Homework Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Schoolwork - Assignment Example Simultaneously, as far as the customers getting refreshed data, Andrew despite everything get near preferred position over Chris. 2. (a) The lower-tie information bundles expanded by $5 every month. Simultaneously, the higher-level information bundles expanded by $ 5. Be that as it may, the rate increment was not the equivalent for the two gatherings. For this situation, the expansion for the lower-tie was 33% while for the higher-level arrangement was 30%. b. For the AT&T tablets, the low-level arrangement will be so that for each extra 300 MB, the overage expense that will be charged will be $ 20. The customers will likewise, through the lower-level arrangement have the option to get an additional one hour for gushing video or extra 300 posts web based life. This is because of the additional megabytes. c. The AT&T is executing this move so as to balance the coming plans of Apple for propelling the iPad 3, which as per the investigators could draw numerous clients and rule the market. Subsequently, the activity is intended to grow its market base before Apple comes in to dominate. d. The explanation for the expansion is request. This is on the grounds that, we can see that the organization is attempting to ensure that the clients get more opportunity for video spilling and getting to social destinations. The factor answerable for the expansion sought after is the expansion in the product’s

Corporate governance in Olympus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Corporate administration in Olympus - Essay Example This must be started since the organization was having any kind of effect in the market with remarkable potential offer. In 1950, Olympus began the enhancement of its item contributions in clinical frameworks, medicinal services hardware, and afterward pushing ahead to SLR cameras and world’s first Microcassette recorder (Olympus Imaging America Inc., 2012). As an exceptionally inventive organization depending on its capacity to give more an incentive for its clients, Olympus kept reacting to the market’s requirements for items, for example, â€Å"clinical blood analysers, ground-breaking magnifying instrument frameworks, and advancement computerized cameras† (Olympus Imaging America Inc., 2012). Following 93 years, today, Olympus is by all accounts so pleased about its accomplishment from the past until at present while it keeps on making a similar excitement in delivering its item contributions and making an incentive for clients through its elevated requirement quality item and administration commitments in the market. From an extremely straightforward magnifying instrument, the world’s requirements for clinical gear moved to a better quality. Olympus at that point began to create items like â€Å"acoustic magnifying lens, ultrasonic endoscopes, reagent AIDS identification, advanced voice recorders, and top of the line camera like the Infinity Stylus† (Olympus Imaging America Inc., 2012). Olympus along these lines gives types of gear and gadgets to clinical and social insurance, imaging and data, and modern applications (Datamonitor: Business Information Center, 2007). Olympus is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan while the remainder of its satellites or branches are arranged in Europe, Asia and Americas. It has brought together structure, planning to create new imaginative thoughts, mechanical progression, and notably better than the-other-assembling execution, reliably. The organization is sorted out into various fragment divisions, for example, imaging framework business, clinical frameworks business, life science business, data and correspondence business and different organizations (Datamonitor: Business

Using SCAMPER to Generate Article Ideas

Utilizing SCAMPER to Generate Article Ideas Utilizing SCAMPER to Generate Article Ideas Utilizing SCAMPER to Generate Article Ideas By Guest Author This is a visitor post by Brad Painting. On the off chance that you need to compose for Daily Writing Tips check the rules here. An incredible aspect concerning independent composing is that you can concoct your own ventures and put your imaginative energies under a magnifying glass. Be that as it may, imagine a scenario in which your innovative stream appears to be obstructed, as journalists so regularly regret. A mental obstacle is in reality simply an issue of not asking yourself the correct inquiries. Envision that you have recently composed the article â€Å"5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Home† for a famous home magazine. You set forth your best data, and the proofreader was excited, however now you are needing for thoughts. How might you make another piece without picking a completely new subject and doing stores of research? The SCAMPER method is only the answer for this issue. Editors note: SCAMPER is a critical thinking procedure made by Bob Earle and advanced by Michael Michalko in his book Thinkertoys. Hurry is an abbreviation for a lot of activities that constrain you to ask yourself certain conceptualizing inquiries. The letters of SCAMPER represent Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to Other Uses, Eliminate, and Reverse. You can play out any of these activities on any segment of any item or procedure. Our item is the topic of an article. We could in fact split the title â€Å"5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Home† into 6 parts for each thing, pronoun, and modifier, yet it might assist with utilizing the two segments, â€Å"5 Easy Steps† and â€Å"Greening Your Home†. Lets go for a stroll through the SCAMPER procedure. Substitute. Supplant one part with another. Concentrate on proficient administrations, as HVAC cleaning, instead of do-it without anyone's help occupations. Or then again expound on the extraordinary difficulties of a condo instead of a house: 5 Professional Services for Greening Your Home 5 Easy Steps to Greening Your Apartment Consolidate. Union two segments into one. You can intertwine another part with a current one, or join two existing segments. Would you be able to add characteristics to the demonstration of â€Å"greening† or to the article, â€Å"your home†? 5 Easy Steps to Green Your Home and Your Lifestyle 5 Easy Steps to Green and Add Value to Your Home Adjust. What segments exist that are like current ones? Possibly a lot of your data additionally applies to business structures: 5 Easy Steps to Greening a Small Business Amplify. Take a stab at playing with the size of a part. Blow up â€Å"5 Ways† to â€Å"20 Ways† or â€Å"Home† to â€Å"Neighborhood†. Then again, focus in on one part of the house, for example, fridge proficiency: 20 Ways You Can Green Your Home 5 Ways You Can Green Your Neighborhood 5 Ways to Improve Your Refrigerators Efficiency Put to Other Uses. Towards what different markets would you be able to tailor the article? Do these means lower vitality utilization, shaving down service bills? Take a stab at composing from a monetary instead of ecological viewpoint: 5 Surefire Investments in Your Home Kill. What happens when you discard a segment? Is the theme too explicit to even think about appealing to enough perusers? See what happens when you dispense with certain words and take care of potential issues: 5 Ways to Be Green 5 Must-Do Home Improvements Switch. Envision turning around the request for segments. Etymologically, this can prompt some imaginative results, for example, an unexpected turn on your article: 5 Ways to Throw Away Household Energy. Rush won't generally produce one of a kind or feasible subjects, yet the thought is to create possiblities so you can single out. One interesting point when fleshing out potential outcomes is whether you can make an article sufficiently special to warrant a selective rights permit. In the event that you would consider a specific adjustment written falsification when done by another author, you ought not sell it as a one of a kind piece yourself. You can, be that as it may, roll out little improvements to build your deals of use rights. In the case of nothing else, SCAMPER will give you the confirmation that you have depleted the opportunities for a thought. Brad Painting is the creator of the jargon site Word a Day Wonder, a site that implants jargon in astonishing realities. Need to improve your English in a short time a day? Get a membership and begin accepting our composing tips and activities day by day! Continue learning! Peruse the Freelance Writing class, check our well known posts, or pick a related post below:How to Format a UK Business Letter35 Genres and Other Varieties of Fiction20 Ways to Cry

Are Social Networking Sites Good For Our Society - Free Essay Example

78.8% of traditional media reporters polled used social media to check for breaking news. Social media has a huge impact on society today and is one of the best ways to stay updated. It has become a part of our everyday life. Nothing spreads information faster than social media. Social helps many people stay updated on real world situations. It has changed the way the world interacts with people, and lets us use many useful tools, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and etc. all help with that. Social media has a positive effect on society because it helps those who are socially isolated, helps senior citizens feel more connected to society, spreads information faster than any other media, and can help students with their education. It has made the world a powerful and better place to live in. Therefore, social media networking sites show how they have such a positive effect on society considering all those reasons. Over the past few years social media has become bigger, and it has a positive effect on todays society. Social media helps catch criminals because because law enforcement use social media to catch and prosecute criminals. Social media is known to help solve crimes more efficiently according to the federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals, 73% of federal, state, and local law enforcement professionals surveyed think social media helps solve crimes more quickly (Are). You are able to track down almost anybody with the help of social media sites. You are able to post pictures of criminals and people can be alert if they spot that certain person. Social media spreads information quickly by letting police departments add tracking units to arrest criminals who brag about the crimes they have consummated online for example, A gang charged with the beating of a gay couple in Philadelphia in 2014. (Are). You are able to track down almost anybody with the help of social media si tes. Therefore, social media helps catch and prosecute criminals quicker and makes it easier for law enforcement. Social media sites helps students with their education. With the help of social media, it has allowed students to work with new technologies. It helps students do research on topics that they have trouble understanding. Students use social media to discuss educational topics when needed. Students who have internet access use social media to help them, 59% of students with access to the internet report that they use social media to discuss educational topics and 50% use the sites to talk about school assignments (Are). It helps those who are absent from school catch up on missing assignments by contacting one another through social media. Comparatively, it can help you contact your friends to discuss a group project if you have one for school. A school in Oregon introduced a educational program that helps kids learn, grades went up by 50%, chronic absenteeism went down by 33%, and 20% of students school-wide voluntarily completed extra-credit assignments (Are). Educational programs not only increase students learning but also makes it fun for students than writing on pencil and paper. The educational programs that are created now also allow you to see how your student is doing or what they may need help on if you are a teacher. In other words, social media really helps students with educational purposes. Some may argue that social media sites have a negative effect on society today. Many people agree that most of the bullying that happens takes place on social media. Students and even adults have experienced cyber bullying. Social media has also helped those who feel socially isolated, More than 25% of teens report that social media makes them feel less shy, 28% report feeling more outgoing, and 20% report feeling more confident (Are). Students who are shy use social media to make new friends. Adults use social media to interact with others, such as dating websites. They can possibly find their significant other using social media. Social media spreads information faster than any other media. With the help of social media it allows you to contact one another really easily and simply. It can be used for breaking news and alert people of new viruses and diseases. Social media users sometimes report breaking news before media outlets, Social media users have been responsible for reporti ng events before traditional media outlets, including the Paris attacks in France on Nov. 13, 2015 (Are). As well as the Ebola outbreak that has happened in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in July 2014. The current look of this is how social media can alert people way quicker than anything else causing people to be stay safe and updated. Overall, social media can help in many more ways than you think. There are many positive effects that social media has on our society today. It can be used for social interactions, educational purposes, access to the news, and criminal investigations etc. Without social media who knows how our society would be today. Our society could possibly be inadequate without social media networking sites. All things considered, social media networking sites will continue to grow and have such a positive effect on our lives.

Analysis Of Ces Televisions Et Ces Journaux Qui Font La...

Ces tà ©là ©visions et ces journaux qui font la promotion de l illà ©gal ( grave..!) , sont-ils en train de prà ©parer les criminels de demain .Affirmatif , vu l absence d une structure Algà ©rienne comme The Technologies Foundations dans certaines pays qui commencent dà ©jà   a mettre en place la future à ©cole secondaire de demain . Aux États Unis on a vu naà ®tre le style New Tech High School . Il a prit dà ©jà   le dessous depuis 3 annà ©es . Dans une à ¨re qui se transforme on se force ,peut à ªtre , de dà ©laisser plutà ´t d actualiser tout ce qu on avait appris en matià ¨re d information . Chaque annà ©e , des que le voyage m emmà ¨ne en Algà ©rie , mon pays , je trouve quand mà ªme, le constat remarquablement frappant . Les cybercafà ©s se multiplient projetant la socià ©tà © , vers d autres temps et vers d autres à ©poques . Riche d une population incontestablement juvà ©nile , l Algà ©rie fait donc son entrà ©e dans un monde virtuel qui avance a grand pas . Internet , Youtube , Twitter , Facebook ,infospace , SMS, Cellulaire G4, blogues et jeux Vidà ©os sont entrain de crà ©er pour cette jeunesse Algà ©rienne un trà ¨s grand espace de connectività © et de clavier . La jeunesse Algà ©rienne ressemble a la jeunesse du Monde Entier . Gà ©nà ©ration Piton au Canada et E-generation aux usa , le journal actualità ©s Electronique se posait la question . Assistons nous a une gà ©nà ©ration internet qui grandit avec ces nouveaux outils et qui se dà ©tache des aà ®nà ©s considà ©rà ©s jusque la comme des immigrants technologiques dans un

Emerging Economies And Globalization Of India And China

: Emerging Economies and Globalization There are many factors involved when a company makes a strategic choice to enter into a new market. These factors include strategic market position, resource availability, human capital, as well as financial gains and efficiencies. For General Electric Healthcare (GEH), the strategy was clear: â€Å"...to revolutionize the world’s health by improving the quality, access and affordability of care.â€Å" (GE Healthcare, n.d.) For GEH, the position that they needed was clear, to find a cost effective way to meet their goal. And their choice was to expand their operations into India and China. Specifically, according to Kumar (2012), India is on the brink of an innovation boom where many companies like GEH are establishing operations due to the influx of talented human capital. â€Å"...talent is going to be based out of India and China, and the largest growth markets are going to be based out of India and China, you have to confront the problem that your top management of the future is going to have to come out of India and China, because that s where the product leadership is, that s where the important market leadership is.† (Kumar, 2012) Therefore, it makes logical sense that GEH made the decision to expand its operations into these two countries. The question now is to define the strategy and trade theory in which this decision was based as well as understand why these theories were used. International trade theories are constantly changing due toShow MoreRelatedEmerging Markets : Developing Countries899 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction: Main emerging markets are China, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Brazil and South Korea while developed markets are of USA, Europe and Japan. Sometimes it is difficult to borrow innovation from developed countries, so the term â€Å"Reverse Innovation† was introduced. Reverse innovation is basically bottom up innovation, means it goes uphill from emerging markets of developing countries to developed markets of developed countries.it is adopted firstly in poor countries and then itRead MoreGlobal Force of Change - Ge Case637 Words   |  3 PagesGlobal Forces of Change 1. From the case facts, describe how globalization and technology have influenced the business directions of GE Medical Systems. Technology Since new requirements in healthcare business had been emerged, in the market it is required to implement personalized medicine to support specific client – not mass population. Moreover, trend on find the way to prevent sickness is more concerned than to heal. This is massive challenge to medical equipment manufacturers whetherRead MoreDeveloping A Economically Developed Countries1649 Words   |  7 Pageswith sovereign states and that has a highly developed economy with advanced technological industries as compared to other countries. The Human Development index, standard of living as well as the Gross national product of these economies is on the upper level of every chart. According to the International Monetary Fund, advanced economies comprise 60.8% of global nominal GDP and 42.9% of global GDP (PPP) in 2014. COUNTRY KOF INDEX OF GLOBALIZATION HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX GINI COEFFICIENT IRELAND 91Read MoreThe Three Advancements of Globalization 1058 Words   |  5 PagesGlobalization and its Impact Globalization by definition means the tendency of business, technologies or philosophies to spread around the world, or the process of making this happened. Globalization depends on three keys of advancement, the role of human migration, international trade and rapid movements of capital. Globalization has many pros but yet also many cons that can have a deciding factor in an economy. Many people think globalization still favors the rich and it’s a detriment to countriesRead MoreGlobal Issues in Business Ibm Essay829 Words   |  4 Pagesprocurement center in China, global services in India, and IBM’s external and internal websites which are supported in Ireland and Brazil. There were three reasons why IBM employed this new strategy. The first was that the world economy had to incorporate the concept of globalization in order to survive. The second reason was one that IBM customers started which was shifting toward global integration. The last reason was that IBM was being to experience fierce competitions that were emerging in regions likeRead MoreEffects Of Imperialism On The Indian Economy1449 Words   |  6 PagesEffects of Imperialism to the Indian Economy In 2015 India was ranked among the highest countries globally in consumer confidence, this comes after the International Monetary Fund estimated an economic growth of up to 7% annually for the next decade in India. But this hasn t always been the case, in fact, it wasn t so long ago that India was simply another colonized nation around the world, not to mention it s usually rare to see this kind of economic growth in such a small periodRead MoreThe World Economy Has Been Growing Constantly Last 55 Years1371 Words   |  6 PagesThe world economy has been growing constantly last 55 years except the 2009 recession that affected the global GDP by dropping it down a bit. The world is divided into continents and so does the share of global GDP. Last 55 years Asian countries has seen tremendous growth compare to its counterpart Europe and Americas who has experienced a overall decline. Asian region has grown from 16.8% in 1960 to 45.4% in 2015. Asian and African continents have seen growth in both GDP and GDP per capita. DespiteRead MoreBrazil : A Nation Known For Its Agriculture And Tourism1531 Words   |  7 Pagesgiven the opportunity to be utilized. TURNOVER The turnover rate in India and China in regards to IT outsourced jobs has become a growing concern. The turnover rate in both countries is about 40% in each; compared to a Brazil’s 20% turnover rate for IT professionals (Ball 2008). Businesses would realize lower employee turnover and training cost if they consider outsourcing IT to Brazil. With double the turnover rate, companies in India are likely to spend a large amount of resources on hiring and trainingRead MoreGlobalization and Higher Living Standards1587 Words   |  7 PagesGlobalization is spawning a rise in living standards The main focus in this article is to illustrate how globalization has improved the lives of many in developing nations. Globalization in of its self is the trading of goods and services of a local economy into an integrated global economy. Technological advances have made this practice more feasible with in the last 50 years. The major milestones were the development of the internet and increased transportation technology. These two advancesRead MoreGlobalization Is The Buzzword Of Today1362 Words   |  6 PagesGlobalization is the buzzword of today. The economies of the world are being increasingly integrated. Mobile phones and Internet have brought people closer. The world is becoming a smaller place. Goods, which were once confined to western countries, are available across the globe. Work can be outsourced to any part of the world that has an Internet connection. Because of improvements in traffic infrastructure one is able to reach one s destination in a relatively short spa n of time. Globalization

Role of media on New Religious Movements free essay sample

The media are significant actors in events leading to episodes of violence involving New Religious Movements since their emergence from the West in the 1960’s. The word cult has become associated with negative emotional connotations which made the public to have a general perception that it should be hated, feared or be avoided. The complexity of this subject has led scholars to abandon the popular term cult and agreed on a more neutral term New Religious Movements. In theology, cults are groups which deviate from traditional forms of Christian orthodoxy. Therefore, the writer is going to focus on the role of the media in public perceptions of New Religious Movements with special reference to some groups where violence has occurred. In this twenty first century, very few people are interested in NRMs that they seek out knowledge about them unless they have a specific interest in that area. They also never read any literature from them and neither do they make contact with the movements directly in order to learn more about them. Lack of information leads to misunderstandings and conflicts that affect the NRMs and all other things religious as society becomes more and more secular. Therefore, the media plays an important role in informing the public and it relies on it the mostly. The journalists are found to be the greatest cheats imaginable, they will disassemble, lie, sniffle and if possible overreach and defraud all who deal with them in order to qualify their acts and to be more secure. Therefore, what is portrayed and how it is portrayed has a great influence on forming public opinion. The NRMs quickly became controversial because they arrived at the same time and persuaded some people that a new invasion of the body snatchers had occurred. Secondly, the movements which drew on Asian philosophies and cultures tended to arouse suspicions merely for being foreign and therefore perceived as threatening. Thirdly, the people who were targeted by the new movements were mainly young, relatively well educated, middle-class students who were obviously not deprived. This means that their aggrieved relatives and former friends tended to have the money, connections and confidence required to make their complaints heard in centres of influence and power, at least at local levels. The list of complaints voiced against controversial NRMs grew so long that anti-cult organizations began to emerge in the early 1970s to combat what they considered to be a major menace to young people. Allegations of economic exploitation, mental cruelty, the deliberate alienation of recruits from their families, deceptive recruiting practices, harmful diets and life-styles, sexual abuse and, of course, brainwashing were widespread. The high-water mark of anti-cult feeling probably occurred in the late 1970s following the death of more than 900 followers of the Reverend Jim Jones at Jonestown, Guyana. This was also the period of the most rapid growth in membership of the most notorious cults. Therefore, given the secretiveness or defensiveness of most controversial cults, some journalists came to play a crucial role as go-betweens and arbitrators between NRMS, their members and angry outsiders. Only ex-members could rival the privileged position of a few investigative journalists; but most ex-members were understandably reluctant to talk freely about their former commitments. In these circumstances, the role of groups in the anti-cult movement has assumed significant proportions. Cult controversies cannot be properly understood unless the symbiotic relationship between these anti-cult groups and journalists is taken into account. Some anti-cult movements are not connected to any religion and do not criticize the NRM’s on the basis of their doctrines, but attack them from a legal, economic, psychological and political viewpoint. This means that what they do is easily understandable by the public and they are eager to pass on their information through the media. This disregard of the religious aspect makes the organisations seems more objective but in fact it allows for even more misunderstanding of something that is rooted in faith and spiritually. Their messages of human rights abuse, exploitation, mass suicide and violence frightens the people to an extent of seeking protection. An alliance between the ACM’s and journalists is obvious that, they need information that is appealing to their readers whilst the ACMs are eager to supply exactly just that to them. This enables the ACMs to send their message out and gain the publics’ support that will give them strong networks and become more powerful. The print and broadcast of media on NRMs is that the movements activities are newsworthy only when conflicts are involved. The articles and programmes of NRM mainly used conflict as the main occasion for the portrayal since most media organisations do not employ a specialist in religious topics. This means that any journalist available with little or no knowledge about a religion can cover any story that is newsworthy. Misunderstandings and confusion arise because of the journalist’s incorrect interpretations and assumptions. Media agencies are competitive commercial ventures because if a story comes out, they all want to release it first without giving it more time of research in order to avoid misleading the public. The most newsworthy stories are those that involve conflict and violence and therefore the ones that predominate in the media. The most tragedies and memorable have been the stories of Jonestown, the Branch Davidians at Waco, Heaven’s Gate, the Order of the Solar Temple and the Aum Shinrikyo. These stories of violence, murder, suicide and intrigue have left an impression that all cults are indeed destructive and dangerous. Stories about NRMs may not be frequent but they are reported in a very similar way. Repetition of the same themes has reinforced the public perception of them and has led to the NRM stereotype. The stereotypical cult is totalitarian, exploitative and destructive. Unfortunately this stereotype is based on the most controversial groups. The media have also failed to take into account the great diversity of the groups as well as the continually changing nature of religious groups. Journalists often add a summary of the negative characteristics of a NRM when reporting on a relatively isolated event. The journalistic construction of cult conflicts is that stories are frequently cross-referenced to other mass media items. TV programmes, for example, use still shots of newspaper and magazine headlines as devices for emphasising shock and horror. Similarly, the still photographs of cult leaders which are sometimes used in TV programmes are shown staring out of the pages of the print media. Presumably the intention is to try to enhance the sense of realism and veracity by showing that stories about a particular NRM or leader have already appeared in the print media and must therefore true. Since the information and images that are quoted in this way between different stories or media tend to be overwhelmingly, unflattering and critical, the effect is likely to reinforce the generally negative image of NRMs. In turn, this hardens public opinion against the movements and fuels the anti-cult campaigns. An allied feature of reporting cult-related conflicts in which the journalists have difficulty gaining access to relevant material is that they tend to substitute their own operation for the ostensibly central subject. This was especially clear in the case of Waco where access to the Branch Davidian compound was denied to journalists. The focus of many stories therefore became the media circus on the compounds perimeter. The fact that so many journalists were present seemed to guarantee the importance of the event at moments when nothing significant seemed to be happening. Writing stories about the stories being written by other journalists took the place of direct reports on the siege of the Branch Davidians. Perhaps this practice also helps journalists to cope with the competition for customers between different programmes. They can keep a story running despite the lack of directly relevant material which leaves the public with a very one-sided view. This will even lead social control agents no option but to be seen responding. Journalists function as the principal gatekeepers of public opinion especially on matters with which the person-in-the-street is not normally familiar. Their overwhelmingly critical portrayal of the movements can therefore contribute indirectly towards the latters control. Indeed, as many informed commentators on the debacle at Waco have pointed out, the FBI, the US Department of Justice, journalists and programme maker all tended to favour the testimony of psychological experts whose anti-cult views were well known in advance. One of the many scandalous aspects of the whole affair was the studied refusal to give credence to the testimony of sociological, anthropological, historical and theological experts on controversial NRMS. It is unlikely that any of these scholars with first-hand experience of researching these movements in their natural settings over many years would have supported the strategy and tactics adopted by the Bureau of Arms, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) and the FBI. Instead, credence was selectively given to opinions rooted in individualistic abnormal psychology. This is always newsworthy, as was shown by the fascination with the psychological condition of David Koresh. Legislators and police officials in particular find themselves under pressure to say what they intend to do about the alleged wrongdoing and outrages perpetrated by cults. Journalists seem not to be interested in the specific circumstances which led to such spectacular disasters. Instead, all the emphasis is on the presumed and unquestioned resemblance between the Peoples Temple or the Branch Davidians and cults in the UK. The authorities are forced to respond to these leading questions and are not given the opportunity to express doubts or reservations about the practice of putting all cults together. This dramatisation of the situation increases public nervousness and official defensiveness, neither of which is conducive to clear thinking and fairness. There is a danger, then, that inadvisable, panic reactions may follow. In the case of the Branch Davidians, for example, the ante at Waco was upped because of the intervention of television reporting. Lives were endangered because the story line was created and embedded in a pernicious dualism which legitimated the authorities and discouraged unconventional perspectives and opinions. The shared mentality-the corporate mentality-was served as the cultural mainstream reinforced and not challenged. Wacos Branch Davidians, then, were victims of a media-induced disaster, executed before the eyes of the nation on television. The polarisation that led to the catastrophe at Waco was inherent in neither the religious group itself-nor even in the FBI. Numerous commentators have blamed the Editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald for running the full episode of a hard-hitting expose of the Branch Davidians immediately prior to the BATFs assault on the compound. This allegedly broke an agreement with the BATF to withhold publication; and it probably forced the Bureau to take its ill-conceived action earlier than it had intended. On the other hand, it seems that the FBI placed considerably tighter restrictions on journalists covering the siege than is normal in similar events. In other words, the trade-off between journalists and authorities worked to the greater advantage of the latter. Not enough attention has been given to the consequences of sensationalist depictions of religion in a secular age. Journalists fascination with the tragedies of Jonestown and Waco stemmed not only from the exotic and improbable details of the two communitys ways of life but also from the suspicion that the cult controversies were only the tip of the iceberg. Investigative journalists had a field day with their inquiries into the possibility either that people in authority had bungled the operations to prevent loss of life and/or that attempts had been made afterwards to cover up the errors made by the forces of order. In other words, cult-related conflicts could be connected with broader concerns about the use and misuse of state power. Other examples of stories linking cults with conflicts against the state include the bombing by police of the anarcho-ecology group, MOVE, in Philadelphia; the killing by police in 1983 of all six followers of Lindberg Sanders, a self-styled Black Jesus, in a shoot-out in Memphis; and various armed assaults on dissident Mormons in Utah. The result is usually a polarisation of journalistic and public opinion between, on the one hand, the view that agents of the state acted negligently and on the other, the view that the same agents should have acted more decisively to suppress the movement in question before the problem had become unmanageable by peaceful means. But both cases illustrate the more general point that it is invariably the conflicts associated with NRMs which make them newsworthy even when responsibility for the conflicts is attributed to the state. An interesting twist on this theme quickly emerged in European print-media accounts of Waco. The long and slow-moving story of the siege provided an opportunity for journalists to investigate in depth the issues of gun ownership and control in the USA. In fact, the amount of attention devoted to this context of the action taken against the Branch Davidians sometimes outweighed reports of events at Waco. The dangerous image of cults was thereby reinforced by linking them with a separate conflict about firearms. One conflict was nested whilst the negative view of NRMs goes very much unchallenged by the public. Conclusion The mass media characterised the movements as threatening, strange, exploitative, oppressive and provocative. A content analysis of selected British print-media between 1975 and 1985 showed how this sensationalist approach helps to cement the public perception of cults as, at best, weird and, at worst, destructive and there is a strong confirmation of this analysis from the USA. On the other hand, it is clear that the reasons for the biased presentation of NRMs in the mass media are rooted in commercial pressures, cultural stereotypes and the lack of time for journalists to take a more nuanced and longer-term view of the movements. It should also be recognised that some journalists have exposed the criminal activities of a few cult leaders and have therefore been helpful in checking abuses. Indeed, the public is heavily dependent on the mass media for information about unconventional and sometimes secretive religious movements. The public is right to expect that journalists should be more methodical, discriminating, careful and open-minded than they normally are when it comes to, portraying NRMS. Their knee-jerk categorisation of the movements as problematic and dangerous is not only prejudiced and lazy but it also feeds directly into public ignorance and a less than even-handed attitude towards the movements on the part of social control agencies. The cosy relationship that many journalists have with the ACM can be an excuse for them not to do their research properly. BIBLIOGRAPHY