Marvel Comics and Toy Biz free essay sample

Were the problems caused by bad luck, bad strategy or bad execution? Marvel had six principle lines of business i. e. Sports Entertainment Cards, Toys, Childrens Activity Stickers, Publishing, Confectionery Consumer Products and Licensing of characters. While carrying on operations in these lines of business, Marvel ignored the alternative means of entertainment which were trending e. g. video games. Moreover, interest of collectors in comic books was reduced which was not addressed by Marvel. So it was the bad strategies of Marvel which caused it to file for Chapter 11. Question 2 a)Will the new restructuring plan solve the problems that caused the Marvel to file for Chapter 11? The plan suggested by Perlman has three parts: Investment of $350 million by Andrew Group Investments made by Andrew group will relax the Cash flow position of Marvel. It will increase its net cash reserves, after acquisition of Toy Biz, by $33. 5 million Acquisition of Toy Biz Toy Biz is engaged in business of manufacturing toys based on Marvel characters. We will write a custom essay sample on Marvel Comics and Toy Biz or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It generates cash flows of approximately $60 million per annum which can be used to service Marvel’s debt. Moreover, profits of Toy Biz help to offset more than 100 million of net operating losses of Marvel. Exchange of public debt Third part is to exchange $894 million debt for equity. This will relax the burden of interest payments. Marvel is facing problems of decreased revenue profits and there is a risk that it may violate some bank loan covenants. Acquisition of Toy Biz will help Marvel in setting off losses. Moreover, by converting loans to equity it will reduce debt servicing which will help to reduce risk of bankruptcy. New investment by Andrew group will help it to resolve current cash flow problems. b)As Carl Icahn, would you vote for the proposed restructuring plan? After announcement of proposed restructuring plan and sale of bonds by Fidelity and Putnam, price of Marvel stock and zero coupon bonds fall significantly. Although, Carl Icahn purchased bonds at deeply discounted prices yet, after announcement of restructuring plan price of bonds further decreased. Since revised plan caused the bond prices to fall and will cause loss to Carl Icahn, he should not vote in favor of this plan. Question 5 a)Why Fidelity and Putnum sold their bonds? After meeting with chairman of Andrew group, both investors realized that after the restructuring of Marvel, market value of shares will drop. Since bonds were secured by equity, forecasted fall in value of equity created a risk that collateral will not be sufficient to pay off debts. So both investors sold bonds in order to avoid anticipated losses. b)Why did Marvel’s zero coupon bonds drop on Nov 12, 1996? Sale of bonds by Fidelity and Putnum right before the announcement of restructuring plan gave a message to other bond holders that these two investors must be having some insider information that an unsuccessful restructuring plan will be announced. Due to this market sentiment, price of Marvel’s bonds fall.

Most Effective Assessment And Teaching Techniques Article

Most Effective Assessment And Teaching Techniques Article Most Effective Assessment And Teaching Techniques – Article Example Most Effective Assessment and Teaching Techniques Teachers can only get the best out of their if they abandon the old-fashioned teaching techniques for modern methods. The techniques in this context refer to various actions as well conditions that teachers establish for facilitating learning activities (Laurillard 11). One area that requires modest techniques of teaching is lecturing. A good technique of administering lectures is by asking learners rhetorical questions. The professor can pause after every 10 minutes and encourage learners to note the answers. Another useful technique in lecturing is using guided lectures (Laurillard 64). In this case, students can listen to recorded lectures but they do not take notes. The instructor then gives the class around five minutes to record what they learn from the lecture. It is also necessary that the learners engage in discussion groups where they reconstruct the lecture by using supportive data to prepare complete notes and refer to the instructor for resolving questions that may arise. For teaching to be effective, the learners should be able to answer some mastery quizzes. Immediate mastery tests help learners to retain knowledge twice as much as they would have retained with normal learning procedures. Other effective learning techniques are the group discussions or group works (Laurillard 181). Learners can easily grab knowledge through short readings, case studies, role-play, and visual studies. Besides, encouraging critical thinking through thoughtful questions is a good way of improving the learnability of students. The instructor should engage students with descriptive as well as reflective questions. Other effective strategies are those that encourage active learning. A good technique for active learning is brainstorming where the teacher solicits ideas from the students. The instructor can supplement active learning with concept models. However, technology brings new teaching techniques like use of audi o-visual techniques as well as online learning that occurs outside the classroom (Laurillard 98). There are also clickers or systems for classroom responses where students record their answers, and the device gives instant results thereby encouraging class engagement. Moreover, podcasts have also proved useful in classrooms because they help students to revisit their learning activities.Work citedLaurillard, Diana. Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. Routledge, 2013. Print.

How to Map Content to Your Marketing Funnel to Boost Conversions

How to Map Content to Your Marketing Funnel to Boost Conversions Here’s the problem: You’ve created an excellent website, but no one is buying. Or maybe you’ve written an awesome blog post, and it hasn’t done anything to drive conversions. You review your marketing funnel and realize the content you’ve created focuses on one section of your funnel and leaves out the others. This creates a gap that your prospects can â€Å"leak† out from and cause you to miss potential revenue. Whats the solution? Mapping out content ideas on your editorial calendar, and aligning them with each stage of the funnel. This way, you can present potential customers with the right message, at the right time, to encourage more purchases. At , we saw this in action when we used the following framework to help us create an email drip campaign that increased our conversions by 69.77%. In this post, we’ll walk you through exactly what a marketing funnel is and how to map your content to your funnel. We’ll also walk you how to develop messaging and show you how to choose best types of content to deliver those messages at each stage in the funnel. How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel and Boost Conversions By 69.77% via @Download Your Marketing Funnel Content Mapping Template This easy-to-use spreadsheet will help you sort the content you’ve already created and assign it to stages in your funnel. Plus, you’ll also easily be able to see where the gaps in your content are so you can map new content to prevent those leaks. This content, in turn, will guide your audience all the way through the funnel. Before we launch into how to map out your marketing funnel, there are a few terms you should keep in mind. Marketing Funnel: The journey that customers take from being completely unaware of a brand to purchasing their products. Content Mapping:  A process where you decide what content is most appropriate for a person at a given time. TOFU/MOFU/BOFU: Each of these acronyms refers to the parts of the funnel. The top of the funnel (TOFU), middle of the funnel (MOFU), and bottom of the funnel (BOFU). Discovery:  Your customers are just beginning to understand what your brand is about. They are experiencing some pain point in their life, and they aren’t sure how to fix it. Consideration:  They are now aware that there are solutions to the problem they are facing and that your brand offers one. What they don’t know is that your brand provides the best solution to their problems. Purchase:  They know about your solution and think you are the best option, but they need one last little shove over the line to buy your product.What exactly does the marketing funnel look like, anyway?Why Is Understanding The Marketing Funnel Important? Understanding how your customers flow through your marketing funnel is essential to make sure that it does its job. Here’s an infographic that gives you a little more information. Why is it important to understand how the marketing funnel works?The fact of the matter is that people don't move through the funnel in a linear process. So, you'll need to have content that reaches your audience at whatever stage they're at. 5 Marketing Funnel Examples Marketing funnels can come in all shapes and sizes. They will change a bit based on the company that created them, so here are six examples to look at. The Marketing Funnel The funnel is built in five stages and looks like this: Moz Marketing Funnel Moz’s  marketing funnel looks like this. Single Grain Marketing Funnel The Single Grain marketing funnel  looks a little like the Moz funnel, but it breaks down into three parts instead of four. Crazy Egg Sales Funnel The Crazy Egg sales funnel  looks a little different than all the other marketing funnels. In this example, theirs is mapped out based on the pages they’ve created to address customer needs at each stage of the funnel. Where the other examples are more theoretical, this one shows how a website might be structured to move customers down the funnel. Neil Patel’s Conversion Funnel Neil Patel’s conversion funnel  resembles more of a bow-tie and looks like this. If you want to learn more about different sales funnels and how they work check out this video from a CMWorld talk by Andrew Davis. Determine Who Your Target Audience Is Before you dive into your funnel, you need to  define your audience persona. Why is knowing your target audience so important? Because if you don’t know who you’re talking to,  you can’t craft the right messages  that will help them move through your funnel. So what is an audience persona,  and how can you create one? An audience persona is: A document that details your target audience’s who, what, when, where, and why. It also includes general demographic information such as gender, job title, job function, business size, team size, needs, pain points, and challenges. To build  your marketing persona, you need to be able to answer the following questions: What pain points are your potential customers experiencing? Where do they live and work? What gender are they? What hobbies do they enjoy? You can gather that information by sending a survey through social media or email. You can create a survey  using services like Survey Monkey  or Poll Daddy.  Once you have your data collected format your information into an audience persona statement.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"[INSERT YOUR BRAND] creates content to help and inform [INSERT DEMOGRAPHIC] so they can [INSERT ACTION] better.† Recommended Reading: How To Find Your Target Audience With A Marketing Persona How To Map Content To Your Marketing Funnel The marketing funnel goes by many names, but the core of each one is still the same. At , our marketing funnel looks like this: How much content should marketers create at each stage of the funnel?Now, you usually would want a customer to flow through the marketing funnel from top to bottom. However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes your customers can enter in at a different point of the funnel besides the top. If you don’t have content throughout the funnel that helps guide your customers to the bottom, they will most likely get frustrated and leave. So how can you ensure that there is content in each phase of your funnel? You can do this by mapping out each phase and assigning content to it. As we’ve mentioned,  there are three phases to the marketing funnel. At ,  we’ve broken each of down into  different subcategories, too. Here’s what our stages look like. Discovery In the Discovery phase of your marketing funnel, your customers know  absolutely nothing about your brand. The end goal of this phase is to have people learn more about your company. Your content should slowly guide your customers to the conclusion that while they can solve their problem themselves, your product will make it easier. Some recommended content types for this phase of the marketing funnel are: Blog posts Podcasts Infographics Social media posts Videos Microsites Guides Before you decide what  types of content that you’re going to create for this phase of the funnel,  you need to determine the messages you’ll send. Unaware Phase The unaware phase is the very top part of your marketing funnel. At ,  we define this phase as: These prospects haven't identified a pain or a solution. They may have stumbled across a link to our blog or website within a piece they were reading, met us at an event, or saw an industry ad. Another possibility is that something we published piqued their curiosity. You can use this definition or you can come up with your own. After you have your definition set, record it in your template: The message that needs to be delivered to your audience in this phase of the funnel should be about solving a problem or answering a question they might research. They’re reading your content for a reason. That problem may or may not be directly solvable by your product, but it should be something that your target audience cares about. In this phase, you’re trying to  get their attention and  show  them they can trust you. Define the message you want your content to send in the unaware section and record it in your template: If you’ve already written marketing content, how do you know if it falls into the unaware category? Ask yourself these two questions: Does this content relate broadly to your audience’s interests  (not just your product)? Does this address a potential pain point? If the answer to both is yes, you can categorize it as top of the funnel/ unaware content. The last section of your template that needs to be filled in is the example section and the expectations that your unaware content needs to meet: RExamples of Unaware Content From The Blog: How to Write a Powerful Case Study Fast With 35 Examples Red Bull Marketing Strategy: What You Need to Know (And How to Copy It) Pain Aware Phase The next phase of this process is the pain aware phase. This is where your customer realizes there is a problem that needs to be fixed. We define this stage as: These prospects feel pain of some kind, but don't know of a solution. They have identified an issue/challenge with their existing process, and are actively looking for information to help them fix it. Add your definition to your template. The message you need to deliver in this  phase is: You can identify the problem and you will teach them how to fix it. The difference between the pain aware stage and the unaware stage is that the problem you are looking to solve for your reader directly ties into your product. To identify if your previously written content fits the pain aware stage, ask yourself the following: Are you addressing a specific problem that your product solves? Are you teaching them how to solve this problem? If the answer is yes, you can file that content under pain aware. Add in the expectations your pain aware content needs to meet as well as any examples that you may have. Examples of Pain Aware Content From The Blog: How to Increase Marketing Efficiency With Content Workflows How To Build The Best Social Media Promotion Schedule For Your Content Solution Aware Phase The solution aware phase of your marketing funnel is when your potential customer realizes that there are products out there that may help solve their problem. The definition we use at is: These prospects feel a specific pain and just discovered there are solutions for it. They have hit the point of frustration where they actively seek solutions to help. They know tools are designed to help them solve the problem. Use ’s definition or create your own and add it to your template. The message that needs to be delivered for this phase should be targeted toward  showing your customer that there are solutions that solve their problem  (including your product). They could take care of the problem by themselves by implementing your advice. However, your product will make it even easier. Decide what message you want to send during the solution aware phase of your content and record it in your template. Now, if you’re trying to categorize solution aware content for your funnel, here are the questions to ask: Are you addressing your product category directly? Are you showing customers what to look for in the solution they’re searching for? Are you positioning your product against others? If you answered yes to those questions, you can fill that piece of content under the solution aware category. Identify the expectations that your solution aware content needs to meet as well as examples of solution aware content that you’ve already created. Examples of Solution Aware Content From The Blog: How To Plan A Marketing Calendar That Actually Works The Best 2018 Content Calendar Template to Get Organized All Year Consideration Once your potential customers are out of the discovery phase of your funnel, they move on to the consideration phase. At this point, they are aware of your organization and are actively thinking about purchasing your product. Now you need to convince them that your product is the best one out there. Some recommended content types for this phase of your funnel are: Case studies Trials Demos Product video Product Aware Phase In the product aware phase of your marketing funnel, your customer is finally aware that your product is the solution that they’ve been looking for. At we define this phase as: These prospects are learning our product is a solution to the pain. They may be trialing and comparing different tools to ultimately choose the best one that will solve their pain. Decide on your definition and record it in your template. The message that needs to be delivered to your potential customers at this point in the funnel is that while other products could solve their problem, yours is the best option. Based on that information, decide what kind of message you need to deliver with your product aware content and record it in your template. If you are trying to decide if your existing content fits into this format, ask yourself the following: Are you directly positioning your product as the best solution to their problem? Are you showing them how your product works? Are you emphasizing what makes your product stand out? The last step for your product aware phase is deciding what expectations your product aware content needs to meet and examples of product aware content you’ve created. Examples of Product Aware Content From The Blog: What Is The Best Social Media Scheduling Tool On The Market? How to Overcome Makeshift Marketing: The Buyer's Guide Purchase The last phase of your marketing funnel is the purchase phase. At this point, your customer should be ready to convert to buying your product. They may just need that extra push to get there. Some recommended content types to create at this stage of the funnel are: Sales page Webinars Customer stories Pricing pages Testimonials Reviews Most Aware Phase This is the final subcategory of your marketing funnel. At this point, your customers are the most aware of your product and are ready to purchase. We define this phase as: These prospects are learning that our product is the best solution to the pain. They love our product in comparison to the other tools available to solve the pain and are looking for options to purchase. They are deciding which plan fits them best and how it works in their budget. Define what most aware phase means for your marketing team and record it in your template. The message that your audience needs to hear at this point is reaffirming their decision to trust your product and possibly see how others in their position have loved their choice. Using that information, highlight what message your most aware content needs to send to your audience. If you’re trying to decide if the content you’ve already written fits this phase, answer the following questions: Are you providing them with in-depth info about how your product works? Are you explaining your different pricing options or product lines? Do you include testimonials from other customers about your product? Finally,  identify the expectations your most aware content needs to meet and include examples of most aware content you’ve already created. Examples of Most Aware Content From The Blog: How To Pitch Using To Organize Your Marketing To Your Boss From Spreadsheets to : How to Make the Transition Successfully Using Your Marketing Funnel Template To Map Content Now that you know what makes up your marketing funnel,  you can move on to the very last piece:  filling in the content gaps in your funnel. Using your template,  fill in the content name, the URL (if applicable), the publish date,  and the stage in the funnel your content is in. Use the questions listed earlier in this post to determine which phase of the funnel your content belongs in. Once you have everything sorted, you may have your funnel stages listed out of order like this: You can sort your content by stages in the funnel by selecting column A on your spreadsheet. Click Data and then sort: Select â€Å"Continue with the current selection†: Make sure that you sort by column A: Click OK  and you should be good to go: Now you can track your content this way, or you can make it even easier and track, organize,  and publish your content with . Our marketing calendar has several organization features that will help you map your content to the funnel. Recommended Reading: Marketing Calendar By : A Centralized View For All Your Marketing Efforts Using Tags and Color Labels to Label Content and Funnel Stages in Tags in   can help you sort and label your content quickly and easily. To use them, select the piece of content on your calendar and click Tag in the upper left-hand corner: Type in the tag name and you’re good to go. You can also use the filter in your calendar to sort by tags. Choose the funnel in the upper left-hand corner, scroll down to Tags and select the tag you want to sort by: You can also sort and organize content using Color Labels. Color labels allow you to assign specific color codes to your content and sort your content types according to what color they are. To use them, go to the settings portion of your calendar and scroll down to Color Labels. Each color code will need its own label. The best part is that with Custom Color Labels, you can always create more: Once you have your labels built, go back to your primary calendar and select or create a piece of content. In your content, you’ll see a little white circle. Your color labels will appear, and you can select which one fits the content best: You can sort your calendar by Color Labels as well by going back up to your funnel and scrolling down to Labels. Go Create Awesome Content For Any Phase In The Funnel Now you know how your marketing funnel should work and how to solve the gaps in your funnel with content that helps increase conversions. Work with your entire marketing team to brainstorm what’s next and constantly adjust your material based on what’s working for your customers and what isn’t. Then, when you’re ready to get into the planning and execution phase of your content,  start a free trial  or schedule a demo  with . See how our marketing calendar can help you get and stay organized as well as sort all your content by marketing funnel stages. Do you have a different funnel that is creating success for your marketing team? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Eating Habits of Students Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Eating Habits of Students - Essay Example The importance of a healthy lifestyle is inevitable. A good and healthy lifestyle starts with the diet one takes (Bailey, 2007 ). A blend of calorie intake together with fruit and vegetable consumption, as part of the diet, is advisable in ensuring a balanced diet. It helps prevent lifestyle-related disorders and diseases (MacClanccy, Henry, & Macbeth, 2009). Strict dietary guidelines help maintain a healthy diet and avoid the big gap in dietary divide experienced today by many people. The prevalent short lifespan emanates from the wrong choice of diet that end up affecting our health (Shepherd & Raats 2006). The young generation seems to pay little attention to the crucial topic of diet and health. Their choice of diet remains a secondary consideration in their responsibility for their health (Gullotta, Adams & Ramos 2005). Dietary disorders among young people are on the rise at an alarming rate. Instances of obesity in young people are increasing more than ever experienced. Accordi ng to Richards, 2007, guiding the young generation on issues of diet and health become essential. Topics such as the choice of food, awareness of a well balanced diet and the need to create attention to nutrition among by young people need further elaboration. Teaching the youth about diet and health, therefore, is indispensable an issue most governments must consider engaging (Berg 2002). Statistics in the United Kingdom show that several schools going students have poor knowledge of diet and health (McGinnis & Gootman 2006). Several students express low attention to nutrition. The choice of a better diet by students is poorly in several students (Glass 2009). In what areas many students pay less attention to, as far as diet and health are concerned, this report sorts to find out. The report discusses the important dietary areas overlooked by students and their extent of caution to their health. 2. Method In order to find out the eating habits of students, a survey was conducted wi th the help of an oral questionnaire. Total 30 randomly selected students in the UK took the interview in different learning institutions for the purpose of representing the student population. The group of respondents composed of students from different learning institutions at different stages of studies. The respondents consisted of fifteen boys and fifteen girls. The questionnaire (attached in the appendix) consists of different kinds of questions which chiefly build upon each other. The question types used is, for example, â€Å"yes/no†, multiple choice and ranking questions. In addition, some questions require the respondents stating their own opinion or telling more about their own experiences. While the questionnaire is not plainly segmented, it focuses on one major topic of health and diet. The questionnaire consists of seventeen (17) questions. The first question asks about the respondent’s gender. The second question asks about the frequency of meals taken b y students per day. The number of meals ranges from one (1) to four (4) per day. The third asks the opinion of the responder, whether he or she gets a balanced diet. It offers five options of response to the question. The fourth question inquires the respondent’s knowledge of a balanced diet. The fifth question asks the respondent about his or her preferred meal.

My ideal hero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My ideal hero - Essay Example This also meant that the right people, such as Dumbledore, who was not believed by the general adult population, could be believed without the doubt because as children, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were not subject to the adult pressures that a culture can place upon its citizens to believe certain untruths. When the outlaw aesthetics become the core of their movement, they adhere to the concept that what is right supersedes what is law. Through the advantages of their innocence and age, that they have less to lose than most of the adults in the world, they can adapt to the outlaw fringes in order to accomplish their goals. Harry is able to use his youth to infiltrate the needs of his realm in a way that the adults who have similar goals are unable to accomplish. Harry Potter comes across as the average boy in terrible circumstances, who blossoms when the truth of his life is revealed to him. His adolescence is a mirror of the events in the average life of a teenager, his struggles meta phors for the struggles that most youths find themselves struggling to overcome. He reflects both the constructs of the youthful hero and the outlaw hero, his actions flexible to the situation, his youth affording him the freedom to go against the grain as needed. Harry, unlike many heroes, embraces his role within his community, fervently going after the villain because that villain took his family. His role and his motivation are in harmony, his desire to overcome the evil in this world a priority.... ommon feelings of isolation and alienation that are the initial mundane and common feelings that are attributed to Harry, despite the extremes of his life, create the first level of empathy with readers, but then it is turned so that his survival, his ability to live through his childhood and begin the journey of adolescence, makes him a hero. Seger states that hero stories â€Å"come from our own experiences of overcoming adversity, as well as our desire to do great and special acts† (357). The dynamic is a powerful way in which his life connects to the reader. However, just like the adolescence that everyone experiences, Harry must now choose to live up to the perceptions that have been created around him and fulfill the expectations with which others have framed his identity - or not. This dilemma is at the core of adolescence, the concept of now finding a path on which to wander in order to fulfill the balance between what is expected and what is desired for one’s o wn life (Kroger 3). Harry begins his journey in the same place that most pre-teens begin their journey - adhered to the expectations of the adults in their life. Harry represents two sides of a coin; each side in opposition to the other, thus his heroism has the best chance of connecting to the audience, just as most cinematic heroes tend to represent a duality. Heroes connect to the audience by having diametrical attributes that are in opposition (Ray 343). Harry begins his journey through opposing identities. The next step from that point is in trying to find a way to define one’s self through actions that either support or deny this expectation. The one difference between Harry and most pre-teen age children is that his preconceived identity through the adults in his new world is that he is a hero

Criminology Coursework †Assessing the riots Essay Example for Free

Criminology Coursework – Assessing the riots Essay Criminology is focused on the attempt to understand the meanings involved in social interaction. Theorists have tried to explain sociological behaviour by looking at the patterns created by individuals that commit crime. The August 2011 riots are pivotal in explaining criminological behaviour since official statistics show that 865 individuals were put in prison by the 9th September 2011 for offences related to the disorder between 6th and 9th August 2011. This is not to say that others were not involved, but that they have simply not been identified to date and may never be identified, however the evidence we do have about the recent riots gives us plenty to talk about. This essay will provide a basis for causes of the 2011 riots by applying the ‘Labelling theory’ and the ‘Anomie theory’ to events that led to such behaviour. Mark Duggan was shot by a police officer from the specialist firearms command team and as life-taking errors were made on behalf of the police force, such events that led up to the riots suggest that the police service could be to blame. It was on the 6th August that relatives sparked the riots by setting fire to police vehicles as they demanded information about Duggan’s death, however the British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected a causal relationship between the death of Mark Duggan and the subsequent looting. Some say labelling is not a ‘theory’ because it does not give an explanation of law, but questions why we have such rules. For Labelling theorists there is no such thing as crime, as we create the laws and punishments by defining certain acts to be deviant. Deviant means to depart from usual or accepted standards. Leading theorist Kitsuse said â€Å"it is the responses of the conventional and conforming members of society which identify and interpret behaviour as deviant which sociology transforms persons into deviants†. This means that it is not the actions themselves that are crimes but the social response to such actions that the majority of people deem to be unacceptable and so these actions have been made crimes. This is how we label individuals to be criminals as they do not conform to the behaviour of the ideal majority. This can be unfair to minority groups since they may not deem their actions to be criminal but do not have a choice, for example the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act which criminalised previously civil offences such as  section 63 which gives police the powers to remove persons attending or preparing for a rave. The aim of the act was to give greater penalties for anti-social behaviour; however such activities like raves may be anti-social in behaviour from some perspectives but is merely a form of entertainment to others and so this is discriminatory against ravers as their recreational activity has been barred. Commentators have seen the Act as a draconian piece of legislation which was explicitly aimed at suppressing the activities of certain strands of alternative culture. In response to this Bill, the band ‘Dreadzone’ released a single called ‘Fight the Power’ which links into the Anomie theory (see anomie below) as the band were taking action to rebel the change in the law by getting the message across through their music. This also reflects Tannenbaum’s view of labelling; that the process of defining someone as a delinquent is due to conflict over particular activities, which results in tagging in which the person becomes the thing he is described as being and that the only way out is through a refusal to dramatize the evil. This can be applied to the recent riots the people involved were in conflict with the rest of society. Official statistics have shown that 73 per cent of those that appeared before the courts for the disorders involved in the riots had a previous caution or conviction and so this fits in with Tannenbaum’s debate that once a person is labelled to be ‘ bad’ they will continue in that manner. However, this data is only reliable to a certain extent as we do not know what sort of convictions the rioters already had and so they have been labelled as criminals due to deviance. According to Becker deviance is ‘a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender’. Becker came to the conclusion that people are criminalised through the process of negotiation, known to be social constructionism for example the Crown Prosecution Service may drop the charge of murder to manslaughter if there is not enough evidence to convict for murder. By doing this the defendant becomes labelled for the crime of manslaughter even though he may truly be guilty of murder. By introducing what could be regarded as ‘petty’ legislation more people will be labelled criminals, which in turn may lead the offender to act further on this basis. Lemert referred to this as secondary deviance as when a person is labelled criminal they change their view of t hemselves and this then becomes their ‘master status’. On the other  hand primary deviance is when someone violates a social code, but does not get labelled. Therefore a person is only labelled a criminal if he is caught and since ethnic minorities are subject to much more scrutiny than the white population this puts black people at an automatic disadvantage. Following the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence it was uncovered that the police are institutionally racist. Institutional racism can be defined as ‘the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to the people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin’. This can be seen where police failed to identify the attack on Stephen Lawrence as being racially aggravated and presumed it was gang related. This is due to the labels attached to black people that they are all associated with black on black gun crime. Official figures show that black people in England and Wales are six times more likely to be stopped and searched by police in comparison with their white counterparts. The power given to police to stop and search is found under the Criminal Justice Act and requires the police to anticipate violence. For the Mark Duggan case although the officer may have reasonably believed the suspect had a gun this was due to the label attached to him because of the colour of his skin and so such an assumption was not as a result of any proper intelligence. This reflects institutional racism as it is hard to believe that a white person would have been treated in the same way. Despite many black deaths in police custody there has been no conviction of a police officer. This is because of assumptions made that the victim must have been at fault because of the stigma that is attached to black people. This suggests an element of class because the lower class would most likely be punished when caught, w hereas many officials manage to escape minor crimes and so the rich and powerful are protected. The Brixton and Toxteth riots were also in response to such discrimination as at this time the police thought they were ‘the law’ and so used brute force against many individuals for mere suspicion when in matter of fact they had done nothing wrong. Goffman referred to stigma as ‘spoiled identities’ which he defined as ‘an attribute that is deeply discrediting within a particular social interaction’. Referring back to the riots this means that certain people, in particular black people cannot rid themselves of such ‘spoiled identities’ and as a result are much more likely to be subject to assumptions that they are deviant. It was Schur that outlined  that a person employs deviant behaviour as a means of defence. This is relevant to the recent riots since one man declared that he only joined in after being stopped and searched several times while trying to make his way home from the disturbances in the city centre. This suggests th at the riot was escalated by anger towards the police as they inherit discrimination in carrying out their duties. Although racism is rooted in widely shared attitudes, values and beliefs, discrimination can occur irrespective of the intent of the individuals who carry out the activities of the institution. This means that the police may not even be aware that they are being racist, but the labels they attach to certain individuals are present regardless of whether it is intentional. This could be because of the small number of ethnic minority police officers and so the force is not representative, which in turn reflects the ignorance to the modern, multi-cultural society that we live in. So is it fair to say that the police are to blame for the break out of the riots or that they did not carry out their duties efficiently enough to prevent them? The telegraph has cited that Mark Duggan was well known to the police. They had assumed that Duggan had a gun and further misleading information leaked to the public that the victim had actually fired bullets at the police first. Both assumptions made by the police turned out to be false and so this created an outburst of anger since it appeared that such assumptions were based on the fact that Duggan was black. Labelling is a problem that cannot be reversed easily and was acknowledged by Sir Paul Condon where he stated â€Å"I acknowledge the danger of institutionalisation of racism. However, labels can cause more problems than they solve.† Deviancy Amplication, as Leslie Wilkins pointed out is the process where the reaction by agents or agencies of social control may lead to an escalation, rather than a diminution of deviancy. The riots reflect this as the deviant behaviour spirals out of control as more acts are defined as crimes which leads to more restraints against deviants which in turn leaves them feeling as outsiders and so pushes them into the surroundings of other criminals which again leads to more deviant acts. The 1981 Brixton riots produced the Scarman report which emphasised the duty of police to apply the law firmly and sensitively without differing standards and although many measures were introduced to improve trust and understanding between the police and ethnic mi nority communities, the  Macpherson inquiry in 2000 said the Metropolitan police still suffered from institutional racism. Although it is evident that labelling causes many problems that cannot be reverted, it would not have been diplomatic to keep the truth behind the institutional racism a secret from the public and so on its emergence it is fair to say that this caused the beginning of the riots. As a result of this the police have now too been labelled and therefore much trust has been lost in the eyes of the public. The Anomie theory was established in the aftermath of the industrial revolution where society had been subject to a social transformation, which saw a drop in the ability to maintain order. Durkheim said crime is normal in any society and is functional in two ways. The first being an adaptive function that ensures change in society by introducing new ideas and practices and the second type is the boundary maintenance function that reinforces social values and norms through collective action against deviance. He then progressed by outlining two typical social formations; organic solidarit y and mechanical solidarity. Organic solidarity is organised around difference, whereas mechanical solidarity displays identical and shared values and so sanctioning is served here to identify and exclude offenders. The two latter formations were used to understand the rates of suicide. Durkheim said that the suicide rates are down to social solidarity; that is the integration into social groups and the regulation of social norms. His findings showed that anomic suicide occurred where the degree of regulation was insufficient because individuals feel a sense of ‘normlessness’. This can be shown through the amount of suicides within prisons, namely Kilmarnock’s private prison, where six suicides have occurred since the prison opened in 1999 until 2005. In the BBC Panorama programme investigating Kilmarnock Prison a riot within the prison was described, where officers recall witnessing inmates setting fires, flooding and smashing televisions. This can be compared to the riots outside the prisons as the time at which they occur is when individuals are subject to economic and social change. In times of rapid social change, such as that from mechanical to organic solidarity system s of regulations may be insufficient to effectively limit individual desires and so what emerges is a state of anomie. This theory is therefore applicable as the Toxteth outburst, that followed the Brixton riot reflects a civil protest against the social change because during this time Toxteth had one of the highest  unemployment rates in the country. The citizens of Toxteth felt let down by the Government as the city hit a decline and they were given little help to be able to survive and so could not fit in with society. This is also the same for the more recent London riots as society struggles through the recession where high unemployment and high crime is also present. Durkheim also related organic solidarity to the sexual difference between men and women. He outlined that men are much more likely to commit crime due to the higher impact social change has upon males. This can be reflected through the 2011 riots as statistics show that out of all offenders brought before the courts10% were female and 90% were male. Whereas Durkheim’s work related crime to insufficient normative regulation , Merton’s Anomie theory was a result of the absence of alignment between socially-desired aspirations, such as wealth, and the means available to people to achieve such objectives. According to Merton every society has cultural goals in which to strive for throughout one’s lifetime and it was the ‘American Dream’ that this theory derived from. Although Martin Luther King, Jr. strived for racial equality, few will deny that American’s are focused on the ‘almighty dollar’. It was the idea that prosperity and success were available to all those that worked hard, however Merton argued that the cultural demands on persons to achieve wealth brought about the use of illegitimate means, where they are denied effective opportunities to do so institutionally. Although this is based on American culture it can be applied to the UK as our society today aims for material success. This is reflected throughout the looting that transpired out of the 2011 riots as much of the disorder was in aid of stealing goods and electrical products. The BBC referred to this in headlines as ‘greed and criminality’, however others argue that the subsequent looting was due to the lack of help from the Government, which has left many people in a state of desperation. Merton recognised that the majority of society will conform even though they suffer the strain of anomie, however those that do not conform can be categorised into four types of deviants. These four human adaptions are known as the Innovator, the Ritualist, the Retreatist and the Rebellion. In the UK the typical ‘drug dealer’ would be an innovator as they accept the cultural goals, but do not use the standard institutionalised means. This could be for reasons such as previous convictions preventing them from achieving a respected job and  therefore other means are used in order to reach the desired material success. Ritualism in contrast refers to those that still have the attachment to the institutional means, however the cultural goals have been lost. Here could fall the single parent working hard at all costs and not actually achieving the goal. Retreatism is where both the objectives and means have been rejected. Merton says that Retreatism concerns people who ‘are in society but not of it’, for example a typical British tramp. The Rebellion refers to the behaviour of many young individuals in Britain as they replace the cultural goals and the institutional means with their own rules to cope with anomic strain. The recession is a prime example of an economic break down in Britain, which would result in some members of society turning to illegitimate means in order to achieve goals where society has made the end goal much harder to achieve. So, for the offenders involved there is a display of Innovation as they have the goals but not the means to achieve them and so have jumped on the opportunity of crisis in order to gain material success. Merton went on to argue that non-conformity resulted from differential access to opportunities, such as education and employment. From this there is a clear link to labelling as it is societies label that holds back the individual and prevents them from being able to achieve the end goals legitimately. This refers to the majority of the rioters since 73% of the offenders involved had previous convictions, and so although the desired goals are still prominent the label restricts the opportunity of getting a decent job which in turn stops them achieving this ideology of material success. Even without a criminal conviction ethnic minority groups struggle to get the same opportunities in terms of employment. Looking at the UK as a whole, ethnic minorities make up about 7% of the population, yet in police forces across England and Wales, just 2% of their officers are non-white. It is also much harder for a police officer from an ethnic minority background to reach the rank of superintendent and so after much rejection they eventually ‘give up’. Following the Brixton riots the Scarman report recommended efforts to recruit more ethnic minorities into the police force, and changes in training and law enforcement. The Macpherson report somewhat 17 years later showed that nothing has changed. The main problem with this theory is that it looks to assess financial crimes and ignores mindless crimes such as vandalism.  However, as the riots are mainly concerned with burglary and theft (statistics show 13% of disorder was due to theft and 44% was assigned to burglary) this theory is applicable. Looking at the overall causes of the riots it is fair to say that the police have discriminated on the way a person looks and although this may have provoked further crime as deviancy amplication suggests, it is the Anomie theory that best explains the reasoning behind the riots. In order to prevent such mass atrocities occurring again, discrimination in any form must be eliminated from the Criminal Justice System. It was George Orwell that explained how society will become a ‘police state’ and although surveillance programmes and more police powers have been enforced to give greater security to citizens much freedom is subsequently lost. Technology has been put in place in order to secure convictions, however in order for this to work the police must also be subject to the same kind of control. This would prevent discrimination on their part and also regain the public’s trust in the police. The lack of opportunity from the Government has led to a proportion of society to ignore the law, which in turn creates disturbance between the law enforcers i.e. the police and the public. As the recent 2011 riots saw a more ‘stand back’ approach by the police, they argued that they did not have the proper resources to respond due to ‘cut backs’ from the Government, however much of the police fund is spent on the wrong resources and so this must also be addressed for society to be controlled effectively. After the Brixton and Toxteth riots the British public managed to regain police trust, however since the UK returned to an economic state like of that time it was evident that some form of protest would also reoccur. As this has happened, equal opportunities must be available to give everybody in society a chance to succeed, which in turn would lose the resentment that is held towards the Government and police. Bibliography Textbooks: Bowling, B., Violent Racism: Victimisation, Policing and Social Context, 1998, Clarendon Press Gilbert, J., Discographies: Dance Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound, 1999, Routledge Newburn, T., Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing Orwell, G., 1984, 1949, 1st edition, London: Secker and Warburg Journals: Bowling, B. and Phillips C., (2007) â€Å"Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and Search†. Modern Law Review. 70(6) Dicristina, B., (2006), â€Å"Durkheims latent theory of gender and homicide†. British Journal of Criminology. 46(2) Reports: Bell, I., 2011, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011 King, M.L., Jr., (1968) The American Dream, Negro History Bulletin 31 (5) Macpherson, W., 1998, The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, London: Home Office Scarman, Lord J., 1981, ‘The Brixton disorders 10-12 April 1981’, London: HMSO Legislation: Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c.33) Websites: BBC, December 2011, ‘Toxteth riots: Howe proposed managed decline for the city’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16355281 BBC, 11th August 2011, ‘riots: David Cameron’s commons statement in full’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14492789 BBC News London, ‘London riots: looting and violence continues’, 8th August 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14439970 Cached BBC, ‘On this day: 1981 Brixton riots report blames racial tension’, http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/25 Guardian, T., 6th December 2011, ‘Reading the Riots: Humiliating stop and search a key factor in anger towards police’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/06/stop-and-search Peter Gould, BBC News online home affairs, ‘Changing face of justice’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/changing_face_of_justice.stm Kerry Townsend, ‘Frank Tannenbau m: Dramatization of evil’, http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/tannenbaum.htm Cached Similar CachedOxford Dictionary, ‘definition for deviant’, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com Scottish Government, ‘HM Inspectorate of Prisons Report on HM Prison Kilmarnock: January 2005’, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/14103535 Cached Warshauer, M., Liverpool John Moores University, ‘Who wants to be a millionaire: Changing conceptions of the American Dream’ (2002), http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm Wheatle, A., Evening Standard, 9th August 2011, ‘We need answers about the death of Mark Duggan’ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23976405 Television Programmes: BBC One, 2005, â€Å"Panorama: Kilmarnock Prison Part 1†, LondonCached [ 1 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 212 [ 2 ]. Ministry of Justice, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011, (15th Sept 2011) page 11 [ 3 ]. BBC, 11th August 2011, ‘riots: David Cameron’s commons statement in full’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14492789 accessed 18/02/2012Cached [ 4 ]. Oxford Dictionary, ‘definition for deviant’, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com accessed 20/02/2012 [ 5 ]. John Itsuro Kitsuse, 1962 [ 6 ]. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c.33) [ 7 ]. Jeremy Gilbert, Discographies: Dance Music, Culture, and the Politics of Sound, 1999, Routledge, page 150 [ 8 ]. 1994 [ 9 ]. Frank Tannenbaum, 1938 [ 10 ]. Kerry Townsend, ‘Frank Tannenbaum: Dramatization of evil’, http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/tannenbaum.htm accessed 19/02/2012Cached Similar [ 11 ]. Iain Bell, Ministry of Justice, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011, (15th Sept 2011) page 5 [ 12 ]. Howard Becker, 1963 [ 13 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 212 [ 14 ]. Edwin Lemert, 1967 [ 15 ]. ibid [ 16 ]. William Macpherson, 1998, ‘The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, London: Home Office, chapter 6.25 [ 17 ]. Ben Bowling and Coretta Phillips, (2007) ‘Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and Search’. Modern Law Review. 70(6) 944 [ 18 ]. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c.33) section 60 [ 19 ]. Alex Wheatle, Evening Standard, 9th August 2011, ‘We need answers about the death of Mark Duggan’ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23976405 accessed 21/02/2012 [ 20 ]. Erving Goffman, 1963 [ 21 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 217 [ 22 ]. Edwin Schur, 1951 [ 23 ]. The Guardian, 6th December 2011, ‘Reading the Riots: Humiliating stop and search a key factor in anger towards police’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/06/stop-and-search accessed 20/02/2012 [ 24 ]. Benjamin Bowling, Violent Racism: Victimisation, Policing and Social Context, 1998, Clarendon Press, page 3 [ 25 ]. William Macpherson, 1998, ‘The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, London: Home Office, chapter 6.25 [ 26 ]. Leslie Wilkins 1964 [ 27 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 218 [ 28 ]. BBC, ‘On this day: 1981 Brixton riots report blames racial tension’, http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/25 accessed 21/02/2012 [ 29 ]. Emile Durkheim, 1972 [ 30 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 170 [ 31 ]. ibid [ 32 ]. The Scottish Government, ‘HM Inspectorate of Prisons Report on HM Prison Kilmarnock: January 2005’, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/14103535 accessed 21/02/2012Cached [ 33 ]. â€Å"Panorama: Kilmarnock Prison Part 1†, London: BBC One, 27/02/05, Retrieved 03/02/2012 [ 34 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 173 [ 35 ]. BBC, December 2011, ‘Toxteth riots: Howe proposed managed decline for the city’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-16355281 accessed 23/02/2012Cached [ 36 ]. London riots, (6 August 2011) [ 37 ]. B. Dicristina, (2006), â€Å"Durkheims latent theory of gender and homicide†. British Journal of Criminology. 46(2), 212-233 [ 38 ]. Ministry of Justice, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011, (15th Sept 2011) page 3 [ 39 ]. Robert Merton, 1949 [ 40 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 175 [ 41 ]. Martin Luther King, Jr., (1968) The American Dream, Negro History Bulletin 31 (5), 10-15 [ 42 ]. Matthew Warshauer, Liverpool John Moores University, ‘Who wants to be a millionaire: Changing conceptions of the American Dream’ (2002), http://www.americansc.org.uk/Online/American_Dream.htm accessed 21/02/2012 [ 43 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 175-176 [ 44 ]. BBC News London, ‘London riots: looting and violence continues’, 8th August 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14439970 Cachedaccessed 22/02/2012 [ 45 ]. T. Newburn, Criminology, 2009, 1st edition, Willian Publishing, page 175-177 [ 46 ]. Iain Bell, Ministry of Justice, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011, (15th Sept 2011) page 5 [ 47 ]. Peter Gould, BBC News online home affairs, ‘Changing face of justice’, http://n ews.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/changing_face_of_justice.stm accessed 22/02/2012 [ 48 ]. ibid [ 49 ]. 1981 [ 50 ]. Lord Scarman, 25th November 1981, ‘The Brixton Disorders10-12 April 1981’, London: HMSO [ 51 ]. Iain Bell, Ministry of Justice, Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th to 9th August 2011, (15th Sept 2011) page 7 [ 52 ]. George Orwell, 1984, 8th June 1949, 1st edition, London: Secker and Warburg

Essay --

Postmodernism has always been somewhat present during every generation of people in America. In fact, it alludes to future ideas that are cutting edge when compared to the theologies of the modern times. The Emergent church can be classified as postmodern, because it is in fact an â€Å"emerging† movement. Perhaps the question we should ask is if it’s just a phase in America, or is it here to stay? We should first answer the questions that it brings up, before we can answer what it actually represents. However, there is one thing we do know, which is that the name comes from the fact that this â€Å"movement† is gradually changing the philosophy of Christianity. In every sense, the Emergent church is at least, improvisational. It takes Christianity, and not only challenges the traditional ways of the religion, but alters it in order to appeal to a new generation of non-believers as well as believers. The emerging church is used to describe the new and rapidly growing amount of mission Christian congregation. It is a name given to those who believe that God is the truth alone, but the old ways of exposing that fact are no longer useful in today’s society. Such things include worship, prayer, preaching, and outreach. The emerging generation sees these aspects as very flexible features of the Christian church since the old forms of expression don’t seem to have as much of an effect on society today than it did decades ago. In this logic, the emergent church is seeking alternative forms of spiritual formation that are controversial to, and within Christianity, which is making it a misunderstood movement. Like every other ty pe of movement, this effort had just started as a conversation among its leaders. Some of the first people to... ...nce of homosexuality. Which makes it seem like the Emergent church is not representing significant conversion growth, but instead are gathering upset Christians and making alternative beliefs. Which is why it has become vital to try and understand this movement, so that assumptions can’t be made that could potentially cause a chasm in Christianity. The Emergent Church has both positive and negative effects. It’s beneficial in the way that it is adapting to today’s culture to assist with evangelism, but it isn’t a totally comfortable concept to grasp. Neither is postmodernism, which the emerging movement basically represents in its theologies and ideas. The fact is that for as many questions that it can answer in Christianity, it raises twice as much. However, whether or not the culture accepts this movement, the one thing that seems inevitable, is its growth.