Henry VIII Essay - 1682 Words

Henry VIII Name: My name is Henry Tudor, Duke of York, or as I am better known, Henry VIII. Parents Names: My father was none other than the great King Henry VII, who was sovereign of England from 1485 to 1509, My mother was Elizabeth of York. Brothers amp;amp; Sisters: My eldest brother was Arthur, born in 1486, who married Catherine of Aragon. Margaret, my eldest sister was born in 1489 and married James IV of Scotland, and Mary, my younger sister was born in 1498 and married Louis XII in 1514. When amp;amp; Where I Was Born: I was born on June 28th 1491 at the Royal Manor of Greenwich (England), where ships sailed down the Thames to the sea. How Old I Am Now: I am 17 years old presently, nine weeks and four days off my†¦show more content†¦The trumpets sounded so very loudly. Francis I and myself spurred our horses forward to meet each other. Three times we embraced on horseback, we then dismounted, embraced again and vanished into the great golden pavilion where the summit meeting took place. Ostensibly the meeting was to dispel the old enmity between England and France, but the declared purpose was to give laws to Christendom. Two weeks of jousting and feasting will now take place, both of which I enjoy immensely. amp;nbsp; DATE: April 21st, 1521 I am passionately interested in theology and have only recently completed a book in staunch defense of the Universal Church and totally against the heresies of Martin Luther. Pope Leo was very pleased with the book and has today awarded me ‘Defendsor Fidei’ that is Defender of the Faith. I am pleased with the award. amp;nbsp; DATE: May 5th, 1527 The negotiations of Eternal Peace have been difficult but finally successful. Today I have sworn to the treaties and to celebrate I have laid on one of the greatest court festivities even known. Today, Sunday 5th May 1527, after I have attended mass in the chapel at Greenwich I signed the treaties with France. On Monday 6th May there will be great public rejoicing. All day jousts will take place in the Greenwich tiltyard, then in the evening there will be a great banquet, followed by a masquerade and dancing until dawn. I amShow MoreRelatedHenry VIII Essay1894 Words   |  8 PagesThe major endeavours of Henry VIII during his reign over England from 1509 to 1547 included the Field of the Cloth of Gold and the Reformation of the English Church. The sole reason for these actions is said to be love and seems to be related to the King’s obsession for a male heir but other factors were involved. Paramount among these is the influence of his family in the earlier years of his life. Other reasons such as general insecurities and competitiveness with other royal houses are also possibleRead MoreKing Henry Viii2987 Words   |  12 Pagesdynasty is the House of Tudor. Henry VII became king in 1485 and took Elizabeth of York as his wife.They had four children Prince Arthur of Wales, Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII, and Mary Tudor. Henry VIII was born June 28, 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. Being the second born son Henry was raised and educated to take a secular role in life, most likely as the Archbishop of Canterbury. His grandmother Margaret Beaufort supervised his early childhood education. Henry was reported to excel atRead MoreThe Life of King Henry VIII1814 Words   |  7 PagesKing Henry VIII Born the second son of a royal family, Henry Tudor lived a very interesting life. His future was intended to be the head of the Roman Catholic Church and that fate ended with the death of his brother, Prince Arthur. Henry’s majestic life was full of sports, women, and faith. The young King acceded his father to the throne, married six women, and began the English Reformation when he broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and created his own religion. On the 28th day of JuneRead MoreEssay On King Henry Viii1961 Words   |  8 Pages King Henry VIII He is a womanizer that cannot stay faithful to save his life! That is what many people think about King Henry VIII, but he was so much more. He was both a Visionary Leader and an Unethical Leader when he transformed his country during the English Reformation. In my first main point, King Henry VIII displayed two lesson principles as a Visionary Leader. He was a Creator from the Team Dynamics lesson when he created his plan for change. Then he practiced Management-by-Exception-ActiveRead MoreHenry VIII: King of England1349 Words   |  6 PagesAs a monarch, the life of Henry VIII is one of which many do not attempt to describe because of the rich amount of history that goes along with him. No king has left such a profound impact on the past accounts of his country, or has been the focus of controversial topics that have made lasting contributions to his country. His means were immoral, but because of the greatness that he achieved, we look beyond his imperfection. On June 28, 1491, at Greenwich Palace, Henry VII and Elizabeth of YorkRead MoreEssay about Henry VIII1567 Words   |  7 Pages Early years Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491 at Greenwich Palace. His Parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, were very loving and proud parents, even though they didn’t see much of their children. Henry was their second son. He was styled as the â€Å"Duke of York†. He had his own servants, Court Jesters, and to top it off he had is own whipping boy that would receive whippings whenever Henry did something bad. Henry was said to be charming, handsome and full of life. He loved music, soRead MoreKing Henry Viii Of England2253 Words   |  10 Pages Henry VIII of England[1509-1547] By Kent McMahon King Henry VIII of England is the most infamous and notorious of all the Monarchs of England. He was a vile and heartless man who beheaded over 72,000 people in his 38 year reign and called for public celebration when his first wife, Catherine of Aragorn died on the 7th of January,1536. King Henry VIII was born on the 28th of June,1491 in Greenwich Palace. He was theRead MoreHenry Viii And The Church Of England912 Words   |  4 Pages2014, p.1). Seventeenth century Britain was undoubtedly a dangerous place to be a dedicated Catholic under the reign of King Henry (Harrington, 2013, p. 1). Henry VIII created the Church of England, in response to the Pope’s refusal to recognize the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, ultimately speaking against Catholicism (Harrington, 2013, p. 1). Thus, King Henry created a serious distastefulness towards Catholicism and Catholics (Harrington, 2013, p. 1). When Oliver Cromwell came toRead MoreThe Monarch : King Henry Viii1792 Words   |  8 PagesThe Monarch King Henry VIII (1491-1547) ruled the nation of England for thirty six years, during which many changes eventually brought his nation into the Protestant Reformation. He married six wives in pursuit for a healthy male heir and political alliance. After annulling his first marriage, without papal approval this led to the creation of a separate Church of England. Of his six marriages, two of them ended in annulment, two with his wives’ beheadings for treason and adultery, and the lastRead MoreHenry Viii And Elizabeth Of York1038 Words   |  5 Pages Henry VIII Can you guess who this is? He will form his own church (Elton). He will also marry 6 wives(Crofton 130). Did you guess right? It was King Henry VIII. Henry VIII was born June 28, 1941 (Crofton 128). Henry was the second son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (Elton). After his oldest brother Arthur in 1502 he became heir to the English throne (Crofton 130). In 1509 Henry VII died and then Henry VIII was crowned on June 23,1509 (Crofton 128). Henry was the second

Use Of Satire In Canterbury Tales - 1301 Words

Chaucer’s Satyric Attack (An analysis of Chaucer’s use of satire to reach his intended audience in his Canterbury Tales) Satire is defined as â€Å"the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize peoples stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues† (Oxford). Another term that people would be more familiar with to describe this would be sarcasm. Language can be utilized in a nasty way, especially when wanting to demoralize another. Sarcasm is evil in and of itself and is a very Odyssean way of attacking someone. This is a powerful weapon used in Chaucer’s, Canterbury Tales. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales is the major work by Geoffrey Chaucer, medieval Englands leading†¦show more content†¦It is so obvious what Chaucer is stirring up here that one would have to be completely oblivious to miss it. Chaucer is taking a figure who is held in high regards by everybody in the church and reduces him down to the level of scum. He portrays that mighty figures have many hidden reasons to be disrespected. These â€Å"great† people like the Friar are telling the people of their church to do one thing, but then they themselves go and do another that completely and utterly disprove what they just taught their people. These people that follow the leaders of the church are called yokels, and are Chaucer’s intended audience. Chaucer is stating that people like the Friar, who are in charge, take advantage of their ignorance and stupidity to feed their selfishness. This supports Chaucer’s argument for the hypocrisy in the Roman Catholic church. Chaucer’s next utilization of satire in The Canterbury Tales is in his attack of the patriarchy. Epistemologically, economically, and ontologically, women were held on a lower level in regards to men. That was the natural way that they world was. This is characterized in Chaucer’s literature, The Wife of Bath’s Prologu e. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to argue the fact that women are not only equal to men, but even superior to them. â€Å"Thus in speaking, the Wife of Bath attempts to overcome, and is yet caught in, the double bind of endeavoring to give voice to distinctively female experience in the face of authorityShow MoreRelatedThe Use Of Satire In The Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer1406 Words   |  6 Pages Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, using his characters as the mouthpiece for his iconoclastic views. Chaucer had serious issues with the hypocrisy of the church as well as, many other sacred institutions. The only reason that Chaucer was not exiled or even imprisoned for his views is the way in which he exposed them. Through the allegorical meanings of this text and Chaucer’s claim that he is simply retelling the events of his pilgrimage to Canterbury as it occurred, Chaucer is savedRead MoreGeoffrey Chaucer View and Change on Judgement968 Words   |  4 Pages gender differences, and hypocrisy. He wrote about these problems in a set of tales widely known as The Canterbury Tales. The first is The General Prologue which describes a pilgrimage to Canterbury that many people endure, but on this specific journey, twenty-nine different people travel together to Canterbury. He uses two types of satire to relinquish these opinions, juvenile and horacian. A general definition of satire is saying one thing, but meaning another. The author Cynthia justifies my definitionRead MoreGeoffrey Chaucers Use of Characterization Essay1308 Words   |  6 PagesChaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses thoughts and actions, his word, and satire to characterize The Squire and The Wife of Bath. Geoffrey Chaucer is well known for his use of characterization in his works. A notable work of Chaucer was Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. This piece was notable because it appealed to a diverse base of readers. It appealed to a wide range of readers because of Chaucer’s characterization. Characterization is the process an author uses to develop the charactersRead MoreCanterbury Tales Satire Analysis866 Words   |  4 PagesGeoffrey Chaucer’s use of Satire in Canterbury Tales Directed Towards Church Hypocrisy, Class Nobility, and the Patriarchy) All well known, articulate speakers and writers throughout history use critical speaking techniques to rally support from those around them. One such tool is the use of satire in public speaking or writing. Satire is the combination of a poignant message along with sarcasm. Arguably the founder of Middle English, Geoffrey Chaucer was a mastermind in the use of satire within his writingRead MoreChaucers Use of Satire to Reach Specific Audiences857 Words   |  4 Pagesimportance. It is important to note that people do not only learn when they are at their destination, but also on the trip to those destinations. â€Å"The Canterbury Tales†, Chaucer’s unfinished work, was a group of stories about a group on pilgrimage, but the stories did not take place at the destination. These were stories told on the way to Canterbury. They were also very satiric stories. They showed great hypocrisy, and immorality. The stories seemed to have a purpose, and to be pointed towards speci ficRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer897 Words   |  4 Pages Geoffrey Chaucer had done many things including being a son of a merchant, page in the royal house, soldier, diplomat, and a royal clerk. Being all thing thinks he has seen quite of the world which helped him write â€Å"The Canterbury Tales† and through this piece of work he did entertains us. We consider this as a masterpiece that provides the best contemporary. He wrote a collection of stories to make a political point. He died before he was done righting all of his poems and short stories. AlsoRead More Chivalry in Chaucers Canterbury Tales802 Words   |  4 PagesChivalry in Chaucers Canterbury Tales In his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer fully explicates the cultural standard known as curteisye through satire. In the fourteenth century curteisye embodied sophistication and an education in French international culture. The legends of chilvalric knights, conversing in the language of courtly love, matured during this later medieval period. Chaucer himself matured in the Kings Court, and he reveled in his cultural status, but he also retained an anecdotalRead More Chaucers Canterbury Tales2103 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Satirist. The true goal of any Satire is to point out the flaws in certain aspect of society, while also inspiring reform to that very same aspect in one way or another. In Chaucer’s Canterbury tales, Chaucer satirizes the corruption Catholic Church and those associated. Chaucer saw that hypocrisy polluted the pureness of the church and expressed his disillusionment through the use of satire. Fearless of discommunication Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of sat ire, dared to speak openly of the absoluteRead More Comparing Satire in Canterbury Tales, Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock1351 Words   |  6 PagesUse of Satire in Canterbury Tales, Pride and Prejudice and The Rape of the Lock Jane Austen and Alexander Pope had had a myriad of writing styles and techniques from which to express the desired themes of their works.   Satire, however, seemed to be the effective light-hearted, yet condescending, tool that enabled them to surface the faults and follies of their moral and elite society.   In Chaucers Canterbury Tales, satire is used to the full extent in revealing the glutton within a piousRead MoreEssay about Geoffrey Chaucer Used Satire in His Tales657 Words   |  3 Pagesseries of tales making fun of the people of England and the ways of the church. Even though he was purposely making fun of the church, he had to be careful of the way he said some things. With some of the characters he creates, Chaucer finds himself apologizing in advance for what he is about to say; or what the characters were about to say. By doing this Chaucer is using satire. Satire is when you say something but mean another or the opposite of the thing you say. Most of Cha ucer’s tales are not

Monsters Are Due on Maple Street Free Essays

Twilight Zone The series Twilight Zone is a show that combines science fiction with society. Every episode ends with a shocking, unexpected twist. â€Å"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street† is an episode that informs society about the fear of prejudice and hysteria. We will write a custom essay sample on Monsters Are Due on Maple Street or any similar topic only for you Order Now In this episode, a loud shadow in the sky passes through Maple Street. The shadow is actually a meteor. Unexpected and strange things start to happen like the electricity and cars turning off. The people who live on Maple become very curious on what the meteor has done to the neighbors living on the street. A young boy named Tommy tells the adults that everything weird happening is because of the aliens from outer space, which he read about in a comic book. First the adults refuse to believe a child, but then they unconsciously start pointing fingers at who can and cannot be aliens. People were getting blamed for doing normal things such as insomnia, looking at stars, and experimenting on a radio, but then the neighbors would exaggerate and make it sound suspicious, strange and unusual. As the episode continues, the adults become paranoid and start to lose their minds. This twilight zone episode reveals to us that the real monsters in society are ourselves. The neighbors were very eager to figure out who and what was the cause of the power outage. Neighbors would blame other neighbors for the outage because they believed that one person was an alien. Even though they had no proof or evidence, they used their words to blame the suspects. A ruckus of mass paranoia occurs and everyone believes that everyone is an alien. Tommy compares the real life situation to a similar problem he read in a comic book about aliens taking over a town. The power outage that happened in the comic book is also occurring in real life. The adults do not believe him at first, but then they begin to slowly and senselessly start blaming other people for being an alien because they are afraid. Just like the media nowadays, mass paranoia affects everyone. The media exaggerates how something â€Å"might† happen and society makes it a big deal before anything is really happening. They cause concern and stress upon themselves because of what the media says. The central theme that exists within the episode is that words are mankind’s reatest weapon. I believe that words may not be able to physically hurt someone, but they can emotionally. Emotional pain is sometimes harder to endure than physical pain. In the neighborhood, some of the neighbors like Les Goodman are accused of being a suspect because his car randomly turned on, while everyone else’s didn’t start. Though he has no effect on the aliens, a woman claims t hat she has seen him look up at the sky late at night, as though he is waiting for something. She thinks he is waiting for the aliens or something from outer space. Therefore Goodman becomes an immediate suspicion to all the neighbors. Everyone in the neighborhood is now more aware of him, claiming that his family isn’t human, but aliens. The woman was being the real monster to society because she had no idea what she was talking about and jumps to conclusion about Les Goodman. Since she made a comment that didn’t have supported evidence, she dug Les Goodman into a hole, making people think he is an alien because everyone starts to believe her. This episode conveys propaganda to the audience. Everyone is following everybody else’s opinion, and they are all being biased. Just like in real life situations, propaganda occurs in the media. We are informed about a particular person’s point of view and their idea soaks up into our brain. Towards the end of the episode, all the neighbors are at their highest point of terrorization and fear. The mob starts to panic as they see a shadow figure approaching their neighborhood. Charlie assumes the shadow to be a monster. Therefore, he starts to act malicious and grabs a gun to shoot the shadow. Everyone comes near the monster and it turns out to be Pete Van Horn, who was one of the neighbors coming home from town. The lights in Charlie’s house randomly turns on and everyone starts to tell him that is he held responsible for the death of Pete. He is now accused of being a monster because of the electricity in his house turning on, and a murder of an innocent man. Charlie was trying to protect his people, but he ends up accidently shooting a person. Everyone starts to blame him for being a monster and throws rocks at him. He did something to help, but since someone said that he is a monster for killing and having his light turn on, he is evil. This shows that all of society is influenced to have the same viewpoint of a specific person, and sometimes they tend to follow counter-information. This episode challenges social convention because society expects us to have the same perception as what the government wants us to think. The people living on Maple were so afraid of what was happening that they believed anything anyone said. Steve has a radio in his garage which he has been working on by himself, and they assume that he is working on an odd electronic related to the aliens. Steve was one of the first to be suspicious of Les Goodman. When Steve was blamed of being an alien, he becomes hypocritical and yells at the neighbors and tells them they are all standing out on the street to crucify someone, and that they are all set to find a scapegoat. Steve knows the only thing that will happen to the neighbors is that they will all become obsessed with finding a scapegoat, and in result they are going to eat each other up alive. Out of fear and panic, they all ruin themselves and each other. Like social convention, Steve and Les have done something odd and different, so they have been frowned upon. In the beginning of the episode, everyone on Maple Street seems happy and cheerful. It is sunny outside and kids are playing in the streets. Once it gets darker at night, the power is still out and there is no more light outside or inside. Everyone is using candles for light, there are no more children around, and the streets seem very dark and mysterious. The neighbors are portrayed as mobs. They all stick together and follow each other wherever one goes. This shows society believing one person’s point of view. The people in the back of mob don’t have much to say. Instead they just stand there and agree with the main person speaking because they are weak and do not have anything to say. Their faces have a shadow and it is dark surrounding all of them leaving making it very suspenseful. The darkness adds a more mysterious effect. The secretive aura of the darkness represents a hidden truth behind society’s lies that are spoken to us. In the end, no one living on Maple Street was an alien. Though there really was an alien, the aliens believe that stopping a few machines, putting the street in darkness will ruin the neighbors without the aliens even being round the humans. The aliens assume that all the neighbors will pick on the most dangerous enemy and be prejudice towards the enemy and to others. But as this all happens, the neighbors’ most dangerous enemy is actually themselves. They destroy themselves by panicking and finding a scapegoat. Everyone is torn apart and no one knows or believes the truth. â€Å"There are weapons th at are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men† is said at the end of the episode. I believe this quote sums up the people living on Maple Street perfectly. Their suspicion destroyed the neighborhood to a point where an innocent life was taken. The people are all thoughtless and frightened and are lying just to protect themselves. Community and society are easily manipulated when they are terrorized. The government tries to takeover some of society’s weak minds and influences them to believe what is right and what is wrong. The community and society speaks before they think, even though sometimes it is not true. They create a monster to themselves because they are creating false facts for everyone to be concerned about. How to cite Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, Papers

Censorship in Australia Essay Example For Students

Censorship in Australia Essay No society has ever existed, as far as we know, which has not exercised some form of censorship over the conduct and opinions of its members Good morning teachers and students. Censorship by the government infringes upon the rights of the individual and inhibits freedom of expression. Now, censorship is a broadly used term so what exactly IS censorship? Well, censorship is defined by the Australian Macquarie Dictionary as the actions of a censor that is, an official who examines books, plays, news reports, films, radio programs (and more recently the internet), for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military or other grounds. Censorship has been around since the beginning of time. It has been used as a tool to control what others have access to. In Australia today, we are supposedly guaranteed the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press by our constitution. Yet censorship still exists. We are told censorship is necessary, but at wh at cost? National security and public interest, are these valid reasons? Why must the government decide what is best for me to read or watch in a cinema or in the privacy of my own home? Sure, we must protect our youth, but that is a parents responsibility, not the governments. I can understand censorship based upon national security; we cant go around selling all of our secrets without a major threat to our government and our way of life. Censorship is a way of controlling the population. This is exactly why we have laws that forbid random censorship. Some censorship is necessary in every culture, but only a minimal amount is required. Australians love freedom. The rest of the world regards us as one of the most liberal nations, which is why restrictive censorship is so out of place here. Censorship is a way of limiting the freedom we so love. Censorship affects everybody on a both direct and indirect level everyday. Whether it is at the newsagent, cinemas, music store or the votin g booths. When the boundaries of government censorship start to inhibit freedom of expression and information, the definition of a democratic society is challenged. We will write a custom essay on Censorship in Australia specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now A majority of the censorship I have run into in my lifetime is due to my age. The government determined some years ago that myself and minors in general were not mature or old enough to deal with certain subjects and thus forbade us from obtaining these certain pieces of material. Aside from this I believe myself and the Australian public have been very fortunate in our academic freedom. Compared to other places in the world we have a very wide access to material from all over from a wide variety of points of view. One of the greatest aspects of life, without any doubt, must be the process of learning and acquiring information. Beyond simple facts, this allows an individual to better understand the world around them in all its different aspects and to better appreciate the diversity of existence. For these reasons censorship poses a serious threat to both the individual person and to society as a whole for it obstructs the search for all knowledge and is detrimental to a complete und erstanding of life as we know it. Within any nation it is in the best interests of its citizens to allow all ideas and information to be free from any restrictions and prohibitions. Free speech eliminates the possibility of one group imposing its own values and judgments upon another and instead creates a society of free thinking individuals, who, as a whole, can work together for the benefit of all. .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .postImageUrl , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:hover , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:visited , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:active { border:0!important; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:active , .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6 .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u9b3a0c6cbc50b1033fc22f67647682b6:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Why Abortion Should Be Illegal EssayThe freedom to read is essential to the democratic way of life. But today, that freedom is under attack. Private groups and public authorities everywhere are working to remove both books and periodicals from sale, to exclude certain books from public schools, to censor and silence magazines and newspapers, and to limit access to controversial books and periodicals to the general public. The suppression of reading materials is suppression of creative thought. However or whenever these attacks occur, they usually fall into at least one of the following categories: Religion, Violence, Race, Drugs, Sex or Inappropriate Adolescent Behaviour. All of these categories relate in some form or another to the issue of obscenity. What IS obscenity? Clearly something hard to talk about from an objective point of view. Obscenity is difficult to discuss honestly. After all, what makes a thing obscene? It is something too vague perhaps to be defined. Its an elusive term we use, but cant explain. Different people will always see things differently. This is human nature. Some see obscenity in nude pictures, statues, paintings, etc while others find obscenity in completely different things. All the same, obscene isnt the same as wrong or bad. The whole premise of obscenity relies on individual opinion. Recently we have been hearing a lot about the need for censorship of television and recording industries. Whether it is the cartoon Southpark, the controversial American television program Sex and the City or rap recording artists, someone always seems to arguing about their negative effects on society and the need for government regula tion. Being a fan of rap, I am particularly interested in issues effecting regulation of the recording industry and rap artists. Popular gangsta rappers include Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg Tupac Shakur, Ice Cube, and Eminem (aka Slim Shady). Many are outraged at the explicit lyrics of the songs and the lifestyles of these artists. Snoop Doggy Dog and Tupac Shakur are two of the most publicized gangsta rappers whose songs contain explicit lyrics and who have been indicted for criminal activities. I was once given a piece of advice when watching a particularly gory movie with my father in one of my younger years. He said to me If you dont like it, dont look at it, and I believe this applies to all facets of society that are affected by censorship whether in relation to film, literature or audio material. Nobody in our society is told what to watch, listen to or partake in, therefore it should only be fair that nobody is told what they cant watch, cant listen to or cant partake in. Our world is not perfect. We are a world filled with violence, sex, racism etc. Certain literature like hard-core or unclassified pornography should be censored to children. These types of explicit sex truly have no place in front of the eyes of kids. In extreme cases some of this literature degrades the human race by inciting physical, mental and sexual abuse against women, animals, and sometimes against men and should not be viewed full stop. These examples however are in the extreme minority. To make a tree grow correctly, you must start caring from the very beginning. You must not block itsnutrients, water nor sunlight, but allow it to move around a bit. Our society needs to be treated in the same fashion. There should indeed be ready access to information, but in varying degrees of freedom, determined not by censorship, but by controlled access. The government is trying to protect the population from the harsh realities of life through censorship of information, but are they really helping, or are they hindering by restricting the individuals freedom to information in a supposedly democratic nation? Make up your own mind.. its freedom of choiceBibliography:

Pi Number Essays - Pi, Approximations Of, , Term Papers

Pi Number A little known verse in the bible reads "And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other; it was round all about, and his height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about (I Kings 7, 23)." This passage from the bible demonstrates the ancient nature of the irrational number pi. Pi in fact is mentioned in a number of verses throughout the bible. In II Chronicles 4,2, in the passage describing the building of the great temple of Solomon which was built around 950BC, pi is given as equal to three. This value is not very accurate at all and should not even be considered accurate for it's time, however it should be noted that precision was not needed for the task that was being performed and we should let the general concept of pi that the biblical characters posses impress us. Present knowledge suggests that the concept of pi first developed in 2000 BC in two separate cultures. The Babylonians used pi at a value of 25/8 while an entirely different culture, the ancient Egyptians used pi at a value of 256/81. While the biblical calculation of pi=3 most likely came from crude measurement, there is strong reason to believe, because of the relative accuracy of the values, that the Babylonians and Egyptians found pi by means of mathematical equations. In the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus, which is dated around 1650 BC, there is strong evidence supporting that the Egyptians used 4(8/9)2 =3.16 for their value of pi. At that point in history, and for the majority of modern history, pi was not seen as an irrational number as it is today. The next culture that investigated pi was the ancient Greeks. Starting in 434 BC Greeks were unraveling the mysteries of pi. The mathematician Anaxagoras made an unsuccessful attempt at finding pi, which he called squaring the circle and in 414 BC, 20 years after Anaxagoras failed in his attempt to square the circle, Aristophanes refers to the work of Anaxagoras in his comedy "The Birds". It took over 100 years for the Greeks to finally find a value for pi. In 240 BC Archimedes of Syracuse showed that 223/71*pi*22/7. Archimedes knew, what so many people today do not, that pi does not equal 22/7 and he made no claim to have discovered the exact value of pi. However if we take the average of his two bounds we obtain pi=3.1418, which was an error of about 0.0002. Archimedes found the most accurate value of pi up to that time and his value would be used exclusively until the next discovery in the world of pi. The next major finding concerning pi did not occur in the western world, but in China by Tsu Chung-chi'h who approximated pi at 355/113 in 480 AD. Next to nothing except for this work is known about Tsu Chung-chi'h's life but it is very unlikely that he had any awareness of Archimedes work. We shall now notice how during the dark ages of Europe, the lead in the research of pi is passed to the East. Aryabhata, working on his own in Persia without any outside information in 515 AD was able to approximate pi to 3 decimal places. A mathematician from Baghdad named Al'Khwarizimi worked with pi however the most accurate finding of pi to date was found even more east in Samarkand by Al-Khashi. In 1430 AD he approximated pi to 16 decimal places, the most to date. His work however, would be the last of note from the east as the European Renaissance brought about a whole new mathematical world. The first notable discovery in the approximation of pi from the European Renaissance was by Viete in 1593 AD. He expressed pi as an infinite product by using only 2's and square roots. In 1610 Ludolph van Ceulen demonstrated the new thought coming out of the Renaissance by calculating pi to 35 decimal places. Around the same time, Snell refined Archimedes's method of calculating pi, and Snell's work was used by Grienberger to calculate pi to 39 decimal places in 1630. In 1655 Wallis showed that pi/2=2/1*2/3*4/3*4/5*6/5*6/7*8/7*8/9..... The 18th centuary brought about great achievements in the calculating of pi. In 1706, Machin found pi to 100 decimal places, the first time that feat was ever achieved and in the same year, a British mathematician, William Jones first used pi for the circle ratio. In 1737, Euler first used the Greek letter pi

Free Essays on The Unfinished Murder

â€Å"Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person†¦ I asked him ‘Didn’t you have a wife or a girlfriend you could do this with?’ He said ‘I like this better. I like it better this way.’ â€Å" -Victim Testimony, Trial Transcript, People V. Eric Barnes, Kew Garden, New York, July 6, 1984. Rape is a physical attack, not sex. Rape crisis counselors and researchers define rape as an act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon (Benedict 2). A woman is raped in this country every two minutes. Between 1996 1 in 4 of these rapes took place in a public place (Grady 4). Rape is a problem that infiltrates all countries and cultures; a Muslim woman who has been raped is disowned by her fiancà © and her family for having brought them shame by becoming dirtied and thus not a candidate for marriage (Benedict 2). Cross-cultural research has shown that rape is most common in cultures that are dominated by males and violence. This means cultures in which males dominate the political decisions and cultures adhering to the male ideology of toughness, interpersonal violence and war (Groth 7). In a culture of people with more traditional or sexist gender role, attitudes are more tolerant of rape than are people with more nontraditional attitudes. Traditional men are more likely to report that they would commit rape if they knew they would not be caught; some researchers have found that a traditional man is much more likely to commit a rape than a nontraditional man is. Many attitudes in our culture perpetuate rape, for example: A husband is entitled to have sex with his wife," "A 'real man' never pass... Free Essays on The Unfinished Murder Free Essays on The Unfinished Murder â€Å"Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person†¦ I asked him ‘Didn’t you have a wife or a girlfriend you could do this with?’ He said ‘I like this better. I like it better this way.’ â€Å" -Victim Testimony, Trial Transcript, People V. Eric Barnes, Kew Garden, New York, July 6, 1984. Rape is a physical attack, not sex. Rape crisis counselors and researchers define rape as an act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon (Benedict 2). A woman is raped in this country every two minutes. Between 1996 1 in 4 of these rapes took place in a public place (Grady 4). Rape is a problem that infiltrates all countries and cultures; a Muslim woman who has been raped is disowned by her fiancà © and her family for having brought them shame by becoming dirtied and thus not a candidate for marriage (Benedict 2). Cross-cultural research has shown that rape is most common in cultures that are dominated by males and violence. This means cultures in which males dominate the political decisions and cultures adhering to the male ideology of toughness, interpersonal violence and war (Groth 7). In a culture of people with more traditional or sexist gender role, attitudes are more tolerant of rape than are people with more nontraditional attitudes. Traditional men are more likely to report that they would commit rape if they knew they would not be caught; some researchers have found that a traditional man is much more likely to commit a rape than a nontraditional man is. Many attitudes in our culture perpetuate rape, for example: A husband is entitled to have sex with his wife," "A 'real man' never pass...

The Emergence of Industry Clusters Theory & Evidence Essay

The Emergence of Industry Clusters Theory & Evidence - Essay Example On the other hand, the term ‘industry cluster’ is referred to as the geographic absorption of interconnected businesses, suppliers and associated organisations in a particular field (Cilibrasi & Vitanyi, 2005). The industry clusters are primarily considered so as to enhance the productivity and the profitability of the organisations which would augment the corporate image and the customer loyalty among other competitors in the markets. It would be beneficial for an enterprise to cope up with the competitive challenges of the varied situations and conditions. Therefore, it is also known as competitive cluster or Porterian cluster (Sandiego Association of Governments, n.d.). In addition, an industry cluster also enhances the probability of skilled workers at a quite lower rate as compared to other market scenarios, infrastructure facilities, and distribution facilities among others. Apart from this, an industrial cluster also reduces the business and the financial risks as well as offers flexibility in the management decision processes of the enterprises thereby improving the profit margins of the organisations. ... This assignment is divided into five phases including introduction, key particulars related to industry clusters, relevant theories on the origin and emergence of industry clusters, plans and policy recommendations and finally conclusion. Key Particulars Related To Industry Clusters Industry cluster is defined as the group of interrelated companies and industries mainly found in the micropolitan areas, but each cluster is unique in size, core potencies and dealings. The industry clusters are the groups of firms in a specific geographical region that share a universal market, technologies, workers’ skill and are also linked with the buyer-seller relationships. It makes an area competitive as well as a viable location for the development of varied industries. According to Klepper (2010) industry clusters are vibrant entities which might change depending upon the existing industries or on the exterior conditions. These are the geographic deliberations of competing, opposite, or i nter-reliant firms and industries that might perform business operations with each other or with exterior enterprises. The firms present in the cluster may be aggressive and cooperative in nature. This is due to the fact, that at the initial stages of development, the area or market is entirely new and the rivals are also quite less as compared to others. Thus, it can be affirmed that no explicit benefit is offered by any specific region or market at the preliminary stages of development of clusters. However, after the establishment of the cluster, the area becomes competitive as well as feasible for business prospects which enhance the economic growth of the area. As a result, it attracts new industry entrants, which increases the competitiveness of the region. This can also be

Analytical Report of Professional Practice (Behaviour Management) Essay

Analytical Report of Professional Practice (Behaviour Management) - Essay Example This reflective piece describes the challenges as an educational professional in behaviour management, an identified personal weakness, which requires significant development in order to facilitate a cohesive classroom environment and assist children in constructing a sense of communality and to respect the rights of others from a social standpoint. There are a range of strategies designed to modify problematic behaviours with primary school-aged children, including elements from cognitive behavioural therapy, an interactive and authoritarian role of the educational practitioner, creating sanctions, and a variety of reinforcement strategies to curb or otherwise deconstruct problem habits in the classroom. As a professional, the practitioner must understand which strategies are appropriate for children in the pre-operational or concrete operations stage of cognitive development in order to ensure that the aforementioned strategies will be effective in producing a socially-harmonious l earning environment and curbing problematic behavioural issues. ... r has recently taken on the professional role of 1:1, working with a child maintaining very aggressive behaviours and oppositional attitudes that significantly complicate the learning process. Traditional behaviour management strategies are oftentimes ineffective when engaging the child, representing a substantial challenge in facilitating a positive educational practice. This child maintains a socio-historical background that apparently did not provide appropriate social guidance and strategies for curbing impulsive responses, making it the role of the practitioner to attempt to deconstruct these caregiver oversights that likely occurred during earlier childhood development. Reflection will focus on these interventions with the aggressive and non-compliant child, referencing contemporary theoretical positions on behaviour management in the educational environment to assist in professional self-development in behaviour control. Defining behaviour and behaviour management. Behaviour i s defined by Endoo (2012, p.83) as the† specific actions and/or reactions of the individual in relation to environmental stimuli, either conscious or unconscious† that drives mannerisms and conduct. Behaviour management is strategies that are inclusive of all actions to increase the likelihood that people, both as individuals or in the group/team environment, choose to manifest behaviours that are fully productive, socially appropriate and even fulfilling from a personal perspective (Baldwin and Baldwin 1986). Behaviour management works under the premise that the professional attempting to manage problem behaviours can effectively manipulate changes to behaviour and attitudes once the practitioner identifies what the individual deems personally rewarding (Grenning 1993). They key

Legalization of Marijuana in Arizona Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legalization of Marijuana in Arizona - Essay Example Currently, taxation on Alcohol and Cigarettes has been beneficial for the federal government. Solely $9 billion are gained annually through the excise tax on alcohol and $25 billion through cigarettes. States collect approximately $5.5 billion through alcohol taxes. There are certain shortcomings in the system due to which legitimate amount is still not collected. Collection of the exact amount of money through taxes on alcohol and cigarettes would gather billions of dollars. Strong legislation and adequate measures for the collection of tax on marijuana will definitely help Arizona to accumulate billions of dollars. Legalization of marijuana should be done in such a manner that high taxes are applied to it. There is not the much abundant supply of marijuana in the country and it has been sold in the grey market at a high price. Eventually, legalization of marijuana and quotation of high prices would basically discourage people to spend money on it. At the same; tax collection throug h it would be advantageous. The legalization of marijuana would promote its usage in the country but due to high prices, people would not be able to purchase it which would be ultimately positive. Most of the users of Marijuana are teenagers, high prices would change their purchase behaviors and sales reduction would be seen. Legalization of marijuana would also enable State to keep the record of demand and supply, which is fundamental for economics and finance division of Arizona. The sale and purchase mechanism of marijuana is still prevalent beneath the table and it involves drug dealers, criminals, and mob gangs. Due to legalization, these unlawful business operators would get out of their hubs for business. Their presence in the market would basically escort police officials to find the culprits of smuggling and illegal trade. By catching these individuals, the economy of the country and state would rise as grey market and smuggling has destroyed nation’s economy.  

Business Plan for Record Label

Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par Business Plan for Record Label Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par