The Harry Potter Wars Critique

The main argument of this chapter is the representation of the Harry Potter Wars as the struggle between many different viewpoints regarding media literacy and how that should be taught to children who are developing their reading and writing skills. The author argues that children are developing a sense of media literacy by reading the Harry Potter books and then subsequently using the tools of the Internet to enhance their writing ability and ability to express their thoughts. The main support the author had was that of the Daily Prophet, a student newspaper that allows children to create their own stories about the happenings of the fictitious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is a good example of children who have read the Harry Potter books using the tools of the Internet to enhance not only their writing skills but also their comprehension on how to use the media to their advantage. This shows that children are not only learning how to write more creatively while enhancing their skills, but also that they know they can use the tools of the Internet to their advantage. The controversy arises when organizations like Warner Brothers, who bought the rights to the Harry Potter franchise, try to shut down these creative forms of expression by children because they claim it is a copyright infringement. I agree with the author that children are developing a more defined notion of media literacy and that there are many people who are trying to damper that. I think it’s a great thing that children are becoming more media literate while at the same time enhancing their writing skills and showing their creativity. I also think it’s a shame that there are so many close minded people who think fantasy worlds are destroying young children or that they are so money hungry they would sue children over copyright infringement without realizing the benefits of their initiatives.

The Harry Potter Wars are those against the book itself for its fantasy world and those against the use of the Harry Potter characters in writing other than the actual books versus those who write the fantasy stories using the characters. Many religious groups and those against the teaching of wizardry have tried to ban the teaching of Harry Potter in schools because the fantasy world message destroys the idea of Christianity in those that are reading the books. In some cases their efforts have been successful making teachers angry because these books actively engage the young children readers in way other more traditional books can’t. Warner Brothers is trying to stop copyright infringement from those who write fantasy stories using the Harry Potter characters. Those who are writing the fantasy stories or those who write for the fictional Daily Prophet are writing fan fiction. Fan fiction stories are stories that fans of the Harry Potter series create using their own imaginations but use the characters and settings of the original work. The initiative to not only read the books themselves but to write stories expanding on the story one just read is expanding the notion of literacy. Not only are these people becoming literate from reading, but they are becoming literate through writing which is an equally important part of literacy. I don’t think literacy is something that should not be socially controlled. Everyone has the right to express themselves and I think the only reason Warner Brothers has a problem with it is because they want to make money off of a copyright infringement. Those from the religious groups are just closed-minded but what they fail to realize it that they are expressing their ideas freely in the same way that those who are writing about Harry Potter are.

The Daily Prophet is a fictional newspaper about life at Hogwarts that was established by a 15-year-old girl named Heather. All of the writers for the Daily Prophet are young fans of the Harry Potter books that have found the site on the Internet. These writers are able to express their imagination while showing their love for the Harry Potter books. They also are given the opportunity to enhance their writing by peer critiques and are able to socialize with fans from all over the world. In their stories the young writers create their own stories oftentimes using themselves or the issues they are facing in their real lives in the context of Hogwarts. One writer even went so far as to create a sister of Harry Potter who is attending the school also. The expression of their problems in this literary form lets them express their feeling and brings ideas from other readers as to how they can fix them. The Daily Prophet is not the only website that is devoted to fan writing. Many fan writing sites are beginning to develop and they are not all related to the Harry Potter books, although they are a large majority. Fans of many different things are beginning to see that the Internet is the perfect place to write about the stories they love while joining other fans that wish to do the same thing.

Convergence culture is the idea that one uses many different forms of media to get information on one or more specific issues or ideas. In order to be an active part of a convergent culture one must be able to use many different forms of the media to their advantage. An example of this is Heather the creator of the Daily Prophet. She is able to read the Harry Potter books and was able to use the tools of the Internet to create a website devoted to fictitious stories about the imaginary school. Not only was she able to read the books, but she was able to recognize that there are ways that she can further her involvement with the books in a different form of media. One of wishes to join the convergence culture of society today needs to possess those same skills.

The relationship between fan writers and publishers is a strained on. Many publishers dislike the idea of fan writers because they are infringing on a copyright. But this dislike is almost also solely about the monetary gain they would seem to gain if they could control fan writers. In the Harry Potter instance, author J.K. Rowling was in support of the fan writers and encouraged them to continue to writing and using their creative imaginations. Warner Brothers on the other hand sued many websites that used Harry Potter references in their addresses despite many of those sites being run by children. The children fought back and eventually Warner Brothers backed down from many of the suits they had filed.

Many religious groups have tried to ban Harry Potter from libraries and classrooms due to their supernatural elements. However, many people have fought back because this is a book that has actively engaged children in reading. Many traditional books fail to create the kind of enjoyment in reading for young children and teachers and parents do not want to take that away from a generation that in many ways are not interested in reading. The Internet has played a key role in this debate with fan writing websites and blogs. The Internet is a public forum in which there is no regulation of the content. Many fans of the Harry Potter books and those who believe in the idea of free speech in regards to the books are able to post their content on the Internet with no regulation from the religious groups who are trying to prohibit their reading of the books.

People Magazine Critique

In all honesty this assignment could not come at a better time as I was debating with my friend the other day about what the purpose of buying People Magazine really is. People Magazine is a national print publication that focuses on the entertainment industry and also offers a website. My friend insists on buying the magazine because she says it has more information then the website. I, however, disagree because as a frequent reader of people.com I don’t see much of a difference in the magazine and the website. The biggest difference is that the magazine offers one or two feature stories about non-celebrity related stories. As a frequent reader of people.com I am a big fan of the website. However, I think the fact that they offer almost all the news they feature in their magazine on a daily basis hurts magazine circulation.

As soon as you click on the homepage for people.com all of the major entertainment stories from the day pop up with little blurbs underneath telling what each story is about. These stories are constantly updated throughout the day and the blurb helps visitors choose which stories they want to read. I think the blurbs offered lead to more “info snaking” because people can pick and choose what they want out of an article instead of reading it in its entirety. I think offering these stories online really takes away from the readership of the print publication because there is not much difference between the content on the website and the content in the print publication. In fact, people.com offers a large portion of the front-page article of the print publication every week. In that four to five paragraph “teaser” people.com offers, most people can understand the main points to the story and would have no reason to go out and buy the magazine. I think the fact that people.com offers so many of the stories found throughout its print publication as the stories happen and offer a “teaser” to their cover story hurts more than helps their print circulation.

Another thing that hurts People’s print circulation is the amount of photos offered on people.com in comparison to the print publication. Everyday people.com offers a photo gallery of celebrity sightings consisting on anywhere from 10 to 20 photos. In the weekly print publication only a handful of the photos that appear in all the galleries from the week are featured with the same explanation that is offered on the website. People.com also keeps an archive of all the daily photo galleries so that visitors can go back to look at any of the posted photos. I think the lack of variety and surprise in the photos offered in the print publication really takes away from the circulation of the print publication. If anyone can access people.com and see all the stories and photos than there is no reason to go out and buy the print publication because they have already read the stories and seen the pictures since they were on people.com earlier in the week.

One of the things that sets people.com apart from the print publication is that it is able to post videos. People.com now offers its own entertainment recap show every Monday and also offers the five funniest daytime television clips highlight video. This is more information that is found on the website than is offered in the magazine. I think that people are more likely to use a news outlet that offers more for their time than they are to use a news outlet that doesn’t offer as much. I think the ability to put more content on their website draws more people to read people.com than the print publication because people are getting more for their time and don’t have to pay anything to get it.

The one thing that really sticks out about people.com is that they are able to create a story centered around quotes used by celebrities in other print publications. Currently a feature story on people.com is an article on quotes supermodel Gisele Bundchen made in an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Vanity Fair released several quotes Bundchen made in an upcoming article and people.com created a feature story centering around those quotes. While it seems like releasing the quotes is a strategy to get more readers for their print publication, I don’t see how that works. The people.com story framed Bundchen’s quotes very well, and while I’m sure she made more than the quotes used in the people.com story, there were enough quotes released to realize the direction of the story in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. While I think this method does get some people to buy a magazine, I also think it gives readers enough of the story that they feel they don’t have to read the actual article.

While I think people.com is a great thing because I get all the information I want as soon as it happens for free, I think it really takes away from the magazine circulation, although not to the point yet where the company has decided to go completely online. If the website keeps offering more, fresh information than the magazine we may one day see People Magazine as a completely web based publication.

Citizen Journalism Is...Current

To be honest I’ve never used a citizen news website and if I’m being even more honest I didn’t really know they existed to extent that they do. I get most of my current affairs news stories from newspapers or traditional websites like msnbc.com. To be even more honest I probably never would have looked at a website like Current before having to critique it for class. However, as someone going into the communications field it is a good thing to be introduced of websites like Current because they are exactly that…current.

Current does a great job of using all of the technological advances in online communications by having citizen journalists upload their own video podcasts. They even have a handy how to section for those who are just becoming familiar with uploading onto their website. They also allow visitors to their website to vote on the top citizen video podcast that will be featured on television. I think this is a great opportunity that Current offers to showcase a non-traditional story by a citizen journalist to its television viewing audience because it says to them, “look what you can do with what is going on in your world.” It also shows how involved Current as a television station and host to the website are in monitoring and commending videos posted by citizen journalists to their site.

Looking at some of the top videos on the website, it is clear that the stories featured are non-traditional, but are relevant to those who made the videos and also to the audiences they are trying to capture. Some videos are about subject that major news outlets would normally not over, like Brenden Macaluso who recycles old computers and turns them into sustainable cardboard desktop computers. Some videos are about news topics such as Blackwater, a military company in Iraq being criticized for their killings of innocent civilians, and combine images and interviews used by major news outlets to show the story that they as the media aren’t showing to the public. Many of the videos I watched on Current show a variety of voices with a variety of sources (not including human interest stories) to report non-traditional stories, however, I think that the videos need to do a better job of citing the sources that the use throughout their pieces because for many sources in several videos I did not know who they were.

Another thing I really liked about the Current website was the ability for viewers to leave comments and discuss videos they have seen. I think as a citizen journalist site, citizen should be able to express their opinions about the videos posted to the site and all videos offer viewers the opportunity to comment. The voting for top video as gives viewers a chance to show a larger audience which video they thought was the most well put together. There is also a “People Are Talking” section that shows the comments that were just posted to different videos. I think the Current website does a great job of incorporating its viewers by letting them comment and showcasing their comments with its own section.

The only major thing that I found with watching some of the videos was that many of the news stories did not report a balanced story. The Blackwater video only reported on the negative things the companies has done in Iraq and made no attempt to hide their feelings that they were against its existence. However, as a citizen journalist it is the video makers duty to present a balanced story while also voicing their opinion. If this video was meant to be an editorial of sorts it should have put that within the story, like the video about the 13-year-old father clearly showed it was an “informania editorial” at the beginning of the video.

Overall, I think websites like Current that feature citizen journalists are a great idea. It showcases non-traditional stories and lets average citizens report news that they think is relevant to their local and sometimes national peers. I think Current is a great citizen website because it offers so many different stories, it allows its viewers many ways of interaction, and it has an active host in its television station.

The CJReport: Up Close and Personal

I usually do not go onto Citizen Journalism sites unless it is CNN, so I decided to check out other sites. I found CJReport to be a very interesting site. When browsing through the site, it reminded me a lot of CNN website because it seems very “newsy”. It almost seemed like I was reading a newspaper. The top story is what caught my attention the most. I thought that title of the story, “McCain tries to ‘kill’ US only clause” makes it seem like a nontraditional story. The author has a very creative way of making the headlines very catchy. After clicking on the headline and reading the article, I felt like the site did a good enough job of keeping the attention of the reader, but making sure to give enough information to make sure the story was given thoroughly. It seems to do this with all of the articles, the host makes sure that the articles are not too long, but still accurate with providing enough information.

The CJReport seems to be very informative, not only does it give the reader the top stories, but it keeps the recent stories on the site as well. This website seems to be a worldwide site; therefore local news is actually worldwide. On this site I can find out that the UN Chief is about the set and launch Bhutto commission or find out about the problems NASA is having with the delay of their shuttle. I would say that this site has a wide range of information to keep the reader informed about a variety of different news information. I find this very beneficial as a reader. It is nice to be able to get on one site and find out enough information about what is going on in the world without searching all over the web. This is one of the main reasons why I tend to look at the CNN website daily.

As in terms of telling the story of each article, I feel that the host is pretty fair with how he or she tells the story to the audience. For an example the author of the Obama article tells the story as if it was a narrative. The author explains the facts of the article and tries to keep it as accurate as possible.

Overall I feel as though the website relates to the audience as well as the author. The author and the reader are obviously going on this site to find out news, not just from the local area, but worldwide. As for a novice standpoint, I feel as though this website is very far advanced, with nice photos and videos on display. This website fits together very well and gets the audience involved too. There is an easy access to ask questions to the site or leave your comments. There is no need not to feel like you cannot comment on what the author has to say. The CJReport is very interactive and has a lot of different links to choose from so that you can fill your mind with information from all different grounds.

Critique of Story Forms (Allyse)

Print Plus
I often read many news stories that are posted to msnbc.com and never before noticed how they create their story. It was not until reading the description of print plus that I see they frame their story around an already existing published form. I read msnbc.com’s article on Alex Rodriguez’s admitting he took steroids and I now see that the story is just a reflection on the news story that ran on their television stations. They had the video of the most recent interview with Rodriguez posted to the story, showing that this was just a sort of follow-up to their already existing coverage. I never realized how much the added aspects such as the video could take away from the written story posted online. I think the description of print plus is right in saying that this type of story does not take full advantage of online reporting. The story is just a recap of what people have already read or seen on television and there is so much more that can probably be reported as the story is continuing to develop.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/29068677/

Slide Shows
I always thought slide shows of pictures were a good way to show an audience a story. However, I never realized how powerful and informative slide shows could really be. After viewing and listening to the commentary of Vincent Laforet’s “The Refugees” slide show for The New York Times website I realized how powerful and incredibly useful this technology can be to online journalists. These pictures show a different side to the situation we are able to read about daily and it gives the reporter a chance to give a further explanation of what a reader is seeing in order for them to fully understand the story they are trying to tell. A photo spread like this may appear in the newspaper, but in color and with so much more commentary it paints a much different and much more powerful message to readers. I agree that this is a great way for online journalists to use online reporting because it gives readers a much more in-depth explanation and a much more vivid sense of a story.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/index_JOURNAL01.html

Weblogs
I have heard the term weblogs used so many times and I never really understood what exactly was meant by the term. However, after reading the According to The Times site, I have a much better understanding and I think it’s a great idea. I am not one to pick up a copy of The New York Times unless absolutely necessary because I find the content boring and hard to stay focused on. However, I do know how credible and informative it is consider. I think that the According to The Times weblog is a great idea for those who want a credible news source but are only looking for articles that interest them. This site gives mini descriptions of the articles that are in The Times and the links to access them online. I think this is a great way for casual readers to stay informed and for people who are looking for a specific story or just something that interests them to find those stories. I also think this is just another innovation associated with online journalism and really showcases the possibility of what it can become in the future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/25/weekinreview/25ATTT.html?ex=1234328400&en=95900ad9a033c7f3&ei=5070