Ellen the Agile.

Ellen Degeneres has somehow been able to evade the glaring eye of public scrutiny. While she has maintained her level of fame and noteriety since her coming out in 1997, she has yet to go down the harrowing road of attention from tabloids.

Her recent interview with Vanity Fair sees her once again avoiding any type of personal information that may attract the media vultures. The interview follows format of The Proust Questionnaire, a format which has appeared in vanity fair for over a decade. It was originally intended to peer deep into the soul of the person being interviewed by asking questions about the things that they fear, and response most. Unfortunately in our culture of sarcasm and humor The Proust Questionnaire seems to have become obselete and no longer offers the insight that it once did.

Ellens Character Dora in Finding Nemo seems to obliviously navigate through life with a blissfull ignorance. It seems that Ellen has likened herself to Dora, and wants her public image to follow; She wants to be funny, cute, innocent, and most importantly simple. She knows that if she projects that persona, the media vultures wont come looking for a story. So like Dora, Ellen the Agile navigates this interview like the goofy simpleton we have all come to know her as.

Ellen is clearly quite in control of her communications. She has tailored a public image that allows her to enjoy her lifestyle without being hounded by paparazzi. She has managed to sidestep all of the pitfalls of being a celebrity. She may have decided to play the role of simpleton, but clearly she is doing something right.

What is the lesson of todays blog?

ELLEN ALWAYS WINS!!

Gilles Duception

Newspapers are notorious for their ability to tell stories in ways that either emphasize, or ignore certain elements.

While Gilles Duceppe's recent resignation for candidacy with the PQ party may not have been the most thought out political maneuver, newspapers like the National Post have slanted the story to make it seem much more catastrophic and negative than it really was.

The first thing that they attack is Duceppe’s devotion to his party. They do so by making it seem as though Duceppe cares more about his image than his party.

“Mr. Duceppe, who had been seen as the sovereignty movement's most effective spokesman, was considering a job that, by separatist logic, ends with the leader becoming head of an independent Quebec state. And his main concern was looking cowardly if he opted out.”

The next thing they do is tell us how to think about Mr. Duceppe by informing us that he has “succeeded in making himself look not only frightened but foolish.”

They quote all of the politicians who criticized Duceppe, and note that everyone reacted by laughing at Duceppe.

And finally, they take a quote out of context. Duceppe said to Bloc when he returned that "Yolande said, ‘Go talk to your caucus. You will feel better,' " and the post reframes that to mean that Duceppe requires ‘the steadying influence of his wife’ to get anything done.

By taking comments out of context, and using negative language to discuss this situation, the post has managed to exaggerate the negativity of it in ways that only skilled communicators can do. If we want to be able to develop untainted views on issues we must be aware of this power and cautious of its effects on us.

Jacques Chirac

In two days Jacques Chirac, the president of France, will hand his position over to Nikolas Sarkozy. Like most politicians, he will be remembered for his follies as much, if not more, than by his accomplishments.




The media loves to catch politicians saying or doing things that are inappropriate, and Chirac was often criticized for his loose tongue and questionable political adversaries. Like Chirac, Toronto's own Mel Lastman's career was plagued with media attention from embarrassing quotes or comments that are taken out of context. A lesson can be learned about the life of a public persona; your mistakes are often magnified while your accomplishments sometimes go unnoticed.

The Wonderful World Of Bloggin

Terry McDermott's Article, Blogs can top the presses, discusses Talking Points Memo, a political blog.

The article highlights the current phenomenon of blogging and how it continues to effect the world of journalism. Blogs can take many forms; video blogs, photoblogs, Personal blogs, news blogs, etc.

The blogosphere continues to grow, and more and more it becomes an alternative to mainstream media types. The speed and convenience at which information is transmitted to the public is much greater through a blog than through television or radio.

I receive most of my media through various blogs... kotaku for video game news, and perez hilton for my dirty celebrity gossip.

Mainstream media will clearly need to find a way to compete with the intimate and convenient medium of blogs.