Teaching about magazines
Having taught the WJEC Media Studies syllabus
for quite a number of years I covered the deconstruction of magazines as
a fairly standard exercise. This involved the analysis of selected covers
that I hoped would have an appeal for the students. However, this was done
in an isolated way that I felt did not properly contextualise the idea
of the magazine as a specialist form of media. So before I began the deconstruction
work this year as part of the AS course I decided to cover the exercises
in a more structured way. I focused on magazines as part of a changing
medium that has a history and a changing future. The linked article Magazines
is a brief overview that can be used to take a class through the main stages
of magazine development.
Here are some suggested approaches
for those wishing to pursue this area for AS (and later A2) and possibly
as a source of ideas for research coursework. These suggestions are based
on points from the article and assume that it can be revisited several
times throughout the course.
Early magazines
Get hold of some old magazine front covers
to analyse how they appeal to the imagined reader and how they construct
that reader in terms of interests and social group. The styles of illustration
may be determined by the technology but the text, title, cost and graphics
should provide some comment on the way the magazine sold itself. The covers
I used were The Gentleman’s Journal (and Youth’s Miscellany) and
The
Young Ladies’ Journal (an illustrated Magazine). Some of the standard
media textbooks will have such illustrations and the local or school library
will almost certainly be able to help. You can also find some online at
The Internet Library of Early Journals (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ilej/).
Threats and regulation
Stamp duty is a useful illustration of
how each of the modern media in turn were seen as threats to the established
order. This idea can be explored by discussing the various threats supposedly
presented nowdays by the Internet. In their own time radio, film and the
televisual media all had similar histories of attempts to confine their
influence and power. Availability of airwaves, licensing requirements and
regulation of content were just some of the obstacles that the new media
had to overcome in order to develop as part of mass media culture.
Industry
Ask students to make up their own 'top
ten' magazines and ask the reasons for selection. A useful resource for
this exercise is the Guardian Media Guide which lists the top fifty
magazines as well as qualifying the definition of magazines (which can
be a little more problematic than students might at first imagine). Over
the past few years this has provided useful summaries of the main trends
in the magazine market, including a very informative piece on the threats
to the future of the industry according to Felix Dennis of Dennis Publishing.
The Guide also has addresses and contact details for all the main publishing
companies, which can be very helpful for sourcing material.
Magazines’ websites often contain lots
of material that can be used for research purposes. There are even web
pages designed specifically for students, though it’s always advisable
to point out that ‘companyspeak’ is the norm on such sites and the agency
or institution will have shaped the information to present itself in a
particular way. These sites can show how the big companies are part of
larger operations that include a whole range of other media interests including
those in other countries. The National Magazine Company site (www.natmags.co.uk)
is most illuminating. Although it publishes some 15 titles in Britain ?
including Company, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping ? it is a subsidiary
of the Hearst Corporation, a vast US media empire that includes newspapers,
books, radio and television stations.
Photography
Considering magazines that are based on
photographs may seem outdated but the success of Hello! and its imitators
suggests that this may not be the case. A useful exercise is to ask why
such a magazine succeeds and how is it different from the other magazines
mentioned from an earlier period. Copies of Picture Post and
Life
may be difficult to obtain (though Life front covers are available
online at http://www.lifemag.com/Life/search/covers)
but newspaper colour supplements often have photo essays that replicate
the style of the earlier magazines.
Audience
The concept of audience is vital to any
understanding of the media, and the magazine industry is no different in
this respect. In fact it is often more focused than the other media in
the way it defines its audience. It is possible to show this by referring
to the way many magazines construct their ‘core buyer’ , a fairly comprehensive
profile of the typical reader that the magazine is addressing. It should
be enlightening to ask students to select a small number of magazines that
you can then use to illustrate the point. Ask students to profile the audience
in terms of age, gender, interests, affluence and anything else that they
consider relevant. They could even use a self-profile if the magazine could
be described, even loosely, as part of their media diet. Compare these
profiles to the ‘core buyer’ as defined by the company on the website or
in the literature that is produced by the company. Again I found that the
material offered by The National Magazine Company was most interesting.
One of the easiest ways to explore
the financial structure of magazines is to find the rate cards for several
magazines and see how these compare for different types of ad and for placement
in particular pages of the magazine. (For magazines which don’t take advertising,
the terms ‘subscription’ and ‘subsidy’ will need to be considered).
A related task is the reader profiles
that are generated by a whole range of publications. These often include
psychological profiles that can be written up, in advance, by students
with reference to their favourite magazines and then compared to the ‘core
buyer’ as defined by the marketing branch of the publication. All these
materials can be found on the web sites for the major publishers or they
can be requested by post.
The modern magazine market can be divided
into a number of sectors that are worthy of consideration in their own
right. These include teenage magazines aimed at young females; free consumer
magazines from companies and supermarkets; ‘lads mags’; niche markets such
as that exploited by Big Issue and, of course, the fascinating area
of comics which continue to provide ideas and inspiration for other media,
particularly film. A fanzine, where content takes precedence over style,
is often a manageable production task for students. Finally the growth
of e-zines is another area for consideration if students are interested
in the expansion of electronic communication.
Case studies
I intend to look at the Big Issue (www.bigissue.co.uk)
which has reached the ripe old age of ten years. The magazine has been
described as "a business solution to a social problem", which is an interesting
discussion point in itself. How has it managed to survive in the hostile
environment of publishing in the absence of finance, an agreed distribution
network or an identifiable readership? The website offers lots of clues
to these and related questions and there are other references including
Coming
Up from the Streets, a history of the Big Issue by Tessa Swithinbank.
These suggestions offer a way of setting
the industry in context and a means of introducing or elaborating on the
key concepts of agency, representation and audience. Suggestions and improvements
are always welcome.
References
2000 The Media Guide edited by
Steve Peak and Paul Fisher (Fourth Estate)
2001 The Media Guide edited
by Steve Peak and Paul Fisher (Fourth Estate)
A decade on the streets Simon
Rogers and Xan Brooks, in Media Guardian September 10 2001
Power Without Responsibility
(5th edition) by James Curran and Jean Seaton (Routledge)
© Gerry Connor 2001
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