Citizenship, Diversity and the Public Services
Current Affairs, Media and Support from the Public Services
Investigation of three current affair reports – Immigration, Discrimination, and Regiment Reduction
Media reporting varies vastly, and can influence the public services in variety of ways. Therefore, to further
understand how citizenship and diversity affects the public services and their work, it is important to explore
current affairs, how the media represents the services, and what relative support is provided for citizens. There
are many international and national issues affecting the public services, however the most prominent national
issues currently affecting our country are immigration issues, discrimination in society and in the public
services, asylum seekers, housing issues, demographic changes, poverty, reductions in regiments, and an
increase in civilianisation. I will be exploring three of the noted issues - immigration and asylum seekers,
discrimination in society, and regiment reduction, using articles as referable sources to support my analysis,
and as a means of demonstrating how the media report current affairs involving the public services.
Evaluating the impact media reporting has on citizens, and how this affects the level of support the public
services receive
The way that citizens view the public services is affected by the kinds of images that the media expose them to.
The public services are portrayed in both positive and negative ways, as my research on three current affairs
will demonstrate. These portrayals promote different attitudes towards the services, which can easily be
manipulated by media editing, swaying the public’s perceptions on relative topics based upon what they see in
the news.
When the public services are portrayed positively in the media, they are presented alongside themes such as
bravery, valour, self-sacrifice and victory. This encourages citizens to think positively of the services, and
provide them with support. This is just what the public services need, as they are somewhat restricted without
the support of citizens, and they rely quite heavily upon it to work at their optimum. Therefore, it is important
that the services maintain a good relationship with the media. However, the public only tend to hear about the
negative side of the public services because drama makes a good article, meaning these positive themes are
not often spotted in the news. The media tend to report ill practice and dramatic scenes regarding the services,
rather than articles commending their every-day commitment and brilliance. So the services tend to use their
own service magazines to gain support, which focus primarily on the concerns of a particular service.
When the services are portrayed badly, they are often shown presenting brutality and a lack of discipline, or
they feature in media articles whereby they have ignored the needs of the public, or not fulfilled their roles
correctly. The media does not always hold a good relationship with the public services, being more interested
in a dramatic article and ultimately profit. This means citizens are likely to loose support for the services, so
they cannot work as efficiently as described above. To try to avoid negative media portrayal, the public
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