Digital Cinema

Scott McQuire Millennial fantasies As anyone interested in film culture knows, the last decade has witnessed an explosion of pronouncements concerning the future of cinema. Many are fuelled by naked technological determinism, resulting in apocalyptic scenarios in which cinema either undergoes digital rebirth to emerge more powerful than ever in the new millennium, or is marginalised by a range of ‘new media’ which inevitably include some kind of broadband digital pipe capable of delivering full screen ‘cinema quality’ pictures on demand to home consumers.The fact that the doubleedged possibility of digital renaissance or death by bytes has coincided with celebrations of the ‘centenary of cinema’ has undoubtedly accentuated desire to reflect more broadly on the history of cinema as a social and cultural institution. It has also intersected with a significant transformation of film history, in which the centrality of ‘narrative’ as th e primary category for uniting accounts of the technological, the economic and the aesthetic in film theory, has become subject to new questions.Writing in 1986 Thomas Elsaesser joined the revisionist project concerning ‘early cinema’ to cinema’s potential demise: ‘A new interest in its beginnings is justified by the very fact that we might be witnessing the end: movies on the big screen could soon be the exception rather than the rule’. 1 Of course, Elsaesser’s speculation, which was largely driven by the deregulation of television broadcasting in Europe in conjunction with the emergence of new technologies such as video, cable and satellite in the 1980s, has been contradicted by the decade long cinema boom in the multiplexed 1990s. It has also been challenged from another direction, as the giant screen ‘experience’ of large format cinema has been rather unexpectedly transformed from a bit player into a prospective force. However , in the same article, Elsaesser raised another issue which has continued to resonate in subsequent debates: Scott McQuire, ‘Impact Aesthetics: Back to the Future in Digital Cinema? ‘, Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 6, no. 2, 2000, pp. 41-61.  © Scott McQuire. All rights reserved.Deposited to the University of Melbourne ePrints Repository with permission of Sage Publications . 2 Few histories fully address the question of why narrative became the driving force of cinema and whether this may itself be subject to change. Today the success, of SF as a genre, or of directors like Steven Spielberg whose narratives are simply anthology pieces from basic movie plots, suggest that narrative has to some extent been an excuse for the pyrotechnics of IL;M. 3 Concern for the demise, if not of cinema per se, then of narrative in cinema, is widespread in the present.In the recent special ‘digital technology’ issue of Screen, Sean Cubitt noted a ‘common intuition among reviewers, critics and scholars that something has changed in the nature of cinema — something to do with the decay of familiar narrative and performance values in favour of the qualities of the blockbuster’. 4 Lev Manovich has aligned the predominance of ‘blockbusters’ with ‘digital cinema’ by defining the latter almost entirely in terms of increased visual special effects: ‘A visible sign of this shift is the new role which computer generated special effects have come to play in the Hollywood industry in the last few years.Many recent blockbusters have been driven by special effects; feeding on their popularity’. 5 In his analysis of Hollywood’s often anxious depiction of cyberspace in films such as The Lawn Mower Man (1992), Paul Young argues that ‘cyberphobic films overstress the power of the visual in their reliance on digital technology to produce spectacle at the exp ense of narrative’, and adds this is ‘a consequence that [Scott] Bukatman has argued is latent in all special effects’. A more extreme (but nevertheless common) view is expressed by film maker Jean Douchet: ‘[Today] cinema has given up the purpose and the thinking behind individual shots [and narrative], in favour of images — rootless, textureless images — designed to violently impress by constantly inflating their spectacular qualities’. 7 ‘Spectacle’, it seems, is winning the war against ‘narrative’ all along the line.Even a brief statistical analysis reveals that ‘special effects’ driven films have enjoyed enormous recent success, garnering an average of over 60% of the global revenue taken by the top 10 films from 1995-1998, compared to an average of 30% over the previous four years. 8 Given that the proportion of box office revenue taken by the top 10 films has held steady or increased slightl y in the context of a rapidly expanding total market, this indicates that a handful of special-effects films are generating huge revenues each year.While such figures don’t offer a total picture of the film industry, let alone reveal which films which will exert lasting cultural influence, they do offer a snapshot of contemporary cultural taste refracted through studio marketing budgets. Coupled to the recent popularity of paracinematic forms, such as large format and special venue films, the renewed emphasis on ‘spectacle’ over ‘narrative’ suggests another possible end-game for 3 inema: not the frequently prophesied emptying of theatres made redundant by the explosion of home-based viewing (television, video, the internet), but a transformation from within which produces a cinema no longer resembling its (narrative) self, but something quite other. Complementing these debates over possible cinematic futures is the fact that any turn to spectacular f ilm ‘rides’ can also be conceived as a return — whether renaissance or regression is less clear — to an earlier paradigm of film-making famously dubbed the ‘cinema of attraction’ by Tom Gunning.Gunning long ago signalled this sense of return when he commented: ‘Clearly in some sense recent spectacle cinema has re-affirmed its roots in stimulus and carnival rides, in what might be called the Spielberg-Lucas-Coppola cinema of effects’. 9 For Paul Arthur, developments in the 1990s underline the point: The advent of Imax 3-D and its future prospects, in tandem with the broader strains of a New Sensationalism, provide an occasion to draw some connections with the early history of cinema and the recurrent dialectic between the primacy of the visual and, for lack of a better term, the sensory. 0 In what follows here, I want to further consider the loops and twists of these debates, not so much with the grand ambition of resolving them, b ut firstly of adding some different voices to the discussion — particularly the voices of those involved in film production. 11 My intention is not to elevate empiricism over theory, but to promote dialogue between different domains of film culture which meet all too rarely, and, in the process, to question the rather narrow terms in which ‘digital cinema’ has frequently entered recent theoretical debates.Secondly, I want to consider the relation between ‘narrative’ and ‘spectacle’ as it is manifested in these debates. My concern is that there seems to be a danger of confusing a number of different trajectories — such as cinema’s on-going efforts to demarcate its ‘experience’ from that of domestic entertainment technologies, and the turn to blockbuster exploitation strategies —and conflating them under the heading of ‘digital cinema’.While digital technology certainly intersects with, and si gnificantly overlaps these developments, it is by no means co-extensive with them. ‘Spectacular sounds’: cinema in the digital domain Putting aside the inevitable hype about the metamorphosis of Hollywood into ‘Cyberwood’, like many others I am convinced that digital technology constitutes a profound revolution in cinema, primarily because of its capacity to cut across all 4 sectors of the industry simultaneously, affecting film production, narrative conventions and audience experience.In this respect, the only adequate point of reference for the depth and extent of current changes are the transformations which took place with the introduction of synchronised sound in the 1920s. However, while the fundamental level at which change is occurring is widely recognised, it has been discussed primarily in terms of the impact of CGI (computer-generated imaging) on the film image. A more production-oriented approach would most likely begin elsewhere; with what Phil ip Brophy has argued is among ‘the most overlooked aspects of film theory and criticism (both modern and postmodern strands)’ — sound. 2 A brief flick through recent articles on digital cinema confirms this neglect: Manovich locates ‘digital cinema’ solely in a historical lineage of moving pictures; none of the articles in the recent Screen dossier mention sound, and even Eric Faden’s ‘Assimilating New Technologies: Early Cinema, Sound and Computer Imaging’ only uses the introduction of synchronised sound as an historical analogy for discussing the contemporary effect of CGI on the film image13. While not entirely unexpected, this silence is still somewhat urprising, given the fact that digital sound technology was adopted by the film industry far earlier and more comprehensively than was CGI. And, at least until the early 1990s with films like Terminator 2 (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993), the effect on audience experience was arg uably far greater than was digital imaging. Dominic Case [Group Services and Technology Manager at leading Australian film processor Atlab] argued in 1997: I am more and more convinced that the big story about film technology as far as audiences are concerned in the past few years has been sound.Because, although you can do fancy digital things, the image remains glued to that bit of screen in front of your eyes, and it’s not really any bigger†¦ But the sound has gone from one woolly sound coming from the back of the screen with virtually no frequency range or dynamic range whatsoever †¦ to something that fills the theatre in every direction with infinitely more dynamic range and frequency range. To me, that’s an explosion in experience compared to what you are seeing on the screen.However, the visual bias of most film theory is so pervasive that this transformation often passes unremarked. Part of the problem is that we lack the necessary conceptual armature : there are no linkages which pull terms such as 5 ‘aural’ or ‘listener’ into the sort of semantic chain joining spectacle and spectator to the adjective ‘spectacular’. Film sound-mixer Ian McLoughlin notes: Generally speaking, most people are visually trained from birth. †¦ Very few people are trained to have a aural language and, as a result there isn't much discussion about the philosophy of the sound track. .. There has been very, very little research done into the psycho-acoustic effects of sound and the way sound works sociologically on the audience. 14 Compounding this absence is the fact that the digital revolution in sound is, in many respects, the practical realisation of changes initiated with the introduction of Dolby Stereo in 1975. (On the other hand, the fact that CGI entered a special effects terrain already substantially altered by techniques of motion control, robotics and animatronics didn’t prevent critical atten tion to it. Four-track Dolby stereo led to a new era of sound experimentation beginning with films such as Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). As renowned sound mixer Roger Savage (whose credits include Return of the Jedi, 1983; Shine, 1996; and Romeo + Juliet, 1996) recalls: ‘Prior to that, film sound hadn’t changed for probably 30 years. It was Mono Academy †¦ Star Wars was one of the first films that I can remember where people started coming out of the theatre talking about the sound track’. 5 While narrative sound effects such as dialogue and music were still generally concentrated in the front speakers, the surround sound speakers became the vehicles for a new range of ‘spectacular’ sound effects. In particular, greater emphasis was given to boosting low frequency response, explicitly mirroring the amplified ambience of rock music. There was also greater attention given to the ‘spatialisation’ of di screte sound elements within the theatre.As Rich Altman has argued, these developments presented a significant challenge to one of the fundamental precepts of classical Hollywood narrative: the unity of sound and image and the subservience of sound effects to narrative logic: Whereas Thirties film practice fostered unconscious visual and psychological spectator identification with characters who appear as a perfect amalgam of image and sound, the Eighties ushered in a new kind of visceral identification, dependent on the sound system’s overt ability, through bone-rattling bass and unexpected surround effects, to cause spectators to vibrate — quite literally — with the entire narrative space.It is thus no longer the eyes, the ears and the brain that alone initiate identification and maintain contact with a sonic 6 source; instead, it is the whole body that establishes a relationship, marching to the beat of a different woofer. Where sound was once hidden behind t he image in order to allow more complete identification with the image, now the sound source is flaunted, fostering a separate sonic identification contesting the limited rational draw of the image and its characters. 16 Altman’s observation is significant in this context, inasmuch as it suggests that the dethroning of a certain model of narrative cinema had begun prior to the digital threshold, and well before the widespread use of CGI.It also indicates the frontline role that sound took in the film industry’s initial response to the incursions of video : in the 1980s the new sound of cinema was a primary point of differentiation from domestic image technologies. However, while Dolby certainly created a new potential for dramatic sound effects, in practice most film makers remained limited by a combination of logistical and economic constraints. In this respect, the transition to digital sound has been critical in creating greater latitude for experimentation within e xisting budget parameters and production time frames. In terms of sound production, Roger Savage argues: ‘The main advantages in digital are the quality control, the speed and the flexibility’. This is a theme which is repeated with regard to the computerisation of other areas of film making such as picture editing and CGI. ) Enhanced speed, flexibility and control stem from a reduction in the need for physical handling and a refinement of precision in locating and manipulating individual elements. In sound production, libraries of analogue tape reels each holding ten minutes of sound have given way to far more compact DAT tapes and hard drive storage. The entire production process can now often be realised on a single digital workstation. There is no need for a separate transfer bay, and, since digital processing involves the manipulation of electronic data, there is no risk of degrading or destroying original recordings by repeated processing.Once the sounds are catal ogued, digital workstations grant random access in a fraction of a second (eliminating tape winding time), and, unlike sprocket-based sound editing, all the tracks which have been laid can be heard immediately in playback. The creative pay-off is an enhanced ability to add complexity and texture to soundtracks. In terms of sound reproduction, the most marked change resulting from six track digital theatre systems is improved stereo separation and frequency response which assists better music reproduction in theatres — a change which goes hand in glove with the increased prominence that music and soundtracks have assumed in promoting and marketing films in recent years. 7The enhanced role of sound in cinema is even more marked for large format films which, because of their high level of visual detail, demand a correspondingly high level of audio detail. Ian McLoughlin (who, amongst many other things, shares sound mixing credits with Savage for the large-format films Africaâ₠¬â„¢s Elephant Kingdom, 1998 and The Story of a Sydney, 1999) comments: If you look at the two extremes of image technology, if you look at television, and then you look at something like Imax, the most interesting difference is the density of the sound track that is required with the size of the picture. When you’re doing a TV mix, you try to be simple, bold. You can’t get much in or otherwise it just becomes a mess.With 35mm feature films you're putting in 10, 20 times more density and depth into the sound track as compared to television, and †¦ when you go to Imax, you need even more. McLoughlin also makes a significant point concerning the use (or abuse) of digital sound: When digital first came out and people found that they could make a enormously loud sound tracks, everyone wanted enormously large sound tracks. †¦ Unfortunately some people who present films decided that the alignment techniques that companies like Dolby and THX have worked out arenâ₠¬â„¢t to their liking and they think audiences like a lot of sub-base and so they sometimes wind that up. †¦ [S]uddenly you’ve got audiences with chest cavities being punched due to the amount of bottom end. †¦Dolby and screen producers and screen distributors in America have actually been doing a lot of research into what they are calling the ‘annoyance factor’ of loud sound tracks. Because audiences are getting turned off by overly jarring, overly sharp, soundtracks. This comment is worth keeping in mind for two reasons. Firstly, it underlines the fact that the image is by no means the only vehicle for producing cinematic affect: in this sense, ‘impact aesthetics’ offers a more apt description of the trajectory of contemporary cinema than ‘spectacle’. Secondly, it warns against making hasty generalisations when assessing the long-term implications of CGI.While digital imaging undoubtedly represents a significant paradigm shif t in cinema, it is also feasible that the 1990s will eventually be seen more as a teething period of ‘gee whizz’ experimentation with the new digital toolbox, which was gradually turned towards other (even more ‘narrative’) ends. (The way we now look at early sound films is instructive: while contemporary audiences were fascinated by the mere 8 fact that pictures could ‘talk’, in retrospect we tend to give more weight to the way sound imposed new restrictions on camera movement, location shooting and acting style). Painting with light In contrast to the relative dearth of attention given to changes in areas such as sound and picture editing, digital manipulation of the film image has received massive publicity.While this is partly the result of deliberate studio promotion, it also reflects the profound changes in cinematic experience that computers have set in train. When we can see Sam Neil running from a herd of dinosaurs — in other wo rds, when we see cinematic images offering realistic depictions of things we know don’t exist — it is evident that the whole notion of photo-realism which has long been a central plank of cinematic credibility is changing. But how should this change be understood? Is it simply that ‘live action’ footage can now be ‘supplemented’ with CG elements which replace earlier illusionistic techniques such as optical printing, but leave cinema’s unique identity as an ‘art of recording’ intact? Or is a new paradigm emerging in which cinema becomes more like painting or animation?Lev Manovich has recently taken the latter position to an extreme, arguing that, ‘Digital cinema is a particular case of animation which uses live-action footage as one of its many elements’, and concluding: ‘In retrospect, we can see that twentieth century cinema’s regime of visual realism, the result of automatically recording visua l reality, was only an exception, an isolated accident in the history of visual representation†¦ ’. 17 While I suspect that Manovich significantly underestimates the peculiar attractions of ‘automatic recording’ (which produced what Walter Benjamin termed the photograph’s irreducible ‘spark of contingency’, what Barthes ontologised as the hotographic punctum), it is clear the referential bond linking camera image to physical object has come under potentially terminal pressure in the digital era. However, any consideration of ‘realism’ in cinema is immediately complicated by the primacy of fictional narrative as the dominant form of film production and consumption. Moreover, cinema swiftly moved from adherence to the ideal of direct correspondence between image and object which lay at the heart of classical claims to photographic referentiality. ‘Cheating’ with the order of events, or the times, locations and sett ings in which they occur, is second nature to film-makers. By the time cinema ‘came of age’ in the picture palace of the 1920s, a new logic of montage, shot matching and continuity had coalesced into the paradigm of 9 classical narrative’, and cinematic credibility belonged more to the movement of the text rather than the photographic moment — a shift Jean-Louis Commolli has neatly described in terms of a journey from purely optical to psychological realism. 18 Within this paradigm all imaginable tactics were permissible in order to imbue pro-filmic action with the stamp of cinematic authority — theatrical techniques such as performance, make-up, costumes, lighting and set design were augmented by specifically cinematic techniques such as stop motion photography and rear projection, as well as model-making and matte painting which entered the screen world via the optical printer.Given this long history of simulation, the digital threshold is perhaps best located in terms of its effect on what Stephen Prince has dubbed ‘perceptual realism’, rather than in relation to an abstract category of ‘realism’ in general. Prince argues: A perceptually realistic image is one which structurally corresponds to the viewer’s audio-visual experience of three-dimensional space †¦ Such images display a nested hierarchy of cues which organise the display of light, colour, texture, movement and sound in ways that correspond to the viewer’s own understanding of these phenomena in daily life. Perceptual realism, therefore, designates a relationship between the image on film and the spectator, and it can encompass both unreal images and those which are referentially realistic. Because of this, unreal images may be referentially fictional but perceptually realistic. 19I have emphasised Prince’s evocation of fidelity to ‘audio-visual experience’ because it underlines the extent to which t he aim of most computer artists working in contemporary cinema is not simply to create high resolution images, but to make these images look as if they might have been filmed. This includes adding various ‘defects’, such as film grain, lens flare, motion blur and edge halation. CG effects guru Scott Billups argues that film makers had to ‘educate’ computer programmers to achieve this end: For years we were saying: ‘Guys, you look out on the horizon and things get grayer and less crisp as they get farther away’. But those were the types of naturally occurring event structures that never got written into computer programs.They’d say ‘Why do you want to reduce the resolution? Why do you want to blur it? ’. 20 10 By the 1990s many software programs had addressed this issue. As Peter Webb (one of the developers of Flame) notes: Flame has a lot of tools that introduce the flaws that one is trained to see. Even though we donâ€℠¢t notice them, there is lens flare and motion blur, and the depth of field things, and, if you don’t see them, you begin to get suspicious about a shot. 21 In other words, because of the extent to which audiences have internalised the camera’s qualities as the hallmark of credibility, contemporary cinema no longer aims to mime ‘reality’, but ‘camera-reality’.Recognising this shift underlines the heightened ambivalence of realism in the digital domain. The film maker’s ability to take the image apart at ever more minute levels is counterpointed by the spectator’s desire to comprehend the resulting image as ‘realistic’ — or, at least, equivalent to other cine-images. In some respects, this can be compared to the dialectic underlying the development of montage earlier this century, as a more ‘abstract’ relation to individual shots became the basis for their reconstitution as an ‘organicâ€℠¢ text. But instead of the fragmentation and re-assemblage of the image track over time, which founded the development of lassical narrative cinema and its core ‘grammatical’ structures such as shot/reverse shot editing, digital technology introduces a new type of montage: montage within the frame whose prototype is the real time mutation of morphing. However, while ‘perceptual realism’ was achieved relatively painlessly in digital sound, the digital image proved far more laborious. Even limited attempts to marry live action with CGI, such as TRON (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984) proved unable to sustain the first wave of enthusiasm for the computer. As one analyst observed: ‘The problem was that digital technology was both comparatively slow and prohibitively expensive. In fact, workstations capable of performing at film resolution were driven by Cray super-computers’. 2 It is these practical exigencies, coupled to the aesthetic disjunct ion separating software programmers from film makers I noted above, rather than a deeply felt desire to manufacture a specifically electronic aesthetic, which seems to underlie the ‘look’ of early CGI. 23 Exponential increases in computing speed, coupled to decreases in computing cost, not only launched the desktop PC revolution in the mid-1980s, but made CGI in film an entirely different matter. The second wave of CGI was signalled when Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) made morphing a household word. 24 Two 11 years later the runaway box-office success of Jurassic Park (1993) changed the question from whether computers could be effectively used in film making to how soon this would happen. The subsequent rash of CGI-driven blockbusters, topped by the billion dollar plus gross of Cameron’s Titanic (1997), has confirmed the trajectory.Cameron is one of many influential players who argue that cinema is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation: ‘Weà ¢â‚¬â„¢re on the threshold of a moment in cinematic history that is unparalleled. Anything you imagine can be done. If you can draw it, if you can describe it, we can do it. It’s just a matter of cost’. 25 While this claim is true at one level — many tricky tasks such as depicting skin, hair and water, or integrating CGI elements into live action images shot with a hand-held camera, have now been accomplished successfully — it is worth remembering that ‘realism’ is a notoriously slippery goal, whether achieved via crayon, camera or computer.Dennis Muren’s comments on his path-breaking effects for Jurassic Park (which in fact had only 5 to 6 minutes of CGI and relied heavily on models and miniatures, as did more recent ‘state of the art’ blockbusters such as The Fifth Element, 1997 and Dark City, 1998) bear repeating: ‘Maybe we’ll look back in 10 years and notice that we left things out that we didn’t kn ow needed to be there until we developed the next version of this technology’. Muren adds: In the Star Wars films you saw lots of X-wings fighters blow up, but these were always little models shot with high-speed cameras. You’ve never seen a real X-wing blow up, but by using CGI, you might just suddenly see what looks like a full-sized X-wing explode. It would be all fake of course, but you’d see the structure inside tearing apart, the physics of this piece blowing off that piece. Then you might look back at Star Wars and say, ‘That looks terrible’. 26Clearly, George Lucas shared this sentiment, acknowledging in 1997 that ‘I’m still bugged by things I couldn’t do or couldn’t get right, and now I can fix them’. 27 The massive returns generated by the ‘digitally enhanced’ Star Wars trilogy raises the prospect of a future in which blockbuster movies are not re-made with new casts, but perpetually updated w ith new generations of special effects. Stop the sun, I want to get off Putting aside the still looming question of digital projection, the bottom line in the contemporary use of digital technology in cinema is undoubtedly ‘control’: 12 particularly the increased control that film makers have over all the different components of image and sound tracks.Depending on a film’s budget, the story no longer has to work around scenes which might be hard to set up physically or reproduce photo-optically— they are all grist to the legions of screen jockeys working in digital post-production houses. George Lucas extols the new technology for enhancing the ability to realise directorial vision: I think cinematographers would love to have ultimate control over the lighting; they’d like to be able to say, ‘OK, I want the sun to stop there on the horizon and stay there for about six hours, and I want all of those clouds to go away. Everybody wants that kind of control over the image and the storytelling process. Digital technology is just the ultimate version of that. 28A direct result of digital imaging and compositing techniques has been an explosion of films which, instead of ‘fudging’ the impossible, revel in the capacity to depict it with gripping ‘realism’: Tom Cruise’s face can be ripped apart in real time (Interview with the Vampire, 1994), the Whitehouse can be incinerated by a fireball from above (Independence Day, 1996), New York can be drowned by a tidal wave, or smashed by a giant lizard(Deep Impact, Godzilla, 1998). But, despite Lucas’ enthusiasm, many are dubious about where the new primacy of special effects leaves narrative in cinema. The argument put forward by those such as Sean Cubitt and Scott Bukatman is that contemporary special effects tend to displace narrative insofar as they introduce a disjunctive temporality evocative of the sublime.Focusing on Doug Trumbull’s work, Bukatman emphasises the contemplative relationship established between spectator and screen in key effects scenes (a relationship frequently mirrored by on-screen characters displaying their awe at what they– and ‘we’ – are seeing. )29 Cubitt suggests that similar ‘fetishistic’ moments occur in songs such as Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, where narrative progress gives way to visual fascination. His example is drawn from a strikingly similar terrain to that which inspired Laura Mulvey’s well-known thesis on the tension between voyeurism and scopophilia in classical narrative cinema: Mainstream film neatly combined spectacle and narrative. (Note, however, in the musical song-and-dance numbers break the flow of the diegesis).The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation. 30 13 This connection was also made by Tom Gunning in his work on the early ‘cinema of attraction’: ‘As Laura Mulvey has shown in a very different context, the dialectic between spectacle and narrative has fueled much of the classical cinema’. 31 In this respect, a key point to draw from both Mulvey and Gunning is to recognise that they don’t conceive the relationship between spectacle and narrative in terms of opposition but dialectical tension. 32 This is something that other writers have sometimes forgotten.Presenting the issue in terms of an opposition (spectacle versus narrative) in fact recycles positions which have been consistently articulated (and regularly reversed) throughout the century. In the 1920s, avant-garde film makers railed against ‘narrative’ because it was associated primarily with literary and theatrical scenarios at the expense of cinematic qualities (Gunning begins his ‘Cine ma of Attraction’ essay with just such a quote from Fernand Leger). Similar concerns emerged with debates in France over auteur theory in the 1950s, where the literary qualities of script were opposed to the ‘properly cinematic’ qualities of mise-en-scene.In the 1970s, the ‘refusal of narrative’ which characterised much Screen theory of the period, took on radical political connotations. Perhaps as a reaction to the extremity of pronouncements by those such as Peter Gidal, there has been a widespread restoration of narrative qualities as a filmic ‘good object’ in the present. However, rather than attempting to resolve this split in favour of one side or the other, the more salient need is to examine their irreducible intertwining: what sort of stories are being told, and what sort of spectacles are being deployed in their telling? While it is easy to lament the quality of story-telling in contemporary blockbusters, few critics seriously maintain that such films are without narrative.A more productive framework is to analyse why explicitly ‘mythological’ films such as the Star Wars cycle have been able to grip popular imagination at this particular historical conjuncture, marrying the bare bones of fairy-tale narrative structures to the inculcation of a specific type of special effects driven viewing experience. (To some extent, ths is Bukatman’s approach in his analysis of special effects). In this context, it is also worth remembering that, despite the quite profound transformations set in train by the use of digital technology in film making, there has thus far been little discernible effect on narrative in terms of structure or genre. The flirtation with ‘non-linear’ and ‘interactive’ films was a shooting star which came and went with the CD-ROM, while most contemporary blockbusters conform smoothly to established cine-genres (sci-fi, horror, disaster and action- 14 dventure predominating), with a significant number being direct re-makes of older films done ‘better’ in the digital domain. One of the more interesting observations about possible trends in the industry is put forward by James Cameron, who has argued that digital technology has the potential to free film makers from the constraints of the ‘A’ and ‘B’ picture hierarchy: [I]n the ’40s you either had a movie star or you had a B-movie. Now you can create an A-level movie with some kind of visual spectacle, where you cast good actors, but you don’t need an Arnold or a Sly or a Bruce or a Kevin to make it a viable film. 33 However, Cameron himself throws doubt on the extent of this ‘liberation’ by underlining the industrial nature of digital film production. 4 In practice, any film with the budget to produce a large number of cutting edge special effects shots is inevitably sold around star participation, as well as specta cle (as were films such as The Robe, 1953 and Ben Hur, 1926). This point about the intertwining of narrative and spectacle is re-inforced if we look at developments in large-format film, an area frequently singled out for its over-dependence on screen spectacle to compensate for notoriously boring ‘educational’ narrative formats. Large-format (LF) cinema is currently in the throes of a significant transformation The number of screens worldwide has exploded in the last four years (between 1995 and January 1999, the global LF circuit grew from 165 to 263 theatres. By January 2001, another 101 theatres are due to open, taking the total to 364, an increase of 120% in 6 years).More significantly, the majority of new screens are being run by commercial operators rather than institutions such as science museums. These new exhibition opportunities, coupled to the box-office returns generated by films such as Everest (the 15th highest grossing film in the USA in 1998, despite ap pearing on only 32 screens) has created significant momentum in the sector for the production of LF films capable of attracting broader audiences. For some producers, this means attempting to transfer the narrative devices of dramatic feature films onto the giant screen, while others argue that the peculiarities of the medium means that LF needs to stick with its proven documentary subjects.However, most significantly in this context, none dispute the need for the sector to develop better narrative techniques if it is to grow and prosper, particularly by 15 attracting ‘repeat’ audiences. In many respects, the LF sector is currently in a similar position to cinema in the 1900s, with people going to see the apparatus rather than a specific film, and the ‘experience’ being advertised largely on this basis. While it would be simplistic to see current attempts to improve the narrative credentials of LF films as a faithful repetition of the path that 35mm cinema took earlier this century, since most production is likely to remain documentary-oriented, it would be equally as foolish to ignore the cultural and commercial imperatives which still converge around telling a ‘good story’. 5 Distraction and the politics of spectacle Despite the current rash of digitally-inspired predictions, narrative in film is unlikely to succumb to technological obsolescence. But nor will spectacle be vanquished by a miraculous resurgence of ‘quality’ stories. A corollary of a dialectical conception of the interrelationship between narrative and spectacle is that neither should be seen simply as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ objects in themselves. For Mulvey, spectacle (exemplified by close-ups which turn woman’s face and body into a fetish), as well as the more voyeuristic strategy of narrative, were both attuned to the anxious imagination of patriarchal culture in classical cinema.Both were techniques for negotiatin g the threat of castration raised by the image of woman, an image classical cinema simultaneously desired and sought to circumscribe or punish. Nevertheless, even within this heavily constrained context, ‘spectacle’ could also assume a radical function by ‘interrupting’ the smooth functioning of narrative, disturbing the rules of identification and the systematic organisation of the look within the text. (This is the gist of her comparison between the films of von Sternberg, which privilege a fetish image of Dietrich over narrative progress, and those of Hitchcock which more closely align the viewer with the male protagonist). Can spectacle still exert a ‘progressive’ function in contemporary cinema?While most critics answer this question negatively without even posing it, Paul Young is unusual in granting a measure of radical effect to the renewed primacy of spectacle. Young draws on Miriam Hansen’s account of the ‘productive ambi guity’ of early cinema, in which the lack of standardised modes of exhibition, coupled to reliance on individual attractions, gave audiences a relative freedom to interpret what they saw, and established cinema as (potentially) an alternative public sphere. He takes this as support for his argument that contemporary ‘spectacle’ cinema constitutes an emergent challenge to ‘Hollywood’s institutional identity’. 36 16 Young’s analysis contrasts markedly with Gunning’s earlier description of the ‘cinema of effects’ as ‘tamed attractions’. 7 Nevertheless both share some common ground: Young’s reference to the ‘productive ambiguity’ of early cinema, like Gunning’s rather oblique and undeveloped reference to the ‘primal power’ of attraction, draws nourishment from Siegfried Kracauer’s early writings on the concept of distraction. In the 1920s, Kracauer set up Ã¢â‚¬Ë œdistraction’ as a counterpoint to contemplation as a privileged mode of audience reception, seeing it as embodying a challenge to bourgeois taste for literary-theatrical narrative forms, and also as the most compelling mode of presentation to the cinema audience of their own disjointed and fragmented conditions of existence. 38 While distraction persisted as a category used by Walter Benjamin in his ‘Artwork’ essay of the mid1930s, by the 1940s Kracauer seemed to have revised his position.As Elsaesser has pointed out, this re-appraisal was at least partly a re-assessment of the ‘productive ambiguity’ which had characterised social spaces such as cinema; by the 1940s distraction and spectacle had been consolidated into socially dominant forms epitomised by Hollywood on the one hand and fascism on the other. 39 If Kracauer’s faith that the 1920s audience could symptomatically encounter ‘its own reality’ via the superficial glamour of movie stars rather than the putative substance of the era’s ‘high culture’ was already shaken by the 1940s, what would he make of the post-pop art, postmodern 1990s? The extent to which surface elements of popular culture have been esthetically ‘legitimated’ without any significant transformation of corresponding political and economic values suggests the enormous difficulties facing those trying to utilise spectacle as a ‘progressive’ element in contemporary culture. However, it is equally important to acknowledge that this problem cannot be resolved simply by appealing to ‘narrative’ as an antidote. While the terms remain so monolithic, the debate will not progress beyond generalities. In this respect, Kracauer’s work still offers some important lessons to consider in the present. Here, by way of conclusion, I want to sketch out a few possible lines of inquiry. On the one hand, his concept of the ‘mass orna ment’ indicates that any turn, or return, to spectacle in cinema needs to be situated in a wider social context. 0 Spectacle is not simply a matter of screen image, but constitutes a social relation indexed by the screen (something Guy Debord underlined in the 1960s). Developments in contemporary cinema need to be related to a number of other trajectories, including cinema’s on-going endeavours to distinguish its ‘experience’ 17 from that of home entertainment, as well as the proliferation of spectacle in social arenas as diverse as sport (the Olympic games), politics (the dominance of the cult of personality in all political systems) and war (the proto-typical ‘media-event’). On the other hand, the specific forms of spectacle mobilised in contemporary cinema need to be examined for the extent to which they might reveal (in Kracauer’s terms) the ‘underlying meaning of existing conditions’.Kracauer’s analysis of cinem a in the 1920s situated the popularity of a certain structure of viewing experience in relation to the rise of a new class (the white collar worker). In contemporary terms, I would argue that the relevant transformation is the process of ‘globalisation’. While this is a complex, heterogeneous and uneven phenomenon, a relevant aspect to consider here is Hollywood’s increasing reliance on overseas markets, both for revenue, and, more importantly, for growth. 41 In this context, the growing imperative for films to ‘translate’ easily to all corners and cultures of the world is answered by building films around spectacular action setpieces. Equally as ignificantly, the predominant themes of recent special effects cinema— the destruction of the city and the mutation or dismemberment of the human body — are symptomatic of the underlying tensions of globalisation, tensions exemplified by widespread ambivalence towards the socio-political effect s of speed and the new spatio-temporal matrices such as cyberspace. 42 The most important cinematic manifestations of these anxious fascinations are not realised at the level of narrative ‘content’ (although they occasionally make themselves felt there), but appear symptomatically in the structure of contemporary viewing experience. The repetition of awe and astonishment repeatedly evoked by ‘impossible’ images as the currency of today’s ‘cutting edge’ cinema undoubtedly functions to prepare us for the uncertain pleasures of living in a world we suspect we will soon no longer recognise: it is not simply ‘realism’ but ‘reality’ which is mutating in the era of digital economy and the Human Genome Project.If this turn to spectacle is, in some respects, comparable to the role played by early cinema in negotiating the new social spaces which emerged in the industrial city remade by factories and department stores, el ectrification and dynamic vehicles, it also underscores the fact that the ‘death’ of camera realism in the late twentieth century is a complex psycho-social process, not least because photo-realism was always less an aesthetic function than a deeply embedded social and political relation. 43 18 Finally, I would argue that it is important not to subsume all these filmic headings under the single rubric of ‘digital’. There is a need to acknowledge, firstly, that digital technology is used far more widely in the film industry than for the production of blockbusters and special effects (for example, it is the new industry standard in areas such as sound production and picture editing).Moreover, as Elsaesser has argued recently, technology is not the driving force: ‘In each case, digitisation is ‘somewhere’, but it is not what regulates the system, whose logic is commercial, entrepreneurial and capitalist-industrialist’44 What the digit al threshold has enabled is the realignment of cinema in conformity with new demands, such as ‘blockbuster’ marketing blitzes constructed around a few spectacular image sequences of the kind that propelled Independence Day to an US$800m gross. It has rejuvenated cinema’s capacity to set aesthetic agendas, and, at the same time, restored its status as a key player in contemporary political economy. In this context, one aspect of the digital threshold deserves further attention. In the 1990s, product merchandising has become an increasingly important part of financing the globalised film industry.While some would date this from Star Wars, Jurassic Park offers a more relevant point of reference: for the first time, audiences could see on screen, as an integral part of the filmic diegesis, the same commodities they could purchase in the cinema foyer. As Lucie Fjeldstad (then head of IBM’s multimedia division) remarked at the time (1993) : ‘Digital conten t is a return-on-assets goldmine, because once you create Terminator 3, the character, it can be used in movies, in theme-park rides, videogames, books, educational products’. 45 Digital convergence is enacted not simply in the journey from large screen to small screen: the same parameters used in designing CG characters for a film can easily be transmitted to off-shore factories manufacturing plastic toys.

Law Enforcement Agencies Essay

Identify three federal law enforcement agencies. Roles and responsibilities and comparison of local and state law enforcement duties, functions, and their two main differences. The duties, functions, and responsibilities of Local Law Enforcement agencies are as follows: They are required to arrest law violators, perform routine patrol, investigates crimes, enforce traffic laws (including parking violations), provide crowd and traffic control for example parades and other huge public events. Today they also have duties such as: Performing the duties of coroners, tax assessors, tax collectors, keepers of county jails, court attendants, and executors of criminal and civil processes, as well as law enforcement officers. The duties, functions, and responsibilities of State Police Agencies are as follows: patrol small towns and state highways, regulate traffic, and have the primary responsibility to enforce some state laws. They also carry out many duties for local police agencies, such as the managing of state training academies, criminal identification systems, and crime laboratories. Some of the differences between the state and the local police are as follows: State police cooperates with an assortment of law enforcement agencies such as local police, the highway patrol, and park or forest rangers. Really the differences between a sheriff and a police officer vary slightly from state to state, which sometimes lead to confusion. Three federal law enforcement agencies are: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Administration or Agency (DEA), and the Alcohol Tobacco Firearms (ATF). â€Å"The FBI is a threat-based, intelligence driven national security organization, their principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice and a full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community,†(FBI 2010). These agents are â€Å"dedicated men and women of the DEA are working hard to investigate and arrest the traffickers of the dangerous drugs.† These agents also help keep our schools and neighborhoods safe and secure. The â€Å"Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) seeks to reduce alcohol smuggling and contraband cigarette trafficking activity, divest criminal and terrorist organizations of monies derived from this illicit activity and significantly reduce tax revenue losses to the States,† (ATF 2010). These agents are also reducing violent crime, and enforcing the Federal explosives laws and regulations. These agents are working to enforce Federal firearms laws and regulations.  All these agents whether local, state or federal work together to protect the United Sates residents from all criminals activities.

Newspapers’ role in society Essay

Mass media is a distinctive element of today’s society. Together, the different elements are a product of societal change, forced regulations, rising living standards, and technological modernization. Mass media includes mediums such as magazines, television, internet, radio, cinema, video games, and cellular telephones. The ability to mass communicate with these devices has had such a massive impact that Denis McQuail describes that â€Å"the mass media has primary and crucial importance for the integration of the diverse secular worlds of modern men into coherence and unity† (32). There is no doubt among theorists that media is influencing society, but there are different theories that suggest that it may be society influencing media, not media influencing society. This essay shall look at newspapers’ past and present, and how they will continue to affect the world we live in. In the early 1950s after WWII, American communication made deep inroads into Europe, and words like â€Å"mass†, â€Å"effects†, and â€Å"functions† organized research on both sides of the Atlantic (Curran 407). Almost a decade later, some of the biggest research took place in 1959, when Elihu Katz argued that people need to concentrate less on what the media do to people and more on what people do with media (McQuail 71). Dennis McQuail sides with Katz, in believing that peoples contact with media is of utmost importance, stating, â€Å"media is helping in enabling people to bring about a more satisfying relationship between themselves and the people around them† (71). The views are across the board, pointing in both directions, but research continues even today as to what extent life is changing because of emerging technologies. Not only the substance of what is being communicated is important, but just as vital is the process. Technological innovations have assisted in supplying content for our media forms, and also the circuits and motherboards of how they are made are affecting the ways which society operates. Both aspects have a hand in the creation of the world we live in today, and should be realized when reading this essay. Mass media first appeared on the scene as newspapers. The newspaper was the first medium of communication with a genuinely mass character. U.S newspaper firms had slow growth until the 1800s. It was in the 1830s that the population concentration in cities and the spread of mass literacy provided  a market for mass press (Wells 7). The news could finally be spread on paper, rather than word of mouth. The entire world was suddenly in-the-know about what was happening around them. Newspapers made the transition from the realm of the educated, to serving a wide range of people from this time thought the Civil War (Grant, Meadows 8). The development of advertising, telegraph, and improved production methods have assisted newspapers in reaching a worldwide audience, and eventually being the main source of news for years to come. To this day 97% of towns have only one newspaper to choose from for local news (Wells 7). This idea of newspaper monopolies is discouraging to the market, because only one view is being seen on the issue. No single company is at fault though, because starting a newspaper or radio station these days requires far more investment and risk then in previous years. Despite other forms of news, the newspapers industry is still growing today. In 2002, there were over 10,000 newspaper firms in the United States, and over half the country reading a newspaper daily (Grant, Meadows 9). The future of newspapers looks to be heading toward the digital world, against many wishes of traditional newspaper readers. Flexibility from digital methods has increased newspapers’ ability to deliver zoned editions that reduce unprofitable readership in areas far away from print facilities (Grant, Meadows 10). By the end of the 20th century, over two-thirds of U.S. newspapers maintained websites that offered classified advertising (Grant, Meadows 10). According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the majority of the population prefers to purchase the printed edition rather than viewing the electronic edition (Grant, Meadows 11). This may change though, because digital news is rather new, and websites such as cnn.com can be updated on the hour informing viewers of up-to-the minute news, instead of waiting for the next days edition to receive that same news. McQuail, Denis. Towards a Sociology of Mass Communication. London. MacMillian Publishers Limited, 1968 Curran, James, Gurevitich, Michael, Woolacott, Janet. Mass Communication and Society. 1st ed. London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 1979 Katz, Elihu, Szecsko, Tamas. Mass Media and Social Change. London: Sage.1981 Wells, Alan. Mass Media and Society. Palo Alto, National Press Books. 1972 Grant, August and Jennifer Meadows. Communication Technology Update. Oxford: Focal Press, 2004.

Profit maximization questions x 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Profit maximization questions x 2 - Essay Example Therefore, the answer is, to strike a balance between the two, that is, to not run after the profits to the extent that morality and values come at stake. As corporations it is imperative for us to hold our businesses in a manner that our personal values, which, in the first place should not be against that of the company, are aligned with what the society expects from us. A Business carries a two fold mandate, to earn profits and to seek to justify the means of doing so. Corporate Behavior should be governed by business ethics and values and at the same time describe certain methods to induce profit maximization. Being a part of the top level management as executive I will seek to define moral and ethical guidelines in which to undertake the business, making it a part of my organizational behavior. The very culture needs to be such that it helps promote values and business ethic. It’s certainly undesirable to have cost cutting at the expense of low quality and sub standard pr oducts as in a way it may bring in short term profitability and increase shareholder wealth but in the long term it will lead to degradation of the company’s image. I would try to take measures and communicate throughout the organization to promote moral values and to not give in at the mere expense of profitability. However, this does not mean that the pursuit of profitability is of secondary value. As I stated earlier the key is to strike a balance between the two. I believe seeking profitability on the lines of personal values and beliefs will actually act as a catalyst and exponentially create wealth for the stake holders through better image amongst them. There is absolutely no point in running a business that violates personal values as it shatters the very being and makes him a slave of profitability. Once that violation is made the person has no moral obligation and can go to any extent to achieve the latter objective. Hostile take over’s, industrial espionage or even violating the rights of customers and suppliers may lead to some sort of profitability, but this type of corporate manslaughter is certainly questionable. Having a definitive framework in which to carry out the business would certainly be my initial responsibility and in order to see if its being followed, as most of the time there is a disconnection between the company's code of ethics and the company's actual practices, a corporate Value appraisal system should be in place to keep a check and balance. Ans.2 If we analyze the net profitability after tax the company has had around 11% profitability each year whereas the market moved 13% up in the initial two years and the difference between the last two years is about 8.8%. These numbers suggest that the company is performing in a somewhat similar manner as the market. Now, if the company holds a leading position in the industry and has been having a smooth run of profitability and yet the share price has remained constant, it is certainly a message for the company that something is certainly wrong. The share price explains the sentiments of its investors about that particular company, if they believe that the company will do well, the share price will show a bullish trend but if otherwise, the stock price will go down. Now the company needs to understand and analyze its competitive position in the market. It should seek to evaluate how the consumer perception has changed about the company. Having known that the share value of the competitors has grown, this is a

Prenancy woman with sickle cell disease Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Prenancy woman with sickle cell disease - Essay Example The impact of this scheme will assist the next generations in designing the best responses to mothers who are victims of sickle-cell anemia (Glassberg, 2011). The Nursing-family partnership provides local communities with the best home-based approaches specially developed to help a mother from low-income families. The program will be implemented through a comprehensive research initiative to identify mothers with this problem. Medical personnel and Nurses will be deployed in the localities. Each county will have an office where registration will be done. This will be done through professional ethics that require non-disclosure. Visitations will commence after victims have been identified. The program will provide core services such the Nurse-family partnership will provide several services to victim mothers at the local level. Furthermore, the program offers assistance on family planning so that mothers have few chances of sickle cell babies. In addition to this, the program will give consultancy services where mothers will be expected to seek professional counseling and guidance. Providing free and subsidized drugs to mothers to avoid extreme effects to unborn babies The Initiative has been conducted in different states over the past four decades. It was fast conducted in California for pregnant mothers with sickle cell anemia. The outcome was successful because the number of sickle cell cases in California reduced by half in a span of three years after the inception of the partnership. There are consistent program effects of the plans, which include improved prenatal health because drugs were overly effective, fewer infant infections arising from mother-child transmissions, Increased intervals between births due to effective family planning techniques imparted t low-income mothers and improved maternal health due to reduced sickle cell count after further tests were administered. Furthermore, the program offers school readiness for

Timeline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Timeline - Essay Example Ferguson. This case declared that laws which created separate, but equal schools for black and white students, unconstitutional (McBride, 2006). 1964 - Civil Rights Act – This is legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It ended racial segregation in schools, in the workplace and in facilities (Whalen, 1985). 1971 – Sawnn v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education – The court ruled that when finding ways to handle the issue of illegal segregation in schools assigning students to bussing was legal (Mickelson, 2001, p. 215-252). 2003 – Grutter v. Bollinger – This case upheld affirmative action in education as long as there was a â€Å"highly individualized, holistic review of each applicant’s file† and in which race was not considered (Cornell University Law School, n.d.). The consequences of each of these cases eventually lead to total desegregation in the United States. As the timeline shows, with each case, the laws became more and more open to equality among the races. In terms of schools and children, there is now no desegregation and schools are racially diverse as well as the transportation to those schools. Students from any race are allowed to attend their public neighborhood school without issue thanks to the people who pursued these cases. Epstein,  L., & Knight,  J. (2001). Piercing the veil: William j. brennans account of regents of the university of california v. bakke. Yale Law & Policy Review, 19(2), 341-379. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40239568 Mickelson,  R.  A. (2001). Subverting swann: First and second generation segregation in the charlotte-mecklenburg schools. American Educational Research Journal, 38(2), 215-252.

Hierarchy vs Heterarchy in Organizational Structures Research Paper - 1

Hierarchy vs Heterarchy in Organizational Structures - Research Paper Example Conversely, a heterarchical structure supports the autonomy of the workers from the various departments of an organization. In essence, this structure advocates for horizontal management of the affairs of an organization, as opposed to a vertical management, embraced by a hierarchical organizational structure. The management of an organization can take either a centralized control of operations or decentralized control of operations. Depending on the structure that an organization adopts, both structures have their merits and demerits in terms of improving the operations of an organization. In some organizations, the management often prefers controlling every aspect of operations under their supervision. This calls for a situation where employees work according to the management’s preference. On the other hand, there are organizations that prefer giving employees space to undertake their own initiatives within the work environment so long as these initiatives can improve the o rganization’s performance (Diefenbach and Sillince 1518). In this paper, I will examine the debate that surrounds hierarchy versus heterarchy in organizational structures and their successes and limitations in an organization’s setting. Having a command center in any organization is essential because of those under the top management work according to orders from the management. This is a key feature of organizations based on a hierarchy structure. Organizations operating in this line often embrace a vertical line of authority where there are levels and each level has an authority figure. In essence, this involves embracing an office cadre where authority starts with CEO moving to the bottom level of the organization. At each level, there is an authority figure with employees under him or her. This organization helps to simplify the chain of command, but the overall authority lies with the CEO of the organization.

Exercise Physiology in Extreme Environments Essay

Exercise Physiology in Extreme Environments - Essay Example The term hypoxia refers to a pathological condition in which the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply (Wikipedia, 2006a). Physiologists have long been astonished by the changes that occur with adaptation to altitude as the circulatory system attempts to compensate for the increased hypoxia by enhancing certain characteristics. Common reasoning asserts that if the characteristics of circulation at altitude are better than those of sea-level, then sea-level performances should be enhanced among these athletes. For example, training at altitude, anywhere above 3000 meters, increases the body’s number of red blood cells, thus the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen is greater. It seems reasonable that this would enhance sea-level performance as the high altitude athlete’s body uses oxygen more effectively which enables that individual to run farther and faster (Sutton, 1994). However, these assumptions of high altitude training are just that. Contradictory evidenc e suggests that high altitude training is not only ineffective, but the physiological events that occur in the body as a result can be harmful. Ascent to high altitude is accompanied by a progressive fall in barometric pressure and an accompanying fall in the partial pressure of oxygen. â€Å"As low-level dwellers, we are optimally equipped for existence at normal air pressure of 760 mm of mercury, with an oxygen concentration of 21 percent. With increasing altitude, the concentration of oxygen remains the same, but the atmospheric pressure decreases and with this the partial pressure of oxygen falls. This means that the number of oxygen molecules per breath is greatly reduced and this in turn reduces the amount of oxygen available to the blood and tissues in the body† (Quinn, n.d.). The resulting decrease in arterial oxygen saturation (hypoxaemia) triggers a cascade of physiological disturbances that ultimately result in an

Marketing is the major factor in the success in any business. True or Essay

Marketing is the major factor in the success in any business. True or false - Essay Example This paper seeks to discuss some of the key aspects that marketing a determining factor for the success of any business. One of the major merits of marketing is to inform the potential customers about a particular product or service. A business that wants to be known by the communities and more customers must employ marketing strategies as a way of informing the customers about a new brand. Without conducting effective marketing, potential customers may not be aware of ones business leave alone the products and services being provided. Thus prospective customers can know about new or existing business by use of marketing and promotion (Hochbaum 37). Customers are communicated to through the use of advertising for example through television, magazines, internet, bill boards as well as promotional methods such as competitions and road side shows. Another importance of marketing is that once the business owner informs his or her potential customers about the products and services being provided by the business, there is a high probability of the consumers making a purchase. After the potential customers becomes aware of the products they are also in a position to make word of mouth marketing that involves telling their families and friends about the benefits of a new products that that have purchased from the business (Kotler and Philip 24). As a result, the business will experience high sales and sustainable profitability that is essential for the expansion of the company operations. It is vital to note that without use of marketing strategies it would be possible to achieve such high sales. Solid reputation leads to the success of a business. As a major responsibility, marketing assists in building the image of a business. When a business is involved in marketing strategies for example through corporate social responsibilities such

Leonardo the Renaissance Man Essay Example for Free

Leonardo the Renaissance Man Essay During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci became a legend. He is noted as one of the greatest artists of his time as well as one of the greatest artists that ever lived. Throughout his life he accomplished many things and did them with astounding ability. Today people refer to someone who appears to have excelled in countless things as a â€Å"Renaissance Man†. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the best examples of this classification. Through always searching for more knowledge, he became well versed in many areas. Leonardo excelled in painting, scientific studies, mathematics, and countless other fields. Leonardo da Vinci is the best example of a true Renaissance Man. Although Leonardo was accomplished in many areas, his true talent was in his artwork. â€Å"Leonardo da Vinci excelled as a painter and was a pioneer of many painting techniques† (Leonardo Da Vinci: High Renaissance Artist, â€Å"Leonardo Da Vinci†). His skill in art came naturally. At a young age, it was discovered that Leonardo was talented at it. He loved to draw and was eventually admitted into an apprenticeship with one of the best known artists at the time, Andrea del Verrochio. Here he learned many techniques for painting which included oil painting, sfumato, tempera, and chiaroscuro. He used these techniques to paint many of his famous works. Some of which include the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Madonna of the Rocks, and countless more. Leonardo was a member of the Compagnia di San Luca, a guild for talented artists. He was always sought after by commissioners and was paid highly for his work in the guild. Some say the reason why Leonardo was so highly adored was because he had a way of making the painting seam real and because he sought perfection in everything he did. Before starting a painting, Leonardo would sketch and do studies in his notebook in order to practice that perfection. If he started the final and it wasn’t good enough, he would abandon his work. Leonardo painted throughout his lifetime and had a very successful art career, painting over 25 successful pieces. Today he’s thought of as one of the best artists in history. â€Å"Leonardo was obsessed with unlocking the secrets of science†¦He believed by studying it carefully, it could be accurately reproduced† (Arwen, Leonardo da Vinci- the Genius). Throughout his life, Leonardo was fascinated by nature and all of its sciences. As a child he would sit outside and reproduce images of birds and flowers in his notebooks. This admiration for science continued into his adulthood when he started constructing drawings of the human body. Leonardo was so intrigued by this concept that he dissected human bodies in an attempt to learn all he could about them. All together, Leonardo performed nearly 30 dissections. While performing these studies, he drew his findings. He completed detailed sketches of the heart, skull, fetus, muscles, and bones which are still used today. Although natural curiosity kept Leonardo studying the human body, he started his obsession because he believed he would be able to better depict people in his paintings. Leonardo had a theory that artists possessed a unique skill of observation and they could accurately reproduce images if they studied what made them up. Anatomy was just one branch of Leonardo’s sci entific studies. He also studied aerodynamics, optics, geology, and mechanics. Leonardo eventually applied his findings by creating countless inventions such as a flying machine, a parachute, tanks, underwater equipment, and a number of weapons. Leonardo was very interested in mathematics and he had some success in this area as well. A friend of Leonardo said, â€Å"In his early forties this obsession with mathematics overtook him, and his notebooks began to fill up with geometrical sketches and diagrams† (Geometry in Art and Architecture, Unit 14). Just as Leonardo believed science was important in art, he also believed math was. He thought math was the basis of all things and it needed to be understood for painting purposes. Leonardo was interested especially in geometry. He discovered the proof for the Pythagorean Theorem and illustrated a book with one of the leading mathematicians at the time, Luca Pacioli. Leonardo also applied math in many of his architectural designs as well as his inventions. He used math to calculate the volume of his horse statue, in order to figure out how much bronze would be needed to complete it. It can be seen in his notebooks how infatuated Leonardo was in the study of math. For on numerous pages he drew and examined different geometrical shapes. Overall, it can be seen that Leonardo was well versed and successful in many areas. He was an accomplished painter, completing over 25 well known pieces. Also, Leonardo achieved advancements in science by dissecting over 30 bodies and drawing images of his findings which are still used today. He was knowledgeable in math and even illustrated a book with a leading mathematician. Leonardo da Vinci became a legend in his time and still is one to this day. He mastered many areas of study, obtaining the classification of a universal genius. There is no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci is the best example of a true Renaissance Man.

The Basic Beliefs Of Buddhism Philosophy Essay

The Basic Beliefs Of Buddhism Philosophy Essay Buddhism, like most of the major religions in the world, divided into different traditions. However, most of the traditional shares of common basic beliefs. (Robinson) I. Basic Points of Buddhism About 35 years of age, Siddhartha Gautama sat under the shade of Bho tree to meditate, and he decided to meditate until he reached the enlightenment. Seven weeks after that, he received the Great Enlightenment which are The Four Noble Truths and the Eight fold path. From that time, he was known as Buddha. The Middle Way is a philosophical idea and psychological causes and healing of suffering and evil. People should understand the four noble truths and follow the Eightfold Path, making them able to reach the complete state of Nirvana. (Theory of Buddhism ) The Buddha told their followers not to have many earthly possessions. By this way, they will not feel pain or unhappy. Buddha taught people to be good, sincere and kind. They should not kill or harm living things. He wished that the people have good thoughts and help each others. According to the teachings of the Buddha, each person experiences life many times. We call this reincarnation . If a human do something bad in one life time, he or she might be an little insect or an animal in his or her next life. Buddha also taught that if the people are good during a life, they will not have to return to Earth anymore. Then they would reach a state of Nirvana, a state where there is no death or birth. (Theory of Buddhism ) The basic belief of Buddhism is often called the reincarnation the idea that people are reborn after death. (Robinson) In fact, many people go through the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth again and again. There are some practical difference between the Buddhist concepts of reincarnation and rebirth. The Reincarnation, a person can be repeated several times. But rebirth, the man is not necessarily a return to the earth as the same thing ever again. He compared it with the leaves that grow on the tree. When the leaf falls off the tree, a new leaf will later replace it. It looks similar the old leaf, but not look exactly the same. (Robinson) After several cycles, if a person can abandon their devotion to desire and the self, they can reach Nirvana. It is a state of liberation and freedom from suffering. (Robinson) Buddhists believe that Buddha is their only Master and there is no god. They take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. They Following the example of the Buddha and consider that the goal of life is to develop sympathy for all living creators without any perception and to work for their happiness, their good and peace and to enlarge wisdom leading to the understanding of Ultimate Truth. They also accept the Four Noble Truths and accept that there is no self(anaatma). They also accept that in different countries there are differences in the life of Buddhist monks, Buddhist practices and beliefs, rituals and ceremonies, habits and customs. These superficial forms and expressions should not be confounded with the basic teachings of the Buddha. (The Basic Points of Buddhism) Buddha accepted the law of karma and reincarnation. He said that Nirvana is not just a state of extinction but the highest destiny of the human spirit. Buddha did not believe that their is deity and he believes that all men had no soul. He denies the existence of every kind of substance. Ones life after achieving Nirvana is unfathomable and reborn does not belong to him anymore. (Theory of Buddhism ) II. The Four Noble Truths In his first preachment after attaining enlightenment, Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, which form the fundamental belief for all branches of Buddhism (The Purpose of Life According to Buddhism) The Four Noble Truths, forming the basic of Buddhism, are: The Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha) The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya) The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha) The Noble Truth that leads to the an end of Suffering (Magga) The First Noble Truth shows that the Suffering is real and it causes from sickness, failure, pain, and impermanence of pleasure. (Theory of Buddhism ) The Second Noble Truth shows us the cause of suffering. Suffering are caused by indulging in inherently endless desires. All forms of selfishness that separate us from others, life, and reality, such as, jealousness and anger. (Theory of Buddhism ) The Third Noble Truth states an end of suffering . suffering will stop when we are able to overcome these cravings and desires. We must try to not stick to the objects of the world. (Robinson) The Fourth Noble Truth tells us how to end suffering. We must follow the Noble Eight-fold Path. (Robinson) III. The Eight-fold Path In Buddhism, it is believed that a person can escape from the cycle of birth and death by following the noble eightfold path, by following these eight steps. (Buddhist Belief) 1) Right Understanding of the Four Noble Truths 2) Right thinking, following the right path in life 3) Right speech: no criticism, lying, gossip, harsh language, condemning 4) Right conduct by following the Buddhists Five Precepts 5) Right livelihood; assist yourself without harming others 6) Right Effort: promote good thoughts and overcome bad thoughts 7) Right Mindfulness: Become conscious of your body, mind and feelings 8) Right Concentration: Meditate to attain a higher state of knowledge. (Robinson) The Buddha analyses the problems of life as Four Noble Truths. And the Eight-fold Path is the way of treatment. Anyone who have followed the eight-fold path and reaches the point of attending Nirvana are called arhat, or saint. (Theory of Buddhism ) IV. Buddhist Deities Theravada sect of Buddhism does believe that there is no god. But the Mahayana sect, celestial Buddhas and bodhisattvas are at the universe as Gods. The most popular Buddhist supernatural include the Kuan Yin, the Medicine Buddha, the Green, Laughing Buddha and White Taras, etc. (Buddhist Deities) V. Human Nature In Buddhism, there is no soul or spirit. But a human being is believed to be made up of five elements, feelings, namely physical form, mental developments, ideations and awareness. These elements combine to form a human being at the time of birth. However, because Buddhism believes in reincarnation and karma, people find a little contradiction here. (Buddhist Belief) VI. The Purpose of Living The main goal of life of all Buddhists, is the end of suffering by knowing the four noble truths of life and following the noble eightfold path. The Buddha taught that humans suffer because we always seek for things that do not give lasting happiness. We attach to persons, health, material things , that do not last and this causes sadness. (Buddhist Beliefs) The Buddha did not say that there are nothings in life that give joy, but say that none of them last long and if we stick to them, it only causes more suffering. His teachings were focused basically on this problem and its solution. (Buddhist Belief) VII. Buddhist Beliefs about the Afterlife According to Buddha s teaching, after death one is either reborn into another body or attains nirvana. (Buddhist Beliefs about the Afterlife) A. Reincarnation (Transmigration) Based on his teaching that there is no soul, the Buddha described reincarnation, in a different way than the others understanding. He compared our life to the flame candle. Although each flame is some how connected to the one that came before it, but it is still not the same one. And in Buddhism, reincarnation is usually referred to as transmigration. B. Nirvana Nirvana is the state of freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth again and again. It is also the end of any suffering. VIII. Theravada Buddhisms Teachings Hinayana (Little Vehicle) or Theravada Buddhism centered in Southeast Asia is traditional, and they try to follow the original teachings of Buddha. They see human as completely dependent on individual effort. They teach wisdom as the key virtue and consider religion as a duty, mostly for monks. They also consider Buddha as a saint, avoid ritual, and limit prayer to meditation. Their ideal is arhat or sainthood. (Theory of Buddhism ) IX. Mahayana Buddhisms Teachings Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism has spread all over the world and has the principle that Buddha taught many things in secret to the follower who could properly interpret them. It sees human as associated with others. It considers sympathy as their key virtue and believes that its religion is suitable to life in the world. Hence, it is a religion for everyone not only for monks. The Mahayana Buddhists sees Buddha as a savior. Their ideal is the Bodhisattva or a person who has achieved enlightenment but postpones Nirvana attainment to stay in heaven and answer prayers and help humans who are in need. Mahayana Buddhism regards Buddha as a incarnate, divine savior, sinless person. For them, Buddha is all knowing and everlasting. For them, Buddha is a member of the Buddhist Trinity. (Theory of Buddhism ) According to Mahayana believe, those who is regular person could also attain enlightenment and end the cycle of rebirth Mahayana also provided us the faster routes to enlightenment than Theravada, This makes it possible to reach the goal in a single life time. As it spread into the north of India and throughout Asia, Mahayana Buddhism splited into several groups, each with a different view on the path to enlightenment. But the common believe in all forms of Mahayana Buddhism is that anyone can achieve the goal in this life. (The Purpose of Life According to Buddhism)

Marketing Strategy For Hotel Brand Radisson

Marketing Strategy For Hotel Brand Radisson Tourism is defined by Burkart Medlik as: the phenomenon arising from temporary visits(or stay away from home)outside the normal place of residence for any reason other than furthering an occupation remunerated from the place visited Lickorish and Jenkins credit the sustained grouth of tourism to the grouth in disposable income and paid holiday;it is now the one of the fastest growing industries in the world.the world Tourism Industry expects international tourist arrivals worldwide to rise from 456m in 1990 to 660m in 2000 and 937m in 2010.(World Tourism Organization(WTO)1986). 1.1 Company Overview Radisson is one of the worlds leading global hotel brands. It delivers vibrant, contemporary and engaging hospitality that is characterized by its unique Yes I Can!SMservice philosophy. First-class, full-service hotels with a range of World of Radisson features that have been created specifically to be empathetic to the challenges of modern travel, including its 100% Guest Satisfaction Guarantee. Worldwide Portfolio Radisson has a strong worldwide portfolio and continues to grow with a focus on adding key hotels in major cities, airport gateways, leisure destinations and other important locations. Radisson currently has over 430 hotels operating throughout the world with 103 contracted properties under development. Radisson is expanding as a powerful, globally consistent, full-service hotel brand, offering vibrant, contemporary and engaging hospitality that is defined by its distinctive Yes I Can! service philosophy. All of our hotels and resorts offer a range of World of Radisson features that are empathetic to the challenges of modern travel. Expanding global presence Radisson continues to expand its presence in key destinations in The Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching new markets and customers in major urban and suburban locations, as well as near airports and business districts around the world. Yes I Can! training program delivers As part of its focus on guest satisfaction, Radisson offers one of the hospitality industrys most dynamic guest service training programs calledYes I Can! This program translates the core of the companys service philosophy for hospitality excellence to the front-line service employees in Radisson operations worldwide. Celebrating its 20 year milestone in 2007,Yes I Can!has become a central part of the Radisson culture, creating a point of difference for the brand. Our goal at Radisson is 100% Guest Satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with something, please let one of our staff know during your stay and well make it right or you wont pay. Its Guaranteed. 2.0 Concept of Marketing Carlson Sets New Marketing Strategy for its Radisson Brand: New Guest Room Concepts, New Restaurant Concepts and New Service Concepts ORLANDO, Fla. (March 3, 2010) As part of its Ambition 2015 plan, Carlson today unveiled a comprehensive strategy for its Radisson brand. As one of the worlds leading brands, Radisson is being positioned to deliver vibrant, contemporary and engaging hospitality characterized by the Yes I Can! service philosophy. The positioning is being supported by a series of innovations including new room concepts, new restaurant concepts and a series of new service concepts focused on the guest experience. The strategy for Radisson will entail an investment program of up to USD 1.5 billion in North America, focused on establishing flagship hotels in key U.S. cities and on upgrading the existing portfolio. It aims to expand its portfolio by at least 50 percent by 2015 to more than 1,500 hotels in operation. We believe this is a great time to invest in the hotel business. With Ambition 2015, we have a comprehensive and compelling strategy to build the business, said Hubert Joly, president and chief executive officer, Carlson. Ambition 2015 will focus on four priority growth initiatives including: Expanding Radisson as a powerful, globally consistent first-class brand. Accelerating the growth of Country Inns Suites By Carlson in four key markets: United States, Canada, India and Mexico. Growing Park Inn as a winning mid-scale brand across theaters in key countries. Continuing to grow in key emerging markets, with greater emphasis on mid-scale. The strategy entails continuing the growth in key emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, where it has gained significant strength. For example, Carlson is the largest and fastest growing international hotel company in India with 79 hotels in operation or contracted at the end of 2009. These strategies will be supported by investments in marketing, sales, distribution and technology. As part of its Ambition 2015 strategy, Carlson Hotels expects to increase the contribution from brand websites to 30 percent of revenue and to double the number of members in its goldpointsplusSM loyalty program. With 422 hotels in operation and 90 in the contracted pipeline, Radisson is one of the most well-known and fastest-growing brands in the world, delivering market leading guest satisfaction and achieving superior RevPar penetration internationally, said Hubert Joly, president and CEO of Carlson. We have crystallized the success formula for the brand, improved it and are using it as the foundation for its future development. As part of this strategy, Carlson announced the global roll out of five new room concepts And Relax, Naturally Cool, New York Mansion, Ocean and Urban. All of the concepts share a vibrant and contemporary design, the use of bold colors and lighting, and a comfortable feeling. The global strategy also includes two new restaurant concepts. Filini will offer an upscale, sophisticated Italian cuisine, while rbg is a bar-and-grill concept in an inviting, contemporary setting. The strategy also introduces a range of service concepts covering the key touch points of the guest experience including, for example, Business Class and three-hour laundry. Business Class will offer customers the best available room, breakfast, turn-down service, upgraded bathroom amenities, a daily newspaper and other amenities depending on the market. As part of this strategy, the Radisson brand will be tiered across the upper upscale and upscale segments. Radisson Blu will be applied to the upper upscale segment and Radisson Green will be applied to the upscale segment. Both will share the same brand essence vibrant, contemporary and engaging the same style and many of the service concepts. The differentiation will primarily be location based key location in a primary city versus a secondary market. It will typically be reflected in the level of investment that goes into the property. The strategy will include the implementation of the brands new global standard operating procedures, a new quality assurance program and intensive training programs. The strategy will be supported by investments in marketing, sales and distribution as part of the overall Carlson Ambition 2015 plan. 2.1 Marketing Strategy of Radisson Under the leadership of its former president, Radissons strategy focused on growth and the firm added hotels at the rate of about one hotel every seven days. By 1997, Radissons growth at any cost strategy left Radisson with a significant diversity in hotel quality and an unfocused brand image. Alignment with hotel owners (more than hotel guests) also seemed to cause Radissons customer service and hotel management expertise to atrophy. In 1997 and 1998, Mr. Brian Stage, Radissons President, and Ms. Maureen OHanlon, Radissons Executive Vice President, took several initiatives to drive the organization towards becoming a more customer-focused brand. In their words, they re-discovered that their primary customers should be the guests not the owners. Some of these initiatives included a service guarantee, a guest satisfaction measurement program, an employee satisfaction measurement program, and an information technology initiative. Stage and OHanlon were committed to creating the systems and programs that would bring Radisson into the 21-st century as a truly customer-driven learning organization. Their goal was to make Radisson the most trusted and respected brand worldwide. They were hopeful that these initiatives would make a significant contribution to helping Radisson achieve these goals. Service Quality Performance Metrics Radisson uses four service quality performance metrics based on room comment cards solicited from hotel guests: Willingness to return percent of customers who indicate that they are willing to return. Percent advocates percent of customers who indicate a willingness to recommend Radisson Hotels to others. Percent defectors percent of customers who indicate that they are unwilling to return. Percent complaints ratio of complaints to room nights. Information systems, under the leadership of Radissons Vice President of Knowledge Resources, Mr. Scott Heintzeman, produces a dashboard for each hotel that includes these and other more financial measures. The one-page dashboard is Radissons balanced scorecard for each hotel. These measures are often supplemented with ad hoc marketing research. This paper focuses on the service guarantee initiative, the four strategic service quality performance metrics that support the implementation and evaluation of that initiative, and a new measure called employee motivation and vision that was found to correlate highly with Radissons service quality performance metrics. RADISSONS SERVICE GUARANTEE The Service Guarantees Concept Hart2,3, Hill4, and others5,6 have argued persuasively that service guarantees can help many firms to position themselves in the market by clearly defining their value proposition to customers and employees. Service guarantees also stress front-line workers to deliver high-quality service the first time, encourage customers to voice their complaints to the firm, and motivate and enable workers to quickly discover and recover dissatisfied customers. Hays and Hill7 at the University of Minnesota developed a model (Figure 1) to show how service guarantees affect service quality and, ultimately, business performance. In this model, they argue that a strong service guarantee improves customer satisfaction, service quality, and customer loyalty through three intervening variables: Marketing Communications Impact, Employee Motivation and Vision, and Organizational Service Learning. These are defined in the following paragraphs. Figure 1. Service guarantees and business performance Marketing communications impact (MCI) Business performance (BP) Employee motivation and vision (EMV) Service guarantee strength (SGS) Customer satisfaction Service quality Customer loyalty (SQL) Organizational service learning (OSL) Marketing Communications Impact (MCI) A strong service guarantee will have both offensive and defensive marketing impact. Offensively, firms can use a service guarantee to proclaim the reliability of their high quality service and thus attract new customers. Defensively, a service guarantee not only enables companies to recover unsatisfied customers but also encourages dissatisfied customers to complain, thus allowing the firm to recover those customers. Employee Motivation and Vision (EMV) A strong service guarantee motivates employees to fulfil the guarantee and to satisfy customers. The guarantee clearly defines the employees job as satisfying customers not just taking reservations, checking out customers, or cleaning rooms. It can also inspire a new vision for service quality when employees are challenged to really satisfy customers true needs. Hill8 quotes one senior European executive who proclaimed that our service guarantee defines the mission for our firm. Organizational S ervice Learning (OSL) A strong service guarantee can help organizations discover dissatisfied customers and learn from them in order to improve service quality. Organizations with a strong service guarantee will tend learn how to satisfy customers faster than organizations without one. When marketing communications impact (MCI), employee motivation and vision (EMV), and organizational service learning (OSL) are improved, then service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty (SQL) should also improve. Business performance (BP) will improve as a result of improved SQL. 2.1.1 Guerrilla Marketing When using social media for marketing it is not about broadcasting its about engaging. The most successful campaign is the one that engages and activates the most people to become the brands ambassador. The Radisson Blu Hotel brand with hotels in over 200 locations world-wide has started such a campaign. It seems to have started mid-May but is reaching its tipping point these days and is spreading fast. Its actually a very simple competition. They are giving awaythe greatest holiday in the world, probably inspired by the best job in the word. And the greatest holiday on Earth is 365 free nights at any Radisson Blu hotel in the world that the winner can use over the next five years. All you have to do to participate is signing up and telling the world why you should win. Its then up to the users to get as many people as possible to vote for them but each person can vote once every day. The one with the most votes at the end of the competition on July 24th will be the winner of the 365 free nights at any Radisson Blu. Simple and effective. Last Sunday night about 1500 people had signed up and now, on Wednesday, there are about 3000 people competing. And those 3.000 people are now all actively promoting their spot in the competition and the hotel brand at the same time. Not bad! To encourage people further Radisson has enabled sharing options for twitter, face book and a number of other social networks and lists ideas on how people can promote themselves offline. One important thing is lacking though, which is a badge to put on a blog that automatically updates the ranking and encourages people to vote. 2.1.2 Viral Marketing Radisson Hotel is providing the Best Online Rate Guarantee for their customers. Radisson.com, their homepage is customers home base for the best savings. they deliver customers best online rates guaranteed.Customers can get the best online rate for their stay and they will get the best rate online they guarantee it. When customer books their reservation on Radisson.com, they can be confident they have gotten the best rate for their next visit. HowIt Works If you find a rate on another website that is lower than the bestrate on Radisson.com and the rate is for the same date(s), same room type, same number of guests, at the same hotel and same rate termsor restrictions- let them know andthey will honour the lower rate AND discount that rate by 25%. Qualifying Rates Radissons Best Online Rate Guarantee applies only to online rates available to the general public. Group rates, corporate rates, wholesale rates, affinity/association rates or rates which are part of a travel package do not qualify. Radisson Customer Service will verify the rate meets all of the Best Online Rate Guarantee terms and conditions. Once confirmed you will receive the lower rate and 25% discount. Radissonguarantees that Radisson.com will have the best online rate available to their guests. 3.0 Public Relation Method March 24th, 2008, Radisson Hotel, Effective Business Solutionsseminar On 24th of March, the Bulgarian Cash newspaper arranged the Effective business solutions seminar in Radisson Hotel. The event was focused on ERP and CRM systems in order to help managers of trading and production companies raise the efficiency of their business processes. The top IT leaders were invited to present their products and Neme schek Bulgaria was one of them. In their exposition, the specialists of Nemetschek Bulgaria emphasized on the simple adaptation of their system ( Customer Center) to the customers needs. Radisson Hotels Reviews Public Relation Prior To Launch Radisson Hotels is reviewing PR for its main hotels brand and is in the advanced stages of hiring an agency to launch a five-star hotel in Manchester. PR manager Jacquiline Willers said the company had seen pitches from four agencies and settled on a shortlist of two for the Manchester brief, with local agency Mason Williams and London-based Pineapple PR in contention. Willers refused to discuss fees for the two briefs, but said: We have budgets for the Manchester project and for a two-year contract to help the Radisson Edwardian brand. It may be that one gets the Manchester job and the other the wider brief. At the moment, were not looking at other agencies for the two-year contract, but that may change, she added. Radisson Edwardian has previously used Brighter PR for its PR work. The agency is not involved in the current pitch process. Willers said the brief for the Radisson Edwardian Hotel Manchester will involve activity to drive bookings and awareness ahead of its opening in June 2004. The company claims the Manchester hotel will be the first five-star hotel in the centre of the city. However, Manchesters Lowry Hotel which falls just outside the city centre in neighbouring Salford and accommodated the England football team last weekend for its friendly against Denmark currently dubs itself the citys only five-star hotel, sparking speculation of a feud between the two hotels. But, Rocco Forte Hotels UK marketing director, Murray Thompson, played down talk of a spat, saying the opening of the Radisson in the city would make life easier for the Lowry: Manchester is saturated with three- and four-star hotels and it will no longer be just us saying its worthwhile to pay for luxury, he said. Radisson SAS Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek, has appointed Stephanie AbouJaoude as its Public Relations and Communications Manager. The property is an established landmark on the Deira Creekside and was re-branded Radisson SAS this month. Lebanese-Canadian, AbouJaoude, takes up her new role following three years as Public Relations and Communications Executive at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai where her main duties involved media relations, advertising and maintaining the corporate identity of the brand. Stephanie will spearhead all elements of internal and external communications. She will also oversee the propertys marketing programmes, said Andreas Flà ¼ckiger, General Manager, Radisson SAS Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek. Her comprehensive knowledge of this property is a real asset to us and she will play an integral part in establishing this hotel under the Radisson SAS brand. Radisson SAS Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek has 287 guest-rooms, including 39 suites, 16 food and beverage outlets as well as meeting and events facilities. 3.1 Relationship Marketing Radisson is part of the Carlson Hotels Worldwide system of hospitality properties which include Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels Resorts, Park Plaza Hotels, Country Inns Suites By Carlson, and Park Inn hotels. The parent company, Carlson Companies Inc., also owns and operates Radisson Seven Seas Cruises and T.G.I. Fridays restaurants. A world leader in Relationship Marketing, Carlson maintains a consumer loyalty program known as Gold Points Rewards. As one of the leading global hospitality companies, Radisson operates, manages and franchises 435 full-service hotels and resorts, representing more than 102,000 guest rooms in 61 countries. From its franchise partners and strategic allies, to every manager and employee at every hotel, the Radisson organization is committed to providing personalized, professional guest service and Genuine Hospitality With its focus on total guest satisfaction, Radisson employees undergo one of the hospitality industrys most dynamic guest relations training programs calledYes, I Can!This program translates the core of the companys service philosophy for hospitality excellence to the front-line service employees in Radisson operations worldwide. After more than a decade,Yes, I Can!has become a central part of the Radisson culture, creating a point of difference for the brand in the manner with which customers are served. Radisson hotels are named after the famous French explorer, Pierre Esprit Radisson, who visited many parts of the Upper Midwest and Canada during the 17th century. Radisson Gold Rewards offers guests the opportunity to earn and redeem Gold Points ® within an exclusive network of leading brands. Members who earn Gold Points can redeem them for free night stays, airline miles, luxury cruises, merchandise, meals, and more. In addition to all of Carlsons brands, other major national partners in the Gold Points Rewardsnetwork include Thrifty Car Rental, The Flower Club and FTD.com. Currently, Gold Points are earned at all Radisson hotels in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. Residents of these countries can earn points at Radisson SAS and Radisson Edwardian hotels in Europe as well. Members of Radisson Gold Rewards earn 1,000 Gold Points per night, up to 10,000 points per stay. Radisson is continuing to add new hotels and resorts in key international business and leisure destinations. Examples of the companys highly successful partnerships include the development of Radisson SAS hotels and three other Carlson hotel brands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Radisson Edwardian Hotels in the United Kingdom. Global presence and expansion into new markets is a key part of Radissons heritage. Radisson opened the first American-managed hotel in Moscow and today has several locations throughout Eastern Europe. Radissons recent entry into the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in December 2002, expanded the brands global presence to 61 countries. 3.2 Customer Loyalty At Radisson, they are always looking for ways to give customers that little something extra. Thats why they offer Goldpoints Plus (goldpoints plusSM). Its the rewards program thats tailor-made for customers and their needs. goldpoints plusSM Free nights à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Enjoyfree hotel nightsstarting at just 15,000 points. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Combine a fewPoints + Cashfor an Award Night. Miles à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Exchange yourpoints for mileswith over 20 airlines. Prepaid Cards à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Cash in your points for Visa ®or MasterCard ®Prepaid Cards. Express Awards à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Redeem points at the hotel forExpress Awardslike movies, room upgrades and more. Make a Donation à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Gift your points to theWorld Childhood Foundationor to offset yourCO2 emissions. And some more attractive programmes those are really help them to get a loyal customer. 100% Satisfaction If you arent satisfied with something, please let one of our staff know during your stay and well make it right or you wont pay. Its guaranteed. Global Locations With over 400 Radisson locations worldwide, our doors are always open to you. Ready to greet you with our signature Yes I Can!TMservice. Free High-Speed Internet We dont just want you to stay with us, we want you to connect with us. Thats why unlimited high speed Internet is free with your stay. Full Service Restaurant and Room Service Hungry for satisfaction? Youll get it when you enjoy a meal in one of our full service restaurants. If you prefer to stay in, help yourself to something from our room service menu! Business Centers Its easy to stay on the job even when youre traveling. Our business centers are fully upgraded to fit the way you work today. Pool and Fitness Centers Spend your downtime shaping up in our modernized fitness centers or take the plunge poolside and stay fit when youre on the go. Meeting and Banquet Facilities Whether youre planning a business meeting or a family celebration, were here to help. With the space and the services that will make your event special in every way. 4.0 Effectiveness of Marketing and Public Relation strategy Hotels Resorts is committed to change and innovation in all key areas including its growth strategy ,operations, franchising, sales and marketing and technology, to operate with maximum effectiveness in a highly competitive business environment . Technology will undoubtedly continue to develop andRadisson Hotels should continue to progress along with it to stay on top of the service industry as one of the best global hotelcompanies out there. ORLANDO, Florida As part of its Ambition 2015 plan, Carlson today unveiled a comprehensive strategy for its Radisson brand. As one of the worlds leading brands, Radisson ® is being positioned to deliver vibrant, contemporary and engaging hospitality characterized by the Yes I Can! service philosophy. The positioning is being supported by a series of innovations including new room concepts, new restaurant concepts and a series of new service concepts focused on the guest experience. The strategy for Radisson will entail an investment program of up to USD 1.5 billion in North America, focused on establishing flagship hotels in key U.S. cities and on upgrading the existing portfolio. With 422 hotels in operation and 90 in the contracted pipeline, Radisson is one of the most well-known and fastest-growing brands in the world, delivering market leading guest satisfaction and achieving superior RevPar penetration internationally, said Hubert Joly, president and CEO of Carlson. We have crystallized the success formula for the brand, improved it and are using it as the foundation for its future development. As part of this strategy, Carlson announced the global roll out of five new room concepts And Relax, Naturally Cool, New York Mansion, Ocean and Urban. All of the concepts share a vibrant and contemporary design, the use of bold colors and lighting, and a comfortable feeling. The global strategy also includes two new restaurant concepts. Filini will offer an upscale, sophisticated Italian cuisine, while rbg is a bar-and-grill concept in an inviting, contemporary setting. The strategy also introduces a range of service concepts covering the key touch points of the guest experience including, for example, Business Class and three-hour laundry. Business Class will offer customers the best available room, breakfast, turn-down service, upgraded bathroom amenities, a daily newspaper and other amenities depending on the market. As part of this strategy, the Radisson brand will be tiered across the upper upscale and upscale segments. Radisson Blu will be applied to the upper upscale segment and Radisson Green will be applied to the upscale segment. Both will share the same brand essence vibrant, contemporary and engaging the same style and many of the service concepts. The differentiation will primarily be location based key location in a primary city versus a secondary market. It will typically be reflected in the level of investment that goes into the property. The strategy will include the implementation of the brands new global standard operating procedures, a new quality assurance program and intensive training programs. The strategy will be supported by investments in marketing, sales and distribution as part of the overall Carlson Ambition 2015 plan. We have seen the power of the brand internationally and the very attractive return from renovating to the new standards, Joly said. The brand is poised for significant growth around the world and we expect to grow the portfolio to at least 600 hotels by 2015. Media interested in getting insight into Carlsons new global vision and corporate strategy are invited to view the live webcast of Hubert Jolys opening keynote atwww.carlsonhotelsmedia.com/ambition2015at 4:30 p.m. ET. A replay of this webcast will be available starting at 8 p.m. ET, Wednesday March 3, 2010. Effective Integrated Marketing Strategy Integration marketinghappens when two different, but complementary offers are made in succession, or when a Unit of Marketing Value is placed in front of an existing traffic stream. Radisson offers sleep number beds in many of their rooms. These beds allow guest to adjust the firmness to their liking. In this case, the integration is that, as a Radisson customer, they are entitled to receive Free home delivery, setup and removal OR $150 worth of accessories on select Sleep Number beds. The promotion is co-branded to reinforce that being a Radisson client has its special perks and privileges that they are looking out for customers well-being even when they are not staying at their hotel. In fact, they want the experience of sleeping in customers own bed to mimic the experience of sleeping in their bed. Integrated marketing is happening all around the guest all they have to do is look for it. 5.0 Recommendation and conclusion References www.radision http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2010_1st/Mar10_RadissonPlans.html http://www.greatestholiday.radissonblu.com/ http://www.nemetschek.bg/press/index.htm http://www.discoverfrance.net/Boutique/Travel/Hotels/Chains/Radisson.shtml SERVICE GUARANTEES AND STRATEGIC SERVICE QUALITY PERFORMANCE METRICS AT RADISSON HOTELS WORLDWIDE Arthur V. Hill * , Susan Geurs, Julie M. Hays, George John, David W. Johnson, and Richard A. Swanson Case Analysis: Customer-Driven Learning at Radisson Hotels Worldwide ReferencesAl, L. (1993). Service guarantees in outpatient clinics: a case study. Health Care Management Review, 18 (3), 59-65. Cahill, D. J., Warshawky, R. M. (1995). Beyond competence: unconditional guarantees as a customer-service tool. Journal of Customer Service inMarketingand Management, 1 (3), 67-77. Hart, Bibliography http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-360091-radisson_ambassador_plaza_hotel_and_casino-i