Lauren’s Media Blog

DNA testing has been more common than it has in the past recently. The most well known companies that allow consumers to buy DNA testing kits are 23andMe and AncestryDNA. The kit is relatively expensive, being $100 for just the DNA testing option or $150 for DNA Health and Ancestry. The appeal of buying a DNA kit is that it tests what ethnicity you may be. It goes into depth about where your ancestors were from and what specific regions you have traces of DNA from. Not only does it tell you about your ethnicity but it also tells you what groups you may be related to and any famous/infamous people that you may be related to. It also creates a map of all the different connections you may have with other people around the world. People that you didn't know were your cousins may show up on the map and you have the option of messaging them. The process of a DNA kit is simple. The company sends you the DNA kit or you can buy it in a store that sells them. The kit comes with a tube that

It seems like it would be pretty hard to get lost while you are hiking on a trail especially with a group of people. However, just in the past month, two people have gotten lost hiking in Hawaii. One of them, Amanda Eller, was found last week after she had been out in the Hawaiian forest for two weeks. The other hiker, Noah Mina went missing on May 20th. He is said to be in the same area where Amanda Eller was found. Because Amanda Eller was found recently, the men who helped coordinate her rescue are now helping search for Mina. Eller had become disoriented after she had gone for a run in the forest when she was trying to return to her car. Because of her disorientation she had to fight for her life after she fell off a cliff and severely injured her leg. She said she chose life. Choosing life was definitely the hard option because she had to survive two more weeks after she injured her leg. Mina's tracks have been found by searchers and his slippers have also been found. It a

One profession where men largely outnumber women is in politics. It seems that in a world where women outnumber men, that should be the opposite. However, there are many reasons why women are outnumbered. No, it is not because they aren't qualified or that they are worse than their male opponents. It is because of the way the media has portrayed women in leadership roles. In Miss Representation, people expose how degrading media can be on women. It seems largely possible that the media would degrade celebrities but it never crossed my mind that the media would degrade women who are leaders. The women's job is to be professional and to better our country just like the men around them, but the media finds a way to criticize their appearance. The media does not criticize men in politics for their looks. This is part of the reason for the lack of women leadership. Women are portrayed as objects and not as independent thinkers. Because of the way media portrays women for their l

In the Merchants of Cool , it discussed how different TV programs used different personalities to attract teenagers to their program. Viacom seemed to use this technique the most with their mook personality that attracted teenage boys to their program. The mook was a character that did whatever he wanted and was comedic. The mook did crazy things that any ordinary person would never do in their lifetime. During the time of the mook, another personality developed known as the midriff. The midriff targeted teenage girls. It highly sexualized the body of women as well as teenagers. Different celebrities promoted this type of personality such as Brittany Spears. The midriff wore clothing that exposed her body. The women that portrayed this type of character were very skinny and they were often white. Different body shapes and races were not promoted through this character.  Today, the midriff is still around but it has had a much smaller reach in the past few years than it had before. W

Matthew Boling, dubbed White Lightning, first made headlines when he ran a 9.98 second 100 meter. However, this time wasn't official and was later disqualified from the history books because of the tailwind of 4.2 meters per second that the sprinters were running with. The legal wind limit is 2 meters. However, Boling proved skeptics wrong when he ran a 10.13 second 100 meter-dash on Saturday which broke the 100 meter dash high school record. He is currently a senior and will be attending the University of Georgia next year. I think it is incredible that he was able to break the high school record for a second time after his first time was disqualified. I honestly think that it is unfair to disqualify his first time from the records if they allowed for the tailwinds during the race. He couldn't control the weather on the day he was racing. The fact that he was able to still break the record with a legal wind shows that he got the time fairly. He must have been under an extrem

The Possession of Hannah Grace had the potential of being a scary that had a good plot. The movie is set in a hospital morgue. The main character Megan, played by Shay Mitchell, who many may recognize as Emily from Pretty Little Liars , worked in the morgue after she had left working as a police officer because of a tragic event that she was involved in. During one of her night shifts, a body that had recently been found in an alley is brought into the morgue. The body is covered in gashes. The body belongs to Hannah Grace, a girl who had become possessed and was killed by her father. The movie starts off with the potential of developing a good plot, but as it progressed it became evident that there really wasn't one. Megan had little development over the course of the movie and the tragic event that pushed her to work in the morgue seemed to almost be completely forgotten throughout the movie. It is only brought up again at the end of the movie when she is able to shoot a gun wh