How Gossip Girls Communicate

One of the biggest tv shows to hit the CW in the past few years has been Gossip Girl. The show is about teens growing up in New York on the Upper East Side. The show has all of the hottest fashions, trends, and luxeries that any teenager watching the show will be envious of.

Since this show already has influence over the way teens, watching the show, dress, act and talk it was very important for cell phone companies to get their phones advertised on the show.

The company that won out was Verizon wireless and now you can turn on your tv every monday and see your favorite Gossip Girl characters talking on their Verizon Wireless cell phones. And since the main focus of the show is about an anonymus person called Gossip Girl who mass texts all of the teens every time something scandalous happens, the cell phones are the main point of the show. Now when teens want to be like their favorite characters all they have to do is get a Verizon Wireless phone. Oh, and maybe an outfit valued at $1000 would help them out as well.

Jobs in Mass Comm.

While writing these blogs I have realized that Mass Communication is a very broad field that has a whole slew of different jobs to choose from in it's field. Jobs in things like advertising, radio/television broadcasting, journalism, public relations and more. Each of these areas of interest have jobs that pay well and can be very rewarding and fun to do. Not many people realize that when you go for a job in Mass Communication that you are going to be directly affecting people's lives and that impact can be used for good or bad because mass media holds a lot of power in the way that people think.

If none of these career choices float your boat then it's great just to think about the other things that you get from at least taking a communications course or two. Not only does it help you with your public speaking abilities but it also helps you with the very important skill of being able to communicate with others that can only bring you farther in life.

And my favorite part of communications is that if you major in it can goes well with practically any other major you choose.

These are the things that make me happy to be a Communications major.

Twilight Takes Charge

Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilght Saga has taken over Hollywood. The second installment in this wonderful saga, New Moon, just recently hit theaters and was a smashing success. Not only did the Twilight books become best sellers but the movies are following close behind as well as plenty of merchandise to go along with them. Teenage girls (and some guys) find themselves mesmerized by the fantasy world on the big screen and are eating up the Twilight Saga like a delicious piece of chocolate cake.

One of the underlying things about the author of the Twilight series is that Stephenie Meyer is Mormon. You wouldn't know it by reading the books or seeing the movies but that actually has played a big part in her series. The fact that Edward and Bella get married before they have sex and how none of the characters ever do anything besides kiss in the series are just a few little things among the series that show this.

Not only is that one way that Twilight is affecting people's morals but other things also have influence over people. For example, not only is Twilight a book series but now it is also a movie series and that has caused a spin-off of merchandise sold in stores and other books based off the Twilight books and even the soundtracks to the movies have made some less known bands more popular. It is also believed that the strong reaction towards Twilight has made the Vampire trend much more popular and have a comeback in these recent years.

At this rate it's no wonder why Twilight is taking charge!

Growing Up Online

After watching the documentary in class Growing Up Online it really got me thinking about the way that I've grown up. Before computers things used to be so much simpler. Slower, yes, but simpler. People didn't spend hours on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, instead they would spend that precious time outside getting fresh air and hanging out with their friends in person, or here's a wild thought, doing their homework by hand! Or at least that's how I started out when I was younger.

These days however things are drastically different. No more are the days of calling your friends on the phone or writing letters by hand and sending them by snail mail. Now, people do all of their work online, it's now considered much more convenient to send a quick email or to simply text your friends if you want to hang out instead of calling them.

In Growing Up Online the documentary delves deep into the lives of teens that use the internet to not only socialize but to deal with their social problems. Girls can now have fights over MySpace without actually saying anything to each other in person. Teens can now create alter egos that are the versions of themselves that they're too shy to be and the people that they wish they were.

In my opion all of this is sick. While I support the use of the internet to do research and to socialize with others I hate the idea that teens are trying to use the internet as a scape goat for their real issues. I also feel like when teens use more and more technology they are loosing basic social skills and the ability to hold a conversation and I find that just downright sad.

How Disney Builds Stars

The wonderful world of Disney has been around for a very long time and somehow they have always managed to recruit kids and teenagers with the best morals, looks, and personalities around. How do they do it? They build them themselves of course!

In class we talked about how Disney is a HUGE media conglomerant and we read the article How Disney Builds Stars. From Demi Lovato to Selena Gomez and the Jonas Brothers, Disney has found a way to make teens from everywhere into Disney stars.

One of Disney's biggest (teen) accomplishments has been Miley Cyrus or (as she is known as) Hannah Montana. After just one season of the hit Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, Cyrus became a star. She went to not only a tv show but also to sold out concert tours, cds, best-selling memoir, a hit movie, and a contract for many more seasons of playing Hannah Montana.

This sort of fame and sucess hasn't only happened to Miley Cyrus but also to countless other Disney Channel stars. The great thing that Disney has going for them is that they can self promote their own stars by having them guest star on other Disney channel shows. For example, after the hit Disney movie High School Musical debuted on Disney Channel and became a booming success the stars of HSM guest starred on several other shows such as The Suite Life of Zach and Cody and others.

Another signature thing that all of the Disney Channel star teens seem to go for is innocence. All of the Jonas Brothers wear purity rings to symbolize their commitments to abstinence, and they seem to have started a trend. Unfortunetly, this doesn't always work for every star and sometimes they fall out of line, like when Miley Cyrus was featured partially nude in Vanity Fair Magazine.

All of this just goes to show that while Disney builds their own stars they're not always perfect.

First Trial

first post!!!! yay and thats all........