It is widely known that celebrities have a quite an impact on America’s youth. The media makes it impossible to not know who the latest reality T.V. stars are or what Gossip Girl is. While these facts might not be known the majority of boys, a lot of young teenage girls would be able to rattle off any of this information without thinking twice. These reality television stars have started to take over much of the media’s attention, and because of all the press they receive they are starting to become somewhat of role models for many young girls.
The Hills is a reality television show that premiered a few years ago. It followed the lives of a few young twenty year olds as they survived living in Los Angeles. Their relationships, jobs, and party habits were documented and formed into episodes that aired on M.T.V weekly. This show ended in the summer of 2010, but the cast’s presence in the media has not dwindled. Two of the main stars from the show, Lauren Conrad and Lo Bosworth, both attend many award shows and appear in magazines frequently. They update their twitter accounts constantly and are followed by more than three million people combined, but along with constantly interacting with the public through twitter they both have created websites that focus only on appearance and relationships. Lauren Conrad’s website, thebeautydepartment.com, is broken into six different sections.
Hair, make-up, and tutorials focus on how to do your makeup perfectly or how to create the perfect hairstyles. The other three sections draw inspirations from random things that Lauren believes will also enhance one’s appearance. Lauren constantly posted updates about this website on her twitter, so the two million people following her, most of which are two teenage girls, receive these posts daily. To many of these girls Lauren Conrad serves as a role model of some sort, and the only thing they ever see her post about is how to enhance your appearance. Lo Bosworth’s website, thelodown.com, is very similar, but along with appearance it discusses relationships too. There are thousands of blogs that also only discuss how to improve one’s looks, but the impact that Lauren and Lo have as role models on so many girls makes their websites much more powerful.
The latest posts on Lauren Conrad’s website discuss the perfect eyelashes, how to make your lips look bigger, and how to apply eye shadow properly. While her website is called The Beauty Department ergo she needs to post about make-up, a post here and there about a charity or how to make an impact, or about being yourself and not needing a crazy amount of makeup to look good could really impact young girls. Instead of focusing on how to improve yourself she should write about how to love who your natural self is. One blogger who has a website fairly similar to Lauren and Lo’s was asked by Juicy Couture, a clothing line, to make three different videos that incorporated their clothes and the idea of her blog. The three videos were about, how to get ready, how to host a party, and how to spend one’s day in L.A.; each video was posted on her blog and Juicy Couture’s website. While all of these videos do incorporate both brands they never mention anything except how to look or act like the “perfect” woman.
Entertaining and shopping were some of the things that many believed women should spend most of their time doing decades ago, but are these blogs and websites just bringing back ideas that this is what women should only be doing. Young girls are the primary readers and nowhere do any of them mention jobs or education. These celebrities that have such a big position in the media need to watch the image they are providing to young girls.
My audience was the celebrities writing the blogs.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the audience is clear? Or should I make it even more directed to the celebrities?
ReplyDeleteYou are talking about celebrities being role models to young teenage girls.
ReplyDeleteI think your main point is "Young girls are the primary readers and nowhere do any of them mention jobs or education. These celebrities that have such a big position in the media need to watch the image they are providing to young girls". The idea is really clear.
I think you are explaining the phenomena, but not directly speak to celebrities.
Visual elements are well organized.
I think the audience is clear, and if they read it, they would understand.
What is the popular culture item they are talking about?
ReplyDelete- She is talking about the blog for teenage girls.
What is their main point? Copy and paste what you've identified as their main claim into comments section. How clear is the main idea?
- The main point is "These celebrities that have such a big position in the media need to watch the image they are providing to young girls." It is clear through the blog, because we can easily examine how do these blogs affect young girls
Has the author taken their specialized audience into account?
- She directly addresses it to specialized audience, the celebrities.
Are the visual elements well organized and effective? What could they improve?
- She posted the video that shows how to be a perfect woman. It was effective, since we are able to know that, by those kinds of videos, teenage girls would think that it is the only way to be a perfect woman.
Answer the author's question or concern
- I guess the audience is clear. You mentioned bloggers and effects of their blogs.
The author is talking about the impact that celebrities have in the life of young girls.
ReplyDeleteThese reality television stars have started to take over much of the media’s attention, and because of all the press they receive they are starting to become somewhat of role models for many young girls. The main point of the author is clear as we read through her blog.
The author does address her audience but she also addresses a vast audience of young girls with this blog.
The visual element does apply clearly showing what she believes is influencing young girls.
You do appeal to your audience with this blog but you also appeal ta the young girls out there. You may want to include something about them.