The Relationships Between Politicians and Media Essay

The Relationships Between Politicians and Media - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that empirical research has long confirmed that for most people the mass media are the major sources of information about world events and about political affairs. However, despite television's growing importance as a source of information, regular readers of newspapers continue to attach a great deal of weight to the print medium. Non-readers show a greater dependence on television for political information. Both tables conceal significant variations in responses between readers of 'quality' and 'tabloid' newspapers: the former remain wedded to their preferred medium, using it much more extensively as a means of surveying the world in depth, whilst readers of tabloid newspapers rely more heavily on television and also tend to attach greater credibility to it as a source of news. These tables confirm the centrality of the media for the public. They are the means by which the public acquires information about the world and, more importantly, through which the public derives its knowledge and perceptions of current political and social problems and of the means to their resolution. Traditionally, the study of politics and its relationship to the mass media has focused on institutions and bona fide political actors. Governments, politicians, departments or voting patterns have usually been the political scientists' fodder. When married to an interest in the mass media, the result has been an over-concentration on institutions, structures, and the political à ©lite. à ©lite. While this remains of importance, this sort of approach overlooks the part the mass media play in generating public perceptions of political and social change as well as of policies and decision-making processes. The political significance of the political goes far beyond such questions as 'who controls the media?' and 'how do people get elected?'; even concerns over 'bias' and 'objectivity' are too narrow to take in the full significance of the political Politics and the political infuse all aspects of our lives, our attitudes, and our behaviour. And because the mass media are at the heart of the processes of communication through which 'problems' and their 'resolution' are framed and discussed, they deserve extensive analysis. 5 THE NATURE OF 'MEDIATED' KNOWLEDGE This broad approach to the political significance of the mass media is reflected in many contemporary writings. These emphasize the media's role in providing information-both images and texts-which forms the basi s of public perceptions and responses to events. The media provide, in Blumler's words, 'the informational building blocks to structure views of the world†¦ Table 1.3 Regular readers of: Telegraph, Times, Guardian or FT Express or Mail Mirror, Sun, or Star Main source of news % % % television 32 62 65 newspapers 57 28 24 radio 25 14 14 Table 1.4 Regular readers of: Telegraph, Times, Guardian or FT Express or Mail Mirror, Sun or Star Most believable source of news % % % television 30 59 66 newspapers 35 13 11 radio 20 16 13 from which may stem a range of actions'. 6 Although these 'informational building blocks' combine with a multiplicity of political and social factors to direct an individual's action, they determine the limits of our knowledge and of our perceptions of events and

Section 121 gain and losses Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Section 121 gain and losses - Research Paper Example The headquarters of the agency is in Washington DC. It is the role of the agency to ensure that it administers the laws related to revenue and asses and collect taxes. The agency has different sections guiding its operations. This paper in particular will explore at section 121. In its discussion, the paper will include the rules and exceptions which are involved in this paper. It will dig further to the presentation of real world examples of the section. (Yancey 2004) Section 121 offers the provision to every taxpayer filling the existing federal tax returns an entire exclusion on any kind of capital gains tax involved in selling their primary residence. The agency on an bi-annual basis provides $250,000 for persons filling single returns and also $500,000 for those married couples filing joint returns is given when the property in question represents their principal residence and when the taxpayer has been living in the home for a duration of at least two or five years. Capital Gai ns Tax The capital gain tax is imposed when one sells the primary residence at a price higher than the original purchase price. Section 121 excludes waives and eliminates the tax when the actual gain is not more than $250,000 and $500,000 for married couples and exclusion upon realization that the property has been used by the taxpayer as his/her principle residence for a duration of two or more years. This kind of exclusion is often available after every two years. EXCEPTIONS Gross income included shall exclude gains from the exchange of property or from sales if during a period of five years ending on the date of exchange or sale, and then such kind of a property has been used by the taxpayer and owned as his principal evidence for duration of 2 or more years. (Yancey 2004) Limitations 1. In General In general terms, the amount of the gains which is excluded from the gross income under section (a) subject to any sale or exchange of any kind of property in any sale shall not be mor e than $250,000. 2. Special Rules for Joint Ventures In the scenario when the couples making the joint return for the given taxable year of a sale or an exchange then- (A) $500,000 Limitations for certain Joint Returns. The first paragraph shall be adopted though the substitution of $500,000 for $250,000 if- i. Either one of the spouses satisfies the authorities requirements as adopted in subsections a with respect to that particular property. ii. When both the spouses satisfies the use requirements of the subsection (a) in conjunction to that property iii. When none of the spouses satisfies the requirements as lay in subsection (a) with respect to that particular property by a particular reason of the third paragraph. B. Other Joint Ventures. If the requirements of sub section A is not met by the spouses, then the limitations that exist in the first paragraph shall be the summation of the entire limitations under the first paragraph where each and every spouses shall be entitled of the spouses had in the pat been married. Therefore every spouse shall be regarded as owning the property during that time when either of the spouses owns the property. (Boortz & Linder 2005) 3. Application to Only a single Sale or an Exchange after every 2 years. A. General If there was no exchange sale by the taxpayer to whom subsection (a) applies during the two year period which ends on the day of the sale or exchange then the subsection shall not apply to any