Supreme Court case that focuses on Criminal Law Research Paper

Supreme Court case that focuses on Criminal Law - Research Paper Example On October 31, 2001, the District Court reversed its’ decision and granted him the writ of habeas corpus, after determining that his reasoning for requesting it was that his sentence of death was unconstitutional. Martin Horn, Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections argued that the â€Å"Supreme Court precedent did not require an outcome contrary to that reached by the state courts (536 U. S. ____ (2002). However, several other appellate and circuit courts found discrepancies in the way in which the case was handled and that it violated several Constitutional Amendments. One of the major points raised in attempts to repeal the death sentence was a case involving Teague v. Lane. The reason for stating Teague was to declare its purpose regarding the state’s ruling on criminal convictions depending upon the constitutional standards at the time of the actual proceedings. Amendments were made to the Teague ruling stating that these protectionist goals should be applied retroactively. The Supreme Court determined that "federal courts must address the Teague question when it is properly argued by the government." The Court then proposed the matter of Caspari v. Bohlen, that Teagues "nonretroactivity principle prevents a federal court from granting habeas corpus relief to a state prisoner based on a" new rule, and thus that "if the State ... argue[s] that the defendant seeks the benefit of a new rule of constitutional law, the court must apply Teague before considering the merits of the claim." The Supreme Court then decided that it was necessary for them to reconsider Banks’ sentence according to the Teague case and that the case of Mills v. Maryland was more important (Justia US Law 2003). The final determination however was that it was unnecessary to rule retroactively regardless of the circumstances that might have made it an arguable point. The Supreme Court ruled that

Religious visit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Religious visit - Essay Example For a class assignment, I visited St. Margaret’s Church at 1565 East Washington highway, Monticello Fl, 32344 (U.S. 90 east). This is a Catholic Church with the Parish consisting of Catholics living in the vicinity of the Washington highway. The purpose of the visit was to attend a Catholic Mass and experience the spiritual emotions of the congregation. Since Sunday services in Churches are usually filled to capacity, I thought it better to visit on a Saturday when only very devoted Catholics would be attending the daily Mass. The day was bright and sunny when I started from home and arrived at the church at 10.45 am. The first thing that struck me was the simplicity of its construction and the austere beauty of the church. It is a stone building, with a slanting gabled roof. The entrance was through an oval shaped, large mahogany door which seemed to welcome worshippers and added to the beauty of the Church. The inside of the church was quite simple, with pews for accommodating 250 or little more parishioners for one service. The people in the church were mostly middle class working people, with some pensioners also in attendance. There were an equal number of men and women. It was a mixed lot with Caucasians, Asians, and some Black worshippers. As this was a Saturday, most of the pews were empty and there were only some 35 worshippers present at this morning’s mass. ... The church premises included a vestry which was attached to the church and houses for the pastor and other lay persons who tended to the affairs of the church. There were 2 classrooms for Sunday classes for the younger children, and another classroom where boys and girls prepared for their first communion and later for their confirmation. There is a community hall with the church, where Parishioners meet to discuss the affairs of the church and to plan the various church programs, especially special worship programs such as Christmas, New Year, Easter and to celebrate the feast of St. Margaret (Brom). The organ was an old pipe organ which played during psalms and hymns. The choir comprised of some youngsters and some middle aged people who had been participating in the choir since they were young. Other outstanding features included a basketball court where young parishioners played in the evening and on holidays. Some trees surrounded the church, which provided welcome shade to pari shioners who liked to chat after services before heading for home. The lawn was green and well maintained. Most events and celebrations, such as wedding receptions, family picnics etc were held in the lawn. On Sundays, children played in the lawn while their elders attended Mass in the Church. I thought it better to arrive a few minutes before the service started. I was warmly greeted by Pastor Rev. Viet Tan Huynh, who is the parish priest. He asked if I was a recent member, and when I explained that I was here for just this one service, and why I was here. The church was adequately lit, and the pews were clean and gleaming. Everything was in perfect order. Pastor Rev. Viet Tan Huynh started the mass with

Written exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Written exam - Essay Example A good example is where giraffes with short necks die after short shrubs die out, and after some generations all the giraffes will have long necks. Mutation is the mechanism whereby a DNA gene structure in a species changes with some units being deleted, inserted or re-arranged in such a way that it affects or alters subsequent generations. An example is an albinism genetic anomaly (Wool, 67). Cladogenesis is the evolution that is brought about by the splitting of a lineage. This is the separation of a gene pool into two or more gene pools. Anagenesis, which is also known as phyletic evolution, is that which occurs within a lineage. It is basically the collective changes that completely alter a species into a new species with different characteristics (Wool, 74). The phylogenetic tree that uses ‘prosimian vs. anthropoid’ is different from the cladogram, which differentiates ‘strepsirhine vs. haplorhine’, in that it shows the ancestors together with the degrees of relationship and the time that the taxa lived contrary to cladograms, which only show the degree of relationship and a hypothetical ancestor (Jurmain et al., 68) A good example of this is propithecus diadema, also known as diademed sifaka. It is found in Madagascar. Its adaptation for grooming is what makes it special from other lemurs. It has a toothcomb and a toilet claw in its second toe mainly for grooming. The white-headed capuchin, which is a new world monkey found in Central and South America, is in the family of platyrrhines. This type of capuchin is special in the fact that it is dominated by both an alpha female and an alpha male. The Zanzibar red colobus found in the main island of Zanzibar, Unguja, is a good example of primates in this clade. The males of the Zanzibar red colobus are very social and defend their group in unison and even groom each other between meals. The gibbons are among the most endangered primates on earth and they fall under this

Women and poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Women and poverty - Essay Example With the poverty levels in women growing at a faster rate than those of men, different authors have sought to look for alternatives to solving the problem. With the governmental agencies seemingly relaxing on addressing the issue, it remains the efforts of researchers to provide the solution to the problem. In Canada, Burkhauser and Sabia seek to offer solutions with the intention of minimizing the high poverty levels among women by bridging the wage gap between men and women. They observe that only men occupy big jobs in organizations, with women assuming the role of support personnel. Although more women now have jobs, the fact that they do not occupy large positions in these firms contributes to the wide poverty gap. According to them, the best way of solving the problem of high poverty levels in women is through increasing the minimum wage levels among women in the society. They argue that despite the fact that people work in big organizations, they have low incomes, which when p assed over to the family, creates a vicious cycle of poverty in the society. The journal addresses on the means available to reduce the level of poverty. While other articles propose on the means of reducing the level of poverty among women in the society, this particular article offers guidelines on how raising the minimum wage levels for women as the most significant solution to the problem. The government, while addressing the problem of poverty in Canada, have even influenced the politics of neoliberalism in Canada.... With the governmental agencies seemingly relaxing on addressing the issue, it remains the efforts of researchers to provide solution to the problem. In Canada, Burkhauser and Sabia seek to offer solutions with the intention of minimizing the high poverty levels among women by bridging the wage gap between men and women. They observe that only men occupy big jobs in organizations, with women assuming the role of support personnel. Although more women now have jobs, the fact that they do not occupy large positions in these firms contributes to the wide poverty gap. According to them, the best way of solving the problem of high poverty levels in women is through increasing the minimum wage levels among women in the society. They argue that despite the fact that people work in big organizations, they have low incomes, which when passed over to the family, creates a vicious cycle of poverty in the society. The journal addresses on the means available to reduce the level of poverty among t he women in the society. While other articles propose on the means of reducing the level of poverty among women in the society, this particular article offers guidelines on how raising the minimum wage levels for women as the most significant solution to the problem. Coulter, Kendra. â€Å"Women, Poverty Policy, and the Production of Neoliberal Politics in Ontario, Canada.† Journal of Women, Politics & Policy (2009): 30.1. Print. The government, while addressing the problem of poverty in Canada, have even influenced the politics of neo-liberalism in Canada. Coulter (24) observes, â€Å"In confronting inadequate social policies and the political terrain on which the policies exist, these women exposed the difficulties of challenging both neoliberal policy and political

Case study2 Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Study2 - Case Study Example he teacher needs to keep active for as long as possible in order to prolong her life, and this is only easy when the teacher is allowed to engage teaching which has been her job for long. It means that the teacher really has no option than to just continue teaching even though it has been realized that her output in class with her students is declining by the day. This is also a serious matter given that the students also should not get low marks or underperform at the expense of retaining an under-performing teacher. However, as a good principal, there is the need to balance the needs such that both the students and the teacher will not have to lose. The teacher can be allowed to teach for a few hours the students be given a replacement to help them pay for the lost time. If the teacher is left to continue teaching, at least this will help her family to be able to find some ease in dealing with her health issue. As a Principal, it would be wise to find more information about such a case from the doctors who specialize in such health issues before making any decision. This will help the principal to find out more about the disease in order to make an informed decision that will be of ethical value to the teacher and not go against the interest of the students. In case the principal does not want to consult the doctor or a victim of the situation, they can still get the information related to such issues from the internet, newspapers and magazines. Through this way, the principal can know how the victims of such cases are supposed to be treated and taken care of. Instead of allowing the teacher to teach full time, there are alternatives that can be applied. She can teach for fewer hours, leaving the rest of the time for the other teacher to help the students. Alternatively, the teacher can be allowed to work in other departments such as disciplinary or counseling. This will be done after being in touch with the employers or the supervisors who will assess and

E. Major Issues and Concerns Essay Example for Free

E. Major Issues and Concerns Essay Our world is richer than ever before, but it is also marked by enormous inequalities, both within and between countries. The average annual income of someone living in the world’s richest country, Luxembourg, is more than one hundred times larger than that of the average citizen of Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest. Such huge differences in living standards should be a matter of great concern, because they reflect serious inequalities in life opportunities. This calls for a robust policy response at both the national and international levels, so that all countries can achieve the Millennium Development Goals and other agreed development objectives (United Nations, Economic and Social Development Affairs, â€Å"2006† iii) . The process of globalization has not yet closed the income gap between poor and rich countries. On the contrary, the way in which world markets operate has been an important contributing factor to the rise in global income inequality. Richer countries, for instance, tend to have preferential access to capital markets, to attract more foreign direct investment, and to be more resilient than poorer countries in responding to shifts in global commodity markets. Efforts to reduce global inequality can promote growth and stability, and can help avert economic and social crises and even political instability. Part of the observed growth divergence is attributable to gaps in public investment in, and spending on, infrastructure and human development in these countries. Investments in infrastructure and human capital are necessary for growth. i) The need for improved infrastructure An adequate level of infrastructure is a necessary condition for the productivity of firms. It is difficult to imagine an economy without telephones, electricity or a road network. By its very nature, infrastructure is characterized by indivisibilities and countries will need to build up a threshold or minimum level of infrastructure (say, a minimum network of roads) to make a difference for economy-wide productivity growth. To reach that threshold, countries will need to sustain substantial public investment levels over prolonged periods of time. The failure to do so explains partly why Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have fallen behind the East Asian countries that have sustained infrastructural investment. East Asian economies invested more in the quality and coverage of physical infrastructure. In sharp contrast, Latin American countries have witnessed a decline in infrastructural investment since the 1980s as a result of increased fiscal austerity. This has led to significant differences in the quality and availability of infrastructure. Since the 1960s, the road density in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa has barely increased, while it has tripled in East Asia. Also, the availability of telephone lines in East Asia is twice as great as that in Latin America and 10 times greater than in sub-Saharan Africa. The empirical evidence indicates that lagging infrastructural development could account for as much as one third of the widening income differentials between East Asian and Latin American countries during the 1980s and 1990s. ii) Human development Some empirical studies suggest that developing countries could catch up with the developed world if only they attained increased levels of human development. The links between growth and human development are complex, however. There are large disparities in indicators of human well-being, such as life expectancy and educational attainment. However, the world has seen more convergence among countries in terms of improvements in health and education outcomes than in terms of improvements in per capita incomes. The evidence in this report indicates that countries with a successful economic growth performance all had relatively high levels of human development at the beginning of their sustained growth process and showed substantial improvements in education and health as average incomes improved. Conversely, however, not all countries with relatively higher levels of human development managed to achieve high long-term economic growth rates. Human development is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for sustained economic growth. Lifting other constraints on economic growth and structural change will be necessary to create opportunities for a better-educated population. The dynamic creation of decent and productive employment is the crucial link in this regard. Recently President Bush unveiled a broad proposal to boost US economic competitiveness by injecting more than 136 billion dollars into research and education over the next decade. The programme would promote the private-sector investment in innovation and strive to make US children better in mathematics and science. The initiative is aimed at strengthening US economic leadership in the face of growing competition from countries like China and India. The President said that â€Å"The American economy is pre-eminent — but we cannot afford to be complacent,† (CNN). In fact, no economy can afford to be complacent when it comes to supporting the fundamental cause of education and human development.

Is Halls Encoding Decoding Model Still Useful Media Essay

Is Halls Encoding Decoding Model Still Useful Media Essay Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse was written by Stuart Hall in 1974, which was critically acclaimed in mass communications research and paved the way for many academics to build upon the theoretical model of encoding and decoding between audience and receiver. Messages are sent and received between the audience and the receiver, but the meaning of the text is dependent on the audiences cultural background, to accept, reject or negotiate the text with a margin of understanding, (Hall: 1974). This analysis of the model of research will examine the usefulness of Halls theory on contemporary mass communications research, and will follow the next generations of audience research and the application of the model in current media today. Firstly it is necessary to recognise that the encoding decoding model has much older theoretical roots. One of the main theoretical roots of the model (critical theory) referred to the post 1933 emigration of scholars from the Marxist school of applied Social Research in Frankfurt to the United States (Mcquail: 2000). The school was established to understand the failures of Marxism, and Stuart Halls essay examined the mass media as central to the culture of capitalism with meaningful discourse, this is relevant to the success of the model which appears critically popular in looking at capitalism with a predominant media. Secondly the theory readdressed the themes of the Use and Gratifications theory examining audience power over the media rather then mediated effects on the audience (Katz: 1959). The theoretical study later concluded that audiences use the media to fulfil there own needs and gratifications (Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., Gurevitch, M.: 1974). Halls theory represents a similar model with elegant simplicity, to make it a key text, (Mcquail: 2002). Importantly Halls model focuses on groups rather then the individual which is more useful for looking at mass communications dominance due to social class and cultural heritage. Both the political and theoretical foundations of the model have implications on its relevance today as its usefulness is paramount to a mass media dominated society and the driving relationship between audience and media. The model itself described by Hall is, The institution -societal relations of production must pass into and through modes of language for its products to be realised. This initiates a further differentiated moment, in which the formal rules of discourse and language operate. Before this message can have an effect it must first be meaningfully decoded. It is the set of decoded meaning which have an effect, influence entertain, instruct or persuade with complex perceptual cognitive, ideological or behavioural consequences (Hall, 1974: 3). Hall (1974) suggests four decoded meanings from this model, the dominant code of preferred meanings, the professional code transmitting a message signified within in a hegemonic manner, the negotiated code of adapted and oppositional elements and the oppositional code, clear understanding but with a connotative inflection and rejection for audience, (Mcqual: 2002). This segregation of groups was tested by David Morleys The Nationwide Audience in 1980 which complimented Halls research but importantly gave birth to second generation ethnographic research. This was praised by Morley (1992) where he described how Halls model gave rise to decode media messages and sparked emphasis toward a new phase of qualitative audience research, gender realities and media consumption. Ethnographic research predominant in the 80s examined how television was a social resource in family dynamics and the relation of media in everyday life, rather then decoding one programme through a single medium. Fish wrote that one studies the every day life of a group, and relates the use of (a reception of) a programme or a medium to it (1979: 329). This quality of research transcends further into areas such as gender and communities in which Halls model can not disseminate. Third generation audience research offers a constructionist analysis of contemporary media in the sense of how we are aware and conceive our roles with the audience and reflexivity of our understanding of ourselves as the audience. Radway (1998) emphasized the audience point of departure subjected to television and our self reflection of the media and our knowledgeable participation is where audience research lies. Essentially second and third generation research explored more deeply into social constructivism, which compliments audience media relationships. Although Hall was praised by Nightingale (1996) for the model researched media linguistics and social semiotics to combine research methods and genre in new ways. The audience understanding of linguistics and there self representation through genre is a critical area of contemporary audience research. After the third generation of audience research, Schroder (1994) described the turn towards ethnography and the everyday, as a threat to write the media as the focus of research out of existence. Political research addressed later, will demonstrate this to be untrue and encoding/decoding remains useful in social and cultural class on a broad scale. Nightingale (1996) criticized the model for the assumption that only dominant culture is produced through television and the modernity of the model should recognise the cultural hegemony distributed through society. Fiske (1997) described, the characterization of the television text as a site of a struggle between dominant ideologies working to produce a closed text by closing off the opportunities it offers to resistive readings, and the diversity of audiences who, if they are to make the text popular, are constantly working to open it up to their readings. Audience participation has increased dramatically in contemporary television, addressing the dominant reading and offering opportunities for varied outcomes. The rising popularity of reality TV shows is a good example of a larger audience participation, which will be addressed later on. Before looking at the changing media landscape and the issues that affect the use of the decoding model in the close present. It is first necessary to pay attention to David Morley. In The Study of the Nationwide Audience, Morley (1980) described members of a given sub-culture tend to share a cultural orientation towards decoding messages in certain ways, similarly Hall (1981b) described individual readings of messages will be framed by shared cultural formations and practices (p.51). This study used Stuart Halls encoding model and successfully identified dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings based on cultural background. The limitations of this were later noted by David Morley (1992) in his critical postscript in Television Audiences and Cultural Studies where he acknowledged his terms of class (middle and lower) are descriptive labels that do not divulge the detailed ethnography of the people studied. He also describes The Nationwide Audience as scratching the surface of c ultural practises that could range from religion to biology. Therefore we can acknowledge that the model lacks the detail desired to penetrate the cultural depth of the audience, but the model can disseminate by social and cultural class on a broad scale. The Nationwide Audience was defined in relation to texts rather then mediums (Holmes: 2005) but audience medium interaction was also examined in Morleys postscript. Critically the audience medium changes the way the audience receives the text. The internet has been the largest rising social medium in contemporary technology and is very different from television. Television is considered to be an acoustic medium like radio, in which sound represents the privately experienced equivalent of a social world characterized from all directions ( Holmes: 2005, p.114). The Internet presents a world of information, a virtual reality linked with broadcast networks, interactive communication, and a definitive need for the audience to participate. The internet and online broadcasting were not present at the time of the original study forming an argument that Halls model is outdated as it does not account for changing mediums and New Media content consumed by the audience. New genre has allowed reflection on old mediums acquainted to their ontological power (Holmes: 2005). An example is the spectacular increase in active audience participation in reality TV, founded on a principle of imaginary substitution; and audiences viewing a representation of themselves. Using Nightingales assumption that the model assumes only dominant culture is produced through television; reality TV rebuffs a dominant understanding through the audience participation. Critically as Halls model arguably only accounts for a dominant ideology, it has extremely limited use in looking at audience participation and influence. The ITVs X factor audience has an estimated 10 million viewers, and there are various reality TV voting shows such as big brother, that arent just primetime TV, but can dominate the front page of many tabloid magazines reaching a predominantly larger circulation of people then television. Third generation audience research best describes the audience participation, in there active role in the media in determining the outcome of the represented. Social constructivism defines reality TV, and a dominant hegemony is arguable defeated. Halls model integrates determination and freedom via the producer and consumer, but arguably disappoints in its linearity. Murdock (1989) criticizes the models overemphasis of the rational dimension of the response. Comparing the basic nature of the model to Lasswells comment (known as the Lasswell model) Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect recited before Hall, accounts for the medium and the effects within research, justifiably explaining the linear nature of the encoding mode in comparison. Modern communication research needs further consideration of the medium. Although Lasswells model can be seen as a transmission of communication as opposed to mass communication it is arguably more useful then that of Halls in allowing for current new media interactivity and the medium. Murdocks description of the overemphasis of unilateral response is justifiably irrelevant in large groups, in which it is useful to examine mass communication from a political perspecti ve. We previously mentioned Halls model can penetrate social and cultural class on a broad scale and mediated politics can theoretically be applied to the encoding model. The conservative government will have most support from the upper social class; typically bankers and businesses that support the privatization and socio-economic freedom of the individual agreeing with the dominant message delivered through the media. This message would understandably be rejected be trade unionists and the lower class that live in less privileged economic conditions. The middle classs are the negotiable reading, and are essentially the battleground for government votes. Thatcherism and the conservatives long stint in power from 1979- 1996 can be examined in relation to encoding and decoding the mass audience, similarly to Tony Blairs acknowledgement of the model in Labours reign from 1997-2010. During Margaret Thatchers reign the traditionalist capitalist ideology, family values and patriotism presented through the media were a success in cultural hegemony. It can be argued that Thatcherism was successful due to its ability to address the concerns of ordinary people through its articulation of right wing politics The study of this is described by Gauntlett (2000) who says In studying the media and gender, one could use this approach to see how the media might make certain formulations of masculinity, femininity and sexuality to be natural, inevitable and sexy (p.30), Certainly Margaret Thatchers formulation of ideology expressed certain values onto the British public that permeated their culture. Recapping on the value of Halls model in mass communication as a meaningful discourse in capitalist culture, the application to politics and the media is evidence of its use. Hall (1996) also argues Thatcherism successfully maintained support of the working class through popular authoritarianism. It can be seen the British people submitted to the psychological message of the driving capitalist machine and arbitrary nature of political power. The Falklands War is a great example of how the hegemonic embodied populism to remain in power. The ability to be able to look back and examine governmental power, political strategy and articulation of the people is vitally important for understanding the nature of our media, culture and public and can be used by government and historians to shape future policies and projections. A large amount of credit must go to Halls model that can textualize and open up the coding used between audience and public and represents an important academic angle f rom which to do so. Although Stuart Halls model is based around theories of mass communication, Dicks (2000) applied Halls encoding/decoding model to a local heritage museum based in South Wales with the understanding that heritage and the museum visitors can be studied as a form of social communication. Heritage is examined as a cultural communicative practise, linked to the vernacular aesthetic of the people. The social model of communication looks at the practises of production and consumption in relation to politics, economics and culture, (drawn from the framework of Stuart Hall). Initially the heritage site, (which was being built in the early 90s) dedicated to the miners strikes felt the Conservative government had projected a Disney model of narration to the heritage site that didnt reflect the community feel, thus as local historian was able to get involved in the development process, outlining the encoding element. When the public visited the museum they were asked a series of questions before , and after there interactivity with the museum. Generalising the findings presents Hallss theory in accurate modern context of dominant, oppositional and negotiated responses to the decoding of the information presented due to economic and cultural heritage. However they should not be simplified into this manner as the detail of the answers given, present a larger scope of negotiation from the public, due to the museum not actually presenting a dominant hegemonic view of the miners strikes. In this sense, the question is how did the visitors negotiate with the negotiation? Essentially using there own social-cultural class to deconstruct the narrative. Concluding the findings of the article, the encoding aspect of the museum content presented a clear divide between the government and local idea of the aesthetic and values of the museum, and decoding is representative of cultural and economic means but does not necessarily descend from hegemonic measures passing scope for more negoti ation. The article has clearly used the model to an intelligently critical viewpoint of an audience subject to heritage with large significance thus cementing its usefulness in this element of modern society. If the model can be used to deconstruct our perseverance of heritage and reveal political and cultural means of the audience, it has another credible use. Importantly the model was able to be adapted to reflect more audience freedom and negotiation reflected in contemporary audience theory today. It is now necessary to revisit many aspects of Halls model, tying in the theoretical, alongside politics, the changing media landscape and the wider scope of knowledge. Firstly, taking a political stance, the continuities between Thatcherism and New Labours political projection were documented by Hall (1998), as the authoritarian populism of Britain was echoed in the New Labour rhetoric under Tony Blair. As we previously covered the theoretical roots of the encoding model stem from emigration of scholars from the Marxist school of applied Social Research, and Labour learnt a lot with its affiliation with Marxism. Tony Blairs contribution to the magazine almost certainly contributed to his understanding of how to modernise his party and use the media effectively as a dominant mass communication tool. Where the Use and Gratifications model failed in Marxist academia, Halls model successfully justifies mass media dominance. If we revisit the third generation audience research we can see a link between the constructionist viewpoint and the findings from the heritage museum. Participants in the heritage museum research were able to self identify there role in the research and offer a more negotiated viewpoint, as such there is greater audience understanding of there identity in shaping the outcome, and the ability to use the encoding model with more modern research giving it greater use. Referring back to Nightingales criticism of the model, that it assumed only dominant culture is produced through television. The heritage site had no dominant message and yet the model was able to be used to negotiate readings and audience understanding. The model was able to do this because it still posed relevant for disseminating social and cultural class but its real findings and the examination of further audience negotiation compliments its ability to embrace the audience understanding of third generation research. Whilst it was concluded modern television such as reality TV produced flaws in Halls model, one would assume there would be new documented research on the progression of New Media and the distribution of programmes through changing mediums and a diverse virtual world of information. There is not such a wealth of information out there which asks larger questions as to whether the encoding/decoding model has been cast aside with changing media dynamics. One of the most important recent media developments is the rise of social media. One of largest and most predominant media campaigns in western politics was Barack Obamas presidential campaign in 2008. Meerman Scott (2007) believes this was won due to Obama being the candidate that mostly strongly embraced social media. The encoding model does fall short of being able to connect to interactive media, user generated content and networking that is not subject to a mass dominated message, but instead the articulation and communication of m any individuals independent of thought. Obama didnt pursue an authoritarian message with his campaign to be mediated across the web, but many individuals wrote multiples blogs raising awareness online. This has given me the viewpoint that mediated liberalism and the freedom of audience control has rapidly increased due to social media. Halls model is relevant in predominant media, it will not transcend into the online social forum. Similarly the role that the audience plays online is very much what people do with the media, (echoing the Use and Gratification model) and attempts to cast aside dominant ideology or reading. Social Media is technically the most recent revolutionary form of media in which the encoding model appears to fall short in its application of audience understanding. It can however be concluded that there is very little academic research on this topic thus far to determine the model in this form. Conclusively, Stuart Halls model has taught me, in regards to politics and the media, it is best applied in context of the media dominance of society and has clear use and purpose in analysing recent UK governments and can contextualise the relationship we have with the autonomous power above us. The model has limited use in modern television such as reality TV and the changing media landscape, and falls short of the social media revolution and the powerful nature of the audience online. The model itself though, does transcend the ethnography and constructionist nature of the research that followed the model, and its ability to be applied to a local heritage site and successful disseminate an audience, proves it can still be useful in modern society. Similarly the social and cultural decodings of the model in mass audience research have been justified and complimented by various researches undertaken.