How athletes are marketing themselves off the field!!

Today I wanna talk about a Former Baltimore Oriole Chris Hoiles. Chris played on the Orioles as a catcher, from 1989-1999. He was the team MVP in 1993, and was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 2006. http://www.goldgloveacademy.net/?page_id=483/#Hoiles

 Even though he isn't directly on the Orioles ball field, he is still very involved in sports. Chris keeps his legacy going in many ways. He is the Owner of Gold Glove Sports Academy and now teaches young adults how to accomplish and follow through with their dream of being an athlete! Chris's hard work & dedication has helped lead them into College Baseball as well as the minor leagues. At the Gold Glove Sports Academy they hold different events, sports camps, clinics for the kids. Not only does this keep the kids stay off the street but he teaches them the discipline to make their life successful.


Off the field Chris does some advertising with "Show your Soft Side" an organization that does exactly that, shows your soft side with your pet. This organization has been put on billboards all over Baltimore. It is a campaign that was started by the rising number of animal abuse.

                        Chris contributes to many organizations such as the York Cancer Center

Chris's wife Dana started her own jewelry business a few years back called "Sports Jewelry by Dana Hoiles" as well as their Brand New Wine label of  "LOVE THE GAME."Dana designed the shirt below and with every purchase all of the proceeds go directly to the March of Dimes!

Chris and Dana travel all over and give autographs out with each piece of jewelry, hat, shirt and yes on those beautiful bottles of wine! Not only are they wonderful people but they are constantly giving back to the communities.

http://www.danahoiles.com

Chris Hoiles still attends the Oriole Fest, does radio interviews and so much more! You know how they say "There is no I in Team" well Chris and Dana work as a team, they go above and beyond on everything they do! I was very fortunate to meet both of them when we attended a few mutual events. I can only tell you what I know. They are a very loving couple who pays it forward to anyone that they can reach out to! Many fans look up to Chris, as he is a great role model for everyone.
 

Keep up the GREAT work Chris & Dana your an inspiration to many of us out there!! I have included the websites of both the Gold Glove Sports Academy & Sports Jewelry by Dana Hoiles so check them out!


The images posted above are pictures that I am using are directly from their Facebook pages.

Susan Compton

YouTube killed the video star...

As I reminisce about the music industry it brings back some really cool memories on how we could call or write to the radio stations for a song request.  Every Sunday we could always count on Casey Kasem, to let us know what song made it to the Top 40 and to think that all of that is gone. Down to a tiny device that you can carry inside of your pocket. I honestly do not even own an iPod or mp3 player nor do I download songs from the computer.  I do believe that the music industry as we once knew it is long gone.

My First Album

I can remember the day that MTV first came on and watching the same videos play over and over. Every day they would play a new song every hour on the hour and this is just one of many ways that the music industry survived. Music Videos were so BIG back in the 80's that we use to even have dances at school, where they would pull the screen down and we would dance to the entire Thriller Album and so much more. Wow, what memories this brings back!

I do however miss the albums and cassettes but do like the fact that Cd's saved a lot of room, expense and are much more clear on the sound. I wish they still had the old hangouts such as the Record Bar or Record & Tape Traders, they were the BEST!!!
We would spend hours in there searching and comparing albums to see how we could get the most songs for the money and if you were lucky you would find the bands Greatest Hits. Nowadays, you can buy individual songs which takes away from the artists. They work very hard and put a lot of passion into what they do and for that to be taken from them hurts the musicians wallets.

As we look at the whole picture, I do hope that albums come back, you know you wanna get up and exercise when that album skips or keep those pencils handy as we need to wind up the cassette tape when it gets caught in the reel track and we would take hours to make our tapes work properly again. They were the fun days right?? Not only has this taken the music industry down in my opinion but listen to the albums promoted "Quality" family time.  Now that we have Ipod's/MP3 players this sure doesn't help with our anti-social world that we have become. Communication has been taken over by social media but has placed us into a lifestyle of just being lazy! I know they recently came out with speakers to hook up to the iPods but at first it just allowed you to listen alone. 

The music industry still does make videos but you need to watch them on YouTube, everything is electronic. YouTube has it set up where if you like the person that is posting the videos you can subscribe to however, that person is not always the musician themselves. So this means your downloading the music for free. Then you can share it all over the social media pages and it gets out there one way or another. I always wonder to myself what will happen if all the computer systems in the world crash, everything will be long gone. The bands today really do need to depend on the radio stations to help promote their EP's as well as use sites such as www.reverbnation.com to promote their own music instead of using a record label company. But ultimately they have to work harder with touring and make their show so out of this world that the word of mouth travels and make it something you just cant miss!

Bottom line is " I LOVE ROCK & ROLL" all aspects of music and I feel its slowly withering away. So next time your out at the club, make sure to go by and thank the DJ's for continuing to honor the musicians!

Susan Compton

Shouting the News!!

Nancy Grace has got to be one of the most idiotic reporters on the air to this day. She has absolutely no empathy toward her guests and deliberately tries to make them "The Victim" feel guilty on something that is a devastating issue. She literally bullies her guests. Nancy Grace is known for her interrogation type interviews. Melinda Duckett was a guest speaker on Nancy Grace's show and wound up committing suicide right after her interview. This was not the first time someone has committed suicide after being interviewed on her show.

Another guest was what Nancy Grace called "The Vodka Mom" was mocked as Nancy poured vodka in a cup making front of the mother who accidentally rolled over onto her baby as she slept next to her and had been drinking. Toni Medrano was on a phone interview with Grace also committed suicide.

 

 Bottom Line: Is that Nancy Grace is more worried about her ratings vs. the facts. She will do anything to push her liberal views onto everyone and if you don't agree with her then you may as well give it up. She will belittle you until her show is finished. I have seen many guest walk off of her show!!

     Then we have Larry King he interviews high profile guests and does ask controversial questions but in a respective way. I have seen Larry King scream but is more conservative and does keep an open mind, listening to all sides before jumping to his conclusion. I can take the time to listen to his whole show on Larry King Live without wanting to jump through the screen and hit him. 

     Larry Kings information is all based on facts where Nancy Grace works on the emotions and does cause harm! The thing that I learned most is NOT to watch Nancy Dis-Grace again!!





Susan Compton

Reality Television: real or unreal

I have to say I use to be a HUGE fan of reality TV, but this is all you see now days. I was a big fan of "The Swan."

Then I realized how much pain that this women had to endure in order to become contestants on this particular show. The director stated, he picked some of the ugliest women he could find, so he could transform them into these "BEAUTIFUL" women. This director was only looking for ratings, and made people in today's society think that they had to have the perfect look.

 This gives women/men a false sense of reality and forces you to look at someone based on their looks and not what is really important as the person you are!!

     These women were secluded and not allowed to contact their families nor could they have mirrors in their rooms at any time or they would be disqualified. When these kind of shows are on television, younger adults view these and then feel that they may not look as they should and then either become bullies to others who may not look as good as they think or start feeling less about themselves. There has been girls as young as 13 getting breast implants and YES I feel that this type of reality is not a good influence on anyone!!

At the end of the 13 week series they revealed the way they looked after they had been literally tortured in my opinion to have nose jobs, face lifts, body lifts, teeth implants and so much more. When the women seen their self for the first time, it was such a disbelief, they looked in the mirror not realizing this was actually them.

I think its actually kind of pathetic on how they did this reality show!!

After all of the women were revealed they then had a Beauty Pageant where one of the ladies would win all sorts of things but that again was a very emotional roller coaster. This sort of Reality TV is degrading to all women!

I believe that this show was definitely fake and had to be scripted with the ladies knowing what they were getting into. It was marked on record to be one of the absolute "WORST" reality shows ever made.

So is Reality Television real or unreal??? I guess I am trying to say its all a BIG JOKE!!!



Reality kicks in...Chickens watching another chicken be cooked, are you serious?? But then So again, a bunch of crap filling everyone's head full of $#iT!!!!

Susan Compton

Extra Extra Read All About It.....

      As there becomes a decline in newspaper sales, a lot of companies are now starting to feel the effects of Social Media. At one time we had to wait until either the evening Sun paper would come out or wait until the next morning for those "Top Stories".  With technology the way it is, people can snap a photo and within minutes everyone knows what happens. I have even seen local news channels ask on the social media networks what had happened prior to them even knowing.

     With these difficult times and struggling economy, it is very hard for some of the top newspapers to stay in business. Most of them are funded by the ad's that are placed in them daily or weekly. I still like reading the Baltimore Sun and on occasion pick up some of the other papers such as the New York Times, Washington Post but only when I am bored!

      However,  I do like to have the papers around for my Maryland Steamed Crabs as well.

So for my choice of newspapers, I chose the Dundalk Eagle as being the survivor! I do believe they will stay in business longer then the bigger papers because:

• They are only 50cents
• By The People...allows you to write letters so the readers can interact with one another. 
• The Community Calendar that keeps us up to date on current events. 
• The Obituaries
• Talk of the Town
• Police Beat for the crimes in the area
• Classified, Help Wanted, Products for sale, etc...
• And one of my "Favorites" Take the Newspaper out of town with you and get a picture and they will post it in their paper for free. So its kind of like your few minutes of fame! 

The Dundalk Eagle began in 1969 and has my VOTE on staying in business for another 30 years!

     Just remember you can order your subscription at a very low cost and have it delivered right to your home, or just grab it late Wednesday evenings or first thing Thursday for your UP-TO-DATE. So now that I gave them "Free Advertisement" maybe they will write a letter for us in the By the People section for our project on World Aids Day ;) Sounds good huh??

Susan M. Compton

Magazines in the checkout line: Airbrush Much??

  

  When I go through the checkout line and see all the tabloid magazines it is quite comical to see how they either make someone look either very bad or extremely better then they are. I have purchased the Enquirer before just to get some good laughs. But the humiliation that comes along with it for the actors, actresses, models can be devastating.  Of course we all want to know what is our favorite star's doing but they are "normal" people under all of that make-up and have family problems just as everyone else!


   Why do "WE" as a society sleep in the nude, shorts, T-shirt, sheets, completely covered with blankets and quilts? I am not saying anything is wrong with anyone of these or that they are linked to fear. There are reasons though ; some may be good and some bad, some may be still needed while some may not. This is due to very low self-esteem whether it has been brought on by your family members, siblings, peers or MAGAZINE'S! They claim you must be the perfect weight, perfect height, no acne, to much make up or whatever someone decides to come up with next.

   Some do make their private life a mockery such as the most recent at the VMA'S, Miley Cyrus and so many more and they do this to get publicity. Bad publicity is not always bad, it draws the attention to them that they needed to place them in the spotlight or give them their so called 15 minutes of fame that maybe they would not have received any other way. I once read how the writers of the Enquirer were constantly getting slammed with lawsuits for false information and when it went to court, the judge had said if there was any truth even down to the location of where the actor, actress, models may have been that they can fabricate the story into a humiliating story without being held liable for slander!

     I do not feel that they should do all of the airbrushing on these models because it gives our society a false sense of reality on how we should or shouldn't look. Oh and those front magazine covers pull you in with topics such as Rachel Ray drops 6 dress sizes in 30 days, why? Because it will make us purchase that magazine, they will do just about anything to pull you in for the purchase. Magazine sales are on the down tremendously. They will give you the magazine free because the people who advertise in the magazines are the ones who are keeping them in business, where before it was the sales that kept them in business.  I believe Men & Women look at these magazines in the same manner, however, it can lead to a false sense of security as well. Some may start feeling as if they good enough for the man or woman they have been with for days, months or many years.  

 Truth is, some of the models are not as perfect as you may think. The one thing I have noticed is that with the new flat screen televisions they show a lot of imperfections and I have caught myself even criticizing some of the most handsome men or women as it show's how much make up they are wearing and the producers have been told they need to cut back and make them look more natural since we can see the tiniest hair on their face. 

     So please remember that "Everyone is Beautiful"!! Admire yourself in the mirror, look and pick one feature that you love or someone has complimented you on and focus on that. The outside is not what makes you beautiful, sexy or make you less of a person because you may not look like your favorite pop star.

Susan Compton

  

My Viewpoint on Mass Media/Impact and the effect it has on our lives!

This blog is for my Mass Communication Course so please join in and follow me. I would love your input ;)


I am just starting this blog, my first blog will be coming soon.





Susan M. Compton