Monday, August 5, 2019

Technologies to Analyze Big Data

Technologies to Analyze Big Data Hassan, Ruman Ul Currently, most of the companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon are generating an extensive data and this data is termed as big data. In addition to the above mentioned sources, there are many other sources like banking, airlines, stock market, and digital media that generates big data. Nandimath, Patil, Banerjee, Kakade, and Vaidya (2013) state that the volume of data being generated daily is increasing rapidly and the size of this data is nearer to zeta bytes (p. 700). This means the size of the data is increasing quickly. This data holds a value that can benefits business organizations to improve their business stability and to increase their profit. However, this big data creates the problem of storage and processing. Prior to ten years ago, the data was stored and processed in a traditional database management system. This system is called as Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). After the rise of big data, it is really difficult for the RDBMS to process this large d ata. Thus, many researchers focuse their study in developing a technology that can effectively analyze the big data. After extensive research, Google has proposed a google file system for storing the big data and a map reduce algorithm for processing this data. Moreover, Nandimath et al. (2013) assert that Apache hadoop is used for distributed processing of big data (p. 700). This framework helps many organizations in efficiently analyzing their big data. Beside Hadoop, the other technologies that help in analyzing the big data are Pig, Hive, Hbase, Zoo Keeper, and Sqoop. Each tool has their own requirements, so the usage of these tools depends on the criticality of the data and the requirement of the organization or business. However, the three major technologies to analyze big data are hadoop, hive, and pig. Hadoop is one the major technologies to analyze the big data. It is the framework developed by Apache for processing extensive data sets. This framework helps business firms to effectively process their unstructured data like video, audio and image. In addition, this framework benefits many business organizations to improve their financial stability by effectively analyzing their data. Furthermore, the hadoop framework consists of two main components, hadoop distributed file system (HDFS) and map reduce programming paradigm. The function of HDFS is to store the comprehensive datasets in distributed environment. Distributed environment allows the developer to store the large data sets on multiple machines. Thus, it helps in improving the retrieval process of immense data. In addition, Nandimath et al. (2013) state that â€Å"Hadoop uses its own file system HDFS which facilitates fast transfer of data which can sustain node failure a whole† (p. 700). It also helps developer to o vercome the storage problem. For example, if immense data is stored on a single machine then it creates a problem of processing and retrieving because of its size. Thus, if that data is distributed on multiple machines then it provide an ease for the developer for processing and retrieving. Beside fast processing and retrieving, reliability is also a benefit of HDFS. HDFS achieve high reliability by replicating the data on different machines. Therefore, if any machine fails in distributed environment, then the data of that particular machine will be easily recovered through backups. According to Dittrich and Ruiz (2012), the benefit of map reduce is that developers need to define only single functions for map and reduce task (p. 2014). This map reduce paradigm helps developers to overcome the problem of efficiently processing the data. Moreover, Nandimath et al. (2013) believe that the purpose of map is to divide the job into smaller parts and distribute it to different nodes, while the purpose of reduce is to generate the desired result (p. 701). For instance, if Facebook wants to analyze the user interest then the Facebook will first deploy the generated data on HDFS and performs the map task to divide the zeta byte of data and then perform the reduce task to get the desired result. Thus, it shows that hadoop helps organizations for efficiently analyzing their extensive datasets. Another technology to analyze big data is hive. It is a data warehouse framework build upon hadoop. It provides an ability for the developer to structure and analyze the data. In hadoop, the data processing task is performed using Java programming language where as in hive, processing a task is performed using structured query language (SQL). In addition. Borkar, Carey, and Liu (2012) assert that â€Å"Hive is SQL-inspired and reported to be used for over 90% of the Facebook map reduce use cases† (p. 2). Thus, the main goal of hive is to process the data through SQL like interface. Moreover, the traditional SQL standards were restricting the hive from performing some intensive operations like extracting, transforming and loading the big data. As a result, hive developed their own query language called hive query language (HQL). Besides traditional SQL standards, HQL includes some specific hive extensions that provide an ease for the developer to effectively analyze the big data. Furthermore, hive helps developer to overcome the scalability issue by using distributed file system mechanism. It also helps them to achieve the fast response time through HQL. For example, general SQL statements like SELECT and INSERT will consume more time on traditional database management system for big data where as in hive the same operations can be performed efficiently. Moreover, Liu, Liu, Liu, and Li (2013) conclude that with precise system parameter tuning in hive, an acceptable performance can be achieved (p. 45). This means if the developer precisely changes the system parameters for analyzing the data, then performance efficiency can be improved for that task. Besides hadoop and hive, pig is also a major technology to analyze the big data. Pig allows the developer to analyze and process the enormous datasets quickly and easily through transformation. It is also called dataflow language. The pig framework is used along with HDFS and map reduce paradigm. The working of pig is similar to that of hive except the query language. In pig a task is performed using pig latin whereas in hive, the task is performed using HQL. The main benefit of pig is that pig latin queries can be integrated with other languages like Java, Jruby, and Python and it also allow users to define their own functions to perform the task as per their needs. Moreover, as pig is a dataflow language it helps developer to illustrate the data transformation process. For example, in pig it is easy to perform the data transformation operations like Split, Stream, and Group compare to SQL. In addition, the pig framework is divided into two parts pig latin language and pig interpret er. The pig latin is a query language to process big data. In addition, Lee, Lee, Choi, Chung, and Moon (2011) assert that in pig framework a task is processed using pig latin language (p. 14). The pig latin queries help developer to process the data efficiently and quickly. Another component of pig framework is pig interpreter. The work of interpreter is to convert the pig latin queries into map reduce jobs and also to evaluate the bugs in pig latin queries. For example, if Facebook developer writes the pig latin query to find the people in India that like rock music, then this query is first interpreted by pig interpreter to identify bugs and then it is converted to map reduce jobs. Thus, with the help of pig latin queries, developers can avoid the stress of writing a tedious code in java to perform the same action. In conclusion, the three technologies to process the big data are hadoop, hive, and pig. These frameworks help business organizations to find the value from their data. In addition, each technology is useful for performing a task differently. For instance, Apache Hadoop is useful for analyzing the offline data and it cannot process the real time data like banking data. Moreover, hive provides a SQL like interface that makes the processing a lot easier because the user does not have to write the lengthy tedious code. Hive is good for those user who are not good at programming and best in SQL. Similarly, pig also makes the processing task much easier for  users. All the map reduce jobs can be written in pig latin queries to get desired results. Therefore, organizations should select the technology based on their data formats and requirements. However, all these technologies help organizations to process and store their data efficiently.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Internationalisation of Public Relations Education

Internationalisation of Public Relations Education Introduction The main theme of the dissertation is internationalisation of public relations education. It is quite a broad topic and can be reviewed and discussed from different points of view. In this regard the selected literature first examines international public relations concepts and secondly an impact it has on public relations education. Therefore, literature review has been divided into the following major themes: International public relations (IPR) and International public relations education (IPRE). The chapter will begin by presenting the main debates about international public relations and its concepts alongside with a brief overview of factors influencing it. It will be followed by a section presenting state of research on IPR. The discussion will then move to section two international public relations education, exploring the requisites and challenges for internationalisation. Finally the chapter will summarise the key themes and points identified. The major part of the literature review focuses on contemporary research, defined as 1989-2009. International PR A growing number of publications document the development and challenges of the public relations in every major continent and region of the world (Nally, 1991, Moss et al., 1997, Moss et al., 2003, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2003b, Van Ruler and Vercic, 2004, Freitag and Stokes, 2009). This research refers term global PR to globalisation of the profession, which is being practises and recognised in more countries throughout the globe, while International PR refers to the planning and implementation of programmes and campaigns carried out abroad or for international audience. Hence international PR education refers to the process of adopting professional training to International PR concepts and demand. Public relations is still relatively new concern for management, even though its modern origins can be traced to the end of the last century (White, 1991). According to (Cutlip, 1994), a key researcher in the history of public relations in the U.S., the first international public relations agency The Hamilton Wright Organization was founded in 1908. International communities of professionals and scholars are increasingly interested in transferring knowledge, experiences, and best practices from national to transnational scenarios. This advancement is generated by the increasing role of public relations which is driven largely by the influence of new information technologies and globalisation (Flodin, 2003). Drawing upon this, DiStaso et al. (2009) discussed the effects of globalisation, that began with the Maastricht Treaty and NAFTAA in 1992, the WTO in 1994 and claiming it had great impact on the public relations industry. According to Szondis (2009, p.115) International public relations is the planned communication activity of a (multinational) organisation, a supra- or international institution or government through interactions in the target country which facilitates the organisation (or government) to achieve its policy or business objectives without harming the interests of the publics. There have been papers which presented international PR to be simply about how to overcome barriers that are created by other cultures, including language, laws or cultural issues, which are often indentified as problems (Wilcox et al., 2001), rather than opportunities or the manifestation of diversity. The most frequently referenced paper which stands against IPR has been Angell (1990) asserted that the variance between local countries was so great as to preclude any possibility of globalisation. A much different study, also highly referenced, has been provided by Pavlik (1987), who as early as the 1980s considered IPR one of the most rapidly growing areas of the profession, and one of the least understood. The problem with defining difference between domestically and internationally done public relations is that there is not enough research or critical assessment. While basic principles do not change, the way they are carried out from culture to culture and country to country, and the attitudes and values embedded within those different cultures or countries, are different (Wakefield, 2007b). A similar study was conducted by Botan (1992, p. 157), who argued that international public relations is always intercultural. The existing public relations body of knowledge, and public relations curricula around the world, have a U.S. bias (Sriramesh, 2002). U.S. paradigm, however, strikes with the idea of that European or non-U.S. perceptions of public relations become more of value in the twenty first century. A US professor and professional Robert Wakefield (2007b), who have been practicing and researching in the area of IPR for almost two decades, believes that principles and practices of PR in Europe, emphasising social role of public relations, are more promising for effective PR in the multinational than the American-based PR-as-marketing-tool approach. He, alongside the majority of new PR schools, supports paradigms of PR incoming out of places other than the U.S. Therefore, need and call for the elsewhere theories and concepts was also a factor for a research in international/global PR. Ovaitt (1988, p.5) made an interesting suggestion saying that it was not a popular idea with marketing and advertising experts when they started thinking about internationalisation decades ago and it was not popular with public relations practitioners back to late 1980s. The idea is that what these professionals do for a living might be done on a global basis global in the sense of achieving some significant level of standardisation, not only of what is offered to customers, but also how it is presented and promoted. Public relations as a profession is not necessarily understood and practised in the same manner all around the world. This is not news per se, as several scholars (Sharpe, 1992, Vercic et al., 1996, Taylor, 2000, Rhee, 2002, Valentini, 2007) for many years have underlined that public relations requires a global understanding of cultural differences. Different studies (Kent and Taylor, 1999, Lee, 2005) show that public relations practitioners are increasingly required to be able to communicate with different international publics, no matter the size of the organisation they are working for, or whether it is private or public, including non-profit organisations. After the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Excellence Study yielded a review of normative principles (Grunig, 1992), Vercic et al. (1996) explained the importance of identifying five contextual variables that influence the practice of the normative principles. Vercic, Grunig, and Grunig (Vercic et al., 1996) proposed a global theory of public relations that was elaborated by Sriramesh and Vercic (2003a, 2003b, 2009) in their Global Public Relations Handbook and by Sriramesh (2009) in a special issue of PRism. Their global public relations theory attempted to answer the question of whether public relations theory and practice should be unique to each country or culture or whether it should be practiced in the same way everywhere. Authors answered this question by theorising that global public relations should fall in the middle between standardisation and individualisation (Grunig, 2009). The theoretical framework of Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) has been used to assess the status of public relations in countries around the world. Contextualised studies are the core component of the global public relations concept. As Vercic (2009) reported, international PR practices should represent the best practices anywhere because of their necessary complexities and reach. Global theory is not a positive theory, which describes a type of public relations that currently is practiced everywhere in the world. Research, such as that reported in Sriramesh and Vercic (2003, 2009), does show that there are many idiosyncrasies in public relations practice around the world that reflect cultural differences. It also shows that the one worldwide universal in public relations practice is what is J. Grunig have called the press agentry/publicity model (Grunig et al., 1995)-the least effective of the models. Rather, their global theory is a normative theory that argues that public relations will be most effective throughout most parts of the world (Grunig, 2009, p.2). Emphasising cross-cultural effects on reputation in multinational organizations Wakefield (2007b, 2008) argues that there still is an important distinction between global and domestic public relations practices, and that understanding those differences will contribute to better global practice. More specifically, recent research has also called into questions of need to understand how culture affects public relations. There are numbers of key researches (Grunig et al., 1995) who have written papers specifically on the subject. A similar study was conducted by Neff (1991), who has indicated that economic development is leading public relations firms down a path requiring knowledge of culture and language in addition to public relations. Perhaps one of the most influential recent publications on multiculturalism in public relations education was produced by Sriramesh (Sriramesh, 2002, Sriramesh, 2003). He has also reported that public relations education has not kept pace with the rapi d globalisation that has occurred since 1992 (Sriramesh, 2002). Sriramesh (2009) called for a need for a more thoughtful representation of many of the generic principles of public relations practice to suit the local environment, so that the body of knowledge is more holistic and relevant to global demands. However, there still is a room for an assumption that not all the practitioners require international training and international perspective. RESEARCH / CRITICS: Since the advent of the Internet, it is even more tempting to view PR practice as the same anywhere, and therefore it decreases attempts to produce research or principles that need to view à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“cross-border PR as different (Wakefield, 2007a). Despite the numerous calls for research, reviewed works and studies on global (national) public relations released in the 2000s (see table 1) (Portugal, United States see table) have recorded that this area of research is underrepresented. Despite global trends underlining increased internationalisation, these results can be interpreted to indicate that Researchers have not paid enough attention to the international perspective. An important indicator is the place international public relations occupy in the list of priority research topics. One recent example is a Study of the Priorities for Public Relations Research conducted by Deputy Dean of Media School of Bournemouth University (UK) Tom Watson (Watson, 2008, Watson, 2007)  [1 ]  .He sent 26 public relations topics to a Delphi study panel and the Top Ten PR research topics were identified, however, international perspective was excluded from the list. A US professor and professional Robert Wakefield responded critically to Watsons Delphi study: First, I was surprised in finding that the topic fell all the way out of the top ten. After all, arent PR issues and challenges, along with its overall scope of practice, becoming more international with each passing year?(2007a, p. 6) Nonetheless he added: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“There really are no more studies being done on international public relations now than have been done over the course of the last three decades. Those that are being published are increasingly making such statements as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“there is no such thing as local PR anymore, or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“today, everything is global. Well, if this represents what academics and practitioners are thinking, then it would stand to reason that no real different research needs to be done-that ANY PR principles, even if they are all traditionally domestic in nature, would suffice for research or practice anywhere in the world (2007a, p.7). The seminal critique in this area is also by Sriramesh (2009, p.6), who argues: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“When scholars think of, and discuss, public relations, the global perspective is often overlooked. Srirameshs (2009) critique of Mackey (Mackey, 2003), who claimed to introduce the various contemporary theories of public relations in the inaugural issue of Prism is also indicative: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The author attempted to review à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the changing vistas in public relations theory, there was not a single mention of any advances in global public relations theorising in that piece even though by 2003/that time there were several advances worth reporting'(2009, p.8). Another example is Distasso (2009). Authors surveyed 312 public relations executives and educators to examine how well practitioners and instructors perceive public relations students to be prepared for the practice, the content and value of public relations curricula and, the future of public relations education in the United States. Even though scholar mentioned globalisation as a factor increasingly influencing public relations practice he had not included it in the questionnaires or research questions. Somewhat it contrast are papers from the annual International Public Relations Research Symposium Bledcom, which reflect the diverse and up-to-date research traditions amongst scholars working in the field of public relations both within the USA and Europe (Moss et al., 1997, Newman and Vercic, 2002, Moss et al., 2003, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2003a, Sriramesh, 2004, Van Ruler and Vercic, 2004, Van Ruler et al., 2008, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). These are scholars, who systematically examines the priorities for PR research and determine international agenda These differences in research agenda are reflected/explained, to some degree, in the/by Scholars like Sriramesh, Vercic, Wakefield and others highlighted the important point that an issue of international public relations is not reflected enough in the research questions. International public relations education (IPRE) As a corollary to the process of globalisation has been the recognition of the need to make public relations education more internationally focused and future public relations professionals more internationally and interculturally competent (Lane DiStephano, 1992) / Huthcings et al., 2002 There have been numbers of calls for new public relations curricula aimed at educating staffs that can understand and meet increasing international social, economic and political complexities and challenges. (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994, p. 13). The International Association of Universities (1998) supported the need for business schools to be more international in their strategy, claiming higher education must integrate an intercultural dimension into its teaching and research, if it is to fulfil its role and maintain excellence. (Hutchings et al., 2002, p. 58). Another rationale for an international public relations course is the accelerating pace of societal and technological change today. These cha nges call for adaptations in academic curricula and professional development programs. There were written dozen papers on justification of international public relations education based on research in the different areas. Some went radical claiming that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“any curriculum that excludes international public relations courses is ineffective in addressing student and practitioner needs, particularly in the next century (21 century).(Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994) p.9 Factors what influence the development of IPRE are mostly the same, however they have different interpretations. The need for international courses in public relations is demonstrated further by the growing global recognition of public relations degree programs and education, a phenomenon that Cantor (1984) predicted more than twenty years ago. And indeed, previous investigation has established that the call for internationalisation of public relations education has been there for a long time and comes from both industry and academia sectors (Neff, 1991, Cottone et al., 1985). However, disagreements between practitioners and educators on a blueprint for international public relations education have also been documented (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994). A decade old survey of U.S. public relations educators and practitioners that explored the state of curricula and content in public relations education found that both practitioners and educators perceive need to incorporate courses and cont ent that will prepare future practitioners for the global landscape (Neff et al., 1999). A Public relations is a multidisciplinary area of study and practice that must change as rapidly as the context and society in which it exists (Baskin, 1989, p. 35). As public relations continues to be a globalised profession, curriculum should be updated to reflect the practice. Ten years later similar study has recorded, that having a global perspective and experience with a variety of cultures are necessary but lacking skills for advanced level practitioners (DiStaso et al., 2009, p.269). An important consideration in providing students with some skills in achieving cross-cultural understanding is the recognition that, as future business professionals and leaders, they will live in a society increasingly characterised by international labour mobility and multiculturalism. The international manager or employee will be an individual who will spend their working lives in several distinct job areas working for several organisations as well as making several sojourns to various international postings. This means that the new style employee will need to be cosmopolitan, multilingual, multifaceted and what Schneider Barsoux (1997, p. 157) refer to as a capacity to operate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“across national borders somewhat like James Bond. Public relations education at all levels and in both communication and MBA programmes should educate students to practise public relations globally (Grunig and Grunig, 2002). However, not only do students need to be trained and prepared for this mobility, but even those who do not move to another nation face the recognition that the domestic work environment also requires some responsiveness to differing cultures (Hutchings et al., 2002, p. 69). Sriramesh (2009, p.6) makes a reasonable argument that even textbooks in the US and the UK should contain more global cases and interpretations so as to give their own students a more international and holistic education, thus broadening their horizons. It is indicated that authors of universitys level public relations textbooks have not yet realised the growing importance of international public relations and thus deal marginally with it. The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) has drawn on its international membership to research and recommend standards for public relations education and has established the results of its work in two Gold papers in 1982 and 1990 (IPRA (1982) Gold paper No. 4, A Model for Public Relations Education for Professional Practice, and (1990) Gold Paper No.7, Public Relations Education Recommendations and Standards). (White, 1991) p.184-185 Not much has changed since that time. WAYS: Number of general papers were designed in response to the need for public relations education to produce well-trained, culturally sensitive practitioners (Miller, 1992, Ekachai and Komolsevin, 1998, Burbules and Torres, 2000, Bardhan, 2003, Dickerson, 2005, Tuleja, 2008). With the increasing importance of international communication, some educators had considered creating a course dedicated to international public relations (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994, Taylor, 2001). In a special edition of Public Relations Review on developing teaching related materials, Taylor (2001) offered guidance to public relations educators on how to develop an international public relations curriculum because: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“New communication technologies and global communication processes create more frequent international communication (Taylor, 2001, p.2). Nevertheless, some of the Taylors conclusions sounded far too decisive: The most comprehensive way to internationalize the public relations curriculum is to offer a course dedicated to international public relations (p. 74). Creedon and Al-Khaja (2005) analysed how adding cultural competency to the list of skills and competencies required in educational programs presents an opportunity to educate a generation that will accept difference and value a global culture separate from national identity. Then again the study was rather limited the authors conducted a survey of accredited programs to determine whether or not a history course was required of their majors. Another empirical-based study argued that just talking about the importance if IPR in the classroom is not sufficient, students have to be able to live international public relations in order to understand its relevance (Bardhan, 1999, p. 19). An important portion of literature on international public relations education suggests the necessity for students to learn about other countries through immersion. According to Porth (Porth, 1997, Tuleja, 2008) the international study tour course may be a legitimate answer to critics of education who urge business schools to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“go global and to create stronger ties with the international business and academic communities. More specifically, recent research has also called into question the assumption of studying internationally. For instance, Hutchings et al. (2002, p. 58)suggests that the challenge for the education is how to devise a short-term study program that is effective in exposing international concepts to the student. Yet, foreign travel alone is not the panacea for internationalising PR education because it is difficult to manage even if having resources. Hutchings study is focused on going abroad, even so it may make some contribution to understanding of glo bal consciousness characterised as moving towards a recognition and appreciation of increasingly global diversity and interdependence. Arguments about which is the best approach to international public relations education, courses and its numbers, or changing the context with its live experience and observations, largely missed the important point that methods have to be fit for their purposes. For some purposes, this is the best, and in other cases the choice will be this and that. Furthermore, although those approaches rest on very different use of resources and possibilities, they can be complementary in the hands of future research and need to be incompatible. Many studies would benefit from mindfully using each approach for different purposes at different stages of the internationalisation. Fuller discussions of this are to be found in some public relations papers, including (Neff, 1991, Dibrova and Kabanova, 2004, Peterson and Mak, 2006, Chung, 2007/8, Dolby and Rahman, 2008). CHALLENGES/BARRIERS: Authors such as Kalupa and Carroll Bateman (1980) have suggested that public relations educators have failed maintain the currency of the teaching in relation to the practice. On the other hand, Holbrook (1985, 1995) has been one of the most prominent critics of the idea of selecting research topics based on what is of interest to practitioners. He has argued that such an orientation tarnishes the purity of the academic endeavour. Amongst other challenges Bardhan (1999) recorded that educators feel unprepared at present to handle the task effectively and lack of interest among students. Falb (1991, 1992) has claimed that because of putting public relations curriculums in either Mass Communications or Journalism public relations has been inhibited in its growth in academic and professional areas. Similar study was conducted by (Pincus et al., 1994), who argued that communication topics do not rate high in MBA programs: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“If public relations faculty do not champion the recognition of public relations topics in MBA programs, the profession will never realize entry to the highest levels of corporate decision making (1994: p.55) . Making an analogy, this statement might be extended by claiming that If public relations faculty do not champion the recognition of international public relations concepts in Postgraduate programs, the profession will lack behind present state of research and practice. This statement finds a reflection in recent research as well. Papers like Sriramesh (2002) claim that it is time for educators to integrate experiences from other continents into the PR body of knowledge, thereby building PR curricula that contribute to training truly multicultural PR professionals. CONCLUSION: Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) underlined the compelling need for a text describing and explaining public relations practices and body of knowledge in different parts of the world. Their call for research has been taken up and largely because it proposed a framework, which made it easier to facilitate global research. Thereby, by critically examining the framework scholars in different countries enrich international public relations body of knowledge and provides prove or counter-arguments to the Global theory. Nonetheless, it might be argued that among those five factors, which have been put forward by Sriramesh and Vercic (2003), one is missing professional PR training. In this regard it can be concluded the following. Firstly, such indicator as level of professional training can be considered as a sixth factor influencing practicing public relations in country. Secondly, on the basis of a global concept can be developed a similar concept and subsequently applied to the study of inte rnational public relations education. Thirdly, basing on data provided from the five factors, it allowed to determine the degree of standardization vs. localization of IPR programs and courses and to identify barriers and obstacles. Achieving internationalisation of public relations education is concluded to be important for three reasons. First, because many graduating students will be finding employment internationally and benefit from having been educated to be effective in differing cultural settings. Second, because rapid changes in national immigration policies have meant that many more nations are considerably more multicultural than they have been in the past and citizens need to be more conscious of diversity in their national and organisational surroundings. Third, because the pace of changes in the international political economy necessitates that people must be responsive to international economic and business forces. Thus, students who receive an internationally focused public relations education should be more culturally and socially aware and prepared to cope with the demands of rapid international economic, political and social change (Hutchings et al., 2002). Professional education and training are one of the major issues in every country in which public relations is practised. Even the US, where there are hundreds of public relations education are frequently expressed, and senior practitioners rise questions about the value of existing public relations education programmes (White, 1991, p. 184). Sommerness and Beaman (1994) found only few offerings of university courses emphasising international public relations across the United States at that time. However, most recent study has shown that some authors (Hatzitos and Lariscy, 2008) report an increased interest in scholarly research in international public relations and an effort to internationalise the public relations curricula at many U.S. universities. Despite the fact that significant gaps were found between desired outcomes and those actually found in the opinions of both practitioner and educators, certain surveys (Neff et al., 1999) have revealed strong agreement between educator s and practitioners regarding the training, experience and expertise outcomes needed for career development in public relations. Thus, while the goals of public relations education to certain extent seem clear, the means of achieving those goals, including curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, may not be as clear. However, studies such as examining perception, asking whether or not IPR should be emphasised doesnt really contribute anymore as the concept have solidly grounded. There have been dozen papers reporting that call for a development. What more valuable for this particular research is the fact that international public relations education requires to be integrated into global PR perspective. International experiences, approaches and cases must be studied and shared between international academic societies. The literature review recorded a substantial gap in international public relations education research elsewhere than U.S. Therefore there is a need in further researching and describing development in IPRE globally. This particular study will explore perceptions and state of IPR education in two countries the United Kingdom and Russia. Internationalisation of Public Relations Education Internationalisation of Public Relations Education Introduction The main theme of the dissertation is internationalisation of public relations education. It is quite a broad topic and can be reviewed and discussed from different points of view. In this regard the selected literature first examines international public relations concepts and secondly an impact it has on public relations education. Therefore, literature review has been divided into the following major themes: International public relations (IPR) and International public relations education (IPRE). The chapter will begin by presenting the main debates about international public relations and its concepts alongside with a brief overview of factors influencing it. It will be followed by a section presenting state of research on IPR. The discussion will then move to section two international public relations education, exploring the requisites and challenges for internationalisation. Finally the chapter will summarise the key themes and points identified. The major part of the literature review focuses on contemporary research, defined as 1989-2009. International PR A growing number of publications document the development and challenges of the public relations in every major continent and region of the world (Nally, 1991, Moss et al., 1997, Moss et al., 2003, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2003b, Van Ruler and Vercic, 2004, Freitag and Stokes, 2009). This research refers term global PR to globalisation of the profession, which is being practises and recognised in more countries throughout the globe, while International PR refers to the planning and implementation of programmes and campaigns carried out abroad or for international audience. Hence international PR education refers to the process of adopting professional training to International PR concepts and demand. Public relations is still relatively new concern for management, even though its modern origins can be traced to the end of the last century (White, 1991). According to (Cutlip, 1994), a key researcher in the history of public relations in the U.S., the first international public relations agency The Hamilton Wright Organization was founded in 1908. International communities of professionals and scholars are increasingly interested in transferring knowledge, experiences, and best practices from national to transnational scenarios. This advancement is generated by the increasing role of public relations which is driven largely by the influence of new information technologies and globalisation (Flodin, 2003). Drawing upon this, DiStaso et al. (2009) discussed the effects of globalisation, that began with the Maastricht Treaty and NAFTAA in 1992, the WTO in 1994 and claiming it had great impact on the public relations industry. According to Szondis (2009, p.115) International public relations is the planned communication activity of a (multinational) organisation, a supra- or international institution or government through interactions in the target country which facilitates the organisation (or government) to achieve its policy or business objectives without harming the interests of the publics. There have been papers which presented international PR to be simply about how to overcome barriers that are created by other cultures, including language, laws or cultural issues, which are often indentified as problems (Wilcox et al., 2001), rather than opportunities or the manifestation of diversity. The most frequently referenced paper which stands against IPR has been Angell (1990) asserted that the variance between local countries was so great as to preclude any possibility of globalisation. A much different study, also highly referenced, has been provided by Pavlik (1987), who as early as the 1980s considered IPR one of the most rapidly growing areas of the profession, and one of the least understood. The problem with defining difference between domestically and internationally done public relations is that there is not enough research or critical assessment. While basic principles do not change, the way they are carried out from culture to culture and country to country, and the attitudes and values embedded within those different cultures or countries, are different (Wakefield, 2007b). A similar study was conducted by Botan (1992, p. 157), who argued that international public relations is always intercultural. The existing public relations body of knowledge, and public relations curricula around the world, have a U.S. bias (Sriramesh, 2002). U.S. paradigm, however, strikes with the idea of that European or non-U.S. perceptions of public relations become more of value in the twenty first century. A US professor and professional Robert Wakefield (2007b), who have been practicing and researching in the area of IPR for almost two decades, believes that principles and practices of PR in Europe, emphasising social role of public relations, are more promising for effective PR in the multinational than the American-based PR-as-marketing-tool approach. He, alongside the majority of new PR schools, supports paradigms of PR incoming out of places other than the U.S. Therefore, need and call for the elsewhere theories and concepts was also a factor for a research in international/global PR. Ovaitt (1988, p.5) made an interesting suggestion saying that it was not a popular idea with marketing and advertising experts when they started thinking about internationalisation decades ago and it was not popular with public relations practitioners back to late 1980s. The idea is that what these professionals do for a living might be done on a global basis global in the sense of achieving some significant level of standardisation, not only of what is offered to customers, but also how it is presented and promoted. Public relations as a profession is not necessarily understood and practised in the same manner all around the world. This is not news per se, as several scholars (Sharpe, 1992, Vercic et al., 1996, Taylor, 2000, Rhee, 2002, Valentini, 2007) for many years have underlined that public relations requires a global understanding of cultural differences. Different studies (Kent and Taylor, 1999, Lee, 2005) show that public relations practitioners are increasingly required to be able to communicate with different international publics, no matter the size of the organisation they are working for, or whether it is private or public, including non-profit organisations. After the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Excellence Study yielded a review of normative principles (Grunig, 1992), Vercic et al. (1996) explained the importance of identifying five contextual variables that influence the practice of the normative principles. Vercic, Grunig, and Grunig (Vercic et al., 1996) proposed a global theory of public relations that was elaborated by Sriramesh and Vercic (2003a, 2003b, 2009) in their Global Public Relations Handbook and by Sriramesh (2009) in a special issue of PRism. Their global public relations theory attempted to answer the question of whether public relations theory and practice should be unique to each country or culture or whether it should be practiced in the same way everywhere. Authors answered this question by theorising that global public relations should fall in the middle between standardisation and individualisation (Grunig, 2009). The theoretical framework of Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) has been used to assess the status of public relations in countries around the world. Contextualised studies are the core component of the global public relations concept. As Vercic (2009) reported, international PR practices should represent the best practices anywhere because of their necessary complexities and reach. Global theory is not a positive theory, which describes a type of public relations that currently is practiced everywhere in the world. Research, such as that reported in Sriramesh and Vercic (2003, 2009), does show that there are many idiosyncrasies in public relations practice around the world that reflect cultural differences. It also shows that the one worldwide universal in public relations practice is what is J. Grunig have called the press agentry/publicity model (Grunig et al., 1995)-the least effective of the models. Rather, their global theory is a normative theory that argues that public relations will be most effective throughout most parts of the world (Grunig, 2009, p.2). Emphasising cross-cultural effects on reputation in multinational organizations Wakefield (2007b, 2008) argues that there still is an important distinction between global and domestic public relations practices, and that understanding those differences will contribute to better global practice. More specifically, recent research has also called into questions of need to understand how culture affects public relations. There are numbers of key researches (Grunig et al., 1995) who have written papers specifically on the subject. A similar study was conducted by Neff (1991), who has indicated that economic development is leading public relations firms down a path requiring knowledge of culture and language in addition to public relations. Perhaps one of the most influential recent publications on multiculturalism in public relations education was produced by Sriramesh (Sriramesh, 2002, Sriramesh, 2003). He has also reported that public relations education has not kept pace with the rapi d globalisation that has occurred since 1992 (Sriramesh, 2002). Sriramesh (2009) called for a need for a more thoughtful representation of many of the generic principles of public relations practice to suit the local environment, so that the body of knowledge is more holistic and relevant to global demands. However, there still is a room for an assumption that not all the practitioners require international training and international perspective. RESEARCH / CRITICS: Since the advent of the Internet, it is even more tempting to view PR practice as the same anywhere, and therefore it decreases attempts to produce research or principles that need to view à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“cross-border PR as different (Wakefield, 2007a). Despite the numerous calls for research, reviewed works and studies on global (national) public relations released in the 2000s (see table 1) (Portugal, United States see table) have recorded that this area of research is underrepresented. Despite global trends underlining increased internationalisation, these results can be interpreted to indicate that Researchers have not paid enough attention to the international perspective. An important indicator is the place international public relations occupy in the list of priority research topics. One recent example is a Study of the Priorities for Public Relations Research conducted by Deputy Dean of Media School of Bournemouth University (UK) Tom Watson (Watson, 2008, Watson, 2007)  [1 ]  .He sent 26 public relations topics to a Delphi study panel and the Top Ten PR research topics were identified, however, international perspective was excluded from the list. A US professor and professional Robert Wakefield responded critically to Watsons Delphi study: First, I was surprised in finding that the topic fell all the way out of the top ten. After all, arent PR issues and challenges, along with its overall scope of practice, becoming more international with each passing year?(2007a, p. 6) Nonetheless he added: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“There really are no more studies being done on international public relations now than have been done over the course of the last three decades. Those that are being published are increasingly making such statements as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“there is no such thing as local PR anymore, or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“today, everything is global. Well, if this represents what academics and practitioners are thinking, then it would stand to reason that no real different research needs to be done-that ANY PR principles, even if they are all traditionally domestic in nature, would suffice for research or practice anywhere in the world (2007a, p.7). The seminal critique in this area is also by Sriramesh (2009, p.6), who argues: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“When scholars think of, and discuss, public relations, the global perspective is often overlooked. Srirameshs (2009) critique of Mackey (Mackey, 2003), who claimed to introduce the various contemporary theories of public relations in the inaugural issue of Prism is also indicative: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The author attempted to review à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the changing vistas in public relations theory, there was not a single mention of any advances in global public relations theorising in that piece even though by 2003/that time there were several advances worth reporting'(2009, p.8). Another example is Distasso (2009). Authors surveyed 312 public relations executives and educators to examine how well practitioners and instructors perceive public relations students to be prepared for the practice, the content and value of public relations curricula and, the future of public relations education in the United States. Even though scholar mentioned globalisation as a factor increasingly influencing public relations practice he had not included it in the questionnaires or research questions. Somewhat it contrast are papers from the annual International Public Relations Research Symposium Bledcom, which reflect the diverse and up-to-date research traditions amongst scholars working in the field of public relations both within the USA and Europe (Moss et al., 1997, Newman and Vercic, 2002, Moss et al., 2003, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2003a, Sriramesh, 2004, Van Ruler and Vercic, 2004, Van Ruler et al., 2008, Sriramesh and Vercic, 2009). These are scholars, who systematically examines the priorities for PR research and determine international agenda These differences in research agenda are reflected/explained, to some degree, in the/by Scholars like Sriramesh, Vercic, Wakefield and others highlighted the important point that an issue of international public relations is not reflected enough in the research questions. International public relations education (IPRE) As a corollary to the process of globalisation has been the recognition of the need to make public relations education more internationally focused and future public relations professionals more internationally and interculturally competent (Lane DiStephano, 1992) / Huthcings et al., 2002 There have been numbers of calls for new public relations curricula aimed at educating staffs that can understand and meet increasing international social, economic and political complexities and challenges. (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994, p. 13). The International Association of Universities (1998) supported the need for business schools to be more international in their strategy, claiming higher education must integrate an intercultural dimension into its teaching and research, if it is to fulfil its role and maintain excellence. (Hutchings et al., 2002, p. 58). Another rationale for an international public relations course is the accelerating pace of societal and technological change today. These cha nges call for adaptations in academic curricula and professional development programs. There were written dozen papers on justification of international public relations education based on research in the different areas. Some went radical claiming that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“any curriculum that excludes international public relations courses is ineffective in addressing student and practitioner needs, particularly in the next century (21 century).(Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994) p.9 Factors what influence the development of IPRE are mostly the same, however they have different interpretations. The need for international courses in public relations is demonstrated further by the growing global recognition of public relations degree programs and education, a phenomenon that Cantor (1984) predicted more than twenty years ago. And indeed, previous investigation has established that the call for internationalisation of public relations education has been there for a long time and comes from both industry and academia sectors (Neff, 1991, Cottone et al., 1985). However, disagreements between practitioners and educators on a blueprint for international public relations education have also been documented (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994). A decade old survey of U.S. public relations educators and practitioners that explored the state of curricula and content in public relations education found that both practitioners and educators perceive need to incorporate courses and cont ent that will prepare future practitioners for the global landscape (Neff et al., 1999). A Public relations is a multidisciplinary area of study and practice that must change as rapidly as the context and society in which it exists (Baskin, 1989, p. 35). As public relations continues to be a globalised profession, curriculum should be updated to reflect the practice. Ten years later similar study has recorded, that having a global perspective and experience with a variety of cultures are necessary but lacking skills for advanced level practitioners (DiStaso et al., 2009, p.269). An important consideration in providing students with some skills in achieving cross-cultural understanding is the recognition that, as future business professionals and leaders, they will live in a society increasingly characterised by international labour mobility and multiculturalism. The international manager or employee will be an individual who will spend their working lives in several distinct job areas working for several organisations as well as making several sojourns to various international postings. This means that the new style employee will need to be cosmopolitan, multilingual, multifaceted and what Schneider Barsoux (1997, p. 157) refer to as a capacity to operate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“across national borders somewhat like James Bond. Public relations education at all levels and in both communication and MBA programmes should educate students to practise public relations globally (Grunig and Grunig, 2002). However, not only do students need to be trained and prepared for this mobility, but even those who do not move to another nation face the recognition that the domestic work environment also requires some responsiveness to differing cultures (Hutchings et al., 2002, p. 69). Sriramesh (2009, p.6) makes a reasonable argument that even textbooks in the US and the UK should contain more global cases and interpretations so as to give their own students a more international and holistic education, thus broadening their horizons. It is indicated that authors of universitys level public relations textbooks have not yet realised the growing importance of international public relations and thus deal marginally with it. The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) has drawn on its international membership to research and recommend standards for public relations education and has established the results of its work in two Gold papers in 1982 and 1990 (IPRA (1982) Gold paper No. 4, A Model for Public Relations Education for Professional Practice, and (1990) Gold Paper No.7, Public Relations Education Recommendations and Standards). (White, 1991) p.184-185 Not much has changed since that time. WAYS: Number of general papers were designed in response to the need for public relations education to produce well-trained, culturally sensitive practitioners (Miller, 1992, Ekachai and Komolsevin, 1998, Burbules and Torres, 2000, Bardhan, 2003, Dickerson, 2005, Tuleja, 2008). With the increasing importance of international communication, some educators had considered creating a course dedicated to international public relations (Pratt and Ogbondah, 1994, Taylor, 2001). In a special edition of Public Relations Review on developing teaching related materials, Taylor (2001) offered guidance to public relations educators on how to develop an international public relations curriculum because: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“New communication technologies and global communication processes create more frequent international communication (Taylor, 2001, p.2). Nevertheless, some of the Taylors conclusions sounded far too decisive: The most comprehensive way to internationalize the public relations curriculum is to offer a course dedicated to international public relations (p. 74). Creedon and Al-Khaja (2005) analysed how adding cultural competency to the list of skills and competencies required in educational programs presents an opportunity to educate a generation that will accept difference and value a global culture separate from national identity. Then again the study was rather limited the authors conducted a survey of accredited programs to determine whether or not a history course was required of their majors. Another empirical-based study argued that just talking about the importance if IPR in the classroom is not sufficient, students have to be able to live international public relations in order to understand its relevance (Bardhan, 1999, p. 19). An important portion of literature on international public relations education suggests the necessity for students to learn about other countries through immersion. According to Porth (Porth, 1997, Tuleja, 2008) the international study tour course may be a legitimate answer to critics of education who urge business schools to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“go global and to create stronger ties with the international business and academic communities. More specifically, recent research has also called into question the assumption of studying internationally. For instance, Hutchings et al. (2002, p. 58)suggests that the challenge for the education is how to devise a short-term study program that is effective in exposing international concepts to the student. Yet, foreign travel alone is not the panacea for internationalising PR education because it is difficult to manage even if having resources. Hutchings study is focused on going abroad, even so it may make some contribution to understanding of glo bal consciousness characterised as moving towards a recognition and appreciation of increasingly global diversity and interdependence. Arguments about which is the best approach to international public relations education, courses and its numbers, or changing the context with its live experience and observations, largely missed the important point that methods have to be fit for their purposes. For some purposes, this is the best, and in other cases the choice will be this and that. Furthermore, although those approaches rest on very different use of resources and possibilities, they can be complementary in the hands of future research and need to be incompatible. Many studies would benefit from mindfully using each approach for different purposes at different stages of the internationalisation. Fuller discussions of this are to be found in some public relations papers, including (Neff, 1991, Dibrova and Kabanova, 2004, Peterson and Mak, 2006, Chung, 2007/8, Dolby and Rahman, 2008). CHALLENGES/BARRIERS: Authors such as Kalupa and Carroll Bateman (1980) have suggested that public relations educators have failed maintain the currency of the teaching in relation to the practice. On the other hand, Holbrook (1985, 1995) has been one of the most prominent critics of the idea of selecting research topics based on what is of interest to practitioners. He has argued that such an orientation tarnishes the purity of the academic endeavour. Amongst other challenges Bardhan (1999) recorded that educators feel unprepared at present to handle the task effectively and lack of interest among students. Falb (1991, 1992) has claimed that because of putting public relations curriculums in either Mass Communications or Journalism public relations has been inhibited in its growth in academic and professional areas. Similar study was conducted by (Pincus et al., 1994), who argued that communication topics do not rate high in MBA programs: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“If public relations faculty do not champion the recognition of public relations topics in MBA programs, the profession will never realize entry to the highest levels of corporate decision making (1994: p.55) . Making an analogy, this statement might be extended by claiming that If public relations faculty do not champion the recognition of international public relations concepts in Postgraduate programs, the profession will lack behind present state of research and practice. This statement finds a reflection in recent research as well. Papers like Sriramesh (2002) claim that it is time for educators to integrate experiences from other continents into the PR body of knowledge, thereby building PR curricula that contribute to training truly multicultural PR professionals. CONCLUSION: Sriramesh and Vercic (2003) underlined the compelling need for a text describing and explaining public relations practices and body of knowledge in different parts of the world. Their call for research has been taken up and largely because it proposed a framework, which made it easier to facilitate global research. Thereby, by critically examining the framework scholars in different countries enrich international public relations body of knowledge and provides prove or counter-arguments to the Global theory. Nonetheless, it might be argued that among those five factors, which have been put forward by Sriramesh and Vercic (2003), one is missing professional PR training. In this regard it can be concluded the following. Firstly, such indicator as level of professional training can be considered as a sixth factor influencing practicing public relations in country. Secondly, on the basis of a global concept can be developed a similar concept and subsequently applied to the study of inte rnational public relations education. Thirdly, basing on data provided from the five factors, it allowed to determine the degree of standardization vs. localization of IPR programs and courses and to identify barriers and obstacles. Achieving internationalisation of public relations education is concluded to be important for three reasons. First, because many graduating students will be finding employment internationally and benefit from having been educated to be effective in differing cultural settings. Second, because rapid changes in national immigration policies have meant that many more nations are considerably more multicultural than they have been in the past and citizens need to be more conscious of diversity in their national and organisational surroundings. Third, because the pace of changes in the international political economy necessitates that people must be responsive to international economic and business forces. Thus, students who receive an internationally focused public relations education should be more culturally and socially aware and prepared to cope with the demands of rapid international economic, political and social change (Hutchings et al., 2002). Professional education and training are one of the major issues in every country in which public relations is practised. Even the US, where there are hundreds of public relations education are frequently expressed, and senior practitioners rise questions about the value of existing public relations education programmes (White, 1991, p. 184). Sommerness and Beaman (1994) found only few offerings of university courses emphasising international public relations across the United States at that time. However, most recent study has shown that some authors (Hatzitos and Lariscy, 2008) report an increased interest in scholarly research in international public relations and an effort to internationalise the public relations curricula at many U.S. universities. Despite the fact that significant gaps were found between desired outcomes and those actually found in the opinions of both practitioner and educators, certain surveys (Neff et al., 1999) have revealed strong agreement between educator s and practitioners regarding the training, experience and expertise outcomes needed for career development in public relations. Thus, while the goals of public relations education to certain extent seem clear, the means of achieving those goals, including curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, may not be as clear. However, studies such as examining perception, asking whether or not IPR should be emphasised doesnt really contribute anymore as the concept have solidly grounded. There have been dozen papers reporting that call for a development. What more valuable for this particular research is the fact that international public relations education requires to be integrated into global PR perspective. International experiences, approaches and cases must be studied and shared between international academic societies. The literature review recorded a substantial gap in international public relations education research elsewhere than U.S. Therefore there is a need in further researching and describing development in IPRE globally. This particular study will explore perceptions and state of IPR education in two countries the United Kingdom and Russia.

Gun Control Essays -- Second Amendment The Right To Bear Arms

Gun Control Throughout America there is the constant debate concerning the second amendment or the right to bare arms. One day an innocent kid walking home from school gets shot in a drive by shooting is he just a victim of circumstance or could this of been easily prevented. There are lobbyist for the private ownership of guns and lobbyist for legislation to ban personal possession of guns for good. In this paper I hope that just maybe I can persuade you to think differently on a topic that’s stirring up the nation. First you must look at the obvious problem first and foremost crime. 85% of all violent crimes are committed with handguns(Mosley,104). Some say that yes if these criminals are criminals simple legislation isn’t going to prevent them from getting handguns. I think this couldn’t be more wrong in actuality lots of crimes are committed with guns that kids have taken from their parents. Every day you hear in the news kids killing kids weather it’s a school shooting or gangs and the easy availability of guns is just promoting the cause. If we pass legislation to get rid of these god like life takers then the kids can’t get to them. If you look at it thought it is a trickling down process. If guns aren’t as easily distributed to shops only a few shops would be permitted to carry them. Then of those few shops only under special circumstances could they sell them to some adults then only a fraction of the kids who had access to guns in the home before this legislation ...

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Code Of Professional Ethics By American Institute Of Certified Public E

Code of Professional Ethics by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Introduction "A code of professional ethics is a voluntary assumption of self discipline above and beyond the requirements of the law. The Code of Ethical Conduct serves the highly practical purpose to notify the public that the profession will protect the public interest" (Carey, Doherty: p 3). When people need a doctor, a lawyer or a certified public accountant, they seek someone whom they can trust to do a good job, not for himself but for them. People assume that the hired professional is qualified since they cannot appraise him. They must take it on faith that he is competent. That is why professionals are distinguished from businesses and why there is a need for ethical regulations. The Code of Professional Ethics The Code of Professional Ethics for public accountants was developed by the American Institute of Public Accountant and includes four different categories. The first, Concepts of Professional Ethics, establishes major requirements for CPAs in different areas of their day-to-day professional activities. The main parts of the Code are: Independence, Integrity and Objectivity in the practice of public accounting, Competence and technical standards, Responsibilities to clients, Responsibilities to colleagues and Other responsibilities and Practices. Independence has always been the fundamental concept to the accounting profession. In fact it is the most essential to the practice of all professions. The financial reports produced by CPAs would be of little value to the public unless CPAs maintain their independence. Independence has always been associated with integrity and objectivity. Since faults on financial statements may be the result of either a honest mistake or a lack of integrity it is imperative to associate the notion of independence with the objectivity and integrity. As part of the requirements by the Code of ethics, CPA should avoid any relationships that may result in the CPA's becoming dependent on the particular client. Such relationships include financial interests and client management. It is very important that the opinion of the CPA reflects the results of operating decisions taken by the client and not any underlying ideas which may be the case if a CPA takes part in the decision making process of the company. Another important ... ... of particular cases given under Ethics Rulings. In addition to the standards described above, state CPA institutions and other government establish their own ethical standards. Conclusion Professional ethics is concerned with human behaviour and human relations. As human society becomes more complicated, so do the codes of professional conduct. The purpose of the rules is to attract and increase public confidence and discourage behaviour inconsistent with the image of profession. Public confidence may even be more important to the public accountant than to any other professional because CPAs are concerned not only about their clients but also about those who rely on their reports. The code of ethical conduct provides members of the profession with the rules that were worked out on the historical basis to attract the confidence of the public. Therefore, the rules of ethics are the foundation of public confidence. Works Cited John L. Carey and William O. Doherty. Ethical Standards of the Accounting Profession. New York: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 1966 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Code of Professional Ethics. New York: AICPA, 1977

Friday, August 2, 2019

Morals and Ethics of Cloning

Regardless of what our future holds, it will be based on the decisions we make today.   Those decisions can be made using the Utilitarian Theory which states that we are doing good for the greatest number of people.   Using Rule Utilitarianism â€Å"which maintains that a behavioral code or rule is morally right if the consequences of adopting that rule are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone. (IEP)† is justifiably noted that if a consensus is formed on the basis of rules that govern cloning, and these rules are broken, the appropriate punishment will result.This is because cloning a human will not benefit the society as a whole; it would do more harm than good.   We all have rules that govern our society over what is right or wrong and we know that these rules are set forth to maintain order.   We have laws because it benefits the majority of the people.Principles of Consequences state that when looking at the end result, the correct action will be the action that produces the greatest amount of happiness (Usury).   To decide if human cloning produces the greatest amount of happiness we have one question still in need of an answer is â€Å"Are human embryos really human?† Well, the term ‘human' proceeding the term 'embryo' should adequately answer the question.The embryo are cloned from human tissue, contain human DNA, thus there is likely a 100 percent chance that the embryos are indeed human, as opposed to being tadpole embryos. Therefore, biologically speaking a clone is no less a human than you or I. And using that human for tissue simply because he/she was cloned rather than conceived does not validate the notion, nor skip around the moral and ethical implications of taking the life of another human being.   Death is not a happy occasion therefore it does not produce the greatest amount of happiness to the majority of the population.Cloning is the process of taking cells from a donor, placing them in a culture dish where the nutrients are  minimal, so the cells stop dividing and switch their â€Å"active genes†. The cells are then put next to an unfertilized egg. The nucleus is sucked out of the egg leaving an empty egg cell containing all the cellular machinery necessary to produce an embryo. An electric shock is used to fuse the egg and cell together. A second shock is then used to mimic the act of fertilization and help begin cell division. After the egg has successfully moved to the stage of an embryo it is then placed in to the uterus of a surrogate mother. When born, all the genes are the same as the donor of the cell.In 1997 Dr. Ian Wilmut, a British scientist successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly.   This turned the scientific world upside-down. The success of the experiment is considered by all as an amazing achievement in science. However, ethics and morals must surface to regulate cloning. It is understood that individuality is the most important part of life. Individual ity is given to a person at birth and considered a right they will have for rest of their life.There is also a fear that the clone may only be produced to live the life of the clone, thus causing severe emotional damage as well pain and suffering for the clone. The progression of the clone may be limited, the advance in idea development will slowly die off. Evolution could come to a halt, because with clones, diversity will be limited and there will not be as many advances in society. The cells, in all humans, will all be the same and there will not be a process of natural selection and diversity.Another controversial question facing the cloning process is: How will the clones be treated? The emotions of the clones need to be taken in to consideration; after all they are humans too. â€Å"What is common to these various views, however, is a shared understanding that being a ‘person' is different from being the manipulated ‘object' of other peoples desires and expectatio ns†(Biomedical Ethics).   People, as clones, will be studied, prodded, and poked which in turn will cause much unwanted anxiety and emotional distress.There will also be problems with relationships between parents and the clone for understandable reasons.   It will bring up a lot of unwelcome stress for the clone when one â€Å"parent† is an anonymous donor of an egg and the other is Dr. Frankenstein. Some may argue that a child is a child and the parents should love their child unconditionally.   However, the bond between the clone and the parents who care for the clone may have awkward encounters.   The love and affection that is provided for most children will not be the same due to the fact that the clone is considered to be more of an experiment rather than a child. Another argument may be that artificial insemination has already taken the step of engineering babies.   However, artificial insemination is used for parents who can not have children but feel they could provide a loving environment for them.Despite the abundant differences and backgrounds of the world today all most people agree that coitus (sex)  is the naturally preferred way to conceive a child.   With the cloning process the necessity to have coitus will not be needed.   â€Å"Is there something about the individual that is lost when the mystical act of conceiving a person becomes standardized into a mere act of photocopying one† (Time)?The parent's will not have to conceive a child, just order one from a catalog and have it arrive next day air.   It will take away the personal feeling and romance   that having â€Å"a child of   your own† creates. Part of the bliss of having a child is the mystery behind it. Is it a boy? A girl? Who does it look like?   Cloning will take away from the pleasures that have been happening for countless years and the elements of surprise will fade in to mail order babies.Another very touchy issue is the ques tion of, is the medical world   taking to much control?   It is stated by scientists that if they are allowed to clone people, one won't have to worry about organ donations or blood drives in order for people to survive. The scientists will  simply clone an organ and replace the faulty one in the human. As simple as this seems, the issue of who they can use to clone comes up.   Finding the ideal person to clone is hard enough, now try to get one with the right blood type, size, and gender.The numbers decrease and it seems as if the scientists would have to clone someone for each person.   If this is true, would the clones be stored somewhere, or able to roam around the world until they were needed to fill their role?   Once again the rights of the clones come up and the thought of clone farms creates a sort of â€Å"yuck† factor for everyone.According to Time Magazine,   â€Å"Out of 277 tries, the researchers eventually produced only 29 embryos that survived l onger than six days† out of the remaining 29 only one survived and was born. The percentage is very low leaving people wondering if it is  even worth the time and effort put in.   â€Å"Some clones may indeed be growing old before their time†(U.S. News).   The research states that the clones will not live a whole life due to the one cell that has been cloned is older and effects the rest of the clones cells making them advance prematurely.  Ã‚   Instead of using science to lengthen the life of a human cloning will decrease the length of life by half.Scientists need to reconsider how they are manipulating the world.   Based on the information provided through the research, doctors should step back and take a look at the morals and ethics of cloning humans and evaluate if it is really worth the risk doctors are taking.The bad consequences out way the good, therefore we cannot assume that the benefit of human cloning will solve life's problems.   To this day we have yet to find a cure for the common cold.   This is because most diseases have a way of surviving, as did the human race during the ice age.   Everything finds a way to adapt to it's environment and if the benefits major benefit for cloning is to cure diseases, then we are at a loss.   The fight for life â€Å"survival of the fittest† can sum it up.If we result to cloning as a means for reproduction, then who is to say that our bodies might not adapt to this, only allowing for this type of reproduction?   Only then will we realize that in our effort to gain knowledge and power over every other living thing, did we fail.   Everything on this earth has to be in perfect balance, and when we continue to tamper with Mother Nature, she finds a way to fight back.  Ã‚   For example, the ozone layer is being depleted because of chemical agents produced and released into the atmosphere by man.   As a result, the ozone layer can longer protect our skin as it used too, causing more cases of skin cancer every year.   I believe that if you push someone, or in this case, something (Mother Nature) hard enough, she will push back.   We need to take things as they are given to us, the good and the bad.   When we try to beat the odd, sometimes the odds beat us.BibliographyBiomedical Ethics Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc, 1998 Cloning (1998).   How to Clone a Human (Version 1.1). [On-line] Biofact November 8, 1999. Available: http://www.biofact.com/cloning/human.html Cloning (1998).   Human Cloning Plans.   [On-line] NPR  Ã‚   November 8, 1999 Available â€Å"Dolly, Polly, Gene-send in the clones† Science News.   January 23, 1997.   pp.127 Cloning (1999).   Should Cloning Be Banned?   [On-line] Reasons  Ã‚   November 5, 1999 Available: http://www.reasons.com /biclone.html Kluger, Jeffrey.   â€Å"Goodbye, Dolly† Time  Ã‚   June 7, 1999. pp.70 Nash, J.   â€Å"The Age of Cloning†Ã‚   Time   March 10, 19997. pp.60-75 Macklin, Ruth.   â€Å"Human cloning?   Don't just say no†. U.S. News &World Report. March10, 1997. pp. 64 Couzin, Jennifer   â€Å"What's Killing The Clones?†Ã‚   U.S. News & World Report.   May24, 1999.   pp.65

Thursday, August 1, 2019

How the New Deal Improved the Lives of American Citizens

By 1900 the American nation had established itself as a world power being the largest steel producer in the world, turning out 10,000,000 tons a year. A boom in urban construction meant that cities were growing. Telephones were in wide use and homes were being electrified. Skyscrapers were the newest frontier in design. By 1920 more than 500 had been built in New York alone. After the First World War the Republican Party won a landslide victory and as a result Warren Harding (The Republican Candidate) was voted into office in 1920. This was because his policies appealed to the majority of the American people.Throughout the 1920’s, numerous Republican presidents were in power. President Harding believed in what he called ‘Normalcy’- letting the USA get back to normal life before the war. His key Policies were: Isolationism which meant that the USA was not to get involved in foreign wars or disputes. (This meant the rejection of Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nat ions) He also proposed that Higher Tariffs should be placed on foreign goods to make them expensive in the USA so that people would buy American goods instead, allowing US industry to grow.Furthermore, He promised to lower taxes. This would help businesses to grow and gave workers more money to spend. This would encourage people buy American goods and Invest in American Industries, helping them grow even more. These policies appeared to reflect exactly the mood of the American people at the time; therefore it is no surprise that the result of the 1920 election entirely vindicated Harding. Harding secured 60. 3 per cent of the vote compared to 39. 7 per cent for the Democrat candidate James Cox. (1)Harding clearly appealed to the American Electorate.Undoubtedly, his campaign slogan, â€Å"Let us return to normalcy†, was exceedingly popular to a nation still recovering from the effects of war. To them,’ normalcy’ implied the removal of wartime restrictions and a r efusal of Wilson’s policy for continued involvement in foreign affairs. Because of this the Republicans were in a strong position to reverse the ‘Progressivism’ of the Democrat years and instead return to ‘laissez-faire’ politics and a reduction in Government intervention. These policies helped to create the economic prosperity in the 1920’s.In the 1920’s, the profits of many American companies rose enormously. Goods were produced quickly and cheaply because of new mass production techniques. The biggest economic boom came in the industries making consumer goods. Sales of household goods, such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines, boosted the electrical industry. This was made possible by the republican government cutting taxes and protecting industry form foreign imports, giving people money to spend and invest. These investments would help industry expend and even more.The ‘Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act’ of 1922 raised t ariffs higher than ever before. Advertising credit and hire purchase made it is easy to spend. (As shown in source 2) American society was full of contrasts in the 1920 and there were some real advances for many Americans. Jobs were had easier to find and were better paid than before. The amount of Billionaires in America had increased by 400% . People could also enjoy themselves like never before. Millions of Americans went to the cinema each week to watch new stars such as Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.Hollywood became the centre of a multi-million dollar industry. (Source 3) Due to social change, women gained greater freedom. A symbol of this independence was the flappers. (Source 4) Because times were good there was a feeling of confidence in America. The single most important industry was the motor industry. By 1929 there were 26 million cars on the roads. (As shown in source 5) A large car industry helped create further jobs in related areas, such as car parts and road construction. It also helped the growth of suburbs and as a result the urban population increased exponentially.The figures in source 6 seem to support the image of economic boom in the USA during the 1920’s. Perhaps the biggest impact on people’s lives was Harding’s policy of prohibition. Alcohol became almost unavailable, legally, and as a result drunkenness and deaths due to cirrhosis decreased. In source 7 President Hoover summed up the feelings of many Americans in a speech in 1928; â€Å"We in America are nearer to the final victory over poverty than ever before in the history of any land† However despite the economic boom, there were serious weaknesses in the US economy during the 20’s.Likewise many ordinary Americans did not share in the boom. African Americans, in particular, suffered from discrimination and often had the worst jobs. Because the Government adopted ‘Non Interventionism’ the country had not undergone social ref orm. As a result the Republicans failed to pass any laws preventing the segregation and lynching of African Americans. As a consequence many African Americans left the ‘Deep South’ for the cities to escape persecution and find work. In New York, by 1925 the population of African Americans had tripled. Native Americans also did not share in the prosperity of the1920’s.A government census in 1920 revealed that most lived in extreme poverty. They suffered extreme discrimination and were quickly losing their land to Rapid City expansion. They population of Native Americans declined from 1. 5 million to 250,000. There were called ‘Vanishing Americans’. Although women had gained some liberty from the boom they were still a long way from being equal to men. For example, women were still paid less than men, even when they did the same job. Women may have also received the vote but it didn’t give them political power.Political parties wanted women†™s votes but they didn’t particularly want them as political candidates as they considered them ‘unelectable’ only a handful of women had high public standing by 1929. Some industries did not grow in the 1920’s such as coal and textiles because they couldn’t compete with modern synthetic resources. Source 8 shows the discontent in the coal industry in the 1920’s. Many other Industries could not export goods because of tariffs in other countries; these were often simply retaliation to the American tariffs (A failure on the Republicans part) Crime and corruption also became a serious problem for the Republicans.Many areas became renowned for illegal bootleggers and gangs, such as Chicago which was run by the notorious AL Capone. To make matters worse Prohibition damaged a large part of the government’s income. It seemed that Prohibition had failed. Therefore it is no surprise it was immediately withdrawn when Roosevelt came to power. P erhaps the biggest limitation of the 20’s was that wealth was concentrated in a small number of hands. And not shared equally. Around 32% of the country’s wealth was owned by 5% of the population while 42% of the population lived below the poverty line. Source 9 shows some differences in earnings.The major companies worked to keep wages down and prices high to ensure large profits, however this combination actually stopped a lot of people from buying goods. Farmers suffered from over production and prices were very low (as shown in source 10) the industry started to decline shrinking half in size by 1928. All these limitations of the boom seem to suggest that perhaps in source 7 when Hoover delivered his speech in 1928 he was in fact ignorant and failed to realise the seriousness of the situation.Indeed he was later criticised for not doing anything to help the people and  as a result the slums and anything associated with poverty was nicknamed after Hoover. For exam ple ‘Hooerville’s’ On October the 29th 1929 the American Stock Market collapsed. Known as the ‘Wall Street Crash’ this economic disaster caused America to enter the Great Depression, the largest in American History to this day. The effects of the crash were disastrous for many ordinary Americans; many had only experienced economic prosperity and ‘Boom’ during their life time. Many individuals were bankrupt- they could not pay back the loans they used to buy their (now worthless) shares.This meant that homeowners lost their homes because they could not pay their mortgages. Even some who had savings lost their money because the banks collapsed. Many farmers suffered a similar fate as banks tried to get back their loans. Many farmers were forced to sell their land. To make matters worse over farming and drought turned millions of acres of land into a Dustbowl forcing farmers to leave their land. Source 11 shows that many increasing amounts of Americans faced unemployment. The confidence of individuals was shattered. Those that managed to stay in work faced reduced hours and wages.Countless unemployed Americans were reduced to picking over rubbish dumps or begging and many more were forces to use the provided soup kitchens and charity hand-outs, hence the term ‘on the breadline’. In the land of opportunity this was seen as a terrible failure, and 23,000 people committed suicide in 1932 alone. Most Americans came to blame Hoover for the Depression. This is not entirely fair since there were much larger forces at work than Hoover’s policies. However people blamed him because of his government’s inaction in tackling people’s problems.Hoover believed that the situation was not too serious and that ‘prosperity is just around the corner’. This upset many Americans. (As shown in source 12)In some ways, Hoover was unfairly criticised. Although his government did not know how to st op the Depression, it did take action between 1929 and 1932. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was set up and it lent money to banks, industries and agriculture to help solve the problem of bankruptcy. In 1930 the Smoot-Hawley Act raised tariffs, and in 1932 the government raised taxes. But these simply made the Depression much worse.Overall, however Hoover still believed in ‘rugged individualism’, sticking to the idea that it was not the government’s job to interfere with business. He showed little sympathy for the poor and starving American people. It was no surprise then, that Hoover was decisively beaten by Franklin. D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential elections. Hoover won a majority in only two states, which were both deeply criticised by the press. (As source 13 shows) During the election campaign, Roosevelt’s key phrase was his offer of a ‘New Deal’ for Americans. There could be no greater contrasts to Hoover than his opponent R oosevelt.Unlike Hoover, Roosevelt believed in ‘active government’ to improve the lives of ordinary people. He had plans to spend public money on getting people back to work. As Governor of New York, he had already started doing this in his own state. Most importantly he was not afraid to ask for advice on important issues from a wide range of experts, such as factory owners, union leaders and economists. Roosevelt’s policy of ‘interventionism’ openly contradicted Hoover’s ‘laissez faire’ approach to tackling the depression. Roosevelt’s ideas helped improve people’s lives during the Great Depression and gave them hope for bright future.Once in office Roosevelt was determined to act quickly. In the ‘Hundred Days’ He managed to get the US congress to pass many new laws. This first New Deal legislation is summarised in source 14. In his later years in office, Roosevelt updated and changed some laws as well a s creating further legislation where it was needed. The first New Deal was about economic recovery. The second New Deal Roosevelt introduced was about making the USA a fairer society for all. In 1935 the ‘Works progress Administration’ replaced the’ Public works Administration’ (PWA) It extended the range of work provided for the unemployed.The ‘National Relations Act’ or ‘Wagner’ act, also in 1935 forced employers to recognise trade unions after the ‘National Recovery Act’ (NRA) was declared illegal by American courts. This law meant that workers kept the protection that the NRA had given them. Furthermore the ‘Social Security Act’ in 1935 provided aid for the elderly and set up an unemployment insurance scheme. The welfare state had been created. However, the provisions were still far less comprehensive than in Germany or Britain. The New Deal help to improve the lives of American people and make societ y a faire place for all.Thanks to the’ National Recovery act’ and the ‘Wagner act’ Worker’s achieved greater freedom in the workplace, receiving higher wages, lower hours and the freedom to strike and complain legally. However there were still many problems for the ordinary workers. Big business still remained immensely powerful and many strikes were broken up with brutal violence (such as the case of Richard Fankensteen) Numerous African Americans benefited from New Deal slum clearance and housing projects as well from the other agencies such as CCC.Source 15 shows what may African American had to go through each day. By 1935 around 30% of all African American families were dependant on the New Deal emergency relief. However Roosevelt failed to pass any laws against the lynching of African Americans. He feared that Democrat senators in the southern states would not support him, as they were determined that no concessions should be made to improve t he status of African Americans. As a result many New Deal agencies discriminated against African Americans. They either got no work or received worse treatment or lower wages.For women the New Deal was a gateway to greater freedom. The New Deal saw some women achieve prominent positions, such as Eleanor Roosevelt who became an important campaigner on social issues and Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labour in Roosevelt’s government. However most of the New Deal programmes were aimed at male workers rather than females. By 1936 only about 8,000 women were employed by the ‘CCC’. To make matters worse the local governments tried to avoid paying out social security payments to women by introducing special qualifications and conditions.Native Americans had also not really benefited from Roosevelt’s work. Although the ‘Indian Reorganisation Act’ and the ‘Indian reservation Act’ in 1934 helped Native Americans to buy and improve land a nd to preserve and practice their traditions, laws and cultures, Native Americans remained a poor and excluded section of society. An agenda such as the New Deal was unheard of in American history. It was bound to attract opposition and it did. Powerful Business men opposed Roosevelt because he interfered with their business and gave their workers’ rights.This meant that they lost profit as workers now had to be paid more and could legally strike. Not to mention the cost of making the workplace conditions adequate. To no surprise the Republicans dislike Roosevelt’s programme. Source 16 expresses the mood of the Republican politicians. After 1938, Republicans had the majority in the senate, and Roosevelt was unable to get any more New Deal legislation through. These opponents found it easy to criticize Roosevelt for ’steering’ the USA down the road to Socialism. Roosevelt likewise faced enormous opposition from the State governments and the Supreme Court.T he Supreme Court ruled the ‘NRA’ and the ‘AAA’ illegal and unconstitutional because they undermined the States power. (The court was dominated by Republicans who opposed the New Deal) After he was re-elected in 1936, Roosevelt sought to reform the Supreme Court so that it could no longer block his plans. (As source 17 illustrates)This meant appointing judges who were sympathetic to his political views. This was one of Roosevelt’s biggest mistakes. Roosevelt’s plan produced a storm of criticism from ordinary Americans and made him look like a dictator. This criticism is seen in source 18.Ironically, Roosevelt was also criticised for not doing enough to help the poor. These critics claimed that the aim of the New Deal was not to change American society, but to enable capitalism to survive. A key figure in arguing on behalf of these people was Huey Long, the governor of Louisiana. He put forward a scheme called ‘Share our Wealth’ whi ch involved limiting personal fortunes to a maximum of $3million and restricting income to a maximum of $1million a year. He was so popular that Roosevelt regarded him as one of the two most dangerous men in the USA.If he had not been assassinated in 1935 he may have even challenged Roosevelt in the 1936 election. Overall, I partially agree with the statement; â€Å"The changes made by the American Government between 1919-1939 improved the lives of American citizens† Although some sections of society benefited from the New Deal and ‘The Boom’ life did not improve for everyone. During the prosperity of the 1920’s it was only those living in the urban areas that became better off. Many living in rural areas of America, instead of receiving increased wages and access to luxury items, faced the hard reality of unemployment and poverty.During the 20’s farmers found it difficult to sell their crops and as a result overproduction ‘crippled’ ma ny of them. Women living in the rural areas did not share the freedom of their counterparts in the cities. They still had traditional occupations and worse traditional styles of clothing. The attitude of society in the 1920’s also made live very difficult for anyone who wasn’t white. Native and African Americans were awfully discriminated and persecuted simply because they were different. They either had no work or had menial ones with long hours and low wages.The rise of the Ku Klux Klan meant that many Black Americans were lynched and lived in fear of white supremacy. So, despite the boom and the undoubted benefits that it brought to many people, by the end of the 1920’s the USA was still a deeply divided society, with enormous difference between rich and poor, white and black. Indeed the only group that was better off was the ordinary workers and the rich business owners. They received larger wages and could begin to afford luxury goods such as the motor car. As source 19 The American economy grew exponentially.However these two groups did not prosper because of Hoover’s government. Hoover did nothing during the 20’s to improve the lives of ordinary citizens because he believed in ‘Rugged Individualism’ therefore businesses prospered due to their own ingenuity. On the contrary, Roosevelt actively sought to improve his citizen’s lives. His New Deal, although not a complete economic success, (as unemployment did not end until the start of World War 2) did manage to turn around the situation for many Americans who were struggling in the depression.Emergency relief prevented families from starving, jobs were provided for as many unemployed as possible and the ‘Social Security Act’ of 1935 began to set up a system of national insurance which gave many American much needed support. However Roosevelt was reluctant to deal with the ‘Race’ issue. This meant that the status of Black Amer icans did not improve and thus their lives did not improve very much in the Deep South. In spite of this Roosevelt did improve the lives of some African Americans. 200,000 were in the CCC and many benefited from slum clearance and housing projects.Perhaps the most significant change that Roosevelt made was the NRA. It certainly improved the lives of ordinary workers by establishing worker’s rights to join unions and to bargain collectively for their wages. During the 1930’s, union membership rose steadily. But they still had little power compared to the large business owners. The New Deal did much to improve the lives of American farmers. Measures were taken to solve the problem of Overproduction such as encouraging soil conservation and providing loans for farm equipment.These were all effective, but they only benefitted large scale farmers. Crop prices started to rise again in the 30’s but small farmers saw little of the benefit. There was still much poverty i n rural America. So, the changes made by the American Government between 1919-1939 did improved the lives of American citizens because the changes implemented did make the USA a fairer and better place for all sections of society, such as the ‘Wagner Act’, the creation of the welfare state and National insurance.These things helped improved people’s lives by giving them much needed financial support and rights in the workplace. However at the turn of the decade (1940) there was still much that needed to be done for some citizens in America. For example the end of lynching for African Americans and giving women equal rights to men. Although The New Deal had not fully achieved this, it was the ‘stepping stone’ to building a just society.