Political Correctness in the Media Essay Example for Free

Political Correctness in the Media Essay Political correctness in the media refers to the use of appropriate words and ideas to minimize racism in all its hideous manifestations, in addition to sexism and offences against identity groups of all sorts. In other words, it is a â€Å"concept that one has to shape their statements (if not their opinions) according to a certain political dogma (â€Å"Political Correctness,† 2008). † Hence, it is rude to say ‘nigger’ in an advertisement especially created for the African Americans even if a Caucasian Congressman uses the politically incorrect word in his home. However, during periods of history when certain races, identity groups or the weaker sex must be looked down upon – according to policies created by the government to raise a race, identity group or gender over another, in the minds of the people – it is not considered politically incorrect by the media to refer to those looked down upon as rascals, despite the fact that the notion of political correctness had originated during World War I (Lind, 2000). Given that political correctness must needs concern governmental policies at any given time, it is interesting to consider the fact that political correctness or incorrectness in the media has taken different forms according to governmental needs at different times. In the United States, racism in reporting against the African Americans seemed to have peaked during the 1950s. Perhaps the reason for the peak was that the whites and the blacks in America had shared a master-slave relationship in the past. The Civil Rights Movement had called for changing the status quo. The demand for equal rights for the blacks was met with resistance, however. This is the reason why an article published in The Birmingham Post-Herald in 1955 quotes a white sheriff thus: â€Å"†¦We haven’t mixed so far down here and we don’t intend to (â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens,† 1955). † The sheriff was, of course, describing the relations of the white race with the black race. The above mentioned news article was actually a report on a trial. All of the jury members selected for the trial were white men. Eight of the men were farmers and one of them was a laborer. There were â€Å"eight Negro reporters† present at the trial, but all of them were â€Å"segregated at a separate table (â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens†). † Considering that the theory of racism is based on the assumption that a race can be superior to another race for any number of reasons, the news report of the 1950s describes blatant racism. So, even though the blacks had worked as laborers for the whites in the past, for the reason that the blacks had served the whites as slaves, they could not be members of the jury even if one of the jury members was a white laborer. Contrary to the stance of the whites with respect to the blacks described in the above mentioned article, a news article published by The San Francisco News in 1942 describes the value of the Japanese Americans to the economy of the United States. The author of the article, â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments,† states that the internment of the Japanese Americans would adversely affect the agricultural produce of California. The article refers to the Japanese Americans as â€Å"[f]ast and efficient workers (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments,† 1942). † Even though the work of the Japanese Americans on Californian farms had required â€Å"the most arduous form of ‘stoop labor,’† the article mentions that the white farmers would be able to handle it, but not as well as the Japanese American workers (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments†). Stoop labor is defined as â€Å"[b]ack-bending manual work (â€Å"Stoop Labor,† 2008). † If the news article published in 1942 had clearly stated that the white farmers will not be able to replace the Japanese Americans on the plantations because the latter were engaged in stoop labor which the white farmers simply would not engage in; it would have been obvious that the reporting is racist. However, this was not the case. Rather, the Japanese Americans are lauded for their efficiency in the news report, as some of them were capable of tending to forty to fifty gardens at a time (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments†). Even though the Japanese Americans had been interned during World War II, the whites did not seem to look down upon them or consider them inferior. On the other hand, the blacks were obviously considered inferior because they had served the whites as slaves. These differences of perceptions are made clear by the news reports. Even so, racism against the African Americans is considered a totally taboo subject in the media in the beginning of the twenty first century. The reason for the taboo, too, is obvious: the African have a history of fighting racism in the United States. The government of the United States no longer wants to harass them through its policies and the media. As a matter of fact, the taboo is accompanied by policies such as affirmative action, simply for the fact that racism against the Africans of the U. S. is met with ample resistance on the part of the Africans themselves, as well as their friends among the Caucasians of America. Seeing that the United States government would like the country to maintain a semblance of a civilized nation, racism against African Americans does not make sense any longer. The ‘Islamists’ are targeted nowadays. All the same, trends in racism reporting as described above reveal that this too would change one day, somehow. Political correctness or incorrectness in the media is undoubtedly related to political framing. As mentioned previously, it is the policymaker that decides what the media would eventually reveal to the public. Political communicators are skilled at framing the debates over controversial issues through an emphasis on policy goals that deserve the highest priority, according to themselves rather than the people they communicate with. Such rhetoric affects political attitudes by influencing the importance that individuals place on competing issues. Frames do not only affect opinions on the issues, but they also influence the judgments of the participants in the communication process with regards to the relative importance of competing values. Thus, political persuaders shape public opinion through the framing of their policy goals and choices (Nelson, 2004). Politicians attempt to control public perception through the use of words. Thus an encyclopedia has defined framing as â€Å"a process of selective control over the individual’s perception of media, public, or private communication, in particular the meanings attributed to words or phrases. Framing defines how an element of rhetoric is packaged so as to allow certain interpretations and rule out others (â€Å"Framing,† 2008). † Moreover, media frames may be created by the mass media as well as specific political and social movements or organizations. As shown through the several examples mentioned already, the media works alongside political and social movements to control the perceptions of the public at large through the communication theory of framing. Hence, in recent years the media was frequently heard discussing the ‘war on terror,’ seeing as the politicians had coined the phrase and used it regularly to advise the public about their policies concerning the issue. Another important example of framing in this context was the popularization of the term, ‘escalation,’ to describe an increase in troop levels in war torn Iraq. The term, ‘escalation’ implied that the United States was deliberately heightening the scope of the conflict in a manner that was provocative (â€Å"Framing†). Spielvogel (2005) points out that both George W. Bush and John Kerry, during the 2004 presidential campaign, had relied upon the moral framing of the ‘war on terrorism’ and the situation in Iraq as a battle between ‘good and evil’ in their day to day political discourse. Moreover, President Bush had employed this rhetorical frame â€Å"to politically and morally cloak the war in Iraq under a larger war on terror (Spielvogel). † Is war politically correct or incorrect? It depends on governmental policies at any given time. Now that the U. S. is going through an economic recession, perhaps war will become a taboo subject in the media and ‘nonviolence’ would reign. All the same, if the U. S. government continues to perceive all Muslims as the enemies of the United States – the media would continue referring to ‘Islamists’ the way it does at present. Even though stereotyping is by itself a taboo subject, advanced degrees in mass communication are not helping journalists and advertisers to be honest in their understanding of people and cultures. Given the responsibility to relay truthful information to the public; journalists, advertisers and all distributors of entertainment and news across different mediums such as television, newspapers, radio, Internet, etc. should have known that all people and cultures cannot be appreciated through stereotypes. Moreover, through mass usage of stereotypes, the media creates a mass culture, the representatives of which consider it abnormal to step outside the stereotypes. According to the Media Awareness Network: â€Å"The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound. The National Eating Disorders Association reports that one out of four TV commercials send some kind of ‘attractiveness message,’ telling viewers what is and is not attractive (â€Å"Media Stereotyping,† 2007). † Thus, the media happens to contribute to the mental illnesses suffered by an increasing number of people in our world. Although this form of stereotyping in the media may not have anything to do with political pressure, or political correctness and/or incorrectness, the fact that the media has stereotypes for women is accompanied by the truth that the U.  S. government has never been headed by a woman! The Media Awareness Network explains another reason for stereotyping before outlining other problems associated with stereotypes: Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, ocial role or occupation. But stereotypes can be problematic. They can: reduce a wide range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations; transform assumptions about particular groups of people into â€Å"realities†; be used to justify the position of those in power; and perpetuate social prejudice and inequality (â€Å"Media Stereotyping†). Although the reason for stereotyping as described above is clear, the main reason for it continues to be understood as governmental policies. Of course, stereotyping is another form of political incorrectness in the media. Then again, there are those who opine that political correctness is a confusing notion, disallowing intelligent debates from changing our world for the better (â€Å"PC thinking ‘is harming society,’† 2006). In other words, by trying to be politically correct or incorrect, the media is veiling the face of reality. Even so, the media is considered an important educator of society as a whole. Furthermore, the media has the power to shape culture by introducing positive changes. It is a shame, therefore, that people must consider educating the media so as to do away with falsehoods that it imparts due to political pressure. Undoubtedly, political correctness and incorrectness must necessarily concern governmental policies at any given time. Whereas the government benefits by the strength of the media through its declaration of certain words or ideas as politically correct or incorrect at any given time – it is the public at large that suffers because it has been taught lies by the media. By perpetuating social prejudice, the media – through governmental notions of political correctness and incorrectness at any given time – may even shoulder responsibility for bloody wars around the world.

The Success of Micro Finance in Pakistan :: Finance

As found by Hartangi (2007) that success of Micro finance depends upon the practices of that specific bank, which finance poor people, by quoting and example of BRI (Bank Rakyat, Indonesia) researcher says that they provide technical and moral support to the people they lend money, and make sure they do good, they also choose different collaterals like motorcycle, cars, cattle, and land etc to secure their loan yet making collateral stronger incase the client fails to repay and credits interesting for lower class community. Beside this, Risk management, internal audit, financial procedures, transparent system, dedicated staff, and clear incentives to staff and clients are the factors which contribute toward the successful lending of micro finances. Obamuyi (2009) says that poor credit culture and low risk management can result in low rate of return, which finally ends with the failure of the scheme. The risk of low rate of return can also be minimized by the assistance provided by th e MFIs to develop the small business of clients (Zelealem, Temtime, & Shunda, 2003). RESEARCH METHADOLOGY Study type This study is a correlational study in which relation between income level, living standard, access to education, and empowerment due to micro financing in Pakistan is studied. Study setting Study was conducted in natural environment, and no lab settings were used while studying the relationship between income level, empowerment, access to education, and access to health facilities due to MFIs in Pakistan has been studies, which makes this study a non-contrived study. Unit of Analysis Different individuals, who obtained micro finances from Micro financial institutions of Pakistan, were asked to record their responses. Time Horizon Data was collected from individuals who obtained micro finances from MFIs in Pakistan once in one month time period; there will be no further data collection for this study. The collected responses are one shot, which make this study a cross-sectional study. Data This study utilized primary data as well as secondary data. Primary data was gathered from individual who obtained micro finances from MFIs in Pakistan, data was gathered using a prepared research instrument. And secondary data was collected for literature review, from different online research databases. Data Analysis Data was inspected, cleaned, transformed and modeled using SPSS V.17.0 to highlight useful information. Linear Regression was applied as per the requirement of the study to explore the relationship between increase in income, living standard, access to education, and empowerment, due to MFIs in Pakistan. Sampling type A non probability convenience sampling was done, questionnaire were distributed among customers of MFIs who were conveniently available to the researcher.

How Internet Advertising Affects the Customer Essay

The World Wide Web has emerged to be one of the greatest revolutions to business advertising and other forms of advertisements. Internet advertising is the use of the Internet on the global basis to promote and market products, brands, services, business groups or even announcements through the communication with customers online. Businessmen focused on making higher profits have put a little more emphasis on the Internet advertising and this is due to the fact that many people are accessing the Internet for their business needs (Wasiak, 2010). Electronic commerce enabled by the Internet allows business transaction to be done online. Many products are sold online through the Internet and this is because of the massive advertisement that is done on the Internet. Advertisement is one of the most crucial processes in the marketing of a product or service. It serves as a tool for making decisions on what good or service is of good quality to the consumer and the households. Some times back, advertisement was done through mass media, bill boards and use of other communication media like the television and the radio (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2009, p. 14). Most people used the magazines to get information as it was what they could afford and most customers could read the new brand products in the market through the advertisements that were being done at the magazines (Clemons, 2009). This paper explores the merits and demerits in Internet advertising as it applies to the customers and seeks to provide recommendations and suggestions for further research. How Internet Advertising Affects the Customer Introduction The modern world of information age has seen the Internet as one of the widely used forms of communication. The Internet has also modeled trusteeship among large numbers of people even those from different continents. Today, businesses can now be transacted through the Internet with much ease and fast speed. In the present world, almost three quarters of the entire world population can access the Internet. This has made Internet advertisement to become common and has benefited sellers to sell their goods and services online. Internet advertising has brought significant impacts to the consumers. It has affected the customers both positively and negatively in several ways. Of specific importance, it should be understood that Internet advertisement has really pushed the financial markets of specific nations to a higher notch and thus leading to the growth of the economy (Clemons, 2009). One of the advantages of Internet advertising to the customers is the fact that it reaches a larger audience than any other form of advertisement. Majority of individuals, particularly the customers are at the peak of Internet use to find the best goods of the best quality to purchase. As advertisements reach a large number of customers, these same customers can share the information on a certain product discovering more about the benefits or the dangers of a given product. As Wasiak puts it, â€Å"Social media has changed the way people interact amongst themselves and with their media† (Wasiak, 2010). This is common among pharmaceutical products where Internet advertisements have provided a slot for patients’ forums. This is also beneficial to product makers as they realize privileges when a large number of customers from all parts of the world are able to have a look at their product type and makes purchases. Internet advertising is perhaps the most cost effective for producers and sellers. Since Internet tools used for advertisements are increasingly getting cheaper, customers can get access to information on a variety of products from different companies and make comparisons. Internet advertisements are usually done through many ways. A website can be created about a specific company and the goods and services that it offers can be listed on that website. The producers can also program pop-up windows that are programmed to pop up whenever specific websites are opened. At the same time, Internet advertising can be done by sending customers messages to their mail boxes telling them about the benefits or the quality of a new brand of good in the market (Wasiak, 2010). While messages and the pop-ups may irritate the users of the Internet, they mean so much to willing and interested customers to have a keen look at the product or service being advertised. A good businessman is one who uses the least cost possible in the production of his goods and services. Advertisement falls under the channel of production and Internet advertising is one of the least cost effective methods of advertising. The use of other forms of advertisement like the televisions and other media has become too expensive for a rational producer and more so, it reaches only local customers. The cheapness of Internet advertising has made it to be very popular among many people in the whole world (Clemons, 2009). With the Internet advertising, many companies and producers are able to establish various statistics that can be of help to the improvement of their services and quality of the goods. This implies that all the features of the Internet advertising can be traced by the people placing those advertisements on the Internet. These features can be tested and measured and consumers or consumers can find enough data for analysis in order to establish critical information about the companies they are trading with. Some websites allow consumers of a certain product fill a form of client satisfaction and this greatly improves on product quality improvement. The improvement of the quality of products is of direct benefits to the consumers or customers (Wasiak, 2010). Customers are able to access information on the number of people purchasing a particular product, the negative responses about particular goods and services, the recommendations posted on the websites by customers and many more. This data or statistics is very necessary not only to the producers or the advertisers but also the customers. Internet advertising helps to improve the standards of advertisement as information about a particular product is available and the customer can find more about the product with just a few mouse clicks. Unlike in bill board advertisement where customers can see a new brand of a product being advertised and plan to check the details later, Internet advertising is all about a click of a mouse and everything will be at the eyes of the customer(Clemons, 2009). While Internet advertising offers significant benefits to the customers, it has the capacities to ruin the tastes and preferences of customers. Although the advantages of Internet advertising overweigh the disadvantages, specific limitations of advertising through the Internet have to be appreciated as well. For instance, the customers suffer a lot of mind torture trying to create the real picture of the goods being advertised on the Internet. An eligible customer would want to touch, feel and even taste the good before deciding to go for it in the market. This is one capacity the Internet advertising is lacking which is very vital in the convincing the mind of the customer to buy the good. This however does not really affect the sales and purchases of goods and services that are advertised on the Internet. A customer builds trust of a website and trusts whatever he or she is being told about the good or service. The choice is still for the customer to decide whether he will buy the product or not (Wasiak, 2010). During the age of the radio and television advertisements, the marketing function gained a lot of popularity (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2009, p. 114). There have been many questions as whether the Internet advertising will have a big impact on the marketing of goods and services as the radio and television advertisement did. Many people still have doubts whether Internet advertising would ever be as popular as radio and television. Perhaps it may never bring a greater impact on the customers as radio and television advertisements have done. This observation can be justified while thinking on the basis of a developing world where Internet access is still a challenge. It should be well understood that Internet access among customers is key for successful marketing. Without Internet connection, the customers will not get critical information about a particular product the customers on the choice of good to buy (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2009, p. 114). Another effect the Internet advertisements have had on the customer is that they have been so successful in the persuasion of a customer to make a first instance purchase of a good or a service. It is so clear that a consumer can opt to buy a good or even a service at the first instance he or she sees the advert on the website. This is so unlike for the bill board advertisements and other forms of advertisements. The customer can see an advert of a commodity on a bill board advert, and decide to come back for the details later. But for the Internet advertising, the customer can choose to buy the product on the first instance he or she sees the advert on the Internet (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2009, p. 116). The problem is whether the customer will come back to another time for the second time to purchase more products. Retention of a customer is one of the motives of a producer or anyone advertising a specific product. It can be difficult for one to retain a customer online, but if, the customer decides to come back or not to (Clemons, 2009). Spending time online is another effect of Internet advertising to a customer. For a loyal customer, he or she must spend most of her entire life on the Internet trying to see and compare the brand types and prices of different goods and services in order to pick the good or service with the best quality at the least cost possible. This is one effect of the Internet advertising that most customers have grown to live with. Spending most time on the Internet has its own disadvantage to the lives of the customers. It really deprives them of time to do other things or activities of their lives. This means that even some very important schedules have to be ignored and one to concentrate on other important matters. A customer is to pick the best alternative, whether to be at the Internet and try to see whatever is being advertised or attend to other social matters. Statistics show that a customer spends 5. 3 percent of his entire life on the Internet (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2009, p. 118). This is not healthy for a normal individual. Internet advertising has made work very easy for many customers and clients in getting very essential services like the booking of flights and even the booking of hotels and lodges. With the Internet advertising, a tourist in America can now book his flight in the house, book his hotel lodge in Africa in his house. This is so unlike what used to happen long time ago when Internet advertising did not exist. Had the Internet advertising not been there, tourists would be forced to reach their destination first before heading to the hotel to book for their accommodation (Wasiak, 2010). Internet advertising has made it very easy for other clients to get services done at the most convenient time possible. This has often saved a lot of time and expenses for the customer he or she could have incurred if the Internet advertising had not been there. The occurrence of Internet advertising is possible due to the fact that there are many goods that are being sold on the Internet and so many services being offered. To create an awareness of the presence of such goods and services, the producers of the sellers of such goods and services must advertise them to their online customers. Conclusion and Recommendations In conclusion, Internet advertisements have taken the storm of all business advertising in the modern world. The contributions of Internet advertising to the customers have widely been appreciated. However, while customers online have gained extensively from the Internet advertisements, there are other negative effects that the Internet advertising has brought to them. Many companies have invested intensively in Internet business advertisements so as to reap the maximum benefits brought by the technology of Internet advertising. However, security threats emanating from malicious attackers and hackers have compromised the smooth development in Internet advertisements and purchases. In some cases, there are different personalities who personify themselves as sellers online and cheat people to rob them of their money. It is not so common but when it happens it is disastrous. Despite all these, many customers have been motivated to buy online. Women most especially who used to be very afraid of using their credit cards online today they are the most leading in number to use the Internet to buy products of their choice. Companies have therefore the responsibility of improving their sites by enhancing them with antivirus software such as McAfee to keep off attackers and make customers to buy and sell online without any fear of being robbed of their money. Generally, Internet advertising has brought a lot of impacts to the customers and the consumers in general. Despite a few cases of the disadvantages of the online advertisement, it has really helped in pushing the marketing sector into higher notches. It has really facilitated trade between continents on a greater perspective as it was never expected before and this has been due to the wider audience that receives the adverts that are being posted on the Internet. Therefore, Internet advertising can be said to have helped many customers in terms of purchases and in many other positive ways.

Factors In Predicting Trends Pound Dollar Exchange Rates Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1890 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The Foreign Exchange market or FOREX as its popularly known has grown vastly over the past few decades. It has been through a lot of rocky patches is one of the most volatile markets, but is still one of the most highly traded most liquid markets in any country is worth trillions of dollars. According to www.investorwords.com[1]Forex trading is estimated at around $4 trillion everyday. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Factors In Predicting Trends Pound Dollar Exchange Rates Finance Essay" essay for you Create order It is a non-stop process is carried out round the clock due to the various time zones. What makes FOREX so desirable to all parties involved is predicting fluctuations in movements of exchange rates which helps them make huge short-term profits, acquire foreign currency at bargain rates avoid huge losses at any given point. FOREX is an excellent investment opportunity for risk seeking investors who like engaging in speculation. There are various theories underlining FOREX such as the ones shown by Agarwal et al. (2002) for the law of one price which states that identical products in perfectly competitive markets should sell at the same base price when prices are expressed in the same denominations. The interest rate effects theory states that FOREX rates would become stable at a juncture where there would be equality of interest when capital is allowed to freely flow in out of a country. The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) rule states that if inflation forces the prices to increase in one country but not in another one, the purchasing power would change which subsequently would lead to exchange rates changes reflecting the purchasing power of the currencies involved. The International Fisher Effect tells us that the change in interest rates should move in opposite direction of the change in spot of two currencies should be equal to it. There are various forces like Demand Supply, stock markets, confidence in a currency, business environment, political factors which work behind FOREX. Ehrmann and Fratzscher (2005) incorporate in their paper that news about fundamental factors have significant impact on the exchange rates. They concluded in their paper that an environment with high market uncertainty large exchange rate volatility are hugely impacted by news about fundamentals. They also drew attention to the fact that according to their study large unexpected news or negative news had a relatively larger effect on exchange rates than positive or smaller unexpected news. Hartley P. (1982) says that there are numerous models which imply that movements in FOREX are due to the way monetary policy is adopted in different countries. A huge amount of negative vibes has been existent ever since Meese Rogoff (1983) findings that fundamentals based models don`t succeed in outperforming a random walk for exchange rates. They reported in their findings that the reason why monetary models perform poorly is that disturbances impinging on exchange markets are predominantly rea l. As always there have been huge debates about the validity of the results by Meese Rogoff. Some authors like Diebold et al (1994) support the findings whereas Macdonald Marsh (1997) tell us through studies done by Macdonald Taylor (1994) Mark (1995) that fundamental based models can outperform a random walk can over long term period. This gave rise to explanations which were generally non-fundamental in nature, like Macdonald Marsh (1997) who shed insight into the work done by Frankel Rose (1994) on microstructure hypothesis in their research. Conceptual Framework: The Macro-economic or fundamental factors are factors that affect the economy of the country such as the financial markets viz. stock and derivatives markets, bond markets, etc., inflation, the monetary policy of the government which includes regulating interest rates, the fiscal policy which shows government income and expenditure, the growth rate of the economy of the country .i.e. GDP, Balance of Payments Position which shows the import and export surplus or deficit of the country, etc. The Macro-economic or fundamental factors and technical analysis are the independent variables that will be used for study in the research, while the trend analysis is used as the dependant variable. Having a look at the factors that affect the exchange rate:- Business Environment :- this pre-dominantly means the monetary fiscal policy as positive indications of government policies increase the demand for a particular currency as more more people want to invest is a government friendly country. FDI is for taking advantage of comparative advantages economies of scale. Political factors :- FOREX rates are heavily dependant on the success of a government may fluctuate depending upon if there is a stable govt. at the centre or not. A threat to any coalition govt. will seriously effect the FOREX rates. Stock market :- most of the major indices have direct correlation with FOREX rates, like the Dow is the most influential index on the dollar. Economic Data:- economic data like GDP, CPI, Productivity etc effect the exchange rate massively. Confidence in a currency is the greatest influence on currency exchange. Growth Productivity of an economy :- an increase in the growth rate productivity rate , especially in the traded sector, has a major impact on the exchange rates. Government Influence :- the government also plays an important role in the exchange rate of their currency as it controls a lot of factors that influence exchange rates like money supply, lending rates etc.. A govt. may buy or sell FOREX just to maintain a balance or for the benefits of importers or exporters. Methodology The research methodology adopted in this study is a very simplistic approach to find the relationship between different variables concerned and does not exactly represent any work done in the past. The models used in most of the studies till now have made changes to regression models to incorporate a lot more terms and information, and thus are much more complicated. The model that will be used in this study is the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model in the form of a multiple linear regression. This model would help find the dependence of foreign exchange rates on multiple macroeconomic factors over the long run. The regression would be run twice, once with the macroeconomic variables of the US and the pound sterling-Dollar exchange rate denominated in US dollar and again with the variables of the UK area and Dollar-pound sterling exchange rate denominated in pounds. The model used is as follows: The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model: Where, Represents the sterling pound-dollar exchange rate, Represents the interest rate, Represents the percentage change in the inflation rate (CPI), is the percentage change in the economic growth (GDP), are the regression coefficients of , respectively, that need to be determined by estimation in the regression model, is an intercept or a constant, accounts for errors and is assumed to have mean zero and is uncorrelated with the regressors. The Pound sterling-Dollar exchange rate is considered for this study to represent the foreign exchange market for the purpose of achieving the objectives of this paper. The data consisting of the macroeconomic variables would include figures from the United Kingdom area as well as the US. The figures are of a daily frequency, and spread across the past 12 years, February 1999- February 2011. This would help us to show the relation in an advanced way as it would show both the exchange rate s short term as well as long term reaction to new figures on a regular basis every time they are released. By using data of a daily frequency, the movement of the exchange rate, after the effect of new figures released has been absorbed in the market, would give clear indications of the effect of the change over the longer term. Hypothesis: In order to achieve the objective of this study, a null hypothesis is used, which either would be accepted or rejected on the basis of the regression models results. The hypotheses are as follows: H0: Any fundamental (macroeconomic) factor has no relation with, and hence, has no influence on the Sterling pound-Dollar exchange rate movements. H1: Fundamental (macroeconomic) factors have an influence on the Sterling pound-Dollar exchange rate movements. Thus in order to support this null hypothesis, the coefficients associated with each of the independent variable would require to be near or equal to zero and the p-values of the coefficients should not be significantly different from zero. Independent variables: Growth Rate: The growth rates of the United Kingdom and the US area are represented by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the market value of goods and services produced in country in a year. Interest rates: For the US, interest rates are represented by the Federal Funds rate which is the interest rate at which depository institutions, like banks, lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions overnight, while for the United Kingdom interest rates are represented by the Marginal lending rate of the Bank of England, which is the interest rate at which overnight liquidity is lent by the national central banks to eligible counterparties. Inflation rates: The inflation rate in the US is represented by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is a measure of the average change in the prices of consumer items over time and includes all urban customers and their buying habits. While for the Sterling pound, it is the Retail Price Index (RPI). Dependent variable: As mentioned earlier, there is a single dependant variable which is the exchange rate. The regression would once be run with the sterling pound-Dollar exchange rate as the dependant variable and the second time it would be replaced with the Dollar-Sterling pound exchange rate. Data Sources and Sample Selection The data for this study would be collected from DataStream, the sources of which are reliable databases of the Bank of England, US Federal Bank, etc. The data consists of the exchange rate of the pound sterling against the US dollar (denominated in US$) and the US dollar against the Pound Sterling (denominated in GBP). Interest rates in the form of Federal funds rates for the US and Marginal Lending rates for the sterling pound area have been used. Inflation is represented by the CPI (all urban items) for the US and Retail Price Index (RPI) for the United Kingdom. The GDP figures of the US and the United Kingdom have been taken as the economic growth indicator of the respective countries. The sample consists of the daily figures of exchange rates and interest rates, monthly figures of the CPI and quarterly figures of the GDP, from February 1999- February 2011. Conclusion Given the importance huge trading in FOREX a lot of research has been carried out in this field. Past literatures on FOREX have shed light into the various aspects of the markets its determinants. As usual there have been debates about whether fundamental factors or technical factors have had a larger impact on FOREX market due to the various variables involved. I would be focusing on the fundamental factors would be using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Model to test my data, which would be collected from `DataStream` all other reliable sources. The FOREX market continues to grow in volume importance day by day due to its high reward nature but can be a slippery slope as well for some who take high risk for making a quick buck.