The media - The true downfall of our society

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?

There is no doubt that the best selling newspapers in the UK pay very little attention to issues that would be classed as serious to any truly intellectual individual. The best selling newspaper in the UK, The Sun, is a prime example of this as most of the stories tend to be focused around gossip or celebrities. I find this dissapointing as this links directly to the last blog post of being informed of serious issues. Newspapers such as The Sun tend to ignore these serious issues due to the fact again that its target audience would find the issues tedious and hard to understand and above all not that enthralling to read. Most people who buy newspapers such as The Sun do not buy it because of its intellectual properties, they buy it to catch up on the gossip of the day or the week.

As for the role of the best selling UK newspapers producing articles or stories related to serious issues it is now becoming less and less of their role. For tabloid newspapers their main aim is to sell as many copies as possible and the modern day society is becoming less interested with important issues such as politics, the economy and the environment. I believe that in the near future, this pattern will continue and newspapers such as The Sun will keep selling more copies and the sale of broadsheet papers will decrease.

Low budget entertainment shows such as reality and soaps

Reality TV shows such as Big Brother and Im a celebrity get me out of here are truly just distractions from reality completely. Shows such as this have nothing to do with serious issues at all and in my opinion are only on because of the money that they generate, because of the power and influence that programs such as this have over the country, the viewing ratings for them sky rocket every time they are on each year. This means that annually these programs will be broadcasted every night for an extended period of time with the producers in the know that they will make big money from the viewing.

Soaps are also a major distraction from serious issues with many of the episodes having a storyline that is unrealistic leaving viewers constantly wondering what will happen in the next episode. Due to this, people will continue watching every episode to 'catch up' on what is happening in their fictional place? Yeah...... enough said! Whilst im on the subject of reality TV shows, next weekend, pick up the phone.... OLLY MURS TO WIN THE X FACTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These sorts of programmes have way too much control over people in the UK and undoubtedly distract people from the serious issues that are needed to be put across to the members of the public. The tabloid newspapers are also not at all doing the correct thing in filling their pages with celebrity gossip but in their eyes they ARE doing the correct thing because they are selling more papers and therefore making more money. I feel that in the future the media will keep insisting on destroying the minds of the public with the main intention of money making, the serious issues will be slowly forgotton about.