Position in World vs. Perception of Cultures

As Americans, I think our position in the world causes us to be terribly ill-informed of situations in other nations and how the United States is perceived by these other nations. For our views on other cultures, we rely on news outlets and sources that can be biased and not give us adequate coverage of how situations really are. As a first-world country, we seem to feel compelled to get involved in every foreign affair possible as a mediator and problem-solver, and because of this I think Americans look down on other cultures and view our own as superior. We believe that all cultures should be like ours, and because of this we end up making some situations worse than they already are. Overall, our position in the world gives us an unwarranted a sense of superiority over other nations and cultures which comes as a result of lack of accurate knowledge. The example we read about the "McDonaldization" of the world through United States corporate ideals gives this idea backing in that the company believes that it needs to spread the mentioned “fast food culture” throughout the world. The idea is summed up in the picture of the security guard in Beijing, China under the “I’m Lovin’ It” umbrella in the book. The guard had the American fast food culture forced upon him, and he is quite obviously not “Lovin’” his job.

A Not-So-Scholarly Source

http://community.comcast.net/t5/College-Football/Recruiting-Issues/td-p/1305291

This source does not seem scholarly for a variety of reasons. It is a forum-style website, meaning none of the information is peer-reviewed and a majority of the information is biased based on what school the author of the post supports. The purpose of this website is to spur debate regarding the recruiting issues, but the debate is unmonitored and may or may not contain accurate posts from the participants. The page was last updated in 2008, so it is relatively current. Also, none of the statements have citations from where they got their information.

Sources for Research Paper

Two Possible Sources:
-http://books.google.com/books?id=ElqmoBZLHyUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

This is a book titled Reclaiming the Game which analyzes many of the same issues with NCAA recruiting that I plan to address. The book is well-organized and cites all of its sources, leading me to believe this is both a relevent and scholarly source to use for my paper.

-http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/stories/2009/01/23/middle_school_recruiting.html

This is an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article breaking down some of the effects of college coaches contacting middle school athletes too early in their lives. I liked this article because it analyzed both sides of the argument in regard to college recruiting and because it seemed scholarly.

Two Sources I Would Not Use:
-http://www.xposuresports.com/NCAA_Recruiting.html

This entire article was unsupported by any documentation of where the information came from. The name of the site also takes away from its credibility.

-http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/14659868/parents-should-be-solution-not-problem-in-scummy-recruiting

While this article from CBS is informative, it is ridiculously biased and does not put forth much factual information.

Through searching online about my reaearch paper topic, I learned that not all sources are created equal. Some that appear to be scholarly are in fact biased and have little to no factual backing to what they say. I also learned that the using the web takes much more time than it would seem to find articles that are relevent to the research that I plan on doing.

Research Argument Assignment-Recruiting in College Sports

The topic for my research paper will be the college athletic recruiting process, and more specifically how the recruiting process diminishes the value of education. The recruiting process is corrupted, and the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has just begun to step in and crack down on coaches that repeatedly break the rules for recruiting of college athletes. Coaches regularly offer "gifts" to potential athletes, a blatant transgression of NCAA recruiting policy. Another issue that should be addressed is that college coaches are beginning to make verbal offers to students who are still in middle school. In my paper I plan to address these issues by giving examples and I also plan on looking into the roles that the NCAA has played in stopping this sort of activity. I will likely add a paragraph or two about the recent investigations by the NCAA into schools like University of North Carolina, University of Miami, and most recently (and my personal favorite to watch get in trouble) University of South Carolina.

Article on Nike Advertising

Carol A. Stabile (2000): Nike, social responsibility, and the hidden abode of production, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 17:2, 186-204. 13 September 2011. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15295030009388389>

The article I read by Carol A. Stabile strongly enhanced the background on how Nike uses its advertising in drawing in consumers, and also some of the racial undertones of the Nike advertisements. The article also did a great job of breaking down the different advertising campaigns that Nike has used throughout its history, including the PLAY (Participate in the Lives of America's Youth) campaign, "Just Do it" and "There is No Finish Line". The article claims that the main reason that Nike's advertisements are so successful are because they effectively reach their intended target, which is the middle-class. It also explains the variety of marketing schemes that Nike released in order to promote more specific items like womens' shoes and their new running shoes. The different analyses in this article will allow me to reach new depths in analyzing Nike’s typical marketing schemes and how things they have done in the past relate to advertisement I am using. I will also be able to break down what specific advertising campaign my ad falls under to allow me to further break it down.

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