Friday, November 15, 2019

Social Media Advertising Becoming Central To Marketing Media Essay

Social Media Advertising Becoming Central To Marketing Media Essay Social media today is simply online media that facilitates social interaction. There are numerous websites, channels and resources that allow advertisements to be distributed reaching millions of people worldwide. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Bebo all contain users that have identities or profiles that display demographic and social information about themselves. These users can create connections with one another by following one another or by becoming friends. This social media interaction and communication with one another has provided advertisers with a new opportunity to infiltrate and display their messages to a vast online audience. For example, Facebook has over 400 million members (Facebook 2010) and 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day. It also boasts over 80 million unique users each month and people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. The reality is that social media delivers the Holy Grail for advertisers on th e Internet: a mass-concentrated audience reaches similar levels to television.  However, successful advertising to this environment is not necessarily straight forward and without problems. There are several concerns regarding some advertisements that invade privacy and publish users identities making the adverts intrusive on peoples online social lives. Furthermore there are cultural concerns related to social media advertising and these will be explored in greater detail later in this essay. Nevertheless, social media advertising is considered to be central to marketing, as the Internet has become a powerful platform for advertisers to reach mass audiences. Social media has become an integral part of modern society. Astonishingly, there are some social network sites with user bases larger than the populations of most world countries. It was therefore only a matter of time before advertisers began to permeate the online social media environment. These adverts could be based specifically on user demographics and interests and this focused selling point appealed to many advertisers. Social networking sites have developed over the past decade and are frequently changing to accommodate new advertising campaigns. However this social medium is still a relatively new environment for advertisers. Dating sites are often considered to be the first social networks, as they seemed to appear around the same time people first started going online. These sites allowed users to create profiles and to contact other users, often sharing photographs. Social media has come a long way since those days and social media advertising has developed into a platfor m that is becoming central to modern marketing campaigns. Nowadays there are social and user-generated sites for numerous different activities and purposes. Social shopping sites, social financial planning sites, sites for people to share their goals and ambitions aswell as sites to meet like minded people. Over the past decade, social media has developed and become an enormous influence on the lives of millions of people worldwide. Whether people need something as simple as a film review or seek answers to personal problems or major life decision, there are social sites out there to provide people with the information they require. Accompanying these sites, in dedicated web space (often within a page), advertisers have ideal opportunities to target new products based on specific user searches or necessities. Social media advertisements continue to evolve on a daily basis. With advertising on major social networks and social media sites making changes and improvements on an almost d aily basis, its sure to keep evolving over the coming years. Advertising is concerned to urge consumers to buy the commodities (or services) that will satisfy existing wants more adequately or that will satisfy new ones (Harris, Seldon 1962) As advertisers seek to promote their products based on popular culture and emotive desires, social media sites provide a perfect vehicle to access a wider range of consumer. Social media advertising is becoming more important to marketing campaigns as the levels of people reached online can often surpass peak television advertising viewership figures (Ord 2008). One way to advertise products on social media sites is to create dedicated pages or profiles where customers and potential customers can become friends or fans of the actual business or brand. These profile pages are like miniature Web pages within social medial sites and can include information about businesses such as locations, official websites, lists of services and how to contact the business directly. Furthermore businesses often include dynamic content, for instance, comments left by customers or fans, an RSS feed, an up-to-date blog and even special offers or sale details. Other adverts include Pay-per-click (PPC) ad s where advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. However advertising on social media is not only about clicks or click rate, its about reaching a huge worldwide audience. Social media advertising is becoming so central to advertisers nowadays as this is a great way to reach mass audiences and in terms of audience size, there are several Super Bowls every day on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Click rates offer an indication to page views and social media sites have a large overlapping audience that hang around them all day, every day. Television would have a low click rate too if an ad campaign were measured over the course of a months worth of programs on the same network, assuming you could click the screen(Ord 2008). People also flick between social media adverts much like tuning in and out of TV adverts. Twitter grew more than 1500% in mid-2009 and Facebook has almost caught up with Google in web traffic (Sav 2010). In April 2010, the company Nielsen (audience measurement firm that tracks TV, internet, and radio usage worldwide) published results of a 6-month research campaign into usage patterns of users on Facebook. Nielsen found that Engagement ads (see figure 1.1) on average generated a 10% increase in ad recall, a 4% increase in brand awareness and a 2% increase in purchase intent among users who saw them compared with a control group with similar demographics or characteristics who didnt (Wauters 2010). Figure 1.1 Different Facebook adverts with varying levels of success (c/o Nielsen) According to Nielsen, the increase in recall rose to 16% when adverts displayed friends who were fans (Adverts with social context figure 1.1), and this jumped to 30% when these ads appeared in other friends newsfeeds (Organic advert impression figure 1.1). This is an example of how advertisements are being modified and adapted to generate maximum interest from the target audience. In spite of this, there also remains the belief that users will subconsciously continue to ignore attempts to intrude into private social media environments. Many critics maintain that advertising exists primarily to create demand among consumers. People have certain types of wants and needs, and they are perfectly capable of discovering for themselves what they are (Leiss, Botterill, Jhally, Kline, 2005) The consumer now appears to have the power of communication and the traditional business to consumer marketing model is replaced with consumer-to-consumer conversations over social media sites. The problem for advertisers nowadays is how to insert their own brands into those conversations. The Internet has become a powerful platform for advertisers to reach mass audiences via user-generated video too. According to data collected by comScore, online video views from U.K. users grew 37% in 12 months. The measurement firm estimates users streamed a total of 5.5 billion videos in February 2010, up from an estimated 4 billion in February 2009. This is another reason why social media advertisement is considered so important in modern marketing. Advertisers envisage short commercials with each video streamed, thus creating a platform for the Internet to compete with broadcast TV in delivering commercial views. Additionally on the advertising sub-page for YouTube, companies are provided useful tips and pointers to create a successful advertising campaign on the massive ad-sharing network. According to a Google spokesperson, there is tremendous scope for capturing the attention of an audience that surpasses Americas Super Bowl, the most watched TV event in that country each yea r. As Google owns YouTube it can feature in-video advertisements that appear at the bottom of certain videos (often popular videos with over 5000 hits). These adverts are not only content-specific but also location-specific aswell. This has great financial ramifications as online video advertising has risen 9% to $7.9 billion over a 12-month period (Skepys 2010). Furthermore search-based advertising through Google reached $11.4 billion, an annual rise of just under 6%. With well over 13 billion YouTube views in March 2010 alone (Skepys 2010), advertisers could well be reaping the rewards of these in-video promotions as a result of augmented online video views. This is another example of how social media advertising has become so important to marketing schemes today as the potential financial rewards are substantial. However the future success of social media advertisements is threatened by potential social and cultural problems that need to be properly addressed. A general concern with advertising on social networking sites is that people that use these sites are only interested in interaction with the people who they care about and their attention lies in communication with friends and family. People rarely pay attention to advertisements, as they are not relevant to what people are doing at that specific time. This is where Google ad-words are most successful, as people searching for products are inundated with places to buy that product as a result of optimised advertisement placement on Google. In contrast Facebooks average click through rate on their social advertisements is just 0.08% (Agishtein 2010), this means that for every 10,000 times an advert is shown, it will only be clicked 8 times. It can be assumed that social network users are ignoring these advertisements on mass. These social advertisements are publicised by demographics and target the specific user based on interests and information provided in their own profile. Despite this focused advertising, the products or services promoted are ultimately not related to the social activities people participate in during online social-networking sessions. Other social advertisements create additional ad messages based on purchases or interests that are viewable to the public and friends (see Organic ad impressions figure 1.1). However many people are uncomfortable with this as it violates users privacy and control which is critical for social network users to feel safe online. Consequently, advertising must be injected into online conversations. For advertisements to be successful, the users ideally should want to talk about and share advertising messages with their social network friends. If advertisers hijack those conversations by not respecting the users desire for privacy and control, the adverts will backfire. This is ultimately bad for the advertiser, the social network and the user. The question remains, how do advertisers insert their messages into the conversation between friends on social network sites and social environments? According to Seth Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Social Media Networks (an ad consultancy firm focused on monetizing the social web), Social media is killing Internet advertisingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the problem is, a few years ago, people started to become more interested in each other and less interested in the ads. This view is supported by the relatively low click through rates on social networking sites like Facebook and e xplains usage patterns whereby users visit social network sites to primarily interact with friends and rarely pay attention to advertisements. There is a danger that social advertisements will follow similar patterns to Internet banner ads that show an even lower click through rate on social media sites of 0.04%(Corbin 2008). Banner ads fail because social network users are accustomed to seeing them, and ignoring them has become a reflex. Advertisers have therefore aimed to try new innovations and marketing schemes to try and generate greater interest in this enormous window for consumers. One such scheme is the integration of advertising within social network applications. Applications are becoming central to the social networking experience. The success of these can be measured directly in the number of downloads and monitored by how they are shared between friends and family. A recent example of advertisement integrated into an application was the BMW application intended for Facebook. The intention of this application was to promote BMWs new line the 1 Series and provide the user with an interactive, virtual joyride to various worldwide destinations. Furthermore, users could personalise their cars by changing colours and adding modifications. BMW aimed to create an online community with this application, centralised around the brand. This allowed Facebook members to interact with the product on an entirely opt-in basis (Corbin 2008). However, this opt-in element has become increasingly critical and has led to cultural problems relating to social media advertising. On November 6th 2009, Facebook launched a service called Beacon. This was an advertisement system that sent data from external websites to Facebook, and permitted targeted advertisements with greater accuracy whilst allowing users to share activities with friends and publish these activities on other friends newsfeeds. However, this system provoked major uproar when users started complaining that Beacon was violating their privacy. Since that incident, the ethical and cultural concerns have been heightened with concerns over profile-based ad targeting. CEO of Social Media Networks, Seth Goldstein states Beacon was a setback, not just for Facebook, but for the whole industry. Engagement with modern social advertising remains difficult to measure but the downloadable application installations are easily tallied up and also whether it has been passed along to friends or not. Additionally these profile-based adverts frequently portray media stereotypes. These stereotypes can be problemat ic and instigate cultural tensions. Often they reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations and transform assumptions about particular groups of people into realities. Ultimately this could perpetuate social prejudice and inequality. More often than not, the groups being stereotyped have little to say about how they are represented. Furthermore many people would deny that they are being influenced by advertisements and regard them at worst as lies, at best idiot triviality. People are considered to be sceptical of advertising however, they might find it more difficult to resist the more general social image or message presented with advertising campaigns located in social media channels. (Dyer 1982) Specific media stereotypes provide problems for advertisers using social media environments, however it is not just stereotypes where potential issues lie with advertising through this medium. There is a raised level of concern for parents as marketers look to interact with children through the aforementioned social networking sites, online-video sites and gaming sites. Advertising on Television is meticulously regulated with advertising standards, yet the Internet is so far avoiding such regulations making it easier to target children with brand positioning adverts (Finklehorn 2009). Furthermore there are anxieties that children and under-age audiences are engaging with advertising on social networks for alcohol brands. It is evident that new guidelines and regulations are required to protect children aswell as the publics privacy. New guidelines for advertising on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are being proposed in the UK. Under these new proposals the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) would control digital marketing to ensure that it is responsible, legal, honest and truthful (Bryant 2010). These new regulations are scheduled for implementation later in 2010 and a clear mandate of these new guidelines state that first and foremost consumers and children will be protected. Location will also become more important to social media and the future of social media advertising. According to Debra Willamson, eMarketer senior analyst, brand monitoring will increase sophistication so that companies can begin to understand the why of consumer chatter aswell as the who, what and when. It can also be expected that companies will strive to provide additional services in social channels that essentially aim to gather greater understanding of the market and grab the attention of mass media audiences. Social media interaction and communication with one another has provided advertisers with a new opportunity to infiltrate and display their messages to a vast online audience. There is some evidence to suggest that advertising plays a part in defining reality in a general or anthropological sense. It projects the goals and values that are consistent with and conductive to the consumer economy and socialises us into thinking that we can buy a way of life as well as goods. (Dyer 1982) The goals and desires that Dyer refers to here are achievable by purchasing the intended products and services advertised to users of social media sites. However some adverts use media stereotyping to target users and the relatively low click through rate of adverts on social networking sites suggests that these types of intrusive adverts are largely being ignored. This coupled with other privacy issues could potentially leave social media advertisements following in the same fateful path as Internet banner ads. However the enormous scope for mass audiences that could result in substantial financial reward is too great for advertisers to ignore. They consider social media advertising central to marketing as nowadays this is a great way to reach mass audiences and in terms of audience size as there are several Super Bowls every day on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. With online-video streaming up 37% in the last year and an estimated 5 billion videos being streamed per month, there are multiple opportunities for products to be advertised based on video content and even location. With advertising regulations due to be published later this year, greater control can be seized over online social media advertisements. These guidelines will prevent children viewing inappropriate material and also protect peoples privacy being exploited by intrusive web systems monitoring page history and detailed consumer interests. There are still tremendous opportunities for social media advertising in the future, so long as advertisers adhere to these new guidelines and continue to persevere with new marketing schemes. The development of new initiatives, such as advertising in applications on social network sites in addition to the continued pursuit of subtle advertisements in consumer-to-consumer conversations, will see products reach a wider range of consumer and consequently result in substantial financial profits for advertisers on social media sites.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay --

THE JULIA GABRIEL ONLINE MEDIA BRAND VOICE Our brand voice captures our unique personality and shares it with the world. It distinguishes us from the others and informs them of everything we do, everything we write and everything we say. It’s how our audiences hear us and how they remember us, and it’s how we share our bold vision for the future. Good communication is more than what we say; it’s how we say it. While having an online social media presence is exciting, we need to remember that whichever platform we engage our audiences on, it becomes a brand media â€Å"storefront† that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This constant connectivity makes it more important than ever for us maintain brand standards on social networks, as well as all forms of digital marketing. We need to remember that while interacting in social networks can provide efficient channels to communicate the uniqueness, value and personality of our brand to a very specific audience, there are expectations and responsibilities that Julia Gabriel Centres need to be aware of, to ensure that our brand is protected. The same considerations that apply to our messaging and communications in conventional media still apply in the online social media space. This means engaging our target audience with a consistent brand experience and messaging, that is not only in the right context, but also communicated with the intended voice, look and feel that is consistent with our brand identity. Have fun, but be smart. Use sound judgment and common sense, adhere to the Company’s values, and the same Company policies that you follow in the offline world. BASIC SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES (FACEBOOK ORIENTED) Responsible Engagement While JGE is still exploring social ... ...nd when necessary to maintain conversations. ï‚ § Brainstorm ideas across Centres to decide on appropriate engagement approaches that can be taken out across all the markets ï‚ § Hold regular meetings internally to discuss bi-monthly content plans where new ideas on contests, and activities can be shared and discussed ï‚ § Have an online content approval process in place, particularly for major campaigns such as competitions and promotions to align activities with the brand values and positioning ï‚ § Consider agreeing on a planned content ratio of 60% centralised and 40% localised content for a balance of consistency and spontaneity. Countless conversations take place online every day, and we want our Centres, who are our brand ambassadors, to join those conversations, represent our brand well, and share the optimistic and positive spirit of the JGE group of companies.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula

Recently we were told by our teacher to pay a visit at our campus on the occasion of a science fair giving each one of us one ticket. Accordingly, I went there and enjoyed a lot. What I saw was a fantastic arrangement of exhibits done by the students. I saw miniatures mostly about agriculture. One of the unique creations was a miniature of Terrace Farming, it is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming.As we all know, one of the popular terraces is he Banana Rice Terraces (Haggard-Haggard Palatal). Some of the miniature was describing about Contour Plowing it is plowing across a slope following its elevation contour lines. This is the kind of agricultural solution used by most farmers as a tool for weed control, prevent soil erosion, and in some cases to promote plant growth. There was also a miniature about Interloping meaning growing two different veg etables in an area at the same time to save space. On the other miniature it was about how to farm organically.According to a book that I have read, eating organic odds may in fact, reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and cancer for individuals who abstain from consuming products produced by conventional farming methods. I also saw a miniature about animal farming. Mostly the main products of this Industry are meat, milk and eggs for human consumption. Here's to other miniature about urban Vile which pictures out the setting of an urban place or what we call a city where you can see tall buildings and establishments and a large crowd of people.In the contrary there was a miniature with details of a Rural place where It Is located outside the city with a low population density and small settlements. And lastly, one object drew my attention. It was about family farming. Like In my hometown we have a small farm at the back of our house, and planting Is one of our ways of bonding during weekends. One of the Important features of family farms Is the Intimate connection between families and farms which creates vital links between a farm and the food being grown. I miss home. I spent full 30 minutes rooming around the science fair enjoying such wonderful creations.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Best Scholarship Essay Topics for You Part 1

Best Scholarship Essay Topics for You Part 1 25 Most Promising Scholarship Essay Topics Part 1 The Most Promising Scholarship Essay Topics All undergraduate students know the difficulty of earning scholarship points. Nevertheless, if you choose good scholarship essay topics, these difficulties wont hurt you. These topics will help you start writing, follow the format and create a great essay. If you use them, you will definitely succeed and obtain a scholarship from the university of your dreams! Unmatched Topics for a Scholarship Essay Why did I become a dedicated and diligent student and what experiences encourage me to continue my education? How did I improve the atmosphere in my classroom by becoming a school policymaker? How I graduated from college, despite being extremely poor. How I earned my first $1,000 after becoming a school entrepreneur. How I traveled for a year and learned diverse, unique cultures around the world. How I left my comfort zone, started a new life and succeeded. Why scholarships are unfair to students but are still required for their success. Why students have huge college debts today and how scholarship can help solve this problem. I know the value of discipline, and I am ready to use it to succeed in my studies. I have a vast experience due to being a foreign volunteer. However, the whole life is still ahead of me. Dreaming motivates us to move forward and attain the highest goals, so every person should have a dream, no matter how unattainable it may be. How entering the college will help me resolve some of the most urgent global problems.To be continued

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Job Seekers Do This Before LinkedIns Next Update

Job Seekers Do This Before LinkedIns Next Update Edited and published with permission from Bridget Weide Brooks. In September 2016, LinkedIn announced a redesign of its desktop (non-app) user interface. The announcement noted, â€Å"This is the largest redesign since LinkedIn’s inception.† The design update is expected to bring the desktop experience closer to what users of the LinkedIn mobile app are used to seeing. In the past, when LinkedIn has refreshed its user interface, it has removed features or moved them to be available to paid subscription accounts only. And with a forthcoming redesign imminent, LinkedIn has already announced that the Notes and Tags feature will only be available to people with Sales Navigator. There might be more changes coming as well that could result in a loss of your data, so I recommend that you back up your LinkedIn profile right now! This exercise will take you 5-10 minutes at most. Below is an official email from LinkedIn regarding the removal of the Notes and Tags features: At LinkedIn, were always looking for ways to simplify and improve your experience helping you be more productive and successful. This sometimes means removing features that arent heavily used by most of our members to invest in others that members tell us offer greater value. As such, were removing the Notes and Tags features on the LinkedIn profile, which allowed you to add notes and tags to your connections, to help manage your professional relationships. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, so please know that you can download this information through March 31, 2017. As an active user of Notes and Tags, you will find similar functionality in LinkedIns Sales Navigator. To see if Sales Navigator is right for you, we are offering you a free three-month trial*, which will allow you to transfer and view your existing notes and tags. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a product we launched a couple of years ago and is targeted at sales professionals it lets you keep track of your existing relationships, research your network, and find new leads with tailored recommendations. Below youll find instructions on how to download and transfer your data as well as information regarding your free Sales Navigator trial. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions. LinkedIn There are two things to do: (1) Create a PDF of your profile. This will save the content in your profile only (no photos or graphics). Here’s how: Log into your account and click on â€Å"Edit Profile† under the â€Å"Profile† menu. Next, hover over the arrow to the right of the blue â€Å"View profile as† button and it will show a dropdown menu. Choose â€Å"Save to PDF† and it will immediately save a PDF of your LinkedIn profile to the default download location on your computer. You’ll be able to open the PDF and view your content. (2) Archive your LinkedIn data. This will create spreadsheet files (in .csv format) of your LinkedIn account - your connections, contacts, email inbox, positions, and profile. It will also include a â€Å"Rich Media† folder with images included on your profile. In contrast to the PDF of your LinkedIn profile, the spreadsheet files will allow you to copy and paste your data into your LinkedIn profile, should you ever need to. In addition, if LinkedIn removes sections with the user interface redesign, you will be able to add this information back into your profile. You can find the full listing of what is included in the data archives: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/50191/accessing-your-account-data?lang=en Here’s how to get your data archive. Note: This feature is only available using the desktop version of LinkedIn, not using the mobile app. Also, because your backup may contain private information, do not download your data using a public computer. Click on your profile photo in the upper right hand corner of your LinkedIn profile. On the drop-down menu, click on the blue â€Å"Manage† button next to â€Å"Privacy Settings.† Once on the â€Å"Privacy Settings† page, scroll down to â€Å"Getting an archive of your data.† Click on that link. That will open a drop-down menu. You will be able to choose whether you want a â€Å"fast file,† which includes selected information from your account or the â€Å"fast file with other data,† which includes account activity and history. Choose the option you want and click the blue â€Å"Request archive† button. I recommend getting the full archive (â€Å"Fast file plus other data). Once you’ve made your choice, you will be prompted to enter your password. Once you’ve done that, click the blue â€Å"Done† button. You will receive confirmation that your request has been received. You’ll receive a notification email with a download link. When you click the download link in your email, you will be taken back to your LinkedIn profile, where you will find a blue â€Å"Download† link. You have 72 hours to download the file. LinkedIn will send a second email when the rest of the data file is ready (within 24 hours). Clicking the â€Å"Download† button will create a zip folder. Once you unzip it, you will see the .csv files with your connections, contacts, inbox, positions, profile, and registration information, plus a folder containing your Rich Media. For your first-level connections, you’ll receive a file that contains First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Current Company, Current Position, and Tags. If you get an error when trying to request your data archive, try it again using a different Internet browser, or try it again later. If you use a premium LinkedIn Sales Navigator account, export your notes and tags to Sales Navigator. It is rumored that the notes and tags feature is going away with the user interface update.Log into your Sales Navigator account. Move your cursor over your photo in the top right corner of the Sales Navigator home page and select â€Å"Settings.† Under â€Å"Import LinkedIn.com,† click â€Å"Import to Sales Navigator† next to â€Å"Notes Tags.† Now that you’ve seen how easy this is to do, make it a habit to export your data - once a quarter is probably sufficient if you don’t add a lot of new connections regularly, or once a month if you do. Save Save Save Save

Monday, November 4, 2019

Health care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Health care - Essay Example The judge declared parts of Affordable Health Care Act inconsistent with the intentions of the constitution which guarantees all citizens the right to choose, therefore, according to the judge, the act was unconstitutional. In his ruling, Federal Judge Henry Hudson hinged his judgment on whether the government the mandate to force every individual citizen to purchase health insurance. Based on this opinion, the federal judge rejected the government's argument that to purchase health insurance was a form of tax. The judge noted that in putting in place the Affordable Health Care Act, the act’s regulatory scheme was conceived as an application of Commerce Clause powers. The federal judge rejected any attempt to stretch the Commerce Clause in order to allow the government mandate the insurance purchases, claiming that such a move would open the gate to unrestrained federal power. For the federal government’s penalty due to noncompliance to be effective under the law, the j udge opines that it must aim to affect a legitimate exercise of the Commerce Clause. Further, Federal Judge Henry Hudson sees the Affordable Health Care Act being about more that the issue of designing a scheme of universal health insurance coverage or regulation of insurance business. According to the judge, the core of the matter is an individual's right to choose to take part in the scheme. Support his stand, the federal judge notes that the Constitution had given congress specific powers. Therefore, the judge claims that power that the constitution does not give the federal government is reserved to the states while those not outlawed are reserved to the citizens. Even as Federal Judge Henry Hudson declared the Affordable Health Care Act unconstitutional, Judge George Caram Steeh found the act constitutional in the ruling of the Thomas More Law Center v. Obama case in which the judge gave an order denying plaintiff’s motion. In his opinion, Judge Steeh noted that a refusa l to get insurance amounted to an example of an activity that affect interstate commerce to a large extend. According to the judge, those who selects not to get insurance cover have in effect, made an active decision to pay for their medical expenses from their pockets. This decision, the judge added, had an impact on taxpayers, health care providers, and the insured citizens who will have to foot the bill for those who do not take insurance cover. Further, Judge Steeh claim although the matter on constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act presented an issue of first impression, there was a rational ground to make conclusions that decisions not to take insurance cover increased the cost of coverage, therefore affecting interstate commerce. From the point of views presented by Federal Judge Henry Hudson and judge Steeh, it is my opinion that Federal Judge Henry Hudson presents a better argument. The government should recognize its citizen’s right of choice. To penaliz e those that do not take the insurance cover is paramount to dictating to them the kind of medicine they should take when they get sick. People have the right to decide the kind of treatment they need and at what time. Although it is a noble effort that would guarantee medical service to many deserving citizens, the federal government, through the Affordable Health Care Act has no legal right to force citizens to take medical cover. If the

Friday, November 1, 2019

Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assessment - Essay Example A closed book exam, for example, requires the person being examined to rely on memory to answer the questions. Examinations are also formal or informal. Formal tests normally result in test scores or grades. A standardized test is a type of exam that is usually consistently administered and scored for legal defensibility (Thissen and Wainer, 2001). This type of exam is used in professional certification, education, psychology, military as well as many other fields. On the other hand, non-standardized tests are flexible in format and scope and also variable in significance and scope, as they depend on the person who has set the exam. Why this Assessment Instrument was Chosen This assessment instrument was chosen because it is a universal tool that is applied in many parts of the world. Moreover, it is approved and recognized by many countries, professional and academic bodies. Examination is also the best instrument of assessment because it is very valid and reliable. Almost every per son must undergo through an examination in many areas of life and hence, it is well known and appreciated by people of all races, ages, gender or social backgrounds. Importance of Examination Examination, as an assessment mode started in china and later spread to other parts of the world. Though it was historically used to select people who would serve in the government, it was later applied in education to determine the skills, knowledge and other qualifications of the candidates. ... grades from standardized tests are very useful because they determine if an individual qualifies for a certain job, professional or academic program (Phelps, 2005). In some countries, additionally, standardized tests are used to manage their institution’s quality. For instance, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) applies (PISA), Program for International Student Assessment, to evaluate certain knowledge and skills of students who may be participating from many countries. Furthermore, Phelps, (2005) states that specific governing bodies use standardized exams to determine if the participant has the permission to practice a certain profession, use a certain job title, or claim competency in certain set skills. For instance, a candidate who wishes to be a lawyer is normally required to successfully pass a bar tests by governing bodies like governmental bar licensing agency. Exams are also used to regulate immigration in certain countries. In Australi a, for example, standardized tests are used to award citizenship to immigrants after passing the citizenship test. Competition is another importance of exams. Tests are used to select participants who have success potentials in a competition like school contests. Finally, examinations are used by social or other groups to select individuals who would join their groups. Mensa International, for instance, is a society with high IQ and requires individuals to at least score 98th percentile supervised IQ test to become members (Thissen, and Wainer, 2001). Validity and Reliability Examination is very reliable as an assessment tool especially in education and other professional qualifications. Thissen and Wainer, (2001) believes that standardized exams in education should be continued because it is