SPINNING AT TOP SPEED: If you look at the media this morning (which I'm doing as part of my media study but that is another story) something is doubling down in a big jitterbug way with the trifecta of Fashion, Politics and Economics. Everything is bleeding red if you look at photos and headlines.
My daughter emailed me this photo, at left, yesterday. A top NYTimes story (OK, not as top as the horrid economic news headlines after yesterday's 514 point fall in the Dow) was in Fashion & Style discussing the practicality of clothes like painter's pants. Yep, I wore those and top siders and army pants and jeans when I was on a very limited budget in college and highschool. Engineer boots, too. Yesterday I bought new fall clothing: one pair of black pants, one black turtleneck and two pairs of black socks. Austere? Well, NYC rubbed off on me with the practical black. It is practical and can be my uniform in these recessionary times. I'm also messaging practical and mourning, the latter for our world right now.
Today, in Huffpo, an online newspaper that has soared in audience ratings in September getting its biggest readership last month since it started), that photo of Palin in red shoes, Wizard of Oz Dorothy-like. Any Southern woman knows that Good Girls Don't Wear Red Shoes.
But that isn't the point. If you study media, you will realize that Google News is rising fast in the ratings for online news mainly because it can aggregate stories and run them by ranking of hits. You can tell the stories that are most resonating with online news readers. Today's second top story this morning? Sarah Palin's $150,000 makeover, a BBC News article. l hour ago (that would be about 6:40 AM ET) and the links w/ this: LATimes, NYT w/ headlines as links; Newspapers that also are carrying the story and getting a lot fo readership: SF Chronicle; NYDaily News; ChattahBox; Houston Chronicle: all 864 articles. The photo alongside that leading story has Palin in a red jacket.
Third top story on Google News: Obama gaining, but must sway voters to defeat McCain, Baltimore Sun - l hour ago. Polls on race tightening, AP, same head story, Newsday; paper links only: AP, DeSoto Times Today, NYT, WaPo, all 2,159 news articles.
Dire headlines are in all online news outlets I study, with Wall Street Journal, CNN and ABC all running the similar photo for their top stories of a home with a For Sale sign in the yard topped with a red-letter, all caps sign: FORECLOSURE since the lead story everywhere is September's numbers showing foreclosures up 71%.
Yep, the media is dancing in the color red as the economy news seems dire in the media headlines and the 2008 political campaign is down to the last days. Henry Blodget runs a photo of Depression-era souplines today and discusses future jobless rates and all McCain and Obama have to say (it's the economy, stupid) is Joe the Plumber and Joe the Hedge Fund Guy.
I'm wearing black jeans today, maybe voting early in New Mexico, telling my haircut guy to give me a 'do that is low-maintance as I'm cutting back. Like the red cape in the bullfighting arena, the red is swinging. Red, design-wise, is the most attention-getting color. That is why the media is using it. Red is also the color of accounting. You're either in the black or the red. Red is also a political color. While black used to be the main headline color, blue is for links in new media. Blue is the color of depression or sky. Many I know are seeing red, angry about the economy and the politics of it all. Others are blue, blue, blue about the economy. Soccer Mom? Hockey Mom? Call me Austerity Mom at the moment living in a Swing State that's red and blue.
I once wore red in a deliberate move as a "power" color. Blue has always been a favorite,and I like the slimming effect of black. What is the color for being sick of the news - green? You are a strong person to stomach and study all of this and then make it palatable for us to read and interpret on our own. Color on Mother Pie!
Posted by: allison | October 23, 2008 at 08:24 AM
You have a unique perspective and really help me to understand the underlying trends in the mass media. Thanks.
Posted by: Hattie | October 24, 2008 at 03:41 AM
Thank you for doing all the work for us! I look hideous in both black and red and therefore own almost nothing in either color.
Posted by: Janet | October 27, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Red is my favorite color but I mostly wear black. I have a lot of varied hues of red in my home from pink to rose to red to burgundy. It works for me. My car is a hue that my daughter calls Hello Officer red. I haven't had to say that yet -- probably because I drive like an old lady.
I'm in Ohio -- also a swing state -- & Obama spoke here today. I'm austerity mom, too -- but I've been forced to be. Poverty sucks.
Posted by: Kay Dennison | October 27, 2008 at 05:59 PM