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?


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).
1. The Sun 3,146,000
2. The Daily Mail 2,200,398
3. The Daily Mirror 1,366,891
4. The Daily Telegraph 783,210
5. The Daily Star 768,534
6. The Daily Mirror 736,340

Before going deep in the question we truly need to understand the differences between both newspaper type, Tabloids and Broadsheets.


The tabloids
consits numerous newspapers such as
The Sun
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mail
The Daily Star
The Daily Express

Tabloids use lots of pictures
They have short news items.
They write in short sentences - like this.
They focus on celebrity gossip
They give lots of space to scandal and sport
Tabloid newspapers often adopt a written style which is casual and chatty.
They are aimed at a younger audience.
They assume that people know about film and TV stars, sports personalities, and the rich and famous.
They usually illustrate their stories with eye-catching headlines, pictures, and captions.
They are very fond of using Slangs, alliteration and puns in their writing. Here's a typical tabloid headline: 'BOMB BOY BLASTS BEACH BUMS'

BROADSHEETS:

The Guardian
The Times
The Daily Telegraph
The Independent
The Financial Times

Broadsheets use more text than pictures.

Their stories can sometimes be quite long - something they call 'in depth reportage
They treat their subjects more seriously, and they present their information in a style which uses more complex language and longer sentences - like this one
Broadsheet newspapers generally aim to be more factual and objective in the way they cover the news.
They pay more attention to politics, government, and international affairs - rather than to scandal and showbiz news.
However, they usually reflect the views of the people who own them

Now that the difference between both Newspapers are clear, one can start answering the question provided.To be honest I'm not surprised that the best selling Newspapers will be all 5Tabloids, not even one broadsheet. This shows how citizens feel about the society we live in. We all say we care and should be the highly power duty to inform us as citizens any important issue yet we contradict ourselves by giving into the gossip and entertainment world rather finding out what tomorrow brings. To be honest I am not the to criticize others as i also pay very very little attention to Broadsheets and instead sit with a cuppa while reading about Katie Price and Peter Andre relationship status in The Sun.

This is a terrible lifestyle to live, and one shouldn't continue this way as we are not allowing our self to be informed and instead we pay all attention to celebrities lifestyles and what rather wanting to find out what they spent their millions on. Although individuals are not necessary to take all blame, the blame also goes to the Tabloids industry. They have the right to inform us on serious issues, as they seem to do it well when delivering gossips so therefore delivering serious issues such as Climate change and sustainable development shouldn't be difficult. Although people seem to have made it loud and clear that they prefer to read about Jordon's personal outgoings and rather why it will rain snow tomorrow rather than rain seem to bother me slightly and YES i blame the newspapers. I believe the newspapers especially The Sun to use their popularity to their advantage by believing more serious issues to their papers and maybe this will change people attitude to the topic Sustainable Development. This would be a brilliant idea, as readers will still have their gossips to read and at the same time they will have no choice not to avoid serious topics such as climate change etc if it was included in the paper.

However some Tabloids do encourage serious topics in their newspapers but not as much as celebrity lifestyle. And maybe that's why there's a difference between Tabloids and Broadsheet. But realistically you will not catch me buying any BROADSHEET newspaper, NEVER.. maybe when I'm older and rich. [lol]. Exactly my point, due to stereotypically labelling we have labelled who exactly buys broadsheets and Tabloids. Broadsheets are mostly brought by Business woman/man, politicians, rich people etc all which you can judge yourself when sitting on the tube. I believe this had made it more difficult for my age group and myself to go out and buy any Broadsheet newspaper as we don't fall under any of the above. The Sun is probably one of many Tabloid newspaper that's mostly criticised for not relating to serious issues but when it does talk about serious issues the headlines can easily be taken as a joke and readers immediately see a serious issue turn into a joke of a day. This is why some individual are aware of serious issues such as Sustainable Development but rather do nothing about it or they are not well educated on the area to do anything about it. Whereas the The Telegraph on the other hand only contains serious issues/topic that the world is facing allowing its context to be exact, enlightened with in depth information and its headline is no joking matter.

VS The difference is clear as you can see The Sun front page can be taking as a joke whereas The Telegraph is more focusing on a serious issue. As mentioned above I believe all Newspapers should be able to educate their readers on serious issues/topics. We all have the rights to know what tomorrow brings.

In my opinion i believe that the tabloid media and 'low budget entertainment' (reality shows, soaps) do hold power and influence in this country as they are seem to be nothing but distractions to individuals allowing them to be blind on serious issues such as Sustainable development. Nearly everyone owns a TV in their household, might not have Sky, or Virgin or even a free view box but everyone can own a TV and watch TV, paying the pound store and getting Ariel only worth £1 allows anyone to get their hands on TV and are able to access at least Channels one to five, in which you can watch the highly demand TV shows from such as East Enders [Channel 1], X-Factor [ITV 3] etc. My point is due to TV in demand TV producers are been pressured to deliver nothing but the best and only show what will sell. Making a series in East Enders about Phil becoming more sustainable will not make the producers money but instead another TV show will be making more money than them, all this is due to Viewers demand. The viewers have demanded to have more Tabloid media been sold to them and also low budget entertainment to be shown to them.

Yes I believe that there should be more documentary on serious issues such as Sustainable Development and people shouldn't just rely on News. I believe that there's way in which people can get educated and this could be maybe showing short 20seconds series on the way the world is and how it can be sustainable, and within this series it should be interesting and maybe getting highly respected celebrities to get involve. But the question is will this be enough or will this actually work and are people just ignorant and not wanting to know what tomorrow brings.

Yes X-Factor and other Low budget entertainment are almost been transferred to God's and Thrown. Everyone bow down to it and due to high technology you can easily record the show and watch later. This is helping TV producers become highly powered in the TV industry and we are giving them the chance to do so.

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?

"YESS" I should be informed. I peronally believe that Sustainable Development is a very important issue that should be acknowledged and others should start educating one and other about.

As a citizen it is our duty to be informed on the outgoings actions taking place in the society we live in. We all have the right to know what will occur tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or infact what will happen in the next few hours. Sustainable Development as a issue has been around for quite a while now, and it has informed lots of people through newspapers, tv, radio stations and other media distributions but it has failed to inform everyone such as myself. Although i sometimes see articles about Recylcing and climate change i always seem to look past it and find my attention diverted to Kate and Pete lifestyle. Luckly for the fact that i'm studying Learning for sustainable development as a module i woudn't have been educated deeply as i am now on the importance of Sustainable Development.

To a personal extent i do feel that i am informed on deep and serious issues because i allow myself to be. Watching particular news channel 'Sky News' which i favor greatly only because the news reporters to me seem passionate on delivering the news and not reporting because they are payed to. I tend to read people body laungage and facial expressions and the News reporters on Sky news never seem to fail me on their bubbly characteristics. Sky news is also a great interactive channel were your allowed as an audience to share your own views on a particular topic. I'm also informed through my favourite newspaper 'Metro', not because its a free newspaper but because of its layout the way the information are been allocated specifically. Metro newspaper without a doubt seemed to be the only newspaper were i have gatherd some background knowledge on the issue Sustainable development. Other newspapers seemed to have failed on updating me on the issue of climate change and capture my interest on the topic in whole. However i do believe i am been informed about sustainable development through various methods but the main method that stood out strongly would be through education. Watching Al gore film for an example was the best way to enlighten my interest on the topic although the film can be categorised as been boring i saw the film in a different representation, the film educated me greatly and widen my interest on knowing more about the issue.

Recyling is one of many contributions that citizens can get involve with in helping making the world a more sustainable enevironment. And i believe that citizens are been informed through this way of living on the topic sustainable development. Recyling is not only informed to adults kids from the age of 5 onwards seem to have captured the reasons why Recyling is good. To me this is a good start for the society we live in as the next genereations will hopefully be more sustainable.

However i disagree on the idea that individuals MUST do something in order for a change to take place, I believe that we all have the right to make decisions although actins need to be made i don't believe that we are entirely to blame.

"NO" we should not leave the complicated decisions to others, as a citizens we have the rights to make decisions too. If the issue revolves on our lifestyle then we should be informed first and also be invited on decision making. Only makes the world we live in a better place and forming unity.