Magazine Culture

2 Pages 451 Words

If Magazines can be called a barometer of popular culture, what modern cultural trends do they show? Has magazine culture been changing since the 1960’s? Can these changes be explained by changes in popular culture, and in what way?
In answer to the question relating to magazines changing from the 1960’s, it’s hard for me to answer because I was not around then, and was not able to read any magazines that came out. However listening in class I do believe that they did change drastically from then until today. The magazines moved from unspecialized to specialized, in order to compete with other forms of media and to please their advertisers. Magazines also used the ideas of demographics and psychographics to get more readers involved in their particular magazine. Moreover things like the development of photojournalism and in depth personality profiles helped put magazines on the map of the mass communication market. This gave advantages to the magazines because they were able to sell more units to a specific audience, and receive more advertising dollars in the process, in contrary to a broad audience with a less specialized magazine like Time or Readers Digest.
Magazines can be called a barometer of popular culture because it lets the public know what is going on in a particular interest such as, hair styles, snowboarding etc. We wouldn’t know what the latest fashion trends would be without media, and magazines contribute to that. Magazines like Seventeen or Maxim are prime examples of this. There are Magazines for almost any interest now days, and to keep up with the latest trends and materials you are almost forced into buying unit specialized magazines for your interests.
These changes definitely can be contributed to a change in the popular culture. There is just more stuff to do then there was in the sixties. There is almost a need for specialization because of the broadness of events and interests that inv...