Remembering the newspaper......

Remembering the Newspaper......

     The Intelligencer Newspaper was one of my main staples for the day along with my regular routine, like eating breakfast, taking the dog for a walk and chatting with friends.  It was your neighborhood, town, and county newspaper. I have a lot of love for The Intelligencer because they gave me my first job at 11 years old; I was a paper delivery boy for the local neighborhood. I can remember waking up before the crack of dawn every morning to deliver the news to the people whether rain, snow, hail, or ice.  It seems a little archaic now that I think of it, of all the crap I had to go through to get my customers their daily news, no wonder newspapers are going online.  I think the best part was being able to see the news first before everyone else did as I was reading the articles while wrapping and bagging newspapers.  I looked forward to the police blogs because I wanted to know who was the guy or gal getting arrested the other night and for what.  It was a great newspaper and I still love to read it when I go home.  I feel connected when I read my local paper because I share a common bond with my neighbors, my town, my county.  It’s something you don’t get when you read the national newspapers like USA Today, The Washington Post or the New York Times.

     The newspaper started in 1804 as the Pennsylvania Correspondent and Farmers’ Advertiser, a weekly newspaper in Doylestown, PA.  In 1886, the newspaper became a daily, which called itself The Doylestown Daily Intelligencer.  Today The Intelligencer, which publishes six days a week, covers Central Bucks County, Upper Bucks County, and Eastern Montgomery County Pennsylvania.  Its pages feature stories, photographs and editorials about everything from municipal and community news and crime and court reports to politics, business, human interest, sports and community news and entertainment pieces.  In addition to its daily newspaper publication, The Intelligencer also post news online at www.phillyburbs.com. I think this newspaper will survive, it is always more enjoyable to be able to sit down in your favorite recliner, sipping a cup tea while you read about the local band playing at your favorite pub in town or you can organize your list of yard sales for Saturday morning.  I think people like the community newspaper more because they have the ability to influence the newspaper whether it be the news itself, advertisements, or high school sports.

Sexiness Sells

Sexiness Sells

    

  I take for granted that I'm an educated individual with years of wisdom and can see through the scandalous images on the covers of these magazines and see the marketing scheme to get the customer to buy.  The celebrities we see on TV are the ones we want to see on the covers. Reality TV show celebs like Snooki and the girls from MTV's 16 and pregnant are a mainstay on the racks of the checkout line.  We also can't forget about our favorite royal family, Prince William and Kate, not that we care so much about Prince William as we do Kate, Oh by the way its official she is pregnant.  Who is the audience here? Teenage and 20 something females? Probably, but I think we all get drawn into it one way or another whether it be consciously or unconsciously, you can't help to look at the images. Yes, magazines are geared to us guys out there, just look at the above cover of Maxim.  Doesn't Avril look so appealing showing her stomach with eye catching words around her like Sex, Balls, SEXIEST BAD GIRL, and SUPER CARS?

     So what is the message we are sending out to our young people? Dress half naked, showing as much as you can without being charged with indecent exposure.  Some sociologists argue that teens are more inclined to become sexually active because of the overwhelming number of sexual images in the media. Aside from school sex-education programs, the media is teenagers' leading source of information about sex. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that exposure to sexually explicit media images may lead to early sexual activity. One study revealed that a typical American teenager will view 14,000 references to sex in television and movies each year. Fewer than 200 of these references will involve topics such as abstinence, birth control, or STDs.  Whoever controls the media--the images--controls the culture. ------Allen Ginsberg