Your comment post should be at least 330 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm.
Who Is Your Favorite Social Media Star?
By CAROLINE CROSSON GILPIN NOV. 29, 2017
Fiona the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo. CreditAndrew Spear for The New York Times
Have you heard about Fiona, the baby hippo born prematurely at the Cincinnati Zoo?
Watch the short video below, of Fiona and her mom playing together. How and why do you think she has become a beloved media star?
Baby Hippo Fiona and Mom Bibi Playing - Cincinnati Zoo Video by The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
In “Hooray for Fiona the Hippo, Our Bundle of Social-Media Joy,” Rachel Syme writes:
Fionamania has swept the country. Videos of her twirling around in the water, Rubenesque and graceful, rack up millions of views online. She photo-bombed a local couple’s engagement photo, and it wound up on “The Tonight Show.” The popular Cincinnati ice cream purveyor Greater’s made a “Chunky Chunky Hippo” flavor over the summer — a toffee base with salted peanuts and caramel truffles — that sold out at the zoo every day it was available. A local T-shirt company, Cincy Shirts, screen-printed a small batch of tees with the words “Feeling Hip” along with a cartoon rendering of Fiona in February, and has since shipped 30,000 Fiona-branded products (including tees, stickers, magnets and now Christmas sweaters featuring Fiona in a Santa hat) all over the world.
Fiona starred in her own 7-episode reality show sponsored by Facebook. The zoo’s director, Thane Maynard, sold a children’s book called “Saving Fiona: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Baby Hippo” to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, scheduled for the spring of 2018, with proceeds benefiting the animal’s care. The Cincinnati Reds are planning to have an official “Fiona Day” at the ballpark next summer, complete with commemorative hippopotamus bobbleheads. Twitter fans have become obsessed with Fiona’s flatulence. She has become America’s Large Adult Daughter, its triumphant baby queen, its reigning diva with the skin texture of a wet avocado.
Being at the center of a 24/7 hype machine for a 500-pound (and growing) starlet can be exhausting, and Ms. Curley got her tattoo as a way to commemorate the intensity of the past year. “I didn’t think any experience would ever top this experience,” she said. “I’m never going to regret getting it.”
“We think this is just Michelle’s way of one-upping her groupie status,” said Chad Yelton, the zoo’s vice president of marketing. “She has all the merch, the tumblers, the calendar. If there’s something with Fiona’s face on it, she has to have it first.”
When Fiona was born, no one expected her to survive. Bibi, her lumbering, obstinate mother (“Fiona gets all of her diva tendencies from her mom,” said Christina Gorsuch, the curator for African mammals) gave birth six weeks early, and the baby weighed only 29 pounds. Most viable hippos weigh between 55 and 120 pounds at birth; premature infants rarely pull through. “In the first six weeks, there was at least once a week when we were sure she was going to die,” said Ms. Gorsuch, who was wearing a pair of hippo-shaped stud earrings in her office next to the antelope pen. “I kept telling the keepers to call me in the middle of the night when the inevitable happens.”
She was kept in the bestial equivalent of a newborn I.C.U., with round-the-clock care that included visits from local nurses from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who located her tiny veins for an IV during a nasty bout of dehydration. Scientists at the zoo milked a hippo for the first time — “we had no idea what was in hippo milk before now,” Ms. Gorsuch said — so that they could recreate the formula for Fiona’s bottles. Every day, between January and May 15, when Fiona finally was able to promenade around the hippo tank for the public, seemed to bring a new health crisis. All of this was documented on social media for the world to see.
Overnight, Fiona became a symbol of resilience and positivity. Buzzfeed ran listicles of her bravest moments, calling her a “sassy, unbothered, unproblematic queen.” NPR ran a national report on her swelling celebrity status. One website called her “The Only Good Thing Left in This World.”
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:
— Who is your favorite social media star, and why?
— Have you seen any Fionamania memorabilia or news? If so, what did you see, and where?
— Now that you know more about Fiona, can you understand why she is a celebrity media darling? Why or why not?
— What other examples can you think of where someone — or something — drew fame and followers? Why did they become famous?
My favorite social media star is Josh Peck. In my opinion I think Josh is a really funny person. I also watched a tv show starring him in 2004 that I really enjoyed “Drake and Josh” After the show ended he still had a pretty big internet and overall presence everywhere around the world. Has his own Youtube Channel, Twitter, Instagram, and much more. In all of his accounts he remains the funny guy that makes me laugh a lot.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen any of Fionamania but I remember my little sister mentioning it a couple of times to me. I’ve never seen it personally but she always has a big smile on her face when she talks about the cool tricks she sees. One time at dinner she rambled on and on about it and sometimes I’ll walk passed her in the living room and I can overhear it. Though I have not seen it myself, I have heard about it from my little sister.
I understand why she is a social media star. She makes a lot of people happy by doing tricks, but also she is a symbol of anything is possible because she was not expected to live when she was born. Obviously she made it and that can give hope to a lot of people who may need that hope/courage. I don’t know much about her but she seems very cool and interesting.
Other examples of this are when Danielle Bregoli got very famous for being on Dr. Phil and saying a lot of stuff that people posted all over social media. She was on the show, said some clever one liners and suddenly the next week everyone was making a joke out of the things she said on the show. After the show she kept up with it all and still acts and says a lot of the things over her social media platforms.
I also really like Josh peck. I would always watch drake and josh whenever I could. I thought that the show was super funny and I still think he is funny. She does give people a lot of hope. I remember first seeing the dr. phil episode on her and I thought she was crazy.
Deletei also like josh peck hes one of my favorites. i loved watching his vines. i also watched the show with drake bell and josh peck. and also danielle i dont even know how she can become famus over one line. it was so stupid i dont understand
DeleteMichael Prasad
ReplyDeleteMrs. Mazzuca
330 words
4 December 2017
My favorite social media star is boonk gang. He is a instagram famous and youtube famous star. Boonk gang started to become recognized when he started uploading videos of him stealing things and just commiting crimes. He is very famous and people do bad things for example stealing things and posting them on instagram with the hashtag “boonkgang”. Boonkgang even has a game on all apple devices called boonkgang. He is 21 years old and was born in Florida and is 6 feet tall. His real name is John Robert Hill jr. He is definitely by far my favorite media star because his videos are very entertaining and funny to watch. A Lot of my friends make jokes about boonk gang whenever we take eachothers phones.
I have never see Fiona Mania memorabilia or news but i did read about it now and i think it is very interesting. I think Fiona is very funny and almost human like. I say that she is almost human like because Fiona photo bombed a wedding picture and i think that is funny and she is very photogenic. I looked up pictures of her and she looks very photogenic.
Now that i read more about Fiona i can understand why she is a media star. She is so famous that she has her own merchandise and she probably doesn't even know what it is. Fiona has hats and shirts and mugs and plenty of merchandise and she is very well known. Fiona even became a symbol of resilience and positivity. They even ran reports on her braveness. One more example of someone drawing fame quickly is justin bieber years ago he just uploaded one video on youtube and that quickly drew fame to him and now he is very famous and within days of him uploading that video his followers and fans quickly increased. It all started with him with just one song and from that moment on his life changed forever.
I don’t have a favorite social media star. But, I do watch some people on youtube. I have no favorites, I just watch them all. I haven’t seen any news or Fiona Mania memorabilia. No, because I have not seen her. I can think of a place where somebody got famous and that place was Central Regional High School. There was one kid who came to this school and his name was Mikey Manfs. He is a youtuber with just over a million subscribers.
ReplyDeleteHe posts videos about Clinton Road and other “haunted” places to. He also posts normal videos. Also, he post videos of him fooling around in stores and he gets kicked out. Security chases him all the time. He came to school at Central and then graduated. Now he lives in Los Angeles with his friends. He found more places that he thinks are haunted and records it and makes content. He acts reckless in his videos but it is entertaining. That is why he does it. A lot of people get mad at him and it is very funny. I watch him everyday. He is very entertaining and it is cool that he went to our school. He also gets into fights sometimes with store managers because he does some overnight challenges. He also does 3 am challenges in haunted places and sometimes just normal places. He is one of the coolest and funniest youtubers that I watch and he has good content. People can tell that he is a social media star because of the number of subscribers that he has and he just makes very entertaining videos for all of his subscribers to watch everyday like me. I watch him everyday when I get home from school. I enjoy watching his videos and they are very entertaining I am not going to stop watching him because I enjoy watching his videos. In my opinion, there are not many people that make better videos than Mikey Manfs.
I also watch a lot of YouTube. Whenever I need to pass time I’ll just watch something random. I’m was also not familiar with her at first. I think we can both agree though that she is pretty impressive. I also watch those types of videos.
DeleteA famous person on a social media is M3RKMUS1C . He is a really funny youtuber that makes commentaries on games and real life such as music with his guitar.The games that he plays are the Call of Duty series and things that he would talk about are like bugs that need to be fixed guns that need to be nerfed or made a little weaker.But he also teaches young women and men how to play a guitar and banjo cause he has one.But if an experienced person wants too learn a song or something then they can watch one of his videos and they can learn it pretty easily cause he goes step by step on how to do it.All in all he is very nice and very funny and everyone should watch him.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Fionna because I don't look up trending I stick too the few people I watch and that is it I just never got into that type of stuff.
I honestly don't know why she is because all she did was twirl around and interrupt a picture from what I read but that is my opinion some people might find her really really really really famous.I also think she is famous because she is an animal and they find most animals funny and very very very cute. But all in all I think she is and isn’t famous at the same time.
Most people get fame from the stupid challenges online and people find this funny because they are being hurt and not them but mainly it is the stupidity of how some poeple just do this for fame.
I have not heard about Fiona the baby hippo born prematurely at the Cincinnati zoo. Anyways my favorite media star is probably scooter brad. I pick scooter brad because he is funny and helps w some tips about scootering. I’ve grown in my level of progress in scootering because if him. Without scooter brad I wouldn’t know half of the stuff I know today. No I have not seen fiona mania memorabilia or news at all. I see now why Fiona is a celebrity media darling. She is a celebrity media darling because she wasn’t supposed to live through her birth but she did and now she’s showing everyone what she can do. So that right there is a miracle. But also she likes to play tricks and have fun at the zoo so that also makes her very happy. Another example I can think of where someone or something became famous is fidget spinners. These became famous around April 2017. They became famous because kids started using them in schools and work and soon you realize they are everywhere. People then began making different kinds of fidget spinners.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media stars are the dolan twins. There my favorite because there videos are fun to watch and there hot. I have never seen or heard of fiona the hippo. Now that i see what fiona is and why she became famous i still don't understand because she's a hippo just like other hippos, and animals do weird things all the time, so i mean it's not that special she was in the back of someone's engagement pictures. Why did she become famous over that i don't get how she did. Maybe because she's a cute hippo i just don't see why she's famous. Other places i've seen people get famous we're on instagram, musically and youtube. Like makeup total people on nsta who get famous or people like jacob sartorius who get famous on musically and people like the dolan twin who are famous because of what they post on youtube. A lot of people get famous for doing stupid things on the internet that's how it is. Like the dolan twins have their own merchandise now because of youtube and instagram. And there people who got famous for lip singing or dancing. But really people can get followers for anything now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media star is Dave Sparks aka Heavy D. Heavy D is the owner of Diesel Sellerz and is on the show Diesel Brothers. I like him because he is a really funny guy and likes to joke around a lot. One the show he works on building cool diesel cars, trucks, helicopters and more. He has a wife and 4 kids. The crew he works with will sometimes build new models for celebrities or even charities. Dave helps out many people on the show and in real life. He works with all of his best friends and they all have a part in what they should build or how they can make someone’s truck work better. I have been watching the show Diesel Brothers ever since it came out. In every episode the guys will always have a problem whether it is someone falling out of a utv or a rim exploding in the air.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen an Fiona Mania memorabilia. I do not know who that is and i have never heard of her. No i don’t understand why Fiona is a celebrity media darling. I think she that Fiona is just a hippo . I don’t know what is so special about her or why she is so famous. I don't” think an animal can be popular on social media or the news. Many people now become popular because of something they say. I think that is really stupid because you have the people who worked hard at getting to where they are and then you have people like the catch me outside girl who say one thing and now she has over 1 million followers and has a 6 figure sum. I makes no sense how the world works. Even people who do youtube for a living. I like to watch it but not why all people do is get kicked out of stores or being stupid on purpose.
Danielle bregoli is my favorite social media star because she got it over something easy and stupid. Don't get me wrong i don't even think she should be a social media star but since she is she is my favorite. She is because i love the way she talks and what she has made on her youtube and i love her songs that she made. I haven't seen any Fionamania memorabilia or news. Now that i have seen more about fiona i understand why she is a social media celebrity. She is a social media celebrity because she photobombed an engagement picture. After that the picture got on the “The Tonight Show” and now it became all talk. After that they made an ice cream named after her. They made 30,000 fiona branded products and it got it shipped all over the world. She got her own seven episodes on a reality show. That's just some things that help me understand why it just helps me think on how she became one. Before i read the article i just didn't get why fiona was a social media celebirty. Actually i didn't even know she was one but reading this made me realize why she was well understand because i thought it was just because she was a premature hippo which i didn't get. A person that i know is Danielle bregoli. She got famous just because she doesn't talk the way we do which i think is stupid. She was on this show thing i don't know what it was called but she said that all her haters or some girl i don't know to who she was saying it to but she was trying to say to them that they can catch her outside how about that like to fight. Since her accident is different it sounded like cash me outside how bout dat. So now after that shes all famous and shes what 14 or 15. Now she makes youtube videos and music videos with her own songs.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media star is Emma Chamberlain. Emma is a new youtuber who pretty much blew up overnight. I remember the first day i was subscribed to her channel she had 10,000 subscribers. Everyday that i would look on her channel and refresh it she would gain thousands of subscribers every time. Now she has about 315,000. It’s crazy that you can become famous by posting just one video and making people laugh. Emma is my favorite social media star because of how funny she is in her videos. If i’m ever in a bad mood and she posts a video they’ll instantly make me laugh and boost my mood. No, i have not seen any Fionamania memorabilia or news. In the article they’ve made it seem like everybody in the world knows about it so i'm surprised that I haven’t. Now that i know more about Fiona yes, i guess i can understand why she’s such a celebrity media darling. People probably pay attention to her because how can you not? It’s a hippo and the fact that she has a story where she almost didn’t survive makes her even more interesting. One other example I can think of where someone has drawn fame and followers is Danielle Bregoli. Danielle Bregoli is famous because she went on the Dr. Phil show and when she was on there she said a phrase and it got extremely popular and drew attention. But because she was on the show because of how out of control and disrespectful she was she does get an extreme amount of hate. I respect her though because she came from nothing and now she is living in Los Angeles in a mansion and has millions of followers on multiple social media platforms.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite social media star is Gordon Ramsay. He is my favorite because I think he is so funny when he yells at other chefs. I first started watching Gordon when I saw his show kitchen nightmares. I thought it was so funny and I was interested in seeing more episodes. I remember thee first episode i watched was gordon yelling at the chefs because it was so bad. The chef made some food that was made three weeks ago and it was shocking to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI have not seen anything on Fiona Mania memorabilia or news. Except for one time that I read somewhere that she photobombed an engagement photo and i thought it was pretty funny. Now I can understand why she is a celebrity star. Not only did she photobomb an engagement photo. She also beat the odds of her dying at birth. She was very light for a newborn. I think that it is very impressive what she did and overcame the fact that there was a chance of her death. This probably inspired a bunch of people who might have had a same case. Whether it being you only have a certain amount of days left to live and you survived. Or if you have someone who you know has a child who is severely low in weight and survived.
Another example of someone who drew fame and followers was Alex LaBeouf. He is otherwise known as Alex from target. A picture of him while he was working blew up. It trended on twitter with a bunch of people posting a picture of him literally working. Soon after he was featured on Ellen. When it was blowing up the hashtag alex from target was retweeted 800,000 times. He also gained half a million followers. What is crazy about this is he became famous overnight. He started at 144 followers and ever since that photo he became famous. Ellen sure helped even more with his following.
ahhh i personally like him to. ive always wanted to try his food but never got a chance, but i heard he is mean in person
DeleteI don’t really know who my favorite social media star would be. Although i have social media and everything, i just don’t know a lot of stars that are famous on social media. If i had to choose anyone i would choose Mark Fischbach, u have never heard about him but after reading about what he does on youtube he seemed to appeal most to me. He has over 18 million subscribers on youtube, and he is in the top 25 most-subscribed channel on youtube. I have never seen any news about Fiona. Although it seems like an amazing thing that happened and that she survived, but i wouldn’t even know whos page to look on. But after reading this i'm going to look and see what i can find about her. After reading i know why she is a star. She survived something that a lot of other hippo’s like her wouldn’t. And know she is living growing and healthy after everything she has gone through. I never really pay attention to people who have become social media famous but i do see a lot of people who are. And most of the people that i see are famous are average people who decided to make a name for themselves and do vlogs on youtube and slowly progress from there. A lot of people got famous off of Musical.ly over the past 2 years i think. I know one social media star but i can’t think of his name, but he started out on Musical.ly and now he has his own songs on Musical.ly. People who make vlogs on youtube usually become famous by one person watching it and telling their friends. And then their friends telling their friends and so on. And eventually everyone has heard of the persons vlog and watches that person's channel. Mikey Manfs is a famous youtuber from making vlogs and doing crazy challenges. A couple years ago he was in highschool and now he is social media famous and living in Cali.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have a favorite social media person. I don't really watch many things on you tube only to look up songs. But when i got board i saw this girl named Liza on the home page and i clicked on her and i'm glad i did because she is really funny to watch. Everyone video is different and she does them with her boyfriend. She has like two voices that she uses and it is so funny! So if i had to pick my favorite social media person would be Liza.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this i don't think i have ever seen or read this but i think the story is very interesting. When i read some of it at first it was a little boring but when i found out more why she is a star and all it made me feel happy and thought how lucky this hippo is.
I think the Hippo became such a star because of how braze the hippo is ans how it survived something most hippos would never! The hippo Fiona is now living a happy and healthy life.
Another thing that people get a lot of fame and followers on i would say instagram and musical.ly mainly because those are the two apps that people go on and you can watch what they post and pretty much know a lot of stuff about. Musical.ly is also an app that people lip sing videos and people can see them and i see a lot of people that were never famous before become famous off of that app.