Media Spreading Information

Focus Proposal

wilcoxc5 — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:42:41 +0000

For my research paper, I plan to focus on the media’s tendency to report scandal in the news. I plan to look at mass media, such a news papers like the New York Times, and also at pop culture media, such as People magazine. The most broad sense of my topic is the way that media distributes its information. From there, I knew that I wanted to focus on something that the media focuses on. At first I wanted to focus my attention to only Pop culture, but I am so interested in the way that mass media in general focuses its information, so I decided to focus on both. The reason for my change of mind came from the lack of academic information on Pop culture media. Also, Pop culture media is based on the general public’s desire to know and learn things about celebrities. The general public is obsessed with trying to see that celebrities are not perfect, so the media that reports on pop culture shares mainly the stories about celebrities that put them in a bad light. Since that is the general idea of Pop culture media, I decided that I needed a separate perspective. I decided to turn to the mass media, but focus on news papers rather than news shows.I decided it would be better to focus on news papers rather than broadcasting media because their news archives are easier to find sources with, and because news papers tend to report differently than broadcasting media. Broadcasting media will usually only have a few focuses per time that they air, and then go quickly over the rest of the stories, whereas in news paper the stories with the most information and the most popularity will have longer stories, but the ‘less important’ ones will still have adequate information. I thought it would be interesting to compare the two types of media (pop culture, and mass) and see how each of the different types relay their information to the general population. I want to focus on their particular focus on distributing news that put people into a bad light, and somewhat look at the ethics of media at the present time. I think it will be interesting to explore the way that media portrays other media, for example, I found an article on the New York Times website that criticizes the way that the pop media culture industry is getting too much into Tiger Wood’s personal business, just because one mistake he has made has come to light. The media’s focus on negative information is interesting to me because it says a lot about people today and what they are most interested in reading.

Newspaper

wilcoxc5 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:26:47 +0000

Using newspaperindex.com I was able to search for different popular, reliable, newspaper companies that posted their articles online. This website also allowed me the potential for searching international newspapers as well. I first went to the New York Times website, and ended up finding an article called “Vatican on Defense as Sex Scandal Builds” which focuses its attention on the growing controversy in Europe involving the clergy and child sexual abuse. The article talks about how sex scandals in European clergy have progressed since the 1960′s. Since the article is related to history, I trust its reliability since it is also in the New York Times. Although it does not directly relate to my topic, I think this article will help me prove a point about how media focuses on scandal. I then looked on the Los Angeles Times website, and found an article called “The Tiger Woods Scandal: How Much Does The Media Need to Know?” and it is an article talking about the involvement of the media, and the level at which it is appropriate for the media to be involved. Although the article is talking about only one particular story, I think that the ideas could be related to media in general.

Beginners Using Scandal to Get Ahead

wilcoxc5 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:14:30 +0000

In an article in the New York Times, Tom Zeller Jr speaks about how new comers to the media circle often use scandal to gain recognition. More specifically, Zeller talks about people blogging about different scandals to be able to have the focus on not only the issue at hand, but the bloggers ideas on the topic. Zeller says that over seventy thousand new blogs regarding pop culture scandal are launched each day. With so many new blogs posted daily, someone will need some interesting news to get ahead in the blogging world. Paparazzi and news reporters are always following celebrities to see if they can quickly launch new stories as soon as they happen, so amateur bloggers need to do the same if they want to compete. With so much competition to become a recognized pop culture blogger, like Perez Hilton, people try to focus on what the general public is most interested in, which is scandal. I believe this journal will be helpful to me to realizing why people go so far when they are portraying pop culture scandal, and how the idea of fame takes control of people, and how they are starved for the opportunity to become a recognized blogger. I am having trouble seeing the full article, but I can tell right off the bat that this will be helpful to me to knowing why people do certain things, and potentially the ethics behind people in the pop culture media industry, The industry as a whole is very cut throat, and the people on the outside need to be cut throat to get in, and the people on the outside need to be cut throat to stay in.

Books

wilcoxc5 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:40:25 +0000

For my books, I chose Media Scandals: Morality and Desire in the Popular Culture Marketplace, Peepshow: Media and Politics in an Age of Scandal, The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment, and The Troubles of Journalism. I feel that, although each of these books are similar, each book will add something to my argument. The first book, Media Scandals, focuses more on the Pop Culture market place of the media, which was my original perceived focus, though I plan to discus more media as a whole and their focus on scandal. Media Scandals will help me focus on the morals of people in the pop culture media industry. One section, entitled “What a Story!” talks about the different audiences for different types of scandal, which I think is useful to understanding the morals behind the people who are distributing the information. Peepshow talks more about the politics involved in the media, and talks more about why people publish what they do, and the different bias’s of news distributors. It also talks about scandal in politics, which gives me a different perspective. The Rise and Fall of the Media Establishment will give me a history of media, which can help me understand the evolution of scandal, though I do not know if it will be as effective of a source as the previous sources. The Trouble of Journalism will help me take a look at what is positive and negative about the press today, and will give me a better idea of the global impact of media scandals. Each book adds something different to my research, which will help my essay as a whole be more impactful.

Pop Culture Scandal

wilcoxc5 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:47:11 +0000

When I searched in google for ‘pop culture scandals’, I received a link to an online magazine, called Trend Hunter Magazine, which listed the top 50 Pop Culture scandals of 2008. The article listed 50 scandals in the Hollywood scene that the magazine thought were the biggest stories of the year. Although this is a perfect example of the bad side of pop culture media, it is also the main aspect that goes along with celebrities. Media focusing on Pop Culture focuses on the bad aspects of celebrity life, instead of highlighting the good that celebrities do. On the other hand, when I typed in the same search, I found an article entitled “The Search for Scandal” , which focuses on the morals of people who are in the Pop Culture media industry, and how their desire fuels how far they will go to get an outrageous and scandalous story. The article also focuses on how scandal sells in any media industry, but it is almost the only aspect that sells in Pop Culture, because the general public doesn’t care about celebrities in their daily life, only when they make mistakes. Both of the articles that I found could help me prove a point in my research because the list of scandals could help me give examples of supporting evidence, and the “Search for Scandal” article could help to give my ideas more viability, because someone else has the same ideas. Although the list of scandals would seem to be unreliable, many times, since celebrities are always being followed and watched, people working in the Pop Culture industry are there when scandals happen, so it could actually be a first hand story. The “Search for Scandal” article also seems reliable because it was reviewed by two professors, and they both have experience in researching Pop Culture media.

Tabloids

wilcoxc5 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:26:36 +0000

I searched the term ‘tabloids’ in both google and google scholar. Google gave me links to websites such as the National Inquirer, Us Weekly, and Star Magazine, while google scholar gave me links to articles discussing global media standards, and articles discussing the differences between popular journalism and the “other news”. I feel as though each search engine would actually be helpful to my topic because while google scholar can help me compare pop culture to other forms of media, google will give me links to actual ports of pop culture information. I think it is important to have both the comparison and the raw information because I can more easily explore forms of pop culture media if I have the google scholar to guide me in the right direction, and if I have the experience of actually reading pop culture information distributed by the media. I hope to effectively explore pop culture media using both google and google scholar.

Media Spreading Information

wilcoxc5 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:09:11 +0000

In my research essay, I plan to explore the media’s effect on the way that information is spread. Although this topic could have many different foci, including news broadcasting companies, such as CNN, focusing on a political issue, or a tabloid focusing on pop culture, I plan to have a focus more in the pop culture end of the spectrum. I choose to focus on pop culture because it is something that is something that is more interesting to me personally, and I feel like I will be able to focus on something very specific within that topic. I plan to focus more on the way that tabloids distribute the information, and what kind of information that they focus on. For example, in my experience with reading tabloids, the media focuses more on scandals and less on what celebrities are doing well in. At this point I might focus on Perez Hilton and the way that he created his own blog and website to publicize scandal in Hollywood, and the way that his followers respond to his information that he provides.