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Ethics in journalism
Media and how it portrays the environment
Ethics in journalism
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Media Portrayal of Environmental Risk: Dissemination or Delusion?
Transmission of ideas and information through media avenues like television and the press are the predominant means by which much of contemporary culture and the developed world obtain vital information. The media has an enormous impact on the public’s conceptualization of ideals: societal perceptions are shaped by the information made available to us through the different venues of media. Examining how the transmittal of information regarding environmental risk is disseminated by the media and accepted by society exposes an evident quandary.
The media repeatedly broadcasts data that instead of informing people with beneficial news adversely invokes situations of tumult and unnecessary fear. Ramifications of the fictitious diffusion of information about environmental risks, or non-risks, to society include more than just the proliferation of misinformation. Circulation of wrongful environmental risk data has detrimental effects on businesses, industry and economy. Misinforming people about environmental risk undermines policies and government actions that are based on media hype or contentious scientific information. Abating the problematic and detrimental tendency of media misconstruing information about environmental risks will require a multifaceted collaboration between the media, the public, government and the scientific community.
A problem complicating environmental policy and risk reporting is largely attributable to media players, politicians and scientists overstepping their boundaries into realms they are not qualified to operate in. Scientists must avoid getting involved in the environmental policy debate. Conversely, politicians must not attempt to reason on scientifically sensitive issues as if they are scientists.
Risk is defined as the severity of the consequences of an accident or a hazard like a toxin multiplied by the probability of its occurrence. Risks will exist indefinitely however we attempt to reduce risk by either reducing the probability or severity of the hazard. (Bahr, 1997) People must learn, including the media, to “balance the risks and thus steer a safe course through the potential minefield known as life”. The process by which people perceive risk is dependent on what knowledge they attain and what information is made available. (Neely, 1994)
Thus th...
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RISK: Health, Safety & Environment, Franklin Pierce Law Center. Retrieved March 20, 2005 from http://www.piercelaw.edu/risk/vol5/summer/friedman.htm
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Environment Writer, 7 (2) Retrieved on April 19, 2005, from http://www.nsc.org/ehc/ew/issues/ew95may.htm#schneider
Throughout the risk assessment process, ideas for action were identified and documented. The documentation of these ideas led to the development of potential action item worksheets which were then selected, prioritized, and refined. Detailed risk assessment information for each hazard is included and located through this document.
...nerations” if things go unregulated. Fortunately science provides policy makers with the information needed to make informed regulations to benefit the future. It seems that environmentalism is becoming the stewardship of the Earth.
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
Edna Pontellier’s character in The Awakening has been the source of the novel’s controversial assessment by critics since it’s publication in 1899. The author, Kate Chopin, officially began writing in 1885 and composed novels that challenged the many conflicting social standards in that time period. The late 1800s, predominantly known for the Industrial Revolution, served as a beacon of opportunity for women during this era. Chopin wrote The Awakening to be used as an instrument to eradicate the accepted impression of gender roles in society: women are more than submissive tools to their oppressive counterparts in this masculine dominated world. Chopin’s ideology originated from the lessons and wisdom of her great-grandmother who encouraged her to read unconventional concepts: women were capable of obtaining and maintaining a successful career as well as a thriving family and social life. Although The Awakening was widely banned and condemned in national presses, critics cannot deny the underlying theme of sexism and its effect on gender roles. Some critics even suggest there is a distinct correlation between Edna’s character and Chopin herself. According to critics, Kate Chopin encumbers The Awakening with incidents of a single woman's hunger for personal and sexual identity as a mechanism to display Edna Pontellier’s deviations from societal standards.
Society of the 19th century gave a heightened meaning to what it meant to be a women. According to the commonly known “code of true womanhood” women are supposed to be docile, domestic creations whose main concerns in life were to be raising children and submissiveness to their husbands. In the book The Awakening written by Kate Chopin; introduces the protagonist, Edna Pontellier a rebellious twenty-eight year old woman who is dissatisfied with the role of being a wife and mother, a woman who desires independence and sexual freedom. She soon discovers she doesn’t quite fit into the role that has been given to her. Through the use of symbolism, imagery, and irony. Chopin exposes expectations for women in order to be accepted during the Victorian
Feminism has been a term used by many authors and writers for centuries, symbolizing women being able to use freedom the way they want to use it, not the way others want them to use it. With Edna Pontellier, the main character in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, she experiences an “awakening” in her life where she discovers her position in the universe and goes in her direction instead of what others like her husband Leonce tell her to take, similar to the style of feminism. “In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her,” (pg. 14). Chopin’s novel, published in 1899, received criticism and controversy because
Alder is the founder of the Individual Psychology Therapy. This theory is developed from Freud’s psychodynamic theory and is considered one of the three major contributors to psychodynamic therapies. The beginning of the 20th century, the Adlerian therapy is a type of psychoanalysis known as the Individual Psychology therapy (IP), broke free from the Freudian school as a result rejecting Freud’s driven view of human nature. Adlerians have a calculated view of human nature. The terms Individual Psychology and Adlerian Psychology are interchangeable throughout this paper. Many other individuals have contributed to the Individual Psychology Theory. Alfred Adler’s development of the Individual Psychology therapy is a theory composed of personality and maladjustments (Watts, 2015). The medical model orientation to
Kate Chopin’s short novel, The Awakening, was published in 1899, five years before her death. The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier as she navigates through the summer and fall of her twenty-eighth year. She learns to swim, engages in two extramarital affairs, moves out of her husband’s house, and, upon hearing of her lover, Robert’s rejection, she drowns herself. For over fifty years, The Awakening has been heralded as a deeply feminist text. Chopin destabilizes traditional family values and puts a woman in a position of sexual power and quasi-liberation. The feminism of this text is complicated by Edna’s final action. Edna’s inability to continue living after being rejected by Robert would indicate a feminine dependence on a masculine figure,
“The Awakening is…an excruciatingly exact dissection of the ways in which society distorts a woman’s true nature” (Wolff). As stated by literary critic Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, portrays Edna Pontellier’s awakening and the reality of what it was like to be a woman living in the 1800s. Edna spends her summer in Grand Isle where she is confronted by a Creole society which she has never experienced before. As the summer ends, Edna finds herself questioning her sexual and artistic nature, parts of herself that she had abandoned after getting married. Edna is constantly pressured by her friends, her husband, and her lovers to conform to what each of them, or otherwise known as society, expects of her. Edna fails to find a way of pleasing everyone, which leads her to a rude awakening in the sea. Edna’s awakening poses the
The theory of feminism encompasses the fields of sociology, economics, anthropology, and philosophy. The theory focuses on the study of gender inequality and the understanding of power relations, sexuality, and gender politics. With this we can further explain the differences in economic standings of men and women in the workplace and overall net worth. We can also further delve into sociological impacts of feminism and how it shines light on social problems, issues and trends that can be overlooked or misidentified by the generally male dominated perspective. The problem with the feminist theory is that many people believe that it focuses on promoting women superiority which is incorrect. The feminist theory at its core is equality of women. This can mean economically and socially. What the theory wants is a way to illuminate the forces that create and support inequality, injustice, and oppression. Promotion of the pursuit of equality and
When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.
Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story about a well to do young woman, Edna Pontellier, who lives with her family in Louisiana during the late 1890’s. Set in a variety of scenes, it follows Edna as she engages on a personal journey of increasing autonomy, continually seeking both greater happiness and greater personal independence in the hope of leading a more meaningful and fulfilling life. In so doing, the novel portrays societal expectations for women in the post-war South during the late 1800’s, and shows the difficulties they faced if they refused to conform. The place of women in society can be seen in the way that the women in the novel act and speak, particularly in regards to their husbands and children, but also to others in general.
It has been said that “Society has always defined for us what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a man should be like and what a woman should be like, and these traditional definitions of gender roles have limited and even harmed individuals”. The theme of sexual politics comes to mind for this quote. One can define sexual politics as the relationship of the sexes, male and female regarding power. Society’s definition of this can limit an individual in their gender role and restrain a person to not be themselves.
For these reasons, global warming stands as one of the most daunting policy issues facing our world today. This is compounded by the debate over the very existence of climate change. While countless sources of empirical evidence testify to the very real presence of climate change the world over, considerable denial of the phenomenon still exists. The argument has been made that evidence about climate change is a gross overstatement, or in some cases, a complete fabrication. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many interest groups with considerable political clout have successfully perpetuated the argument that documented changes in the environment are a product of natural cyclical changes in climate, and are not associated with human activities. However, even the acceptance of this particular brand of reality is no grounds for the disregard of environmental consciousness. Even if one accepts the premise that recent climate change is not resultant of human activity, the rationale behind environmental conservation remains ...
ABSTRACT : The term paper majorly talks about the two basic concepts of sex and gender of sociology in detail. The paper majorly tries to look into the social construction of gender and how much fluid it can be, focusing on the roles the category of gender plays in maintain the social. On the other hand I will also try and question the rigidity of the whole idea of sex in our society. Is sex biologically bipolar as male or female or for say third sex..? is there something more to it. Can sex too be a socially constructed idea, or natural phenomena the way we see it…?