Magazine 2011 Abstracts
The globalization of beauty: An examination of messages about ideal beauty communicated to readers of fashion and beauty magazines published worldwide • Yan Yan; Kim Bissell, University of Alabama • Mass media have long been considered responsible for perpetuating norms about beauty and attractiveness cross-culturally. The current research examined how ideal beauty and its related constructs were represented by four top fashion magazines—Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle and Vogue in 12 countries via a content analysis of 71 magazines. Results indicate an assimilation of norms about beauty and attractiveness across four different magazines published worldwide. Results reveal that there was less evidence of cultural influence on “”ideal beauty”” as the models pictured in editorial content had very similar beauty constructs. These and other findings are discussed.
Candid conversations: A content analysis of the subjects of the Playboy Interview • Ashley Carnifax, Ohio University • This paper explores the subjects of the Playboy Interview from its start in September 1962 until March 2011, looking specifically at genders, ages, races, and professions. A content analysis of these 569 interviews showed that the majority were white, male, and part of the TV/film industry. Data also indicate that the interview has moved from a more political and activist focus during the 1960s and 1970s to a more celebrity-driven focus in the 2000s.
Cosmonaut to Chimpanzee: The Framing of the First Woman in Space by American Magazines • Kathleen Endres, University of Akron • This paper examines how American magazines presented the story of the flight of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to orbit the earth, in 1963. Utilizing the framing analytical technique, the author found that most American magazines ignored the story. Twelve magazines covered it. Frames are discussed by category of magazine. Tuchman’s views of the “”symbolic annihilation of women”” are supported.
The Traveling Gourmet: Culinary Tourism in Gourmet Magazine 1941-1990 • Elizabeth Fakazis, Univ of Wisconsin Stevens Point • This paper uses qualitative content analysis to map culinary travel writing in Gourmet from 1941 to 1990 asking: what forms did travel articles take, how significant were they in relation to overall content, and how did they use “”authenticity”” and “”exoticism,”” two concepts researchers have identified as central to contemporary culinary journalism. My goal is to provide a historical context for scholarship that has focused attention on culinary journalism produced since the mid-1990s.
Establishing and adhering to sexual consent: The association between reading magazines and college students’ sexual consent negotiation • Stacey Hust, Washington State University; Paula Adams, Washington State University; Emily Marett, Mississippi State University; Jessica Willoughby; Chunbo Ren, Washington State University; Ming Lei; Weina Ran, Washington State University; Cassie Norman; Marie Louise Radanielina-Hita • Magazines may influence the sexual scripts individuals establish as norms for sexual behavior (Ward & Walsh, 2009). The current study tests whether exposure to magazines is associated with sexual consent negotiation. A survey of 313 college students indicate that exposure to men’s magazines was significantly negatively associated with sexual consent seeking and adherence to decisions about sexual consent. In contrast, exposure to women’s magazines was significantly negatively associated with refusal of unwanted sexual activity.
Characteristics of Online Editors at City and Regional Magazines • Joy Jenkins, Oklahoma State University • Continually updated websites have become necessary additions to traditionally print publications, such as newspapers and magazines. In recent years, a particular subset of magazines, city and regional magazines, has also followed this trend, creating online editions with much of the same content as found in their print editions. Many of these magazines have also hired web-focused editors to oversee their online editions, creating online-exclusive content and filling a number of other roles. This study profiles online editors at city and regional magazines that are members of the City and Regional Magazine Association. A survey of these online editors reveals that they share many similarities. Their online editions have many of the same types of content, including articles repurposed from the print edition, blogs and directories and databases, and these online editors have many of the same job duties, including managing social media, copy editing articles and writing blogs. They also see themselves as having similar roles and responsibilities in their workplaces, such as increasing traffic to their online editions and creating a sense of community with their readers. These online editors are similar in the pressures they face as well, with small staff sizes, limited resources and pressure to accommodate advertisers. Overall, these online editors aim to create online editions that are well-designed and functional and present exclusive, dynamic content that will attract readers and present information on a variety of topics.
‘This Shot Can Save Your Life!’ (Or Can It?): Framing of the HPV Vaccine in Teen, Parenting, and Women’s Magazines • Carolyn Lepre, Marist College • In 2006, a highly effective vaccine was approved that would protect against four strains of the HPV virus, which is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S. This study investigated how selected teen, parenting, and women’s magazines framed information concerning the HPV vaccine between 2006 and 2010, with a goal of discovering how the vaccine was presented as well as if the frames in the magazine types shifted over the time period studied.
Self-Schema-Persuasion Perspectives on Localization vs. Internationalization: A Case Study of ELLE China’s Editorial Strategies • Zhengjia Liu, The University of Iowa; Marcia R. Prior-Miller, Iowa State University; Jie Yan, Peking University, China • This study examined how international periodicals solve the tensions between internationalization and localization. Analysis of the editorial content of 20 years’ issues of Elle China showed increasing amounts of content directly produced by the local editing team. Findings indicate the magazine balances the tensions between sociological contexts and audiences’ psychological perceptions by using Eastern faces to present international brand items. Thus the publication in China caters to consumerist values of worshiping the Western lifestyle, while appealing to audience members’ self-schema.
Effects of media type, news topic and celebrity type on use of media frames • Jing Liu • Through content analysis of 331 cover news stories randomly sampled from two leading but competing news weeklies with top circulation in Hong Kong during the past 20 years, this paper investigated the effects of media type, news topic and celebrity type on the use of media frames in popular journalism. The results yielded significant effects of news topic and celebrity type on the use of media frames, except for media type. Overall, human interest frame is most frequently used in Hong Kong popular journalism, followed by economic frame, conflict/violence frame, attribution of responsibility, sexuality, social injustice and morality frame. It is observed that Hong Kong popular journalism focuses intensively on celebrity news, with achieved celebrity as the main concern. There is an increasing entrance of ordinary people into celebrity system, which are highly associated with sexuality frame, while economic and social injustice frames are most frequently used in ascribed celebrity, and morality frame are most used in coverage of ordinary people rather than celebrity. It is noteworthy that the human interest frame are used generally frequently across all news topics and celebrity types, with the peak in coverage of attributed celebrity and ordinary people. News topic worked as an efficient mediator in the effect of celebrity type on the use of media frames. It is noteworthy that social injustice frame is most frequently used in political/military news but least in entertainment news; sexuality frame are most used in entertainment news while least in economic news.
Embedded in the Gulf: On the Ground with the Boys of Company C • J. Keith Saliba, Jacksonville University; Ted Geltner, Valdosta State University • Relatively few studies have systematically analyzed the ways literary journalists construct meaning within their narratives. This study employed rhetorical framing analysis to discover embedded meaning within the text of John Sack’s Gulf War Esquire articles. Textual analysis revealed several dominant frames and one master frame capable of shaping readers’ interpretation of events. The study concludes that Sack’s literary approach to war reportage is in many ways superior to that of conventional journalism.
Changing Attitudes, Changing Lives: How the Christian Press Framed the AIDS in Africa Crisis • Ken Waters, Pepperdine University; Elizabeth Smith, Pepperdine University • During the past three decades, no region has been more devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic than the continent of Africa, specifically the sub-Saharan countries. While active now, churches in both Africa and North America were slow to respond with compassion and educational resources as the crisis grew. Initially, high profile fundamentalist Christians claimed AIDS was God’s punishment on homosexuals, a further sign of the “”end times”” (Long, 2005; Palmer, 1996). One important source that helped change perceptions of Christians in America were the specialized publications targeted to these believers. This research explores how Christian periodicals framed the AIDS in Africa crisis, and, in turn, set an agenda for how religious individuals and their organizations eventually responded to the growing pandemic. Five frames dominated religious periodical coverage of the AIDS crisis in Africa: moral responsibility, theological and doctrinal controversy, victimization, education and policy considerations, and medical and scientific care/concern. The variety of articles and frames used by the publications highlighted the plight of AIDS victims in such a way as to help readers understand the need to reach out and help others in the name of their religion. As a result, by early in the 21st century, churches in North America became a major source of funding and advocacy on behalf of those suffering with the virus.
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