Duty to be informed? Am I informed? How do I get informed? Should some decisions be left to others?

'Work that you are obliged to perform for moral or legal reasons' [1]... Well if you take that as being the correct definition of duty then I suppose I would have to say... well... no. I don't think I have to be informed about anything really, unless it is of direct importance to me. By that I mean anything that if I didn't know then it would hinder someone else for whatever reason, not like some large decision that will affect everyone (including me) in some minor way. We don't have a law or a an old document stuck in some museum somewhere saying that we must be informed when any change occurs within society, even thinking on a level that we probably should be informed... still no, because even if we do or don't know anything about something, it doesn't change much anything because the decision has already been made. I think that when the important decisions affect us later, it is then when we are made aware of them. Once we are made aware of them in that way, then we can say we are informed. If we had to know what was going on in society then we would make the effort and find out, but because important news or anything that affects us is usually made aware to us later, there isn't any point to try and be informed, we will all find out eventually.
So am I informed? Probably less so since I've been at university (not what lecturers want to hear but...) because when I did my A levels I was in a routine. When I came home I would put the news on and absorb it like a sponge, since I moved to Northampton in halls, there is no sky TV and I only ever get the live news feed when I'm working on my laptop at my flat, which isn’t for as long, or as often as when I was at home. I’d still say I'm informed but some events in the news I end up being told about rather than seeing it when it’s just came on the TV. In terms of local news... not in the slightest. I don't read papers and that’s the only way I could learn of local news that isn't big enough to get onto TV.
As I said, the only way I get informed is through TV that I occasionally watch on the laptop, so if it doesn’t get into the laptop or through small conversation, then I will not hear of it and it will pass without me ever knowing it. But because I do watch Sky News almost daily, then I do know current affairs, but the problem is it only gives me news on a national or international scale, not local to Northampton. Any small, local news I only hear through conversations or what lecturers announce in lectures.
Now unlike the rest of the questions, this one I do have a strong view point on. I think the decision itself should be made by everyone in question (everyone it will effect); however I think that only people who understand the topic should be the people influencing others in how to think. That way, people are informed about the right factual information from the ‘experts’ and from that make better educated decisions about the matter in hand. I do think that everyone who has a say should only make the decision after knowing enough about the matter, otherwise they might be counterproductive and make a poor decision which will not be very beneficial to anyone.

1) Definition of ‘Duty’: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=duty