Fashion, Media, & Culture
The Fashion Communicators
(suhler)
We usually divide the fields of media communications into several areas: News editorial (what
we know of as traditional journalism); public relations; and advertising and marketing.
These days, though, it’s hard sometimes to know where one discipline ends and the others
begin. We’re living in a high tech, Internet world where journalism converges with entertainment,
and morphs into one big advertisement. (By the way, never forget that in all these media areas,
the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. Companies, including news organizations, exist to make
money or they wouldn’t exist.)
Over the past decade, we’ve seen even more blurring. We share content online; we start our
own blogs; we ask newspapers to email us only the stories we are interested in; we use social
media – and so do the companies who want to sell us stuff – to tune in and tweet out. We’re all
media producers these days.
But despite all of this, there really are still some old fashioned differences, particularly between
journalism and the other fields. Advertisers and public relations communicators are trying to
persuade you to think a certain way, or to buy something. Journalists try to tell accurate stories
about the world.
Journalism: news reporters, editorial writers, fashion critics, news bloggers, style
editors, photographers
News reporters, or journalists, including fashion reporters, editors, and photographers, provide
the eyes and ears for those of us who can’t witness something in person. They tell stories about
the world in newspapers and magazines, and on television and, more than ever, the Internet.
Journalists often have “beats,” areas where they have an expertise. Beats can include city hall,
schools and education, sports, business and finance, transportation, and, yes, fashion. Fashion
writers may focus on runway shows and designers, but they may also be experts in business,
including retailing and marketing, or in theory and history. Journalists pledge to be as objective
as possible, and follow a strict code of ethics.
In journalism, “news” stories are generally divided into two types: hard news and soft news.
Remember, we are talking objective news stories here, not reviews or critiques or blog posts,
which take a more “subjective” tone. Both hard and soft news are timely – they are about what
is happening in the here and now.
Hard news refers to the important, “breaking” news of the day: fires, crime, war, the stock
market, hurricanes and floods. These are stories happening right now. Other serious stories
about business and the markets, city hall, schools, national events, also fall into the category of
hard news. Hard news stories often fall on the front page, or on the metro or business covers of
a newspaper, or on the cover of a magazine. Hard news takes a more serious tone: it gives
facts in a straightforward manner and offers lots of quotes from experts and other sources.
Soft news, on the other hand, refers to human-interest features, profiles, and stories about the
arts and entertainment and “lifestyle” and trends. These are stories that may not need to go on
the front page tomorrow, but that tell us something interesting about the world. Soft news
usually falls on lifestyle pages or near the end of a newscast, although trend stories and profiles
can often appear next to hard news stories. The tone of a “soft” story tends to be more playful,
or creative. The writer may take more literary license, although a “soft” news story is still factual.
Sometimes stories fall somewhere between the two categories.
But remember: opinion pieces and columns, critiques and reviews, as well as blogs, are also a
part of a “news” organization’s mission. However, these stories and posts are more subjective –
they may include the writer’s opinion. These stories could include a review of a designer’s new
collection, or an editorial about the evils of fur.
And don’t forget about photos, slideshows and video packages! News organizations would be
lost without these mediums: they provide a sensory experience for readers and viewers that
mere words cannot. Sometimes, a photo or slideshow can tell a story without any words at all.
The folks working on these packages – the photographers, makeup artists, stylists – are a vital
part of how fashion stories are told.
On, and one last thing? ADVERTISEMENTS. As I said at the start of the semester, follow the
money. The New York Times Style section wouldn’t exist if the paper didn’t sell space to
advertisers seeking to sell you their wares, nor would local fashion magazines like FD/Luxe.
Newspapers and other media organizations also get their money from subscriptions and “pay
walls” online, which prevent nonpaying viewers from viewing an entire story.
The stories in the NYTimes Style section, FD/Luxe, Paper City, and most of the style magazine
sites you view are a mixture of all of the above. The same goes for television news. Most
newscasts, and especially programming like, say, The Today Show, or Good Morning America,
are a blend of serious hard news, fun soft news, and opinion.
Don’t forget that virtually all of the text a news organization generates, from the stories
themselves, to the cutlines (the descriptions) below a photograph, to the words that an anchor
reads off a teleprompter are written in the Associated Press style for print or broadcast. Tweets,
you might ask? Not so much.
Public Relations: writers, researchers, public information officers, crisis managers,
social media messengers, event management
Public relations practitioners deal in the art of persuasion. Companies, like manufacturers,
retailers, and design firms almost always employ good writers and researchers to help persuade
you to think a certain way about their products or mission.
These communicators often deliver their messages in the form of press releases, which are sent
to journalists. Public relations communicators hope that journalists will get excited about their
press releases and decide to write a story. What’s so great about that? Well, a journalist who
writes a story about something a company is trying to promote is helping to spread that
company’s message! A journalist, especially at big news organizations like The New York Times
or The Dallas Morning News, has a huge audience. Public relations practitioners know that that
is a key to reaching a lot of potential customers.
Public relations communicators may also publish newsletters, in-house magazines, and operate
employee web sites. After all, part of the mission of good public relations is to also keep
employees happy. They also go directly to the public to promote their messages, through
sponsoring events or partnering with the community in a positive way. These days, companies,
and public relations firms that are employed by companies, also use social media to send
messages directly to the public. In fact, working as a social media communicator in the field of
public relations is a fast growing career area. We have a graduate who is operating social media
for Neiman Marcus. Her job is to use social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest,
etc. – to send out messages about what is happening at Neiman Marcus to their customers and
others interested in the store. By using social media, companies can actually go around the
journalist “gatekeepers” and sell their messages directly to their public.
Public relations communicators may also work as event planners. Their job may be to plan and
execute a company’s annual retreat, or a social event that includes the public, like a fashion
show. Journalists are often invited to these public events, in the hopes that they may write a
positive story about them.
Public relations communicators may also be employed to take care of crisis management and
act as a spokesperson when a company gets in trouble. The public relations officer will usually
be the one to talk to the press (the journalists) and explain what happened. Even during a
troubling time, however, a good public relations officer will be honest and will give the journalist
factual information so she can write an honest, factual story.
Never forget that, like journalists, public relations practitioners also follow ethical guidelines and
practice good writing. Many public relations writers, in fact, use AP Style. They understand
journalism and know how to work with reporters, and vice versa. In fact, journalists sometimes
move into public relations after working as reporters.
Advertising and Marketing: copy writers, marketing managers, branding experts
Advertising is closely related to public relations, except that the goal is more overt: to get
consumers to buy a product! Advertising communicators come up with creative advertising
campaigns to run in print and television. They hope that we’ll see a clever advertisement, or that
an advertisement will speak to our goals, wants, needs or even fears, causing us to buy what
they’re selling.
Advertising is also related to journalism in that ads run on news web sites, in newspapers, and
during television news programming, as I noted above. And the ads are usually directed at a
targeted group. That’s why when you scroll through the New York Times style section, the ads
you’ll see running on the pages are usually directly related to the fashion and lifestyle industry.
But make no mistake: there is a distinct line between advertising and the news desk at a
news organization. A good journalist is not influenced by, nor does she have any control
over, the ads that may run next to her story.
Often companies employ advertising agencies. The copy writers and other advertising
communicators at the ad firm will work with the public relations and marketing professionals at
the company to decide what the company’s goals are. What do they want to sell? To whom do
they want to sell it? What is the message they want to convey through their advertising
campaign?
Advertisers also help a company brand itself and its products. A brand is the image or idea that
connects consumers with the company. We all have an idea of what the Ralph Lauren “brand”
looks like or what image “Mercedes Benz” conjures. The goal for both the company and the
advertising firm is to get as many people as possible to identify with the brand, and want to buy
the things associated with it.
One more thing about advertising: almost always consumers know when they are reading an
advertisement or if they’re trying to be sold a product or service. In that sense, we may be a little
more guarded when we see these ads. “Those people just want us to open our wallets!” we may
think. On the other hand, advertisers are just trying to do their jobs. And advertising
professionals also follow a code of ethics. Even with so-called “product placement,” where
companies like Coca Cola pay to have their products used by actors in a television show or
movie as a way to advertise them, the audience isn’t usually fooled.
One place where you’ll see a blurring of lines between advertising and journalism is in a
marketing piece known as an “advertorial”. The word itself combines “advertisement” and
“editorial,” and that’s exactly what an “advertorial” is: an advertisement dressed up to look like
an editorial or news article. All advertorials, however, if they are ethical, will have a disclaimer,
usually near the bottom. The disclaimer will tell the reader, if she reads it, that it’s a paid
advertisement. Advertorials are written by marketing, ad, and public relations communicators,
not journalists.
Advertorials are effective because of the layout and content. In terms of design, they often look
like other articles in a magazine, newspaper, or online site. They are often written in the
journalistic style, using quotes, facts, statistics and even Associated Press style. If someone
isn’t reading carefully, she might assume it’s just another news article.
The promotion of goods and services is even more subtle when you are reading a news story
about, for instance, Marc Jacobs’ new fall line. Maybe the story is a positive one, and is
accompanied by photos taken by a photojournalist. The journalist’s goal is not to sell you on
Marc Jacobs, just to tell you as much as possible about his new line. But might you be
influenced to think a certain way about Marc Jacobs anyway? In this sense, there is very much
a symbiotic relationship among all the communications disciplines: journalism, public relations,
and advertising and marketing.
Very brief summary
Journalists strive to provide their audiences with accurate, reliable information so they can make
good decisions. They don’t differentiate between a positive or negative story, and their goal is
not to be influenced by advertisers or public relations. They just want to get to the truth of the
matter. The journalist is paid by the media organization, which in turn gets its money from the
advertisers and reader subscriptions.
Public relations officials strive to influence public opinion to promote and protect their
organization’s image and products. They do this by working directly with the public, or with the
press. They will give a journalist a press release in the hopes that the journalist will write a
positive story about their company. The public relations communicator is paid by the company
for which she works.
Advertisers strive to get consumers to buy products and services. Companies are careful about
placing their ads in the media where they know they will be seen specifically by the consumers
they are targeting. The company may pay an advertising firm to come up with an ad campaign if
they do not do that in-house. The company then pays the media/news organization a lot of
money to run its ads.
What does this mean for you if you are interested in a career in fashion media?
You are at an advantage in any of the career paths described above if you have an expertise in
the discipline of fashion history and theory. Most people do not have that advantage because
fashion theory and history is not taught in conjunction with media and journalism at most
universities in the U.S.
Think about it this way: there are many undergraduate and even graduate programs in the U.S.
devoted to training journalists and media communicators in other specialties, including sports,
business, and public affairs. Fashion? Not until now. We believe the specialty is just as
important as the others because, as we told you on the first class day, the global fashion
industry is a trillion dollar a year business. That’s a big business. Fashion – how we dress, how
we present ourselves - is a part of all of our lives.