Since 2003 more than 900 Iraqi Christians have been killed by terrorists in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned. Thousands of Iraqi Christians have left because of the violence directed at them. Christian population dropped from over a million in 2003 to less than half a million today. The conspiracy of silence surrounding the violence and religious intolerance should be stopped. Christianity and the freedom of all religions is at stake,

In Nigeria many Christians are suffering persecution. An organization that calls itself “Boko Haram” which means, Western Education is sacrilege. It’s aim is to kill all the Christians in the country. In January alone, Boko Haram caused 54 deaths. In 2011 it was responsible for 510 deaths and burned down more than 350 churches. They use bombs, machetes, gasoline and guns, shouting “Allahu akbar” which means, God is great, while attacking unsuspecting citizen Christians. Reports from the United Nations indicate that between 53,000 and 75,000 innocents have been displaced and their property confiscated or destroyed.

In Pakistan Christians are a small minority, yet they live in constant terror of blasphemy laws. A Christian woman was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad. When pressure was put on the Governor Salman Taseer to explore a way to free her, he was killed by his body guard. The body guard was celebrated as a hero by the Muslim clerics. When Christian groups break the blasphemy law, the consequence can be horrific. 

Attacks are also ongoing against Christians in the Sudan,Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia. It’s an anti Christian expression by Muslims that transcends all cultures, ethnicities and regions. Christians have lost the protection of their own societies. Vigilantes feel they can act with sanctions from their government and they are right. The idea that non Muslims deserve protection has all but vanished from the Islamic world.

A good solution would be to take the billions of dollars going to the offending nations and use it to do something about the crimes against Christians. In America and Europe we go all out to protect Muslim minorities from intolerance and ensure they can worship and work freely without fear. And justifiably so. But Muslims nations should be required to do the same with Christians. Conditions could be put on trade, investment and aid with Muslim countries to insure religious freedom for all citizens.

Last week,the most shocking event was the school shooting in Finland, which was the second in this year. Because school shootings are not as common in Europe as they are in the United States ,media coverege about it,is a lot higher in Europe than in the United States. This event affects all European countries and the goverments have to do all they can to avoid these kind of events in the future. Although the media coverage delivers information , it can also have negative sides ,especially about these kind of events.

The Daily Telegraph has published very many articles about the shooting. It has published allmost every bit of information,which was realeased by the Finnish media about the shooting. Also it seems that the reporters have done a lot of research about the previous school shooting and they have found many similarities. A lot of interviews and information about this tragedy makes The Daily Telegraph very reliable information source. Also it discusses about the  potential aftermaths of this shooting.

The Times has published only a few artical about the latest school shooting, but has alot of information,articles and opinions about the previous Jokela school shooting. Although there are a few articles about it, the articles are very thorough and quite long. It doesn’t devote a lot of news space to this tragedy ,which is quite surprising, because it is one of the most important events and it affects all the countries in Europe and elsewhere.

USA Today, which is national daily broadsheet doesn’t publish a lot of articles about European news, but because the school shooting is a very important event, it has published some articles about it,but not as many as the European news companies. US inner news are more important than the events going on in Europe and in elsewhere ,especially when the elctions for the new president of the United States are going on. Latest debates are on the first page but the news which are about school shooting in Finland can be hardly found.

Her Family

Her father was a miner who was deeply religious and a fierce disaplinarian. When aged 8 the family moved to Murton and at school Mary Anne found it difficult to make friends. Not long after the move her father had a fatal accident, falling 46 metres to his death down a mione shaft at Murton Colliery.

In 1843 Mary Ann’s widowed mother Margaret married George Stott, but Mary did not get on well with George. So at aged 16 Mary moved on and became a nurse at the Edwarad Potters Home in South Hetton, however she returned to her mother’s home three years later at aged 19 years.

In 1852 at aged 20 Mary Ann married William Mowbray at Newcastle Upon Tyne register office and the couple moved to Plymouth. Mary Ann gave William five children but they all died of gastric fever, the couple then returned to the North East of England and Mary ann fave birth to three more children who all died.

William was a foreman at the South Hetton Colliery and then a fireman on board a staem ship. In 1865 William died of an “intestinal disorder.” In those days insurance was just beginning to emerge and William had taken out some life assurance with the British and Prudential Company and Mary ann received £35.00 from the insurance company, which in those days was the equivalent of half a years wages.

Husband No 2

After William’s death Mary ann moved to Seaton Harbour in County Durham and struck up a friendship with a Joseph Nattrao. When she found out he was engaged and after he married she moved on and at this time one of two remaining children died, leaving her with one child Isabella, Isabella was sent back to her maternal granmother to care for her. Mary Ann then struck up a friendship with a George Ward nad they married in Monkwearmouth on the 28th August 1865, he died of “intestinal problems” his GP had said that he was very ill, but that he had been surprised by the speed in which he died. Another insurance payout to Mary Ann follows.

Death followed Mary Ann whereever she went

James Robinson was to be husband number three, he was a shipwright in Pallion, Sunderland, his wife had recently died and Mary Ann became his housekeeper initially and he too lost a child through gastric fever. James got Mary Ann pregnant again. Mary Ann returned home to help her mother who had become ill and within nine days her mother too had died aged 54 years. She took her only remaining daughter Isabella to live with James Robinson, however, she died after developing chronic stomach pains along with two of the Robinson family.

Mary Ann married Robinson on the 11th August 1867 and they had a child called Mary Isabella but she died of chronic stomach pain, along with two more of his children. Robinson suspected Mary Ann by this stage, he found she had incurred some debts amounting to £60 and that she had stolen £50 from him and he would not tolerate her insistance on him having life assurance. As a result Mary Ann was given her marching orders by Robinson.

From here on the pattern continued to date there have been multiple child deaths, which in Victorian times was not uncommon, due to the squalor that the poor lived in during those times. However, a pattern had emerged and all of Mary’s husbands and children were dying of the same ailments. In addition it was taer claimed in court that Mary Ann had also murdered her mother and also her friend Margaret who introduced her to her brother Frederick who was alfready married, so Mary ann commited bigamy when she married him on the 17th September 1870. Margaret too went the same way and died in March 1870 with unconfirmed stomach disorder.

Mary Ann then married Frederick bigamously in September 1871 and they raised a son Robert that same year, Frederick however died in the December of that year and Mary ann once again was the benificiary of the insurance money.

Joseph Nattrass Mary Ann’s long term lover became her lodger and they rekindled their relationship, however, as soon as he had changed his will infavour of Mary Ann, he too met with gastric illines and died. Mary Ann then wanted to form a relationsip with a John Quick Manning who she was nursing after smallpox, but Charles Edward Cotton her seven year old step son stood in her way. Mary ann tried to get Charles committed to the workhouse but the request was rejected. As a result it is alleged that Mary Ann committed her final act of muder, a murder that was to unraval her muderess trail. The coroner finally became suspicious and Mary Ann was arrested.

Method of Murder

It was claimed in court that the murders were committed by use of arsonic. The reasons used by villains are that it dissolves in hot water, so can easily be administered in a cup of tea and in those times was easily accessable, eg in solt soap or in wallpaper.

Detection

Was very late in the case of Mary Ann, mainly because of the very austere times, the poverty and deprevation, the overload of doctors and the lack of accurate records, along with a police force that was only just beginning to emerge. Mary Ann herself was a reason for the cover up, she was plausible, she played the grieving mother or widow to perfection and of course child death was more common place in those days.

It is argued that in these modern 21st century times that we live in Mary Ann would not of been convicted in 21st century Britain, however, you could argue too that the methodology used by Mary Ann, namely arsenic poisoning and the level of deception in modern times would not have gone unchecked and that it would have been very difficult if not impossible for her to commit an identical crime today.

Mary Ann was viewed by some as a “kindly old lady,” from some distant past, but when you read the records of the deaths, particularly the lover Nattrass, he was witnessed suffering a horrific death, death certainly followed Mary Ann around and at her trial a jury found her guilty and she was executed by hanging on March 24th 1873.

Acknowledgements

Wikipedia

The Sunday Mail, Review

Website www.maryanncotton.co.uk

Writing Womens Listing.blogspot.com

The ability to reach large segments of the public is of great value in commerce, politics, and a society’s culture. The mass media are usually controlled by corporations (as in the United States) or by national governments (as in China). The mass-media industry employs professionals to conceive, produce, promote, and deliver communication products that are specifically designed to meet the goal of attracting large audiences. These products may be sold as objects (such as books—or downloaded e-books—or digital videodiscs [DVDs]) or exhibited for the price of a ticket or subscription (such as movies shown in cinemas or on premium or pay-for-view cable TV channels). Some services may be offered at no cash cost to consumers so as to create an audience for paid advertising (such as commercial television or radio broadcasts or Internet sites). Most newspapers and magazines are sold directly to the reader but depend on selling advertisements for their profitability. A growing number of newspapers and magazines are available online for no fee; this “freebie” has proved to be a challenge for the cash-strapped print media.

No communication technology is inherently a mass medium. Rather, it becomes such a medium through usage. Radio was invented at the end of the 19th century primarily for use as a two-way communication system to serve industrial shipping and naval operations. In the 1920s corporate decisions were made by several major electronics manufacturers to mass-produce inexpensive radio receivers for retail sale and to operate radio stations as incentives for consumers to buy those receivers. Thus radio broadcasting—a mass medium—was born; it quickly grew into the primary use of that medium. Television developed in the opposite way. It was first introduced to the general public as a mass medium in the late 1940s. Decades later the development of such supplementary appliances as the videocassette recorder and the home video camera allowed for its use as an interpersonal medium. The telephone has been an example of a medium of interpersonal communication that remained, primarily, just that. It was only occasionally used as a mass medium; telemarketers use computers to automatically dial thousands of phone numbers for the purpose of reaching a potential customer or playing recorded messages. Letter writing has historically been an interpersonal medium. Yet direct mailing of millions of letters of solicitation by post or by e-mail constitutes the use of the letter as a mass medium.

History

Mass media are essentially an industrial-era phenomenon. The first commercial printing industry during the early 18th century sprang up around London’s Grub Street. This is often cited as a beginning for mass media because of the recognizable economic system that was put into place. It was there that publishing found its early commercial applications; hand-operated printing presses were used to produce and reproduce thousands of copies of inexpensive literary products—including novels (”penny-dreadfuls”) and magazines. These were sold for profit to a growing audience of rudimentary readers. Publishing had previously depended on the clergy or the aristocracy for funding rather than on retail marketing.

A string of communication technologies were introduced during the 19th century and accelerated the development of the mass media. The invention of the steam-powered printing press (along with increasing literacy rates) gave rise to mass circulation of newspapers and magazines. These types of mass-produced print products—as well as books—were commonly available for sale in Europe and North America by the 1860s. Photography was invented in the 1820s. Methods for reproducing photographs in the print media were improved throughout the century and made such media ever more attractive to consumers. The development of still photography led to the invention of the motion picture. The cinema was an entirely new means of communication that showed great potential for mass-media application.

In the 1830s the telegraph was invented and was in practical use by the late 1840s. It was perhaps the single most important invention in the history of mass communication. It revolutionized existing media by supplying newspapers and magazines with a continuous stream of news dispatches from the region and even the nation. The Atlantic cable was completed in 1863; newspapers could then acquire information from around the world. Newspapers and magazines were bolstered by the resources of the telegraphic wire services and eventually achieved circulations numbering in the millions. Thus print became the first of the modern mass media.

Other types of media were gaining public attention on this scale by the turn of the 20th century. Silent movies became increasingly popular. Dramatic narratives provided the main audience draw, with the newsreel and the documentary film also garnering viewers. Attendance grew as the introduction of synchronous sound to feature films in 1927 married voice with picture.

The phonograph (invented in 1877) emerged as a mass medium as well. It achieved wider use as electrification of homes allowed for replacement of hand-cranked mechanical models. Sales of recordings reached mass proportions during the 1920s, with commercial radio used to popularize musical genres and to make stars of artists. The first U.S. commercial radio station went on the air in 1920. Radio networks linked stations in various parts of the country to carry a single program simultaneously by 1927.

By the mid-20th century, newspapers and magazines, movies, phonograph records, and radio programs were all conveniently available to most of the American population. These media provided many aspects of cultural learning to a sizable number of people. Eventually these mass media began to rival such traditional cultural determinants as family and religion. Some saw this as a natural and positive extension of democracy. Others criticized the mass media for failing to propagate existing culture and replacing it with a new mass culture based on consumerism at the expense of traditional or any other values.

Broadcast television emerged as the nexus of the mass media during the 1950s. It contained news, drama, cinema, music, and at least some content from all other mass media in a single, convenient home appliance. Television’s overwhelming functionality was soon dictating supplementary roles to other components of the mass media. Radio began to produce specialized programming for smaller target audiences. TV absorbed general-interest entertainment—from drama and comedy to variety—which had been among radio’s most popular attractions. Newspaper circulation had started to decline in the 1930s as radio journalism proved itself both faster and more popular. The number of daily U.S. newspapers began to drop precipitously with the spread of television. Most cities were left with only a single newspaper publisher. Many general-interest magazines disappeared as well; publishers sought the smaller and specialized audiences that television did not serve. Motion-picture attendance declined in the face of television’s at-home convenience.

Mass Media Today

Evolving technologies continue to drive the development of mass media. Instantaneous communication is a process that originated with the telegraph; it reached a milestone with the successful launchings of communications satellites into low Earth orbit. The first of these was Telstar 1 (1962). It orbited the Earth at a speed faster than the Earth revolves. This allowed for “windows” of time when video and audio transmissions could be made within a shifting orbital footprint. There are now dozens of high-capacity communications satellites in synchronous orbit; a reporter may attach a camera or microphone to a laptop computer and report live via satellite from virtually any location in the world.

The nationwide dissemination of cable TV was a process that took decades because of the necessity of seeking legal franchises in virtually every U.S. municipality. Cable subscription reached a saturation point in the late 1980s. The new mass medium began to remake TV in much the same way that the introduction of TV had remade radio and magazines. Cable channels sought smaller audiences with special target interests for advertisers specifically intent on reaching these audiences. But that changed in the first decade of the 21st century; both the number of cable channels and the size of audiences grew. Millions turned to cable news channels for presidential election coverage in 2008.

The 1990s, meanwhile, were marked by an explosive growth in online services for people who used computers and had access to the Internet. Critics hoped that the Internet might offer an alternative or even a counterforce to mass-media influence over public taste and public opinion (with e-mail, newsgroups, and chat rooms).

Mass-media ownership was characterized by concentration of ownership through mergers and acquisitions in the late 20th and the early 21st century. In the United States a consistent trend of deregulation since the 1980s left most of the television industry (as well as other mass media) in the hands of fewer than a dozen companies.

The 2001 merger of Time Warner—an integrated mass-media company with holdings in publishing, film and television, radio, recording, and just about every other form of mass communication—with America Online (AOL), the then-largest Internet service provider, epitomized this trend. This deal, however, was struck at the height of enthusiasm for Internet and media stocks. When new technologies were created, new online providers jumped in. AOL began to lose many of its users. This was followed by highs and lows in the stock market; a recession ensued in 2007. Time Warner and AOL “divorced” in 2009. As part of the split, Time Warner kept the entertainment site TMZ (Thirty Mile Zone) as well as CNN (Cable News Network), HBO (Home Box Office), TBS (Turner Broadcasting System), and TNT (Turner Network Television).

Large media companies—such as General Electric, Westinghouse, News Corporation, and the Bertelsmann Group—also lost their luster by the end of the first decade of the new millennium. Their success had been fueled largely by a surplus of stock portfolios and the oversized presence—and dreams—of modern moguls.

Mass Media and Democracy

When mass-media ownership was in the hands of a limited number of companies, fewer communicators (and fewer types of communicators) were available to supply users with content. Although this changed with the advent of the Internet, television—both network and cable—remained the major source of news for many individuals. Political or social biases (whether perceived or actual) in the media have compelled some viewers to identify themselves in political terms—liberal, conservative, radical, reactionary. Many of these viewers, in turn, read or watch media material that accords with their own ideology.

The challenge to active participation in democracy was further compounded when the mass media seemed to be in concert about which issues to cover. Some critics think that the inclusion of foreign-based news organizations broadens the variety of American news coverage. Evidence of this appeared during the 2003 Iraq War; radio and television coverage included that by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The fact that a number of important American newspapers (and television stations) are moving to outsource foreign coverage in order to save money may have a significant effect on domestic issues in the future.

The diminishing coverage of world events is the result of budget constraints; it may also be caused by physical inaccessability to newsworthy places because of censorship or lack of a free press. Foreign reporters were banned from Iran after the controversial presidential election of 2009. Yet thousands of videos taken by Iranian citizens during election protests were uploaded to the social media site YouTube and were broadcast on TV stations and Internet sites around the world. In this way, a degree of public access to world news is growing; making this growth possible are new technology and participation of individuals who make their images available to the mass media.

The Effects of Mass Media

Because of their central position as a source of cultural and social learning, the mass media are easily, and often, blamed for many of society’s ills. Some researchers believe that the mass media shape the way people view the world, especially when people have little direct experience. Others point to the media as providing role models—positive and negative—imitated by members of the audience. The portrayal of violence in the media is perhaps the most prominent issue. Other behavioral areas are of concern as well, such as explicit sex or extremely coarse language. These arguments tend to be based on a couple of suppositions: one is that the experience of content presented by contemporary mass media differs in some qualitative way from material that people have been exposed to since the beginning of social communication; the other is that individuals will copy or be influenced by what they view. Attempts to hold mass-media corporations legally responsible for the criminal acts of the consumers of their products have failed. A general consensus has been reached that people will have to continue to be responsible for their own behaviors in the age of mass media.

            But, electronic media too has its consequences. It is often seen that in the urge of popularity, some electronic media agencies publish a telecast event which is actually fake, thereby spreading rumours and affecting the conscience and decision making of the people. Also due to competition among the electronic media agencies, they get into the matter which is not to be shown to the common man. One can take the example of 26/11 Mumbai attack few years ago. As the electronic media were capturing the movement of the armed force and security personals, the terrorists from the inside the building using the TV sets were able to see it and take necessary precautions to combat the armed forces. Thus, we observe that electronic media has had a great impact on the society in both positive and negative but one can say that it has done more good for the society.

ACTA is of course, not a bill like SOPA, but an international trade agreement that sets standards for the enforcement of intellectual property rights.  Unlike SOPA, the focus of ACTA is enforcement of larger-scale copyright infringements.  So while it is not a law that says who can and who can’t be defined as theives of intellectual property, it encourages those that sign it to create such laws, and crack down harder on those who break them.

Surely if the United States had signed such an agreement we would have heard about it, right?  Nope.  The United States signed ACTA on it’s day of birth, on October 1, 2011.  Citizens were not informed of this not because of some distraction such as SOPA or the Occupy Protests, but because the various governments that signed it decided it was better to keep it a secret.  It was only during the turbulence of SOPA when ACTA was exposed to the majority of the citizens of the countries who signed the agreement.  Some other governments who have also signed include Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and 22 members of the European Union.

Protests have already sprung up across the globe, with the most fierce gatherings in Europe.  This also comes to show why internet activists are still so up in arms about the copyright issues with protests such as Black March.

To read the full article, please go to the author’s website.  This article has been moved do to copyright concerns.

In Medicine Emphasizes Specialization

It is true that in medicine a doctor can be a general practitioner.  He may be a family doctor that is responsible for checking the overall health of his patients.  Because of how diversified the medical field is, there are times when he has to refer his patients to specialists.  They may be psychiatrists, if he feels that a patient’s problems are emotional.  Neurologists, if he thinks that a person’s nervous system is involved.  A cardiologist to examine his patient’s heart and a nephrologist if it has to do with his kidneys.  He may also find that his patient may have to be checked by an epidemiologist or some other specialist.  These specialists coordinate with primary care professionals from whom many referrals come.

Details of test results are reported in medical jargon only by the specialist.  With his unique background they are interpreted before being forwarded to the family practitioner.  It is wise for the family practitioner to know when he is unable make a diagnosis or handle these special case.  This is true when he may be in doubt about the cause or nature of a patient illness and wishes to seek further clarification from available experts in a particular field.  There are opportunities to consult with these professionals.  Specialization as we can see, is a major necessity in the medical field where life and death issues are concerned.

More and More Mass Communications are Becoming Integrated

Image via CrunchBase

Mass communications may be a completely different animal.  It is true that the mass media consist of newsletters, newspapers, magazines, advertising, radio, TV, and film, to name only a few.  However, many of these media are interchangeable.  That is, they grew out off each other.  From newsletters came newspapers.  Magazines followed along with books.  Along the way came radio, TV, film, and now they have all merged into new media which has become prominent on the Internet.

Many professionals that have had wide experiences across different platforms have come to profit from these developments.  Former anchors have had a newspaper background.  Some have been in advertising or public relations.  Still, because of the diversity of the mass media, when Facebook and Twitter came on the scene it caught many by surprise because of their immediate impact in society.  Mass media schools quickly adjusted their programs to reflect this new reality of having students become competent across all media platforms.  It follows that today’s students in the mass media are more prepared of being Jack of All Trades while posting their stories and blogs on the Internet, with captivating images and sound simultaneously.  Networks  like CNN and FOX are following suit as well, by integrating snippets of their broadcasts with postings from the Internet.

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In medical field, specialization is much valued.  Many family practitioners refer their patients to specialists and consult concerning treatments to be followed.  This is essential especially when life and death are involved.  Unlike the field of medicine, that of mass communications have evolved into media where the written word, sound, and video have coalesced.  Many future professionals of the mass media are being trained to be a Jack of All Trades in order to stand a chance of surviving in this era of change.

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Very few people took the president’s comments seriously, but a group of conservative political women were determined to take the opportunity a make headlines.  These politicians joined to take out of context the president’s words.  Most of people do agree, the president should be more careful with his speech, but let’s leave that aside and take a closer look to this situation of some aged women making a lot of noise because of some kind of sexist insult.

This kind of movement against sexism is the first one of this kind in recent history in the mind of many.  It was in 1997 that president Bucaram was taken out of office, therefore the vice president was in the position to take office.  At the time Rosalia Arteaga was vice president, but she served as president only two days since the congress took Arteaga out to put the congress president at the time, Fabian Alarcon.  Many considered this as blatant sexist act, but no movement or group made any major effort to protest. The same group that is complaining today, were also active back in 1997, but did not do anything.  In addition, president Correa has enlarged women participation in politics, but not just in number, but also in power level.  Ecuador is one of the most sex even democracies at the government level.