Fashion Journalist in the City

Recently I stumbled across a Canadian fashion journalist named Chloe Tejada, who ran a blog called Fashion Journalist in the City. (I say ran because it seems she hasn't created a new post in just over a year!) As I trawled her site, I came across a post she wrote in reaction to the article by The Global Herald: "New Digital Era Spells Trouble for Fashion Bloggers".  This and the article itself (click on the article name below) are definitely interesting reads. 

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Bloggers vs. The Rest of the Fashion World

"I came across an article from The Global Herald called  "London Fashion Week AW 2010 – New Digital Era Spells Trouble for Fashion Bloggers." It highlights the gap that is closing between fashion bloggers and the fashion elite (editors, buyers, writers, PR, etc) and how fashion weeks are dealing with what to do with the growing army of said bloggers. This article specifically talks about the mass of bloggers at London Fashion Week taking over the press area and whether they should be considered press.

Lately there have been many articles talking about whether bloggers should be allowed to cover shows, much less sit in coveted first-row seats. With the rise of Tavi (Style Rookie,)  BryanBoy,  Garance Doré,  Sea of Shoes, Fashion Toast, Style Bubble and more, fashion bloggers seem to be taking over the fashion world with their alternative insight into style and thousands upon thousands of devoted followers. There is no doubt that many of these bloggers have intelligent insight, experience, style and thoughtful, smart writing. They fill in the void that mainstream fashion publications can't give to the public such as unbiased commentary and a different viewpoint on style without the interference of advertisers.

But the real question is: How much credibility do they have and wear should they sit in the fashion heirarchy?

Many people questioned whether Tavi, a 13-year-old American girl, should have been sitting in the front row of Dior, when a more experienced writer or editor from a major publication could be sitting there. They argue that Tavi, and many other young bloggers (it seems that a lot of these fashion bloggers are quite young, in their teens and twenties) don't have the experience that writers and editors have.

While that may be true, that doesn't mean take their insight any less worthy. Bloggers are invited to fashion shows for several reasons; fashion houses are hoping that the bloggers will write favourable reviews of the shows resulting in readers buying their products; they are also starting to realize that the Internet is a powerful tool to bring in new customers and influential style bloggers can bring in those customers that mainstream publications can't. But I think the divide between bloggers and the mainstream is starting to close, whether Condé Nast likes it or not.

Blogging is not just a fad; in fact social media is just really starting to pick up steam. Fashion houses are only just starting to use Twitter and Facebook to draw in people to watch their shows live and buy their products. In the end, it's very smart for businesses to use bloggers to help promote their product. And in that respect, bloggers are kind of like magazines and newspapers; they help to sell fashion brands.

Fortunately, bloggers aren't dependent on businesses to survive. They can say anything they want to and not lose readers or advertisers.

But back to this whole credibility issue: Sure, Tavi was barely alive when Marc Jacobs first started at Louis Vuitton, but many established writers weren't around when Monsieur Dior was alive, and they seem to get by just fine. I think that intelligence and a unique point of view are more important than experience. And the fact that these bloggers are honest with their readers, that gives them enough credibility to be able to cover the same events and interview the same people as the mainstream fashion elite.

So future fashion weeks, be prepared to install a bigger press room; the bloggers need their space too."

Chloe Tejada, 'Fashion Journalist in the City'

Social Media Revolution

Wilde words

Oscar Wilde

"The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands."

"Its failings notwithstanding, there is much to be said in favor of journalism in that by giving us the opinion of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community."

Oscar Wilde

Lecture Eight

Tacky or tasteful?

Ethical or unethical?

This week, we were required to provide answers to these questions regarding several advertisements from different mediums. The most interactive lecture as of yet, we were instructed to independently plot on a scale what we believed the ethics of a certain advertisement to be. I quite quickly became aware that it is difficult to determine good and bad, ethical or unethical and right from wrong. And then, how do we work out what the difference is between the bad, the wrong and the simply tacky? What is the distinguishing feature?

For example, I considered this ad for voodoo designer hosiery to be in good taste and, while not being outstandingly ethical, I didn't consider it to be unethical either. Maybe it's my innate feminist tendencies drummed into me from an early age which shapes this view, however as we were told following the evaluation, this ad received multiple complaints from the public.


On the other hand the second ad for Air Asia, which insinuates profanities, received no complaints at all. While I have no complaints about this advertisement either - in fact I consider it quite a clever play on words - in comparison with the above ad for hosiery, I can't see how it can be considered less offensive in nature. It is evident, therefore, that one person's perception may vary wildly from another's and ethics is a rather ambiguous field.

Over time, there have been ethical theories developed so as to aid this determinative process. The first of these is known as 'deontology'. This paradigm can be defined as "the normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules." (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy) Quite a black and white perspective of ethics, the word deontology comes from the Greek roots 'deon', which means duty, and 'logos', which means science. Thus, deontology is the 'science of duty'. Rules, principles and duties-driven, this theory provides the basis for all 'codes' of ethics. It essentially says that by adopting, employing and adhering to the rules embedded within our society, you will be doing the 'right' thing.

The second theory is that of 'consequentialism' (teleology). Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgement about the rightness of that conduct. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right act is one that will produce a good outcome, or consequence. People and processes are deemed unimportant and there is an undeniable emphasis on the 'greatest good for the greatest number'.

The third framework is known as 'virtue ethics'. Virtue ethics describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behaviour rather than rules, outcomes or social context. It sees one's actions as very telling of their character, and 'goodness' comes from good character. Virtue ethics champions attributes such as courage, justice, temperance and prudence as habits. It also introduces what is called the 'golden mean' of behaviour - courage is the mean between rashness and cowardice; justice is the mean between the injustice of overzealous and excessive law and the injustice of lawlessness. It is the desirable midpoint between two extremes - one of balance and harmony.

Towards the end of the lecture, we went over certain 'codes' of ethics which exist in professions such as the MEAA code of ethics for the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Journalism the practice and professional communication is deontological in structure. It is governed by codes and rules. Our lecturer deemed deontology and consequentialism as extrinsic paradigms. He went on to say that he much prefers the intrinsic theory of virtue ethics as providing a foundation for the practice. I have to completely agree with him here. I strongly believe that character prevails over codes.

What most struck a cord with me was his closing remark:
"We are drowing in ethics codes. What we are not drowning in, however, is good character."

Trust Me, I'm a Journalist!

This paper, "Trust ME, I'm A Journalist": Ethics and Journalism Education by Ian Richards, a professor at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, gives great insight into the interwoven concepts of journalism and ethics in the sense of teaching and learning. Personally, I believe ethics should form the innate foundational set of values from which a journalist works.

The paper stems from the somewhat forgotten fact that education is an ethical enterprise. Every decision regarding what to include or exclude from every course is value-laden, and as such has ethical implications. This thinking applies as much to journalism education as any other field but, within journalism education, perhaps more to journalism ethics that any other area.



"It is no secret that journalism today is in a state of crisis, and that popular perceptions of ethical standards of the media in general and journalists in particular are an important contributor to this situation. In any serious consideration of contemporary journalism, journalism ethics is centre stage and, for this reason, ethics is also central to journalism education. Yet, while there has been extensive debate and reflection with regard to journalism education generally, there has been surprisingly little serious examination of what journalism students are taught about ethics. This paper argues that a fundamental re-examination of the whole project of teaching journalism ethics is necessary if journalism educators are to meet what Stuart Adam has described as their primary responsibility to build, through scholarship and reflection, the language 'that captures and expresses the experience of making, knowing and judging journalistic work and reflects a sense of responsibility and stewardship for its quality and standards' (Adam, 2001:318)"

- Ian Richards

Assessment Item - Factual Storytelling

Living in the Dark

My story is her story.

Words on a page she will never see. 

Marjorie Wood – visionary, far-sighted, blind. The woman with the softest gaze and the most piercing perception has had her sight stolen from her. It happened slowly at first, letter by letter, and then cruelly in a sickening rush. Once the Queen of observation, memory is now her only liberator. The grip she has on her world loosens as her grip on the walking stick tightens. Her hands, now a personal navigation device, carefully take in life’s contours.

Marjorie is my mother’s mother. My truly grand mother.

Blind. Handicapped. Vulnerable. If that is too hard to say, then ‘vision impaired’ may be more comfortable for you. Whichever label, she has been robbed of her most precious sense. Marjorie – and please do not spell that name as Margery or somehow she will know – lives alone in the black and white of her blindness amongst a riot of colour. The maintenance of her house and garden might now be the job of others, but Marjorie remains the artistic director of their strong tones, a reminder of the days when she could see in all the shades of the spectrum. Always impeccably dressed, the perfect shade of pink lipstick applied meticulously - her lips’ doll-like shape etched into her memory after 70 years of this daily ritual.  No need yet to wonder if she has drawn a snarl where a smile should be. Her memory is her mirror. 

Even though her undeniable determination is so evident in our every encounter, I can’t help but feel she is increasingly lost to the swirling world around her; the one I belong to. When will I receive my last handwritten birthday card? Her once perfect cursive is now a spidery guessing game. She is a fighter - fighting against the perception others have of her. She refuses to disappear. I can see she is fighting now to make even her 30 x magnifier help in her painstaking crawl through beloved newspapers, the tiny sector of blurry vision at the very corner of one eye bearing this load.  Her lips move as she talks to herself.  You see, she needs to repeat the words she has deciphered as she adds each new word, a bit like stringing beads onto a wire.  The process is so tortuous that those without her fine powers of recollection would have forgotten the earlier words by the time the later words are added. Her much-loved movies are a thing of the past. Audio books have given her a range of stories back again, but have stolen the luxury of that special process reading brings you and me – the words of our favourite authors personalised by our inner voice.

For an elderly, blind woman, living alone means she loses more than just her sight. Her personal safety, guarded by the systematic routine of carers three times a day, plucks away at her privacy. Yet surrendering this privacy is the price she pays for a different kind of freedom. A freedom that only the familiar can bring.  Decades of vivid memories are stored carefully in each room of her house, with her mind map never failing her.  It illuminates all she can’t see and guides her as she performs the small tasks she can still undertake. I can see that these tasks provide comfort beyond the obvious now.  They are a reminder to Marjorie of ‘before’ – of the days when her home sang with large family gatherings and the mingling of friends.  She stood proudly at the epicentre of this happy chaos, cooking and serving and directing the traffic.  It is quiet in the house now as she moves deliberately along the hall, but for her, these crystal clear memories fill the rooms, burst outside and sweep towards the ocean just as they always did.

Old age, the winter of our years, can be so unpoetic.  In Marjorie’s case a flurry of health problems have meant the years after 80 have been a series of cruel medical diversions from the business of living life.  Each event has meant a new recalibration, and although her superpower has always been her resilience, blindness has proven to be her Kryptonite. Bit by bit we are losing her to her inner world, that inner world made all the more seductive to the blind.  If you can’t see, then do the things you can’t see even exist?

She has lost her sight. We, her family, continue to lose indefinable pieces of her. Her dependence robs her of sharing our perspective.  Marjorie now has a different perspective. Her endless love, curiosity and fascination for the world has been bruised by the dark veil blindness casts over her. She must decide now how she will craft her own ending. For all the urgency she feels to live life as she always did, her acceptance of these limitations grows. Now we are being challenged to adjust.  We need to manage our rising panic over her acceptance, while celebrating her feisty refusal to be the acquiescent little old lady she so dreads becoming.

We need to be more like her.

Lucinda Grant (s4291365) 27th April 2012  

Ethics and Journalism - The SPJ Code of Ethics

"A reporter is a man without virtue who writes lies...for his profit" - Dr. Samuel Johnson


Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility. Members of the Society share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the Society's principles and standards of practice.


The SPJ Code of Ethics is voluntarily embraced by thousands of journalists, regardless of place or platform, and is widely used in newsrooms and classrooms as a guide for ethical behaviour. The code is intended not as a set of 'rules' but as a resource for ethical decision-making.