1587544132500Notes for P7, P8 and M4. How media reporting can impact on citizens and public services by using examples of current affairs.Gov policies P4, P5, M3. The impact of a government policy-3429024193500and the response of society to this.Mark Duggan/England riots. On Thursday the 4th of August 2011 Mark Duggan, aged 29, was shot dead by police in Ferry Lane in Tottenham.
Mark Duggan was a passenger in a taxi when the police followed him. Mark Duggan’s death happed during an operation where firearm officers and officers from Operation Trident were trying to arrest him. Operation Trident is the unit that deals with gun crime in the African and Caribbean communities. Operation Trident is a unit within the Metropolitan Police, which helps officers in local police stations investigate shootings and collect information from across the capital on believed gunmen, firearms suppliers and gun converters. The Policy that relates to this is the knife, gun and gang crime. The knife, gun and gang crime policy impacted the police because they had to increase the force on certain objects, like zombie knives.
These are knives that can be up to 25 inches long and can be promoted by certain television programs and these promote violence. This is due to amendment to the criminal justice act 1988. The police recorded 36,998 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the latest year ending June 2017 according to Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics.
This is a reason why the policy is important to the public services, it will hopefully decrease this statistic because of the policy now being in place. Another public service that will benefit from this policy is the ambulance service, this will be indirectly thought, this is because if there is no use of knives and guns then there are going to be less injuries, this will lower the pressure on the NHS and the paramedics. This helps reduce the amount of money and time used for these unnecessary injuries. According to the daily mail, gun and knife crime injuries are costing the NHS a staggering £3million every year.The knife, gun and gang crime affects society because they are taking dangerous weapons of the market and making it harder for them to be sold. If these weapons are not sold, then it makes the society allot safer because if no one can get their hands on them then they cannot be used in a criminal way.
Another way the knife, gun and gang crime affects society is that there is less likely going to be gang violence because the government are creating was for the public services to stop them. An example of this would-be Operation Trident.After the riots in August 2011 across cities in England, the Prime Minister (David Cameron) asked the Home Secretary (Theresa may) to make a review into the problems of gangs and gang violence. There were a few reasons why the riots started but the catalyst for it all was the shooting of Mr Duggan.
The other reasons were forced austerity by the government, poor police response and believed Racial profiling. On Saturday the 6th of August 2011 About 300 people gather outside Tottenham police station after marching from the Broadwater Farm estate. Witnesses say the 300 participates gathered wanted “justice” for Mr Duggan and his family. People there say that the protest begins peacefully. The England riots affected the public services because all the services had to be called out during this period. The police were there to try can create order and protect everyone.
The fire services were called out because the rioters were destroying properties all over the area. The fire service had to pick the worst places because there were cuts to emergency services because of the Mayor of London and the Coalition Government. These cuts meant that the efficiency of the public services were severely decreased because they don’t have the man power to cover all the areas that were effected by the England riots especially the London riots.
Another way the England riots affected the public services was that they received immense criticism, especially the police, one article says that ‘Police faced severe criticism as it appeared they had lost control in some areas on Monday night. But faced with criticism that not enough officers were on the streets, the Met defended its operation, saying there were 2,500 public order officers in addition to 3,500 officers in boroughs who were on duty.’- direct quote from the guardian. This shows that the riots did not just directly affect the police, but also indirectly through the use of media.
They were not only being assaulted in streets trying to protect the public, the media decided that all the police officers didn’t do a good enough job so they wrote bout it in the news.There are lot so of several types of media. These could be magazines, television, newspapers, radio and the internet.
The media plays a massive role when it comes to judgements being formed about certain events. On the BBC website they give a detailed time line on the death of Mark Duggan and what occurred and on what days following the shooting, this gives the public everything they need to know when something major happens involving the public services. The BBC gives an unbias view on what’s happened and only reports on the facts. This affects the citizens because it allows them to make their own opinions rather than being influenced by the media.
There has always been a certain idea the there’s been discrimination in society and in the public services because of people’s ethnicity. This is because it’s been found that 67 per cent of those caught by police for gun crimes were black. This increases the risk of these people being stopped and searched by police.
Society believes that the police can discriminate on people just because they have the power to stop someone in the street and ask them some questions. The media doesn’t help with this either because they always report on something that will sell, rather than worrying about the consequences to services that are ‘gossiping’ about. If someone had the choice to read something where the police helped someone or if they killed someone, the majority will pick the one where the police have killed someone. This is usually because the services jobs are to protect the public and if they don’t, they want to find out what’s happened and why.
The England riots affected the public services so much that the metropolitan police had to call for extra officers from around the country. This encourages people who believe the police wasn’t handling this situation correctly. This is because if they had to call for more officers the met police were not able to handle the riots correctly then how were they supposed to handle the stopping and death of Mr Duggan. one article from the mail online reads “Police and politicians play the riot blame game: War of words as both sides say the other was ‘ineffective’.” Or “Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest.” These both show bias because they are not keeping the article based on facts. They are making judgment on who were to blame, and the public services got most of it.
All the media coverage allows the public to fully understand the situation and it also allows the parties involved to give their version of events, if this did not happened then citizens of London will be getting worried as they don’t know what has happened and might cause another riot like the death of Mr Duggan did in the first place. If the police had given a clear concise statement then the public wouldn’t be demanding more answers, citizens must be assured that anything involving a death must be legal and the right course of action. In doing so, the public are going to respect and listen to the UPS a lot more if they are doing what’s best for everyone’s safety.The way the media portrays the case of mark Duggan and the England riots in various ways throughout the media, some say the cause was government cuts, some say it was police misconduct and some say it was racial profiling. Overall, I personally believe the police got such negative publicity because of the clouded reports and I believe if they had realised an official statement quicker than they did I think the riots wouldn’t have been so bad.References.* as well as notes taken in class.http://www.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025243/London-riots-2011-Police-politicians-play-blame-game.html#ixzz51hMJYeoa www.bbc.co.
uk/news/uk-england-london-14842416 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5342246.stm https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/knife-gun-and-gang-crime https://www.gov.
uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-knife-gun-and-gang-crime/2010-to-2015-government-policy-knife-gun-and-gang-crime https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/04/a-moment-that-changed-me-london-riots-2011 http://www.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1290047/Metropolitan-Police-crime-statistics-reveal-violent-criminals-black–victims.html#ixzz51hScMxCNhttps://www.london.gov.uk/motions/emergency-services-cuts http://www.dailymail.
co.uk/news/article-1040214/How-soaring-gun-knife-injuries-costing-NHS-3million-year.html#ixzz52SsEVMEZ Grenfell fire.P7On the Wednesday 14 June a tragic fire started in a block of flats in London.
The fire was caused by a fridge freezer in the fourth floor in the tower block. The fire was reported at just before 1am in the 24-storey block in North Kensington which involved 40 fire engines and more than 200 firefighters trying to control the fire. The fire did not start deliberately. London Ambulance Service sent a hazardous response team as well as regular fire fighters.
Police begin evacuating residents after being sent to the scene. 40 fire engines and more than 200 firefighters were also sent. P8 + M4Firefighters were the main focus of the media, even though the ambulance and police were also present.
An example of this would be the online news article written in the evening standard. “Grenfell Tower firefighters describe heroic rescues…
and one heart-breaking decision on who to save”. This show positivity towards the fire fighters because the media reports on how the tragedy involved the public services in a positive way. The word heroic shows that what the fire services did influenced everyone to call them heroes, but if you save so many people from a burning building, risking your life to save others, you deserve this title. According to buildings floor plans there were around 24 people per floor and 24 floors, this means there could’ve been just under 600 people in the building at the time of the blaze. This is why the media chose to report the UPS in a positive way because it effects the moral of the community affected as well because if the UPS did all that they could then the public should be able to see that. Another way media has affected the UPS is that the panorama tv program about the Grenfell tower fire it shows the first-hand experience of the fire service and the police. The program shows the fire service running in to the building with the police riot shields over their heads to try and stop the debris falling on them. An interview within this same program with Matt Wrack who, is the general secretary of the fire brigade’s union, saying that normal procedures were broken, normal safety rules were broken.
This was because that fire fighters wanted to save lives, even if this meant risking their own lives. This was shown very clearly in this program. It also shows how it affects the UPS. They were affected in another positive way because it shows how willing they were to carry out was their duties as a statutory service. The way media reported on the event affected citizens because it brought to light issues that local government wasn’t addressing. These were things like there was no official help when donating items to the affected residents, there was only volunteer groups. Another question raised was that in 2013 there was going to a review of the safety regulations but that never happened. They also wanted answered as to why the council didn’t listen to them when they waned them that their building was unsafe.
In the panorama episode it shows the protests where the local community gathered outside the local council building and demanded answers. If the media didn’t report as the reasons why the fire started and spread so quickly I don’t think the local area would’ve found out the local government was to blame. The media played such a significant role when wanting answers because they got interviews with the landlord of the building and asked him the question the public needed answers too. Panorama video https://www.bbc.
co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08x1tss/panorama-london-tower-fire-britains-shame.Another way the media affects citizens is the use of social media. Social media affected citizens because people who live near by the tower took to twitter to make false accusations saying the fire service took 2 hours to arrive at the scene but in actual fact it only took them 6 minutes. This affects the citizens because if people believe what they see on social media platforms then they could get a false feeling of anger towards the UPS, even though they were doing the best they could. This is shown in the news article www.
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/grenfell-tower-where-were-firefighters-13187982. If people believe social media then this could also give the local community no hope when searching for loved ones or friends. This is because they believe the fire had no chance of being put out before 2 hours in. This is a negative effect on citizens because it decreases their moral when they need it the most. This also affects the UPS because they could be get harassed saying they didn’t get there quick enough and its all their fault. This is how social media can affect the UPS.
It can give false account of real life incidents and in the eye of the public it could give them an negative view. The media has the effects on public services of the way it is reported in media because every day fighter fighters all called out to jobs but no many of this scale. I think the UPS got represented in a positive way in the media because of the amount of people who made it out safely compared to people who wasn’t as fortunate. If the death toll had have been much higher, then the media would’ve reported it in such a different way.
P4 + M3The policy that is involved in the Grenfell fire is The Building Regulations 2010. This states that there should be changes to materials if they don’t comply to the policy, the construction or extension of a building, work required by regulation 6 (requirements relating to material change of use). This relates to the Grenfell tower fire because the materials only had to meet the Class O’ regulations, this means that they measure the spread of flame along the surface vertically and the performance of a material in the early stages of a fire and the materials ignition characteristics. The type of cladding used was a PIR foam. Grenfell Tower was encased in panels made up of aluminium sheets with a polyethylene core, which melts and burns at extreme temperatures. However, the foam does contain fire retardants, but the small-scale tests and do not reflect results under real fire conditions. Fire safety expert Arnold Tarling said: “It’s like cladding your home in solid petrol. Polyethylene has become widespread because it is cheap and durable.
Although it can be treated to make it less flammable, the added cost means this is often not done. If the building regulation policy stated that the use of combustible cladding, like the one used in Grenfell, must not be used then it could’ve save the firefighters and police officers so much valuable time when dealing with the blaze. If the sprinklers had been installed firefighters might have been able to reach the top floors of the building, this would’ve helped the fire service save everyone’s lives rather than just the lower floors. This impacted the public services because it made their job all that harder, there job was tough anyway because it’s a 24-story tower block with family’s, children and pets in there. If the policy had have been clear in the first place, then it would’ve saved so the UPS so much time and the services were in the middle of government cuts so they also had decreased ‘man power’.The tower itself had a few building flaws, one of them was that the building only had one staircase out of the building. This means that over 200 firefighters were at the scene and they couldn’t all help because on the one stair case in the building. If they policy had been looked at like the government had promised in 2013 than it would’ve improved the chance of everyone getting out of the building.
Not just the people of the lower floors. This also impacted the police when trying to account for everyone coming out the building because if there’s only one way out of the building then they are going to keep their eyes open for certain individuals coming out of the building. This made their job so much harder because just under 600 people live in this tower block, so they must try and keep everyone calm and collected when exiting the building. There will be a massive volume of people coming down the stairs, if they didn’t listen to the fire service and stay in their homes. If just puts so much more pressure on the police even though they were under enough as it was.P5 + M3This policy should’ve protected civilians in the building as the council had to abide by the regulation, but in this case, it didn’t. in 1974, the year that the building was built, there wasn’t a regulation that said they must install sprinkler systems, but some believe if there was a system installed when the building was refurbished in 2015/16 the tragedy could’ve been prevented. The citizens in London severely affected because if the policy was a lot clearer as to what materials could be use and couldn’t then there it might have prevented the fire from spreading and hopefully not having any loss of lies in another tragedy like this anytime soon.
The policy affected society in another way because the community has lost the trust in the government and local council. This is because they wrote numerous letters to parliament about the building and the hazards of fires and they also set up a blog post voicing their concerns about the building. In the blog post they said “We have blogged many times on the subject of fire safety at Grenfell Tower and we believe that these investigations will become part of damning evidence of the poor safety record of the KCTMO should a fire affect any other of their properties and cause the loss of life that we are predicting” source – https://grenfellactiongroup.
wordpress.com/2016/11/20/kctmo-playing-with-fire/ They also go on to say “It has been very clear for some time to the residents of Grenfell Tower that those responsible for ensuring the smooth running of Lancaster West Estate are failing in their duty of care and wilfully allowing our residential amenity to decline in unacceptable ways.” This also proves that they feel as if they are being let down by the council, the words ‘failing in their duty of care’ prove this.According to the guardian a review of building regulations ordered after the tragedy has found the system is “not fit for purpose” and open to abuse by those trying to save money. This also affects citizens because the community believe the area that they are living in is a unfair treatment because there are a lower income area. A gentleman on the BBC panorama program stated that if this was a richer area the corners wouldn’t be cut and the extra money would be spent if it means that the rick were safe. This provides a basis for a view of discrimination because they are ‘poor’ and they are not getting the appropriate care.
This shows that the government policy affected citizen because the policy was unclear and provided areas for the landlords ‘wiggle room’. Another piece of evidence is that the BBC found some documents proving that zinc cladding originally going to be used but then replaced with an aluminium type, which was less fire resistant, saving nearly £300,000. Proof below.Leaked document. ?Source – http://www.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40453054References. *as well as notes taken in class.http://www.bbc.
co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40272168 https://www.standard.co.
uk/news/london/grenfell-tower-firefighters-describe-heroic-rescues-and-one-impossible-decision-on-who-to-save-a3569291.htmlhttp://www.itv.com/news/2017-06-15/timeline-of-the-london-tower-block-fire/ www.bbc.co.
uk/news/uk-41680157 http://www.ics-services.co.
uk/wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=2011/04/CableLay-Matting-British-Standards.pdf www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/15/eight-failures-left-people-grenfell-tower-mercy-inferno/ http://www.ihsti.
com/CIS/document/294900 https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/building-regulation www.
legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/regulation/3/made https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/18/put-safety-ahead-of-cost-cutting-urges-grenfell-tower-building-reporthttps://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.
com/2016/01/24/grenfell-tower-still-a-fire-risk/ Grenfell occupants blog posts. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40453054 UK forces in Afghanistan.
