{"id":3580,"date":"2013-02-21T23:41:26","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T04:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/?p=3580"},"modified":"2013-02-21T23:41:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T04:41:26","slug":"finding-reviews-about-video-documentaries-and-avoiding-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/2013\/02\/finding-reviews-about-video-documentaries-and-avoiding-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Reviews about Video Documentaries and Avoiding Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompt:\u00a0<\/strong>How do you find reviews and essays about video documentaries?<\/em>\u00a0Describe your search strategy and cite the 5 most thoughtful reviews or background essays on a designated video documentary. Your search results may include scholarly and\/or popular press, but do your best not to include those featured\u00a0on the film\u2019s companion site. (Hint: the goal of this question is to help your classmates identify thoughtful sources that do not necessarily agree with the policy stance taken by the film.) Add\u00a0a brief explanation for why you recommended each of the five sources you selected.<\/p>\n

For this assignment I met with a Trinity librarian, Erin Valentine, who significantly helped me in answering how to find thoughtful reviews and essays about video documentaries, in particular \u201cThe Cartel\u201d by Bob Bowdon.\u00a0 We began the search on the Trinity College Library homepage, and since I was looking for reviews, Erin told me to search under \u201cArticles\u201d.\u00a0 From there, we searched by database title and chose \u201cEducation Full Text\u201d and then hit \u201cGo\u201d.<\/p>\n

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On the next page, I was told to select \u201cChoose Database\u201d and chose a few other relevant databases such as Social Sciences full text, Humanities full text, and Readers\u2019 Guide full text.<\/p>\n

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I then searched under \u201cThe Cartel\u201d, but the results pertained to mainly drug and oil cartels and had nothing to do with the video documentary.\u00a0 I then went back to the previous page and added the writer\/director\u2019s name, Bowdon, to the search.<\/p>\n

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Since this only provided three reviews of the film, I added the database \u201cFilm and Television Literature Index\u201d to my search.\u00a0 This also only offered five reviews, which Erin suggested was probably the result of how recent the film was made.<\/p>\n

A few of the reviews found from that particular search proved thoughtful and informative, but not all five.\u00a0 After my next search in JSTOR was unhelpful, I then targeted Google as my next method of researching.\u00a0 Google News and Google Scholar both left me empty-handed, and simply searching \u201cThe Cartel Bob Bowdon\u201d under Google mainly produced biased positive reviews from companion sites.\u00a0 However, this same search led me to the Wikipedia site for the film, whose \u201cReferences\u201d section surprisingly produced the two most thoughtful and insightful reviews I found.<\/p>\n

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Interestingly enough, many of the reviews I came across found that Bowdon had the right idea in mind and agreed with his general stance, but they do not write favorably about the film.\u00a0 Most reviews were harsh critiques and portrayed the film in a negative light.\u00a0 This is the advantage of using reviews from databases other than the companion site because they are not biased and give both negative and positive feedback.\u00a0 Below I have listed and explained the five most relevant reviews of Bob Bowdon\u2019s \u201cThe Cartel\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Digestible Lesson in Public-School Failures\u201d by Wesley Morris<\/p>\n

Morris takes an unbiased stance on the film, praising the message that Bowdon is trying to get across that current public school systems are corrupt and dysfunctional, but he also critiques the quality of the film itself and the righteous and condescending way Bowdon portrays himself.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201c\u2018<\/strong>The Cartel\u2019 Sees Teacher Unions\u2019 Grip as Crippling\u201d by Brian MacQuarrie<\/p>\n

MacQuarrie gives less of an opinionated account of the film and more so sheds additional light on the problems and absurdities within the public school system in New Jersey.\u00a0 He seems to reiterate and agree with many of the film\u2019s points, showing Bowdon and his film in a positive light.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren Left Behind\u201d by Jeannette Catsoulis<\/p>\n

From the New York Times, Catsoulis provides a rather negative portrayal of the film, pointing out that Bowdon merely focuses on the single state of New Jersey even though the film is supposed to be targeting the public school system on a national level.\u00a0 She calls the film \u201ca bludgeoning rant against a single state\u201d and finishes her review by stating that the film is \u201cvisually horrid and intellectually unsatisfying\u2026demonstrates only that its maker has even more to learn about assembling a film than about constructing an argument\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cartel\u201d by John Anderson<\/p>\n

Taken from an entertainment magazine as opposed to a major newspaper, this review presents the film as ubiquitous oxymoron.\u00a0 Anderson argues that its central message of the dire need to change dysfunctional public school systems is undeniably correct, but Bowdon makes several crucial mistakes such as ignoring the ramifications of the No Child Left Behind act, limiting the film to New Jersey public schools when the film is supposedly of national scope, and presenting a one-sided and voiced-over interview with Joyce Powell, the president of the New Jersey Educational Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cEditor\u2019s Review\u201d by Gretchen Brion-Meisels<\/p>\n

Brion-Meisels, an editor from the Harvard Educational Review, shines light on the tone of the movie, which she suggests points towards the idea that the culture of charter schools is more valuable than the cultures from which underprivileged and low-income students come from.\u00a0 She notes that the film seemed more like a negatively charged method of propaganda towards teacher unions by simply showing failing statistics and not detailing the stories behind them.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

\n

Anderson, John. “Film Reviews- The Cartel.”\u00a0Variety<\/em>. N.p., 5 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/www.variety.com\/review\/VE1117942538\/>.<\/p>\n

Brion-Meisels, Gretchen. “Editor’s Review.”\u00a0Harvard Educational Review<\/em>\u00a0(2011): 751-61. Harvard Education Publishing Group, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/her.hepg.org\/content\/106l1634k457q34v\/fulltext.pdf>.<\/p>\n

Catsoulis, Jeannette. “Children Left Behind.”\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>. N.p., 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/16\/movies\/16cartel.html?_r=2&>.<\/p>\n

MacQuarrie, Brian. “‘The Cartel\u2019 Sees Teacher Unions\u2019 Grip as Crippling.”\u00a0The Boston Globe<\/em>. Boston.com, 25 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/www.boston.com\/ae\/movies\/articles\/2010\/04\/25\/the_cartel_focuses_on_the_stultifying_effect_teacher_unions_are_having_on_the_public_school_system\/>.<\/p>\n

Morris, Wesley. “A Digestible Lesson in Public-School Failures.”\u00a0The Boston Globe<\/em>\u00a030 Apr. 2010: n. pag.\u00a0Boston.com<\/em>. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http:\/\/www.boston.com\/ae\/movies\/articles\/2010\/04\/30\/in_the_cartel_a_condescending_lesson_in_public_school_failures\/>.<\/p>\n

A special thanks to the librarian, Erin Valentine, for helping me through my research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prompt:\u00a0How do you find reviews and essays about video documentaries?\u00a0Describe your search strategy and cite the 5 most thoughtful reviews or background essays on a designated video documentary. Your search results may include scholarly and\/or popular press, but do your best not to include those featured\u00a0on the film\u2019s companion site. (Hint: the goal of this … Continue reading Finding Reviews about Video Documentaries and Avoiding Bias<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3587,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580\/revisions\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}