Welcome to my Blog

My name is Kate Carpenter, I am a student at Brock University going into my fourth year. I am taking a business communications undergraduate degree. My strengths lie in my willingness to take risks in life and to connect with people. I learned quickly in my university career how important networking is and I enjoy meeting new people whenever I have the opportunity. Although I have a passion for consuming entertainment media like reality television and sitcoms, the business side of the media industry is intriguing as it challenges you to be aware of what you consume and how material is produced for consumption. Media is something that cannot be ignored and provokes controversy on a daily basis. As much as I enjoy consuming reality television and material possessions seen in the media, I enjoy discussing these topics even more and dissecting the way that the media works from a business standpoint. I chose to focus on news media and entertainment because that industry works in a very business-like manner aimed to build profit. Although news media is about real life events and real life people, the information is framed and manipulated into story form and delivered to viewers in an easily digestible way. I am interested in keeping up with current media trends and this past winter and spring there has been extensive media coverage of a murder trial that took place in Maricopa County, Arizona and was covered worldwide on almost every news station. Watching the news coverage of the same real life event on several different television stations and on many websites gave me a lot of insight about how different companies work to produce consumable media. The Jodi Arias trial has been produced in the media in the same fashion as a Hollywood narrative. The content of love, betrayal, and death gave the media tons to work with in captivating audiences to keep up with the trial as though it was a television series. The media did very well to pull me in and I enjoy dissecting the way that the media turned a live event into a television series by connecting the audience with the people involved so much so that they become household names. News media camped outside of the courthouse and film for hours and every day seemed like a red carpet event with lawyers signing autographs and average citizens speaking about the experience as though they are a celebrity by association even though they have no connection with the events unfolding. I will talk about this case thoroughly as I discuss news media and entertainment media; the ways that they work together to be a part of the wealthiest industry, how they connect audiences to events and people unknown to them and how easily  average people can have their fifteen minutes of fame.

The following are links to websites that are linked to my topic:

http://www.greggbarak.com/whats_new_6.html
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/jodi-arias-verdict-valley-woman-shares-what-life-is-like-inside-the-perryville-complex
http://www.azcentral.com/news/jodi-arias-trial/
http://www.hlntv.com/clusters/jodi-arias
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/12/amid-many-trials-frenzy-over-arias/2152919/

These are links to other blogs that are associated with my topic:

http://mediacriminaljustice.blogspot.ca/
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/category/jodi-arias/
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/08/jodi-arias-convicted-of-first-degree-murder/
http://mixedbagblog.com/
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/media-entertainment/default.aspx

Here are some Tweets related to my topic:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Trial&src=hash
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MediaCoverage&src=hash
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23newsmedia&src=hash
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23jodiarias&src=hash
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23mediareports&src=hash