Business problem analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business problem analysis - Assignment Example An effective business plan should take factor in its calculations the costs, revenue, and flow of cash on a regular basis. This is used to calculate the business’s profitability or discover incidents of loss. Such a plan can be used to project future expenditure plans and guide managers’ decisions about such decisions. The task of understanding such accounting techniques should not be left solely to accountants as managers’ knowledge is critical. Information on the business plans can be presented on a number of models in excel such as charts, graphs, tables, and other presentational formatting. These are further divided into sub-models such as frequency distributions, cumulative frequency distributions, scatter grams and time series distributions. Such presentations provide the selling points for one’s ideas, therefore, they have to be accurate and self-explanatory and simple to understand. The mode of presentation depends on the audience and channel of presentation to be used. Business planning is a strategy that all managers need to learn. Basic accounting techniques are a requirement for all managers and they cannot afford to leave all the accounting to the accountants. Business planning is crucial for a business’s survival and sustenance as it elaborates the business’s future, making vivid aspects that have great impact on the business such as unforeseeable

Geology of Venezuela Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Geology of Venezuela - Research Paper Example On the other hand, Angel Falls is an important geographical landmark of Venezuela since it ranks as the largest waterfall worldwide. Another geographical feature like Lake Maracaibo in South America is found in Venezuela. Archeologists also carried out studies and found that Venezuela has the oldest rocks in the world (Padoan, Rossetti, & Rubatto, 2014). Nonetheless, the rich biodiversity finds its basis from the tropical climate that favors many wildlife habitats like mountains, plains, and islands. Venezuela’s geographical features explain its importance to tourism activities (Padoan, Rossetti, & Rubatto, 2014). Apart from one of the longest rivers in the continent, the countrys coastline is the longest along the Caribbean region. Natural resource wise, Venezuela is rich in oil reserves as well as natural gas. Studies show that Venezuela’s oil reserves are some of the largest in the world. In 2011 for instance, the country’s government confirmed that Venezuela has a lot of petroleum reserves above significant oil reserves of the Middle East Delta (Miller, Vandome, & Mcbrewer, 2009). Oil reserves also exist along the Orinoco River in the form of oil sands as conventional form of oil reserves. In terms of biodiversity, the country is among the top 20 high-diverse countries in the world. An outstanding 40% of the country is protected areas (Silvano, 2008). Therefore, research seeks to discuss some of the natural resources present in Venezuela as well as geogr aphical features that add to the importance of the country to the South American continent. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the West Hemisphere (Silvano, 2008). As at 2011, the country’s oil reserves were valued at 297.6 barrels activities (Padoan, Rossetti, & Rubatto, 2014). Some of the economically important natural resources in Venezuela include natural gas and petroleum. Mining of these natural resources accounts for a good percentage of the countrys GDP. On the other

Global Communication and Propaganda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Global Communication and Propaganda - Essay Example A classical example is the use of the terms â€Å"collateral damage† during the Vietnam War. This approach was used as a way of distorting the fact that innocent people had been killed in the war zones or the notion that the warfare technology employed was unsophisticated (Vincent, 2006, p. 246). Image transfer refers to an attempt to tap positive public image portrayed by a concept or entity and share or transfer this publicity by associating with another product, group or program. The images or symbols are used with to create positive emotions surrounding the issue. The US employs this technique through advertising to transfer its cultural products across the globe through motion pictures, film, music, and fashion (Vincent, 2006, p. 247). Testimonial refers to the use of famous or familiar but unpopular individual to depict a product, group or program in a positive or negative manner. President George W. Bush used this technique on March 2012 accompanied by Bono, a U2 rock musician, in a speech delivered at the Inter-American Development Bank. This approach sought to garner support for his foreign policy and support (Vincent, 2006, p. 248). Plain folks are employed by communicators to convince their target audience that their ideas are valid or correct because they resonate with the views of other commonplace citizens. President Bush Jr., used the image of the image of the â€Å"Mission Accomplished† photo following the successful duty in Iraqi to depict the notion of a commander in chief that is fully in control (Vincent, 2006, p. 250). Card stacking employs selective presentation of facts, misrepresentation of information and a combination of confusing, logical and illogical statements with the intention of hiding the truth from the audience and discouraging informed decision-making. Hitler employed the â€Å"Big Lie† approach in attributing the defeat of Nazi Germany in the First World War by the Jews to the influence of the media (Vincent, 2006,

Impact of Great Depression on British and German Policies Essay

Impact of Great Depression on British and German Policies - Essay Example This was characterized by many detrimental consequences, including a decline in the global industrial output. However, different governments developed ways of dealing with the Great Depression, mainly through policy responses. Nonetheless, as compared to the present times, the policy responses adopted by governments in the Great Depression period are considered to have quite helpless, as compared to what the contemporary governments are capable of. Most of the policy changes undertaken by both Germany and Britain did not turn out to be fully effective in combating the effects of the Great Depression between 1929 and 1932.The Great Depression spread from North America to other European nations, including Britain and Germany, mainly because of the close relationship the United States had with some developed nations in Europe (Wrigley 2008). After the World War I, the United States was a key financier and creditor of most European nations. This was after their economies had been severel y devastated by the war. In the case of Germany, the country had lost in the WWI, thus was required to pay reparations to the European nations that won the war, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles (1919). Germany also needed to undertake industrial reconstruction, following the devastating effects of the war. This situation forced Germany to borrow money from the United States in order to accomplish the demands. However, when the economy of America experienced the Great Depression.... Germany also needed to undertake industrial reconstruction, following the devastating effects of the war. This situation forced Germany to borrow money from the United States in order to accomplish the demands. However, when the economy of America experienced the Great Depression, the country had to recall its loan from Germany, and this was the major cause for the collapse of the banking system in Germany, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression in the Germany. The Great Depression had major effects on both Germany and the Great Britain. This affected the economic, social, as well as political spheres of these countries. As compared to the Great Britain, Germany was hit most by the Great Depression. In Germany, the rate of unemployment rose sharply. Beginning 1929, Germany started to experience increased unemployment rates, and this was felt until 1932. Overall, it is estimated that by 1932, 6 million of Germany’s workforce was unemployed. This represented 25% of t he workforce. On the other hand, the effect of the Great Depression in Britain was highly experienced in its industrial and export sectors. The effects on these sectors in Britain were felt until the period of the WWII (Wrigley 2008). In order to alleviate the severity of the Great Depression, all the affected countries, including Germany and Britain, adopted various measures, which they considered effective to address the situation. In all those strategies adopted, a major aim was to protect the domestic production of the country. This included the imposition of tariffs, setting quotas on foreign imports, and raising existing tariffs, among others. Nonetheless,

Emotions In The Things They Carried Essay Example for Free

Emotions In The Things They Carried Essay In his story â€Å"The Things They Carried†, Tim O’Brien, enlightens the reader with the many faces and emotions of men. Although men are normally thought upon as the stronger of the two sexes; physically and emotionally, O’Brien lets us realize that this is not so. Men are weak in even the strongest of situations. And in this case, the situation is war. War is the main theme of the story. Masculinity in the story The ‘soldiers’ mentioned are victims of many emotions, for example, love, hatred, stress, depression, etc. They realize how important love and real-life relationships are. Most men who are prey to long lost love, try to let go of their past and focus only on their duties in vain. As they walk through the streets of Vietnam, they carry with themselves the basic necessities of survival and souvenirs to remind them of home. During these marches, they dispose of some of their supplies because they are aware that they will soon gain much more. War is like a game to the soldiers, there are always winners and losers. It can be played with many different tactics. It is all a matter of luck and strategy. But it is not all that bad. Some of the soldiers, who leave, return soon because the peace ‘hurts’ them too much. And for some, the war is far too much to handle. This is mainly due to the losses they experience. Death is a frightening incident which occurs most often bringing with it tears of pain and stress. The soldiers are afraid of killing as well. The first kill is always the hardest to bear. These soldiers imagine what kind of a life their enemies led before getting involved into such a situation. Deep, dark marks are left within the hearts of these soldiers as they spend endless days on the battlefields. Voegele quotes OBrien as talking about fear, In many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down. (Voegele). The soldiers have dreams about escaping the brutal nature and reality of war because they are unable to remove fear from their hearts. Most of the time, there are petty quarrels that take place, some leading to physically fights, which soon lead to renewed friendships, trust and written pacts, and then ending in death and sorrow. Voegele quotes OBrien provides the weight of the objects which the soldiers carry by saying The weapon weighed 7.5 pounds unloaded, 8.2 pounds with its full 20 round magazine. The riflemen carried anywhere from 12 to 20 magazinesadding on another 8.4 pounds at minimum, 14 pounds at maximum. (Voegele). The story above portrays the masculine romance of the soldier as it portrays the tough and brutal nature of their experience in war. These soldiers have to be tough and brave in the battlefield in order to prove that they are worthy males. Experience of war OBrien gives a graphic portrait of the experience of war by mentioning the weight of the things which the soldiers carry. The soldiers also have to face other external factors like the weather during the time of war They carried the sky. The whole atmospherethey carried gravity. (Voegele). However according to OBrien the soldiers have several emotional problems which are much heavier for them than the physical things they carry. Grief, terror, love, longing these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weigh. (Voegele). Many different stories are discussed and the lust for women is often brought up during camp talks. But many stories of lost and dead soldiers are never spoken of. Sometimes out of fear, sometimes out of respect, and sometimes out of sheer disappointment and misunderstanding. These stories, burdened by the soldiers sometimes drive them into a negative attitude. Most of these soldiers tend to commit suicide. That night when Kiowa got wasted, I sort of sank down into the sewage with him (O’Brien, pg. 156). The author describes his feelings of when he lost a true friend due to a sudden attack. Kiowa had drowned into the depths of the sewage during this attack. Although O’Brien had tried to help, the smell was excruciating to him. In the story, there is also specifically rumors of a girl smuggled into Vietnam by a soldier are brought up. This ‘soldier’ had to spend a large sum of money into getting his girlfriend there. He warned about how dangerous it was. All the men are duly jealous of the young couple. Superstition is common among the men. They keep certain ‘things’ with them at all times, believing these items may bring them luck. To a few of them, they actually do bring luck! But religion is also a big part of these soldiers’ lives. They chat about how one day; they would like to be monks and priests, and about how they would like to help people and be kind to them instead of killing anyone and anything that came in their way. As the war wages on, the soldiers try to find amusement in the harshness around them. The camps they set around for themselves are of unpleasant surroundings. From the ruthless weather, to the creepy crawlies and even then unbearable stenches, these soldiers have witnessed it all. They joke about the times they had almost died or had cried out of fear of facing death during combat. Most of these men undergo many changes, especially in their personalities. Some of the soldiers like Norman Bowler were decent and law abiding citizens when they were civilians. But this man transformed himself into a heartless creature and around his neck he carried a thumb which had been removed from the body of a Viet Cong guerilla fighter. The Viet Cong guerilla fighter was only a teenager. Bowler was very proud of his first kill. But there were also others, like Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who had been sensitive during their civilian life. But the effects of war do not change them into animals. They stay the same, lovable humans, hoping for an escape into the arms of their loved ones. But when they face their enemies, regardless of their age or gender, these soldiers are emotionless beasts. They even torture human babies, mostly orphan infants, brutally. O’Brien refers to the babies as a ‘young water buffalo’. Readers will find the story to be devoid of any emotions as the American soldiers engage in torture and brutality for sports and recreation. However, these men tend to feel awful afterwards. They think over what they have done and regret these events so much that they end up hurting themselves in order to finally escape this reality. While some, make all the killing seem like child’s play. And later, all these men share and relate their own life stories to the people they kill during the war. This, according to O’Brien, brings them back to life. He based his life on one motto, Once youre alive, you cant ever be dead (O’Brien, pg. 244). Tim O’Brien does not believe in death. The soldiers, even tough are fighting day and night for their country; feel that it is useless to wage this war. They cannot find any real reasons as to why they are there, except that they were appointed to this duty without any consideration. This lack of purpose also drives the men into insanity. When finally, the war comes to an end, the soldiers return home to again lead a ‘normal civilian’ life. But the bitter memories of Vietnam prevent these men from ever being sane again. The war has cast a heavy shadow over the hearts of these once good-willed, god-fearing men. Although, most of the story is fictional, Tim O’Brien portrays to his readers the cruelty of war. He wants people to understand how it felt to experience death, so that they could finally accept it. He tries to share his feelings and the feelings of his fellow soldiers through detached words. He talks of the torture and pain, the crying and screaming, the innocent civilian families watching their loved ones being put to death in front of their eyes aware that their turn is soon to come. The experience of war is romanticized in the novel as the author provides an account of the experiences of soldiers. These soldiers are living in hell but they have a clear concept of the culture of war. They know that they are making history by becoming participants of war. Conclusion This story clearly states that even men are feeble creatures who fall victim to emotions no matter what they do. The life of a soldier may seem to be filled with hardships and killing. But no one really knows the truth behind the lifeless eyes. We, civilians wonder what it might be like out their on the battlefield and how these soldiers live their lives without emotion. When, in reality, they share as much emotion as any normal human being would. They fear the blood shed around them. Some display their feelings and confess their love and fears, while others decide to hide themselves by displaying a merciless attitude. Every experience is hard for them. Every new day is a bigger challenge. If the cards are not played right, there is a loss, sometimes many losses. The story is an important reminder about the horrors and brutalities of war. It tells us how war changes the experiences of soldiers. Works Cited O’Brien. Tim. The Things They Carried. Broadway. (1998) Voegele, Jason. Thoughts on The Things They Carried. Copyright  © Jason Voegele Retrieved 16th August 2008 http://www.jvoegele.com/essays/things.html

Sociological Explanations for Gender Differences in Crime

Sociological Explanations for Gender Differences in Crime Outline and assess sociological explanations for gender differences in patterns of crime. In recent years, based on the official statistics collected and recorded by the police, the number of people committing crime has increased rapidly. There are striking gender differences in the patterns of recorded crime. Women appear to commit fewer crimes than men and, when they do offend, women tend to commit different kinds of crime from men. The question is, does women really commit fewer crimes than men? Or men were born to have a criminal instinct inside them? From functionalists perspective, women do not commit crime because of sexual theory and differences in the socialisation. For example, women perform the expressive role in the home where they take the responsibility for socialising the children while men are socialised to be tough, rough and risk taking and this mean they are likely to commit acts of violence or take advantage of criminal opportunities when they present themselves. In addition, functionalists argue that gender differences in patterns of crime are due to the control theory. For example, women are controlled and more likely to be at home, they are not in the pubs or clubs getting drunk which makes them hardly exposed to commit crimes. While Interactionists refuse official statistics on crime and believe they are socially constructed. What is classed as crime or deviance is based on subjective decisions by agents of social controls (e.g. police and jury) which is also called as labelling theory. For instance, based on labeling theory, men get labeled as being violent and a criminal while women do not. Feminism, on the other hand, disagrees with both functionalism and interactionism, feminists theory is a radical theory. They accept that women do commit crime but they commit crime because of different reasons in comparison with other sociologists.There are a number of feminist perspectives. First and foremost, according to Marxist feminists, they claim that women are under oppression of a dominant power structure (patriarchal society). Marxist feminists argue that men often take advantage and greater control over women which indirectly reduces women opportunities to commit crime.We can see women are controlled by men not just in a wider society but also at home and work.For example, housewives are required to spend most of their time at home taking care of the children and do all the house chores which impose severe restrictions on their time and movement and indirectly minimise their opportunities to offend.Women who try to reject their role as housewives may find that their partners will force them to do it through domestic violence. As Dobash and Dobash (1979) show, many violent attacks result from mens dissatisfaction with their wives performance of domestic duties. These automatically shows that domestic violence are mostly committed by men. While at work, womens b ehaviour are controlled by male supervisors and managers and keep women in their places as most of them only given the opportunity to be in subordinate position.However, eventhough they are only given the lower position compare to men at work, women reduces their opportunities to involve in major criminal activity at work. Women are also controlled in public spaces by the threat or fear of male violence against them, especially sexual violence.Frances Heidensohn (1996) notes that sensationalist media reporting of rapes add to womens fear and frighten them into staying indoors. For example, Women are more likely to stay at home before night as they are afraid something will happen if they are outside.Furthermore, women are controlled in public by their fear of being defined as not respectable. These eventually prevent women from committing crime such as prostitution as it will deviate them from the norms of the society. In general, these patriarchal restrictions on womens lives mean they have fewer chances for crime. However Heidensohn recognizes that male dominated society can also push women into crime.For example, women are more likely to be poor as they did not get the opportunity to get a job in a higher position due to inequalities in gender. As a result, they will commit crime such as being a dru g dealer or prostitution for them to live in a decent life. Next, based on the results of unstructured interviews carried by Pat Carlen (1988) most convicted serious crime female criminals are working-class. People will turn to crime if they do not believe the rewards will be forthcoming and if the rewards of crime appear greater than the risks.Women are generally led to comform through the promise of two types of rewards or deals.Firstly, women will find a job which will give them material rewards with a comfortable standard of living and leisure opportunities which also called the class deal.Secondly, the gender deal for example, men promises their wives with material and emotional rewards if they conform to the norms of a traditional domestic gender role such as taking care of the children and doing housework. In return, if these rewards are not available or worth the effort women will choose to commit crime to replace the rewards. However in terms of class deal, women in working-class are more likely to offend than middle-class women.So even if working-class women put on efforts more than middle-class women do, they still have a limited way or could not even find an allowed way of earning a decent living and this will bring them to commit crime as a way for them to run from poverty. In terms of gender deal, because of the patriarchal family norms, most of the women either not had the chance to make the deal or saw few rewards and many disadvantages in family. As example, some of them might be subjected to domestic violence by partners.Many women cocluded that crime was the only route to a decent standard of living. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain, which is the reason why they do offend. Carlen conclude that, for these women, poverty and oppressive family life were the main causes of their criminality.In general, Heidonsohn shows that male dominated society which control women helps to prevent w omen from deviating while Carlen shows that the failure of patriarchal society in delivering the promised deals to some women removes the controls which prevent them from offending. Last but not least, according to liberation feminist which is the closest type of feminism to the consensus view of society, nowadays women has become liberated from patriarchy and led to a new type of female criminal and eventually rises the crime rate. As now women get the same opportunities received by men which have become more equal, such as in education, employment, and political activity they are now more likely to commit more serious crime such as violence and white-collar crimes. Women no longer commit traditional female crimes such as shoplifting and prostitution because they now have greater opportunities in the society.However, not all women got liberated, most of female criminals are working class who still commit traditional crimes.Liberation feminist point of view shows us the importance of investigating the relationship between changes in womens role affects changes in patterns of women offending.

Cultural Imperialism Theory Analysis

Cultural Imperialism Theory Analysis What is the ‘cultural imperialism’ thesis and how valid is it today? Discuss with reference to relevant theory and examples. The best way to understand what cultural imperialism is, is by analysing its difference from the traditional modes of imperialism. This theory has been developed through a long line of historical events, especially ones that developed around the relationship of the west with the rest of the world and led to our contemporary society and whether or not this society is a big global culture due to cultural imperialism. In this essay I intend to explain the difference between imperialism and cultural imperialism, present the multiple forms it can be discussed and understood based upon and go through some historical events, important to define its concept. The second part of the essay will be more focused on the global perception of western media within non-western countries and several globalization and cultural globalization developments, in order to understand whether or not cultural imperialism is valid in our modern society, as far as these globalization developments are concerned. Imperialism, as a concept we have come across through history, is the policy of expansion of control or authority exercised in foreign entities as a means of obtaining and/or maintaining an empire (Hopper,2007, Ritzer,2011). This term is usually used to describe the political domination of one, usually stronger, nation to other countries, whether that domination is practised with direct territorial conquest or indirect methods of political and economic controlling. This political or traditional imperialism though is quite different from cultural imperialism, although the lines of distinction are usually blurred (Harvey,2003). Even though imperialism is usually used in conversations about politics or wars, cultural imperialism thesis describes the process within which a dominant culture penetrates the modern world system and how its dominating stratum, values and attitudes are spread to foreign cultures, creating unequal relationships between them, favouring the more developed and pow erful one (Hopper,2007, Schiller,1976). In other words, it is the concept within which certain dominant cultures, mainly western ones, threaten to overcome other more vulnerable ones (Tomlinson,1993). This term therefore is usually associated with globalization processes and deterritorialization, where culture seems to not necessarily be related only to geographical and social territories (Ritzer,2011). The fact that some cultures appear to be subordinate to others, within the concept of cultural imperialism is a natural social phenomenon which occurs at a later stage of a long historical chain of colonialism (Hopper,2007), that allowed western cultures to force their beliefs and values on areas, such as Africa or Asia, that were not traditionally inhabited by populations same as the metropolitan authority that conquered them. Since at some point in history West Europe controlled most of the world, they had easily penetrated societies for centuries, introducing the western civilisation to them and undermining their local heritages. All those undermined localities and cultures resulted to a modern world system, where West Europe does not rule most of the world anymore but has left its fundamental characteristics there, only to be re-enforced by the contemporary Trojan horse ‘for penetrating foreign cultures’, the media. After the Second World War and the end of the tradi tional European colonization, the two superpowers that emerged, the USA and the USSR, realised early enough their benefits from cultural imperialism and, more specifically, media imperialism to promote their authority along with their ideals. Media imperialism is the theory which suggests that smaller nations are in risk of losing their traditional cultural identities due to western mass media dominance (Ritzer, 2011). The USA’s use of cultural imperialism and the mass media then, empowered their position as the most powerful and, consequently influential, country in the world, enabling them to lead the way in terms of food or drink ( McDonalds, KFC, Coca Cola) or film and entertainment industry (Hollywood cinema). The promotion of American culture therefore has become another layer of cultural imperialism and the mere exposure of western media to other nations has created a sense of American superiority in the world, resulting to individual and traditional cultural identitie s to risk being forsaken forever (Hopper, 2007). Debates on media imperialism as a sub-category of cultural imperialism appeared first during the 1970’s when unequal media flows and absolute control over them by dominant nations increased over developing countries. By the time new and more powerful media appeared, during the 1980’s-1990’s, it became much more difficult for smaller nations to resist them and for local media outlets to survive (Boyd-Barret, 1998). This new form of imperialism did not only affect developing countries’ media but also the shaping of their local cultures, receiving also a lot of criticism over the years, since according to Ritzer, ‘it undermines the existence of alternate global media from developing countries, as well as their influence of the local and regional media’ (2011). Also, it considers the audience to be passive and ready to accept and interpret the same medium exactly the same way as everyone else in the world. This is problematic since audiences aroun d the world have many, big or small, differences between them which cause them to interpret things their own way. For example, The Simpsons is a very popular show throughout the world, translated in several languages and shown in many countries. However it contains various references of drugs, sex and drinking which make it difficult for the show to be shown as it is in every country, since references like that may cause offence in certain places, like Pakistan for example. That is why it is edited to be suitable for its target audience, which proves that audiences can interpret the same medium in lots of different ways. Another reason why media imperialism is criticised, is the fact that most media flows from developed countries to developing ones are controlled entirely by one company or owner, who decides what gets to be shown or gets censored. Those media therefore, could be very biased and untrustworthy and since they create a type of cultural dependency between the developed a nd developing countries, being biased means that the smaller nations would be completely controlled and exploited. Moreover, capitalism came to re-enforce media imperialism and the contemporary, capitalist driven system it creates as ‘the primary driving force behind cultural globalization’ (Ritzer, 2011). Despite the debates and arguments against media imperialism though, the existence of new global media which subsequently allowed several cultural characteristics to flow easily all over the world, creating a more global culture, is a fact. Culture, as in the shared sense of habits, traditions and beliefs of a country, society or a group of people (Cambridge Learner’s Dictionaries) is usually associated and defined within specific geographical barriers. For example, there is Cypriot culture in Cyprus, French culture in France and so on. The possibility though, that cultural and media imperialism create for a globalized culture to exist is mostly based on the deterritorialization theory. Based on this concept, the growing presence of social forms of control and involvement goes beyond the limits of a specific territory (Giddens, 1990). Deterritorialization therefore, is the transformation that occurs on local cultures from the impact the media and communications have on them, ca using them to no longer be as defined with local geography as they once were (Tomlinson, 2007). Deterritorialization then has become a general cultural condition, re-enforcing the idea that more and more cultures throughout the world are the same. Examples of instantaneous global communications, such as television or the internet, support the formation of a globalized culture, along with the English language considered to be the world’s global and information language. Another example of how traditional cultures can easily be derived from globalization and deterritorialization concepts, is how the residents of Fiji, particularly women, changed their traditional preferences of robust, full figure bodies and started dieting for the first time, resulting in health problems like anorexia or bulimia, after being introduced to television and western media in 1995 (BBC News). This influence of the USA or other western countries on smaller nations, as far cuisine, technology, busines s practises, political techniques, entertainment, fashion or food are concerned is known as Americanization or Westernization and is one of the effects of cultural imperialism (Hopper, 2007). Another theory is the cultural hybridization theory, which emphasizes on how the world seems to have become a smaller place and also on the interaction between the global and the local that has created new types of unique hybrid cultures that are neither global or local (Hopper,2007, Ritzer, 2011). In other words, it describes the ways in which different cultures create new forms and connections with each other, developing new types of cultures from the blending of their individual characteristics. A specific term about cultural hybridization came out of Roland Robertson’s (2011) work on the interaction of the global and the local and how the first, instead of eliminating the second, combines itself with it resulting to new forms of localities, based on the global. This term is glocalization and an example of it could be how internationally known companies slightly alter some of their products based on their locations and audiences. More specifically, Pringles’s flavour s in the USA range between original, salt or vinegar while in Asia you can find flavours such as seaweed or peppered beef. Due to phenomena like this and according to Ritzer (2011) ‘globalization leads to increasing sameness throughout the world’, resulting in cultural convergence, with the McDonaldization theory as a main example of it. McDonaldization theory was first introduced by George Ritzer in 1993 and uses the principles of the fast-food restaurant company as its model, to prove how some specific principles ‘are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society, as well as the rest of the world’ (Rtizer, 2011). With five principles, McDonaldization theory shows how the world can become more globalized, exactly the same way the fast-food restaurant became globally known and successful, with restaurants built in almost every country in the globe. The five dimensions, according to Ritzer, are efficiency, as in the way of finding the best possible method for accomplishing a task, calculability, which means emphasizing on the quantity rather than the quality of products, so that customers get more amounts of product in less period of time; predictability, as in the stereotypical way in which employees and customers are expected to behave in everywhere in the world and control, as in the con trolling or even replacement of employees by technology. The fifth dimension, is the so-called irrationality of rationality, which refers to when something that is normally considered to be rational is in fact exactly the opposite and sometimes can also be described as dehumanization, for the employees and/or the customers. These principles have Mcdonaldized many aspects of contemporary society, emphasizing the convergence even more. The modern trend of ‘speed-dating’ for example, is a McDonaldized way of the traditionally time-consuming process of meeting new people, since in this case potential partners gather up for short face-to-face meetings with each other. Also, the use of the Internet as the standard tool for the process of getting and exchanging information, making libraries more and more obsolescence is another example. Based on the aforementioned aspects of globalization and global culture in relation to cultural imperialism, there appears to be a general view that one cannot adequately grasp the relevance of globalized culture through the cultural imperialism thesis alone. That is because it oversimplifies the process of information flow, which is normally complex and unpredictable, by suggesting there is only a one-way flow of imperialism, from stronger nations to less powerful ones. Such a suggestion could not possibly be absolutely valid, especially nowadays, when more non-western countries, such as India, have started to grow into powerful, out-sourcing exporters, e.g. Bollywood movies (Hopper, 2007). It also overlooks the importance of the international relations between developed and developing countries, since the influence of the western media on non-western societies is somehow bound to them. Where those relations are not as good, then it is obviously unlikely that the influence of the me dia will affect the local population. This, in addition, is proven by the national media systems and protectionism applied by some European countries, like Canada and France as a form of rejection and protest against the American domination in the European film market. This form of resistance to Americanization is overlooked by the cultural imperialism thesis, as well as Stuart Hall’s (1973) encoding and decoding theory, which suggests that there are various different ways in which audiences can decode the same media text. To conclude, it is understandable that cultural imperialism is a very vague concept which can be understood in specific forms regarding specific contexts of imperialism, media and globalization processes. It establishes connections between developed and developing countries for print media, television, radio, film or consumer goods, creating a new form of imperialism in its core, the media imperialism, which allows western media and therefore culture to easily spread the information they want to convey the world and continue being a superpower. That makes cultural imperialism an expansion of cultural values re-enforcing a dominating ‘global’ culture through products or commodities diffused with cultural values that are strengthened by media imperialism. The media are after all a very important part of people’s daily lives. The cultural imperialism thesis though has created several debates and arguments over the years, about whether or not it is the right thesis to describe and evaluate our contemporary culture, as far as globalization processes are concerned. Due to all the critiques about how it overlooks important aspects of society, information flow and media theories in general, it is mostly considered to be a negative way of understanding media globalization and global culture and therefore it is not as valid as it seems to be in our contemporary society. Bibliography CAMBRIDGE Learners Dictionary 2007 Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences Of Modernity. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990. Hall, Stuart. 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