Benjamin Franklin Was A Great Impact On Society - 1249 Words

Introduction Benjamin Franklin was a very important colonist in the Revolutionary War era. He was mainly known for being a Founding Father with many inventions and contributions to the founding of the United States of America; he had helped write the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation, also he helped form the Treaty of Paris, drafted into the Second Continental Congress and performed the kite and key experiment fueling the flame for his interest in electricity. He had lived in Boston, Massachusetts (1706-1718), New York (1718-1721), London, England (1724-1726) and Paris, France (1776-1785) for a short period of time, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania remained his home for 59 years of his life. Benjamin Franklin was a great impact on society for his contribution for the founding of America and his discovery of electricity. Early Life (1706-1727) Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. His parents was Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger. Josiah was a soap and candle maker, he had 17 kids, the first 7 with Anne Child and the last ten with Abiah Folger. Benjamin Franklin was the 15th son. Benjamin went to school at Boston Latin School until he was 10 when he started working with his dad at his soap and candle shop. Ben was uninterested in his father s work so his brother, James apprenticed Ben at a print shop. Since James wouldn t print any of his brother s work, Ben used an alias of Mrs. Silence Dogood whoShow MoreRelatedEssay on Benjamin Franklins Autobiography1429 Words   |  6 PagesAUTOBIOGRAPHY Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is an inspiring tale of his personal, as well as public achievement throughout his life. Franklin’s life embodies the exemplary model of a life composed of discipline, self-reliance and self improvement. From his humble beginnings as an apprentice candle and soap maker in his father’s business to a successful business man, author, philosopher, civil activist, politician scientist, inventor, and diplomat, above all Benjamin Franklin was, and still isRead MorePocahontas And Benjamin Franklin : Tragic And Historical Events Developed During The Time Of American Colonization871 Words   |  4 Pagesduring it’s early colonization-a time in the life of this great nation which is everlastingly remembered with pride. America s foundation rested upon the ideals of diversity, innovation, and the ability to exhibit strength in the face of adversity; there are few who have embodied this vision of America more completely than Pocaho ntas and Benjamin Franklin. Tragic and historical events developed during the lives of Pocahontas and Benjamin Franklin; although their individual situations required very differentRead MoreThe Benjamin Franklin1357 Words   |  5 PagesBenjamin Franklin In our American history many figures have left their mark, and are remembered still today. Benjamin Franklin was as famous as any president, but yet never elected to public office. He was one of the nation’s revolutionary founding fathers of all time. Benjamin Franklin was a respected hero of America of many talents and accomplishments. First of all, Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in 1706. He was the tenth sibling in the family. He was the son of a soap and candle maker.Read MoreBenjamin Franklin : An Influential Entrepreneur994 Words   |  4 PagesBenjamin Franklin was one of the most impressive and iconic figures in American history, and perhaps around the globe. According to the autobiography of this astonishing individual, despite of all the obstacles in his thorny path such as obscurity and misery, he never surrendered and all the time followed his dream to succeed and make the world a better place. In fact, his role in securing the independence of the United Stat es and building it as a nation is sensational. Moreover, his great achievementsRead MoreBenjamin Franklin Essay1518 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Susanna Dey 19 November 2011 Benjamin Franklin Say the name Benjamin Franklin and you may picture a chubby man with spectacles holding a kite during a lightening storm. Perhaps you picture him a older man with spectacles propped up on his nose standing in a great room full of distinguished gentlemen signing the Declaration of Independence. Both of these facts about Benjamin Franklins life would be true. However, there was so much more to Mr. Franklin. He was a diplomat, a statesman, a scientistRead MoreAmerica s Essential Documents Of America1644 Words   |  7 Pagesagainst something are remembered and studied. This doesn’t just apply to presidents, but to any great men. As great men or women come into our society and make a difference we all grow as a nation and every nation is different depending on its history. The United states of America has grown incredibly from its humble beginnings. We’re now one of the greatest superpowers in the world! But our society wasn’t just developed over night; when you look back in history you can find many points in timeRead MoreBenjamin Franklin Essay174 1 Words   |  7 PagesWho was Benjamin Franklin? Probably not quite who we think he was. Yes, he was one of the Founding Fathers, the only one who put his name to all three of the founding documents of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, and the Constitution under which we still live. He may have become famous for his many sayings in praise of being industrious and frugal in one’s calling, but he left his own calling as a printer and retired from business at theRead MoreThe Quest to Moral Perfection 1689 Words   |  7 Pagesdates to the times before Christ, where the idea of moral perfection was used to determine one’s right of passage into heaven. It was not until Benjamin Franklin, who published a guide within of his autobiography, describing thirteen steps to achieving moral perfection. Franklin used these morality milestones to thrive in living a successful life and eventually become one of the founding fathers of the United States. Great leaders have different characters that are expected from them beyond theRead MoreBenjamin Franklin Mla Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesMore Pain than Too Much Pleasure Benjamin Franklin argues that an overly excessive amount of something good is bad. I firmly agree with Franklin’s claim, and have seen the justification of this concept in American society, history, literature, and my own personal experiences. American society is notorious for the advocation of excess wealth and pleasure and the unanimous goal of expanding knowledge and possession. Franklin’s argument applies to American society through the lives of its people.Read MoreHow Did Benjamin Franklin Affect American Society?1866 Words   |  8 Pages How Did Benjamin Franklin Affect American Society? Many individuals have had the opportunity to lead, to innovate, and to direct this country. Through different roles, similar or dissimilar, individuals have impacted different aspects of our society. A hundred dollar man, by the name of Benjamin Franklin, had this initiative and drive held by other great leaders of this country. Benjamin Franklin many times has impacted America and its society more than most individuals seem

Maternal and Child Deaths during Pregnancy - 924 Words

Globally, estimated 1.5 billion women were of childbearing age (15 to 45 years old) in 2011; 26% (310.62 million) of them covered by India only. Among 1.5 billion, 210 million become pregnant every year; of which; 86.66% (accounting as 182 million) of in developing world and remaining 13.33% (28 million) was in developed countries. 1, 2 Similarly 139.65 million births were in 2009 in the world and 26.92 million only in India.2 Pregnancy and childbirth are special events in women’s lives. This can be a time of great hope and joyful anticipation3. Though pregnancy and childbirth are a natural and usual phenomenon, these events put every woman at risk of complications and it directly/indirectly affect to the growth and development of the infant. Most maternal and child deaths occur during late pregnancy and the first year of the child’s life respectively.4 Estimation by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011, worldwide, approximately 3.5 million women die every year during pregnancy and delivery; almost 1000 a day. Almost 99 % of maternal, newborn, and child deaths occur in low and middle income countries.5 About 20% of global maternal death and 25% of child deaths occur only in India.6, 7.Though the life expectancy at birth is 63 years for boys and 66 years for girls, 69 per 1000 live births of under five children and 47 per 1000 live birth of under one year children die every year in India.8 Child malnutrition is also the major global public health problem. It is the majorShow MoreRelatedA State And Federal Program902 Words   |  4 Pagescontribute to family health (Handler, 2015). This program focuses on issues which affect women of child bearing age, children, adolescents, as well children with special health care needs (Handler, 2015). Maternal and Child programs work to address health promotion issues across the lifespan of individuals and families. It is noted that if emphasis on proper health care is placed on preconception, pregnancy and early childhood, the nation is along a path for lifelong wellness. These include preventiveRead MoreThe Mortality Of Maternal Mortality1231 Words   |  5 Pagesthe maternal mortality ratio is considered one of the main indicators of a country’s status in the area of maternal health, the burden of maternal mortality is only a small fraction of the burden of maternal morbidity; the health problems borne by women du ring pregnancy and the postpartum period. Maternal deaths have been described as the tip of the iceberg and maternal morbidity as the base. Yet, women who survive life-threatening conditions arising from complications related to pregnancy and childbirthRead MoreThe Causes and Prevelence of Obstetrical Emergencies 1185 Words   |  5 PagesINTRODUCTION â€Å"Maternal health is nation’s wealth. There is chance for the welfare of the world only when the condition of women improves. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.† -Swamy Vivekananda Obstetrical emergencies are the life threatening medical conditions that occur during pregnancy or after labor and delivery. Many illnesses and disorders of pregnancy can threaten the well-being of both the mother and the child.1 Preventive/ effective management of obstetric emergenciesRead MoreObesity And Pregnancy : Early Education And Prevention1290 Words   |  6 PagesObesity and Pregnancy: Early education and prevention Alicia Gonzalez de Arreola ENG 122: English Composition Professor Amy Erickson August 25, 2014 â€Æ' Obesity and Pregnancy: Early Education and Prevention Obesity has become an epidemic not only in the United States, it is worldwide (Sullivan, 2014). Obesity affects both mother and child leading to severe complications during and after birth, therefore measures should be taken to monitor and educate women and women who plan on becoming pregnant.Read MoreQuality Of Care For Maternal And Newborn Health1265 Words   |  6 PagesHealth Quality Quality of care for maternal and newborn health has been an agenda that has been neglected. Many women experience disrespectful, abusive, or neglectful treatment during child birth in facilities.Woman autonomy are being violated, leaving women without the choice to seek the proper maternal health care services.Quality care for women and newborns morality has been seeking less attention.issues with quality of care must improve deaths of mothers and newborns has became a issueRead MoreThe Maternal Mortality Of South Africa Essay1389 Words   |  6 Pages2.1.1 Background on the maternal and infant/child health in South Africa There are numerous issues surrounding maternal and infant health in South Africa. The maternal mortality ratio in South Africa is estimated at 156.5 per 100000 live births (Pattinson et al 2012). It is suggested that 60% of maternal deaths in South Africa are preventable (Amnesty International 2014). The three leading underlying causes of maternal mortality in South Africa include: HIV/AIDS, hypertension and obstetric haemorrhageRead MoreEssay On Perinatal And Neonatal Mortality1018 Words   |  5 PagesDecreasing Perinatal Neonatal Mortality Rates: Low Middle-Income Areas One in four pregnancies end in loss - think about that for just a second. If four women are randomly selected, chances are one of them have experienced some type of loss of a child. Approximately one million pregnancies each year just in the United States alone end in early pregnancy loss, stillbirth, or the death of a newborn child (October: Awareness). In an effort to lower these statistics, medical institutions shouldRead MoreQuality Of Care For Maternal And Newborn Health1721 Words   |  7 PagesProfessor Surles Quality of care for maternal and newborn health has been an agenda that has been neglected. Many women experience disrespectful, abusive, or neglectful treatment during child birth in facilities.Woman autonomy are being violated, leaving women without the choice to seek the proper maternal health care services. Quality care for women and newborns morality has been seeking less attention.issues with quality of care must improve deaths of mothers and newborns has became a issueRead MoreMaternal Stress And The Birth Of A Healthy New Born Baby849 Words   |  4 PagesMaternal Stress Since ancient times, scientists have written about beliefs that the emotional state of the pregnant mother may affect her unborn child. Today, both animal and human studies support the notion that maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy can have both immediate and long-term effects on her offspring (The Effects of Maternal Stress, n.d.). Prenatal maternal stress originates due to unforeseen circumstances that cannot be controlled or resolved within a rapid timeframe, thereforeRead MoreMaternal Mortality : Developing Countries1600 Words   |  7 PagesMay 2016 Maternal Mortality in Developing Countries Around the world, 830 women die every day from preventable complications during pregnancy and delivery (â€Å"Maternal mortality† 1). A death during a pregnancy or within 42 days of delivery is referred to as a maternal death (Semba and Bloem 34). The issue of maternal death in developing countries is an often unaddressed and urgent need. Things like poverty, a lack of access to quality healthcare, and cultural practices are causing maternal mortality

The Lack of African American TV Shows Free Essays

The norms of American television during its early years have always been focused on the so-called â€Å"social whiteness† owing to the fact that shows have always been dominated by the whites. This theory of racial subjugation was eventually refuted since white and black characters after the 1980s do get the same amount exposure on TV shows. Considering the height of racial discrimination in the United States, the lack of African American TV shows is not surprising though African American celebrities have the same acting skills as non-African Americans. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lack of African American TV Shows or any similar topic only for you Order Now The shows allotted for African-Americans, predisposed or not, have been limited to situation comedies (sitcoms) and stand-up comics to exemplify that these marginalized sector indeed does get the equality of quantity of said TV acts. To cite in history, there was the â€Å"Amos N’ Andy Show† which commenced in 1928 as a thirty-year radio show and broadcasted on television in 1951 which only lasted for two years because of the massive protests by the black community. It was the lone TV show with an all-black cast during the period. There was also â€Å"The Beulah Show,† â€Å"The Nat King Cole,† â€Å"All in the Family,† â€Å"The Jeffersons,† â€Å"Good Times,† â€Å"What’s Happening,† â€Å"That’s My Mama,† and â€Å"Sanford and Son.† The era of â€Å"The Roots,† â€Å"The Cosby Show,† â€Å"Different Strokes,† â€Å"Webster,† â€Å"Gimme A Break,† and the â€Å"A-Team† also came. Many contemporary TV shows featuring African Americans followed thereafter including NBC’s â€Å"Hidden Hills,† FOX’s â€Å"The Bernie Mac Show† and â€Å"Cedric the Entertainer Presents†¦,† ABC’s â€Å"My Wife and Kids,† CBS’s â€Å"Robbery Homicide Division† and â€Å"Hack.† The former network WB also aired black-oriented shows as â€Å"The Hughleys,† â€Å"The Steve Harvey Show† and â€Å"The Jamie Foxx Show.† To enhance racial diversity, WB also featured â€Å"ER,† â€Å"Smallville,† â€Å"Gilmore Girls,† â€Å"Friends† and â€Å"The West Wing.† Meanwhile, UPN introduced â€Å"The Parkers,† â€Å"One on One,† â€Å"Girlfriends,† and â€Å"Half and Half.† Even the popular reality TV shows â€Å"Survivor† and â€Å"Big Brother† even incorporated black contestants in them. According to Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1991, schedules for prime time shows are still segregated in that African American dominated shows were isolated still and in some networks like FOX and NBC, the blacks were still underrepresented, such the term â€Å"ghettoization† of African American TV shows. Studies by SAG further revealed that there are two types of programming: first, â€Å"resourceful† programming wherein some shows included a racially diverse cast and â€Å"missed â€Å"opportunity† in which no effort is made at all to broaden their horizons in terms of casting. An example of the first type is â€Å"The Practice† where it gave importance to African American casts, placing them in major roles with long screen times. As have been mentioned earlier, African Americans did not have much opportunity in drama and more serious roles. Shows like â€Å"Sex and the City† and HBO’s â€Å"Six Feet Under† put blacks in very minor, insignificant characters. Oftentimes, blacks are associated with being criminals, villains, gangs, troublemakers, street people, mobs, sidekicks or subordinates in TV performances. These racial stereotyping is not helpful in terms of reconciling the diversified cultures of blacks and whites living in one nation. It cannot be denied that television is one of the most influential media of information dissemination in the world today. Amidst globalization, television plays a great role in shaping the minds and perspectives of people about things happening in their immediate environment. The squaring off of cultural, racial and sexual distinctions should be given priority if indeed the goal of unification and eliminating discrimination is to be realized. The lack of African American TV shows is an illustration as to the inequality of racial representation in media. Even if African Americans constitute only a marginalized portion of the population, they should be given equal TV exposure to indicate that racial chauvinism has been resolved and eliminated. If whites are shown to overshadow the blacks on TV, the audience will get the idea that impartiality still exists even in the entertainment industry. It should be emphasized that television serves as an important cultural medium. Through this instrument, people learn about cultures of the different races. Whether genuine or not, what is shown on TV will be the image that the audience will grasp regarding that particular culture. This is the reason why extra care and caution must be considered when depicting cultures on TV shows since they shape the representation of that ethnicity. As mentioned earlier, African Americans often have negative persona in many TV shows. Because of this, the audience will tend to generalize that African Americans are indeed those kinds of people. This brings about a complex societal problem with regards to people’s attitudes towards African Americans. In conclusion, the lack of African American TV shows is not merely a question of the quantity of shows broadcasted on television but it is also a question of the quality of shows that are being aired globally. Cultural sensitivity is an important factor in that African American characters should not be limited to being slapstick comedians and humorists, but their roles must exemplify what the true black culture is in order to educate people about their beliefs and ideologies. It is only through a wider and deeper understanding of other ethnicities can we solve the problem of racial prejudice. Therefore, it is quantity coupled with quality of African American TV shows that will make the imparting of the black society more meaningful and constructive to be able to correct the mistaken identities of African Americans. By increasing the number of quality African American TV shows, deliverance is within reach. References â€Å"Amos N’ Andy Show.† (n.d.). The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/amosnandy/amosnandy.htm Easton, B. M. (n.d.). â€Å"African-Americans on TV: A Retrogressive Renaissance.† Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.purrmag.com/Purr12/blacksontv.html Kumbier, A. (n.d.). â€Å"The TV Ghetto.† Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2002/09/09/The-TV-Ghetto â€Å"Racism, Ethnicity and Television.† (n.d.). The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/racismethni/racismethni.htm â€Å"The African-American Television Audience.† (n.d.). Nielsen Media Research, Inc. Retrieved February 18, 2008, from http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ethnicmeasure/african-american/indexAA.html    How to cite The Lack of African American TV Shows, Papers

Carls Jr. Commercial free essay sample

Sexuality It is funny how you can get the attention of a man’s sexual desires through a commercial. You can’t blame a man for his behavior. It’s in our nature to be who we are as men. Specifically, the kind of men that can be tricked by a mere image of a woman, in a bikini, eating a cheese burger. The advertisements in today’s world have been altered to use women as bait to reel in men and buy the product without any hesitation. If I told you that if you go to Carl’s Jr. and purchase a cheeseburger and a gorgeous model comes with the burger, would you buy it? I sure would†¦if only it were true. Carl’s Jr. is known for having its famous juicy, charbroiled, seven hundred calorie burgers. Anytime they want to promote a new burger, they use a model dressed revealingly to present the burger. They have the model eat very slowly and take big bites out of the burger to show its ingredients and condiments. At the end of the commercial there is a white background and the burger falls from the sky and lands on the white ground. End of commercial. We have sort of gotten the feeling that these advertisements tend to be repetitive and very similar. It has come to my attention that these commercials were pitched by men or a man. Only a man could use a woman as his tool and present her in front of an audience of millions to show the new way of how to unveil a new product. I have seen so many Carl’s Jr. commercials to the point where I feel like they want me to buy the model, rather than the burger. Nonetheless, having the model will not solve my hunger problem but having her for the sexual desire aspect will suffice. What appealed to me was the lack of importance of the burger in the beginning of the commercial. The commercial starts with the beautiful model at the beach. She is lying on the beach on a towel. The sun is so bright it makes her skin glow and come to life. A breeze flows through the air and has her hair dancing with the wind. Her face so delicate and lovely. As she eats the burger, sauce drips on to her skin. As if the men weren’t aroused already, she wipes the sauce with her finger and licks it off. The newest burger from Carl’s Jr. is the Memphis BBQ Pulled Pork burger. The commercial, dare I say it, is hot. You find yourself at an annual cook-off in Memphis, Tennessee and come across stands selling food, beer, etc. This one particular stand has these two gorgeous girls flipping patties and teasing each other. They give each other menacing looks. You can feel the sexual tension rising. The camera is behind the girls and you can clearly see that they are wearing, what appeared to be, shorts. These shorts allow you to see the girls’ rear ends hanging. The heat was so unstable you can see sweat sliding down their tan, perfect bodies like children sliding down a tube at a waterpark. Remember when I said that these commercials tend to be repetitive? Well history repeats itself because also in this commercial, one of the girls has a drop of sauce land on one of her breasts. She immediately wipes it with her finger and licks it like it was a lollipop. The table across from the girls has two men standing there, staring at them with their mouths so wide open that their jaws are touching the floor. Meanwhile, the girls have put together their burgers and are feeding each other. The men over at the other table took out their cell phones and started to take pictures, like they were teenagers recording a fight in high school. I am going out on a limb here by saying that this and many other commercials by Carl’s Jr. received generally more negative reviews than positive. Those negative reviews came from concerned and angry mothers. One mother had this to say about one of Carl’s Jr. ’s commercials: â€Å"This is absolutely the most disgusting commercial Carls Jr has came up with so far. The women looks like shes actually getting sexually aroused from eating a hamburger for God sake! Not to mention she even looks as if shes fingering herself† (http://www. complaintsboard. com). Now this post received many negative comments from men and good comments from mothers. The mother goes on to say: â€Å"The FCC needs to ban this filthy commercial right off the air. There are innocent children that are being subjected to that appalling, demoralizing smut† (http://www. complaintsboard. com). Several comments to this post were very crucial and degrading. One comment said the following about the concerned mother: â€Å"Oh shut the hell up and quit your bitching. You are just pissed because she is one of the most gorgeous females walking the earth and you are probably just some fat chick who is pissed because you feel even more guilty when you go and eat at Carls Jr every other day because you have to look at yourself in the mirror and wish you looked like her. If it bothers you that much then find a new burger joint to fill your mouth with to gain more weight† (http://www. complaintsboard. com). I wouldn’t call that comment very â€Å"heartwarming† but what is heartwarming is the flow of endless money into your bank account after that commercial is aired in front of billions watching worldwide. I asked my mother if she remembers the burger Carl’s Jr. was advertising in the Memphis BBQ cook-off and she told me: â€Å"What? They were selling burgers? I thought they were selling prostitutes! † Well that’s my mother for you. Just another confused and possibly concerned parent. I asked my father the same question and he told me: â€Å"I got to go get that burger! † Like father, like son. Carl’s Jr. has created this new way of advertising for the same reason we have jobs. To make money and lots of it.

Vietnam Essays (1867 words) - Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh,

Vietnam Believing that communist aggression in South Vietnam could lead to takeover of South East Asia, the United States slowly became more involved in the conflict there during the years of 1954 through 1975. Prior to the War Following World War II, there was a bloody 7 ? year struggle between Communist Vietnamese and the French for control of the land. A peace conference was finally held in Geneva, Switzerland on July 1954 which determined that French rule would be ended in Vietnam and that the country would be split at the 17th parallel of latitude into North Vietnam, with a Communist government, and South Vietnam, with a republican government. Not long after, the United States military advisers took the job of training the South Vietnamese army. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam, pledged to "liberate" South Vietnam. Elections were planned to be held during 1956 to resolve the division of Vietnam, but the U.S. supported Ngo Dihn Diem's refusal to hold the elections, believing that Ho Chi Minh would win. South Vietnam South Vietnamese Government Loses Support Ngo Dinh Dem was elected in 1955, and was very popular at first, but public support, as well as that of military officers and cabinet ministers, gradually disappeared. This was mainly because Diem's brother and adviser, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was able to give orders to officers and military units. Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, Diem's sister-in-law, also promoted a lot of dislike from Vietnamese. South Vietnamese Rebellion On May 1963, President Diem, a Roman Catholic, prohibited the flying of the Buddhist flag. Thousands of Buddhists were arrested, and some were tortured or killed. Some Buddhists publicly burned themselves to death in protest. On November 1, three weeks before President Kennedy was killed in Dallas (on November 22), Diem and Nhu were assassinated. A government was hastily put together, and remained unstable. Vietcong Communist guerrillas, known as the Vietcong, came across the border through Laos in large numbers, helping native Communist terrorists in the south. One main objective of these rebels who were directly controlled by the Vietminh, North Vietnam's government, was to disrupt all types of South Vietnamese order. Many local administrators were also assassinated accomplishing this goal. Guerrilla bands also raided industries, farms, military installations, and villages. Frequently they attacked at night, withdrawing afterward in the thick forest. Seldom were the South Vietnamese forces able to fight them in the open. Because of this battles were rarely fought along a single front.. U.S. Involvement Beginning U.S. Involvement and Escalation In October 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor to South Vietnam, to evaluate the country's economic and military condition. General Taylor said that "infiltration of the Vietcong from the north was increasing," that "South Vietnam's economy had suffered drastically," and that "better and more equipment was needed." Believing that there would be a domino effect President Kennedy expanded economic and military aid. American aid increased from 1961 to 1963, and over 16,000 military advisers were sent to South Vietnam, and 400 million dollars provided for military purposes. The Vietcong was temporary halted. About this time Robert Macnamarah was escalating the involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam and later the war will begin to be called Macnamarah's War. William Wessmoreland a commander of MAC V (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) was assuring political figures that in order to win he needed more troops. United States Warships Attacked On Aug. 2, 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats off the coast of North Vietnam attacked the USS Maddox, a destroyer cruising in the Gulf of Tonkin. Two days later the Maddox and another destroyer were attacked. The United States was drawn further into the conflict when President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered retaliatory air attacks and the congress authorized U.S. military operations with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Reaction to Terrorist Activities Terrorist attacks upon American bases in South Vietnam became frequent. These were made to discourage the United States into complete withdrawal from Vietnam. However, the number of air raids by American aircraft against North Vietnam increased. The attacks on Pleiku triggered the massive bombing campaign on North Vietnam called "Operation Rolling Thunder". Bombings were aimed mainly at highways and bridges. In Laos, bombers also struck the Ho Chi Minh Trail, an important Vietcong supply line.

Full Analysis of SAT Grammar Rules Which Are Most Important

Full Analysis of SAT Grammar Rules Which Are Most Important SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you are planning your study approach for SAT Writing, it’s important to know where your time is best spent. Which grammar rules are really the most important to learn? What can help you make the greatest improvement to your score? Read on to find out exactly how much each grammar rule matters and how you can use this information on the test. What kinds of questions are on SAT Writing? SAT Writing follows an extremely predictable format. There are two Writing sections on the test. (Note: There are always two graded Writing sections, but some tests may have a third one that is experimental and ungraded.) The first Writing section will be between Section 2 and Section 7, and the second will ALWAYS be Section 10. In the first Writing section, you will have three question types. #1: Improving Sentences The first, which accounts for questions 1 – , isImproving Sentences. You will be given a sentence with an underlined portion and 5 answer choices. The first answer choice, A, is always the same as what is given in the original sentence (or Correct As Is). The other answers will re-write the underlined portion of the sentence in various ways. We have written aguide to the best way to approach Improving Sentences Questions. #2: Identifying Sentence Errors The second question type isIdentifying Errors (questions 12 – 29).In this type of question, you will be given a sentence that has four underlined words or phrases labeledA – D. After the sentence you also have the option of E, which is â€Å"No Error†. You have to choose the underlined part of the sentence that has a grammar mistake, or decide that the sentence has no errors and is correct as it is written. #3: Improving Paragraphs The third question type isImproving Paragraphs,which is questions 30 – 35. This section is a little different. You may be asked a grammar question, which oftentimes will look a lot like the Improving Sentences questions. However, you also may be asked questions about style and logic, such as where sentences best fit in the paragraph or what transition to use, and you can also be asked about the author’s rhetorical strategy. This ishow you should attack the Improving Paragraphssection. Section 10 consists of 14 questions which are alwaysImproving Sentences. So to summarize, this is what the breakdown of different question types looks like: But what concepts are tested? And why should you care? Almost as predictable as the question types are the grammar rules that SAT Writing will test you on. SAT Writing heavily favors a few main grammar rules,and lightly touches on a multitude of others. Why should this matter to you? This means that especially if you are aiming for a score in the 500 – 700 range, you shouldfocus your studying on the main grammar rules that are covered. In fact, many of the rules the SAT covers are so infrequently seen that there is a good chance that your testmay not cover them at all. I analyzed almost 700 SAT Writing questions from 14 official SAT tests, and wrote down the grammar concepts tested in each. For most SAT questions, the answer is fairly obvious if you know one main grammar rule. Occasionally, however, more than one rule is tested in the same question. In these circumstances, I counted the question for both grammar rules. And the winners are†¦ The overwhelming winner of the frequency test isverb tense and form.Using the correct form of the verb can mean quite a few different things, including whether or notverbs are used consistently throughout the sentence, knowing when to use gerunds and avoiding them when they are unnecessary, when to use the infinitive, when to use certain tenses, and when past participles are appropriate. These concepts make up over a whopping20% of the questionsin the Improving Sentences and Identifying Errors sections of the test. Not far behind in second place are questions dealing withcorrect use of pronouns.These questions make up12.5% of the questionsin Improving Sentences and Identifying Errors. These concepts include missing and ambiguous antecedents, pronoun case, and making sure that pronouns match their antecedents in number. We have a three-way tie for third place.Subject-Verb Agreement, Run-ons and Fragments,andParallel Structureeach weigh in at around9.5% of the questions asked. If you master these five concepts, you will have all the information you need toover 60% of the questions on SAT Writing. The full breakdown Here is the analysis of the most commonly-tested grammar concepts on SAT Writing, along with brief explanations of what each grammar rule means. #1: Correct Verb Tense and Form: 20.5% Verbs tenses are used consistently and correctly throughout the sentence Gerunds are only used when necessary Infinitives are used correctly Tenses of verbs are formed correctly Past participles are not confused with past tense Wordiness with gerunds To master this section, see our guide onhow verbs are used on SAT Writing. #2: Correct Pronouns and Antecedents: 12.5% Missing and ambiguous antecedents Correct use of singular and plural pronouns Pronoun case Pronoun-antecedent agreement â€Å"He or she† vs. â€Å"they† See our guides onpronoun caseandpronoun agreementto master these concepts. #3: Subject-Verb Agreement: 9.5% Matching singular subjects with singular verbs and plural subjects with plural verbs Sentences with verbs before subjects Sentences with non-essential clauses or prepositional phrases between subject and verb See thisguide to subject-verb agreement. #3: Parallel Structure: 9.5% Items in a list are phrased the same way Phrases connected by a conjunctionhave the same structure See ourguide to parallel structure on SAT Writingfor more on this topic. #3: Fragments and Run-ons: 9.5% Joining independent clauses incorrectly Missing subject and/or verb Recognizing non-essential or dependent clause vs. independent clause Correct use of semicolons and commas This guide breaks downhow to recognize and fix run-ons and fragments on SAT Writing. #6: Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers: 7% Descriptive phrases must be next to the word they describe See theguide to modifiers here. #7: Idioms, Preposition use, and Diction: 6% Knowing which preposition is idiomatically correct in a phrase Recognizing commonly-confused words This guide will teach youall about idioms on the SAT Writing, and here is a guide to diction and word choice. #8: Faulty Comparisons: 4% Comparing two unlike things See theguide to faulty comparisonshere. #10: Logical conjunction use: 3% Using conjunctions correctly according to their meaning: e.g., â€Å"but† for contrast, â€Å"and† for similarity, etc. See more about conjunctions in ourcomplete parts of speech guide. #10: Word pairs: 3% Properly completed word pairs, e.g.either†¦or, neither†¦nor, not only†¦but also, between†¦and, just as†¦so #10: Adjective vs. Adverb: 3% Using adjectives to describe nouns, and adverbs to describe adjectives, verbs, and adverbs See theguide to adjectives and adverbs on SAT Writing here. The above concepts make up 87.5% of the questions on SAT Writing. What about that other 12.5%? In addition to the above, master the following topics if youare aiming for an 800 on SAT Writing.The following concepts each make upless than 2.5% of the questionson SAT Writing, and many of them will not appear on any given test. #: Active or Passive voice: 2.2% Using the active voice when possible to avoid wordiness Passive voice used to correct dangling modifier or in certain constructions #12: Correct relative pronouns: 2% See the guide to relative pronouns formore information #13: Noun agreement: 1.5% Match singular subjects with singular predicate nominatives, and plural subjects with plural predicate nominatives For example: John is a scientist. John and Maria are scientists. #14: Comparative vs. Superlative: 1% Comparative used for comparing two things, superlative used for three or more Correct formation of comparative and superlative #15: Redundancy: 0.8% Repeating the same information twice See theguide to redundancy here #16: Other: 5% These concepts are tested so infrequently that it would be pointless to give them their own category These questions are very unpredictable. They can include: â€Å"noun is because† structure, â€Å"the reason is that†, comma used between subject and verb, general awkwardness, and many more miscellaneous topics How can you use this information? You should use the information above to target your studying. The first step here is to understand what kind of SAT score you are aiming for in order to get into the colleges you are applying to. If you haven’t figured this out yet, take some time to do that first. For Low Scorers If you are currently getting a low score on the SAT Writing, you should use the list above as a checklist to master one grammar concept at a time. Start with Verb Tense and Form, and work your way down. Keep in mind that if you manage to completely master just the first 6 grammar concepts listed above (Verb Tense through Misplaced Modifiers), you will be able to answer close to 70% of the grammar questions on the test correctly. After you have reviewed these concepts, take a practice test. When you correct it, make sure you note what kind of questions you have missed. (Note: If you have The Official SAT Study Guide, you can use their online resource to find answers to the questions, or you can use the appendices in Erica Meltzer’s The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar to check which question types you are missing.) If you are missing questions based on the top 6 topics, go back and focus all of your study time on just those question types before moving on. If you want a mid-range score†¦ If you are aiming for a mid-level score (500 – 650), you should focus your attention on learning the grammar concepts that make up the top 87.5% of the questions and ignore the concepts that make up the trickier 12.5% of the test. If you get 87% of the questions correct on SAT Writing, and get a 7 or above on the essay, most curves will put you score in the 500 – 650 range. Take practice tests to check that you have mastered concepts #1 – 10. If you are able to answers those questions comfortably, move on to the more obscure topics. If you are aiming for a high score†¦ You will need to study all of the concepts listed above. The grammar concepts that appear infrequently, such as noun agreement and relative pronoun use, individually don’t count for much. However, enough mistakes in these areas could quickly add up to give you a lower score than you are aiming for. Once you have a good grasp on all of the concepts, you may want to add a bit of strategy to your game to make the test easier to conquer. You can do this by breaking down the test even further and understanding where you will see each type of question so that you know what to expect. Fortunately, I’ve done that work for you. Not All Question Types are Equal The above percentages correspond to the grammar concepts tested across all three question types on SAT Writing, taken as a whole. However, what if we were to break the test down by question type? Though most of the grammar concepts listed above will appear in all of the question types, there are a few grammar concepts that will only appear in certain question types. Others will heavily appear in a certain type of question. Let’s look at the Improving Sentences questions first. As you can see, there are a few concepts that make up a majority of the questions in Improving Sentences: Correct Verb Tense and Form (including gerund use) Sentence Fragments and Run-ons Parallel Structure Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers Correct Pronoun and Antecedent Use There are also some question types that will almost never appear on the Improving Sentences sections. They include: Adjectives vs. Adverbs Relative Pronoun Errors Noun Agreement Comparative vs. Superlative Now let’s look at Identifying Errors. Again, a few question types make up the majority here: Correct Verb Tense and Form Subject-Verb Agreement Correct Pronoun and Antecedent Use And the question types you will almost never see include: Sentence Fragments and Run-ons Active vs. Passive Redundancy Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers How can you use this information? You can use this knowledge of the test to help anticipate what grammar concepts you will see in each type of question. When you approach an Identifying Errors or Improving Sentences question, always look for the most common grammar mistakes first. For example, when you know that over 70% of the Improving Sentences questions will have one of the top five errors listed above, you will have a much better idea what kind of answers to look for, and it will also help you make more educated guesses. What about the Improving Paragraphs section? This sectiontests the same grammar rules as Improving Sentences. However, this section also tests several rules that don’t really fall into the grammar category. Instead, they are based on style and logic, and being able to understand how words and sentences work together in the context of a paragraph. This section will also occasionally test rhetorical strategy.This means that you may be asked what the purpose of a paragraph or sentence is. Here are the types of questions you will see on this section of the test: Sentence Revision (exactly like Improving Sentences): 33% Sentence insertion or deletion: 22% Using transitions: 15% Rhetorical strategy: % Information or word insertion: 7% Combining sentences: 7% Sentence order: 2% Paragraph division: 2% What does this mean for you? Keep in mind that Improving Paragraphs only make up 6 questions on every test. That means that even if you can’t figure out any of the style, logic, and rhetorical strategy questions, but ace the grammar, you will only be missing about 4 questions on the whole SAT Writing. Students aiming for a high score obviously will not want to write off four whole questions. However, if you are aiming for a lower score, you should use your study time wisely by focusing on the grammar concepts listed above instead of worrying about the extra question types that only appear in the Improving Paragraphs section. What about â€Å"No Error† and correct as is? On the Improving Sentences section, answer A is always the same as what’s given to you in the original sentence – meaning if you choose this, you are saying the sentence is correct as is. In Identifying Errors, answer E means there is no error. How often will you see these? Taken as a whole, you will see these answers about 15% of the time. You are slightly more likely to get a no error answer in Identifying Errors (19%) than in Improving Sentences (12.5%). So if you are completing one of these sections and you don’t have any of these answers, know you’ve gone wrong somewhere! Though somequestions don't containan error, they still test you on the above grammar concepts - byseeing if you can tell when they arebeing used correctly. We havea full article on the No Error answer here. What would the statistically perfect test look like? Now that we know everything about how the test breaks down by each question type and grammar concept, let’s see what a theoretically perfect test would look like. Of course, no real SAT would follow these figures exactly, but it’ll give you a decent idea of what to expect. Use this "Perfect Test" list to help guide your studying. After you take a practice test, take note of what kind of questions you have missed. Compare your notes to this list, and start off tackling your problem areas that appear highest up. Improving Sentences: 25 Questions Total 6 questions on Correct Verb Tense and Form 4 questions on Fragments and Run-ons 3 questions on Parallel Structure 3 questions on Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 3 questions on Correct Pronouns and Antecedents 1 question on Subject-Verb Agreement 1 question on Logical Conjunctions 1 question on Faulty Comparisons 1 question on Correct Use of Active and Passive 1 question on Word Pairs 1 question on Miscellaneous Topics Identifying Errors: 18 Questions Total 4 questions on Correct Verb Tense and Form 3 questions on Correct Pronouns and Antecedents 3 questions on Subject-Verb Agreement 1 question on Idiom, Preposition Use, and Diction 1 question on Parallel Structure 1 question on Faulty Comparisons 1 question on Word Pairs 1 question on Adjectives vs. Adverbs 1 question on Noun Agreement 1 question on Comparative vs. Superlative 1 question on Miscellaneous Topics Improving Paragraphs: 6 Questions Total 2 questions on Sentence Revision (Improving Sentences) 1 question on Sentence Insertion or Deletion 1 question on Using Transitions 1 question on Rhetorical Strategy 1 question on either Combining Sentences OR Word or Information Insertion You would have about seven questions with the answer â€Å"No Error† or Correct As Is. What’s next? Now you knowexactly what is on SAT Writing.Use the above links to master each topic. All too much for you to handle? Never fear, there aresome schools out there who don’t care about SAT Writing at all! If you are aiming to improve a low grade, see our article onhow to score a 600 on SAT Writing. If you are aiming for an 800, you will need to master all of the above concepts, even the infrequently used ones. See our article on top tips forscoring an 800 on SAT Writing. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Writing and grammar lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

Corporate Operations of the BMW Group Case Study

Corporate Operations of the BMW Group - Case Study Example The BMW Group is a global manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. According to the BMW Group website (2008) the company concentrates entirely on premium standards and outstanding quality for all its brands and across all relevant segments. The BMW Group owns the BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce brands and it defines its strategic objective: "The BMW Group is the leading provider of premium products and premium services for individual mobility" (BMW Group 2008). . The BMW Group's headquarters are in Munich, Germany where activities in over 150 countries are coordinated. It has 8 research and development centers - BMW Group Research and Innovation Center (FIZ), Munich; BMW Group Research and Technology, Munich; BMW Group Car IT, Munich; Innovation and Technology Center in Landshut Plant; BMW Group Designworks, Newbury Park, USA; BMW Group Engineering and Emissions Test Center, Oxnard, USA; BMW Group Technology Office, Palo Alto, USA; BMW Motoren GmbH Steyr, Austria; BMW Group Technology Office, Tokyo, Japan; BMW Group Development Office, Beijing, China. It has 17 production facilities in 6 countries: Berlin plant, Dingolfing plant, Eisenach plant, Contract production in Graz (Austria), Goodwood plant (GB), Hams Hall plant (GB), Landshut plant, Leipzig plant, Munich plant, Oxford plant (GB), Regensburg plant, Rosslyn plant (South Africa), Shenyang plant (China), Spartanburg plant (USA), Steyr plant (Austria), Swindon plant (GB), Wackersdorf pla nt. Assembly is done with external partners in different countries - Jakarta, Indonesia; Kaliningrad, Russia; Cairo, Egypt; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Rayong, Thailand; Chennai, India. Sales and marketing subsidiaries are also present in many countries, helping maintain and enhance BMW's presence in key markets - Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA. (BMW Group, 2008). The BMW Group deals not only with automotive products, it also develops, produces and markets motorcycles, as well as comprehensive financial services for private and business customers. For its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the BMW Group it is the only "car maker to pursue a purely premium strategy for all market sectors covered by its brands, from exclusive smaller cars to top-of-the-range luxury limousines", according to the group website (2008). For motorcycles, aside from the strategy to build the best motorcycles, the company has set standards for technology, environmental protection and safety, and customer service in the pre- and after-sales phases. Seeing financial services as a key factor in BMW's successful operations, it has established financing and leasing, asset

The Effects of The American Civil War Research Paper

The Effects of The American Civil War - Research Paper Example For four consecutive years, the confederate soldiers fought and battled with the union soldiers. The war that is regarded as the bloodiest war in the history of America cannot be swept under the carpet. The depth of loss was felt by both these two sides. The loss of lives and the destroyed infrastructure took the United States several steps back. The immense and sheer number of deaths and tragedy that was brought by the civil war remains as a constant reminder to the American people as a profound insight of the past that they have seen. The economic, psychological and social impacts of the war went on to redefine what the future of the American people.Proclaiming the freedom of slaves and creating national unity was the hardest role that the American government had to play after the recovery from war. A more detailed analysis of the American civil war points to the start of the war being at the 1860 presidential election. The republicans who were led by Abraham Lincoln were not for t he idea of expansion of slavery into the United States territories. After the republicans won and their anti-slavery campaign looked as though it would be successful, seven slave states that were being run of cotton based economies came together right before the inauguration of the president and formed a confederacy that would fight against the anti- slavery campaign. The confederacy was mainly against the idea of the fact that their source of labor for their cotton plantations would have to be paid for (Parish, p. 103).

Personal Values Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 13250 words

Personal Values Development - Essay Example For employees to be productive in an organization, they need to hold positive attitudes toward the elements of organizational life. For example, one should view such factors as work, authority, taking risks in decision making, the need for control, and the need for change in a positive way. I try to avoid a negative attitudinal posture toward these factors because they will keep one's job satisfaction continually low as well as stimulate considerable resistance to many normal organizational processes and activities. Someone with the wrong attitudes shies away from high effort because the performance it yields is not perceived as worthy. It is not "real" performance from the viewpoint of the employee (Langan, 1994). Personal values develop during a long time and are influenced by work environment and communication. I pay a special attention to understanding of my colleagues and effective communication, high standards of work performance and personal growth. Strong ethical principles help me to solve problems of daily life and behave morally in difficult situations. Problem-solving skill is the ability to identify, define, and resolve difficulties. One with this skill has an inquisitive mind, an ability to reason, and a desire to search for truth. These employees know how to investigate and analyze a problem situation and to diagnose sources of trouble. This skill also involves creative ability--ability to generate novel ideas and to derive multiple ways of attacking a problem (Mayer, 2000). Problem-solving skill is in part manifested in one's capacity for critically evaluating potential solutions to problems and for making decisions. Many employees simply do not understand how to make a quality decision. Indeed, many fear making decisions because of the risk of choosing the wrong course of action. The quality decision maker knows how and does not shy away from the task. He or she has likely mastered the scientific method as applied to problem solving and, because of this, likely has a high measure of self-confidence relative to decision making. Problem-solving skill is critical for every employee at every level in an organization. Every employee faces problems daily. Machine operators need to diagnose causes of breakdown and then get their machines fixed. Department managers may need to diagnose why customers may be disgruntled and then attempt resolution. Top-level managers have to diagnose such things as the causes of declining sales, poor employee performance, and flaws in organizational communications systems. A strong sense of duty guides my behavior and decision-making. My actions are guided by judicial action based on the Judeo-Christian teachings that are the foundation for most of the moral and ethical direction of business and government. In the meantime in the moral-ethical area, more emphasis is being placed on psychology and the philosophies (everything is relative; nothing is absolute; everything is constantly changing, so set your own morals and ethics based on the times). Broad issue orientation has given way to sharper focus not only on issues but on social awareness, social responsiveness, and on social responsibility implementation of these issues. I agree that employees need to hold values compatible with organizational life. Strong economic,

Star Newspaper Business Study

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