BP6: R&R: The Hills

The one show that I could not get enough of when I was in high school was The Hills. It was the “reality” of this show that made it seem like it was possible for any girl to follow in the footsteps of Lauren Conrad. What I failed to realize as an easily influenced teenage girl was the fact that Lauren was on reality TV and she was wealthy. The Hills made it seem like everyone in Southern California was living the life of luxury. Lauren drove a BMW, had a dream internship at Teen Vogue, went to the beach on a daily basis and had a gorgeous two bedroom apartment with her best friend. When in reality, the apartment cost over $2000 a month; a price that few, if any, college freshman could afford.

Yes, there were some real aspects to the show such as fights with your best friend, getting over your first love, and the feat of juggling school and an internship. The show made Lauren relatable with these very real aspects of a college student’s life. It made a young teenage girl believe that when she went to college, she could be just like Lauren.

One thing that needs to be understood is that a very small percentage of young college girls can afford and do what Lauren Conrad was able to do. Girls need to realize they won’t intern at Teen Vogue and they probably won’t drive a BMW. On a positive side, the show makes you want to strive for your dreams and that is something that everyone is able to do.

After religiously following this show through all six of its seasons, I would say it is very easy to be swayed into thinking that the show is real life and that it is attainable. It’s especially easy when you see a young girl around your age doing it with ease. The privileged life is hard to come by and just because one teenage girl is shown living the life on TV does not mean that every girl is living this same life; actually, quite the opposite.

When young girls are exposed to this show season after season they begin to lose the overall concept of what reality TV really is. What girls forget to realize is the fact that the majority of reality TV is staged. The cast is told beforehand where to go due to certain people being in the same place at that time, what topics to talk about to cause drama and what clothing to wear to appear wealthy. This ultimately has a negative effect on young girls. Teenage girls aspire to be what they see on TV. When I was 16 years old I wanted to be just like Lauren Conrad. I wanted her Seven for All Mankind jeans and I longed to have a beachfront mansion. What girls don’t realize is the feeling of negative self worth that ultimately comes from not being able to live the lives they see on TV. Asking your mother or father for a $1,000 hotel party when you’re a senior in high school is not a realistic concept. When teenage girls begin to realize this, they start to feel like they are not accepted and they are worthless because they cannot live up to what they believe is normal teenage behavior.

These shows are ultimately giving young girls a false image of what a teenage girls’ life is really like. This can lead to self esteem issues as well as the feeling of not being socially accepted by their peers. Reality shows need to begin to portray “reality” as it appears in the daily life of teenagers to avoid glorifying the lives of the rich and the famous.

Illegal Downloading

Illegally downloading music has become a major issue in today's society. It has become so prevalent that music downloading sites such as Limewire have been shut down by the federal government due to extensive peer to peer file sharing. The downloading of songs for free is not only illegal but also cutting into the profits of the artists who have created the songs. This may not seem like an important issue to some people, but in reality, it is cutting into the CD sales very drastically.

Along with the issues of copyright and infringement, illegal downloading brings to light some ethical dilemmas as well. One in particular would be the Bok Model for Ethical Decision Making. This model can be related to illegal downloading in the consumers' perspective. The consumer needs to consult their conscience when deciding whether or not to illegally download music. They need to decide between right and wrong and what is legal vs. illegal. The consumer also needs to seek out alternatives. A few alternatives in this situation would be to purchase the artist's CD, purchase the music via Itunes or to not download the music at all. If the consumer would perform any of these alternatives, the action would not be illegal and they will be supporting the artist as well as getting the music that they desire. The last step would be to hold an imaginary dialogue with everyone involved. The consumer should ask how their decision will affect others. They should discuss this issue in terms of each person involved such as the artist, the public, and the government. In following this three step process, the consumer will have a better understanding of how their decision is ultimately affecting themselves as well as the people involved with producing the music.

A second ethical dilemma would be the categorical imperative by Kant. This is the idea in which an individual should act in a way that they would be willing to have everyone else act. This could directly relate to illegal downloading in that if everyone downloaded their music illegally it would ultimately put the music artists out of business and the consumers would not be able to get their music at all. In turn, society should act in a way that they would accept the rest of the world to act. If everyone would purchase music in a legal manner, there would not be any issues in the concept of illegal downloading.

Despite these apparent ethical issues, illegal downloading is always going to exist with the availability of technology and the internet. Unless strict government control and laws are put into place, artists will always have to deal with consumers getting their music for free. Artists now need to focus on different means as a way to replace the profits they are loosing from illegal downloading.

Advertising

As a Marketing major I have been exposed to many classes regarding advertising. One of these classes included Advertising Management. One major topic that was talked about in this class is the fact that you are being exposed to advertising whether you may know it or not. Advertisers also like to be sneaky in getting your attention and exposing ads to particular people based on their interests. Advertising is everywhere; it is often even disguised as being something other than advertising. While keeping a record of the advertising I saw within a 24 hour period, I really took notice to this.

I was exposed to ads almost as soon as I woke up in the morning and heard the radio on downstairs. I heard an ad for Lehigh Valley Hospital. I then turned on my computer and went on Facebook. As soon as I logged on I saw ads on the side of my screen for products that I had viewed the previous day. I was watching an old episode of Laguna Beach and noticed that they play heavily into product placement. The girls were applying make up and the camera zoomed directly into the Maybelline logo on each of the products. This happened about two or three times throughout the episode. As I was eating lunch, there were ads all over the table from the Sunday paper for different retail locations throughout the Lehigh Valley. I was cleaning up some magazines from my room and noticed ads for clothing, beauty products and the magazine itself displayed throughout.

On my way back to school I saw many ads including ones on the sides of cars/vans for businesses. A large amount of the advertising I saw was on billboards. There were billboards for Coordinated Health, various branches of Lehigh Valley Hospital, Wawa, and Northampton Community College. It was interesting for me because I noticed that I had heard an ad that morning for Lehigh Valley Hospital and then I was seeing a billboard advertising the same thing. Another interesting aspect about the billboards was the fact that Northampton Community College had a billboard advertising the college and a particular student at one section of the highway and then further down the highway they displayed another ad with a different student and major of study.

I think the reason for doing this type of advertising on the billboards is to utilize the tool of reinforcement. The more someone is exposed to an ad, the more likely they are to remember it. The same goes with hearing an ad on the radio in the morning and then seeing it on a billboard. I've also heard ads played multiple times throughout the day. I assume this is due to a pre set advertising schedule. Advertisers are very particular about when and where they place their ads.

One thing that we do need to remember when talking about the advertising we see each day is the fact that "advertising" means that it is being paid for for an intended audience. Whether or not the right audience is reached is the goal of the media industry. We are constantly being bombarded day in and day out with ads. It is the advertisers and media planners jobs to make sure they can cut through the clutter and develop successful advertising campaigns.

Advertising is something that is always going to be prominent in our society and I believe it is only going to increase with the evolution of technology and social media.

Tactical Weapons

Tactical Weapons is a bi monthly magazine that is published by Harris Outdoor Group, part of Harris Publications Inc. The magazine sells for $7.95 a copy.

The magazine cover has the dark colors of red, black and grey incorporated into it with the image of a military man shooting a gun. There was also barbed wire running through the title of the magazine. Headlines such as "CQB Tactics: Raiding a Felon's Fortress", "Frontline Report: Death Valley" and "Bushmaster's BA50 USAF Sniper Faceoff" could be found on the front cover. This immediately signaled that the magazine was geared towards military members, specifically men, who have an interest in weapons used in combat.

The issue had articles describing how to accurately shoot each weapon as well as the best weapons that are available on the market. Along with the how to articles, the magazine also offered a few stories on admirable military members who had served their time in the front lines.

Along with weapon based articles, the ads were almost solely about guns. Along with the guns, there were ads for tactical knives, camo paint, uniform gear and bullets. Included in the ads for weaponry there were ads for military support websites. Only one ad in the magazine offered a female in lingerie holding a gun for an ad. This shows that the audience who reads this magazine is mature and very serious in gaining information on weapons and interested in military weapons and gear.

Based off of the articles and ads found in Tactical Weapons, the magazine signaled an audience that would be predominantly males that are either active in the military, are interested in the military or are military/war veterans. The colors of the entire magazine as well as content signal a male audience.

The magazine is featured on the website tactical-life.com which offers many different military style magazines on one central website. Tactical-life.com features the magazines: Tactical Weapons, Combat Handguns, Guns & Weapons, Special Weapons, and Tactical Knives. There are also more magazines listed by distribution frequency.

As stated by the subscription page located on the website, for six issues, or a yearly subscription, the cost is $28.97. The annual circulation of the magazine is 294,000 with six issues being printed a year.

The demographic information was not located on the tactical-life website or the tactical weapons magazine website, but information was available via Echo Media. Echo Media stated that the demographic was geared towards military men with the average age of 39 who earn around $70,250 annually. 98% of the magazine's readers are men.

Based off of the website's demographic information, the initial signaling of the magazine was spot on. Everything from the colors to the articles and ads featured throughout the magazine gave the impression that Tactical Weapons was predominantly focused on the audience of military men. The higher income is understandable due to the expensive nature of weapons and the age is relevant due to the experience and skills mentioned throughout the magazine.

Haditha Killings

Before I start this post, I would like to point out that I am extremely uneducated in any type of political affair. I rarely watch news of any type and am an amateur at such things. That brings me to my current blog post. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to convey my feelings accurately due to my lack of experience, but I will try my best.

I analyzed news coverage regarding the Haditha killings from the Al Jazeera perspective as well as the CNN perspective.

The CNN perspective stated that U.S. Marines were charged with killing 24 civilians in Baghdad.  The civilians of the time are arguing that their charge was equivalent to a traffic violation. One civilian stated, "this soldier should be executed." A woman stated, "I'm wondering why the American blood is so precious while the Iraqi blood is so cheap." The Iraqi's also stated that this was only one amongst a chain of events that were caused by the U.S. troops. Iraqi's see this as a disappointment in the U.S. judicial system. Haditha played a large role in the decision that U.S. troops were not welcome on Iraq's soil. Iraqi's now see Americans as trigger happy.

The Al Jazeera version was mainly focused on the Marine that was the leader of his platoon, and the charges put upon him for ordering his troops to kill the civilians. Frank Wuterich was charged with manslaughter in which he plead guilty to. He faces a maximum of 3 months in prison and a demotion. Wuterich ordered his troops to kill civilians after the troops were affected by a roadside bomb. Charges of six of the Marines were dropped including one of a Marine who tried to erase evidence from a laptop. It was said that the case was hushed up for months. It is also stated that this case is coming to an end in the U.S. but far from it in Iraq. The civilians of Iraq are not happy due to lack of punishment for the deaths of dozens of people.

When I first listened to the news coverage, I did not notice much of an international bias. After listening to it for the second time I noticed subtle statements mentioned by Al Jazeera that gave a bitter tone to the U.S. The reported mentioned that the case was hushed up for months as well as a sarcastic comment stating that a Marine was not guilty when he was found to erase images off of a laptop. This news coverage showed the views of the whole situation from the Middle Eastern point of view. The footage was also very graphic with images of blood, bodies, and gunshot holes displayed throughout. The coverage was also very focused on the particular Marine that was charged as well as details about the whole ordeal.

The CNN perspective was very brief and focused on the issue as a whole and did not once mention the name of the Marine that was charged. It focused on interviews with the Iraqi people and their views of the situation. It made clear that the Iraqi people are disappointed in American troops. There was barely any detail in this video and there was absolutely no footage shown of any graphic content. The footage was very vague and made it seem like just another issue in the news of not that much importance.

I would have to say there is an unfair bias at play here. I think that the United States coverage of the event tried to downplay the seriousness for its own protection of the military and to save face. They showed as little detail of the event as possible as well as not mentioning any names when referring to the Marines being charged. The Al Jazeera coverage offered a much more detailed and specific view of what happened giving the whole ordeal a massacre type of feel. Between the images and the details, Al Jazeera tried to show the gravity and harshness of the situation while the U.S. tried to downplay it.

The Hills

The one show that I could not get enough of when I was in high school was The Hills. It was the “reality” of this show that made it seem like it was possible for any girl to follow in the footsteps of Lauren Conrad. What I failed to realize as an easily influenced teenage girl was the fact that Lauren was on reality TV and she was wealthy. The Hills made it seem like everyone in Southern California was living the life of luxury. Lauren drove a BMW, had a dream internship at Teen Vogue, went to the beach on a daily basis and had a gorgeous two bedroom apartment with her best friend. When in reality, the apartment cost over $2000 a month; a price that few, if any, college freshman could afford.

Yes, there were some real aspects to the show such as fights with your best friend, getting over your first love, and the feat of juggling school and an internship. The show made Lauren relatable with these very real aspects of a college student’s life. It made a young teenage girl believe that when she went to college, she could be just like Lauren.

One thing that needs to be understood is that a very small percentage of young college girls can afford and do what Lauren Conrad was able to do. Girls need to realize they won’t intern at Teen Vogue and they probably won’t drive a BMW. On a positive side, the show makes you want to strive for your dreams and that is something that everyone is able to do.

After religiously following this show through all six of its seasons, I would say it is very easy to be swayed into thinking that the show is real life and that it is attainable. It’s especially easy when you see a young girl around your age doing it with ease. The privileged life is hard to come by and just because one teenage girl is shown living the life on TV does not mean that every girl is living this same life; actually, quite the opposite.

First Post

First post of the semester.


The end.