8.5: Gender Socialization
Sex and Gender
Although the terms "sex" and "gender" are sometimes used interchangeably and do in fact complement each other, they nonetheless refer to different aspects of what it means to be a woman or man in any society.
Sex refers to biological, physical and physiological differences between males and females, including both primary sex characteristics (the reproductive system) and secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity, as well as genetic differences (e.g., chromosomes).   Biological males have XY chromosome and biological females have XX chromosome but biological sex is not as easily defined or determined as you might expect. For example, does the presence of more than one X mean that the XXY person is female or does the presence of a Y mean that the XXY person is male? The existence of sex variations fundamentally challenges the notion of a binary biological sex.
Gender is a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions and roles associated with being male or female. Gender is not determined by biology in any simple way. At an early age, we begin learning cultural norms for what is considered masculine (trait of a male) and feminine (trait of a female). Gender is conveyed and signaled to others through clothing and hairstyle, or mannerisms like tone of voice, physical bearing, and facial expression. For example, children in the United States may associate long hair, fingernail polish or dresses with femininity. Later in life, as adults, we often conform to these norms by behaving in gender specific ways: men build houses and women bake cookies (Marshall, 1989; Money et al., 1955; Weinraub et al., 1984). It is important to remember that behaviors and traits associated with masculinity and femininity are culturally defined. For example, in American culture, it is considered feminine to wear a dress or skirt; however, in many Middle Eastern, Asian, and African cultures, dresses or skirts (often referred to as sarongs, robes, or gowns) are worn by males and are considered masculine. The kilt worn by a Scottish male does not make him appear feminine in his culture.
Our understanding of gender begins very early in life – often before we are born. Western cultures, expecting parents are asked whether they are having a girl or a boy and immediately judgments are made about the child. Boys will be active and presents will be blue while girls will be delicate and presents will be pink. In some Asian and Muslim cultures a male child is valued more favorably than a female child (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013) and female fetuses may be aborted or female infants abandoned.
Gender Socialization
As you watch the overview of gender theories, reflect on your earliest memories related to gender:
- When was the first time you understood how your gender would affect your life?
- How did your understanding of gender develop as you grew older, and as the world changed around you?
- Were your own experiences related to gender positive or negative?
Agents of Socialization related to Gender
The Family
Peers
Schools
In the past, many schools were organized and structured along gender lines which socialized males and females differently. Even though most schools are the integrated traditional disproportionate outcomes are still prevalent such where females focus on social science fields for employment and males are more inclined to to focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. These patterns can be observed with career and study choices already prior to entering the work force (UNESCO, 2017).
This may be a product of societal influence, where children see behavioral cues from their teachers and caregivers signaling differences in competencies for girls and boys in school years. This hidden curriculum is determinantal to girls and privileges boys in classrooms. Research from suggests a teacher's own underlying beliefs about gendered behavior may cause them to act in favor of the boys such as calling on them more in class or asking boys cognitively more complex questions. This ultimately leads to the unfolding of a self-fulfilling prophecy in the academic and behavioral performances of the students (Hedges & Nowell, 1995).
Mass Media
Gender socialization also occurs through the mass media (Dow & Wood, 2006). On children’s television shows, the major characters are male. On Nickelodeon, for example, the very popular SpongeBob SquarePants is a male, as are his pet snail, Gary; his best friend, Patrick Star; their neighbor, Squidward Tentacles; and SpongeBob’s employer, Eugene Crabs. Of the major characters in Bikini Bottom, only Sandy Cheeks is a female.
Gender Roles
As mentioned earlier, gender roles are well-established social constructions that may change from culture to culture and over time. In American culture, we commonly think of gender roles in terms of gender stereotypes, or the beliefs and expectations people hold about the typical characteristics, preferences, and behaviors of men and women.
By the time we are adults, our gender roles are a stable part of our personalities, and we usually hold many gender stereotypes. When do children start to learn about gender? Very early. By their first birthday, children can distinguish faces by gender. By their second birthday, they can label others’ gender and even sort objects into gender-typed categories. By the third birthday, children can consistently identify their own gender (see Martin, Ruble, & Szkrybalo, 2002, for a review). At this age, children believe sex is determined by external attributes, not biological attributes. Between 3 and 6 years of age, children learn that gender is constant and can’t change simply by changing external attributes, having developed gender constancy. During this period, children also develop strong and rigid gender stereotypes. Stereotypes can refer to play (e.g., boys play with trucks, and girls play with dolls), traits (e.g., boys are strong, and girls like to cry), and occupations (e.g., men are doctors and women are nurses). These stereotypes stay rigid until children reach about age 8 or 9. Then they develop cognitive abilities that allow them to be more flexible in their thinking about others.
There are also psychological theories that partially explain how children form their own gender roles after they learn to differentiate based on gender. The first of these theories is gender schema theory. Gender schema theory argues that children are active learners who essentially socialize themselves. In this case, children actively organize others’ behavior, activities, and attributes into gender categories, which are known as schemas. These schemas then affect what children notice and remember later. People of all ages are more likely to remember schema-consistent behaviors and attributes than schema-inconsistent behaviors and attributes. So, people are more likely to remember men, and forget women, who are firefighters. They also misremember schema-inconsistent information. If research participants are shown pictures of someone standing at the stove, they are more likely to remember the person to be cooking if depicted as a woman, and the person to be repairing the stove if depicted as a man. By only remembering schema-consistent information, gender schemas strengthen more and more over time.
Gender stigma awareness is the extent to which children, particularly adolescents, are cognizant of being judged by their gender (e.g., boys are more delinquent than girls, boys are better at math; girls are more hardworking that boys, girls are not good at math) affect how people perceive and interact with them. This this fear of gender stigma leads many boys to engage in risk taking behaviors such fighting, delinquent behaviors, and substance abuse to prove their masculinity (Kwaning et al., 2021).
A second theory that attempts to explain the formation of gender roles in children is social learning theory. Social learning theory argues that gender roles are learned through reinforcement, punishment, and modeling. Children are rewarded and reinforced for behaving in concordance with gender roles and punished for breaking gender roles. In addition, social learning theory argues that children learn many of their gender roles by modeling the behavior of adults and older children and, in doing so, develop ideas about what behaviors are appropriate for each gender. Social learning theory has less support than gender schema theory—research shows that parents do reinforce gender-appropriate play, but for the most part treat their male and female children similarly (Lytton & Romney, 1991).
- What did they decide to do?
- What problems did it create?
- Why did one doctor voice his concern?
- What is your opinion of this?
Gender Differences
Differences between males and females can be based on (a) actual gender differences (i.e., men and women are actually different in some abilities), (b) gender roles (i.e., differences in how men and women are supposed to act), or (c) gender stereotypes (i.e., differences in how we think men and women are). Sometimes gender stereotypes and gender roles reflect actual gender differences, but sometimes they do not.
What are actual gender differences? In terms of language and language skills, girls develop language skills earlier and know more words than boys; this does not, however, translate into long-term differences. Girls are also more likely than boys to offer praise, to agree with the person they’re talking to, and to elaborate on the other person’s comments; boys, in contrast, are more likely than girls to assert their opinion and offer criticisms (Leaper & Smith, 2004). In terms of temperament, boys are slightly less able to suppress inappropriate responses and slightly more likely to blurt things out than girls (Else-Quest et al., 2006).
With respect to aggression, boys exhibit higher rates of unprovoked physical aggression than girls, but no difference in provoked aggression (Hyde, 2005). Some of the biggest differences involve the play styles of children. Boys frequently play organized rough-and-tumble games in large groups, while girls often play less physical activities in much smaller groups (Maccoby, 1998). There are also differences in the rates of depression, with girls much more likely than boys to be depressed after puberty. After puberty, girls are also more likely to be unhappy with their bodies than boys.
However, there is considerable variability between individual males and individual females. Also, even when there are mean level differences, the actual size of most of these differences is quite small. This means, knowing someone’s gender does not help much in predicting his or her actual traits. For example, in terms of activity level, boys are considered more active than girls. However, 42% of girls are more active than the average boy. Furthermore, many gender differences do not reflect innate differences, but instead reflect differences in specific experiences and socialization. For example, one presumed gender difference is that boys show better spatial abilities than girls. However, Tzuriel and Egozi (2010) gave girls the chance to practice their spatial skills (by imagining a line drawing was different shapes) and discovered that, with practice, this gender difference completely disappeared.
Many domains we assume differ across genders are really based on gender stereotypes and not actual differences. Based on large meta-analyses, the analyses of thousands of studies across more than one million people, research has shown: Girls are not more fearful, shy, or scared of new things than boys; boys are not more angry than girls and girls are not more emotional than boys; boys do not perform better at math than girls; and girls are not more talkative than boys (Hyde, 2005).
References
Dow, B. J., & Wood, J. T. (2006). The SAGE handbook of gender and communication . SAGE Publications, Inc.
Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., Goldsmith, H. H., & Van Hulle, C. A. (2006). Gender differences in temperament: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1) , 33–72. doi: 10.1037/0033-29<IP_ADDRESS>
Hedges, L. V., & Nowell, A. (1995). Sex differences in mental scores, variability, and numbers of high-scoring individuals. Science, 269, 41–45.
Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist , 60(6) , 581–592.
King, W. C., Miles, E. W., & Kniska, J. (1991). Boys will be boys (and girls will be girls): The attribution of gender role stereotypes in a gaming situation . Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 25 (11-12), 607–623.
Klein, N. (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company.
Kwaning K, Wong M, Dosanjh K, Biely C, Dudovitz R. (2021). Gender stigma awareness is associated with adolescent risky health behaviors. PLoS ONE . 2021;16(5):1-12.
Leaper, C., & Smith, T. E. (2004). A meta-analytic review of gender variations in children’s language use: Talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Developmental Psychology, 40(6) , 993–1027.
Lever, J. (1978). Sex differences in the complexity of children's play and games. American Sociological Review, 43 (4), 471–483.
Lindsey, L. L. (2011). Gender roles: A sociological perspective . Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lytton, H., & Romney, D. M. (1991). Parents’ differential socialization of boys and girls: A meta-analysis . Psychological Bulletin, 109(2) , 267–296.
Maccoby, E. E. (1998). The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together . Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.
Marshall, H. H. (1989). The development of self-concept. Young Children , 44, 44-51.
Martin, C. L., Ruble, D. N., & Szkrybalo, J. (2002). Cognitive theories of early gender development. Psychological Bulletin, 128(6) , 903–933.
Matsumoto, D. & Juang, L. (2013). Culture & Psychology (5th ed.). Cengage.
Milillo, D. (2008). Sexuality sells: A content analysis of lesbian and heterosexual women’s bodies in magazine advertisements. Journal of Lesbian Studies , 12(4), 381-392.
Money, J., Hampson, J. G., & Hampson, J. (1955).  Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital , 97, 301–319.
Sadker, M. P., & Sadker, D. M. (1994). Failing at fairness: How America's schools cheat girls . New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
Tenenbaum, H. R. (2009). 'You'd be good at that’: Gender patterns in parent-child talk about courses. Social Development, 18 (2), 447–463.
Thorne, B. (1993). Gender play: Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
Tzuriel, D., & Egozi, G. (2010). Gender differences in spatial ability of young children: The effects of training and processing strategies. Child Development, 81(5) , 1417–1430.
UNESCO (2017). Cracking the code: Girls’ and Women’s Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) .
Weinraub, M., Clemens, L., Sockloff, A., Ethridge, T., Gracely, E., & Myers, B. (1984). The development of sex role stereotypes in the third year: Relationships to gender labeling, gender identity, sex-types toy preference, and family characteristics. Child Development , 55, 1493-1503.
Yoder, J. D., Christopher, J., & Holmes, J. D. (2008). Are television commercials still achievement scripts for women? Psychology of Women Quarterly , 32(3), 303-11


Some Mohawk people have learned to speak Mohawk by growing up among fluent speakers. Many others are trying to learn to speak Mohawk in school or in university. Having some knowledge of linguistics can make learning a second language easier in some ways.
A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsoflinguistics/?p=227
Video Script
One of the things about language is — I understand Mohawk and I speak Mohawk because I’ve heard hundreds of people speaking it.
[CA: Right. So that’s how you learned it, was growing up in the community where it was spoken?]
Yeah I basically grew up with Mohawk and English and as I got to be a teenager I spent a lot more time with the older folks because they were more inclined to be
speakers. Also, I find old people a lot more entertaining than younger adults, you know, they no longer have the sort of worries that, and the stress, that younger people have. And the stories, I mean, the really funny thing is that I find with older people, with the old folks, they’re not very trusting, you know you basically have to visit them a lot before you kind of crack that shell and you get access to, to what they what they know. And I suppose to a certain degree that’s self-serving but at the same time these people have got, they’ve got tradition to pass on; their responsibility is to be passing on this stuff and if they’ve decided that well nobody wants to hear that you know and so they stop telling it then it, it dies with them. So I found that spending a lot of time with the older folks you hear a lot of stories.
And the funny thing too about, one of the things that I found with the language is they were a lot more fun in Mohawk than they were in English. They get cranky and grumpy and unhappy when they speak English and I don’t know why because, it just, I had an uncle used to visit and, well, boy I mean this he had a complaint about everything he had a gripe about everything and stuff and it always seemed to be so grating in English but when he was speaking Mohawk we spent a lot more time laughing. Because that was the language of his childhood and that was how he grew up and he’s, you know, he would tell stories from that time where it’s often you know were, were a lot more amusing or a lot more interesting than what he was having to deal with presently in English.
I’ve had students that have come in that have taken a number of years in the immersion program at Six Nations. They seem to have a sense of the language but they’re not speakers. The course that I teach right now is a fairly heavy grammar-based course because I find that if I mean you can you can learn all the vocabulary you want, but if you have no sense of the grammar of the language, how are you going to utilize that vocabulary? What are you gonna do with it? And the thing is that the students that have come in that have some language, they know a lot of vocabulary… can’t do a thing with it! They know how to say expressions; they know dialogues; they know a whole lot of things that I find is, okay, great, so you at least know the pronunciation, which is a good place to start. Anglophones can’t get past what they see written. “Well, but that’s a ‘t’ it’s written as a ‘t’.” I says yeah, it’s pronounced [d].
[CA: And here’s where, actually, thinking of my students the having a bit of Introduction to Linguistics would help to say, well, look, this is a, this is an allophone and it’s voiced in these circumstances and voiceless here, someone who has Intro Linguistics might get that.]
Yup. I had students who will comment on the fact that they’ve taken a linguistics course and it has helped their pronunciation it does make them more aware of it. […]


16.2: Introducing the Framework
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- Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer
- College of the Canyons
Children’s lives are characterized by belonging, being and becoming.
- Experiencing belonging – knowing where and with whom you belong – is integral to human existence. In school-age care, and throughout life, relationships are crucial to a sense of belonging. Children belong first to a family, a cultural group, a neighborhood and a wider community. Belonging acknowledges children’s interdependence with others and the basis of relationships in defining identities. Belonging is central to being and becoming in that it shapes who children are and who they can become.
- Childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world. Being recognizes the significance of the here and now in children’s lives. It is about the present and them knowing themselves, building and maintaining relationships with others, engaging with life’s joys and complexities, and meeting challenges in everyday life. During the school-age years, children develop their interests and explore possibilities. School-age care settings give children time and place to collaborate with educators to organize activities and opportunities meaningful to them.
- Children’s identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills and relationships change during childhood. They are shaped by many different events and circumstances. Becoming acknowledges children’s ongoing learning and development. It emphasizes learning to participate fully and actively in society.
There are five desired outcomes for children (these are covered more later in the chapter):
- Children have a strong sense of identity
- Children are connected with and contribute to their world
- Children have a strong sense of well-being
- Children are confident and involved learners
- Children are effective communicators
Children’s well-being and learning is at the core of the framework and comprises three interrelated elements: Principles, Practice, and Outcomes.
All three elements are fundamental to pedagogy and program decision-making in school-age care. A school-age care program encompasses all the interactions, experiences, routines and events, planned and unplanned, which occur in an environment designed to support well-being and foster children’s learning and development. The emphasis is on the planned or intentional aspects of the program, which includes supporting spontaneous play and recreational experiences initiated by children.
Children are receptive to a wide range of experiences. What is included or excluded from the program affects how children learn, develop and understand the world.
Working in collaboration with children and in partnership with families, educators use the outcomes to guide their planning for children’s well-being and learning. In order to engage children actively in learning, educators identify children’s strengths and interests, choose appropriate strategies and design the environments. Program decision-making should be an ongoing cycle. This involves educators drawing on their professional knowledge, including their in-depth knowledge of children. In collaboration with children and families, educators carefully evaluate to inform further planning.


2.4: Chronic Neurodegenerative Diseases
Alpha-Synucleinopathies and Parkinson’s Disease
The current model for most neurodegenerative conditions is that neurons die via apoptosis or a programmed form of cell death. This has very important clinical implications as turning on or turning off specific genes/proteins is a method to stop or possibly reverse neurodegeneration. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease and others are all believed to use apoptotic pathways and additionally suggest that there is a component protein that is aberrantly folded to produce apoptosis.
Parkinson’s Disease: Overview
Most cases of this disorder appear to be sporadic (i.e. non-genetic in origin). A very few cases seem to have a genetic origin (for example the genes most often associated with DJ-1 , Parkin ( Ubiquitin E3 ligase ) and alpha synuclein genes). Parkinson’s Disease is most often associated with loss of “pigmented” nuclei in the brain and typically involve the loss of a group of neurons found in the Substantia Nigra (Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\).). The substantia nigra neurons are dopaminergic and are pigmented because they contain the protein melanin .
The typical onset for Parkinson’s Disease is middle to later stages of life (i.e. 50 and beyond) although a small percentage of individuals who have known genetic mutations in Parkin or alpha-synuclein develop symptoms earlier.
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\).
Loss of the pigmented dopaminergic neurons within the Substantia Nigra of individuals with Parkinson’s Disease.
Loss of these cells affect the processing and execution of voluntary movement in individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. Similar to Multiple Sclerosis, once diagnosed, the symptoms become continuous and progressive – i.e. the symptoms worsen over time. Again, there are many similarities with Multiple Sclerosis, and there is no known cure for Parkinson’s Disease and the disease remains idiopathic although there are some known causes of Parkinson’s Disease including loss of movement following cerebral atherosclerosis, viral encephalitis, and as the result of side effects from drugs such as phenothiazides and reserpine.
“Classic” symptoms associated with Parkinson’s Disease
- Bradykinesia: Slowness in Initiation and Execution of Voluntary Movements
- Rigidity: Increase Muscle Tone and Increase Resistance to Movement (Arms and Legs Stiff) – as severity increases produce cogwheel rigidity
- Tremor: Usually Tremor at Rest; When person sits, arm shakes; Tremor Stops when person attempts to grab something (pill rolling tremor)
- Postural Instability: abnormal fixation of posture (stoop when standing), problems with equilibrium, and righting reflex
- Gait Disturbance: Shuffling feet
- Orthostatic Hypotension
- Dementia (in some instances)
- Dystonia (inappropriate and continuous muscle contraction)
- Ophthalmoplegia (weakness in eye muscles)
- Affective Mood Disorders (such as major depression)
Lewy bodies and alpha-synuclein – hallmark features of Parkinson’s Disease
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).
Misfolding and subsequent accumulation of alpha-synuclein.
Alpha-synuclein is a naturally occurring protein within neurons. Mutations in the PARK1 and PARK4 genes which normally encodes for alpha-synuclein, have been associated with Parkinson’s Disease. As such, many animal models of Parkinson’s Disease look for the production of the fibrillary form of alpha-synuclein as it misfolds and then accumulates within the substantia nigral neurons known as Lewy bodies (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).). The misfolding and accumulation of alpha-synuclein has been hypothesized to be the reason that neurons undergo apoptosis, although the exact mechanism for how this occurs remains to be elucidated.
Animal Models of Parkinson’s Disease
The lack of candidate genes (except for alpha-synuclein, Parkin and DJ-1) has meant that most scientists have looked at toxin models. Most of the toxins that produce features that resemble changes in movement as well as Lewy-body like formation use catecholaminergic destruction. In fact, most of these toxins are incredibly powerful and dangerous mitochondrial complex inhibitors such as reserpine, MPTP, methamphetamine, 6-OH-dopamine, rotenone, and paraquat). In fact one toxin, MPTP is a by-product of synthetic heroin production suggesting that there may be a synthetic substance that causes Parkinson’s Disease and some epidemiological studies show a correlation with pesticide (such as paraquat and rotenone) usage and Parkinson’s Disease.
Alzheimer’s Disease: Overview and General Pathology
Another neurodegenerative condition is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). This neurodegenerative condition is a form of dementia characterized the most common symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s Disease notably memory loss, problems with communication and difficulty finding words, attention problems, confusion and spatial disorientation, decreased or poor judgement, changes in mood and personality.
Affected areas explain the AD pathology, which is characterized by memory loss due to shrinkage of the hippocampus, and other problems which include higher level thinking and performance which are controlled by the cortex. Brain atrophy typically begins in the medial temporal lobe (i.e. hippocampus), moves on to the association cortices and therefore affects sensory and motor areas. It also affects the Nucleus Basalis of Meynert which has multiple cholinergic projections to the cortex (and is thought to be responsible for control of sleep, attention, and consciousness) as highlighted in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\).
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\).
Shrinkage and loss of specific regions of the brain.
Cellular Pathology
The typical AD brain is characterized by the loss of neurons, progressive loss of synapses and cholinergic projections, the accumulation of extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). With increased time and pathology this will often correlate with the formation of a glial scar (involving reactive astrocytes). There is also very strong evidence that this disorder may also have a strong immune component as there is often the infiltration of microglial cells in the Alzheimer’s Disease brain.
β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques: βA Cascade hypothesis
One of the hallmark histopathological and molecular features of Alzheimer’s Disease is the presence of extracellular aggregates that include -amyloid plaques. These plaques are believed to induce cytotoxicity by disrupting normal neuronal functions, ion concentrations, action potential generation. As with the modern theory of neurodegeneration, these plaques are composed of the cleaved form of amyloid precursor protein (APP) .
APP can be processed via two different pathways:
- Non-amyloidogenic pathway (cleaved by α- and γ-secretases)
- Amyloidogenic pathway (cleaved by β- and γ-secretases)
APP Processing
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\).
APP processing pathways leading to the production and aggregation of β-Amyloid.
Neurofibrillary Tangles (NFTs)
Another feature of the Alzheimer’s Diseased brain is the appearance of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) that are composed of hyper-phosphorylated tau protein. Normally within neurons (and in fact most cells), tau binds to and stabilizes microtubules (MTs), however, when this is phosphorylated by kinases, tau loses its affinity to MTs and dissociates from the MT complex. This causes the microtubules in turn to disassemble which interferes with proper axonal transport and eventually leads to loss of neuronal integrity. As such the Phospho-tau proteins form intracellular aggregates (NFTs) that become another defining feature of this disease as well as a potential target for therapeutic intervention.
Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease
While sporadic AD cases account for the majority of AD patients, familial AD (FAD) accounts for only 5% of them. The familial form, FAD manifests earlier (around 40-50 years of age) compared to >65 years of age in sporadic cases. Despite this drastic difference in disease onset, symptoms are identical. Only 50% of FAD cases can be explained by known mutations in genes encoding APP and presenilins 1 and 2 .
APP mutations are relatively rare and is characterized by individuals showing symptoms with an average age onset in their early 50’s. The conclusion that APP mutations might cause Alzheimer’s Disease is based on the observation that most Down Syndrome patients also develop AD after age 40 since they have an extra copy of Ch21 (which codes for APP). However, most inherited forms of APP mutations alter APP processing to:
- increase cleavage via the β-secretase pathway
- increase the Aβ42/40 ratio
- therefore, lead to production of peptides with higher fibrillogenic potential (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).)


2.10: Observations of Motion- Brahe, Kepler, and Galilei
Tycho Brahe made numerous measurements of the positions of astronomical objects until his death in 1601. His measurements were accurate to better than 1/100 of a degree.
Johannes Kepler was Tycho’s assistant. Kepler tried to obtain Tycho’s data to fit the Copernican Heliocentric Solar System Model. (Kepler’s and Tycho did not get along. ) But Tycho’s data did not exactly work for a Heliocentric Solar System! So Kepler looked for a new model, and from that he developed Kepler’s Laws.
Kepler’s First Law
The planets travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits. Copernicus thought the planets moved in perfect circles, whereas Kepler defined these as ellipses, based on Brahe’s data.
Kepler’s Second Law
As a planet orbits the Sun, it sweeps out equal areas of its ellipse in equal periods of time. The closer the planet to the Sun (or its star), the faster it moves.
Kepler’s Second Law is stated as:
Where:
- v is the orbiting object’s velocity
- a is the semimajor axis of the object’s orbit
- P is the sidereal period of revolution
- r is the distance between the orbiting object and the body being orbited, such as Earth orbiting the Sun, or the Moon orbiting Earth
Kepler’s Third law
A relationship exists between the planet’s period and its distance from the Sun.
Kepler’s Third Law is stated as:
Where:
- a is the orbiting object’s semimajor axis
- P is the orbiting object’s period to orbit
- r is a constant, referred to as Kepler’s constant


6.1: Introduction
Suppose you were trying to determine the mean rent of a two-bedroom apartment in your town. You might look in the classified section of the newspaper, write down several rents listed, and average them together. You would have obtained a point estimate of the true mean. If you are trying to determine the percentage of times you make a basket when shooting a basketball, you might count the number of shots you make and divide that by the number of shots you attempted. In this case, you would have obtained a point estimate for the true proportion the parameter P .
We use sample data to make generalizations about an unknown population. This part of statistics is called inferential statistics . The sample data help us to make an estimate of a population parameter . We realize that the point estimate is most likely not the exact value of the population parameter, but close to it. After calculating point estimates, we construct interval estimates, called confidence intervals . What statistics provides us beyond a simple average, or point estimate, is an estimate to which we can attach a probability of accuracy, what we will call a confidence level . We make inferences with a known level of probability.
In this chapter, you will learn to construct and interpret confidence intervals. You will also learn a new distribution, the Student's t distribution, and how it is used with these intervals. Throughout the chapter, it is important to keep in mind that the confidence interval is a random variable. It is the population parameter that is fixed.
If you worked in the marketing department of an entertainment company, you might be interested in the mean number of songs a consumer downloads a month from iTunes. If so, you could conduct a survey and calculate the sample mean, \(\overline x\), and the sample standard deviation, \(s\). You would use \(\overline x\) to estimate the population mean and \(s\) to estimate the population standard deviation. The sample mean, \(\overline x\), is the point estimate for the population mean, \(\mu\). The sample standard deviation, \(s\), is the point estimate for the population standard deviation, \(\sigma\).
\(\overline x\) and \(s\) are each called a statistic.
A confidence interval is another type of estimate but, instead of being just one number, it is an interval of numbers. The interval of numbers is a range of values calculated from a given set of sample data. The confidence interval is likely to include the unknown population parameter.
Suppose, for the iTunes example, we know the sample mean \(\overline{x}=2\), the sample standard deviation is \(s = 1\), and our sample size is 100. Then, by the central limit theorem, the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the sample means is
\(\frac{s}{\sqrt{n}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{100}}=0.1\).
The empirical rule , which applies to the normal distribution, says that in approximately 95% of the samples, the sample mean, \(\overline x\), will be within two standard deviations of the population mean \(\mu\). For our iTunes example, two standard deviations is \((2)(0.1) = 0.2\). Therefore, the sample mean \(\overline x\) is likely to be within 0.2 units of \(\mu\).
The population mean \(\mu\) is estimated in an interval whose lower number is calculated by taking the sample mean and subtracting two standard deviations - \((2)(0.1)\) - and whose upper number is calculated by taking the sample mean and adding two standard deviations. In other words, we have 95% confidence that \(\mu\) is between \(\overline{x}-0.2\) and \(\overline{x}+0.2\).
In this case, with 95% probability the unknown population mean \(\mu\) is between \(\overline{x}-0.2=2-0.2=1.8 \text { and } \overline{x}+0.2=2+0.2=2.2\).
We say that we are 95% confident that the unknown population mean number of songs downloaded from iTunes per month is between 1.8 and 2.2. The 95% confidence interval is [1.8, 2.2]. Please note that we talked in terms of 95% confidence using the empirical rule. The empirical rule for two standard deviations is only approximately 95% of the probability under the normal distribution. To be precise, two standard deviations under a normal distribution is actually 95.44% of the probability. To calculate the exact 95% confidence level we would use 1.96 standard deviations.
The 95% confidence interval implies two possibilities. Either the interval [1.8, 2.2] contains the true mean \(\mu\), or our sample produced an \(\overline x\) that is not within 0.2 units of the true mean \(\mu\). The second possibility happens for only 5% of all the samples (100% minus 95% = 5%).
Remember that a confidence interval is created for an unknown population parameter like the population mean, \(\mu\).
For the confidence interval for a mean the formula would be:
\[\mu=\overline{x} \pm z_\frac{\alpha}{2} * s / \sqrt{n}\nonumber\]
Or written another way as:
\[\overline{x}-z_\frac{\alpha}{2} * s /_{\sqrt{n}} \leq \mu \leq \overline{x}+z_\frac{\alpha}{2} * s / \sqrt{n}\nonumber\]
Where \(\overline x\) is the sample mean. \(z_\frac{\alpha}{2}\) is determined by the level of confidence (1-\(\alpha\)) desired by the analyst, and \(s / \sqrt{n}\) is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution for means given to us by the Central Limit Theorem.


4.1: Alpha-2 Antagonists
-
- Last updated
- Save as PDF
- Ernstmeyer & Christman (Eds.)
- Chippewa Valley Technical College via OpenRN
Clonidine is an Alpha-2 antagonist.
Mechanism of Action: Clonidine reduces sympathetic outflow from the central nervous system and decreases peripheral resistance and renal vascular resistance.
Indications: Clonidine is used to treat hypertension (HTN) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Nursing Considerations: Monitor blood pressure and pulse rate frequently. Dosage is usually adjusted to the patient’s blood pressure and can cause hypotension, bradycardia, and sedation. Rebound hypertension may occur if stopped abruptly.
Patient Teaching & Education: Patients should be taught the importance of adhering to the same dosing schedule each day. Patients may experience orthostatic blood pressure changes and should be cautioned against the use of alcohol while taking this medication. Additionally, patients may experience increased susceptibility to blood pressure changes when exercising and exposed to hot environments. If the patient experiences mental depression as a side effect of the medication, a different medication therapy may be needed. [1]
Now let’s take a closer look at the medication grid on clonidine in Table 4.10. [2]
|
Class/Subclass |
Prototype/Generic |
Administration Considerations |
Therapeutic Effects |
Side/Adverse Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha-2 agonist | clonidine |
Monitor blood pressure and pulse rate frequently
Dosage is usually adjusted to patient’s BP and tolerance |
Treat hypertension or ADHD |
Hypotension
Bradycardia Sedation Rebound hypertension if stopped abruptly |
Alpha-2 Antagonists
A2 antagonists are used in research with limited clinical application. [3]
- uCentral from Unbound Medicine. https://www.unboundmedicine.com/ucentral ↵
- This work is a derivative of Daily Med by U.S. National Library of Medicine in the public domain . ↵
- This work is a derivative of Daily Med by U.S. National Library of Medicine in the public domain. ↵


8.5: Geography of the Middle East
Academics have not reached a consensus on the geographical boundaries of the Middle East. However, for the purposes of this chapter, this region will encompass the broadly defined areas known as Persia, Mesopotamia, the Levant, Asia Minor, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Middle East straddles three continents, including Asia, Africa, and Europe. The geography of the area promoted cultural diffusion by facilitating the spread of peoples, ideas, and goods along overland and maritime trade routes. In an area generally characterized by its aridity, climate has influenced settlement patterns. Larger settlements are found in river valleys and well-watered areas along the littoral. In these areas, we see the development and spread of productive agriculture.


2.2: LCA/LCIA Concepts
Concepts
Goal, Scope, and Definition
Assumptions inherent in an LCA study are apt to change the results and conclusions derived from analysis. In addition, many different types of studies require various levels data collection and analysis. The goal and scope of a LCA defines its intent, targeted audience, and use. The intended use informs further decisions for scope, functional unit of comparison, and data collection. For example, if a LCA study is used internally, a full review panel of LCA experts is not required; however, when providing public environmental claims about a competing product, a review is required.
Inventory analysis
A life cycle inventory (LCI) is the most laborious step of a LCA: data is collected and organized. It often involves contacting companies, accumulating literature sources, and building models using life cycle assessment software. Materials flows, types of
materials, product life time, and product energy requirements are collected in the LCI phase.
Life Cycle Impact Assessment
A life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) part of the analysis process collects life cycle inventory data and delivers environmental impacts values. This process greatly reduces the complexity of the data set from hundreds of inputs to 10 or fewer impact categories for decision-making. There are many different methods for LCIA based on location, goals, and scope.
Interpretation
The interpretation step derives from what was found in the other steps for the generation of new information. It is not the last step but iterative. When it is done, the study assumptions, goals, scope, and methods are refined to suit the needs of the study.
Life Cycle Analysis: Goal, Scope and Boundaries
Goal
The first step is defining the goal to give the aim and what it encompasses. There are two types of LCA objectives: (1) descriptive and (2) change-oriented. The descriptive types look at broader aspects of an issues, e.g., how much of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions are derived from commuters (light duty vehicles). These broader environmental questions fall within the domain of descriptive LCAs. The second type of LCA is change-oriented, in which two options for fulfilling a function are compared. Typical examples of change-oriented LCAs are paper vs. plastic, flying vs. driving, and gas vs. electric heating. These types of studies can guide the choice of methods to reduce environmental impacts. The intended audience is another part of the goal and scope. The audience may include interest groups such as policy makers, company marketing groups, or product development teams. Additionally, interest groups should be identified. These include companies, funding sources, target audiences, and expert reviewers. It is noted that the intended use of the LCA may be different from the end use because the information may be relevant to other decisions and analyses beyond the original intent.
One specific LCA to compare two products is a “comparative assertion disclosed to the public”. In this type of study, “environmental claims regarding the superiority or equivalence of one product vs a competing product which performs the same function” are communicated. These types of studies must follow ISO 14044 standards with the nine steps for a “comparative assertion”.
Scope
The scope definition serves the purpose of communicating to the audience what is included and what is excluded. Depending on the goal, there are several types of scopes including cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, and gate-to-gate. There are other words commonly used to describe these scopes:
- Cradle-to-grave: includes all flows and impacts from obtaining raw material to disposal and reuse
- Crade-to-gate: includes all flows and impacts from raw material to production, but excludes product use and end of life.
- Gate-to-gate: only includes flows from production or material processing steps of a product life.
The scope must be carefully selected in consideration of the potential implications not including product stages or phases in the scope of the work. For example, a product may have lower product emissions, but have a shorter lifetime than an alternative product that would not be communicated in a process stage diagram as seen in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) . These types of diagrams list the major unit steps considered and clearly show what is not included.
Temporal boundaries are also established in the scope. Assumptions relating to time can have a large influence on the results. A study timeframe should be picked which will best capture the impacts of the product or processes. A 100-year window is a common temporal boundary, for example, in global warming. In a 100-year temporal window, impacts occurring after 100 years are not part of the overall analysis.
Other aspects to be included in scope are technology and geographical regions. Many studies are spatially dependent so LCA results are not broadly applicable to other regions. Products or services from older technologies often have different impacts than current technologies. Thus, it is important to communicate the type and stage of the technology. In addition, allocation procedure impact assessment methods and should be reported.
Functional Unit
A functional unit is the primary measure of a product or service. ISO states that “the functional unit defines the quantification of the identified functions (performance characteristics) of the product. The primary purpose of a functional unit is to provide a reference to which the inputs and outputs are related. This reference is necessary to ensure comparability of LCA results. The functional unit can be a service, mass of material, or an amount of energy. Selecting appropriate functional units is critical to creating an unbiased analysis. For example, when comparing trains to cars for transportation, the comparison may suffer from the inability to correlate energy inputs and outputs. The real purpose of the train would be to deliver a larger number of people to a specific centralized location. For this example, a better functional unit may be impacts of a train delivering a specific number of people over a specified distance. The results will then be normalized to distance for more reasonable correlations and assessments.
Cut of Criteria
Data collection for an LCA is the most time-intensive and laborious step. Cut-off criteria are used to expedite the process. Cut-off criteria define a level of product content or other parameter to which the study will not consider. One example: materials contents less than 1% of the total product mass are not considered. This allows the LCA practitioner to focus on data from the main flows of the system while systematically eliminating flows which may not influence the results.
Life Cycle Inventory
In addition to data collection, the life cycle inventory (LCI) step is a very laborious aspect of life cycle assessment. The data collected for the product, production process, and product life cycle are used in the impact assessment to determine the environmental impacts. Collecting consistent, transparent, and accurate LCI data is critical to the success of an overall LCA.
Primary and Secondary Data
Example data collected:
- Raw material use
- Energy use
- Transportation distances
- Chemical use
- Waste treatment information
- Process yields
- Life time
- Water use
- Product and co-product flows
- Other flows in or out of the system that are within the defined cut-of-criteria
Tracking the material flows into and out of the defined system is the first step of LCI. After the materials flows have been determined through interviews, literature searches, and measurement, LCA software can be used to track the material process’s elementary flows to and from the environment. Elementary flows originate in the environment and are mined or retrieved for use in a process or flows that are released from processes to the environment and are not used by other processes. These elementary flows are the actual materials used and materials released to the environment as a result of the studied product system. In Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\), the two types of LCI data can be seen. On the top half of the figure, process flows such as products, services and other goods are listed. The lower half lists elementary flows such as chemicals released to soil or air.
Life Cycle Impact Assessment
Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is among the last steps of LCA. The purpose of a LCIA “is to provide additional information to assess life cycle inventory (LCI) results and help users better understand the environmental significance of natural resource use and environmental releases”. The LCIA helps provide significance and results for easier decision making; however, it is important to understand it does not directly measure the impacts of chemical releases to the environment as an environmental risk assessment does. The third step of LCIA follows sequentially after the LCI using the many flows to and from the environment developed in the LCI. These LCI flows, without an impact assessment step, are not easily interpreted and understanding the significance of emissions is impossible. The LCIA is different from a risk assessment measuring absolute values of environmental impacts in that the LCIA helps determine the significance of emissions and impacts in relation to the study scope. The absolute value of the impacts cannot be determined by the LCIA due to (Margni and Curran 2012):
- The relative expression of potential environmental impacts to a reference unit
- The integration of environmental data over space and time
- The inherent uncertainty in modeling environmental impact
- The fat that some possible environmental impact occurs in the future
Even though the LCIA has limitations, it is useful in determining what impacts matter, what unit processes are contributing the most through hot spot analysis and identify best scenario options when environmental tradeoffs occur.
According to ISO there are three mandatory processes of a LCIA including Selection of impact categories, Classification, and Characterization, Figure \ (\PageIndex{4}\) .


5.6: Grammar (1) القواعد Ordinal Number and Telling Time
In this section, you will be able to:
- Learn ordinal numbers in Arabic.
- Ask and tell time and hours.
Ordinal Numbers
- Ordinal numbers are called in Arabic الأعدالترتيبية.
- In Arabic, there is a linear relationship between the cardinal numbers and the ordinal numbers.
- Ordinal numbers are derived from a predictable pattern.
- Find the root for the cardinal number to refer to the ordinal number. Watch the video below to learn more.
- Except for number one واحد, which has different words for "first" "أوّل."
- Number six ستة is irregular, but the root is س ,د ,س. The ordinal number becomes سادِس.as
- Since ordinals are adjectives and have to correspond to the gendered nouns they are modifying, they can take the feminine تاء مربوطة ( ة, though the feminine form of “first” is irregular) when needed.
- Study the following table to learn the ordinal numbers الأعداد الترتيبية.
| Meaning in English | Arabic Ordinal (feminine) | Arabic Ordinal (Masculine) | Arabic Cardinal Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| first | الأولى | الأول | واحد/واحدة |
| second | الثانية | الثاني | اثنين/ اثنان |
| third | الثالثة | الثالث | ثلاث/ثلاثة |
| fourth | الرابعة | الرابع | أربع/أربعة |
| fifth | الخامسة | الخامس | خمس/خمسة |
| sixth | السادسة | السادس | ست/ستة |
| seventh | السابعة | السابع | سبع/سبعة |
| eighth | الثامنة | الثامن | ثمان/ثمانية |
| ninth | التاسعة | التاسع | تسع/تسعة |
| tenth | العاشرة | العاشر | عشر/عشرة |
| eleventh | الحادية عشرة | الحادي عشر | أحدعشر |
| twelves | الثانية عشرة | الثاني عشر | اثنا عشر |
Watch the video to learn how to find the ordinal number.
Practice Ordinal Numbers
Telling Time
To tell the time, you use the feminine form of the ordinal number. This is because the word ساعة is feminine, and so the adjective must agree with it. For example, when expressing time as in الساعة الرابعة, you are literally saying the fourth hour. So you need the feminine version of the ordinal numbers to tell the time. The only exception is 1 o'clock, for which you immediately derive from the number and say الساعة الواحدة . For parts of the hour, there are some expressions that are commonly used in telling the precise time.
Learn some new expressions for telling time:
| English meaning | New Expression | English meaning | New Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| half | نصف | minute/ minutes | دقيقة / دقائق |
| quarter (15 min) | رُبع | second/ seconds | ثانية/ ثواني |
| a third | ثُلث | except/ to | إلّا |
| fifteen to | إلّا ربع | twenty to | إلّا ثلث |
| quarter past | وربع | past | وَ |


1.3: Social Entrepreneurship
Social Entrepreneurship
Making a difference through business
If you’re one of those entrepreneurs who wants to help solve some of the world’s problems, this section is for you. And you’re making a wise choice: more and more entrepreneurs are finding that business ventures can make money and improve the world at the same time.
As discussed in the previous section, a traditional entrepreneur sees an opportunity to make money by fulfilling a consumer or business need, usually in an area they’re familiar with. A social entrepreneur sees an additional opportunity to improve quality of life by fulfilling a social need.
What does it mean?
The term “social entrepreneur” is used in many different ways. Ashoka’s and The Schwab Foundation’s definitions (see below) aim high. Others define social entrepreneurs as leaders of non-profit organizations that use best business practices to create social change. In for-profit social ventures, a social entrepreneur typically garners the title by simultaneously seeking financial and social returns.
According to J. Gregory Dees, adjunct professor of social entrepreneurship and nonprofit management in Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, what distinguishes social entrepreneurs is their “explicit and central” mission. They are driven not only by the bottom line, but by a distinct social goal. To quote Dees, “Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents by:
- Adopting a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private, financial value),
- Recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission,
- Engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning,
- Acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand, and
- Exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created.” 1
Simply put, social entrepreneurs find innovative ways to create better outcomes for society.
Focus on impact
Success in a social venture is achieved by maximizing financial returns and impact to the cause, known as Social Return on Investment (SROI). SROI can come in the form of improving people’s lives or reducing environmental harm. Just as any competitive business must create a product to best satisfy its customer’s needs, a social venture must focus on superior quality for both its customers and its cause (and these may be the same). A worthwhile social venture opportunity should include a marketable idea that also provides non-financial returns to the community you intend to serve. Idealism will help you construct a vision of what you want to achieve, but to create social value you must find viable ways to produce results. This involves a mix of passion and practicality. As an entrepreneur, you need to shape your plan around what’s realistically possible, even if you continually redefine what is possible. Entrepreneurship is challenging. Adding social aims increases the complexity, but also increases the rewards.
The triple bottom line
No matter what your goals are for your business—to accomplish social change, earn high profits, improve the environment, or all three—it’s useful to think about how you will reach them. To that end, corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices can be integrated throughout your business’ operations. The Business for Social Responsibility defines CSR as, “achieving commercial success in ways that honor ethical values and respect people, communities, and the natural environment.” 2
This is what’s called the triple bottom line : expanding the spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational success to include not only economic, but also environmental and social concerns. For some, a commitment to CSR brings with it a need to institute triple bottom line reporting.
A good beginning
It can be helpful to incorporate your values from the start. Evidence shows that CSR can help maximize bottom line financial and social benefits. Incorporating your values into the process during the product development stage of your business will help you think of better ideas and evaluate your options more carefully. A philosophy that incorporates respecting people and the environment can be useful in guiding your venture’s growth. Good corporate citizenship will not only give you personal satisfaction, but can resound with employees, funders, customers, suppliers, and your community.
Case studies
Integrating values
Seth Goldman founded Honest Tea to fill the gap between the too sweet and the tasteless bottled drinks on the market. He also sought to improve society. Goldman designed a business that completely integrated his philosophy of social responsibility, from the product he sells to the ways it's produced.
Goldman believes that Honest Tea has many social benefits. "Every time someone picks up our product instead of one of the sweet teas out there, they are cutting back on the sugar and calories they put into their bodies. Plus, almost all of our line is organic. Every time a tea state or garden switches to organic production from conventional it means there are less toxins being put into the water, land and consumer's bodies. We are also creating relationships with our supplier and partners that enable us to create wealth with them. Tea is one of the few products enjoyed in some of the wealthiest nations but produced by some of the poorest. The disparity really enables you to create wealth through this business."
"Define why your venture is important to you and what is important about it," Goldman recommends.  I think that's something we have always been very clear about and it's helped us stay disciplined in our approach."
Aiming high
Ashoka and the Schwab Foundation, organizations committed to supporting major social change around the world, see social entrepreneurs as revolutionaries.
Ashoka’s definition: The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck and to provide new ways to get it unstuck. He or she finds what is not working and solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.
Identifying and solving large-scale social problems requires social entrepreneurs because only they have the committed vision and inexhaustible determination to persist until they have transformed an entire system. The scholar comes to rest when he expresses an idea. The professional succeeds when she solves a client’s problem. The manager calls it quits when he has enabled his organization to succeed. Social entrepreneurs go beyond the immediate problem to fundamentally change communities, societies, the world.
The Schwab Foundation’s definition: A social entrepreneur is a different kind of social leader who identifies and ap-plies practical solutions to social problems by combining innovation, resourcefulness and opportunity; innovates by finding a new product, a new service, or a new approach to a social problem; focuses first and foremost on social value creation and in that spirit, is willing to share openly the innovations and insights of the initiative with a view to its wider replication; doesn’t wait to secure the resources before undertaking the catalytic innovation; is fully accountable to the constituencies s/he serves; resists being trapped by the constraints of ideology or discipline; continuously refines and adapts approaches in response to feedback; has a vision, but also a well-thought out roadmap as to how to attain the goal.


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Summary
7.1
Effective Presentation Skills
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To prepare for a presentation, you should consider the goals of the presentation, how long you have to present, and how you will interact with the audience before, during, and after the presentation.
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A strong opening statement or hook will get the audience engaged and interested in the rest of the presentation.
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Although there is no standard set of skills for being a good presenter, there are some common approaches that, with practice, will help you become a better public speaker.
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Just as a strong opening statement is needed, an impactful closing statement can bring the presentation to a close in a memorable way for the audience.
7.2
Finalizing a Slide Collection
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Color can be used to enhance a presentation and convey emotions.
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There are a variety of ways to modify a theme used in a presentation. You can modify colors, fonts, and placement of elements on the slide.
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The Designer tool gives you options for adding variety and interest to your slides.
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When images are included on slides, you can customize the size and look of an image through various tools, including cropping, removing the background, and changing the transparency of the image.
7.3
Preparing a Microsoft PowerPoint Collection for Presentation
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Transitions and animations, if not overused, can add visual interest to your presentation. Choose animations and transitions that retain the professionalism of the presentation.
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Adding media such as audio or video can enhance a presentation and, in some cases, better convey the information contained on a slide.
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PowerPoint includes many features to help you get your slides “presentation ready.” These include grammar/spell check, checking for accessibility issues, speaker’s notes on slides, and even a rehearsal coach to help you prepare to speak in front of a group.
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Making plans to visit the room and try out the technology is a critical step in preparing for a presentation.
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With the technology available today, you are likely to be presenting to a fully virtual or hybrid group. Through proper preparation, you can help ensure that all participants are engaged and have a meaningful experience during the presentation.
7.4
Preparing a Google Slides Collection for Presentation
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Transitions can be added to slides to give some visual interest to the presentation and to help the speaker slow down between slides and topics.
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The Tools menu contains features to check for spelling, facilitate a Q&A, and adjust speaker notes, among other things.
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Adding audio or video files is easy to do in Slides. An audio file will appear as a speaker icon on the slide. A video will appear as a thumbnail.
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The collaboration tools in Slides include standard sharing settings and commenting.


13.6: Reading- Licensing
Licensing gives a licensee certain rights or resources to manufacture and/or market a certain product in a host country.
KEY Points
- Licensing is a business agreement involving two companies: one gives the other special permissions, such as using patents or copyrights, in exchange for payment.
- An international business licensing agreement involves two firms from different countries, with the licensee receiving the rights or resources to manufacture in the foreign country.
- Rights or resources may include patents, copyrights, technology, managerial skills, or other factors necessary to manufacture the good.
- Advantages of expanding internationally using international licensing include: the ability to reach new markets that may be closed by trade restrictions and the ability to expand without too much risk or capital investment.
- Disadvantages include the risk of an incompetent foreign partner firm and lower income compared to other modes of international expansion.
Terms
- Licensing : A business arrangement in which one company gives another company permission to manufacture its product for a specified payment.
- License : The legal terms under which a person is allowed to use a product.
Examples
- Suppose Company A, a manufacturer and seller of Baubles, was based in the US and wanted to expand to the Chinese market with an international business license. They can enter the agreement with a Chinese firm, allowing them to use their product patent and giving other resources, in return for a payment. The Chinese firm can then manufacture and sell Baubles in China.
Licensing
Licensing is a business arrangement in which one company gives another company permission to manufacture its product for a specified payment.
Licensing generally involves allowing another company to use patents, trademarks, copyrights, designs, and other intellectual in exchange for a percentage of revenue or a fee. It’s a fast way to generate income and grow a business, as there is no manufacturing or sales involved. Instead, licensing usually means taking advantage of an existing company’s pipeline and infrastructure in exchange for a small percentage of revenue.
An international licensing agreement allows foreign firms, either exclusively or non-exclusively, to manufacture a proprietor’s product for a fixed term in a specific market.
To summarize, in this foreign market entry mode, a licensor in the home country makes limited rights or resources available to the licensee in the host country. The rights or resources may include patents, trademarks, managerial skills, technology, and others that can make it possible for the licensee to manufacture and sell in the host country a similar product to the one the licensor has already been producing and selling in the home country without requiring the licensor to open a new operation overseas. The licensor’s earnings usually take the form of one-time payments, technical fees, and royalty payments, usually calculated as a percentage of sales.
As in this mode of entry the transference of knowledge between the parental company and the licensee is strongly present, the decision of making an international license agreement depend on the respect the host government shows for intellectual property and on the ability of the licensor to choose the right partners and avoid having them compete in each other’s market. Licensing is a relatively flexible work agreement that can be customized to fit the needs and interests of both licensor and licensee. The following are the main advantages and reasons to use an international licensing for expanding internationally:
- Obtain extra income for technical know-how and services.
- Reach new markets not accessible by export from existing facilities.
- Quickly expand without much risk and large capital investment.
- Pave the way for future investments in the market.
- Retain established markets closed by trade restrictions.
- Political risk is minimized as the licensee is usually 100% locally owned.
This is highly attractive for companies that are new in international business. On the other hand, international licensing is a foreign market entry mode that presents some disadvantages and reasons why companies should not use it, because there is:
- Lower income than in other entry modes
- Loss of control of the licensee manufacture and marketing operations and practices leading to loss of quality
- Risk of having the trademark and reputation ruined by a incompetent partner
- The foreign partner also can become a competitor by selling its production in places where the parental company has a presence
GLOSSARY
Interest The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed. A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
Market A group of potential customers for one’s product. One of the many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange.
Trademark A word, symbol, or phrase used to identify a particular company’s product and differentiate it from other companies’ products. A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify for consumers that the products or services on or with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, designated for a specific market. It also distinguishes its products or services from those of other entities. A word, symbol, or phrase used to identify a particular company’s product and to differentiate it from other companies’ products.
Capital Money and wealth. The means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system.The uppermost part of a column. Money and wealth; the means to acquire goods and services, especially in a non-barter system. Already-produced durable goods available for use as a factor of production, such as steam shovels (equipment) and office buildings (structures).
Export This term export is derived from the conceptual meaning to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. to sell (goods) to a foreign country Any good or commodity, transported from one country to another country in a legitimate fashion, typically for use in trade.
Facility The physical means or contrivances to make something (especially a service) possible; the required equipment, infrastructure, location etc.
Good An object produced for market.
Intellectual property Any product of someone’s intellect that has commercial value: copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Intellectual property (IP) is a juridical concept that refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized. Any product of someone’s knowledge that has commercial value: copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.
Investment A placement of capital in expectation of deriving income or profit from its use. The expenditure of capital in expectation of deriving income or profit from its use. Leading To conduct or direct with authority the management function of determining what must be done in a situation and getting others to do it.
Loss The negative difference between revenue and expense.
Manufacture The action or process of making goods systematically or on a large scale.
Marketing The process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. The promotion, distribution and selling of a product or service; includes market research and advertising.
Operation The method or practice by which actions are done. A procedure for generating a value from one or more other values.
Patent A declaration issued by a government agency declaring someone the inventor of a new invention and having the privilege of stopping others from making, using or selling the claimed invention for a limited time; a letter patent.
Product Any tangible or intangible good or service that is a result of a process and that is intended for delivery to a customer or end user. A chemical substance formed as a result of a chemical reaction. Anything, either tangible or intangible, offered by the firm as a solution to the needs and wants of the consumer; something that is profitable or potentially profitable; goods or a service that meets the requirements of the various governing offices or society.
Resource Something that one uses to achieve an objective. An example of a resource could be a raw material or an employee. Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.
Revenue Income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. The total income received from a given source.
Right A legal or moral entitlement.
Risk The potential (conventionally negative) impact of an event, determined by combining the likelihood of the event occurring with the impact, should it occur. The potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome). To incur risk [of something].
Royalty Regular payment made from the franchisee to the franchisor for the right to be a franchisee.
Services That which is produced, then traded, bought or sold, then finally consumed and consists of an action or work.
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1.4: The Kinetic Molecular Theory of Ideal Gases
Skills to Develop
- State the postulates of the kinetic-molecular theory
- Use this theory’s postulates to explain the gas laws
The gas laws that we have seen to this point, as well as the ideal gas equation, are empirical, that is, they have been derived from experimental observations. The mathematical forms of these laws closely describe the macroscopic behavior of most gases at pressures less than about 1 or 2 atm. Although the gas laws describe relationships that have been verified by many experiments, they do not tell us why gases follow these relationships.
The kinetic molecular theory (KMT) is a simple microscopic model that effectively explains the gas laws we have described. This theory is based on the following five postulates described here. (Note: The term “molecule” will be used to refer to the individual chemical species that compose the gas, although some gases are composed of atomic species, for example, the noble gases.)
Postulates of the Kinetic Molecular Theory
- Gases are composed of molecules that are in continuous motion , travelling in straight lines and changing direction only when they collide with other molecules or with the walls of a container.
- The molecules composing the gas are negligibly small compared to the distances between them.
- The pressure exerted by a gas in a container results from collisions between the gas molecules and the container walls.
- Gas molecules exert no attractive or repulsive forces on each other or the container walls; therefore, their collisions are elastic (do not involve a loss of energy).
- The average kinetic energy of the gas molecules is proportional to the kelvin temperature of the gas.
The test of the KMT and its postulates is its ability to explain and describe the behavior of a gas. The various gas laws can be derived from the assumptions of the KMT, which have led chemists to believe that the assumptions of the theory accurately represent the properties of gas molecules. We will first look at the individual gas laws (Boyle’s, Charles’s, Amontons’s, Avogadro’s, and Dalton’s laws) conceptually to see how the KMT explains them. Then, we will more carefully consider the relationships between molecular masses, speeds, and kinetic energies with temperature.
The Kinetic Molecular Theory Explains the Behavior of Gases
According to the KMT, gas pressure is exerted by rapidly moving gas molecules colliding with the walls of their container. Because of this, two things determine the pressure of a gas: 1) the number of molecules hitting a unit area of the wall per unit of time, and 2) the kinetic energy of the collisions - in other words, "how hard" the molecules are hitting the wall. This simple idea conceptually explains the behavior of gases as described by the gas laws:
- Amontons’s law. If the temperature is increased, the average speed and kinetic energy of the gas molecules increase. If the volume is held constant, the increased speed of the gas molecules results in more frequent and more forceful collisions with the walls of the container, therefore increasing the pressure (Figure \(\PageIndex{1a}\)).
- Charles’s law. If the temperature of a gas is increased, a constant pressure may be maintained only if the volume occupied by the gas increases. This will result in greater average distances traveled by the molecules to reach the container walls, as well as increased wall surface area. These conditions will decrease both the frequency of molecule-wall collisions and the number of collisions per unit area, the combined effects of which balance the effect of increased collision forces due to the greater kinetic energy at the higher temperature.
- Boyle’s law. If the gas volume is decreased, the container wall area decreases and the molecule-wall collision frequency increases, both of which increase the pressure exerted by the gas (Figure \(\PageIndex{1b}\)).
- Avogadro’s law. At constant pressure and temperature, the frequency and force of molecule-wall collisions are constant. Under such conditions, increasing the number of gaseous molecules will require a proportional increase in the container volume in order to yield a decrease in the number of collisions per unit area to compensate for the increased frequency of collisions (Figure \(\PageIndex{1c}\)).
Molecular Velocities and Kinetic Energy
The previous discussion showed that the KMT qualitatively explains the behaviors described by the various gas laws. The postulates of this theory may be applied in a more quantitative fashion to derive these individual laws. To do this, we must first look at velocities and kinetic energies of gas molecules, and the temperature of a gas sample.
In a gas sample, individual molecules have widely varying speeds; however, because of the vast number of molecules and collisions involved, the molecular speed distribution and average speed are constant. This molecular speed distribution is known as a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, and it depicts the relative numbers of molecules in a bulk sample of gas that possesses a given speed (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)).
The kinetic energy (KE) of a particle of mass ( m ) and speed ( u ) is given by:
Expressing mass in kilograms and speed in meters per second will yield energy values in units of joules (J = kg m 2 s –2 ). To deal with a large number of gas molecules, we use averages for both speed and kinetic energy. In the KMT, the root mean square velocity of a particle, u rms , is defined as the square root of the average of the squares of the velocities with n = the number of particles:
The average kinetic energy, KE avg , is then equal to:
The KE avg of a collection of gas molecules is also directly proportional to the temperature of the gas and may be described by the equation:
where R is the gas constant and T is the kelvin temperature. When used in this equation, the appropriate form of the gas constant is 8.3145 J mol -1 K -1 (8.3145 kg m 2 s –2 mol -1 K –1 ). These two separate equations for KE avg may be combined and rearranged to yield a relation between molecular speed and temperature:
\[u_\ce{rms}=\sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m}} \label{RMS}\]
Example \(\PageIndex{1}\): Calcu lation of u rms
Calculate the root-mean-square velocity for a nitrogen molecule at 30 °C.
Solution
Convert the temperature into Kelvin:
Determine the mass of a nitrogen molecule in kilograms:
\[\mathrm{\dfrac{28.0\cancel{g}}{1\: mol}×\dfrac{1\: kg}{1000\cancel{g}}=0.028\:kg/mol}\]
Replace the variables and constants in the root-mean-square velocity formula (Equation \ref{RMS}), replacing Joules with the equivalent kg m 2 s –2 :
\[ \begin{align} u_\ce{rms} &= \sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m}} \\ u_\ce{rms} &=\sqrt{\dfrac{3(8.314\:J/mol\: K)(303\: K)}{(0.028\:kg/mol)}} \\ &=\sqrt{2.70 \times 10^5\:m^2s^{−2}} \\ &= 519\:m/s \end{align} \]
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Calculate the root-mean-square velocity for an oxygen molecule at –23 °C.
- Answer
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441 m/s
If the temperature of a gas increases, its KE avg increases, more molecules have higher speeds and fewer molecules have lower speeds, and the distribution shifts toward higher speeds overall, that is, to the right. If temperature decreases, KE avg decreases, more molecules have lower speeds and fewer molecules have higher speeds, and the distribution shifts toward lower speeds overall, that is, to the left. This behavior is illustrated for nitrogen gas in Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\).
At a given temperature, all gases have the same KE avg for their molecules. Gases composed of lighter molecules have more high-speed particles and a higher u rms , with a speed distribution that peaks at relatively higher velocities. Gases consisting of heavier molecules have more low-speed particles, a lower u rms , and a speed distribution that peaks at relatively lower velocities. This trend is demonstrated by the data for a series of noble gases shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\). Lighter gas molecules move faster on average and heavier gas molecules move slower on average. However, the average kinetic energy depends only on the temperature, not the identity of the gas.
The gas simulator may be used to examine the effect of temperature on molecular velocities. Examine the simulator’s “energy histograms” (molecular speed distributions) and “species information” (which gives average speed values) for molecules of different masses at various temperatures.
Application: Graham's Law of Effusion
According to the KMT, the molecules of a gas are in rapid motion and the molecules themselves are small. The average distance between the molecules of a gas is large compared to the size of the molecules. As a consequence, gas molecules can move past each other easily and diffuse through space at relatively fast rates. "Effusion" is the process by which a gas escapes a container from a small hole.
Graham's Law of effusion relates the rate of effusion of a gas to its molecular mass. It should make sense that a faster-moving gas is able to escape its container more quickly (higher rate of effusion). In light of the kinetic molecular theory, we know that lighter gas molecules move faster than heavier molecules on average at the same temperature, therefore lighter molecules will have faster rates of effusion.
Mathematically, the relationship is not a simple linear correlation between mass and rate of effusion, however. The rate of effusion of a gas does depend directly on the (average) speed of its molecules:
Using this relation, and the equation relating molecular speed to mass, Graham’s law may be easily derived as shown here:
\[u_\ce{rms}=\sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m}}\]
\[m=\dfrac{3RT}{u^2_\ce{rms}}=\dfrac{3RT}{\overline{u}^2}\]
\[\mathrm{\dfrac{effusion\: rate\: A}{effusion\: rate\: B}}=\dfrac{u_\mathrm{rms\:A}}{u_\mathrm{rms\:B}}=\dfrac{\sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m_\ce{A}}}}{\sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m_\ce{B}}}}=\sqrt{\dfrac{m_\ce{B}}{m_\ce{A}}}\]
The ratio of the rates of effusion is thus derived to be inversely proportional to the ratio of the square roots of their masses. This is the same relation observed experimentally and expressed as Graham’s law.
Rates of effusion and diffusion are some of the few properties of gases that depend on the identity of the gas molecules and can therefore be used to distinguish different gases in a mixture. This property is taken advantage of in gaseous diffusion technology for nuclear fuel enrichment. Gaseous uranium hexafluoride molecules are diffused repeatedly through membranes, slowly separating out the lighter, fissile uranium-235 isotope from the heavier, non-fissile uranium-238.
Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Gaseous diffusion process for uranium refinement. Image by Nuclear Regulatory Commission from US [CC BY 2.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 )]
What is an "Ideal Gas"?
The kinetic molecular theory defines what is meant by "ideal gas behavior". Ideal gases perfectly exemplify the following assumptions from the KMT:
1) Ideal gas particles are so small compared to the distance between them that the volume of the molecules themselves can be ignored.
2) Ideal gas particles have no attractions or repulsions for each other or for the walls of the container.
When these assumptions hold true, a gas will perfectly obey the ideal gas law, PV = nRT. These assumptions of the KMT generally do a good job of describing gas behavior at relatively low pressures and moderate temperatures - in other words, most "normal" conditions. We will see in a later module how the behavior of "real" gases begins to change when these assumptions become less accurate.
Importantly, the ideal gas law implies that only the number of moles of gas molecules, not their identity, determines the properties of the gas.
Summary
The kinetic molecular theory is a simple but very effective model that effectively explains ideal gas behavior. The theory assumes that gases consist of widely separated molecules of negligible volume that are in constant motion, colliding elastically with one another and the walls of their container with average velocities determined by their absolute temperatures. The individual molecules of a gas exhibit a range of velocities, the distribution of these velocities being dependent on the temperature of the gas and the mass of its molecules.
Key Equations
- \(\mathrm{KE_{avg}}=\dfrac{3}{2}RT\)
- \(u_\ce{rms}=\sqrt{\dfrac{3RT}{m}}\)
Glossary
- kinetic molecular theory
- theory based on simple principles and assumptions that effectively explains ideal gas behavior
- root mean square velocity ( u rms )
- measure of average velocity for a group of particles calculated as the square root of the average squared velocity
Contributors
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Paul Flowers (University of North Carolina - Pembroke), Klaus Theopold (University of Delaware) and Richard Langley (Stephen F. Austin State University) with contributing authors. Textbook content produced by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Download for free at<EMAIL_ADDRESS>).
- Anna Christianson, Bellarmine University


8.3: Evolution of Mass Communication
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Societies have long had a desire to find effective ways to report environmental dangers and opportunities; circulate opinions, facts, and ideas; pass along knowledge, heritage, and lore; communicate expectations to new members; entertain in an expansive manner; and broaden commerce and trade (Schramm). The primary challenge has been to find ways to communicate messages to as many people as possible. Our need-to-know prompted innovative ways to get messages to the masses.
Before writing, humans relied on oral traditions to pass on information. “It was only in the 1920s-according to the Oxford English Dictionary-that people began to speak of ‘the media’ and a generation later, in the 1950s, of a ‘communication revolution’, but a concern with the means of communication is very much older than that” (Briggs & Burke 1). Oral and written communication played a major role in ancient cultures. These oral cultures used stories to document the past and impart cultural standards, traditions, and knowledge. With the development of alphabets around the world over 5000 years ago, written language with ideogrammatic (picture-based) alphabets like hieroglyphics started to change how cultures communicated.
Still, written communication remained ambiguous and did not reach the masses until the Greeks and Romans resolved this by establishing a syllable alphabet representing sounds. But, without something to write on, written language was inefficient. Eventually, paper making processes were perfected in China, which spread throughout Europe via trade routes (Baran). Mass communication was not quick, but it was far-reaching (Briggs & Burke). This forever altered how cultures saved and transmitted cultural knowledge and values. Any political or social movement throughout the ages can be traced to the development and impact of the printing press and movable metal type (Steinberg). With his technique, Guttenberg could print more than a single page of specific text. By making written communication more available to larger numbers of people, mass printing became responsible for giving voice to the masses and making information available to common folks (McLuhan & Fiore). McLuhan argued that Gutenberg’s evolution of the printing press as a form of mass communication had profound and lasting effects on culture, perhaps the most significant invention in human history.
Mass Communication Study Then
In 1949, Carl I. Hovland, Arthur A. Lumsdaine, and Fred D. Sheffield wrote the book Experiments on Mass Communication. They looked at two kinds of films the Army used to train soldiers. First, they examined orientation and training films such as the “Why We Fight” that were intended to teach facts to the soldiers, as well as generate a positive response from them for going to war. The studies determined that significant learning did take place by the soldiers from the films, but primarily with factual items. The Army was disappointed with the results that showed that the orientation films did not do an effective job in generating the kind of positive responses they desired from the soldiers. Imagine, people were not excited about going to war.
With the transition to the industrial age in the 18th century, large populations headed to urban areas, creating mass audiences of all economic classes seeking information and entertainment. Printing technology was at the heart of modernization WHICH led to magazines, newspapers, the telegraph, and the telephone. At the turn of the century (1900), pioneers like Thomas Edison, Theodore Puskas, and Nikola Tesla literally electrified the world and mass communication. With the addition of motion pictures and radio in the early 1900s, and television in the 40s and 50s, the world increasingly embraced the foundations of today’s mass communication. In the 1970s cable started challenging over-the-air broadcasting and traditional program distribution making the United States a wired nation. In 2014, there was an estimated 116.3 million homes in America that own a TV (Nielson, 2014 Advance National TV Household Universe Estimate). While traditionally these televisions would display only the programs that are chosen to be broadcast by cable providers, more and more households have chosen to become more conscious media consumers and actively choose what they watch through alternative viewing options like streaming video.
Today, smart T.V.’s and streaming devices have taken over the market and they are expected to be in 43% of households by 2016. These new forms of broadcasting have created a digital revolution. Thanks to Netflix and other streaming services we are no longer subjected to advertisements during our shows. Similarly, streaming services like Hulu provide the most recent episodes as they appear on cable that viewers can watch any time. These services provide instant access to entire seasons of shows (which can result in binge watching).
The Information Age eventually began to replace the ideals of the industrial age. In 1983 Time Magazine named the PC the first “Machine of the Year.” Just over a decade later, PCs outsold televisions. Then, in 2006, Time Magazine named “you” as the person of the year for your use of technology to broaden communication. “You” took advantage of changes in global media. Chances are that you, your friends, and family spend hours engaged in data-mediated communication such as emailing, texting, or participating in various form of social media. Romero points out that, “The Net has transformed the way we work, the way we get in contact with others, our access to information, our levels of privacy and indeed notions as basic and deeply rooted in our culture as those of time and space” (88). Social media has also had a large impact in social movements across the globe in recent years by providing the average person with the tools to reach wide audiences around the world for the first time history.
If you’re reading this for a college class, you may belong to the millennial generation. Free wifi, apps, alternative news sources, Facebook, and Twitter have become a way of life. Can you imagine a world without communication technology? How would you find out the name of that song stuck in your head? If you wanted to spontaneously meet up with a friend for lunch, how would you let them know? Mass communication has become such an integral part of our daily lives, most people probably could not function through the day without it. What started as email quickly progressed to chat rooms and basic blogs, such as LiveJournal. From there, we saw the rise and fall of the first widely used social media platform, Myspace. Though now just a shadow of the social media powerhouse it once was, Myspace paved the way for social media to enter the mainstream in forms of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Instagram. Facebook has evolved into a global social media site. It’s available in 37 languages and has over 500 million users. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in 2005 while studying at Harvard University, and it has universally changed the way we communicate, interact, and share our lives with friends, family, and acquaintances. Many people argue about the good and bad qualities of having a Facebook profile, it can be looked at as your “digital footprint” in social media. Profiles log status updates, timelines photos and videos, and archives messages between members. Here’s a short YouTube video from rapper/poet Prince Ea about Facebook and the effects of social media on society.
A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: pb.libretexts.org/introductiontocommunication/?p=156
Another example of mainstream social media is Twitter. Twitter allows for quick 140 character or less status updates (called tweets) for registered users. Tweets can be sent from any device with access to internet in a fast simple way and connects with a number of people, whether they be family, friends or followers. Twitter’s microblogging format allows for people to share their daily thoughts and experiences on a broad and sometimes public stage. The simplicity of Twitter allows it to be used as a tool for entertainment and blogging, but also as a way of organizing social movements and sharing breaking news.
Snapchat is a newer social media platform used by more and more people every day. The function of Snapchat allows the user to send a photo (with the option of text) that expires after a few seconds. It can be looked at like a digital self-destructing note you would see in an old spy movie. Unlike its competitors, Snapchat is used in a less professional manner, emphasizing humor and spontaneity over information efficiency. Contrary to Facebook, there is no pressure to pose, or display your life. Rather, it is more spontaneous. It’s like the stranger you wink at in the street or a hilarious conversation with a best friend.
Mass Communication Study Now
With new forms of communication emerging rapidly, it is important to note the corresponding changes to formal language and slang terms. UrbanDictionary.com is a famous site that can introduce any newbie to the slang world by presenting them various definitions for a term they don’t recognize, describe its background, and provide examples for how it’s used in context. For example, one of the most popular definitions claims that the word ‘ hella ’ is said to originate from the streets of San Francisco in the Hunters Point neighborhood. “It is commonly used in place of ‘really’ or ‘very’ when describing something.”
In this age of information overload, multiple news sources, high-speed connections, and social networking, life seems unimaginable without mass communication. Can you relate to your parents’ stories about writing letters to friends, family, or their significant others? Today, when trying to connect with someone we have a variety ways of contacting them; we can call, text, email, Facebook message, tweet, and/or Snapchat; the options are almost endless and ever-changing. Society today is in the midst of a technological revolution. Only a few years ago families were arguing over landline internet cable use and the constant disruptions from incoming phone calls. Now, we have the ability to browse the web anytime on smart phones. Since the printing press, mass communication has literally changed the ways we think and interact as humans. We take so much for granted as “new technologies are assimilated so rapidly in U.S. culture that historic perspectives are often lost in the process” (Fidler 1). With all of this talk and research about mass communication, what functions does it serve for us?
Contributions and Affiliations
- Survey of Communication Study. Authored by : Scott T Paynton and Linda K Hahn. Provided by : Humboldt State University. Located at : en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Survey_of_Communication_Study. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Image of ancient text. Authored by : Steven Kay. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/8UqWtt . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Image of YouTube graphic. Authored by : Sean MacEntee. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/99Y7br . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?. Authored by : Prince Ea. Located at : youtu.be/dRl8EIhrQjQ. License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Standard YouTube License