Article review. The overall topic of the article Politics and the Media: A Crisis of Trust? is the crisis of trust that was created by misleading information, which came from both the media and Downing Street reports.

Article review Politics and the Media: A Crisis of Trust? The overall topic of the article 'Politics and the Media: A Crisis of Trust?' is the crisis of trust that was created by misleading information, which came from both the media and Downing Street reports. There are many debates within the article, for example: The propaganda battle; Downing Street's war with BBC; The Hutton Inquiry. James Stanyer is a well known lecturer from Loughborough University. A key part of his research concerns the transformation of political communications. His current book 'Modern Political Communication 'examines some critical recent developments in the fast changing political communication systems of the US and the UK and the democratic consequences. The topic and the work is still relevant today, because it's based on recent important events that shaped the face of politics and had a tremendous impact over all the world not just the UK. For instance, everything is related to the Iraq war, which involved many different countries, mostly the ones in NATO. Most of the author's work is related to recent events that focus on political communication systems of the United Kingdom and United States. Recent controversial political communication, like the dossier published by UK government on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction led him to write this article. He is not the only one that treated this

  • Word count: 1353
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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The role of the Media in Jamaican Politics

THE MEDIA'S INFLUENCE ON JAMAICAN POLITICS ---A close look at the relationship between Journalists and political parties. BY: MARIE BERBICK-GRAHAM, Traditionally, the main media in Jamaica have been radio, television and newspapers. With the liberalization of the telecommunications sector, media have now expanded to include local cable stations, the Internet, community radio stations and community or regional newspapers. There are now more than 12 radio stations, three national TV stations and three major national newspapers, two of which are dailies. In addition there are several weekly tabloid publications. However this expansion of media in Jamaica has led to little change in how popular perceptions are passed on to the masses. Mainly because the media fraternity in Jamaica is quite small and it is the same crop of journalists, columnists, talk show hosts and announcers who move between the various media houses. Traditionally, the ruling political party enjoys majority support in the media. Many respected journalists are loyal to one political party or another but are not keen to publicly acknowledge that loyalty. 1It is no secret that during an election campaign, one of the groups of professionals that is targeted [by political parties] is the Journalism fraternity. Talk show hosts and columnists are the most powerful 'spin doctors' on the local media landscape

  • Word count: 534
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Politics and the media, it can be seen that the government regulates the media in order to protect the publics interest. With a little deeper obeservation one may conclude that much more selfish motives reigns supreme.

In 1844 Karl Marx introduced the idea that "Religion is the opium of the masses". What if we could apply Marx's theory to modern society and adapt it slightly to say "politicians are the new opium of the masses by the way of the media". While the government is seen to be regulating the media to protect the 'public interest', a deeper observation suggests they are using the media to dictate their own political agendas. Regulation has been defined as "the process by which government induces, requires or prohibits certain actions by individuals, private institutions, and sometimes public institutions, often through the efforts of specially designed regulatory agencies" (Gow, 1997:101). This paper outlines the reasons the government believes it must regulate the media, concentrating on two dimensions. The first being for the interest of the public through censorship and legislation. The second looks at regulation for its own benefit through legislation and manipulation. Windschuttle & Windschuttle (1981), discuss how the media's role has changed from telling the truth, to trying to attract the sort of audiences that advertisers want at any cost. For this reason the government feels it needs to regulate the media in relation to the amount, types and times of advertising that are allowed. If the government doesn't put some restriction on the amount of advertising it may become

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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If social class no longer determines party allegiance in the UK, what does?

If social class no longer determines party allegiance in the UK, what does? In the 1950s and 1960s the British electorate was described as aligned. The two most significant types of alignment were partisan and class alignment. As a result, the electorate in those two decades was seen as a stable two-party system. The Conservatives and Labour controlled the government and electoral changes in the United Kingdom were small and slow. However, since the 1970s we could observe a serious change. The electorate was not stable any more and changes were much faster and more sudden. The Conservatives and Labour did not dominate the party system any more. At first the Liberals began to get stronger, then the Liberal and Social Democratic Party alliance, and finally the Liberal Democrats. Besides, in Scotland and Wales nationalist parties started being important players. Since then single-party government has not always been possible to be achieved and parties have sometimes had to form coalitions (e.g. a Labour and Liberal coalition in the late 1970s or the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition now). This whole trend that has been happening since the 1970s is called dealignment, which is weakening of previous alignment, e.g. class alignment (decline of middle-class votes for Conservatives and working-class votes for Labour). The year of 1970 is considered to have been the beginning

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Outline the differences between the House of Lords and the House of Commons

Outline the differences between the House of Lords and the House of Commons There are many differences between the House of Commons and the House of Lords however these can be separated into the main issues of Legislation and Legitimation. In the UK all legislation has to be approved by the Commons who have the final say on all Bills. This is effectively giving the consent of the people to those laws that they are expected to obey. Without this consent, laws would lack authority. It is purely because of this that the Lords are not given more powers. Although legislation and Government policies must be presented to the Lords it does not act on behalf of the people and so is only given the powers to suggest amendments to Bills (with the exception of money bills of which they have no powers to scrutinise) or to delay legislation for up to a year. Indeed legislation has a very important part in both Houses of Parliament. It is not expected that the Commons should defeat or challenge legislation proposed by the Government, especially if the Government has a mandate. This is also true of the Lords, in fact, according to the unwritten Salisbury Convention it is actually forbidden. However the Government can be warned that proposed laws may be unpopular. The Commons may also amend legislation according to errors or discrimination against minorities. Amendments to legislation are

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Differences between the central local government relationships in the US and the UK

There are many differences between the central local government relationships in the US and the UK system. The first major difference has to be the scale upon which the two systems operate on. The US, with a population of over 275million people is divided up into 50 states. The UK's population is around 60 million and is also divided into counties. However in the UK the division is merely geographical where in the US the division is political as well as geographical. The different counties in the UK do have their own set of powers but they are nowhere as powerful as the states in the US. They are still following what ever their central government tells them to do. In the US the degree of separation is much greater. The states have their own power over matters that affect their own area. The State still holds power over the general area and matters concerning the economy. It is mainly down to the constitution in the US that the separation is so great. The constitution clearly defines what powers the states hold and anything that is not mentioned is left to the central Federal government. However, since the formation of the constitution and the separation of powers between the State and the states, there has always been an ongoing debate about which powers (those ones that aren't stated in the constitution) are given to who. In the last 25 years there has seen a significant

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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New Zealand Philanthropy

New Zealand Philanthropy We cannot begin a discussion of philanthropy in New Zealand without reflecting on the fist inhabitants of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Maori. Maori came to Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud in a series of migrations from their Polynesian ancestral homeland Hawaiiki. Maori have inhabited the shores of Aotearoa for about one thousand years, a few minutes in history compared to the occupation of this ancient land on which I stand today. Forty thousand years ago when the first Aboriginals stood on your red earth New Zealand was a relatively young country geologically having emerged out of the ocean, following the break up of Gondwana land five million years earlier. The Oxford Dictionary defines a philanthropist as " one who does good to his fellow man". A number of Maori have argued recently that philanthropy is inherent in Maoritanga. Historically in Maori society there is an understanding of the existence of a special relationship between a giver and a receiver: Giving is an expression of love or aroha and it is also one of mana, or prestige. The giver and the receiver are then tied into a relationship bound by reciprocity and where the giver will have enhanced his " mana" by giving. New Zealand Journalist Carol Archie explored Maori Concepts of Philanthropy in an article in Philanthropy New Zealand's Newsletter in 2001. She wrote: "After

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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A government contractor's most feared headline: The Pentagon inspector general's office has launched an inquiry into the hiring practices of defense contractors that recruit high-level military officials to work for their companies

Business and Government Final Paper By Travis Smith IEMBA 10 [email protected] A government contractor's most feared headline: The Pentagon inspector general's office has launched an inquiry into the hiring practices of defense contractors that recruit high-level military officials to work for their companies1. At National Security Research, Inc. (NSR) we provided policy and organizational strategy advice to agencies within the Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security Departments, and the large defense firms (Lockheed Martin, Boeing and others). The leadership of the firm consisted mostly of former military officers and government managers. As a small company, NSR focused on revenue growth gained through new contract wins. Accordingly, NSR hired people with knowledge of and connections to probable client agencies. Most of these personnel worked at the client agencies in recent years, and often transferred from these agencies to NSR. This typical "revolving door" business model brought benefits and challenges. The challenge to this model is that the Federal government regulates the revolving door activity in order to avoid an environment of unbridled cronyism. The U.S. Code is the compilation of Federal laws. Two titles specifically apply to the revolving door issue: 18 and 412. Title 18 regulates the ability of current government employees to lobby for corporations in a

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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What is 'new' about Blair's party?

What is 'new' about Blair's party? Generally historians of British politics distrust the cult of new and continuity appears to be the norm. 'New' is a world that is more commonly associated with American politics, however there are two schools of thought on the issue of the Labour party and the term 'new'. There is the commonly held view that labour represents something that is wholly different form anything the Labour party has ever represented before, for the first time ever "it is difficult to apply a traditional left or right label of the Labour party"1. The other view is that "Labour has been in a state of change since it was formed"2 and there is actually nothing 'new' about labour at all, and instead it the term new labour is just a product of rhetoric designed to alter the perception of the party. I am going to argue that while labour does represent something different from its past in terms of the internal structure of the party, its policies it now adheres to are largely based on the legacy of Thatcherism and 'New Labour' has not created a set of policies that could be called their own. Instead many analysists including Dennis Kavanagh have claimed that there has been a new consensus or as Steve Fielding has argued Tony Blair has created Thatcherism mark 2. "Across the spectrum of political debate, except from constitutional reform it is hard to find one area where

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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What factors led to labour emerging so quickly to be a major player so quickly in British politics?

Although the second and third reform acts(1867 and 1885) gave more working class men the vote, up until 1900 there had only ever been three independent working class men had ever been voted in as Mps. The vast majority of working class mps had been 'lib-labs', working class men working under the umbrella of the liberal party. However socialist ideas were spread throughout the country and the idea of an independent working class party had been floating about for some time. In 1893 the ILP or Independent Labour Party was set up, however it failed to make any significant contribution to British politics and remained another small-scale socialist party until 1890, when trade unions and the ILP joined forces to become a major power in British politics. Following the 1st world war labour came to power. What factors led to labour emerging so quickly to be a major player so quickly in British politics? After the passing of the second reform act (1867) trade unions began to forge a close alliance with the liberal party. This is reflected in the liberals supporting labour candidates in areas were the majority of the franchise were working class. In the 1885 election, 12 lib-labs mps were elected. Unions had traditionally supported the liberals, together they had much success. The lib-labs proved a significant obstacle in the way of forming an independent labour party as they split the

  • Word count: 1220
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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