Magazine 2017 Abstracts
Yoga for Every (body)? A Critical Analysis of the Evolution of Yoga Representation across Four Decades in Yoga Journal • Nandini Bhalla, University of South Carolina; Leigh Moscowitz, University of South Carolina • This paper examines 41 covers of Yoga Journal magazine, the most popular magazine for yoga enthusiasts in the U.S., from 1975 to 2016. Using visual and linguist frame analysis of magazine covers, this project critically examines how yoga representations have evolved from a mental discipline to a commercialized form of exercise. Themes of religion, art, exercise, spiritual connection, and (male Indian) expertise were prominent cover displays from the 1970s-1990s. However, in the 2000s, young, white, thin female bodies came to signify the practice of yoga, anchored to hegemonic notions of femininity, displayed on the covers in objectified and commercialized ways. Implications for the perceptions and practice of yoga in U.S. culture and beyond are discussed.
Urban Matters: The Convergence and Contrasts of Journalistic Identity, Organizational Identity, and Community Identity at a City Magazine • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • This study examines the perspectives of local journalists through an ethnographic case study of D magazine in Dallas, Texas. The study assesses how staff members discursively construct their journalistic identity within a geographically focused media organization, including the influences of their organizational roles, the company mission, and perceptions of their audience. The study also considers the relationship between journalistic identity and community identity by addressing how staff members describe their publication’s role within Dallas.
Exploring the Concept of Sustainability within the GD USA Magazine • Szilvia Kadas, West Virginia University; Bob Britten, West Virginia University • The American Institute of Graphic Arts (2010) suggested its members take ownership of their ethical obligations and design with societal, environmental, and economical consciousness. However, the graphic design field is lagging in adapting sustainable practices, and there are no sustainable design standards to rely on. This phenomenological research investigates the state of sustainability within a mainstream graphic design trade magazine to understand how sustainable design is communicated to graphic designers.
“The Nation’s Stamp of Approval”: The 1976 Women’s-Magazine Campaign for the ERA • Carolyn Kitch, Temple University; Urszula Pruchniewska, Temple University • In July of 1976, more than three dozen American women’s magazines – reaching 65 million women and ranging in nature from Girl Talk to womenSports – published articles about the Equal Rights Amendment as its ratification deadline approached. Coinciding with the nation’s Bicentennial, their argument enfolded the ERA within a broader discussion of democracy. This study offers textual and contextual analysis of this editorial campaign, which challenges conventional historiography of the relationship between women’s media and feminism.
Profiting from Gender Consumption: Examining the Historic Precedents of Lucky magazine • Gigi McNamara, University of Toledo • Lucky magazine, a once profitable title in the glossy world of fashion magazines, published from 2000-2015. A celebration of shopping and style, Lucky magazine occupied a specific space in the cluttered world of publishing. But what are the historical precedents and economic incentives for such a magazine? And how has Lucky not only embraced, but arguably been a forerunner of, magazines’ movement into the digital age and the revenue possibilities there? I will first briefly survey a history of consumer culture and magazines targeted to women’s consumption, and set up provide a broad overview of the Condé Nast publishing empire and Lucky magazine. To place Lucky in the modern magazine and advertising context, I will outline and discuss mission statements, press releases, media kits and rate cards, available financial data and information/interviews from trade journal articles. In addition, this article will focus on the political economy of Lucky by addressing the Lucky magazine demographic, circulation figures, advertising revenue and publishing history. Using the research methodology of close textual analysis and drawing on the theoretical framework of commodity feminism (Goldman, Heath and Smith, 1991); and postfeminsim (McRobbie, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009), this article will contextualize the contributions of Lucky magazine.
Queer Feminisms in the Chicago DIY Zine Community • Chelsea Reynolds, California State University – Fullerton • Self-published zines offer a forum for marginalized people to express themselves. They are self-representational magazine media that are easy to produce and inexpensive to disseminate. Although zines have been examined by scholars of feminist and queer theory, little research on zines has been conducted within the field of mass communication. This paper theorizes zine production and zinester identity within sociology of news and cultural studies frameworks, drawing on interviews conducted with eight LGBTQ and feminist-identified zine-makers living in Chicago.
“As Long As I Find Myself Adequate”: Effects of Exposure to Fashion, Celebrity, and Fitness Magazines on Disordered Eating • Shelby Weber; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University • This study explored the relationship between the use of fashion, celebrity, and fitness magazines and eating disorder symptomology. One-hundred-and seven undergraduate students (62 female) at a Midwestern university participated in a quasi-experiment that asked them to evaluate images of underweight and normal-weight individuals. The participants also completed a questionnaire about their eating and exercise behaviors. Exposure to fitness, celebrity, and fashion magazines was positively related, at a statistically significant level, to distorted perceptions of normal weight and self-reported binge eating.
Love Your Mother: How the 1970s Launch of a News Magazine Defines Environmental Journalism • Carol Terracina-Hartman, Michigan State University • “This study examines the history of environmental news as it appeared in the inaugural editions of Mother Jones magazine 1976 — 1981. Launched during an era of environmental protection, this newsmagazine aligned civil rights, hazards, and justice in its definition of environmental news, suggesting that while mainstream media was flocking to cover newly minted environmental protection agencies and their failure to meet standards, Mother Jones writers were covering the corporations and the power the executives wielded then and now through deals, illegal trade, and often illegal experiments. The method was historical analysis of content, examining topics, bylines, funding, article placement, and treatment. Additional analysis examines sources throughout the entire dataset of articles as well as source usage by topic. Results indicate corporations not politicians are identified as power wielders and are the focus of much investigative articles. Results are precedent-setting and agree with prior literature on source usage in environmental journalism, but are inconsistent with research on environmental journalism that follows in mainstream media: dominating topics include “extreme hazard” and “food safety” with “citizen” and “government scientist” top sources. Graphics accompany 78% of content, with at least one photo or illustration. Nearly 70 percent of articles were cover stories or Front Lines (news briefs). Mainstream press initiated environment reporting five years later, but content analysis studies show the dominant frames or themes emphasize the capital value of nature and conservation in reporting and less emphasis on civil rights or justice.
On the Cover of the Rollin’ Stone: How Rolling Stone Magazine Frames Politics and News • Ashley Walter, Duquesne University • The Rolling Stone magazine is a significant artifact spanning throughout American pop culture; yet it has fought to be considered a legitimate news source in American media. This paper examines how Rolling Stone frames news and politics, and how the magazine portrays itself as being political, through its front covers. Research has shown that magazine covers “communicate,” “visually summarize” and work “as an advertisement to attract customers” (Kang & Heo, 2013). The purpose of this study is to examine how Rolling Stone presents itself as a legitimate news source and interrogates how its covers convey the publication’s identity. A mixed-methods content analysis was used to analyze both front cover artwork and front cover text. This research reveals how magazines can use their covers to establish legitimacy in American media.
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