Brittney

The National Broadcasting Company has begun providing pro-environment ads and raising awareness about conservation and important environmental issues. Unfortunately many American citizens have a lack of knowledge and participation in societal issues. For example, Americans have a very low voting rate for presidential elections, as well as a small knowledge about ecological problems. Many people who aren’t as in tune with the environment don’t realize what danger planet Earth is in and continue to pollute it. The public service announcements and environmentalistic aspects that have recently been incorporated into the television broadcast of NBC raise environmental awareness and helps to better the environment.

I know that today in class watching videos and discussing whether or not NBC’s new stance on the environment was beneficial, lead to some heated debate as everyone has their own opinions and personal ideologies. Many people argued that NBC was being hypocritical because they themselves don’t use energy saving products, but I disagree. If NBC were saying that everyone who doesn’t conserve is horrible and that everyone absolutely needs to conserve and make the environment a better place that would be very hypocritical because they themselves may not be practicing these environmentally friendly ways of life. However, they are just trying to raise awareness and are trying to show people how simple everyday actions, such as turning off appliances and taking shorter showers, can help save the environment in large ways. NBC is merely teaching people that otherwise wouldn’t be environmentally aware, about small, easy things that can be done to conserve.

There is never going to be a time in our lives where the planet is free from environmental problems. The fact that NBC is taking an initiative at all to try and promote people to be environmentally friendly is a great thing. It seems to me like NBC would be in a bad position whether it made a green week or not. They are getting criticism from people for having green week saying that it is “fake” and “hypocritical”, yet if they did nothing they would still be looked at as the big corporation who doesn’t care about the environment. If the workers at NBC are spending the amount of time and money that they are spending to create public service announcements and to incorporate green ideas into their weekly shows, they obviously care about the environment, and I think that it’s horrible that people can’t see that.

Al Gore making An Inconvenient Truth does not appeal to everyone. Not everyone wants to sit down and watch an hour and a half long video about a power point presentation by someone who they might not even care for. The fact that NBC has incorporated friendly environmental values into their television broadcast means that it will affect many more people. Those who are affected by things such as An Inconvenient Truth can be inspired by that, while those who watch NBC television and are less aware about the environmental challenges Earth is going through today can be influenced in that way. With the wide range of people who live in the United States and all over the world, there needs to be different outlets and different forms of media and information to promote the same idea or value to the entire population. “YEAH! I’m am extremely excited to see these topics being discussed on mainstream media!” This is a comment that was left by a young adult book author responding to a post that Tom Brokaw left on the Green is Universal website. This quote proves that popular media such as NBC and public figures influences certain people, and pushes them to pursue the environmental movement. We live in an extremely diverse place where people have different beliefs, different emotions, and different ways of being appealed to. That is why it is important to have different outlets for people to get information from. The environmental movement that NBC is pursuing is important and will be effective because it will appeal to those who understand and enjoy that type of setting.