'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.

'Murakami off reading lists in New Jersey"

Picture and news link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/aug/25/murakami-norwegain-wood-banned-new-jersey

 

According to a recent news article of the Guardian, Haruki Miurakami's Norwegian Wood has been removed from the reading list of Williamstown High School in New Jersey. The reason for this is that many parents complain that the homosexual description in this book would have negative effects on their children.

The author of this news article, Allison Floods, introduced the situation and then extended the topic from a reading list issue to a discussion about proper education for teenagers. From my point of view this is a very good news article because of its idea about education, balanced points of view and also news value.

The author of this news article extends the single topic of reading list issue to a broad discussion about what is the appropriate education for teenagers. To me this is a very smart idea since in this way, the author can represents a fact to the audience and at the same time leads the public to discuss deeper about a certain social issue. The news article then, linked three topics (reading, homosexuality and education) together and made a meaningful discussion.

In this news article the author adopted a balanced structure. She represents different ideas toward the issue. For example, some parents hold the opinion that Norwegian Wood should be removed from reading list because of its homosexual description; While some educators think that student should exposed to challenge and diverse reading so that they can understand how to make their own judgement and learn to respect other people’s opinion; Opinions about homosexual discrimination are also represents in this article. This kind of balanced structure is very good for news article since it shows conflicts and also written in an unbiased way.

Lastly, this news article has good news value because of the prominence of Norwegian Wood and also its relevance with people’s life (homosexual people’s right and education).