Lens Question

Phenomenon: 
the moment when the crowning of the pageant winner was announced. Why and how could this happen?


How does Street’s claim that prizes can be awarded to the 'wrong' winner, help explain the drastic change in the pageant winner in Hairspray.

James English

Manifest, considerable and precise.

The case against awards

Prior to reading this article, I had some thoughts about the justification of awards. Sometimes, I feel that judges made a wrong choice by awarding to a non-deserving candidate. I do agree partially with Chait that the wrong person do win at times. From the earlier part of his article, his basis was sort of caused by biasness from the authorities or the judging committee towards the awardee. Then again, his biasness was probably built up by his personal experiences from his teacher who joined NASA. It is very clear that he is very one-sided and persistent in his stand His tone shows that he is very adamant that he is absolutely right. However, the second part of his article somehow makes sense to me, that our emotions play a very crucial role in our judgement. Personal biasness seems to be acting subconsciously in our minds. The Nobel peace prize example is something that we should take note of, hopefully it isn't true. Otherwise, the true meaning of the Nobel peace prize would be destroyed.

Peace Prize on the Putin Prime Minister

I find this article very interesting as it contradicts itself in a very “nice” manner. I was shocked to find out that a peace prize was awarded to a person who caused war, instead of peace. Furthermore, the committee that awarded this peace prize award was able to justify themselves by throwing out “unbelievable” reasons. His ruthlessness was painted in a different light by the committee and praised to the extent that the purpose of going to war was an applaudable one. This article is trying to provoke sarcasm to the Putin’s prime minister in a very polite manner. The mere action of holding of a news conference on China International Peace Studies Center, but yet there was little reporting in the Chinese news media about the award, shows the unimportance of publicizing this award to the Chinese people. Whereas, twitter was utilized to spread this award, clearly illustrates the target audience that the committee is aiming at- the rest of the world, in particular tapping on the strength of the social media.  According to the last year’s winner, Lien Chan, the award wasn’t properly explained and publicized to him, at least. Therefore, this again reflects the sincerity and importance of this award to the awardee. Towards the end of the article, I have the feeling that the original meaning of prizes has evolved in this context and has undertaken a complex nature. Whereby, the awarding of a prize may not necessarily carry the good nature of it. Hence, I conclude that this award appears to be more of a jeer than a true award, for its purpose.