Cultural Literacies Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cultural Literacies Assignment - Essay Example Montgomery wondered if the ubiquitous and integrated nature of marketing in digital political engagement practices could serve to connate civic identity and brand identity during this key formative stage it is not Internet use per se, but patterns of use featuring the exchange of information that matters. We leave digital footprints that are ever present, highly informative about us as a digital user, and readily available to those seeking the information. As a result, are we entering an era where digital voyeurism becomes highly profitable? How are we to know, for example, the intent of each and every person making use of participatory media? There rightly is a lot of concern over cyber-bullies and cyber-predators. What about those individuals though that collect information about user interaction for commercial purposes? The concern is not big brother in that the government is highly unlikely to keep pace with, let alone move ahead of, ICT companies’ technological advances. He expressed greater concern about a host of digital little brothers. In this instance, what if I as a marketer cast a wide net on MySpace or Facebook by seeking ever wider and wider social networks and then using my access to individuals’ profiles to create a marketing profile of the digital you. Placing this in an offline context, how would you respond if after watching you go to your usual place of exercise 10 or 12 times I came to realize the brand of pants, shirts, socks, shoes and equipment you wore, what perfume or aftershave you liked, and how you did your hair (or not!), I started posting coupons or ads where you exercised? While creepy offline, it is becoming increasingly acceptable online. In one sense, up to this point Internet use has been characterized by anonymity, but it is also suggested that we need to consider our off-line selves as distinct from online or digital selves Besides uploading content, users also willingly and unknowingly provide important infor mation about their profile and behavior to site owners and metadata aggregators. Before users can actually contribute uploads or comments to a site, they usually have to register with their name, email address and sometimes add more personal details such as gender, age, nationality or income. Their subsequent media behavior can be minutely traced by means of data bots. More importantly, all users of UGC sites unwittingly provide information because IP addresses the majority of which can be connected to a user’s name and address – can be mined and used without limit by platform owners. Permission to use metadata towards specific purposes is commonly regulated by a site’s service agreements (Terms of Use), which users are required to sign. Metadata can be mined for various purposes, from targeted advertising to interface optimization, but the bottom line is that users have no power over data distribution. 2) The societal role(s)/depictions of the users of this sit Online networking not only builds social, but also commercial, capacity. Marketers speak of recruiting evangelists by in?uencing members of each social network and turning them into brand breeders or brand advocates for products. Youth are offered incentives to incorporate brands into their user-generated content and

Accounting assignment ( memo to the manager ) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Accounting ( memo to the manager ) - Assignment Example The market it covers expands from Middle East to North Africa and all the way up to North America. The company has its offices in a number of countries including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey,  China, USA, Canada and United Kingdom. Emaar has consistently maintained its financial position and stability. The numbers on the financial statement indicate a slight decline in revenue from 30th September 2007 to 30th September 2008 (1.62%). Although the revenue has declined slightly, the net profit has gone up by (0.4%). This indicates that the cost of revenues has gone down. From the company’s perspective, this shows that they have controlled on their costs. However, an interesting feature to note in the financial statements is that ‘selling, general and administrative expenses’ form a considerable portion of the overall expenditure both in 2007 and in 2008. Moreover, the ratio of selling and administrative expenses to the gross profit stands out to be (29.5%) and (29.1%) in 2007 and 2008 respectively. This indicates a very high proportion and is reducing the profitability considerably. In order to control these expenses, we first need to analyze the composition of these expenses. Selling, general and administrative is the sum of all direct and indirect selling expenses and all general and administrative expenses incurred by a company. Selling expenses are of two types, direct and indirect. Direct ones are those which can be linked with the sale of a specific unit. This would include warranty, advertisement or credit expenses. Indirect ones are those which cannot be allocated to a sale of a specific unit but is applied to all units in proportion. This would include telephone and postal charges. Whereas, general and administrative expenses include other expenses such as rent, heating, lighting and salaries of non-sales personnel (Investopedia). High SG&A expenses can be

To what extent is increased legal regulation of the privately rented Essay

To what extent is increased legal regulation of the privately rented sector justified and desirable - Essay Example Additionally, housing benefits have an inflationary impact on the levels of rent especially at the lower end of the market thereby worsening the situation3. In some of the sub-markets characterized by a high number of claimants, the impact of this is acute with the landlords being able to set rents at levels that are artificially high to match the Local Housing Allowance4. Furthermore, the security of tenure availed by private property owners, of between six and twelve months is not sufficient for some families particularly because the landlords have control of these regulations hence can make adjustments relative to their own interests5. The private rented sector has gone through extraordinary revitalization through the past twenty years to become increasingly critical to considerations concerned with the housing markets as well as the benefit system6. Currently, there are approximately over four million houses in England privately rented and these accounts for about 18% of all the family units7. The industry has also doubled in magnitude since 1989 while having more households presently compared to social housing while occupation by owners is on the decline8. Following this is the quick increase in the housing benefit bill that has increased exponentially in regards to real terms through a similar period reaching an excess of twenty four billion pounds in the UK. Consequently, the amount claimed by tenants from private property owners has also increased and doubled through the past ten years to almost ten billion pounds. These figures demonstrate the deteriorating affordability of private rented housing that an increasing number of people are forced to use as a consequence of the drop in social housing along with challenges to house ownership9. Along with the costs of renting, an additional challenge that has emerged with the growing dependence on private property owners includes the nonexistence of security provided to renters who seek