Childhood Obesity

For my final project I am focusing on the topic of childhood obesity; looking into aspects such as causes and prevention. Childhood obesity is a serious condition that is greatly effecting children and adolescents today. While some confuse overweight and obesity, there is a significant difference. Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination, while obesity is defined as having excess body fat. Childhood obesity has both immediate and long-term effects on health and well being. Youth suffering from obesity are at risk for many other chronic health diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and are prone to many heart complications. Not only are children and adolescents more than likely to suffer from other health conditions, but there are also psychological effects: obese children are more prone to low self-esteem, negative body image and depression.

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years.  The leading causes of childhood obesity are as follows, but not subject to: unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, genetic factors, and environmental factors. As for an unhealthy diet, parents are more than likely responsible for this factor. Think about grocery shopping, shelves are packed with the latest "healthy" gummy chews, breakfast snacks, and many other rather unhealthy snacks. Of course the labels advertise "100% vitamin C", but what about the other ingredients? Many include 25+ of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, trans fat and more. Instead of such a snack, a child should have a fresh fruit. Parents should shop for healthy food choices for children; try staying away from fried foods, and fat or sugar loaded snacks. 

 Next is lack of exercise. Today, most children dwell on game systems , computers, and television for entertainment, whereas "back in the day", kids played on playgrounds, and played outdoor activities. Obviously it is not as healthy to "play games in front of a television screen while sitting on the couch" than it is to "run around outside". In this instance, much less fat or calories are being burned; this is where the weight piles on. Parents again can help prevent this by encouraging children to participate in outdoor activities and extra curriculum activities. 

While a lot of parents generally blame genetic factors as the leading cause of childhood obesity, it is not the main culprit. In fact, genetic factors are rarely the cause of childhood obesity. Only in specific cases are genetic factors solely responsible for childhood weight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes a valid point that "the genetic characteristics of the human population has not changed in the last three decades, but the prevalence of obesity has tripled among school-aged children during that time". 

Last but not least, environmental factors. The people outside of home that are in connection with children on a daily basis also have an impact on children's health and weight to a certain extent. Children's food intake at day care, school, or community centers should not be overlooked, parents should enforce that their child follows the same healthy eating habits as home or parents could simply pack their child's lunch and snack to regulate the same eating habits. Schools have been increasingly trying to add implemented programs that provide improved nutrition for students, but not every school lunch is 100% healthy, it is imperative for parents to take action and start the trend at home.

Sports Journalism Taken Over by Social Nets

Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on sporting topics and games.
Today, the idea of sports journalism has deteriorated; a lot of people are faulting social media/networks. Normally, when journalist report stories, news articles to be exact, after the story is printed, it is not followed up with any new updates right away. It is much more costly to print several of the same story more than once just to keep posting updated news. News changes so much in so little time, that no published story is absolute when first received; there are always follow ups.

Here is where social networks, and the athletes themselves keep you updated.
It is popular now to "tweet" or to post pictures and status' on networks such as FaceBook and Instagram. A vast majority of society today has some sort of social networking profile. When it comes to celebrities, they use social media to make fans feel closely connected to their lives and the things they do daily. As for professional sports athletes, in todays social media updates, they keep fans posted on daily activities like training, practice, and the latest sports news relating to them. It is possible to update every second on a social network if one wanted to.
It seems as if everyone has a smartphone and practically receives news "on the go". When speaking from a time aspect, it takes much less time to read a 140 character tweet versus a long detailed article. Since the Twitter status limit is so short, people find ways to say so much in so little time making these social networks seem so convenient. It is like receiving the entire "so what" in a few seconds.
Social networking profiles give the athletes the ability to put their "personal twist" on things versus staying overly professional because that is what is expected for celebrities in front of a journalist (being interviewed or recorded). For example, Terps native, Torrey Smith lost his younger brother in a motorcycle accident this past season; NE Patriots fans used that to taunt Smith. Journalists posted a full article on the event that Smith later tweeted about. The article gave more detail than Smith's tweet, as far as who was involved, it mentioned other related news such as a post on Ray Lewis' Facebook wall. Torrey Smith's tweet was as short as "played a lot of games since my brothers death and I've never received as many rude tweets after a win than Sunday...yet NE fans cry about class". Such short statement gave his followers a sense of the emotion Smith was feeling, that was his "personal twist" on the situation.

While comparing reports from sports journalists and tweets or posts from the athlete themselves, there are many similarities but absolutely many differences.
Tweets and personal accounts tend to be less formal, while journalist tend to report credible information and often try to avoid personal opinion. When it comes to personal accounts on twitter or other social networks, if a post "goes the wrong way" perhaps, the person can easily erase whereas a journalists cannot easily remove an article from the newspaper that has already been published. As for similarities, both personal posts and journalism try to keep people updated on the most current events. If an event is occurring that is cover by journalists, the athlete (or any person) is more than likely to tweet or post about it, especially positive events.
When it comes to negative events, there may be a slight turn on an athletes personal account. I spoke with professional athlete, LaQuan Williams, of the Baltimore Ravens, he said instead of feeding into negative news, he'd avoid it. That idea is common amongst celebrities.
When looking at an athlete from their personal account versus a journalist's perspective, you feel like you know a person personally. From a personal account/posts/tweets, athletes (and other celebrities) include the things they do on a daily basis, and sometimes several posts updating in a matter of minutes.  Following an athlete from what journalists publish is often "less personal". Athletes today post things such as a plate of food they are currently eating, whereas a journalist is not following an athlete every second to publish their meals of the day.
From my assessment, I believe that athletes (and other celebrities) personal accounts give fans a closer connection to them and the things they post displays more of their personality versus a journalists published article that just covers a specific story.

Apple's iBook Author

Apple's iBook Author is "an amazing app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks--and just about any other kind of book--for iPad".

When one creates documents on iBooks Author, they files may be exported as PDF or can be published to the Apple iBooks Bookstore. The app is available free of charge, but documents created by iBooks Author may only be sold for a fee if they are accepted by and distribute by Apple. Authors also have the option to distribute their work anywhere if the work is being distributed for free. Publishers of books for sale in the iBookstore are required to buy an ISBN which is approximately about $100; for the distribution of free books, you do not have to purchase such. 

The Internet's Allowance of Rapid Dissemination of Information is a Plus for Celebrities and the Entertainment Business

Everyone loves entertainment! Thanks to the internet and today's technology, celebrities and the entertainment industry is definitely benefitting from rapid dissemination of information. Publicity is big in the entertainment industry, and staying popular is the goal of many stars. Not only does businesses have to create a "brand" for themselves, celebrities and entertainers do as well. Without doing such, they more than likely would fall to the bottom of the heap of Hollywood. The internet opens up avenues for celebrities to interact with fans, and even create their fan base. Blogs, and social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram is very popular amongst the entertainment industry. Celebrities get to display their "real lives" with fans, and "stay connected". Most celebrities post like the average person now; including daily activities and their agenda. This action makes fans feel like they "know" their favorite celebrities and keeps their attention. The internet and social media also allow fans and society receive the latest celebrity news or "latest buzz" which is also a trigger to popularity. Any publicity is actually good publicity, whether good or bad because it still gives attention to that celebrity. For example, Beyonce just recently released a documentary of her life and where she stands now; including her childhood, her recent pregnancy, many concerts, as well as some of her personal daily agenda. She first advertised her HBO documentary release day via Instagram . After she posted on her Instagram account, then other sites, blogs and commercials released advertisements as well. Beyonce's documentary "Life is But A Dream" attracted 1.8 million views for her premiere, the largest audience for an HBO documentary in a decade. The internet is powerful, and the rapid dissemination of information is very beneficial to celebrities; it keeps them relevant.

Introduction (Test Run)

I am just trying out the blog site...
I am not very familiar with blogging just yet, but I am excited to begin learning! This is my first day having complete access to all accounts for this course. Late right? I know. So much to catch up on. So far in the course I feel confident that I will succeed. Hmmm, a little about why I chose this course maybe? I want to be a celebrity publicist, therefore this course could be extraordinarily useful in my future. Media, blogging, and technology are all VERY crucial to publicity in today's world. This semester I tried registering for all courses that I found useful in making the perfect decision about my future career. So far, so good. Ok enough for this test run.