Mental Health Awareness Week 2019

Mental Health Awareness Week 

Every year for Mental Health Awareness Week the Mental Health Foundation reflect on aspects of, or what can contribute to mental health. This year that aspect is Body Image- how we feel and think about ourselves.  With the rise of social media we are bombarded daily with pictures of the “ideal body” and for those of us who don’t fit in to that body type, how we feel about ourselves can become problematic. The MHF are using Mental Health Awareness Week to remember that we should all #bebodykind to ourselves and to those around us. Remember, we only have one body and it is amazing.

Don’t always trust what you see!

Whilst it’s easy to be swept away by the “ideal body” image that is ever present in the media and in social media channels such as Instagram, it is important to remember that you shouldn’t always trust what you see. Magazine covers are edited. Social media posts such as Instagram are edited. Photo filters are everywhere. When scrolling through feeds it can be easy to forget that photos have been filtered, bodies altered, hair

made fuller, skin smoothed. Nobody is perfect- the image that is being portrayed to you in the media is unrealistic and celebrities are beginning to speak out against over-edited magazine covers-https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/news/a56561/celebrities-respond-retouching-magazine-covers-criticism/.

Furthermore, celebrities are becoming ever more aware of how they are creating unrealistic role models and whilst we may focus on women when thinking of body image problems- it is also effecting men on a growing scale. Actor Richard Madden recently commented how his portrayal in The Bodyguard projects “a very unrealistic body image” https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bodyguard-richard-madden-male-body-image_uk_5cada9a5e4b01bf96007c785

So next time you’re comparing yourself to people on TV or on social media- remember it’s not always real.

This programme, available on Box of Broadcasts and YouTube, shows exactly how easy it is to edit photos and explains how we see over 700 digitally edited photos each day.

https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/02E22219?bcast=102836809

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 Body Positivity

Challenging the issue of the “ideal body” is body positivity- a movement that challenges society’s expectations and promotes the acceptance of all bodies, in all their various forms. There are plenty of body positive accounts you can follow on Instagram.

To find out more about body positivity, read this article-

https://tinyurl.com/y35ljprd

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What we’ll be up to

This week we will have a display in the LRC about what people like about their bodies- these have been filled out by students in the last few weeks. Furthermore, we will have a chill out colouring area if you need somewhere to take a break and don’t forget our Mental Health leaflet that can signpost you to services inside and out of college.

Always remember, if you need help, you can ask for it.

The Mental Health Foundation will be releasing stats and reports on how we can look after ourselves throughout Mental Health Awareness Week so make sure to check them out- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/

Harry Potter Book Night

Peterborough Regional College Harry Potter Event

Every year in February the country celebrates Harry Potter Book Night. As this year is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone we decided to mark it with a big celebration! Working with various other departments around the college we coordinated an event in the Enterprise Lounge which included owls, Wizard Chess, baked goodies, hair and make-up, potions, crafts and quizzes. As well as the activities in the Enterprise Lounge, a Quidditch match was also held in the Sports Hall.


The day was a great success, with the owls in particular proving to be a big hit. We would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who got involved and to all those who came to the day.

"Potions" created by Science Students. Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Owl from the Raptor Foundation. Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Make up students with wall and trolley created by construction students.
 Photo Peterborough Regional College

Quidditch match. Photo Peterborough Regional College

"Fake news": Can you believe the news you read on social media?

"Fake news"

There has been a lot of talk about “fake news” especially around the whole issue of the US election. False stories were spread mainly through social media and some people even believe that this could have helped influence the election result!

I newspaper (which we take daily in Library+) highlights the problem of fake news in their article below from 17th November 2016:-
Don’t believe what you read: the worrying rise in fake news

Many news stories break on twitter, for example, as an immediate way of spreading details of something that has happened in the world and this can be invaluable. However, like anything, it is essential to check who initially tweeted the news. Can you find it mentioned on a trustworthy news website like the BBC news website or one of the main broad sheet newspaper websites? Do they all back up the story? If these sites don’t mention it, perhaps that means they haven’t been able to validate the story from their sources.

Photo: Peterborough Regional College

Of course newspapers (mainly tabloids) are often criticised themselves for being biased, reporting rumours and even making news up. If you are studying media, these “stories” may be of interest in themselves for your research as a way of demonstrating how the press influence society or what society is “thinking” for example. Similarly, if you are researching social media itself, the tweets/ Facebook news items may be key examples in themselves and worth quoting too, but qualify why you are using them and look at/ use them critically.

And finally to end this week…. perhaps you’d like to have a go at spotting some fake news using I newspaper's quiz....
Quiz -can you spot the fake news stories quiz?

Welcome to the Peterborough Regional College Library blog!

Introduction to the Peterborough Regional College Library blog

Welcome to our first blogpost!

In this blog we are planning to  

• keep you informed of all that the library has to offer
• share some tips to help you find the information you need
• throw a spotlight on different types of resources
• look at some academic skills such as Harvard referencing and plagiarism
• explore the area of e-safety
• focus on themes that many PRC students study (interviews, team building, health and safety).
• point you to resources on other skills you might want to learn just for fun (as learning in itself can be rewarding! ).
• tell you about special events that we put on as well (both College-wide and our own).
• feedback to you what you say in our surveys with our responses and let you know how we are performing.
• pass on anything else relevant we find that we think would be of interest to staff and/or students.
• pick up on stories in the press which show how important it is to evaluate information that you find - especially on the internet.
• review some good books.

Do let us know if you find posts particularly useful and any suggestions. Do this here or via our twitter account.