College Essay on Minorities in Mass Media

One of the difficulties faced by the modern European society is to recognize and to perceive itself fully as multicultural. In this context, the audiovisual media can play a major role. But at the moment there seems to be a clear distance between the reality of things and their reflection that the media referring to minorities.

Unequal and insufficient representation of immigrants and minorities in the European mass media, in particular television, is a fact widely and regularly confirmed by more than twenty years of research.

As it has been summarized by the Dutch linguist T. A. Van Dijk, working on the relationship between racism and the mass media, "the media, today as well that 50 or 100 years ago, tend to assimilate foreigners, immigrants, refugees, or minorities to a problem and refer to 'them' rather than as an integral part of ’we.’ However, this resume echoes an idea put forward by E. Mace that "representation in mass media reflects, at one point, specific national collective imaginary tensions" (Mace, 2006 b: 115).

Child Psychology Essay

Child psychology is a branch of developmental psychology, dedicated to the exploration of patterns of mental development of the child. The main subject of analysis is driving causes and conditions for ontogenetic development of individual mental processes, including the formation of different types of a child behavior.

Child psychology, as a science of mental development of the child, originated as a branch of comparative psychology in the late 19th century. The starting point for systematic research on the psychology of the child is a work «Die Seele des Kindes» by Darwinian William Preyer. The work described the results of the Preyer’s daily observations on the development of his own son, paying attention to the development of his senses, motor skills, will, mind, and language. Despite the fact that the monitoring took place long before the Preyer’s book was published, Preyer’s undeniable priority was the study of the earliest years of the child and the introduction of the method of objective observation to child psychology, developed by analogy with the methods in the natural sciences. In modern terms, Peyer’s views are seen as naive, limited to the level of development of science of the 19th century. For example, he considered the mental development of the child as a version of the biological development. (However, strictly speaking, even today, there are hidden and explicit proponents of this idea...). Nevertheless, Preyer was the first who made the transition from introspective to objective study of the child psyche. Therefore, he is considered the founder of child psychology by the unanimous recognition of the psychologists.

Essay on Energy Drinks should be Banned

A few months ago, the analytical and research agency Packaged Facts (PF) noted a sharp increase in the demand for energy drinks. According to the PF experts, the revenue from the sales of this category of products will exceed $21.5 billion by 2017. For comparison, the legendary Coca-Cola Corporation, providing water dispensers all over the world, earns about $47 billion annually.

However, this week, the popular energy drinks industry attracted attention of the US Congress. 

Several senators and House members said they intend to restrict or even ban the sale of the caffeinated beverages. The Bill, which is destined to drop the production of energy drinks to the level that was decades ago, most likely, will bear the name of Anais Fournier, 14-year-old resident of Maryland, who died a year and a half ago after she drunk two cans (volume of each was 24-ounce) containing huge doses of caffeine.

The child death forced the US Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an impromptu survey,which quite unexpectedly revealed that every month more than 2.000 inhabitants of the United States have been treated in the emergency rooms with problems caused by the energy drinks.

Psychological Criticism Essay

Psychological criticism is a generic name for all research efforts to establish literary phenomenon based on Freudian psychoanalytic theory, or theories by his disciples. In some of his works that touch the issue of creative writing and psychology of aesthetic experience (such as "Interpretation of Dreams", "The joke and the unconscious" or "poet and fantasy"), Freud gave great encouragement to this criticism.

Freud attempted to analyze the various symptoms (e.g., the inclination of some to certain reasons) and to share the light on unconscious factors in the creative process, though he was not inclined to think that it will transform his integral doctrine of analysis because he was aware that understanding which should create art is limited and could not fully explain the power of artistic creativity. For him, the artist is one who wishes and urges the exercise in fantasy and summarizes it in a special way. Media that are used allow adequate perception of the receiver.

Essay on Oscar Awards

The Oscars (earlier known as The Academy Award) is the main movie award in the United States and one of the most prestigious awards in the world. It is the oldest award in the world in the media, but it still remains one of the most significant awards in the world of cinema. It is awarded annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the ceremony, which traditionally takes place in late February or early March at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles (United States).

The feature of this award is that unlike most film festivals, The Oscars are awarded based on the results of the popular vote of the Academy members, and are not chosen by the jury. The candidates for the award are nominated by the workers of the film industry, and the winners of the award are determined by secret ballot among the Academy members, whom there were around 6000 people as of March, 2007, divided into 17 branches. Each branch (by the way, the largest is Actors) votes for its category (actors choose the best actress and actor, scriptwriters chose the best screenwriter, etc.). 

Essay on Consequences of Western Influence

The western cultural expansion to the East (Westernization) is an intensive penetration of Western European and American way of life, as well as related values, customs, characters and cultural artifacts (language, films, computer software, video games, books, etc.) to the Eastern European, Latin American, Islamic, African and Asian countries. There is no doubt that today English language, particularly its American variant, occupies a leading place in the world, pretending to be a global language. You also cannot deny that cultural expansion today is, above all, going through modern audio-visual media-television, radio, and cinema. The products made in the United States displaces local cultural products for massive consumption and artistic preferences. National film and television economies exposed to westernization, do not withstand competition, particularly, with American production. Especially apparent consequences of western influence are visible in the field of advertising.

Essay on Consequences of Scientific Discoveries

Science opens up opportunities for new developments, for example, in the areas of genetics, space, energy, information technology, etc. Each of us, in his daily life, can witness the progress in the habitat, urban planning, cultural and artistic environment.

Actually scientific discoveries and technical advances arising therefrom exceed and often transcend their initial objectives. The opportunities are huge, they offer hope of a better life: remote diagnosis in medicine, appearance of new materials (technical clothing, non-stick coating...), waste disposal, food for some patients specifically designed for astronauts... However, they can also generate hazards: harmful use of science, search for progress without necessary cautions, economic crisis, social, negation of the individual. Facing certain derivatives, some precautions are to be taken, limits are to be set, an ethic is to build or evolve to avoid that science and technology develop without taking the man into account.

Faced with these advances, we make individual choices and participate in societal choices, which are to be made knowingly. Searching the answers: how to support scientific and technical progress avoiding elementary catastrophism.