A Well-Written Blog

Dare 2 Share's Blog about teen trends is well written and well structured. The author refrains from using words, such as "very," "really," and "extremely," which are unnecessary words that often evoke no power and that have the potential to weaken clarity and a direct style of writing. The author does a good job varying sentence length and style, which keeps the piece interesting so that one does not get bored with the style of writing. I also noticed that he refrains from using passive voice, which is also something that can take away from clarity. There are not unnecessary phrases, such as "the fact that" or "because of the fact that." Although, I did notice that the author used a lot of "this is" and "there is;" almost every new paragraph started with these words. This blog contains a variety of words and does not use many of the same words more than once, which can make writing repetitive and boring, although, this is a common mistake made by many writers who do not realize that they are doing it. I like the style of writing in this blog because it is professional, direct, and clear without confusing words or sentence structures, which often takes away from the major idea because the reader is focused more on trying to understand the words and sentences, as opposed to getting the main idea. Writing is one of the best ways to share thoughts and ideas and to be successful in getting your point across, you must be able to write effectively with good style and prose.

Web 2.0 Application (Hollywood Grind)

New applications on the web are becoming more popular and are also helpful to different fields of careers. For example, The Hollywood Grind can be very helpful to those people who are either interested in, or have jobs in the entertainment industry.

The Hollywood Grind (HollywoodGrind.com) is a great resource for keeping up to date with news stories and trends in the entertainment industry. It keeps up to date stories about the latest celebrity gossip, and even organizes the stories into, "hot off the press," and the "last 100 posts," which are the most recent news stories that have taken place. Even when looking for something or someone specific, you simply type it in and the site will search for a story relating to what you are looking for. The site contains endless articles of all the latest stories and I found it interesting because I read many articles in which the topics were so new to me. Hollywood Grind is considered a Hollywood Blog, so it also allows its users to post comments about the articles and view others comments as well. This is a great way to collaborate with others and see their viewpoints about the things taking place in the entertainment industry. This site is created through Google so its users are also given the option to put this site in their Google toolbar, making it convenient to access.

The site not only keeps up to date in entertainment news, but also contains the latest articles relating to health news. For instance, right now the latest health articles include headlines, such as "New Drug Shows Promise for Treating Epileptic Seizures, Bipolar Disorder and Neuropathic Pain" and "Scientists identify cancer genes, and drugs to block them." The site also contains content relating to politics, as well as having a section for “gay news,” having articles titled, “Green Tea Chemical Offers Hope of HIV drug.”

This site can be a great resource for those in the field of entertainment because most jobs in the entertainment industry require a person to know the latest trends, the latest news about celebrities, as well as all other current news going on in the industry. For example, those involved in advertising often use celebrities and entertainment as a marketing tool because many people relate to the entertainment industry and follow in its trends. Also, those involved in fashion in the entertainment industry can use this site as a way to track the latest celebrity fashion trends. This site can definitely be helpful to my blog, discussing how the entertainment industry affects societal trends. I can search the latest stories and see what trends are taking place in the entertainment industry and compare those trends to what is actually taking place in society. I can also use it as a way to predict what trends might follow in society after seeing new breakout trends in these articles. This site is excellent for finding the latest headlining entertainment news, allowing a person to keep track of the latest stories. It also allows them to comment about the news articles and to view other’s opinions about certain news stories, which can be helpful.

I am mainly interested in how this application can help those involved in the entertainment industry, but it can also be a supplementary resource for those in fields relating to politics, health, and homosexuality. I highly recommend those in the field of entertainment, as well as those in other fields, to add Hollywood Grind to their toolbar.

Comment on The Tyra Banks Show

Last month Tyra Banks aired a shocking episode in response to the tabloids. The paparazzi shot photos of her on one of her photo shoots and made her look like she had gained a lot of weight and had headlines such as, "Tyra has gotten fat!" Although Tyra has gained a little weight since her modeling days, she is still at a healthy weight; however, when those photos of her appeared in the magazine, so many people were saying, "wow, Tyra has gotten kind of fat." But, this just shows how the media has such an impact on how people think and their perceptions about celebrities. She discussed this matter on her show and she came out in the same swimsuit that the paparazzi shot her in. Although, when she appeared on her show, she looked nothing like the magazine photos, but actually looked very in shape and trim, but also did not look too thin; she looked healthy. She discussed how the things in tabloids can be so misleading and how not only are they misleading, but they can also be very hurtful as well. The photographers find one bad angle of her and throw it all around the nation in magazines and on television. Before her show aired, there were many rumors floating around about Tyra becoming fat; however, she is not fat and rumors such as these are the reason why so many young girls and women have body image issues, especially when in the photo, she was not fat, but simply didn't look like a model anymore; however, she is not a model anymore so why are people still expecting her to look like one? This is a fine example of how the media and entertainment industry give us distorted views about what beauty is and what a healthy weight is. I think that Tyra has become an excellent role model for young girls because she deals with many of the body image issues that the media is creating and supports the idea that the entertainment industry needs to stop. We need to have more celebrities support this idea and speak out about what the entertainment industry is doing to the women in our society and how they are setting impossible expectations.

Comment on "Television's Influence on the Family"

There are those critics who argue that it is solely the parents' responsibility to raise their children appropriately and it is not up to the entertainment industry to raise them. The article, Television’s Influence on the Family, discusses television being very influential and much of the time in negative ways to our children. But, the article does not suggest “turning off the TV,” since there seems to be no escaping it. This article suggests that the best approach is for parents to talk to their children about what they are watching and explain to them what is real, what is acceptable, and what is not. The parents do have a huge responsibility to raise their children to know right from wrong and to help them have high self-esteem, but this is not a simple answer. Families do have a huge impact on their children's ideals and values; however, so does the child's peers. And not all parents are willing to filter the things that their children watch, or to talk to them about what is right and what is wrong; the children of the parents who do take the time to do these things will also suffer the consequences when their children are surrounded by the many others who are easily influenced by what they watch and who have little parental guidance. So although parents do play a highly significant role, there are many other factors that have influence over our society's children. For example, the article, Admirer-Celebrity Relationships Among Young Adults, explains “besides family and peers, younger people tend to form other attachments in many of the same ways to celebrities and popular media, which is very significant in their development and the characteristics that they obtain.” Children and TV Violence, also explains how “young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence.” This supports the idea that a child’s parents are not enough to prevent children from being influenced by the media, as Television's Influence on the Family suggests.