critical investigation

Initially I will discuss the representations and media language of the article written by Julianne Grauel as the main focus of the text is about fashion and the influence that blogging about fashion is having on the fashion industry.
The target audience of the text is clearly young women aged 16-25, as they are the most likely to have an interest in fashion and the technical knowledge to use a blog and to discuss the matters with in it. The women will most likely be ‘strivers’ and ‘experiencers’ because people who are looking for fashion inspiration and to find their own style will be willing to experience different types of fashion in order to achieve their own look, which also links to being a ‘striver’ because they are striving to be who they want to be and striving to find their own style. Perhaps also ‘makers’ as these personality types have the features to experience new phenomenons and to make their own designs. This is shown in the first sentence of the text, ‘It seems like everyone is online these days’ this also emphasises the exaggerated heading ‘Fashion blogs are taking over the world’. This formal language presents to the audience that fashion blogs are a large influence in the media world in this century and that blogging is what will eventually gain the most input into the fashion industry. This article however, gives the audience diversion from their own lives in order to experience how other people’s lives are becoming interlinked via the internet and social networking sites, to communicate with each other.
Furthermore, masculinity and femininity surrounded by the media is often exceptionally stereotypical to a certain type of person or appearance as to how they act or what they are interested in. This is mainly showcased in the film industry, however over time as of social networking has become more and more popular, blogging and posting your own news on the internet has become increasingly stereotyped according to gender. As I begin researching this topic area within the social networking industry online, it appears that blogs are often distinguished between gender roles and stereotypical gender topics. The blogging website, ‘Spirit of the Ages’ discusses this area of concept and from this blog I can pull evidence that in blogging males will discuss topics that are stereotypically ‘male’ topics and females will talk about topics that relate to their own lives or interests that are stereotypically being discussed by females. Without intentionally swaying to a chiefly female topic it relates to my own choice of blogging industry, fashion; suggesting that the conventional view of distinction in topics is true. The book ‘Gender differences in British Blogging’ also has statistical information that is enabling me to showcase all of the differences between males and females in the blogging industry. Because the book uses statistics it then helps to realise all of the hobbies women relate to on their blogs in comparison to men who often only use blogging to link to other websites or to show something they find 'funny' to the rest of the people following their blog. Also it represents the connotations behind blogging fashion as being an over 90% female industry.

Although, having said this there is a stereotypical view of fashion still lurking around blogging, it appears to me through my research that blogging about fashion is typically targeted at a niche market of only a middle class family to satisfy the needs and desires of a wealthy women, by creating links to ‘Vogue’ magazine and other expensive blogs, an example of the niche market of high class people only being targeted from the text: ‘exclusive the Bryant Park, a true fashion blog.’ This therefore appears that there is a gap in the market of blogging for affordable high street fashion with the target audience of both young females and males, most likely to be students that enjoy fashion but are only able to find the ‘bargains’ from the high street. Having said this, the final paragraph of the article suggests an incline of a polysemic reading of the text, as the final line states ‘Thanks to blogs, fashion is now accessible to all who is interested.’ This connotates that blogs have encouraged people to express themselves in way that they otherwise perhaps wouldn’t due to their price range and that peoples passion can be shared through fashion blogging as opposed to only at fashion shows and events where not everyone is able to acquire an invite.
Having said that gender trouble can be represented and rectified in blogging it still opens up the internet to enable individuals to enhance their own lives on topics that they weren’t aware of before, this is shown in the article: ‘Blogs are important because they cover such a wide variety of topics’ although the article stresses that there is even topics about kittens, providing connotation that it is possible to find just about anything with in the world of blogging. It further connotates that journalism doesn’t just revolve around what is current in the news anymore but they are catering for peoples desires and interests. Therefore creating a preferred reading that the writer is positively promoting blogging and that it is only enhancing society’s knowledge, not just on the fashion industry but on world events also. Grauel then goes onto to raise the idea that journalism has significantly altered and added additional superiority to the article writing production. An example of this is ‘Alice’s Bucket List’ a young girl who created a blog to show her friends all of things she wants to do before she passes away, however it soon became a global phenomenon where people were sending emails of support and help to enable all of her dreams come true. She has now made it onto the news with her blog and people all over the world are signing up to become a bone marrow donor; all from small blog for her and her friends to enjoy.
This article in many ways has an inter-textual link to the young female American blogger who has posted her own photography of fashion, her own style and conversation with other bloggers. In one particular post that I observed she discussed parents asking for advice: ‘parents that read my blog concerning their daughter’ this expresses the great impact of teenage blogging has on fashion, however the blog post contains advice on how to buy affordable presents for their daughter all ‘without spending over $25’. Demonstrating how people are able create a blog for themselves at affordable prices, however remain a style icon at the same time, which in ‘Style Rookie’s’ situation she is now at fashion events receiving designer clothing. I then went on to find a UK fashion blogger who became a style icon in a similar way, ‘The Clothes Whisperer’ from London, talks about the latest fashion and shop to buy from she also talks about the nearest sale. The blogger also focuses on events that are current in the UK such as Glastonbury festival.
I am now going to discuss the ways in which a blog is created and how people produce successful blogs in a journalistic environment. The article ‘How blogs have changed journalism’ written by Felix Salmon discusses how he believes most blogs appear on the internet and how they become a phenomenon, the main focus of most blogs and of his own are about ‘reactions to something elsewhere online’ which demonstrates how the internet is almost seen as a loop of intelligence circulating around blogs and news in a more informal tone. However with in the first paragraph it may be an assumption to suggest that Salmon is referring to the art of journalistic writing as a ‘dying breed’, due to his point about blogger’s not worrying, ‘Every print journalist knows the feeling of publishing a story which is read by great sources/Bloggers don’t worry about that: they just put up a new post’. This confirms the negative connotations of the blogging online culture, however the article does refer to how important the blogging population has become and how it would be virtually impossible in this century to let go to the fast evolution of the internet and how easily available world news now is at the click of a button.
Possibly the main reason for audiences creating blogs and reading blogs are for diversion to read about their favourite hobbies or topics that interest them such as fashion and the high streets trends and bargains. Furthermore, audience will use blogs as a form of surveillance to find out news across the world; an example of this is the earth quake that happened in Japan; when someone online posted that it was happening before the news in other countries even knew it was happening, which represents how people are able to share the latest information before the actual news reporters find out about it, this also links to Felix Salmons article discusses how journalism is a dying breed with blogs and other social media networks are around to share their own news without having to actually watch the news on the TV or read a newspaper in print form. Blogging actually covers of the uses and gratifications theories, as people are able to enhance their personal identity through blogging themselves and discussing with other users on the internet about their interests, which then inter-links with personal relationships as you are able to make online connections to other people that share the same views and interests as you. However, it may have a negative impact on reality and the relationships that they have away from the internet, which is discussed in the article ‘How Social Media Has Changed Us’ written by Mike Laurie, where ‘knowledge is power’ however if you are able to find out all the available knowledge from online then no one actually needs to interact with people in the real world although this then hinders audiences’ ability to find out what real learning and understanding is.
However socio-economic groups play a role in the use of internet to learn, for example if someone hasn’t got a very well paid job or area to live in, the internet may be a novelty to them and may not introduce their children to learning from the internet. As opposed to someone who has a higher paid job and has easy access to the internet all of the time, may encourage their family members to find out knowledgeable information from the internet. It also has a connection to personality types and psychographics in the way people chose to learn which will decipher whether they are the type of person to use the internet as a knowledgeable source and blog their own and read other peoples blogs or whether they prefer not to use online blogs and as a means of surveillance.
Active audiences are a big part of what makes up a blog, as people being able to instantly interact with the author of the blog enables people to change their opinions and even anchor an oppositional reading with other readers online. It furthermore suggests that it people are easily influenced by the media, and if it is an active audience people are not only going to be influence by the author of the blog but also other people opinions on the topic and their own reading of the text; which may be different to those of your own.
Overall, blogging has become a major part of journalism and the way news is reported, it also links people to others that they wouldn’t have otherwise ever spoke to or shared their interests with, which demonstrates how widely spread blogs have become and how they gain so much popularity due to the enormity of topics to be able to talk about and discuss. A major aspect of blogging is fashion blogging, and the great impact that the online fashion world has had on the fashion world on the high street as well as the catwalk demonstrates how important blogging has become.