The Manipulation of Data and Political Agenda an Example of the Topic History Essays by

The Manipulation of Data and Political Agenda by Expert TheOdyssey | 27 Dec 2016 The Manipulation of Data and Political Agenda: A Closer Look at Hitler and Nazism Social Constructivism as a theoretical framework, [and as conceived by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann] explains reality as a matter of human generation or construction. As an offshoot of this framework, what may be called as knowledge [both in its theoretical and practical sense] and the sociology of knowledge can also be conceived as a matter of human generation or construction. For the sake of clarity and precision, the aforementioned generation or construction is called social construction. Need essay sample on "The Manipulation of Data and Political Agenda" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Knowledge can be conceived of as a body of true propositions about reality. But if reality per se is a matter of human construction [via what social constructivists call as social construction], then we can also say that our knowledge about reality is a matter of human generation or construction. It is with this particular strand of thought that this paper seeks to explain why it is important to be vigilant about the information that we receive from various sources especially in the context of our time since now, more than ever, societies easily accept the paradigm of the marketplace of ideas. History provides us with robust examples in which what we may call as knowledge can be manipulated or fabricated. On a preliminary note, it is important to differentiate what may be called as knowledge on the one hand, and information, on the other. This task may be illustrated by a simple analogy. Just as a pile of wood, let alone themselves, cannot make [and do not constitute] a house, a file of information cannot and do not properly constitute what we call as knowledge. For the pile of wood to be a house [and for the pile of information to count as knowledge], they must undergo a process. As one may have noted at this point, prior to questioning whether or not something is to count as knowledge, in the strict sense of the term, one must be wary about its source. It is at this point that I raise a very important tactic which, for a very long time, has been used by many political figures and their accomplices to make the circumstances favorable for their various social and political agenda. This tactic is called data manipulation. In different periods in history, political writers and even intellectuals have been engaged in political propaganda to sway public opinion or to justify the status quos political moves, policies and even its legitimacy. Nicolo Machiavelli is regarded by many as the first political pragmatist. He offers a realistic account of politics and governance. As to how a prince [or ruler] should conduct himself towards his subjects and friends, Machiavelli wrote the following: It appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of the matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done sooner affects his ruin than his preservation (p. 111). In Machiavellis view, self-preservation or the preservation of power [as in the case of a prince or a ruler] takes priority over anything else. Indeed, one may say that what ought to be done may be overridden by self-preservation, the latter being, first and foremost, a basic drive. Applying this particular view to the case of the state, one may say that for the state to be able to fulfill its mandate, it must first ensure its preservation because only then can it enforce the law and exact obedience. In a very real sense, a prince must be amoral and must be able to discern what to do depending upon what the circumstances require. Hence it is necessary for a prince to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity (Machiavelli, p. 112). To further this point, Machiavelli wrote the following: For if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity (p. 113). For most of us, Machiavellis ideas present us with a very disturbing picture nevertheless, their originality and potency cannot be easily dismissed since he reminds us of how complex human nature is. Machiavellis ideas regarding the preservation of power may be seen at work in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and how they both rose into power. Hitler and the Nazi Party employed different tactics and made extensive use of propaganda to sway public opinion. In all of these, the issue that this paper focuses on is the issue of manipulation as employed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. Manipulation is common [but is not limited] in the sphere of the political. The subject of manipulation is gaining more and more attention, as it seems to play an increasing role in many areas of our life, such as advertising, religion and politics (Blass, 2005, p. 169). Blass forcefully argues that Hitler and the Nazis employed manipulation in various forms to propagate their social and political agenda, which according to her is a very deceptive system. An important factor is that manipulation of the population of Germany had been at the bottom of the success of the Nazis (Blass, 2005, p. 169). For the most part, Blass claims that Hitlers speeches and writings are two important mechanisms that play very crucial roles in the aforementioned manipulation. Galasinki (2000) provided a definition of manipulation when he wrote: Manipulation is an attempt to affect the target in such a way that his behavior/action is an instrument of attaining the goals of the manipulator, who acts without using force but in such a way that the target does not know the goal of the manipulators actions (Blass, 2005, p. 170). What Galasinki points out is that when we speak of manipulation, it is always intentional [on the part of the manipulator]. Nazi critics regard Hitler as one of historys greatest manipulators. From the very beginning, Hitlers goal was clear and he knew what was needed for that goal to be achieved; to win the support of the German people, particularly the working class. To further this point, Blass (2005) writes: This means that if Hitlers aim is to win the trust of the German people, in order to fulfill his own plans, he had to know the plans and intentions of his addressees and try to change some of their intentions which they would be willing to accept as being coherent with their own plans and higher level intentions (pp. 176-77). Several examples will suffice to point out how Hitlers speeches and writings indicate a clear manifestation of manipulation. The extermination of the Jews was a directive which was withheld from the people of Germany and so up to that extent, involves manipulative deception. This is what Smith and Peterson, Eds. (1974) calls a case of manipulation of the people by omission (p. 169). Historical accounts reveal that Himmler intentionally hid this from the German people when he convened Nazis regional leaders at Posen. Another case of manipulation tactics employed by the Nazis is familiar for most of us. This manipulation technique is commonly used in marketing specifically, advertising. This is the use of propaganda material, which through catchy words and phrases as in the form of slogans and due to its repetitive nature, eventually persuades those who listen to it. Hitler himself devised this tactic to convert more Germans to accept the new political and cultural system provided by the tenets of Nazism (p. 197). A very interesting manipulation technique employed by Hitler in his speeches is his presentation of a dilemma in which his audience is inevitably forced to decide or make a choice. The problem however, is that there really is no choice since what Hitler conveys is that what he is proposing is a matter of necessity and ridicules those who will not agree. Simple enough, if it is a matter of necessity, then it is not a matter of choice. This is what he did when he justified the expansion of the German territory to the East. Hitler (1942) wrote the following: The exterior politics of the people state has to secure the livelihood of the race which is established through the state on this planet by creating a natural relationship between the number and the growth of the population on the one hand and the size and quality of the land on the other hand (p. 728). As one may have noted, the phrase has to implies that it must be done otherwise; the livelihood of the race will not be secured. Hitler then, is not presenting truth in its entirety and is forcing a false dilemma since there are other options than what he presents. At the onset of this paper, it was stated that one must be vigilant about the source of the information he/she receives. Aside from the aforementioned manipulation tactics, Hitler and the Nazis also prevented the German people from verifying the truth. Aside from fabricating evidences and information that serve their social and political agenda, they also deliberately denied the German people of their right to know the truth, not to mention a widespread conspiracy among their ranks to exterminate those who would try to know the truth. In order to ensure the success of Nazism, its rise to power, prominence and domination, Hitler and his accomplices goal is to prevent truth verification. Hitlers leadership and actions reflect, to a certain extent, the ideas put forth by Machiavelli. It seems that Machiavelli found his prince in the person of Hitler. It is only possible to win the soul of a nation if next to the leading of the positive fight for ones own goals one destroys the opponents of these goals (Hitler, 1942, pp. 371-72). References Blass, R. (2005). Manipulations in the Speeches and Writings of Hitler and the NSDAP from a Relevance Theoretic Point of View. In L. Saussure and P. Schulz (Eds.), Manipulation and Ideologies in the Twentieth Century (pp. 169-190). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Galasinki, D. (2000). The Language of Deception: A Discourse Analytical Study. London: Sage. Hitler, A. (1942). Mein Kampf. Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP. Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince.

Introduction to Leadership Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Introduction to Leadership Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Introduction to Leadership 1. (a)Theories and styles leadership Trait theory This theory recommends that effective leadership is a merger of skills that describes leadership actions and capabilities. The leadership of Coca Cola Company evaluates the workers psychological qualities emphasizing on unique abilities. The CEO of the company assesses the staff based on their actions and job structures. This theory recommends that the ownership of the abilities and traits such as tolerance to stress, persistence, desire to influence others, achievement oriented, ambition, fluent in speaking, and conceptually skilled employees confirms successful goal-orientated leaders in Coca-Cola Company and retaining such employees will be a great focus to the company. Behavioral Theory This theory states that leaders are always made and not born. Leadership abilities are learnt over time and they are not actually inborn qualities but they are successful behaviors of understandable and describable actions that are easier to learn than assuming different abilities. The top leadership of Coca-Cola Company gives employees opportunities to study and create leadership skills monitoring the enhancement from time to time and also choosing employees who possess effective leadership traits. It is moderately easier to assess leaders and leadership traits when developing a behavioral theory in a company. The CEO identifies the behavior use which increases to failure which is added to the layer of understanding. Participative Theory This theory intends at creating an understanding to making decisions in different situations. The theory recommends that persons working in teams must be more cooperative and less competitive. Decision making based on team work is better and more committed than individual persons. Coca Cola Company uses this theory to emphasize on the growth of groups for more focused and supportive decision making rather than working individually. Leaders are carefully chosen based on abilities such as cooperation, commitment, collaboration, and motivation friendly behavior where different programs are prepared so that the team member can create and develop the leadership skills. Leadership Styles The general method of leadership used by the manager is called a management style. The Coca-Cola company motivation to its workers to meet their goals will be based on the management style they will adapt. It therefore uses the following styles of management but each one in different departments. Democratic Style This leadership style comprises of the leader, sharing the decision making capabilities with the team members by promoting their interests and by practicing social equality. This emphasizes on team agreements to create new ideas. The democratic management style of leadership is of two types namely; democratic and consultative democratic. Democratic style is where all leaders, junior members and workers are included in the final decision making process and creating of new ideas. All team members are equal in that no-one has higher level than the others. This management style has been adopted by the Coca Cola Company. Teams and individuals are given tasks and making decisions within a specified framework and they are liable for their actions if anything wrong occurs. Democratic managers listen and act on the views of the team and this will make the workers to be happy and highly productive. Autocratic or Authoritarian style This autocratic type of a leader maintains strictness, close control over the team members by maintaining close rules of the procedures and policies given to the workers. Leaders ensure to only generate a distinct professional relationship to keep main emphasis on the difference of the autocratic manager and their workers. There is no negotiation and is very prescriptive and there is little job satisfaction because the manager makes all the decisions. Nevertheless, the job is quickly done and there is less no conflict between different. At Coca Cola Company, autocratic style is used because workers are controlled by the leaders and follow their instructions. Laissez-faire management style This leadership style is defined as hands off because the manager divides tasks to their employees, while providing little or no direction to the employees. Managers and directors of the company take this style to run their businesses if the employees are meeting their key business indicators. Leaders have a vision to revive every worker each day and the values to take pride in their job, to be true, fair and determined to win and have a passion for their actions. Consultative democratic This style is

How to Write the Brown University Essays 2015-2016

Brown University is often called the happiest school in the country, mostly due to its peaceful student body and reportedly less competitive environment. The university is located in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island, a mid-sized but extremely safe and friendly city in the Northeast. However, Brown’s top-notch academics, social environment, and location have made it an extremely desirable school to apply and thus an extremely competitive one. Like many schools, Brown’s core supplement consists of three short essay prompts, however because they have a word limit of just 150 words (200 in the case of Why Brown), it is almost impossible to write a well fleshed out and multi-faceted essay. This doesn’t mean that our standard advice about using short essay prompts in concert with each other to create a portfolio of essays doesn’t apply. Rather it means that each essay must be highly specific, and that using vehicles and unconventional formats (like detailed anecdotes) is more difficult, though certainly not impossible. Why are you drawn to the area(s) of study you indicated in our Member Section, earlier in this application? If you are â€Å"undecided† or not sure which Brown concentrations match your interests, consider describing more generally the academic topics or modes of thought that engage you currently. (150 word limit) While a â€Å"Why Major† essay would normally require you to specifically address the reasons you chose the major, the qualifications you possess for that major, and the reasons you like Brown’s program of study for that major, because you only have 150 words, you should pick just one of these aspects to highlight. Specific details about Brown are only required if you plan on addressing why Brown’s (for example Mathematics) program appeals to you. Otherwise, you should focus on more intrinsic factors such as why you want to study math (ideally more than just for career reasons), why you enjoy doing math, or why you’re qualified to study math at Brown. For example, you could point to your favorite type of math, and briefly analyze why it appeals to you. Alternatively, you could discuss an extracurricular activity (such as Math League) that introduced you to the joys of competitive math. If by some chance you can’t come up with a specific major to dis cuss, then your essay should focus on the opportunities that Brown offers you. In particular, you should look to highlight Brown’s liberal arts curriculum, as well as the academic flexibility it offers to students.   â€Å"Why Brown† is a similar prompt to most other â€Å"Why School† essays, however with just 100 words to work with, the essay is in the awkward position of being too short to develop a fully fleshed out essay with some sort of vehicle, but too long to be a short consideration of one specific characteristic of the school. Things that you definitely want to highlight in your essay include Brown’s emphasis on learning (versus output, i.e. grades), the collaborative spirit of the student body, and the school’s academic flexibility. However, if you highlight these factors during a general response to the major prompt, then you should do some research on the school to find other things to highlight. Tell us where you have lived – and for how long – since you were born; whether you’ve always lived in the same place, or perhaps in a variety of places. (100 word limit) Regardless of whether  you’ve moved around a lot or stayed in the same town your entire life, this question allows you to reveal some key  insights  about yourself. If your family moves often,  you can use take this prompt  as an opportunity to explain  your adaptive personality and how you deal with  unfamiliar situations.  Or, instead of  focusing on the experience of  changing between  locations, you can  also discuss the  impact of each individual place on  you — how has each location contributed to who you are today? For example, maybe your disparate experiences with living in rural China and then metropolitan New York have played a large role in shaping your unique outlook on life. If you’ve always lived in the same place, then fear not — there’s an opportunity to shine here as well. You can discuss the impact on your life of the location that you currently reside in. People are often products of their environments — how has your environment made you who you are today?  Be careful not to overlap  your  answer with the next essay’s, though. Since the  next question asks about a community that you come from,  if you are not careful you might end up discussing similar concepts, resulting in a â€Å"waste† of an  answer  opportunity. One unique  angle to  approach this question is to  interpret the phrase  Ã¢â‚¬Å"where you have lived† in a different way. Most students will assume that Brown is asking about the times that your family has moved to a new location, a la moving trucks and new apartments/houses; however, you can also interpret it to mean the different spaces that you have occupied. For example, maybe  you’ve shared a bedroom with your older brother for as long as you can remember, but one day you moved into a  new room by yourself  Ã¢â‚¬â€ you could potentially use this situation  as a launching pad for discussing the importance you place on  independence. Or maybe you’ve always considered yourself to have multiple homes away from home. Especially if  you possess  a very strong extracurricular passion to back this  interpretation up, you might want to talk about how you considered yourself to â€Å"live† in the local community center, the museum,  o r the art studio. Again, if you find yourself writing answers  unable to write answers that don’t  overlap with the next prompt, then thinking outside of the box  might help here. We all exist within communities or groups of various sizes, origins, and purposes; pick one and tell us why it is important to you, and how it has shaped you. (150 word limit) This prompt is very similar to the background one for the Common App, and you should highlight a different community/group that you belong to if you chose that prompt for the Common App. While you may be tempted to discuss your ethnicity or nationality in response to this prompt, it is difficult to do so without drawing on clichà ©d themes because of the 150 word limit. Instead, you should probably draw on an extracurricular activity, friend group, or family. When you consider this group, the focus should be primarily on explaining the group’s impact on you. You should only spend one or two sentences explaining the group – the remainder of the essay should talk about interactions with the group and analyze them. In choosing to apply for the Brown-RISD A.B./B.F.A. dual degree program, your interests and future plans will be influenced and enhanced by the courses offered by both colleges. We are curious as to why you have chosen to apply for this specific dual degree program; please tell us your reasons for selecting it, and what you envision as its impact on your education and career. (500 word limit) The Brown – RISD program is designed to give students an opportunity to blend a Brown undergraduate education with the artistic majors and options available at the Rhode Island School of Design. You should have a very clear interdisciplinary artistic academic or career goal in mind with this essay—just describing a general interest in art and another subject is not specific enough for the program. Since one of the short essay prompts asks you about your choice of major already, your primary focus should be on the artistic field you plan to study at RISD and the interdisciplinary application therein. While the prompt simply asks for your reasons for selection, the admissions committees also want to know about your qualifications for the program, and with that in mind, you should include some reference to relevant experience (whether extracurricular or in school) that will simultaneously serve as a reason and qualification for your application. The Program in Liberal Medical Education (Both questions are required; please limit your response to each question to 500 words.) Most high school seniors are unsure about eventual career choices. What experiences have led you to consider medicine as your future profession? Please describe specifically why you have chosen to apply to the Program in Liberal Medical Education in pursuit of your career in medicine. Also, be sure to indicate your rationale on how the PLME is a â€Å"good fit† for your personal, academic, and future professional goals. (Please limit your response to this question to 500 words.) This is a pretty standard â€Å"why medicine† prompt which means that you should use many of the same tactics as you would for that type of essay (see our guide to 7-year med programs here ). But to provide a brief rehash, in order to convey why a guaranteed admissions program is a good â€Å"fit† for your goals, there are few different things you need to discuss. First, you need to discuss why you are qualified for medicine; namely what sort of extracurricular activities did you do in high school that were related to medicine, whether tangentially or directly. More specifically, you want to convey your abilities in two key areas: the scientific side of medicine (i.e. the ability to understand and cure diseases), and the humanistic side of medicine (the ability to connect with patients and care for them). Patient care experience is a big plus for this part of the essay, and experiences such as volunteering at a nursing home or shadowing a physician are great enhancers. In the process of outlining your qualifications, be sure to discuss why you enjoy each of those two facets of medicine. The final thing you want to address is why specifically an accelerated program. Simply saying that you want to save time (the real reason for many applicants) can backfire. Instead, if you have an application with lots of medical and science extracurricular activities, you can speak about why those activities solidified your desire to do medicine. Otherwise, if your resume is more balanced, you can resort to saying that you are committed to medicine because you already spent high school exploring other fields. Since the Program in Liberal Medical Education espouses a broad-based liberal education, please describe your fields of interest in both the sciences and the liberal arts. Be specific about what courses and aspects of the program will be woven into a potential educational plan. (Please limit your response to this question to 500 words.) Brown’s PLME is unique in that it is one of few guaranteed admission medical programs that offers students the opportunity to blend liberal arts with the science heavy curriculum of most medical programs. Accordingly, they want to see that you have some significant connection with and interest in liberal arts fields while applying to the program. You should definitely do some research on the specifics of Brown’s PLME. Be sure to highlight specific research or academic opportunities in your essay, and even drill down into specific courses if you can find ones that meet your needs. Beyond the academics of the program, you should also highlight some sort of humanistic question or skill you are trying to develop. In particular, given the complexity of modern medicine, outlining a desire to learn about fields like medical economics or medical ethics could be extremely beneficial.

Project managment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Project managment - Assignment Example The design capacity of Johnsons is 20,000 kg. Effective Capacity Effective capacity is usually less than the design capacity due to different condition or the circumstances like break, staff turnover or breaks, defects in machinery, scheduling issues, operation management etc†¦ It is the rate at which the output is effectively being generated from a plant or the project. Johnsons have an effective capacity of 16,000 kg. Actual output It is the amount of the output that facility is actually producing against or compare to the design capacity or theoretical capacity. Actual output can be more than the designed capacity if redundancies and bottle necks are removed. The actual output of Johnsons is 12,000 kg right now that has gone below their effective capacity. Utilization It is the rate at which the potential output levels are being met. ... Therefore it relates to the usage of all the resources for generating an output including personal time and energy. HR manager The conditions currently prevailing in the Johnsons shows that they are not working optimally and definitely the efficiency level is quite low. They have been lagging behind not only design capacity but also the effective capacity that is to be achieved as per the policy of the company. It is the management issue that is prevailing the capacity and the output of the Johnsons can be improved. If they move to the new capacity with current style of management it would not be beneficial for the company. As a manager following options are available in order to improve the operations of the company: Departments, Scheduling and Specialized Workforce The whole process of the laundry and cleaning should be described or broken into different steps. It would be better for the company if different departments are made that would handle their respective activity and are j ust concerned with their contribution in the whole process (Montana, et al., 1993). Along with distributing the whole process in to departments a schedule should be given to each department and workforce made to work in teams. Schedules would give them an exact idea regarding the timing and their exact steps to be followed and expected time to clear single unit. Each department would be having only such workforce that are specialized to their allotted task of the whole process of laundry cleaning. With specialized workforce and proper scheduling time management would be ensured and efficiency along with the productivity could be increased. Every department would know that the succeeding department is expecting a

Our Current Use of Internet Technology and Recommendations for the Essay

Our Current Use of Internet Technology and Recommendations for the Future - Essay Example Knowing fully well that this company, Dixons, is a retail company dealing in electronics, the Internet has greatly helped us in running our business. There are so many ways the Internet has helped our business, but I will talking about how it has helped the marketing department of this organization. Before adopting the Internet, millions of pounds are spent on marketing the company's products and services. Some of these spending could be justified while others were just unnecessary. The forms of advertising adopted were: direct sales, yellow pages advertising, newspaper and magazine advertising as well. Television adverts were also part of the marketing strategies adopted by the organization. Though these strategies worked, they still had their limitations and were consuming so much from the company's purse. The Internet has reduced these limitations and has also cut down the cost of marketing ever since we have been using it. By running our business on the Internet, the cost of advertising has greatly reduced. The cost of running a direct sale campaign is very alarming. Materials have to be printed, packaged in an envelope and then sent to their respective destinations. The Internet has eliminated all these expensive processes and replaced them with relatively inexpensive strategies. One of the marketing strategies we are adopting now, which is v... There are neither printing costs nor any postage stamp to be bought. It has a higher response rate that the direct sales method. The effectiveness of this method is based on the fact of reselling to those who have bought from us, the existing customers. It is conventional wisdom in the high street retail trade that it cost ten times more to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one (Bruce Durie, 2001). Whenever we make a sale, we get the email addresses of the new customer. We get in touch with them on a regular basis and then recommend some other products that may be complementary to what they have bought earlier. This has also afforded us to build relationships with the customers. When we recommend new products to them, they gladly patronize us because of the relationship we have with them. Another online promotional strategy the marketing department is using is banner advertising. The way this is done is that we have our graphics designers design banners that we can place on other people's website for a nominal fee. This is a very simple and inexpensive marketing strategy. There are several high-traffic websites who are willing to give a space on their web pages in order to generate revenue. What we do is that we find out these websites and contact their owners to find out what it will take to place our banner on their websites. We find out that the cost these webmasters charge is very cheap. The opportunity they offer all is great. For a little cost, we are able to expose our products to hundreds of thousands of people every month. This has also generated a lot of traffic to our website and has helped so much with the sales being generated. This form of advertising has greatly

An Essay about its Interpretation through Connotations Essay Example for Free

An Essay about its Interpretation through Connotations Essay In this essay we are tasked to interpret the Eskimo song/poem written above through connotations. We are also tasked to examine the given poem through the following questions: What feelings come to you as you read it? What overall sense do the various words and images create? As I was reading the poem, I felt a deep sense of sadness and regret in the writer’s choice of words. It was as if he was writing while reminiscing about the better life he had before where problems were small and Life itself was simple.    He was regretting what has become of his life and has expressed a desire to go back to that simple life.   The choice of words create images of making hard choices, doing things not on one’s own will and of deep sadness of what has become of one’s life. Now I would interpret the poem per line based on the connotation that I got from them. The lines â€Å"Into my head rose the nothings, my life day after day† connoted that he was reminiscing and memories of his life before were coming back into his mind.   The next lines â€Å"But I am leaving the shore in my skin boat† is that he had to leave the life he had been used to. The next lines â€Å"it came to me that I was in danger† may be pertaining to the grave reason that he had to decide to leave even if he does not want to or a big decision he had to make.   The next lines ‘and now the small troubles look big and the ache that comes from the things I have to do every day, big† may mean that now that he had decided or left, things will not be as simple as they were before because every decision have consequences and thus involves certain responsibilities and risks that we have to take. The next lines â€Å"But only one thing is great only one.   This, in the hut by the path to see the day coming out of its mother and the light filling the world† means that the writer still yearns to go back to his simple life before, where everything he wanted was to see the sunrise in the morning in his humble home.

Hard Cover vs. Hard Drive Essay -- Compare Contrast Writing Technology

Hard Cover vs. Hard Drive Will Electronic Publications Ever Replace the Book? At one time our world was strictly an oral culture. We recited stories, kept records stored in our memories. When writing was invented did we suddenly stop speaking to one another or remembering facts? Of course not. At any given moment we can recall, from memory, names, dates, and places that we have committed to memory. When the printing press was invented, did we stop writing by hand? Again, no. So, why would we stop reading a book just because we have access to the World Wide Web? All previous information technologies of language, rhetoric, writing and printing are technological in themselves (Landow 218). These technologies—writing, speaking, typing—may seem second nature, but given time so will the Web. There are reasons for choosing a book over the Internet. To make that choice, first you must ask yourself what material you want to read, and why you want to read it. Then you can more easily discover the best medium to read it on. "It appears that electronic publications are generally either read by different people than those who read printed works, or are used by them differently†¦or as compliments, but not competitors (Pang 344)." If I want driving directions, for example, I could pull out my atlas and look through the pages of roads I’ve never heard of and landmarks I have ever seen. Or, I could go to www.mapquest.com and simply type in my starting point and final destination and get exact directions and mileage along with a map of that specific area in a matter of seconds. This is just one instance where the web is the choice over a book. "A great many—perhaps most—books do not contain literature, the arts, history, or even... ... distinction, I’m not sure. Maybe I have more respect, even a sense of duty, to the classical writers. At any rate "the movement to embrace new technology will not be a movement from something natural or human to something artificial—from nature to technology," and George Landow puts it, "since writing and printing books are about as technological as one can be (Landow 219)." The World Wide Web has just given us a different forum to experience text we have come to love and depend on. Works Cited Tribble, Evelyn B. & Anne Trubek, ed. Writing Material: Readings from Plato to the Digital Age. New York: Longman, 2003. Landow, George, "Twenty Minutes into the Future, or How Are We Moving Beyond the Book?" Tribble & Trubek 214-26. Pang, Alex Soojung-Kim, "The Work of the Encyclopedia in the Age of Electronic Reproduction." Tribble & Trubek 343-51.