Journalism - Facts & Directory

There are several genres of journalism. Advocacy journalism is based on and it supports a specific point of view on an issue. Advocacy journalists focus on stories dealing with political corruption, corporate business practices, social issues, and government policies. Most would say that advocacy journalists serve the interest of the public. Alternative media is media covered that is not related to corporate communication. While sources of alternative media are also frequently highly biased, the bias tend to be different. The term alternative sometimes causes people to take the genre as a rebellious method of journalism instead of traditional. Many media outlets now prefer the term "independent" over "alternative," taking in to consideration that the content provided is free from corporate influence, and it also grabs the attention of a wide range of demographics and audiences.

Arts journalism is a genre of journalism that focuses on the reporting and discussion of the arts. Film, architecture, music, literature and theater are some of the arts that arts journalists focus on. Back in time, journalists and critics writing about the arts had a background in writing and the arts; there was no formal educational training in this genre. Syracuse University founded the Goldring Arts Journalism Program in 2005 and this became the first arts graduate program at an accredited school to teach journalists to write about culture and arts. Business journalism is a genre in journalism that includes coverage of companies, the workplace, personal finance, and, including unemployment and other economic indicators.

Fashion journalists are sometimes referred to as fashion writers, fashion critics or fashion reporters. The most obvious examples of fashion journalism are the fashion features in newspapers and magazines, but the term also includes books about fashion, fashion related reports on television as well as online fashion magazines, blogs and websites. The work of a fashion journalist can be varied. Typical work includes writing or editing articles, or helping to formulate and style a fashion shoot. A fashion journalist typically spends a lot of time researching and/or conducting interviews and it is essential that he or she has good contacts with people in the fashion industry, including photographers, designers, and public relations specialists. Fashion journalists are either employed full time by a publication or are employed on a freelance basis.

The first Internet site that was related to fashion was Fashion Net which started in January 1995. In the mid 1990s, the Internet was still being used mostly as a research network populated by academics. The strong appeal of this entirely new genre was made obvious by the passionate efforts of fashion's early entrants and soon both independent and established fashion publishers, designers and visual artists were all over the Internet.