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Current affairs in the UK that affect the Public Services and citizens of society arethe student demonstrations, the increase of fuel prices and the cutbacks of thePublic Services.

These all have an affect on society and the affect it has depends on the way inwhich the media portrays the Public Services and citizens of society.

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The student demonstrations began due to the rise off tuition fees made by thegovernment that soon lead to rioting and protests from the students.

These demonstrations effected the Public Services greatly as the majority of PoliceOfficers were on the streets trying to prevent the rioting from getting out of hand andtoo dangerous, while the Ambulance Service and Paramedics were on standbyready for any casualties if the situation escalated.

The demonstrations showed both students as well as the Police in a badperspective. A couple of ways in which the media did this was by only showingfootage of the students being violent and also some footage of the Police acting inan aggressive manner towards the students which resulted in a lack of support forthe Police by the citizens of the UK.

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The media has cast a bad eye over the Police service due to broadcasting theminority of Police officers who were taking an aggressive style to the situation.

However the media have also given the student generation a bad name due toreleasing only the majority which were vandalising the streets of London andshowing aggression towards the Police.

For those minority who were expressing their displeasure in the rise of tuition feesby a harmless protest, they are now stereotyped against by the citizens that havebeen brain washed by the media.

The media is in control of how the news is released, therefore they can manipulatethe citizens of the country who are at home being told what the media want the

people of the county to hear.

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The recent fuel price increase sparked anger amongst motorists across the UK. Aprotest consisting of 1,000 vehicles travelling to the M56 and onto the M6 where theconvoy extended by a further 500.

The Police were informed of the protest and were there to patrol the protest to keeporder. A statement to the press was made saying that the Police had turned backtractors and issued tickets to farmers. They also had dogs ready to release into the

protesters if an outbreak occurred.

This incident also gave a negative perspective of the Police Service as the mediaonly published stories that portrayed the Police in a bad way and this affects citizensas they will not trust the Police if they act in an aggressive or ill mannered behaviourtowards those they have the duty to serve.

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When the media portrays the Police in a negative manner it effects how overall thePolice is seen by the citizens perspective. For example, in 1981 the Police wereseen in the eyes of the citizens as institutionally racist, if the aggression outbreaksare to carry on and lack of discipline occurs regularly the Police will have a bad viewby the people of the country.

For the increase of fuel costs, people are going to be upset and angry because itschange that they dont want so they are going to rebel against the situation until they

get what they want. But this does not give the media the right to just portray thePolice or the protesters in a negative manner.

The cost to get Police out to the situation would of cost thousands to control theprotest. This was an extra cost the Government didnt want as the cutbacks are

about to get the country out of debt.

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It is estimated that over the next 5 years, 350,000 workers from the public sector willlose their jobs as warned by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development(CIPD).

Due to these cuts (especially of the Police), the level of crime has increased and ithas been reported that some criminal activities will be screened out by the

authorities. It has been estimated that as many as one in three crimes will bebinned as there is little chance of them ever being solved. Even crimes such as

burglary, sexual offences, criminal damage and theft from cars will be left and notinvestigated.

Cutbacks have had an effect within the Royal Air Force (RAF) and this has resultedin them having to decommission multiple aircrafts such as: the Harrier, Nimrod and

the sentinel. This is expected to last for the following 5 years and this will have agreat impact on the Public Services.

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Also on the 14th of February it was reported that 100 student pilots where maderedundant due to the public services cutbacks by the government.

The media made the RAF look bad as they got into detail as soon pilots had amatter weeks to completion of their training. However it was later released that theRAF were redirecting the redundant pilots into of other trades.

To start off with the media were portraying the RAF in a bad way to the citizens butthe story changed and a positive outcome was released.

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The media reports on incidents and operations that the Public Services are a part ofand they can portray the services how they want citizens of society to see them.

They can do this by editing film footage and using clips in a specific order to showcitizens if they think the Public Services are doing the right thing or to present themdoing something in retaliation to another incident when the two incidents werecompletely unrelated.

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Members of the media are not only members of the public; they can influence theway the Metropolitan Police Service is portrayed.

It is important that we build good relationships with them, even when thecircumstances are difficult. They have a duty to report many of those things that wehave to deal with - crime, demonstrations, accidents, major events and incidents.

Reference Metropolitan Police Guidelines.

The media have the duty to carry out anything necessary for them to do their work.For example, if a scene has been cordoned, the Police will have to give the media agood vantage point for them to collect the information the need.

In some cases, if the Public Services do miss treat the media, the informationgathered can be edited so certain parts of film footage and images can be shown isa certain sequence to portray the services as a negative source of assistance.

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Statutory and Non-Statutory agencies work together to provide assistance tocitizens in many different forms. Services that these two agencies consist of are:

Police Service. Fire Service. Ambulance/Paramedic Service. The Red Cross. St Johns Ambulance. Mountain Rescue. Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Coast Guard.

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Statutory agencies consist of the Police, Fire and Ambulance services, theseservices have the duty to save and protect. They each have their own roles andresponsibilities when it comes to providing a service to the public.

The Ambulance Service:

To save lives.

To provide medicaltreatment

and stabilisation at thescene.

To provide support tothose involved with the

casualty/patient.

The Police Service:

To keep the Queen'speace.

To firmly uphold thelaw.

To protect, reassureand help thecommunity.

To bring to justicethose who break the

law. To act with reasonable

and fair judgement.

The Fire Service:

To prevent fires. To keep fires under

control. To quarantinehazardous areas.

To protect the lives ofcivilians.

To protect theenvironment.

To preserve evidenceat the scene of arson.

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Non-Statutory agencies are organised groups run by volunteers, agencies such asthe Red Cross, RNLI and Mountain Rescue are just some of them. These agenciesfunction on charitable donations by the public and they do work along side theemergency services at specific incidents as well as having their own independentrole.

The British Red Cross:

First Aid. Emergency Response.

Preparing ForDisasters.

Health & Social Care. Refugee Services.

Teaching Resources. Protecting People In

Conflict. Finding Missing Family.

The RNLI:

Save Lives At Sea.

Lifeboat Search &Rescue.

Seasonal Lifeguard

Service.

Flood Rescue.

Training.

Sea & Beach Safety.

Mountain Rescue:

To Save Life. To Find

Missing/StrandedPersons.

To Coordinate SearchHelicopters.

Work Alongside RNLI &RAF Search & Rescue.

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Statutory and Non-Statutory agencies are provided to citizens to assist them inwhen they are in a state of emergency or distress. They show this support by savinglives, finding missing persons and protecting. Both agencies together provideefficient and safe service to all citizens.

In many circumstances both agencies will be required to work together, this requiresgood teamwork and communication skills as they do not usually have to use eachothers services. An example of where Statutory and Non-Statutory agencies mustwork together would be if someone was stranded in the mountains without any help,this requires multiple services to work together at once to resolve a serious situationeffectively and efficiently.

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A mountain rescue mission would require the Non-Statutory agency MountainRescue and the Statutory agency, the Royal Air Force. In this situation, the

Mountain Rescue team have the necessary skills to search and coordinate aircraftthat have to find the stranded person. The RAF would be required to use theirsearch and rescue aircrafts to locate the person with the assistance of MountainRescue coordinating them.

Each service alone provides a high quality of service to citizens; however, whenthey need to work together the service becomes even better and the combined skillsallow the situation to be resumed as normal in a short space of time.

To resolve this situation, both agencies must be aware of what is happening so thecan assess and risk assess the situation and prepare the appropriate equipment for

the task ahead. The pilot from the RAF will then take off with some MountainRescue crew to assist when they arrive, while this is happening, a coordinator willbe communicating with the pilot to direct them to the location of the strandedperson. Once located, the pilot or signaller at the scene will assess the person andrespond with the necessary information to finalise the mission.

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The media has the power to influence the views of society on certain subjects. Theycan choose to make the Public Services and citizens look positive or negativedepending on the situation that they have witnessed.

The media can manipulate its audience by showing specific scenes and images of

their footage in a given sequence that may be completely unrelated to what washappening at the time. The medias role is to provide knowledge of what is

happening in todays society and around the world and this job comes with a great

level of responsibility as they can influence the opinions of everyone in society.

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As shown in the picture below, the media have place a photo of violent studentsduring the demonstrations rather than showing photos of the students are not

causing any damage or harm to anyone or anything. This also creates a stereotypical perspective of all students to other members of society.

Also in the picture on the right, the Police have been shown as being aggressivetowards student protesters in order to keep control of the situation and try to resumenormality.The media present information and images of what will capture its audiences

attention and that it will change their views of people of their society.

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The media does also show a positive outlook onto some incidents. For example, thetwo images below show both the Police and students doing nothing other than doing

their job and standing for what they believe.

The Police are using their kettling technique to maintain control over the crowds andthis image shows the advantage of this as no destruction is being caused and theprotesters are just shouting their views.From the perspective of the students in the picture on the right, they are not thestereo typical protesters that the media have portrayed in the past.

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The media has a major effect on society as they can change the views of many andcan manipulate them into believing anything they want. This has a severe effect on

the Public Services as they provide a service to everyone in society and if they havebeen portrayed in a negative way, then people will not want to put their trust intothem.

Once the student demonstrations had finished, from what the media had said andshown to the public, the Public Services would have views that all students areviolent and rebellious which makes more prone to being watched by the Police andit will make people of society more weary and they may not feel safe around them.