Is it a Trick or a Treat?


As we approach the end of October, we are bombarded by scary decorations, outrageous costumes and invitations to the spookiest of parties, why? It's Halloween! This festival was primarily celebrated by the US along with other northern countries, but how did the celebration start in Trinidad?

I am aware that residents of the West for instance celebrated it since the early 70's because those areas are full of residents who migrated from northern continents but now the festival is National! With every store commercializing the festival.

From the bumble-bee costume to the french maid, skulls to doctors and with every popular club in the land hosting a costume gala with prizes for the best, is Halloween becoming part of the Trinbago Culture? If so Why isn't it mentioned in the national Calender?



Does the nation understand the significance of the Halloween celebration in terms of Religion and Superstition? Or has the Media just infiltrated the celebration in our minds as something "cool" and the opportunity to play Dress up and Disguise?




History Of Halloween



Photo courtesy Facebook Events:
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Contact Us

We all live a stones' throw away. Drop us a line, and we are willing to reply or address any Media related issue you may have seen, heard or dreamt about.

Kaelanne Jordan -

Akiela Hope - detenor@yahoo.com

Marie F Hull -mariefhull@gmail.com

Ken Sambury
Email: kensambury@gmail.com
Phone Number - 710-4212
Blackberry pin: : 21CC0F05

Thalia Thomas -

Fooled into Security?

Preamble: Early Monday morning, I heard a woman scream. Looking out the window (because we all know I am not going any closer) and down the road I noticed a body lying face down on the ground. The commotion caught the attention of our entire village, except the village police. Later that night, in our living room the corner house family sat and were shocked when reporters said "speedy police response" referring to the shooting incident in our neighborhood.

Allegations of corruption, police brutality, unsolved murders and the lack of and skewed responsiveness of the police to crimes are nothing new said by citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
It is a fact that people have very little or no faith in the police service. Especially since crime in T&T is very high. Out off 548 crimes in T&T in 2008 only 20 were solved. There is even a Face book page titled Trinidad police is the worst.
Some police are just as bad as criminals
Cartoon Courtesy: Clay Bennet
I once called the police to make a report of a man that just raped a woman and was still prowling the area like God and they never came. Now we have a new administration, a new year, new crimes, yet still little has changed. The biggest change from my perspective, has little to do with the actual solving of crimes or execution of police work. The most noteworthy and conspicuous recent 'improvement' has been heavy advertisements by the police service.
Recently, there have been many advertisements on the various forms of media depicting the efforts of the police service to stop or curb the crime situation in the country. Advertising is very effective and has the power to create awareness, inform, and persuade. It can make us buy things we don’t want and sing songs we don’t like. So this is my question.

Do you think that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service is using the media to 'dupe' citizens into thinking they are effectively handling the crime situation in Trinidad and Tobago and actually doing their job?

Bringing Death Close!

Publishing photographs of human tragedy


On Monday, August 31,2009 our front page should have been covered in the national colours wishing everyone the old cliché “Happy Independence”.

Instead, The Trinidad Newsday printed a shocking photograph of a baby lying at the side of the Solomon Hochoy Highway in the grass. The infant was dead.


On Tuesday 24th August, the dead body of Police Constable Jason Thomas was published on the front cover of the Trinidad Express. He was killed in an attempted robbery.

This concern about the publication of graphic photographs all started with the devastating earthquake in Haiti, as photos of dead bodies made it to the print and virtual front pages of most major news organizations.

At home, the publishing of graphic, and might I say, dead bodies, stirred a feeling within me. This feeling changed my perception of media coverage dramatically….

Does journalism and by extension, media houses see that the enormity of the earthquake’s devastation and gruesome murder being communicated without graphic photos?

Of all the atrocities, the most troubling element of graphic photographs for me was to see the image of the dead baby mentioned above.

Where’s the human decency? Where’s the sensitive, kind and compassionate journalist’?

Do we, as readers and audience want to see dead eyes staring back through the newspapers?

I strongly believe that because of their vulnerability, children, especially require extra, sensitivities in news coverage. It must be recognized that these photos resonate with those immediately connected to the deceased child as well as with general readers and viewers. Given the trauma experienced by families that lose a child, is it unethical to use a child’s face and name to explain a story?

In spite of newsroom standards that emphasize minimization of harm and increased discretion when covering moments of death, especially with children, harm reduction is often secondary to the news value of a story and the public’s right to know.

Patrice Keats, who studies traumatic stress, says that the printing of a photograph of a murdered child, such as the one of Heather Thomas’ body in the lake, can cause a family to experience “secondary wounding.” She explains: “Seeing the image would be like a re-opening of the wound…it can never really heal until the coverage stops.”
The potential trauma caused to families by printing photographs of murdered children seems to be an afterthought to community values and standards of “taste.” Families can be traumatized by media attention surrounding lost loved ones, especially children, and, as Keats pointed out, their trauma can be exacerbated by images.

Ethical codes generally acknowledge the need to minimize harm when covering victims of crime. For instance, the Radio-Television National Directors Association (RTNDA), the code, which CTV refers to, states: “Treat all subjects of news coverage with respect and dignity, showing particular compassion to victims of crime or tragedy.”

The use of photographs depicting dead children is appropriate as long as it is advancing a cause and is not merely “pandering to lurid curiosity,” which the SJP warns against. As shown in ethical codes and as stated by the directors of newsrooms themselves, both principles of minimizing harm and obligation to the public must be weighed.

In closing, there needs to be conscious restraint in the decision making process, especially when dealing with death. In the decision making process, it seems that trauma is not adequately addressed. News Media have the power to traumatize families and communities. This power must be recognized, and precautions must be considered against traumatic depictions.

These two incidents change my perceptive of 'news'. It left me with so much unanswered questions….

Does a photo depicting tragedy exploit grief or serve a legitimate news function?

Should media houses run the photo?

Do they understand and consider the potential likelihood of the images offending readers by depicting death so closely?

Is it really news?

And last but not least…

What are media houses selling with this paper, information or emotion?

Television Toddlers, Brainwashed Adults

Preamble: From here in our corner house, the neighbors TV has been bothering us for several years now. We would hear on TV, "Go Suck yuh mumma" and our insides would cringe with what the neighbors next door were feeding their toddlers. Now several years later, we see brainwashed adults walking around, and we suspect they were influenced by that black box. Take first look at how we see it, from our cornerhouse:

Media Babies, Tv Children, the TV Generation.

the TV Generation may be our PARENTS
Born from 1940s-1960s
That's you and I they say, we are the generation most influenced to date by foreign society through our consistent relationship with our Television set. Asking one youth she said "It is common consensus that 'everyone' during their early childhood was thrust before the TV for at lest two hours each day by a busy parent or baby sitter" If this is true then our ideas, and personality have been molded from a long time by things we see on TV. Why is this even an issue one may ask? Ok, Television influences us, sounds amazing but so what!?

Well according to David Frost, a British broadcaster, Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.”



Keira Salandy in our Living Room
Ken Sambury says:
So when you were younger your parents used to put u infront the tv?
Keira says:
no, I used to go for myself
Ken Sambury says:
So in general do you think TV influences young people, like you and I?
Keira says:
Yes it does
Ken Sambury says:
In what way?
Keira says:
The generation gap when it pertains to cartoons is totally different, the cartoons tend to be more rated, dan bac in de days
Ken Sambury says:
Does advertisments influence u to buy things?
Keira says:
Yes it does especially if i need it lol

Ken Sambury says: so Keira, how much of your peers lives you think are influenced by Television Media? as opposed to influence by books\parents or peers
Keira says: 75%
Ken Sambury says: Why is it that large amount? What do they do which shows this?
Keira says: Well i will say television influence the clothes and music that my friends where and listen to includin myself

As a result of such influence, the average male 21 year old may quicker splurge on chrome rims than the down payment for a house or a female may rush at the shopping mall to buy clothes and shoes she does not need as opposed to investing in her personal health or well being.


"Businesses spend billions of advertising dollars every year because they know that viewers are influenced by what they see and hear. They don’t spend that money because they think advertising might work; they know it works. It sells their products. In 2004, The Coca-Cola Company spent 2.2 billion dollars advertising its products worldwide in print, on the radio, and on television. Was the investment worthwhile? The company made nearly 22 billion dollars in profits for that year. Advertisers realize that one ad may not affect behavior. Instead, they rely on the cumulative impact of years of indoctrination." - Page 3, the October 2006 issue of the Awake Magazine.


That is food for thought.

If 30-second advertisements influence our attitudes and behavior, we may be certain that hours of TV viewing also affect us. “Beneath the most routine or trivial entertainment,” says the author of Television—An International History,“the medium operates as a subtle instructor.” Says the book A Pictorial History of Television: “Television is changing the way we think.” The question the aforementioned, Awake magazine encouraged us to ask ourselves is, ‘Does what I watch affect my thinking in the way I want it to?’
Tell us what you think below.

The Media's Woman

Ok, so most times when I see women being portrayed in the media, the cloths that drapes their body barely covers their private gems. They are gyrating and grinding on something; whether on men or a on gadgets, or they are some body’s b***h, that is constantly running from a Pimp’s slap.

Above ^^ Depicts Advertisements which show women using their bodies as the selling piece.

Yea, yea, forget that there are moms, housewives, businesswomen, students, somebody’s sister or daughter, trying to live a normal life, without doing what is said above, but because of the media’s portrayal of women all of this is forgotten.

Even though great progress has been made in how the media portrays women in magazines, films and television, the stereotypical ‘less than nothing’ female still blossoms in the so call media that we devour daily.

They’ keep saying, sex sells, so, if advertisers want to sell a drink, it is a woman’s body and her arousal body parts that are portrayed. If advertisers want to sell food, again, it’s a woman’s body and her sensual parts that pop up, literally. And if it is a car, then you won’t have to guess, which "assets" are for sale.

Does the stereotypical female in the media have a controlling influence over how humanity analyzes women and how women view themselves? Should we be worried of the subliminal messages the media sends?
Why do females find themselves adding to the media's negative portrayal and stereotyping of women? Is it because women have lost all self respect, or is it that they’re just in it for the fast money? Who knows?

About Us.

Story of the House
"When I was young, Tanty used to say that there was once a big fat lady who lived at the corner house and knew everyone's business"! She explained that the woman developed x-ray vision from 100 years of sitting in her rocking chair every evening pairing into the lives of each passerby. She tore away at the village privacy without ever leaving her rustic, vintage West Indian porch.


Ever since then anyone who has lived in a corner house around the world has been expected to have the above average knowledge of their surroundings. And anyone who knows much about any person is more likely than not to be a corner house resident.

Purpose of the House
In the media around us therefore it is important to understand its influence on us. At this house we discuss Media Issues! We the journalist of tomorrow look for answers though you.


People of the House - The Contributors
Marie F. Hull - Describes herself as a smart bubbly young lady with a passion for the being creatively different. A perfectionist at times but Marie's extra effort yields extra results.
Ken Sambury - is "Media"
Akiela Hope - She is a Freelance Writer at the Trinidadian Guardian. Never afraid to speak her mind, plain talk bad manners but diplomatic enough to censor it just enough for publishing.
Kaelanne Jordan - She is a Freelance Writer at the Trinidadian Guardian who adds flavor to her writing a real" Spicy-tamale"!
Thalia Thomas - She uses her knowledge of different fields of work and study to give the holistic picture of media as it affects the world around us.