FASHION DESIGNER’S DISCOURSE COMMUNITY
Institution of Affiliation
FASHION DESIGNER’S DISCOURSE COMMUNITY
A discourse community is a group of people with a set of similar goals and is involved in interaction with a particular issue, field or topic. Discourse communities may be simple church groups, sports team, youth group or complex groups like a hard rock band. A community has to meet certain characteristics for it to merit the definition of a discourses community. These characteristics are described by Swales and other scholars as the principle determinants of a discourse community. Besides, discourse communities are unique in the way they operate thus making them easily distinguishable from other non-discourse communities. The restrictive manner in which discourse communities conduct their activities also acts as a means of showing how they are unique as compared to other communities.
According to (Swales, 297), the exact definition of a discourse community is determined by paying more attention to a Discourse Community concept. Swales states six qualities that a community must possess for it to merit as a discourse community. According to Swales, a community must possess a set of similar public goals that rare broadly agreed upon by all members of the community. The goals of a discourse community may be in formal documents and kept private, or may be made public. People join discourse communities for individual interest, professional backgrounds or other personal matters.
However, there are those who join discourse communities with hidden motives and interests of commercial or romantic advancement. These people tend to show a more independent outlook, which puts them at loggerheads with other members of the discourse community. In rare cases, discourse communities may split up due to ineffective communication. If the community lacks effective communication, then there is a possibility of that the community will ultimately break down and disintegrate completely. Swales notes that a discourse community must possess intercommunication mechanism among its members. However, the intercommunication varies from one community to another. According to (Swales, 301), members of a discourse community have a common professional goal in life.
The members of teen vogue magazine discourse community share resources and always interact through speech. Teen Vogue magazine discourse community also possess the ability to provide feedback and information using its participatory mechanism. This means that an individual’s input into a discourse community to ensure that multiple ideas are brought on the table for discussion. It is this information shared that will lead to a successful feedback from the discourse community. This is in line with the characteristics of a discourse community that requires the ownership and use of certain genre of communication to further their objective. A discourse community will always struggle to improve the expectations of the group members. These expectation span around duties, function, and topic. Also, the discourse community must have unique Lexis to improve its communication with members. None the less, a discourse community must have a verge level of members who possess a satisfactory degree of discoursal expertise and relevant content it (Swales, 312).
The membership of a discourse community vary depending on the goals, objectives and the nature of the discourse community, however, the most significant thing is that discourse communities have a small number that makes them know each other and are bound by location, time and specific interest of their discourse. Teens Vogue magazine has only seventy-two members, from teens, are and meet on the weekly and monthly basis. They also have the common interest of fashion design in their teen’s magazine. This is in line with the Porter’s view of a discourse community as a group of people bound by common goals and interest and use an approved channel of communication. Moreover, the membership of teens Vogue magazine has attained some lexis and a thresh hold of seventy-two members who all have a suitable degree and level of content and discoursal expertise. The editor of the magazine has taken the initiative to shape the world fashion, discovers, mentors, and coaches members to create successful models, photographers, designers and writers. Teen Vogue magazine have agreed n a set of goals that are public to showcase the talent in the locality where teen vogue magazine is situated.
Teen Vogue magazine possess all the above mentioned six characteristics and thus qualifies to be considered as a discourse community. For all their lifetime, the teen vogue magazine has embraced a common goal of latest fashion designs and trends, celebrity styles, beauty outfits and entertainment choice. They also have a common goal of getting inspired and entertained by their magazine on a daily basis. The teen vogue magazine has created a brand of dynamic lifestyle for the teens due to the pop culture, high fashion and street style that is molded to meet the interest of the teens. Thus, the goal of teen vogue magazine discourse community is to remain the leader and mentor of models and fashion stylist in the fashion industry. They struggle to attain this motive through continuous and regular meetings, training, auditions and mentorship programs for its members (Porter, 397).
There is exclusivity involved in a joining a teens Vogue magazine discourse community. In fact, membership to discourse communities specifies the experience one has to have to join it. Besides, one has to have similar interest as those embraced by teen’s Vogue magazine discourse community to be a member. This means that money will be required for routinely contribution into the operations of the discourse community. This is in line with Porter’s definition that a discourse community must share a common interest that bound them and be able to communicate through an approved forum where discourse is regulated. This is what create exclusivity and the presence of particular regulations that govern suitability of membership in Teen Vogue magazine discourse community (Porter, 402).
The Teens Vogue Magazine has also embraced the idea of communicating through emails, websites, text messaging. Similarly, teen vogue magazine also has mechanisms of intercommunication among their members that involve the use of Twitter and Facebook where its designers and members can peruse details concerning latest fashion trends and designs. They also discuss how to welcome visitors into the group, practicing session, auditions, and regular meetings. These modes of communication have been specifically chosen by teen vogue magazine because of the nature of the changing world social media trends that requires teens to stay updated every second. To achieve this mission of updating its members frequently, Teen Vogue magazine used the internet where it can easily get access to all information relating to latest fashion trends and designs.
Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community receives their feedback and information from surveys and emails. Their magazine is the primary genre of reference in their normal activities. Similarly, this discourse community has continued to use particular terminologies preserved for the professional publishers and fashion. Notwithstanding all these, the teen vogue magazine has a definite level of members who have a suitable degree of appropriate content and discoursal expertise with their magazine (Porter, 413).
The genres of Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community are very spectacular, and the community revolves around the magazine as the focal point of fashion designs. Additionally, Teen Vogue Magazine utilizes two genres of communication to further its aim. This discourse community makes use of its website to provide another source of the genre to its members. It is the passion of this discourse community to remain up to date with the latest fashion and designs in the market that make them keep on revisiting their genres. The magazine publishes articles, news, posts, and photos and produces a monthly magazine with interviews, events, special features. The two genres posed by teen vogue magazine helps them remain focused to their goals and cope with the societies need. The magazine publishes articles, news, posts, and photos are genres that help Teen Vogue Magazine to communicate their creative ideas concerning the expectations of the member and how the designs appear. The other genres of websites that had pictures allow members to display the makeup artist and fashion designs of how they would like their preferred models to look like (Wuthnow, 36).
During the fashion show, the level of intensity among the members Teen Vogue Magazine rose fast because the audience had high expectations and the members had personal motives for making a good impression on customers and coming out with the best fashion line. The fact that all members of Teen Vogue Magazine shared the goal of creating an impressive fashion design provided a sense of unity for the discourse community. For instance, the makeup artist is trained and mentored on how to make up models, designers make their work fine and the management ensure perfection I ala events organized by teen vogue magazine.
The formation of Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community takes along the process. It begins by people of a like-minded idea coming together to form the initial discourse community. What follows is a recruitment drive to ensure that only people with likes and interest similar to the ones embraced by Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community are given the opportunity to become members. Also, the discourse community ensures that it regulates its membership so that it does not go beyond the limit. Teens, for instance, comprises of teens who have passion if fashion design, the member are drawn from the locality where the offices of teen vogue magazine are located to ensure that communication and participation are guaranteed. To form a uniform group, Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community conducts interviews and auditions to ensure that its members are very similar in character and interests.
The specific lexis acquired in Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community include the communication among the designers using terms unique to the fashion community. It requires experience in various fields of fashion design techniques for one to understand such terms. It is for this reason that the membership of teen vogue magazine requires experience, money, high education and exclusive knowledge of the fashion language. Other lexis required include knowledge of brands in the fashion industry, walking styles and other nature of positions that are unique to the fashion industry. This makes teen vogue magazine a discourse community that possess verge level of members with an appropriate degree of applicable discoursal expertise and content (Porter, 423).
The constraint that faces Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community is catching up with the latest trend. However, it is clear that teen vogue magazine controls the fashion industry, and they are the one who determine what take the lead in fashion and design. The interest of their discourse forms the basis of the members of Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community remaining united. The locality is a requirement for convenient membership participation and furtherance of the interest of Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community. Since all members of Teen Vogue Magazine discourse community know each other, there is no possibility of an anonymous member of the community (Wuthnow, 56)
In conclusion, the Teen Vogue Magazine possess all the six characteristics that make them qualify to be a discourse community. They have done a lot of fashion show and have incorporated all the six characteristics of a discourse community to ensure that they remain stuck together. Of great importance is the manner in which this discourse community embraces its genre to make sure that they bring their goals and the interest of the public to a common agreement. Teen Vogue magazine has a level of expertise and gave newcomers an opportunity to join the group. They do this through continues mentorship of the newly recruited members. Thus, Teens Vogue magazine qualifies to be an effective discourse community
Porter, J. Intersexuality and the Discourse Community. Writing about Writing (395-409). Boston:
Bedford St. Martins (2014).
Swales, J. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing (215-229). Boston:
Bedford St. Martins (2013).
Wuthnow, Robert. Communities of Discourse: Ideology and Social Structure in the Reformation,
the Enlightenment, and European Socialism.(36-59) Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,
2012, Internet resource
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