Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Week 8

Week 8
(Oct. 18)

The magazine market represents an early example of market fragmentation. Rather than omnibus, general-interest publications of “all the news that’s fit to print” like newspapers, most magazines were and are created to fit a specific, narrow need in the marketplace. Even in this age of electronic “publications,” go to any bookstore (if you can still find one!) or Google “magazine,” and you’ll find hundreds or thousands of special-interest magazines—from American Ferret Farmers and Archery Today to Footwear Daily to the National Russet Potato Journal to Yachting to Zebra Life. This was a print example of the fragmentation/segmentation of the reading audience, which continues today in even greater form on the Web.

So this week we take a look at the evolving role of magazines and specialized publications as part of the larger question of the mass media’s role in your—and our—life.

Read Folkerts: Ch. 4 “Magazines”
The State of Magazines, 2009. Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism
Blog: Read Column: “Press Performance: A Revival Meeting for the Press” by Dr. Ted

For Fun: Here’s some “convergence”—Stephen Colbert takes over Newsweek magazine for a week (2009). “Why I Took This Crummy Job." Colbert takes over Newsweek’s Letters section.

Other stuff: Miniature Earth and Social Media Revolution (4 minutes)
Blogtalk: Weekly comment on the readings, the WORD, or events about the mass media or the press.
Quiz.


This is a fascinating guy. A professional iconoclast. Talk about a market niche!

Brann’s Newspaper Recipe: “Here is the recipe for making a ‘great daily’; let them who have stomachs for such work apply themselves: a scandal-in-high-life, first-page, double-leaded, screamer head; two or three columns of rocking chair speculation on matters political, Washington datelines; a few bogus or garbled interviews with prominent politicians; a suicide; a scandal-in-lowlife; a thrilling account of an impossible accident in Timbuctoo; report that a million Chinese have been drowned by an overflow of the Hwang-Ho; full and circumstantial report of a sensational divorce trial—not intended for Sunday-school reading; two-column account of a prize fight; a hanging, with all the ghastly details ‘worked up’; two columns of esoteric baseball lingo in which the doughty deeds of ‘Fatty,’ ‘Shorty,’ ‘Squatty,’ ‘Bow-Legged Bill’ and ‘Short-Stop Sam’ are painted in wonderful chiar-oscuro; account of the elopement of a society belle with a negro coachman; heavy editorial on the ‘Power of the Press’; more editorial inanity and offensive self-glorification; a pimping ‘personal’ column’ two columns of murdered men and English language; more toothsome scandal; market reports to mislead the country merchant; budget of foreign news—manufactured in New York; interesting case of ministerial crim. con.; advertisements of quack doctors, lost manhood restorers, syphilitic nostrums, preventative pills, and other things calculated to set the cheek of modesty aflame; local miscellany; police court reports and taffy in solid slugs. Jam to a mux and serve hot. Price, 5 cents. Now is the time to subscribe.”
William Cowper Brann (1855-1898), the “American Carlyle,” editor of The Iconoclast,
briefly the country’s most controversial magazine, with a national circulation
of a quarter-million. An enraged reader shot and, er, “edited” Brann
on the streets of Waco, Texas, on April Fool's Day, 1898.

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4 comments:

  1. Wow. Social networks are taking over the world. I know it should be a good thing, but I fear that is going to set us back. There is already a decline in social interaction because you can text, Facebook, or IM somebody. We're going to end up a bunch of socially awkward individuals who don't know how to communicate in person, and who won't be able to sustain normal relationships because we weren't taught how to interact without some form of technology in between the person we're talking to. Knowing how much is spent towards entertainment just makes me want to go out and watch, read, listen, etc to REAL news to make up for the slack. :/
    Unfortunately, I will probably be signing onto Facebook at least once today. Our world needs a serious intervention.

    --Chelsea Ebeling

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  2. I agree with you in so many ways Chelsea. I think that so many people look to social networks and depend on the opinions stated there instead of the facts they should be relying on in other media outlets.

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  3. I think I would have to disagree with you. People have grown numb to advertising and with it everywhere you can't trust their intentions. However, people trust what their friends and colleagues have to say.
    I had a personal experience this week, where the Tooele community received its first fallen soldier since the war began. A radical church was from Kansas had made reports of traveling to the funeral to protest. I phone continuously went off for hours with Facebook updates, and text messages calling for the community to come together. The turnout was huge in hopes to create a barrier betweent the protesters and the soldiers family. It was quite an amazing experience and how else would you call an entire community together for support with something like that experience?

    Chasity Woolley

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  4. Completely off topic from the rest of the discussion, but I really enjoyed reading about magazines. I LOVE magazines, my husband always asks why I don't read the articles on the Internet instead of paying for a subscription... But I think there is an experience to actually holding the magazine in my hands and seeing the glossy pages and bright colors. The Internet just can't compete. Which makes me really hope that in the future, magazines will continue. I'm doing my part.

    Annika Jones

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