With all of the Homecoming fanfare taking place this weekend, I've been thinking a lot about Harry Potter. I'm a huge fan of the series. I love re-reading the stories and re-watching the movies because I always notice something new, some small detail that I hadn't seen before. I watched the 5th movie a week or so ago (my least favorite of the franchise because they chose all of the wrong things to highlight in perhaps the most info-packed book of the series!) and noticed again the motif of the newspaper that carries the viewer through scene changes in order to keep the plot cohesive. The newspapers stuck out to me more this time and I pondered the presence of the media in the wizarding world.
Of course the media bias in the 5th book is outrageous because the government directly impacts the main news source, The Daily Prophet, ultimately causing Harry to trust in an alternative and at the time discredited source, The Quibbler. But anyway, what I love about news in the books is that it's totally interactive. Newspapers change, have constant motion in images and content that not only grasps the reader's attention, but also sustains it. Newspapers in the wizarding world are the perfect combination of our print and online media. They have the traditional and nostalgic feel of tangible paper and the dynamic and updated aspect of online. Ms. Rowling seems to have found the perfect go-between for old and new journalism. Now, if only we could translate it to the Muggle world...
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