Magazine 2014 Abstracts
Ruth Ebright Finley and The Guidon: The Conservative Feminism of a National Political Women’s Magazine During the Depression • Kathleen Endres, University of Akron • From 1936 to 1938, long-time reporter/editor Ruth Ebright Finley faced a formidable political and journalistic challenge, editing the Women’s National Republican Club’s “political review,” The Guidon. During those years, Finley transformed the quarterly, changing its name, its frequency and its format. But, more importantly, she converted this national women’s political magazine into a voice of conservative feminism. This paper examines a seldom studied and little understood development in American magazine and political history – conservative feminism in the age of the New Deal.
Environmentalism in Transition: Defining an Identity in the Pages of Membership Magazines • Suzannah Evans • The American environmental movement was faced with two challenges in the early 1980s: first, from a hostile political environment thanks to the election of Ronald Reagan, and second, from critics who argued that the movement, with its focus on federal policy and upper-middle-class constituents, had become out of touch. This study uses textual analysis of membership magazines from three major environmental organizations to reveal how organizations grappled with these issues during the 1980s.
Sisterhood is powerful: A model for how women’s lifestyles magazines foster a distinct intimate relationship • Andrea Hall, University of Florida • Among the top 25 consumer magazines, women’s lifestyles magazines have faired better than most. A model is offered that identifies a series of constructs that explain how women’s lifestyle magazine readers are able to develop an intimate relationship with their magazines, making magazines more attractive to female readers by fostering a sense of belonging. The model proposes that women will be influenced a series of constructs. By identifying how women develop this intimacy with print magazines, this research outlines how this can be successfully translated across magazines as women’s magazines transition to new platforms, including on digital tablets.
Public Roles and Private Negotiations: Considering City Magazines’ Public Service and Market Functions • Joy Jenkins, University of Missouri • Editors at city magazines face the same competing loyalties as other local journalists, including sharing information about their cities while considering the interests of their organizations, readers, and advertisers. This study used in-depth interviews with city magazine editors (N = 11) around the country to explore how they navigate public and private interests affecting their work and the implications of these negotiations for their journalistic identity and the perceived functions of their publications in communities.
Debating the Mass Communication Graduate Curriculum: Where Can We Study the Magazine Form? • Carolyn Lepre, Marist College • The number of degrees granted from journalism and mass communication undergraduate programs showed modest increases in recent years across the United States and, despite a lagging economy, even larger increases were seen at the graduate level. Despite this growth, U.S. scholars have long debated the make-up of the “ideal” mass communication graduate curriculum. In particular, educators have contemplated the issue of the focus of the mass communication master’s program. For it is a program’s overall emphasis on either professional practice, teaching or research, or both, that guides curricular decisions. These discussions have special meaning for those interested in the magazine form, both from a research perspective and for those in the professoriate who wish to further enhance the study of magazines in the future. This paper seeks to examine the current curricular trends in mass communication graduate education and how the magazine scholar fits into the larger picture. Mass communication graduate education, including the current structure of master’s and doctoral curricula in the United States and what curricular trends might be forthcoming, will be discussed. Through an examination of trends in theory and research, and a discussion of educational trends, suggestions will be made for what students need to learn to be productive researchers on the magazine form. Educational and communication research will also be discussed, and suggestions presented for future research.
“Lose the Weight in Half the Time”: Dominant Messages in a Decade of Diet and Weight Loss Magazine Advertisements • Suman Mishra, Southern Illinois University; Rebecca Kern, Manhattan College • Through cultivation and critical theory, this study examines a decade (2001-2011) of diet and weight loss advertising content in ten magazines that reach people of different sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientations to provide a broad overview of how different groups are being persuaded to lose weight. Using content analysis, the study finds that weight loss advertising primarily shows white/Caucasian women. Black and Hispanic individuals are underrepresented in the ads even though obesity and weight is a bigger problem among Black and Hispanic men and women. Weight loss among men is promoted more often through active dieting methods (e.g., exercise and exercise equipment), and in women, through passive dieting methods (e.g., drinks, diet food and weight-loss supplements). Diet and weight loss among LGBT groups is promoted through various diet products particularly diet beer. Findings of the study are discussed in terms of dominant messages and ideas about body and weight that circulate in the larger culture.
The Women’s Magazine Diet: A Content Analysis of Nutrition and Fitness Articles in Women’s and Women’s Health Magazines • Chelsea Reynolds, University of Minnesota; Susan LoRusso, University of Minnesota • This content analysis quantifies frames, topics, and sources in fitness and nutrition articles (n = 423) published by women’s magazines (Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Glamour) and women’s health magazines (Health, Shape, and Self) as defined by Standard Rate and Data Service. It also compares frames, topics, and sources against focuses of magazines’ mission statements (health, beauty/fashion, and lifestyle/hybrid). Chi-squares demonstrate there are statistically significant differences in content by magazines’ SRDS genre but not by mission statements.
Fashionable Feminism or Feminist Fashion? Women’s strife for equality as portrayed in Cosmopolitan and Vogue • Mandy Hagseth, University of South Dakota; Miglena Sternadori • This analysis explored the frames most frequently employed by two women’s magazines, Cosmopolitan and Vogue, in referencing feminism in their online content. Four frames emerged: focus on women’s agency, anti-demonization, trivialization, and complexity/confusion. Feminism was occasionally appropriated to sell high-end designer fashion, portrayed as a form of female empowerment. The findings are discussed in the context of their practical implications for magazine editors and theoretical implications for feminist scholars.
Libelous–But True: Another Look at Butts v. Curtis Publishing • David Sumner • The Saturday Evening Post published “The Story of a College Football Fix” in its March 23, 1963, issue. At the time, Wally Butts was the ex-football coach of the University of Georgia, and Paul “Bear” Bryant was the legendary University of Alabama coach. The story alleged that Butts revealed valuable play strategy details to Bryant in a telephone conversation a week before the September 22, 1962, game. The story’s primary source was an Atlanta insurance salesman who, while dialing a public relations firm, was accidentally cut into and overheard the telephone conversation between Butts and Bryant. Butts sued Curtis Publishing for $10 million in libel damages. Bryant later filed a separate suit. On August 20, 1963, a federal jury in Atlanta returned a libel judgment of $3 million in favor of Butts, which was later reduced to $460,000. In 1967, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict in a narrow 5-to-4 vote. Drawing upon extensive primary source documents, this paper argues that the story itself was true, but the title and sidebar were libelous. Wally Butts intentionally revealed valuable play strategy to Bryant. This paper also frames this story within a wider context of libel law. Nothing in the judges’ ruling in three decisions involving Butts v. Curtis Publishing distinguished between the accuracy of the title and sidebar and the accuracy of the story itself. If they had, the weight of evidence behind the veracity of the content should have prevailed.
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