The eighth member of the Jackson’s family, the little boy in The Jackson 5, and eventually the man who became the “King of Pop”, who may this be, well if it is not evident enough, it is the sensational Michael Jackson (Ditzian, 2009). Graeme Turner states, “contemporary popular culture interprets celebrity as a symptom of cultural change” (5). The notion of “cultural change” shouts out Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson changed the music culture completely, his music inspired many people because of his majority of self written songs and his dance style including the moon walk. In addition, the people loved his undeniable charm (Montgomery, 2009).Before continuing this blog post, it would be much appropriate to say, since Michael Jackson’s tragic death, everyone including his family, friends and fans, have been in great sadness and will miss him dearly. It is important to recognize and appreciate Michael Jackson for he has revolutionized dance and music forever.
Michael has been in the tabloids for over the past two decades for countless reasons, one being acknowledged for his accomplishments from his successful music career. His outstanding talent generated “thirteen number one singles and a total winning of thirteen Grammy Awards” (Ditzian, 2009). Other reports informed the public of his sponsorship with Pepsi, also that Michael “bought a piece of land which he then built on it the Neverland Valley Ranch” (Montgomery, 2009”). However, there was news/rumors about Michael which was not either positive or uplifting. It included Michael being accused of child sexual abuse and having weird or odd behaviours and scandals (Montgomery, 2009).
Michael Jackson was not discussed or only recognized in the media because he was a minority in the sense that he was an African American entertainer, but he has been or was the subject of media/public discourse for his changing of skin pigmentation (Montgomery, 2009). It all began in 1986- Michael Jackson was diagnosed with of Vitiligo and Lupus (Krishna, 2010). One could argue that the late 1980’s was the era where Michael Jackson’s behaviours and scandals began to transform his iconic view forever. Vitiligo and Lupus are skin diseases that made Michael’s skin blotchy (Krishna, 2010). In the public’s eye, Michael Jackson was always a darker complexion, and eventually his complexion became lighter and lighter.
Until his death on June 25th, 2009, the controversial issue of his skin pigmentation and whether he was or was not bleaching his skin has been discussed by the public (Michael Jackson skin, 2010). As discussed in lecture this week, tabloids make celebrity entertainment into news. First, Michael’s changing skin pigment has been the subject of media and public discourse and has been a very divisive issue involving the public and his diehard fans. Many rumors were obviously made insisting that he didn’t want to be black and he wanted to be white (Michael Jackson skin, 2010). These ridiculous claims have made his minority status a hot topic. People were beginning to forget why Michael Jackson was very influential and well known around the world. People forgot the talent that Michael had and replaced it with the prominent news on Michael’s differentiation of pigment, therefore to Michael’s name was not only the “king of pop” but also the notion that he bleached his skin and was ashamed of being black. One may question the morality of it all, whether it is right to suppress an individual from being positively remembered as opposed to the bad which include believing rumors or the tabloids of Michael bleaching his own skin. The irony of it all is that, in 1993 Oprah interviewed Michael and in the interview he admitted to his diagnoses of Vitiligo “(Dunbar, 2010). After his death, it was confirmed by his autopsy that “he did suffer from the skin disease where one can lose their pigmentation” (Dunbar, 2010). Therefore, Michael Jackson’s minority status has been continuously visible through various media discourses. The false assumptions of his skin pigmentation have lead Michael Jackson to be remembered as the man in the mirror who at the end of his life, did not look like the same man in the mirror due to his change of pigment.
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Wikipedia is a source of public knowledge that is used by almost all people. Wikipedia themselves refer to their service or purpose as, “a free, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia that offers general reference work” (Wikipedia, 2001).
For the assignment I further engaged in a critical discussion in regards to Michael Jackson’s differentiation of skin pigment on his Wikipedia page. At first it was very difficult to understand how to post or edit his page, but after help from a friend, I understood how to edit. However, his page is semi restricted which meant that I was not allowed to edit his page. I then proceeded by emailing Wikipedia to ask for their permission to add additional information to Michael’s page. I received an email back from a man at Wikipedia by the name of Robert Johnson who had given me instructions how I can add additional information. However he did not allow the information I had written to be directly put on the page but merely on a discussion board attached to Michael’s page. There is a screen shot of my critical additional comment that I added to the discussion board. I am not a tech savvy person, so this part of the blog was a definite challenge. Below there is the paragraph that I wanted to get published under the category “Appearance, tabloids, Bad, autobiography and films (1986–87)”.
“The time of Jacksons’ diagnoses of Vitiligo and Lupus, his skin became blotchy. Once his skin was going through pigment differentiation, Jackson wanted to make it all one colour. Therefore, from confirmation from the autopsy, skin bleaching creams were used but solely for the purpose of covering his blotchy skin due to his skin disease, rather than for outrageous rumors about him having the desire to be Caucasian. Jackson has told the truth from his interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, where he openly admitted his skin diagnoses. Sadly, people refused to believe him even having him publicly admit his disease and still continued to not believe him until his death and his autopsy results.”
Wikipedia does not allow just anyone with an account to add information to a page, they may not be an anonymous user and in order to allow the information to be on the page, you must hand in a request form (Wikipedia, 2001). However, I tried to make a request form but it said I would need to be an established user, which means having ten edits on my list (Wikipedia, 2001). This eliminates several users from editing a page because it means they have to be a significant user as opposed to a random user. The public/democratic construction of knowledge must be neutral or at least honest when editing or adding information to Wikipedia pages. This may allow the public’s knowledge to be limited to biased or adjusted information and may also limit the truth behind the information. Wikipedia is a good source to get a general knowledge on a celebrity or subject but it would be false to heavily rely on it for substantial information.
Michael Jackson- The Man in the Mirror (Music Video)
References
Ditzian, Eric. (2009, June 26). Michael Jackson’s Family Tree: Janet, Rebbie, Marlon And More [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1614845/michael-jacksons-family-tree.jhtml
Dunbar, Denise. Autopsy Confirms Michael Jackson’s Vitiligo Claims.(2010, February 11) Retrieved from http://mypraiseatl.com/photos/denisedunbar/autopsy-confirms-michael-jackson%E2%80%99s-vitiligo-claims/
Graeme, Turner. (2004). Understanding celebrity. London: Sage Ltd.
Krishna, Sudha. Michael Jackson Autopsy Confirms Skin Disorder. (2010, February 9) Retrieved from http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/vitiligo-michael-jackson-autopsy-confirms-skin-disorder-2572670.html
Michael Jackson: The King of Pop. (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.michaeljackson.com/ca/home
Michael Jackson skin whitening rumors confirmed by detectives .(2010,March 27) Retrieved fromhttp://www.examiner.com/celebrity-in-montreal/michael-jackson-skin-whitening-rumors-confirmed-by-detectives
Montgomery, James. Michael Jackson’s Life and Legacy: The Eccentric King of Pop. ( 2009, July 6 ) Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1615214/michael-jacksons-life-amp-legacy-19861999.jhtml
Wikipedia. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (2001, February 15) Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
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