An Urban Tourism Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

An Urban Tourism Experience - Essay Example Through the development of a narrative of the experience of being out in the field, the study uses thematic descriptions in order to define the way in which the experience of Rome can be brought into context with the modern experience. The themes that emerge in the development of the case are defined by the overall Roman culture through which an understanding leads to a sense of pride in the Italian lifestyle. A definition of urban tourism can simply be made by stating that it is tourism that has a city or cities as a destination for holiday. A more complex version of the definition, however, involves the desire to seek out other cultures and explore social meaning and context through first hand experiences. While urban tourism needs an additional amount of information in order to have real meaning, the ability to go to an urban center and taste the nature of the culture through experience can expand the understanding that one has about that locale. The culture of a city comes from the incidental and unintentional things that are encountered. The development of an urban tourism encounter is based upon the development of a conglomeration of disciplines so that the holiday creates a sense of the environment, not just the concept of the outsider who is looking in on a culture as if it were a zoo. Many travellers see the world as if it is a zoo for their observation, but not a place in which to immerse oneself in the culture of a city is to discover something more than just what can be observed. Urban tourism types of travel have the ability to create a connection to the observed culture that is based upon seeing their world through eyes that have been taught to look. Through information from outside sources, through learning a bit of the language of the city that is the focus of the travel, and through looking for aspects of the city that are not intended for the eyes of the traveller, the culture begins to emerge. 1.1 Research Questions The following research questions have been developed in order to frame the inquiry that this study has endeavoured to create: What is the cultural experience that defines the urban tourism event in Rome? What appears to be the hidden culture that the facade created for tourists has tried to dissuade tourists from observing? What are the cultural meanings that the urban tourist can readily observe within the experience of the city of Rome? What experiences in the city of Rome can become part of a profile of its identity? 2. Literature Review 2.1 Urban Tourism Buhalis and Darcy (2011, p. 123) discuss the nature of tourism by writing that â€Å"Travel involves the movement away from home with its gendered responsibilities and expectations, as well as the movement towards other worlds and possible selves experienced within a relation to difference†. The experience of immersing oneself into another culture is defined both by the lived experiences of the indigenous population, combined with the public identity of the locale that has been created through carefully cult ivated perceptions about the regions.

Discus Definition Essay Example for Free

Discus Definition Essay 1. Discus is a complex sport that requires skill and a lot of training. The discus is held in the dominant hand putting the first knuckles of your fingers around the edge. Your hand must be spread wide but not strained. You must orient your wrist so your index finger is directly in line with your forearm. You must then align yourself with the target area, either at your left shoulder or behind you. Most professionals face away from the target, which requires another 90 degrees of spin and can be a more difficult manoeuvre but optimizes throwing speed on a properly executed throw. Just before your right leg is planted, your left leg should rise off the ground with the momentum of your spin. As your right leg plants, your left leg should move low and fast around your body to plant in line with the right leg at the front of the circle. The left leg plants firmly and the entire momentum of the body is directed into the extended right arm. The hips drive through the rotation to face the target while the shoulders and arm trail behind and then snap through. The discus is released off the front of the fingers, rolling off the index finger, which imparts clockwise spin. The skeletal system has a major contribution as it provides the movement during the discus throw. The phalanges and metatarsals are used to allow the movement in the feet when spinning and swivelling. The feet play a very significant role throughout the entire preparation and throw. The tarsals in the ankles are gliding joints which allow for the ankles to create the joint action of dorsiflexion and plantar flexion when the individual turns their body in preparation for the throw. During the discus throw, the athlete lifts one foot in a plantar flexion whilst the other foot stays in the dorsiflexion position. During the whole throw, the legs are constantly flexed and extension is not made until the discus has been released and the athlete is not longer in motion. The vertebral column, consisting of the cervical vertebrae, thoracic curvature and the lumbar curvature, allows movement in the trunk. When the individual spins, the vertebral allows the trunk to rotate from side to side. Included in the trunk is the sternum and the rib cage. The patella is a condyloid joint is in a bent while the tibia, fibula and femur are all flexing as rotation is taking place. The pelvis which is a ball and socket joint allows flexion in the legs. The phalanges and the metacarpals flex as the discus is gripped. The carpals in the wrist are gliding joints, which rotate and flex as the arm swings back and forth across the body in order to keep a solid grip on the discus. The fingers extend when releasing the discus in order to get distance. The elbow, which is a hinge joint, allows bending when coming back across the body after hyperextension behind the body. It is then in a pronation position when extended forward. The muscular system also plays a major role in throwing a discus. The entire muscular system is required to enable to discus throw. The tibialis anterior, located near the tibia, allows the feet to produce the action of dorsiflexion, inversion and eversion. For the knee to be able to flex, the gastrocnemius and the hamstrings perform a concentric movement whilst the quadriceps and tibialis anterior create the eccentric movement because they lengthen. The erector spinae allows for the back to extend when the individual swings their arms back and forth around their body in preparation of releasing the discus. This allows for the muscle length to increase so that muscle is completing an eccentric contraction. Because the body is moving from side to side, the external obliques flex as the trunk rotates. Whilst the athlete is moving to the left, the left hand side obliques shorten, performing the concentric muscle contraction. At the same time the right external oblique is lengthening. This is constantly swapping as the athlete swings their arms from side to side. The trapezius elevates the shoulders and extends while the pectorals flex when the arms moves. The pectorals are performing concentric contractions and the trapezius is performing eccentric contractions. In the upper body the deltoids are extending as the arms hyperextend behind the body, which is an eccentric contraction, although it is becoming a concentric contraction as the arms move towards the front of the body. As the arm flexes, the bicep is performing a concentric contraction whilst the triceps perform eccentric contractions. The rectus abdominals are an isometric muscle contraction as they do not play a major role in performing discus. 2. In performing discus there are six main physical fitness and movement components. Three being health-related components and three being skill-related components. Muscular strength is highly necessary in discus. The more muscular strength an individual has, the further distance the discus will go. Flexibility is also a component of fitness involved in discus. It is one of the most neglected but most vital elements to an athlete. There are many different stretching techniques a discus athlete should perform in preparation. These include straddle stretch, upper groin stretch, butterfly groin stretch, trunk twist, open arm stretch, triceps stretch, cuff stretch. The skill related components that discus thrower posses are power, coordination and balance. There are many different training techniques that all professional discus throwers need to be able to perform. The first is weight lifting. Discus throwers should incorporate upper body and lower body exercises. For the upper body, perform workouts that train the essential muscles for discus throwing. These include bench press, shoulder press, triceps extensions, and shoulder lifts, exercises that improve the strength of the shoulders and arms to generate a longer throw. For the lower body, perform squats, lunges, and box jumps to improve leg power. Discus throwing includes a high level of intensity and a sudden burst of speed for a short interval of time. Another way discus throwers can train is by using medicine balls. Use a medicine ball to perform exercises that mimic throwing the disc. To increase oblique strength, throw a medicine ball from your hip against a wall and catch on the opposite side of your body. Repeat to strengthen both sides of the body. This strengthens the upper body by simulating similar movements to discus throwing. As with strength training, medicine ball exercises should be performed at maximum intensity. Another training technique is the tire flip. The tire flip improves explosiveness, endurance and full body muscle strength. Flip the tire as many times as you can at full intensity. The tire flip works the muscles necessary for the discus throw and greatly improves conditioning. There are also other training techniques for discus throwers such as stretching and the sandbag carrying. Athletes should perform a complete stretching routine before and after each training session. Since discus throwing incorporates all muscles of the body, take the time to stretch each muscle group thoroughly. Throwing a discus is an extremely intense movement, forcing your body to twist and jerk at high speed. Competitors can easily injure a number of muscle groups if they fail to prepare the muscles for the movements by stretching and warming up. The sandbag carry will develop your core and strengthen your abdominal muscles. As you throw the disc, your body is twisted at a high speed to generate power. Your abdominal muscles generate this twist as your arm swings around. The sandbag carry develops strength and endurance for this muscle group. This exercise also strengthens the shoulders and the arms. 3. Biomechanical principles deal with the scientific basis of human movement. Analysis of the way the body moves during the sport has led to improved and advances performance using newly developed techniques and modified or changed sports equipment. The first aspect of biomechanics that has an influence on discus is motion. Angular motion and momentum are the most influential in discus. Angular motion is motion in a curved or circular path. Discus is the best example of angular motion, as the thrower is moving in a circular path in preparation for the release of the discus. Linear and angular motion are combined in most movement activities. Momentum is the amount of motion possessed by a moving object. A moving object has a certain mass and velocity and the two of these together equals the momentum. The greater the momentum of the body, the greater the tendency to resist changes in motion. External forces can have an influence on momentum, as can internal forces. The greater the mass, the greater the momentum. When professional athletes spin in circles will preparing to throw the discus, they are aiming to gain momentum in order for the disk to go a further distance. Balance and stability also occur in discus. Dynamic balance is balance in motion. While the discus thrower is beginning their throw, they must keep dynamic balance in order for their throw to go as preferred. There are many factors that influence stability. These include mass, base of support, centre of gravity, stability and mobility. The greater the mass of the discus thrower, the more stable the body is likely to be. The larger the bass of support, the greater the stability. This is why taking larger steps while circling will benefit the thrower and give them more stability. The lower a person’s centre of gravity, the greater the stability. The line of gravity must be located within the supporting base to increase stability, therefore the closer to the ground the discus thrower is the more stable they will be and will get more distance in their throw. The momentum of an object directly affects stability in motion. The faster the discus throw is going, the more stable they are with their throw. The larger the mass, the greater its stability. Taller discus throwers will be less stable in motion than shorter discus throwers because of the height of their centre of gravity. Force is something that causes movement. A force may be a push or pull, that causes a change in the shape of an object or body. Forces can be internal or external. The body can apply force using the summation of forces. This is a combination of a number of forces working in sequence. For example in discus, forces produced by the feet, legs, arms, wrists and fingers produce the large forced used to throw the discus as far as possible. The body also applies force by Newton’s Third Law: for every applied force there is an equal and opposite force. For example in discus the thrower exerts a force against the ground and an equal and opposite force pushes the thrower off the ground. Applying force to objects depends on a number of factors. These include magnitude which is the amount of force that has been applied to the discus, direction which is the way the force is applied to the discus, the point of application which is the spot where the force is applied to the discus and the line of action which is the point of application plus the direction of the force.

Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Personnel Essay example -- Work Wor

Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Personnel INTRODUCTION One of the most critical challenges facing public administration is the recruitment and retention of qualified personnel. While the problem of attracting talent into public service is not new, the introduction and rapid expansion of the high technology and Internet industry, the problem has reached crisis proportions. Both the public and private sector have embraced the Information Age with increasing dependence on a skilled and versatile workforce. Private industry responded by developing greater versatility in expanding and contracting their workforce to compliment the strategic requirements and goals of the organization. Public administration did not adequately recognize the changes in private industry that had such a significant impact on the workforce. In the past twenty years the workforce, who had previously expected to spend their career with a single employer, has adjusted to a norm of changing employers several times, (and in many cases changing career paths). This changi ng expectation of the workforce necessitates not only policy changes in public administration, but far better flexibility in hiring, rewarding and retaining methods. The shift to broader based training and advanced skills have changed the expectations of the workforce. Workers are increasingly less content with remaining within a single occupational discipline and have matched the flexibility and agility of their employers. Public administrators have increasingly recognized the need to modify reward and incentive programs placing much greater emphasis on performance than tenure. Private business, with its ability to change and re-focus strategic goals and objec... ...US Department of Defense, Acquisition Managers Recruiting, Hiring and Retention Handbook, â€Å"Hiring†, 15 April 2001. Available from: http://gravity.lmi.org/acqbook/hiring/index.html. US Department of Defense, Acquisition Managers Recruiting, Hiring and Retention Handbook, â€Å"Retention†, 15 April 2001. Available from: http://gravity.lmi.org/acqbook/retention/index.html. US Department of Defense, Acquisition Managers Recruiting, Hiring and Retention Handbook, â€Å"The defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA)†, 15 April 2001. Available from: http://gravity.lmi.org/acqbook/dawia/index.html. US Department of Defense, Acquisition Managers Recruiting, Hiring and Retention Handbook, â€Å"The DoD Civilian Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project (AcqDemo)†, 15 April 2001. Available from: http://gravity.lmi.org/acqbook/acqdemo/index.html.

History and Politics of the Mexican Revolution Essay

The Mexican revolution was one of the most significant catastrophe in the twentieth century, which involved four momentous leader by the name of Madero , Diaz , Zapata and Obrengo. According to Alan Knight, author of the article â€Å"The Mexican Revolution†, â€Å"the Mexican revolution started as a protest of the middle class against the dictatorship of Porfrio Diaz†. A small minority of people were control of most of the country’s power and wealth, while the major of the population worked in poverty. According to Dan la Botz, author of article â€Å"The Mexican revolution part1, 1910-1920, â€Å"Tens of thousand of men and women fought in battles in many region of the country to end the dictatorship and overthrow the leader†. The attempt to mold a new generation that would continue the revolution’s efforts for the people into the future. Their campaign included programs for land reform, work protection, widespread literacy, and mandatory schools. The nation fund a mental economic, institution were transformed as a basic Agriculture production unit and the foreign own oil industry nationalized. In the 1910s a politician and military struggle arrived among various rival politicians, economic and social groups, the working class and the peasantry were defeated and subordinated to new master. The revolution began as an attempt to overthrow Porfrio Diaz who was a dictator of Mexico. According to Dan La Batz , author of â€Å"Mexican Revolution part 1 ,1910-1920† , â€Å"Mexico’s liberal who wanted a free market capitalist county like England and United States, battle consecutive who wanted a count more like Spain with its monarchy, powerful catholic church and feudal hierarchy (Botz 26). Diaz revived and expanded the nation economy, generally raising the levels of prosperity in the nation. The administration introduce changes that commercialized agriculture, modernized mining, financed industries, initiated railroads and enticed consumer. During the Porfrio ratio, as railroad construction dominated popular attention, city resident also witnesses the introduction of additional technology such as gas lighting, tramlines and other advances. Railroad transported raw material to the United States and Europe. Ordinary people who supplied the labor and raw materials were tricked to increase the country’s economy and Diaz later exploited domestic workers. Diaz fought alongside Mexican president benito Juarez and then against intervention. Diaz then emerged as a leading general and became president in 1876. Diaz served 34 years as the president of Mexico. Diaz took land from villages until most peasants had been reducing from small proprietors to day laborers. Diaz existence caused destruction upon the economy and social lives of Mexicans. He fought against his opponents and wag war. Diaz promised a free election against Francisco Madero another leader of Mexico who ran for election, after it became obvious he might not win. According to Beezley Williams H author of â€Å"Mexicans in Revolution 1910-1946: An introduction† â€Å"Francisco Madero became a revolutionary by accident, his entire life, his family, his education, his marriage and his early business efforts-marked him as a member of the elite (Williams 36). Madero’s family believed that his campaign was foolhardy if not suicidal. He campaign across the nation of Mexico with the aim of no presidential election. Madero’s movement was soon swelled with people who saw his campaign not only a chance for the politicial democracy but also the opportunity to struggle for more fundamental social change. Madero campaign threatened Diaz which forced him to get Madero arrested on felony charges and jailed in San Luis Potosi under house arrest in the summer 1910. In July 1910 with the help of his wealthy and politically connected family,Madero fled from San Luis Potosi to San Antonio, Texas and transformed the Anti reelection political organization for revolution to begin November 20. Madero issued his manifesto, the plan of San Luis, The plan laid out his vision of polotican democracy emphasizing the no presidential reelection. Madero slogans was â€Å"Effective Suffrage (that is honest voting) No reelection (prevent Diaz pattern of holding office) and Municipoo Libre( local control of issue such as taxes). Madero was elected president and assumed power in November 1911. By November 911 Zapata, another Mexican leader and his troops were at war with Madero’s Government. Zapata movement focuses on four main issues which was lands; which should be given to those who work for it, secondly labor unions; which had been suspended under Diaz, fought for their rights to organize and to strike and demand protective legislation for workers, thirdly education; for the country last battle with Catholic Church, the demand for free public education and finally ownership of oil nd mineral; all natural resources of Mexico should belong to is people. Zapata army was driven out of Mexico in the early 1916 by Carranza’s troop who was a Mexican leader that fought against Zapata. After this shift by Carranza’s troops, Zapata had no hope of fighting back Carranza because he didn’t have as much army as Zapata. According to Micheal Mathes author of article â€Å"Frontier Settlement in Mexican California† , with the help of chief advisor , Gildardo Magana he started an alliance for anyone who will want to fight Carranza (Mathes 503). Venustiano Carranza was the son of a middle class and who had been educated in Mexico to become part of the political elite. Carranza joined Madero’s rebellion and became president after the death of Madero. Carranza and his followers attempted to remodel cities, not by pulling down statues, wrecking monuments, or destroying the house of the old regime, but by creating a new society. The Mexican revolution was then divided into two rival bourgeois and plebian. According to WM. O.  OWEN, author of â€Å"The Mexican Revolution, Its progress , cause , purpose and probable result† Carranza’s constructional forces aimed to create a new nationalist state which could provide stability for Mexican born and foreign investors, while Connectionist led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, desire to carry out the democratic and social reforms demanded by the country peasants and workers. The Constitutionalist would win the civil war because they understand the significant of the labor movement. Carranza’s armies had been successful in defeating the forces of Villa and Zapata. Carranza and his advisors produce a new constitution which settled in law and the principle issue of the revolution. These laws were divided into four articles. Article 27 provided the break up of the haciendas and distribution of land to peasant and indigenous community. Article 123 gave workers the right to organize unions and strike and create legislation. Article 3 ended the Catholic Church’s control of education, creating the free, lay public schools and finally, Article 130 banned the church from Mexican politics and society. Carranza’s forces continue to fight opposition leaders which he eventually assassinating Emiliano Zapata. On may 21 1920 the rebel forces captured and killed Carranza and the general Obrengon took power. Obrengon became president holding office from 1920-1924and Huerta revolt against President Obrengo in 1923. In conclusion lands were given to the working class and peasant, housing and farming territory and also ranching was easier to get. During the decades from 1917 to 1946 revolutionaries initiated a variety of campaign to bring revolution to people. At the same time the revolutionaries initiate campaign that proved to be only partially successful, to remake the symbols of Profrio rian regime in the image of the revolution.

Compare and Contrast Plato and Decsartes Essay

Descartes and Plato are two of the most influential thinkers within philosophy. The allegory of the cave and systematic doubt are also two of the most famous concepts within philosophy. Plato at the time of writing the cave allegory was trying to resist the growing influence of the Sophist philosophers who prioritised semantics and rhetoric over truth.1 Descartes by introducing radical scepticism to philosophy was challenging traditional scholastic philosophy which had dominated the philosophy for many centuries. While both pieces of writing are separated by different ages of time and space, they share many similarities as well as fundamental differences. This essay will attempt to compare and contrast these two bodies of work by firstly explaining what is Descartes’ systematic doubt and Plato’s Allegory of the cave before finally examining the similarities and differences between them in the final paragraph of analysis. Descartes in his first meditation introduces the concept of Radical doubt which similarly places suspicion on the senses and the appearance of things. This involves stripping away all one’s beliefs and preconceived notions in order to find the foundational bedrock of knowledge in which all sciences could then grow. Descartes begins his first meditation by casting doubt on all his beliefs, if a belief can be even slightly doubted it must be discarded. He wants to ‘reject as absolutely false anything in which I could imagine the least amount of doubt3’ this is called radical scepticism where all beliefs must be challenged. Through this experiment Descartes conceded that the physical senses are not to be trusted as they have deceived him before, this is known as sensory deception and this revelation forces him to doubt any beliefs about the external world and knowledge that is gathered by the five senses. His examination also reveals that dreams states can be difficult to  distinguish between waking life, this has happened before where he thought he was in bed but wasn’t. Henceforth one cannot truly know if they are awake observing reality or asleep enjoying a dream, this is known as the dream hypothesis. Descartes also uncovers the evil demon hypothesis whereby all external reality observed may be just an illusion that is perpetrated by an evil demon seeking to deceive him, also there is the problem that all previous memories about oneself could simply just be imagination and not grounded in any reality. The system of radical doubt leads Descartes into murky territory where he cannot believe in the existence of anything at all. This thankfully is changed when he discovers the cogito’ I think therefore I am’, his starting point which saves him from uncertainty, allowing him to prove that he exists. In Plato’s allegory of the cave, there are prisoners who are locked up within the depths of a cave. All day long, they are situated in front of a wall and behind them is a fire which reflects shadows on the wall. Unbeknownst to the prisoners, there are puppeteers who use the firelight to reflect shadows of their puppets upon the wall while making noises ‘the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows’. The prisoners are unaware of this illusion and mistakenly believe these shadows are real images. One day, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to walk freely about the cave. Although it is confusing for him to see the puppets and fire, he is forced to accept this clearer version of reality and eventually ascents through the cave, spending a day and night under the sun and the stars. As he becomes familiar with the world above, he realises the sun is the giver of light, how it casts shadows and how his prior life in the cave was an entire illusion. This newfound enlightenment Plato remarks will prevent him from ever returning to the life in cave, nor will his old inmates believe him if he tried to free him, instead ‘they would put him to death5’ This intellectual awakening will cause the inmate to grasp the idea of good, the eternal form which will urge him to act ‘rationally in public or private life6’. Ultimately Plato suggests the inmate should return to his old friends and seek to help them. The cave analogy is concerned with the human condition and its’ lack of enlightenment, for Plato the prisoners represent ordinary citizens who hold false beliefs (shadows), reality is dictated to them by their senses (appearance of things) allowing them to be easily manipulated. Ignorance is then symbolised by darkness and the  intellect and reason is symbolised by the light. The journey of the inmate from darkness to light is a metaphor for education which allows one to progress from the ignorance in the depths of the cave to the intellectual plains of the enlightened one in the outside world. The outer world symbolises true knowledge, the realisation of eternal forms while the cave again illustrates the world of appearance and false beliefs, Woozley writes ‘most men without knowing it live in this shadow world’9 The cave analogy and Descartes systematic doubt have much in common. Both are concerned with the illusory nature of the senses and external reality, for Plato people place too much emphasis on the senses, on the appearance of things as illustrated in by the shadows on the wall, this leads them to hold false beliefs and to be easily misled, only by entering the realm of thought can people free themselves by gaining knowledge and becoming enlightened. Descartes through the systematic doubt also maintains that external reality cannot be truly known; the sensory deception and evil demon hypothesis cast doubt on the authenticity of the outside world. Indeed the evil demon hypothesis is an almost identical scenario to that of the prisoners whose sensory per ception is distorted by the shadow wielding puppeteers. Only through the mind or intellect can an individual overcome the illusory nature of the senses, it allows the prisoner to access the outside world to gain enlightenment and help his fellow inmates while for Descartes the mind by way of the cogito is the one thing that cannot be doubted which through it allows him prove the existence of the outside world in his later meditations. The cave is an analogy which illustrates how people can possess false consciousness and how through reason and knowledge one can overcome this while systematic doubt is an instruction on how to discard false beliefs, the ascent through the cave into the intellectual world is the finishing point for Plato while the cogito for Descartes is a starting point for further investigation. The two authors also differ on the type of philosophy employed in their argument. Plato insists that after the ascent , the prisoner will experience the idea of the good ‘ the lord of light in the visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual’10 the good then is the highest point of knowledge and represents Plato’s philosophy of perfect types or forms known as idealism, Descartes through highlighting the sensory, dream and demon hypothesis  illustrates how the external world cannot be relied upon as a basis for true knowledge, but the cogito is a start ing point, the attempt to find secure beliefs that allow a foundation for further knowledge to be rested upon is known as Foundationalism which is credited to Descartes. In conclusion, both Descartes and Plato in their attempts to challenge the prevailing doctrine of their respective times introduced two of the most influential concepts in the world of Philosophy. Descartes through his examination of systematic doubt uncovers the limitations of the physical senses in acquiring knowledge and introduces further challenges to understanding external reality with the dream, memory and evil demon hypothesis. Only through the mind alone can one grasp the nature of reality starting with the cogito. Likewise Plato is concerned with the appearance of things, how the senses can deceive us and humanity like the inmates in the cave can live in a state of ignorance or darkness if they don’t use the power of the mind to acquire knowledge and reason. Only through using the intellect can humanity gather true knowledge and escape the darkness in the cave. For both the intellect is the only means for gathering true knowledge, the senses are illusory. Descartes s ystematic doubt and cogito provide the foundational starting point for the sciences while the cave allegory offers advocates a way of life for humanity to feign the world of ignorance and seek true knowledge so that those who acquire it will return to the cave and help their fellow man. Works Cited: Annas, Julias. An Introduction to Plato’s’ Republic. New York: Oxford University Press Cottingham, John. Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013 Cottingham, John. Ed. Ray Monk. Descartes’ Philosophy of Mind. London: Phoenix Publishers, 1997 Plato. The Allegory of the cave. Week 5 Handout Woozley, Anthony. Plato’s Republic: A philosophical commentary. London: MacMillan Publishers, 1989

Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success - CoSchedule

Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success On Feb. 26, 2015, BuzzFeed published a post asking one simple question: What Colors Are This Dress? Although the answer seems simple enough, it launched arguably one of the biggest internet memes of all time. And whether you were team blue and black or white and gold, the accompanying image was simply unavoidable, making it’s way onto just about every publisher. It was truly viral content at its best. This is the kind of success most brands only dream of, and Roman Originals–the retailer behind the dress–saw huge returns. Within a month, their organic traffic  increased  by 420 percent and their press mentions by a whopping 17,550 percent. The overnight success left many marketers like myself wondering, â€Å"What it is about some silly piece of content that can have such a profound impact on our online sharing behavior, and more importantly, can it be replicated?† Luckily, more and more research is being dedicated to viral content, specifically on what triggers someone to click â€Å"share.† In one of his earliest studies  that scraped nearly 7,000 New York Times  articles, Jonah Berger noted that highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional. Highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional.Get Your Free Decoding Successful Content Infographic Visualize the SUCCESs formula for viral content with this free infographic with original research from Fractl. How to Follow A Six-Part Recipe for Viral Content SuccessBrothers Chip and Dan Heath- also devotees to the science of viral content- agreed, particularly about the surprising and highly emotional elements. In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, they offer six components  they believe elevate an idea from shareable to viral: Their SUCCESs model  argues that viral content should be: Simple: Making something simple doesn’t mean dumbing it down; it’s about focusing your message around a single idea (i.e. people should be able to describe your campaign’s key theme in only two or three sentences) Unexpected: This is where you want to include something that will gain your audience’s attention. Run of the mill data goes in one ear and out the other; something that challenges an assumption will hold an audience’s attention. Concrete: For an idea to be concrete, it presents a difficult concept in a more relatable way. For example, a popular concrete idea you might have heard of is that humans consume enough bottled water  in a little more than a day to circle the entire equator with plastic bottles stacked end to end. Credible: Along with getting an audience to listen to your message, you also need to convince them to believe it. Make sure to offer facts that are backed by either primary or secondary research. Emotional: Although people look for credibility, they also want to feel something. Be sure to trigger an emotional response. Generate stories: Individuals should be able to act on your content (i.e. present an idea, let others be able to interpret in their own way). Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value So what does this look like in action? My team at Fractl recently analyzed how three successful campaigns  stacked up against these key principles. In total, the following three campaigns earned 2,300 placements  and more than 140,000 social shares: Hotel Hygiene Exposed: For one of our clients, we  gathered 36 samples from nine different hotels to determine which rooms were the dirtiest. Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers: Superheroes typically boast massive biceps and incredibly tiny waists, so we used Photoshop on behalf of one of our clients to see what these familiar faces would look like if they reflected the average American body type. Sexually Suggestive Emojis: For another client campaign, we scraped Twitter to discover which countries have the most flirtatious emoji use around the world. Below I’ll walk you through each of the Heath brothers’ principles, providing a six-part recipe on how you can generate similar, highly viral content. 1. Simple: Roll Out Your Content’s Core Focus in the Easiest Way Possible For an idea to be simple, it needs to be easily understood, and quickly. To gain your audience’s attention, identify a central theme and make sure your content connects to this idea whenever possible. Gain your audience's attention by connecting content to one central themeFor instance, in Sexually Suggestive Emojis, a month of tweets from the United States and more than 50 European countries were condensed into 14 easy-to-read charts. In less than 10 minutes, readers could easily identify global trends in how these emojis are used – including their own countries. Simplify Content By Setting Clear Campaign Goals Another easy way to simplify your content is when you’re setting your campaign goal. Do you expect the campaign to drive conversions or do you want it to boost general brand awareness? You’ll also want to make sure your goal is as specific as possible: The more specific you are when setting your goal, the greater the likelihood you’ll actually reach it – and this specificity will help you focus both your content and time. Below is a three-step guide on how to set attainable goals: Begin with an audit of previous campaigns. Remember that data is your friend, and you likely already have a ton of it at your fingertips thanks to previous campaign metrics. Note any key data points- your new goals should fall somewhere within the same ballpark. Evaluate your current position within your industry. If you don’t have a large part of the market yet, consider a goal that only aims for a 2 to 5 percent increase in something. On the other hand, if you already have a large presence in the industry, set a goal that is a little more challenging- you don’t want to miss out on any potential growth. Set one major goal, and follow up by outlining two or three other goals that will help you get there. When setting goals for your content, you’ll likely have more than one. For example, if you want a campaign to drive a certain amount of blog traffic, you’ll also want to set smaller goals like earning placements on X,Y, and Z publishers that will help you get there. Recommended Reading: This is How to Start a Successful Blog That Will Crush Your Marketing Goals 2. Unexpected: Produce Something With a Dash of Shock Beyond an idea that’s quickly understood, another easy way to earn someone’s attention is to offer content that is shocking. This guarantees an element of surprise, which will drive results because instead of adding to the white noise on the internet, you’re actually breaking through. In the case of Hotel Hygiene Exposed, the results yielded a shocking finding: The nicest hotels actually had the most germs. This made outreach a breeze, with big name publishers like Yahoo taking full advantage of the added shock value with headlines like, â€Å"Eww! New Study Finds Expensive Hotels Have More Germs.† Producing controversial content is also a great way to add something unexpected. Below are a few different approaches to controversial content: Disprove an easily held assumption: This content often focuses on testing an audience’s beliefs. For example, the Ad Council’s incredibly successful â€Å"Love Has No Labels† video used an X-ray machine that featured skeleton couples showing different signs of affection to one another before revealing themselves as either gay, lesbian, or biracial – forcing viewers to rethink any unconscious biases they might have and appreciate that love is love, no matter who is involved. Produce something taboo: These ideas center around a topic that isn’t often discussed. Again, the Sexually Suggestive Emoji campaign is a great example because who doesn’t blush a little when they see some of those eggplant combinations? Stir up a debate: Most controversial ideas would fall under this umbrella, with a majority of these campaigns presenting data from both sides in order to allow readers to drive the discussion. For instance, the campaign in â€Å"The Most Prejudiced Places in America† focuses on which areas have the most non-politically correct tweets. The geographic ego bait ignites a discussion because it gives readers the opportunity to offer their two cents on whether or not they agree. via The Daily Beast Recommended Reading: Why Your Content Will Go Viral 3. Concrete: Difficult Concepts Often Require You to Whip Up More Than One Example The Heath brothers say something is â€Å"concrete† in its ability to be described through sensory language. In other words, your content should be understood using one of the five senses. So how can you do this with online content? Let’s take a moment to review the Velcro Theory  about memory. This concept argues that although it is unlikely for someone to totally comprehend – or â€Å"grasp† – brand new information, it is likely that they will be able to grasp small bits of information as long as their prior knowledge presents something for this new information to â€Å"hook† onto – much like a piece of Velcro. By connecting your content’s new information to things your audience already knows, it makes retention and discussion much easier. In the case of online content, concreteness often stems from being able to visualize new concepts. For example, in Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers, the core theme of the campaign was to offer a new way to discuss body image issues – particularly with men. When comic book icons like Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America shed their bulging biceps in an effort to look more like an everyday individual, audiences suddenly had a new way to talk about more difficult concepts like body dysmorphia. Try Comparing Apples To Oranges Think of something’s â€Å"concreteness† as being able to compare apples to oranges. A great example is this campaign–Data IRL–that visualizes what digital storage size would look like in the form of storage boxes. If you assume 10 megabytes of data is equivalent to one standard storage box, an iPhone’s 4 gigabytes of data suddenly becomes much easier to understand: It’s 400 storage boxes, or–when the boxes are lined up–enough data to stretch nearly the length of 1.5 football fields. via Better Buys Keep in mind what you can compare more difficult concepts like data storage to is only limited by your imagination. A good jumping off point is by taking a look around you and identifying what you use on a day-to-day basis (think a can of soda or a deck of cards); these are the type of routine items that make something unfamiliar suddenly incredibly relatable. Recommended Reading: How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy Figuring what you want to present, though, is only half the battle. You still need to figure out how you want to visualize the data. Luckily there are a few tools  out there for anyone who might not have a designer on their team, including the following: Piktochart: Relying on the continued popularity of infographics,  the application allows users to easily create IGs using themed templates Tableau Public: The drag-and-drop platform offers users a wide range of collaborative maps and charts to fool around with Infogram: This easy-to-use application allows users to create interactive charts without any coding Silk: Another drag-and-drop platform, this is one of the easier tools to use, requiring users to simply upload their data through a spreadsheet to begin building visualizations around it 4. Credible: Garnish Your Content With a Methodology That is Both Reliable and Familiar Readers want to see content that is trustworthy, and something that is data-driven is a great way to boost authority and earn credibility. Your methodology should be readily available and include the following: Specifics on your data set, including how, when, and where you collected it Any outliers that were omitted in your data A list of additional sources (i.e. secondary research) Access to raw data if possible An easy way to boost credibility is to partner with a reputable third party, specifically someone with expertise in your industry. For example, if you’re producing a campaign that focuses on sports injuries, consider reaching out to organizations like the Sports Physical Therapy Section (SPTS) or the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). They could offer assistance on how closely your data aligns with common trends in sports-related injuries or how specific injuries should be treated. But how do you get in contact with them? All you need to do is reach out via email explaining who you are, what your campaign is about, and some options on how they could help with the final project – â€Å"options† being the keyword here as you’re more likely to get a response if you offer more than one way to participate. Boost your content's credibility by partnering with a reputable third partyA great example of this in action is the Hotel Hygiene Exposed campaign. We reached out to a third-party lab to test the four samples we collected from nine different hotels. This outside testing helped make the bold claim that the nicest hotels are actually the dirtiest that much more valid. Recommended Reading: How to Rock a Data-Driven Content Calendar Template That Will Boost Results By 299% Support Your Content With Secondary Research Don’t forget about the  value of secondary research – and how easy it is to access. It’s simply the analysis of data or information that was either gathered by someone else (e.g. researchers, educational institutions, etc.) and reusing it to add more authority to your current content. Two of the most common secondary research sources include the following: Academic journals: These are resources filled with original research. Examples include Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of the American Medical Association  (JAMA). Technical reports: Typically a resource that is updated annually, these reports offer insights on industry-specific research projects. For example, HubSpot’s State of Inbound  is released annually and reveals the latest trends in content marketing. So how can you include these in your campaign? At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the Reverse Photoshopping campaign has a quantitative element to it. However, the landing page includes stats from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention  on the levels of obesity for both men and women in America- stats that are both easily accessible and familiar to any audience. Here’s what it looks like on the LP: Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 5. Emotional: Knead  Something Your Audience Can Feel Into Your Content This is a big one. As much as credibility can help keep your campaign fend off trolls, remember that people have an innate desire to make a personal connection with content, regardless of their opinion. An emotional connection  is essential in order to drive shares, and one of the biggest goals for marketers today is to help brands create messages that people want to share. Luckily there’s a wide range of emotions for your content to tap into, as illustrated in these three campaigns: The â€Å"ick† factor was palpable in the hotel campaign, and it’s something everyone can relate to – aiding in both natural syndication and social shares. via AOL Body image is already a highly emotional topic, and by connecting it to something in the entertainment industry- a channel that is no stranger to the pressures of physical perfection- social traction skyrocketed. via The Huffington Post For the emojis campaign, a reader could easily go back and forth between feelings of embarrassment and amusement thanks to the easily identifiable innuendos. via People Recommended Reading:  Proof That Emotional Headlines Get More Shares on Social Media Use Emotional Cues to Drive Clicks The most successful emotional content ignites an immediate reaction: Audiences should be able to easily click, read, and share your content because it triggers an opinion – and they want the rest of the internet to know. The most successful content ignites an immediate reaction6. Stories: A Mix of Stimulating and Inspirational Content Will Drive Discussion During production, you should continually ask yourself one question: Would I share this campaign with my friends? This is the easiest way to determine whether or not your content tells a story  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and often times the best content tells more than one. The comic book campaign, for instance, was created for a California-based organization that provides resources to individuals struggling with eating disorders, but the 1,300 pickups and 105,000 social shares indicate that the content reached well beyond its targeted audience – in large part because it allowed publishers to tell multiple stories. For example, some readers were less concerned with a discussion on body image and instead focused their attention on general criticism of the project.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Superheros can’t save the world if they’re lounging around like the average American,† criticized a reader at Smash.com. These sentiments were shared in the comment section of a Spanish gaming site  (whose audience probably had little interest in finding out more about eating disorders). What these two placement prove, though, is that the pop culture theme helped the content resonate with more than one demographic. Yes, these characters don’t relate directly to eating disorders, but in the right context, they can connect issues about body image to a much larger audience. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects Use Humor to Tell Stronger Stories Humorous content is a great way to drive stories, as emphasized through some of the headlines for the emoji campaign: Study: Frequent Emoji Users Are Hornier Than the Rest of Us, New York Magazine Dear Mississippi, You’re Obsessed With Eggplant Emoji. Please Explain, Vocativ New Sex Emoji Study Shows That Eggplants Trump Bananas, New York Daily News    So what are some ways you can tickle your audience’s funny bone? Make an everyday routine funny: Some of the best content comes from building on shared experiences, and the same can be said for comedy. A great example is any Poo-Pourri campaign. Don’t be shy about self-deprecation: Any easy way to make people laugh while humanizing your brand? Make a joke at your own expense. For instance, JetBlue found a clever way to engage with a customer who thought their emails were coming on a little too strong (see below). Keep it simple: The more complex and complicated your humor is, the more likely it is to fall flat. Carlsberg, for instance, has been using their cheeky tagline, â€Å"Probably the best beer in the world since 1973. Recommended Reading: How to Build Your Brand With Humor So You'll Feel Like a Human Go Out and Create Some Viral Content In an age where viral content seems to come and go within a matter of minutes, it’s unlikely that your content will reach â€Å"The Dress† levels of internet immortality. The good news, though, is that more studies continue to prove that a content’s viral potential isn’t a matter of luck. Remember that there are many factors that influence what we share online, and the SUCCESs model serves as a great blueprint when outlining your next content marketing campaign. The key ingredients for a viral hit include credibility, an emotional connection, and the ability to tell more than one story–along with an idea that isn’t too vanilla and offers a new, often debatable perspective. Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success On Feb. 26, 2015, BuzzFeed published a post asking one simple question: What Colors Are This Dress? Although the answer seems simple enough, it launched arguably one of the biggest internet memes of all time. And whether you were team blue and black or white and gold, the accompanying image was simply unavoidable, making it’s way onto just about every publisher. It was truly viral content at its best. This is the kind of success most brands only dream of, and Roman Originals–the retailer behind the dress–saw huge returns. Within a month, their organic traffic  increased  by 420 percent and their press mentions by a whopping 17,550 percent. The overnight success left many marketers like myself wondering, â€Å"What it is about some silly piece of content that can have such a profound impact on our online sharing behavior, and more importantly, can it be replicated?† Luckily, more and more research is being dedicated to viral content, specifically on what triggers someone to click â€Å"share.† In one of his earliest studies  that scraped nearly 7,000 New York Times  articles, Jonah Berger noted that highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional. Highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional.Get Your Free Decoding Successful Content Infographic Visualize the SUCCESs formula for viral content with this free infographic with original research from Fractl. How to Follow A Six-Part Recipe for Viral Content SuccessBrothers Chip and Dan Heath- also devotees to the science of viral content- agreed, particularly about the surprising and highly emotional elements. In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, they offer six components  they believe elevate an idea from shareable to viral: Their SUCCESs model  argues that viral content should be: Simple: Making something simple doesn’t mean dumbing it down; it’s about focusing your message around a single idea (i.e. people should be able to describe your campaign’s key theme in only two or three sentences) Unexpected: This is where you want to include something that will gain your audience’s attention. Run of the mill data goes in one ear and out the other; something that challenges an assumption will hold an audience’s attention. Concrete: For an idea to be concrete, it presents a difficult concept in a more relatable way. For example, a popular concrete idea you might have heard of is that humans consume enough bottled water  in a little more than a day to circle the entire equator with plastic bottles stacked end to end. Credible: Along with getting an audience to listen to your message, you also need to convince them to believe it. Make sure to offer facts that are backed by either primary or secondary research. Emotional: Although people look for credibility, they also want to feel something. Be sure to trigger an emotional response. Generate stories: Individuals should be able to act on your content (i.e. present an idea, let others be able to interpret in their own way). Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value So what does this look like in action? My team at Fractl recently analyzed how three successful campaigns  stacked up against these key principles. In total, the following three campaigns earned 2,300 placements  and more than 140,000 social shares: Hotel Hygiene Exposed: For one of our clients, we  gathered 36 samples from nine different hotels to determine which rooms were the dirtiest. Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers: Superheroes typically boast massive biceps and incredibly tiny waists, so we used Photoshop on behalf of one of our clients to see what these familiar faces would look like if they reflected the average American body type. Sexually Suggestive Emojis: For another client campaign, we scraped Twitter to discover which countries have the most flirtatious emoji use around the world. Below I’ll walk you through each of the Heath brothers’ principles, providing a six-part recipe on how you can generate similar, highly viral content. 1. Simple: Roll Out Your Content’s Core Focus in the Easiest Way Possible For an idea to be simple, it needs to be easily understood, and quickly. To gain your audience’s attention, identify a central theme and make sure your content connects to this idea whenever possible. Gain your audience's attention by connecting content to one central themeFor instance, in Sexually Suggestive Emojis, a month of tweets from the United States and more than 50 European countries were condensed into 14 easy-to-read charts. In less than 10 minutes, readers could easily identify global trends in how these emojis are used – including their own countries. Simplify Content By Setting Clear Campaign Goals Another easy way to simplify your content is when you’re setting your campaign goal. Do you expect the campaign to drive conversions or do you want it to boost general brand awareness? You’ll also want to make sure your goal is as specific as possible: The more specific you are when setting your goal, the greater the likelihood you’ll actually reach it – and this specificity will help you focus both your content and time. Below is a three-step guide on how to set attainable goals: Begin with an audit of previous campaigns. Remember that data is your friend, and you likely already have a ton of it at your fingertips thanks to previous campaign metrics. Note any key data points- your new goals should fall somewhere within the same ballpark. Evaluate your current position within your industry. If you don’t have a large part of the market yet, consider a goal that only aims for a 2 to 5 percent increase in something. On the other hand, if you already have a large presence in the industry, set a goal that is a little more challenging- you don’t want to miss out on any potential growth. Set one major goal, and follow up by outlining two or three other goals that will help you get there. When setting goals for your content, you’ll likely have more than one. For example, if you want a campaign to drive a certain amount of blog traffic, you’ll also want to set smaller goals like earning placements on X,Y, and Z publishers that will help you get there. Recommended Reading: This is How to Start a Successful Blog That Will Crush Your Marketing Goals 2. Unexpected: Produce Something With a Dash of Shock Beyond an idea that’s quickly understood, another easy way to earn someone’s attention is to offer content that is shocking. This guarantees an element of surprise, which will drive results because instead of adding to the white noise on the internet, you’re actually breaking through. In the case of Hotel Hygiene Exposed, the results yielded a shocking finding: The nicest hotels actually had the most germs. This made outreach a breeze, with big name publishers like Yahoo taking full advantage of the added shock value with headlines like, â€Å"Eww! New Study Finds Expensive Hotels Have More Germs.† Producing controversial content is also a great way to add something unexpected. Below are a few different approaches to controversial content: Disprove an easily held assumption: This content often focuses on testing an audience’s beliefs. For example, the Ad Council’s incredibly successful â€Å"Love Has No Labels† video used an X-ray machine that featured skeleton couples showing different signs of affection to one another before revealing themselves as either gay, lesbian, or biracial – forcing viewers to rethink any unconscious biases they might have and appreciate that love is love, no matter who is involved. Produce something taboo: These ideas center around a topic that isn’t often discussed. Again, the Sexually Suggestive Emoji campaign is a great example because who doesn’t blush a little when they see some of those eggplant combinations? Stir up a debate: Most controversial ideas would fall under this umbrella, with a majority of these campaigns presenting data from both sides in order to allow readers to drive the discussion. For instance, the campaign in â€Å"The Most Prejudiced Places in America† focuses on which areas have the most non-politically correct tweets. The geographic ego bait ignites a discussion because it gives readers the opportunity to offer their two cents on whether or not they agree. via The Daily Beast Recommended Reading: Why Your Content Will Go Viral 3. Concrete: Difficult Concepts Often Require You to Whip Up More Than One Example The Heath brothers say something is â€Å"concrete† in its ability to be described through sensory language. In other words, your content should be understood using one of the five senses. So how can you do this with online content? Let’s take a moment to review the Velcro Theory  about memory. This concept argues that although it is unlikely for someone to totally comprehend – or â€Å"grasp† – brand new information, it is likely that they will be able to grasp small bits of information as long as their prior knowledge presents something for this new information to â€Å"hook† onto – much like a piece of Velcro. By connecting your content’s new information to things your audience already knows, it makes retention and discussion much easier. In the case of online content, concreteness often stems from being able to visualize new concepts. For example, in Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers, the core theme of the campaign was to offer a new way to discuss body image issues – particularly with men. When comic book icons like Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America shed their bulging biceps in an effort to look more like an everyday individual, audiences suddenly had a new way to talk about more difficult concepts like body dysmorphia. Try Comparing Apples To Oranges Think of something’s â€Å"concreteness† as being able to compare apples to oranges. A great example is this campaign–Data IRL–that visualizes what digital storage size would look like in the form of storage boxes. If you assume 10 megabytes of data is equivalent to one standard storage box, an iPhone’s 4 gigabytes of data suddenly becomes much easier to understand: It’s 400 storage boxes, or–when the boxes are lined up–enough data to stretch nearly the length of 1.5 football fields. via Better Buys Keep in mind what you can compare more difficult concepts like data storage to is only limited by your imagination. A good jumping off point is by taking a look around you and identifying what you use on a day-to-day basis (think a can of soda or a deck of cards); these are the type of routine items that make something unfamiliar suddenly incredibly relatable. Recommended Reading: How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy Figuring what you want to present, though, is only half the battle. You still need to figure out how you want to visualize the data. Luckily there are a few tools  out there for anyone who might not have a designer on their team, including the following: Piktochart: Relying on the continued popularity of infographics,  the application allows users to easily create IGs using themed templates Tableau Public: The drag-and-drop platform offers users a wide range of collaborative maps and charts to fool around with Infogram: This easy-to-use application allows users to create interactive charts without any coding Silk: Another drag-and-drop platform, this is one of the easier tools to use, requiring users to simply upload their data through a spreadsheet to begin building visualizations around it 4. Credible: Garnish Your Content With a Methodology That is Both Reliable and Familiar Readers want to see content that is trustworthy, and something that is data-driven is a great way to boost authority and earn credibility. Your methodology should be readily available and include the following: Specifics on your data set, including how, when, and where you collected it Any outliers that were omitted in your data A list of additional sources (i.e. secondary research) Access to raw data if possible An easy way to boost credibility is to partner with a reputable third party, specifically someone with expertise in your industry. For example, if you’re producing a campaign that focuses on sports injuries, consider reaching out to organizations like the Sports Physical Therapy Section (SPTS) or the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). They could offer assistance on how closely your data aligns with common trends in sports-related injuries or how specific injuries should be treated. But how do you get in contact with them? All you need to do is reach out via email explaining who you are, what your campaign is about, and some options on how they could help with the final project – â€Å"options† being the keyword here as you’re more likely to get a response if you offer more than one way to participate. Boost your content's credibility by partnering with a reputable third partyA great example of this in action is the Hotel Hygiene Exposed campaign. We reached out to a third-party lab to test the four samples we collected from nine different hotels. This outside testing helped make the bold claim that the nicest hotels are actually the dirtiest that much more valid. Recommended Reading: How to Rock a Data-Driven Content Calendar Template That Will Boost Results By 299% Support Your Content With Secondary Research Don’t forget about the  value of secondary research – and how easy it is to access. It’s simply the analysis of data or information that was either gathered by someone else (e.g. researchers, educational institutions, etc.) and reusing it to add more authority to your current content. Two of the most common secondary research sources include the following: Academic journals: These are resources filled with original research. Examples include Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of the American Medical Association  (JAMA). Technical reports: Typically a resource that is updated annually, these reports offer insights on industry-specific research projects. For example, HubSpot’s State of Inbound  is released annually and reveals the latest trends in content marketing. So how can you include these in your campaign? At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the Reverse Photoshopping campaign has a quantitative element to it. However, the landing page includes stats from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention  on the levels of obesity for both men and women in America- stats that are both easily accessible and familiar to any audience. Here’s what it looks like on the LP: Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 5. Emotional: Knead  Something Your Audience Can Feel Into Your Content This is a big one. As much as credibility can help keep your campaign fend off trolls, remember that people have an innate desire to make a personal connection with content, regardless of their opinion. An emotional connection  is essential in order to drive shares, and one of the biggest goals for marketers today is to help brands create messages that people want to share. Luckily there’s a wide range of emotions for your content to tap into, as illustrated in these three campaigns: The â€Å"ick† factor was palpable in the hotel campaign, and it’s something everyone can relate to – aiding in both natural syndication and social shares. via AOL Body image is already a highly emotional topic, and by connecting it to something in the entertainment industry- a channel that is no stranger to the pressures of physical perfection- social traction skyrocketed. via The Huffington Post For the emojis campaign, a reader could easily go back and forth between feelings of embarrassment and amusement thanks to the easily identifiable innuendos. via People Recommended Reading:  Proof That Emotional Headlines Get More Shares on Social Media Use Emotional Cues to Drive Clicks The most successful emotional content ignites an immediate reaction: Audiences should be able to easily click, read, and share your content because it triggers an opinion – and they want the rest of the internet to know. The most successful content ignites an immediate reaction6. Stories: A Mix of Stimulating and Inspirational Content Will Drive Discussion During production, you should continually ask yourself one question: Would I share this campaign with my friends? This is the easiest way to determine whether or not your content tells a story  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and often times the best content tells more than one. The comic book campaign, for instance, was created for a California-based organization that provides resources to individuals struggling with eating disorders, but the 1,300 pickups and 105,000 social shares indicate that the content reached well beyond its targeted audience – in large part because it allowed publishers to tell multiple stories. For example, some readers were less concerned with a discussion on body image and instead focused their attention on general criticism of the project.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Superheros can’t save the world if they’re lounging around like the average American,† criticized a reader at Smash.com. These sentiments were shared in the comment section of a Spanish gaming site  (whose audience probably had little interest in finding out more about eating disorders). What these two placement prove, though, is that the pop culture theme helped the content resonate with more than one demographic. Yes, these characters don’t relate directly to eating disorders, but in the right context, they can connect issues about body image to a much larger audience. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects Use Humor to Tell Stronger Stories Humorous content is a great way to drive stories, as emphasized through some of the headlines for the emoji campaign: Study: Frequent Emoji Users Are Hornier Than the Rest of Us, New York Magazine Dear Mississippi, You’re Obsessed With Eggplant Emoji. Please Explain, Vocativ New Sex Emoji Study Shows That Eggplants Trump Bananas, New York Daily News    So what are some ways you can tickle your audience’s funny bone? Make an everyday routine funny: Some of the best content comes from building on shared experiences, and the same can be said for comedy. A great example is any Poo-Pourri campaign. Don’t be shy about self-deprecation: Any easy way to make people laugh while humanizing your brand? Make a joke at your own expense. For instance, JetBlue found a clever way to engage with a customer who thought their emails were coming on a little too strong (see below). Keep it simple: The more complex and complicated your humor is, the more likely it is to fall flat. Carlsberg, for instance, has been using their cheeky tagline, â€Å"Probably the best beer in the world since 1973. Recommended Reading: How to Build Your Brand With Humor So You'll Feel Like a Human Go Out and Create Some Viral Content In an age where viral content seems to come and go within a matter of minutes, it’s unlikely that your content will reach â€Å"The Dress† levels of internet immortality. The good news, though, is that more studies continue to prove that a content’s viral potential isn’t a matter of luck. Remember that there are many factors that influence what we share online, and the SUCCESs model serves as a great blueprint when outlining your next content marketing campaign. The key ingredients for a viral hit include credibility, an emotional connection, and the ability to tell more than one story–along with an idea that isn’t too vanilla and offers a new, often debatable perspective.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk essay

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk essay Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk essay Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk essayConstant fluctuations in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates are the cause of market risk. This information the experts of Costco Wholesale Corporation report in their exposure. The exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates mostly to the company’s investment holdings. They are diversified among various instruments considered to be cash equivalents, such as: short-term investments in government and agency securities. In Report experts corporate notes and bonds with effective maturities of generally three months to five years at the date of purchase. Fundamental tendency of their investment activities is to preserve main and secondarily to generate yields. Company’s short-term investments give majority, that are in fixed interest rate securities – subject to changes in fair value due to interest rate fluctuations. Board of Directors of Costco Wholesale Corporation det ermines the direction that limits investments in the U.S. to direct U.S. government and government agency obligations, as well as the unite asset and mortgage-backed securities with a minimum overall portfolio average credit rating of AA+. International subsidiaries’ investments of Costco Wholesale Corporation denominated in their local currencies. For example, they are Canadian international subsidiaries’ investments, but, firstly they are in money market funds and bank certificates of deposit. Company’s experts fixed the impact that a 100 basis-point change in interest rates would have on the value of their investment portfolio. The incremental change in the fair market value was insignificant. Results of 2012-2013 years can be used as an acknowledgment of this fact.   Experts say, investments, if they are classified as available-for-sale, the unrealized gains, losses related to fluctuations in market volatility and interest rates, they are showed other comp rehensive income, that   include stockholders’ equity in accumulated. Character of Costco Wholesale Corporation and their long-term debt may vary result of future business requirements. And it varies market conditions too. The majority of Corporation’s long-term debt is carried at $4,595 at the end 2013. Fluctuations in interest rates may influence the fair value of the fixed-rate debt.   These fluctuations may influence the interest expense related to the variable rate debt too.Foreign Currency-Exchange RiskCostco Wholesale Corporation’s foreign subsidiaries conform to fixed transactions in their non-functional currencies. They expose Corporation to fluctuations in exchange rates. Costco Wholesale Corporation manages fluctuations and tries to hedge economically the impact of fluctuations of foreign exchange. First of all, contracts intend for economically hedge exposure to U.S. dollar merchandise inventory expenditures. They made by Corporation’s int ernational subsidiaries. Contracts do not qualify for origin hedge accounting. Costco Wholesale Corporation tries to reduce risk with the use of these contracts. Company don’t intend to attract in speculative transactions and don’t to support any credit-risk-related contingent features. Company tries to manage counterparty risk unite with contracts by limiting transactions. It is training effectively mitigates counterparty risk. Contracts last to less than one year, no more.Commodity Price RiskCostco Wholesale Corporation explores to fluctuations in prices for energy that they consume, separates electricity and natural gas. Corporation tries to partially mitigate through fixed-price contracts for certain of their warehouses and other facilities. Company often enters into variable-priced contracts for some purchases of electricity and natural gas. These contracts meet the characteristics of valid instruments, and important qualify for the â€Å"normal purchases or norm al sales† exclusion under authoritative guidance.

Causes and Effects of Government Shutdowns

Causes and Effects of Government Shutdowns Why would much of the U.S. federal government shut down and what happens when it does?   The Cause of Government Shutdowns The U.S. Constitution requires that all expenditures of federal funds be authorized by Congress with the approval of the President of the United States. The U.S. federal government and the federal budget process operate on a fiscal year cycle running from October 1 to midnight September 30. If Congress fails to pass all of the spending bills comprising the annual federal budget or continuing resolutions extending spending beyond the end of the fiscal year; or if the president fails to sign or vetoes any of the individual spending bills, certain non-essential functions of the government may be forced to cease due to a lack of congressionally-authorized funding. The result is a government shutdown. The Current Border Wall Shutdown of 2019 The most recent government shutdown, and the third of the Donald Trump presidency began on December 22, 2018, when Congress and the White House failed to agree on the inclusion in an annual spending bill of $5.7 billion requested by President Trump for the construction of an additional 234 miles of fencing to be added to the existing security barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico. On January 8, with no end to the impasse in sight, President Trump threatened to declare a national emergency empowering him to bypass to fund the border fencing. However, by January 12, what had become the longest lasting government shutdown in U.S. history had shuttered nine of the 15 federal executive branch agencies, and left over 800,000 federal workers- including Border Patrol officers, TSA agents, and air traffic controllers- either working without pay or sitting at home on furlough. Trash began piling up and visitor safety became an issue at national parks as park rangers had been sent home. Although Congress had passed a bill on January 11 providing eventual full back pay for the employees, the strain of missed paychecks became obvious.   In a televised address on January 19, President Trump offered a proposal he hoped would bring Democrats back to the bargaining table to negotiate on an immigration reform for border security deal that would end the then 29-day-long government shutdown. The president offered to back immigration policies Democrats and had long requested, including a three-year revival of the DACA- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals- program in return for approval of a permanent $7 billion border security package, including $5.7 billion for the border wall. DACA is a currently expired immigration policy enacted by President Obama allowing eligible individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit in the U.S. Less than an hour after the president’s address, Democrats rejected the bargain because it failed to offer permanent protection for the DACA immigrants and because it still included money for the border wall. Democrats again demanded that President Trump end the shutdown before negotiations continued. On January 24, Government Executive magazine reported that based on salary data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the then 34-day-long partial government was costing U.S. taxpayers more than $86 million a day in back pay promised to more than 800,000 furloughed workers. A Temporary Agreement Reached On January 25, President Trump announced that an agreement had been reached between his office and Democratic leaders in Congress that would temporarily reopen the government until February 15 without the inclusion of any funding for construction of additional border fencing. The agreement also provided that all federal employees affected by the shutdown would receive full back pay. According to the President, the delay would allow for further negotiations on funding of the border wall, which he said remained a necessity to national security. Finally, the President stated that if funding for the border wall was not agreed to by February 15, he would either reinstate the government shutdown or declare a national emergency allowing him to reallocate existing fund for the purpose. However, on February 15, the president signed a compromise spending bill averting another shutdown. The same day, he issued a National Emergency Proclamation redirecting $3.5 billion from the Defense Department’s military construction budget to the construction of new border wall. Under the terms of the Antideficiency Act, the shutdown may not have been legal in the first place. Since the government had the $5.7 billion needed to build the border wall, the shutdown had been based on an issue of political ideology rather than an issue of economic necessity, as required by the law. The Ghosts of Shutdowns Past Between 1981 and 2019, there were five government shutdowns. While the first four went largely unnoticed by anybody but the federal employees affected, the American people shared the pain during the last one.   1981: President Reagan vetoed a continuing resolution, and 400,000 federal employees were sent home at lunch and told not to come back. A few hours later, President Reagan signed a new version of the continuing resolution and the workers were back at work the next morning. 1984: With no approved budget, 500,000 federal workers were sent home. An emergency spending bill had them all back at work the next day. 1990: With no budget or continuing resolution, the government shuts down during the entire three-day Columbus Day weekend. Most workers were off anyway and an emergency spending bill signed by President Bush over the weekend had them back at work Tuesday morning. 1995-1996: Two government shutdowns beginning on November 14, 1995, idled different functions of the federal government for various lengths of time until April of 1996. The most serious government shutdowns in the nations history resulted from a budget impasse between Democratic President Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress over funding for Medicare, education, the environment, and public health. 2013: For 17 tedious days, from October 1 through October 16, the perennial disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over spending forced a partial shutdown that saw more than 800,000 federal employees furloughed, U.S veterans locked out of their own war memorials, and millions of visitors forced to leave national parks. Unable to pass a conventional annual budget, Congress considered a continuing resolution (CR) that would have maintained funding at current levels for six months. In the House, Tea Party Republicans attached amendments to the CR that would have delayed implementation of President Obama’s healthcare reform law–Obamacare–for one year. This amended CR had no chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The Senate sent the House a â€Å"clean† CR with no amendments, but Speaker of the House John Boehner refused to allow the clean CR to come to a vote of the House. As a result of the impasse over Obamacare, no funding CR was passed by October 1- the end of the government’s 2013 fiscal year- and the shutdown began. As the shutdown drug on, public opinion of Republicans, Democrats and President Obama began to plummet and, to make matters worse, the U.S. was set to reach its debt limit on October 17. Failing to pass legislation raising the debt limit by the deadline could have forced the government to default on its debt for the first time in history, placing the payment of federal benefits in danger of being delayed. On October 16, faced with the debt limit crisis and increasing public disgust with Congress, Republicans and Democrats finally agreed on and passed a bill temporarily reopening the government and increasing the debt limit. Ironically, the bill- driven by the government’s need to reduce spending- also spent billions of dollars, including a tax-free gift of $174,000 to the widow of a deceased senator. The Costs of Government Shutdowns The first of the two government shutdowns in 1995-1996 lasted only six days, from November 14 to November 20. Following the six-day shutdown, the Clinton administration released an estimate of what the six days of an idled federal government had cost. Lost Dollars: The six-day shutdown cost taxpayers about $800 million, including $400 million to furloughed federal employees who were paid, but did not report to work and another $400 million in lost revenue in the four days that the IRS enforcement divisions were closed.Medicare: Some 400,000 newly eligible Medicare recipients were delayed in applying for the program.Social Security: Claims from 112,000 new Social Security applicants were not processed. 212,000 new or replacement Social Security cards were not issued. 360,000 office visits were denied. 800,000 toll-free calls for information were not answered.Healthcare: New patients were not accepted into clinical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ceased disease surveillance and hotline calls to NIH concerning diseases were not answered.Environment: Toxic waste clean-up work at 609 sites stopped as 2,400 Superfund workers were sent home.Law Enforcemen t and Public Safety: Delays occurred in the processing of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives applications by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; work on more than 3,500 bankruptcy cases reportedly was suspended; cancellation of the recruitment and testing of federal law enforcement officials reportedly occurred, including the hiring of 400 border patrol agents; and delinquent child-support cases were delayed. US Veterans: Multiple veterans services were curtailed, ranging from health and welfare to finance and travel.Travel: 80,000 passport applications were delayed. 80,000 visas were delayed. The resulting postponement or cancellation of travel cost U.S. tourist industries and airlines millions of dollars.National Parks: 2 million visitors were turned away from the nations national parks resulting in the loss of millions in revenue.Government-Backed Loans: FHA mortgage loans worth more than $800 million to more than 10,000 low-and-moderate-income working families were delayed. How a Government Shutdown Might Affect You As directed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the federal agencies now maintain contingency plans for dealing with government shutdowns. The emphasis of those plans is to determine which functions should continue. Most notably, the Department of Homeland Security and its Transportation Security Administration (TSA) did not exist in 1995 when the last long-term government shutdown took place. Due to the critical nature of their function, it is highly likely that the TSA would continue to function normally during a government shutdown.Based on history, here is how a long-term government shutdown might impact some government-provided public services. Social Security: Benefit checks would probably keep coming, but no new applications would be accepted or processed.Income Tax: The IRS will probably stop processing paper tax returns and refunds.Border Patrol: Customs and Border Patrol functions will probably continue.Welfare: Again, the checks would probably continue, but new applications for food stamps might not be processed.Mail: The U.S. Postal Service supports itself, so mail deliveries would continue as usual.National Defense: All active duty members of all branches of all armed services would continue duty as usual, but might not get paid on time. More than half of the Defense Departments 860,000 civilian employees would also work, the others sent home.Justice System: Federal courts should remain open. Criminals will still be chased, caught, prosecuted and thrown in federal prisons, which would still be operating.Farms/USDA: Food safety inspections will probably continue, but rural development, and farm credit and loan progra ms will probably close down. Transportation: Air traffic control, TSA security personnel, and the Coast Guard will remain on the job. Applications for passports and visas may not be processed.National Parks/Tourism: Parks and forests will probably close and visitors told to leave. Visitor and interpretive centers will be closed. Non-volunteer rescue and fire control services might be shut down. National monuments and most historic sites will probably be closed. Parks police will probably continue their patrols.

Global Managerial Economics in Mexico Research Paper

Global Managerial Economics in Mexico - Research Paper Example It required the company to purchase a large percentage of the raw materials for manufacturing the vehicles from Mexican-owned suppliers but now that is not the requirement. This means that Mexican-owned suppliers now miss out on the sales and income. Some view this as bad as more powerful countries become more sovereign (there will be an international sovereignty), jobs are reduced in "weaker" countries, and second and third world countries will have less power, income (businesses), etc. Globalization Debates (2000-2001) reports, "Politicians opposed to America's global influence and activists opposed to the inequities of oppressive global capitalism now portray globalization as dangerous. Globalization has thus become an issue in a wide-ranging global debate." Free trade limits states to operate domestically and protect their domestic welfare. These generous welfare states become less competitive. Culture is also lost. Global norms and practices take over what was originally known a s local and authentic. For example, western influence (such as America's way of doing things) becomes a global spread of what is popular and cultural homogeneity results. Some other losses include increased materialism and environmental problems.

The Road to Hell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Road to Hell - Essay Example They credited his actions for dynamic liberal regionalization program that led to success of the timely regionalization policy due to the good relation with the government (Gareth 817). The government had close relationship with Barracannia that later made it to be independent that contributed to critical and challenging attitude towards the role of foreign interest. The story of Road to Hell tries to evaluate peoples views towards issues related to racism in modern days. Issues related to racism is not easy to be solved using legalistic approaches, therefore, it requires deeper research and understanding to give pure proves that the human discrimination in relation to sex, skin color, origin has brought some major issues within a community, organization and even the societies. The story tries to explain how people from different cultures and backgrounds do not always take issues of diversity into consideration. Majority estimates each other by their own scales and perceptions that always lead to conflicts due to misunderstanding. According to the story, Baker appears to be a racist. However, people need to be educated on human right to be sensitive enough to have the feeling and immediate support should be provided to the victims by listening their views carefully and respect them.The main cause of racial discrimination has led to cross cultural misinterpretation that occurs when a person gives meaning to observation and their relationship (Adler 8). Some group see themselves superior than others which makes them have power to carry out racist. According to Pierce on Critical Race Theory, he came up with â€Å"one must not look for the gross and obvious† say that tried to explain the accumulation of today’s racism (Web). With reference to this theory, Baker has been viewed as a racist because Rennalls was correct in his evaluation between them and the acceptance of Rennalls

Business Ethics in Ford Motor Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Business Ethics in Ford Motor Company - Essay Example The ethical issue in discussion will be ignoring customer complaints. Ford Motor Company is an American automaker based in Detroit Michigan. The multinational. The company was incorporated in 1903. It was founded by Henry ford. It sells most of its commercial brands and automobiles under the â€Å"Ford† brand and sells its luxury vehicles under the brand â€Å"Lincoln.† Preceded by General Motors, Ford in currently ranked as the second largest auto maker in the U.S. Though the company adheres to most of its ethical code, it has been found to ignore some. Birsch (1994) states that one such case and point is the infamous â€Å"Ford Pinto Case.† The company has also faced other cases including a class action law suit for racial discrimination in 2006. This is according to Ferrellet al (2013). In more recent times, Ford Motor Company has been accused of not paying attention to customer complains. This seems to be a weakness in the company’s ethics as it is ign oring customer complaints that led to the Ford Pinto case. This is according to Birsch (1994). Many are of the opinion that the company is in dire straits and is willing to sacrifice its customers so as to save itself. Many people claim to have for example given numerous complaints about the Ford F-150 King Ranch. A car which they say has many problems. Local dealerships have turned a deaf ear to this and so has the manufacturer. Customers claim that it is universal practice for Ford to deny that a problem exists until ones warranty expires. This behavior by the manufacturer has led owners of recent ford models to lose confidence in their vehicles. Problems have also been found in the Ford Ranger. Problems with their vehicles range from minor to quite dangerous. There have been reports of Ford Ranger XLT brakes failing to work when it’s raining. Such a problem could prove disastrous.

Strategic Change Management in Larnaca General Hospital Assignment

Strategic Change Management in Larnaca General Hospital - Assignment Example The hospital was established in the year 1984 (Larnaca General Hospital, 2012). The hospital has been built upon the land which belongs to the â€Å"Church Committee of the Monastery of St. George Kontos†. Church committee donated the land to hospital authority during early 1980’s. Ministry of Health provided a donation to hospital authority in order to build the healthcare unit. The hospital was opened on 24th April 1985 by Spyros Kyprianou (former president of Cyprus during that time). Funding Situation Various nonprofit organizations such as Anti-Cancer Society of Cyprus and Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Ministry of Health will provide a fund for breast health center of Larnaca general hospital. There will not be any other stakeholders except mentioned nonprofit organizations. Mission Statement In accordance with the Directorate of Nursing Services the hospital strives for improving nursing care continuously. According to the directorate, they need constr uctive cooperation as well as participation from nurses during difficult and complex healthcare situation in order to achieve the mission objective. Change Situation Breast Health Center Breast cancer has emerged as a pernicious disease for women in last fifteen years and statistics show that in the country of Cyprus number of women affected by breast cancer has been increased sharply in recent times. There are three major cancer prevention initiatives such as Anti-Cancer society, Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends are present in the country. In the district of Larnaca, there are no special centers for observing initial symptoms of breast cancer although it is a way to prevent the disease in early stages. It is very hard to find accurate and valid healthcare data of the Cypriot population due to strict government rules. A report published by CYSTAT or Statistical Service of Cyprus shows that a number of women dying due to breast cancer are relatively high in contrast to other diseases. The statistical report shows that more than 32% of women are suffering from breast cancers. The following diagram can be used in order to understand the severity of breast cancer in the country. (Source: Golna et al., 2004) The Larnaca General Hospital needs to establish breast health center in order to reduce stress and nervousness associated with preliminary stages of breast cancer. The study shows that 1109 Cypriot women were diagnosed with breast cancer during the time period of 1999-2005. The study also shows that nearly 400 cases of breast cancer are reported by women while 90% of cases get registered by hospital officials. Although cancer patients receive treatment from Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre of Nicosia very few people in Larnaca district have the access to such facilities.