Magazine 2000 Abstracts
Magazine Division
The Portrayal of Black Women’s Facial Features in Mainstream Fashion Magazines: 1989-1998 • Oluwatosin Adegbola, Howard • The method of content analysis was applied to three mainstream fashion magazines (Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan; randomly sampled from 1989-1998), to investigate claims of stereotypical portrayals. The women were coded on complexion, lip size, nose width, and hairstyle with attainable scores in categories ranging from very Caucasian to very Negroid. Results showed that there was a pattern whereby majority of the Black women in the magazines possessed Caucasian features.
Cosmetic Ads in Cosmopolitan and New Woman: Do Advertisers get Special Treatment in Editorial? • Elizabeth Althoff, Drake • Advertisers seek increasingly large concessions from magazines they advertise, as evidenced by recent RFPs from agencies. In this study, cosmetic ads are compared with editorial treatment of the advertiser’s brand in two women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan and New Woman, 1997 to 1999. While Cosmo mentioned only 21 brands in editorial, 19% of these were also advertisers in the same issue. New Woman mentioned 37 brands, but only 8% of these were advertisers.
Setting the Agenda and Framing in Beauty Magazines: A Content Analysis of the Coverage of Breasts • Julie L. Andsager, Washington State and Angela Powers and Rachael McKinness, Northern Illinois • This study uses two content analysis methods to examine how four women’s beauty magazines framed information concerning the health and beauty of breasts during the 1990s. Breast cancer prevention and risk was the most prominent theme, while implants received little attention. Cancer was associated with fear and danger. Breast size was a recurring frame, linking breasts to sexual attractiveness. Medical doctors were the most frequent sources used. Magazines varied in how they framed breast issues.
‘Pearl Harbor of the Cold War:’ Coverage of Post-Sputnik Science Reforms In Four National Magazines • Timothy E. Bajkiewicz, North Carolina-Chapel Hill • Sputnik was a rallying cry for American science education. This study found eighty-six articles on this topic in four national magazines: Popular Science, Scientific American, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post, from October, 1957 to September, 1958. All called for immediate changes. The articles used examples of students and teachers, expert opinion, and scientific studies regarding attitudes and the state of science education in both the United States and the Soviet Union.
Farm Magazine Advertisers Turn Up the Heat: An Analysis of Ethical Pressures Faced by Farm Magazine Writers • Stephen A. Banning, Texas A&M • The traditionally small advertising base for farm magazine publications has continued to shrink. This study looks at kinds of pressures farm magazine writers may be feeling as they become dependent on fewer and fewer advertisers. Results of this nationwide survey indicate farm magazine writers feel advertisers are applying a great deal of pressure in areas of ethical concern. When compared with the same instrument given to a similar sample pool a decade before, the study indicates a general feeling that the amount of pressure from advertisers has increased.
Twenty-Five Years of Newsweek’s Coverage of Salvador Allende and Augusto Pinochet: A-Content Analysis • Matthew M. Bifano, Ohio • Through a longitudinal study using a content analysis, the researcher demonstrated that Newsweek’s coverage during the 1970 election of Salvador Allende, his presidency, the military coup in 1973, and Augusto Pinochet’s presidency tended to follow the U.S. government’s foreign policy. Newsweek’s dependence on official news sources and its failure to use human rights groups as sources made its coverage hegemonic rather than independent from the various U.S. administrations’ policies toward Chile.
Yosemite’s Transition from Space to Place: An Historical Investigation in Media’s Role in the Place-Making Process • Nickieann Fleener and Edward Ruddell, Utah • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
AOL-Time Warner’s Magazine and Music Interests: Good Business Makes Poor Journalism • Geoffrey P. Hull, Middle Tennessee State • This study examines two publications of AOL-Time Warner, Time and People Weekly, to determine whether they give more coverage or more favorable coverage to products and artists of Time Warner’s music division. One year of issues of each publication was examined. Time and People do devote more total coverage to Time Warner distributed recordings and artists than to those of their competitors Qualitative measures of the coverage found no significant differences.
Women’s Political Voices: A Content Analysis of The Political Coverage in Women’s Magazines • Stacey J.T. Hust, Washington State • Political coverage in women’s magazines has seldom been studied, but as an integral component of women’s media consumerism, it is important to discern how they cover important issues. Research reports that women do not have access to political information and are not conditioned to be involved in the political process. A content analysis is used to analyze the political coverage of nine magazines over a five-year period.
‘A Death in the American Family’: National Values and Memory in the Magazine Mourning of John F. Kennedy Jr. • Carolyn Kitch, Temple • The 1999 death of John F. Kennedy Jr. provided an opportunity for news media to tell a life story as a way of assessing the American character, defining it in terms of family and generation and in terms of sacrifice and redemption. Focusing on magazines a medium that played a leading role in the public mourning of JFK Jr. • this paper analyzes the narrative and ritual aspects of the coverage in order to understand journalism’s role in affirming national values and creating collective memory.
The National Geographic Magazine and Environmental Coverage, 1970-1980 • Jan Knight, Ohio • ABSTRACT NOT AVAILABLE.
A Comparison of Magazine Summer Olympic Coverage by Gender and Race: A Content Analysis of Sports Illustrated • Jim Mack, Ohio • This study content analyzed 212 Summer Olympic articles in Sports Illustrated, seeking to find if the magazine provided representative coverage of women and minority U.S. athletes. The total U.S. medal winners for race and gender divisions was compared to the number of pictures and print references to U.S. athletes in Olympic articles from 1960 to 1996. This study found that, quantitatively, Sports Illustrated did provide representative coverage of female and minority athletes for the Summer Olympics.
Framing a War: Photographic Coverage of the Kosovo War in Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report • Nikolina Sajn, Kwangju Heo and Sarah Merritt, North Carolina • This paper studies framing of the photographic coverage of the Kosovo War in three U.S. newsmagazines. The quantitative content analysis of the photographs showed that the coverage concentrated on the U.S. leaders, troops and arsenal. The photographs of civilians showed almost exclusively just the Albanian side. The magazines failed to inform the public about all aspects of the war, and the traditional “good vs. evil” paradigm applies in the coverage of this confrontation.
American Magazines Prosper-At Whose Expense • David Sumner, Ball State • Conflicting evidence exists regarding whether consumers or advertisers pay most of the costs of magazine publishing for the industry as a whole. The purpose of this study is to look at the evidence by analyzing rates charged for both circulation and advertising, focusing on data from 1980 to 1998. It compares subscription prices, single copy prices, and advertising per-page rates for 96 major magazines monitored by the Audit Bureau of Circulations that were published continuously between 1980 and 1998.
Lillian Ross: Pioneer of Literary Journalism • James W. Tankard, Jr., Texas • Lillian Ross has reported for The New Yorker for more than 50 years. This paper argues that Ross has not been given sufficient credit for her contributions to the style known as literary journalism. Ross used dialogue and the technique of writing articles made up mostly of scenes to write such articles as her classic “Portrait of Hemingway.” She also pioneered the non-fiction novel form in her book Picture • years before Capote’s In Cold Blood.
The Relationship Between Health and Fitness Magazine Reading and Eating-Disordered Weight-Loss Methods Among High School Girls • Steven R. Thomsen, Michelle M. Weber and Lora Beth Brown, Brigham Young • The study examined the relationship between reading women’s health and fitness magazines and the use of eating-disordered diet methods (laxatives, appetite suppressants/diet pills, skipping two meals a day, intentional vomiting, excessive exercising, and restricting calories to 1,200 a day or less) among a group of 498 high school girls. The authors found moderate, positive associations between reading frequency and these unhealthful behaviors, which are often the first steps toward the development of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.
The Amazing Magazines of Hugo Gernsback • Jonathan Thornton, Trinity • In 1908, Hugo Gernsback foresaw the future of science fiction, helping to define it as an influential and popular genre through his magazine Amazing Stories. Throughout his life, Gernsback was a dreamer who would strongly influence the genre of science fiction magazines, from serializing “Ralph 124C41+” in Modern Electrics, to his peak of launching and editing the first all-science fiction magazine, to the post-Amazing Stories era of his life when he published several science fiction magazines.
Hidden Under a Bushel: A Study of the Thriving World of Religious Magazine • Ken Waters, Pepperdine • Religious publications have a long and varied history in the United States. The publications are among the first magazines to appear in the U.S. and their content helped shape the early Republic’s literacy, morals and political events. But during the past 150 years, their influence has lessened. Although some 3,000 religious publications exist today, most report small circulation levels. Critics contend that many religious magazines are more focused on doctrinal battles than presenting news and information for the general public.
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