Good Practise
The Better Lives project for Fashion Journalism shed light to me on a very interesting and influential element in journalistic writing – statistics. After having the opportunity to experiment with manipulating and using numbers for writing articles, I realised how they play importantly to the interpretation of the writing. We had the chance to explore how statistics led the narrative on the Women Marches, in which raw numbers can be extracted, refined, and placed strategically to persuade readers.
This opens up to me the potential of statistics in journalistic writing, as well as other forms of writing. Whilst statistics acts as factual evidence that can be very convincing, this project also helped me realised its dangers. Although numbers do not lie, they can indeed be used to mislead the readers, detracting them into unintended topics. Such potential power leads to the responsibility that has to come with the use of statistics. I find the Better Lives theme of Social Responsibility to have a big role in fashion journalism practise, as how writers and publishers choose to narrate would have different results, and if taken lightly, can have societal repercussions. When I was writing the news feature for this project, just by quoting statistics I gained good persuasion for my writing. Also, I realised that by imposing a certain tone to my writing, any quote can persuade the readers into different thing. Within the age of information excess, where anyone can publish writings on the internet to be seen, it can be issue when a writing has a negative tone.
The assessment of statistics is another important aspect in journalistic reporting that I found. When looking at raw data, it can seem quite cumbersome, but when dissected, it can reveal many interesting things. In the case of reporting on the Women Marches, the analysed raw data shed light on the demographics took part in this movement, where in a fight for diversity and equality, I found the lack of diversity and equality – the majority of the people took part were wealthier, white women. Such a discovery was implied in the original raw data, and I had to be critical in order to reveal the fact.
Although I followed the Fashion Journalism pathway for the Better Lives project, it has nonetheless helped me gain better understanding to my future career practice through the themes. The theme of Social Responsibility especially interested me in the course of this project, which has reminded me to always be critical, as well as to be considerate of the implications and potential of my action in my work. As I go back to being a Fashion Practices and Criticism student, I now take with me the skills to responsibly inform with good awareness.