"Urban Katie"- A Blog Profile

I found this blog and was immediately attracted to its simple and clean format with bright pops of color. The blogger goes by “Urban Katie” and her blog titled “Obsessed” focuses on the infatuation that America has with celebrities. You can check out her blog here. Her blog was created for one of her classes (how fitting!) at the University of Virginia and as she writes in her “about” section of her blog she is a double major in media studies and American studies with a concentration in visual and popular culture. Katie may be a student but she has excellent insight and theories into why America has such a fixation with celebrities. Although she only averages about one post every couple weeks, her interest in the topic is portrayed throughout her blog as her posts are filled with thought and care.

Katie writes in her very first blog post, “I want to use this blog to explore America’s infatuation with celebrity through an academic lens and examine topics such as celebrity replacing religion, celebrity “news,” and celebrities’ ability to influence.” My blog relates to Katie’s on the level that we are both writing about how media influences society. Katie’s blog focuses strictly upon celebrity influence, whereas my blog will explore this area as well as how magazines, models, advertisements et cetera affect women today. I believe that Katie’s blog will be a fantastic reference and resource when writing my blog because her writing is more academic, with frequent footnotes and links to case studies and scholarly articles. Although I don’t plan to have a formal voice in my blog like she does, she supplies content that may be relevant to the topics I choose to post on. My goal is to develop a strong voice throughout my blog and give the readers more than just straight facts in an academic format.

Katie has a few posts that are directly relevant to my topic. One of her most relatable posts to my topic is entitled, “The Media and Female Body Image,” it focuses upon how women in the media are objectified and made to be seen as “passive” rather than “active” by men. Another similar post called “Media and Body Image Part 2” addresses how the media focuses upon images of perfection to market their products and celebrities. Many are aware of the false images of perfection presented in our society but they still have extreme affects on women today. In a future post, I hope to touch upon the topics she presented on a more personal level. Katie’s posts are highly informative however they lack a certain quality that makes the writing more assessable to the reader. Katie does not offer any personal stories or anything that the reader can particularly relate to. Most women can probably share the feeling of thinking they are inadequate to celebrities and models in magazines and on the news but I believe that the adding a person touch makes the reader feel more connected with the writer and more engrossed in the writing.