Saturday, February 13, 2010

"new" series on the horizon

like i promised a change :)

i kind of just discovered that there are books about this percy jackson movie that is new in the theaters and sometime in the past i vowed to read the books first ...
i did that and i have to admit i had a fascination with the old greek myths in my younger days and so i was sucked right back in.
Rick Riodan, the author has the ability to make us want to know and for me to re read the original stories behind it all.
His background information is pretty accurate seeing as he has experience in history having been a teacher in this field and all. He presents the concept of the West in combination with the Greek gods of Olypmus and over the course of the 5 main books he mentions many myths and opens the door for everyone to expand their knowledge. Much like in the Twilight series and Harry Potter the main protagonist has much to learn and the readers knowledge develops with that of the main character.
It is my strong believe that the movie will be hugely successful and now that the books become known they will be sold too.
When you go looking for parallels you are going to find them. One really huge is Fluffy [Hagrids pet, the three headed dog] and Mrs. O'Leary [a hellhound who becomes Percy's pet, well sort of]

Okay and why, are you asking do I want to see the movie?
Look at the cast list:

kevin mckidd (greys)
melina kanakaredes (csi ny)
uma thurman
pierce brosnan
sean bean
oh and we can't forget chris columbus who was kindly directing...

what is your opinion? want to know more about the books? ask and you shall be answered

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Objectivity in media

Every day we open up our newspaper of choice. Everyone of us has their own seperate reason why we read this exact newspaper. For some it is because they think highly of the contense others chose theirs for money reasons or some just read it because it is there. Every published journalist has a group of readers in that case and even the best sometimes slip up and write their articles not as objective as they could.

In our really fast paced world with news around the clock, internet availability, email, mobile phones and blogs you cannot count. Also the many many twitter users. This all creates a snowball system for news, but not a snowball system in the traditional sense as seen here where every person reaches two new persons. NO now one click on retweet manages to reach < 100 People. So to say new spread almost faster as light.



There is a huge risk in spreading wrong news in this time and when you don't pay attention you do that. As examples i can show the wrong news about deaths of actors. What was the most bizarre one in my memory? I have to say the reported death of Matt Damon. The news of his untimely death spread like fire and to end that buzz and all the rumors Damon had to appear on TV alive as you surely have all suspected. I can't find the original spreader of the rumor but if you follow this LINK. You can read a little what another writer wrote.

Objectivity and research are the most important tools in writing articles for an audience and maybe a little more research before publishing would have prevented this chaos.

Journalists usally say they are allowed to write what they want because we all have the constitutional right to free speech and we also have a free press and no one is saying other wise.(At least not me!) I only want to caution people. From history we have seen what one persons opinion can accomplish if it is presented at the right time.
I also know that writing articles objectively is hard and your own opinion always somehow sneaks in but try to be as subtle as possible with it so your readers can draw their own conclusions in the end. Objectivity is a learning process and it almost never ends. Talking to others and always keeping an open mind helps immensely.