'Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile'

Pictures and news link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/08/outcry-hamlet-novel-gay-paedophile?INTCMP=SRCH

Hamlet novel is one of the classics and that’s why I felt so surprised when I saw the news title ‘Outcry over Hamlet novel casting old king as gay paedophile’ on the website of the Guardian. The news itself is about a small American publisher were criticized by its audience because of publishing a version of Hamlet novel which described the Old King Hamlet as a homosexual person. Even though a small publisher and the criticism from its audience is not a big topic, however, as I mentioned before since Hamlet novel is one of the classics and it has been familiar with most of the people around the world, then this news could be count as newsworthy because of its prominence and human interest value.

The goal of news is to inform, educate and make the public discuss. From this aspect, this piece of news is quite successful because it informs audiences about different version of a classic work and also leads the discussion of the public. That is: should we bring our bias into art work such as classic books appreciation? The author of this news piece represents a conflicted view between a different version of a classic novel and its audience. The thing is, if this new version has nothing to do with gay staff, would it become more acceptable by the public? Also, is this thing itself a discrimination toward homosexual group? In one word, this news works well because of its implication on our society.

Even though the goal of this news piece is to educate and lead a discussion among the public, it adopts an interesting, relaxing form. What the news article concentrate is the discrimination toward homosexual group however instead of long tedious discussion it connect this topic with the Old King Hamlet. Audiences would feel surprising and intriguing and thus they will read this piece of news from the start till end.