Youtube Community Getting Together for Haiti

The music community on Youtube is taking action to help Haiti. 57 artists of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds collaborated to produce a remake of Michael Jackson's "We Are The World", hoping to promote the "We Are The World Foundation" and get help for Haiti through music.

Instead of celebrities or famous singers, most of the artists participating in this video are amateur web singers. This, perhaps, is what makes the video so touching and beautiful. You don't see a glamorous music video starring pop singers from the mainstream music industry. What you see is ordinary people like you and me making their greatest effort to care for others. No dramas, no special effects, everything is kept real and simple. It may sound rather plain, yet it does what the celebrity version of the remake may not have achieved: It touches people. The video came out on 20/2 and it's already watched by 472668 people and has received a lot of positive comments. Tyra Banks, former model and the host of TV series "America's Next Top Model", also appreciates the video as she posted a tweet saying that the video made her cry and she was "Speechless because of beauty". Indeed, the video succeeded in showing the beauty of ordinary people from different backgrounds getting together and devoting their hearts to helping those in need. Let's hope the video gets more and more viewers so that the message of love and care can be spread around our planet.

You can watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhX0KkQBW4

Taylor Swift Not Gaining Recognition?

Country-pop princess Taylor Swift just released the music video for her great hit Fearless. The video, directed by Todd Cassety, is made up of clips from the singer's 2009 Fearless Tour. Clips of Swift performing Fearless on stage during concerts and some backstage scenes can be found in the MV.

Despite the sweet and glamorous life depicted in the MV, the 20-year-old country-pop singer seems to have received quite a lot of negative comments both on her singing and acting skills recenetly. Swift, though winning four Grammy Awards in early February, surprised the audience by turning in an off-key duet with Stevie Nicks at the awards ceremony. Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine Records, defended their artist by dissing the popular television series American Idol. "This is not American Idol...This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator." This speech has clearly offended Kelly Clarkson, who won the first season of the show in 2002. Clarkson posted a blog entry on 4/2, thanking Borchetta for his "'Captain Obvious' sense of humor" and saying that "We not only hit the high notes, you forgot to mention we generally hit the 'right' notes as well." She added that artists should not put the blame on others when they have bad performances and that things are not always going to be perfect.

Not only her singing skills are questioned, Swift's acting skills are also being criticized these days. She teamed up with Twilight hottie Taylor Lautner and starred in the new romantic comedy Valentine's Day, which came out a few days ago. Todd McCarthy from Variety comments that Swift "seems entirely undirected, as she jumps around, makes faces and jabbers on inanely." OK! Magazine also slams the young singer's acting skills, saying that Taylor "is not an actress" and calling it a "a regrettable performance". The Observer even calls Swift a "tone-deaf Flavor of the Moment" when mentioning the movie cast. Ouch. Looks like Taylor would have to work much harder to gain recognition from the public, not just from the Grammys.

社交網站的角色

現今科技發達的社會裡，報章雜誌已不是市民傳播各種新聞和八卦消息的唯一途徑。網絡世界發展迅速，愈來愈多人傾向使用Facebook、Twitter和My Space等社交網站來發佈最新資訊。最近連全球最大網絡搜尋引擎谷歌(Google)也推出社交網絡Buzz，可見社交網絡服務近年實在十分普及。網民用社交網站來發佈自己最新的資訊之餘，還可以查看朋友們或社會上的最新動態。

用社交網站來發佈資訊有好幾個優點。首先，由於我們能快捷方便地上傳最新的消息，資訊的傳播遠比傳統新聞媒體快。不少社交網站的介面都有?狀況?一欄，用家只要直接鍵入資訊, 按下?發佈? ，便能在數秒內把最新動態跟整個網絡上的人分享。在社交網上，只要訂閱相關新聞頻道，我們不難知道過去幾小時以至數分鐘內全球各地發生了什麼大事。由此可見，網民能從社交網站上取得即時資訊。其次，訊息的傳播可說是無界限。只要能接通互聯網，就能輕易向全世界發佈獨家消息， 同時亦能得悉全球網絡上每一個個體的動向。2010年1月12日，海地發生7級大地震，整個地區的主要訊息網絡都受到嚴重破壞。災區中少數能上網的災民透過Twitter更新災區最新狀況，而各大新聞網絡如CNN及BBC也把網民的tweets集合成一份報導。這種情況下，時間和空間都不會阻礙訊息傳播。另外, 目前為止，網民發佈的新聞不會被過濾。很多時，傳統媒體會因政治理由或要顧及眾多讀者的感受而修改報導，未能完完整整帶出整宗新聞的細節。由於在網絡上網民可以自由地發表意見，同一宗新聞會有不同角度的報導及闡釋，這有助揭露更多相關資訊 (雖然有時候資料的真確性會受質疑) 。

有人認為由網民發出的資訊通常十分零散，真確性亦被質疑，但無疑網民在社交網絡上分享資訊的確比傳統媒體有優勝之處。透過社交網站，每一位網民都能成為民間記者，向大眾發佈即時消息。網絡讓我們在短時間內分享最新資訊，把各地人民都連接起來。相信利用社交網絡服務來傳播消息將成為全球資訊交流的新趨勢。若這種新媒體能與傳統媒體共存並互補不足，便能把資訊傳播的質素提升至另一階段。

Avatar Tops Titanic?

James Cameron's Avatar reached 601.1 million on Tuesday, officially breaking the 600.8 million record held by Titanic in the US.

The quality of the movie itself is definitely one of the reasons leading to the huge success.
Undoubtedly, the Oscar-nominated sci-fi has one of the best computer-generated-imagery that is far beyond other sci-fi movies' reach. Though all the scenes are created by computer, Pandora is simply exquisite and breath-taking. The story line is simple yet moving. The whole movie is basically about protecting and fighting for nature. It shows how selfish and arrogant the so-called civilized human can be, in contrast to the Na'vi people's(a tribe indigenous to Pandora) attitude of truly appreciating and respecting nature. The main characters' determination to stay and fight with the Na'vi people is touching and admirable, while the war scenes in the later part of the movie are extremely exciting. With all the above elements combined, Avatar is truly one of the most remarkable films of the decade.

The public's anticipation of the film is perhaps another factor contributing to the high revenue. Since Cameron's last big project Titanic became such a huge blockbuster and left its mark on movie history, people are naturally having very high expectations of Avatar. Therefore, a lot of people rushed to see the movie once it came out. With the tickets costing double the price of regular tickets, the sales revenue is pushed even higher.

As the sales revenue of Avatar is greatly contributed by the high ticket price, some say that the actual number of tickets sold should be considered instead of the sales revenue to see if Avatar really tops Titanic. However, no matter which film wins in terms of popularity, it does not change the fact that Avatar has already become the highest grossing film on the US domestic box-office chart.