Saturday, February 24, 2007

Blog 6: Pop Culture for all


I was assigned to look at a blog on USA’s website titled Pop Candy, Unwrapping pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures” , written by Whitney Matheson. I really, really liked this blog it was fun and tasteful. She updates you on current events dealing with pop culture including TV shows, comic book events, news about celebrities, movies, and so on. Her blog uses so many conventions. I found myself looking at it for quite a while, it definitely caught my interest, you should check it out. The first is along the left side of her blog there are five separate sections to locate you to different places including: Recent Posts, Categories, Archives, Other USA Today blogs, and Worth Reading. Under each of those titles in the box there are about 10-18 links that if you push will direct you to whatever it says. That is so convenient, if I want just to see the gossip blogs I just have to click gossip under Categories. The second use of conventions was in her texts. She used links great in her text. The way she included them flowed well, she would just make the words links, the color is the only thing indicating it’s a link other than that it’s just part of the sentence, incorporated great. In one of her blogs she ends with headlines and she did used links very well. Here are some examples.
- Here's a preview of next week's HRG-heavy Heroes.
- ABC's Six Degrees will return with new episodes March 23.
- We give The Number 23
one-and-a-half stars.
- Are you ready for
Edward Scissorhands, The Musical
-Here's
a list of the 10 best moments from Reno 911! -- with video.
- Nick Cannon may have secretly
married a Victoria's Secret model in Las Vegas last weekend.
Third, a convention she utilizes is pictures. She doesn’t have a lot but when she does they relate to the subject of that blog. Her blog is different from mine in a few ways. The title of her blog stands out more than mine. It is a fun font with polka dots, pink, and is a huge font. She also has advertising on her blog which of course I don’t, but this is because she is working for a newspaper corporation. I also don’t have the different sections on the side to direct views to certain places or categories. I could incorporate those in my blog somehow I suppose. Also maybe I can figure out how to make my title stand out more and be fun like hers. She also has some humor in some of her blogs, as do I, but not as much. For example in the latest blog about the comic book convention and star wars cast and fans being there she ends her blog with the quote of the day “"Dude, Chewbacca's riding the same escalator as us!" she went on to explain that the actor who played Chewbacca was walking ahead of her. I thought that was a funny way to end her blog. As I mentioned, before this blog is very entertaining and her writing obviously adds very much to it because I think she writes well and chooses great things to write about and pop culture almost everyone wants to know about. Also what a fun job, if you read her blogs you can see how she gets to meet a lot of famous people and experience numerous events.

6 comments:

Hannah Houck said...

I totally agree with you on this blog,I was assigned the same one and felt it was very good at grabbing your attention while not confusing you. This website is very diverse, without leaving out important conventions needed to organize the blog in a understandable way. I also loved that there were links to other blog sights, it allowed the reader to get a well rounded perspective, instead of just one person's view. I think you did a good job at pointing out all the websites positive aspects, making me want to check out the website again.

JAcosta said...

You were assigned an interesting blog for your assignment. I on the other hand was assigned a blog that was mostly related to politics, which at times can be interesting. I really enjoyed reading your post, you have writing where you could take something boring and make it enjoyable and interesting. You are normally one of the few that submits your assignment before anyone else, which makes me come to conclude that writing is very enjoyable for you and comes easily. I am one of those that wait till the very last minute to submit my assignments. I know I have said this before on other comments, but you really are a good writer. Keep up the great work!

Irina said...

Hey, I really liked your post about the other blog account. I also really like this assignment because it lets us look at different blog accounts and analyze them. I didn't know that so many people use blogger for so many different reasons. Each blogger account that we were assigned is different and talks about different things. Particularly, the account that you were assigned is a lot different from the ones we use for this class. It has a lot of cool pictures and different conventions. Good job on giving all the details!

jaki.my said...

I checked out the blog and you are right it is a pretty cool blog. I like the name ‘Pop’ Candy. Like you said she is very funny. For example, I barely scanned the blog but on the first post shown she begins talking about her laptop dying from mysterious causes (which happens to me all the time!) which I could relate to and I though was pretty funny and entertaining. Also, besides having scanned it I’m going to try looking at it again because you described so well and you made it sound like it was definitely worth checking out.

Michelle Brake said...

I didn't realize that all different varieties of blogs were assigned. This one was very different than mine which was about art. You are right that all the sub categories were clearly separated and easy to find. My art one was much more confusing. I also liked how after the title of the blog it had a short description of what the blog was about. That helps get new viewers as well as your enthusiasm for the blog. Good job on describing the site, its conventions and appeal to a greater audience. Your many examples were very helpful as well.

Nga Le said...

Hey, you're right. The blog that you were assign on pop culture was exciting to read. It kept my attention very well, I wasn't distracted at all. I think the author could have incorporated more colors in her blog to make it livelier. The gossip section is especially fun to read. Being such a busy student going to school full time and working part time I never have the time to catch up with what’s going on in the media anymore. So for me to be able to sit back and enjoy this site is really something I hope I will have more time for. You did a wonderful job analyzing the author's blog and comparing it to yours. Nicely Done!