The author, Agnès Rocamora, is a senior researcher and lecturer at
the University of the Arts in London. She is the author of several publications
and papers, including Fashioning the
City: Paris, Fashion and the Media, and brings several years of knowledge
and experience in the area of fashion writing to this article. In this article Rocamora
explores fashion blogs, a new media form of fashion writing, and its
hypertextuality and remediation. Rocamora starts off with a discussion of the
history of the study of fashion media, citing several works in her explanation.
She discusses the trends that fashion media has followed, and also the rise of
the fashion blog. The article then analyses fashion blogs in terms of their
hypertextuality, rhizome, decentredness and remediation, and the changing face
of fashion reporting with the rise of blogging. Racomora also analyses the
effect of fashion blogs on traditional forms of fashion writing, such as
magazines. The article argues that new media cannot completely replace old
media: rather, the two forms afford themselves to different styles of writing,
and are often consumed by readers simultaneously. She continuously cites both
other articles and blogs throughout her work, further strengthening the
validity of the article.
The author, Jane Cowan, is a correspondent for the ABC in
Washington, and has years of experience in the field of journalism, winning
several awards. The newscast gives a comprehensive look at president Barrack
Obama’s announcement of his support of gay marriage, with Cowan citing quotes
from Obama’s speech when explaining the event. The newscast then suggests the
possible effects this speech will have, both within the party and its effect on
voters. Cowan provides insight to the possible political ramifications of
Obama’s speech, citing several state’s laws for or against gay marriage and
national opinion polls in support of her analysis of how the announcement will
affect voting. Cowan argues that the
announcement will energize voters, but that it could either swing for or
against Obama’s favour. In addition to this, Vice-president Joe Biden’s comment
that he is comfortable with gay marriage is also referenced to, as well as
several other political events, in explaining Obama’s decision behind the
announcement. This newscast provides a broad overview of the story, and some
brief analysis of its ramifications. It does not, however, provide detailed
analysis, as is seen in the coverage of the story by some other media forms.
Norington is a foreign correspondent for the Courier Mail in
Washington, and is also the author of several books. Norington provides an
analysis on the effect Obama’s announcement will have on African-American
voters. He cites national opinion polls showing that African Americans tend to
support traditional ideas of marriage more, and also references the statements
of numerous African-American preachers. The article argues that Obama’s
announcement could have a detrimental effect on voting numbers for him, as he
relied heavily on the votes of African-Americans last election, with Norington
citing statistics from last year’s voting polls in making his judgement. The
article, instead of providing an overview of the announcement and a brief
political analysis, as was seen on the ABC’s television broadcast provides
analysis that is much more in depth, and is focused on one specific group,
rather than a broad category. This newspaper article, therefore, provides much
more in depth analysis of the story than was seen in the television broadcast,
making it ideal for going deeper into the issue and gaining a better
understanding.
The presenter, Brooke Gladstone, is a journalist and media analyst,
and is considered to be an expert on press trends. Rather than focusing solely
on analysing the event, Brooke choses to analyse the event in light of the media’s
reaction to it. She provides insight to differing angles of media coverage that
was given by several news networks. She cites articles written by Fox News,
MSNNC’s Morning Joe and Newsbusters.
She uses her expertise in the area of press trends to analyse the different angles
these news outlets took on the event, from Fox News’ decidedly conservative
stance to Morning Joe’s more liberal
one. She also cites a number of other journalists and analysts when giving her
analysis. Overall, Gladstone gives both coverage of the event and the reaction
to it as seen through the media. This podcast, unlike coverage of this event in
other media forms, chooses to look at it from a different angle, namely press
trends, rather than providing the straight news facts. This media form gives
itself to this kind of reporting, as it is likely that at the time of
publishing, other media forms had already covered the happenings of the event.
To provide relevant news, therefore, this news form must take its analysis
further.
