In class we have looked at some selected articles from some newspapers related to climate change. I have also briefly (very briefly!) commented on the role of the media in shaping the opinions of the public with respect to sustainable development issues.
Most newspapers sold in the United Kingdom are tabloids. Only one broadsheet features in the top six selling newspapers of January 2009 (Audit Bureau of Circulations 2009).

so....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 does the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) have too much power and influence in this country?

The first question I find myself thinking about is what actually constitutes a 'serious' issue'? I think this is an issue based on class quite frankly as the lower class, generally, have had a poorer start in life which has ultimately resulted in a poorer education and lifestyle. Contrasting is the upper class where money has been readily available allowing for a better education and greater life chances. Therefore the thoughts and feelings of two very different individuals are going to conflict significantly. A serious issue to a lower class individual could mean who's going to get 'booted out' of the X-factor next weekend or is Katie still with Peter. The completely different side of the spectrum is a middle to upper class individual who is educated and familiarises themselves with issues such as climate change or the on-going war. Obviously the newspaper you read will depend on the definition of 'serious' for you as The Sun deal with more showbiz with things like X-Factor, I'm a Celeb and Strictly whereas a proper newspaper broadsheet style will deal with more damming matters such as current political affairs. This could be seen as propaganda in a way as what is said/isn't said provides the basis of your thoughts and feelings in regards to matters that are close to your heart. For example Dr Greg Spellman believes heavily in climate change and is very passionate about the subject. This is probably due to the fact that he has read around the subject in sophisticated newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph, which has ultimately provided the basis for his enthusiasm and eagerness.
I think it is underestimated the role of newspapers. The stories they produce are so widely distributed and generally what people read in the newspaper believe that to be the truth. The Sun being the best selling newspaper in the UK, with 3,146,000 copies sold in 2009 demonstrates that there isn't a role to do in terms of publishing important issues. Katies and Peter Andre will get a full two page spread, whereas climate change will get a cheesy bathos headline in the top left hand corner with a small paragraph talking about the possible extinction of polar bears as people that read The Sun are more interested in polar bears than the planet Earth itself. However on the whole I would say that newspapers do have a role to serve as there are issues that need addressing to the general public as at the end of the day the decisions made now ultimately mould future lives in terms of good stewardship.
Definitely in regards to does the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) have too much power and influence in this country? Watching television is a lot easier than reading a newspaper so the television immediately becomes a weapon. These television programmes are continually seeking ways to become more and more popular. For example Strictly Come Dancing wanted to appeal to the younger generation so they drafted in Alesha Dixon as an additional judge, as she is widely known as a successful female artist who is looked up to by many of the younger generation (16-25). Therefore lots of young girls that follow her avidly will agree with the statements made by her on the show and vote for the person that she has said is great. The newspapers the day after Strictly and X-Factor will be covered in interviews with Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole. The 'Jedward' story is an amazing example of how television can be so powerful. Simon Cowell is slating these guys every week saying they can't sing and he doesn't like them turning the whole entire country against them. Next week hes changed his mind he now 'likes' them (to get more viewers) the country now likes them and they become heroes in the space of a week.
So on the whole I would say shows like X-Factor and Strictly are far more appealing to many people than reading newspapers that are related to more intellectual issues such as the world wide recession. Nowadays people are more interested in showbiz as we have reached a point in time where values have been lost and the sense of what's right and wrong. In many ways this is not the people's fault, it's the government that has forgot to address the root cause. If people don't get the chances in life then the future looks bleak for many generations to come.

One of the central themes underpinning sustainable development is equality and fairness. This is reflected in the concept of 'empowered citizenship'- in that we can all make a contribution to making our community (our local area, our region, our country, our planet) a better place now and in the future.

Some important areas are quite difficult to understand. Science, economics, politics are often quite difficult to comprehend and yet are central to decisions that are made by others about our lives.

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 ?

To be knowledgable on issues that surround our everyday living is very powerful as there are important issues at present that require our up most attention, but if the attention isn't put forward, then we will suffer in one way or another. As a citizen I believe it is crucial that we are informed as our future generations depend on the decisions made now to ensure that their world is as peaceful and harmonious as ours is now. For example we need to ensure sufficient time and effort is being focused on climate research. The climate is something that is an issue most serious to us all at the moment, and with the climate everchanging we need to ensure that positive actions are being made now to ensure that the world will be sustainable for many years to come. This is linked to stewardship in that we must recognise the problems now, and take appropriate actions to ensure the world is as pleasant in 100 years time as it is now.

I personally would say I am very informed especially growing up in a day and age of outstanding communication methods. Serious issues that are arising such as the world economic crisis and the war for example are issues that we can in a way have a control on. By this I mean that we vote for a party to take control of our country and we vote for the one that suits our needs and aspirations the most. Different parties have diffrerent agendas and policies for the country and therefore it essential we understand the issues that they are in favour of or against to ensure we know exactly what we are voting for. Politicians are well educated people and often give presentations on issues such as climate change in great detail, using sophisticated language and terminology. To be able to comprehend this language it is essential that you familiarise yourself with that certain issue which can be done in a variety of different methods.

The 21st century has opened up a staggering variety of new communication methods especially in the past couple of years. Nowadays a lot of people are using mobile phones with some allowing you to connect to the internet. Iphones and Blackberry's are phones that allow such a thing and therefore allow high speed internet on the go making them ideal for people to obtain news, emails and general information found on the web. I personally have found myself looking at the news pages on the BBC website via my Blackberry as I am eager to stay informed on issues that surround my everyday life. The internet generally is a tool that I use to stay informed using a variety of websites such as the Telegraph, BBC and the Sky news homepage. Sky news is excellent as news is always breaking on their site therefore making it very up to date. As I mentioned before I use the Telegraph webpage. This has replaced the use of newspapers for me in my life as the same information is available to me on the screen where I can access the information all day everyday promptly without any trouble, and of course being very sustainable at the same time. As well I am very privledged to have a TV in my student accommodation where quite often I will have sky news on in the background, allowing the news to break through to me. With climate change being an issue that has arised in the past 10 years I have been fortunate enough to learn about the issues of climate change within the education system. This puts me at an advantage over people that are in their late 20's and over as they missed out on this important information.

There are complicated issues surrounding our lives nowadays with things such as climate change, the war and the global economic crisis. These issues require in depth knowledge that not many people in society will be qualified to address. For example the war in Afghanistan, I couldn't possibly comment on whether we should be there or not. I don't know about any of the strategies or plans that they have deployed but the chiefs do and we have to trust their knowledge and know how to ensure the casualties are minimal and we get the mission complete as soon as possible. The same applies to climate change. The scientists and professeurs collect and analyse information that they have colloborated from across the world and make predictions based on this. However the problem with this is that many scientists have different opinions on why the climate is changing. Some believe it to be a result of anthropogenic issues, whereas others see it as a result of natural change and argue the climate has always fluctuated. Therefore in this instance I think it would be wrong to trust the more qualified academics as there is no right or wrong answer, making it very open to debate. However on the whole I believe that the important decisions should be left to the Government officials who specialise in their fields as they have the knowledge and research to support the arguement.

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?


Al Gore, the man the public have become to associate the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change' with begins his efforts in combating the world's pessimistic approach on climate change. His sheer determination and reluctance has made him known throughout the world with his efforts to reduce carbon emissions, which inevitably lead to him winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, teamed with the IPCC.

Having watched 'An inconvienient truth' and reseached his background I have now changed my opinion on Gore. His well structued presentations on climate change made me realise just to what extent the problem with climate change we are actually facing. "The climate crisis is not a political issue; it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity," is a comment Gore made which I believe to be very powerful. I believe this because Gore, a Harvard graduate in Goverment who also ran for presidency in 2000, is now prepared to put his efforts of running for presidency aside, and focus his efforts on the impacts of climate change. His efforts took him all over the world to both the North and South poles, glaciers in Argentina and Peru aswell as seeing the retreat of the ice in the Himalayas. Al Gore has a great understanding of climate change mainly due to the help and guidance of his close friend Roger Revelle, who is a professor in geophysics and oceanography and was the first person to prove carbon dixoide was increasing in the Earth's atomosphere. He worked closely with his friend Revelle before making his presentations and therefore was able to collaborate various sets of data that Revelle had collected in order to present a presentation that proved that the climate is changing due to ever rising carbon dioxide emissions. The graphs he illustrated were excellent in demonstrating the significance of rising carbon dioxide emissions and temperatures. Having to use an extendable ladder to point to the top was very powerful and clearly portrayed the extent to which the problem is escalating to. Showing the carbon dixoide emissions line graph and then comparing with the temperature line graph was also very significant as there was clear correlation linking the two. Before I always thought of Gore as an environmental activist who failed to become president of the US and was campaigning for climate change for all the wrong reasons. However now I believe climate change is a real passion of his, and he has now become so focused in his efforts that he would actually turn down presidency in order to continue his campaign! This therefore has had a postive influence on me as I now know a lot more about the guy and respect him for what he is doing for humanitity. I also believe that he could of also positively influenced politicians worldwide who maybe were aware of the fact but not to the full extent that he is. This may have lead to world leaders beginning to think that maybe the problem is continuing and not going away and therefore needing to address the situation.
On the whole I think the film was extremely powerful in its purpose to highlight the problems of climate change. The use of graphics, real life video footage and graphs enables the audience to comprehend the problems in a way that is easy to relate to. Gore also included humour with in the film which I believe always helps as the audience are more enagaged and interested in what you have to say making it more effective. Therefore I would say the Nobel Peace Prize was justifiably given to Al gore as he is leading the fight against climate change.

What actions could you (in theory) undertake that would improve the 'sustainability' of your lifestyle? What might be preventing you from doing these?

Having come to university in the past three weeks, I have noticed that I am now heavily dependent on public transport mainly in the form of buses. At home however, I never use public transport as I have a car on the drive that gets me from A to B in no time what so ever! My car is still waiting for me at home in Leicester where I could easily thrash it down the M1 in little under 50 minutes and use it to get University everyday as I live about 20 minutes walk away from Park campus.
This however would be very unsustainable of me. Therefore to further improve the sustainability of my lifestyle I have decided to in fact sell the car and to continue using the free/cheap public transport around Northampton. There is absolutely nothing preventing me from doing this as to get home I can simply jump on the X7 bus and be home within 2 hours. To get to Uni I will continue to walk up that very long road or even get on a free bus.

As mentioned before I live in a house with seven other people. The bills are not included in the rent per week. This as a result has lead to us all needing to switch electrical devices off at the wall instead of leaving them on standby. Therefore before I go out I need to remember to switch the plug off that is connected to an extension cable which is connected to the TV, Xbox, printer and laptop. All of the mentioned electrical items use lots of electricity which will account for larger bills if not turned off properly. If all seven of us are guilty of not switching electrical items off when finished, we will inevitably be paying a much higher cost in the future both economically and environmentally. Of course doing this on an individual level will have relatively no effect on the sustainability of my life, but as a team effort we can help to reduce our bill size and also the amount of fossil fuels needed to be burnt in order to create the energy in the first place.

Whilst doing my shopping at Asda, which is only a five minute walk away, I must deeply consider the implications of my actions. For example when picking food for snacks I must steer clear of crisps & chocolate and the usual 'junk food' and steer more towards the healthier fruits. This will ensure that I acquire sufficient vitamins for development and also to ensure that I can sustain a healthy and prosperous life. Another example is the 'ready made meals' which seem all so tempting. A chicken madras for £1 = excellent. However the implications of eating these types of meals on a regular basis will be severe in terms of my health. This would have devastating complications on my sporting life as I would struggle for energy as these meals don't always contain the vital nutrition required. Therefore I will cook pasta, rice or potatoes with at least two vegetables with a piece of meat usually in the form of sausages or beef mince. This way I am obtaining the vital nutrients needed to maintain a healthy life now and in many years time when I will need it most.
There is absolutely nothing preventing me from acquiring this lifestyle, apart from a little bit more expenditure per week as £1 for a readymade meal is hard to beat. However the nutrition simply isn't there so the extra bit of money spent per week is money well spent if you ask me!