Companies That Control the World’s Food - Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ)
The agriculture and food production industry employed more than one billion people as of last year, or a third of the global workforce. While the industry is substantial, a relatively small number of companies wield an enormous amount of influence. In its 2013 report, “Behind the Brands,” Oxfam International focused on 10 of the world’s biggest and most influential food and beverage companies. These corporations are so powerful that their policies can have a major impact on the diets and working conditions of people worldwide, as well as on the environment.
Electoral college reform (fifty states with equal population) / fake is the new real
The electoral college is a time-honored, logical system for picking the chief executive of the United States. However, the American body politic has also grown accustomed to paying close attention to the popular vote. This is only rarely a problem, since the electoral college and the popular vote have only disagreed three times in 200 years.
The impact of the mass media on the quality of democracy within a state remains a much overlooked area of study
Media organisations are generally assumed to play an important role in democracies, but how effective are they in performing this function within specific states? Lisa Müller outlines results from an analysis of 47 countries, based on a framework which rates two separate aspects of media performance: the extent to which they perform a ‘watchdog’ role by providing information, and the degree to which they act as a representative forum for the views of citizens. She finds that no country in the analysis scores very highly on both of these dimensions, but that the variations between states match differences in the quality of their democracy. Modern societies could not be imagined without mass communication. Television, newspapers, the radio and the internet are the main sources of information for citizens all around the globe. But what does this mean for the functioning of political systems and processes?
Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low
Public Evaluations of the News Media: 1985-2009 Overview The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows. Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate.
Examples of Media Bias
May 2016 5/25/2016 - U.S. Hits Record: 127 Months Since Major Hurricane - CNS News 5/18/2016 - CNN report on Syrian Christians
Watch Facebook Take Over The World In These Extremely Trippy Illustrations
What if Facebook took over the world -- even more than it already has? What if the almighty social networking site existed in the age of M.C. Escher or Salvador Dali, and served as their inspirations?
The world’s top 50 billionaires: A demographic breakdown.
Top 50 Billionaire Breakdown If you asked anyone to picture the wealthiest person in the world at any given time, you could bet on some common denominators: probably a man; probably somehow attached to the words “multinational” or “conglomerate”; probably on a yacht off a private island. With Slate’s Top 50 Billionaire Breakdown, we attempt to visualize the richest of the rich by paring them into demographic categories: age, location, industry, source of wealth, education, and religious affiliation.
Beware the ‘false consciousness’ theory: newspapers won’t decide the EU referendum
Campaigners should not overestimate the influence of traditional newspapers, says Charlie Beckett: their sales are in decline and they face competition from more politically neutral and humorous news sites like Buzzfeed and Vice. In any case, it is patronising to assume that a sheep-like public follow the diktats of the media they read. He identifies the outlets which will help swing voters make up their minds: TV, Facebook and other social media. For those campaigning to keep Britain in the EU, what they call ‘the media’ are seen as one of their biggest problems.
