Anatomy of a Problem, Part 1

Anatomy of a Problem, Part 1 6.046, Design and Analysis of Algorithms, is one of the most challenging classes I’ve ever taken. It’s a natural followup to MIT’s Introduction to Algorithms class, and dives into the heart of designing and understanding often complicated solutions to important computational problems, especially in the context of limited resources. Limited memory, limited processing power, limited running time, limited accuracy. As a simple example, which well come back to in a followup piece, suppose I gave you a list of numbers in some random order (say 3, 19, 2, 17, 14, 4) and I wanted you to sort it (so you would return 2, 3, 4, 14, 17,19), your ability to do this would depend on being able to directly compare 2 numbers and say things like “2 is smaller than 3” or “2 is smaller than 4”. What if your 2-number comparator was broken? What if you were saddled with a mental comparator that says “X is smaller than Y” and is accurate only 80% of the time? 6.046 is the kind of class that teaches you how to use this broken comparator and quickly produce a correctly sorted list 99.9999% of the time. A lot of the material covered in 6.046 is dense, very fast-paced, and often inter-connected. At first, I was a bit worried about how I’d fare in the class, but after the first two problem sets (p-sets), I realized I actually quite enjoyed spending time on the problems. This mix of curiosity and determination often collided with pain, resulting in weeks where I’d spend up to twenty hours working on every last detail of every problem. I ended up averaging 100% on the p-sets and acing the class. Most of the problems we explored involved applications of nontrivial algorithms introduced in class, resulting in p-set pages that often looked like this: However, some of them, usually the problems that were stepping stones for more involved problems, could be figured out with a bit of thought and intuition, somewhat independently of the concepts formalized in lectures. In this post, we’ll explore one of them. ** This particular problem was largely out of my mind and was brought into focus again by the recent presidential election in the United States. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both campaigned to become president. Hillary won the popular vote, earning roughly 2.8 million more votes than Trump, but he won the majority of the electoral votes, securing him the presidency.   Dialogue in the media developed over implications of winning the majority of individual votesby a sizable margin at thatand still losing the election. Structurally, it boiled down to an established political system, in which the final say is only tangentially influenced by the majority votes. I don’t intend to delve into my specific and pretty strong feelings about the recent elections but to set up an interesting point: structures of particular design, which seem poised to have decisions tangentially or directly decided by the majority, may produce non-intuitive results. To illustrate this, imagine that you are the CEO of a prominent ice-cream company and you’re trying to figure out if you should roll out an innovative new flavormaybe the Pineapple-Pizza on Vanilla ice-cream flavor. You decide to give out samples to as many test subjects as you can and use their opinions to make a final decisionYes or Noon whether to initiate your nationwide rollout. But you pride your company on its innovativeness, so instead of just having one person sample many test subjects and decide based on whether the majority of subjects like or dislike the flavor, you decide to divide test subjects into groups of 3, and have the “result” of each group reported to a manager. For any given group of 3, the group result will be “yes” if a majority of the 3 (so 2 or more) says “yes” and “no” if a majority of the group says no. Now, these managers are split into groups of 3, and the majority result of each manager group gets communicated to higher-level managers, who are again split into groups of 3, and so on, and so on, until the final result is communicated to you, the CEO. For instance, suppose you have 9 test subjects, whose responses are: Yes, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, No, Yes, Yes, No. Then the diagram below shows how the result travels up the chain of command to you. Each group of 3 test subjects “report” their majority vote to the manager (coded pink) above them, and each group of 3 managers reports their majority result to the CEO (coded blue). As you can see from the diagram, “Yes” is the majority for every group of test subjects; hence “Yes” is the result reported to the CEO, implying a rollout of the innovative flavor. Here’s another diagram (you may need to zoom in), this time with 27 test subjects, who report to 9 managers, who in turn report to 3 managers, who in turn report to the CEO. This time however, “No” gets reported to the CEO and the flavor is not rolled out. Can you see why?Notice that the first figure has 3 levels, whereas the second figure has 4 (horizontal) levels. We will call the topmost (CEO) level, level 0, the next level, level 1, and so on. In this way, level L contains 3L people. Now, here comes the interesting part. Suppose we had 9 test subjects, like in the first picture. How many of these subjects hold influence over what gets reported to the CEO? Naturally, if all 9 of them say “Yes”, then the CEO will get a “Yes” result. What if only 8 of them say “Yes”? The CEO will still get a “Yes” result. How low can we go? What if only 4 of them say yes? That means 5 of them say no, and since we have more “No” answers than “Yes” answers, the CEO should get a “No” result, right? Wrong! It turns out if only 4 out of 9 say “Yes”, the CEO can still potentially get a “Yes” result! Think of how this might happen for a moment, and then look at the diagram below. The level 1 managers have a “Yes” majority, even though the test subjects have a “No” majority, and therefore the CEO gets a “Yes” result. It’s even more delicate than that. Observe that in the figure below, out of our 9 test subjects, we can pick 4 of them such that we can still ignore the answers of the remaining 5 subjects, whether those answers are “Yes” or “No”, and still know that the CEO will get a “Yes” result. It doesn’t matter what the 5 test subjects whose responses have been crossed out say. As long as the remaining 4 agree on a single decision, this informs the decision the CEO gets. You might say 4 out of 9 is almost 50%, so that makes some kind of sense. It turns out we can’t do the same thing with 3that is, we can’t pick 3 out of 9 test subjects (33%) whose agreement on a decision will ensure the CEOi.e. youadopts that decision as well. You might therefore suspect that given a set of test subjects, there is a minimum percentage of them that you can pick such that if they all agree on a decision, this is the same decision the CEO adopts. Below this percentage, you might say, there is no such guarantee. It turns out this blatantly false. There is no such minimum percentage. In particular,   although 4 out of 9 subjects can override the answers of the others, and 3 out of 9 can’t, this disparity widens the larger the number of test subjects. As an example, suppose you had about 14.3 million test subjects (to be precise 14,348,907 test subjects). How many of them do you think you can pick such that if the picked say “Yes”, then we know that the CEO is guaranteed to say “Yes”? 7 million? 5 million? It turns out you only need to pick slightly over 32,000 test subjects. Put differently, in a pool of 14 million test subjects, ~32,000 of them (or about 0.22% of them) are enough to force the CEO to agree with their decision, regardless of what the remaining 14,000,000+ say. To plug in the precise numbers, given a pool of 14,348,907 test subjects, I can pick 32,768 of them such that if they say “Yes”, and the remaining 14,316,139 of them say “No”, the CEO will end up saying “Yes”, which sounds a little insane. It turns out this is not as surprising as it initially seems, with just a bit of thought. The general rule here is that if we have 3K test subjects, then we can pick 2K of them whose consensus decision overrides the decisions of the remaining test subjects. Now, when K = 15, you’ll see that 215 = 32,768 while 315 = 14,348,907. We were tasked with proving this general rule for a small portion of the problem set (and shortly had to develop a randomized algorithm that utilized this rule). ** Let K = 1. Then our rule just says that given 31 = 3 test subjects, I can pick 21 = 2 of them such that whatever they decide is what the CEO ends up deciding (and in this case, this is actually a majority decision). Now, when K=2, we have 22 = 4 out of 32 = 9 test subjects having this kind of influence. As the value of K increases (to 15, 1000, 2000…) the percentage of “influential” test subjects gets arbitrarily smaller, but this percentage still obeys our rule. Let’s see why. Suppose we have 3K test subjects. Then there would be K+1 levels in our diagram (level 0 for the CEO, level 1 for the 3 topmost managers, level 2 for the 9 subsequent managers, and so on, until we get to level K for our test subjects). Next, consider some level J, where J is any whole number between 1 and K+1. There will be 3J people at this level, some of whose decisions influence the decisions of some of the 3J-1 people at the upper level (for example, the decisions of the first 3 people in level J will influence the decision of the first person in level J-1). More formally, we can pick 2J people at level J whose “Yes” or “No” values determine the “Yes” or “No” values of some 2J-1 people at level J-1. The reasoning for this is a little tricky, but here goes: consider the 3J-1 people at level J-1. Since each of them will either have a “Yes” or a “No” value, a majority of them will have the same valuethat is, at least (3J-1 + 1)/2 will have the same value, and because (3J-1 + 1)/2 is greater than 2J-1, then at least 2J-1 people on level J-1 will have the same “shared value”. The “shared value” for each of these 2J-1 people, E, must have been determined by a majority of the 3 people on level J directly below Ethat is, must have been determined by at least 2 people on level J. This implies that, on level J, there are 2 * 2J-1 = 2J people who determine the shared value for 2J-1 people on level J-1. If we understand that 2J people on level J determine a shared value for 2J-1 people on level J-1, we can build a “chain of dependency”2J-1 people on level J-1 determine a shared value for 2J-2 people on level J-2, who in turn determine a shared value for 2J-3 on level J-3,, and so on, until we get to the end of our chain: 21 people on level 1 determine a shared value for 20 = 1 person on level 0 (the CEO). Therefore, 2J people on level J, for any J 0, determine the CEO’s value. Hence, when you have 3K test subjects on level K, 2K of them will determine the CEO’s decision, and when K = 15, this amounts to a particular group of 32,000 people overriding the values of 14,000,000 people. More visually, when K = 3, this amounts to 8 out of 27 people influencing the final decision, as shown in the diagram below (you may need to zoom in). Observe that regardless of what the remaining 19 crossed out test subjects say, 8 test subjects have already determined what value the CEO gets. This is a not-immediately-intuitive result of a seemingly intuitive “majority-aggregation” structure, and if you’re so inclined, I’m sure you can mine some amount of social commentary from an experiment like this. In a subsequent blogpost, I’ll be discussing a somewhat related concept that arose in 6.046, albeit one that’s slightly more involved. Until then, folks. Post Tagged #6.046

President Clinton Vs. The 104th And 105th Congress

President Clinton vs. the 104th and 105th Congress President William â€Å"Bill† Clinton was the United States 42nd president. Bill Clinton was born in Arkansas on August 19th 1946. In 1976 he was elected to become the Attorney General of Arkansas. Two years later he became governor, becoming the youngest governor. Clinton ran for president in 1992 with running mate Al Gore. His presidency ran from 1993 to 2001. During his presidency the 104th (’95-’97) and the 105th (’97- ’95) Congress was established and the Republicans took over the House with 228 seats in the 104th and 226 seats in the 105th. The Democrats had 206 seats in the house in the 104th and the 105th had 207 seats. The Senate was no different, The Republicans had 52 seats†¦show more content†¦His term as Speaker of the House seemed as the opposite of President Clinton. When he was speaker there were many government and budget shutdowns, and also unpleasant impeachment proceedings. Yet Gingrich and Clinton have agreed on welfa re reform, tax cuts and budgeting deals. Overrides and Vetoes Over the course of Clinton’s presidency there have been 37 bills that have been vetoed, although 36 were regular vetoes, one pocket veto, and two vetoes that were overridden. The two bills that were overridden are the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995 and the Line Item Veto. The Bankruptcy Act of 2000 was one of the laws that was a pocket veto. The sponsor of this act was Representative Christopher H. Smith. The bill as asserted by the president because it was not fair towards ordinary debtors who fell on hard times. Yet this represents a loophole for the wealthy. Under the Homestead Exemption, bankruptcy filers can protect some of their equity in their homes under chapter seven bankruptcy. This also implies to chapter 13 bankruptcy as well. You can be relieved of all or most of your equity, this would decrease the minimum amount you must pay to your creditors. In the meantime this will be easier to repay your debts. The Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995 but later overridden as the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, was designed to stop or to limit non-serious securities

Media Influences on Adolescent Social Norms and Identity ...

Adolescence is a time where an individual’s sense of identity starts to emerge and a majority of their social norms are perceived. In this day and age, adolescents live in a world heavily submerged around media, which plays an important and habitual part of an adolescents life. In a national survey conducted in 2009, adolescents on average spend more than 7.5 hours using some sort of media a day (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, 2010). With this unprecedented access to the world, individuals are learning and connecting with many different people and ideas through the media (Brown Bobkowsi, 2011). With different forms of media playing an influential part in an adolescents’ life, their perceived social norms may be seriously influenced.†¦show more content†¦Research has greatly indicated and proven that media exposure has an impact on the normative perceptions of substance use and relationship behaviors among adolescents. Studies have shown that media content and patte rns of usage are considerably related to adolescent perception of gender roles, romantic relationships, and sexual behavior. Repeated contact or subjection to sexualize subject matter on television or different forms of media has been related to individuals perceived normative gender roles (Herrett- Skjellum Allen, 1996). Negative and socially impaired beliefs about relationships, for example such as ‘‘fate brings soul-mates together, disagreement is destructive to a relationship, partners should be able to sense each other’s thoughts and feelings’’ (Holmes, 2007). Also with persistent disclosure to sexually explicit content related with more positive attitudes or norms toward â€Å"uncommitted sexual exploration† as well (Brown and Bobkowski, 2011). Social media gives the impression that alcohol usage is normative among young individuals. Adolescents may develop a perceived social norm of alcohol use among peers of varying ages because ages of individuals on social networking sites vary greatly. In an experiment conducted by Dana M. Litt and Michelle L. Stock, they examined the roles and impact of social networking sites perceived social norms of alcohol usage of adolescents. Their results showShow MoreRelatedSocialisation, Personal Identity, Gender Identity And Gender Roles1313 Words   |  6 PagesSocialisation, Personal identity, Gender Identity and Gender Roles: Boundless.com defines ‘Socialisation’ as â€Å"a term used to refer to the lifelong process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies providing the individual with the skills and habits necessary for precipitating within one’s society, thus the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained† (Boundless.com, 2015). 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Mother-Daughter Relationship According to Bynum Kotchick (2006), scholarsRead MoreMedia s Influence On Our Attitudes And Behavior Essay1313 Words   |  6 PagesIn our society, the mass media have enormous influence on our attitudes and behavior, and what we see shapes our views and our living. In the 21st century, children are digital consumers, who using TV, computers, gaming systems, as well as smartphones and tablets. Once the baby enters the world he or she is surrounded by media devices. The average American child, age 2-17, watches 25 hours of TV per week, plays 1 hr per day of video or computer games, and spends an additional 36 min per day on theRead MoreMean Girls, By The Queen Bee s And Wannabees Essay1108 Words   |  5 PagesThe period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. 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Abstract: Research has shown that exposure to thin-ideal media is related to body dissatisfaction. Consequently, the accumulated dissatisfying emotions regarding one’s body can evolve into distorted body perception. Such disturbed body image has been evident as associated with low self-esteem. Nonetheless, little research has sought to elucidate the rationales for these perplexedRead MoreTeen Pregnancy : Education Is A Virtue851 Words   |  4 Pagescultural norm where women as young as twelve are married off to men to conceive their children. Back then, it was acceptable for young women to bare a child once first menarche and have as many children as her body could bare. In today’s society, teen pregnancy is looked down upon, yet sexual appealing imagery is solicited throughout social media, television networks, magazines, and music. So how is it that teen moms are subject to ridicule and mockery when they are ill educated, media influenced

Journalism Essahe Free Essays

string(140) " it is moving news media is finding it difficult to conform to traditional news values and keep the quality of news among the most popular\." Critically evaluate the extent to which the key economic/technological challenges facing political journalism in the UK democracy are undermining the ability of the quality news media to play the role demanded of them within competitive and participatory democracies (as defined by Stromback). The quality of the Uk’s new’s media is often scrutinised and mocked for their unashamed bias political opinions, going back to the fundamentals of journalism and the diversion of right and left wing politics, it was inevitable that quality news would disintegrate into a playing field for them to dig the opposition. However, the cause of this could be down to economical and technological challenges facing the news media today, along with the decrease in political interest came the rise in commercialisation. We will write a custom essay sample on Journalism Essahe or any similar topic only for you Order Now Competitive and participatory democracies include a range of requirements from journalists to act a certain role in society. As described in The Future of Journalism in Advanced Democracies â€Å"a competitive democracy requires of journalism the following: it should act as a watchdog or burglar alarm† giving the public the honest and truths within politics for them then to make and adequate decision based on sufficient information. A participatory democracy â€Å"requires that journalism should mobilise the citizen’s interest and participation in public life† it also states that journalism should â€Å"focus on the solving of problems and not just the problems themselves. (Anderson Ward, 2006: 47) There are a range of economical factors, which have affected the quality of news and the role in which they are depicted to play in competitive and participatory democracies, as defined by Stromback, therefore, these have effected the roles in which journalists play in society. Increased Leisure has become a challenging factor in competing with other entertainment provisions; the various o pportunities such as Sunday shopping have proven a negative impact on Sunday newspapers. Sunday has always been a day of rest, therefore before technology had evolved people would spend this time reading newspapers and conforming an opinion based on the quality news provided, â€Å"if we are to understand what media communications people are actually exposed to and what message content they actually receive, it makes sense to ask how people come to pay attention to a particular medium; in short, why are people moved to watch, listen to, or read a particular program or story? † (Alger, 1995: 33) ince this as drastically changed it has resulted in the commodification of news media and undermining the quality of news by selecting stories and information which attract the public’s interest and not necessarily stories of important and prominence. â€Å"Journalism has always entertained and as well as informed. Had it not done so, it would not have reached a mass audience. But today, say journalism’s critics, the instinct amuse is driving out the will, an d depleting the resource, to report and analyse in depth. (Hagreaves, 2003: 104) In addition to this, social fragmentation has multiplied and caused a decline in cohesion; at one time it was clear that there was only a limited number of views, which brought together a large number of people who had the same ideologies and preference. Now, due the increased number of major media corporation and accessibility to over-seas news there has been a massive break down in social groups. This gives the market only to options, to either supply to a niche market, targeting a particular social clad which would cause a massive loss in profit and interest for the media corporation or, to continue to target the mass market and conform to commercialization and sensationalism to attract the reader. Large corporations need the funds to run the ‘business’ and without this would simply mean a decline and eventually a complete collapse and therefore they have to rely on either readers or sponsor each wanting a certain type on context. Further economical challenges facing journalism today include that increased wealth has led to the ‘culture of contentment’ theory written by Galbraith. This has resulted in the lower-class, those with fewer beneficiaries has caused a lack of interest in news media, this is due to the under class choosing to almost ignore the current political situation as it does not affect them for any good reason. â€Å"Many of the national papers are overtly and emphatically partisan. The ownership and editorial orientation are overwhelmingly toward the Conservative party and ideology, and the trend toward ownership concentration over the past couple of decades has intensified the press skew towards the Conservative party. † (Alger, 1995: 408) This shows that the upper classes fail to think about the future consequences of political decisions, as all of the UK’s news corporation are privately owned it means that the ball is in their court, however, due to the decisions being made and the lack of public interest displayed in the news media today it has unintentionally ‘shot itself in the foot. This has then led to a reduction in political interest, due to the â€Å"compression of the gap between right-wind and left-wing politics† (Anderson Ward, 2007: 27) this occurred as a result of commercialization, as news media started to concentrate on market values rather than the role they where traditional made for it became apparent that editors where increasing the number of stories which aligned with their political stance and more so, they would glamourize this by omission of important information. It system became blurred and peoples views on politics had changed, the traditional bonds and conformations had broken down. The under class would consider the future benefits of their decisions, they would condone things which in the long run would serve them greatly however the upper class ignored the future consequences of their decisions and this led to a collapse in political conforms. Today is the perfect visual representation of the extent to which this has occurred; the current coalition government is a product of the news media and the lack of adequate and sufficient information. Other change that evolve and continually challenge political journalism are technological and at the fast pace it is moving news media is finding it difficult to conform to traditional news values and keep the quality of news among the most popular. You read "Journalism Essahe" in category "Essay examples" The development in multi-channel television has created fragmented viewing habits for the audience; this has led to a decline in some of the highest forms of quality news such as, The 10 O’clock News. This has led to conglomeration and concentration of ownership, which creates a dominated market of privately owned corporations. Although this plays an essential part in reducing costs and pressures of news media it often conforms to market driven attitudes that are in complete opposition to the roles depicted by competitive and participatory democracies. â€Å"Murdoch’s orientation towards his newspaper â€Å"properties† is a centerpiece of the current trend. As he has said: â€Å"All newspapers run to make profits†¦. I don’t run anything for respectability†. Therefore, today’s quality newspapers â€Å"have descended to the slimy and sensational- a process that might better be called Murdochization. † (Alger, 1995: 408) This also led to the declining diversity in news provisions, as competition increased it was soon wiped-out by the conformation of large corporate companies which where then driven away from their traditional role to act as a watchdog and instead, more often than not, conform around commodification such as Murdoch’s. The most nfluential and fast-paced form of technology affecting the quality of news media has to be, the birth of the Internet; this offers unlimited access to news providers all over the world and outside of the journalism profession. â€Å" ‘What the hell were we all smoking that weekend? Is the question now asked at Time Warner, according to Rupert Murdoch, reflecting upon the decision by Time Warner to sell itself into a mer ger with American Online at the very peak of dotcom valuations, with the result that it inflicted huge, medium term misery on it’s own shareholders. (Hargreaves, 2003: 237) The Internet was curated by news media and only to be the destroyer, since the birth of the Internet the quality of news in traditional newspapers and television has plummeted only to become the start of another line of challenges facing journalist’s everyday. The internet expanded the news media market excessively creating a mass amount of jobs, â€Å"there were so many jobs, it became difficult to recruit people into journalism training courses† (Hargreaves, 2003: 236) Newspapers where now battling not only with their paper based competition, but a whole new level of news media. As the online market grew at a phenomenal rate its affects on newspapers included trivialisation and commercialisation, as they had to compete for the readers. Newspapers where in decline â€Å"fewer people are reading these newspapers and circulations continue their steady decline from the peak year of 1989 reflecting, at least in part, the expansion of local radio, the spiraling costs of newsprint and growing access to the internet. (Allan, 2005: 140) Journalists ethics where thrown out the window and instead superiority was given to market values, again this moves away from the traditions of the news role in UK democracies. However, without the internet, news media would have never reached the mass audience it has. It became possible to communicate all over the world which led to word news, â€Å"the global nature of the new communications network means that individuals can consume journalism all over the world. This allows journalists to, in one sense increase their skills to a ct as the watchdog role over society, â€Å"journalism today is a two-way street or rather a multidirectional process of boundaryless space† which gives them the ability to give us information which has prominence to us. Although this has created massive opportunities in some respect, it will always revolve around profit hungry organisations, one would not exist without the other. With the increase in technology an increase in a journalist skill also applies, the newsroom requires a multi-skilled journalist to be able to source and construct relevant stories. However, due to the decreasing news media market journalism has been led to ‘downsizing’ therefore, journalists are now required to do more, with this comes a failure in the idea of democratic media, omission being one of the key factors undermining todays news media quality. As journalists become pressured it is apparent that a lack of important information can be an accidental mistake, â€Å"Evidently more journalists than ever are feeling alarmed about their professions credibility problems with the public, due in part to their perception that standards of accuracy are in decline. (Allan, 2005: 6) With an endless amount of content, this is inevitably going to apply to news media if they continue to make cuts; this in itself proves the undermining role of quality news in todays democracies, they are willing to sacrifice the important information and acting as a watchdog role, over making cuts to increase on profits. As the internet continues to build a news media empi re, newspapers are inclined to follow suit and this is where the lack of journalist ethics appears. Editors, pressured by intense competition for readers, demand that staff cut ethical corners; and competition among staff encourages some to respond† (Hargreaves, 2003: 221) with the pressures to downsize journalists are forced to reconcile their role in society and conform to the multi-news corporations and their needs for increased profits. This has also resulted in a decline in independent journalist sources, newspaper are now relying on PR material to build a sustainable story, however, this causes the quality of news to disappear completely, they are building a headline to attract the viewer and then using bogus, second-hand information and sources to build the context. â€Å"The majority believes that the news media pay too little attention to complex stories. † (Allan, 2005: 7) This is a result off multi-corporate news organisations who often ignore the role in which journalism should play in the UK’s democracies defined by Stromback. Journalists in a commercial setting are primarily working for their shareholders’ profits† (Hargreaves, 2003: 178) as a result the quality of news has decreased and it merely concentrates on entertainment news. To conclude, quality news has decreased as a result of technological and economical challenges. The extent to this bares down to the journalist and t heir ethics, most of which have conformed to different ideologies by large news corporations. The role in which Stromback demands of the UK’s political journalism is highly unachieved in today’s society; this is due to the increased pressures from large competition in the global news media market today. â€Å"Underlying this global expansion are specific economic factors, First, media products have relatively low reproduction costs. Second, they can be resold without requiring any additional outlay by producers, and hence once production costs are covered, they generate pure profits for their owners. (Curran Gurevitch, 2005: 94) It has become an unavoidable need to concentrate on the market values due to the high number of privately owned news corporations, as a result of this journalist ethics and intentions within a democracy, outlined by Stromback are completely ignored. The news media is now in a situation where it coexists with market values, it is unavoidable and an inevitable fact that this has resulted in the commercialisation and sensationalism of qua lity news. British local press is characterized by a sustained decline in the number of published titles, publisher’s readers and circulations although, paradoxically, this decline coexists with robust and expansive advertising revenues and profits. † (Allan, 2005: 141) it is now unavoidable and can not be undone, without multi-channel television or the birth of the internet would not have come this global force which allows the public to explore willingly, the news media, whether it is written professionally or not. Word Count- 2265 How to cite Journalism Essahe, Essay examples

Quinton Richards Essays (1046 words) - Narratology, Rhetoric

Quinton Richards Professor Towe English 101 22 October 2017 Analysis Essay : " A Letter From Birmingham Jail " "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. was written on scraps of paper that he was allowed while serving time in Birmingham Jail after demonstrations. An article posted by the clergymen of this time sparked his interest and his entrapment in the cell allowed him time to respond to this group of white leaders in Alabama. King's letter addresses specific points presented in the Clergymen's and this direct response distinguishes King's strong points through his powerful writings. Many unethical mentions came to the attention of the Minister and because of this he expressed his differing views and defended his ideals and actions through Aristotle's three rhetorical devices, ethos, logos, pathos. First and foremost, King establishes his credibility to spark off his strong defense. Introducing himself as "The President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. [with] eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights" ("Letter from Birmingham Jail" 1 ). This credential not only puts King into a position of power but also proves that he has seen enough of the south and the problems within it to create a strong argument against his opposition. Another point that establishes this is on Page Seven of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" where King states that he's traveled through the "length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi, and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer da ys and crisp autumn mornings" ( "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" 9 ). This quote defends his credibility further because not only did King travel once through these states but multiple times in different seasons, and even deeper- in different trials that may have been presented. Moreover, throughout the letter, King references the Bible, presidents, and writers to establish not only his educated mind, but also his passion for righteousness and his stance as a minister. The flawless flow of his passionate response to the Clergymen also presents support for his intellect and knowledge due to keeping a reasonable head and developed grammar while writing in the margins of the Clergymen's letter while inhabiting a jail cell. Many of the rhetoric used that convinced King's credibility demonstrated the logic in his counterargument also. In a simple paragraph, he effectively proves his point that extremism for a proper cause isn't something to discredit and should not be looked upon as a negative thing, "Was not Jesus an extremist for LoveWas not Amos and Extremist of justice was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel and Abraham Lincolnand Thomas JeffersonThe Question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be" (" A Letter from Birmingham Jail" 7-8 ). After thoroughly tying in many influential figures in history, King then goes on to question the argument of the Clergymen stating that the demonstrations are at fault in Birmingham and not the social situation already simmering. "Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in whichnot a single Negro is registered" ("Letter from Birmingham Jail" 4) This direct attack on the truth of Alabama in this time brings a harsher light to what happens and what is overlooked to many. King then continues to state that it was hi s "parading without a permit" ("Letter from Birmingham Jail" 5 ), that landed him in the jail and while it is completely fine to have such an "ordinanceit becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest" ("Letter from Birmingham Jail" 5) . This direct reference to the constitution of the United States and just and unjust laws and ordinances proves a strong point for King's Rebuttal, which helps to defend the equal rights movement even further. Throughout the passage, after King addresses his credentials and furthers I through his knowledgeable and strong rebuttals of logic, his argument plays further into the conscious of his audience through

Trinity University Admissions and Acceptance Rate

Trinity University Admissions and Acceptance Rate Founded in 1869, Trinity University is a small, private university with historic ties to the Presbyterian Church. The university occupies a 117-acre campus of red brick buildings overlooking San Antonio, Texas. Nearby colleges include University of the Incarnate Word  and St. Marys University. Students come from 45 states and 64 countries, and the college has an impressive 9 to 1 student / faculty ratio. Trinitys business programs are the most popular among the schools 47 majors, but the universitys strengths in the liberal arts and sciences earned the school a chapter of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. The university is largely residential with over three-quarters of students living on campus. In athletics, the Trinity Tigers compete in the NCAA Division III Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). Will you get in? Calculate your chances of getting in with this free tool from Cappex. Admissions Data (2016) Trinity University Acceptance Rate: 41  percentGPA, SAT and ACT graph for TrinityTest Scores: 25th / 75th PercentileSAT Critical Reading: 580 / 690SAT Math: 580 / 680What these SAT numbers meanTop Texas colleges SAT comparisonACT Composite: 27 / 31ACT English: 26  / 33ACT Math: 26 / 30What these ACT numbers meanTop Texas colleges ACT comparison Enrollment (2016) Total Enrollment: 2,466  (2,298 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 47% Male / 53% Female98% Full-time Costs (2016-17) Tuition and Fees: $39,560Books: $1,000 (why so much?)Room and Board: $12,754Other Expenses: $1,400Total Cost: $54,714 Trinity University Financial Aid (2015 -16) Percentage of Students Receiving Aid: 98 percentPercentage of Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 96 percentLoans: 40  percentAverage Amount of AidGrants: $24,049Loans: $9,197 Academic Programs Most Popular Majors:  Accounting, Communication Studies, Economics, Engineering, English, Finance, History, Marketing, Political ScienceWhat major is right for you?  Sign up to take the free My Careers and Majors Quiz at Cappex. Graduation and Retention Rates First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 89  percent4-Year Graduation Rate: 68 percent6-Year Graduation Rate: 77  percent Intercollegiate Athletic Programs Mens Sports:  Football, Track and Field, Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, Cross Country, Swimming, TennisWomens Sports:  Swimming, Soccer, Cross Country, Track and Field, Volleyball, Tennis If You Like Trinity University, You May Also Like These Schools: Rice University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphBaylor University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphTexas Christian University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphTexas State University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphSt Marys University: Profile  University of Houston: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphTexas Tech University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphUniversity of Dallas: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphDuke University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphVanderbilt University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT GraphStanford University: Profile | GPA-SAT-ACT Graph Trinity University Mission Statement: see the complete mission statement at  trinity.edu/departments/academic_affairs/hb/histstr/mission.htm Trinity University is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research, and service. Trinity seeks to provide broad and intensive educational opportunities primarily to undergraduates in liberal arts and sciences, and in selected professional and pre-professional fields. It also offers a small number of selected high quality graduate programs. Data Source: National Center for Educational Statistics

Free Essay on Eugenics

Free Essay on Eugenics Free Essay on Eugenics Eugenics focused on the idea that the heredity was everything. How relevant is such a perspective in relation to criminality today? This paper focuses on aspects of eugenics as an element that has for a long time in history been considered as paramount in controlling human reproduction. The paper addressed the various eugenic practice in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as well as in the contemporary world, particularly in the western hemisphere. The main reasons why certain human racial groups embrace the use of this practice are also addressed. The relevance of eugenics to the various societies used, in relation to criminality today, are widely discussed in this paper. Eugenics is a scheme that is widely used to enhance an improved human race through a controlled reproduction. This is a practice that became common, reaching much popularity between the late 19th century and the Second World War (Glass 1999, p. 89). A good example of the wide use of eugenic principles was when the German Nazis carried massive sterilization and genocide. Other eugenics forms have been practiced across the universe and are effective in contemporary China, where the population is strictly limited. Major advancements research in medicine such as the human genome project, the society, is still striving to resolve various issues of ethics emerging from eugenic theories (Glass 1999, p. 89). Eugenics is the practice and theory that has been used to improve the generic quality of the human population; it is a social philosophy which advocates genetic traits of humanity, by promoting higher reproduction of individuals with certain desired traits and reducing people of less desired traits (Weikart 2006, p. 57). Positive eugenics encourage higher reproduction of individuals while negative eugenics is viewed as an undermining factor to humanity, because individuals perceived to belong to such category face the risk of being killed as a way of elimination. In the 20th century, ideologies resulting from negative Eugenics led to mass genocide of the Jews during the Hitler’s regime. Elimination of individuals in regard to traits of race and ethnicity has commonly been used in mass murder of certain populations in Europe and North America (Weikart 2006, p. 57). For instance, the genocide of the native Indians in the North American regions is a good example of racial profili ng emerging from eugenic ideologies. Eugenics considered the heredity as everything and many individuals did not want certain traits to be passed to the succeeding generation. Certain traits were considered inferior by some groups and faced the risk of being eliminated. In the early 20th century, social Darwinist viewed medical care as relatively weak and an increased ability to survive, contrary to letting nature take its due course of effective elimination of people (Weikart 2006, p. 57). In Germany, fear was growing among certain individuals that the intervention of medics and welfare policies enabled weak and relatively improvised citizens to sap and survive the nation’s resources. Such ideologies emerging from particular sub-racial groups in Germany expressed how eugenics were considered as everything. Most groups who supported such ideologies felt that the weaker racial or ethnic groups, did not have any right to use the country’s resources (Weikart 2006, p. 57). From one region to another, the mode of reaching the conclusion that a group was inferior highly varied. Support for eugenics in the early 20th century was common across various regions of the world, especially in North America and Europe. There were movements across diverse regions in support of eugenics, openly supporting more birth rates of the fittest individuals and less for the unfit (Ferguson, 2012, p. 83). People who supported the weak or unfit population groups in the society were highly criticized and the term â€Å"racial hygiene† was introduced to encourage aspects of eugenics. For instance, a movement leader in the United States, Margaret Sanger declared more children from the fit and less for the unfit as the key issue of controlled birth rate (Ferguson, 2012, p. 83). This concept by Sanger was readily accepted by communities across the US during the first decade of the 20th century. By 1912, a total of 34 states in the US had already passed laws that rightly denied insane people the right of marriage. Nine states denied epileptic people the right of marriage while 15 states banned the mentally challenged people from marrying each other. Criminal justice of this period continued to be greatly motivated by both economic and social considerations in their arguments that, various feeble minded citizens would not be allowed to pass their undesirable traits to the generation that followed (KüHl 2002, p. 49). Eugenic ideologies became more common throughout the period before the Second World War. Western Europe was characterized by similar eugenic ideologies with criminal justices of various European countries completely in support of such eugenic reasoning. The criminal justice systems of various countries during this time, supported groups thought to be fit by the authorities (Turda Weindling 2006, 107). The unfit groups were not protected by the judges and did not have the rights of marriage in most cases. The proponents of eugenics commonly played a major role in nationalistic fears of diluted stock of race. In Europe, issues of race were used in eugenic profiling barring various sub racial groups in the region from multiplying. The US mainly held eugenic ideologies in regard to common disabilities such as mental and physical challenges. Prior to the Second World War, leading physicians and biologists welcomed an idea by Hitler, one race at the epitome of the new state of Germany (Marrus 1989, p. 90). This resulted into concentration camps as well as genetic research on human beings that defined the Holocaust. The contemporary eugenic ideologies The early 20th century foresaw hundred thousand of Americans who were considered unfit, forcibly being sterilized for what was dubbed as a process of improving the human race. The Criminal Justice in one of its darkest historical chapters sanctioned the process declaring that three generations of unfit Americans were enough. It was not surprising for many Americans during this time to deem the communities they considered unfit or weak, as nothing of the kind. Such communities lived as the most vulnerable group in the region. This is one of the darkest chapters of the United States, which was prevalently characterized by major offensive of the community as well as the Criminal Justice (Thomson 1998, p. 102). The west coast state of California had higher cases of eugenic laws showing higher levels of racial profiling in the America’s History. In the last few decades, eugenic ideologies are still common among individuals and criminal justice of the US, though at a mild rate. According to revelations by a new report compiled by the Centre of Investigative reporting, it was found that between 2006 and 2010 elements of eugenics took place in a health care Centre, in California (Bauman 2013, p. 44). In this report, doctors working under contract at the Californian Correction and Rehabilitation department were alleged to have sterilized at least 150 female inmates without any approval from relevant authorities. In order to sterilize such people, it required approvals from the top medical official in the Sacramento, as required by the Californian state law. These are shocking revelations at a time when most people thought issues of eugenic did not matter anymore (Bauman 2013, p. 44). The revelation is a true testimony that, in the contemporary America, eugenics are still considered as highly important among certain individuals. Issues of controlled birth rates are highly popular in the western societies. Although issues of eugenic ideologies are not much rampant in the region, there are groups that are racially discriminated and face the risk of being sterilized contrary to their wish. Many health professionals in the western societies argue; the cost of being sterilized is relatively small as compared to the cost of rearing a larger number of children. Doctors in the United States are occasionally reported having been engaged in sterilizing procedures of prisoners, especially female inmates (Bauman 2013, p. 44). In most cases, these doctors inquire about the size of inmates’ families before performing sterilizing procedures. Most targeted prisoners were pressured to have various tubal ligations. Inmates with numerous children were sterilized as medics expressed their procedures was only meant to empower the prisoners to have manageable families. In the United States, individuals with many children find it difficult financing the upbringing of the large number of children. For inmates, having a large number of children is seen as a burden to the society, as children need somebody to take care of them (Hasian 1996, p. 68). Issues of eugenics ideologies on the inmate communities are commonly reported across different states of the US. Most of these medics do not seek approval of the state as it is taken as a noble act. More plausible explanations by various professional doctors who have been performing sterilizations, state sterilization as a procedure is commonly done to many people who volunteer to have themselves sterilized. These doctors feel taking the collective responsibility of ensuring that people have lesser, and easily manageable number of children would be ideal for quality life (Hasian 1996, p. 68). For such reasons, inmates with a big number of children should face similar procedures to ensure children are offered the best quality of life. The North American region, particularly the US, has for many years been characterized with forced sterilization. Cases of a continued eugenic genocide in the contemporary America are not a surprise to the majority of people living in the US and abroad. In the modern day society cases of eugenic ideologies, only lack the brutality the Nazis exercised in Germany, before the Second World War. Although today’s societies lack the brutal elements experienced in the early 20th century, there is a war against the weak, which is operated at milder conditions. Horrors of racial hygiene and cases of forced sterilization of inmates, the mentally ill and the poor, have been common in the state of California for decades. In other states, this practice was legal until in the 1970s (Mazumdar 1992, p. 81). Throughout the US, most states made this practice illegal and did not eliminate it. The view of children as a gift from God was no longer applicable in these scenarios. California was the first state in the US to prohibit the sterilization of individuals viewed as weak in the society. Similar to prisons in other parts of the US, the practice, was not eliminated and inmates perceived to be weak were sterilized. Various groups from different parts of the world have been protesting sterilizing of weak communities in today’s societies, all in vain (Hasian 1996, p. 68). This is because most practices taking place across different prisons in the US are not timely detected and most of the inmates falling victims do not disclose their ordeal. In the 21st century, social progressives view eugenics as an ideal tool for both social improvement and reform. Conservatives view eugenics as a tool that has for long been used to limit groups of lower income and reduce their caring cost. There are various ideologies overlapping these political agendas. For example, in the Great Britain and Scandinavian movements of eugenics, the aspect of race played a relatively minor role. This is simply because the majority of people living in this region belong to similar racial groups (Bauman 2013, p. 44). In the North American region, the Anglo Saxons were the majority group and viewed the other groups from either southern Europe or Africa with great suspicion and occasionally blamed them for various social problems like crime, poverty and prostitution. The world may have forgotten the famous steps of Hitler in his dream of creating a super race, but similar practices are still in the contemporary world societies. Cases of eugenic practices in the modern societies are relatively mild, unlike eugenic procedures in the early 20th century, which were commonly brutal (Hasian 1996, p. 68). In today’s society, eugenic practices are considered as important as they were in the past. The recent cases of sterilization of prisoners in the US are good examples of eugenics practices in modern societies. Eugenic of the modern day society are secretly evident unlike in the twentieth century, when social policies widely embraced elements of eugenics to groups that were considered as weak or unfit (Bauman 2013, p. 44). Although major cases of eugenic practice are commonly reported in the United States, most of these incidences happen on extremely discreet occasions. If you need a custom essay written from scratch by professional writers you can get professional writing help from .