WHY DOES THIN HAVE TO BE IN?

“Why does thin have to be in” is a very powerful article written by Kaylin Taggart. This article outlines and discusses the hardships that women must face and the obstacles they must over come in order to be able to look in the mirror and accept and love what they see, in a society that is constantly bombarding them with images that are telling them otherwise.

Tierney Wallace was a young girl whos story was outlined in this article, and I hope that after many girls read this article, and hear her story become inspired to love their bodies as they are. Tierney attended Broome Community College and was struggling with an eating disorder, and was loosing weight rapidly. She went every day of her life, reading the back of packaged foods, in order to make sure that she stayed within the strict diet she placed upon herself, where she was only allowed to eat 400 calories per day. It made it especially hard for Tierney to stop the disease that was taking control of her life, when people began to compliment her on how much weight she had lost, and how great she looked, it gave her mixed messages, and did not know she should stop. This made it very hard for her to go get the help that she needed because of the positive feedback she was receiving from others.

She even dreaded ever going to the doctors, in fear that he would make her eat, which would cause her to gain weight, and take away all the attention that she was receiving. When Tierney stopped eating her metabolism shut down because there was little to no calories to burn. This is when her body began eating her muscles, and when she finally decided to seek some professional treatment, with the support from the people she loves most; her family and friends.


Media and advertisement is the main reason why women are so insecure about their bodies. “High cheekbones, scarlet-blooded lips and corpse-like figures flood the high fashion runways.” If the average woman really does weigh 140 pounds and is a size 14, you could only imagine that the reoccurring images of thin unattainable images that women are seeing every single day must affect a woman greatly, if she ever tries to fit into this mold. I believe that the opinions of youth do not differ from those of adults, because, the media does not only target a specific group of women, but all of them, which always has the same effect of both teenage, and adult women. I also believe that this affects a male teenagers and a male adults' point of view of what a woman should look like; so either way, both males and females, young and old, are being fed with the same toxic information by the media.

IS IT WORTH ENDANGERING ONES' LIFE TO GET THE SCOOP?

Is it worth endangering ones' life to get the scoop?

This year, we have discussed the harsh realities that journalist are facing around the world for the sake of bearing witness to the truth. At times, this may cause them to pay the utimate price, which can be death. Everyday, journalists do what other people often do not have the couraged to do; they comprimise their safety to bring little justice to citizens’ lives. Often, stories such as the one that was displayed in the youtube video, are overlooked, because they are not seen as a world wide issues, and they are usually ignored because it is not disrupting the development of the society in any way. That is when journalists, are set out to seek justice for stories and issues that are often shot down.

Before someone sets out into there chosen career path, there are many things that need to be analyzed. Some of the most obivous things, are how much money you will be raking in annually. I believe that if a journalists chooses his or her profession, they are familiar that it can be a very dangerous job, depending on what stories they are interested in covering. That is why I believe that, as harsh as it may sound, it is essential that a journalists does endanger their life to get the “scoop”. With all the publication banns placed in some countries, usually where many injustices are being done, people outside the country are not aware of what is going on. This is why journalists need to risk their lives in order to get the story widespread, so that leading nations such as the United States and Canada can put a stop to the unethical treatments in some of those countries.

To conclude, I believe that it is necessary for a journalists to endanger their life in order to get the “scoop” and the truth behind many stories, because the harsh reality of some things are often what it takes for us to notice very big issues. You would never find a good cop, or a figherfighter that does his job well, if they do not risk their lives in order to save other people; this is how I feel about journalists.

Grade 11/12 Journalism Journal Entry Question #7

This year, I had the opportunity to challenge my other classmates on who could create, edit, and publish their own zine, having only five periods to complete it. I remember as I sat down in the journalism seminar, Ms. Largo was trying to explain to us what a zine was. To be honest, I have never heard of the word zine. A zine is a way of expressing your view piont on a specific topic in an inexpensive way, in the format that is similar to that of a magazine. To create our zine my partner and I decided to publish the issues surrounding The O.C. Yes, I know, very cliché, but its just like Hilary Clark said, “Putting out a zine, any zine, is a political act.” Many people ridiculed us for choosing such a topic, but in a way, we took a political stand point, and went through what we wanted to do. We published stories on the love life of Seth Cohen and Rachel Bilson both on the show and in the real world, we compared and contrasted characters, and we decided to make predictions on what may happen towards the end of the season. I believe that although many opposed to our decision to publish this zine. We were “reclaiming what was essentially” ours to begin with, and that was the love we had for The O.C.

SO LONG, NEW PORT!

Grade 11 & 12 Journalism Journal Entry Question #5 &6 (this one is worth 2 blogs)3. Free Choice. 600 words.

SO LONG, NEWPORT!

For four years Seth Cohen has been the best thing to enter the TV screen, from those crazy sweater vests of his, to his witty sense of humor that got his fans to keep watching him every week. The song “California, here we come,” will have almost no effect on the fans because, well, let’s just say that California won’t be coming… ever again. The O.C’s last show was scheduled to air on February 22, 2007, because of its inability to compete with other popular Thursday night shows, such as Grey’s Anatomy and CSI. After killing off one of the main characters, Marissa Cooper, (Mischa Barton), the show suffered drastically when trying to bring up the ratings in the beginning of the 4th season without her presence.

Ever since the first season, teenaged viewers were hooked on the high school drama that Newport’s rich crowd provided them with.In the first season, we all watched Ryan Atwood, who was played by the charming Benjamin McKenzie, fight his way through every episode in his tight wife beater that hung oh so nicely to his muscles, and watched as his rugged personality continued to develop throughout each season. What Ryan did not know was that there were other ways to solve problems, rather than constantly physically attacking total strangers. Ryan just needed someone to believe in him and support him; that someone quickly became Seth Cohen, a loner who had no friends or social life before meeting Ryan, who was played by Adam Brody. He grew closely acquainted with his new brother and best friend Ryan, after the Cohen’s took him in and strived to give him a better life. The Cohen family taught Ryan day-after-day the true meaning of life, and reassured Ryan that he was a “somebody”. Seth, the comic book obsessed geek, finally snagged his dream girl, Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), and Ryan won over party girl Marissa Cooper.

Fans watched week after week as Marissa overdosed on hardcore drugs in Tijuana, which was one of the many things that led her family to fall apart. Everyone watched as her mother Julie Cooper married, and then remarried again; not for love, but for money. Also, viewers were nearly brought to tears as they saw the super nerdy Seth Cohen get rejected from his dream college, Brown. I think it is safe to say that none of us know how many times Marissa and Ryan, and Seth and Summer, broke up and got back together again within the four years of the show, but it is clear that they kept us tuned in to see what the next step in their relationship was. You can see that popular shows, such as this one, can set out many career paths, and create breakthroughs for actors and bands that are trying to make it in the business. The O.C had tremendous power as it gave life to many bands such as Death Cab for Cutie and Rooney.

It is sad to say that this was the last Chrismukkah where we would all enjoy wearing our yarmulkes decorated as Santa hats with the whole cast. Rumors had been circulating that the CW network would be picking up the series for a fifth season. It would make sense to many because Warner Bros. co-owns both The O.C and the CW network. However, Josh Schwartz has different plans to launch his new show, which circulates around the novel series “Gossip Girls”. So, it is final; The O.C will never be returning. All that fans are left to do is take in every episode that will re-run, buy all the seasons on DVD, and continue to support the actors involved in the show as they try carry on with their acting careers!

:)