In my opinion I would like to think that I am reasonably informed on most things, although by far I could not say that I am totally informed on everything. I think it would be something of a challenge to be completely informed on absolutely everything.
The main ways in which I become informed about serious issues is by the media in the form of television, radio, internet and newspaper. However it is recently becoming more controversially disputed that a lot of what we hear in the media is twisted and manipulated to give us a sense of fear.
I am torn on whether we should leave complicated issues to others. For example, should we leave the scientific decisions to the scientists? Should we leave the political decisions to politicians? Should we leave the economic decisions to the accountants and economists?"Imagine a world where our knowledge of the world’s problems and issues are
controlled by one body. Where we only know only what this body lets us see. What
if they abused this power, withheld truth and manipulated to sway public
opinion. Well that world is the world we live in now, and the body I am talking
about is the media."
For part I want to say YES, we should leave these decisions to these people because they have a lot more knowledge, training and experience in and with dealing with these matters when compared to everyday members of the public.
Although I do also think that NO! we should not leave the decisions to these people. I think this for many reasons; firstly taking into account recent event over the last few months with regard to the "Expenses scandal" concerning a lot of politicians who have put in claims for money for making changes to their second homes and purchase of a range of products to their expenses allowances. This has been a long and on-going process for the last few years; starting in January 2005 when...
....The Freedom of Information Act 2000 comes into effect. Requests for details
of MPs' expenses are filed soon afterwards by
campaigner Heather Brooke, reporter Jon Ungoed-Thomas and The Sunday
Telegraph's
Ben Leapman.
This is what has happened since the requests were made using the Freedom of Information Act 2000...
-2006: July - Parliament complies with the Information Commissioner's request to view data.
-22 January 2008 - The House of Commons is ordered by the Information Commissioner to release a detailed breakdown of expenses claimed by six MPs including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair.
-13 March - Publication of the so-called ''John Lewis list'' reveals that MPs are allowed to claim up to £10,000 for a new kitchen, more than £6,000 for a bathroom and £750 for a television on "Parliamentary allowances".
-21 April - Mr Brown uses a video on YouTube to announce proposals for reform, including scrapping the second home allowance and replacing it with a flat-rate attendance fee.
-8 May - The Daily Telegraph prints the first in a series of extracts from leaked computer discs containing the Commons' authorities documentation of MPs' second home claims.
-Over the next few weeks, daily reports in the paper put the spotlight on dozens of different MPs, revealing practices such as ''flipping'' homes to maximise claims and the avoidance of capital gains tax by changing the designation of second homes.
-18 June - MPs' expenses claims are published by the House of Commons, with many details blacked out.
-1 November - Commons Leader Harriet Harman says it would not be ''fair'' to force MPs to sack their husbands and wives, following reports that Sir Christopher will recommend a ban on using taxpayers' money to employ spouses.
The back the argument further, you could also take into account about the cause of the 'RECESSION' that we are still in, and have been for over a year.
"A recession occurs when there is a fall in economic growth for two consecutive
quarters. However if growth is very low there will be increased spare capacity
and increased unemployment; people will feel there is a recession. This is
sometimes known as a growth recession". (http://www.economicshelp.org/macroeconomics/economic-growth/cause-recession2.html)WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS?
References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6499657/MPs-expenses-scandal-a-timeline.html
What role do you think education in school/college should take in helping us to think about serious issues? Do we learn enough about the issues facing us as citizens?
ReplyDeleteWhat role do I think education in school/college should take in helping us to think about serious issues?
ReplyDeleteI think that more could be done in the way of education by addressing serious issues not only in schools and colleges, but also in youth group/organisations and activity/recreational centres and many other locations. One way this could be implemented is if it was taught as or made part of the national curriculum. This could obviously create a little difficulty in timetables and perhaps be quite controversial, although people need to know. If people knew more about these serious issues and actually understood them properly then perhaps people would do more and make more of an effort to do something to change things and to try to stop the issues being as serious.
Do we learn enough about the issues facing us as citizens?
Very good question. In my opinion I say NO. I think that a lot of what we hear and sometimes believe about some issues and in this case also some serious isses can be influenced and even manipulated by and through the media. This is because the main way that people find out information today about world events is through the media (in the form of t.v, radio, on the internet, etc.). However as a result of this it has given the media potentially a lot of power and enabled them to 'spin' stories and tell them in a way to give the reader/viewer a certain impression of that situation; which may sometimes be very different from what actually happened.
Although you could look at it the other way and say that people are to quick to believe things they are told by people and in the media. Perhaps it is just that people accept what is being told to them too quickly. Maybe they need to question things more rather than taking things at face value straight away.
Just a tad long winded but some good points were made!
ReplyDelete