blehhh
What is the role of printed media in an increasingly digital centric world
Is there still a place for printed media in the digital age
I really hate phrases like that though, the digital age, the digital world, they sound weird like a grandmother trying to work a vhs player or something
rephrasing....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in the current climate....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in a world dominated by online media/social networks etc.
Are printed magazines still relevant
Have printed magazines become irrelevant since the rise in online journalism/media
Since the rise in online magazines and news media have printed magazines become obsolete/are printed magazines becoming obsolete
Has online news media rendered printed magazines obsolete
What is the relevance of printed magazines
How have printed magazines remained relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry?
Why are printed magazines still relevant in an increasingly digital industry
What makes printed magazines relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry
With the continuing rise in popularity of online news media and magazines, how does the printed magazine business stay afloat?
As the online news industry exponentially grows, what keeps the printed magazine industry afloat?
Honestly I could probably spend the whole day just rewording this and it wouldn't get me any further so lets leave it there.
Plan.
So the introduction, I think we established would be a general history of magazines, particularly the magazines I'm looking at, for the first half, and then then later on in the introduction look at the rise in the internet and online distribution of media and news, about 3/400 words for each?
After that I will look into my questions each as subheadings, and dependant on the question will compare the printed and online versions of examples, how it is in magazines and how it is different online and to what extent this dooms or benefits the printed medium
yeah
and ill use examples i've found, comparisons between the magazines in terms of gender, publisher and 'class'
also i may look for first hand input from people in the publishing industry, of which i have found a connection through a friend to a publishing company in sheffield, so that might be useful, it would save having to do a pointless survey to try and get something first hand, although i guess a lot of my research is first hand because its taken form the magazines, i don't know it might be interesting
waffle waffle
I've gathered some basic jumping off point quotes for some of the questions
why do celebrity magazines create celebrities in order to tear them back down again
In the very short introduction to journalism I found this
"At it's most successful, the celebrity system is even capable of inventing it's own stars, through specially connected media events."Which I think would start it off quite nicely and then I'll go on to reference the part in starsuckers about tearing them down again and then I'll cite examples of it happening, and analyse how it happens on the internet faster and with fewer boundaries.
Why does reporting on these invented celebrities suffice as news, while actual news and events takes a back seat role, often eclipsed by the posterior of a Kardashian
or something along those lines
Quote again from introduction to journalism
"Today the instinct to amuse is driving out the will and depleting the resource for serious reporting and analysis"Then another mention of the invented celebrities and make believe news followed by one or some of these
"Often this alternative 'reality' appears to outpunch reality itself in today's mass media"
"This tradition in newspapers has always blurred the line between fact and fiction, information and entertainment"
"In the same period that journalism has learnt to make light of the boundary between fact and fiction, it has also become increasingly absorbed by the entertainment and sales potential of celebrity."And I'll go on to look at how the internet expands on this blurring, and reference the surge in popularity of clickbait as the modern yellow journalism
Oooh thats good, so I'll end the section with that bombshell and then start the next one about yellow journalism and how its many magazines only means of survival, but explore how fancier magazines don't resort to this, the effect on its sales and audience and what it uses instead
so
How has yellow journalism become and remained a widely used tactic in the sale of magazines
AAAAH
so I just found out that the term yellow journalism was coined to characterise the rivalry between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, which , the former, is the founder of the Hearst corporation!!!!!! ! 1 1! !!! woooooooooo
Why did I not know that it should've clicked sooner
But that means I can use this paragraph to introduce my exploration into the Hearst Corporation and my comparison of its magazines
thanks google books
Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies By W. Joseph Campbell
So with yellow journalism I'll look at magazines that do use it and the extent to which it is still used in the Hearst Corporations publications, and what it has evolved into, and its prominence online
did Hearst win the war? His company still publishes magazines, but Pulitzer has loads of accolades and museums and stuff, and the Pulitzer prize
Anyway if I'm not careful this section could be an entire other essay
Then I'll go on to comparisons in the validity and truth of news reported, maybe in the same section as yellow to limit waffle
Are printed magazines more reliable and valid because of the permanence of print?
Does the printing of an article increase our perception of its validity
Yeah I'll have this combined with yellow because it follows on nicely from the last quote about the boundaries of fact and fiction.
So then I'll talk about magazines literally inventing news, and reference starsuckers again, and then explore how this is much harder to control online and look at how the time it takes to print a magazine can increase the legitimacy of the news, or wether being committed to print means anything at all anymore.
Then yellow journalism and how it all began to just sell papers and win, and now its just our accepted reality.
This section is getting a little diffuse I shall have to work on it and find more stuff
Is their remaining purpose subtle advertising alone? Advertising what? And how does it carry through to online?
Mostly first hand, looking at what percentage of the magazine is openly advertisement and what is subtle advertisement, how the companies are linked and how it's all in the interest of a few people getting rich
What they sell, glossy magazines have more adverts, they're selling lifestyle, aspirational, usually unknown models selling known products, selling an image, products that make an aspirational lifestyle, buying magazine in order to copy this and get lifestyle, reference basic primal urge to copy the successful for evolutionary success, same with male glossy magazines, sell product and lifestyle, as well as showcasing the powerful and successful
Trashy mags sell celebrity, life, stores, gossip, things to discuss, discussion of other people, they sell bitching topics, to bond with existing inner circle using an outside stimulant, sell achievable reality rather than aspiration, sell bad news and what not to do in order to be prosperous
so here i have to look at consumerism theory and such
this wiki is a good start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirational_brand
thanks wiki
In the context of fashion magazines, the "aspirational model" offers readers continuing (and continually changing) fashion, beauty, and physical ideals to which they can aspire but, perhaps, never actually achieve. Criticized for this approach, magazine editors have claimed that their readers do not want to see "real-life" models or the way that beauty products and clothes look on "real women"; that they buy the magazines in the first place because they prefer the aspirational fantasies, and in the second, because they continually hope that by following the advice or buying the products, they will achieve the ever-changing looks that the magazine promotes via the models and photographic/technological wizardry.
Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power — of the income or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer. Sociologically, to the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status.[1] The development of Veblen’s sociology of conspicuous consumption produced the term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of goods that is meant to provoke the envy of other people; and the term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate use of charitable donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the donor, with a display of superior socio-economic status.
Veblen Goods In economics, Veblen goods are types of material commodities for which the demand is proportional to its high price, which is an apparent contradiction of the law of demand; Veblen goods also are commodities that function as positional goods. Veblen goods are types of luxury goods, such as expensive wines, jewelry, fashion-designer handbags, and luxury cars, which are in demand because of the high prices asked for them. The high price makes the goods desirable as symbols of the buyer's high social-status, by way of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure; conversely, a decrease of the prices of Veblen goods would decrease demand for the products.[1]Thorstein Veblen, introduced term, useful books?
maybe worth looking at the theory of the leisure class from 1899 to find the roots of what we see in magazines now?
So i cant really quote that I guess I'll have to find a better source, but, very useful very very useful.
I think this will be the tastiest segment.
and for magazines selling celebrity
http://www.wonderwall.com/movies/magazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery#!wallState=0__%2Fmovies%2Fmagazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery%3FphotoId%3D51135
I guess I can hypothesise what I think is happening and then prove or disprove it with my first hand research and triangulate with supporting and opposing quotes
I think after what do magazines sell it should be what sells magazines, maybe this is the last one before I go onto the present day and future bit
is it the cover that sells magazines?
Looking at best selling covers
http://mashable.com/2013/08/15/magazine-covers/#LTBUyWy4Uaqb
http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contests/asmes-top-40-magazine-covers-last-40-years
https://www.texture.ca/en/2014/10/09/top-10-magazine-covers-time/
its interesting, the same ones keep cropping up again and again
Looking at the actual hard stats, find out what sells, why it sells, how much it sells, who buys it, if they still do, how the figures change, what makes them fluctuate, does this happen now when big news is reported instantly, before we even get to buy the magazine or its even printed, after the fact, how does this effect sales, what makes a specific issue more popular, is it just glossys or trashy too
I think I'm running out of wordcount
So conclusion probably should go here
That will result in what i write earlier on but i'll wrap up with some stuff about the future of print
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