What is contempt of court?

I did jury service back in the day when there were no mobile phones, smartphones, no internet and certainly no computers. As jurors, we had no access to the volume of information that exists now. We were told by the judge never to discuss the case with anyone ever that included your family and friends.

The culture and the technology now are different. But, jurors today are still bound by the same rules as back then i.e. do not discuss the case outside of the jury room and base your verdicts solely on the evidence presented in court. The person who contacted a defendant in this case, via facebook and was laughing at the whole proceedings, has no regard for the court or the law and should go to prison. She knew exactly what she was doing.

They need to ban all kinds of electronic devices from being taken into court including the public. Jurors should be told not to bring phones to court with them and if they do, they must be handed in to the clerk and handed back at the end of the day.

But even then, before a trial begins, once a suspect is charged say with murder as in the case of Joanne Yeates, that news goes global in seconds and I find it hard to imagine that any person who lives in the modern world would not have heard about the case BEFORE they are on the jury. So, can anyone get a fair trial?