Assessing different approaches to customer service

For my Customer Service Unit I will be interviewing two leisure centres, College of St. Mark and St. John and the Mayflower leisure Centre. I have chosen these two centres because they are slightly different and I thought it would be interesting to see how different companies have different customer service. The College of St. Mark and St. John is in Derriford, Plymouth. It covers a very large area and its facilities include a 25 metre indoor heated swimming pool, a fitness suite, two squash courts, a fully equipped gymnasium, three sports halls, each with four badminton courts and a specialist built-in rock-climbing wall, computing facilities, and an outdoor pursuits centre. In addition to extensive playing fields, there is a full size all-weather floodlit pitch for top level hockey and football. A smaller all-weather surface accommodates tennis and provides a good training surface all year round. In addition to this there is a 36m. square sports hall for participation in a variety of sports which is also large enough to accommodate Trade Fairs and other large events; a gymnasium for martial arts, aerobics, ‘step' and tone & trim classes; a standard size sports hall available for volleyball, basketball, badminton; 2 squash courts and a Fitness Suite with up to date cardiovascular and weight training equipment. Although this sports centre is within the college, it is open to any member of the public, not just the students at the college. The Mayflower Leisure Centre is situated in Central Park, Plymouth. It is quite old and may need to be revamped within the next few years. It's facilities include a fitness suite which has treadmills, cross trainers, climbers, bikes, rowers and resistance machines and it also has squash courts, indoor bowls and sun beds. There are two sports halls, one is a 5-a-side football hall and the other is a multi purpose sports hall, which can house badminton, volleyball, basketball, short tennis and dry board diving. The College of St. Mark and St. John is a sports college therefore it has numerous amounts of sports facilities. The college is a Church of England voluntary college, with a history of over 150 years and it moved from London to Plymouth in 1973. The Mayflower Leisure Centre is quite old, as I mentioned previously but is the most well used public sector leisure facility in the area. It works in close partnership with the Central Park Swimming Pool which is it's neighbouring building. To find out the information I want, I am going to visit each venue for an interview. For letter, see Appendix 1. I am going to ask them several questions on different topics to find out as much as I can about the Customer Service in their establishment. For questions, see Appendix 2. I will then analyse the answers of the questions and compare the two companies to see who has the best customer service.

Ivan Pavlov And Behaviourism Essay

Ivan Pavlov And Behaviourism Essay Ivan Pavlov And Behaviourism Essay Ivan Pavlov and behaviourism. Joanne Keenan Behaviourism is based upon observable behaviour. Pavlov theorised that it was possible to change behaviour by introducing new stimuli. This means that planned positive reinforcement is effective in promoting change in a learner’s behaviour. Ivan Pavlov tested this theory on dogs. He observed that the dogs would salivate every time they saw him because they associated him with food. He suggested that this was a conditioned response because the dogs had become used to him bringing them food. He wondered if it was possible to condition the dogs into associating a neutral stimulus with food. Pavlov introduced a bell. Every time Pavlov fed his dogs he would ring a bell. After repeating this for a number of times he wondered if he rang the bell without the food, that the dogs would salivate in anticipation. He was correct and the dogs began to salivate as soon as they heard the bell. The dogs had learned a new behaviour and this was now a conditioned response. Pavlov also noted that the stimuli must be presented close together in time to allow for conditioning†¦ if not then no new behaviour will be learned because no association will be made. This can be used in a classroom situation when attempting to keep learners under control. If learners discover that when they misbehave for example and no action is taken by the teacher then they will learn that that particular behaviour is acceptable and will

How to Teach the ACT A Guide for Tutors and Parents

How to Teach the ACT A Guide for Tutors and Parents SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips I spent four years as a test-prep tutor, working with students on all aspects of the ACT and SAT. When I started out, I knew how to take the tests, but I wasn't that good at teaching them. Over the years, however, I've learned a lot about how to be an effective teacher, and it's largely not about the kinds of tips and tricks you might expect. This guide will give you all the tools you need to guideyour student through the ACT prep process.Just follow these six steps: Set a Goal Learn the Test Use the BestResources Make a Plan Teach the Strategies Dissect Mistakes Step 1: Determine Your Goals and Challenges This step will vary a lot depending on who you are and who your student is. If you're a parent, sibling or friend, you'll need to determine whether you're qualified to teach this student and what challenges you'll face. If you're a professional or volunteer tutor, you'll want to focus more on the student's own score goals. Are You Qualified? In order to be an effective tutor, you need to be better at the material than your student. If you struggle to explain questions they miss it will undermine herconfidence in you, and if you don't really understand the material you won't be able to diagnose what your student's weaknesses are. A good rule of thumb is that you should be scoring at least 4 points higher than your student. If she is already high-scoring you’ll want to be at or near perfect. If you are not academically-minded or were always bad at standardized tests, don’t try to teach them to someone else. Potential Challenges Your student has to want to improve. It’s impossible to raise your score on the ACT without doing a lot of practice, so you aren’t going to be able to be an effective tutor unless your student is also invested in the process. Encouraging a student to participate in the learning process can be especially tricky if she's a friend or family member. One of my biggest challenges as tutor was working with my cousin. Because we didn’t have the usual student-tutor relationship, it was harder for me to motivate her and hold her to account when she didn’t complete the work that I assigned. Setting a Score Goal Having a goal to work towards is an important motivational tool, so make sure to discuss with your student what score she's hoping to reach. Don’t just assume she needs a 36, since she almost certainly doesn’t. Your student’s goal will depend on what she needs the score for. The score she’ll need as a middle schooler to get into summer programs is very different from what she’ll need as a senior to get into Columbia. Moreover,what score she needs to get into college will depend on where she wants to go. Look into the score ranges at schools she’s interested in to help determine what score she should shoot for. Another consideration is whether your student needs to raise her score as a whole or simply increase her score on one of the sections. A particularly low score on one section (especially math or reading) can count against an application, and some schools and programs have a cut off score for certain sections. Again, it's important to understand what she's planning to use the score for in order to determine what her goal will be. Setting a specific goal (and having a reason for it) will help your student stay focused. Step 2: Familiarize Yourself with the ACT You can’t be an effective teacher if you don’t know anything about the ACT. If you aren't accustomed to tutoring- especially if you applied to college before smartphones were invented- you'll need to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the test. A good first step is to try taking a practice ACT: doing so will help you understand your own strengths and weaknesses as well as how the ACT is formatted and what kinds of skills it tests. I've included some key reminders about what you need to know if you aren't familiar with the test below. Remember that the ACT Is Different from the SAT The ACT’s popularity is relatively recent and somewhat location dependent. If you applied to college before 2000or you went to high school in a state on the east or west coast (rather than in the Midwestor a mountain state), you probably took the SAT. Though both are standardized tests, the current ACT is very different than the older versions of the SAT. For starters, it has English and science sections in addition to the math and reading ones. It also asks different types of questions about slightly different material- for example, there are no vocab questions on the ACT, but there are trigonometry ones. If you're going to tutor the ACT, make sure you know the ACT- don't just assume it's the same as theSAT you took 10 years ago. Know the Format of the ACT It sounds silly, but it’s important make sure you understand what the ACT actually looks like and what kind of questions it asks. The ACT is very different from the type of test students take in high school and you need to understand the test's unique logic and formatin order to guide your student to a higher score. For example, let’s say your student has a low math score, and you know he really struggles with logarithms. You might decide that you should focus on studying logarithms and really practice that skill. This plan sounds logical enough, but itwould actually waste a lot of time because the ACT has at most one logarithm question per test. Unless your student is already scoring a 33 or above on the math, studying logarithms is not an effective use of time. Let's consideranother case: your student is having a hard time with the science section. You might think that it will be helpful to review the science your student has learned in school: go over osmosis and electromagnetism. But the science section doesn't actually test knowledge- it's about reading graphs.Studying science topics won't help your student at all. If you aren't sure what the ACT actually tests, you can use the following guides to learn aboutwhat’s on each section: English Reading Math Science Step 3: Gather the Best Resources If there was one lesson I learned as a tutor, it was that bad materials make it very difficult to tutor effectively. When practice questionshave errors or look nothing like the the questions on the actual ACT, students end up confused or frustrated and, worse, lose some of their trust in you. To avoid these issues, the best plan is to use official practice materials whenever possible and, if necessary, supplement them with high quality books. Official Practice Tests Official ACTs will be the backbone of any tutoring program. Practicing with real tests will give students the best idea of what to expect on test day. There are a number of official ACTs available for free online. You can also purchase The Real ACT Guide, which includes extraofficial tests. Best General Books Though The Real ACT Guideprovides a lot of great practice material, it doesn't include much in the way of strategies or content review. As such,you'll likely need other materials assupplements (though it will depend on your approach as a tutor and the strengths and weaknesses of your student). One great resource is the ACT Black Book by Mike Barret. This book lays out how to think effectively about the test and can really help students understand how the ACT is different from the tests they take in school. It includes some of the best strategies, but it also lacks math andEnglishcontent review, which many students will need. For more info about these books and others, check out our round-upofthe best ACT prep books and our list of best books for intensive ACT study. You might also consider taking a look at our free online ACT guides, including the 5 strategies you must be using and how to get a 36. Best Section Books If your student needs particular help on one of the sections, consider getting a book specific to that topic. There are fewer of these specialized options for the ACT than there are for the SAT, but there are still some great options. We also have free guides to each section, which include some of the best, most comprehensive info anywhere. English Our complete guide to thebest ACT Englishbookscan help you pick out the best option for your student. Our Ultimate Guide to ACT English Math We recommendRichard Corn'sUltimate Guide to the Math ACTfor most students. Our CompleteGuide to ACT Math Reading For reading, we generally recommend Erica Meltzer's Complete ACT Reading. Our Ultimate PrepGuide to ACT Reading Science There aren't any really great ACT Science books, though Barron's ACT 36 can be helpful for high scoring students. Our Complete Guide to ACT Science Good resources are worth their weight in gold (not literally). Step 4: Make a Plan Once you know your goals and have the materials you need, sit down with your student and work up a full plan for how you're going to get her to the score sheneeds by the test dateshe's signed up for. ACT prep is one of the easiest things to procrastinate- because it's spread out over such a long period, it's easy to put off until the very last minute- but studying is most effective when it occurs over months, not days. As a tutor, one of your most important roles is making sure your student stays on track. Let's go over some ways to achieve that. Establisha Schedule First, figure out when your student is going to take the test. Then plan out what needs to get done between now and then: most students benefit from roughly 40 hours of studying- it will depend on the student how much of that is tutoring and how much is independent work, but all students should take at least three full practice tests. Set a specific time for your lesson each week. I generally prefer to meet with students once a week, butif you'reon a tight schedule you can certainly do twice a week. With more than two lessons per week,most students will quickly get burned out and frustrated. If you're working with a student who you only see that one time each week, then you'll needto give homework, either extra practice questions or material review, depending on the student's needs and weaknesses. As a parent or sibling, you probably won't be able to convince your student to do extra homework, so instead set aside an extra time during the week for them to study on their own. Prioritize When deciding how to approach the material, it's helpful to have a system: are you going to tackle one section at a time? Break them up into individual skills and mix things up a bit? Have your student practice each type of question and hone in on what's tripping himup about it? Each of these approaches can work- it really depends on how your student learns best. Then decide where you're going to start. I like to begin by tacklinga student's weakest sections, because that's often where they have the most room for improvement. But every student is different. Some may only need to raise a specific section score. Some may already know a lot about the ACTand mostlyneed to review the material it tests. Others will need you to start with the very basics like format and scoring. Set Expectations ACT prep is easy to put off and avoid, but it’s impossible for students to improve without dedicated practice. A big part of your job as a tutor is keeping your student motivated. Talk to your student about how much work she'llneed to do and when it needs to be completed. Remind herwhy the ACT is important. Hold herto your schedule. Ideally, your plan will be less complicated than this one. Step 5: Discuss Strategies So far I've talked mostly about the big picture of how to set up an successfulstudent-tutor relationship, but now I want to go into a bit more depth about how to be a really effective teacher of the material. To succeed on the ACT, students need to have a systematic approach to each section. These overall strategiesare often what students expect to learn when they start tutoring, and although they aren't the be all, end all of learning about the ACT, these kinds of tips are still important. Below are some guides to key strategies for each section to get you thinking about the types of ideasyou might want to cover. You'll also want to diagnose any content weaknesses for English and math. English How to approach the English passages: This guide explains the best methods for reading the ACT English passages- have your student try each and determine which works best for her. 5 critical concepts: This article covers a number of general ACT English strategies like using grammar rules (not your ear) to determine the answer and not rushing through the questions. What's actually covered on ACT English: Go over this list with your student to help determine if there are any topics she's especially unfamiliarwith. Math Hownot to run out of time on ACT Math: The math section includes a lot of questions, and students will need to move quickly. This guide offers tips to help students manage time effectively. 31 must know formulas: Unlike the SAT, the ACT doesn't provide the formulas you need to know. This list lays out all the formulas your student needs to memorize to ace the ACT math. How to plug in answers: Make sure your student understands the most efficient way to plug-and-chug. How to plug in numbers: This strategy will help your student approach questions that ask about abstract variables and unknown quantities. Reading How to read the passages: It's vital that students have a plan for efficiently reading the passages. This guide outlines the most effective methods. The #1 rule for ACT Reading: A common mistake students make on ACT Reading is overthinking the questions. This guide explains why that will give you the wrong answer. How to stop running out of time on ACT Reading: Time management is one of the trickiest parts of the ACT reading- this guide can help with it. Science ACT Science isn't really about science: This article explains how students can use the fact that ACT Science is really a reading test to their advantage. How to approach the science passages: As with English and reading, students must know how to approach the passages systematically- this guide explains the most effective way to do so. Step 6: Dissect Mistakes ACT questions follow certain patterns: look at enough tests and you'll see that the test writers ask the same kind of questions over and over again. The best way to get a feel for the style of those questions is to do a lot of practice, so as I mentioned above you should have your students regularly practice with real ACT questions. Of course, it's not enough to simply assign the work, you also need to discuss the questions your student misses. Your role as a tutor isn't just to say, "Bis the rightanswer"- it's to help your student understand why they gotthe questionwrong and how they can avoid missing similar ones in the future. For more details on how to effectively go overmissed questions, take a look at our guide to reviewing mistakes. The keys to unlocking your student's potential. Review: 3 Key Tutoring Tips The specifics of what you cover and how you work on it will depend a lot on you and your student, but there are a few big picture ideas that every tutor should keep in mind. Be Organized Students take their cues from you. If you aren't on top of the material and don't seem to have a plan, they'll pick up on your lack of preparation and feel less confident in your knowledge. Make sure you have a clear plan for everything you're going to cover, since this will help you feel prepared as well as giving you the chance to prepare for lessons ahead of time. However, leave yourself some extra time for reviewing tricky topics and answering your student's questions. It's impossible to predict exactly what students will need help with, and it's important to be responsive to their concerns. Motivation is Key I can't overstate the importance of practice: students won't improve if they don't put the work in. As such, it's vital that you motivate your student to do the work you assign. In some cases, this will be easy (I've had students who actually requested extra homework), but in others you will need to really emphasizewhy the practice is important and how it will help your student reach her goals. They Don't Call It a Standardized Test for Nothing As a tutor, I've found that my greatest strength is an encyclopedic knowledge of the ACT. The test includes the same kinds of questions again and again, so once you really know the different styles of questions and different topics they cover you can explain just about any permutation. I gained this knowledgeover years of tutoring, but even if you're just starting out, you can use the fact that the ACT is standardized to your advantage. Go over official tests carefully and look for patterns in the questions. Remember that because the test is standardized there is only ever one indisputably correct answer. Help your student understand both what will and whatwon't be covered by the test. Further Reading I've listed tons of helpful resources throughout this article. If you're looking for more ACT prep content, you can also explore all of our posts using the topics listed in the right column. If the test is just around the corner and you're pressed for time, make sure to go over these last-minute study tips with your student. For parents: check out these guides to help you determinewhat the best study format for your childwill be. A tutor?Self-study? An online program? Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically. Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Alex Heimbach About the Author Alex is an experienced tutor and writer. Over the past five years, she has worked with almost a hundred students and written about pop culture for a wide range of publications. She graduated with honors from University of Chicago, receiving a BA in English and Anthropology, and then went on to earn an MA at NYU in Cultural Reporting and Criticism. In high school, she was a National Merit Scholar, took 12 AP tests and scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and ACT. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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Managing a Global Team Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managing a Global Team - Essay Example James was an effective and brilliant leader to which he sought to carry on the same to the operations of Sun Microsystems, but he had not prepared himself for the reality that dwelled in the company (Tsedal and Delong 3). However, James managed his global team effectively as he conducted conference calls on every week at a usual time in order for the team to receive updates on the status of operations. Despite him allocating time for these video conference calls, the Indian team felt as though they were not party to the global operations of the company as the addressing of their concerns were always last on the agenda sheet. Further, the time difference also proved ineffective for the Indian team as they felt that the time allocated by James for the weekly conference calls were at a time considered by many to be family time. James also failed to understand the causes of the failure to meet deadlines with the Middle East team and was quick to pass judgement that they were incompetent and that he was inconsiderate to the French team. The implication of this was that the US team was his favorite as he considered them more competent as compared to the other teams hence making James to have poorly managed his global teams (Tsedal and Delong 10). 2. ... The other companies that supply HS Holdings with software and hardware could have also been liable for the losses as this was not entirely Sun Company’s fault (12). Further, James is responsible for this crisis because he did not treat the Indian team with the regard that they required hence making them not to work in tandem with the organizational goals of Sun Microsystems. 3. What role did the â€Å"Open Work† environment play in the case? The ‘open work’ policy was a program that allowed employees to work across different time zones by incorporating technology, support systems, and apparatus by using technology that would make this process achievable. The application of this program by Sun Microsystems began in 1995 where the physical presence of an employee was not necessary in ensuring that the company was operational (7). This led Sun to reduce its housing fixed assets by a significant percentage, which also translated to the saving of millions of dol lars. The application of the ‘open work’ program in this case was in terms of the recruitment of team members in the Far East countries as many worked from home while others worked at Sun’s facilities, which registered efficiency and cost reduction (8). James also made use of the video conferencing facility, which allowed him to schedule meetings with all team members at the same time making the Company to save on the travel expenses for the global team manager. Therefore, the ‘open work’ program applied by Sun through James served as a cost reduction measure and a uniting factor for the global team members. 4. What role did diversity play on this team? In this case, diversity played an important role in the recruitment of the global team members as James recruited

Book Summary about the book Train Go Sorry by Leah Cohen Essay

Book Summary about the book Train Go Sorry by Leah Cohen - Essay Example The plight of the deaf persons is shared through the analysis of Sofia’s life. When she takes her journey to join Gallaudet University, there is much doubt even amongst her family members, regarding the possible chances of Sofia surviving independently at the institution (Cohen, 172). Nevertheless, through the determination to partake the journey of improving her life, Sofia later realizes the vast opportunities that exist for the hearing-impaired persons in the society. Through Sofia’s journey, the book by Leah Hager Cohen demonstrates how being a deaf person in a new environment can be challenging, considering that Sofia is a deaf Russian immigrant, who is trying to settle in the new university environment. Thus, Cohen uses the American Sign Language idiom ‘Train Go Sorry’, which is interpreted to mean the ‘missing the boat’, as an indication that there is a great deal of miscommunication between the deaf and the hearing people, both at the individual and at the societal level (Cohen, 127). Nevertheless, the challenges faced by the deaf can be overcome, where there is a sense of independence and desire to live a normal and fulfilling life,. This was demonstrated by Faye Cohen’s, who is Leah Cohen’s grandmother. Despite her challenges as a deaf person, coupled with the tragedy of loss of her mother, she married another deaf person, and went ahead to live a fulfilling and respectable life, as a wife and a mother (Cohen, 77). However, there is a real threat to the deaf people’s world by the world of the hearing, where the advancement in technology has come to undermine any assistance that the deaf could have obtained in communicating with the hearing. In this respect, there is less technological advancement in the hearing-impaired devices. The effect has been the discrimination of the deaf people and those who struggles to fight

Islamophobia and muslim women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Islamophobia and muslim women - Essay Example In the West it is perceived to a great extent that Islam and terrorism are interlinked. This has caused several of the Muslim students to fear or to be ashamed of disclosing the religion to which they belong. Many students explained that people regarded them as supporters of terrorism. Moreover, female students found it to be risky to disclose their religion. On declaring herself to be a Muslim, a female could be exposed to Islamophobic attacks in the Western nations (Brown 64). As such, in some of the nations of the West, the object of fear tend to be the Muslims. In this situation, Muslims who openly display their religion are more likely to be subjected to abuse. Thus, Muslim females who wear the headscarf could be targeted to a greater extent. This is due to the fact that their headscarf can be recognised instantly (Carland 473). In addition, it is generally believed that Muslim women are submissive, which renders them soft targets.

Globalisation during the twentieth century

Globalisation during the twentieth century International Relations Explain the significance of the advance of media and communications to the process of globalisation during the twentieth century. The twentieth century saw the speed of technological achievement soaring as the human race innovated and developed quicker than ever before. After the western discovery of the New World in the early modern period there was a great influx of Europeans across the Atlantic seeking out new opportunities and long distance communication became more and more important to remain in contact globally. Technological advances of the twentieth century not only aided this difficult problem, but created a globalised world where vast distances became no feat in ensuring the smooth functioning of life, business and politics. For example, in 1865, when US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated it took the news twelve days to travel to the United Kingdom. This delivery required the use of boats to carry the message across the Atlantic and then telegraph to deliver it from Cork in Ireland, to London. One hundred and thirty six years later, on 11th September 2001, there was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. The attack comprised of two planes hitting the two towers with roughly twenty minutes between them. By the time the second plane hit the second tower there was an audience of around two billion who watched the second attack in real time. The technological advances of the twentieth century and the emergence of global media is what made this vast improvement and the development of a global village possible. Innovators of the nineteenth century had already developed a primitive wired telegraph system which was used as the primary means of communication during this century (obviously other than of course the global standard for millennia word of mouth). The downside of the telegraph was that whilst it was quicker than anything before, it was still a slow means of communication. The system still required telephone cables and although it was one of the first good examples of clear and more rapid international communication, it lacked the instantaneousness of modern ‘globalised communication. Another drawback was that it was not until undersea cables were laid in the middle of the twentieth century that telegraphs could be sent across the Atlantic; and by this time other more reliable forms of transatlantic communication had been developed. It was not until inventors in the twentieth century, such as Marconi, began dabbling with radio signals that the radio telegraph was created. Utilising these newly discovered radio waves in December 1901 Marconi telegraphed the letter ‘S across the Atlantic from St. Johns in Newfoundland, to Poldhu in Cornwall, a distance of eighteen hundred miles, using kite-born aerials at around one thousand feet. From this point radiotelegraphy took off and became one of the most revolutionary changes in communication in centuries, adopted especially favourably by the armed forces who began using it to communicate between ships which had until then been primarily using homing pigeons and visual signalling. There is difficulty in pinpointing the exact time when radio was first used to communicate human voice as claims are varied. However the first transatlantic human broadcast took place in 1915 with the signal moving first from New York to San Francisco, then to Naval Radio Station NAA at A rlington Virginia and finally from there across the Atlantic Ocean to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. By November 1920, the U.S. was operating a daily broadcast of scheduled radio programs, with the first being the 1920 U.S. Presidential election results. The importance of this history of radio is to first demonstrate the speed at which radio was developed, but more importantly to illustrate that by the 1920s human voices could be transmitted across oceans to communicate with what less than two hundred years ago would be near isolated countries. Not only this but the broadcast of the 1920 election results was arguably the first example of radio being used as a form of media, to publicize political news to the wider world. Throughout the next eighty years radio improved dramatically, including the introduction of FM (standing for frequency modulation the technology used) which controlled static to give a high-fidelity sound. In 1954 Sony produced the worlds first transistor radio, bringing to the world a revolutionary new step where radios became cheaper and by the latter half of the century the majority of the population of western nations owned one. Radio was not the only method for the broadcast of human voice, indeed the more direct, one-to-one method of communicating over long distances was the telephone. According to ATT, one of the leading telecommunications companies in the United States, by 1904, right at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were already over three million connected phones in the United States. The design and technological improvements increased throughout the twentieth century allowing people across the globe to talk directly in real time (this also laid the groundwork for later developments in computer networking). The improvements aided globalisation to an incredible degree by allowing business and social interaction to take place not in the form of a letter sent and taking days or even weeks to arrive, but instantaneously. The merging of this technology with the concept of two-way radios created after the invention of the radio led to the development of the mobile phone. The military were pri mary users of the concept throughout the early twentieth century but it was not until the 1950s that mobile phones became practical, and not until the last decade of the century that the pocket mobile phone became commonplace. Communication over long distance, and indeed globally, was then possible from anywhere on the earth (or at least where signal was found, which by the end of the century covered most places in almost all countries across the world. One of the next important innovations of the twentieth century was the invention of the television. By the mid 1920s inventors on both sides of the Atlantic were working on capturing, transmitting and receiving live images, with pioneers such as Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (famous for his original mechanical television set) and Americans Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin (who were focussed on all electric units using cathode ray tubes). Regularly scheduled television broadcasts began in the late 1920s in the United States and throughout many other western nations by the 1930s, but it was not really until the 1950s that televisions entered the average home. By this time mechanical televisions had been made obsolete in favour of the higher definition image produced by the newer purely electronic devices. Programming focussed around films and live dramas which dominated household entertainment across the world by the 1960s; first in monochrome, and eventually, during the fif ties and sixties, in full colour. Despite the arguably slow start for television in the latter half of the twentieth century television became the single most important form of entertainment and media in the majority of the developed world. The majority of news throughout Europe and North America especially was delivered via the television and towards the end of the century broadcasts were running twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. In 1963 the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnsons succession gained four days of coverage, whereas the U.S. moon landing in 1969 was reputedly viewed by 94% of American television homes. It is almost impossible to debate that by the end of the twentieth century television was the dominant form of media in the western world, with a reported ninety nine percent of households owning at least one television and with an average of nearly seven hours exposure a day, much of it based on global issues, events and information. This exposure has created a population which is more informed about the world around them than ever before, and due to the simplicity and lack of necessary engagement or effort it appeals to almost everyone. Television has also seen the growth of film and scripted television shows. Hollywood dominates the global film and television market with its programming shown throughout the entire world, and although there are many national groups vying for a share in the highly profitable industry, there is no comparison to their American counterpart. As stated by Sinclair, Jacka and Cunningham Hollywood has established itself as the ‘international best practice, and as stated by Mooney and Evans ‘Wherever you go in the world people know of Mickey Mouse, Star Wars and Rambo.. The films produced by Hollywood are globally known, and despite a delay between release dates in the U.S. and the rest of the world they are available no matter where you are on the earth. This demonstrates vast improvement even from the beginning of the century where by no means every country even had the technology to play films and television created in the United States. Another noticeable effect of television and film on globalisation is the merging of cultures. Whereas in centuries previous there was little or no real exposure to foreign cultures other than actually visiting them the television in the twentieth century has brought thousands of different cultures into the living rooms of billions in the world. Language, clothing, design and rituals have been adopted and adapted in many societies leading to hybrid creations and entirely new cultures coming into existence. New cultures share elements from existing ones, taking specific traits and altering them to fit their own lifestyle or geography another key illustration of the globalised world. Aided by the growth in technology throughout the century the mass media has grown to become one of the single most important forces of globalisation. News groups and organisations such as Reuters and the BBC have thousands of people stationed throughout the world keeping their finger on the pulse and ensuring that the rest of the world is up to date to the minute with the events throughout the globe. Not only making it easier to hear about global events, the mass media has ensured that ever minor world events receive some coverage and consequently the world feels much more united. No longer is the news purely built around the happenings in North America and Europe (although to a degree this news does gain the majority of coverage), every crisis or affair throughout the third world is reported to the rest of the humanity. Perhaps the single most important and revolutionary development of the century was the creation of the computer and the worldwide network known as the Internet. The computer had been in development since the 1940s with individuals and teams across the world developing faster computers with more processing power. Yet it wasnt until the 1980s where personal computers for use in the home became practical, and not for nearly another decade before they were economical. However by the 1990s computers were owned in millions of homes across the world, increasing more and more throughout the last decade of the century. The attribute of computers that really aided the globalisation process however was networking and the internet. By connecting the computers of the world together using the existing telephone network (and later fibre optics) there was an immediate and permanent connection between all computers on the planet. Information could be transferred instantly across the entire span of th e world in milliseconds. As well as this, with developments in wireless technology internet access could be achieved almost anywhere mobile signal was found. In its original design, the precursor to the Internet, ARPANET, was designed as a system for the military and universities to share information, but it quickly grew in usage and spread to the wider civilian community. The effect of the internet on media was revolutionary. Photos, videos and stories could be uploaded to news sites instantaneously from anywhere in the world. More fundamentally however was that the internet created journalists out of anyone willing to contribute. Due to the freedom and lack control over what could or could not be shared over the internet (a fundamental value of the internet community, which has to an extent been taken advantage of with the ability to pirate information) anyone wanting to publish a story or report on an event was fully capable of doing so and have the chance to have the entire world read it. Consequently news reporting became a more mass project than ever before with even the potential for less influence from biased sources. By the end o f the century millions of people were actively reporting news on the internet and millions more turned to the independent news sources instead of the mainstream media. The Internet has also continued the trends set by television and film, allowing people across the world to get hold of and view television shows and films that they would never have had the chance to obtain beforehand. Similarly, literature, essays and reports are found in the billions online where they can be accessed from anywhere. In this way it can be said that the internet truly revolutionised information, allowing it to be accessed anywhere by anyone, and although this may not be true in all countries (some governments choose to limit and censor the content of the internet in their own territory) there is a level of freedom and globalisation that has never been seen before. The key importance of the advance of communications technology and media throughout the twentieth century has been its significance in creating a global village and its major role in the process of globalisation. As outlined, the growth of technology in communication has meant that society has advanced from its sluggish pace at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the instantaneous speed of the 1990s. As well as this the content of communications has improved allowing massive amounts of data to be sent in an instant as opposed to a short letter. Media coverage of the entire globe in real time makes keeping the world updated entirely simple and the number of people reporting has meant that the ‘official news sources are not always the first to report a story. Most importantly however these advances have created an infinitely smaller world where oceans and vast distances between countries do not eliminate the need or desire to know about them or communicate with them, to th e point where nations are closer than ever at a civilian level, not just politically. Bibliography Books Giddens, A., ‘Sociology, 6th ed. (Polity: Cambridge, 2009) Mooney, A., Evans, B., ‘Globalization, The Key Concepts (Routledge: London, 2007) Sinclair, J., Jacka, E., Cunningham, S., ‘New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1996) Winston, B., ‘Media, Technology and Society A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet (Routledge: London, 1998) Websites About.com, ‘The Invention of the Radio, http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm accessed January 19th 2010 ATT, ‘ATT: A Brief History: Origins, http://www.corp.att.com/history/history1.html, accessed January 19th 2010 GSM World, ‘GSM Coverage Map, http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml accessed January 19th 2010 ThinkQuest, ‘Television: The History, http://library.thinkquest.org/18764/television/history.html, accessed 19th January 2010 ‘Television Health, http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tvhealth.html, accessed 20th January 2010 Giddens, A., ‘Sociology, 6th ed. (Polity: Cambridge, 2009) Ch. 17 ‘The Media pg.723 Ibid. Winston, B., ‘Media, Technology and Society A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet (Routledge: London, 1998) pg. 272 ‘The Invention of the Radio, About.com, http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm accessed 19th January 2010 Ibid. Ibid. ‘The Invention of the Radio, About.com, http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm accessed 19th January 2010 ‘ATT: A Brief History: Origins, http://www.corp.att.com/history/history1.html, accessed 19th January 2010 ‘GSM Coverage Map, http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml accessed 19th January 2010 ‘Television: The History, http://library.thinkquest.org/18764/television/history.html, accessed 19th January 2010 ‘Television Health, http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tvhealth.html, accessed 20th January 2010 Sinclair, J., Jacka, E., Cunningham, S., ‘New Patterns in Global Television: Peripheral Vision (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1996) pg. 13 Mooney, A., Evans, B., ‘Globalization, The Key Concepts (Routledge: London, 2007) pg. 111