Category Archives: Samantha Cohen

Barbie breaking gender stereotypes

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

I recently saw the new Moschino Barbie commercial, which totally shattered gender stereotypes. The commercial featured a boy in the Barbie commercial for the first time ever. They selected three children to be in the ad two of which were young girls and the other the young boy.

The boy is seen giggling and smiling with the two friends for the new limited edition Moschino Barbie doll. He says, “Moschino Barbie is so fierce,” as he holds Barbie’s purse. This commercial is truly breaking boundaries.

For years Barbie has been an icon for young girls but Barbie has finally broken down the gender specific toy and is now targeting a male demographic. I think it is a highly positive message. Target recently decided to stop labeling their toys for boys or girls, to simply using the term kids.

Numerous people have been responding positively towards the new ad star, with comments like “Thank you for this! Boys like dolls too!” and “This is a wonderful ad, very nice to see gender race and sexual orientation equality in this ad.” Barbie is finally making a brand change and introducing more progressive dolls rather than the traditional doll.

News reports on a red coffee cup

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

A big discussion over this past week has been the controversy of Starbucks holiday cup.

On Sunday, Starbucks released its annual holiday cup, but this year left out snowflakes and vintage ornaments and inspirational quotes leaving a plain red cup. Rather than just accept the minimalist design, people became outraged. Many people were offended over Starbucks’ new design.

I was highly surprised when I visited numerous news media sites, only to see headlined stories of this issue on the front page. Rather than focus on major issues going on all over the world, news organizations are covering a story about a red cup. We live in a society where the color of a coffee cup can lead to a boycott.

I find this story unnecessary in the bigger scheme of things. I find it interesting, however, that news organizations are writing on how this controversy is stupid and that they still blast numerous articles on the front of their websites. We in the news business need to start refocusing our attention on bigger problems rather than the color of a coffee cup.

Instagram star talks about social media

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

This past weekend Australian Instagram star Essena O’Neill garnered a lot of attention after speaking out against social media

Her Instagram “fame” of more than 700,000 followers and YouTube channel of over 200,000 followers showed an inside look of her healthy vegan lifestyle and fitness advice.

She abruptly changed her Instagram name to “Social Media is Not Real Life” and deleted multiple photos replacing them with rewritten captions. She revealed the enormous amount of work and effort that goes into creating an image of her-self that in reality is not real.

I admire what O’Neill has done and her message is highly important in today’s society where social media are everything to millennials. I feel that this will allow the image of what looks like to be a perfect and ideal life, will show that things are not as perfect as they seem.

With female body image issues at an all time high this admission will show that no one is perfect. For example, O’Neill was particularly frank about her attempts to change the way her body looked in her photos re-captioning a bikini picture with “A 15-year-old-girl that calorie restricts and excessively exercises.”

O’Neill has been able to take the social media platform she has and put it towards social awareness.  Societal culture today promotes media and the fame that comes along with it, as being the ultimate accomplishment, by creating an illusion to an idea of a filtered life.

O’Neill says that everything she was doing was edited and contrived.

Numerous news media organizations from The New York Times to Teen Vogue to Yahoo each covered this story, which has truly become a major eye opener into the life of social media celebrities. I feel that this has really been the first time someone as shared what its really like. As someone who is a social media user, I find it highly interesting that what I see on Instagram might not be what it seems.

Firing of Miami football coach Al Golden

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

This past weekend and leading into the current week was filled with heated discussion on University of Miami’s biggest football loss in school history and the coach behind the team.

This past weekend University of Miami football team played Clemson University where it lost an by astounding 58-0. Throughout the web and all over social media, fans across the country were posting hate posts about al golden with the #AlGolden.

Numerous fans posted that he needed to be fired and how it was the worst game that has ever occurred in the school’s history. Every news publication from ESPN to Miami news organizations to USA Today immediately wrote articles on the game and the buzz on whether or not Al Golden will be fired.

ESPN’s Snapchat even did an article on the huge loss. On Sunday, Oct. 25, the news broke that Al Golden was officially fired as University of Miami’s head football coach. News stories leading that news discussed not only the story behind the firing but also more interestingly who would replace him. Numerous headlines such as “Top 12 candidates” and “Who’s next for Miami with Al Golden gone” graced websites. This story has been a major news report in not only local but also national sports news this week.

It should be interesting to see how the story progresses moving forward and how organizations will cover the news on the search for a new coach.

Coverage of Joe Biden’s announcement

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

Joe Biden finally spoke on the sought-after decision as to whether or not he would be running for president in the 2016 election.

That answer is No.

The press conference at the White House Rose Garden was a sudden event with no prior knowledge given to the public or press that it was happening. The press was contacted mere hours before the statement took place. All press at moments notice ran to The White House to try and capture live shots moments before the start of the statement.

All online news organizations put breaking news messages on their website to alert readers. Live coverage was immediately available on every site. With the announcement of the statement, live coverage replaced set programs on each of these news television stations.

After the statement, coverage took place and every online news site had lead breaking news stories on Biden’s decision and what was said. There was discussion on the event thereafter in which we were able to hear opinions on the news. The manner in which news organizations were able to speedily obtain coverage of this event after not getting any notice that it was even happening is highly commendable and just goes to show how fast one has to react as a journalist.

I am interested to see how the discussions continue on this decision and how it will affect the rest of the political campaign.

Debate coverage boosts Clinton

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

On Tuesday night, the Democratic Party presidential candidate debates were in full swing. It was highly noticeable that news coverage was positively geared towards Hillary Clinton.

From CNN to NBC, all online news articles praised Clinton’s debate. CNN stated she was poised, passionate and in command. I find it interesting that all news organizations across the board, all agreed on something for once. Leading up to the debate all news organizations covered the debate on Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders would come up on top as the top candidates.

One of the main topics that was discussed during the debate, and it has been a trending topic on social media, is Bernie Sanders comment “America is Tired of Clintons Damn Emails.” What was also interesting during this debate is that Donald Trump used social media to live Tweet his thoughts during the debate. I think that it is very interesting to have a candidate actually weight in on a debate, as it is occurring, and reaching out to the public. Trump actually praised Clinton and said she won the debate. It should be interesting to see how this positive reaction affects the rest of the race.

Body shaming grows across media

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

Body shaming and negative comments using social media outlets have become a major issue in society and has reached an all time high.

It has recently been reported all over the Internet on how supermodel Gigi Hadid slammed a body-shaming “troll” on Instagram. The model received negative comments on her body after posting a picture of herself in a bathing suit.

The newly founded word “troll” associated with online users who negatively comment on stories and a variety of posts online has become too common. Not only are trolls taking over social media with negative comments about others, but they are also commenting on political and social issues on news websites using defamatory language.

It is interesting that this issue is all over media outlets when there are numerous people dealing with trolls everyday. Body shaming has become a major issue that affects not only grown adults but children as well. For years publications of fashion magazines and articles in gossip columns have created an image that one has to look a certain way. This use of media has created the source of negative comments coming from trolls.

Emmy show viewers at all-time low

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

The numbers are in and this year’s 67th annual Emmy Awards show has reached an all-time low, averaging just 11.9 million viewers.

The audience size was down nearly four million viewers from last year’s show, which aired on Monday. The Emmys, however, aired on Sunday this year, which automatically created a direct competition with NBC’S Sunday Night football. Typically, NFL would be a good lead in for the show but the late afternoon game ran over and didn’t end until 30 minutes before the start of the Emmys.

Social media were also low on Sunday night with only 6.9 million people who had interactions related to the Emmy’s on Facebook. Twitter was buzzing, however, during Viola Davis acceptance speech when she won the award for Lead Actress in a Drama for “How to Get Away with Murder,” becoming the first black woman to take the prize.

Although there was Twitter action from the viewers that were watching, I find the overall issue of day and hour placement of shows interesting. If the Emmys were on Monday night, rather than Sunday, would there have been a major difference in the amount of views?

NYFW through eyes of social media

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

New York Fashion Week 2015 is in full swing and social media has been heating up with the latest coverage. Now more than ever, viewers get an inside look into the ins and outs of Fashion Week through social media outlets such as Instagram and Snapchat. It was a huge advance when shows started to be filmed live on YouTube a few years ago, but now we can see fashion week from every angle.

From behind-the-scenes footage, designers talking directly to viewers, models interacting, and the shows themselves. Through these social media outlets we are able to be a part of a global event that is normally closed off for A-list celebrities and fashions elite. Fashion houses use their social media platforms to promote their shows, get their name out there to be the best of the best.

Fashion brands rely heavily on their social media status to connect with customers, designers, buyers, and fashion media. The more publicity they receive on these media platforms the better. Numerous designers are finding ways to incorporate Instagram to their shows, which their calling Insta-Show, which involves fashion influencers to take snapshots of the collection and post them to their social media accounts rather than conduct a runway show.

The latest major story to hit social media was the opening ceremony’s dance performance runway. Throughout my Insta feed everyone was posting videos of the performance giving it rave reviews. Without this coverage we wouldn’t have been able to see this and be apart of the show itself. I can’t wait to continue to see what new advancement will be next for New York Fashion Week coverage.

Images of refugees in Europe unsettling

Posted on by

By SAMANTHA COHEN

For the past week, news organizations around the world have been covering the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis in Europe, all of which are highlighting the differences among countries who either welcome these desperate migrants or those who don’t. More recent news stories have been covering the somber deaths and despair of these refugees. These stories have brought up the issue as to whether or not the U.S. should be doing more in its efforts during this European crisis.

What I found most interesting about this coverage is that, it lies parallel to the ongoing issues our country is debating at the present time during the 2016 political campaign. I’m talking about the controversial issue of the Mexico and U.S. border. News coverage has been all over this issue but we are seeing that the biggest migrant crisis is not happening in the U.S., but the European Union.

One story in particular drew attention to the migrant crisis in Europe not only for me but the entire country. Images of a 3-year-old refugee washed ashore lifeless. I found it inhumane to post these images for the world to see. While others had hoped that the images of the boy would be a turning point in the debate over how to help during this crisis.

This issue brings up the debate on what one will do in order to send a message. This crisis has spurred a variety of responses throughout its coverage. Many news organizations from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal has been debating on whether or not to use the jarring images. Its editors opted to go for a less jarring image, but one that was powerful and brings enormity to the tragedy. This has been and issue for news publications since the beginning. How far can you go for a story without it being offensive, yet will create an impact and emotion? We will continue to see more images and news on this crisis. It will be interesting to see the different opinions on this issue in the coming weeks.