Costumes.

There are those individuals in the fashion industry whose work is seen but often they are never heard from. They quietly sit back designing very grand and often ridiculous costumes. The most that mainstream culture will ever hear about these designers is when a they are shown as a blip during the Oscar's ceremony for the category of Best Costume Designer. Most costume designers are much more apparent in the music industry than in any other medium.

Christian Joy has been designing for Karen Orzolek, more commonly known as Karen O, since the early 2000's when the band Karen fronts for, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, united in 2000. Joy manages to create a menagerie of outfits each individual for her shows. The costumes range from elaborate kimonos to shiny, gold mini dresses. Karen puts her own spin on the outfits by combining different elements from each outfit.

For other projects Christian Joy has worked on her own collections and recently designed a special pop-up collection for Urban Outfitters with the release of Where the Wild Things Are.

Midterm. For JRN215.

Journalism is changing. Technology is advancing to span a variety of different people, ethnicity, and social groups. Blogs, non-profit online newspapers, and database sources are changing how Americans collect their news. “Reporting is becoming more participatory and collaborative.” (page 3 of The Reconstruction of American Journalism)
People can now go to many places on the Internet and choose what type of news they want to read. Local news comes from one source, movie reviews from a different source, and recipes are looked at on another site altogether. News is becoming specific for the individual with each company tailoring to different readers wants and needs. No longer is information coming from one news source in a town’s daily or weekly newspaper. The variety is growing.
The Voice of San Diego is a specific example. Journalism is changing to be more reader orientated, not necessarily meant to incorporate all the aspects of life.
In the report Donohue said, “We want to be best at covering a small number of things. We’re very disciplined about not trying to do everything.” He makes a very important statement here. The best businesses, for example, are commonly the ones that focus on a certain product or service. Resources are stretched between different groups, affecting the overall quality of each product or service. If a large newsroom exists with reporters scattered between different story subjects then they must shift focus every time they write a new story. When a reporter is constantly focused on one certain type of news story they become better at it over time. The skills are enhanced because they know how to cover the topic and how to get all the important details for their area of specialization.
A journalist focused on school affiliated topics will be able to open more gates by building a better relationship with certain schools in the area to get important news in the public eye. The school would possibly be more open to trusting a journalist they know will report unbiased, truthful news than having a different reporter show up only when a problem arrives. Journalism may change to be more centered on the reader getting the information necessary, not only covering a broad amount of topics.
“The Internet’s easily accessible free information and low-cost advertising have loosened the hold of large, near-monopoly news organizations on audiences and advertisers.” (page 3 of The Reconstruction of American Journalism)
In my opinion, American journalism will change very much in the nest few years. The introduction of new sources has made it possible for individuals to step out and begin printing news they want to see. The article even cites that advocacy journalism is growing. Is this a bad turn of events? I think not. Perhaps with the rise of more locally centered news only reporting papers then people will be heard and not simply those who want certain news reported. Journalists are the gatekeepers of information. It is their responsibility to bring forth the information that needs to be reported.
If journalism does become more focused people will be more likely to buy it if it is a reputable source of information. The start-up may be difficult for some newspapers it will be the excellent news sources that continue among the changing times.