Whenever we hear the term "Breaking News" a sense of urgency hits our brain. Suddenly we start paying more attention. This is nothing unusual for the human brain. Our brain responds to unusual things or events at a faster pace than it does to normal events. The visual and print media tries to make the best out of these two words mainly to catch the attention of the viewers.
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One of the prime sources of such news is the TV channels. TV channels are the leading visual medium to announce such news from time to time. Mostly, these news stories appear on a scroll when the news is not being telecast. During the news hour, alongside the scroll the news telecast as breaking news is also given more time and detailed reporting. But, some TV channels exaggerate the importance of a story and covers lesser important stories as the breaking news. At times when there is nothing special to broadcast, some TV channels broadcasts the general events or stories as breaking news just to grab the attention of the viewers. The strategy may work for them in the short run but in the long run it's almost certain that they are going to lose viewership. This will happen as they are cheating with their viewers by covering lesser important events labeled as breaking news.
There are also a lot of websites online that offer such news. But, can you trust the authenticity of the news stories provided by these sites? Surely, you can't trust them all. Only the reputed websites offer real and informative stories. So, you need to know the characteristics of a reputed news site in order to get informative news. There are also websites that may offer real and informative stories but are not good in terms of choosing the right story to cover as the breaking news. These websites consider almost any story as the breaking news and thus confuses the visitors. At one point, it turns out to be a daunting task Technology for the website to catch the attention of the visitors towards important news stories. This happens when the visitors think that they are being cheated and offered general news in an exaggerated manner. In this way, websites loses visitors.
So, both the television channels and the websites need to be sensible in terms of broadcasting news. They should not misinterpret the gravity of news stories and confuse the visitors. In spite, these news sources should concentrate on conveying informative news and term only the significant stories as "Breaking News". If the media acts professionally then the ultimate goal of conveying information to the mass people can be achieved.
For some, the increase has been significantly higher, with rates going up by 17.7% for the residents of Nice, while there are other large increases in Argenteuil (17.8%), Grenoble (17.1%), Metz (15.1%), and Montpellier (13%).
Only a few councils have decided not to impose an increase, notably Aix-en-Provence, Toulon and Reims. Nevertheless, even in these towns households will pay more simply because of the increase in the local rateable value of properties, related as they are to the index for inflation.
The rates are generally smaller in the rural communes that do not provide the range of services required in an urban area.
The weekly French magazine 'Capital' has also undertaken a similar analysis to that of the Forum, in which they examined the increase in rates for 340 towns and cities of France, which you can find here. The link will only be available for a few weeks as the magazine does not keep their material on-line indefinitely.
In their analysis of the main urban areas the average level of the rates comes in at EUR1583, an average increase this year of 5.4%.
The lowest rates in the 'Capital' survey were at Hagetnau in the department of Bas-Rhin, where residents paid a combined total of EUR872, while the highest rates were to be paid in Yerres in the department of Essonne, where the amount payable was EUR2616.
Why Have Rates Gone Up?
The large increases this year can be attributed to numerous factors, not least of which is the reduction in the taxes the local councils are collecting in stamp duty from property sales. Income from stamp duty accounts for an important source of revenue for many councils, and property sales in France are down by around 30% on recent years.
Local councils also complain that the decentralisation of public services to them from central government has not been accompanied by the transfer of resources in equal measure.
Many of these services include the delivery of key social services and social security benefits, and with the economic crisis, demand for these services has risen.
Critics also consider that there are two many layers of local government in France, which substantially adds to the cost of local services. The present government have committed themselves to a slimming down of the whole edifice, but they are meeting substantial resistance, and there is a fear that there is too much voluntarism about the plan. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas!
Other commentators also consider that a larger increase this year was inevitable, following the local elections last year when the increases were kept to a minimum.
This is a particularly tough time of year for French households, as not only do they receive the tax bills for their local rates, but their income tax bill is also payable, and those that receive investment and rental income also face payment of the social charges.
The taxe d'habitation bill must be paid by today 15th October, and the taxe fonciere by 16th November.
Local councils also receive business rates in the form of the taxe professionnelle, but this is due for reform, and there is concern that it will lead to a reduction in charges for local businesses that will need to be picked up by residents.