Chapter 6 Magazines

Elite Stage

Phase of media evolution in which only the richest and best educated members of the population make use of a particular medium.

Popular Stage

Phase of media evolution in which a truly mass audience takes advantage of a particular medium.

Specialized Stage

Phase of media evolution in which a particular medium tends to break up into segments for audience members with diverse and specialized interests.

Distinctive Functions of Magazines

1. More long-form writing

2. Usually publishes at intervals less frequently than newspapers

3. Usually published on higher-quality stock than newspapers.

Timeline

Edifying, Frank Brad, Saturday

Photo, classification, muckrakers

Superman, Ebony Jet, New Yorker

• 1663 Invention: Edifying Monthly Discussions, the first magazine published in germany. 

• 1741: Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford publish America’s first magazine, General Magazine (Franklin) and American Magazine (Bradford).

• 1821: The Saturday Evening Post becomes the first magazine to reach a wide public audience. 

• 1861: Photojournalism is born at the First Battle of Manassas when Matthew Brady convinces President Lincoln that a complete record of the war should be made.

• 1879: Maturity: The Mail Classification Act of 1879 gave magazines second-class mailing privileges and a cheap mailing rate.

• 1902: Ida Tarbell’s series on Standard Oil in McClure’s Magazine comes to symbolize the era of muckraking.  

• 1938: jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster create Superman for DC Comics in Action #1. 

• 1945: John Johnson launches Ebony and then Jet, the most successful magazine publisher for African American readers. 

• 1995: Advanced Publications buys The New Yorker for more than $185 million, beginning the era of magazine industry consolidations.

Norman Rockwell

Premier Cover Artist

Cropping

The removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter, or change aspect ratio. 

What amputation results from photography

Realistic Art

Postmodernism

Essence instead of realism 

General Interest Magazine

Magazines published for a wide audience with a focus on either one particular subject or many different ones.

Trade Magazines

Target specific professionals and are often sponsored publications “free,” as part of an organized membership. 

Public Relations Magazines

The range of corporate magazines that can target customers, employees, stockholders, and/or dealers.

Academic Journals

Scholarly journals, periodicals relating to a particular academic field.

Comic Books

Originally connections of syndicated comic strips reprinted from newspapers. In the 1930s, comic books became original works consisting of comic art, captions, and word balloons to tell stories.

Top 10 Magazines in 1972

1. Reader’s Digest

2. T.V. Guide

3. Women’s Day

4. Better Homes and Gardens

5. Family Circle

6. McCall’s

7. National Geographic

8. Ladies Home Journal

9. Playboy

10. Good Housekeeping

Top 10 Magazines in 2020

1. AARP Magazine

2. AARP the Bulletin

3. Game Informer

4. Better Homes and Gardens

5. AAA Living

6. Good Housekeeping

7. National Geographic

8. Family Circle

9. People

10. Woman’s Day

Reboot

Remake of an earlier media production, usually a film or television series, with a new cast and a different or refreshed perspective (all about making money).

Obscenity

The character of being obscene; an act, utterance, or item tending to corrupt the public morals by its indecency or lewdness. 

Indecency

Material that depicts or describes sexual or excretory organs or activities in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.

Pornography

The representation in the media of scenes of sexual behavior that are erotic or lewd, and designed to arouse sexual interest. 

Deepfake

A video of a person in which their face or body has been digitally altered so that they appear to be someone else. 

Variant Cover

 A comic book issued with multiple covers, each with unique cover art, usually by different artists.

Regional Edition

When a magazine sends different versions to subscribers in the United States and Canada

Split run edition

Can have a Canadian edition of a US magazine which contains Canadian advertisements but does not have any Canadian editorial content.

Regional Edition

Dictated by geographical locations where the magazine is to be distributed.

Demographic Edition

 Differences are mandated by the characteristics of the subscribers.

Camera Obscura

 An optical device consisting of box with a hole in one side that reproduced an inverted image, that led to development of photography and the photographic camera.

Daguerreotype

The first publicly announced type of photography that was made on a silver or silver-covered copper plate

Best selling superhero of all time

Captain Marvel

According to the 1879 Mail Classification Act, periodicals and newspapers are what class of domestic mail

Second

What is the best-selling type of general interest magazine

Women’s

Copyright

The legal right granted to an author, playwright, publisher, composer, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, dramatic, musical, or artistic work

Whose idea was it to create a photographic record of the Civil War

Matthew Brady

carte-de-visite

A type of small paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card popular in the mid-nineteenth century.

house style

company's preferences for the presentation and layout of written and pictorial material.

lithography

A method of printing from a stone or metal plate with a smooth surface used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material.

Mission Statement

A formal summary of the purpose and focus of a company, organization, or individual.

Seven Sisters

A group of magazines traditionally aimed at married women who are homemakers. The Seven Sisters consisted of Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal (ceased publication in 2014), and McCall’s (ceased publication in 2002).

Tintype

A photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel popular in the last half of the nineteenth century.

The earliest surviving camera photograph was taken in which country?

France

What was the most reproduced image of the 20th century

Alfred Eisenstaedt – V-J Day in Times Square (1945). Photo of U.S. Navy sailor kissing a stranger over the victory of Japan Day and the end of WW2.

Which marvel superhero was not made by Stan Lee?

Captain America

Most popular type of photography during the civil war

The tintype

Best selling type of General Interest magazine

Women’s Magazines

What decade did superhero first appear

1930s

Research Notes

Type of Academic Journal that provides short descriptions of current research findings.

Comics

Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer

Example of a Trade Magazine

Billboard

Profanity

Language so grossly offensive to members of the public who hear it that it amounts to a nuisance