Blog 3: Magazine

The magazine that I read for this blog post is called Outside. Outside magazine focuses on all of the things that people like to do outside, whether its baseball or climbing a dangerous mountain. One thing that I noticed about this magazine is that it is filled with advertisements. The first couple of pages are advertisements before it finally gets to the table of contents page.  Most of the advertisements dealt with nature obviously because it is an outdoor themed magazine. Some of the advertisements shown were for running sneakers and mountain bikes. Other advertisements were for cars and cameras but they were themed around how great they are for outside use. The magazine is targeted for adults because it is not an easy read. The articles are very long and use terminology that most children would not understand. This magazine is directed towards people who are interested in extreme outdoor sports. The magazine also shows different types of gear and some of the best prices for that gear.

The website is also set up very similar to the magazine. When I first saw the website I instantly thought of CNN because it is set up in a news format. The website includes everything that the magazine does but more because it also includes videos. On the website, Outside states how you can also receive the magazine directly to your email, your Ipad or Kindle, or via Facebook and Twitter. By them doing this they are able to reach a bigger demographic of people and make it easier for there targeted audience to be reached. They are making sure that no matter what whether people pick up the magazine through a newsstand, subscription or online that their magazine is being read.

            The website has a link that advertisers can click if they want to advertise with the magazine. They are given the choice of whether they would like to advertise strictly online or with the printed version of the magazine. In order to advertise with them online you have to send them an email. The website makes its very easy for advertisers to contact them. 

CNN vs. Al Jazeera

The two articles that I read were about the recent death of singer Whitney Houston. Right away, the first thing that I noticed was the different length between the two articles. CNN went into greater detail regarding the death and the days before her death. Al Jazeera covered the story but not the days before. Both articles seemed to have a neutral point of view. Both articles also covered the recent Grammy awards and how Whitney Houston was honored during the award ceremony. However, CNN went into much greater detail when talking about the ceremony and quoting many of the celebrities that recognized Whitney Houston during their speeches. None of the authors put their points of views into the articles. The articles stuck to covering the news and presented all of the facts that are known so far. CNN seemed to try and attract more readers who are Whitney Houston fans. CNN described the confusion that her friends are feeling because of her upbeat and joyful spirit that she was in nights before her death. She was quoted as singing and dancing all night and was not drinking since that was a theory on what caused her sudden death. Al Jazeera on the other hand targeted an audience that was more interested in reading about her death because it is one of the biggest stories going on rather than being one of her biggest fans. They simply stuck to the facts instead of going into great detail about the Grammys. Since CNN is an American news network that could be why their article was much larger and in greater detail because of the freedom that they have being based in America. America is known has having a social responsible theory of press, which allows them to have freedom when publishing and covering news. On the other hand, Al Jazeera is more controlled when it comes to the press because they are considered to have an authoritarian theory. They have many heavy regulations that prevent what they can and cannot publish. Overall, CNN covered the story much better then Al Jazeera. 

Favorite TV Show

I would have to say that one of my favorite shows is Jersey Shore, the show that everyone hates yet I am totally addicted to it. They say and do the dumbest things that everyone wishes they can do but don’t. They live such a free spirited life with it seems like no worries while we are all struggling to get by with out boring jobs and classes.

I will admit that this show probably does not have that much realness to it especially the amount of fights that they get into. I don’t think a normal person who goes out and parties gets into as many fights as they do. Every episode they guys are calling taxis to take their random hook ups home. You can’t help but think that the only reason they are getting all these hookups is because they’re famous. I mean their attractive but not that attractive. They get paid to travel and party while being filmed. Normal, average, everyday people do not get those kind of opportunities.

However, I do think they live that life that most people do when they are in there 20s. Whether your famous or not you like to go out to the bar, drink and party with your friends. That is manly what our social lives consist of. We also to some extent even GTL. We want to look out best so we go to the gym and workout. If you feel pale in the winter you sign up and go tanning. And of course we all do laundry because no one wants to have smelly clothes because that is gross.

It is hard when watching reality TV not to get sucked into it and think that it is real life.  You get so into the show that you think that this is normal life and people do this on an everyday basis. In reality they make their money from the TV show and being famous not from working at the t-shirt shop a couple days a week. A normal person working there would have to work full-time or more just to semi survive in life. It must be nice to be famous.