Airasia’s Logistic and Channel Management

As Airasia’s vision is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia, our proposal might be a useful tool for Airasia to achieve their vision. The goal of our proposal is to decrease the operational cost of Airasia to attain cost efficiencies and provided the public with a lowest cost so that â€Å"Now everyone can fly† with Airasia. Objective of this proposal is to develop e-Supply Chain Management to attain a much lower operation cost for Airasia in the coming year. In this proposal, we will discuss about; 1.Analyze of the factors contributing to enable e-SCM for Airasia, 2. Create an appropriate implementation plans to develop e-SCM, 3. Discuss the environmental factors that will affect the implementation, 4. Determine which department will e-SCM help the most, 5. Show the benefit of e-SCM to Airasia and stakeholders and 6. Suggestion for how to further improve the e-SCM. Overview of the company (Airasia, 2010) Now everyone can fly, this slogan held in every Malaysianâ €™s mind deeply. Airasia was an Asia’s leading airline with a dream of making flying possible for everyone.The vision of Airasia is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares. The mission of Airasia included; †¢ To be the best company to work for whereby employees are treated as part of a big family †¢ Create a globally recognized ASEAN brand †¢ To attain the lowest cost so that everyone can fly with Airasia †¢ Maintain the highest quality product embracing technology to reduce coast and enhance service levels There are 6 main values that Airasia focused in to attain the lowest cost.The strategies used were; ? Safety first o Partnering with GE Engine Services the world’s most renowned maintenance providers and complying with the world airline operations. o GE Engine Services began servicing jet aircraft engines over 50 years ago. o Provide large or small jet engines for commercial or military aircraft as well as engines for marine and industrial applications (Breaking Travel News, 2002). ? Hight Aircraft Utilisation o Implementing the regions fastest turnaround time at only 25 minutes, assuring lower costs and higher productivity. Low Fare, No Frills o Providing guests with the choice of customizing services without compromising on quality and services.  Example services provided food ; beverage, merchandise, excite, baggage supersize, pick a seat, premium service or corporate booking. ? Streamline Operations o Making sure the process are as simple as possible. o Example online ticket booking. ? Lean Distribution System o Offering a wide and innovative range of distribution channels to make booking and traveling easier. Strategy of distribution like call centre, sales office ; airport sales counter, authorized travel agents, mobile booking or online. ? Point to Point Network o Applying the point-to-point network keeps ope ration simple and cost low Analyze Airasia’s Annual Report According to Airasia’s Five-Year Financial Highlights from 2006 until 2009, Airasia’s revenue is increasing steadily. Unfortunately, in year 2008 is having loss around RM497 million. This is because their operating expenses (-RM3,207 million) had exceeded their revenue (RM2,955 million).From the report, year 2008 Airasia had huge amount of air craft fuel expenses (-RM1,390 million) and derivatives (-RM679 million) on operational cost compare with years 2009 –RM928 million and RM22 million. Due to the fuel expenses and derivatives, it causes Airasia making loss in year 2008 (Airasia Berhad, 2010). From the balance sheet, we can know that net current asset of year 2008 and year 2009 was increasing from RM163 million to RM511 million. It is because of non-current assets and current assets increased and current liabilities decreased.On non-current liabilities, borrowings of RM6,068 million in year 200 8 and RM7,068 million in year 2009 (Airasia Berhad, 2010). |Key Ratios (YE 31 Dec) |2008 |2009 | |Revenue growth (%) |n/a |8. 4 | |EBITDA growth (%) |n/a |86. | |Pretax margins (%) |(15. 3) |16. 8 | |Net profit margins (%) |(15. 4) |16. 3 | |Interest cover (x) |1. 6 |2. 1 | |Effective tax rate (%) |n/a |3. | |Net dividend payout (%) |n/a |0. 0 | |Debtors turnover (days) |91 |88 | |Stock turnover (days) |4 |3 | |Creditors turnover (days) |149 |127 | Adapted]From: Chew. B, 2010. Comparing with Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia Airlines have more revenue compare with Airasia but their profit after tax are around the same figure, which are RM493 million in year 2009, RM245 million in year 2008, RM853 million in year 2007, RM133 million loss in year 2006 and RM1,251 million lose in year 2005. Although Airasia revenue lower than Malaysia Airlines around RM8,442 million but Airasia can gain the profit like Malaysia Airlines. In conclusion, the strategies used by Airasia are very successful (Mala ysia Airlines, 2010).Compare Airasia with Malaysia airlines |2009 |Airasia |Malaysia Airlines |Differences in % | |Revenue |RM3,133 million |RM11,574 million |269. 42% | |Net profit after tax |RM506 million |RM493 million |-2. 57% | |Passengers carried |14,253 million |6,549 million |-54. 5% | |Fuel Expenses |RM927 million |RM3,497 million |277. 24% | |Net Current Asset |RM511 million |RM3,023 million |491. 59% | Balance Sheet Ratio for year 2009 |Ratio |Formula |Airasia |Malaysia Airlines | |Current |CA/CL |1. |0. 86 | |Quick |(Cash+AR)/CL |0. 86 |0. 74 | |Net Margin |NPAT/Sales |16. 2 |0. 04 | |Operating Margin |Operating profit/Sales |0. 15 |-0. 06 | |Return On Assets |NPAT/T. Assets |0. 04 |0. 6 | |Return On Investment |NPAT/Net Worth |0. 19 |0. 66 | The factors contributing to e- enable SCM in Airasia The invention of internet has greatly influence the traditional supply chain management in the world. Many company realize the benefits of apply IT into their supply chain managem ent. Internet has provided a great opportunity for company to share and access information faster and increase the productivity and efficiency of the supply chain performance.Other than that, e-enabled SCM lead to deduct the cost and add extra value for the company. Those enabling software like CRM, ERP and EDI which can help in make improvement on the integration with its buyers, sellers, suppliers and partners. Rapid changing of technology forcing the companies must plan to change their business strategy in order to understand consumer behavior and fulfill their needs. Due to the inefficiencies of the traditional supply chain management, many company decided to acquiring e-SCM are aim to better manage their supply chain flow to ensure it is operating smoothly.E-SCM is taking advantage in coordinate the cooperation with suppliers. E-commerce allow the seller promote and sell their products and services through the internet. Some of the buyers today prefer to search, buy, compare or book the products and services on the internet. Since the consumer behavior has changed, all of the companies are forcing to change their supply chain processes to adopt the new channel to meet the customer expectations. Thus, the supply chain needs to be different with the traditional channel.Airasia can provide customers booking flight ticket via internet (Gimenez et al. , 2003). Information sharing is a crucial part in supply chain management. Traditional supply chain management provided limited information flow among the employees, customers or the suppliers. That is higher cost and time consuming to get the information and it will cause the company can’t make a good decision. Therefore, internet provided a chance for company to share and access the real time information among its partners to ensure effective.Extranet can build a network to link the company and the partners together and granted to share and access information faster. Therefore, company can easily get the urgent information instantly in low cost. It can make a big improvement in enhancing the integration company with its suppliers. Other than that, an intranet can send and accept the documents through electronic media among the firms. In addition, internet is a high speed medium where can reach global. Internet can help the Company connect with their foreign partners in a minute for business information, discussion and proceed to procurement decision.It can know as e-procurement, example, Airasia can order the air bus spare part via internet (Gimenez et al. , 2003). Knowledge sharing, in the database management is not only offer precious information, there are also including planning, analyze the result and transfer and transform into meaningful information and share with business partners . Company can get the data with just a few clicks and help them to make a better decision for their business. That is providing big advantages to the company where is cost saving and improve the e fficiency of their business decision.Example, Airasia can collect their sales data and analyze it into meaningful information in order to respond to customer needs and demands and react quickly to the market. It can also use to forecast the company sales, so, the company can make decision to improve their sales (Gimenez et al. , 2003). One of the factors e-enabled supply chain management is it can design an effective supply chain to strive for effective collaboration and integration with suppliers and customers, increase the competitive advantages in the intense competition environment, improve the operational process, and gain a long-term benefit.Even though internet is an inexpensive and faster way to obtain the useful information to assist the company to improve the supply chain management, company has to design a good supply chain structure to make the supply chain flow more effective. The better of the supply chain design, the more benefits company can gain from it. Intense com petition today has forcing the company to do better always in order to survive in the market. Internet has offering the company a chance to design a better supply chain to enhance its supply chain performance by adding new functions to achieve the company objectives (Gimenez et al. 2003). Implementation plans to strategize an e-SCM In competitive environment today, internet technology provided strong tools to strengthen the company’s electronic supply chain management. If the company can carry out an appropriate implement planning, it would lead to obtain a competitive edge. A poor planning may cause supply chain produce the poor result like low quality, poor services and higher cost. Initially, the company must clarify the supply chain goals to indentify which goals are going to set to get best effect in the business.Competitive level, distribution, production, financial and customers needs need to be concern to assure the new supply chain able to achieve company goals and f ulfill customers’ need. Outsourcing can be more suitable because operating a new supply chain is costly. After that, conduct a supply chain readiness audit to analyze the business. To understand the existing company core and capabilities priority. How the company is going to respond with high demand, global reach? It such as an evaluation of business before a new supply chain is implementing.Next step is developing a business case, the top management should develop a business case that understands electronic supply chain can increase the performances of business and it would improve the customer satisfaction, supplier integration and cost effectiveness. To make a better business case can help in achieve company’s mission and objectives. Fourth step is establishing a supply chain coordination unit. Establish a skillful e-SCM team to implement and coordinate the supply chain.The team is to make sure the supply chain is operating under a smoothness condition, reduce the c ost, facilitate business performance and increase customer satisfaction. Training has to give out to improve the SCM team skill, knowledge and leadership (Kalakota et al, 2001). Next, begin supplier integration. Business partners are the important part in the supply chain to help the company to achieve their new business projects or objectives. Electronic supply chain will be inefficient if without any supplier support.Develop a performance score card to evaluate the performance of new supply chain. Reengineering might need when there have problems occur or something is going wrong. Penalties and performance reward may place into the measurement as incentives to drive e-SCM efficiency. The following step is always educate, educate, educate the members who are involve in the supply chain management by provide training, education, mentoring to the members to get the newest knowledge and information to perform well. At the final step, company has to learn to manage failure.Not every sy stem will always implementing smoothly, failure will lead into inefficiencies and influence the company daily operations. Thus, company must able to cope with the failure, understand the problem and learn from the failure and make improvement on it to prevent the problems occur again (Kalakota et al, 2001). Airasia is using Low Cost Carrier (LCC) business strategy to operate their business and transform supply chain management to electronic. Airsia is going to adopt several systems to support the e-SCM to operate smoothly.All of the systems are operating to achieve the business goals by cost effective of the operation (ERP and CRS) and maximize the revenue (YMS). Airasia attempts to integrate information technology with current supply chain management to carry out some planning and strategy that is implementing effectively to support and develop their business to coordinate their daily operation, integration and communication (Kho, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Advanced Planning and Schedul ing (APS) is introduced to improve the internal operational process and achieving low cost business strategy.In airline industry, complex network, huge daily operation and a lots of external factor that will influence the operational performance like bad weather. In order to be successfully implementing a good supply chain, Airasia can use APS to become a core of their supply chain to deal with the customer and supplier requirements. A series of effective functions will provide by APS to support Airasia in their daily operational activities. There are supplier portals, it will provide some useful information for Airasia to help them avoid from any system error such as order processing.APS also assist in inventory planning and maintenance management. APS is ability to integrate Airasia, its maintenance supplier, GE aviation, and other suppliers to manage the inventory such as spare part to check resource availability and place order priority to prevent out of maintenance stock and se t a maintenance schedule to ensure the aircraft is in a safety condition all the time. Route profitability analysis is conducting to set and plan an efficient route in order to save cost and increase revenue (Kho, 2005 and Wong, 2009).Computer Reservation System (CRS) is an integrated web-based inventory and reservation system including call center, airport departure control function, internet and others. Airasia is going to use e-commerce to facilitate the online reservation and purchase e-ticket process. Intermediary had eliminated in this process. Airasia will offer 24 hours per day and 7 days a week for real time transaction that enable local and global customers to book the ticket anytime. The system software will provide data in online booking and categorize stored, update automatically and help in scheduling flight activities.This is also cost effective by less depend on human resource for data entry. Therefore, Airasia can fully utilize the available of vast booking informat ion where bring customers to the website to minimize the unsold seat and maximize their sales. The comprehensive information is available by the supply chain system on the internet for customer to view, search and compare with others companies before they decide to purchase in terms of service, price or flight time.CRS has provided convenient for the company to maximize their sales to meet customers’ needs (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Beside that, Airasia had decided to acquire a Wireless Delivery System (WDS) to provide convenient to the customer so they able to book ticket through their mobile phone while increasing Airasia sales (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). ERP is application software integrated with its company system that helps the company to manage the operational activities effectively and efficiency.Airasia can implement ERP system which is a system that will focus on company daily operations and help in save operational cost, maintain integrity, speed up re porting and increase efficiency of the operational performance and better manage its electronic supply chain (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Yield Revenue System (YMS) used to aid in understand, react and anticipated the buyer behavior to enhance the company revenue. The system can effectively result in optimize the Airasia’s flight ticket price and maximize the company expected revenue. Example, seat price is available by different level in the different time.A ticket booking at a later time may be charge a higher price than an earlier booking. Other than that, the system will help the company adjust the ticket price when there have high demand in that destination. YMS is obtaining advantages in charge a lower price to maximize the revenue and adjust the price into higher price when the peak time through the demand forecast. In this case, Airasia can fully understand their consumer behavior and implementing the effective strategy to achieve their revenue objectives (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). ECRM is a system software use to build a long term relationship with the customers.Many companies are plan to cut customer service cost while improve customer satisfaction. ECRM is providing extra advantages compare with offline CRM. Airasia will use ECRM to manage the complaints from the customers through the call center and solve the customer problem and question by FAQs with further customer service support line on the Airasia homepage. Besides that, ECRM also provide convenience for customer to check in through the internet and mobile phone. ECRM can help the Airasia indentify the frequent customer and reward them through reward program like frequently flyer program.Email notification may be send to the customers to inform them about the promotion information (Wong, 2009). Environmental factors that may affect the implementation of e-SCM in AirAsia External factors Sociological Social environment includes the cultures, customs, mores, values and demogr aphic characteristic of the society in which an organization functions. Social processes also determine the goods and services, as well as the standards of business conduct, that a society is likely to value and accept. (Smith, 2010) In Malaysia, most of the population is educated and 65. % of Malaysians use internet (Internet World Statistic, 2010). This eases the process of implement e-SCM. When suppliers, customers and employees of Airasia are educated and able to operate a computer, it will be very easy for them to understand the concept of e-SCM, accept and use it. Therefore, the learning cost of Airasia’s e-SCM can be lower down. However, Airasia’s supplier have different values in implementing e-SCM. They may refuse to share actual data with other companies due to lack of trust (Scalet, 2001). This caused a barrier while implementing e-SCM.Political The political environment reflects the relationship between business and government, usually in the form of govern ment regulation of business (Smith, 2010). Political factors such as labour laws, tax, trade policy, and political stability defines what Airasia can and cannot do while implementing e-SCM. During year 2009, the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi was set to step down in March 2009. This caused political uncertainty. This issue may lead to difficulties in setting rules or changing any structure in Airasia in order to implement e-SCM.Besides, Airasia also operate in other countries, many laws will be different compare to Malaysia. So Airasia will face another issue while implement e-SCM. Economic Economic environment refers to relevant conditions that exist in the economic system in which a company operates. Those factors in economic environment are interest rates, exchange rate, economic growth, inflation rate and others (Smith, 2010). For example, the rising of oil and arousal of low-cost competitors like Firefly will affect Airasia’s operating cost.They will influence the profi ts and availability of funds and cause implication on implementation of e-SCM (Yahoo! Answer, 2010). When Airasia is lack of fund, there will also lack of employees training cost on e-SCM and implementation cost. A Thai individual holds 1%, Airasia holds 49% and Shin Corporation hold 50% of Thai Airasia. Shin Corporation was owned by previous Thailand prime minister and it has strong financial strength to support Airasia to implement technology such as e-SCM (International Transport Workers' Federation, 2007). TechnologicalTechnological environment includes human knowledge, work methods, physical equipment, electronics and telecommunication and various processing systems which used to perform business activities. (Wong, 2009) Technology nowadays helps a lot in e-SCM. The main technology that affects implementation of e-SCM is Internet. It is serving as a medium for information access, transmission and sharing among suppliers, Airasia and its customers. Apart from that, with the aids of other technologies like intranet, extranet, e-mail, online conferencing, and others, all the supply chain partners ofAirasia can easily communicate and collaborate. Speed of information flow faster through Airasia to its customers or supplier. The other technology platform is Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). These technologies have stimulated implementation of e-SCM. Internal factors Human Resource When Airasia implement e-SCM strategy, every process, goal or system must be carry out by employees. Thus Airasia need to provide training to its employee, development, restructure and compensate in order to support e-SCM process. However, some employees may resist to change.Airasia must be award or compensate them so that implementation goes smoothly (Lancaster, 2006). Financial Resource Financial is critical factors that affect e-SCM. Without enough funds and capital, e-SCM cannot be implementing because e-SCM needs huge fund to carry out. Although Airasia is suffering loss during year 2009, Airasia can raise its fund to implement e-SCM by selling its share or capital restructure (Whitley, 2009). Physical Resource The infrastructure needed to be carry out e-SCM are corporate portals, workflow system and tools, EDI, intranet, extranet and others groupware tools.Airasia should gets all infrastructure ready to implement e-SCM. Organizational structure A flattened organization structure can easier to accept, adapt and implement new technologies or strategies (Pearlson, 2006). However, board of directors of AirAsia is too narrow, decision making will be too shallow (Onwutalobi, 2008). When implement e-SCM, decision making need to be fast, effective and efficient. Area that e-SCM help most in Airasia E-SCM helps Airasia a lot in this airline competitive industry and one of the ost significant advantages are reduced manifest preparation time, reduced paperwork handling time, reduced time in communicating with up- and do wn-stream intermodal partners and reduced load transference times between intermodal partners One of the significant e-SCM for an aviation company is the Computer Reservation System (CRS). Online sales through this system captured more than 50 percent of Airasia’s revenue (Corporate website, 2005). The system can also detect the frequent flyers and rewards them accordingly to create higher customer retention rate and lead to a better stage of relationship marketing with the customers.The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process provides the structure for how relationship with the customer is develop and maintained (Croxton et al. , 2001). CRM can be a system linked together with the CRS in order to obtain the customer description and reservation description to provide them with full range of customer service including the FAQ questions in it. Besides that, Distributed Database System (DDS) is also a core element in this successful Airasia in the airline industry. If Air asia tend to expand to a wider range of market share, a geographically dispersed database can be used to plan its flight schedule carefully.Another element is that Wireless Delivery System (WDS) for the ease of their customers to browse company website details and place their reservation using their mobile phone. Airasia practices online booking if the customers tend to save money for lower price when they purchase their ticket online. The complexity of managing the flexible price can be carrying out using Yield Revenue System (YRS). Airasia can price accordingly by referring to the demand of the flight and pick the best price for Airasia’s yield revenue.Demand driven resource planning and employee scheduling is crucial to the success of all aviation service providers and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) can help Airasia in the dynamic airline environment. Crew scheduling, fleet management, gate and check-in desk planning and the ground crew planning is a crucial part f or the company to overcome the increasing operating costs. Benefits of e-SCM to AirAsia, suppliers, and consumers The common model of e-commerce supply chain system transaction view is shown as below; company, suppliers and consumers are all linked throughout the whole transaction.So, as Airasia applies e-SCM, besides benefit to Airasia, it also benefits to suppliers and consumers (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001). [pic] Company Airasia can use the computer network to operate its businesses as one of the e-SCM strategies. Airasia’s can introduce booking air ticket through the online website which is assisted Air Asia transformed towards a more well-established communication media which is available 24/7. As the forecast, there will about 40% total revenue can be gain via the Internet transactions.It is because of Airasia can take the advantage of B2B marketplaces to forecast the demand for their services and, using differentiation pricing strategy to attract more customers and gain more market share by implementing the Yield Revenue System (YMS). In addition, the e-CRM in e-SCM allows Airasia to provide personalized service and one-to-one relationships between merchants and consumers. The ERP system had speed up reporting and increase efficiency of the operational performance which will directly increase the satisfaction of customers towards the services quality provided by Airasia.At the end, Airasia can enhancing relationship with both existing and potential customers and also the suppliers since the communication became a straightforward task. Besides that, Airasia can cost saving through the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) which improved the internal operational process and achieving low cost business strategy. The company can also saves on the cost to operating and managing the bricks and mortar outlets and able to reach national markets without any efforts on developing a physical distribution network.Then, Airasia can reduce the cost of sales com mission of the middleman, which is the travel agent. So, as a conclusion, if Airasia adopted e-SCM, the company can streamline and restructure the services provided to its customers, developing new markets, and thus creating innovative business opportunities to its customers and suppliers. Suppliers [pic] Due to the supplier’s view of e-commerce supply chain, they concern on the process of buy and fulfillment, ship and logistics and fleet management (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001).The suppliers of Airasia can strengthen their forecasting ability, meet and exceed Airasia’s demands by offering the right promotion of products and services at the right time, as well as align their production schedules based on their manufacturing capacity and inventory management is improved because of the efficient information exchange, inventory visibility and transactions through the EDI system. So, the supplier can minimize ordering, handling and other costs and avoid from the bull-whip eff ect which may cause them profit loss from the surplus of the stocks or failed to gain more profit because of the shortage of stocks.In addition, the supplier can increase its reputation by meeting the needs and demands from the customers. Consumers The customer’s view point towards the e-SCM can be represented simply, as the figure below (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001). [pic] The e-SCM delivers value across Airasia customers’ supply chain allow customers make quicker and better decisions because the information about inventory visibility and transactions.Airasia customers can compare the pricing and the quality of services provided by Airasia and the others competitors on Internet. Besides that, the e-SCM automating the e-procurement function, simplified purchasing processes which benefits Airasia in lower their transaction costs and overhead. Since the expenses or costs of Airasia reduced, they may able to lower down the pricing but maintaining the same quality of services , which is also considered as benefit to customers. Customers get the same quality of services but with a lower pay.Through Computer Reservation System (CRS), Airasia can launch the ticketless system which the customer of Airasia has the opportunity in doing the booking and purchasing process at anytime, anywhere as customer preferences. Once the customer booking completed, Airasia will provide customer with a program which include customer booking number, payment and travel details. So, the ordering and settlement process had simplified and more convenient to customers during they check in by just mentioning the booking number and must present identification card (IC) or passport of customer for identification purposes.Recommendation and improvement on e-SCM The constantly changing external environments which faced by the organization or company nowadays cause the Airasia have to always ensure that its own internal resources and capabilities are sufficient enough to meet or exceed the needs of the external environment. So, the e-SCM system that Airasia executed need to always keep up-to-date to meet the needs of the external environments. Besides that, in order to survive in the air flight services industry, Airasia also need to always undertake an analysis about their external and internal environment.The e-SCM system plays an important role in this process because the visible of information about the supplier side and customers’ side is useful in the analysis. So, e-SCM system needs to be improved by reducing the degree of error happened and increase the accuracy and reliability of the data flow within the supply chain flow. Since Airasia still receiving a lot complaint from customers on their service, such as the flight delays, or being charged for a lot of things and also customers is not allowed to change flight or get any refund from Airasia if they couldn’t make it.So, Airasia can improve the e-SCM through the Balance Score Card (BSC) whi ch helps in the improvement of the internal and external communications, and monitor the organization performance based on financial perspective, internal business process perspective, learning and growth perspective and also customer perspective. So, by measuring the quality management and customer satisfaction index, Airasia could further improve the e-SCM based on the feedbacks from the customers and the measurement of the performance. On the other hand, Airasia can also further improve the e-SCM in the collaboration area.There are several unexpected events are converging. Therefore, company can increases the number of platforms, packages and more advanced technologies to do the filtering tasks which only permit meaningful collaboration from sharing data and information, to developing customer reward programs and joint forecasts.ReferencesThe Breaking News (2002), AirAsia ; GE Engine Services Sign Major Engine Maintenance Agreement Worth Over US$20 Million, Breaking Travel News. Available from: – http://www. breakingtravelnews. com/news/article/btn40003248  [Accessed 3 July 2010] Airasia (2010).

A Time Travel with Mr. Swift: Restoring the Early 1800’s Society Essay

English satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Ireland of English parents. He was educated in Dublin but before he could fix on a career, the troubles that followed upon the subsequent invasion of Ireland drove Swift with the other Anglo-Irish to England. During these years, Swift read widely and discovered his astonishing gift as a satirist (Abrams 1976). For the rest of his life, Swift devoted his talents to politics and religion – not clearly separated at the time, and most of his works were written to further a specific cause (Abrams 1976). In 1714, he returned to Ireland, became identified with the Irish life, and through such brilliant pamphlets as Drapier Letters and A Modest Proposal (1729), became virtually a ‘national hero’ (Hornstein et al 504). Ireland suffered from a number of social, political and religious crises that time when Swift reached a clear sense of his genius; famine, over-population, Irish’ materialism to English goods, Protestant’s suppression of Catholics over estate ownership and the Irish government being filled by English appointees resulting to irresolution and inaction of the gripping condition. Swift who saw the Irish suffering for its cause collaborated with his contemporaries for whom he established a good friendship. In a letter to Alexander Pope, he declared himself a misanthrope; a hater of mankind.   He opposed to the prevailing definition of man as a rational animal and offered his new definition of man as simply an animal capable of reason (Abrams 1978). He antagonised the optimistic view of human nature being essentially good and proclaimed it to be deeply and permanently flawed unless humanity would learn to recognize its moral and intellectual limitation. ANALYSIS: The Misanthrope Mind Jonathan Swift intended his works to be an absolute savage attack upon man and his institutions. His most celebrated works Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal expressed that personal indignation with moments of comedy and light-heartedness, though both written as much to reform the readers and satirize issues. Swift was a man of the Age of Reason; however, he used his reasoning to oppose the   people’s overindulgence to reason so as to let it dictate all courses of   human life – thus advocating to the Restoration of the 18th century. In Gulliver’s Travels, he made fun of the English society by using satirical symbols that represent the crooked civility of the time. Gulliver observed the shrunken humanity through the Lilliputians who have shrunken concerns. For example, in Lilliput, candidates for public office go through their fantastic acrobatic rope and stick dances in order to obtain appointment and hold office. â€Å"Whoever jumps the highest succeeds while the chief ministers are commanded to show their skill to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their faculty† (Swift Part I Chapter IV p38). It must be noted though that the author’s â€Å"greatest disappointment was his failure to become a bishop in England† (Hornstein et al 504). The system of favoring those of nobler descent in appointing for office seat must have influenced the Lilliputians’ ridiculous and circus political system. On Part I Chapter 7, p 74-75, 77, after the court declared Gulliver’s cruel execution, he tells the readers of â€Å"his Majesty giving many marks of his great lenity and †¦.mercy for which he was so justly celebrated†. Swift was obviously satirizing the sweet words of those in power to cloak their evil deeds. An interesting angle could as well be derived from the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu. Both states were prosperous and have enough to supply the citizens’ needs. Yet they did not live in peace with each other. In fact, when Gulliver learned of the plan to accuse him of high treason, he made an escape to Blefuscu where he was received (his exile from England to Ireland satirized). In exact contrary to his travel to Lilliput was his voyage to Brobdingnag – the land of giants wherein all of human flaws are magnified. There he realized that a human characteristic, whether physical or by manner, becomes ‘ugly’ when put to scale. The King, who prided on his ability at arithmetic, was a calculating leader who objected the knowledge on navigation, music, military affairs, laws and politics. Yet, upon Gulliver’s account of his country, remarked a conclusion of Gulliver’s â€Å"natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth† (Swift Part II Chapter VI, p147). This is a serious, direct last to the English society. Then Gulliver led us to a meeting with the Houyhnhnms – a horse race of the most rational mind and ideals who employ the Yahoos – human brutes who are incapable of reason and are therefore employed as animals (Gale 370). The Houyhnhnms were considered to be the wisest of all creatures and taught Gulliver the notion on truth and falsehood. The Master Houyhnhnm argued that â€Å"the use of speech was to make us understand one another and to receive information of facts† (Swift Part IV Chapter IV p273). Lying then defeats the purpose of speech. Given this, Gulliver accounted the Houyhnhnms or horses in his country, being tamed and trained from young years through cruel beating, in order to make a good tamed horse for the Yahoos (humans). He as well described how the horses are castrated in order to ‘hinder them from propagating their kind’ (Swift Part IV Chapter IV p 275). This savagery appalled the Houyhnhnm saying that in their country; even the Yahoos were less cruelly treated. This intellectual interaction between Gulliver and the Houyhnhnms could be a parody between Swift and the Enlightenment proponents. With the transcendentalists being too logical and ideal, learned of their flaws through the principle of truth and logic. But Swift’s most savage satire came out in 1729 with the pamphlet – A Modest Proposal. After almost two decades of constant battle against the English oppression towards the Irish Catholics with futility, he resolved to side with the English in a proposal any reader will be caught unprepared; the English to devour Irish children. He was angry with the English absentee landowners who bleed the Irish of everything they have leaving the Catholic peasants of Ireland hungry and hopeless. He was angry with the Parliament and the English aristocrats who see these impoverished as eye-sores in the street. The proponent, who appears to be naà ¯ve yet logical and kind, devised a superb plan to lessen the filthy population of the Papists and increase economic gain. Swift pointed the following as causes of the Irish poverty; the inability of the parents to provide their children with their needs, the attitude of the English aristocrats towards these unfortunate people, the government’s failure of providing a substantial solution to these problems and the uncontrollable population of papists that tend to have the largest families. Yet, the savagery that Swift presented in the pamphlet established a more grave argument and thus, only made the whole proposition more compelling. This made Swift a hero to the Irish, the official defender of the oppressed Ireland. However, much to his skeletal chagrin, Gulliver’s Travels TODAY is read with delight by children who are enchanted by its imaginative tales about strange creatures rather than its satire for which it was written for. In fact, instead of an adult audience, today’s children know more about this satire because of the prolific distribution of its cartoon version. While A Modest Proposal will remain an isolated commodity for import, appreciated solely as the first and finest of the satire only a master like Jonathan Swift could deliver. CONCLUSION Jonathan Swift is an example of a writer that we cannot study in isolation from the social, political and religious events of his time. First, his only goal as a writer is to advance his social, political and religious ideologies. Second, he himself is a parody of his time. Like what Immanuel Kant observed that though his age was an Age of Enlightenment, it was not an enlightened age at all (Gay 53). Thus, Swift used his genius, not to support the ideology in vogue, but to challenge the lack or excess of logic in all of human activities. In his characters in Gulliver’s Travels, he implied that humans in whatever form, whether Lilliputian, giant, horse or brute – are all flawed. Lilliputians with their shrunken ways of doing things, the giants in their misplaced vanities, the horses’ superfluous rationality on everything and the brutes’ incapability to reason – all described humanity as essentially imperfect. After reading his works, a momentary analysis may let us believe we have penetrated the mind of the genius. But after some moments of careful thinking, it feels futile to even try.   Indeed, only after a repeated reading will a contemporary reader reaches maturity and learns to appreciate this greatest satire in literary history.

IS HRM A SPECIALIST ROLE, OR SHOULD IT AND CAN IT BE LEFT TO THE LINE Essay

IS HRM A SPECIALIST ROLE, OR SHOULD IT AND CAN IT BE LEFT TO THE LINE MANAGER - Essay Example The human resource manager is a very vital part of the company he follows and keeps updates on all aspects of a company and its staff right from the time they apply for a job till the time they get hired. They keep checks on any and all training and development that is necessary and make all necessary amendments. The question these days has come about regarding the necessity of human resource departments and managers. And the similar curiosity as to whether there is actual need for a separate department or not It is also common wondering whether the role of the human resource manager is a specialist role or can it and should it be fulfilled by a line manager. Human resource is a very vital part of all organizations. They are responsible for the efficient and effective management of the Human capital. The main functions of Human resource managers are tracking the data points of each and every employee and staff member. Along with tasks such as selection, placement payroll and evaluati on. In order to make a reduction in the excessive work load of these activities organizations started to employ individuals to handle these specific areas and thus there came the human resource departments. And these days with technology at its peak these tasks are also being taken care of by automated computer based programs. Making it possible for the work of three separate human resource managers to be done by one that too with the click of a mouse key. This is the reason that the questions stated earlier regarding the need for HR departments have started coming up. In an attempt to answer the above stated questions, I would first like to state that Human resource management is a full department which comprises of not one but several individuals all known and Human resource managers. Human resource managers are all trained and equipped with knowledge in various fields and each possess specialized training in a certain field or industry and together they take care of training areas such as: MENTORING: That is a process of training and guiding new staff members by either doing it personally or assigning new members and potential candidates to already existing staff members in order to let them gain on the job learning and training. This is also a form of training where individuals receive hands on training and experience in their respective fields, before they are sent to take over their respective duties. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Human resource departments and managers are responsible providing opportunities of professional growth and development for all existing staff members. This is done by providing new courses and seminars along with workshops so that staff members can be kept up to date with changing trends in their respective fields. TALENT IDENTIFICATION AND MANAGEMENT: This is a very important area in human resource management. This is an aspect which allows the opportunity of hiring well rounded and highly motivated employees. This aspect requires the human resource manager being able to identify and see exactly where and what other talents are possessed by the various hired staff members and how they can be used and employed to achieve the maximum amount of employee output and company benefit. SKILL MANAGEMENT & PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT: Skill management and talent management are interlinked qualities and it is the responsibility of all human resource ma

Child Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Child Development - Essay Example Pregnancy is a very important part of a woman’s life that calls for behavior change in various aspects of life. To begin with, my sleeping hours would not be adequate if I were pregnant. Pregnant women are advised to get enough rest and sleep. Secondly, I rarely exercise and I would start engaging in exercise activities three times a week to improve blood circulation. Thirdly, I take alcohol during the weekends and I would have to refrain from it if I were pregnant. Alcohol and drugs are prohibited during pregnancy as they can affect child’s development (Murphy). Finally, I would also need to change my diet by including healthier foods including larger portions of fruits and vegetables. Additionally, I would have to refrain from foods containing saturated fats and sweetened drinks. The study concentrates on behavioral change among women during pregnancy. According to the article, most women consume alcohol during pregnancy goes against the doctors’ advice as alcohol poses numerous side effects to the fetus. This article advises women to avoid alcohol intake at all costs. The article also shows the drinking habits among women from different backgrounds and demonstrated that some of the side effects of drinking while pregnant include intrauterine growth restriction, low birth weight, and preterm birth. The article also shows that there is a strong relationship between alcohol use and smoking and these aspects combined have a significant negative impact on fetal growth.

Discuss the role of university research in innovation in the knowledge Essay

Discuss the role of university research in innovation in the knowledge economy - Essay Example Basic research is a study aimed at greater understanding of the phenomenon under study. The main objective of applied research is to answer and address real-world challenges. It includes systematic analysis of practical part of science. It deals with practical challenges and uses experimental methodologies to solve them. Research and innovation is linked to social and economic development of a country. In Europe, most projects contribute to minimizing regional disparities by improving innovation and research potential. Research has been growing since the end of Second World War. Most firms participate in applied research because it can be marketed easily. Most industries can collaborate with universities specialized in applied technology. Mechanism of Research Governments have made policies to structure innovations and research in the universities. They ensure that there is a return on public investments in terms of social prosperity and economic growth (Rothaermel & David 2008, p.17 ). The role of different actors in the field, their abilities to conduct the research currently are on transnational research networks. Information on research and innovation is necessary for policymakers so that they may be able to see how they can help the universities to promote their innovation and research in the market.... Government support is not enough in most institutions. In most cases, universities collaborate with industries in conducting research. Universities have people, units, and functions, which are involved in partnership actions that have an effect on technological and economic development. They do this by licensing and spin-offs. Universities differ in the way they organize their programs or activities so as to foster innovation. Research institutions, majorly in the United States, are more concerned about their societies in the recent past. This is because they represent the inner resources of knowledge in those societies. Competency of individuals, knowledge and skills and their application has improved significantly in the economy where these individuals work. Most countries focus on the development, application, preservation, and discovery of all forms of knowledge and skills. These are the humanistic, scientific, and social knowledge. They therefore assist publicly and privately fu nded universities. The institutions then appreciate these contributions by appropriately contributing to the development in economy. They enhance knowledge linking activities, which improve technology commercialization, enhance workers’ competency, and assist community and organizational change and increase competency of professionals (Chen, K & Kenney, M 2007, p 1056). They also provide social, economic, and cultural organizational analyses to train and educate individuals and to bring individuals and groups concerned about rational, informed discourse on matters of common concern (Gebauer et al 2005, p.650). The capabilities of these universities are vest in many places, not only schools of business and

Reform Program to Reduce Obesity in the United States Essay

Reform Program to Reduce Obesity in the United States - Essay Example But in the United States, the problem is getting worse. Obesity is not just people going fat – it is a disease that causes maladies like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and strokes. Old and young members of society are susceptible to obesity. Adults suffer economic harm as they become more inactive when their body mass grows. People with a weight control problem have a real and identifiable physiological and medical condition, and obese people have shorter lives than non-obese people. Preventing and addressing obesity has cost billions of dollars for the government, estimated at $110 billion a year, equivalent to 1 percent of the U.S. Gross domestic Product. (Burd-Sharps et al. 2008, p. 64) The Problem Statistics revealed that one American dies every ninety seconds from obesity-related problems (Burd-Shaprs et al. 2008, p. 64). In the late 1990s, 280,000 Americans died of obesity-related problems every year (Allison et al. 1999). The proportion of Americans who are over weight and obese has increased dramatically within the past two decades, and increases in overweight and obesity cuts across all ages, racial and ethnic groups (Bailey, 2006, p. 24). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that for the first time in history, there are more overweight and obese people in the nation than people of normal weight. An estimated 61 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese (Cooke & Wardle 2007, p. 238). Researchers stipulated that if the prevalence of obesity continues to rise especially at younger ages, the negative effect on health and longevity in the coming decades could be much worse. (Bailey 2006) Americans continue their way of life. Modern lifestyles characterized by inactivity are risk factors that will lead to diabetes and high-mortality diseases – insulin resistance, lipid disorders, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Food is cheaper, particularly high-fat foods. Changes in work habits and time pressure s in daily living have led to people gaining more weight. Lifestyles throughout the world have changed. This includes reductions in physical activity, increases in dietary intake, and the aging of the population. There is also the westernization of diet and of other aspects of lifestyles in developing countries. All these contribute to the dramatic increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (Shaw & Sicree, 2008). Risk factors linked with the modern lifestyle, including inactivity and obesity, are associated with insulin resistance, lipid disorders, hypertension, and vascular disease (Blaum, 2007). Moreover, concern has been growing over the increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes in childhood and among teenagers, attributed to inactivity and increasing obesity levels in childhood. Early appearance of type 2 diabetes appears to be a growing problem, particularly among minority groups in the United States, including Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans (Blaum 2007). Survey studies conducted among patients and physicians have demonstrated that physicians are failing to adequately identify the overweight and mildly obese patients, although there is greater recognition for the moderately to severely obese patients, particularly when accompanied by co-morbid conditions (Cooke & Wardle 2007, p. 238). In diabetes, there is energy imbalance – more energy intake with less energy expenditure. Therefore, early assessment of energy imbalance should be taken to

The New Economics of the Music Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

The New Economics of the Music Industry - Essay Example The technological boom has ushered countless innovations in almost all the sectors in the global economy. These advances have facilitated the spillover of positive and negative externalities in various industries facilitating the emergence of new trends that disrupt and refine the current economic equilibrium. Along with other sectors, the global music industry had been significantly altered by this technological boom notably, the internet and associated technologies. These innovations have revolutionized the market structure and value chain of the music industry through the alteration of the intermediation processes. These new technologies allowed the faster mobility of goods from the artist to the costumers as other processes in the value chain are eradicated. Aside from these obvious developments, technological changes have many other considerable implications for the music industry. ... Having a strong foothold on the entire music industry, these companies command high level of bargaining power among other important players as they have are involved in all the processes in the value chain. Figure 1. Market Share of the Big Five (2001) Source: Hannaford, 2005 However, the dominance of these companies is largely felt in America and Europe while the Asia Pacific market is mainly controlled by independents [3]. In this region independent record labels hold almost 40% of the entire market share. In this case, we can see a duopolistic competition where the Big Five abound together with a local competitive fringe. III. Traditional Market Structure Record label plays various roles in the operation of the music industry. It can be noted that these companies are almost always present in the entire traditional value chain. The value chain of the music industry begins with the acquisition of content which typically involves the contract signing between artists and the company to formalize the production of an album. The record label will then start the production of the album by allocating fund in order to cover the costs of providing a producer and engineers or subcontracting with an artist's own team. After the record is produced, discs are manufactured which is typically simultaneous with the launching of aggressive marketing efforts to promote the album [4]. Distribution of the album is usually done by the marketing arm of the record label. Artists heavily rely in the name and reputation of the label for their releases to succeed. The strong marketing muscle of the company has a large influence for different media in the promotion of an artist's music. Record label and music

The Technological Impact on Education Research Paper

The Technological Impact on Education - Research Paper Example Can enhance your comfort with participation, which would otherwise reserve you because of presence of other students in a classroom (Siddiqui, 2004). How researching online, e-libraries and online journals help students with homework There have been many discoveries and developments in the world since its beginning, but one of the most startling discoveries is the internet. It has unveiled the problems and solutions of entire world. One of the biggest achievements of discovering internet is online learning, which has become a priceless gem for students particularly. On just one click, they can find out the lectures of classes they missed, in just one minute they can find out the ways to solve the most difficult questions. Instead of registering for a library, which is sometimes costly for many students, they can have access to any book they want (Williams, 2002). Online libraries and journals help students complete their assignments without buying expensive books and concerning price y tutors. Moreover, internet helps students to get connected with international students, share their ideas and opinions with them and get exposure of their methodologies and ways of learning. In this way, students will use multiple dimensions to analyze a problem and come up with various methods to solve it. How Technology can Increase Learning Learning has never been confined in the surroundings of a school, college, university or any other formal setting to gain knowledge. But today, it has gone beyond the formal concepts of learning education, mainly because of technology. Due to the use of the internet, everybody has access to knowledge of the world. Today, people use the internet for many reasons and purposes. The internet has helped students and professional to seek every kind of knowledge from basic to advanced to the current developments in their respective fields, ranging from arts, sciences, sports, fashion, agriculture, literature, and what not (Reksten, 2000). Apart fro m students and professionals, the internet is being used by people to perform their daily life tasks in a better way. People use it to know about the latest machines and gadgets for their daily tasks, to get advices and tips for health and beauty, to get help in cooking, to know what exercises are the best for them, or to see a product’s review. Today, it is hard to find any topic given to a student for assignment that he cannot find on the internet. The use of the GPS on mobile phones helps people to know their destination and find the fastest route. For business people technology has proved to be very helpful because it reduces the time of their work as huge calculations can be done in minutes using several techniques and software (Williams, 2002). For children it is fun cum learning technology, there are many games that help children learn with fun for example, vocabulary games, pronunciation games, mathematics games and many others.

John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King jr Essay

John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King jr - Essay Example As a result of their public awareness campaigns, the populous began questioning traditional values leading to emergence of new movements. The changes in the USA were part of a larger global trend that influenced humanity as a whole. During this period, there was the Cold War and Vietnam War, construction of the Berlin Wall in addition to the gaining of independence by former colonies was constructed. Therefore, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were a part of global revolutionists who were able to go with the changing nature of the world. John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, known as Jack by members of family and close friends was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts to Joseph and Rose Kennedy a family of Irish Catholics (â€Å"John F. Kennedy†). Being from a wealthy family background, he grew up in a favorable environment where he was assured of the best educational facilities in addition to having a conducive economic and social environment given that he an d his siblings enjoyed the luxuries of attending elite private schools, sailboats, summers homes as well as having servants to tend to their needs ("John Fitzgerald"). Although he suffered various illnesses and health complications in the course of his childhood, these setbacks did not curtail John F. Kennedy’s educational ambitions as he was able to join Harvard University in 1936 (Kenney 12). During his Harvard University days, Kennedy’s father was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, from where Kennedy gathered resources for his final thesis. Kennedy returned to the USA to finish his senior Harvard University where he worked on his thesis that afterwards amended and published with the title Why England Slept in which examines how the British government reacted to Hitler’s rise to power before, during and after the world war two. After Harvard University education, Kennedy enlisted into the American Navy in 1941 which catapulted him to national prominence whe n his motor torpedo boat PT 109 was sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Kennedy’s heroic act when he saved one remember of his crew although he had also sustained injuries in his back made him achieve greater accolades from the US public. Describing Kennedy’s actions Dallek sees Kennedy as the best unifying instance of American egalitarianism (98). Many in the US saw Kennedy as embodying how the country’s social relations between the rich and poor should function being child from a wealthy family who made a choice to voluntarily risk his life in the name of nation. Although, his family was grooming his elder brother, for political office, Kennedy was convinced by his family and friends to take a political career after his brother Joe died in the Second World War (Dallek 117). After the war, Kennedy’s main career objective was to join journalism profession where his first assignment was at the United Nations Conference in San Francisco as well as covering Potsda m Conference. A key element that made Kennedy’s political career in congressional, senatorial and presidential positions a success was his family’s wealth, influential national status and prestige in addition to the tales of his heroic acts during the world war two. Barnes notes financial support was central to Kennedy’s success in all these campaigns with his father being in charge of all financial

Fifa world cup for soccer 2022 in qatar Research Paper

Fifa world cup for soccer 2022 in qatar - Research Paper Example Even though severe criticisms were appearing in the Western media, the Asian people, especially the people in the Middle East welcomed the decision and they are witnessing it as an opportunity to demonstrate the abilities of Asian countries in conducting international events. Most of the global sports events were earlier confined within the boundaries of America or Europe earlier. However, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Delhi commonwealth games have shown the Westerners that the Asian countries are as good as the American or European countries in hosting international events. I strongly believe that the FIFA did a fair job by allocating the 2022 world cup to Qatar and in this paper, I argue in favour of 2022 Qatar world cup. Bains (2009) has pointed out the opinions of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and argued in favour of the Qatar world cup. â€Å"Qatar Emir sees sport as a central part of the emirate's transformation into a modern economy, along with th e development of education, medicine, and science and technology centres† (Bains). World cup football may attract lot of foreign investments to Qatar. The economy of Qatar will develop immensely because of the infrastructure development for World cup football events. Lots of hotels, stadiums, road and rail like transportation facilities, water supply schemes, hospitals, communication facilities, etc needed to be developed in and around Qatar which will definitely improve the country’s economy in many ways. Moreover foreigners may visit Qatar, bulk in numbers, for watching the football matches and they will spend lot of money in Qatar which will boost the economy of Qatar. The visitors when they go back their home will tell more about the beauty of Qatar to their neighbours which will provoke interest among them to visit Qatar. In short, tourism will improve a lot and the economy will get a definite boosting as a result of conducting a world event like FIFA world cup. Ma ny unemployed people in Qatar will get employment because of FIFA world cup. The infrastructure developments across the city will demand more professionals for different projects and thus unemployment problem can be tackled up to certain extent in Qatar by conducting FIFA world cup. The current world is already divided over issues like religious fundamentalism and terrorism. The war on terror is going on at some places of the world at present. Holding an international event like FIFA world cup will definitely improve the feeling of nationalism and unity among the Qatar people. The people in Qatar may get more confidence in their administrations if the Qatar government is able to conduct the FIFA cup in a successful manner. Another advantage of conducting an FIFA cup is the exposure Qatar people will be able to receive from different cultures. People from different countries may visit Qatar for watching the FIFA cup and the locals may get more awareness about the custom, food habits and culture of the foreigners. â€Å"Sport is a very prominent social institution in almost every society because it combines the characteristics found in any institution with a unique appeal†Ã‚  (Frey & Eitzen). Sociologists believe that sports have a definite role in holding a society together.

Decision-Making Process Essay Example for Free

Decision-Making Process Essay Decision-making is a part of everyday life. One must decide on a daily basis; which route to take to work, which has less traffic, coffee or breakfast, or if the morning routine is altered by unexpected situations, which way to continue with the day ahead? According to Bateman and Snell (2011), the ideal decision-making process includes six stages; (1) identify and diagnose the problem, (2) generate alternative solutions, (3) evaluate alternatives, (4) make the choice, (5) implement the decision, and (6) evaluate the decision (p. 89). The process does not have to be thoroughly explained to realize many of the decisions one takes goes through these stages or some of them. One of the types of decisions one must carefully think and analyze before irrationally taking the plunge would have to be the purchase of one’s home. This type of decision is a very long-term commitment and a bit expensive. However, if properly acquire the decision; it is very worth-while. Buying a house or home starts at stage 1; one starts with identifying the problem or in this case the â€Å"wanting† to buy something to call home. It then follows to stage 2: generating alternative decisions. Stage 2 one is able to question if the house is really necessary. There are many suitable apartments and housing options as well. In this stage one also gets to question and calculate if it is within budget or if not, what one will have to do to be able to purchase the house. Once the financial side of the situation is evaluated and one still would like to continue it rolls into stage 3. Stage 3 consists of evaluating alternatives. In this stage one can go through the process of seeking locations, areas and house plans to choose what best fits with the ideal perfect home. This stage also allows to pick and choose what is best suitable for your home and knowing if there will be an upgrade made and changing the original price of the house. Staying with two suitable options and deciding from them will glide one to the next stage. Yes or No, Stage 4 is the decision-making part of the process. Once it has been decided to buy the house, the decision is implemented, Stage 5. Starting the necessary contracts and paper work to make this house one’s new home. The last step of the decision-making process is to evaluate the decision. In Stage 6 consists of one finalizing the process and setting down the last signature on the paper work and/or putting the down payment out on the table. In this type of choice all the steps in the decision-making process were followed. Nothing could have made it easier. As one can see the purchase of a new home, car, changing jobs and/or even choosing what school to send children to takes a decision-making process. Not all the steps are needed in some cases but some steps are automatically done like choosing alternatives.

Transaction Processing Systems

Transaction Processing Systems The main information systems used for operational support in a business are transaction processing systems. This type of system processes data about transactions, which are events that have occurred that affect the business, such as the sale or purchase of goods. A transaction processing system has 3 main purposes: keep records about the state of an organization, process transactions that affect these records, and produce outputs that report on transactions that have occurred. For example, an inventory control system tracks records about inventory, processes sales and purchases of inventory, and produces reports about the amount and value of items on hand, on order, etc. Transaction processing systems exist in all areas of an organization, and in all types of organizations. TPSs can be used by employees (order entry) or customers (bank ATMs). They can use various types of hardware, software, and networks. TPSs use stored data in both files and databases, and many types of programs. TPS structure The structure of a TPS generally consists of a user or other TPS that interacts with TPS software, and stored data used by the TPS. Users of the system are typically personnel who work with business transactions, such as salespeople. Input data comes from users and other TPS. Output includes data back to other TPSs, screens, and reports. TPS functions Like other information systems, TPSs perform four main functions: input, processing, output, and data storage. The input function accepts data for processing from outside the system. The processing output transforms the data in some way. The output function makes the processing results available outside the system. The storage function stores the data for use. Before transaction data can be brought into a TPS, it must be acquired from its source. This step is called data capture. The receiving report is an example of a source document that is used to perform data entry. Data entry means using a screen similar to the one in this figure to enter data. Once the data is entered, a program checks it for errors, a process called data validation. For example, inventory receiving data might be checked to ensure that all number entries are numeric that the item is known to the system, and that quantities are in acceptable ranges. Much output from a TPS is in the form of reports. Several types of reports are commonly produced by TPSs. A detailed report lists details about transactions, such as inventory movement. A summary report summarizes data at various levels. Exception reports indicate data that are exceptions to some condition or standard. Data in a TPS is stored to data files and databases. Two types of stored data are commonly found in TPSs: transaction and master data. Master data is the main data used by the TPS. Master data is usually permanent data that remains in the system as long as the system is in use. For example, an inventory system would have an inventory master file with one record for each item in inventory. Transaction data is data about transactions that have occurred. Transaction data usually remains with the system only until the transactions are processed. The transaction data is then replaced with other transaction data for new transactions. For example, in the inventory control system, a transaction file would contain data about inventory transactions. That data would be used to update the inventory master file. Once the update was complete, the transaction file would be cleared and a new list of transactions would be started. After the data is created, the TPS can retrieve data from the file or database, a process called accessing the data. The data is accessed to produce reports, update master files, and other purposes. Sometimes, before a TPS can access data, it must be arranged in an order that is useful to the system, a process called sorting. For example, the inventory system may produce a report of the 5 most expensive items. The item list should then be sorted in descending order of cost. The data put into a file or database when it is created will become obsolete over time. The TPS must update the data periodically to keep it current. Updating can involve adding new data, changing current data, and deleting old data. Transaction data is used to update master data. Processing involves manipulating data within the system. One function that just involves data processing and not any of the other functions is computation, such as calculating details and totals. Another processing function is decision making, or checking for conditions and acting on them. TPS Controls TPSs must have procedures to ensure the completeness of the data processing, and to minimize the chance of errors. In general, these procedures are called controls. Many types of controls are used, including control totals, audit trails, and backup and recovery procedures. All data in a TPS may not be processed for various reasons, including hardware and software failures, and human error. One way that a TPS checks that all data is processed is through control totals. A control total is a number that is computed when data enters a system, and again after the system has processed the data. For example, in the inventory control system, a number reflecting an initial count of receiving reports to be entered would be entered into the system. After the receiving reports are entered, a count of the documents entered would be produced. There are also other types of control totals. Document counts are only one type. An audit trail is a way of tracing the effect of data through a system. A good audit trail is one in which someone can start with the output and go back through the system to the source document and vice versa. For example, the inventory receiving system could produce a report of all item counts. This could be used to trace each item received back to its receiving report source document. Computer systems sometimes fail, causing a loss of corruption of data. The failure may be caused by a malfunction in the hardware or software, or because of something outside the system, such as a lightning strike. The main way of ensuring against loss of data is to use a backup procedure. This means copying important data and programs to a portable media and moving it somewhere away from the main computing site. Important files and databases are usually backed up daily or weekly. The backup of the stored data can be copied back to the system, a process known are restoring the data. If a system fails, recovery procedures tell the computer professionals how to use the backups to recover from a crash. Modes of Data Processing Data in a TPS can be processed using two basic approaches: batch and online processing. A TPS may use both online and batch processing. In batch processing, data for all transactions to be processed are prepared in form understandable to the computer before actual processing begins. Then the batch of data is processed by the computer, and the resulting output is received in a batch. An example of batch processing is overnight payroll check processing and printing. With online processing, or OLTP, a person uses a screen and keyboard or I/O device connected to the computer at the time the processing is done. Each set of data for a transaction is entered directly into the computer. The data is processed, and the output is received before the next input data is entered. Online processing may also be called interactive processing. An example of online processing is an airline reservation system. The term à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“real-timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  may also be used to indicate online processing. Real-time means the processing is performed immediately after the data is entered. This description is not quite accurate for online processing. If there are many users of an online system, processing may not begin for some time after the input is received. The amount of time depends on the hardware, software, and number of users. One example of a real-time system is a manufacturing monitoring system. If cars are being manufactured and thereà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s a problem with the computerized assembly line, the system alerts operators immediately.

Analysis of JFK (1991) and Thin Blue Line

Analysis of JFK (1991) and Thin Blue Line Both films, for example, pore over minutae that may or may not be significant (umbrellas opening in JFK, a dropped thickshake in The Thin Blue Line) to draw the viewer ever more deeply into the world of the crime scene. Yet neither film stops at a simple recitation of facts: both look at the States role in events and suggest an explanation for the alleged cover up. In JFK, this is Stones highly controversial suggestion that the CIA and the military-industrial complex had a vested interest in seeing President Kennedy dead because he was shortly to scale down Americas involvement in Vietnam. In The Thin Blue Line, two related theories are suggested for the official insistence on trying Randall Adams: firstly, that David Harris account had the advantage of providing the police with an eye-witness, while if Harris was himself the murderer, no reliable witness existed; and secondly, that Harris could not be tried as an adult, thus robbing the District Attorney of the much-sought death sentence for the murder of a policeman. These theories are communicated through devices commonly associated with fictional narratives, such as a highly evocative musical score (Phillip Glass music for The Thin Blue Line invokes a melancholy sense of helplessness, while John Williams score for JFK has a more urgent tone, suggestive of furtive conspiracies and forces careening out of control). And both counterpoint different modes of filmmaking as they do so, contrasting invented material filmed in a classical Hollywood style with documentary or faux-documentary footage. The similarity in effect of the two films fast-paced juxtaposition of styles is striking, and suggests Stones approach may have been influenced by Morris work. Yet while both films have an over-riding concern with the filmmaker uncovering facts, that might be called the outer narrative, each constructs a contrasting relationship between the narrative and documentary elements within the text. In JFK, Stone uses an interior narrative of Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) investigating the case. While Garrison is essentially a surrogate for the filmmaker, so that the film cannot be considered as the story of Jim Garrison,3 this narrative is provided moments that function simply as character drama with little or no relationship to the larger argument (such as Garrisons arguments and reconciliation with his wife, or a Norman Rockwell moment4 with his children). This, then, is an example of classical Hollywood-style fictional filmmaking. This is then ruptured by the moments of documentary and faux-documentary that expand on Stones argument as it is being expressed by Garrison. This includes what we might call genuine documentary material: the Zapruder film of the assassination and archival photographs (such as of Kennedys autopsy, or the photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the rifle). It also includes a large number of re-enactments, which are very often presented in a simulated documentary style (grainy or black and white film stock, hand-held cameras). This faux-documentary material is often juxtaposed with the genuine documentary material in a manner that blends the two together (the Zapruder footage is matched by staged footage using similar film stock, and the autopsy photographs are intercut with shots of a wax dummy of Kennedy). The Thin Blue Line shares the same outer narrative (filmmaker investigating), but the inner narrative (the story of Randall Adams) is not constructed in a classical Hollywood style. Instead, it is told through one of the standard modes of documentary filmmaking identified by Bill Nichols5: direct address by participants in an interview format (with the interviewer removed through editing). As with Stones film, this inner narrative is supported by evidence, but again the mode of presentation is reversed: the principal method used to support the witnesses testimony is through reconstructions of the crime scene that, while stylized and fragmented, are constructed as a miniature classically constructed narrative. This nesting of different modes might be tabulated as follows: My point, however, is that the films differ in mode, but use mirror-image forms of the same structure. JFK is primarily a fictional film, which employs a documentary style when re-enacting speculated events. The Thin Blue Line is primarily a documentary, but employs a style borrowed from fictional films in its re-enactments. If the two films share so much in common, and slide so fluidly from documentary to fictional modes so quickly, does this suggest the difference in the two forms might be largely cosmetic? Fiction can be used to express truths about the real world, and the documentary is can be used in ways that obscure the truth or construct falsehoods. If the fundamental difference between fiction and non-fiction is taken as the link to the real, and it is shown that documentaries and fictions share similar relationships to the real, then the two forms start to look more alike: not the same, exactly, but similar. JFK and The Thin Blue Line, by this way of thinking, are then only superficially different types of movies. They share the same structure and the fiction versus documentary dichotomy is more like a difference in genre than a fundamental distinction. This is not to invest the superficial crossover of techniques between the two forms with a significance it does not posses. Documentaries are not fictions just because The Blair Witch Project (1999) does such a good job of pretending to be a real document, or even because Rats in the Ranks (1996) works so well as a narrative. Rather, the downplaying of the documentary / fiction division is based upon a deep-seated cynicism about claims to truth in documentary. That there is such reluctance to accept truth at face value in documentary should not be surprising. Early or classic film studies was based largely on arguments about the relationships between film and reality. While this debate is too detailed to fully explore, it is important to touch upon briefly because much writing upon documentary echoes the arguments of these early writers. The direct link to reality might be seen as a defining feature of the documentary, but it was also seen in the first half of the century as one of the defining features of the film medium itself. The cinema appeared to be an even more perfect method for mechanically reproducing reality than the still photographs that preceded it. This added urgency to arguments of aesthetics that centred on whether the role of the artist was to attempt to recreate the real world, or rather to interpret or even transcend the real.6 These arguments were therefore central to classic film theory and resolved into two broad strands of argument that echo the aesthetic positions described. Thus writers such as Siegfried Kraceur and Andre Bazin had approaches that emphasised films role as a mirror to the real. Of more interest to the current discussion, however, are early anti-realists such as Rudolf Arnheim. In his Film as Art, his defence for cinemas status as serious artistic medium (rather than a mechanical process) is built a round a series of explanations of the way in which film differs from the real.7 Three dimensional surfaces are projected on a plane surface. Perception of depth is lost. In the black and white cinema with reference to which Arnheim formulated his thesis, colour is eliminated. Lighting distorts. Editing interrupts the flow of time and creates artistic possibilities through the use of montage. Non-visual stimulus is absent (or, after the coming of sound, limited), and even the visual world is limited by the edge of the screen. This catalogue of distortions is, for Arnheim, the very basis for the creation of aesthetic systems by which films can signify meanings. After establishing the above points, he sets about demonstrating how each of these limitations in depicting the real is used as a method of artistic expression8. Subsequent film theory moved beyond Arnheims formulations, but has tended to take them as a given in the sense that few would still argue that the central project of film is limited to the reproduction or reflection of reality. Given that such formulations are at the foundation of later film theory, it should not be surprising that they were echoed when subsequent theorists turned their minds to issues regarding documentary, and particularly its relation to the real. Noà «l Carroll attributes much of this writing to a backlash against premature claims by proponents of direct cinema that their method of cinema provided unmitigated access to the real.9 These documentarists attempted to avoid the filmmakers intervention and interpretation, reacting to the overt imposition of a viewpoint present in traditional Griersonian forms of documentary. However, as Carroll puts it, [d]irect cinema opened a can of worms and then got eaten by them.10 It was quickly argued that direct cinema was every bit as interpretive as Griersonian documentaries. For the distortions of reality that were identified by Arnheim are equally present in documentary cinema, but with different implications. Instead of being the unambiguously positive means to artistic expression, every limitation of the medium is instead a problematic point of mediation by the filmmaker. The limitations of the film frame, for example, force choices upon even the most non-interventionist direct cinema filmmaker. And with every choice the filmmaker is placing the film at a greater distance from reality. Carroll quotes Eric Barnouw making this point: To be sure, some documentarists claim to be objective a term that seems to renounce an interpretive role. The claim may be strategic, but it is surely meaningless. The documentarist, like any communicator in any medium, makes endless choices. He [sic] selects topics, people, vistas, angles, lens, juxtapositions, sounds, words. Each selection is an expression of his point of view, whether he is aware of it or not, whether he acknowledges it or not. Even behind the first step, selection of a topic, there is a motive It is in selecting and arranging his findings that he expresses himself; these choices are, in effect, comments. And whether he adopts the stance of observer, or chronicler or whatever, he cannot escape his subjectivity. He presents his version of the world.11 Such an argument certainly seems to cast doubt over the potential for objectivity in documentary cinema. Carried to an extreme, it is the presentation of a version of the world rather than the world itself that can be seen as rendering documentary a form of fiction. Either way, the prospects for documentary truth in such a model seem grim indeed. It should be noted that Carroll puts little faith in such an approach to documentary, and his counter-argument will be returned to. Before doing so, however, it is worth noting that more recently, Carroll has drawn the distinction between what he calls the selectivity argument (recited above) and more global postmodern scepticism of claims to truth.12 The latter is based not in the assumptions of classical film studies, but rather the wider discussions about the way any human discourse imposes meaning and structure on real events. For example, historical accounts impose a narrative structure onto events to make them intelligible, and a distinction must be drawn between the real events (which actually occurred) and the account (which lacks an independent historical existence): The states of affairs and events the historian alludes to do have a basis in historical reality, and the historians claims about those states of affairs and events can be literally true or false. But the narratives in which those states of affairs and events figure are inventions, constructions, indeed, fictions. The narrative structure in the historical recounting is not true or false; it is fictional.13 This point of such an observation may seem a little obscure. If the narrative structure imposed in a historical account is considered independently of the statements of historical fact that it is used to explain, then of course it must be considered fictional. If, however, a documentary text is considered in its entirety, then it is open to questioning about the validity of the historians factual claims (including analysis as to whether the narrative structure is an accurate or fair way of interpreting the real events) in a way that fiction is not. Certainly the argument is here being posed by Carroll (albeit following Michael Renov and Hayden White) as a prelude to arguing that it is unsupportable14. However, Carroll also refers to an alternative model for looking at the link between non-fiction and fiction, mounted by Bill Nichols in his book Representing Reality, which is more subtle and worth dealing with directly. Nichols, unlike the other theorists alluded to by Carroll, does not argue that documentaries must be considered fiction. He recognises that the existence of an external, real-world referent is an important distinction that cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. The world of a fiction film is a unique, imaginary domain, but the world of documentary is different: Instead of a world, we are offered access to the world.15 This claim to representation of the real means that documentaries are not simply narratives: they are also argumentative, if only in the sense that they make claims (even if only implicitly) about what is true. They are therefore a fiction (un)like any other.16 However, Nichols remains troubled by these claims to truth. While the documentary is distinguished from fiction by its links to the real, this representation is rendered problematic by the apparent impossibility of rendering truth objectively. Documentaries, while not fiction, share with fiction those very qualities that thoroughly compromise any rigorous objectivity, if they dont make it impossible Objectivity has been under no less siege than realism, and for many of the same reasons. It, too, is a way of representing the world that denies its own processes of construction and their formative effect. Any given standard for objectivity will have embedded political assumptions In documentary, these assumptions might include belief in the self-evident nature of facts, in rhetorical persuasion as a necessary and appropriate part of representation, and in the capacity of the documentary text to affect its audience through its implicit or explicit claim of This is so, isnt it?17 Nichols argument is reminiscent of those strands of theoretical thought that view ideology as an inescapable and all pervasive force. Documentaries do make claims about the truth that are open to evaluation, but unfortunately, according to Nichols, our institutional mechanisms for assessing such claims are themselves suspect. If such an approach is accepted, evaluation of the arguments made by Oliver Stone and Errol Morris might be highly problematic. Carroll, however, is not willing to concede that any of these arguments establish either that non-fiction is a form of fiction, or that objectivity is impossible. Firstly, he argues that the cinema does not posses any unique tendency towards bias compared to other media. The same arguments about selectivity that Barnouw raises with respect to film are equally applicable to other media and fields of enquiry.18 The particular causes of distortion may be different, but any historian for example may select, manipulate, interpret or emphasise aspects of their material just as a documentary maker can. Thus if non-fiction film is said to be subjective due to its selectivity, so must any field of human enquiry, such as history and science. In the earlier of the two articles I have discussed (written in 1983), Carroll is confident that such a wide-ranging scepticism would not be seriously proposed.19 As we have seen, by 1996 that was exactly the argument Carroll was responding to. Nevertheless, in 1983 his defence against the selectivity argument is based upon the notion of objectivity. In any given field of argument, at any given time, there are patterns of reasoning, standards for observation, and methods for assessing evidence which are used for getting to the truth.20 A piece of research is considered objective insofar as it abides by these norms. Likewise, non-fiction films may be assessed against similar codes, and will be considered biased or subjective if they fail to meet them. That selectivity may make bias possible, or even likely, does not preclude the possibility of a film according with established standards of objectivity. The obvious differences between the real world and the filmed presentation prevent film from substituting for lived experience, but they do not prevent documentaries from being objective. This central assumption of this argument that there are standards of objectivity that can be used to judge the truth is exactly the assumption that we have seen Bill Nichols question. Carroll, however, disputes all of Nichols contentions that are cited above. Firstly, he does not accept that objectivity demands that a film call attention to its processes of construction. After all, the fact that a non-fiction film is constructed is understood by any audience and does not need to be spelt out. Self-reflexive analyses of the filmmaking process or the authors own subjectivity might be a feature of many recent documentaries, but for Carrol this is an artistic device, rather than a necessary benchmark for objectivity. Nor does he accept that any standard for objectivity has embedded political assumptions, even accepting Nichols very broad definitions (outlined above) of what constitutes a political assumption. A belief in the self-evident nature of facts, for example, might be a political assumption when the facts being presented are politically charged falsehoods. Yet the acceptance that some claims of self-evident truth are suspect does not mean that there can be no self-evident facts. With regards to rhetorical persuasion, he argues that films can either eschew such devices altogether (he cites nature documentaries as an example),21 or employ rhetorical structures in the service of objective discourse. Similarly, he regards the implicit claim that this is so, isnt it as present in virtually any assertion and hence neither a political assumption nor a barrier to objectivity. Carrolls approach to these arguments about the prospects for truth or objectivity in documentary is often to return to examples where the truth claimed by the documentary seems clear and uncontentious (as with his common use of nature documentaries as discussion points). The linking thread of the arguments he presents is that the theorists he criticises have mistaken the difficulty in presenting objective truth for an impossibility, often by focussing on exactly the texts where the truth is most problematic.22 It is worth returning to The Thin Blue Line and JFK at this point, since these films both explore events that are subject to considerable conjecture. Neither could be accused of assuming the truth about these events is self-evident (quite the opposite), yet both nevertheless ultimately make vital factual claims. As noted already, these claims question state-sanctioned verdicts, and both films led to a public discussion that forced official re-examination of the cases: The Thin Blue Line forced the retrial of Randall Adams, while JFK contributed to the passing of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which appointed an Assassination Records Review Board (AARB) to re-examine unreleased information about the assassination.23 More than a decade later, with Randall Adams freed from jail, it seems fair to say that Morris case has been widely accepted as true. Oliver Stone, too, has been partially vindicated by subsequent re-examination of the case, with records released by the AARB that support some of his allegations (such as tampering with records of Kennedys autopsy).24 Yet, despite such small victories, and acceptance by many filmgoers of Stones theory of the assassination, JFK remains subject to fierce scholarly criticism of both its methods and conclusions that stands in contrast to the reception of The Thin Blue Line. Linda Williams, in her discussion of the two films, dismisses JFK as paranoid fiction,25 and the widespread condemnation of Stones film by both popular and academic press is well documented.26 Clearly this has much to do with the nature of the case Stone discusses. The Kennedy assassination, for obvious reasons, is a much more familiar event and one that had been the subject of considerably more public discussion than the Randall Adams prosecution. Furthermore, while The Thin Blue Line avoids underlining the political implications of its own conclusions, JFK is explicitly critical of the government and media, calling the assassination a coup detat and coming very close to suggesting former president Lyndon Johnson was involved.27 However, the difference in the reception of the two films cannot be explained simply through reference to the argument each presents. Within the very similar structures outlined at the start of this essay, there are also crucial differences that also explain much of the negative response to Stones film compared to Morris. In his consideration of JFK, Robert Rosenstone notes that there are considerable constraints over the depiction of historical events on the screen.28 In particular, he sees the need to invent detail and compress events to shape a narrative as a limitation that must be negotiated by any historical film. While he is referring to narrative features such as JFK, his argument is equally applicable to the summaries of and suppositions regarding events in The Thin Blue Line. This argument has clear overtones of the discussions of documentaries distortions of truth through selectivity that have already been cited. Like Carroll, Rosenstone argues that when a historical filmmaker such as Stone invents or compresses events, he or she is exercising the same type of discretion that the author of any written history must.29 Such inventions can be considered true (at least to a point) in the sense that they can be verified, documented, or reasonably argued. The problem, notes Rosenstone, is that the verification must occur outside the world of the film. When Stone argues in JFK that President Kennedy was about to withdraw troops from Vietnam, the information is justified by reference to a real memorandum (National Security Action Memo 263), but a fictitious character makes the reference. Assuming no foreknowledge of the case, the audience has no way while watching the film of even knowing that the memorandum really existed, let alone being sure that it supports the conclusion Stone draws. If Stones conclusion is to be examined, the audience must go beyond viewing and read the relevant documents (or scholarly discussion of them) for themselves. If they do so, they will, as Rosenstone states, be undertaking the same kind of critique and review that a work of written history is subjected to. This process of measuring a film against standards of objectivity is exactly that which Carroll highlights as the means of linking non-fiction films to the truth. Stone has actively sought to enter into such debates, mounting extensive defences of the historical accuracy of JFK and his other works.30 That JFK was so controversial was perhaps partly due to the fact that audiences do not necessarily judge films within such evaluative frameworks: unlike the target audience for written history, they may assume that what they see is true and not enter into the debates as to the films veracity. Even assuming an engaged, sceptical audience, however, it is also the case that Stones film does not make the separation of truth from fiction a straightforward task. I have already suggested that the film possesses three layers of exposition: an outer narrative (Stones case), an inner narrative (Garrisons story), and evidence (presented as documentary material and re-enactments). The inner narrative story of Jim Garrison (which is likely to be understood by most audiences as at least partially fictional and not taken as literally true) is often weaved seamlessly in with the evidence (more likely to be seen as Stones presentation of true material). Garrison, for example, meets the mysterious Mr X (Donald Sutherland) in Washington, who outlines a hypothesis about who killed Kennedy and why. This calls forth a series of re-enactments of high level discussions between officials that are weaved into Mr Xs account. The narrative is calling forth evidence, but the difficulty with this sequence is in separating what material is a fictional narrative device, what is speculated, and what is documented truth. For example, are we to accept that Garrison really did meet an anonymous official who told him this information, and take that as evidence that Stones case is true? Or are we to take this as simply part of the inner narrative, a method of presenting evidence? As mentioned, Mr X talks in detail of a real memorandum in order to put Stones case that Kennedy wished to withdraw from Vietnam. An audience might correctly surmise that the existence of such a memo (putting aside its meaning) is a documented fact. However, this quickly leads into discussions of the reaction to this memo within high levels of the government, and the point at which history slides into speculation in this sequence is by no means readily apparent. The re-enactment portions of the sequence are presented in a stylised style using black and white photography, but this does not flag them as conjectural, since Stone switches between film stocks throughout the film without drawing such distinctions. (Elsewhere in the film, for example, the Zapruder film of the assassination, is alternated with simulated footage shot in the same style.) The effect of these aesthetic decisions by Stone is to confuse the boundaries between non-fiction and fiction in a way that makes application of objective standards for assessing truth difficult. The audience can only infer which sections of the film are intended to be read as non-fiction and subject to such examination. Written in October 2001 for the Melbourne University subject Ethnographic and Documentary Cinema. Notes 1. This is the concluding sentence of Eric Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film, (Oxford University Press, New York Oxford, 1993, 2nd Revised Edition), p. 349. 2. The list of similarities between the two films that follows draws partly on Linda Williams, Mirrors without Memories: Truth, History and The Thin Blue Line in Barry Keith Grant Jeanette Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Wayne State UP, Detroit, 1998), p 381. 3. The films Garrison, for example, has access to information the real Garrison did not, in order to allow Stone to communicate it to audiences. For example, In the movie we attributed to Garrison the information about Shaws background but in real life Jim did not have access to that information at that time. (Oliver Stone audio commentary, JFK DVD, Region 4 Special Edition Directors Cut release, Warner Brothers, 1 hour 28 mins approx.) 4. This phrase is Stones own: JFK audio commentary, op. cit., 2 hours 10 mins approx. While these scenes are also used to communicate information about the larger case, this is an example of narrative efficiency, and does not contradict my point that they do contain aspects (such as the melodromatic touch of Garrisons children asking Dont you love us any more?) which function simply as domestic drama, with no relation to the case against Clay Shaw. 5. Nichols has revisited and slightly reformulated these modes over time, but they can be summarised as expository (ie voice-of-God documentaries that use direct address to tell the audience a truth), observational (cinema verite style films that aim to observe events without participating), interactive (interview based films that allows for direct address by participants, while allowing for filmmakers interaction through questioning), reflexive (films that draw attention to the documentarys own methods), and performative (stressing an individual, subjective position, while downplaying objective or referential aspects). See Bill Nichols: The Voice of Documentary, Film Quarterly 36, no 3 (Spring 1983); Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary (1991, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis), Chapter 2; and (for the perfomative mode) Performing Documentary, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture (c. 1994, Indiana UP, Bloomington), pp 92-106. 6. This point and the subsequent discussion of classical film theory draw on the discussions in the anthologies Gerald Mast et al. (eds.), Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, (Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1992), pp. 3-7, and Antony Easthorpe, Contemporary Film Theory (Longman, London New York, 1993), pp. 2-5. 7. Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art (Faber Faber, London, 1958), esp. pp. 17-37. 8. Ibid., p. 37-114. 9. Noà «l Carroll, From Real to Reel: Entangled in Nonfiction film, in Noà «l Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996), p. 224-252. (Originally published in Philosophic Exchange in 1983, and will be cited in future as Carroll (1996/1983) to distinguish it from his piece in Post-Theory cited below). Reference to direct cinema is p. 225. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid., p. 226. Carroll is quoting from the first edition of Barnouws Documentary, citing p. 287-288 of that edition (Oxford University Press, New York, 1974). The nearest equivalent to this quote I can find in the third edition (op. cit.) is at p. 344. 12. Noà «l Carroll, Nonfiction films and Postmodernist Skepticism in Noà «l Carrol David Bordwell (eds.), Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1996), pp. 283-306. 13. Ibid., p. 288. Emphasis is Carrolls. 14. Carroll is frequently belligerent about the texts he discusses but is particularly so about Renovs Theorizing Documentary, describing it as a state of the art compendium of received thinking about the documentary film, and dismissing Renovs argument as a red herring. Ibid., p. 285 291. 15. Both quotes Nichols, 1991, op. cit., p. 109. Emphasis is Nichols. 16. This is the title of the second part of Nichols book. How helpful this argumentative nature is as a distinction between fiction and documentary (and how unlike any other form of fiction documentary can be said to be) is debatable given that fiction can be every bit as argumentative as documentary (as JFK demonstrates). 17. Ibid., p. 195. 18. Carroll (1996/1983), op. cit., p. 226. 19. Carroll: I mention this because I do not think that commentators who conclude that the nonfiction film is subjective intend their remarks as a mere gloss on the notion that everything is subjective. But that, I fear, is the untoward implication of their attack. Ibid., p. 226. 20. Ibid., p. 230. See also Carroll, 1996, op. cit. pp. 283-285. 21. Carroll, 1996, p. 294. 22. See, for example, Ibid., p. 293, regarding film scholars focus on art-documentary. 23. Michael L. Kurtz, Oliver Stone, JFK, and History, in Robert Brent Toplin (ed), Oliver Analysis of JFK (1991) and Thin Blue Line Analysis of JFK (1991) and Thin Blue Line Both films, for example, pore over minutae that may or may not be significant (umbrellas opening in JFK, a dropped thickshake in The Thin Blue Line) to draw the viewer ever more deeply into the world of the crime scene. Yet neither film stops at a simple recitation of facts: both look at the States role in events and suggest an explanation for the alleged cover up. In JFK, this is Stones highly controversial suggestion that the CIA and the military-industrial complex had a vested interest in seeing President Kennedy dead because he was shortly to scale down Americas involvement in Vietnam. In The Thin Blue Line, two related theories are suggested for the official insistence on trying Randall Adams: firstly, that David Harris account had the advantage of providing the police with an eye-witness, while if Harris was himself the murderer, no reliable witness existed; and secondly, that Harris could not be tried as an adult, thus robbing the District Attorney of the much-sought death sentence for the murder of a policeman. These theories are communicated through devices commonly associated with fictional narratives, such as a highly evocative musical score (Phillip Glass music for The Thin Blue Line invokes a melancholy sense of helplessness, while John Williams score for JFK has a more urgent tone, suggestive of furtive conspiracies and forces careening out of control). And both counterpoint different modes of filmmaking as they do so, contrasting invented material filmed in a classical Hollywood style with documentary or faux-documentary footage. The similarity in effect of the two films fast-paced juxtaposition of styles is striking, and suggests Stones approach may have been influenced by Morris work. Yet while both films have an over-riding concern with the filmmaker uncovering facts, that might be called the outer narrative, each constructs a contrasting relationship between the narrative and documentary elements within the text. In JFK, Stone uses an interior narrative of Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) investigating the case. While Garrison is essentially a surrogate for the filmmaker, so that the film cannot be considered as the story of Jim Garrison,3 this narrative is provided moments that function simply as character drama with little or no relationship to the larger argument (such as Garrisons arguments and reconciliation with his wife, or a Norman Rockwell moment4 with his children). This, then, is an example of classical Hollywood-style fictional filmmaking. This is then ruptured by the moments of documentary and faux-documentary that expand on Stones argument as it is being expressed by Garrison. This includes what we might call genuine documentary material: the Zapruder film of the assassination and archival photographs (such as of Kennedys autopsy, or the photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the rifle). It also includes a large number of re-enactments, which are very often presented in a simulated documentary style (grainy or black and white film stock, hand-held cameras). This faux-documentary material is often juxtaposed with the genuine documentary material in a manner that blends the two together (the Zapruder footage is matched by staged footage using similar film stock, and the autopsy photographs are intercut with shots of a wax dummy of Kennedy). The Thin Blue Line shares the same outer narrative (filmmaker investigating), but the inner narrative (the story of Randall Adams) is not constructed in a classical Hollywood style. Instead, it is told through one of the standard modes of documentary filmmaking identified by Bill Nichols5: direct address by participants in an interview format (with the interviewer removed through editing). As with Stones film, this inner narrative is supported by evidence, but again the mode of presentation is reversed: the principal method used to support the witnesses testimony is through reconstructions of the crime scene that, while stylized and fragmented, are constructed as a miniature classically constructed narrative. This nesting of different modes might be tabulated as follows: My point, however, is that the films differ in mode, but use mirror-image forms of the same structure. JFK is primarily a fictional film, which employs a documentary style when re-enacting speculated events. The Thin Blue Line is primarily a documentary, but employs a style borrowed from fictional films in its re-enactments. If the two films share so much in common, and slide so fluidly from documentary to fictional modes so quickly, does this suggest the difference in the two forms might be largely cosmetic? Fiction can be used to express truths about the real world, and the documentary is can be used in ways that obscure the truth or construct falsehoods. If the fundamental difference between fiction and non-fiction is taken as the link to the real, and it is shown that documentaries and fictions share similar relationships to the real, then the two forms start to look more alike: not the same, exactly, but similar. JFK and The Thin Blue Line, by this way of thinking, are then only superficially different types of movies. They share the same structure and the fiction versus documentary dichotomy is more like a difference in genre than a fundamental distinction. This is not to invest the superficial crossover of techniques between the two forms with a significance it does not posses. Documentaries are not fictions just because The Blair Witch Project (1999) does such a good job of pretending to be a real document, or even because Rats in the Ranks (1996) works so well as a narrative. Rather, the downplaying of the documentary / fiction division is based upon a deep-seated cynicism about claims to truth in documentary. That there is such reluctance to accept truth at face value in documentary should not be surprising. Early or classic film studies was based largely on arguments about the relationships between film and reality. While this debate is too detailed to fully explore, it is important to touch upon briefly because much writing upon documentary echoes the arguments of these early writers. The direct link to reality might be seen as a defining feature of the documentary, but it was also seen in the first half of the century as one of the defining features of the film medium itself. The cinema appeared to be an even more perfect method for mechanically reproducing reality than the still photographs that preceded it. This added urgency to arguments of aesthetics that centred on whether the role of the artist was to attempt to recreate the real world, or rather to interpret or even transcend the real.6 These arguments were therefore central to classic film theory and resolved into two broad strands of argument that echo the aesthetic positions described. Thus writers such as Siegfried Kraceur and Andre Bazin had approaches that emphasised films role as a mirror to the real. Of more interest to the current discussion, however, are early anti-realists such as Rudolf Arnheim. In his Film as Art, his defence for cinemas status as serious artistic medium (rather than a mechanical process) is built a round a series of explanations of the way in which film differs from the real.7 Three dimensional surfaces are projected on a plane surface. Perception of depth is lost. In the black and white cinema with reference to which Arnheim formulated his thesis, colour is eliminated. Lighting distorts. Editing interrupts the flow of time and creates artistic possibilities through the use of montage. Non-visual stimulus is absent (or, after the coming of sound, limited), and even the visual world is limited by the edge of the screen. This catalogue of distortions is, for Arnheim, the very basis for the creation of aesthetic systems by which films can signify meanings. After establishing the above points, he sets about demonstrating how each of these limitations in depicting the real is used as a method of artistic expression8. Subsequent film theory moved beyond Arnheims formulations, but has tended to take them as a given in the sense that few would still argue that the central project of film is limited to the reproduction or reflection of reality. Given that such formulations are at the foundation of later film theory, it should not be surprising that they were echoed when subsequent theorists turned their minds to issues regarding documentary, and particularly its relation to the real. Noà «l Carroll attributes much of this writing to a backlash against premature claims by proponents of direct cinema that their method of cinema provided unmitigated access to the real.9 These documentarists attempted to avoid the filmmakers intervention and interpretation, reacting to the overt imposition of a viewpoint present in traditional Griersonian forms of documentary. However, as Carroll puts it, [d]irect cinema opened a can of worms and then got eaten by them.10 It was quickly argued that direct cinema was every bit as interpretive as Griersonian documentaries. For the distortions of reality that were identified by Arnheim are equally present in documentary cinema, but with different implications. Instead of being the unambiguously positive means to artistic expression, every limitation of the medium is instead a problematic point of mediation by the filmmaker. The limitations of the film frame, for example, force choices upon even the most non-interventionist direct cinema filmmaker. And with every choice the filmmaker is placing the film at a greater distance from reality. Carroll quotes Eric Barnouw making this point: To be sure, some documentarists claim to be objective a term that seems to renounce an interpretive role. The claim may be strategic, but it is surely meaningless. The documentarist, like any communicator in any medium, makes endless choices. He [sic] selects topics, people, vistas, angles, lens, juxtapositions, sounds, words. Each selection is an expression of his point of view, whether he is aware of it or not, whether he acknowledges it or not. Even behind the first step, selection of a topic, there is a motive It is in selecting and arranging his findings that he expresses himself; these choices are, in effect, comments. And whether he adopts the stance of observer, or chronicler or whatever, he cannot escape his subjectivity. He presents his version of the world.11 Such an argument certainly seems to cast doubt over the potential for objectivity in documentary cinema. Carried to an extreme, it is the presentation of a version of the world rather than the world itself that can be seen as rendering documentary a form of fiction. Either way, the prospects for documentary truth in such a model seem grim indeed. It should be noted that Carroll puts little faith in such an approach to documentary, and his counter-argument will be returned to. Before doing so, however, it is worth noting that more recently, Carroll has drawn the distinction between what he calls the selectivity argument (recited above) and more global postmodern scepticism of claims to truth.12 The latter is based not in the assumptions of classical film studies, but rather the wider discussions about the way any human discourse imposes meaning and structure on real events. For example, historical accounts impose a narrative structure onto events to make them intelligible, and a distinction must be drawn between the real events (which actually occurred) and the account (which lacks an independent historical existence): The states of affairs and events the historian alludes to do have a basis in historical reality, and the historians claims about those states of affairs and events can be literally true or false. But the narratives in which those states of affairs and events figure are inventions, constructions, indeed, fictions. The narrative structure in the historical recounting is not true or false; it is fictional.13 This point of such an observation may seem a little obscure. If the narrative structure imposed in a historical account is considered independently of the statements of historical fact that it is used to explain, then of course it must be considered fictional. If, however, a documentary text is considered in its entirety, then it is open to questioning about the validity of the historians factual claims (including analysis as to whether the narrative structure is an accurate or fair way of interpreting the real events) in a way that fiction is not. Certainly the argument is here being posed by Carroll (albeit following Michael Renov and Hayden White) as a prelude to arguing that it is unsupportable14. However, Carroll also refers to an alternative model for looking at the link between non-fiction and fiction, mounted by Bill Nichols in his book Representing Reality, which is more subtle and worth dealing with directly. Nichols, unlike the other theorists alluded to by Carroll, does not argue that documentaries must be considered fiction. He recognises that the existence of an external, real-world referent is an important distinction that cannot be dismissed as irrelevant. The world of a fiction film is a unique, imaginary domain, but the world of documentary is different: Instead of a world, we are offered access to the world.15 This claim to representation of the real means that documentaries are not simply narratives: they are also argumentative, if only in the sense that they make claims (even if only implicitly) about what is true. They are therefore a fiction (un)like any other.16 However, Nichols remains troubled by these claims to truth. While the documentary is distinguished from fiction by its links to the real, this representation is rendered problematic by the apparent impossibility of rendering truth objectively. Documentaries, while not fiction, share with fiction those very qualities that thoroughly compromise any rigorous objectivity, if they dont make it impossible Objectivity has been under no less siege than realism, and for many of the same reasons. It, too, is a way of representing the world that denies its own processes of construction and their formative effect. Any given standard for objectivity will have embedded political assumptions In documentary, these assumptions might include belief in the self-evident nature of facts, in rhetorical persuasion as a necessary and appropriate part of representation, and in the capacity of the documentary text to affect its audience through its implicit or explicit claim of This is so, isnt it?17 Nichols argument is reminiscent of those strands of theoretical thought that view ideology as an inescapable and all pervasive force. Documentaries do make claims about the truth that are open to evaluation, but unfortunately, according to Nichols, our institutional mechanisms for assessing such claims are themselves suspect. If such an approach is accepted, evaluation of the arguments made by Oliver Stone and Errol Morris might be highly problematic. Carroll, however, is not willing to concede that any of these arguments establish either that non-fiction is a form of fiction, or that objectivity is impossible. Firstly, he argues that the cinema does not posses any unique tendency towards bias compared to other media. The same arguments about selectivity that Barnouw raises with respect to film are equally applicable to other media and fields of enquiry.18 The particular causes of distortion may be different, but any historian for example may select, manipulate, interpret or emphasise aspects of their material just as a documentary maker can. Thus if non-fiction film is said to be subjective due to its selectivity, so must any field of human enquiry, such as history and science. In the earlier of the two articles I have discussed (written in 1983), Carroll is confident that such a wide-ranging scepticism would not be seriously proposed.19 As we have seen, by 1996 that was exactly the argument Carroll was responding to. Nevertheless, in 1983 his defence against the selectivity argument is based upon the notion of objectivity. In any given field of argument, at any given time, there are patterns of reasoning, standards for observation, and methods for assessing evidence which are used for getting to the truth.20 A piece of research is considered objective insofar as it abides by these norms. Likewise, non-fiction films may be assessed against similar codes, and will be considered biased or subjective if they fail to meet them. That selectivity may make bias possible, or even likely, does not preclude the possibility of a film according with established standards of objectivity. The obvious differences between the real world and the filmed presentation prevent film from substituting for lived experience, but they do not prevent documentaries from being objective. This central assumption of this argument that there are standards of objectivity that can be used to judge the truth is exactly the assumption that we have seen Bill Nichols question. Carroll, however, disputes all of Nichols contentions that are cited above. Firstly, he does not accept that objectivity demands that a film call attention to its processes of construction. After all, the fact that a non-fiction film is constructed is understood by any audience and does not need to be spelt out. Self-reflexive analyses of the filmmaking process or the authors own subjectivity might be a feature of many recent documentaries, but for Carrol this is an artistic device, rather than a necessary benchmark for objectivity. Nor does he accept that any standard for objectivity has embedded political assumptions, even accepting Nichols very broad definitions (outlined above) of what constitutes a political assumption. A belief in the self-evident nature of facts, for example, might be a political assumption when the facts being presented are politically charged falsehoods. Yet the acceptance that some claims of self-evident truth are suspect does not mean that there can be no self-evident facts. With regards to rhetorical persuasion, he argues that films can either eschew such devices altogether (he cites nature documentaries as an example),21 or employ rhetorical structures in the service of objective discourse. Similarly, he regards the implicit claim that this is so, isnt it as present in virtually any assertion and hence neither a political assumption nor a barrier to objectivity. Carrolls approach to these arguments about the prospects for truth or objectivity in documentary is often to return to examples where the truth claimed by the documentary seems clear and uncontentious (as with his common use of nature documentaries as discussion points). The linking thread of the arguments he presents is that the theorists he criticises have mistaken the difficulty in presenting objective truth for an impossibility, often by focussing on exactly the texts where the truth is most problematic.22 It is worth returning to The Thin Blue Line and JFK at this point, since these films both explore events that are subject to considerable conjecture. Neither could be accused of assuming the truth about these events is self-evident (quite the opposite), yet both nevertheless ultimately make vital factual claims. As noted already, these claims question state-sanctioned verdicts, and both films led to a public discussion that forced official re-examination of the cases: The Thin Blue Line forced the retrial of Randall Adams, while JFK contributed to the passing of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which appointed an Assassination Records Review Board (AARB) to re-examine unreleased information about the assassination.23 More than a decade later, with Randall Adams freed from jail, it seems fair to say that Morris case has been widely accepted as true. Oliver Stone, too, has been partially vindicated by subsequent re-examination of the case, with records released by the AARB that support some of his allegations (such as tampering with records of Kennedys autopsy).24 Yet, despite such small victories, and acceptance by many filmgoers of Stones theory of the assassination, JFK remains subject to fierce scholarly criticism of both its methods and conclusions that stands in contrast to the reception of The Thin Blue Line. Linda Williams, in her discussion of the two films, dismisses JFK as paranoid fiction,25 and the widespread condemnation of Stones film by both popular and academic press is well documented.26 Clearly this has much to do with the nature of the case Stone discusses. The Kennedy assassination, for obvious reasons, is a much more familiar event and one that had been the subject of considerably more public discussion than the Randall Adams prosecution. Furthermore, while The Thin Blue Line avoids underlining the political implications of its own conclusions, JFK is explicitly critical of the government and media, calling the assassination a coup detat and coming very close to suggesting former president Lyndon Johnson was involved.27 However, the difference in the reception of the two films cannot be explained simply through reference to the argument each presents. Within the very similar structures outlined at the start of this essay, there are also crucial differences that also explain much of the negative response to Stones film compared to Morris. In his consideration of JFK, Robert Rosenstone notes that there are considerable constraints over the depiction of historical events on the screen.28 In particular, he sees the need to invent detail and compress events to shape a narrative as a limitation that must be negotiated by any historical film. While he is referring to narrative features such as JFK, his argument is equally applicable to the summaries of and suppositions regarding events in The Thin Blue Line. This argument has clear overtones of the discussions of documentaries distortions of truth through selectivity that have already been cited. Like Carroll, Rosenstone argues that when a historical filmmaker such as Stone invents or compresses events, he or she is exercising the same type of discretion that the author of any written history must.29 Such inventions can be considered true (at least to a point) in the sense that they can be verified, documented, or reasonably argued. The problem, notes Rosenstone, is that the verification must occur outside the world of the film. When Stone argues in JFK that President Kennedy was about to withdraw troops from Vietnam, the information is justified by reference to a real memorandum (National Security Action Memo 263), but a fictitious character makes the reference. Assuming no foreknowledge of the case, the audience has no way while watching the film of even knowing that the memorandum really existed, let alone being sure that it supports the conclusion Stone draws. If Stones conclusion is to be examined, the audience must go beyond viewing and read the relevant documents (or scholarly discussion of them) for themselves. If they do so, they will, as Rosenstone states, be undertaking the same kind of critique and review that a work of written history is subjected to. This process of measuring a film against standards of objectivity is exactly that which Carroll highlights as the means of linking non-fiction films to the truth. Stone has actively sought to enter into such debates, mounting extensive defences of the historical accuracy of JFK and his other works.30 That JFK was so controversial was perhaps partly due to the fact that audiences do not necessarily judge films within such evaluative frameworks: unlike the target audience for written history, they may assume that what they see is true and not enter into the debates as to the films veracity. Even assuming an engaged, sceptical audience, however, it is also the case that Stones film does not make the separation of truth from fiction a straightforward task. I have already suggested that the film possesses three layers of exposition: an outer narrative (Stones case), an inner narrative (Garrisons story), and evidence (presented as documentary material and re-enactments). The inner narrative story of Jim Garrison (which is likely to be understood by most audiences as at least partially fictional and not taken as literally true) is often weaved seamlessly in with the evidence (more likely to be seen as Stones presentation of true material). Garrison, for example, meets the mysterious Mr X (Donald Sutherland) in Washington, who outlines a hypothesis about who killed Kennedy and why. This calls forth a series of re-enactments of high level discussions between officials that are weaved into Mr Xs account. The narrative is calling forth evidence, but the difficulty with this sequence is in separating what material is a fictional narrative device, what is speculated, and what is documented truth. For example, are we to accept that Garrison really did meet an anonymous official who told him this information, and take that as evidence that Stones case is true? Or are we to take this as simply part of the inner narrative, a method of presenting evidence? As mentioned, Mr X talks in detail of a real memorandum in order to put Stones case that Kennedy wished to withdraw from Vietnam. An audience might correctly surmise that the existence of such a memo (putting aside its meaning) is a documented fact. However, this quickly leads into discussions of the reaction to this memo within high levels of the government, and the point at which history slides into speculation in this sequence is by no means readily apparent. The re-enactment portions of the sequence are presented in a stylised style using black and white photography, but this does not flag them as conjectural, since Stone switches between film stocks throughout the film without drawing such distinctions. (Elsewhere in the film, for example, the Zapruder film of the assassination, is alternated with simulated footage shot in the same style.) The effect of these aesthetic decisions by Stone is to confuse the boundaries between non-fiction and fiction in a way that makes application of objective standards for assessing truth difficult. The audience can only infer which sections of the film are intended to be read as non-fiction and subject to such examination. Written in October 2001 for the Melbourne University subject Ethnographic and Documentary Cinema. Notes 1. This is the concluding sentence of Eric Barnouw, Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film, (Oxford University Press, New York Oxford, 1993, 2nd Revised Edition), p. 349. 2. The list of similarities between the two films that follows draws partly on Linda Williams, Mirrors without Memories: Truth, History and The Thin Blue Line in Barry Keith Grant Jeanette Sloniowski (eds), Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Wayne State UP, Detroit, 1998), p 381. 3. The films Garrison, for example, has access to information the real Garrison did not, in order to allow Stone to communicate it to audiences. For example, In the movie we attributed to Garrison the information about Shaws background but in real life Jim did not have access to that information at that time. (Oliver Stone audio commentary, JFK DVD, Region 4 Special Edition Directors Cut release, Warner Brothers, 1 hour 28 mins approx.) 4. This phrase is Stones own: JFK audio commentary, op. cit., 2 hours 10 mins approx. While these scenes are also used to communicate information about the larger case, this is an example of narrative efficiency, and does not contradict my point that they do contain aspects (such as the melodromatic touch of Garrisons children asking Dont you love us any more?) which function simply as domestic drama, with no relation to the case against Clay Shaw. 5. Nichols has revisited and slightly reformulated these modes over time, but they can be summarised as expository (ie voice-of-God documentaries that use direct address to tell the audience a truth), observational (cinema verite style films that aim to observe events without participating), interactive (interview based films that allows for direct address by participants, while allowing for filmmakers interaction through questioning), reflexive (films that draw attention to the documentarys own methods), and performative (stressing an individual, subjective position, while downplaying objective or referential aspects). See Bill Nichols: The Voice of Documentary, Film Quarterly 36, no 3 (Spring 1983); Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary (1991, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis), Chapter 2; and (for the perfomative mode) Performing Documentary, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture (c. 1994, Indiana UP, Bloomington), pp 92-106. 6. This point and the subsequent discussion of classical film theory draw on the discussions in the anthologies Gerald Mast et al. (eds.), Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, (Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1992), pp. 3-7, and Antony Easthorpe, Contemporary Film Theory (Longman, London New York, 1993), pp. 2-5. 7. Rudolf Arnheim, Film as Art (Faber Faber, London, 1958), esp. pp. 17-37. 8. Ibid., p. 37-114. 9. Noà «l Carroll, From Real to Reel: Entangled in Nonfiction film, in Noà «l Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996), p. 224-252. (Originally published in Philosophic Exchange in 1983, and will be cited in future as Carroll (1996/1983) to distinguish it from his piece in Post-Theory cited below). Reference to direct cinema is p. 225. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid., p. 226. Carroll is quoting from the first edition of Barnouws Documentary, citing p. 287-288 of that edition (Oxford University Press, New York, 1974). The nearest equivalent to this quote I can find in the third edition (op. cit.) is at p. 344. 12. Noà «l Carroll, Nonfiction films and Postmodernist Skepticism in Noà «l Carrol David Bordwell (eds.), Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1996), pp. 283-306. 13. Ibid., p. 288. Emphasis is Carrolls. 14. Carroll is frequently belligerent about the texts he discusses but is particularly so about Renovs Theorizing Documentary, describing it as a state of the art compendium of received thinking about the documentary film, and dismissing Renovs argument as a red herring. Ibid., p. 285 291. 15. Both quotes Nichols, 1991, op. cit., p. 109. Emphasis is Nichols. 16. This is the title of the second part of Nichols book. How helpful this argumentative nature is as a distinction between fiction and documentary (and how unlike any other form of fiction documentary can be said to be) is debatable given that fiction can be every bit as argumentative as documentary (as JFK demonstrates). 17. Ibid., p. 195. 18. Carroll (1996/1983), op. cit., p. 226. 19. Carroll: I mention this because I do not think that commentators who conclude that the nonfiction film is subjective intend their remarks as a mere gloss on the notion that everything is subjective. But that, I fear, is the untoward implication of their attack. Ibid., p. 226. 20. Ibid., p. 230. See also Carroll, 1996, op. cit. pp. 283-285. 21. Carroll, 1996, p. 294. 22. See, for example, Ibid., p. 293, regarding film scholars focus on art-documentary. 23. Michael L. Kurtz, Oliver Stone, JFK, and History, in Robert Brent Toplin (ed), Oliver