Analysis Project: Arts & Humanities Lauren Norris Morgan Burkett Chandler Gardner
Jul 17, 2015
General Information
The New York Times (NYT) is daily paper that is issued around the country. The paper is published,
and also founded in September 18, 1851, in New York by The New York Times Company. The paper,
printed version, has the largest distribution of any metropolitan newspaper in the entire country. It is
also the second largest distributed paper around the globe, only behind The Wall Street Journal.
Since the mid ‘70’s, The New York Times has added special weekly sections alongside the
regular news, sports, editorials, and feature news to expand the paper. Because of this, the paper has
recently organized the different topics into sections: News, Editorials, Business, Sports, Arts, Science,
Style, Home, Review, etc. The paper has also begun to publish The New York Times Style Magazine,
which includes some of the same information as the Sunday paper as well as longer “style” articles.
Beginning in 2012, The New York Times raised the cost of its paper by 50 cents. The cost
for the Monday to Saturday issues is $2.50. Since the Sunday issue is much bigger than the rest of the
week, readers can buy the edition for $5 in New York and $6 anywhere else in the country.
Subscriber’s can also have The New York Times delivered to their home for the same price as well.
Purpose
The New York Times is one of the most diverse newspapers in terms of content. The Times is divided
into more than 15 sections. This includes the more serious topics like World News, Politics, Business,
US, Technology, Science, and Health. Along with the more “hard news” topics, the Times also
includes more feature sections like Arts, Sports, Style, Food, Home, Travel, Magazine, Obituaries, and
Real Estate.
The motto of The New York Times is “All the News That’s Fit to Print” and it can be seen in the
upper left corner on the front page of the paper. Since The New York Times can also be found online,
the online publication’s motto is “All the News That’s Fit to Click”.
In the Arts section of The New York Times it is divided into further sections as well. The different
topics include art & design, books, dance, movies, music, television, theater, video games, events,
and international arts. The type of articles that one will find include fan based reviews, informed
critiques, profiles of different people, etc.
Audience
The “Arts” section of “The New York Times” seems to attempt to appeal to a wide range of audiences solely
based upon the different types of content represented in the published articles. In the one single hard print
issue the topics include video games, plays/theatre, opera, more “poppy” music, orchestra and interpretive
music shows, television, movies, dance, books, and even Bridge. The section also, of course, contains the
daily crossword puzzle, and number puzzles. Simply judging by the wide range of topics covered in this
section shows that there is content that almost anybody can connect with and enjoy. By including the article
“Tantalizing Potential Outpaces Reality” which is based upon an emerging technology, that is as of now
centralized around gaming, called the Oculus Rift creates an access point for this section of the newspaper to
an audience that may be generally less interested in the bulk of the content.
Articles such as the show review of “Josephine and I” which is a tribute by Jumbo Cush; or the opening of a
new orchestra concert hall in New York occupy most of the space in this section of the newspaper. The
content in these articles is heavily geared towards a much more specific audience than that of the virtual
reality technology article. The prominence of these types of articles that gear toward such a specific audience
shows (ignoring the title of the paper) that the primary target audience of this section of the paper is art
consumers who live in or are frequent visitors of New York specifically.
Visual Identity
“The New York Times” Makes an effort through their visual aspects to appeal to a specific
audience and create a specific visual identity. In the print edition, it is clear just by looking at
the pages which articles are most important to the editors of this newspaper. There are very
few pictures that are in color but the select few that are, are attached to articles such as dance
and theatre review; articles that would generally draw in and appeal to an educated, wealthy,
and middle aged and older audience. The newspaper chooses to publish many more of these
articles than those that would appeal to a wider or different audience, and they take a much
larger portion of the page.They create their own visual identity through their primary target
audience.
Subjects and Genre: Needs
To be considered a critique, the articles need to fall into the qualifications
of subjects aimed towards enthusiasts over fans. Articles need to be more in-
depth and insightful than a simple review. The idealized desire of the targeted
audience is to be creatively informed of how a certain subject can satisfy their
interests as an enthusiast of the arts.
Subjects and Genre: Interest
● Theatre
o Broadway
o Documentaries
o Directors/Actors Biographies
● Movies
o Past and up-and-coming cinemas
o Actors
● Television Reviews
● Video Games
● Events
● Arts & Design
o Internation Arts
● Music Reviews
● Book Reviews
● Dance
Subjects and Genre: Purpose● The New York Times is successful in meeting the
needs of the enthusiasts that loyally return to the
publication. This can be seen in the way that The
New York Times has included 10 different sections
under the Arts.
● The recurring theme that can be seen in the Arts and
Leisure section is that it aims to show the
significance that one person, a single piece of art, or
a performance can have in the arts and humanities.
● The advertising that is seen in The New York Times,
both online and in the printed publication, is
successful in meeting the purpose of reaching the
target audience by catching their attention with an
intriguing photo and using ads that are relevant and
relatable to the audience.
Enticing All to See the Bigger Picture
The article linked above is an excellent example of the type of enthusiast geared articles
that “The New York Times” produces. The author is clearly an avid consumer of video
games yet he wishes to show other enthusiasts that there is something more to gaming
than just entertainment. In the article he expresses having what he calls digital anxiety.
By this he means that at times he feels and believes that other gamers feel like spending
time playing video games is a waste of time. He goes on to describe a video game (which
truthfully sounds terribly awful) that he has been playing that has a large amount of
philosophical and literary content that he feels creates a more fulfilling experience. This
article is an example of an enthusiast critique because the author examines aspects of a
non mainstream game in a unique way with a perspective that could change the way
people game. The author suggests through writing this article that through clever ideas
video games can be a thought provoking existential experience.
In the article, “In the Documentary ‘GTFO’, Female Video Gamers Fight Back”, Robert Ito writes
about the psychological and sexual harassment that female gamers are receiving from other
male gamers on a daily basis. This article is an excellent example of an enthusiast analysis
piece for The New York Times. The reason behind this is though Ito is speaking about the
subject video games, the article is focused more on the difficult journey that Jenny Haniver, the
main subject for the documentary, is taking in making this movie. The topic of the reaction to
the verbal abuse that female gamers experience has been one that has been gaining more
attention. In the documentary it tackles more than just the issue of verbal harassment; it also
looks at the body images issues that come from the way that female characters are drawn and
dressed in video games. Haniver explains in the article that she not only hopes to make people
aware of this kind of abuse, but also hopes to reach out and inspire female gamers, “I don’t
think that women just naturally aren’t interested in gaming,” she continued. “I think gaming
culture itself has driven women out”. This article is one that even if you’re not into the video
game scene, it’s good to know how women are being treated throughout multiple industries.
In the Documentary ‘GTFO’, Female Video
Gamers Fight Back
Unexpected Lessons from ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’A.O. Scott analyzes the worldwide cinema “Fifty Shades of Grey” with a
critical tone in The New York Times on February 28, 2015. Instead of simply
reviewing the basis of the film, he gives detailed opinions of how extremes
from the book compare to the cinema. For instance, Scott says that Ms.
Taylor-Johnson’s filmmaking “restores the aura of mystery”, thus improving
the author’s original text, which rode the line of a “bad pornography”. He
continues to argue that fans and critics aren’t always looking for the same
thing. This helps him to introduce his opinion that the movie was more
creative than the book. Scott goes further into his review and makes
connections to other films that aspired from a book series, such as Twilight
and Harry Potter. In addition, he addresses the idea that some films have the
power to completely transform a viewer’s mindset or openness to make them
perceive a cinema like a targeted viewer. By making these assumptions and
in-depth connections, Scott appeals more to enthusiasts as viewers over
fans by offering a more insightful analysis of the cinema.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/movies/unexpected-lessons-from-fifty-shades-of-grey.html?smid=pl-share
Works Cited
"Arts." The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Robert. "In the Documentary ‘GTFO,’ Female Video Gamers Fight Back." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 07 Mar. 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Scott, A.O. “Unexpected Lessons From Fifty Shades of Grey”. The New York Times. 28 Feb. 2015. Web. 09
Mar. 2015
Suellentrop, Chris. "Enticing All to See the Bigger Picture." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan.
2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Suellentrop, Chris. "Virtual Reality’s Potential Displayed at Game Developers Conference." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 08 Mar. 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.