Magazine 2009 Abstracts
Magazine Division
Still Reading Women’s Magazines: Reconsidering the Tradition Nearly a Half-Century After The Feminine Mystique • Amy Aronson, Fordham University, Lincoln Center • Among America’s most popular media, women’s magazines have long received widespread critique – both inside and outside academia, not least from women themselves. Since the 1960s, critical discussion has fallen into three basic camps. This article maps those perspectives, and elucidates a fourth position that theorizes the American women’s magazine as a distinct form.
Parenting Magazines and Obesity: How Well Do The Trim The Fat? • Cory Armstrong, University of Florida • This study compares stories about obesity in parenting and women’s interest magazines between 2002 and 2008. In particular, the portrayals of female and male mentions were examined to determine the types of messages being conveyed within the news stories. Magazines have been found to serve as an important source for health-related news, and, with the increasing number of obese children and adults in the U.S., determining the type of coverage is a key area of research.
Unrealistic Expectations: Representations of Celebrity Motherhood in People Magazine • Katherine Eaves, University of Oklahoma • The ideology of intensive mothering argued by Hays (1996) requires mothers pour all of their time, energy and financial resources into their children. This ideology is widely accepted as the appropriate way to rear children, and is espoused by popular, mainstream parenting magazines and parenting manuals, as well as in other media forums. This research examines discourse about celebrity mothers in People magazine to determine whether this media genre also perpetuates the ideology of intensive mothering.
Women’s Roles Portrayed in Women’s Magazines in China: An Analysis of Global and Local Influences • Yang Feng, Nanyang Technological University; Kavita Karan, Nanyang Technological University • This paper analyses the impact of the global (Western and Asian) and local forces in the roles of women in women’s magazine in China through examining the content of women’s magazines in China. Particular reference is given to media portrayal of women in both local and international magazine content as magazines in China are influenced by the process of globalization and the influence has been traced in the changing depiction of women’s roles in the magazines.
Japanese Fashion Magazines as Reflections of Gender-Related Societal Changes in Japan • Catherine Luther, University of Tennessee • The primary purpose of this study was to analyze gender representations in Japanese fashion magazines. Using a textual analysis to examine the representations, it sought to explore if the images were reflecting the recent changes that have occurred in Japan with regard to the social status of men and women. The study found gender representations that stray from the media representations that have traditionally existed in Japan.
Baby boomers and health: Eleven years of heart disease content in mass circulation • Paula Rausch, University of Florida; Debbie Treise, University of Florida; Ronald Shorr, North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System • Using qualitative and quantitative analysis, we explored heart disease-related content in mass circulation magazines most heavily read by the previously unexamined group of people 50+. Content targeting these readers was lacking, and few articles provided information referrals. Topics most commonly discussed did not always coincide with the top US government-cited heart conditions. Discussion of medications, testing, hospitalization, and death was common. Dominant latent frames included menopause, increased risk with age, reducing risks, blame, and confusion.
Turn-on or Turn-off: A Content Analysis of Magazine Coverage of LSD, 1954-1968 • Stephen Siff, Miami University • In the 1960s, scholars and critics blamed magazine coverage of LSD for a range of effects, including assisting in the spread of the drug, whipping up hysteria against its use and causing bad trips. This study examines these claims through a content analysis of articles about LSD published in popular magazines in the years before federal law prohibited possession of the drug.
Reading Travel Magazines: Frames of the Colonial “Other” and Post-Modern Authenticity in Feature-Stories Featuring Non-Westerners • Aimee Wachtel, University of Missouri, Columbia; Amanda Hinnant, University of Missouri • This research provides an original look at themes of colonialism and authenticity as manifested in travel magazines’ depictions of the non-westerner. This study compares contemporary travel magazine coverage to Lutz and Collins’ (1993) research on National Geographic. A content analysis of imagery and a textual analysis of display type showed that display text was highly indicative of both themes, and that images were largely indicative of the theme of authenticity while less so of colonialism.
Fighting – or Fueling – the Fear? Breast Cancer Coverage in Consumer Magazines • Kim Walsh-Childers, University of Florida; Heather Edwards, University of Florida • Women identify consumer magazines as a key source of information on many health topics, including breast cancer, which continues to rank as women’s greatest personal health fear. This study examined the comprehensiveness and accuracy of breast cancer information provided in 537 articles published in 17 consumer magazines from 2002 through 2007. Accuracy of information was determined for 33 key breast cancer facts identified by an expert panel as important information for women to know.
The Creation of Community in Reiman Magazines-A Reader Reception Study • Sheila Webb, Western Washington University • This study is a continuation of a narrative and rhetorical analysis of the Reiman magazines which placed them within the broader American cultural landscape, showing how the role of suburban middle-class white women is tied to traditional values, religion, and a valorization of country taste as “authentic” expression. This previous work exemplified one strand of reception studies – the textual interpretation of media content.
Print friendly
