Juan Monroy — Media Technologies: Class 6, Magazines

1 Striphas’s Challenges to Book Culture Today
- 1.1 Ebooks
  - challenge: ebooks will replace print books in the digital age
  - ebooks are not being rapidly adopted
  - ebooks are less flexible than print books
- 1.2 Big-box chain retailers
  - challenge: chain bookstores are destroying independent book culture
  - books have long been a commodity
  - books are not being threatened
- 1.3 Amazon.com
  - challenge: amazon.com is threatening brick-and-mortar book culture
  - book industry has been in need of standardization
  - the poetics of ISBN and EAN cataloging
  - Amazon uses strategies from other industries
  - Amazon represents the next wave of retailing, not of
- 1.4 Oprah’s Book Club
  - challenge: Oprah has a disproportionate influence over book buying
  - Oprah Book Club is a complex and multifaceted site of book culture
  - books can vary in topic, in length, and in complexity
- 1.5 Harry Potter Copyright Cops
  - challenge: Harry Potter derivative books are everywhere
  - Harry Potter uses the copyright laws to manage its handle over its own intellectual property
  - the pitfalls of mass-market success elude Harry Potter due to its tight control
2 Optical Telegraphy
- 2.1 Not just artifacts
- 2.2 optical telegraph was central to biggest international news story of the week
3 European magazines
- 3.1 storehouse of reprinted content from other sources
- 3.2 Originated in Europe in 1700s
- 3.3 Elegant and amusing writings
  - Literature
  - Politics
  - Music
  - Theater
  - Personalities
4 American magazines
- 4.1 William Bradford’s American Magazine
- 4.2 Ben Franklin’s General Magazine and Historical Chronicle
- 4.3 Short-lived due to American Revolution
  - Too few readers
  - High costs of publishing
  - Expensive distribution
5 Partisan magazines
- 5.1 Thomas Paine’s Pennsylvania Magazine
6 Miscellanies
- 6.1 Variety of content
- 6.2 Appeal to small, far-flung audiences
7 Copyright
- 7.1 Passed in 1790
- 7.2 gave authors a copyright
  - 14 years
  - Royalty fees
- 7.3 Helped encourage new content
8 Popular 19th Century Magazines
- 8.1 Enhanced Magazine Covers
  - artistic drawings
  - color images
  - article teaser
- 8.2 Advertising
  - more revenue
  - lower costs
  - more pages
- 8.3 Cost
  - 35 cents
9 20th Century Urbanization
- 9.1 industrialization
  - factories
  - foundries
  - assembly lines
- 9.2 growing urban society
  - immigration
  - assimilation
- 9.3 reading grew as a mass medium
10 Muckraking
- 10.1 Progressive Era
- 10.2 Titles
  - McClures
  - Colliers
- 10.3 Important Works
  - Ida Tarbell
  - Great American Fraud
  - Senators
  - Daughters of the Poor
  - The Jungle
- 10.4 Reforms
  - Anti Trust against Standard Oil
  - Pure Food and Drug Act
  - Amendment requiring direct election of senators
  - Mann Act against White Slavery
  - Meat Inspection Act
11 General Interest Magazines
- 11.1 Saturday Evening Post
- 11.2 Ladies Home Journal
- 11.3 newsmagazines
- 11.4 Time (1923)
- 11.5 Life (1936)
- 11.6 Reader’s Digest (1922)
12 Segmented Audiences
- 12.1 Post World War II
- 12.2 Growth of Titles
  - 250 (1950)
  - 20,000+ (today)
- 12.3 Women’s Magazines
  - segmented futher
- 12.4 Independent Production
  - desktop publishing
  - inexpensive photocopying
  - web magazines
13 Specialization of Magazines
- 13.1 Consumer Magazines
- 13.2 Membership Magazines
- 13.3 Trade Magazines
- 13.4 niche audiences