For my second story I plan on writing about the debut of the new Joker film.  The new Joker is surrounded by controversy due to the movie’s excessive level/promotion of violence and harsh representation of people with mental illness. I am aware that certain topics such as those can turn people away from a movie; however, those same topics can also attract people to movies.  I would like to interview students regarding whether they plan to or have seen it yet and if they believe that movies like the Joker are dangerous to see because they encourage violence such as the Aurora, Colorado massacre that occurred at the previous Joker movie.  

‘Joker’ shatters box office records despite its controversial depiction of violence

Opinion | New “Joker” wants to be subversive — but in reality it’s just incoherent and sad

‘Joker’ Opens Strong at Box Office, Despite Controversy

For my first story, I plan to write about an event sponsored by the American Ethnic Studies Program titled “We Gotta Walk That Line”: How an ‘Atypical Family’ Negotiates Race and Religion to ‘Become’ Diverse.  The talk will be hosted by Jelani Ice who is a doctoral candidate in sociology at Indiana University.  Ice’s research concerns race, culture and organizations and his dissertation focuses on “how interactions shape people’s understandings of how to navigate institutional myths.”  The reason I want to focus on this event is due to the misogynistic and racially charged emails that were received last week to certain faculty members.  I think it is important to discuss how racial groups interact and engage in integrated organizations and how those dynamics work.  I am interested to hear Ice’s full position on the stance and what he has gathered from his research, but also how the Wake community and others who attend the talk take away from it.

The New York Times reporter that I have chosen to follow is News Assistant Peter Libbey.  Most of his articles focus primarily on Arts and Entertainment. Libbey’s concentration on Arts and Entertainment is the primary that I have chosen him to be the reporter that I follow.  The world of arts and entertainment is a field that I have a lot of interest in and if I were to be a journalist myself, it would be the field I imagine myself enjoying the most. Libbey has worked for other news outlets such as MSN, the Seattle Times, the Boston Globe and many others.  Libbey’s resumé shows that he is an experienced journalist who clearly has an abundance of talent based off the organizations he has worked for.