"Odd" Wikipedia Articles: Place Names Considered Unusual

I decided that I was going to read the article on "Place Names Considered  Unusual." I chose this because it was the article that stuck out the most to me. I have heard about places being named "weird" things, and some people (mostly non natives of the city or town) tend to think that the name of a town or city is intended to be humorous or offensive. I was curious to know the reasoning behind the choice of words used to name a place.

The first place I came across was "Fucking, Austria," and immediately I was taken back by it. I believe that because I am from America and that choice of wording is used in a profane way, I automatically assume that this place was trying to be funny. However, as I continue to read the article I came to realize that the word is just another word in a sense. It nothing to really worry about, it's a "benign" word in German.

One example that I found to be really funny was "Truth or Consequences, New Mexico." In 1950 they decided to change their name from "Hot Springs" and name it after the host of the television show Truth or Consequences which promised free publicity to any town willing to change its name to that of the show. I understand that you want publicity but was it really worth changing the name to something so asinine.

I really didn't learn anything new from reading this article other than finding out where these places were located and what there names were. I knew that there were places in the world with names some people would consider to be funny, offensive, or just completely absurd. I knew that 9 times out of 10 the people of the town or their local government that gave the name to the town didn't mean anything by it.

I don't really think that any of the information that I read could be useful in any way, it's something interesting to know but I don't think it would benefit you, maybe in a Jeopardy game, but not in real life.

The reason I think it earned a Wikipedia page is because it's interesting and different. There are probably a lot of people in the world who would like to know different things like the names of towns people would think of as unusual. I do believe however, that this information could  easily be found somewhere else, because of the absurdity of some of the towns names. It catches people attention.

The Use of Product Placement in E! Television Series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians"

I chose to watch Episode 2/Season 1 of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." The reason why I chose to watch one of the early episodes is because I wanted to see how evident product placement was in a new show. Now that the show has been on for 7 seasons it has gained a lot of publicity and  everywhere you turn there's nothing but product placement. The episode that I watched was mainly about Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner, and how Kim was considering on firing her mother as her manager because she felt like she was unorganized and lacked communication skills. Kris's lack of communication skills and being disoriented in her worked traveled over to her personal life regarding other members of her family, especially her youngest children Kylie and Kendall and her husband Bruce.

In regards to product placement I spotted quite a few things. Some showed up a lot and some showed up very little. The products I noticed the most were "Smooch - A Children's Boutique," "DASH," and ""Range Rover." These three products I believe are examples of product placement. I say this is because those were the three products that showed up the most. The reason why they showed up the most (I believe) was because those were the things that the Kardashians owned and they wanted to bring the most attention to them. "Smooch" is a clothing store owned by Kris  Jenner and her daughter Kourtney. "DASH" is a clothing store own by Kim, Khloe and Kourtney, and both Kris and Kim own Range Rovers in the show.

There were other products shown throughout the show but none were as prominent as the ones I named above. The other products include: Entertainment Weekly, Gucci, Apple and ThiBaiant, which is a Spa that Kris Jenner went to. All of the products were shown very briefly, and most of them were shown only because one of the characters may have been using it at a point in time. For example, Kourtney was looking through Entertainment Weekly at a Gucci advertisement, Kris was using an apple computer when Khloe walked in her office to talk to her, and one of the spa workers wore the spa logo on their uniform. So since these products had little air time and wasn't reinforced by the characters through speech, I think that they aren't examples of product placement.

Does Comedic News have a Positive or Negative Impact on Society?

 

On October 15th, 2014 I sat and watched the most recent episode of "The Daily Show with John Stewart" that aired on Comedy Central last Thursday October 9th. Throughout the episode John's main focus was on the government. He began the show talking about how the largest shareholder (at the time), Hank Greenburg, former chairman and CEO of insurance company AIG, was suing the government. During this "financial crisis of 2008" AIG was just "hours away from going bankrupt," the government gave them 184.6 billion dollars in exchange for 92% of AIG's company value which was originally only worth 15.4 billion dollars.

Next he discussed how Republican leaders know that if they want to succeed in elections that they have to broaden their horizons and stop bring so close-minded. How now they've decided to put their focus on another group, "people who love gay people." He brings attention to how the Republican party is no longer running in opposition of same-sex marriage because it's a "political lost." Lastly John wraps it up with an interview with actor Jeremy Renner about his new role in the movie "Kill the Messenger," and how that movie reflects the government in various ways as well.

Overall the show was very entertaining; surprising it was very informative too. Before watching this show I was a bit skeptical about entertaining or comedic news. I believed that they were only making a mockery out of serious issues that people needed to know about. However, after watching this episode I changed my mind.

The way John Stewart runs his shows are excellent. The comedic examples he gives keeps the audience interested. He states facts and provides visual evidence to back up what he is saying. He explains the issues in a way that can be understood better by being able to understand and relate to the examples he gives. I think that by using this style it'll be able to grab the attention of younger audiences (20 - 35 yrs.) because he's comfortable in his own skin, he's having fun with what he's doing, and giving his commentary on the topic, making sure not to impose his own opinion on the audience.

I believe that comedic news is beneficial to society and that it doesn’t make serious topics less serious, because at the end of the day it still is news. It keeps you interested and it keeps you laughing, and nine times out of ten a person will remember the things that made them laugh and forever reflect on it.

Reflection on Professor's Blog

Television, computers, smartphones and tablets have become Americas crutch. They have become the things we rely on the most to give us the answers we seek. They tell us how we should live our lives. They give us the voice we always wanted but praise the ignorant and shun the intellectual. Technology is beginning to dumb America down, having us no longer do for ourselves but have other things and other people do it for us. Critical thinking has become a thing of the past instead if you have a question we look to search engines that we believe has the answers to everything you could possibly ever want to know.

So I agree with what is being said in my professors blog. We fail to realize that we live in "a virtual world where the irrelevant and the sublime are given equal voice." We've stopped questioning who's information is really accurate, and began to follow along the footsteps of providing insufficient information right along with them.

We start to determine our value and worth based of how many likes we get on a post or by how many "friends" we have, when in reality half of the people you call your friends don't even know who you are.

Will there ever be a solution to the point where our kids can grow up knowing that thinking for themselves and having their own opinion isn't looked down upon, its appreciated? Who knows. 

Until then...we wait.

Getting to Know Me!

My name is Dominique Conquest. I am a junior at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. I major in Communication Studies and I minor in Public Relations.

 

When it comes to the goals I have set for myself  it really is just to make sure that when its time for me to go into the "real world"to love what I do. Despite how much money I make, as long as I am happy, everything will be alright.

 

Like everyone else in the world we all have dreams. The love I have for my family made me put my dreams on hold. I didn't think about going to college when I graduated. I felt like it wasn't for me. I wanted to move so I could pursue my singing career and start my life trying to make it big on Broadway. However, my mother told me that all she wanted was to see one of her kids completely finish college. That she'd do whatever she could to get me there. I decided to put my pride aside and go. I do not regret the decision I made. I'm very appreciative for the opportunity to be here and to be doing exceptionally well while I'm here.

Now that I think about it, my only goal right now, I guess you can say is to make my mother happy, and I believe I'm doing a good job so far.