Camera filters

Camera filters are transparent or translucent optical elements that alter the properties of light entering the camera lens for the purpose of improving the image being recorded.  Filters can affect contrast, sharpness, highlight flare, color, and light intensity, either individually, or in various combinations.  They can also create a variety of "special effects."  It is important to recognize that, even though there are many possibly confusing variations and applications, all filters behave a reasonably predictable way when their properties are understood and experienced.  Most of these properties related similarly to filter use in both film and video imaging.  The following will explain the basic optical characteristics of Tiffen and certain other types of camera filters, as well as their applications.  It is a foundation upon which to build by experience. Textual data cannot fully inform.

There is always something new out there.
In their most successful applications, filter effects blend in with the rest of the image to help get the message across.  Use caution when using a filter in a way that draws attention to itself as an effect.  Combined with all the other elements of image-making, filters make visual statements, manipulate emotions and thought, and make believable what otherwise would not be.  They get the viewer involved.

Photographic composition and techniques

Photographic composition is the pleasing arrangement of subject matter elements within thepicture area. Creative photography depends foremost on the photographer's ability to see as the camera sees because a photograph does not reproduce a scene quite the way we see it. The camera sees and records only a small isolated part of the larger scene, reduces it to only two dimensions, frames it, and freezes it. It does not discriminate as we do. When we look at a scene we selectively see only the important elements and more or less ignore the rest. A camera, on the other hand, sees all the details within the field of view. This is the reason some of our pictures are often disappointing. Backgrounds may be cluttered with objects we do not remember, our subjects are smaller in the frame or less striking than we recall, or the entire scene may lack significance and life.

Good pictures are seldom created by chance. To make the most of any subject, you must understand the basic principles of composition. The way you arrange the elements of a scene within a picture, catch the viewer’s attention, please the eye, or make a clear statement are all qualities of good composition. By developing photographic composition skills, you can produce photographs that suggest movement, life, depth, shape, and form, recreating the impact of the original scene.

The Editorial Page

An editorial is defined as “a write-up usually done by the Editor, his deputy or assistant editor/editors. Unlike a news story, it contains comments, usually on a current situation or development”. (Dictionary of Media and Journalism, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi) The editorial usually reflects the policy of a particular newspaper or magazine. The editorial is either written by the editor himself or by an established columnist. It is can at times be an article written by an assistant editor and signed by the editor or written by one of his principal editorial writers.
Depending on the kind of topics dealt, the editorials have been classified as follows:
1.      The Informative or interpretative editorial
2.      The Appreciative or Critical editorial
3.      The Human Interest editorial
In the beginning editorial was a platform where the learned editors put forth their views and opinions about a contemporary issue. And the editors made no bones when they were criticizing something very caustically.

Layout - Page Design

The layout, also known as the make-up, of a newspaper is closely related to its typography and both together account for the presentation of the newspaper. The layout of a newspaper means the manner and style in which the name plate of the newspaper, the news, the headlines, sub-headlines, pictures and their captions, advertisements in boxes, features, editorials, cartoons and all other elements including the blank space, which go to make a newspaper and are arranged page after page for visual effectiveness.

Typography means the study of the various print types, their different sizes, the spaces they occupy on the page, and of their use for creating the most beautiful and pleasant appearance. [Note: In terms of computer it is the font shapes and font sizes. The layout and typography together contribute to the effective, pleasant and attractive presentation of the newspaper.

The following are the main objectives and functions of the layout and typography:

News Supplementary Departments

There are many  other departments, operating semi-independently of the news department. Among these are society department, which has a separate staff of reporters to gather its news and sometimes a separate staff of reporters to gather its news and sometimes a separate desktop edit it; the sports department, also made up of reporters versed in sports matters and specialized copy editors; the financial and business department, composed of writers and copy editors who are authorities in their field; the theater department, made up of drama and motion picture critics; the music department, comprising the critics of music and reporters of news in this field; the art news department, which may include an art critic as well as a reporter of news in the art world; and the book news department, covering news of the publishing field as well as book criticism.

The participatory communication approach

(Source - Internet)
The participatory communication approach was conceived more than two decades ago. Since then its principles have enjoyed increasing influence over the work of development communicators. Today, these principles drive t he work of a significant number of communicators from the NGOs, and, to a lesser extend, the programmes of government agencies.

The roots of participatory approaches in development communication can be found in the early years of the 1970s when many people in the development community began to question the top-down approach of development dominant in the 1950s and 60s which target ed the economic growth of countries as its main goal. During these two decades the success of the developed countries was held-up as the model to aspire to. Development was thought to be triggered by the wide-scale diffusion and adoption of modern technol ogies. Such modernization was planned in the national capitals under the guidance and direction of experts brought-in from developed countries. Often, the people in the villages who are the "objects" of these plans would first learn that "development" was on the way when strangers from the city turned-up, frequently unannounced, to survey land or look at project sites.

Extraneous and Confounding Variables and Systematic vs Non-Systematic Error

Extraneous Variables are undesirable variables that influence the relationship between the variables that an experimenter is examining. Another way to think of this, is that these are variables the influence the outcome of an experiment, though they are not the variables that are actually of interest. These variables are undesirable because they add error to an experiment. A major goal in research design is to decrease or control the influence of extraneous variables as much as possible.

For example, let’s say that an educational psychologist has developed a new learning strategy and is interested in examining the effectiveness of this strategy. The experimenter randomly assigns students to two groups. All of the students study text materials on a biology topic for thirty minutes. One group uses the new strategy and the other uses a strategy of their choice. Then all students complete a test over the materials. One obvious confounding variable in this case would be pre-knowledge of the biology topic that was studied. This variable will most likely influence student scores, regardless of which strategy they use.
Because of this extraneous variable (and surely others) there will be some spread within each of the groups. It would be better, of course, if all students came in with the exact same pre-knowledge. However, the experimenter has taken an important step to greatly increase the chances that, at least, the extraneous variable will add error variance equivalently between the two groups. That is, the experimenter randomly assigned students to the two groups.

Spurious Correlations

Spurious Correlations Ó 1996, 1997 by William C. Burns
The analysis of human resources data typically involves the use of computer databases that were constructed to process transactions. Their purpose normally centers on administration and recordkeeping. Thus the variables that are available for analysis are not necessarily the ones that would be chosen as the ideal set of variables given the purposes of the analysis. A side effect is that in many cases critical analysis variables may be missing. This can lead to "spurious correlations," a common and serious interpretation fallacy. For example, suppose that the critical variable is correlated with race, age, or gender. Thus any other variable that correlates with the critical variable will probably also be correlated with race, age, or gender. These correlations are spurious because their primary cause is the missing critical variable. Nonetheless these spurious correlations are at times used as indicators of discrimination. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the widespread occurrence of spurious correlations.
 My favorite example is to do the following:

1. Get data on all the fires in San Francisco for the last ten years.
2. Correlate the number of fire engines at each fire and the damages in dollars at each fire.

 Note the significant relationship between number of fire engines and the amount of damage. Conclude that fire engines cause the damage.
 The reason that I like this example is that the conclusion is so absurd. Anyone will quickly recognize that both variables result from and are correlated with the overall size of the fire. However, many spurious correlations do not seem absurd and some seem compelling.

Development Support Communication: DSC

The practice of Development Support Communication, DSC, is a multi-sectoral process of information sharing about development agendas and planned actions. It links planners, beneficiaries and implementers of development action, including the donor community. It obligates planners and implementers to provide clear, explicit and intelligible data and information about their goals and roles in development, and explicitly provides opportunities for beneficiaries to participate in shaping development outcomes. It ensures that the donor community is kept constantly aware of the achievements and constraints of development efforts in the field.

Development Support Communication makes use of all available structures and means of information sharing. Therefore it is not limited to mass media alone. It also uses both formal group and non-formal channels of communication, such as women’s and youth associations, as well as places where people gather.... markets, churches, festivals, and meetings. But its contribution is in using these in a systemic, continuous, co-ordinated and planned manner, to perform linkage and enabling functions. It requires analysis of the communication environment, of the available and needed communication competencies and resources (hardware, software, financial and human), and clearly indicates expected results from specific resource inputs, so as to maintain accountability.

Write a short note on Opinion Leaders

Opinion Leaders are the individuals in a community where people go for information and advice. They are fully access to mass media and much of the information  reaches the general public through them. As "gatekeepers", they filter the media message during communication. As "interpreters", they interpret the message obtained from media to the people; and as "influential", influence the public by passing on thier own opinion along with the message.

According to Rogers, Opinion leadership is the degree to which an individual is able to influence other individual's attitudes to overt behaviour informally in a desired way with relative frequency."

In the traditional Meetei family, grandfathers or grandmothers are regarded as Opinion leaders. During King's rule, maichous or priest are opinion leaders, where people seek advise on different topics.

(Source - Internet)