The picture above shows the famous clothing store ZARA. I remember when Zara first opened its doors in Sydney in May 2011, there was a huge crowd in front of the doors all of them desperately waiting to get a glimpse of the fashion from Spain. Turns out, all that glitters is not gold.
Just a couple days ago, the world news were filled with one headline that shocked everyone: 'Zara accused of using slave labour'. I read the article on Ninemsn news which was written by the Australian Associated Press a wire service. According to a Brazilian television network Band, Zara's logistic partner AHA had illegally exploited their workers for years by making them work up to 16-hour days beneath the legal minimum wage. People were promised a new start in Brazil and instead they were treated like a piece of dirt. It gets even more contradicting when reading the statements of Inditex, the owner of Zara. Instead of taking responsibility for the irregularities they ignore the crisis and blame it on their logistics partner AHA.
This sort of cases are a never-ending story. It's like a cat-and-mouse game. No one wants to admit their false behaviour. History shows that developing countries have been accused for slave labour before. It is common practice, especially with clothes and sports equipment. One of the biggest sports manufacturers, Nike had been accused several times for exploiting child labour. But acknowledgement was given and dramatic changes in practice have happened since. Since this news story is based on general human interest, people might automatically start thinking about other related topics like Nike, although it hasn't been mentioned by the journalist. This automatic thinking process outside the box is also referred to as 'extra-diegetic' intertextuality.
Although the article on Ninemsn was well-researched and detailled the level of satisfaction one gets out of the story is not very high. Since the story is of interest to a broad majority, the reporters could have used better substantiation, for instance using actual quotes from the two main characters of the story, Inditex and AHA.
Some interactivity has been used by providing the reader with social network 'like' buttons such as Facebook, Msn Messenger and Twitter. Another really interesting feature is the 'Flock it' button at the bottom of the page. Flock is a social web browser created by Mozilla. The Flock could be described as a big ball created out of small balls with different colours that shows the number of hits for a specific story sometimes including comments. A Flash player has been used to make the Flock move. Using multimedia is a very good tactic to give the reader an incentive to expierence more about the website.
The site itself has a clean structure and the story is placed alongside some advertisement. However, there is no picture to the story. For a story about slave labour a picture is the most important feature of the page. Also there are no links to related coverage provided. A comments section placed underneath the article would have been very helpful for Msn news to get some useful ideas and critics, especially on a controversial story like this. The reader's involvement is only challenged on a low level.
This example from the Yahoo!7 website was used for the exact same story on Zara's slave labour. As one can see people do participate and give constructive feedback - a bonus for Yahoo!7. All in all, the story's form and content show more disadvantages than advantages and therefore fails.
This sort of cases are a never-ending story. It's like a cat-and-mouse game. No one wants to admit their false behaviour. History shows that developing countries have been accused for slave labour before. It is common practice, especially with clothes and sports equipment. One of the biggest sports manufacturers, Nike had been accused several times for exploiting child labour. But acknowledgement was given and dramatic changes in practice have happened since. Since this news story is based on general human interest, people might automatically start thinking about other related topics like Nike, although it hasn't been mentioned by the journalist. This automatic thinking process outside the box is also referred to as 'extra-diegetic' intertextuality.
Although the article on Ninemsn was well-researched and detailled the level of satisfaction one gets out of the story is not very high. Since the story is of interest to a broad majority, the reporters could have used better substantiation, for instance using actual quotes from the two main characters of the story, Inditex and AHA.
Some interactivity has been used by providing the reader with social network 'like' buttons such as Facebook, Msn Messenger and Twitter. Another really interesting feature is the 'Flock it' button at the bottom of the page. Flock is a social web browser created by Mozilla. The Flock could be described as a big ball created out of small balls with different colours that shows the number of hits for a specific story sometimes including comments. A Flash player has been used to make the Flock move. Using multimedia is a very good tactic to give the reader an incentive to expierence more about the website.
The site itself has a clean structure and the story is placed alongside some advertisement. However, there is no picture to the story. For a story about slave labour a picture is the most important feature of the page. Also there are no links to related coverage provided. A comments section placed underneath the article would have been very helpful for Msn news to get some useful ideas and critics, especially on a controversial story like this. The reader's involvement is only challenged on a low level.
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| Yahoo!7 comments section on 18 August 2011 |
Online news article:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8286878
Cranny-Francis, A. (2005). Multimedia: texts and contexts. London: SAGE, pp. 27-54.
Cranny-Francis, A. (2005). Multimedia: texts and contexts. London: SAGE, pp. 27-54.
Several notable brands are guilty of repressive labour practices. It is annoying that they turn the 'spotlight' away from them, point to their supplier and basically just immune themselves as 'accessory to the crime'.
ReplyDeletePeople don't really care about unfamiliar suppliers like AHA, they care about the luxury brand Zara. (the mere reason I think why they made it in the news)
This piece of article (which I think can be classified as Investigative journalism )enables readers (who are also consumers) to be informed and giving them a chance to discern their plan of action. The news did not explicitly encourage people to boycott Zara products. However, it is interesting that a public opinion was created leading to boycott of products in the discussion forum. The lay-out of online news allows a platform for an immediate feedback and contribution of regular readers to public discourse providing them with an active role in it.
I agree with marylove that they automatically point the finger. Its Zara's responsibility to know what their suppliers are doing, I believe because they are a worldwide company they should take the extra steps. Corporations should have learnt from what happened to Nike many years ago and not repeat it.
ReplyDelete