Framing in fashion blogs.
Research into the use of news frames by five Dutch fashion
bloggers.
Name: Marilou Coutty
Student ID: 10167625
Course: Master’s Program Communication Science Master’s Thesis: Corporate Communication
Graduate School: Graduate School of Communication Supervisor: Piet Verhoeven
“In order to be irreplaceable, one must be different.”
- Coco Chanel
Abstract
This research investigates the use of four news frames by fashion bloggers. By investigating whether news frames are retrievable in fashion blogs, this study is filling a gap in the
literature. The news frames that are used in this study are the human-interest frame, the economic consequences frame, the advertisement frame and the personalization frame. A content analysis of 240 blog posts of five Dutch fashion bloggers resulted in interesting findings. First of all, the personalization frame is most common in the fashion blogs. On the other hand, the economic consequences frame is not retrievable in the blog posts. The advertisement frame and the human-interest frame are equally present in the blogs.
Differences among the fashion bloggers were also found. The findings of this research show that the advertisement frame, the human-interest frame and the personalization frame are retrievable in fashion blogs.
1. Introduction
“I think blogs are a great addition to the fashion world in general. It’s a nice way for brands to present themselves, and I love how you can get inspiration on a whole new level: through websites, blogs, and social media. It’s so much more dynamic and approachable.” States fashion blogger Negin Mirsalehi in an interview for dailywomen.com in 2014.
Negin Mirsalehi is one of the fastest growing fashion blogs of the Netherlands with a growth of 3000 to 5000 followers per day. And she is not the only one; nowadays fashion blogs pop up everywhere. Within the last decade fashion has become a global industry focusing not only on the rich and decadent people but also spreading its wings to a wider public with different lifestyles, religions and cultures (Easey, 2002). Due to the rise of technology, it gets much easier for the fashion industry to reach all these different people. This technology caused a big change in communication, enabling the public to “participate, follow and discuss any trends and fashion news online” (Sedeke, 2013, p.1). One of the best places where one can
participate and follow these fashion trends is in the blogosphere. According to Sedeke (2013) the blogosphere has become a place in which fashion lovers determine who the influencers of today are. The blogosphere has had a spectacular growth over the last few years. In October 2011 blogpulse.com estimated that there were over 170 million blogs worldwide with 100,000
newcomers every day. Technorati (a blog tracking site) indicates that the majority of Internet users read one or more blogs (Winn, 2009). While this number only shows a fraction of the people online, researchers have called bloggers the “new influencers” (Trammell &
Keshelashvili, 2005).
Research into these new influencers mostly contains marketing subjects and often gives insight on what influence bloggers have on the buying intention of the public (e.g. Gillin, 2008; McQaurrie, Miller, Philips, 2013; Kulmala, Mesirante, Tuominen, 2013). But attention also must be paid to how bloggers write their blog posts. Is it true that fashion blogs mostly contain marketing subjects and thereby use the advertisement frame or do fashion bloggers write from a more personal perspective? No previous research is able to answer these questions since there hasn’t been a focus on frames and fashion bloggers. Various studies have “identified the importance of certain frames in the news by focusing on their
consequences for the public’s interpretation of events and issues” (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000, p. 94). Although these studies provided essential information about the occurrence or the effects of frames, there is no research done on the occurrence of news frames in fashion blogs. The study of Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) makes a distinction between the human-interest, economic consequences, conflict and responsibility frame; all commonly used frames in the news media. Another study focusing on the occurrence of news frames in the media shows that journalists frequently use the advertisement frame in order to sell a particular product (Maat & de Jong, 2012). Research on political blogs shows a great use of the
personalization frame, focusing on personal characteristics instead of the political debate (Van Santen & Van Zoonen, 2009).
With bloggers being the new influencers and the fact that the general public perceives these bloggers as a credible form of media, it is important to know which frames they use in their blogs. Being perceived as credible also means that people will more easily take over the frames and the opinions of bloggers (Kareklas, Darrel, Muehling & Weber, 2015). The framing of a message in a blog can thus be used to influence the way the audience thinks (Mason, 2010).
In this study, an overview of commonly used frames by fashion bloggers will be provided, thereby filling the gap in the literature. The results are important for fashion brands as well for the readers of the fashion blogs. If fashion brands decide to partner up with a fashion blogger, it is important to know which frames are commonly used by that blogger to make sure these frames align with the identity of the brand. Another reason why the results of this study are
important is because fashion bloggers are more and more used as a way to present a brand, which is often not realized by the readers. By knowing if a certain fashion blogger uses the advertisement frame, people might get more aware of the marketing strategies behind the blog posts, allowing them to better protect themselves against it.
In order to analyze and compare the news frames used by fashion bloggers the following research question has been drawn up:
RQ: “Which news frames are retrievable in the blog posts of fashion bloggers?”
2. Theoretical framework
The multibillion-dollar fashion industry stretches from main street to haute couture (IBIS World, 2012). Fashion finds its inspiration in cultural fields such as films, street fashion or music, which determine new global trends (Blakley, 2010). It can be seen as a reflection of our society and culture and a symbol of how people define themselves (Halvorsen, Hoffman, Coste-Manière & Stankeviciute, 2013, p.212). Fasey (2002) defines fashion as “a product of time and states that it must be viewed within a broader cultural context such as the designers’ ethnic and social background, social mores and attitudes, technological innovations, and the economic and political conditions” (p.10).
Fashion is a constantly changing process; every new change in the culture or society brings a new cycle of trends (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). In order for fashion to adapt to a continual change two criteria are essential. First, creative design skills: fashion designers need to have a talent in designing clothing. Second, identification with customer preferences is important in continual change. “It is a matter of marketing and can provide additional knowledge and skills in order to secure the creative component” (English, 2009, p.6). Because change is in the nature of the fashion industry, brands and designers produce a collection twice a year. These collections usually contain not only clothes but also accessories and shoes, which are
distributed worldwide (Fasey, 2002). In these collections fashion brands need to create more than a name or slogan; their brand image needs to contain symbolic meaning, inducted associations, ideas and attitudes of the brand. By doing so fashion brands can build a strong brand that is distinctive, desirable and has a constant image (Lee, Leung & Zhang, 2009).
Fashion in the media
According to Mohr (2013) “fashion is everywhere” (p.18). Involvement of the media is one of the main reasons that fashion is everywhere: Internet and blogs give people all the
information they need about fashion. In the last couple of years another medium joined the club; the fashion app. These apps provide customers with “up-to-the-minute deals,
information on the latest fashion trends, the convenience of shopping directly form an iPhone or iPad, and the ease of social sharing.” (Mohr, 2013, p.18). A fashion app, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram can show a lot of images of bloggers wearing the latest fashion and are places were followers can get those looks (Mohr, 2013). Some more old school, often studied, fashion mediums are magazines and television shows. Most of the researches on these mediums focus on the negative aspects of fashion; skinny models, body dissatisfaction and the effects on people of the images in fashion magazines (e.g. Tiggeman, Slater, Bury, Hawkins & Firth, 2013; Slater, Tiggeman, Firth, 2012). The most commonly used and fastest growing fashion medium are blogs. On of the advantages of fashion blogs is that they can be updated regularly with the latest fashion trends.
Blogs
A blog, short for the word Web log, is a form of social media and defined as a periodically updated online journal that provides online commentary. The content that is published on a blog is called a (blog) post. A few things are typical for a blog; there is little or no external editing done on the posts, they often include hyperlinks, and they provide the option of commentary (Drezner & Farrell, 2004).
According to blogosphere.com the total amount of blogs was 170 million in 2011. Blogs are tools used by both businesses and individuals to share their opinions and views with the rest of the world. Blogs are a form of social media that has become accessible through the introduction of Web 2.0, which has changed the way we use the Internet. As Parise and Guinan (2008) explain, “the fundamental principle of Web 2.0 is that users add value by generating content (themselves) through these applications, resulting in network effects among the community of users” (p.281). Blogs can be seen as a new form of online
journalism as they represent information and knowledge to the public (Lichtenstein, 2009). Research shows that bloggers as well as the public are of a young generation; bloggers exist for 90% out of people in their twenties and 79% of the readers are under the age of 40 (Sedeke & Arora, 2013).
Various theories try to explain the motives for blogging and motives for following blogs. Nardi et al., (2004) proposes five motives as to why people blog, documenting one’s life, expressing deeply felt emotions, forming community forums, providing commentary opinions and articulating ideas through writing. A reason why readers follow blogs is the fact that blogs are based on communication; the high interactivity, space for discussion and the opportunity to share opinions count as big motivators for readers (McMLellan, 2006; Kuhn, 2007; Shao, 2008; Sedeke &Arora, 2013). Because of this blogs can be seen as electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), places where products get evaluated and this information gets spread throughout the blogosphere.
Fashion blogs
Fashion blogs are blogs that focus on fashion brands, fashion products, street style, and personal style (Halvorsen et al., 2013). Both fashion professionals and ordinary people who have a passion for fashion write fashion blogs. By writing fashion blogs the bloggers keep the public up-to-date on the latest fashion trends, collections, designers and try to inspire the readers by showcasing their personal styles (Halvorsen et al., 2013; Sedeke & Arora, 2013). In order to do that fashion bloggers spend a lot of time reading and looking for information to ensure they are ahead of the fashion cycle (Sedeke & Arora, 2013). A major change that blogs bring with itself is the shifted control in fashion communication from sender to receiver (Allen, 2000).
Two-step flow theory
Social media influencers, like bloggers, can be described as “a new type of independent third party endorsers who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media” (Freberg, Graham, McGaughey & Freberg, 2010, p.2). As some might view these new influencers as threating (Gorry & Westbrook, 2009), others recognize the possibilities of promoting a brand with them (Freberg et al., 2010).
During a study of voting behavior of people Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet (1944) found that media have an unimportant role during election campaigns. They found that media did not influence people’s voting behavior but instead, voters were much more likely to be influenced by other people. Lazarsfeld et al., (1944) stated that many people were ‘politically apathetic’ and failed to make a clear voting decision because they had a low interest in the topic. The most important role that mass media had during the voting process was to reinforce a vote choice that had already been made (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944). The two-step flow theory
explains what actually has an influence on the voting behavior of people. It states that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders, who in turn are influenced by the mass media. The theory makes a distinction between opinion leaders and opinion followers. Opinion leaders are people who make extensive use of the media and develop an opinion early on during the election campaign. They use media wisely and critically, which makes them able to listen and evaluate opposition speeches. These opinion leaders are the people who give the apathetic voters advice. They are people who, more than others, exercise influence on public opinion in their surroundings. In other words, opinion leaders are
screening information and only passing on items that would help others share their views (book, p. 169). The opinion followers are the people who turn to the opinion leader for advice.
The two-step flow theory, as stated above, explains that opinion leaders filter messages of the mass media, they are the ones that decode the massages and pass the information on to the opinion followers. The theory claims that interpersonal communication is more powerful in affecting attitudes of individuals than mass media are (Weimann, 1994).
According to Brosius and Weimann (1996) the existence and activity of the opinion leaders should be seen as the reemphasizing role of the group and interpersonal contact. Through social discourse, personal contacts and social networks opinion leaders can collect filter and promote the flow of information. These qualities of opinion leaders are not only part of their personal characteristics, they are “embedded in their social interests, social positions and social networks” (Brosius & Weimann, 1996, p.565). Opinion leaders have according to Weimann (1994) some common characteristics like a high number of social ties, contacts and an active participation in the public discourse. Katz (1987) also found common characteristics of opinion leaders and divided them in three categories. First opinion leaders show
personification of certain values (who one is), second they show competence (what one knows) and last they have a strategic social location (who one knows). Personification has to do with the traits and values of opinion leaders, competence shows the level of expertise in different areas and social locations relates to the size of their network.
Bloggers and the two-step flow theory
Opinion leaders can be seen as the early adopters of innovation in products and services, according to Rogers (2003) they are the ones who spread their evaluation and ideas to the public. The new form of communication, which has arisen due to the digital age, has affected the two-step-flow model. Nowadays, opinion leaders can influence the public through
messages in the online environment (Uzunglu & Kip, 2014). In order to keep track with the latest trends it is important for bloggers to interact with the external environment that helps connecting, interacting and spreading messages to the public. Secondly bloggers need to be open to sharing information in order to keep followers interested and entertained which will increase their status (Gruhl, Guha, Liben-Nowell, & Tomkins, 2004).
Bloggers can be seen as the new force in the two-step flow of communication namely as digital opinion leaders. Bloggers can take on a key role in informing the public on new products or introducing existing products (Uzunglu & Kip, 2014). A big difference between face-to-face opinion leaders and the digital opinion leaders is that digital opinion leaders have a wider reach to the public. By using Facebook, Twitter and blogs among their social media contacts the digital influencers reach a much larger audience. The use of social media by opinion leaders gives access to the public, and the public more access to them (Lyons & Hederson, 2005).
Uzunglu and Kip (2014) state that bloggers are increasingly acknowledged as a new form of digital opinion leaders. Kavanaugh et al., (2006) call blogs “one of the most effective tools for extending the influence of opinion leaders (..), which offer greater levels of social interaction and conversational content” (p. 593).
Framing
Framing and the effect of framing is a widely researched subject (e.g., Entman, 1993; Goffman, 1974; Iyengar & Simon, 1993; Semetko & Valkenburg, 1999; Semetko &
Valkenburg, 2000; Mason, 2010). Both framing and agenda setting focus on how issues in the news affect the perceptions of the public on these issues. A big difference however is that agenda settings is about what issues people should think about and framing focuses on how people think about issues. Many researchers have tried to define framing; according to Van Lieshout and Aarts (2008) “framing has to do with making sense, interpreting and giving meaning to what is happening in the world” (p. 502). People construct, not always
consciously, specific frames in interactions Entman (1993) explains: “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating context, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interaction, moral
evaluation and/or treatment recommendation for the item described.” (p. 52). Typically frames diagnose, evaluate and prescribe (Gamson, 1992). The frame that is used can
reality of the public. In other words framing helps shape the perspectives in which people see the world (Duhé & Zoch, 1994).
Frames highlight specific information about an item that is the subject of communication, thereby elevating them in salience (Entman, 1993). Salience means “making a piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences” (p.53). Increasing this salience enhances the probability that receivers perceive the message and store it in their memory (Fitske & Taylor, 1991). There are several ways in which text makers can make their text more salient: by using repetition, placement and association with culturally familiar symbols (Entman, 1993). However, receivers already have their own frame and when the message is not aligned with this frame it is hard to interpret, remember or even notice the salient message (Entman, 1993).
Framing blogs
Various studies have stretched the importance of framing in (political) blogs (Mason, 2010; Bichard, 2006; Chyi & McCombs, 2004). Different media as newspapers, journals and television networks noticed this and added blogs to their web sites. Sometimes their own correspondents are responsible for the content of the blogs and sometimes media outsource the blogging (Drezner & Farrell, 2004).
For many politicians blogging is an important part of their campaign. The personal touch of the blogs can help a candidate find supporters and volunteers for the campaign (Dignan, 2004). According to Mason (2010) blogs are “an additional tool in strategic campaign
planning” (p. 4), in his research, Mason (2010) analyzed different frames and designs used on the official blog of Barack Obama. The majority of the blog posts of Obama during the campaign had a neutral tone of voice. Other research shows that blogs often have a high level of personification (e.g. Kim, Lee & Shin, 2008; Kennedy, 2015) which links to the human-interest frame. Kim, Lee and Shin (2008) found that the advertisement frame is most common in corporate and organizational blogs. Lastly, the economic consequences frame is often used in news blogs (Drezner & Farrell, 2004).
Framing journalists
Framing is often defined from a political communication and journalistic point of view. From this view, mass media actively “set the frames of reference that readers or viewers use to interpret and discuss public events” (Tuchman, 1978, p.) Gamson and Modgliani (1987) define a media frame as “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an
unfolding strip of events. The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue” (p.143). It is “a particular way in which journalists compose a news story to optimize audience accessibility” (Valkenburg, Semetko & de Vreese, 1999, p.550). Media frames contribute to the working routine of journalist as they help sort all the information that they get (Gitlin, 1980). By using a news frame journalists can make particular events more accessible to the public (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Valkenburg et al., (1999) has identified four different news frames that are most commonly used by journalists. First the conflict frame, by using this frame journalists focus on conflicts between parties or individuals. Secondly journalists use a human-interest frame, which emphasizes emotions and has individual aspects. If a responsibility frame is used the focus lies on “crediting or blaming certain institutions or persons” (p.551). Lastly journalist may focus on the economic
consequences for the public, in this case an economic consequences frame is used. According to several studies the conflict and economic consequences frame are present in both the United States and Europe (Bennet, 1995; Semetko & Valkenburg, 1999; de Vreese, Peter & Semetko, 2001).
A way to make a distinction between different frames is by categorizing them in generic and issue-specific frames (De Vreese, 2005). Generic frames are of a “more general nature and can be applied to different issues in different contexts” (p.553) which makes the generic news frames not restricted to one specific issue (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Issue specific frames, on the other hand are tailored to a particular issue (Shah et al., 2002). Both the human-interest frame and the economic consequences frame are part of generic news frames (Vakenburg et al., 1999).
Advertisement frame
Maat and the Jong (2012) studied how journalists use framing in their stories, in order to investigate how product news is made valuable. They assume that journalists select, expand and transform information in order to make it more valuable for the readers. By using this frame journalists approach the products “as something to be bought by customers.” (Maat & de Jong, 2012, p. 353). The researchers concluded that if journalists write a story about a company with a commercial background, the advertisement frame would occur in their story. In line with these results Kim, Lee and Shin (2008) found that the advertisement frame occurs most often in corporate or organizational blogs.
Personalization frame
Personalization is a broadly researched topic in political communication. It is defined as the increasing focus on personal characteristics and personal life. Iyengar (1991) defines the personalization frame as a frame that “boils down complex political-economic stories to comparatively simple narratives about individuals” (p. 193). By paying more attention to the politicians, less attention is paid to the policies and programs of the political parties (Van Santen & Van Zoonen, 2009). Van Aels, Sheafer and Stanyar (2012) divide personalization into individualization (focus on individuals) and privatization (focus on the private life). Besides individualization and privatization, Van Santen and Van Zoonen (2009) introduce a third aspect of personalization, emotionalization, defined as the interest in personal feelings and experiences.
The personalization frame is closely related to the human-interest frame, in other words personalization is a part of the human-interest frame. As the human-interest frame focuses on a broader societal issue with the aim of bringing a personal angle to the story (Vliegenthardt, Boomgaarden & Boumans, 2010) the personalization frame is completely written from the personal viewpoint. According to Van Aelst (2002) the increasing personalization is caused partly by the call for authenticity. Persons who can definitely benefit from authenticity are bloggers; they are trying to be authentic in order to gain as much visitors to their blogs as possible. Papacharissi (2002) researched the authenticity of individuals that use personal home pages to present themselves online. Webpages were analyzed, which proved an ideal setting for self-presentation, allowing maximum control over the information that was provided on the home pages. Trammell and Keshelashvili (2005) used Papacharissi (2002) framework to study personalization on A-list blogs. They found that A-list bloggers revealed more information about themselves than other bloggers and actively engage in impression management. Other research found the same results and concluded that blogs often have a high level of personification (e.g. Kim, Lee & Shin, 2008; Kennedy, 2015).
Based on the above-mentioned literature, four types of frames are selected that are relevant to study which types of news frames are used by the fashion bloggers.
Human-interest frame: According to Neuman et al., (1992) one of the most commonly used frames by journalist. This frame is used to present the news to the public from a human and emotional view. The human-interest frames often tell a story from an individual point of view with a focus on emotional aspects. By using this frame journalists tend to “personalize” the
news rather than focusing on a broader theme. It is the opposite of a more traditional approach where the news is not focusing on personal aspects but much more on informing the public with facts (Dirikx & Gelders, 2010). In an attempt to maintain the attention and interest of the readers, journalists use a more personal and emotional frame (Bennett, 1995). Since previous research has shown that the human-interest frame is the most commonly used generic news frame (De Vreese, 2005), the following hypothesis is drawn up:
H1:“The human-interest frame will occur more frequently than both the economic consequences frame and the advertisement frame in the posts of fashion bloggers.”
The economic consequences frame “presents an event, problem, or issue in terms of the economic consequences it will have for an individual, group, institution, region or country” (Semetko & Valkenburg, 1999, p. 552). This frame is used to make issues more salient in terms of economic consequences. If the economic consequences frame is used, a text can be focusing on financial losses, gains and cost degrees of certain expenses (Valkenburg et al., 1999). Neuman, Just and Crigler (1992) identify this frame as one of the most frequently used frame in the news. The economic consequences frame has a great impact on people, making the news of high value (Graber, 1993). In order to investigate whether the economic
consequences frame is used by the fashion bloggers the following research question is drawn up:
RQ1:“To what extent is the economic consequence frame retrievable in the blog post of the fashion bloggers?”
The advertisement frames’ main focus lies in selling a particular product. This frame
approaches a product as something that should be bought by the public and highlights all its positive features. If journalists use this frame, the advantages of a product and information about where you can buy the product are given (Maat & de Jong, 2012). The advertisement frame has a marketing background and is therefore commonly used by corporate and
organizational blogs. The research question that has been drawn up to investigate the extent of the advertisement frames in the fashion blogs is:
RQ2:“To what extent is the advertisement frame retrievable in the blog post of the fashion bloggers?”
The personalization frame is often used in political communication. If journalists use this frame the focus lies not on the politics but rather on the personal characteristics of the
politicians. This is most visible during an election campaign where personal characteristics play a more important role than before (Holsteyn & Irwin, 1998). The personalization frame is not so much about the abilities of the person being written about but more about his private life. This frame approaches personal facts like hobbies, interest, family and friends of the person of interest. To find out whether fashion bloggers also make use of the personalization frame the following question is drawn up:
RQ3:“To what extent is the personalization frame retrievable in the blog post of the fashion bloggers?”
Since not all journalists use the same frames, it is likely that fashion bloggers also differ in their use of the news frames. In order to study this, the following question is drawn up: RQ4:“To what extent does the use of the human-interest frame, the economic consequences frame, the advertisement frame and the personalization frame differ among fashion
bloggers?”
3. Method
The best way to give an answer to the research question is by performing a content analysis. Content analysis is defined as “a research technique for the objective, systematic and
quantitative description of the manifest content of communication” (p. 178), or “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages (Bryman, 2001, p. 178).
Sample
The units of analysis are blog posts of the fashion bloggers. The sample of this research consists of blog posts written by fashion bloggers and was obtained between December 2015 and January 2016. Blogs that were studied for this research were all written between
November 2014 and October 2015. For the content analyses, the website www.bloglovin.com was used to determine the best Dutch fashion bloggers of this moment. The site listed the ten best fashion bloggers of the Netherlands but not all ten were used in this research since the blogs had to meet a number of selection criteria. First of all, fashion blogs had to have achieved a sizable audience (at least 100.000 followers) to make sure they really have an
impact on society. Secondly, the fashion blogs had to exist for over two years; this criterion is used to make sure that the bloggers had enough time to be known among the readers. A third selection criterion was that each blog had to be written as a personal blog; thus corporate, brand, or retail blogs were eliminated (McQuarrie, Miller & Phillips, 2013). Blogs that were not written by women were also not included in this study. Research shows that women and men’s blogs are quite different which would endanger the homogeneity of the research. By using only women’s blogs the sample is suitable for generating depth of understanding (McQuarrie, Miller & Phillips, 2013). After these four selection criteria were tested for each blog, five suitable fashion blogs remained. The selected fashion blogs are listed in table 1. This study used a monthly-stratified sample of four blog posts per blogger per month over one year. The statistical program SPSS was used to determine which four blog of every month had to be coded. First, all the written blogs from a year of one blogger were entered into SPSS. With “select cases” SPSS randomly picked out four blog posts per month that had to be coded. By letting SPSS randomly pick four blogs posts, this study tries to make the results as representative as possible. This process was repeated for all the five fashion bloggers. The performed method resulted in 240 articles, which were coded on the basis of a codebook included in the appendix I.
Table 1: Characteristics of the sampled fashion blogs.
Name blog Code blog Start blog Followersa
Raspberryrouge RBR 2011 128k
Negin Mirsalehi NM 2012 2,5 million
Lizzy van der Ligt LVDL 2011 128k
Queen of jetlags QOJ 2013 160k
AfterDRK AFD 2008 157k
aThe number of followers was obtained from Bloglovin in November 2015.
Raspberryrouge
Rebecca Laurey (27) is the founder of the fashion blog Raspberryrouge, which started in 2011. After studying Law and History, Rebecca wanted to turn her hobby into her job and she succeeded. Raspberryrouge is all about Rebecca’s experiences in fashion, lifestyle and
traveling. Raspberryrouge also writes a monthly article that gets published in Vogue magazine. The main focus of the blog lies in fashion and travel. The blog is a one-man business with a regular photographer. Laurey was nominated by the VIVA as the most
creative person of 2013. Raspberrouge collaborated with Topshop, Alexander Wang, Adidas and more (http://www.raspberryrouge.com; http://www.vogue.nl).
Negin Mirsalehi
This blog was founded in 2012 by the 27-year-old Negin Mirsalehi. In contrast to other bloggers Negin started posting outfits on Instagram, before the lifestyle and fashion blog started. Her Marketing Master has helped her to choose the right marketing strategies and to analyze data.
The strategy works because Negin Mirsalehi is now one of the fastest growing fashion bloggers in the Netherlands gaining 2,000 to 3,000 followers a day. The blog attracts people from all over the world, having visitors from over 145 different countries. In 2013 she won the STYLIGHT Fashion Blogger Award for most promising fashion blogger, and she fulfilled that promise. Negin Mirsalehi has become a real business with eight people working on the brand. The blog has worked with Cartier, Liu Jo, Michael Kors, Pepe Jeans, Revolve and many more brands (http://www.communicatieonline.nl; http://www.daileywomen.com).
Lizzy van der Ligt
The fashion blog is founded in 2011, by the 24-year-old Lizzy van der Ligt. She studied all round styling at the Artemis academy, works as a stylist at Scotch & Soda and tries to inspire people with her fashion blog. Lizzy van der Ligt shows her 128,000 followers every day what is hip and happening in the fashion world. The blog is a one-man business with a regular photographer. In 2013 Lizzy won the Zalando Jury Blog award and was chosen as the best fashion blogger of 2013 by Zalando. Lizzy van der Ligt collaborated with brand like Onepiece, Edited the label and Calvin Klein (http://www.lizzyvanderligt.com).
Queen of jetlags
Queen of jetlags was launched by Noor de Groot (28) in 2013. The blog is a one-man
business with a regular photographer. Noor studied museology at the Amsterdam University, and sees her own fashion blog as a museum. The goal of the blog is to inspire people with hotspots from all over the world, editorials and outfit posts. With over the 160,000 followers, Queen of jetlags belongs in the top five fashion bloggers of the Netherlands. The blog
distinguishes itself from other bloggers by posting around two times per day and using a lot of visuals. The blog’s vision is to combine eye for detail, which Noor learned at her studies with the latest fashion trends and show them to the world. Queen of jetlags has collaborated with
many brands like Rob Peetoom, ILY couture and Street one
(http://www.communicatieonline.nl; http://www.queenofjetlags.com).
AfterDRK
AfterDRK is the oldest fashion blog that is being analyzed in this study, founded in 2008 by Sabrina Meijer. AfterDRK tries to inspire all the fashion lovers but especially focuses on people who have a love for simplicity. Sabrina chose the name AfterDRK beceause she started her blog when she was still studying and had to work on it after it got dark. The blog has become a company with five people working in it. AferDRK collaborated with Nelly, designing clothes and Filippa K and many others. The blog won the Beauty award for best photography in 2013 and got nominated for the Elle Style Influencer Award
(http://www.vogue.nl; http://www.Elle.nl; http://www.afterdrk.com)
Process
This study used a deductive approach; four frames were predefined as content analytic variables in order to verify to what extent these frames were retrievable in the fashion blogs. In order to do so it was necessary to have a clear idea of the kind of frames that were likely to occur in the fashion blogs (Semetko et al., 2000).
A codebook has been drawn up to answer the research question. The first part of the
codebook contained general questions about the blog posts. These variables are; coder, date and name of blogger. The second part of the codebook focused on the different types of framing namely: human-interest frame, economic consequences frame, advertisement frame and personalization frame. The human-interest frame consisted out of five questions, for example “Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the
issue/problem?” and “Does the story provide a human example or human face on the issue?” When a blog post reported events in terms of economic consequences for other people, groups or institutions, the economic consequences frame was selected. Three questions were asked in order to investigate the economic consequence frame. Examples of questions that were asked during the coding process are “Is there a mention of cost/degree of expense involved?” and “Is there a reference to economic consequences of pursuing or not pursuing a course of action?” The advertisement frame consisted out of six questions and was selected when the blog post focused on selling a product. Questions that were asked here are “Is there a
reference to the distinctive or innovative character of the product?” and “Does the article say how or where the product is available?” Lastly, the personalization frame was selected when
the posts focused on individuals and personal characteristics. During the coding process the coder had to answer nine questions like “Does the blog post contain photographs of family and friends of the blogger?” and “Does the blog post mention any hobbies or interest of the blogger?” to investigate whether the blogger used the personalization frame.
These types of framing were translated into an analytical framework consisting of different questions for each type of framing. The framing variables were all dichotomously measured and could either be present (1) or absent (0). The questions are based on previous research and are all meant to measure the human-interest frame, the economic consequences frame, the advertisement frame or the personalization frame. (McCombs, Lopez-Escobar and Llamas, 1996; Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; (Maat & de Jong, 2012; Papacharissi, 2002; Trammel & Keshalishvili, 2005) and can be found in the codebook (see appendix I). In total 240 blog posts were coded, 48 posts per blogger.
Analysis
In order to establish the inter-rater reliability, 10% of the sample was recoded by another coder (N = 25). Before this was done, the second coder got a short training on how to code the different fashion blogs. The variable “Does the story emphasize how individuals and groups are affected by the issue/problem” had the lowest inter-rater reliability (Kappa = .38), which still is a fair strength of agreement (Altman, 1991). The variables “Does the story provide a human example or human face and “Does the story employ adjectives or personal vignettes that generate feeling of outrage, empathy caring, sympathy or compassion” had a moderate strength of agreement (Kappa = .56 and Kappa = .58). Because some of the Kappas are not good, the results should be interpreted cautiously. The inter-rater reliability of all the other variables was good (Kappa >.70). For the whole list of variables and their Kappa scores see appendix II.
Before the research question could be answered, a principal component analysis (PCA) has been conducted for each of the frames, to see if the items of the different framesa
uni-dimensional scale. To answer the research question and the sub questions, multiple analytical tests were performed. First, descriptive statistics were obtained from the different variables used in this research. Because the answer categories of some the questions were nominal a scale was constructed for the human-interest, economic consequences, advertisement and personalization frame. A paired-sample t-test is performed to test the main hypothesis and separately for each frame an ANOVA has been conducted to find out whether the five fashion
bloggers differ in their use of the frame. Here, post-hoc analyses (Bonferroni) have been performed to determine which bloggers had significant differences.
Scale definition
Human-interest scale
In the human-interest frame, only one of the five components shows an eigenvalue above one (eigenvalue 2.63), which causes a clear inflexion point in the scree plot. This factor explains 52,50% of the variance in the items. All the items correlate positively with the first
component and the variable “Does the story provide a human example or human face” has the strongest relation with a factor loading of .82.
By deleting the item “Does the story contain visual information that might generate feelings of outrage, empathy caring, sympathy or compassion” the reliability of the scale is good, Cronbach’s alpha =.79. This means that scale measures human-interest, a high score on the scale means a high score on the human-interest frame.
Economic-consequences scale
Of the three components in this frame, one has an eigenvalue higher than one (eigenvalue 1.95), causing a clear inflection in the scree plot. This factor explains 64,85% of the variance in the items. The component matrix shows that all the items correlate positively with the first component. The variable “Is there a mention of financial losses or gains now or in the future” has the highest association (factor loading = .87). The scale is reasonable, Cronbach’s
alpha = .71 and could not be increased by deleting an item. The scale measures the economic-consequences frame, the higher the score on the scale, the more prominent is the economic consequences frame.
Advertisement scale
Two of the six components in this frame have an eigenvalue above one (eigenvalue 3.07 and eigenvalue 1.33). The first component explains 51% of the variance in the items and the second component explains 22, 22% of the variance in the items. These two components cause two inflections in the scree plot. All items correlate positively with the component except for one, this variable is later removed from the analysis. The variable “Does it the blog post state advantages of the product for the customer” has the highest association for
component one with a factor loading of .937 and “Does the blog provide a hyperlink as to where you can buy the product” has the highest association for component two (factor
loading = .94). The reliability is good, Cronbach’s alpha = .81 with both the components in one scale and can be increased by deleting one of the items of the second component, Cronbach’s alpha =. 84, which leaves the component with only one item, it is decided not to split the two components in different scales. It is shown that the scale measures the
advertisement frame, high sores on the scale mean a high score on the advertisement frame.
Personalization scale
Four of the nine components in the personalization frame have an eigenvalue higher than one component one (eigenvalue 2.29) explaining 25% of the variance, component two (eigenvalue 1.26) explaining 13,99% of the variance, component three (eigenvalue 1.12) explaining 12,48% of the variance and component four (eigenvalue 1.00) explaining 11,13% of the variance in the items. Only one item correlates negatively with the components, the rest correlates positively. The reason for this negative correlation has to do with how the question is phrased and has no effect on the reliability of the full scale. The variable “Does the blog post mention any hobbies or interest of the blogger” has the highest association for
component one (factor loading = .70). The variable that has the highest association for component two (factor loading = .72) is “Does the blog post contain photographs of the blogger herself”. The third variable “Does the blog post contain photographs of family and friends of the blogger” has the highest factor loading (.88) for component three. The variable that has the highest association with component four is “Does the blog provide any contact information” (factor loading = .91). The personalization frame was split into four different scales (photos of blogger herself, blogger interests, family blogger and contact information) but proved unreliable separately. For this reason the scale has not been split into separate scales providing a reasonable scale, Cronbach’s alpha = .61 if the item “Does the blog provide any contact information” is deleted. The scale measures the personalization frame, scoring high on the scale means a high score on the personalization frame.
4. Results
This study investigates whether news frames are retrievable in fashion blogs. The human-interest frame, the advertisement frame, the economic consequences frame and the
these frames by the bloggers. The five fashion bloggers that are analyzed are Negin Mirsalehi (2,5 million followers), Raspberryrouge (125k followers), AfterDRK (157k followers), Queen of jetlags (160k followers) and Lizzy van der Ligt (128k followers). Table 1 shows that Negin Mirsalehi, Raspberryrouge and Lizzy van der Ligt use the personalization frame the most. Queen of jetlags and AfterDRUK use the human-interest frame most frequently.
Table 1: Mean and standard deviation of the bloggers
Blogger NM RBR QOJ LVDL AFD
Frames Human-interest .44(.23) .50 (.32) .38(.35) .45(.36) .49(.35) Economic-consequences .00(.00) .02(.14) .03(.12) .06(.20) .06(.18) Advertisement .62(.27) .39(.23) .26(.26) .46(.29) .39(.30) Personalization .63(.19) .57(.15) .33(.18) .49(.19) .40(.23) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) Research questions
Three questions are drawn up in order to investigate to which extent the economic
consequences, the advertisement and the personalization frame are retrievable in the blog posts of the fashion bloggers. To answer these sub questions, the average of each frame is calculated over the whole sample. The results are shown in table 2.
Table 2: Mean and standard deviation for each of the news frames
Frames M SD
Human-interest .45 .33
Economic consequence .04 .15
Advertisement .42 .29
Personalization .48 .22
Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviation of each frame. Each frame is measured on the basis of a scale. A mean higher than .00 means that the fashion bloggers used a part of that particular frame in their blog posts, which applies for all four frames. The human-interest frame is measured with five questions. The mean value implies that if you look al all the blog
posts from all the fashion bloggers, then the blogs score on average .45 out of 1.00 on the human-interest frame scale. The economic consequence frame, measured on the basis of three questions, is rarely used by the fashion bloggers and hardly retrievable (M = .004). The frame that is the most retrievable in the fashion blogs is the personalization frame with an average of .48. This is measured with nine questions. The advertisement frame, measured on the basis of six questions, is also retrievable in the fashion blogs (M = .42). More specifics about the frames and about the differences in occurrence of the frames in the blog posts of the fashion blogger are discussed below.
The first hypothesis “The human-interest frame will occur more frequently than both the economic consequences frame and the advertisement frame in the posts of fashion bloggers” has been tested with a paired sample t-test in order to find significant differences between frames’ occurrences in the fashion blogs. The economic consequences frame, the
personalization frame and the advertisement frame were not normally distributed in the population, yet a t-test is performed because the number of observations was always higher than 30 (N = 240). Since the difference of occurrence between other frames is also interesting to know, all the frames were included in the test. The results of the test are shown in table 3.
Table 3 shows the significant differences between the frames’ occurrences in the fashion blogs. The hypothesis is partly rejected; the human-interest frame is not used significantly more by fashion bloggers than the other frames, only more than the economic consequences frame. Significant differences were found between the human-interest and economic frame p, <.001, the economic and advertisement frame p, <.001 and the economic and
personalization frame p, <.001. These show that the economic consequences frame occurs significantly less often in the fashion blogs than any other frame. Another significant result is that the advertisement frame occurs significantly less often in the fashion blogs then the personalization frame p, <.01. Pairs that didn’t have a significant result are the human-interest versus the advertisement frame and the human-interest versus the personalization frame.
One-way ANOVA on different fashion bloggers and frames
A one-way ANOVA is conducted to compare the different fashion bloggers and the frames they use. The fashion bloggers differ significantly between the use of the advertisement frame (F = 11,28, df = 4, 235, p = 0.000) and the personalization frame (F = 19,48, df = 4,235, p = 0.000). The use of the other two frames by the different fashion bloggers was not found to be
significant, therefore they are left out of the analysis because this means that the human-interest frame and the economic consequences frame are more or less equally used by the fashion bloggers. In order to further explore the differences between the fashion bloggers a post-hoc test is conducted with Bonferroni correction. The results of this test are presented in table 4. For the means and standard deviation of the bloggers separately see appendix III.
Table 3: Paired sample t-test on differences between frames in fashion blogs
Pairs of frames Mean Std.
Dev. Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval t(239) Sig. Mean Lower Upper
1. Human-interest - economic cons. .42 .37 .02 .369 .463 17,42 .000*** 2. Human-interest - advertisement .03 .45 .03 -.030 -.085 .94 .348 3. Human-interest - personalization -.03 .29 .02 -.070 -.004 -1,77 .079 4. Economic cons. - advertisement -.39 .33 .02 -.430 -.346 -18,19 .000*** 5. Economic cons. - personalization -.45 .28 .02 -.484 -.413 -24,85 .000*** 6. Advertisement-personalization -.06 .33 .02 -.103 -.018 -2,80 .006**
Paired samples t-test statistic results (p < .05*. p < .01**. p < .001***)
The results of the post-hoc test in table 4 show a significant difference of the advertisement frame between Negin Mirsalehi and Raspberryrouge (Mdifference = .23, p <.01), Lizzy van der Ligt (Mdifference = 0.16, p <.05), Queen of jetlags (Mdifference = 0.36, p <.001) and AfterDRK (Mdifference = 0.24, p <.001). This means that Negin Mirsalehi uses the advertisement frame significantly more than all the other fashion bloggers. The post-hoc multiple comparisons test also shows that Lizzy van der Ligt uses the advertisement frame significantly more than Queen of Jetlags (Mdifference = 0.20, p <.01).
The post-hoc test shows significant differences in the use of the personalization frame between the fashion bloggers. First of all, Raspberryrouge uses the personalization frame
significantly more than Queens of jetlags (Mdifference = 0.24, p <.01) and AfterDRK (Mdifference = 0.17, p <.01). Secondly, Negin Mirsalehi uses the personalization frame significantly more than Lizzy van der Ligt (Mdifference = 0.14, p <.01), Queen of jetlags (Mdifference = 0.30, p <.001) and AfterDRK (Mdifference = 0.23, p <.001). Last, Lizzy van der Ligt makes significantly more use of the personalization frame than Queen of Jetlags (Mdifference = 0.15, p <.001).
Table 4: Post-hoc test results with Bonferroni correction on bloggers and frames
Blogger (I) Blogger (J) (M difference) SE P
Type of frame
Advertisement NeginMirsalehi Raspberryrouge .23 .56 .001**
NeginMirsalehi LizzyvanderLigt .16 .56 .044*
NeginMirsalehi Queenofjetlags .36 .56 .000***
NeginMirsalehi AfterDRK .24 .56 .000***
LizzyvanderLigt Queenofjetlags .20 .56 .004**
Personalization Raspberryrouge Queenofjetlags .24 .04 .000***
Raspberryrouge AfterDRK .17 .04 .000***
NeginMirsalehi LizzyvanderLigt .14 .04 .003**
NeginMirsalehi Queenofjetlags .30 .04 .000***
NeginMirsalehi Afterdrk .23 .04 .000***
LizzyvanderLigt Queenofjetlags .15 .04 .001**
Post-hoc Bonferroni test statistic results (p < .05*. p < .01**. p < .001***)
5. Conclusion & discussion
This study sheds some light on the use of four different news frames by fashion bloggers. In order to do so a quantitative content analysis of 240 fashion blog posts in a period of one year has been performed. Since no previous research has been done on the use of frames by
fashion bloggers, this study attempts to fill this gap in the literature. Four different frames are analyzed which leads to some interesting results. The central research question “Which news frames are retrievable in the blog posts of fashion bloggers?” can be answered.
The results show that some news frames are indeed retrievable in the fashion blogs. The personalization frame is the most used news frame by the bloggers. The blogs can be seen as a personal diary that many people like to read, since almost all the blog posts are about the bloggers themselves. They write about trips, experiences, vacations, work and clothes, all about the life the blogger is living. Although the bloggers mostly write from the
personalization frame, they also commonly use the advertisement frame. Three quarters of the fashion articles obtains a hyperlink to inform its reader where the clothes that are written about are available. Another aspect that is very common in the fashion blogs is that they are always positive about the products they write about. One could argue that the bloggers use the personalization frame as a cover for the actual purpose of the blog, which is creating brand awareness and selling clothes. Another striking characteristic of the analyzed fashion blogs is that the economic consequences frame is barely retrievable. Even though the bloggers use their blog as a display for clothes and other lifestyle experiences, they never go into the costs of the things they write about. Lastly, the human-interest frame is the second most used frame by the fashion bloggers. Since it is closely linked to the personalization frame this comes not as a total surprise. As stated above fashion blogs often go into the private or personal lives of the bloggers and try to present everything from a human perspective.
The hypothesis of this research is about the use of the human-interest frame by the fashion bloggers. Unexpectedly the hypothesis: “The human-interest frame will occur more frequently than both the economic consequences and advertisement frame in the post of fashion bloggers” is not totally confirmed. The human-interest frame only occurs more frequently than the economic consequences frame not more than the advertisement frame. This is not in line with the findings of De Vreese (2005) who found that the human-interest frame is the most frequently generic frame used by journalists. Then again, this research did not study journalists but fashion bloggers, which could explain the difference. Another explanation could be that fashion bloggers do not want to present their information from an emotional view because they want to come across as professionals. Based on this result it can be concluded that fashion bloggers do not use the human-interest frame as much as journalists in their blog posts.
Another interesting finding of this study is that the economic consequences frame is barely retrievable in the fashion blogs. Fashion bloggers do not “present an event, problem or issue in terms of the economic consequences it will have on individuals or groups” (Semtko &
Valkenburg, 1999, p.552). The answer to the research question: “To what extent is the
economic consequence frame retrievable in the blog post of the fashion bloggers?” is that the economic consequences frame is retrievable to only a very little extent in fashion blogs. This finding contradicts the findings of previous research in which the economic consequences frame is manifest in news reports in both the United States and Europe (Bennet, 1995; Semetko & Valkenburg, 1999; de Vreese, Peter & Semetko, 2001). A reason for this
difference might be that the economic consequence of the information presented in a fashion blogs is not as important as the economic consequences of for example a political decision. Political decisions affect more people, which makes it important for journalists to mention these consequences. On the other hand, information about the costs of a dress presented in a fashion blog only has economic consequences for the buyer, which could make it less relevant to mention.
The results of this study can answer the research question: “To what extent is the
advertisement frame retrievable in the blog posts of the fashion bloggers?” An interesting result is that the advertisement frame occurs significantly less often than the personalization frame. According to Kim, Lee and Shin (2008) the advertisement frame is mostly used in corporate or organization blogs. The reason why this frame is also retrievable in fashion blogs might be that fashion blogs are also corporate blogs to some extent. Even when it is indirect, fashion bloggers advertise for fashion brand, which is comparable with the content presented on corporate blogs.
Personalization proved to be a commonly used frame by journalists and political blogs (Iyengar, 1991; Van Santen & Van Zoonen, 2009; Vliegenthardt, Boomgaarden & Boumans, 2010). This research attempts to answer the question: “To what extent is the personalization frame retrievable in the fashion blog posts?” in order to find out if the news frame is
retrievable in fashion blogs. Results show that the personalization frame is the most frequently used frame of all frames by the fashion bloggers. By using the personalization frame that much, fashion bloggers focus a lot on their personal lives in the blog posts. A reason for this finding could be that the bloggers want to stay close to themselves and attract the attention from the readers with a personal touch. The findings are in line with those of Papacharissi (2002) who found that A-list bloggers revealed a lot of information about themselves.
The last sub question is “To what extent does the use of the human-interest frame, the economic consequences frame, the advertisement frame and the personalization frame differ among the five fashion bloggers?” The fashion bloggers differ significantly in the use of the advertisement frame and the personalization frame. The other two frames are more or less equally used by the fashion bloggers. Negin Mirsalehi uses the advertisement frame significantly more than all the other bloggers. This difference might be explained by the amount of followers the fashion bloggers have. Negin Mirsalehi has by far the most followers (2,5 million) while the other bloggers have around 130k followers. Because Negin has that much followers, there is a possibility that fashion brands approach her more often, leading to increased use of the advertisement frame. Lizzy van der Ligt uses the advertisement frame significantly more than Queen of Jetlags, this difference could possibly be explained by the different starting dates of the blogs. Lizzy van der Ligt started two years before Queen of Jetlags, which could lead to a higher awareness among fashion brands, leading her to use the advertisement frame more.
Another notable result is that Lizzy van der Ligt, Negin Mirsalehi and Raspberryrouge all use the personalization frame more than Queen of Jetlags. A reason for this difference might be that Queen of Jetlags is still searching for the best mix between writing about herself and other things because her blog was only launched in 2013 and all the other blogs exist for a longer period of time. She also asked her readers in one of her blog post whether she should write more about herself, which can be seen as the personalization frame, or about fashion, indicating that she is still searching for the perfect balance.
Again, Negin Mirsalehi uses the personalization frame significantly more than three other bloggers ( Lizzy van der Ligt, Queen of Jetlags and Afterdrk). This difference can be explained by personal preferences, some bloggers just like to talk more about their personal lives than other. Another explanation might be that over time, Negin Mirsalehi learned that using the personalization frame was the most effective way to gain more followers.
This study knows several limitations. First, a convenience sample is used to select the five fashion bloggers. This might have an effect on the generalizability of this research. However, the studied blog posts were randomly assigned which increases the generalizability. Still it is recommended that future research should use a different sampling method. Second, the inter-coder reliability was not as high as it should be for some variables, which could have a negative effect on the reliability of this research, meaning that a repetition of this research could lead to different results. Something else that might have a negative effect on the
reliability of this study is that it only had one coder, resulting in only one interpretation of the text. Even though an inter-rater reliability test is performed, it is recommended for future research to use multiple coders. An interesting suggestion for future research is to include the variable time. It is likely that time has an influence on the frames that the fashion bloggers use; a starting blogger might use very different frames than a blogger who already exists for a couple of years.
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