General Knowledge

Aligarh Movement | Sir Syed Ahmed Khan | Educational Services | Political, Social and Religious Services | Impacts of Aligarh Movement

The Muslim community of India produced a great leader in the darkest hour of its life namely Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Sir Syed took the condition of Muslims in India very seriously and struggled laboriously to develop and regain the economic, social and educational level of the Muslims of Indian. He was a great Muslims scholar and reformer. He struggled so hard to bring Muslims out of the darkness of illiteracy and hazardous policies of British government. Sir Syed deeply observed the prejudice behavior of Hindus towards Muslims and evil intentions to tarnish Islamic culture. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan belongs to the pious Muslims family and was born in Dehli on 17 October 1817 . He got his early education from his Grandfather Khawaja Farid-ud-din who had served Moghal Court as Prime Minister for the period of 8 years. Sir Syed got education of Quran, Arabic and Persian literature along with medical, mathematics and history. In 1838 he joined government job because of the death of h...

How to Prepare for CSS in 1 Year

Assalamualaikum! [ It is often asked that how to prepare for CSS, so I thought to put it down in my blog for you guys, according to the best of my knowledge and experience ] Subjects Selection: The process starts with subject selection. Choosing optional subjects is utmost important in CSS. The success is primarily based on what subjects you choose. Going for wrong subjects could produce drastic results. So let me know: Have you chosen the subjects? Have you consulted your seniors and/or CSPs before choosing these subjects? If the answer is “ NO ”, then you’re doing it wrong, STOP right away! I won’t recommend you to take opinion from Academies/institutes that prepare students for CSS. (It sounds weird! Right?) The reason is, they would always recommend you the subjects they are proficient with and/or they’ve faculty for. It would be folly to going for such recommendations regardless of your own interests and/or academic background. The reason I recommend consultation with Sen...

The functional approach to mass media: four social functions of the media

Functions of Mass Communication The 1940s and 1950s saw the beginnings of increased research into the functions of mass communications. Post the Second World War, there was widespread interest in trying to understand the impact of mass media messages on society. Functionalism The focus on understanding the effects of mass communications, especially its social consequences and its impact on maintenance of social order gave rise to a theoretical framework called functionalism. Functionalism focuses on explaining slow, evolutionary change and not sudden changes. The limited capacity of functionalism to be used only in policy research, evaluation and planning has been criticized by many theorists. The focus of functionalism is on how mass communication serves society and fails to account for how humans interact with mass communication and construct meanings from messages. The focus on maintaining the existing social order and not allowing for any meaningful change has also b...

Weather Variations | Seasons | Climate Change

The current condition and the state of the atmosphere at given time is called Weather. The axes of the earth are imaginary lines on which the earth rotates. It links up the two poles, South & North Pole. Both the axes and the two poles are tilted at the degree of 23.5 0 during a revolution. The tilting of the axes result in direct sun light falling on different places during different seasons. This causes variations in the durations of days, nights and seasons. Relationship between the location of the overhead sun and the seasons: similarly the revolution of the earth and the titling of the axes result in different angle of the sun during different periods. When the sun is directly overhead we call this overhead Sun. At this time the earth’s surface and midday sun forms a 90 0 angel. Different locations of the overhead sun results in variations in the amount of solar radiation received in different areas under different periods. Spring Equinox – 21 or 22 March: ...

Solar and Lunar Eclipse

The word eclipse means an obscuring of the light from one celestial body. The word Solar is driven from the Latin word “Sol” means Sun , and Lunar is driven from Latin word “ Luna” means Moon . So in Solar eclipse the Sun gets darker, and in Lunar eclipse the moon gets darker. Solar Eclipse: This happens when the moon’s shades crosses the earth’s surface . In this situation the moon while orbiting around the earth comes in between the earth and Sun. So this obscures the light from sun and makes a shadow on the earth and people couldn’t see the sun completely rather they see a darker spot. The Darker part of the shadow in eclipse is known as Umbra and the lighter part of the shadow is said to be Penumbra . The position of the objects/bodies in this case is as respectively as Sun, Moon and Earth. We call it Solar Eclipse. Lunar Eclipse: ...

Imbalance in the flow of information between North and South

I n his book Media the Second God , Tony Schwartz, a television advertising specialist, states, “ Godlike, the media can change the course of a war, bring down a president or a king, elevate the lowly and humiliate the proud, by directing the attention of millions on the same event and in the same manner .” Media imperialism is at the moment of primary importance to all the states of the developing world. It is imperative that its various aspects are studied in detail. Some sixty years ago, about the same time as Pakistan got its independence, George Orwell wrote his famous book Nineteen Eighty-Four. That classic novel with miraculous prescience depicted with a fair amount of accuracy, the events that were to unfold in the present era. In fact the thought control capacity of the powers that has gone much beyond the Orwellian fancies and fantasies and we have been so conditioned by it that we take it for granted and believe in his slogan “ ignorance is strength ”. ...

Globalization, Technology and Media

Globalization is a vast topic to be discussed on, since it increases the connectivity of individuals, organizations, societies, nation states and cultures at global level. Globalization covers all these areas but primary it has caused tremendous change in the technology and the way media works. Globalization in term of Technology and Media is caused in reduction in the distance between individuals, governments, societies and organizations in terms of both the time and space. This so reduction in time and space is because of the technological development of Internet and other form of media, and collectively these are known as “ Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)” . Such technological development doesn’t only result in dramatically changed mass-media operations but it also allowed the rapid information, knowledge and capital transformation worldwide. The media and technology are gro...

MacBride Commission

International commission for the study of Communication Problems was appointed in 1977 under the chairmanship of Sean MacBride, an Irish diplomat. The members of the commission were the media dignitaries of several countries and experts in various operational streams of the media. This commission was created under the support of the UNESCO. It was the result of the growing concerns of the NAM nations for addressing problems related to World Communication. It was also required to lay special stress on the international implications of the modern media. In 1980, the report of this commission was published under the title “Many Voices One World” . It also known as “The MacBride Report” The report of the MacBride Commission The report considers the complaints of the NAM nations about the defect in the system of international news transfer. It also tried to understand the intricacies of apprehension of the west, example: the west had alleged that declaration (of the weste...

Plate Tectonics Theory

This theory was proposed by W. J. Morgan. This theory states that the Earth’s outer mechanical layer, the lithosphere , is divided into large and small sized plates that are constantly moving, and such plates are called Tectonic Plates . These massive lithosphere plates are all moving into different ways and how they interact with one another can have a huge impact on the earth, where these tectonic plates meet are called The Boundaries. 3 Types of Plate Tectonic Boundaries: (i) Convergent Boundaries occur when two plates are moving towards one another. When two plates collide couple of thing can happen, one of the plate will dive under the other plate. It usually the heavier and denser crest dives under the lighter crest. This creates what we call a Subduction Zone . The deeper ...

Media as a social system: The balance between interrelation and interdependence

Media system dependency theory Media system dependency theory ( MSD ), or simply media dependency, was developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur in 1976. The theory is grounded in classical sociological literature positing that media and their audiences should be studied in the context of larger social systems. MSD ties together the interrelations of broad social systems, mass media , and the individual into a comprehensive explanation of media effects. At its core, the basic dependency hypothesis states that the more a person depends on media to meet needs, the more important media will be in a person's life, and therefore the more effects media will have on a person . The relationships between components Dependency on media emerges from three relationships. 1. The relationship between the society and the media: Within this relationship, media access and availability are regarde...

Bilal M Mirza

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How to Prepare for CSS in 1 Year