Zara faces design scandal
Fashion giant Zara has been accused of stealing designs from over a dozen independent artists across the globe. I spoke to Gabrielle Leavesley, a fashion des…
YouTube is a platform that relies on the public’s desire for engaging visual material, and hence can be an effective platform for news. More traditional platforms are limited in the scope and timeliness of material it can show; for example, a physical newspaper can only include text and images, or a television can only show scheduled programs at certain times. YouTube is not confined by these same restraints, and presents on demand content to viewers for free, and to anyone with a device and an internet connection. Due to this scope, news platforms have been turning to YouTube to deliver news, especially in regards to extra content and interesting footage that otherwise would not have been seen in traditional media. While ‘soft’ news is much more popular in a video format than ‘hard’ news, as reported by the Reuters Institute (2015), the issue and format I chose appeals to audiences with it’s timeliness, pop culture relevance and structure.
I chose to explore the recent scandal involving leading fashion brand Zara. The company has been accused of stealing designs from over a dozen designers across the globe, and have faced huge backlash as the story spread quickly over social media. I knew I could explore the topic in depth through YouTube, as the options were unlimited to what format I could have the video structured to. I thought an interview style video with a few interesting cutaways would serve the story well, providing expert opinion but keeping it engaging for the audience. As Marketingland (2015) reports, the video channel Buzzfeed Tasty was the most watched video creator in 2015. This channel makes short, snappy recipe videos that have a colourful appearance and never go longer than two minutes. Although my video would be very different in content, I wanted to emulate the diversity of shots (both in colour and form), and used not only the interview footage but captured footage on the street, as well as images of relevant articles and social media posts. I kept my video to two minutes as well, which Pew Research Center (2012) reported as the average length for popular news videos.
YouTube suited the Zara story well due to the way it was originally spread. Social media has been vital in alerting consumers to the copied designs, and it seemed apt to use a similarly popular platform to also discuss the issue.
References:
Marketingland 2015, Top 10 video creators in October: BuzzFeed tasty ranks No. 1 with 1.1 billion video views, Marketingland, viewed 8 August 2016, http://marketingland.com/top-10-video-creators-in-october-buzzfeed-tasty-ranks-no-1-earning-1-1-billion-video-views-152906
Pew Research Center 2012, Youtube & News, Journalism and Media, viewed 8 August 2016,
http://www.journalism.org/2012/07/16/youtube-news/
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 2016, The future of online news video, Digital Report 2016, viewed 8 August 2016, http://digitalnewsreport.org/publications/2016/future-online-news-video/
