The Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Renaissance - Essay Example A close examination of our American technology and our institutions will find many similarities that had their origin in the roots of the Italian Renaissance. Prior to the Renaissance, almost all technical knowledge of science was outside the reach of the average person. It had been the sole property of the church and the elite and was available only through universities. A major technical innovation of the Renaissance period was its placing knowledge in the hands of the ordinary person. According to Thomas Carlyle in Sartor Resartus published in 1833, "He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies [...] creating a whole new democratic world" (cited in Kreis). The invention of the printing press in 1440 gave the general public the access to knowledge and philosophy. The first bible was printed in 1452 gave the ordinary man regular access to the text and had a lasting effect on religion. Spurred by classical philosophy, religion turned from the worship of the abstract towards the morality of man (Anesi). This brought new thought to religion and brought about the Reformation and altered the Christian religion forever. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest technical innovators of the Renaissance and he is often thought of as the father of engineering. However, Da Vinci was joined by others such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Mariano di Iacopo, and Francesco di Giorgio to spearhead an artist-engineer revolution (Bjerklie, 1). Their ideas were the basis of major changes in agricultural equipment and improvement in land management. One example was the heavy- wheeled plow and the horse harness and stirrup that allowed the ground to be worked on a more massive scale. This began the basis of large industrial crop farming and allowed the farmers to relocate to the industrial centers of commerce. This modernized agriculture and paved the way for the coming Industrial Revolution. As people were moving from an agricultural based economy made possible by the new agricultural methods, trade was becoming more important. The newly developing nation-states required trading partners outside their own borders. Optics made a significant contribution to worldwide navigation during the Renaissance period. The science of optics was treasured by Kings as a method required for exploration, trade, and dominance. For example, in April 1541 an Italian offered a telescopic device to Henry VIII. "The French ambassador in London reported that 'there is an Italian here, aged about 70 years, who has shown this king that he would make a mirror and place it on top of Dover castle, in which mirror could be seen all ships that leave Dieppe'" (Dupre, 19). This may have been the description of the reflecting telescope that has become the mainstay of today's science of optics. Improved navigation aids and the evolving telescope made worldwide navigation, exploration, and trade a reality. The Renaissance spirit of exploration also opened up curiosity to the other fields of science. Science of the Renaissance stressed observance and more importance began being placed on methodology and experimentation. It valued experience over abstract thought. The Renaissance is credited with being the era of the creation of the scientific method. The

Development News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Development News - Essay Example However, in the arena of development news there exists a deep North-South schism. Hence, the concept of development news needs to be understood and defined in a historical context. Since years, it has been evinced by the editorial authorities governing the Western media that they do not have any model editorial policies and per se they do not issue any policy directives to their correspondents (Aggarwala 180). However, any type of media is eventually aimed at a particular reader pool, and the Western media being primarily consumed by the Western readers, it would not be wrong to believe that the Western scribe cover and shape a news story, even if it originates from the underdeveloped or developing world, keeping the Western readers in mind (Aggarwala 180). Hence, any discussion or attempt aimed at understanding the concept of development news must subscribe to the ambit of the incumbent North-South divide. Ideally speaking, development news is the news that tends to cover developmen t issues affiliated to macro or macro origins, which reports, assesses and examines the impact of varied development activities and programs with regards to domestic and national development objectives and needs, the parities that exist as to how a development program is envisaged and its pragmatic outcomes, and the variance between its net impact on human welfare and what a government claims to be its achievements (Cottle 107). Yet, going by the fact that in its conceptualization and treatment, the development news does not much differ from the regular news, hence, it is open to accruing different interpretations at local and international level (Cottle 107). As already said that development news in its treatment and conceptualization does not differ much from the mainstream news, hence as is practically evident from the mainstream news, the development news can certainly evince a marked ideological and political tilt, depending on the geo-political origins of the scribes and publi shing institutions covering a development news story. Also, a natural premise flowing out from such credentials of the concept of development news is that it is always subject to a normatively influenced interpretation and criticism (Cottle 108). Generally speaking, in the past, and particularly in the contemporary age open to new media, there exist wide imbalances between the flows of information in varied parts of the world. So development news by its very nature will always stand to be a controversial concept in journalism, going by the shifting academic and political stances pertaining to the notions of ‘development’ (Cottle 108). Hence, the local and global biases that the journalists associated with the coverage of mainstream new, could also infiltrate and seep in into the coverage of development news. Once this fact is accepted that the mainstream scribes and the journalists that cover the development news are almost open to very similar biases, opinions, temptat ions and tilts, it will be apt to agree that there exist varied types of development news journalism. In journalistic context, development news pertains to investigative reporting with its focus on the international and national projects and programs initiated in the developing nations and their influence on the quality of life and socio-economic well being of the masses (Aggarwala 181). Hence, like mainstream journalism, development journalism is subject to very similar ethical and professional ideals and constraints. Development journalists like mainstream journalists need to be unbiased, factual and rational in the coverage of development news. However, this pertains to an ideal scenario. In a practical context, quite like mainstream journalism, many development journ