Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

What is a Brand?

A brand encompasses everything that represents your company in the minds of consumers. It's the culmination of people's perceptions of your customer service, reputation, advertising, and even your logo. When these elements work harmoniously, your brand thrives. Conversely, even a company with exceptional products can suffer from a damaged brand due to poor customer service.

How Strong Branding Impacts Your Business

1. Branding Improves Recognition

Your logo is a key element of your brand identity. Just think about the instant recognition associated with McDonald's golden arches or the USPS eagle. As the "face" of your company, your logo needs to be memorable and impactful. A professional logo design should be simple enough to remember... Continue reading "The Impact of Strong Branding on Business Success" »

Cooperative Culture: The values, beliefs, and traditions in a company that influence the behavior of its staff. It's important for job seekers to know about an organization's culture before accepting a job.

Cultura cooperativa: Los valores, creencias y tradiciones en una empresa que influyen en el comportamiento de su personal. Es importante que los solicitantes de empleo sepan sobre la cultura de una organización antes de aceptar un puesto de trabajo.

Informal Communication & Actions

Company Attributes

Graphics and Design

Categories of Graphic Software

Bitmapped graphics represent images as bitmaps; they are stored as pixels and become distorted when manipulated. The density of dots per inch determines the image quality.

Vector graphics represent images as mathematical formulae, so they can be changed or scaled without losing quality. They are ideal for high-resolution output.

Types of Graphics Software

• Image manipulation programs: Let you edit your favorite images. For example, you can scan a picture into your PC or transfer a photo from your camera and then add different effects or filters.
• Painting and drawing programs: Also called illustration packages, these offer facilities for freehand drawing with a wide choice of pens, brushes, colors,

Chapter 6: The Press

Public Sphere Theory

• Intimate sphere: Family, friends, etc.
• Private sphere: Voluntary associations.
• Public sphere: External relations.

Four Theories of the Press

• Authoritarian theory: Direct governmental control of media.
• Libertarian theory: Free expression is prioritized, but individual freedom is not guaranteed.
• Social Responsibility Theory: The powerful press must be held accountable to those who do not have access to an equal means of communication.
• Soviet theory: Press institutions are expected to follow governmental theory.

Key Concepts in Journalism

• Yellow Journalism: A sensationalist and exaggerated newspaper style meant to increase sales.
• The Muckrakers: Politically engaged, factual reporters who expose illegal activities.

The Urgency of Intersectionality

In the TED Talk "The Urgency of Intersectionality," law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw explains the origin and importance of intersectionality. She starts with an exercise that demonstrates the low level of awareness surrounding the names of African-American women killed by the police. Moreover, she explains why their stories are unknown and what we can do to raise public awareness.

The Origin of Intersectionality

Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” when she read the case of Emma DeGraffenreid, an African-American woman who sued a car manufacturing plant for not hiring her. DeGraffenreid argued that she faced discrimination based on both her race and gender, as the industrial work was available... Continue reading "The Urgency of Intersectionality: Understanding Overlapping Oppressions" »

Plot: Arranging Story Events

Plot refers to an author’s arrangement of the events that make up a story. Plot does not follow a chronological order; for example, authors may start in the middle and use flashbacks or dialogue to refer to previous events. The author must choose when the story begins, which aspects can be summarized, and when it should end. Time is subjective. The author's aim in writing a story will direct the choices he makes, and therefore analyzing these aspects of plot gives us invaluable insight into the meaning of his work.

Conflict: The Driving Force

Conflict is the driving force behind many plots. It may come from:

• External Conflict

  The main character may be in conflict with external forces like family, society, physical

Semiotics: Signs, Symbols, Icons & Branding

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. It encompasses designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Essentially, semiotics explores how words and other signs create meaning. In this field, a sign is anything that stands in for something other than itself.

• Signs produce meaning.
• A sign signifies something.
• Meaning is socially produced through signs, symbols, and icons.

Non-Vocal Communications

Signals, signs, and symbols represent a separate form of language.

• Signifier: The physical existence of an object (e.g., the word "tree").
• Signified: The mental concept or idea associated with the object (e.g., the image of a tree in your

Understanding Core Advertising & Marketing Concepts

Right Brain vs. Left Brain Thinking

Right Brain: Intuitive, holistic, artistic, emotional, and expressive.

Left Brain: Logical, linear, inductive/deductive, and orderly.

Advertising Message Forms & Formats

• Announcement Display Ads

  The most basic form of advertising, often used for announcements.

• Association Transfer

  Utilizes symbolic association to link a product with a desired image or idea (e.g., Absolut vodka campaigns).

• Dominant Message Forms in Advertising

  These are common structures for conveying an advertising message:

  • Presenter: A spokesperson directly addresses the audience.
  • Testimonial: A user or expert endorses the product.
  • Demonstration: Shows the product in action.
  • Comparative Advertising:

The following examples demonstrate complex SQL techniques using conditional logic (IF, CASE), subqueries, variable assignment, and string manipulation to analyze geographical and economic data stored in tables like Pais (Country), Ciudad (City), and LenguaPais (Country Language).

1. Independence Year Formatting for African Countries

This query retrieves the name of countries in Africa and formats their independence year (AnyIndep) to display whether it was B.C. (a.C.) or A.D. (d.C.).

SELECT Nombre,
    IF(AnyIndep > 0,
        CONCAT(AnyIndep,' d.C'),
        IF(AnyIndep < 0,
            CONCAT(ABS(AnyIndep),' a.C'),
            'N/A')) AS 'Año de Independencia'
FROM Pais
WHERE Continente = 'Africa'

2. City Population Comparison Against

• The earliest preserved art object to date to the Paleolithic period, which occurred between 44000 and 9000 BCE.

• The inhabitants of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia established the earliest city-states.

• Hierarchy of scale is used to indicate the greater importance of figures by either size or position.

• The Neolithic architecture in northern Europe is described as megalithic because it uses large stones.

• The two centuries of peace that began under the reign of the emperor Augustus are called the Pax Romana.

• Any sculpture that is completely detached from its original material so that it can be seen from all sides is called a sculpture in the round.

• Ancient Mesopotamia is situated in the so-called “fertile crescent” between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.