Advocacy Project Idea and Time Magazine Deep Dive
For my Advocacy Project, I think I can really shape where I have been going with my Civic Issue Blog. The Civic Issue Blog covers the changing landscape of environmental policy during a time in which many view it as a make-or-break moment for humans’ fight against climate change. I think that I could talk less about clean energy, which I have focused on, and look at other facets of these policies and how they are going to shape our world. That is why I think it is so important – there are so many different ways that things must change and different parts of our society that are unsustainable, so I think it is important to cover this. I would hopefully like to focus more on something that directly affects most Penn State students on a daily basis so that I could speak directly to them. That is why I think I can maybe focus on food and sustainability and the mentality that people have on campus during their time in the dining hall.
The Photography article focuses on a very disturbing topic that is important to talk about. I do question the ethical side of the article from Time Magazine on domestic violence. At first to me it did seem ethical, I thought maybe that the people had volunteered to tell their story after it had happened. But only after I looked through the disturbing photo album, I began to realize what it really was. Although these people did agree to do this story, it was originally not about that. And while I hope that the photographer got permission from the woman after I wonder if it was the right thing to do to stay back and photograph what was happening instead of helping. I am not sure what the right thing to do is, and whether they did not feel like they could help but I think that we have to look at everything and even then, how do we know all of the information without being there? This complicated situation does not feel like one that I can answer, as I was not there and do not have all the information.
It sounds like your advocacy project is headed in a great direction, and I think your idea to focus in on sustainability in dining halls will be effective. As for the article, I didn’t actually question whether the photographer was helping the victims in any way, and so that was important and interesting to note.
I think this is a great concept to cover. There are too many students who are not aware of the toll that university food facilities take on the environment. Many students waste too many provided materials and throw out too much food, which indirectly takes very detrimental effects on the environment. There is so much waste in universities and it is vital to educate and advocate students to stop this waste.
Focusing on Penn State students and the dining hall is a great idea. Especially this year it seems that so much food is getting wasted so having people understand the implications of that (or whatever you plan to really focus on) will be interesting. I definitely understand where you’re coming from with the ethics of the article. I did say that I felt it was ethical (thought with some caveats I suppose), but I agree with you that it is a complicated situation and frankly there really isn’t a right answer.