Article Critique for November 18

The following is a critique of the November 18^th New York Times Article “A Guerilla Video Site Meets MTV,” which is accessible via the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/business/media/19vice.html?hp

I find this article to have the structure and tone of a casual conversation.

Structurally, the story follows the rise in popularity of Vice magazine according to chronological sequence. There are no erratic jumps from one topic to the next that leave the convey a feeling of disorganization or lack of professionalism.

Stylistically, however, this story conveys the feeling of a casual conversation. The following excerpts are especially glaring examples:

1) “Vice did some work…” This description doesn’t provide information in regards to when this action occurred.

2) “Vice was started in Montreal in 1994…” This description personifies a corporate entity and doesn’t give specific evidence that supports Vice’s surprise.

3) “So the magazine started to cover more serious issues.” The word “so” at the beginning of this sentence creates an off-hand tone, in which separate sentences are blurred together more than most newspaper pieces.

4) “The deal with MTV gives Vice the resources to apply its D.I.Y. approach in a new medium, and it has enlisted Spike Jonze, the film director, as VBS creative director.” The large number of clauses in this enormous compound sentence draws the reader on through the sentence, which more emulates a conversation rather than conveys brief clips of information.

5) “There are no lights or makeup.” -This sentence doesn’t explicitly explain the situation in which there are no lights or makeup. While that piece of information was detailed earlier in the piece, the abrupt sentence is still irregular for its dependence on a larger context of the piece to be understood.

While this style of writing doesn’t detract from the general idea of the story, it does create a relaxed and slapdash tone.

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