Peer review evaluation of article suitability for publication

¶ … feature photography as a core element of their businesses. This includes many forms of social media. The author outlines how major social media companies like Facebook have bought app companies that focus on images and photography specifically because of the value those companies offer. The author also discusses some of the start-ups that exist in this sphere.

The work was published in Fast Company, which is not a journal, but a publication that started life as a print magazine. The audience for Fast Company consists of people who are interested in business stories -- so investors, business people and business students. The audience for Fast Company would be interested in the article, because it provide insight into a common trait that some big success stories have, and then notes a number of smaller companies that bear this common feature as well.

The readers are the same as the audience. As noted, it is a business publication, once a major magazine but Fast Company has a strong online presence with this type of informational, but not analytical, business reporting.

4. The author is billed as being a reporter for Fast Company. According to her profile on the Fast Company website, she has written several articles for the, usually on small, tech-related start-ups. So she has some experience writing about this topic. Judging by a Google search, she writes a lot for Inc. Magazine as well. They do the same type of articles, and is a competitor to Fast Company. So she is a professional writer for the business press, looking for interesting tech stories.

5. The author is selling an idea more than anything else. She uses second-person more than would be expected in a professional article. She uses anecdotal evidence to support her idea that photography is a common thread for many successful social media companies, and more or less throws out some apps to give the reader some ideas to think about. It is a combination of pathos and logos, but neither is used strongly -- the piece is more about informing than influencing.

6. For this audience, the tone is more or less appropriate. Fast Company's online presence in particular is quite casual in tone -- this article was done both in print and online. Even with that, the second person is probably a little bit too casual. This is, after all, a business publication. The language and word choice are otherwise fine. The article is not technical, and Fast Company tends to stay away from either industry or investing jargon -- it is business press for the masses. So the way that the author has written this article is, tone aside, in line with the norms for this publication.

7. The text begins with a hook -- though arguing that a company earning almost all of its billions from advertising (Facebook) is a photography company is a little spurious. This is a springboard into a rundown of different companies and how they are using photography in their business models. The article progresses into some of the newer concepts that are on the market, ending with a discussion about a couple of apps in particular. The article just kind of disappears at the end.