Image of Athletes

Athletes, Athletes, Athletes….sex scandals, guns, dog fighting, abuse, murder, and addiction, is that all there known for? Athletes are human beings just like us, we all make mistakes. I do think athletes need to realize they are in the public eye. Your image can make or break you. Kobe Bryant was a part of a sex scandal, and what happened? He lost his major endorsements. Kobe gets accused of rape and a law suit is filed against him. Slowly we saw a new attitude, better skills, a new Nike contract, and a videao game endorsement. Then we have Gilbert Arenas who pulls a gun on his team mate and gets suspended for the rest of the season. Magic comes out in the 1980’s and says he has HIV. Just think of all the thoughts that went through people heads. Michael Phelps, Americas GOLDEN CHILD, is caught drunk driving, and caught on camera smoking weed and what happens to him, NOTHING. This just shows that everyone loves a winner. Michael Vick serves time for dog fighting and Marion Jones serves time for steroids. Athletes need to stand up as men/women and take ownership for their faults. They ask to be in the position they are in. It’s not like fans say come play this sport so I can like you. Although, there is a lot of controversy with athletes, no one talks about the good they do. Did you know Kevin Garnet paid for his friends to go to college or Doug Fluite gave half his signing bones to charities? Numerous of athletes have foundations, read to children, pay medical bills for kids, and make people dreams come true. At the end of the day we are all human but, athletes cannot play sports forever. Maintaining an image is important because an athlete just might have to get a another job like coaching or commentating. Once again your image can make you or break you!

The Evolution of Music

Today’s musical artists are making it in a new way. There are some pros and some cons to this situation. People are starting to get discovered off of MySpace, mix tapes and You Tube. I believe social networking is a major help in the music industry now days. Artist such as Soulja Boy and Colbie Caillat got signed from posting their music on MySpace. Journey got their new lead singer off of You Tube and that’s where Justin Beiber was found. Record execs are going to social sites to find artist instead of listing to demos, like back in the day. Labels are making money regardless. Music companies are signing artist to label deals. There only four distributers in the United States, Warner Brothers, EMI, Sony, and Universal. If you are an artist you need one of these major labels for funding. The major deal will pay for promotion, photo shoots, and so much more. Artists who are signed to indie deals are starting to see more money in their own pockets because they own the masters to their records verses the Motown days when Berry Gordy owned the masters to his entire roster of artist. Artist are building their own studios and saving money on studio time. However, the indie label deals are resulting in the lack of quality of music. Music execs are giving label deals to anybody who has a catchy song or look. Also labels are starting to sign artist to one song deals, which saves the label a lot of money if the song does not do well. I think music downloading helps artist. iTunes and rhapsody allows customers to buy albums conveniently or the ability to by individual songs because you may not like the wack album. What will the music industry be like ten years from now? I don’t know!

News or Opinion

Wow!! News has come a long way. News is starting to become the newscaster’s one sided opinion instead of actual facts. Bill O’Reilly and Nancy Grace are perfect examples. I found it quit hard to watch “The O’Reilly Factor”. The topic of hour was health care reform. O’Reilly started the show off with the most ridicules opinion. Democrats want everyone to be equal in every aspect of life but, when it comes to health care that cannot be if you are poor and poorly educated. He says democrats want the government to grant the poor with the same security that they did for the rich. That is one of the most down grading things I have ever heard. So because you’re poor you cannot get assistance because you made yourself poor and what happened to liberty and justice? Then O’Reilly has one of his colleague’s, Bret Baier on the show. They are discussing the interview Baier did with President Obama about health care. I find it disrespectful that they would crack jokes about how many times Baier cut President Obama off when talking and that Bill O’Reilly found it amusing. I thought news was supposed to have some type of formality and it was created to report what’s going on in America, not someone’s head? I don’t think I can recall a time when a Fox News anchor was rude to President Bush? Now let’s talk about Nancy Grace. Her show is more of a new type of news reporting. She has panels and talk about legal issues. On this particular episode I watched, she addresses the Casey Anthony case. During the entire show, Nancy Grace is screaming instead of talking. She has several guess on from different professions such as, lawyers, reporters, and psychiatrist. She cuts her guess off frequently when she does not agree with their opinion to make her opinion seem that it is right. Because Nancy Grace is a former prosecutor, I believe she cannot separate the courtroom mentality from being accepted in to millions of homes. What has news become?

Is Reality TV Surreal?

Just about anybody can get a reality show on MTV/VH1 and display that they will do anything for money. I believe some of the shows are real and some are unreal. True Life is a real reality show. The producers of the show go around with one camera recording the everyday life of people going through varies topics. So many times the camera man can step in and prevent someone from overdosing or pay for the groceries that is unaffordable but, they don’t because that would make the show unreal. True Life teaches viewers life altering messages. I think 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom are real but, bias shows. All the girls on the show have someone with financial security to fall back on; rather it’s a mom, dad, or boyfriend. There are many girls who go through this same struggle. These shows do not show the teen mom that has to depend on government assistance, the teen mom that lives in a shelter, or is pregnant and they are living in foster care. Now let’s talk about these unreal dating shows! One person gets a show and then VH1 starts to recycle the contestants. First it was The Flavor Flav then it was I love New York, and Real Chance of Love. Then it was Rock of Love, Daisy of Love, and Meagan wants a millionaire. VH1 took all of these left over’s and created the shows I love Money and Charm School. Flavor Flav is old enough to be the contestants on his show father. The girls from Charm School get exposed on candid camera doing all the things they supposedly learned not to. Most of the contestants come on the show for publicity and all of a sudden photos are floating around the internet of them. How do you fall in love with someone in three weeks? The stars of the reality show live in mansions and drive cars that aren’t theirs. Even though reality TV has it flaws, I guess it will do until sitcoms come back!!

Will Newspapers survive?

Newspapers, will they survive?
That is the question!
Newspapers are a very reliable source that one day may be considered outdated.This may be true but, I still read newspapers and I think The Baltimore Sun is a good paper that has potential to survive. The Baltimore Sun may not be economically rich but, they get money from other sources. The owners, Tribune Company print many newspapers for the east coast such as Los Angeles Times and Daily Press out of The Baltimore Sun location. The Baltimore Sun reaches a great demographic of readers. You can find anything from crime, real-estate, jobs, cars, weekly sale ads, comics, world news, entertainment, movies, horoscopes, sports, and so much more. This paper attracts the teen boy/girl that’s in to sports, the unemployed worker looking for work,the mother and father looking for a car for their new teen driver, to the daily reader who enjoys reading.. Baltimore Sun even informs immigrants on issues going on in their home country. I think The Baltimore Sun offers good stories from good writers. The newspaper always have a good picture on the cover. Although many young people way prefer the internet, newspapers are a tradition to older people. The Baltimore Sun has a website as well as the news paper. I think this is good because they report traffic, weather, and breaking news, as well as what in the paper. I believe The Baltimore Sun will survive because it is a daily state wide paper. This paper is sold all over the state and touches on things right in our own communities. I also believe the Baltimore Sun will last because of their great marketing schemes.A customer can wake up in the morning to the paper right outside their door or buy one at the red light on the way to work. The Baltimore Sun also have great promotional deals. Who wouldn’t want a paper for a penny a day? Well that’s my opinion, will newspaper survive?

Magzs!!!

So I am at the market and what do I see? “Elin’s painful choice is written on the cover of the People magazine. With a photo of her and her two kids, Sam, and Charlie. If you don’t know by now who Elin is, something is wrong. She is the wife of golf superstar Tiger Woods. The title also goes on to say they have a new scandal about the Woods couple. The scandal is should Elin stay with Tiger or leave him (People 10). Since when does deciding to stay with your husband and making your marriage work a scandal? I know Tiger is involved in a scandal for cheating but, I don’t like how People magazine uses the word scandal to draw in readers. Even though I am not feeling this mag cover, I bet this cover is going to bring in so many readers because of the words “new scandal”. People magazine is going to make a lot of money just off the cover because everyone wants to know what’s going on with the Woods family. I may disagree with the cover but, I think there choice of words and pictures are clever!



Then I look to my left and what do I see deelishis… She sure has come a long way from becoming one of Flavor Flav’s main dishes to being on the cover of a magazine. I think this is another case of making someone a celebrity that’s really not. Does reality TV even make you a star?