To what extent do the best selling UK newspapers cover stories related to serious issues? To what extent would you think that it is their role to do so? In your opinion, do the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) have too much power and influence in this country?

The UKs top 5 best selling newspapers (Jan 09):
1. The Sun
2. The Daily Mail
3. The Daily Mirror
4. The Daily Telegraph
5. The Daily Star


After looking at the cover stories for each of the above newspapers, in my opinion it is clear that the majority of them are not related to serious issues. The majority of the cover stories focus on on-goings in the celebrity world with articles on Jordan (Katie Price), the latest updates on X Factor and I’m a Celebrity get me out of here and articles on Cheryl Cole, all of which I believe tend to be greatly over-rated and unimportant in society.

The Sun, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Star all centre their cover stories on the celebrity world whereas The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph use a combination of celebrity gossip and issues such as debt concerns and tax problems. I believe that it is extremely important for newspapers to concentrate on the more serious issues of today as it will not only make the public more aware of what’s going on in our world but will hopefully making people feel more concerned about these issues and will then want to learn more. Newspapers that prioritise celebrities in their main stories are giving readers unrealistic expectations and false impression of celebrity lifestyles which consequently is bad as the public look up to these celebrities and use them as role models.

It is in my opinion that the media these days do not focus on what is important in society but put this to one side and flaunt the latest celeb secrets. I believe that the media primarily focus on money making so instead of talking or writing about the serious matters that are happening in our world, the media chooses to talk about what the general public want to know or hear. I think that newspapers nowadays are in so much competition with one another to get people to purchase what they are publishing that they have resorted to trying to out-do one another by having the most gossip on their front pages pushing world matters aside. Celebrity gossip has no importance in our lives, yet it is their on-goings that I believe the general public can relate to the most, therefore they thrive off it.

I do believe that tabloid media and ‘low budget entertainment’ do have too much power and influence in this country. This is because I can relate this to myself. I often get distracted, reading the latest gossip on celebrities and TV entertainment rather than focusing on what really does matter in the world such as actions being undertaken by the Government, wars within other countries, worldwide development and much more. I believe people look up to and listen to the media as it is one of the main sources used to find out about the latest on-goings, therefore the media can have a strong influence on what people believe. I feel the media does provide a lot of false information to the public as I think it tends to live up to what the public want and expect.

To what extent do you think that it is your duty as a citizen to be 'informed'? Are you informed? How do you get to be informed about serious issues? To what extent do you think that you should leave the complicated decisions up to others?

I do believe that it is important as a citizen to be informed on how to be more sustainable as its important to preserve the environment for not only the people of today but for those of future generations too. I am to some extent informed on sustainable development but want to know more which is why I have chosen to study ‘Learning for Sustainable Development’. There are many people who say they feel they are informed on sustainable development but I believe people do not realise just how important a topic it is. It is my duty to be informed as it’s not just the responsibility of other people to try and preserve the earth, it is my responsibility too and I can’t emphasise enough on the fact we shouldn’t take every day living for granted.

Occasionally I’ll find myself flicking through a magazine or the newspaper but the main way in which I get informed about serious issues is by watching the news on the television, listening to the news on the radio and watching documentaries. I believe it is important to not only know about events and issues we are facing today but to also know what we are to expect in the future. If we are well educated on sustainable development so we know what impact we are having on earth and how we can reduce this impact in order to preserve the planet, I believe more people will ‘try’ and live more sustainable lifestyles. At the minute though, I do not feel enough is being done to get the message across. I feel that there are loads of worldwide debates on sustainable development, most of which many people don’t hear about. I feel that most of these debates never lead to any action being taken.

It is in my opinion that complicated decisions should be left to the Government to make because it is the Government who has the power to get people to listen and potentially do something about living more sustainably. It is the Government who has the knowledge of what is and isn’t affecting our planet, it is the Government which has the ability to find out more and make it known nationally and possibly even internationally. If the Government didn’t play a huge role in trying to combat and make people more aware of the matter, then I honestly don’t think we would take into account how unsustainable the planet currently is.

‘A sustainable society needs local and central government to lead the way by consuming differently, and by planning effectively and efficiently in order to integrate sustainable practices in the services it provides to citizens, and throughout its estates and workforce’ (Lidefjard, 2009).

Despite believing that the Government should be responsible for these big decisions, I feel it is our duty as citizens to listen and to try to do as much as we can to live our lives as sustainably as possible. It’s ok that we may all contribute to recycling and turning off electrical appliances when they’re not in use, but this is not living anywhere near as sustainably as we should be and we should be encouraged and be more informed of how to improve the sustainability of our lifestyles.

References:

Lidefjard, S. (2009) The Business Magazine for a Sustainable Government: Public Sector Sustainability Under Spotlight [online]. Martin Freedman. Available from: http://www.governmentsustainability.co.uk/content/view/141/28/

Al Gore (and the IPCC) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (BBC 2007) largely for the production of the film 'An Inconvenient Truth'
The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change".

To what extent do you think this was deserved? Having watched this film in class did you feel that your opinion (or perhaps the opinion of others) to the issue of climate change could be positively influenced? What did you think of this film? Was it effective?

I believe that Al Gore deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as he had created an extremely comprehensive film that not only outlined the dramatic impact climate change is having on Earth but showed the evidence of where this is happening in many countries located all over the world. Al Gore wanted to gain a better and deeper understanding of the problems we are facing, so visited many areas around the world that are known to be suffering from global warming to see just how seriously they are being impacted. He has used his findings in his film to help explain in depth just how severe the matter is and has aimed at creating a greater awareness of the problem we are facing. It is his remarkable efforts and his devotedness on the topic that has allowed him to explain in greater detail than ever before the major issues we are currently experiencing, giving the people of today a much greater perception of how seriously the planet is suffering. Therefore I believe that Al Gore was more than worthy of winning the Nobel Peace Prize as no one has ever studied and gone into as much depth as he has to make clear how our everyday on goings are affecting the Earth at such a shocking rate.

I do feel that after watching the film, my opinion on climate change has been greatly affected. I knew that the effects of climate change were bad but didn’t have any realisation of just how bad it has got compared to a hundred years ago. After watching ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, I was overwhelmed at how significantly the Earth is being affected and to the rate at which it is being affected at. I feel that the film has positively influenced me as I would now like to do more to try and help reduce the rate at which climate change is affecting our planet. When Al Gore explained that in years to come the sea level will rise by 20ft and showed just how dreadful the effects on many countries will be, it has made me feel extremely conscious on how we are going to deal with the matter as it will have a devastating impact on millions of people’s lives. Learning that it’s not only humans that are being and going to be significantly affected but animals too, of which some may soon become extinct such as the polar bear due to the extreme rate the ice caps are melting at, I feel that not enough is being done and it shouldn’t take just one person, Al Gore, to get this message across.

I feel that Al Gore has managed to put across some very powerful and striking points that I believe will have hit home to many people. I believe that people nowadays have no concept of just how badly the Earth and its environment are suffering. It is in my opinion that people are unaware of how greatly they are contributing to the rise in climate change as they are taking their day to day actions for granted. Al Gore’s film gives a very detailed insight into the catastrophic effects the world is starting to experience of which I feel is extremely effective as he has expressed and explained a lot of very important and valuable information of how our lives are and will be affected if we continue to live the same!

Improving the Sustainability of my Lifestyle

I ‘did’ consider my lifestyle to be quite sustainable. On a daily basis I recycle everything from bottles, tins and plastics, to card and paper that I tend to get through often. I believe that studying Geography and my mother’s influences on recycling are what have made me realise the importance of recycling. I now feel very strongly on the matter. I try not to let food go to waste, I do not cook more than what I can eat, and anything left over I’ll use for another meal. Around the house I do use energy saving light bulbs and despite these not being as cheap as standard light bulbs, they do in fact last 10 times longer and are much more energy efficient.

However looking more carefully at how sustainable my lifestyle is, I have realised that it isn’t that sustainable at all. These are only a few of the many things I should be doing. Firstly I should watch how much water I am using; instead of spending 20 minutes in the shower relaxing, I theoretically only need to spend 10 minutes to get washed. An average person in the UK uses 150 litres of water a day of which I believe can be halved if people were more aware of how much they are wasting. Put into theory, it is in my opinion that water should only be used when a person needs to use it, not when they want to. For example a person may need a shower on a daily basis, this is ok but if a person washed their car yesterday and then washed it again today, this is highly unnecessary and what I believe to be a huge waste of water. They didn’t ‘need’ to wash the car, they ‘wanted’ to!

I tend to buy a lot of clothes, some of which hardly even get warn. After sitting in the wardrobe a year or two, I’ll throw them out. I never take into account that I could take my clothes to a charity shop such as Oxfam. In the past I have been known to have thrown out clothing that was in perfectly good condition. It has come to my attention that one million tonnes of clothing in the UK alone gets thrown away each year, which is shocking when we look at how many people living in poverty are struggling for decent clothing. I don’t have clothing clear-outs often, maybe once or twice a year, so it wouldn’t hurt for me to pop down to the charity shop with my unwanted belongings on those occasions.

When looking into the amount of energy I consume, I am not helping by leaving my TV and laptop on standby where they continue to consume energy. This is a bad habit and I should make more of an effort to switch them off as it’s not exactly hard to do. Not only am I wasting energy in doing this, but it does add to the electricity bill when on standby. I wouldn’t go out and leave the TV on, would you? So it won’t hurt any of us to go one step further and SWITCH THEM OFF!!

However there are some things that are preventing me to live a more sustainable lifestyle. An example being; the cold weather in the winter resorts to me using central heating. Despite putting on thick warm layers, I do find myself to be putting the thermostat up rather high. To cut my energy use, I should invest in insulating the walls and roof of my house. What’s preventing me from doing this though is the fact it can be quite costly to get this done. What I can do though to start making a difference is to turn down the thermostat this year by a degree or two, this will cut the amount of carbon dioxide emissions I am emitting. If everyone was to do this, this alone would make a huge difference, not only in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide being released but will save everyone a great deal of money.

Evaluating how sustainable my lifestyle is, I have come to the conclusion that it’s not as sustainable as I had first thought. I have realised that I take a lot for granted and there are so many things I should be doing to improve its sustainability, most of which are all easy to do!