Evaluation of General Sources.

Are the Sources Legit?

After picking my topic I found a few sources that go along with the controversy that I'm researching (Abercrombie and Fitch plus size controversy). Now I have to determine whether or not these sources seem legit.

Altmann, Gerd. "Road Town Sign Place Name Sign Authenticity" 9/31/15 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License

The First Source

The first source I cam across was YouTube video from David Pakman (Link to Video). 

URL: The website ends in .com, and although YouTube.com itself is a reliable website, however, the content creators might not be so reliable. David Pakman's channel is verified on YouTube, which does offer some sort of promotion towards being well known, rather than being some random individual. The .com domain is never for safe nor unsafe, it just depends on the site itself.

Author: The author is David Pakman, who has an MBA from Bentley University and a BA in Economics and Communications from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Pakman has been broadcasting for about 13 years, since 2003. These are the main qualifications I could find about Pakman.

Last Updated:There are no links on the YouTube page, but on his actual channel he updates videos at least once a week. I went to his actual website and found it updated, and it contained all of his YouTube videos as well. After viewing his website, it was updated on January 29th, 2016.

Purpose: Pakman seems to be trying to inform the viewer in this video, although I feel that it can be seen as entertainment at the same time. He didn't really promote any products in the video, but does promote his website and channel in the drop down bar from the video. He just analyzed the situation and gave a run down of the resurfacing controversy (in 2013).

Graphics: The only graphics are the background of his video that is similar to anything you would see on a news broadcast. There was nothing flashy that directed the viewer's attention away from Pakman. The graphics merely serve for the purpose of being professional.

Position on Subject: Pakman does seem sort of biased, although tries to give Abercrombie and Fitch the benefit of the doubt. He sees how their idea of promoting the "cool" kids could have been a marketing idea, even though it turned out to be a very bad one. Only Pakman can profit off of these videos as there were no advertisements in the video itself (only google ads would play, but those are completely random). He is not promoting anyone but himself.

Links: No sources are cited in this video, nor in the comment section. I can not find any links that show where he found the information for this video.

The Second Source

Another source I found was from CNN (Link here).

URL: The URL is from a section of cnn.com, so obviously it is a .com website. Since it is a .com it could be either an unreliable link or a reliable link, I have to further investigate to make sure it is legitimate. CNN itself is a reliable news agency, however we could possibly expect some biased information from them (sometimes not all the time).

Author: The author is Paul R. La Monica and he is a digital correspondent for CNN Money. He has been working with CNN Money since 2001, and held other jobs prior to that. He is a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, class of 1995.

Last Updated: The article itself does not list the last time it was updated, although the site itself has been updated daily. It was published on March 6th, 2015. Links on this page still work as well, as they lead to related articles or brands that help better understand the controversy.

Purpose: The purpose of this article/video is to inform the viewer that Abercrombie and Fitch's sales are plummeting, and that the ship of their company is slowly sinking. There seems to be no promotion on this page, as there are just cold hard facts about Abercrombie and Fitch's current financial standings.

Graphics: There are no graphics in this video besides the pictures of Abercrombie clothes and their rival stores such as American Eagle. These illustrate the fact that the competitors are rising above Abercrombie, and that Abercrombie is slowly withering away in the modern day fashion scene.

Position on Subject: La Monica doesn't seem very biased in this article. He simply states the facts and findings as he sees them, and doesn't beat around the bush. The only people that profit from these videos are Abercrombie's rivals. If people see that A & F's brand is sinking, almost no one will shop there anymore. It seems just to be a matter of time until they are underwater.

Links: The source does not offer any external links or further readings. The closest thing that it offers is related articles to this story, but that is about it. No sources can be found either.