Coverage of the 2016-2017 Economic Recession in Selected Newspapers in Nigeria

Earnest Hemingway an American writer produced considerable novels in the history of English literatutre Hemingway s The Oldman and the Sea is a story of oldman s struggle and his helplessness against destiny Like Greek tragedians Hemingway accepts the harshness of destiny in man s life It is very well said Man proposes and God disposes that clearly denotes the role of destiny in man s life The story of The Oldman and the Sea is universal because it reveals how human beings struggle to get something in life but sometimes crushed under the wheels of destiny The old man has indomitable spirit and sea experience yet he is unable to catch the fish for a few days One day he caught the big fish called the Marlin but it was too big for him to drag to the shore The Old man tried to drag the Marlin to the shore but in a midway its blood attracted the Sharks and he brought only its skeleton on the shore So Hemingway talks about the helplessness of man against destiny through the character of an old man This paper is a sincere effort to display man s helplessness against destiny through the character of old ma

Economic news through the magnifying glass:How the media cover economic boom and bust

One of the normative functions of economic news is surveillance, making monitorial citizens aware of significant economic developments. In this light, it is important to look at the way economic news covers periods of recession and economic boom. Previous studies have focused on how the media cover monthly developments of the economy rather than how coverage varies over the course of the economic cycle. Based on parallels between self-reinforcing news waves or media hypes, on the one hand, and coverage of recession and economic boom, on the other, we argue that the media amplify periods of prolonged economic growth or contraction by making the economy more visible and reporting with an overly positive or negative tone. A time-series analysis of the relation between economic developments and the automatically coded tone and visibility of economic news in Danish newspapers (1996-2012) shows that the media functioned as a magnifying glass. During recession, the economy became more negative and visible than economic developments would predict. During economic boom, economic news became more positive, but not more visible. The media adjusted the tone downwards before the economy entered recession. These results are assessed in light of the surveillance function

Public policy and economic fear: an experimental approach

Political scientists have long studied the connection between macroeconomic performance and presidential approval, electoral success, and voter satisfaction. Given the purported relationship between economic anxiety and votes for Donald Trump, a better understanding of this relationship is timely. The present analysis improves upon the economic voting literature by assessing this connection in an experimental context. Using data collected from undergraduate students and a Mechanical Turk sample, this analysis measures differences in opinion between control respondents and treatment respondents who received various economic fear stimuli. In addition, the analysis questions whether policy opinions differ based on the interaction between a treatment and income level, and whether certain types of economic fear are more likely to shift policy opinions. This analysis finds that economic fear is not pervasive enough to shift policy support, but a variety of weak differences due to income interactions and fear-stimuli exist. Largely, this piece accords with analyses performed using nationally representative samples and defines American policy opinions as largely driven by income, education, and party identification.Boston University Political Scienc

Power and Politics in the Media: The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Volume 9

Power and Politics in the Media: The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Volume 9 features articles from multiple disciplines that use the C-SPAN Video Library to explore recent controversies in American politics. Topics covered include Supreme Court nominations, Supreme Court oral arguments, rhetoric on disasters and COVID-19, and the effect of clothing on the approval of women in power. What unites these topics is the unique use of the video record of C-SPAN to explore the intersections of politics, power, rhetoric, and the media in the contemporary United States. Written in accessible prose, this volume showcases some of the most pressing issues today in a variety of political and communication issues while demonstrating video research methodologies

Audaciously Hopeful: How President Obama Can Help Restore the Pro-Trade Consensus

There is reason for grave concern about the direction of U.S. trade policy. The bipartisan, pro-trade consensus that served U.S. economic and diplomatic interests so well for so long collapsed during the final two years of the Bush administration. Trade skeptics have increased their ranks in the new Congress, a majority of Americans perceive trade as threatening, and grim economic news has made the political climate inhospitable to arguments in support of trade. But restoring the pro-trade consensus must be a priority of the Obama administration. If the United States indulges misplaced fears, restrains economic freedoms, and attempts to retreat from the global economy, the country will suffer slower economic growth and have greater difficulty facing future economic and foreign policy challenges. America's trade skepticism is largely the product of a top-down process. Perceptions have been shaped overwhelmingly by relentless political rhetoric that relies on three myths. Congress and the media have spoken for years about the decline of U.S. manufacturing as though it were fact, when the overwhelming evidence points to a sector that, until the onset of the current recession, was robust and setting performance records. Both lament the U.S. trade deficit without attempting to convey or even understand its causes, meaning, or implications. And both attribute these alleged failures of policy to lax enforcement of existing trade agreements. President Obama should reexamine these premises. He will find that they are long on fallacy and short on fact. Meanwhile, the president will find it necessary to rein in the congressional leadership's increasingly provocative approach to trade policy if he is to have success repairing America's foreign policy credibility. The determination of the president to arrest and reverse America's misguided and metastasizing aversion to trade could dramatically improve prospects for restoring the pro-trade consensus

Reality TV's "queen of all :" genre, transgression, and hierarchy in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo

textThis thesis examines the reality television (RTV) series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (HCHBB) as a rhetorical text in and through which the cultural significance of race, class, and gender stereotypes—and the meanings they hold for different individuals and groups—are actively contested and negotiated. I argue that recurrent themes of symbolic transgression of hierarchical structures in HCHBB operate as a modality through which cast and audience(s) alike might make or interpret potentially subversive/resistant meanings. This focus on the RTV series as a dynamic site for making and contesting meaning—rather than a static text encoded/decoded by members of the discrete categories of producers and consumers—enables critical attention to the discursive and affective elements at work in HCHBB without forsaking analysis of the political and material frames in which they circulate. These frames are explored throughout a brief history of the RTV genre and an overview of the scholarship that has engaged it. Ultimately, I argue that while HCHBB and the genre of RTV may potentially provide the opportunity to challenge class antagonism and discrimination, it also perpetuates structural, material inequality. By linking themes of symbolic transgression as they operate in and through the text with Kenneth Burke’s (1969) analysis of hierarchy and mystification of class relations, I show how HCHBB doubly participates in the stratification of economic class when symbolic transgression is offered as an affront to social class morality rather than pervasive structural, material inequality. Despite an ethos of rebellion against bourgeois norms, HCHBB displaces rather than cultivates critical class consciousness by encouraging performances of redneck identity which also consign the Shannon/Thompson family to their fate as working class celebrities.Communication Studie

Costs and benefits of superfast broadband in the UK

This paper was commissioned from LSE Enterprise by Convergys Smart Revenue Solutions to stimulate an open and constructive debate among the main stakeholders about the balance between the costs, the revenues, and the societal benefits of ‘superfast’ broadband. The intent has been to analyse the available facts and to propose wider perspectives on economic and social interactions. The paper has two parts: one concentrates on superfast broadband deployment and the associated economic and social implications (for the UK and its service providers), and the other considers alternative social science approaches to these implications. Both parts consider the potential contribution of smart solutions to superfast broadband provision and use. Whereas Part I takes the “national perspective” and the “service provider perspective”, which deal with the implications of superfast broadband for the UK and for service providers, Part II views matters in other ways, particularly by looking at how to realise values beyond the market economy, such as those inherent in neighbourliness, trust and democrac

LIFE ON HOLD: The effect of recession and neoliberalism on millennials’ beliefs about education, economic participation, and adulthood

Americans born between 1982 and 1995 (the “millennial” generation) are coming of age and entering adulthood during a time of historically significant economic recession. This study uses qualitative data derived from online sources to explore the effect of this experience on the values, feelings, and beliefs of these young adults regarding economic participation, education, and adulthood. Results indicate that millennials feel isolated, ashamed, fearful, and angry about their circumstances. Some feel so hopeless that mental health problems result. The neoliberal ideology widely prevalent in American culture is identified as a strong contributing factor to this situation. Educators are encouraged to recognize this reality and address structural reasons for the situation, alleviating the self-blame and shame young people experience

Generational Formative Influences on Workplace Attitudes and Values

The purpose of this capstone project is to investigate the following question: How do members of the Baby Boom, Generation X and Millennial generations believe influences and experiences of their formative years impact their workplace attitudes and values? In the U.S. labor force, there are three predominant generations comprising a significant share of the workforce, each unique with their own set of core values that have been collectively shaped and defined by their formative political, cultural, and social experiences. For every generation, there are events and circumstances that mold preferences, expectations, and values that ultimately shape their workplace perspective and expectations. This paper was undertaken to provide a lens into the formative influences of each generation and the subsequent attitudes and values that emerge as a result of these experiences. By understanding the unique influences and motivations of each generation, we can qualitatively assess the research on generational influences on work-related attitudes. This capstone investigates the growing body of research and aligns it to survey data captured by members of each generation in a higher education institution in the Philadelphia area. This exploratory research is valuable for employees, management professionals, and practitioners who want to better understand generational values so they can evaluate their practices in order to communicate, engage, and lead their organizations effectively

Blacks Upbeat About Black Progress, Prospects

Compares survey findings on how African Americans and other groups view African Americans' progress toward equality, race relations, convergence on values and living standards, satisfaction with local communities, and future prospects for progress