What Celebrities Life Am I Prying Into Today

          When I open up the Yahoo tab (which happens to be my homepage)  the ”News of the day” about 90% of the news  that comes up on my screen all pertain to celebrities. I don’t know who chooses the stories that make the cut for a “front-page” story, but when I want to know the news, I want to know of things that actually pertain to me and my life. I want to know what is going on that can possibly affect my family, those that I care about, something that may compromise their safety, not who the fashion police was called for. Is this something that I am supposed to see as relevant.

Commercialized Existence

             After taking a communications class, I have seen how much of an impact the media has on my everyday life. It never occurred to me before and I never payed much attention to the fact that I wake up in the morning to brush my teeth with commercialized toothpaste and shower using commercialized shower gel, I then dress my self in commercialized clothing and before leaving to school, I usually eat a commercialized breakfast cereal. It’s actually kind of scary to realized to see how we make choices everyday based upon what the media tells is “in”. It’s like we have been programmed as robots by those with the power to control what is shown to us in the media.

Marijuana Mayhem

          I recently went down to Venice beach and saw numerous shops advertising “medical” marijuana. When going past such places, I noticed that they were all filled with perfectly healthy looking young adults. I thought the whole concept of marijuana being used for medical purposes was to assist in the ease of pain in people who have chronic diseases, cancer, or PEOPLE THAT ARE ACTUALLY SICK. I was upset to see that people were using places like this to get their temporary high and just abusing the system when there are people out there that actually can benefit from the usage of marijuana for health benefits. I was actually more repulsed when a guy advertising for one of the ”pharmacies” asked me if I wanted to come in to get tested for a free visit to see if I can benefit from the usage of marijuana….is media influencing the fight to legalize marijuana?

News to Me!!

              I recently decided to dye my hair for the first time and wanted to find a color that I thought would suit me. So, i started actually paying attention to lots of  pictures women that is presented to me via various forms of media. After skimming through what was about my fifth magazine (pretty bad,huh?) I noticed what I guess you can call a trend; skinny,young, caucasian. I just began to think of how indirectly, we are tricked into believing that this is how all women should want to look. What about those that don’t fit the profile. should we go to crazy extremes trying to be something we are not? or look down upon our self because we are different? do those that run these huge media empires see how they are distorting our image of what is perceived as beauty(or is this what they want)?

Tiger Without Golf (or vice versa)?

It seems that due to recent allegations against Tiger Woods, he has decided to give up golfing. “How can that be”, you ask? After the media hunting him down and putting his public life on the front page in bold letters all over the place, I can’t blame him. The man is only human, we all make mistakes from time to time. I’m going out on a limb here; I’m willing to bet that being hounded by the media only makes things worse when they are prying into every possible source to find a  defect in his “picture perfect” celebrity life….Is the media putting these people up on a high pedestal as “Gods” in hopes that they will fall so that and chaos that ensues can be pointed out and laughed at/criticized by us,the consumers? You know the old saying: The bigger they are, the harder they fall…

Weigh More, Pay More?

This photo was recently taken on an American Airlines flight…Something look wrong with this picture?

 

After the release of this photo, a new debate has broken out: should passengers over 190 lbs ( the max weight one seat can sustain)have to pay more for a ticket? With the recent problems we have been experiencing here in the United States battling obesity, you would think that strict rules would be enforced to help encourage certain individuals to lose weight. Well, now, American Airlines seems to be taking charge. A spokesperson for the company has stated that obese passengers must pay for a second seat. I personally believe that there is nothing wrong with this new rule because overweight people who must stuff themselves into seats that they are too big for clearly pose a safety hazard. The man in the photo above can not possibly be hanging out into the aisle any more.  The media today seems to embrace being obese as “cute” or funny. Overweight people typically play the part of the outcast or the comedian in movies and people have gotten use to seeing it. Why not instead make more commercials encouraging people to make wiser food choices instead of embracing their obesity, for their own health?

Media Hype = No Privacy…

     With all the hype the media must put out on order to get recognition, readers or ratings, celebrities will never get a moment of privacy. Take a look at what the “news” consists of…celebrity deaths? celebrity weddings? celebrity drama? When will we,the consumers, get to see real news? The things going on around the world that have a direct effect on us? That day may never come because of the fact that we have been trained by the media to get a thrill out of catching a glimpse of a celebrity being caught in a compromising situation. But, when will this end? When will we open our eyes and demand real news, when will we take a global approach to all we are informed of over the junk we’ve been force-fed?

JESUS,GAY???

     I was recently searching the internet when I happened to come across an unusual ad. I found a Catholic church advertising their “Christmas Musical”, one would naturally think, “the typical nativity scene,” Right??? WRONG!!!! The producers of this musical decided to take a totally unconventional approach…they made the main character (Jesus, of course) GAY!!!! When asked for their reasoning behind the decision, the church representatives said that they wanted to get others to become more accepting of those who are homosexual.They went on to explain that God does not love gays any less…that the actions that may go on between them does not lead to reproduction which is what goes against the Church’s teachings. I just wondered if this was really necessary. I do understand that the church wants to teach acceptance of all people,but I just wonder if this would sit well with parents wanting to keep their children away from such exposure…the media does have a huge effect on the mind of young children.

What is beauty?

After a recent discussion in class regarding the female body and distorted image of beauty in the media, I realized that there is no set idea of beauty. Beauty, depending on who it’s being “sold” to can range from slim and slender to big and voluptuous and everything in between. I have noticed that the media, depending on who it’s catering to, tends to change it’s image of beauty. Some major fashion companies will not make clothing in any size bigger than a 27 while other media sources encourage women to get breast implants bigger than their head. What are young teenage girls supposed to expect of themselves?

Are Certain People “Above the Law”?

       I recently read that Maria Shriver (The Governor’s Wife) just so happened to be driving around while chatting on her cell phone while cruising through Brentwood. Sure…everyone makes mistakes, right?  The bad part is that this wasn’t the first time.  Apparently, photographers have captured Ms. Shriver on the phone multiple times. And, according to reports, she wasn’t “punished” until Mr. Schwarzenegger was criticized by the public and faced with photographic evidence. After being “scolded” by her husband, Maria decided to donate her favorite cell phone to a charity. Ironically, Maria’s husband, Arnold is the one who passed the law in the first place!!Weeks later, Maria got caught parking her escalade (not an emergency  vehicle) in the red zone designated  for an ambulance while visiting a hospital.

    What I find disturbing is that if any other law-abiding citizen were to get caught committing the exact same offense, I’m sure the law would be enforced to the full extent and the person wouldn’t get off  just by donating their cell-phone to charity. I can only hope that the “donation” does not count as a tax write off.