Research paper understanding the foundation of ethics and journalism as well as how they are apply to recent ethical violations across top publications from Vogue, Teen Vogue and Refinery29 all the way down to top fashion bloggers including Danielle Bernstein of "WeWoreWhat", Arielle Charnas of "Something Navy" and Leandra Medine Cohen of "Man Repeller."

Introduction

Ethics shape our decision-making skills in life, in our careers, our way of thinking and being. They largely impact our interactions with other people and how we are received by them that sets the tone of how the relationship is set moving forward. Our internal foundation of ethics is established from varying aspects of our lives — How we were raised, our environment, our education, our habits, our internal narrative to ourself, who we surround ourselves with and very importantly where we receive our external information from. That very external information correlates directly to the role that journalists undertake by creating stories and sharing information to the larger public. Journalists have an integral duty to provide true and factual information on the premise of public interest. However, this has not always been in the case in fashion journalism all the way from top fashion publications to independent fashion bloggers. In recent years, ethical scandals in the fashion journalism sphere have included working conditions and pay, racism, copying of designs and response to the Covid-19 pandemic to name a few. This essay will explore the founding principles of ethics, how they interconnect to modern journalism as well as connecting them to ethical issues that have occurred in fashion journalism and why it matters.

What are Ethics? What are the different types of Ethics?

Oxford Dictionary defines ethics as, "moral principles that control or influence a person's behaviour" (Oxford Dictionary, 2019). Practically speaking, one can define ethics as a rule book, guidebook, value system, founding principles, or virtue that steer behaviour. Each person's individual ethics are as unique as their DNA as no two are alike and people do not think and behave in the exact same manner. They help us decide between good and evil, right and wrong action and inaction, speaking and silence and many variations in-between. Considering this, where did ethics come from? For they answer to that we look far back to the history books to "the Greeks in the thought and writings of Socrates (c.470– 399 BC), Plato (427– 347 BC) and Aristotle (384– 322 BC)" (Sanders, 2003, p. 24). The origin of the word ethics itself derives from the Greeks as it is, "expressed by the Greek word ethikos, ethics is precisely this, something pertaining to character. Moralis is the Latin translation of the Greek word and the term from which we derive the more restricted notions of morals and morality centred on the notion of obligation" (Sanders, 2003, p. 24).

After the Greeks laid the groundwork of this philosophical notion, then came various other idealist who had their own interpretations of what ethics and moral should be. Aside from Aristotle and his ethical theory known as virtue ethics which is "Where good character is emphasised" (Sanders, 2003, p. 24), two additional important figures include Immanuel Kant founding duty ethics as well as Bentham and Mill who created the utilitarianism methodology. Kant's deontological ethics can be described as, "Where the emphasis is placed on the notion of duty" (Sanders, 2003, p. 24) whereas Bentham and Mills' theory is "Where the consequence of action is underlined" (Sanders, 2003, p. 24). To put these theories into practical language virtue relates more to quality of character, duty is more about treating others the way you would want to be treated and consequentialism as weighing good actions against potential bad outcomes.

Applying it to Modern Journalism

Ethics are set on a human level our moral compass and decision making that directly impacts ourselves as well as our network of peers. As journalist, that network of peers further expands from a few people to several hundreds, thousands or millions of people that read or hear about the journalist's work, actions and reputations and cause a ripple effect of how the consumers then think, act and behave. This responsibility can best be described as, "Journalists sketch in the contours of our contribute to the business of telling us who we are, interpreting the intelligible" (Sanders, 2003, p. 19). Not just standard journalists, but lifestyle journalists specifically are even more impactful as, "Lifestyle journalists as arbiter of ''taste cultures'' (Bourdieu, 1984; also Gans, 1974) are part of the social negotiation of status and power (Hanush, 2013). The larger media, journalists themselves, their voice and words have a greater impact on the wider public consciously or subconsciously more than people realise influencing the highs and lows of status and power that Hanush mentions.

Diving deeper and bringing together how ethics and journalism correlate together, the first of three duties that define journalistic integrity is, "To inform the public about incidents, trends, and developments in society and government. Journalists are obliged to gather information as best they can and to tell the truth as they find it. They must be undaunted in their pursuit of truth and unhampered by conflicting interests" (Smith, 2008, p. 28). The second duty is, "To treat people — both those in their audience and those who are making news — with fairness, respect, and even compassion. It does journalists little good to strive for the truth if a large number of people do not believe news reports because they do not trust or respect the news media" (Smith, 2008, p. 28). The last notion is, "To nurture the democratic process. For people to govern themselves, they must be informed about the issues and the actions of their government. The news media are the chief providers of that information" (Smith, 2008, p. 28). These three frameworks are essential of journalist establishing credibility, pursuing and reporting the truth, reporting on issues in the best interest of public knowledge, being objective and not influenced by outside means and causing no harm by what they report.

Keeping with these three principles by Smith in mind, there are three case studies of how major fashion publications as well as three case studies of well-known fashion bloggers failed to abide by journalistic codes of ethics in their reporting and best practices. While fashion journalism at major publications and independent fashion journalism blogs cover very similar topics, the overall approach, tone, research and credibility of these media sources are opposite ends of the spectrum. Despite their differences, they do in fact mirror and rely on one another in somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. According to Bolter and Grusin's novel Remeditation: Understanding New Media they explain the meaning of remediation as, ''What is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media" (Bolter and Grusin, 2003, p. 15). Hanush gives a further practical definition of it saying, "a process whereby both new and old media represent and refashion each other" (Hanush, 2013, p. 100). This shows that what happens in fashion journalism old and new is cyclical which is where they have cross over in some of the same ethical issues.

Cases Studies of Fashion Journalism Ethics Violations: Major Top Major Fashion Publications

One of the first, well known ethical violations that woke up the fashion industry occurred in 2014 when Vogue, owned by Conde Nast, faced a major lawsuit from former interns who alleged they were underpaid. The details of the $5.8 million settlement states, "The New York-based publisher will retroactively pay more than 7,000 former interns from the past seven years who had worked at Vanity Fair, Vogue and other magazines. Payments will range from $700 to $1,900, according to the settlement" (The Guardian, 2014). One might ask, how did this lawsuit even come to surface? According to The Guardian, "Matthew Leib and Lauren Ballinger, who interned with the New Yorker and W Magazine respectively, said in the suit that Condé Nast paid them less than a dollar an hour. Their attorneys argued that the tasks they performed, such as proofreading articles and organizing and delivering fashion accessories to editors, amount to the same work as an ordinary employee, and thus deserved payment" (The Guardian 2014). The article goes on to explain the conflicts of work ethics stating "Eric Glatt, one of the former interns involved in the Black Swan suit and a supporter of the Intern Labor Rights group, told the Guardian it was "another victory" for interns' rights. "This is a serious issue, and employers ignore it at their peril. The tide is moving in the direction of paying everybody for their labor, including students, whom employers traditionally exploit with the term 'intern'. These big settlements validate that we're on the right side of this issue"" (The Guardian, 2014). He goes onto say, ""Many companies offer college credit in return for unpaid internships, or argue that the work experience itself, especially if at a prestigious magazine or think-tank, is valuable enough to justify a lack of payment or minimal stipends. Some magazines and organisations maintain a non-profit status, which exempts legally them from certain minimum wage requirements for interns"" (The Guardian, 2014). While it is unconscionable to have students exploited for free labor based on a learning experience, it is further jarring and unethical that students were doing the exact same work a full-time employee would be doing minus the pay a full-time staffer would receive.

Conde Nast faced yet another ethical scandal years later and more recently in 2021 this time with their publication Teen Vogue and Editor then newly announced and now former Editor-In-Chief Alexi McCammond. The reasoning for her firing is summarised as, "Her job status became shaky days after Condé Nast named her to the position, when the offensive tweets she had posted as a teenager in 2011 resurfaced. They included comments on the appearance of Asian features, derogatory stereotypes about Asians and slurs for gay people. Ms. McCammond had apologised for the tweets in 2019 and deleted them. Screenshots of the tweets were recirculated on social media after her hiring at Teen Vogue was announced on March 5" (Robertson, 2021). Even despite being underage at the time and the timeframe of these comments being ten years pre-dating her new position, without question her remarks are appalling. The ethical violation of this nature of this is further deepened that Conde Nast was in fact aware of her racist comments before awarding her the position. The article goes on to state, "Ms. McCammond had been vetted before Condé Nast hired her, and top executives including Mr. Lynch and Anna Wintour, the chief content officer and the global editorial director of Vogue, were aware of the decade-old racist tweets, Mr. Duncan said in his note on Thursday, and Ms. McCammond acknowledged them in interviews with the company. Ms. Wintour discussed the tweets with leaders of colour at Condé Nast before the job was offered, according to a company executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel issue. Ms. McCammond struck Condé Nast leaders as an impressive candidate, the executive said, and they felt her 2019 apology showed that she had learned from her mistakes. Although the company was aware of the racist tweets, it did not know about the homophobic tweets or a photo, also from 2011, that was recently published by a right-wing website showing her in Native American costume at a Halloween party, the executive said. The vetting process did not turn up the additional material because it had been deleted, the executive added" (Robertson, 2021). Despite the company knowing of the racist words and behaviour, they chose to turn a blind eye to the situation until the mounting evidence again McCammond was irrefutable. The publication faced further pressure when the company internal protest was compounded with external protests when, "Ulta Beauty and Burt's Bees, major advertisers with Teen Vogue, suspended their campaigns with the publication" (Robertson, 2021). This is a great example of how lifestyle journalism impacts consumers best explained by, "The development of lifestyle journalism exemplifies media institutions' acknowledgement of commercialism, consumerism and consumption as important to their audiences and to their business models" (Vodanovic, 2019, p. 16). This shows that when ethical issues arise within a company the bad public relation that come after the fact can have a detrimental impact from key investors in the company and these brands taking a firm stance against this rhetoric.

However, there are indications that the company was aware of the toxic working environment before and after McCammond's firing. The Guardian article goes onto state, "Condé Nast has reckoned with complaints of racism in its workplace and content over the past year. In June, amid the Black Lives Matter protests, Ms. Wintour sent a note to the Vogue staff, writing that, under her leadership, the magazine had not given enough space to "Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators" and acknowledging that it had published "images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant"" (Robertson, 2021). This goes to show the admission of the company that they could have and should have done more to do and be better against racism, but they consciously or unconsciously chose not to. The company was more concerned with protecting their image and reputation rather than protecting employees, their working conditions and rights. The is supported by, "Condé Nast's human resources department also met with the Teen Vogue staff, three of the people said. The publication's employees were reminded of a company policy requiring them to check with the communications team before making public statements. The staff members were also told they should keep their criticisms "in the family," and they were left feeling they had little guidance on how to interact with their readers, one of the people said." (Robertson, 2021). The ethical issue grows further as the employees state they feel unsupported and silenced by the company despite the company's admission of wrongdoing and guilt.

Outside of Vogue, another major fashion publication Refinery29 also faced ethical issues with racism and discrimination in the workplace resulting in the co-founder and top editor of the company Christene Barberich resigning under pressure. When explaining her reasoning for her resignation, Barberich stated, ""I've read and taken in the raw and personal accounts of Black women and women of colour regarding their experiences inside our company at Refinery29," Ms. Barberich wrote in a post on Instagram. "And, what's clear from these experiences, is that R29 has to change. We have to do better, and that starts with making room. And so I will be stepping aside in my role at R29 to help diversify our leadership in editorial and ensure this brand and the people it touches can spark a new defining chapter" (Robertson, 2020). While the inappropriate behaviour is not directly linked to Barberich as it was to McCammond at Vogue, she acknowledges and takes accountability for allowing it to occur, shows remorse and commits to improving the company to ensure that issues like this do not happen again. Her statement was well received by people associated with the company as a "Former senior news editor for Refinery29 Ashley Alese Edwards stated, ""It's a step in the right direction. I hope this sparks conversation and change in other newsrooms as well, because this is not an issue unique to just Refinery29"' (Robertson, 2020). The ripple effect of the scandal didn't just impact current and former staff members, it also transcended all the way up the corporate ladder to the parent company Vice Media that owns Refinery 29. The New York Times article states, "Vice Media's chief executive, Nancy Dubuc, said in an email Monday to the staffs of Vice and Refinery29 that the company would overhaul its hiring and retention practices to "ensure equal opportunity and an inclusive culture."" (Robertson, 2020). With Refinery29 staff being unionise, it adds further support for their issue and their call to action. The union, "part of the Writers Guild of America, East, said in a statement that it supported the departure of Ms. Barberich. "Our list of demands is long," it added, "and we're working with management to also address the systemic issues that hinder and hurt our past and present employees."" (Robertson, 2020). Unlike Vogue whose human resources department did not support their employees with McCammond, Refinery29 as a company has actioned internal change learning from their past mistakes.

Cases Studies of Fashion Journalism Ethics Violations: Fashion Bloggers

Unfortunately, unethical forms of fashion journalism aren't just for the top publications but has now trickled down to even independent fashion bloggers themselves. Leandra Medine Cohen of "Man Repeller," Arielle Charnas of "Something Navy," and Danielle Bernstein of "WeWoreWhat" all faced their own respective reckonings after being held accountable for unethical behaviour and journalism ranging from racism, violating Covid-19 restrictions, editing pictures that perpetuate negative body images and copying of other brands' designs. They are now prime examples of what the media calls "cancel culture." By evaluating each of these case studies, each represents an example of the moral and ethical responsibilities that lifestyle journalists have to their audiences.

When Covid-19 was in the early days of people getting sick and lock downs happening in The U.S. in March 2020, Arielle Charnas of "Something Navy" blog shared her story of her as well as her husband contracting Covid with her audience. Despite her transparency of trying to be open and honest with her audience sharing her truth, it proved to be very regrettable later. As reported by Women's Wear Daily, "The influencer first made headlines in mid-March when she used connections to get a COVID-19 test while there was a shortage of tests across the country. She documented the process on her Instagram Stories, which caused the initial uproar. She informed her 1.3 million Instagram followers on March 18 that she tested positive for the virus. She listed the ways that she would be handling her diagnosis, including quarantining and self-isolating and notifying family and friends that she had been in close contact with over the last two weeks. Just a few days later, Charnas' Instagram Stories showed that she had decamped with her family to the Hamptons, which went against quarantine and self-isolation guidelines set by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention for those with the virus" (Ilchi, 2021). The outrage from the public and media became so unrelenting that The New York Post famously called Charnas "Covidiot." After Charnas cried during her apology video after receiving threats towards herself and her family she stated, "She initially began posting her health updates to "share with my followers what I was feeling in case it could possibly help others get in touch with the right health professionals or know they were potentially contagious" (Ilchi, 2021). While Charnas claimed after the fact she had only the best intentions in mind and that it was intended to help her audience with the public interest defence, the public simply did not buy it and believed her motives were self-serving.

Danielle Bernstein, fashion blogger and designer of "WeWoreWhat" has faced many ethical controversies. So much so that Insider has written a timeline of her various controversies ranging from multiple occasions of her stealing designs from various other brands for her to reproduce for her own label, threatening a fashion reseller selling her designs legally and brands who they believed she copied with legal action, over editing her pictures and teaching her followers how to hide their cellulite in pictures and not following Covid guidelines after contracting Covid while partying in The Hamptons without social distancing and wearing a mask. Despite the overwhelming evidence of her copying designs for her own brand, Bernstein has categorically denied any wrongdoing stating, ""Why am I sharing this now? … Because I'm fed up with this false narrative being spread about me stealing designs when I have time after time proven each accusation false"" (Fernandez and Willen, 2021). Unlike Charnas who admitted her faults and her professing to do better, Bernstein still claims her innocence in all allegations without any remorse or accountability.

The final example of a fashion blogger violating journalism ethics is with Leandra Medine Cohen and her blog "Man Repeller." In the wake of the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, Cohen posted on her Instagram in support of the cause. She stated, "How Man Repeller planned to foster underrepresented voices and talents moving forward, but also wanted to apologise: Following the murder of George Floyd, the site had quickly turned its social media accounts over to sharing antiracism resources, which followers criticised as one of many examples of an influencer-led business offering advice instead of looking within. As Medine Cohen wrote, "I have a lot of listening and learning and growing to do before I will truly know how to thoroughly make a sustained impact in the fight to eradicate systemic racism"" (Tashjian, 2020). The hypocrisy of that matter was that Cohen was professing her support for Black Lives Matter for other people to follow, however she wasn't instilling that ethos within her own company as there were multiple reports of racism as well as people of colour losing their jobs. GQ quoted a former employee as just one example of the internal company racism culture saying, ""As a former POC employee that was let go during COVID-19, this 'apology' is a slap in the face and honestly disgraceful," read a comment left by ex–photo editor Sabrina Santiago on the post. "I hope everyone sees that this is another performative attempt to cover racist actions" (Tashjian, 2020). Essentially, the backlash came from people stating that Cohen needed to practice what she was preaching before she tells other people what they should or shouldn't do on such a heavily weighted and controversial topic. Ultimately the company tried to save face and right their wrongs by Leandra announcing that she would step away from the company. After this, the company tried to rebrand the blog but ultimately and suddenly the blog closed just a few months later.

Conclusion

What can be seen across all six of the case studies is that the journalists represented here thought of the short-term gain and of themselves instead of the larger picture and how their actions matter to other people with the journalists being in the public eye. These all tie into the three forms of ethics discussed earlier including virtue, duty and consequentialism. This can be further represented in methodology aligned with these three ideas that they should "Act to treat human beings always as an end and not merely as a means' would create huge difficulties for journalists who think only of getting a good story. The absolute prohibition against lying would also constitute a severe difficulty for those engaged in subterfuge, even if the justification was the strongest public interest defence that could be mustered" (Sanders, 2003, p. 28). This quote applies well with the case of Arielle Charnas and her Covid scandal as she claimed she posted in the best interest of the public, she was capitalising on her privilege to get a good story and not any of the ramifications that were to come of it. It can also apply in the case of Danielle Bernstein with her copying designs from other brands as she is purely thinking of her own profitability and gaining attention from the public relations scandals at the expense of others.

Tony Harcup in his novel "The Ethical Journalist" discusses how marginalised people and groups within society are oppressed through the media defining the term as "democratic deficit." He states, "The perspectives of people living in poorer societies, and poorer areas of wealthy societies, are often marginalised in favor of the powerful and glamorous" (Harcup, 2006, p. 139). As seen in the cases of racism in fashion journalism with Teen Vogue's Alex McCammond, Refinery29 and Man Repeller and Vogue's internship scandal is that these fashion publications have exploited the marginalised and vulnerable people including poor students wanting to succeed in their career and people of colour for their own benefit as there are in a position of power. Because of this, that is why employees of these companies, and the public were so outraged. The problem with this aside from the ethical issues is, "That many people disengage from mainstream media that too often seem to have disengaged from them" (Harcup, 2006, p. 139). This can be translated in terms that quite simply people will not engage with media that does not reflect their value systems or reflect diversity. Coming back to the basics of ethics, these journalists and publications must exemplify virtue, duty and consequences to ensure consumers that these are isolate incidents and they will not continue and influence others any more than they already have. For each of these journalists and publications to rebound from their ethical issues they must follow the professional ethics of journalists best described as, "Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly. Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including from within their organisations. Abide by the same high standards they expect of others" (Society of Professional Journalists, 2014). Hopefully each of these cases learned from their mistakes to be better for their viewership, support their employees and better their reputations. Ethics are not just a term applicable for the mainstream public but should be further upheld and practiced even more so by journalists and publications bearing in mind the greater impact on themselves, their business and their consumers.

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