Two librarians at Texas Tech University have released a report detailing Michael Jackson’s broad influence in the scholarly community. Associate Librarians Susan Hidalgo and Rob Weiner combed through scholarly papers and peer-reviewed articles in over 100 databases in creating “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’: MJ in the Scholarly Literature: A Selected Bibliographic Guide”
The guide shows Jackson popping up in psychology, medical, chemistry, mass communications and even engineering journals.
Here was the goal of their research:
To say that researchers can find tons of material on Michael Jackson would be an understatement. Our original goal was to provide scholars with a guide to printed books, articles, websites and other online sources that researchers could use as legitimate content. We wanted to avoid sensationalist works like David Perel’s Freak: Inside the Twisted World of Michael Jackson or National Enquirer type publications.
and here was the criteria:
1) Was the article in a peer-reviewed journal?
2) If not, would it still be of interest to scholars and researchers?
3) Did the article have substantial Jackson content?
4) Is the Jackson content unique?
5) Does the article tell us something about the way we see popular icons including Jackson?
And this is just a start for the authors admit that they merely scratched the surface of scholarly content related to Jackson.
The breadth of Jackson’s influence, beyond his just being a pop icon, is truly astounding. This bibliographic guide to the MJ in the scholarly literature just scratches the surface. We do, however, give scholars a place to start exploring the world of the “King of Pop” in academic literature. If nothing else, it illustrates just how pervasive Jackson’s impact is.
Article at LISNews, Two Texas Tech Librarians Analyze The Gloved One’s Influence on Academia
Previously on Book Patrol:
Michael Jackson “Extremely Well-Read,” Had 10,000 Books