There are many different ways to learn about different countries, as well as the different cultural things to experience while visiting. Between late-night talk show host’s creating funny and entertaining episodes where he explores different countries, to websites dedicated to writing articles about different things to experience and explore.
The show Conan Without Borders features the late-night show host Conan O’Brien as he tours different countries, and I will be talking about his first episode, where he visits Havana, Cuba. I will be comparing it to an article written by Cassandra Brooklyn, a journalist for the Lonely Planet about women in Cuba quitting their jobs to become artists.
There are many similarities between the text and the show. For example, both of them chose to showcase some of the art in Cuba. In the text, there are two images, one featuring Callejon de Hamel, an alley famous for its street art, and an image of a woman making an event program from hand. Both of these show the Cuban culture and the different arts that come from the country. In the show, many of the things Conan learns about are Cuban forms of art, between learning to Salsa, the Rumba, and how to play Salsa music. While this shows off different types of art, they both do showcase them, and help the audience to learn about the art in Cuba.
While there are similarities, there are also quite a few differences. One difference between the two is the seriousness of the final product. The writing is serious and goes into great detail about why women are switching careers. One example of this is in the second paragraph, where it says “…with the state salaries hovering around$25/month, private sector jobs are becoming increasingly appealing. In contrast, the show is more light-hearted and made for the audience to laugh. For example, in the scene where Conan learns to dance the Salsa (22:30-26:50), they constantly showcase how bad he is at dancing to make it funnier and more enjoyable, as well as fill the scene with jokes.
Both of these styles get across the desired information, and both follow some similar topics, but both of them have different characteristics, making some more enjoyable than others.
Andrew's Blog 
Hey Andrew,
I like how you have structured your text into well-thought-out segments. This helps the reader to distinguish between different points or claims that you make. I also like your structure of comparison in the first paragraph as it briefly entions positive aspects of both the forms of media.
I also appreciate you giving context to the audience about the two types of media sources and their authors/creators.
It is fairly obvious to the audience that salsa and street art or not necessarily the same in many ways, however, you convey your message of both salsa and street art being form of art really well.
Even though I have appreciated your paragraph structure several times in my comment, I feel some paragraphs could have been combined together. Other than that, great job!
Kind regards,
Aniket
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