biologists, knowledge must be usefully available to the
system, though that system need not be conscious. Thus the criteria seem to be:

• The system should apparently be dynamic and self-organizing (unlike a

mere book on its own).
• The knowledge must constitute some sort of representation of "the outside
world"[9], or ways of dealing with it (directly or indirectly).
• There must be some way for the system to access this information quickly
enough for it to be useful.

[edit] Religious meaning of knowledge

In many expressions of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Anglicanism,

knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.[10]

In Islam, knowledge (Arabic: ‫علم‬, ʿilm) is given great significance. "The All-
Knowing" (al-ʿAlīm) is one of the 99 names reflecting distinct attributes of God.
The Qur'an asserts that knowledge comes from God (2:239) and various hadith,
sayings of Muhammad, encourage the acquisition of knowledge. He is reported to
have said "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave" and "Verily the men of
knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets". Islamic scholars, theologians and
jurists are often given the title alim, meaning "knowledgable".[citation needed]

Hindu Scriptures present two kinds of knowledge, Paroksha Gnyana and

Aporoksha Gnyana. Paroksha Gnyana (also spelled Paroksha-Jnana) is secondhand
knowledge: knowledge obtained from books, hearsay, etc. Aporoksha Gnyana
(also spelled Aparoksha-Jnana) is the knowledge borne of direct experience, i.e.,
knowledge that one discovers for oneself.[11]
The Old Testament's Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil contained the
knowledge that separated Man from God: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil…" (Genesis 3:22)

In Gnosticism divine knowledge or gnosis is hoped to be attained and escape from

the demiurge's physical world. And in Thelema knowledge and conversation with
one's Holy Guardian Angel is the purpose of life, which is similar to Gnosis or
enlightenment in other mystery religions.

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize (Swedish: Nobelpriset) is a Swedish & International monetary

prize, established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor
Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine,
Literature, and Peace in 1901. An associated prize, The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in
Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was instituted by Sweden's central
bank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969.[1] The Nobel Prizes in the specific
disciplines (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) and the
Prize in Economics, which is commonly identified with them, are widely regarded
as the most prestigious award one can receive in those fields.[1] The Nobel Peace
Prize conveys social prestige and is often politically controversial.

Ceremony

With the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in
Economics are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award
Ceremony on the 10th of December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The
recipients' lectures are presented in the days prior to the award ceremony.[2] The
Nobel Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize
Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, also on the 10th of December. The reason why
Norway distributes a part of the prize is that at the time of Alfred Nobel's death,
Norway and Sweden were joined together in a personal union known as the
Swedish-Norwegian Union.[3][4] The award ceremonies and the associated
banquets are nowadays major international events.[2]

[edit] Alfred Nobel's will

Alfred Nobel's will from November 25, 1895

Five Nobel Prizes were instituted by the final will of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish
chemist and industrialist, who was the inventor of the high explosive dynamite.
Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little
over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on
27 November 1895. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish
Kronor, to establish and endow the five Nobel Prizes.[5] (As of 2008 that equates
to 186 million US dollars.)

“ The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the ”

following way:

The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall

constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the
form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred
the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five
equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person
who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the
field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most
important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who
shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of
physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in
the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency;
and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work
for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing
armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish
Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by
Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in
Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons
 to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my expressed wish that in
awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the
nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the
prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.
—Alfred Nobel, Alfred Nobel's Will[6]

Although Nobel's will established the prizes, his plan was incomplete and, due to
various other hurdles, it took five years before the Nobel Foundation could be
established and the first prizes awarded on 10 December 1901.[7]

[edit] Nomination and selection

Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)

Compared with some other prizes, the Prize nomination and selection process is
long and rigorous. This is a key reason why the Prizes have grown in importance
over the years to become the most important prizes in their field.[8]

The Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winners. Photo
by Carey Linde, 2004.

The Nobel laureates are selected by their respective Nobel Committees. For the
Prizes in Physics, Chemistry and Economics, a committee consists of five
members elected by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; for the Prize in
Literature, a committee of four to five members of the Swedish Academy; for the
Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the committee consists of five members selected
by The Nobel Assembly, which consists of 50 members elected by Karolinska
Institutet; for the Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five
members elected by the Norwegian Storting (the Norwegian parliament).[9] In its
first stage, several thousand people are asked to nominate candidates. These names
are scrutinized and discussed by experts in their specific disciplines until only the
winners remain. This slow and thorough process is arguably what gives the prize
its importance. Despite this, there have been questionable awards and questionable
omissions over the prize's century-long history.

The committee room of the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to about three
thousand selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations. For the peace
prize, inquiries are sent to such people as governments of states, members of
international courts, professors and rectors at university level, former Peace Prize
laureates, current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, among
others. The Norwegian Nobel Committee then bases its assessment on nominations
sent in before 3 February.[10] The submission deadline for nominations for
Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Economics is 31
January.[11] Self-nominations and nominations of deceased people are
disqualified.

The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told
that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are sealed for 50
years.[12] In practice, some nominees do become known. It is also common for
publicists to make such a claim, founded or not.

After the deadline has passed, the nominations are screened by committee, and a
list is produced of approximately 200 preliminary candidates. This list is forwarded
to selected experts in the relevant field. They remove all but approximately 15
names. The committee submits a report with recommendations to the appropriate
institution. The Assembly for the Physiology or Medicine Prize, for example, has
50 members. The institution members then select prize winners by vote.
The selection process varies slightly between the different disciplines. The
Literature Prize is rarely awarded to more than one person per year, whereas other
Prizes now often involve collaborators of two or three.

While posthumous nominations are not permitted, awards can occur if the
individual died in the months between the nomination and the decision of the prize
committee. The scenario has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize of Erik Axel
Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld.
As of 1974, laureates must be alive at the time of the October announcement.
There has been one laureate— William Vickrey (1996, Economics)— who died
after the prize was announced but before it could be presented.

[edit] Recognition time lag

Nobel's will provides for prizes to be awarded in recognition for discoveries made
"during the preceding year", and for the first years of the awards, the discoveries
recognized were recent. However, some awards were made for discoveries that
were later discredited. Taking the discrediting of a recognized discovery as an
embarrassment, the awards committees began to recognize scientific discoveries
that had withstood the test of time, in violation of the letter but not the spirit of
Nobel's will.

The interval between the accomplishment of the achievement being recognized and
the awarding of the Nobel Prize for it varies from discipline to discipline. The
prizes in Literature are typically awarded to recognize a cumulative lifetime body
of work rather than a single achievement. In this case the notion of "lag" does not
directly apply. The prizes in Peace, on the other hand, are often awarded within a
few years of the events they recognize. For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the
2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the
United Nations.

Awards in the scientific disciplines of physics, chemistry, and medicine require

that the significance of achievements being recognized is "tested by time." In
practice it means that the lag between the discovery and the award is typically on
the order of 20 years and can be even longer. For example, Subrahmanyan
Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on stellar
structure and evolution from the 1930s. Unfortunately, not all scientists live long
enough for their work to be recognized. Some important scientific discoveries are
never considered for a Prize if the discoverers have died by the time the impact of
their work is realized.
[edit] Award ceremonies

Konserthuset (Stockholm)

Melvin Calvin receiving the Nobel Prize at the Stockholm concert hall in 1961.

The committees and institutions serving as the selection boards for the Nobel
Prizes typically announce the names of the laureates in October, with the Prizes
awarded at formal ceremonies held annually on 10 December, the anniversary of
Alfred Nobel's death.[2] In 2005 and 2006, these Prize ceremonies were held at the
Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel Banquet following immediately in the
Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall. Previously, the Nobel Prizes ceremony was held
in a ballroom in Stockholm's Grand Hotel.[2]

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute
(1905–1946); at the Aula of the University of Oslo (1947–1990); and most recently
at the Oslo City Hall.[2]

A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award.
Each award can be given to a maximum of three recipients per year. Each "Nobel
Prize Award" consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and a monetary grant:
The highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each
Nobel Laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of His Majesty
the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee
presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway. Under the
eyes of a watching world, the Nobel Laureate receives three things: a diploma, a
medal and a document confirming the prize amount.[13]

The grant is currently 10 million SEK, slightly more than US$1.2 million.[14]

If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally
between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of
dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to
each of the others. It is not uncommon for recipients to donate prize money to
benefit scientific, cultural or humanitarian causes.

Oslo rådhus

Since 1902, the King of Sweden has, with the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize,
presented all the prizes in Stockholm. At first King Oscar II did not approve of
awarding grand prizes to foreigners, but is said to have changed his mind once his
attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.

Until the Norwegian Nobel Committee was established in 1904, the President of
Norwegian Parliament made the formal presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize. The
Committee's five members are entrusted with researching and adjudicating the
Prize as well as awarding it. Although appointed by the Norwegian Parliament
(Stortinget), they are independent and answer to no legislative authority. Members
of the Norwegian government are not permitted to sit on the Committee.

[edit] Nobel Prize medals

Front side (obverse) of one of the Nobel Prize medals in Physiology or Medicine
awarded in 1950 to researchers at the Mayo Clinic.

Obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize Medal presented to Sir Ralph Norman Angell in
1933; the Imperial War Museum, London.

The Nobel Prize medals, which have been minted by Myntverket[15] in Sweden
and the Mint of Norway since 1902, are registered trademarks of the Nobel
Foundation. Their engraved designs are internationally-recognized symbols of the
prestige of the Nobel Prize. All of these medal designs feature an image of Alfred
Nobel in left profile on the obverse (the face of the medal). Four of the five Nobel
Prize medals (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature) feature
the same design on the obverse (front sides). The reverse sides of the Nobel Prize
medals for Chemistry and Physics share a design.[13][16][17] Both sides of the
Nobel Peace Prize Medal[18] and the Medal for The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in
Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel are unique designs.[16][13]

The Nobel Prize medals in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and

Literature have identical obverses: it shows the image of Alfred Nobel and the
years of his birth and death (1833–1896). Nobel's portrait also appears on the
obverse of the Nobel Peace Prize Medal and the Medal for the Prize in Economics,
but with a slightly different design. The image on the reverse varies according to
the institution awarding the prize. All medals made before 1980 were struck in 23
carat gold. Today, they are made from 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat
gold. They each weigh approximately 200 g and have a diameter of 66 mm.[13]
[16]

Due to their gold content and public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal
theft. During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and
James Franck were (illegally) sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany
invaded Denmark, chemist George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia, to
prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the
holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-
cast.[16]

[edit] Controversies and criticisms

Main articles: Nobel Prize controversies and Non-laureates and controversies

regarding the Nobel Prize in Literature

Since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, the proceedings, nominations,
awards and exclusions have generated criticism and engendered much controversy.

[edit] Overlooked achievements

Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times between
1937 and 1948 but never received the prize, being assassinated on 30 January 1948
two days before the closing date for the 1948 Peace Prize nominations. The
Norwegian Nobel Committee had very likely planned to give him the Peace Prize
in 1948 as they considered a posthumous award, but ultimately decided against it,
and instead chose not to award the prize that year.[19] A U.S. philatelic exhibition
in Chicago, Chicagopex 2001, chose to honor the 100th anniversary of the Nobel
Prize with a special show of commemorative postal cachets. One theme of the
exhibition cast a shadow on the Nobel Peace Prize’s first century – the fact that the
Peace Prize had not been awarded to Mahatma Gandhi. [20]

The strict rules against a prize being awarded to more than three people at once is
also a cause for controversy. Where a prize is awarded to recognise an
achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, inevitably one or more
will miss out. For example, in 2002, a Prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and
John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an
award that failed to recognise the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael
Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of
Frankfurt.[21] Another well known miss was the Nobel Prize in Physics of 1965,
that was awarded to Richard P. Feynman, Julian S. Schwinger and Sin-Itiro
Tomonaga but failed to recognize the contribution of Freeman C. Dyson, that
demonstrated the equivalence of the formulations of quantum electrodynamics of
the other three scientists.

Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by

a collaborator who happens to die before the prize is awarded. Rosalind Franklin,
who was key in the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, died of ovarian
cancer in 1958, four years before Francis Crick, James D. Watson and Maurice
Wilkins (one of Franklin's collaborators) were awarded the Prize for Medicine or
Physiology in 1962.[22] Franklin's significant and relevant contribution was only
briefly mentioned in Crick and Watson's now-famous paper: "We have also been
stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental
results and ideas of Dr. M.H.F. Wilkins, Dr. R.E. Franklin, and co-workers...."[23]

In some cases, awards have arguably omitted similar discoveries made earlier. For
example, the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "the discovery and development
of conductive organic polymers" (1977) ignored the much earlier discovery of
highly-conductive charge transfer complex polymers: the 1963 series of papers by
Weiss, et al. reported even higher conductivity in similarly iodine-doped oxidized
polypyrrole.[24][25]

[edit] Lack of a Nobel Prize in Mathematics

There is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics, which has led to considerable speculation

about why Alfred Nobel omitted it.[26][27] Some recipients of the Nobel Prize in
other fields also have notable achievements in or have made outstanding
contributions to mathematics; for example, Bertrand Russell was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature (1950) and Max Born and Walther Bothe shared the
Nobel Prize in Physics (1954). Some others with advanced credentials in
mathematics and/or who are known primarily as mathematicians have been
awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred
Nobel: Kenneth Arrow (1972), Leonid Kantorovich (1975), John Forbes Nash
(1994), Clive W. J. Granger (2003), Robert J. Aumann (who shared the 2005 Prize
with Thomas C. Schelling), and Roger Myerson and Eric Maskin (2007).

Several prizes in mathematics have some similarities to the Nobel Prize. The Fields
Medal is often described as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics", but it differs in
being awarded only once every four years to people not older than forty years old.
Other prestigious prizes in mathematics are the Crafoord Prize, awarded by the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1982; the Abel Prize which has also
been called the "Nobel Prize of mathematics" and has been awarded by the
Norwegian government annually, beginning in 2003; the Wolf Prize awarded once
a year by the Wolf Foundation; the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences awarded
since 2004; and the Gauss Prize, granted jointly by the International Mathematical
Union and the German Mathematical Society for "outstanding mathematical
contributions that have found significant applications outside of mathematics," and
introduced at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2006. The Clay
Mathematics Institute has devised seven "Millennium Problems," whose solution
results in a significant cash award:[28] since it has a clear, predetermined objective
for its award and since it can be awarded whenever a problem is solved, this prize
also differs from the Nobel Prizes.

[edit] Emphasis on discoveries over inventions

Alfred Nobel left a fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded "to those who,
during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
One part, he stated, should be given "to the person who shall have made the most
important discovery or invention within the field of physics". Nobel did not
emphasize discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the
Nobel prize committee than inventions: 77% of Nobel prizes in physics have been
given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck
and Matthias Rauterberg in papers published in Nature and Technoetic Arts, have
argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel prize away from its
original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society in the preceding
year.[29][30]

[edit] Specially distinguished laureates

[edit] Multiple laureates

Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize, four people have received two Nobel
Prizes:[31]

• Maria Skłodowska-Curie: in Physics 1903, for the discovery of

radioactivity; and in Chemistry 1911, for the isolation of pure radium
• Linus Pauling: in Chemistry 1954, for his research into the nature of the
chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of
complex substances; and Peace 1962, for nuclear test-ban treaty activism; he
is the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes.[32]
 • John Bardeen: in Physics 1956, for the invention of the transistor; and
Physics 1972, for the theory of superconductivity.
• Frederick Sanger: in Chemistry 1958, for structure of the insulin molecule;
and in Chemistry 1980, for virus nucleotide sequencing.

As a group, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received the
Nobel Peace Prize three times: in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The first two prizes were
specifically in recognition of the group's work during the world wars, and the third
was awarded at the year of its 100-Year Anniversary.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has won the
Peace Prize twice: in 1954 and 1981.

[edit] Family laureates

A number of families have included multiple laureates.[31]

• The Curie family claim the most Nobel Prizes, with five:
o Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Physics 1903 and Chemistry 1911
o Her husband Pierre Curie, Physics 1903
o Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935
o Their son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935
o In addition, Henry Labouisse, the husband of the Curies' second
daughter Ève, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1965.
• Gunnar Myrdal (Economics, 1974) and wife Alva Myrdal (Peace, 1982)
• J. J. Thomson, awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1906, was the father
of George Paget Thomson who was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in
1937.
• William Henry Bragg shared the Nobel prize in Physics in 1915 with his
son, William Lawrence Bragg.
• Niels Bohr won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1922, and his son Aage Bohr
won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1975.
• Manne Siegbahn, who won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1924, was the
father of Kai Siegbahn who shared the Nobel prize in Physics in 1981.
• Hans von Euler-Chelpin shared the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1929 with
Arthur Harden. His son, Ulf von Euler, was awarded the Nobel prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1970.
• C.V. Raman who won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1930, was the uncle of
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1983.
 • Arthur Kornberg shared with Severo Ochoa the 1959 Nobel prize in
Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the mechanisms in the
biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid.[33]
Kornberg's son Roger won the 2006 Nobel prize in Chemistry for his studies
of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.[34]
• Jan Tinbergen, who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1969, was the
brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch.

Media (communication)

In communication, media (singular medium) are the storage and transmission

channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred
to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single
medium used to communicate any data for any purpose.[1][2][3]

Advertising Media

Advertising is a form of communication used in helping sell products and services.

Typically it communicates a message including the name of the product or service
and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer.
Advertising often attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to
consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Modern advertising
developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.[1]

Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those

products and services through the creation and reinvention of the "brand image".
For these purposes, advertisements sometimes embed their persuasive message
with factual information. There are many media used to deliver these messages,
including traditional media such as television, radio, cinema, magazines,
newspapers, video games, the carrier bags, billboards, mail or post and Internet
marketing. Today, new media such as digital signage is growing as a major new
mass media. Advertising is often placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a
company or other organization.

Organizations that frequently spend large sums of money on advertising that sells
what is not, strictly speaking, a product or service include political parties, interest
groups, religious organizations, and military recruiters. Non-profit organizations
are not typical advertising clients, and may rely on free modes of persuasion, such
as public service announcements.[citation needed]
Money spent on advertising has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2007,
spending on advertising has been estimated at over $150 billion in the United
States[2] and $385 billion worldwide,[3] and the latter to exceed $450 billion by
2010.[citation needed]

While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is not without
social costs. Unsolicited Commercial Email and other forms of spam have become
so prevalent as to have become a major nuisance to users of these services, as well
as being a financial burden on internet service providers.[4] Advertising is
increasingly invading public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a
form of child exploitation.[5] In addition, advertising frequently uses psychological
pressure (for example, appealing to feelings of inadequacy) on the intended
consumer, which may be harmful.

Mobile billboard advertising

The RedEye newspaper advertised to its target market at North Avenue Beach with
a sailboat billboard on Lake Michigan.

Mobile billboards are truck- or blimp-mounted billboards or digital screens. These

can be dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes
preselected by clients, or they can be specially-equipped cargo trucks. The
billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights.
Some billboard displays are static, while others change; for example, continuously
or periodically rotating among a set of advertisements.

Mobile displays are used for various situations in metropolitan areas throughout
the world, including:
 • Target advertising
• One-day, and long-term campaigns
• Conventions
• Sporting events
• Store openings and similar promotional events
• Big advertisements from smaller companies
• Others

[edit] Public service advertising

The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services
can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial
issues, such as HIV/AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious
recruitment, and deforestation.

Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of

reaching and motivating large audiences. "Advertising justifies its existence when
used in the public interest - it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for
commercial purposes." - Attributed to Howard Gossage by David Ogilvy.

Public service advertising, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising,

cause marketing, and social marketing are different terms for (or aspects of) the
use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques
(generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial,
public interest issues and initiatives.

In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is
contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service
advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air
the bulk of their required public service announcements during the late night or
early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more
day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers.

Public service advertising reached its height during World Wars I and II under the
direction of several governments.

[edit] Types of advertising

[edit] Media
Paying people to hold signs is one of the oldest forms of advertising, as with this
Human directional pictured above

A bus with an advertisement for GAP in Singapore. Buses and other vehicles are
popular mediums for advertisers.

A DBAG Class 101 with UNICEF ads at Ingolstadt main railway station

Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street

furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television
adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web popups,
skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards, magazines, newspapers, town
criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logojets"), in-
flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab
doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms
and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets,
shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and
video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place
an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is
advertising.
One way to measure advertising effectiveness is known as Ad Tracking. This
advertising research methodology measures shifts in target market perceptions
about the brand and product or service. These shifts in perception are plotted
against the consumers’ levels of exposure to the company’s advertisements and
promotions. The purpose of Ad Tracking is generally to provide a measure of the
combined effect of the media weight or spending level, the effectiveness of the
media buy or targeting, and the quality of the advertising executions or creative.
[12]

See also: Advertising media selection

[edit] Covert advertising

Main article: Product placement

Covert advertising, also known as guerrilla advertising, is when a product or brand

is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main
character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie Minority
Report, where Tom Cruise's character John Anderton owns a phone with the Nokia
logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo.
Another example of advertising in film is in I, Robot, where main character played
by Will Smith mentions his Converse shoes several times, calling them "classics,"
because the film is set far in the future. I, Robot and Spaceballs also showcase
futuristic cars with the Audi and Mercedes-Benz logos clearly displayed on the
front of the vehicles. Cadillac chose to advertise in the movie The Matrix
Reloaded, which as a result contained many scenes in which Cadillac cars were
used. Similarly, product placement for Omega Watches, Ford, VAIO, BMW and
Aston Martin cars are featured in recent James Bond films, most notably Casino
Royale. Blade Runner includes some of the most obvious product placement; the
whole film stops to show a Coca-Cola billboard.

[edit] Television commercials

Main articles: Television advertisement and Music in advertising

The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market

advertising format, as is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for
commercial airtime during popular TV events. The annual Super Bowl football
game in the United States is known as the most prominent advertising event on
television. The average cost of a single thirty-second TV spot during this game has
reached US$3 million (as of 2009).
The majority of television commercials feature a song or jingle that listeners soon
relate to the product.

Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming

through computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank
backdrops[13] or used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote
broadcast audience.[14] More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted
into the background[15] where none exist in real-life. Virtual product placement is
also possible.[16][17]

[edit] Infomercials

There are two types of infomercials, described as long form and short form. Long
form infomercials have a time length of 30 minutes. Short form infomercials are 30
seconds to two minutes long. Infomercials are also known as direct response
television (DRTV) commercials or direct response marketing.

The main objective in an infomercial is to create an impulse purchase, so that the

consumer sees the presentation and then immediately buys the product through the
advertised toll-free telephone number or website. Infomercials describe, display,
and often demonstrate products and their features, and commonly have
testimonials from consumers and industry professionals.

[edit] Celebrities
Main article: Celebrity branding

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money,
popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or
products. Advertisers often advertise their products, for example, when celebrities
share their favourite products or wear clothes by specific brands or designers.
Celebrities are often involved in advertising campaigns such as television or print
adverts to advertise specific or general products.

[edit] Media and advertising approaches

Increasingly, other media are overtaking many of the "traditional" media such as
television, radio and newspaper because of a shift toward consumer's usage of the
Internet for news and music as well as devices like digital video recorders (DVR's)
such as TiVo.
Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based
advertising space are dependent on the "relevance" of the surrounding web content
and the traffic that the website receives.

Digital signage is poised to become a major mass media because of its ability to
reach larger audiences for less money. Digital signage also offer the unique ability
to see the target audience where they are reached by the medium. Technology
advances has also made it possible to control the message on digital signage with
much precision, enabling the messages to be relevant to the target audience at any
given time and location which in turn, gets more response from the advertising.
Digital signage is being successfully employed in supermarkets.[18] Another
successful use of digital signage is in hospitality locations such as restaurants.[19]
and malls.[20]

E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail

advertising is known as "spam". Spam has been a problem for email users for
many years. But more efficient filters are now available making it relatively easy
to control what email you get.

Some companies have proposed placing messages or corporate logos on the side of
booster rockets and the International Space Station. Controversy exists on the
effectiveness of subliminal advertising (see mind control), and the pervasiveness of
mass messages (see propaganda).

Unpaid advertising (also called "publicity advertising"), can provide good exposure
at minimal cost. Personal recommendations ("bring a friend", "sell it"), spreading
buzz, or achieving the feat of equating a brand with a common noun (in the United
States, "Xerox" = "photocopier", "Kleenex" = tissue, "Vaseline" = petroleum jelly,
"Hoover" = vacuum cleaner, "Nintendo" (often used by those exposed to many
video games) = video games, and "Band-Aid" = adhesive bandage) — these can be
seen as the pinnacle of any advertising campaign. However, some companies
oppose the use of their brand name to label an object. Equating a brand with a
common noun also risks turning that brand into a genericized trademark - turning it
into a generic term which means that its legal protection as a trademark is lost.

As the mobile phone became a new mass media in 1998 when the first paid
downloadable content appeared on mobile phones in Finland, it was only a matter
of time until mobile advertising followed, also first launched in Finland in 2000.
By 2007 the value of mobile advertising had reached $2.2 billion and providers
such as Admob delivered billions of mobile ads.
More advanced mobile ads include banner ads, coupons, Multimedia Messaging
Service picture and video messages, advergames and various engagement
marketing campaigns. A particular feature driving mobile ads is the 2D Barcode,
which replaces the need to do any typing of web addresses, and uses the camera
feature of modern phones to gain immediate access to web content. 83 percent of
Japanese mobile phone users already are active users of 2D barcodes.

A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It

is online advertising with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively
immature market, but it has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able to take
advantage of the demographic information the user has provided to the social
networking site. Friendertising is a more precise advertising term in which people
are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using social network
service.

From time to time, The CW Television Network airs short programming breaks
called "Content Wraps," to advertise one company's product during an entire
commercial break. The CW pioneered "content wraps" and some products featured
were Herbal Essences, Crest, Guitar Hero II, CoverGirl, and recently Toyota.

Recently, there appeared a new promotion concept, "ARvertising"; its supported on

Augmented Reality technology.

[edit] Criticism of advertising

[edit] Hyper-commercialism and the commercial tidal wave

Criticism of advertising is closely linked with criticism of media and often

interchangeable. They can refer to its audio-visual aspects (e. g. cluttering of public
spaces and airwaves), environmental aspects (e. g. pollution, oversize packaging,
increasing consumption), political aspects (e. g. media dependency, free speech,
censorship), financial aspects (costs), ethical/moral/social aspects (e. g. sub-
conscious influencing, invasion of privacy, increasing consumption and waste,
target groups, certain products, honesty) and, of course, a mix thereof. Some
aspects can be subdivided further and some can cover more than one category.

As advertising has become increasingly prevalent in modern Western societies, it

is also increasingly being criticized. A person can hardly move in the public sphere
or use a medium without being subject to advertising. Advertising occupies public
space and more and more invades the private sphere of people, many of which
consider it a nuisance. “It is becoming harder to escape from advertising and the
media. … Public space is increasingly turning into a gigantic billboard for products
of all kind. The aesthetical and political consequences cannot yet be foreseen.”[21]
Hanno Rauterberg in the German newspaper ‘Die Zeit’ calls advertising a new
kind of dictatorship that cannot be escaped.[22]

Ad creep: "There are ads in schools, airport lounges, doctors offices, movie
theaters, hospitals, gas stations, elevators, convenience stores, on the Internet, on
fruit, on ATMs, on garbage cans and countless other places. There are ads on
beach sand and restroom walls.”[23] “One of the ironies of advertising in our times
is that as commercialism increases, it makes it that much more difficult for any
particular advertiser to succeed, hence pushing the advertiser to even greater
efforts.”[24] Within a decade advertising in radios climbed to nearly 18 or 19
minutes per hour; on prime-time television the standard until 1982 was no more
than 9.5 minutes of advertising per hour, today it’s between 14 and 17 minutes.
With the introduction of the shorter 15-second-spot the total amount of ads
increased even more dramatically. Ads are not only placed in breaks but e. g. also
into baseball telecasts during the game itself. They flood the internet, a market
growing in leaps and bounds.

Other growing markets are ‘’product placements’’ in entertainment programming

and in movies where it has become standard practice and ‘’virtual advertising’’
where products get placed retroactively into rerun shows. Product billboards are
virtually inserted into Major League Baseball broadcasts and in the same manner,
virtual street banners or logos are projected on an entry canopy or sidewalks, for
example during the arrival of celebrities at the 2001 Grammy Awards. Advertising
precedes the showing of films at cinemas including lavish ‘film shorts’ produced
by companies such as Microsoft or DaimlerChrysler. “The largest advertising
agencies have begun working aggressively to co-produce programming in
conjunction with the largest media firms”[25] creating Infomercials resembling
entertainment programming.

Opponents equate the growing amount of advertising with a “tidal wave” and
restrictions with “damming” the flood. Kalle Lasn, one of the most outspoken
critics of advertising on the international stage, considers advertising “the most
prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants. From the moment your radio alarm
sounds in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV microjolts of commercial
pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000 marketing messages per
day. Every day an estimated twelve billion display ads, 3 million radio
commercials and more than 200,000 television commercials are dumped into North
America’s collective unconscious”.[26] In the course of his life the average
American watches three years of advertising on television.[27]

More recent developments are video games incorporating products into their
content, special commercial patient channels in hospitals and public figures
sporting temporary tattoos. A method unrecognisable as advertising is so-called
‘’guerrilla marketing’’ which is spreading ‘buzz’ about a new product in target
audiences. Cash-strapped U.S. cities do not shrink back from offering police cars
for advertising.[28] A trend, especially in Germany, is companies buying the
names of sports stadiums. The Hamburg soccer Volkspark stadium first became
the AOL Arena and then the HSH Nordbank Arena. The Stuttgart Neckarstadion
became the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Dortmund Westfalenstadion now is the
Signal Iduna Park. The former SkyDome in Toronto was renamed Rogers Centre.
Other recent developments are, for example, that whole subway stations in Berlin
are redesigned into product halls and exclusively leased to a company. Düsseldorf
even has ‘multi-sensorial’ adventure transit stops equipped with loudspeakers and
systems that spread the smell of a detergent. Swatch used beamers to project
messages on the Berlin TV-tower and Victory column, which was fined because it
was done without a permit. The illegality was part of the scheme and added
promotion.[22]

It’s standard business management knowledge that advertising is a pillar, if not

“the” pillar of the growth-orientated free capitalist economy. “Advertising is part
of the bone marrow of corporate capitalism.”[29] “Contemporary capitalism could
not function and global production networks could not exist as they do without
advertising.”[1]

For communication scientist and media economist Manfred Knoche at the

University of Salzburg, Austria, advertising isn’t just simply a ‘necessary evil’ but
a ‘necessary elixir of life’ for the media business, the economy and capitalism as a
whole. Advertising and mass media economic interests create ideology. Knoche
describes advertising for products and brands as ‘the producer’s weapons in the
competition for customers’ and trade advertising, e. g. by the automotive industry,
as a means to collectively represent their interests against other groups, such as the
train companies. In his view editorial articles and programmes in the media,
promoting consumption in general, provide a ‘cost free’ service to producers and
sponsoring for a ‘much used means of payment’ in advertising.[30] Christopher
Lasch argues that advertising leads to an overall increase in consumption in
society; "Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote
consumption as a way of life."[31]
[edit] Advertising and constitutional rights

Advertising is equated with constitutionally guaranteed freedom of opinion and

speech.[32] Therefore criticizing advertising or any attempt to restrict or ban
advertising is almost always considered to be an attack on fundamental rights (First
Amendment in the USA) and meets the combined and concentrated resistance of
the business and especially the advertising community. “Currently or in the near
future, any number of cases are and will be working their way through the court
system that would seek to prohibit any government regulation of ... commercial
speech (e. g. advertising or food labelling) on the grounds that such regulation
would violate citizens’ and corporations’ First Amendment rights to free speech or
free press.”[33] An example for this debate is advertising for tobacco or alcohol
but also advertising by mail or fliers (clogged mail boxes), advertising on the
phone, in the internet and advertising for children. Various legal restrictions
concerning spamming, advertising on mobile phones, addressing children, tobacco,
alcohol have been introduced by the US, the EU and various other countries. Not
only the business community resists restrictions of advertising. Advertising as a
means of free expression has firmly established itself in western society.
McChesney argues, that the government deserves constant vigilance when it comes
to such regulations, but that it is certainly not “the only antidemocratic force in our
society. ...corporations and the wealthy enjoy a power every bit as immense as that
enjoyed by the lords and royalty of feudal times” and “markets are not value-free
or neutral; they not only tend to work to the advantage of those with the most
money, but they also by their very nature emphasize profit over all else….Hence,
today the debate is over whether advertising or food labelling, or campaign
contributions are speech...if the rights to be protected by the First Amendment can
only be effectively employed by a fraction of the citizenry, and their exercise of
these rights gives them undue political power and undermines the ability of the
balance of the citizenry to exercise the same rights and/or constitutional rights,
then it is not necessarily legitimately protected by the First Amendment.” In
addition, “those with the capacity to engage in free press are in a position to
determine who can speak to the great mass of citizens and who cannot”.[34] Critics
in turn argue, that advertising invades privacy which is a constitutional right. For,
on the one hand, advertising physically invades privacy, on the other, it
increasingly uses relevant, information-based communication with private data
assembled without the knowledge or consent of consumers or target groups.

For Georg Franck at Vienna University of Technology advertising is part of what

he calls “mental capitalism”,[35][36] taking up a term (mental) which has been
used by groups concerned with the mental environment, such as Adbusters. Franck
blends the “Economy of Attention” with Christopher Lasch’s culture of narcissm
into the mental capitalism:[37] In his essay „Advertising at the Edge of the
Apocalypse“, Sut Jhally writes: “20. century advertising is the most powerful and
sustained system of propaganda in human history and its cumulative cultural
effects, unless quickly checked, will be responsible for destroying the world as we
know it.[38]

[edit] The price of attention and hidden costs

Advertising has developed into a billion-dollar business on which many depend. In

2006 391 billion US dollars were spent worldwide for advertising. In Germany, for
example, the advertising industry contributes 1.5% of the gross national income;
the figures for other developed countries are similar. Thus, advertising and growth
are directly and causally linked. As far as a growth based economy can be blamed
for the harmful human lifestyle (affluent society) advertising has to be considered
in this aspect concerning its negative impact, because its main purpose is to raise
consumption. “The industry is accused of being one of the engines powering a
convoluted economic mass production system which promotes consumption.”[39]

Attention and attentiveness have become a new commodity for which a market
developed. “The amount of attention that is absorbed by the media and
redistributed in the competition for quotas and reach is not identical with the
amount of attention, that is available in society. The total amount circulating in
society is made up of the attention exchanged among the people themselves and
the attention given to media information. Only the latter is homogenised by
quantitative measuring and only the latter takes on the character of an anonymous
currency.”[35][36] According to Franck, any surface of presentation that can
guarantee a certain degree of attentiveness works as magnet for attention, e. g.
media which are actually meant for information and entertainment, culture and the
arts, public space etc. It is this attraction which is sold to the advertising business.
The German Advertising Association stated that in 2007 30.78 billion Euros were
spent on advertising in Germany,[40] 26% in newspapers, 21% on television, 15%
by mail and 15% in magazines. In 2002 there were 360.000 people employed in
the advertising business. The internet revenues for advertising doubled to almost 1
billion Euros from 2006 to 2007, giving it the highest growth rates.

Spiegel-Online reported that in the USA in 2008 for the first time more money was
spent for advertising on internet (105.3 billion US dollars) than on television (98.5
billion US dollars). The largest amount in 2008 was still spent in the print media
(147 billion US dollars).[41] For that same year, Welt-Online reported that the US
pharmaceutical industry spent almost double the amount on advertising (57.7
billion dollars) than it did on research (31.5 billion dollars). But Marc-André
Gagnon und Joel Lexchin of York University, Toronto, estimate that the actual
expenses for advertising are higher yet, because not all entries are recorded by the
research institutions.[42] Not included are indirect advertising campaigns such as
sales, rebates and price reductions. Few consumers are aware of the fact that they
are the ones paying for every cent spent for public relations, advertisements,
rebates, packaging etc. since they ordinarily get included in the price calculation.

[edit] Influencing and conditioning

Advertising for McDonald's on the Via di Propaganda, Rome, Italy

The most important element of advertising is not information but suggestion more
or less making use of associations, emotions (appeal to emotion) and drives
dormant in the sub-conscience of people, such as sex drive, herd instinct, of
desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, self-esteem, reputation,
belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction, reward, of fears (appeal to
fear), such as illness, weaknesses, loneliness, need, uncertainty, security or of
prejudices, learned opinions and comforts. “All human needs, relationships, and
fears – the deepest recesses of the human psyche – become mere means for the
expansion of the commodity universe under the force of modern marketing. With
the rise to prominence of modern marketing, commercialism – the translation of
human relations into commodity relations – although a phenomenon intrinsic to
capitalism, has expanded exponentially.”[43] ’Cause-related marketing’ in which
advertisers link their product to some worthy social cause has boomed over the
past decade.
Advertising exploits the model role of celebrities or popular figures and makes
deliberate use of humour as well as of associations with colour, tunes, certain
names and terms. Altogether, these are factors of how one perceives himself and
one’s self-worth. In his description of ‘mental capitalism’ Franck says, “the
promise of consumption making someone irresistible is the ideal way of objects
and symbols into a person’s subjective experience. Evidently, in a society in which
revenue of attention moves to the fore, consumption is drawn by one’s self-esteem.
As a result, consumption becomes ‘work’ on a person’s attraction. From the
subjective point of view, this ‘work’ opens fields of unexpected dimensions for
advertising. Advertising takes on the role of a life councillor in matters of
attraction. (…) The cult around one’s own attraction is what Christopher Lasch
described as ‘Culture of Narcissism’.”[36][37]

For advertising critics another serious problem is that “the long standing notion of
separation between advertising and editorial/creative sides of media is rapidly
crumbling” and advertising is increasingly hard to tell apart from news,
information or entertainment. The boundaries between advertising and
programming are becoming blurred. According to the media firms all this
commercial involvement has no influence over actual media content, but, as
McChesney puts it, “this claim fails to pass even the most basic giggle test, it is so
preposterous.”[44]

Advertising draws “heavily on psychological theories about how to create subjects,

enabling advertising and marketing to take on a ‘more clearly psychological tinge’
(Miller and Rose, 1997, cited in Thrift, 1999, p. 67). Increasingly, the emphasis in
advertising has switched from providing ‘factual’ information to the symbolic
connotations of commodities, since the crucial cultural premise of advertising is
that the material object being sold is never in itself enough. Even those
commodities providing for the most mundane necessities of daily life must be
imbued with symbolic qualities and culturally endowed meanings via the ‘magic
system (Williams, 1980) of advertising. In this way and by altering the context in
which advertisements appear, things ‘can be made to mean "just about anything"’
(McFall, 2002, p. 162) and the ‘same’ things can be endowed with different
intended meanings for different individuals and groups of people, thereby offering
mass produced visions of individualism.”[1]

Before advertising is done, market research institutions need to know and describe
the target group to exactly plan and implement the advertising campaign and to
achieve the best possible results. A whole array of sciences directly deal with
advertising and marketing or is used to improve its effects. Focus groups,
psychologists and cultural anthropologists are ‘’’de rigueur’’’ in marketing
research”.[45] Vast amounts of data on persons and their shopping habits are
collected, accumulated, aggregated and analysed with the aid of credit cards, bonus
cards, raffles and, last but not least, internet surveying. With increasing accuracy
this supplies a picture of behaviour, wishes and weaknesses of certain sections of a
population with which advertisement can be employed more selectively and
effectively. The efficiency of advertising is improved through advertising research.
Universities, of course supported by business and in co-operation with other
disciplines (s. above), mainly Psychiatry, Anthropology, Neurology and
behavioural sciences, are constantly in search for ever more refined, sophisticated,
subtle and crafty methods to make advertising more effective. “Neuromarketing is
a controversial new field of marketing which uses medical technologies such as
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) -- not to heal, but to sell products.
Advertising and marketing firms have long used the insights and research methods
of psychology in order to sell products, of course. But today these practices are
reaching epidemic levels, and with a complicity on the part of the psychological
profession that exceeds that of the past. The result is an enormous advertising and
marketing onslaught that comprises, arguably, the largest single psychological
project ever undertaken. Yet, this great undertaking remains largely ignored by the
American Psychological Association.”[46] Robert McChesney calls it "the greatest
concerted attempt at psychological manipulation in all of human history."[47]

[edit] Dependency of the media and corporate censorship

Almost all mass media are advertising media and many of them are exclusively
advertising media and, with the exception of public service broadcasting are
privately owned. Their income is predominantly generated through advertising; in
the case of newspapers and magazines from 50 to 80%. Public service broadcasting
in some countries can also heavily depend on advertising as a source of income (up
to 40%).[48] In the view of critics no media that spreads advertisements can be
independent and the higher the proportion of advertising, the higher the
dependency. This dependency has “distinct implications for the nature of media
content…. In the business press, the media are often referred to in exactly the way
they present themselves in their candid moments: as a branch of the advertising
industry.”[49]

In addition, the private media are increasingly subject to mergers and concentration
with property situations often becoming entangled and opaque. This development,
which Henry A. Giroux calls an “ongoing threat to democratic culture”,[50] by
itself should suffice to sound all alarms in a democracy. Five or six advertising
agencies dominate this 400 billion U.S. dollar global industry.

“Journalists have long faced pressure to shape stories to suit advertisers and
owners …. the vast majority of TV station executives found their news
departments ‘cooperative’ in shaping the news to assist in ‘non-traditional revenue
development.”[51] Negative and undesired reporting can be prevented or
influenced when advertisers threaten to cancel orders or simply when there is a
danger of such a cancellation. Media dependency and such a threat becomes very
real when there is only one dominant or very few large advertisers. The influence
of advertisers is not only in regard to news or information on their own products or
services but expands to articles or shows not directly linked to them. In order to
secure their advertising revenues the media has to create the best possible
‘advertising environment’. Another problem considered censorship by critics is the
refusal of media to accept advertisements that are not in their interest. A striking
example of this is the refusal of TV stations to broadcast ads by Adbusters. Groups
try to place advertisements and are refused by networks.[52]

It is principally the viewing rates which decide upon the programme in the private
radio and television business. “Their business is to absorb as much attention as
possible. The viewing rate measures the attention the media trades for the
information offered. The service of this attraction is sold to the advertising
business”[36] and the viewing rates determine the price that can be demanded for
advertising.

“Advertising companies determining the contents of shows has been part of daily
life in the USA since 1933. Procter & Gamble (P&G) …. offered a radio station a
history-making trade (today know as “bartering”): the company would produce an
own show for “free” and save the radio station the high expenses for producing
contents. Therefore the company would want its commercials spread and, of
course, its products placed in the show. Thus, the series ‘Ma Perkins’ was created,
which P&G skilfully used to promote Oxydol, the leading detergent brand in those
years and the Soap opera was born …”[53]

While critics basically worry about the subtle influence of the economy on the
media, there are also examples of blunt exertion of influence. The US company
Chrysler, before it merged with Daimler Benz had its agency, PentaCom, send out
a letter to numerous magazines, demanding them to send, an overview of all the
topics before the next issue is published to “avoid potential conflict”. Chrysler
most of all wanted to know, if there would be articles with “sexual, political or
social” content or which could be seen as “provocative or offensive”. PentaCom
executive David Martin said: “Our reasoning is, that anyone looking at a 22.000 $
product would want it surrounded by positive things. There is nothing positive
about an article on child pornography.”[53] In another example, the „USA
Network held top-level ‚off-the-record’ meetings with advertisers in 2000 to let
them tell the network what type of programming content they wanted in order for
USA to get their advertising.”[54] Television shows are created to accommodate
the needs for advertising, e. g. splitting them up in suitable sections. Their
dramaturgy is typically designed to end in suspense or leave an unanswered
question in order to keep the viewer attached.

The movie system, at one time outside the direct influence of the broader
marketing system, is now fully integrated into it through the strategies of licensing,
tie-ins and product placements. The prime function of many Hollywood films
today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of commodities.[55] The
press called the 2002 Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ featuring 24 major promotional
partners an ‘ad-venture’ and noted that James Bond “now has been ‘licensed to
sell’” As it has become standard practise to place products in motion pictures, it
“has self-evident implications for what types of films will attract product
placements and what types of films will therefore be more likely to get made”.[56]

Advertising and information are increasingly hard to distinguish from each other.
“The borders between advertising and media …. become more and more
blurred…. What August Fischer, chairman of the board of Axel Springer
publishing company considers to be a ‘proven partnership between the media and
advertising business’ critics regard as nothing but the infiltration of journalistic
duties and freedoms”. According to RTL-executive Helmut Thoma “private
stations shall not and cannot serve any mission but only the goal of the company
which is the ‘acceptance by the advertising business and the viewer’. The setting of
priorities in this order actually says everything about the ‘design of the
programmes’ by private television.”[53] Patrick Le Lay, former managing director
of TF1, a private French television channel with a market share of 25 to 35%, said:
There are many ways to talk about television. But from the business point of view,
let’s be realistic: basically, the job of TF1 is, e. g. to help Coca Cola sell its
product. (…) For an advertising message to be perceived the brain of the viewer
must be at our disposal. The job of our programmes is to make it available, that is
to say, to distract it, to relax it and get it ready between two messages. It is
disposable human brain time that we sell to Coca Cola.”[57]
Because of these dependencies a widespread and fundamental public debate about
advertising and its influence on information and freedom of speech is difficult to
obtain, at least through the usual media channels; otherwise these would saw off
the branch they are sitting on. “The notion that the commercial basis of media,
journalism, and communication could have troubling implications for democracy is
excluded from the range of legitimate debate” just as “capitalism is off-limits as a
topic of legitimate debate in U.S. political culture”.[58]

An early critic of the structural basis of U.S. journalism was Upton Sinclair with
his novel The Brass Check in which he stresses the influence of owners,
advertisers, public relations, and economic interests on the media. In his book “Our
Master's Voice – Advertising” the social ecologist James Rorty (1890–1973)
wrote: "The gargoyle’s mouth is a loudspeaker, powered by the vested interest of a
two-billion dollar industry, and back of that the vested interests of business as a
whole, of industry, of finance. It is never silent, it drowns out all other voices, and
it suffers no rebuke, for it is not the voice of America? That is its claim and to
some extent it is a just claim...”[59]

It has taught us how to live, what to be afraid of, what to be proud of, how to be
beautiful, how to be loved, how to be envied, how to be successful.. Is it any
wonder that the American population tends increasingly to speak, think, feel in
terms of this jabberwocky? That the stimuli of art, science, religion are
progressively expelled to the periphery of American life to become marginal
values, cultivated by marginal people on marginal time?"[60]

[edit] The commercialisation of culture and sports

Performances, exhibitions, shows, concerts, conventions and most other events can
hardly take place without sponsoring. The increasing lack arts and culture they buy
the service of attraction. Artists are graded and paid according to their art’s value
for commercial purposes. Corporations promote renown artists, therefore getting
exclusive rights in global advertising campaigns. Broadway shows, like ‘La
Bohème’ featured commercial props in its set.[61]

Advertising itself is extensively considered to be a contribution to culture.

Advertising is integrated into fashion. On many pieces of clothing the company
logo is the only design or is an important part of it. There is only little room left
outside the consumption economy, in which culture and art can develop
independently and where alternative values can be expressed. A last important
sphere, the universities, is under strong pressure to open up for business and its
interests.[62]

Inflatable billboard in front of a sports stadium

Competitive sports have become unthinkable without sponsoring and there is a

mutual dependency. High income with advertising is only possible with a
comparable number of spectators or viewers. On the other hand, the poor
performance of a team or a sportsman results in less advertising revenues. Jürgen
Hüther and Hans-Jörg Stiehler talk about a ‘Sports/Media Complex which is a
complicated mix of media, agencies, managers, sports promoters, advertising etc.
with partially common and partially diverging interests but in any case with
common commercial interests. The media presumably is at centre stage because it
can supply the other parties involved with a rare commodity, namely (potential)
public attention. In sports “the media are able to generate enormous sales in both
circulation and advertising.”[63]

“Sports sponsorship is acknowledged by the tobacco industry to be valuable

advertising. A Tobacco Industry journal in 1994 described the Formula One car as
‘The most powerful advertising space in the world’. …. In a cohort study carried
out in 22 secondary schools in England in 1994 and 1995 boys whose favourite
television sport was motor racing had a 12.8% risk of becoming regular smokers
compared to 7.0% of boys who did not follow motor racing.”[64]

Not the sale of tickets but transmission rights, sponsoring and merchandising in the
meantime make up the largest part of sports association’s and sports club’s
revenues with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) taking the lead. The
influence of the media brought many changes in sports including the admittance of
new ‘trend sports’ into the Olympic Games, the alteration of competition distances,
changes of rules, animation of spectators, changes of sports facilities, the cult of
sports heroes who quickly establish themselves in the advertising and entertaining
business because of their media value[65] and last but not least, the naming and
renaming of sport stadiums after big companies. “In sports adjustment into the
logic of the media can contribute to the erosion of values such as equal chances or
fairness, to excessive demands on athletes through public pressure and multiple
exploitation or to deceit (doping, manipulation of results …). It is in the very
interest of the media and sports to counter this danger because media sports can
only work as long as sport exists.[65]

[edit] Occupation and commercialisation of public space

Every visually perceptible place has potential for advertising. Especially urban
areas with their structures but also landscapes in sight of through fares are more
and more turning into media for advertisements. Signs, posters, billboards, flags
have become decisive factors in the urban appearance and their numbers are still
on the increase. “Outdoor advertising has become unavoidable. Traditional
billboards and transit shelters have cleared the way for more pervasive methods
such as wrapped vehicles, sides of buildings, electronic signs, kiosks, taxis,
posters, sides of buses, and more. Digital technologies are used on buildings to
sport ‘urban wall displays’. In urban areas commercial content is placed in our
sight and into our consciousness every moment we are in public space. The
German Newspaper ‘Zeit’ called it a new kind of ‘dictatorship that one cannot
escape’.[22] Over time, this domination of the surroundings has become the
“natural” state. Through long-term commercial saturation, it has become implicitly
understood by the public that advertising has the right to own, occupy and control
every inch of available space. The steady normalization of invasive advertising
dulls the public’s perception of their surroundings, re-enforcing a general attitude
of powerlessness toward creativity and change, thus a cycle develops enabling
advertisers to slowly and consistently increase the saturation of advertising with
little or no public outcry.”[66]

The massive optical orientation toward advertising changes the function of public
spaces which are utilised by brands. Urban landmarks are turned into trademarks.
The highest pressure is exerted on renown and highly frequented public spaces
which are also important for the identity of a city (e. g. Piccadilly Circus, Times
Square, Alexanderplatz). Urban spaces are public commodities and in this capacity
they are subject to “aesthetical environment protection”, mainly through building
regulations, heritage protection and landscape protection. “It is in this capacity that
these spaces are now being privatised. They are peppered with billboards and
signs, they are remodelled into media for advertising.”[35][36]

[edit] Socio-cultural aspects: sexism, discrimination and stereotyping

“Advertising has an “agenda setting function” which is the ability, with huge sums
of money, to put consumption as the only item on the agenda. In the battle for a
share of the public conscience this amounts to non-treatment (ignorance) of
whatever is not commercial and whatever is not advertised for. Advertising should
be reflection of society norms and give clear picture of taget market. Spheres
without commerce and advertising serving the muses and relaxation remain
without respect.[neutrality disputed] With increasing force advertising makes itself
comfortable in the private sphere so that the voice of commerce becomes the
dominant way of expression in society.”[67] Advertising critics see advertising as
the leading light in our culture. Sut Jhally and James Twitchell go beyond
considering advertising as kind of religion and that advertising even replaces
religion as a key institution.[68] "Corporate advertising (or is it commercial
media?) is the largest single psychological project ever undertaken by the human
race. Yet for all of that, its impact on us remains unknown and largely ignored.
When I think of the media’s influence over years, over decades, I think of those
brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron in a Montreal
psychiatric hospital in the 1950s (see MKULTRA). The idea of the CIA-sponsored
"depatterning" experiments was to outfit conscious, unconscious or semiconscious
subjects with headphones, and flood their brains with thousands of repetitive
"driving" messages that would alter their behaviour over time….Advertising aims
to do the same thing."[26] Advertising is especially aimed at young people and
children and it increasingly reduces young people to consumers.[50] For Sut Jhally
it is not “surprising that something this central and with so much being expended
on it should become an important presence in social life. Indeed, commercial
interests intent on maximizing the consumption of the immense collection of
commodities have colonized more and more of the spaces of our culture. For
instance, almost the entire media system (television and print) has been developed
as a delivery system for marketers its prime function is to produce audiences for
sale to advertisers. Both the advertisements it carries, as well as the editorial matter
that acts as a support for it, celebrate the consumer society. The movie system, at
one time outside the direct influence of the broader marketing system, is now fully
integrated into it through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements.
The prime function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the
immense collection of commodities. As public funds are drained from the non-
commercial cultural sector, art galleries, museums and symphonies bid for
corporate sponsorship.”[55] In the same way effected is the education system and
advertising is increasingly penetrating schools and universities. Cities, such as
New York, accept sponsors for public playgrounds. “Even the pope has been
commercialized … The pope’s 4-day visit to Mexico in …1999 was sponsored by
Frito-Lay and PepsiCo.[69] The industry is accused of being one of the engines
powering a convoluted economic mass production system which promotes
consumption. As far as social effects are concerned it does not matter whether
advertising fuels consumption but which values, patterns of behaviour and
assignments of meaning it propagates. Advertising is accused of hijacking the
language and means of pop culture, of protest movements and even of subversive
criticism and does not shy away from scandalizing and breaking taboos (e. g.
Benneton). This in turn incites counter action, what Kalle Lasn in 2001 called
‘’Jamming the Jam of the Jammers’’. Anything goes. “It is a central social-
scientific question what people can be made to do by suitable design of conditions
and of great practical importance. For example, from a great number of
experimental psychological experiments it can be assumed, that people can be
made to do anything they are capable of, when the according social condition can
be created.”[70]

Advertising often uses stereotype gender specific roles of men and women
reinforcing existing clichés and it has been criticized as “inadvertently or even
intentionally promoting sexism, racism, and ageism… At very least, advertising
often reinforces stereotypes by drawing on recognizable "types" in order to tell
stories in a single image or 30 second time frame.”[39] Activities are depicted as
typical male or female (stereotyping). In addition people are reduced to their
sexuality or equated with commodities and gender specific qualities are
exaggerated. Sexualised female bodies, but increasingly also males, serve as eye-
catchers. In advertising it is usually a woman being depicted as

• servants of men and children that react to the demands and complaints of
their loved ones with a bad conscience and the promise for immediate
improvement (wash, food)
• a sexual or emotional play toy for the self-affirmation of men
• a technically totally clueless being that can only manage a childproof
operation
• female expert, but stereotype from the fields of fashion, cosmetics, food or at
the most, medicine
• as ultra thin, slim, and very skinny.
• doing ground-work for others, e. g. serving coffee while a journalist
interviews a politician[71]

A great part of advertising is the promotion of products dealing with the

appearance of people, mainly for women (in the past almost only for women).
Women are generally portrayed as sex symbols who are ultra slim. They give a
neagtive message of body image to regular women. Thus,because of the media
girls and women are offended and feel under high pressure to compare themselves
with a propagated ideal beauty. Consequences of this are low self-esteem,eating
disorders, self mutilations, beauty operations etc. The EU parliament passed a
resolution in 2008 that advertising may not be discriminating and degrading. This
shows that politics is increasingly concerned about the negative aspects of
advertising.

[edit] Children and adolescents as target groups

The children’s market, where resistance to advertising is weakest, is the “pioneer

for ad creep”.[72] “Kids are among the most sophisticated observers of ads. They
can sing the jingles and identify the logos, and they often have strong feelings
about products. What they generally don't understand, however, are the issues that
underlie how advertising works. Mass media are used not only to sell goods but
also ideas: how we should behave, what rules are important, who we should
respect and what we should value.”[73] Youth is increasingly reduced to the role
of a consumer. Not only the makers of toys, sweets, ice cream, breakfast food and
sport articles prefer to aim their promotion at children and adolescents. For
example, an ad for a breakfast cereal on a channel aimed at adults will have music
that is a soft ballad, whereas on a channel aimed at children, the same ad will use a
catchy rock jingle of the same song to aim at kids. Advertising for other products
preferably uses media with which they can also reach the next generation of
consumers.[74] “Key advertising messages exploit the emerging independence of
young people”. Cigarettes, for example, “are used as a fashion accessory and
appeal to young women. Other influences on young people include the linking of
sporting heroes and smoking through sports sponsorship, the use of cigarettes by
popular characters in television programmes and cigarette promotions. Research
suggests that young people are aware of the most heavily advertised cigarette
brands.”[64]

“Product placements show up everywhere, and children aren't exempt. Far from it.
The animated film, Foodfight, had ‘thousands of products and character icons from
the familiar (items) in a grocery store.’ Children's books also feature branded items
and characters, and millions of them have snack foods as lead characters.“[75]
Business is interested in children and adolescents because of their buying power
and because of their influence on the shopping habits of their parents. As they are
easier to influence they are especially targeted by the advertising business. “The
marketing industry is facing increased pressure over claimed links between
exposure to food advertising and a range of social problems, especially growing
obesity levels.”[76] In 2001, children’s programming accounted for over 20% of
all U.S. television watching. The global market for children’s licensed products
was some 132 billion U.S. dollars in 2002.[45] Advertisers target children because,
e. g. in Canada, they “represent three distinct markets:

1. Primary Purchasers ($2.9 billion annually)

2. Future Consumers (Brand-loyal adults)
3. Purchase Influencers ($20 billion annually)

Kids will carry forward brand expectations, whether positive, negative or

indifferent Kids are already accustomed to being catered to as consumers. The long
term prize: Loyalty of the kid translates into a brand loyal adult customer”[77]

The average Canadian child sees 350,000 TV commercials before graduating from
high school, spends nearly as much time watching TV as attending classes. In 1980
the Canadian province of Québec banned advertising for children under age 13.
[78] “In upholding the consititutional validity of the Quebec Consumer Protection
Act restrictions on advertising to children under age 13 (in the case of a challenge
by a toy company) the Court held: ‘...advertising directed at young children is per
se manipulative. Such advertising aims to promote products by convincing those
who will always believe.’”[79] Norway (ads directed at children under age 12),
and Sweden (television ads aimed at children under age 12) also have legislated
broad bans on advertising to children, during child programmes any kind of
advertising is forbidden in Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Flemish Belgium. In
Greece there is no advertising for kids products from 7 to 22 h. An attempt to
restrict advertising directed at children in the USA failed with reference to the First
Amendment. In Spain bans are also considered undemocratic.[80][81]

[edit] Opposition and campaigns against advertising

Billboard in Lund, Sweden, saying "One Night Stand?" (2005)

According to critics, the total commercialization of all fields of society, the

privatization of public space, the acceleration of consumption and waste of
resources including the negative influence on lifestyles and on the environment has
not been noticed to the necessary extent. The “hyper-commercialization of the
culture is recognized and roundly detested by the citizenry, although the topic
scarcely receives a whiff of attention in the media or political culture”.[82] “The
greatest damage done by advertising is precisely that it incessantly demonstrates
the prostitution of men and women who lend their intellects, their voices, their
artistic skills to purposes in which they themselves do not believe, and …. that it
helps to shatter and ultimately destroy our most precious non-material possessions:
the confidence in the existence of meaningful purposes of human activity and
respect for the integrity of man.”[83] “The struggle against advertising is therefore
essential if we are to overcome the pervasive alienation from all genuine human
needs that currently plays such a corrosive role in our society. But in resisting this
type of hyper-commercialism we should not be under any illusions. Advertising
may seem at times to be an almost trivial of omnipresent aspect of our economic
system. Yet, as economist A. C. Pigou pointed out, it could only be ‘removed
altogether’ if ‘conditions of monopolistic competition’ inherent to corporate
capitalism were removed. To resist it is to resist the inner logic of capitalism itself,
of which it is the pure expression.”[84]

“Visual pollution, much of it in the form of advertising, is an issue in all the

world's large cities. But what is pollution to some is a vibrant part of a city's fabric
to others. New York City without Times Square's huge digital billboards or Tokyo
without the Ginza's commercial panorama is unthinkable. Piccadilly Circus would
be just a London roundabout without its signage. Still, other cities, like Moscow,
have reached their limit and have begun to crack down on over-the-top outdoor
advertising.”[85] “Many communities have chosen to regulate billboards to protect
and enhance their scenic character. The following is by no means a complete list of
such communities, but it does give a good idea of the geographic diversity of
cities, counties and states that prohibit new construction of billboards. Scenic
America estimates the nationwide total of cities and communities prohibiting the
construction of new billboards to be at least 1500. A number of States in the USA
prohibit all billboards:

• Vermont - Removed all billboards in 1970s

• Hawaii - Removed all billboards in 1920s
• Maine - Removed all billboards in 1970s and early 80s
• Alaska - State referendum passed in 1998 prohibits billboards[86]
• Almost two years ago the city of São Paulo, Brazil, ordered the downsizing
or removal of all billboards and most other forms of commercial advertising
in the city.”[87]

Technical appliances, such as Spam filters, TV-Zappers, Ad-Blockers for TV’s and
stickers on mail boxes: “No Advertising” and an increasing number of court cases
indicate a growing interest of people to restrict or rid themselves of unwelcome
advertising.

Consumer protection associations, environment protection groups, globalization

opponents, consumption critics, sociologists, media critics, scientists and many
others deal with the negative aspects of advertising. “Antipub” in France,
“subvertising”, culture jamming and adbusting have become established terms in
the anti-advertising community. On the international level globalization critics
such as Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky are also renown media and advertising
critics. These groups criticize the complete occupation of public spaces, surfaces,
the airwaves, the media, schools etc. and the constant exposure of almost all senses
to advertising messages, the invasion of privacy, and that only few consumers are
aware that they themselves are bearing the costs for this to the very last penny.
Some of these groups, such as the ‘The Billboard Liberation Front Creative Group’
in San Francisco or Adbusters in Vancouver, Canada, have manifestos.[88]
Grassroots organizations campaign against advertising or certain aspects of it in
various forms and strategies and quite often have different roots. Adbusters, for
example contests and challenges the intended meanings of advertising by
subverting them and creating unintended meanings instead. Other groups, like
‘Illegal Signs Canada’ try to stem the flood of billboards by detecting and reporting
ones that have been put up without permit.[89] Examples for various groups and
organizations in different countries are ‘L'association Résistance à l'Agression
Publicitaire’[90] in France, where also media critic Jean Baudrillard is a renown
author. [91] The ‘Anti Advertising Agency’ works with parody and humour to
raise awareness about advertising.[92] and ‘Commercial Alert’ campaigns for the
protection of children, family values, community, environmental integrity and
democracy.[93] Media literacy organisations aim at training people, especially
children in the workings of the media and advertising in their programmes. In the
U. S., for example, the ‘Media Education Foundation’ produces and distributes
documentary films and other educational resources.[94] ‘MediaWatch’, a Canadian
non-profit women's organization works to educate consumers about how they can
register their concerns with advertisers and regulators.[95] The Canadian ‘Media
Awareness Network/Réseau éducation médias’ offers one of the world’s most
comprehensive collections of media education and Internet literacy resources. Its
member organizations represent the public, non-profit but also private sectors.
Although it stresses its independence it accepts financial support from Bell
Canada, CTVGlobeMedia, CanWest, TELUS and S-VOX.[96]

To counter the increasing criticism of advertising aiming at children media literacy

organizations are also initiated and funded by corporations and the advertising
business themselves. In the U. S. the ‘The Advertising Educational Foundation’
was created in 1983 supported by ad agencies, advertisers and media companies. It
is the “advertising industry's provider and distributor of educational content to
enrich the understanding of advertising and its role in culture, society and the
economy”[97] sponsored for example by American Airlines, Anheuser-Busch,
Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Walt Disney, Ford, General
Foods, General Mills, Gillette, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg, Kraft, Nestle,
Philip Morris, Quaker Oats, Nabisco, Schering, Sterling, Unilever, Warner
Lambert, advertising agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi Compton and media
companies like American Broadcasting Companies, CBS, Capital Cities
Communications, Cox Enterprises, Forbes, Hearst, Meredith, The New York
Times, RCA/NBC, Reader’s Digest, Time, Washington Post, just to mention a few.
Canadian businesses established ‘Concerned Children's Advertisers’ in 1990 “to
instill confidence in all relevant publics by actively demonstrating our
commitment, concern, responsibility and respect for children”.[98] Members are
CanWest, Corus, CTV, General Mills, Hasbro, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s, Loblaw,
Kraft, Mattel, MacDonald’s, Nestle, Pepsi, Walt Disney, Weston as well as almost
50 private broadcast partners and others.[99] Concerned Children's Advertisers
was example for similar organizations in other countries like ‘Media smart’ in the
United Kingdom with offspring in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
New Zealand has a similar business-funded programme called ‘Willie
Munchright’. “While such interventions are claimed to be designed to encourage
children to be critical of commercial messages in general, critics of the marketing
industry suggest that the motivation is simply to be seen to address a problem
created by the industry itself, that is, the negative social impacts to which
marketing activity has contributed…. By contributing media literacy education
resources, the marketing industry is positioning itself as being part of the solution
to these problems, thereby seeking to avoid wide restrictions or outright bans on
marketing communication, particularly for food products deemed to have little
nutritional value directed at children…. The need to be seen to be taking positive
action primarily to avert potential restrictions on advertising is openly
acknowledged by some sectors of the industry itself…. Furthermore, Hobbs (1998)
suggests that such programs are also in the interest of media organizations that
support the interventions to reduce criticism of the potential negative effects of the
media themselves.”[76]

[edit] Taxation as revenue and control

Public interest groups suggest that “access to the mental space targeted by
advertisers should be taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely
taken advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the members of the
public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be a Pigovian tax
in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly seen as a public nuisance.
Efforts to that end are gathering more momentum, with Arkansas and Maine
considering bills to implement such a taxation. Florida enacted such a tax in 1987
but was forced to repeal it after six months, as a result of a concerted effort by
national commercial interests, which withdrew planned conventions, causing major
losses to the tourism industry, and cancelled advertising, causing a loss of 12
million dollars to the broadcast industry alone”.[39]

In the U. S., for example, advertising is tax deductible and suggestions for possible
limits to the advertising tax deduction are met with fierce opposition from the
business sector, not to mention suggestions for a special taxation. In other
countries, advertising at least is taxed in the same manner services are taxed and in
some advertising is subject to special taxation although on a very low level. In
many cases the taxation refers especially to media with advertising (e. g. Austria,
Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Turkey, Estonia). Tax on advertising in European
countries:[100]
 • Belgium: Advertising or billboard tax (taxe d'affichage or aanplakkingstaks)
on public posters depending on size and kind of paper as well as on neon
signs
• France: Tax on television commercials (taxe sur la publicité télévisée) based
on the cost of the advertising unit
• Italy: Municipal tax on acoustic and visual kinds of advertisements within
the municipality (imposta communale sulla publicità) and municipal tax on
signs, posters and other kinds of advertisements (diritti sulle pubbliche
offisioni), the tariffs of which are under the jurisdiction of the municipalities
• Netherlands: Advertising tax (reclamebelastingen) with varying tariffs on
certain advertising measures (excluding ads in newspapers and magazines)
which can be levied by municipalities depending on the kind of advertising
(billboards, neon signs etc.)
• Austria: Municipal announcement levies on advertising through writing,
pictures or lights in public areas or publicly accessible areas with varying
tariffs depending on the fee, the surface or the duration of the advertising
measure as well as advertising tariffs on paid ads in printed media of usually
10% of the fee.
• Sweden: Advertising tax (reklamskatt) on ads and other kinds of advertising
(billboards, film, television, advertising at fairs and exhibitions, flyers) in the
range of 4% for ads in newspapers and 11% in all other cases. In the case of
flyers the tariffs are based on the production costs, else on the fee
• Spain: Municipalities can tax advertising measures in their territory with a
rather unimportant taxes and fees of various kinds.

In his book “When Corporations Rule the World” U.S. author and globalization
critic David Korten even advocates a 50% tax on advertising to counter attack what
he calls "an active propaganda machinery controlled by the world's largest
corporations” which “constantly reassures us that consumerism is the path to
happiness, governmental restraint of market excess is the cause of our distress, and
economic globalization is both a historical inevitability and a boon to the human
species."[101]

[edit] Regulation

Main article: Advertising regulation

In the US many communities believe that many forms of outdoor advertising blight
the public realm.[102] As long ago as the 1960s in the US there were attempts to
ban billboard advertising in the open countryside.[103] Cities such as São Paulo
have introduced an outright ban[104] with London also having specific legislation
to control unlawful displays.

There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the
content and the influence of advertising. Some examples are: the ban on television
tobacco advertising imposed in many countries, and the total ban of advertising to
children under 12 imposed by the Swedish government in 1991. Though that
regulation continues in effect for broadcasts originating within the country, it has
been weakened by the European Court of Justice, which had found that Sweden
was obliged to accept foreign programming, including those from neighboring
countries or via satellite.

In Europe and elsewhere, there is a vigorous debate on whether (or how much)
advertising to children should be regulated. This debate was exacerbated by a
report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in February 2004 which suggested
fast food advertising that targets children was an important factor in the epidemic
of childhood obesity in the United States.

In New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and many European countries, the
advertising industry operates a system of self-regulation. Advertisers, advertising
agencies and the media agree on a code of advertising standards that they attempt
to uphold. The general aim of such codes is to ensure that any advertising is 'legal,
decent, honest and truthful'. Some self-regulatory organizations are funded by the
industry, but remain independent, with the intent of upholding the standards or
codes like the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK.

In the UK most forms of outdoor advertising such as the display of billboards is

regulated by the UK Town and County Planning system. Currently the display of
an advertisement without consent from the Planning Authority is a criminal offense
liable to a fine of £2,500 per offence. All of the major outdoor billboard companies
in the UK have convictions of this nature.

Naturally, many advertisers view governmental regulation or even self-regulation

as intrusion of their freedom of speech or a necessary evil. Therefore, they employ
a wide-variety of linguistic devices to bypass regulatory laws (e.g. printing English
words in bold and French translations in fine print to deal with the Article 120 of
the 1994 Toubon Law limiting the use of English in French advertising).[105] The
advertisement of controversial products such as cigarettes and condoms is subject
to government regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is
required by law in most countries to display warnings cautioning consumers about
the health hazards of their products. Linguistic variation is often used by
advertisers as a creative device to reduce the impact of such requirements.

[edit] Future

[edit] Global advertising

Advertising has gone through five major stages of development: domestic, export,
international, multi-national, and global. For global advertisers, there are four,
potentially competing, business objectives that must be balanced when developing
worldwide advertising: building a brand while speaking with one voice, developing
economies of scale in the creative process, maximising local effectiveness of ads,
and increasing the company’s speed of implementation. Born from the
evolutionary stages of global marketing are the three primary and fundamentally
different approaches to the development of global advertising executions:
exporting executions, producing local executions, and importing ideas that travel.
[106]

Advertising research is key to determining the success of an ad in any country or

region. The ability to identify which elements and/or moments of an ad that
contributes to its success is how economies of scale are maximised. Once one
knows what works in an ad, that idea or ideas can be imported by any other
market. Market research measures, such as Flow of Attention, Flow of Emotion
and branding moments provide insight into what is working in an ad in any country
or region because the measures are based on the visual, not verbal, elements of the
ad.[107]

[edit] Trends

With the dawn of the Internet came many new advertising opportunities. Popup,
Flash, banner, Popunder, advergaming, and email advertisements (the last often
being a form of spam) are now commonplace.

The ability to record shows on digital video recorders (such as TiVo) allow users
to record the programs for later viewing, enabling them to fast forward through
commercials. Additionally, as more seasons of pre-recorded box sets are offered
for sale of television programs; fewer people watch the shows on TV. However,
the fact that these sets are sold, means the company will receive additional profits
from the sales of these sets. To counter this effect, many advertisers have opted for
product placement on TV shows like Survivor.
Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an
advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend. In general, the
advertising community has not yet made this easy, although some have used the
Internet to widely distribute their ads to anyone willing to see or hear them.

Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance

of the niche market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet
and the theory of The Long Tail, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach
specific audiences. In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to
blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking,
customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by
everything from blogs to social networking sites, provide advertisers with
audiences that are smaller but much better defined, leading to ads that are more
relevant to viewers and more effective for companies' marketing products. Among
others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their
video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and
can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or
practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become
proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.[108]

In the realm of advertising agencies, continued industry diversification has seen

observers note that “big global clients don't need big global agencies any more”.
[109] This trend is reflected by the growth of non-traditional agencies in various
global markets, such as Canadian business TAXI and SMART in Australia and has
been referred to as "a revolution in the ad world".[110]

In freelance advertising, companies hold public competitions to create ads for their
product, the best one of which is chosen for widespread distribution with a prize
given to the winner(s). During the 2007 Super Bowl, PepsiCo held such a contest
for the creation of a 30-second television ad for the Doritos brand of chips, offering
a cash prize to the winner. Chevrolet held a similar competition for their Tahoe line
of SUVs. This type of advertising, however, is still in its infancy. It may ultimately
decrease the importance of advertising agencies by creating a niche for
independent freelancers.[citation needed]

Advertising education has become widely popular with bachelor, master and
doctorate degrees becoming available in the emphasis. A surge in advertising
interest is typically attributed to the strong relationship advertising plays in cultural
and technological changes, such as the advance of online social networking. A
unique model for teaching advertising is the student-run advertising agency, where
advertising students create campaigns for real companies.[111] Organizations such
as American Advertising Federation and AdU Network partner established
companies with students to create these campaigns.

News media

The news media refers to the section of the mass media that focuses on presenting
current news to the public. These include print media (newspapers, magazines);
broadcast media (radio stations, television stations, television networks), and
increasingly Internet-based media (World Wide Web pages, weblogs).

The term news trade refers to the concept of the news media as a business separate
from, but integrally connected to, the profession of journalism.

The newspaper and consumer magazine industry is set for continued challenges in
2009, with developed country markets likely to be most affected.[1]

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video signals (programs) to a number

of recipients ("listeners" or "viewers") that belong to a large group. This group may
be the public in general, or a relatively large audience within the public. Thus, an
Internet channel may distribute text or music worldwide, while a public address
system in (for example) a workplace may broadcast very limited ad hoc soundbites
to a small population within its range.

The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule.

Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable,
often both simultaneously. By coding signals and having decoding equipment in
homes, the latter also enables subscription-based channels and pay-per-view
services.

A broadcasting organization may broadcast several programs at the same time,

through several channels (frequencies), for example BBC One and Two. On the
other hand, two or more organizations may share a channel and each use it during a
fixed part of the day. Digital radio and digital television may also transmit
multiplexed programming, with several channels compressed into one ensemble.

When broadcasting is done via the Internet the term webcasting is often used.
Broadcasting forms a very large segment of the mass media.

Broadcasting to a very narrow range of audience is called narrowcasting.

[edit] Newsmagazines

Cover of 2512, a monthly newsmagazine published in Réunion.

Main article: Newsmagazine

A newsmagazine, sometimes called news magazine, is a usually weekly magazine

featuring articles on current events. News magazines generally go a little more in-
depth into stories than newspapers, trying to give the reader an understanding of
the context surrounding important events, rather than just the facts.

[edit] Newspapers

Main article: Newspaper

Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

A newspaper is a lightweight and disposable publication (more specifically, a

periodical), usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general
or special interest, and may be published daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly,
bimonthly, or quarterly.

General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news on a variety of

topics. Those can include political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions
(either editorials, columns, or political cartoons). Many also include weather news
and forecasts. Newspapers increasingly use photographs to illustrate stories; they
also often include comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords.

[edit] Newsreels

A newsreel is a documentary film that is regularly released in a public presentation

place containing filmed news stories.

Created by Pathé Frères of France in 1908, this form of film was a staple of the
typical North American, British, and Commonwealth countries (especially Canada,
Australia and New Zealand), and throughout European cinema programming
schedule from the silent era until the 1960s when television news broadcasting
completely supplanted its role.

Pathé would eventually merge with RKO...

An example of a newsreel story is in the film Citizen Kane (which was prepared by
RKO's actual newsreel staff), which includes a fictional newsreel that summarizes
the life of the title character.

[edit] Online journalism

Online journalism is reporting and other journalism produced or distributed via the
Internet.

An early leader was The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.

Many news organizations based in other media also distribute news online. How
much they take advantage of the medium varies. Some news organizations, such as
the Gongwer News Service, use the Web only or primarily.

The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. They may
be losing classified ads to Web sites, which are often targeted by interest instead of
geography. The advertising on news Web sites is sometimes insufficient to support
the investment.
Even before the Internet, technology and perhaps other factors were dividing
people's attention, leading to more but narrower media outlets.

Online journalism also leads to the spread of independent online media such as
openDemocracy and the UK, Wikinews as well as allowing smaller news
organizations to publish to a broad audience, such as mediastrike.

[edit] News coverage and new media

By covering news, politics, weather, sports, entertainment, and vital events, the
daily media shape the dominant cultural, social and political picture of society.
Beyond the media networks, independent news sources have evolved to report on
events which escape attention or underlie the major stories. In recent years, the
blogosphere has taken reporting a step further, mining down to the experiences and
perceptions of individual citizens.

An exponentially growing phenomenon, the blogosphere can be abuzz with news

that is overlooked by the press and TV networks. Apropos of this was Robert F.
Kennedy Jr.'s 11,000-word Rolling Stone article apropos of the 2004 United States
presidential election, published June 1, 2006. By June 8, there had been no
mainstream coverage of the documented allegations by President John F.
Kennedy's nephew. On June 9, this sub-story was covered by a Seattle Post-
Intelligencer article. [2]

Media coverage during the 2008 Mumbai attacks highlighted the use of new media
and Internet social networking tools, including Twitter and Flickr, in spreading
information about the attacks, observing that Internet coverage was often ahead of
more traditional media sources. In response, traditional media outlets included
such coverage in their reports.[3] However, several outlets were criticised as they
did not check for the reliability and verfiability of the information.[4]

News
News is the communication of information on current events which is presented by
print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.

History of news reporting

In its infancy, news gathering was primitive by today's standards. Printed news had
to be phoned in to a newsroom or brought there by a reporter, where it was typed
and either transmitted over wire services or edited and manually set in type along
with other news stories for a specific edition. Today, the term "Breaking News"
has become trite as broadcast and cable news services use live satellite technology
to bring current events into consumers' homes live as they happen. Events that used
to take hours or days to become common knowledge in towns or in nations are fed
instantaneously to consumers via radio, television, cell phones, and the Internet.

[edit] Newspapers

Most large cities had[citation needed] morning and afternoon newspapers. As the
media evolved and news outlets increased to the point of near over-saturation,
afternoon newspapers were shut down except for relatively few. Morning
newspapers have been gradually losing circulation, according to reports advanced
by the papers themselves.[citation needed]

Commonly, news content should contain the "Five Ws" (who, what, when, where,
why, and also how) of an event. There should be no questions remaining.
Newspapers normally write hard news stories, such as those pertaining to murders,
fires, wars, etc. in inverted pyramid style so the most important information is at
the beginning. Busy readers can read as little or as much as they desire. Local
stations and networks with a set format must take news stories and break them
down into the most important aspects due to time constraints. Cable news channels
such as Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN, are able to take advantage of a
story, sacrificing other, decidedly less important stories, and giving as much detail
about breaking news as possible.

[edit] Objectivity in news

News organizations are often expected to aim for objectivity; reporters claim to try
to cover all sides of an issue without bias, as compared to commentators or
analysts, who provide opinion or personal point-of-view. However, several
governments impose certain constraints or police news organizations for bias. In
the United Kingdom, for example, limits are set by the government agency Ofcom,
the Office of Communications. Both newspapers and broadcast news programs in
the United States are generally expected to remain neutral and avoid bias except
for clearly indicated editorial articles or segments. Many single-party governments
have operated state-run news organizations, which may present the government's
views.

Even in those situations where objectivity is expected, it is difficult to achieve, and

individual journalists may fall foul of their own personal bias, or succumb to
commercial or political pressure. Similarly, the objectivity of news organizations
owned by conglomerated corporations fairly may be questioned, in light of the
natural incentive for such groups to report news in a manner intended to advance
the conglomerate's financial interests. Individuals and organizations who are the
subject of news reports may use news management techniques to try to make a
favourable impression.[citation needed] Because no human being can remain
entirely objective (each of us has a particular point of view), it is recognized that
there can be no absolute objectivity in news reporting.[citation needed]

[edit] Newsworthiness

Newsworthiness is defined as a subject having sufficient relevance to the public or

a special audience to warrant press attention or coverage.

Normal people are not newsworthy unless they meet an unusual circumstance or
tragedy. The news divides the population into two groups; those few whose lives
are newsworthy, and the multitude who are born, live out their lives and die
without the news media paying them any significant notice. The news has always
covered subjects that catch people's attention and differ from their "ordinary lives".
The news is often used for escapism and thus normal events are not newsworthy.
Whether the subject is love, birth, weather, or crime, journalists' tastes inevitably
run toward the unusual, the extraordinary.

The subject and newsworthiness of a story depends on the audience, as they decide
what they do and do not have an interest in. The denser the population, the more
global the reported news becomes, as there is a broader range of interests involved
in its selection.

Only a fraction of news manages to convey the overall world development.

[edit] Prominent TV news broadcasters

• Arirang TV (Korea and • ABS-CBN News and Current

Worldwide)
• BBC (worldwide)
• ABC (USA and Europe)
• CBC (Canada only)
• CBS news (USA only)
• CNN (worldwide)
• TIMES NOW (India only)
• CCTV (China and South East
Asia)
• France24 (France and worldwide)
Affairs (Philippines and
Worldwide via The Filipino
Channel)
• AAJ TAK (India only)
• HEADLINES TODAY (India
only)
• CNN-IBN (India only)
• NDTV (India only)
• Pathé News (Pathé Newsreels
from 1910 until 1956)
 • Fox news (USA only)
• GEO News (Worldwide)
• MSNBC (USA only)
• ABC (Australia and Asia-Pacific
region)
• TV9 (India and USA)
• Sky News (UK and worldwide)
• teleSUR (Latin America)
• Press TV (worldwide)
• AlJazeera (Arabic world and
worldwide)
• Euronews (Europe)
• Deutsche welle (Germany and
worldwide)

[edit] Prominent internet news sites

• BBC News (worldwide)

• Deutsche welle (worldwide)
• Yahoo News
• Google News
• news.com.au (Australia only)
• CNN (worldwide)
• Fox News (USA and Canada)
• MSNBC (USA and Canada)
• AP (Associated Press)
• Reuters

Newspaper

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising.

General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime,
business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature
an editorial page containing columns that express the personal opinions of writers.
Supplementary sections may contain advertising, comics, and coupons.

Newspapers are most often published on a daily or weekly basis, and they usually
focus on one particular geographic area where most of their readers live. Despite
recent setbacks in circulation and profits, newspapers are still the most iconic
outlet for news and other types of written journalism.

Features in a newspaper may include:

• Editorial opinions,criticism, persuation,entertainment and op-eds

• Obituaries
 • Comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords, sudoku and
horoscopes
• Weather news and forecasts
• Advice, gossip, food and other columns
• Critical reviews of movies, plays, restaurants, etc.
• Classified ads

History

[edit] Before movable type

A modern remake of Kai Yuan Za Bao

In Ancient Rome, Acta Diurna, or government announcement bulletins, were made

public by Julius Caesar. They were carved on metal or stone and posted in public
places.

In China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among

court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD).
Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao ("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese
Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by
government officials. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published
newssheets in Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty;[1]

In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte,
which cost one gazetta.[2] These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to
convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently throughout
Europe, more specifically Italy, during the early modern era (1500-1700CE) —
sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered as fully
being ones.[3]

[edit] Modern era

Newspapers printed with movable type date to the beginning of the 17th century.

[edit] Asia

By 1638 the Peking Gazette had switched from woodblock print to movable type.
[1]

[edit] Europe

Johann Carolus' Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien,

published in 1605 in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper.
Strasbourg was a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire; the first newspaper
of modern Germany was the Avisa, published in 1609 in Augsburg.

The Dutch Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. of 1618 was the first to appear in
folio- rather than quarto-size. Amsterdam, a center of world trade, quickly became
home to newspapers in many languages, often before they were published in their
own country.[4]

The first English-language newspaper, Corrant out of Italy, Germany, etc., was
published in Amsterdam in 1620. A year and a half later, Corante, or weekely
newes from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, France and the Low
Countreys. was published in England by an "N.B." (generally thought to be either
Nathaniel Butter or Nicholas Bourne) and Thomas Archer.[5]

The first newspaper in France was published in 1631, La Gazette (originally

published as Gazette de France).[2]

Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (founded as Ordinari Post Tijdender) was first
published in Sweden in 1645, and is the oldest newspaper still in existence, though
it now publishes solely online.[6]

Opregte Haarlemsche Courant from Haarlem, first published in 1656, is the oldest
paper still printed. It was forced to merge with the newspaper Haarlems Dagblad in
1942 when Germany occupied the Netherlands. Since then the Haarlems Dagblad
appears with the subtitle Oprechte Haerlemse Courant 1656 and considers itself to
be the oldest newspaper still publishing.

The first successful English daily, The Daily Courant, was published from 1702 to
1735.[4][7]
[edit] North America

Untitled watercolor of a man reading a newspaper, about 1863, by Henry Louis

Stephens. The paper's headline reports the Emancipation Proclamation.

Front page of The New York Times on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.

In Boston in 1690, Benjamin Harris published Publick Occurrences Both Forreign

and Domestick. This is considered the first newspaper in the American colonies
even though only one edition was published before the paper was suppressed by
the government. In 1704, the governor allowed The Boston News-Letter to be
published and it became the first continuously published newspaper in the
colonies. Soon after, weekly papers began publishing in New York and
Philadelphia. These early newspapers followed the British format and were usually
four pages long. They mostly carried news from Britain and content depended on
the editor’s interests. In 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Post became the first
American daily.
In 1751, John Bushell published the Halifax Gazette, the first Canadian newspaper.

[edit] Industrial Revolution

By the early 19th century, many cities in Europe, as well as North and South
America, published newspaper-type publications though not all of them developed
in the same way; content was vastly shaped by regional and cultural preferences.
[8] Advances in printing technology related to the Industrial Revolution enabled
newspapers to become an even more widely circulated means of communication.
In 1814, The Times (London) acquired a printing press capable of making 1,100
impressions per minute.[9]

Soon, it was adapted to print on both sides of a page at once. This innovation made
newspapers cheaper and thus available to a larger part of the population. In 1830,
the first penny press newspaper came to the market: Lynde M. Walter's Boston
Transcript.[10] Penny press papers cost about one sixth the price of other
newspapers and appealed to a wider audience.[11]

[edit] Impact of television and Internet

By the late 1990s the availability of news via 24-hour television channels and then
the Internet posed an ongoing challenge to the business model of most newspapers
in developed countries. Paid circulation has declined, while advertising revenue —
which makes up the bulk of most newspapers’ income — has been shifting from
print to the new media, resulting in a general decline in profits. Many newspapers
around the world launched online editions in an attempt to follow or stay ahead of
their audience.

However, in the rest of the world, cheaper printing and distribution, increased
literacy, the growing middle class and other factors have more than compensated
for the emergence of electronic media and newspapers continue to grow.[12]

[edit] Categories

While most newspapers are aimed at a broad spectrum of readers, usually

geographically defined, some focus on groups of readers defined more by their
interests than their location: for example, there are daily and weekly business
newspapers and sports newspapers. More specialist still are some weekly
newspapers, usually free and distributed within limited areas; these may serve
communities as specific as certain immigrant populations, or the local gay
community.
[edit] Daily

Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, seen in its Hebrew and English editions

A daily newspaper is issued every day, sometimes with the exception of Sundays
and some national holidays. Saturday and, where they exist, Sunday editions of
daily newspapers tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and
advertising inserts, and cost more. Typically, the majority of these newspapers’
staff work Monday to Friday, so the Sunday and Monday editions largely depend
on content done in advance or content that is syndicated. Most daily newspapers
are published in the morning. Afternoon or evening papers are aimed more at
commuters and office workers.

[edit] Weekly

Weekly newspapers are common and tend to be smaller than daily papers. In some
cases, there also are newspapers that are published twice or three times a week. In
the United States, such newspapers are generally still classified as weeklies.

[edit] National

Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole
country: a national newspaper, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city
or region. In the United Kingdom, there are numerous national newspapers,
including The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The
Observer, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Daily Express and The Daily Mirror. In
the United States and Canada, there are few national newspapers. Almost every
market has one or two newspapers that dominate the area. Certain newspapers,
notably The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in the US,
and The Globe and Mail and The National Post in Canada are available throughout
the country. Large metropolitan newspapers with also have expanded distribution
networks and, with effort, can be found outside their normal area.
Reading the newspaper: Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, South Carolina,
United States.

[edit] International

There is also a small group of newspapers which may be characterised as

international newspapers. Some, such as Christian Science Monitor and The
International Herald Tribune, have always had that focus, while others are
repackaged national newspapers or “international editions” of national-scale or
large metropolitan newspapers. Often these international editions are scaled down
to remove articles that might not interest the wider range of readers.

As English has become the international language of business and technology,

many newspapers formerly published only in non-English languages have also
developed English-language editions. In places as varied as Jerusalem and Bombay
(Mumbai), newspapers are printed to a local and international English-speaking
public. The advent of the Internet has also allowed the non-English newspapers to
put out a scaled-down English version to give their newspaper a global outreach.

[edit] Online

This section may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or
spelling. You can assist by editing it now. (April 2009)
Main article: Online newspaper
Diario de Pernambuco, founded in 1825 is the first newspaper in all South
America.

With the introduction of the Internet, web-based “newspapers” have also started to
be produced as online-only publications, like the Southport Reporter.[13] To be a
Web-Only newspaper they must be web-published only and must not be part of or
have any connection to hard-copy formats. To be classed as an Online Only
Newspaper, the paper must also be regularly updated at a regular time and keep to
a fixed news format[citation needed], like a hardcopy newspaper. They must also
be only published by professional media companies and regarded under the
national/international press rules and regulations[14] unlike blog[15] sites and
other news websites, it is run as a newspaper and is recognized by media groups in
the UK, like the NUJ and/or the IFJ. Also they fall under the UK’s PCC rules.

[edit] Employment

Job titles within the newspaper industry vary greatly. In the United States, the
overall manager of the newspaper — sometimes also the owner — may be termed
the publisher. This usage is less common outside the U.S., but throughout the
English-speaking world the person responsible for content is usually referred to as
the editor. Variations on this title such as editor-in-chief, executive editor, and so
on, are common.

[edit] Zoned and other editions

Newspapers often refine distribution of ads and news through zoning and
editioning. Zoning occurs when advertising and editorial content change to reflect
the location to which the product is delivered. The editorial content often may
change merely to reflect changes in advertising — the quantity and layout of which
affects the space available for editorial — or may contain region-specific news. In
rare instances, the advertising may not change from one zone to another, but there
will be different region-specific editorial content. As the content can vary widely,
zoned editions are often produced in parallel.

Editioning occurs in the main sections as news is updated throughout the night.
The advertising is usually the same in each edition (with the exception of zoned
regionals, in which it is often the ‘B’ section of local news that undergoes
advertising changes). As each edition represents the latest news available for the
next press run, these editions are produced linearly, with one completed edition
being copied and updated for the next edition. The previous edition is always
copied to maintain a Newspaper of Record and to fall back on if a quick correction
is needed for the press. For example, both the New York Times and Wall Street
Journal offer a regional edition, printed through a local contractor, and featuring
locale specific content. The Journal’s global advertising rate card provides a good
example of editioning.[16]

[edit] Format

The Times of India press on the outskirts of Delhi

Most modern newspapers are in one of three sizes:

• Broadsheets: 600 mm by 380 mm (23½ by 15 inches), generally associated

with more intellectual newspapers, although a trend towards “compact”
newspapers is changing this.
• Tabloids: half the size of broadsheets at 380 mm by 300 mm (15 by 11¾
inches), and often perceived as sensationalist in contrast to broadsheets.
Examples: The Sun, The National Enquirer, The National Ledger, The Star
Magazine, New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Globe.
 • Berliner or Midi: 470 mm by 315 mm (18½ by 12¼ inches) used by
European papers such as Le Monde in France, La Stampa in Italy, El Pais in
Spain and, since 12 September 2005, The Guardian in the United Kingdom.

Newspapers are usually printed on inexpensive, off-white paper known as

newsprint. Since the 1980s, the newspaper industry has largely moved away from
lower-quality letterpress printing to higher-quality, four-color process, offset
printing. In addition, desktop computers, word processing software, graphics
software, digital cameras and digital prepress and typesetting technologies have
revolutionized the newspaper production process. These technologies have enabled
newspapers to publish color photographs and graphics, as well as innovative
layouts and better design.

To help their titles stand out on newsstands, some newspapers are printed on
coloured newsprint. For example, the Financial Times is printed on a distinctive
salmon pink paper, and Sheffield’s weekly sports publication derives its name, the
“Green ’Un”, from the traditional colour of its paper,. The Italian sports newspaper
La Gazzetta dello Sport is also printed on pink paper while L'Équipe (formerly
L’Auto) is printed on yellow paper. Both the latter promoted major cycling races
and their newsprint colours were reflected in the colours of the jerseys used to
denote the race leader; for example the leader in the Giro d'Italia wears a pink
jersey.

[edit] Circulation and readership

Main articles: List of newspapers in the World by circulation and Newspaper

circulation

A newspaper car in Germany in 1925. Operated by the Ullstein publishing house, it

distributed newspapers by road.

The number of copies distributed, either on an average day or on particular days

(typically Sunday), is called the newspaper’s circulation and is one of the principal
factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not necessarily the same as
copies sold, since some copies or newspapers are distributed without cost.
Readership figures may be higher than circulation figures because many copies are
read by more than one person, although this is offset by the number of copies
distributed but not read (especially for those distributed free).

Newspaper vendor, Paddington, London, February 2005

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the daily circulation of the Soviet
newspaper Trud exceeded 21,500,000 in 1990, while the Soviet weekly Argumenty
i Fakty boasted the circulation of 33,500,000 in 1991.

According to United Nations data from 1995 Japan has three daily papers —the
Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun — with circulations
well above 5.5 million. Germany’s Bild, with a circulation of 3.8 million, was the
only other paper in that category.

In the United Kingdom, The Sun is the top seller, with around 3.2 million copies
distributed daily (late-2004).

In India, The Times of India is the largest English newspaper, with 2.14 million
copies daily. According to the 2006 National Readership Study, the Dainik Jagran
is the most-read, local-language (Hindi) newspaper, with 21.2 million readers.[17]

In the U.S., USA Today has a daily circulation of approximately 2 million, making
it the most widely distributed paper in the country.
American newspaper vending machine featuring news of the 1984 Summer
Olympics.

A common measure of a newspaper’s health is market penetration, expressed as a

percentage of households that receive a copy of the newspaper against the total
number of households in the paper’s market area. In the 1920s, on a national basis
in the U.S., daily newspapers achieved market penetration of 130 percent (meaning
the average U.S. household received 1.3 newspapers). As other media began to
compete with newspapers, and as printing became easier and less expensive giving
rise to a greater diversity of publications, market penetration began to decline. It
wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that market penetration dipped below 100
percent. By 2000, it was 53 percent.[18]

Many paid-for newspapers offer a variety of subscription plans. For example,

someone might want only a Sunday paper, or perhaps only Sunday and Saturday,
or maybe only a workweek subscription, or perhaps a daily subscription.

Some newspapers provide some or all of their content on the Internet, either at no
cost or for a fee. In some cases, free access is available only for a matter of days or
weeks, after which readers must register and provide personal data. In other cases,
free archives are provided.

[edit] Advertising

The bulk of newspapers' revenue comes from advertising - the contribution from
sales is small by comparison. On average, a newspaper generates 80% of its
revenue from advertising and 20% from sales. The portion of the newspaper that is
not advertising is called editorial content, editorial matter, or simply editorial,
although the last term is also used to refer specifically to those articles in which the
newspaper and its guest writers express their opinions.

Newspapers have been hurt by the decline of many traditional advertisers.

Department stores and supermarkets could be relied upon in the past to buy pages
of newspaper advertisements, but due to industry consolidation are much less
likely to do so now. [19] Additionally, newspapers are seeing traditional
advertisers shift to new media platforms. The classified category is shifting to sites
including craigslist, employment websites, and auto sites. National advertisers are
shifting to many types of digital content including websites, rich media platforms,
and mobile.
In recent years, the advertorial emerged. Advertorials are most commonly
recognized as an opposite-editorial which third-parties pay a fee to have included
in the paper. Advertorials commonly advertise new products or techniques, such as
a new design for golf equipment, a new form of laser surgery, or weight-loss drugs.
The tone is usually closer to that of a press release than of an objective news story.

[edit] Journalism

Main article: Journalism

Since newspapers began as a journal (record of current events), the profession

involved in the making of newspapers began to be called journalism.

In the yellow journalism era of the 19th century, many newspapers in the United
States relied on sensational stories that were meant to anger or excite the public,
rather than to inform. The restrained style of reporting that relies on fact checking
and accuracy regained popularity around World War II.

Criticism of journalism is varied and sometimes vehement. Credibility is

questioned because of anonymous sources; errors in facts, spelling, and grammar;
real or perceived bias; and scandals involving plagiarism and fabrication.

In the past, newspapers have often been owned by so-called press barons, and were
used either as a rich man’s toy, or a political tool. More recently in the United
States, a number of newspapers are being run by large media corporations such as
Gannett, The McClatchy Company, Hearst Corporation, Cox Enterprises,
Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, Morris Corporation, The Tribune Company,
Hollinger International, News Corporation.

Newspapers have, in the modern world, played an important role in the exercise of
freedom of expression. Whistle-blowers, and those who “leak” stories of
corruption in political circles often choose to inform newspapers before other
mediums of communication, relying on the perceived willingness of newspaper
editors to expose the secrets and lies of those who would rather cover them.
However, there have been many circumstances of the political autonomy of
newspapers being curtailed.

Opinions of other writers and readers are expressed in the op-ed (“opposite the
editorial page”) and letters to the editors sections of the paper.
Some ways newspapers have tried to improve their credibility are: appointing
ombudsmen, developing ethics policies and training, using more stringent
corrections policies, communicating their processes and rationale with readers, and
asking sources to review articles after publication.

[edit] Future

Main article: Future of newspapers

Further information: Online Newspapers

The future of newspapers has been widely debated as the industry has faced down
soaring newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising
and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers
slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen -- especially in the
United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001.[20]
Revenue has plunged while competition from internet media has squeezed older
print publishers.[20]

The debate has become more urgent lately, as a deepening recession has shaved
profits,[21] and as once-explosive growth in newspaper web revenues has leveled
off, forestalling what the industry hoped would become an important source of
revenue.[22] At issue is whether the newspaper industry faces a cyclical trough, or
whether new technology has rendered obsolete newspapers in their traditional
format.

Global Economic Recession

In the late 2000s - particularly since late 2008 - the industrialized world has been undergoing a
recession, a pronounced deceleration of economic activity. This global recession has been taking
place in a economic environment characterized by various imbalances and was sparked by the
outbreak of the financial crisis of 2007–2009. Although the late-2000s recession has at times
been referred to as "the Great Recession," this same phrase has been used to refer to every
recession of the several preceding decades.[2]

The financial crisis has been linked to reckless and unsustainable lending practices resulting
from the deregulation and securitization of real estate mortgages in the United States.[3] The US
mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around the
world. A more broad based credit boom fed a global speculative bubble in real estate and
equities, which served to reinforce the risky lending practices.[4][5] The precarious financial
situation was made more difficult by a sharp increase in oil and food prices. The emergence of
Sub-prime loan losses in 2007 began the crisis and exposed other risky loans and over-inflated
asset prices. With loan losses mounting and the fall of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008,
a major panic broke out on the inter-bank loan market. As share and housing prices declined
many large and well established investment and commercial banks in the United States and
Europe suffered huge losses and even faced bankruptcy, resulting in massive public financial
assistance.

A global recession has resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and
slumping commodity prices. In December 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research
(NBER) declared that the United States had been in recession since December 2007.[6] Several
economists have predicted that recovery may not appear until 2011 and that the recession will be
the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.[7][8] The conditions leading up to the crisis,
characterised by an exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand, are
considered a result of the extended period of easily available credit,[9] inadequate regulation and
oversight,[10] or increasing inequality.[11]

Fiscal and monetary policies have been significantly eased to stem the recession and financial
risks. While this has renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas, the recent policy consensus
is for the stimulus to be withdrawn as soon as the economies recover to "chart a path to
sustainable growth".[

World Environmental Issue

An ecological crisis occurs when the environment of a species or a population changes in a way
that destabilizes its continued survival. There are many possible causes of such crises:

• It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species' needs, after a
change of abiotic ecological factor (for example, an increase of temperature, less
significant rainfalls).
• It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a species (or a
population) due to an increased pressure of predation.
• Lastly, it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality of life of the
species (or the population) due to raise in the number of individuals (overpopulation).

The evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium sees infrequent ecological crises as a potential
driver of rapid evolution.

Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in
competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the
competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term
is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and
board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or
equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive
and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing
from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not
always monetary) involved in sports. Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at
the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news.

The term sports is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities in which offense
and defense are played, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor
sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at
the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports.

Sports that are subjectively judged are distinct from other judged activities such as beauty
pageants and bodybuilding shows, because in the former the activity performed is the primary
focus of evaluation, rather than the physical attributes of the contestant as in the latter (although
"presentation" or "presence" may also be judged in both activities).

Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay
in good physical condition.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good
sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and
congratulating the winner when losing.

Professional sports

Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are those in which athletes receive payment
for their performance. While men have competed as professional athletes throughout much of
modern history, only recently has it become common for women to have the opportunity to
become professional athletes. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a
combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences,
so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople
can afford to make athleticism their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to
increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This
proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports. [1]

Most sports played professionally also have amateur players far outnumbering the professionals.
Professional athleticism is seen by some as a contradiction of the central ethos of sport,
competition performed for its own sake and pure enjoyment, rather than as a means of earning a
living. Consequently, many organisations and commentators have resisted the growth of
professional athleticism, saying that it was so incredible that he has impeded the development of
sport. For example, rugby union was for many years a part-time sport engaged in by amateurs,
and English cricket has allegedly suffered in quality because of a "non-professional" approach.[

Tennis

Tennis is a sport played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each
(doubles). Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over
a net into the opponent's court.
The modern game of tennis originated in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century as "lawn
tennis" which has heavy connections to various field/lawn games as well as to the ancient game
of real tennis. After its creation, tennis spread throughout the upper-class English-speaking
population before spreading around the world[1]. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all
levels of society at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including
people in wheelchairs. In the United States, there is a collegiate circuit organized by the National
Collegiate Athletic Association.

The rules of tennis have changed very little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908
to 1960 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the
tie-break in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of
electronic review technology coupled with a point challenge system, which allows a player to
challenge the line (or chair) umpire's call of a point.

Tennis enjoys millions of recreational players and is also a hugely popular worldwide spectator
sport, especially the four Grand Slam tournaments (sometimes referred to as the "majors"): the
Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

Football
Football is the name of several similar team sports, all of which involve (to varying degrees)
kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports
worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer".
However the word football is applied to whichever form of football became most popular in each
particular part of the world. Hence the English language word "football" is applied to "gridiron
football" (a name associated with the North American sports, especially American football and
Canadian football), Australian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union, and related
games.

These games involve:

• Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players
(five or more per team) are also popular
• a clearly defined area in which to play the game;
• scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and
either into a goal area, or over a line;
• goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts
• the goal or line being defended by the opposing team;
• players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying or
hand passing the ball; and
• players using only their body to move the ball.

In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a
goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features
common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the
ball across the goal line; and players receiving a free kick after they take a mark or make a fair
catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball,
since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in
England.

Golf
Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players (golfers), using many types
of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number
of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area.
Instead, the game is played on golf "courses", each of which features a unique design, although
courses typically consist of either nine or 18 holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as
"playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes
in accordance with the Rules." Golf competition is generally played for the lowest number of
strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual
holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play.

Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 active players each try to score points against
one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot (3.048 m) high hoop (the goal) under organized
rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.[1]

Points are scored by throwing (shooting) the ball through the basket from above; the team with
more points at the end of the game wins. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it
(dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is penalized and
there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).

Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and
dribbling, as well as players' positions, and offensive and defensive structures. Typically, the
tallest members of a team will play center or one of two forward positions, while shorter players
or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed, play the guard positions. While
competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed
for casual play. In some countries, basketball is also a popular spectator sport.

While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less
regulated variations played in the outdoors have become increasingly popular among both inner
city and rural groups.

Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport that is first documented as being played in southern England
in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, cricket had developed to the point where it
had become the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket
being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international matches were being
held. Today, the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), has 104
member countries.[1]

The rules of the game are known as the Laws of Cricket.[2] These are maintained by the ICC and
the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which holds the copyright. A cricket match is played on a
cricket field at the centre of which is a pitch. The match is contested between two teams of
eleven players each.[3] One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible without being
dismissed ("out") while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the other team’s
batsmen and limit the runs being scored. When the batting team has used all its available overs or
has no remaining batsmen, the roles become reversed and it is now the fielding team’s turn to bat
and try to outscore the opposition.

There are several variations in the length of a game of cricket. In professional cricket this ranges
from a limit of 20 overs per side (Twenty20) to a game played over 5 days (Test cricket).
Depending on the form of the match being played, there are different rules that govern how a
game is won, lost, drawn or tied.

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test
of playing ability in the sport.[1][2][3]

The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and
competency" between the sides involved.[citation needed] It seems to have been used first to describe
an English team that toured Australia in 1861–62, although those matches are not considered
Test matches today.[citation needed] The first officially recognised test match commenced on 15 March
1877, contested by England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Australia
won by 45 runs. England won the second ever match (also at the MCG) by four wickets, thus
drawing the series 1–1.[4] This was not the first ever international cricket match however, which
was played between Canada and the United States, on 24 and 25 of September 1844.

Twenty20

Twenty20 is a form of cricket, originally introduced in the United Kingdom for professional
inter-county competition by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), in 2003. A Twenty20
game involves two teams, each has a single innings, batting for a maximum of 20 overs.

A Twenty20 game is completed in about three and half hours, with each innings lasting around
75 minutes, thus bringing the game closer to the timespan of other popular team sports. It was
introduced to create a lively form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the
ground and viewers on television and as such it has been very successful. The ECB did not
intend that Twenty20 would replace other forms of cricket and these have continued alongside it.
Since its inception the game has spread around the cricket world. On most international tours
there is at least one Twenty20 match and most Test-playing nations have a domestic cup
competition. The inaugural World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India
defeating Pakistan in the final by five runs.[1] Pakistan featured in the final again, in the 2009
World Twenty20, this time against Sri Lanka but Paksitan ended up winning by eight wickets.[2]
The Indian Premier League is currently the largest and most popular (in terms of attendance and
television audience) Twenty20 league in the world

International Cricket Council

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket. It was
founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England,
Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took
up its current name in 1989.

The ICC has 104 members: 10 Full Members that play official Test matches, 34 Associate
Members, and 60 Affiliate Members. The ICC is responsible for the organisation and governance
of cricket's major international tournaments, most notably the Cricket World Cup. It also
appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One Day
International and Twenty20 Internationals. It promulgates the ICC Code of Conduct, which sets
professional standards of discipline for international cricket[1], and also co-ordinates action
against corruption and match-fixing through its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU). The
ICC does not control bilateral fixtures between member countries (which include all test
matches), it does not govern domestic cricket in member countries, and it does not make the laws
of the game, which remain under the control of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

On 27 June 2007 it was announced that David Morgan the chairman of the England and Wales
Cricket Board, would fill the role of ICC President from 2008, until 2010, when he will be
replaced by Sharad Pawar, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The
current CEO is Haroon Lorgat.

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans[2] to
poorer countries for capital programs with a goal of reducing poverty.

The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two
institutions:

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)

• International Development Association (IDA)

Whereas the latter incorporates these two in addition to three more:[3]

• International Finance Corporation (IFC)

• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
 • International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the
global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in
particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments. It is an
organization formed with a stated objective of stabilizing international exchange rates and
facilitating development.[2] It also offers highly leveraged loans mainly to poorer countries. Its
headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., United States.

International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to
promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. It was
established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957. Though established independently
of the United Nations under its own international treaty (the IAEA Statute), the IAEA reports to
both the General Assembly and the Security Council.

The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Two "Regional Safeguards Offices" are
located in Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA has two liaison offices, located in New
York, USA; and Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, it has laboratories in Seibersdorf and Vienna,
Austria; Monaco; and Trieste, Italy.

Today, the IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation
in the peaceful use of nuclear technology worldwide. The IAEA's programmes encourage the
development of the peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards
against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. The organization
and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
announced on 7 October 2005.

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO; pronounced /ˈneɪtoʊ/, NAY-toe)); French:
Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN)), also called "the (North) Atlantic
Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which
was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium,[3] and the
organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to
mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association. However, the
Korean War galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up
under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord
Ismay, famously stated the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in,
and the Germans down".[4] Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European
states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the
NATO defense against a prospective Soviet invasion—doubts that led to the development of the
independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of the French from NATO's military
structure from 1966.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the organization became drawn into the Balkans while
building better links with former potential enemies to the east, which culminated with several
former Warsaw Pact states joining the alliance in 1999 and 2004. On 1 April 2009, membership
was enlarged to 28 with the entrance of Albania and Croatia.[5] Since the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks, NATO has attempted to refocus itself to new challenges and has deployed
troops to Afghanistan as well as trainers to Iraq.

The Berlin Plus agreement is a comprehensive package of agreements made between NATO and
the EU on 16 December 2002. With this agreement the EU was given the possibility to use
NATO assets in case it wanted to act independently in an international crisis, on the condition
that NATO itself did not want to act—the so-called "right of first refusal".[6] Only if NATO
refused to act would the EU have the option to act. The combined military spending of all NATO
members constitutes over 70% of the world's defence spending, with the United States alone
accounting for about half the total military spending of the world and the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, and Italy accounting for a further 15%.

The Great Game

The Great Game is a term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire
and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is
generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 a second, less
intensive phase followed.

The term "The Great Game" is usually attributed to Arthur Conolly (1807–1842), an intelligence
officer of the British East India Company's Sixth Bengal Light Cavalry.[1] It was introduced into
mainstream consciousness by British novelist Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim (1901).

The New Great Game

The New Great Game is a term used to describe the conceptualization of modern geopolitics in
Central Eurasia as a competition between regional and great powers for "influence, power,
hegemony and profits in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus".[1] It is a reference to "The Great
Game", the political rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia during the
19th century.

Many authors and analysts view this new "game" as centering around regional petroleum
politics. Now, instead of competing for actual control over a geographic area, "pipelines, tanker
routes, petroleum consortiums, and contracts are the prizes of the new Great Game".[2]

The term has become prevalent throughout the literature about the region, appearing in book
titles, academic journals, news articles, and government reports.[3]
Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid claims he coined the term in a self-described "seminal"
magazine article published in 1997,[4][5] however uses of the term can be found prior to the
publication of his article.[6][7][8][9][10]

On the ground
Control over energy resources [of the former Soviet Union] and export routes out of the Eurasian
hinterland is quickly becoming one of the central issues in post-Cold War politics. Like the "Great Game"
of the early 20th century, in which the geopolitical interests of the British Empire and Russia clashed over
the Caucasus region and Central Asia, today's struggle between Russia and the West may turn on who
controls the oil reserves in Eurasia.

—Ariel Cohen[11]

As the war in Afghanistan becomes a mopping-up operation, the US has stepped up troop deployments in
the region, in what Russia and China fear is an effort to secure dominant influence over their backyards, a
region rich in oil and gas reserves. In the past weeks, diplomats and generals from all three countries have
streamed into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The war on terrorism has turned the
Central Asian republics from backwaters into prizes overnight. In a letter to the New York Times last
week, former Iraq arms inspector Richard Butler warned that the 'Great Game' between Britain and
Russia over the Indian sub-continent in the nineteenth century may now be replayed, with Russia and the
US as the dominant players. 'Now the prize is oil - getting it and transporting it - and Afghanistan is again
the contested territory,' Butler wrote.

—Edward Helmore[12]

The Great Game is no fun anymore. The term “Great Game” was used by nineteenth-century British
imperialists to describe the British-Russian struggle for position on the chessboard of Afghanistan and
Central Asia—a contest with a few players, mostly limited to intelligence forays and short wars fought on
horseback with rifles, and with those living on the chessboard largely bystanders or victims. More than a
century later, the game continues. But now, the number of players has exploded, those living on the
chessboard have become involved, and the intensity of the violence and the threats it produces affect the
entire globe.

—Barnett R. Rubin and Ahmed Rashid[13]

It is now clear that with the renewed great game, there are more players and more rivalry than it was
during the game being played out between Britain and Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In
that game there was one winner and one looser. The stakes for which the game is now being played are
global supremacy, energy, geo-political security, religion and financial control.

—G. Asgar Mitha[14]

Some commentators see the desperate search by countries to acquire commodity-producing firms in other
(typically poor, developing) countries as a repeat of the Great Game — the tussle among powers like
Britain and Russia for influence in the Middle East and Central Asia during the 19th century. In this view,
those that acquire the greatest share of commodity producers early on will enjoy the greatest economic
security in the future, as growth in China, India, and other populous developing countries creates
shortages of commodity resources. Economic security is the new justification for purchases, such as
minority stakes in opaque companies in poorly governed countries, that would otherwise make little
business sense.

—Raghuram Rajan[15]

What the U.S. is up to is the 21st century’s version of the “Great Game,” the competition that pitted 19th
century imperial powers against one another in a bid to control Central Asia and the Middle East. The
move to surround Russia and hinder China’s access to energy is part of the Bush Administration’s 2002
“West Point Doctrine,” a strategic posture aimed at preventing the rise of any economic or military
competitors.

—Conn Hallinan[16]

In space
China is engaged in an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons drive that has profound implications for future U.S.
military strategy in the Pacific. This Chinese ASAT build-up, notable for its assertive testing regime and
unexpectedly rapid development as well as its broad scale, has already triggered a cascade of events in
terms of U.S.The notion that the U.S. could be caught off-guard in a “space Pearl Harbor” and quickly
reduced from an information-age military juggernaut into a disadvantaged industrial-age power in any
conflict with China is being taken very seriously by U.S. war planners. As a result, while China’s already
impressive ASAT program continues to mature and expand, the U.S. is evolving its own counter-ASAT
deterrent as well as its next generation space technology to meet the challenge, and this is leading to a
“great game” style competition in outer space.

—Ian Easton[17]

Criticism

The "New Great Game" concept has appeared in some recent publications about Central Asia.

In his article "The (Not So) Great Game", Anatol Lieven warns against comparisons between
current events and the nineteenth-century Great Game, noting one significant difference:

Much copy has been written about the parallels between present geopolitical rivalry in Central Asia and
Kipling's "Great Game" between Britain and Russia in the nineteenth century. But it is vital to remember
that Britain was interested in the region not for reasons of world hegemony but only because it was ruler
of India. Britain's concern was purely defensive, motivated not by a desire to conquer Central Asia but by
the fear that Russia would employ the region as a base from which to attack India or to march through
Persia to the Gulf to threaten British lines of communication. The same fear lay behind Britain's support
for Turkey against Russia, which led to its participation in the Crimean War. No Russian attack on the
subcontinent is currently in prospect.

—Anatol Lieven[18]

Political analyst Richard Weitz, writing in 2006, also disagreed with the comparison:
Although Russia, China, and the United States substantially affect regional security issues, they cannot
dictate outcomes the way imperial governments frequently did a century ago. Concerns about a renewed
great game are thus exaggerated.

—Richard Weitz[19]

Politics of Pakistan

Recently the Politics of Pakistan has taken place in the framework of a federal republic, where
the system of government has at times been parliamentary, presidential, or semi-presidential. In
the current semi-presidential system, the President of Pakistan is the head of state, the Prime
Minister is head of government, and there is a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised
by the government. Legislative power is largely vested in the Parliament.

Political background

Pakistan has been ruled by both democratic and military governments.[1] The first decade was
marred with political unrest and instability resulting in frequent collapses of civilian democratic
governments. From 1947 to 1958 as many as seven Prime Ministers of Pakistan either resigned
or were ousted. This political instability paved the way for Pakistan’s first military take over. On
October 7 1958 Pakistan’s civilian and first President Iskander Mirza in collaboration with
General Mohammad Ayub Khan abrogated Pakistan’s constitution and declared Martial Law.

General Ayub Khan was the president from 1958 to 1969, and General Yahya Khan from 1969
to 1971, with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as the first civilian martial law administrator. Civilian, yet
autocratic, rule continued from 1972 to 1977 under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but he was deposed by
General Zia-Ul-Haq. General Zia was killed in a plane crash in 1988, after which Benazir
Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was
the youngest woman ever to be elected the Head of Government and the first woman to be
elected as the Head of Government of a Muslim country. Her government was followed by that
of Nawaz Sharif, and the two leaders alternated until the military coup by General Pervez
Musharraf in 1999. Since the resignation of President Rafiq Tarar in 2001, Musharraf has been
the President of Pakistan.

Nation-wide parliamentary elections were held in October 2002, with the PML-Q winning a
plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan, and Zafarullah Khan Jamali of that party
emerging as Prime Minister. Jamali resigned on June 26, 2004. PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat
Hussain became interim PM, and was succeeded by Finance Minister and former Citibank Vice
President Shaukat Aziz, who was elected Prime Minister on August 27, 2004 by a National
Assembly vote of 191 to 151.

In the October 2002 general elections, the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) won a plurality
of National Assembly seats with the second-largest group being the Pakistan Peoples Party
Parliamentarians (PPPP), a sub-party of the PPP. Zafarullah Khan Jamali of PML-Q emerged as
Prime Minister but resigned on 26 June 2004 and was replaced by PML-Q leader Chaudhry
Shujaat Hussain as interim Prime Minister. On 28 August 2004 the National Assembly voted 191
to 151 to elect the Finance Minister and former Citibank Vice President Shaukat Aziz as Prime
Minister. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of Islamic religious parties, won elections in
North-West Frontier Province, and increased their representation in the National Assembly -
until their defeat in the 2008 elections.

The Pakistan's federal cabinet on April 12, 2006 decided that general elections would be held
after the completion of the assemblies constitutional term by the end of 2007 or beginning of
2008. [2]

[edit] Form of Government

Officially a federal republic, Pakistan has had a long history of alternating periods of electoral
democracy and authoritarian military government. Military presidents include General Ayub
Khan in the 1960s, General Zia ul Haq in the 1980s, and General Pervez Musharraf from 1999.
However, a majority of Pakistan's Heads of State and Heads of Government have been elected
civilian leaders. General elections were held in October 2002. After monitoring the elections, the
Commonwealth Observer Group stated in conclusion:

We believe that on election day this was a credible election: the will of the people was
expressed and the results reflected their wishes. However, in the context of various
measures taken by the government we are not persuaded of the overall fairness of the
process as a whole. [3]

On May 22, 2004, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group re-admitted Pakistan into the
Commonwealth, formally acknowledging its progress in returning to democracy.

[edit] Local Governments

Pakistan's provinces are divided into zillas ( counterpart to a county in US or UK terminology).

A zilla is further subdivided into tehsils (roughly equivalent to a borough in an integrated multi-
tier (federated) systemic context, such as the one to be found in Montreal (Canada, 2002) and
Birmingham (UK, 2001 announcement) or known as arrondissements in French context. Tehsils
may contain villages or municipalities. Pakistan's system is the one that applies an integrated
federated systemic framework most comprehensively, so far.

This methodology is not new to the region, as it is similar to what is referred to as the Panchayat
Raj system in India that was introduced by Britain (which was first nation (1890s) to adapt
revolutionary Paris (1790) framework to implement a 3-tier rural version (county, district, parish
councils) by grafting the 2-tier Paris framework on pre-existing parish councils and urban
context (London)) during colonial era. In India it was implemented in some regions and not
others; and then allowed to lie fallow. It got new life after the very successful West Bengal
revival in the 1970s, which eventually inspired the 1990s Constitutional Amendment making it
national policy.
The main difference is that Pakistan is the only country with an urban framework, as well, in the
region today; and Pakistan's system has common-representational framework between tiers (as
Montreal and Birmingham also have in 2-tier context—even though Birmingham is working on
implementing a 3- tier system); and, it has a bottom-up representational framework like the
Canadian example. Pakistan had the only 3-tier integrated bottom-up common-representational
local government system, until it was adapted for another country in 2003. UK, the country
which first introduced this methodology in the region, also has the urban examples of London
and Birmingham (being implemented in Post- 2001 era by building on steps first introduced in
1980s); as does France (where largest cities and smaller units have created such frameworks
either by devolution (Marseilles and Lyon, in addition to Paris) or by integration of neighbouring
units (such as the Nantes region pursuant to the Marcellin Act of 1970s); and, Canada.

This methodology is being increasingly adapted, as it delivers greater systemic productivity,

being a more inclusive framework that provides greater regional integration. In the US, the 7
county Twin Cities (MN) regional system and Portland (OR) Metro are both the most integrated
US examples;but, also those often cited in the US for what they have achieved. These US
examples- with their multi-county framework- are similar to what is in place in France after
regional unit introduction (making France have a 3-tier systemic framework also in the
Commune (municipal/lowest tier local unit), Department(county), Regional unit context). Multi-
county frameworks are suitable for a very suburbanized system like in the US. After France and
Britain, the Indian colony of Britain was the third region to see this methodology implemented.

There are over five thousand local governments in Pakistan. Since 2001, the vast majority of
these have been led by democratically elected local councils, each headed by a Nazim (mayor or
supervisor.) Council elections are held every four years.