Weekly News 17

Muslims in UK top 3 million for first time... with over 50% born outside Britain: Number in country doubles in a decade as immigration and birth rates soar

This story came from the Mail on Sunday and was written by Martin Beckford.

 

 

This story is also linked to the policy encouraged by David Cameron for all Muslim women to learn English, to supposedly combat again extremism. This story was a little confusing as the statistic as a headline does not state any positives or negatives to the recent increase, but the way it is put across brings a negative tone. There would be outrage if the paper had found the statistic on Jewish People or Buddhists, so why is it okay to ostracise Muslim's in this way?

This article highlights the issue of Islamophobia (the title) whilst also touching on the poor representation of religion, suggesting that Britain's increased diversity is a negative thing. I understand that extremists claim to following the religion of Islam and that is what has caused the prejudice however with stories like this still creating negative press around religion then nothing is going to change.

Weekly News 16

Is this Britain's most frugal pensioner? Retired lorry driver reveals that she lives on just £2,400 a year by spending a £1 on each meal and telling guests to bring their OWN tea bags

This is an article from the Daily Mail by Unity Blott

The article's title is already cynical of the lady in question, Llona Richards 66. The text then goes on to list some of Llona's spending habits, including going shopping after 7:30- as that's when the most discounts are given- and asking her guests to bring their own teabags.

Personally I think the Daily Mail has taken a mocking route on a story which is rather unspectacular. Richards had to leave work after an operation and is simply choosing to spend her money on essentials. In a day and age were people are constantly overspending and unnecessary food waste is at an all time high, I think she is being quite sensible for rejecting the social norms and living a lifestyle that is more cost effective and is also probably better for the environment.




She claims without money she has less to think about, and seems very content with her lifestyle.
This story also represents the retired in a negative way suggesting that she is 'crazy' for living in this way, when in reality after her operation she was unable to keep her occupation, and has since had to struggle on what I assume is a very small pension.

Weekly News 15

Man creates vile child sex dolls to ‘stop paedophiles committing crimes’

I originally found this story on Twitter, but the article comes from the Sun and is written by Lauren Kelly.



This is a story about a Japanese businessman who has created child 'sex dolls' to, supposedly, help people with paedophilic urges.
The company Trottla was started up by Shin Takagi, who has admitted to being attracted to children, but claims he has never pursued any of these feelings.

I agree with the article that these doll's may have certain benefits, like preventing any crime on a real child, however it could also provoke frustration causing some to pursue their urges. I don't agree that with the title of the article describing them as 'vile' as I believe as a journalist, she should take a more balanced objective approach, but then again this article did come from the Sun so it is not unusual for their articles to be so opinionated and one-sided.

The same story was also published in the Independent and an article was written by Samuel Osborne. Unsurprisingly the Independent gave the more balanced headline of 'Japanese company manufactures lifelike child sex dolls for paedophiles'. The Independent gives references from sources and documentaries about the issue of paedophilia and how access to artificial child pornography or sex dolls would be a safer outlet for their urges.

Weekly News 14

Kids Company psychologist denies she offered a patient MDMA in a nightclub toilet because 'she was too overweight to fit in the cubicle'

This is a story from the Daily Mail written Steph Cockroft.
This is the story of the psychologist Helen Winter who went out with two of her clients, referred to in the article as 'Client C' and Client D' and is accused of offering one of the clients the 'party drug' MDMA.

I thought this story was interesting as in the recent years the issue of mental health has become more prominent and more recognised as a serious issues faced by many people, so it shocked me to see how professionals who are responsible for looking after these vulnerable people, are able to get away with incidents like this.

The perspective of this story is relatively balanced considering it is from the Daily Mail, as it does offer her defence that she was 'too high' to remember or know what she was doing, and also that she started taking the drugs after ' a personal breakup of a relationship'. However these aren't strong enough reasons to justify her actions. Furthermore the headline gives the perspective that Dr. Winter had some sort of fat-shaming perspective, when that statement was said in a more factual sense that the 3 involved simply could not fit into the cubicle.