Assessment 3 - Annonated Bibliography

The important role of celebrity culture in journalism have generated studies over the past years, one of it is Snyder’s (2003) journal article. He notes on how celebrity shows has replaced the prime time televisions and that the reporter were infiltrating the celebrity’s private lives. Michael Jackson’s death has put the spotlight on Conrad Murray. His case has been broadcasted on three media, MTV, Sydney Morning Herald and SkyNEWS, with his personal emotion is publicly shown.

Snyder, R.W. (2003). American Journalism and the Culture of Celebrity. Reviews in American History, 31(3), 440-448.

Robert W Snyder is an Associate Professor of Rutgers’ Graduate Program in American Studies and an Associate Professor in Department of Arts, Cultures and Media (Rutgers, n.d.). Since 1980, he has worked with journalists, museum curators, and documentarians (Rutgers, n.d.). With his experiences in American media, Snyder wrote a journal article which is also an annotation about the culture of celebrity in American Journalism. This journal article is based on Ponce de Leon (2002)’s book. Snyder noted on the power of journalism over celebrity, turning Michael Jackson as irresponsible parents and prime time television into a group of celebrity shows. Since early 1900’s, celebrity has been a culture in American Journalism. Reporters were and are following the celebrity’s private life. Many journalists today believe that their task is to inform the “powerless” and supervise the “powerful”. These journalists believed that they are hindered by celebrity journalists, especially after 9/11, and wishes to return journalism into traditional journalism. This piece offers a general idea about celebrity and journalist. It is regrettable, however, that Snyder does not explain on how the celebrity has become a root on American journalism and how the 9/11 deeply impacted celebrity journalism. This piece, however, thoroughly explore the significance of celebrity culture on American journalism.

Kaufman, G. (2011, October 26). Michael Jackson Doctor Brought To Tears By Former Patients’ Testimony. MTV. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673244/michael-jackson-trial-conrad-murray-patients.jhtml.

Gil Kaufman is a senior writer at MTV (LinkedIn, n.d.). He also worked as the Editorial Director of Cincinnati Art Museum, A&E Editor in Cincinnati Enquirer and Senior Writer or Senior Editor at Sonicnet or Addicted to Noise (LinkedIn, n.d.). Having been working as celebrity journalists for more than the past 10 years, Kaufman covers the news about Michael Jackson’s doctor’s trial. He reports how Conrad Murray cried when his defense team brought five witnesses to trial with the purpose of attesting Murray’s skill as a physician. When one witness said that he is alive thanks to the doctor in front of him, Murray cried. The author gives a detailed report on the trial and successfully investigates the available information. The problem is how he presents this information. In spite of writing a news article, Kaufman wrote his article in dot points. Each dot points consist of a paragraph at the length of fifty to more than one hundred words which represent a scene of the trial. His writing technique is efficient but not engaging. It is written like a memo rather than a news article. The author, however, manages to take his target audience into consideration by using simple language instead of technical language. The date in which it was published is also appraisable, it was published faster than the others.

Sydney Morning Herald. (2011, October 27). Jackson doc moved to tears by testimony. Retrieved from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/jackson-doc-moved-to-tears-by-testimony-20111027-1mlc9.html  

Sydney Morning Herald is a newspaper published by Fairfax Media. This particular article is published in their website. Similar to the previous news article, Sydney Morning Herald also cover how Conrad Murray shed tears after his witnesses defend him. In this piece, the story focuses on Ruby Mosley, an old woman who was a witness in Murray’s trial. She testified that Murray is not greedy for serving senior citizens with fixed incomes. Her testimony brought Murray into tears. The other four witnesses also noted Murray’s kindness; one of them even claims that Murray is his best friend. Compared to the previous article, this article is more compelling and more fleshed out. Rather than presenting all the information obtained, this article linked each of its information into a story. The focus is not all over the place but to an old woman whose testimony makes Murray cry. This article manages to bring emotions from its characters to life. Each of the characters was described well and the reader could easily picture the trial in their mind. This news article is a very compelling article indeed.

Gardner, D. (2011, October 27). Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053960/Michael-Jackson-trial-Conrad-Murray-weeps-patients-rush-defence.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

David Gardner is a crime writer and senior foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail (uFollow, n.d.). On 27 of October 2011, Gardner wrote about Murray’s tears on trial. In his article, he quoted each of the witnesses’ testimonies about Murray. Unlike the previous articles, he provides more photos including photos of each witness and several shoots of Murray’s expressions. He also provides captions for each photo. Compared to the other two articles, his article is more eye-catching; however, is not as compelling as Sydney Morning Herald’s article. He uses adjectives as little as possible and is less descriptive of the characters expressions and surrounding. His article is not bad, in fact, it is a good article, but it fall out of favor compared to Sydney Morning Herald’s (2011) article. Another problem is probably how he ends his story. He put the last sentence in separate paragraph consisting of three words ‘The trial continues’. This ending seemed to be left out and unfinished.

References:

Gardner, D. (2011, October 27). Mail Online. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053960/Michael-Jackson-trial-Conrad-Murray-weeps-patients-rush-defence.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Kaufman, G. (2011, October 26). Michael Jackson Doctor Brought To Tears By Former Patients’ Testimony. MTV. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1673244/michael-jackson-trial-conrad-murray-patients.jhtml.

LinkedIn. (n.d.). Gil Kaufman. Retrieved from http://www.linkedin.com/pub/gil-kaufman/5/299/4a4.

Ponce de Leon, C. L. (2002). Self-Exposure: Human-Interest Journalism and the Emergence of Celebrity in America. Chapel Hill: University of North California Press.

Rutgers. (n.d.). Robert W. Snyder. Retrieved from http://americanstudies.newark.rutgers.edu/staff/rsnyder.htm

Snyder, R.W. (2003). American Journalism and the Culture of Celebrity. Reviews in American History, 31(3), 440-448.

Sydney Morning Herald. (2011, October 27). Jackson doc moved to tears by testimony. Retrieved from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/jackson-doc-moved-to-tears-by-testimony-20111027-1mlc9.html

uFollow. (2011). David Gardner. Retrieved from http://www.ufollow.com/authors/david.gardner.1/

Documentaries!

One of my favorite genre is documentary. How great documentary is, they provide entertainment and knowledge at the same time. They also have a huge range of topics. I have been watching National Geographic's documentaries and several other documentaries but these are my favourites:

1. National Geographic's Sizing Up Sperms (The Great Sperm Race)

This is possibly the most extraordinary and most creative documentary I have ever seen. It does not just show you white threads with overblown heads in a diagram of female body. This documentary sizes up sperms into a human scale and simulates their surrounding to a more understandable challenges they face. It is very informative and funny. It must have required high budget but it was worth it. It makes me feel proud for being the winner against another more than 100 millions challengers in the greatest race in universe, even more fascinating than The Amazing Race. Imagine the challenges, the hardships and surprises to a tiny sperm just to reach the egg. People always fall asleep on top biology books but this documentary is really interesting, the visualization and background music is also amazing. What's more awesome is how creative the creator of this show is, how can he or she thinks about scaling up sperms into human, racing through beautiful landscapes. I raise my 2 thumbs up for this show :D My favorite scenes? When the human-sperms are being shot through water tunnels, screaming. After watching this show, I bet you will think twice of wasting your sperms. Pity those little creatures!

2. Wikileaks

I have always been fascinated by secret societies: the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and now, Wikileaks. These people are completely anonymous except their spoke person, Julian Assange and certain staffs. They leak secret documents such as Iraq war logs. Their popularity sky rocketed when a video was leaked. The video show US army shooting civilians walking on a Baghdad street using helicopter. Wikileaks have become an important figure in history against the giant country, America. Many people argue if Wikileaks is right or wrong. Because of Wikileaks a new issue about internet censorship also comes to spotlight. What do you think? Do you agree on internet censorship? I don't, an information should be unrestricted. People have the right of acquiring information that concern them and the government has no right to restrict that. this documentary provokes mind and thought about war and politic. It is a must see documentary.

3. Outfoxed
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428
Outfoxed is a very detailed documentary, the only problem it has is that it is too one sided. After watching the documentary, you will think that Republican is full of shit, Rupert Murdoch is a total jackass and FOX News is a total garbage. It is though, very convinving. It thoroughly researches it materials and sources. Presenting several researches and surveys on the effect of FOX News. The video show us the scary part of media and why people hates journalists nowadays. Watching the show reminds me of George Orwell's 1984, in which the government can manipulate their history and people's mind through media, changing history and facts. One of the interesting scene is when Bill O'Reily shouting shut up to his guests which is totally opposite of a good television host (remember week 4 lecture?). I recommend you to watch this to see how bad it is when facts and opinions are blurred in the name of journalism and try to think how to fix it :D

My Cactus

I have bought this cactus a month ago but I have not have the chance to put him in this blog. Introducing Togemaru, my lovely cactus. :D I picked her name based on her figure, she is thorny (Toge) and round (Maru). Well I am not sure if it is a he or a she (does it even have sex?) but she has flowers so possibly female.

Living overseas alone can be really boring and where I live does not permit any pet, so I buy this thing live with me. Don't think that I am so lonely or miserable, I just like to have a 'me' time sometimes and I like to tell someone of my problems without worrying to be leaked out. Togemaru is an awesome companion, she only drinks 2 spoonful of water once a week, does not pee, does not chew on furniture and quiet. She is a beauty too :)

About her name, because of her white thorns I was thinking of giving her name like Snow White or Esmeralda (what is the connection of white and Esmeralda?) but then when I was flipping through baby names, a Japanese name comes up, Togemaru. Well it sure is an unfitting name for your children but it is perfect for my cactus :)

Hi Togemaru, how are you today? XOXO

Death and Afterlife

For as long as human history, we have tried to look for an answer for death. ‘What happen when we die’ and ‘what will happen after we die?’. These questions have always been around for centuries and many answers have been offered resulting rituals and beliefs. We know that our body decomposes or burnt when we die, but how about our souls?

The idea of what happens when we die has varied from philosophical to a more scientific view. A philosopher from Sicily, Empedocles (c. 490-430 BC) believes that when human dies, our bodies separated into four elements: air, water, earth and fire. Science says that when a human’s heart stop beating and the lungs stop breathing, in minutes, the brain which runs out of oxygen begins to release toxin and order the cells to self destruct resulting in death. How about our soul then? In 1931, Dr Duncan McDougall, in his scientific research of weighing human soul concludes that soul has weight as when human dies, their weight decreases 21 grams. Where do our 21 gram souls go?

A number of beliefs such as ghost, rebirth, heaven and hell have always been featured in classic afterlife stories. The Egyptians believe that their Pharaohs have to go through several obstacles and challenges to return into life. Based on this belief, pyramids for pharaoh are decorated with the bible of death to guide their pharaohs in the afterlife. In an Ancient Greek Mythology, Hades is known to be the God of the underworld where human souls go after they die. Buddhist believes in rebirth, they believes that death is when our soul leaves our body on earth to be reborn into 6 realms of heaven, human beings, Asura, hungry ghost, animal and hell, based on our karma. Christians believes that when we die we will go to be judged and stayed either in heaven or hell forever.

So far science has not been able to explain afterlife. What science has observed is when human is dies, mass amounts of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the most powerful psychedelic known, gets pumped to our body and created psychedelic experiences which are known as near death experience. Still, they cannot answer when people who return from death claims to float on air seeing their bodies. Afterlife may exist or may not exist at all. The problem is what you believe.