LECTURE READY 1 script excerpt Chapter 4 Global Business: The Case of MTV Practice Lecture (audio only) Introduction

#1 Yes. Its definitely time to start. The clock is ticking and theres a lot of material to cover. Let me remind you we have a test next Thursday. OK? All right. Now, our topic today is a case study of Levis. Did everyone get that? Levis, the international brand of blue jeans and of course other casual clothes. But everyone knows Levis for their jeans. All right. Today, today Im going to look at several ways that Levis has expanded globally. In fact, you may not know that the Levis brand is on the list of the top 100 global brands. Introduction #2 Good evening. Yes, look at the clock. Its six oclock. Thank you for being on time. How is everyone? Excellent. Lets go ahead and begin. Were going to discuss the qualities of successful international brands of food today. Now, Im talking about this because, in this day and age, were seeing a huge increase in the number of food products available to buy - like sweets, snacks, and lets include beverages too - that move in and out of a lot of countries. So what I want to do today is compare the business plan of Hersheys chocolate to the business plan of Lindt chocolate. Lindt is a chocolate company from Switzerland and Hersheys is an American chocolate company. So, two chocolate manufacturers, two chocolate companies.

Lecture (video and/or audio) All right, folks. Lets go ahead and get the ball rolling here. Its Friday, and Im sure everybody wants to start the weekend, right? Im sure Im right about that one. OK. Weve been discussing some of the factors related to successful international business. Today, Id like to talk about a topic that I think you already know something about. Believe it or not, its MTV. Thats right, MTV. Maybe your favorite TV channel. MTV. So, MTV, the giant music TV network. MTV is a great case study because it shows us, I mean, gives us a good idea of how one company can do business all around the world with incredible success. So, what I want to do is discuss the reasons for the gigantic success of MTV. Are we good to go? OK. So, first of all, lets look at some of the stat uh, some of the statistics for MTV, before we go on to analyze their business plan. OK? OK. First of all, MTV has been around for 25 years or so. It reaches more than one billion people around the world. You heard me right. More than one billion people watch MTV. Most of these viewers are young people between the ages of 10 and 34, who watch the music videos and other programs that are created for a young audience. So, in other words, MTV is already the most popular television network in the world, in the world. Pretty amazing stuff.

So, now, Im hoping, Im hoping that Im hoping that youre wondering what their business plan is for the near future. What more could MTV want? Huh? Well, their business plan is to expand their networkare you ready?until MTV exists everywhere in the world. Until every person in the world has the ability to watch MTV. Its already in lots of countries, but not in all. They want to be in all. So, lets do some statistics. Lets talk about profits. Here we go. In 2005, MTV brought in 5.2 billion dollars. Thats 5.2 billion dollars from all around the world. Let me break that down for you. OK? MTV is an American company, right? In the United States, MTV reaches about about 88 million homes. But, outside the United States, MTV is in more than 331 million homes. And thats in 164 countries. And you can watch it in 18 different languages. OK, heres another way to say it. MTV is number 48 on the list of the top one hundred brands in the world. Got the picture? Theyre big. Big in the whole world! Very successful, right? So you might be wondering, "What makes MTV so successful?" I hope youre wondering. All right, so lets analyze the factors that have led to MTVs success. OK. Probably the main reason for MTVs success around the world is also maybe the most interesting one. You might expect to find MTV plays the same music videos and the same shows all over the world. But they dont. Nope. They play the music that is popular in each country. And not just each continentso, not African rock music or European rock music, but they play the rock music of Italy in Italy, and the rock music of Kenya in Kenya. So, what Im saying is, they play the local popular music. They show videos of local people playing local music. And along the same lines, they produce programs that focus on the people of the culture of the country that theyre in. So, what Im saying is, MTV in India looks like India. In Japan, Japanese MTV looks like Japan. MTV may be a huge, international company, but it looks local. All right. So, now we have to ask, how do these how does MTV do this? How do they find the local talent? Well, the answer is, they hire staff in each country. That means people who speak the countrys language and know about the local musical performers. And they create local programs that show these performers. In fact, I learned that the rule at MTV is that 70% of the programs must show local performers. So, local, local, local. Thats the story. So, we can see that MTV really created a smart business plan. And whats the result? MTVs global market is growing 20 percent each year. Twenty percent each year! I just read that they want to increase this to 40%. They have a plan, and for now its working. Theyre at the top of their game. All right. Next time well look again at MTVs success and see how we could apply these ideas, all this stuff we said today about this one company, to other kinds of international businesses. OK? Bye-bye.

LECTURE READY 2 script excerpt Chapter 7 Getting News in the High-Tech Age Practice Lecture (audio only) OK, weve been . . . weve been looking at news sources, meaning where people are getting their news, and weve also, weve explored this in both the print media and online news. So, today were going to focus just on Internet news. And my focus today is on . . . is on the research on the kinds of news that Internet users are getting from . . . from online news sources. OK, I, IIm going to be reporting on a few recent studies on Internet use. Now, I want to point out that these are the most recent so these are the most accurate findings that we have. Theyre pretty accurate I think. OK, then, Im going to report on a very large study done by the University of Southern California in 2004. So class, these are important findings. OK, first of all, they found out that Internet users are going online an average of twelve and a half hours a week. Ill say that again. Theyre going online twelve and a half hours a week. And thats up from nine hours in 2000. OK, and . . . and this is important. One thing they found was that getting the news was the third most popular activity among all the Internet users they surveyed, so that means, um, out of nine things people can do on the Internet like shop, do business, use e-mail, do research, get driving directions, do homework and, you know, other activities, getting the news was number three. So, we have to ask at this point. What kind of news are Internet users getting online? Well, first of all, I want you to notice is the . . . the increase in the number of people who are using the Internet to get . . . to get the latest information on what we can call the big events, you know, things like wars, deaths of important people, and so forth. So now, now this is according to another important survey. This one was done by the Pew Research Organization back in 2003. So listen to this, they reported that around 44 percent of online Americans used the Internet to look for news about the war in Iraq. Thats 44 percent who went online to learn about the war in Iraq. So, the bottom line is that the Internet is going to remain a source of information for big, current news stories. We know this now. OK, you know, well pick this up next week and, um, well talk about other popular kinds of online news. Yeah, got to go. See you next time. Lecture (video and/or audio) All right . . ..Lets get going. Ive got a lot of material to get through today. So, lets go back to our discussion of the news media and how people get their news. And yeah, this turns out to be a really interesting topic because we are seeing a significant change in the way people get their news these days, and its important to note that this change . . .like so many other trends we see today, has a lot to do with the Internet. So what I want to do today is, I want to cover several aspects of this trend and talk about what this means for news. Now, we see that the number of people actually getting the news from print media is declining. Its dropping . . . hm.

And the Internet is quickly becoming an important source of news for more and more people. OK? Great. Now, let me move on to give you some statistics on this trend. I want you to pay attention to this: Researchers noticed that in 2000, about 70% of the people they asked said that newspapers were an important source of information for them, so 70% said reading the newspaper was important. In 2003, that number dropped to 51% . . ..51%! Thats a pretty significant decline, and Im willing to bet that that number is even lower now. So, now Im looking out at this room full of college students. Most of you are between 18 and 24, and my guess is that most or maybe all of you use the Internet. The reason Im talking about your age group is that you represent the new trend away from newspapers and toward the Internet. You are the trend, and experts predict that this trend away . . .this trend away from newspapers will continue as more and more young people grow up using the Internet to do so many things. Let me spell this out a little more for you: There was a key study of young people done in 2004. And for the study, they interviewed 35-54 year olds who read the newspaper, and they asked them if the newspaper was an important part of their day. Well, 38% of them said yes. But . . .But when they asked 18-24-year-old newspaper readers the same question . . . the same question, only 17% of them said yes . . .only 17%. This is big news! All right, so to be sure, there is a move away from the traditional way that people have gotten their news. OK, lets move on to why this trend is happening. So, why? Now many young people say they prefer Internet news because its a fast way to keep up with events. Now thats probably true, but there are a couple of other significant reasons why news on the Internet is gaining popularity. One is simply that news on the Internet is more up-to-date. Its the most current information. Thats a significant difference from the news you read in the newspaper that comes out once a day and stays the same for twenty-four hours. Now, a second feature of Internet news is, it gives people the ability to get informed about any kind of newsweather, world events, traffic . . . news that is more in-depth than in a newspaper. So, the bottom line here is Internet news is more complete. With an online newspaper, for example, you can begin to read a news story, go to a related audio or video link, and so on. You can keep going and get more information. Now lets move on to another attraction of the Internet. I want you to notice I keep talking about links. Thats because . . .because on the Internet those links are there, and you decide how much you want to learn, and you decide what kind of news you want to get. So, the Internet is interactive. In other words, there is communication between the person looking for news and the website. Again, you, the Internet user, control the news you get. Now, I want to point out that this movement to Internet news has obviously made a lot of people excited, but its also made some experts who study the media . . .well, its made them worried. Some of their concerns are the flip side meaning the opposite of the attractions we talked about

earlier. For example, I mentioned that Internet news is fresh. Its up-to-date. Well, the down side . . .that is, the negative side of this is that reporters writing the news for the Internet must work extremely quickly to research, write, and get the news on the Internet as soon as possible. So, in this rush, rush, rush to get the news onto the Internet, its easy for the reporters to make mistakes or maybe leave out some important information. So media experts are concerned that Internet news might sometimes be . . . less accurate and less reliable than newspaper news. So thats one possible down side of Internet news. OK. Now, heres another possible problem: We said before that many Internet users really enjoy controlling their news. Maybe that sounded good, right? But the worry for media experts is the possibility that Internet users will limit their news too much. They wont know everything they should. Now, this is a crucial idea, and the idea is that people who get their news on the Internet may only learn what they want to learn and miss other important information that they should know. All right. Now I want to bring up another concern, and its related to the previous one. It has to do with this idea of limiting what news you get on the Internet. Right? So, now . . . right now lets take a look at this, OK. Its the front page of a newspaper. Its a typical front page of a newspaper. Here you can see all kinds of news, just on the front pageinternational, national, local news and you can also find out right away what news is most important. The important news has a bigger headline. Here it is, at or near the top of the page, and maybe its longer. Look at this headline. Hm? You know by where its at that its the most important news. Its more important than the other news. But, when you get the news online, you tend to see something like a list . . .a list, you know . . . line, line, line of headlines to choose. You dont always know whats important, so the worry is that internet news readers will have much less information about the important things they need to find out in todays news. So what Im saying is, some experts fear that online news readers will be less informed citizens who maybe, well, who might not participate as much in their communities. In other words, if people know less about the world around them, then they might not vote say . . .or, or help make other decisions in their communities. They just wont be as interested in the events going on around them. Thats the fear. All right. I see our time is almost up. Well, I want to stress that the trend away from newspapers to the Internet is happening right in front of us, and as students of the media, you may or may not agree with some of the concerns of the researchers. But it certainly offers us a lot to think about. OK, Ill see you guys next time.

LECTURE READY 3 script excerpt Chapter 5 The Placebo Effect Practice Lecture (audio only) Good afternoon, everybody. Well, today well be discussing alternative medicine. This general term refers to all kinds of medical practices and products that are NOT usually used in conventional medicine, and by conventional medicine, I mean the standard practices of trained doctors, M.D.s, practices that have been tested and accepted by the medical community. So, some examples of alternative medicine would be homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicines, acupuncture, chiropractic medicine, and products like herbal remedies. So thats alternative medicine. Now, alternative medicine is becoming very popular in Western countries. In the U.S., use of alternative medicine rose from 33.8% in 1990 to 42% in 1997. And an Australian study showed that, between 1993 and 2000, Australians spent 62% more on alternative medicines and treatments. And these numbers are still rising. So, now we have to ask ourselves, Why is there so much interest in alternative medicine? One explanation is that people are aging. People are living longer these days, and alternative medicines may be more helpful in dealing with long-term health problems. For example, some people have had good results using acupuncture to help relieve pain. This trend also may be due to the fact that people have become more individualistic. Theyre better educated and have access to much more informationespecially on the Internet. And they want to make their own decisions regarding their healthcare, so they want to explore the possibilities of alternative medicine. Another reason for this rising use of alternative medicine is the immigration of people from nonwestern cultures. People from places like Southeast Asia and China bring their traditional forms of medicine with them, which in the U.S. fall into the category of alternative. So, because of this rising interest in alternative medicine, there is now a huge increase in the number of people practicing alternative medicine. And it has also led to a trend called integrative medicine, that is, clinics and hospitals offering alternative medicines and treatments along with conventional medical treatments. Lecture (video and/or audio) OK, everyone, lets get started. Today, were going to discuss the placebo effect. First, Ill explain what the placebo effect is and how placebos have been used. Then, Ill discuss some possible causes for this effect. Finally, well look at some studies of the placebo effect and some questions that theyve raised about the use of placebos in testing and treatment of illnesses.

So, what is a placebo? Well, basically, a placebo is a fake medical treatment, fake, not real. When most people think of placebos, they think of sugar pillspills that dont contain any actual active ingredients, just sugar, or some harmless substance. Does everyone get that? OK. But a placebo doesnt have to be a pill. It can also be a medical therapy or even surgery. The main thing is that a placebo is always a sham treatment. What I mean is, a treatment that does not actively treat a patients illness. Let me write that for you. Sham treatment, OK? No actual medical benefit to it. Understand? OK. Now, the placebo effect is the often positive response that patients receive from a placebo. In other words, its an improvement in a persons health that is due to taking a placebo, not due to any real treatment. Let me repeat that because its a very important point. Its not medicine that is helping someone, but their belief that they are taking medicine that is helping them. And this is a real phenomenon. Doctors have known about the placebo effect for a long time. They even use it to their advantage. In the 1930s and 1940s it was common for doctors to give patients placebos for aches and pains and other minor complaints, you know, just to give them something. Of course, they didnt tell their patients that the pills werent real medicine. But the surprising part is that patients would often claim to feel better, even though they hadnt taken any active drug. Just the act of taking the pill often seemed to have a positive effect. Doctors dont do that anymore, of course, but lets talk now about how placebos are currently being used. Now, have you heard the term, clinical trial? You know, the way researchers test new drugs? Yes? OK? Good. So, placebos are still very much in use in clinical trials of new drugs and other treatments. Ill explain. In a blind clinical trial, volunteer patients, who all suffer from the same illness, are split into two groups. One group of volunteers receives the new drug or treatment that is being used. The other group receives a placebo, like a sugar pill or a dummy injection. Now, the researchers know which is getting which group is getting the placebo and which one the real drug, but none of the people in either group knows. The purpose, of course, is to compare the experiences of the volunteers to see whether the group getting the real drug is actually getting the desired reaction. Now, in a double-blind trial, even the researchers and their assistants dont know who is getting the real drug and who is getting the placebo. This is to make sure that they have no bias when analyzing the results. To make sure that their expectations dont influence the results of the trial. In either case, the placebo shouldnt have any effect at all. But, it turns out that the placebo effect is also very common in clinical trials. In fact, in a number of studies, 30-40% of the volunteers given placebos have shown some improvement. And in a few trials, placebos have shown up to 70% effectiveness. So why does a placebo work at all? What might be causing this phenomenon? Well, no one knows for sure, but there are a few explanations. Some believe that at least part of the placebo effect is due to an illness or an injury taking its natural course. We often will feel better if we do nothing to treat an illness or injury. It might just be that, excuse me, that the placebo was given during a natural improvement in the health problem.

Now, but this couldnt explain all of the improvement that takes place with placebos. There must be some, or another reason for the placebo effect, another explanation. One theory is that the placebo effect is purely psychological. Its all in the patients mind. If patients expect to improve, they improve. They expect that the treatment will help them, and, hey, look at that, it does. Now, this idea is supported by studies that have shown that when doctors tell their patients they expect the treatment to work, the placebo effect increases and some patients improve. But, on the other hand, if a doctor said that the treatment might not be effective, the placebo is much less likely to work again. So, again, that expectation of improvement leads to actual improvement. Another reason that some patients improve on placebos may just be that the process of going through treatment is therapeutic. You know, that seeing a doctor who seems professional, and caring, and attentive, you know, just being treated, may make a patient feel encouraged and hopeful, which makes them feel better. OK, but even though the cause of the placebo effect may be psychological, there is empirical evidence that placebos can result in actual physiological changes, or signs of improvements in patients. One study to document this was a study done at UCLA that involved 51 patients who were suffering from depression. One group was given a placebo. The other group was given an actual anti-depressant drug. Well, researchers werent surprised to find that 52% of the patients taking the anti-depressant drug began to feel better, and 38% of the patients taking the placebo also began to feel better. Now, thats a pretty normal response. But what was surprising was that the researchers were able to detect an actual increase in the brain activity of the patients who improved on the placebo, which meant that their depression had actually improved. These results have been repeated in studies treating a variety of illnesses, including heart disease, and even the common cold. So, this points to a chemical change in the brain associated with the placebo effectassociated with the belief that youre getting real medical treatment. So why is this significant? Why does it matter? How can we use this knowledge to actually help people? Well, some researchers suggest that, since placebos do no harm and may actually help patients, doctors should be able to prescribe them. They should be able to give them a try and see whether a patient responds to them. But most doctors dont want dont want to do this. They feel that prescribing placebos is dishonest. But this is a real debate in the medical community. Im curious to see what you think of this, so lets go ahead and break into discussion groups now. Ill hand out some questions to get you started.